Friday Fave Five...February 22 Edition

Living to Tell the Story

Five of my favorite things from the past week...

1.  A new end table.  At Christmastime when it's time to put up the tree, we always rearrange the living room a bit.  We have a nice chest/table that we move to another spot and after enjoying having it there a lot this year we decided it would be nice to permanently have a table there.  After a lot of looking around, I found one I really like.  As a bonus it has a decent amount of storage, something we can always use.  It felt a little decadent to just spend the money without a huge amount of thinking about it, but I had a coupon code that more than covered shipping so obviously it was meant to be.  (kidding)  (not)  Anyhow, unfortunately, it can't ship until April 8, but that's all right, my birthday's April 16 so that just helps me justify it even more.  It's so pretty!  I can't wait until it's here, I hope I like it as well in person as in the picture, it does make me a tad nervous to buy something like that without seeing it first.  Faith.

2.  Mark's been working from home a lot.  At first it was because he was terribly sick and he needed to work from home around resting and trying to feel better.  Now he's doing it because it's difficult for him to get anything done at the office and he has some major projects (Yay!) to work on and needs less interruptions.  Even though he's away from me in the house, it's a nice, cozy feeling just knowing he's here.

3.  Lands' End.  There are certain things I absolutely love Lands' End for.  Swimming suits for my kids, definitely.  This week I was able to order J&J swimming suits at 30% off, free shipping, 3% rebate (from shopathome.com) and best of all, the suits fit them.  My kids can be challenging to buy clothes for.  Cheap suits from Target aren't going to cut it.  The just don't fit right, or if they do at the beginning they don't after a couple of washes, and the material doesn't hold up either.  Julianna, especially, because she loves to wear two-pieces and I understand they're much more comfortable.  Still, I want her covered and it can be hard to find modest two piece suits in her size.  uch as I like for them to wear things that look nice and fit them, it can be expensive!  Finding suits 30% off that look nice, won't ride up or shrink up or pill up, awesome.

4.  Valentine's presents.  Mark and I are not big on giving each other gifts, it just doesn't usually happen.  It was so fun this year when he surprised me with flowers and my favorite chocolates for Valentine's Day.  As nice as the actual gifts were, it was even nicer that he took the time to make it happen, took the effort to have it be a surprise, had it hidden and ready for me.  I was so shocked.  Very, very pleasantly so.  It made me feel all the things a good gift should and was very much appreciated.

5.  Music.  Jacob plays the piano and the alto sax.  Julianna plays the piano.  I so enjoy their practice time.  They've both reached the point where their music gets more and more interesting (enjoyable) and I love having it in the background as I make dinner or catch up on odds and ends.   (There are those times when all I hear is the whining and gnashing of teeth about how "they just can't get it" and "it sounds awful", but this is a favorite things post so we won't go there.)

Hope you're having a good week.  Enjoy the weekend.  I almost forgot my absolute most favorite thing from this week:  SNOW DAYS!  I work for teachers so when there's a snow day I get a day off too.  Heaven!  Especially today because I've finally succumbed to the illness that's been going around my family and the kids I watch and it's been awesome to have a day to truly relax and do precious little.  Woot!