A Really Great Weekend

This was a really great weekend. 

But oh gosh. It started with a bang. I got a calendar reminder on my phone that the soccer game I thought was at 10:00 am was in fact at 9:00 am. So we all ran around like the crazy Home Alone scene and made it to the game on time. Barely, but we were there. 

Admittedly I was a little bit grumpy. I don't like mornings. Being late. Or cold weather soccer. 

But the game was good. M, who is normally on defense played offense for the 4th quarter. She got a few decent shots on goal, one that JUST missed and went outside the post and out of bounds. But the other team's goalie was pretty good. 

But then she SCORED A GOAL! And before they could even get set up to keep playing the whistle blew and the game was over! She scored a goal in the actual last seconds of the game. (They were already winning so it didn't change the outcome but it was still awesome.) M was absolutely just beaming. If I could bottle that joy I certainly would. 

It was a very very cool way to end the game and soccer season. Look at this team. They've been playing together for years and you can tell watching them. 

Even the other team's parents every week would comment on how they pass better and look for openings better than most of the teams they played. 

So from there, our day continued. We hit Sam's Club. (Which we joined this week with a special promotion. To be honest, Sam's Club gives me a rash but they have a delicious cookie cake that M wanted for her birthday next week. If there hadn't been a special, I wouldn't have joined. We still have our Costco membership too.) 

After Sam's, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I have been wanting to go there for a while. Turns out I am officially old and I just love Cracker Barrel. They always have food my kids will eat. (Pancakes, burgers and delicious hashbrown casserole.) I am total sucker for their meatloaf. 

And that gift shop? With giant Kit Kats? (And M.) Who doesn't love a room full of stuff you don't actually need but sometimes sparks a good idea?! 

Then we went to Michaels. We needed some Taylor Swift friendship bracelet supplies, C wanted to pick some yard for a scarf and we needed a few other things. We hit Saturday night Mass and snuggled in for a nice evening at home. 

We also prepared the fish tank because C decided that he was ready for a new Betta. He pre-named him Santiago. And because he is my kid, he labels the tank. Lol 

Our Sunday was a lazy day at home. And oh, how I needed it. I rested in a way that was good for my soul. Sleep and a lot of nothing was exactly what I needed. 

I watched the Vikings eek out a win over the Bears. Our antenna wasn't working for some reason. Husband really enjoyed holding it for me so I could watch. (He didn't actually.)

I rigged up our vacuum to do the job for us. It admittedly didn't work as well but I still got to see it. 

Santiago was officially brought home. I think they picked a good one. We had all talked about wanting a red betta so that it didn't look like we were replacing Waldo. He has been settling in quite well. 

Husband made me corn chowder for dinner and I was SO excited because I have been talking about corn chowder for weeks! 

We ended the night screen printing. Birthday shirt for my girl is getting ready to go. Bet you can't guess the theme she picked. :) 

And remember that yarn for C's scarf? 

It's almost done already! Yes, I gave both C and Husband grief for making a "Chicago Bears" scarf today. (It had nothing to do with that, they're just colors C likes!) But still, a cozy day of a lot of nothing meant that the scarf progressed to nearly finished. 

So it was a really great weekend, even though it doesn't look like a ton. No one was taking pictures of my nap. And I am so glad there's no photo evidence of that but also so glad to have had the weekend we did. 

Nothing to Show For It

This week was full and busy and I have nearly nothing to show for it. So here's a few things out of my photos. 

This made me laugh this week. And a bunch of my friends laugh. Maybe it will make you laugh?

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment too. 

Wednesday was our big monthly family night at church/school/parish. I took a picture of my girl by her desk. She wanted to show us the story the class wrote about her in Spanish. 

I never took Spanish but I think I figured out what it says. I genuinely don't take for granted that they start Spanish in kindergarten at our school. Many of our graduates skip directly to Spanish 2 in high school and that is such a great thing. 

Yesterday, I realized very late in the afternoon that one of the high school's Homecoming is this weekend and that meant their homecoming parade was yesterday. The parade begins and ends at the elementary school that is about 6 houses away from my house. So the neighborhood gets CRAZY and crowded. 

I was taking the kids to the theatre for rehearsal and then going home to wait for the carpool to bring the kids and we would go to soccer. But with the crowds, I decided to go home and grab all the soccer stuff and then just go and park at the theatre and kill time. So I went to the Mexican restaurant down the street.

I got to eat chips, drink a margarita, and read my book. I believe some people call that self-care. It was incredibly satisfying. A total win-win, since going home and trying to leave would have been a headache anyway. 

After we got M to soccer, C and I went on an EPIC adventure. We needed to go get a study guide from his desk. But we were thwarted many times. I did get to snap a picture of his artwork,

And we were in fact successful in getting the study guide which we specifically went to take a picture for his best friend who also forgot hers at school. Fingers crossed the science test goes well for them both. 

And today is Friday! And it's the weekend! Yay! 

Monday-like Tuesday

Yesterday wasn't a school day. So even though it's Tuesday it definitely feels like Monday. I didn't do much yesterday. I have a bit of a cold. Which makes sense. 

I spent the real weekend chasing ducks. 

Seriously.

These are my niece's ducks and they kept getting out of their makeshift pen. And then C and I would chase them until we could get them back in the pen. Have you ever tried to get ducks in a row? It's a cliche for a reason. It's hard. 

We spent the weekend at the farm. See all the cousins? 

I was not looking forward to this experience one bit. But my family was. And we brought friends with us for the first little bit. And that was a lot of fun. We picked a ton. We sorted.

We surprised Husband's grandma at Saturday night Mass. That was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. We didn't tell her we'd be in town. We got to Mass and sat down. She came in and didn't see us, so we switched pews to sit with her and the look on her face... it was awesome. 

That freed up Sunday morning to go to the fish hatchery. We remembered more quarters this time around. 

It was the closing weekend of the little ice cream shop in town. And we were able to partake. And I am glad. It was great! 

And now we are back at it with work and school. It got cold finally so last week we did the "make sure your pants fit" and then a Target run. Funny enough I had figured out uniform pants but hadn't done casual wear very well. 

Happy Tuesday! 

It's October!

So there's a Taylor Swift song where "August slipped away like a moment in time..." Except for me that month was September. I honestly don't know how it's possible it is actually October. 

I have fallen out of step with the writing and even visiting blogs but I am not going to give up now. I just need to rearrange some time to stop by and visit. I am sorry to the friends I have fallen behind on. I will be checking in these next few days!

So a quick recap of some of what we've done. We've practiced spelling words. We went to the back to school block party. 

Husband learned to crochet. 

My parents bought us a collapsable wagon for soccer. (And all the million other things I can picture us using it for.) 

M went to a birthday tea party. And looked quite fancy by my estimation. 

Husband finished his crochet project. 

The moon looked cool.

After a busy busy week filled with things where we were out of the house every evening, and Husband was out of town, I took the kids to Culver's for dinner after theatre and soccer on Thursday. 

Friday was school Mass and my guy likes to sit with me. 

Yesterday was Confirmation and though it was a busy day, it was full of the Holy Spirit and I am so very thankful that it went well. 

My parents were visiting this weekend, since Husband was out of town and they got to do a lot of fun things while I was at work. 

And weirdly, I was going through the box of stuff they gave me, and somehow this little gem stood the test of time. 

So that was funny. 

Anyway, October should be good! And potentially less busy!

Where Have I Been?

Oh friends. Where have I been? It has been an absolute CRAZY week over here. 

Let's start with last Wednesday? 

There was a ladies' night out for work. I went. It was fine, fun to see friends! 

Thursday was the first rehearsal for the kid's show this semester: Annie. I had to go to the parent meeting. The kid you don't recognize in the middle is my bonus kid. We drive her home every day. 

In the busy, I noticed this adorable little flower growing where it wanted to. Beauty is everywhere and God is good. 

That same night, M had her first soccer practice. (Yes this is a picture of tetherball. Just go with it.) I found out AT practice, that they extended it by 15 minutes this year so actually it goes until 7:00. 

I blame only myself for bending on the "one activity at a time" rule. But back to back activities is not working for me. 4 more weeks to go. 

Last Friday was a day. I don't know that I have anything to show for it. BUT last Saturday was the first soccer game. They won. 

And a special Mass, Adoration, and Healing Service. It was really great and I am so glad I went. 

Sunday was the Confirmation Retreat. I got to work at 6:30 am and left at 5:00 that night. It was a long day. But fruitful! 

Monday happened to be an in-service day and the kids had no school. Which was just fine by me. We tested the TikTok where Sprite with a splash of Coke tastes like ginger ale. I didn't believe that was true... but the internet was right. No discernable difference! 3/4 agree. And the holdout liked the Sprite/Coke better! 

On Tuesday we decided to get Crumble Cookies just to celebrate life and to love on the kids a bit. Because sometimes, that's fun to do. 

Wednesday our new couch was delivered!! It looks great, it smells great! I am so excited about it. 

Wednesday was also our first big night at church. We started a whole thing where everyone can come to Adoration, Mass, Dinner and Faith Formation Groups (separated by age). This is replacing our traditional RE. It really actually went well. 

But I did manage to break out in stress hives. This one on my neck doesn't look so bad because it was taken yesterday. But trust me. They were red. Itchy and oh so much fun.

Please enjoy this picture I took of a wall. Yesterday we were on our day-long staff retreat. At our Deacon's "cabin." 

For whatever reason the wall pattern was something I found interesting and soothing to look at. So I snapped a picture. 

It was a good retreat. And now it is Friday. It is another busy weekend but that's okay. I hope you've all been well. I am going to bop around and catch up with what you've all been doing!

A Long Weekend

We had a heck of a weekend. And I don't really have a ton to show for it. We spent our Labor Day weekend deep cleaning. 

It was a total "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie" situation. We decided to clean the carpet. So we moved all the things out of the living room. And then... cleaned the windows, and dusted, and cleaned the vents. 

Here we are watching the "Is It Cake?" finale, on my computer shoved onto the terrible couch on all the stuff that was in the playroom. 

Then after the kids went to sleep... we moved all the things from the playroom to the now clean living room and to get the deep scrub of the playroom taken care of. 

Sunday, after we got home from Mass we decided to tackle the porch. I took no pictures of that. The porch was disgusting. Half the size of the playroom and took almost the same amount of time. When you get down to empty rooms though... the satisfaction of them being clean is pretty nice! 

Here is a meme that made me laugh out loud. Maybe it's not as funny if you're not tired from two full days of cleaning. 

Monday, we figured, why not? So we got to work on the kitchen. We spent hours and hours decluttering, scrubbing, mopping etc. 

Here is a cute drawing M did. I took a picture so I could recycle it. 

Now kitchens, just from life and living get dirty. So we didn't completely completely finish it. There are still some walls that need scrubbing. But we absolutely made a HUGE dent. And it feels so much cleaner. 

Then we went to a pool party with friends to celebrate our hard work. And I took no pictures of that either. Perhaps this wasn't the most exciting weekend but gosh it's nice to look at the totally clean first floor and feel proud!