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Sunday was a perfect day filled with all of my favorite things: baking, making breakfast, drinking coffee, time spent with family and watching the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Arizona Cardinals. It was relaxing and full of gratitude!
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Easy Like Sunday Morning
I got the opportunity to sleep in. I woke up at 6:45 when I heard my darling daughter babbling away! As an early morning runner, sleeping past 5:30 is simply wonderful! There’s something so sweet about the sound of baby babbling. It brings a smile to my face and melts my heart.
I brewed a pot of hot coffee and laid out some Brioche Bread in preparation for a breakfast of French Toast. My husband loves French Toast and I admit that I don’t make it very often. My preference is Pancakes, but, as per my husband’s request, I prepared French Toast for our Sunday breakfast. Of course, I cooked some bacon to go with it.
My husband serves as an usher about once a month at the 10:30 church service. Due to our darling daughter’s nap schedule, we do not attend service as a family. He represents the Reinhard family at church these days. She literally went down for a nap around the time that my husband left for church. Naptime for our darling daughter = worktime for mommy 😊
Baking is Love Made Edible
My husband was at church and my darling daughter was napping peacefully. Time to get my baking on!
We went apple picking recently. There are 10 lbs of apples in my refrigerator. They are a mix of HoneyCrisp, Gala, Fuji, Royal Court, and Macintosh. I’ve been eating them with peanut butter or just plain and they are simply delicious! So juicy, sweet and crunchy! They are perfect for baking. I struggled to find the time during the week to bake with the apples. When I woke up on Sunday, I told myself, “Today you will bake with those apples.”
I discovered this Apple Bubble-Up Bake from Pillsbury one day when I was on Facebook. It looked so easy and delicious. With a few simple ingredients, I whipped up this sweet treat that can be enjoyed during brunch or for dessert. I actually added raisins to the casserole for some healthy sweetness. This sweet casserole would be something special you can eat on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning.
Homemade applesauce is another thing I wanted to make. My husband will eat applesauce with his lunch for the week and my 11-month-old daughter loves eating applesauce! Applesauce is a staple in our house as I use it when I am baking, mix it with oatmeal, stir it into Greek Yogurt or just eat it with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.
This year, I made Cranberry Applesauce in the Crock Pot. All the ingredients were placed in the crock pot on high, cooked for 3 hours and then blended with an Immersion Blender until smooth. I used two bags of fresh cranberries I had in the freezer. Oh. My. Goodness. It tasted so good! My daughter loved it! I mixed it with plain Greek Yogurt and sprinkled toasted chopped Almonds on top for the perfect wholesome snack. This Cranberry Applesauce would be the perfect side dish to your Thanksgiving meal.
Now onto the bananas! The bunch of bananas I purchased at the grocery store about 2 weeks ago ripened pretty quickly. Brown bananas = Baked Breads and Muffins 🙂 Baking with bananas is another favorite of mine! I used the bananas to make a Healthy Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt and these 5-Ingredient Blender Peanut Butter Banana Mini Muffins. My darling daughter gobbled up one of the mini muffins! It is the perfect snack and is an easy handheld food for her.
I figured, I might as well do all the baking I needed and wanted to and make a mess of the kitchen once! I love baking, cooking, and meal planning in batches because it all gets done and I’m set for several days, weeks or even the whole month. The Healthy Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt and half of the 5-Ingredient Blender Peanut Butter Banana Mini Muffins were put into the freezer for future weeks.
Fly Eagles Fly!
On Sundays, we watch football. At 1:00, football Sunday kicked off with the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a great game to watch as the Eagles beat the Arizona Cardinals 34-7. Carson Wentz achieved a personal best with four touchdown passes. Three of these touchdown passes were during the first quarter, a first in Eagles history! The game was pretty much over during the first quarter. My husband picked the Eagles in a suicide pool he is a part of. Their win means he is alive for another week! I chose the Patriots the first week of football and their loss, which was NOT expected, ended my participation in the suicide pool. He also participates in a Fantasy Football League with his dad. They had a winning week! The Green Bay Packers win over the Dallas Cowboys gave them a lot of points, especially when Aaron Rodgers threw the 4th quarter touchdown pass to Davante Adams. Both players are on their Fantasy Football team. Lots of points for them! Needless to say, they were happy campers!
Playtime with Jemma
My husband loves playing with our darling daughter. She is growing so fast and has such a fun personality. We love her giggles and watching her interact with her toys, which are nothing special. We literally have a clear plastic bin filled with random kitchen containers, utensils and baking pans from our own kitchen or the dollar store. She loves taking everything out and making noise by banging some of the containers together. I’ve had this bin up in our living room for at least a week now and decided it was time to change it up for her. So, I decided to put together a “My First Purse” for her using things I found around our house. Here is what I used for “My First Purse”:
- A Cosmetic Bag
- A Plastic Travel Shampoo Bottle – This bottle was in a travel kit we had, but I hadn’t used it. I filled it with orange tulle I had in my craft supplies to make it look like it was filled with something.
- A Comb
- A Brush
- Teething Keys
- A Wallet Insert
- A Bathtime Book
- A Rubber Bracelet
- A Small Gift Bag – This is her “Shopping Bag”.
- A Toy Key – This goes with her Fisher Price Laugh & Learn House.
- An Old Watch – She loves holding my running watch so I figured this would be a good addition. It has a rubber band like my running watch.
- A Cookie – This is a crinkly cat toy. Our cat doesn’t play with it, but Jemma loves things that crinkle or make noise. Every girl needs a snack in her purse!
- A Washcloth – We have tons of washcloths so I put one in “My First Purse”. It represents a napkin or tissue.
My husband was wondering where I disappeared to as I was assembling “My First Purse”. When I returned to the living room and told him what I was doing, he said, “That’s what you’ve been doing? Making Jemma a toy?” He initially thought it was dumb, but after seeing what I put together, he thought it was creative.
The favorite items from “My First Purse” were the Plastic Travel Shampoo Bottle and the Cookie. She carried those two items in her hands as she crawled around. I enjoyed watching her explore “My First Purse” and touch all the items inside of it. I pulled each item out and named it for her. Then put each item back inside and let her pull them out as she wanted.
Gratitude is An Open Door to Abundance
Sunday was filled with gratitude. I took a step back to be thankful for the things, people and moments that surrounded me.
Time spent with my husband, daughter and cat
Happiness of my daughter as she plays with her homemade toys
Ability to bake and prepare delicious and healthy treats for my family
Neighborhood in which we live and will raise our daughter
Knowing how hard my husband works so I can be at home with our daughter
Football games that force us to pause and enjoy time as a family
Usual Sunday breakfast and time spent relaxing
Laughs of our daughter when she is playing with daddy
I hope that you had a wonderful Sunday and enjoyed time with your family, time spent relaxing, or time spent doing something you love 🙂 I’d love to hear about your Sunday in the comments below. What are the things, who are the people, and what are the moments for which you are thankful? Share them in a comment!
