Inspired by one of my favorite blogs I thought it would be a great idea to look back each week at those things that brought me the most joy. This is far too fitting for my blog to ignore the idea so I look forward to posting these each week!
What a refreshing change last week brought! We had my birthday plus a teacher info meeting for each big boy on different nights. While it was a lot on the calendar in one week it also meant Micah got to come home early for three of the four nights of work. After weeks of only seeing him for about an hour each day in the morning this was so wonderful! The kids smothered him with hugs and cuddles and we got to finally slow down and spend some time as a family.
Here are my top moments from the week:
1. My birthday!
I turned 32 last Monday! Woooo! We celebrated with a large platter of sushi (obviously) and I was shocked at how much the four boys ate! Mercedes isn’t a fan of rice so I also made Thai Chicken Pizza to go along with the sushi. We could not believe our eyes when all four boys kept asking for more sushi pieces. I think Anders ate at least six pieces, Cade probably had four or five and the big boys ate more than a whole roll each. They even got super adventurous and tried the smoked salmon roll! We were so proud of them but also a little sad because now we have to share more… or we get to order more! We also enjoyed a fantastic birthday dessert of a funfetti blondie topped with funfetti no bake cheesecake. Sprinkles galore!
2. New Harry Potter
I love, love, love Harry Potter. I can’t count how many times I’ve read the books, watched the movies, or listened to the audiobooks. I tried to hate the series for a long time. I never saw any of the movies until I was going to be forced to see the third for a work field trip (I worked with middle school kids many years ago) so I made myself watch the first two and wasn’t super impressed. Then I wasn’t scheduled to work the day of the movie trip! I figured since I had seen the first two I may as well see the third in the cheap theater. Then I saw the fourth a few weeks after it came out. I finally decided to give the books a chance and fell in love with the characters.
I’m already bursting to read them with the kids but I’m waiting until next summer to go through the first with the big boys and I’m only going to do one each summer with them. I want to make them go through slowly so we can discuss and really process it all. I’m so excited!
But anyway… Micah got me the new play-in-book-form for my birthday gift. I started it on Tuesday and had it finished on Wednesday afternoon. I thought it was well done and I especially loved all the stage directions because I could picture the actors in my head as the play went on. I’m so glad I got to add this to my collection!
3. Speaking of Harry Potter
Kohl’s sends a $10 birthday gift to anyone in their email list and this year it also happened to be my 10 year anniversary of having a Kohl’s card so I got $10 Kohl’s cash for that as well. I couldn’t very well let $20 in free money go to waste so I spent far too much time agonizing over what to get. I was disappointed because everything I found wasn’t available for free shipping to the store. I didn’t want to pay crazy amounts of shipping for such a small purchase. My diligence paid off and I found a free shipping code and ended up paying about $6 after all the discounts came off for a new dress and this awesome shirt. I’m so excited to wear it!
4. This beautiful sunrise
I’ve been waking up before 5am on Thursday mornings for yoga in my P90X schedule and I love finishing just as the sun is coming up over the houses in our development. Our God is an amazing artist and paints the sky with breathtaking colors. It’s simplistic and complex all at the same time.
5. Apple picking!
We were a little early this year but we couldn’t pass up going to the orchard with extra hands to help wrangle the kids. We restrained ourselves and only picked three tote bags and made sure to find sweet apples that are good for eating as well as more tart apples for apple crisp and cider. Now I need to motivate and get them all peeled and ready!
The kids were AMAZING while we wandered in the orchard. The big boys tried climbing trees to reach apples and inspected each piece of fruit before placing it in their bags. Mercedes walked around with Grammy (Micah’s mom) and the little guys switched back and forth between the wagon and walking. They also ate at least a half dozen apples between them as they rode around between trees.
Where did you find joy this week? Anything exciting happen? Tell me about it below.
