It seems quite a few of you really enjoyed this morning’s 30 Days of Self Love post. I smiled with each and every one of your comments on how you are physically beautiful. We should never deny our beauty, inside and out. I would love to read more, so share how you’re beautiful in the comment section of today’s post.

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Since the only blogging I do over the weekends right now is for the 30 Days, I owe you a recap. We had no set plans going into this weekend. I love weekends where you can go with the flow. I expected relaxation, family time, and a good meal out for our one night a week restaurant visit. Saturday fell a little bit short of those hopes and dreams. Even my massage.

I headed out Saturday morning to use up a Groupon I received for a prenatal massage. I almost had butterflies from the excitement! My body needed this massage and I could not wait to feel less tension. I got myself situated on the massage table – on my side with a body pillow for support – and settled in to await bliss.

I would not quite describe this massage as bliss. I would not describe it as bad either…but weird. A good 1/3 of the massage was done through the sheet! And with basically no pressure. It felt like someone poking me in the shoulder or back over and over to wake me up. Not exactly relaxing. Part of what I love about massages is the use of oils and really feeling the release of muscles. No oils touched my skin and minimal tension release happened. I did enjoy the chance to relax, but I certainly would not go back. Any Atlanta area massage studios want to offer me a chance for review? I promise to play nice! As long as you don’t rub me raw through a sheet. 😉

The lackluster Saturday continued with a Georgia Bulldogs game loss and a pretty nasty dinner. We typically prefer going to local, non-massive-chain restaurants in our area but had a BOGO coupon for Ruby Tuesday. I remembered liking their food okay and who am I to say no to a cheap dinner with a salad bar involved? Lesson learned – say no!

My salad suited me nicely. Greens, beets, artichoke hearts, edamame, olives, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette, and things I’m likely forgetting.

My meal, however, equated to disaster. I used to love their steak but I could not handle it. It had a lot of chew to it, which cannot be good in my standards. All in all, I had sweet potato fries for dinner. Not worth the $15 we saved from going elsewhere.

I enjoyed Sunday a lot more. It started off fairly typical with church, home for lunch, and chilling during M’s nap. Then, we made the spontaneous decision to head out to the park for the afternoon. I soaked up some quality time with the family and a leisurely stroll around the park’s little pond.

Spending afternoons together outdoors gets me all warm and fuzzy inside every time. We closed out the night with more fun. The hilarity of the movie Date Night ensued. I really liked it! I liked the fact it wasn’t too long and gave us an early bedtime even more. Such a wild life we live. Oh well. It all added up to a pleasurable Sunday!

• What was the best and worst part of your weekend?
• Have you ever had something you looked forward to turn out lackluster? What was it?
• Check out my guest post on Healthy Living Blogs!

How do weekends go by so fast? I don’t fully understand it.  I hope some of you out there are enjoying an extra day off. Technically, I should be too since Peter is off work. Sadly, though, he is having to work on his car at his brother’s the entire day. I could use his help around here today. I need some rest after the busy weekend we had. I shared my fun from Friday & Saturday already and the actual 4th was loaded as well.

Sunday morning we woke up and had a red, white, and blue breakfast. It consisted of homemade blueberry pancakes and a strawberry smoothie.

The pancakes are a really basic recipe that we adapted from www.allrecipes.com and always use for our once in a blue moon pancake mornings.

Ingredients

• 1.5 C flour (all-purpose or mix of all-purpose & wheat)
• 3.5 tsp baking powder
• 2T sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 C milk (I like using vanilla almond milk)
• 1 egg
• 3T melted butter
• 4 large handfuls fresh blueberries

Mix the dry ingredients first (flour through salt) and create a well in the center. Pour the wet ingredients (milk, egg, butter) into the well and blend until batter is smooth. Fold in blueberries. Cook on a griddle or pan like any other pancakes. 😀

After breakfast, we headed to church for an excellent service. It was all about the freedoms we have, not only within the country we live but also in our faith. Our pastor discussed how we need to really consider what we are free from and be grateful because none of that freedom came free. All of it came from huge sacrifices. From the many men and women who have fought for the freedom of our country across centuries, but also for the one man who sacrificed himself for each of us to be truly free and the countless others who across time made sacrifices to keep his word and truth flowing to others. The message brought people to their feet at the end and there were many sniffles heard among my fellow church friends.

Later that afternoon we headed to my parents’ place for some July 4th fun. The plan was to hang out for awhile and then gather up a picnic dinner to eat and games to play while waiting for Atlanta’s Lenox Fireworks show. There was a little bit of a glitch in that plan thanks to a “moment” between my father and I. Our relationship has had its fair share of strain and typically we can handle each other for the times we do see each other. Yesterday he was somehow set off and I had to face that look of pure hatred in his eyes and the anger that can come from his lips again. The evening evolved into a much rougher time than I expected and I fought the darkness I could quickly sink into from him the remainder of the night.

However, we persevered and gathered our forces to delight in our time together. My brother would leave in the morning to return to his home in Arizona, so we packed the cars and ate our picnic dinner or Publix chicken with potato chips & salad. We donned our happy faces to laugh and be goofy.

We played some Apples to Apples and adored the darling Makenzie.

And we also dove headfirst into a fabulous dessert – S’mores Brownies. Somehow Jess always gets it right. Always.

Then I viewed the fireworks through Makenzie’s eyes yet again. Believed in the magic of fireworks, instead of the realities of pain that can still infiltrate even after you thought them to be resolved. Now, it is today. A new day. A day where I can sweat out some tension in a spin class; spend time laughing with my daughter; and with any luck have a husband who comes home at a reasonable enough time to give me a break. I have a feeling there will be some prayer in my future on finding a way to let it all go and find a way to forgive (even with no apology present)…again.

I wish you all the best of days! Now, tell me…how was your weekend?