Weekend Snapshots

Our long holiday weekend was unscheduled, unplanned and perfect. 

In all honesty I stayed in my pajamas a lot of the weekend, reading, watching movies, doing a little cleaning and organizing around the house. 

Our weekend started early when the kids had a half day on Friday due to the heat.

Ahhh... Remember the days when you got out early from school, unexpectedly, for heat or snow or whatever? Those were the absolute best days. 

We spent just an afternoon/evening at the Cabin and the kids got to hang out with their cousins.
No staying over this time, which was fine by me, because it felt like it was about 100* down there.
Still it is always pretty, peaceful and one of my favorite things to do is walk from the cabin down the lane to the road and walk a ways down the road.
Getting to walk down the road at sunset there is just one of my favorite things ever.
I am easy to please.

This right here is what makes me sometimes think maybe I was meant to live in the country.
Beautiful, simple, quiet, breathtaking.
I know it would probably lose a lot of it's novelty and would just become part of my everyday and not so special, of course I know that, but it still makes me think; "Maybe someday..."

Besides sweating the entire time we were there, it was just what I needed... A great way to spend part of the long holiday weekend.
It's hard to believe it is already Wednesday, this short week is going fast.
Hope you have a great day!

A Lazy + Productive Kinda Weekend

This past weekend was a good one... a favorite weekend of mine this Winter probably, now that I think
about it.
Weekends are good for different reasons and "productive" in different ways.
And it was productive - But probably not in the way you're thinking.
I didn't get much done around the house... And by "not mcuh" I actually mean nothing.
Ummmm... There are still about 5 loads of laundry to do.
I didn't mop the kitchen floor(again) although it really needs it. BAD. So if you come to my house and into
my kitchen, just don't look down. Thanks.
I didn't go through the cubbies and stacks of school papers that are beyond overflowing, we didn't sell a single Girl Scout cookie...
And I could care less.

What did I do?
+ I slept in.
+ I had slow coffee Saturday and Sunday morning...no hurry or rush and nowhere to be... I just     enjoyed it over cartoons and some reading + music listening on the couch.
+ I hung out with Stanley(the dog formerly known as Choo-Choo) a lot.
+ I took a little walk around the neighborhood with the kids(in our pajamas) Saturday morning when  we woke up to about 7-8 inches of snow. It was a perfectly beautiful snow that we couldn't get  enough of!
+ I went to bed early one night and the other night I went out to dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday  and had an awesome meal + a fun night out with some friends I don't see very often.

/////////

It was good and relaxing + fulfilling in just the way you need sometimes, especially when things are feeling busy and crazy in your head and on your calendar both.
I think it's so good to have these weekends every once in a while, where you barely get out of your pajamas(the best!)...
The kind where you are actually kind of mentally ready for what Monday and the week ahead has in store for you.
How was your weekend? What did you do/not do this weekend?

Hope you have a good Monday and a great week!

{Making Time For Date Night}

like most people, our date nights are usually a little too few and far between.

saturday night grandma & grandpa agreed (notice i didn't say offered)
 to take the kids for a few hours saturday night and although we wondered if we should save
 the night of babysitting until we really had something going on, we decided we really
 needed a night out together.

away from home. and any children.

we decided to drive to a little town about thirty minutes away for mexican.

i know, that's really a new one for us...but we do love our mexican and margaritas.
frozen margaritas in this heat really hit the spot, by the way.

it was the perfect night for a drive home through the country, so we took the long way home.
i love driving along the country roads lined with cornfields on both sides, no street lights,
the sky completely dark so you can see all the stars.

i think date nights are really important,

 to be able to have a block of uninterrupted time together, just the two of us.
 sure, it's hard to make the time, to find someone to keep the kids and all that,
 but i think they are so very necessary and we try to make them a priority as often as we can.
so thank you grandma & grandpa.

 ps- next time they are spending the night!

happy monday, y'all!

{Insta-Saturday}

A good day starts off with waking up at just the right time, not too early and not too late,

 after a good night's sleep.

{And with my new-found insomnia, a night of good sleep is a very good thing}

The kids watching cartoons and Eric watching the Tour de France while

 I make french toast for everyone.

French toast and hot coffee and a little Pinterest daydreaming.

Eric and the kids are working in the yard when I remembered the Farmer's Market.

I never remember the Farmer's Market in time, but today I did.

Yipppeee!

{ummm...yeah, that's really close... too close. ouch.}

A solo drive on a sunny day, looking at big fluffy clouds and listening to Rumours. 

Loud...because it's only me in the car.

 I leave the Farmer's Market with peaches, green beans, mustard greens and red onions.

And a bouquet of flowers for me; zinnias and some other flowers that I have no idea what
 they are, and herbs. Oh, the basil smells so good. I do love basil.
My flowers are now in a pitcher on my dining room table, flowers instantly make me happy.

It was a good, good day.

I love Saturdays.

{Weekend Mornings}

Oh, how I love laid-back, relaxing weekends.
My favorite part of the weekend is the mornings though, as long as they don't
start too early...and they really don't anymore.
The kind where there is plenty of time for coffee and the newspaper and Saturday morning
 cartoons and breakfast together and staying in your pajamas for a good part of the day.
That's the kind of morning we had yesterday.

But this morning I am going to meet my sister to do a little Christmas shopping.
Coffee and breakfast and then a few errands, no hard-core shopping for me today. But it's
just the girls and being able to do it with out dragging any little ones is a treat, really. My kids are good little shoppers but there's only so much you can do when one of them is with you all the time, ya know?
I'm looking forward to today.
We woke up to snow this morning. It's not a lot but it is our first real snow this
Winter which is unusual for us, usually we would have a decent amount by now.
The kids are excited about the snow, Eric is at the store shopping for whatever
 it is he is making for the big game today and I bet at some point the kids will talk
 him into going outside to play.

****

I hope you are having the very best kind of weekend, too.
I think you should go dust off your bread machine and bake some yummy crusty bread now.
And serve it warm with some Nutella. You won't be sorry.

{that little pulling feeling}

maybe you are not like me. 

maybe you don't occasionally get that pulling feeling on a saturday night like I do.

the one where you wish you had somewhere important to go.

something exciting to do.

just something.

you look at the clock and it's 9:30 and you kind of wish it was one of those rare 

nights where you should be getting ready right about now.

you know, the kind of night that involves putting on eyeliner and maybe

 even lipstick and making last minute plans.

and it doesn't have to be anywhere fancy, it could be anywhere at all.

a drink with friends at the hole-in-the-wall bar.

music from a jukebox, or a band.

lots of conversation and completely random people and characters 

that you are still laughing about days later.

 maybe you don't get that pulling feeling on the occasional saturday night.

but I do.

the one that makes you feel like you should be out there...

somewhere doing something.

just anything.

but then you remember.

that your husband is out of town.

the kids are in bed.

and you are in charge.

so you open up the front window, pour yourself a glass of wine, 

get comfortable on the couch

 hoping you can find a really good movie to watch.

the kind that makes you happy to be home.

so you ignore that feeling, check on the kids, settle on a movie, get your laptop

 and pour yourself another glass of wine.

knowing that the next saturday night you will probably have that little pulling feeling

 that makes you wish you had absolutely no plans at all

 so you could stay home and curl up on the couch, with a glass of wine, all the candles lit 

hoping to find something really good to watch on tv

 or a chance to start that brand-new book you have just been dying to read.

Happy Sunday!

We had a busy but FUN weekend and now it's already Sunday. Tonight we will be trying to trick the kids into an early bedtime so we can eat pizza and watch the Grammy's. I love Sunday nights, especially at the end of a really good weekend. Today is the last day of January and tomorrow is already February.....wow. I must say though,  I am looking forward to February because that puts me just a little bit closer to Spring...and that's a good thing.
Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend!