Weekending - November 6, 2020

Ready to start another week?  Mondays roll around so darn fast!  Here's a rewind of our weekend ~

November is packed full of birthdays in our family and we celebrated Eric's mom last week.  Eric was able to have lunch and spend some time with his mom on Thursday, her actual birthday!  Here's wishing her the best year yet!

Friday started my sourdough making journey.  I had fed my starter in the morning and by evening it was ready to go.  I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but I was a bit stressed out trying to figure out the timing so I wasn't up at 3:00 am baking.  

Saturday morning the dough finally made it into the oven and we could not have been more proud of the loaf it produced!  

Don't let the picture fool you - that loaf is sitting on a saucer.  It's pretty small compared to the hours it took to prepare.  Not sure this is going to be my thing, but I'm so glad I gave it a try!  Have you jumped on the sourdough bandwagon during the pandemic?

We started watching Netflix's The Queen's Gambit.  Love it!  The story is about a competitive chess-playing girl, Elizabeth Harmon, and her quest to becoming a world champion.  Put it on your list if you haven't watched it.  Right now, there's no second season planned.  But with the success of season 1, there is rumbling of maybe another season happening.  

My friends Sharyn and Eric dropped off a puzzle they had borrowed and with it brought me an early piece of birthday cake from one of my favorite French restaurants, La Bonne Bouchee.  It was delicious!  They were so thoughtful to bring two pieces so I didn't even have to share with Eric!

On Sunday, we assembled our new gas firepit.  It was a combined birthday gift for me and Eric from our son and daughter-in-law and it's perfect!  We love sitting outside around the wood firepit, but don't do it as often as we would like because you have to let the wood burn down, etc., etc.  This one is gas so you can just turn it on and off whenever you want!  

After watching the Chiefs game, it was time for our book club discussion with my Kansas City friends.  The selection we were discussing was Secret Daughter:  A Novel by Shilpi Somava Gowda.  We all loved it!  It came out in 2011 and I'm not sure how I missed this one.  Here's the summary from Amazon ~

Secret Daughter, a first novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, explores powerfully and poignantly the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity, and love through the experiences of two families—one Indian, one American—and the child that binds them together. A masterful work set partially in the Mumbai slums so vividly portrayed in the hit film Slumdog Millionaire, Secret Daughter recalls the acclaimed novels of Kim Edwards and Thrity Umrigar, yet sparkles with the freshness of a truly exciting new literary voice.

As soon as the sun went down (which is pretty early these days), we were outside enjoying it while watching television.

As soon as the sun went down (which is pretty early these days), we were outside enjoying the new firepit while watching television.  I'm already envisioning getting new furniture for the patio next spring that would make sitting outside even more enjoyable.

And just like that we are back to Monday.  This is a short work week for me and Eric.  We are taking a little trip to do some hiking.  Hope your week is off to a wonderful start!