Atypical Memorial Day

Happy belated Memorial Day! I have really been slacking on the blog posts lately so am pretty late on this one. I've been really tired and going to bed early every chance I get, and the days have been filled with trying to wrap things up at work and frantically getting everything ready for the baby's arrival. She is coming verrrry soon.

This wasn't our typical Memorial Day weekend, which usually involves pools and beaches and fun with family & friends, but it did feel great to get so much accomplished, and we were still able to squeeze in a BBQ and a fire with some good friends.

Among the absolutely gigantic list of chores and errands Matt and I put together for the weekend (amazingly, all of which got done), big items included furnishing the new patio, finishing the baby's nursery and planting our garden.

 I decorated the room in pinks, browns and greens, with lots and lots of owls. I love the way it came out! It's cute but not too cutesy, and girly but also warm.

As for the garden, this year Matt built raised boxes (4 in all) instead of doing our usual square plot with a fence around it. We didn't want to keep the fence up now that we have a nice large patio, but need the plants to have some kind of protection from Butters and other little animals. I love the way his boxes turned out; they add a lot to that little corner of the yard. And I can't wait for fresh heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, strawberries and all the other goodies to start cropping up.

Saturday was actually Matt's birthday, so after a long hard day of work around the house, our little family headed out for a Mexican dinner followed by some ice cream. They were his only two birthday requests. Not hard to make that boy happy!

Sunday we participated in our big neighborhood yard sale, and had some friends over to sell their stuff with us. It was actually pretty fun to hang out all together on the front lawn while the kids played and we tried to sell our wares. I think we all caught the sales bug - it's quite the little excitement to negotiate with yard salers and actually make money selling stuff you're planning to get rid of anyway. Matt and I made a nice little bundle of cash, and are planning to use it towards a new farm table we're buying for our kitchen area.

Sunday evening more friends arrived for some snacks and a fire on the new patio to celebrate Matt's birthday. Not a bad little holiday Sunday. :) I did wake up Monday morning feeling completely wiped out though, so after a few errands, Matt made me relax on the patio couch while he worked on the yard. He's so good to me.

I'm halfway through a new dystopian novel, Halo, and loved laying in the sunshine reading in the afternoon, dozing off here and there. Can't remember the last time I did that!

After Mexican food and BBQing all weekend, I wanted something fresh and light for dinner by Monday night. I had a bunch of red and golden beets sitting in the fridge, so I roasted them off and made big salads for dinner, which we ate outside. On the plate:

- Mesclun greens dressed with flax seed oil and pear white balsamic vinegar

- Red and golden beets

- Goat cheese

- Dried cranberries (I found organic unsweetened ones at ShopRite!)

- Toasted walnuts

- A drizzle of aged truffle balsamic glaze

Soooo good. Dinner may have been veggie-filled and healthy, but we quickly ruined that with a quick trip to the playground so Riker could play and then soft serve cones at our favorite ice cream shop. I forgot to snap a pic, but my small chocolate & vanilla twist with chopped peanuts was fantastic. Just the way I wanted to end the holiday weekend.

After such a busy weekend of chores, I am feeling a little tired but also now, for the first time, ready to have this baby. If she comes tomorrow, we'll be ready. Eek!

How was your holiday weekend?