Shouldless Days: November

I had my 10th "shouldless" day of the year on Sunday. This shouldless day was SO necessary as I had kind of ran myself ragged in October due to a really packed calendar.  Here's how I spent my day yesterday!

I started off the day by waking up without an alarm, which is the best way to start the day! After having breakfast, I listened to a podcast while preparing the baked apples for the date sweetened apple pie oatmeal I eat for breakfast each day. I highly recommend this recipe to other oatmeal lovers! I always make a triple batch of it each weekend so my breakfasts for the week are all ready to go.

I had some downtime before going to church so I did some reading. I hadn't read To Kill a Mockingbird since I was in 8th grade. I highly recommend re-reading this classic novel!

After church, I hung out with Phil until he had to leave for his noon tee time. The weather has been gorgeous here so I'm glad Phil was able to get out for another round of golf (the season is usually over at this point of the year). After Phil left, I wanted to get out for a walk but I pushed it off for a bit as Oscar was super cuddly.

Our sweet girl loves it when I lay down so she can lay on my chest

After Oscar had her fill on cuddles, I headed out for an hour-long walk. Fall is such a beautiful season for going for walks. I just love the sound of the crunch of the leaves under my feet.

The trees in our neighborhood still have quite a few leaves. It looks more like early October than early November

When I got back from my walk, I had a late lunch:  an egg over-easy served over some green beans from my garden and a leftover baby potato I wanted to use up.  Kind of an odd combination but it was really good.

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing. When Phil came home from his round of golf, we caught up on our days. watched some football together, and I finished getting dinner ready. We had slow-cooker chicken tikka masala. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe to those that love Indian food.  It's so easy and delicious.  I recommend doing the extra steps in the recipe (marinating the chicken in yogurt and sauteing the onion, garlic, spices, and tomato paste) as I think it enhances the flavor.

Not the prettiest dish, but it's so delicious!

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV (60 minutes + an episode of the HBO John Adams series on Prime) while I worked on some crochet projects. I started a new blanket that will be made of granny squares like the ones below. I don't like having multiple projects going but I wanted to get some help on how to join the granny squares at my crochet class tonight.

The first of the 100 granny squares that will be made into a blanket

I also worked on my chevron afghan, which is getting quite long!  I still have a ways to go but this project has come together very quickly!

Yesterday was pretty much the perfect shouldless day for me as it included good food, crocheting, reading, time outdoors, cuddles with Oscar and time with Phil!  I'm definitely going to continue to make it a goal to have a shouldless day each month in 2017 as they are so good for me!

How was your weekend?  Did you do anything relaxing?