A Walk in the Park

I managed to get out of bed at 7:45 this morning! I was shocked. I got up, had peanut butter & honey toast for breakfast, and read my morning devotional.

Then it was time for my "something fun." A few days ago, I wrote about my goal to do at least one fun or relaxing thing every day this summer. I don't want to regret not taking advantage of all this free time when school starts again at the end of August! For my first day, I decided to go to the park with Max and walk through the nature trail. Here are some pictures of our trip:

Uh-Oh!
I ended up picking Max up and shimmying across the middle board to get across. I could have probably just jumped over the creek, but I didn't want to slip and fall

BIG tree that fellMax was pretty tired after the short, 30 minute hike. He had to sit and breathe for a minute before we left.

This was a fun way to start the morning, and to get some exercise. I'm having a lot of fun thinking of fun places to go or things to do this summer. And I woke up early enough that I still had the whole day ahead of me to get things done after the walk. I'm going to try to completely clean and organize this house inside and out this summer. Today was the starting point, and I decided I wouldn't take on anything too daunting, but just start with some surface cleaning. Getting rid of clutter, sweeping the downstairs floors with a broom, washing dishes, folding laundry, making the bed, etc. Tomorrow I'll be ready to tackle some deep cleaning in the kitchen. AND I'm planning on continuing my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookies (one of my bucket list items is to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies...I'm a very inconsistent cookie baker:-P)

Tonight I made a special dinner to celebrate the first day of summer! And guess what...we actually ate at the table! We're trying to do that more often. We spend too many meals in front of the TV.

I tried a couple more new recipes tonight. First I made cheesy baked chicken made with Cheese-Its. It was delicious, and the whole house is still filled with the wonderful smell.
I also made baked potatoes, and for dessert, this frozen raspberry cheesecake...it was heavenly.
Bottom layer: a crust made with chopped up Vanilla Wafers and melted butter. Middle Layer: cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and a little lemon juice. Top layer: Rasberry sherbet.

To be honest, with all the new recipes I've tried this week, I'm surprised I haven't had a major disaster yet. KNOCK ON WOOD! :-P

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I already have my "something fun" planned for tomorrow: a trip to Akron with my mom to visit my sister and stay until Saturday afternoon! We're going to shop, watch movies, and hopefully eat at Spaghetti Warehouse. It should be fun! I love being able to see Julie almost every weekend in the summer.

Be back Saturday...pictures of my 1/2 weekend in Akron to come :-)