Hi friends! Currently writing to you from sweet northern Michigan at a writer's retreat and loving every moment of it. The weather here is gorgeous and perfectly "temped" at 80 degrees. Lake Michigan is not far from us and I can see why one of my friends who lives here (who I also happen to be visiting) is always trying to persuade me to come visit. I'm so glad I did because Michigan is beautiful! (Editor's Note: This is not a sponsored "Pure Michigan" post, despite appearances.)

I should mention, for those who may be like me and haven't flown since everything started a few months ago, that the airports are super clean and well-kept, and that goes for the airplanes, too. And since we're on the topic of flying, this is the first time since I was 17 years old that I have actually flown anywhere by myself! Can you believe that? Crazy, right? I'll admit, it's a little intimidating doing something like that by yourself when it's been so long, but I survived and now I have zero fears about doing it on the way coming home.

Let's talk about this week's menu. We're getting ready to photograph a few summer recipes that we've been testing out, so I'm going to do my best to link to things like that on the menu for you. Of course, these are all just suggestions and I have a whole recipe archive for you to scroll through - maybe you'll find something there you like better!

Okay guys, this is it, the last week of July! I hope you're able to get outside and soak up some of this summer with even all the social distancing measures in place. Yesterday we hit 100 degrees here, so we packed up and spent the day at the beach - it was warm and sunny, which is so unusual for the Oregon Coast, but what a treat it was!

I'm heading out of town this week, but Josh and the kids will be here, so I've thrown together a menu that he can go by so he doesn't have to stress that dinner time rush without my help. Well, my help and Grace's help because she's a working girl now and officially out of training with Chick-fil-A and working #allthehours!

Can you believe that it's already July 20th? I keep looking at the calendar, which has been been unusually eventful and the month isn't even over yet. We've celebrated the 4th of July, travelled to California for my grandmother's funeral, Grace has "officially" started working at Chick-Fil-A (and loving it I might add - it would be her pleasure to serve you if you were to visit, lol)! The kids also started horseback riding lessons again, which Josh even joined in last week. It's been a busy (compared to the last few months) time for us, but in a really good way that I wouldn't want to change. Really good memories, if you know what I mean, even if some of them are bittersweet.

Next week I head out of town for a few days (by myself), and while I'm excited and nervous about traveling during this time, I think it will be fun. But I'm already working on creating the following week's menu so Josh has some sort of meal plan to cook from. He's completely capable of winging it on his own, but I thought it might be helpful for him if I'm as prepared as possible.

We're back from our trip to California for my grandmother's funeral, which was a really lovely time with family and hearing memories from all of her loved ones. I'm really glad we took the whole family down and spent that time together.

We had hoped to get a new recipe out to you last week, but we were honestly so tied up, I never even had the chance to open my computer. So here we are and it's a new week and I've got a few things lined up for you this week, one post specifically inspired by a family member who has just chosen to homeschool her daughter (my niece) this year. I know a lot of you are parents and are also trying to figure out what this new school year is going to look like for your child and so one of my posts this week is going to be geared towards that topic. I'm really excited about it and I hope it proves to be a good resource for you.

But let's talk about this week's menu. When I began working on this week's menu I had a completely bare fridge because I made sure to use up a ton of things I didn't want to go bad while we were gone. So...I made my menu based on proteins I already hand on hand in my freezer and tried to utilize other items in my pantry and fridge as well that were still in good shape. I think you'll see the simplicity in this week's menu and I'm not hating it!

Here's what's cooking this week!

Okay friends, since we're going to be gone a few days this week for my grandmother's funeral, I thought it would be fun to play with the Weekly Menu a little bit and give you a breakfast edition. All of these meals "could" be made for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. I think you all know by now my extreme love for breakfast for dinner, so I tried to choose some meals that were interesting and that could easily be paired with other items like toast, breakfast sausage, or smoothies to make it a full on meal.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July - we hosted a small family gathering at our house this year and believe it or not, this was the first time we've had 4th of July at our house in the five years we've lived here. Josh made BBQ Chicken and hot dogs and I made my macaroni salad, summer squash capers salad, and blackberry cobbler for dessert. We also had baked beans and my mom made her macaroni and cheese which is basically crack and we had SO MUCH FOOD! I sent food home with everybody! But we had so much fun and had the best spot for fireworks. Seriously, our street goes all out!

Here's what's cooking this week!