STAYcation 2017 highlights

The beuaty of the staycation is you really aren't DOING.  You are BEING.  Being restful.  Being productive. Being fabulous.

My STAYcation highlights are as follows...
- Checking out Beloit, Wisconsin
- Relaxing on Sunday after church...which turned in to me finishing my book and starting a new one inbetween two 20-minute catnaps
- Trying a new almond milk iced mocha recipe (and LOVING IT)
- A roadtrip to Bolingbrook IKEA which turned out to be soooo much more than just an IKEA run.  It was therapy.  Beautiful iron sharpening therapy.
- Binge-thrifting and retail shopping on a quest to find the perfect coffee station cart or dresser.  Sadly nothing was purchased.
- A Meg's evening with Trudy...again, oooh so good for my soul
- Making and enjoying French-pressed coffee each morning.

And now today...the last day of this my 5-day STAYcation, I am sitting at the lake.  Why stay home and have lunch there when for a couple gallons of gas and $3 for parking, I could enjoy lunch by the lake.

I did splurge and get myself one of those cool beachy straw hats.  The kind you wear with a cute vintage navy with white polkadots swimsuit and gigantic sunglasses and you feel like Marilyn Monroe...minus the allowing my skirt to blow up in the wind. 

So here I sit with my beachy read and my beachy hat and my vintage swimsuit and sunglasses.

I love the lake.

I love how the water is calming.

I love the peace and quiet of not being in the city.

To motivate myself...

I am need of some motivation to clean my apartment.  It's not that it's dirty...it's more just a cleaning because I should clean.  My kitchen floor, for example, is not filthy but if I skip this week it will be BAD next week.  My bathroom floor - same story different room. 

I have come up with a great plan.

If I get up tomorrow and clean before Celia's 11:20 a.m. annual vet check, then I am going to reward myself...perhaps by taking a trip to Lake Geneva.  The weather forecast is chilly (which I personally love because people will have more clothes on and I won't have to see inappropriate summer, barely-dressed individuals).  Also the chilliness should keep the Lake Geneva library area not as crowded.

If I don't clean in the morning, I will clean in the afternoon and forfeit my beach-going-afternoon and maybe sit out on the balcony in the evening.

Hmmmmmm...decisions, decisions.

Fontana Beach @ Lake Geneva

This morning I woke-up not really motivated to go to Lake Geneva.  Is that not the saddest thing you've read today?  I mean - WE ARE TALKING ABOUT LAKE GENEVA!!!!!  HELLOOOOOOOO!  It's the place I daydream about while sitting outside on my breaks at work.  It's the place where I've spent many-a-mental health day.  Why was I not in the mood to go to one of my favorite places...and BONUS there's a really nice coffeeshop, resale shop, and Goodwill all near the beach.

After consuming some coffee and breakfast, I went to the gym.  Might as well get that checked off my list before taking a shower.  Yes, I went to the gym with crazy hair.  Not too crazy as I had controlled the nonsense with a headband.  One of those stretchy cloth headbands that Audrey makes look soo cool and hip.  I said to myself, "What would Aud do?"  Clearly that girl would wear a fun stretchy headband.  

While at the gym, my phone chimed and said my library book hold was ready for pick-up THUS SOLVING MY BEACH CONUNDRUM!!!!  You see - before said text - I did not have a good beach read readily available.  I had a book for mini-stories...which I really wasn't enjoying.  I mean, I am 200 pages in to this book but I do not like stories that are 50 pages.  It's a bit Janette Oke-y.  (Okey....LOL!)  What I mean is - how is it real life if you meet someone and marry them the next day?  Disclaimer - the book of multiple stories did not have anyone meeting on a Saturday and marrying on the following Sunday.  My biggest pet peeve was I wanted more storyline.  Well, I guess I should not have picked a book with 300 pages and 9 separate stories.  Do the math...30ish pages for each...although 1 story had 50ish so that means one was shorted 20ish pages.  My book / story struggles are very real.  

Soooo where was I?  Oh yes - the library text me that my hold was ready.  A book that my best friend recommended and I have been trying to be patient while I wait for it.  Someone had the nerve to check it out before me...and then I had to wait.  Is it appropriate to pray for the other patron to "speed read and devour the book so I may read it sooner rather than later"?  I hope that's legit...cause I may or may not have prayed as such.  

I grabbed the book from the library {and 5 others...one of which said on the cover "If you love (insert the name of my held book), you are going to love this book!!!!}, consumed lunch and was happily leaving Rockford at circa 12:25.  Oooh and I had an iced-mocha-made-in-my-Ninja in hand.  Not to brag because pride comes before the fall, but I think I have managed to master the art of made-at-home mochas.  It took a couple tries...one of which pained me to drink it.  Note:  If the recipe says "liquid" sweetner, substituting SUGAR IN THE RAW (crystals) will not have the same effect.  It will not sweeten the beverage.  The trick was the brew coffee and then pour it into a glass measuring container and add Sugar in the Raw and let the crystals melt.  Jackpot!!!!  

When I arrived at Fontana, I selected a place in the sand near the entrance...where the wave wall keeps the water at bay.  I wasn't in the mood to swim today - perhaps next time.  Today I was there for the waves and the ambiance.  

What does one need to have in his / her beach bag?  A twin flat sheet to place on the sand - for an extended area.  A beach towel to place ontop of said sheet.  Sunscreen - Sun Bum spf 50 is my preference.  A bottle of water, a snack, and a good read.  

After nearly 3 hours of spending time reading...time staring at the clouds...time staring at the beautiful lake, I was ready to head home.

I packed up my bag and headed for Rosie.  

My GPS (Marge) took Rosie and I a different way home.  I've gone the way of Marge, but not recently.  It was a nice country-ish drive...which I always love.  Don't get me wrong - I like the highway when it comes to work days...but on the weekends, I like not being in the city.  The drive home was lovely and laidback.

And now it's Saturday night...my washing machine is whirling.  There's a beautiful praise song playing on the radio.  The hum of my air conditioner unit is a peaceful reminder that it will be a cool night's sleep.  {I haven't had my AC on all week.  It cooled off...and then the low humidity kept it nice inside...but today it was 92 degrees AND humid. Humidity...ick!  It does bad things to my curls...and it makes for miserable sleeping.}

I do hope I get to repeat this day atleast a couple more times before Autumn.  

My Saturday goals

1. Wake-up
2. Drink coffee.
3. Have breakfast.
4. Hit gym.
5. Bake chicken and make my scrumptious chicken salad.
6. Put on navy with white polkadot swimsuit, coverup, and flip-flops.
7. Don sunglasses.
8. Grab beach bag, lunch, a sappy book and go to Lake Geneva.

This summer I want to.....

1.  Try one  (1) recipe from my "Adventures with Food - New Things to Try" Pinterest  board each and every week.

2.  Go to Fontana Beach so often that I use up my entire bottle of SPF 50 sunscreen and my beach hat shows signs of wear and my "Complete Works of Jane Austen" gets lovely beach markings.

3.  Perfect the art of making iced blended coffee at my place of residence.

4.  Love my patio...even if remains unpainted.

5.  Garage sale with Trudy.

All packed....

Jane Austen's Persuasion

Beach towel

SPF 15 sunscreen

Sundress

Flip-flops

Swimsuite

Sunglasses

Snacks

Guess who's going to the lake tomorrow??? 

THIS GIRL!!!!

Not working on this beautiful Monday...

As I swiped my badge to clock myself in this morning, I had a sneaky suspicion that something was amok.  I'm not sure if it was because I had anticipated leaving early and had my beach bag weighing heavily on my left shoulder...or if it was something in the air as all my co-workers came back to rejoin the workforce.  One big happy family, right?  WR-ONG!  I don't know if there's "Cranky Pollen" in the air or what....but seriously?  This morning was not pleasant.  Perhaps it's because the compassion that I am called upon to give out with reckless abandon was not reciprocated in the least bit?  Hmmmmmm....whatever it was, IT caused me to send the following email at 8:25 a.m.  "May I please leave at 12 'noon today and use 4 hours of vacation?"  I honestly could not stay at work today!  Normally I him-and-haw around and wait until the last possible second....I weigh out the fact that this will deplete my vacation bank.  Not today.  Nope.  I clicked the SEND button and sat in my cubicle laughing hysterically.  Ok, so it might be better labeled "Delusional" -- but whatever you want to call it...I was giddy!!!! 


My favorite co-worker meandered over to my cubicle and asked why I was laughing.  I replied, "I'm leaving at 12 today and going to Lake Geneva."  And just because I'm adorable, I nodded toward my beach bag -- which just so happened to have Little Women and my striped beach towel peaking out the top.  He replied, "Seriously?  When did you plan this?"  


My reply (again consider the cuteness factor), "About 28 minutes ago.  Isn't it a lovely day for the beach?"  He just shook his head and walked away.  


Later in the morning, we met near the coffeemaker and he said, "You're only here for 4 hours, Angie.  You can't drink another mug of free coffee.  You won't be earning it today.  You cannot consume more coffee than you will earn."  Too which I replied, "Watch me!"  


At 12 'noon, I skipped out of work.  It was a wonderful feeling placing a mound of drawings in my favorite's inbox and THEN meeting him in the hallway with a huge smile and saying, "Have a lovely afternoon!"

It should be noted around 3 p.m., he sent me the following text, "Very nice, the old dump and run!  Now I know why you were laughing. I  hope you get rained on."  It was nice receiving this at 3 p.m. because normally at this time, I am sitting in my cubicle laughing.  Not today -- today I was sitting in the sand listening to the waves caress the shore...and my cell phone chime my in-coming text.

This poor sea gull looked soo cold as he buried his beak in his feathers.  I'm pretty sure he was hoping that I would toss him some of my salad or a few of my dark chocolate Raisinets.  Ummmmm....NO on the Raisinets.  Hellooooooo -- they were dark chocolate covered.  A girl's gotta get her anti-oxidants.  :)

It was quite blustery today.  The temperature only reached 80 which was pleasant.  It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold.  Near the end of my visit, I was thankful I had brought my sundress cover-up.

As I removed my wrist band, I thought over the events of the day. I'm truly thankful that tomorrow is a new day and I don't have to worry what will happen -- God has everything under control.

I do not ever want a repeat of this morning....HOW (insert small pause for dramatic effect) EVER, I would not mind a repeat of this afternoon.  It was marvelous!!!!!

What is this?

If you answered...


sweet onion ~ I will give you 2 points.


the missing ingredient in the Lake Geneva chicken salad ~ I will give you 10 points.


This onion cracked me up this morning.  I was pouring my first mug-full of coffee and I glanced to my right and saw the pictured onion.  I, then, began to ask myself, Why in the world did I buy an onion?  What yummy dish am I planning to create?  When BAM -- it hit me.  (Not literally lest you think this onion is capable of war!)  This onion was supposed to be cut up and mixed in with the Whole Foods Sonoma Chicken Salad recipe I made. Oooooops!

What a lovely sort of Saturday....

What do you need to have a fabulous Saturday?

1. Your favorite girlies

2. Picnic lunch

3. A large body of water

4. Sunscreen (because we are smart girlies)

5. Laughter

6. A driver who is directionally challenged

Come to find out...said driver always stops 

at the Marathon because it seems that she has 

missed the lake.  Today we did not stop at said 

gas station to inquire about the whereabouts 

of the lake.  No worries - for the next trip, Miss Angie 

is well aware that the turn-off is IL Route 12!!!

I love Lake Geneva and I love that I had the opportunity to share the day with my favorite girlies.  :)  We laughed.  We people-watched.  The girlies taught Miss Angie that the white birds flying overhead are NOT called "Sea Gulls"....they are officially called from now until forever "Beach Chickens."  

The beach was under construction so we found a nice spot (semi-shaded) in the park adjacent to said beach.  It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday.  

Guess where I am going tomorrow???

Clue #1

Clue #2
Sunglasses, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, and a cooler packed with lunch!