{Friday Five} 11-16-18

HERE ARE FIVE THINGS I’M THANKFUL FOR THIS WEEK.

 

{HOLIDAY SPIRIT}

Because of my husband’s random work schedule, we decided to take advantage of his days off this week to get our house ready for Christmas. He put up the outside lights and Sunnie and I decorated the inside. I just love our tree! We tossed around the idea of buying a smaller tree because of our kitten. We don’t want her to trash our nice tree that we’ve only had a year. Instead we decided to keep her out of the living room when we’re not home and at night. So far, she doesn’t seem to care much about it, but we’ve got a whole month for her to turn on us. 😀

I also decided to go the minimalist route and put up way less decor this year. I have my few favorite Santas, and a few cute things I got at Target last year, but the tree is the main focus.

 

{FAMILY TIME}

We surprised Sunnie with a night of bowling and had such a fun time. Now my husband wants to make family bowling a more regular thing. It’s a good winter activity and Sunnie loves it. Me…I’m a terrible bowler, and the bumpers help me out. 😉

 

{COZY FIRES}

We had fall weather for about 5 minutes and have jumped right into winter and cold and snow (ugh). One of the only things I enjoy about this weather is using our fireplace most evenings. It’s a cozy end to the day.

 

 {cOFFEE AND WINE}

It has been a long week and a half, as Sunnie has been fighting off allergies and a horrible cough that turned into a sinus infection. Many sleepless nights and playing musical beds had this momma chugging coffee all day and looking forward to that blessed glass of wine at night. 😀

 

{Weekend}

After having a rough week, I’m happy to see the weekend. I am working from home today and plan to do some cleaning and probably get a run in (on the treadmill…it’s way too cold and windy outside). My kitten is currently at the vet’s office getting spayed. Nunzio and I plan on having a chill night at home while I cuddle my kitty. Tomorrow we have a busy day at the dance studio – I’ll be there most of the day helping with a pie fundraiser and then our studio is in the local Christmas parade tomorrow evening. Thankfully on Sunday we don’t have any plans and will take advantage of a quiet day at home.

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

 

{Friday Five} 10-19-18

Here are 5 things giving me joy.

 

{Finally Fall}

We went from 80’s to 50’s in a matter of days. In Ohio, there’s no in between. But, I’m happy to see the arrival of fall and the death of all the annoying bugs. This is my favorite time of year to run outside, too.

Also, I thought it would be fun to do a little home tour of my fall/Halloween decor (thanks, Stephanie, for the idea). I like to keep things very minimal in my house, including my decorations, and I stick to just the living room and kitchen. Anything I don’t use I donate or let Sunnie use to decorate her bedroom.

Kitchen: I have a little wine station that I put out for Halloween and Christmas, because I only have Halloween and Christmas themed wine glasses. 😀 I also added a few cute fall mugs to my collection from Pottery Barn – they are on sale!

99% of my decor is from Target. Including everything seen in both of these pictures. I just got the gray pumpkins from the Target dollar bins this week. I was excited to find pumpkins that match my living room.

Again, all of the decor on the mantle, including the banner, is from Target. And it’s always from their dollar bins. I love my black skull and purple and black pumpkins. I don’t love the giant pumpkins on the floor, but we’ll be carving those soon. 😀

The Bottle of Boos I just got a few weekends ago when we went to a local pumpkin patch. I had to have it. The cute little Boo pillow is another Target bin find.

And that’s it! I decorate the most for Halloween. I’ll leave some of the pumpkins out for November, and I have a ‘Give Thanks’ banner (from Target…shocking) that I will hang on the mantle, but the rest of my decor is very minimal. Until Christmas. But I’ve even cut way back on my Christmas decorations, and I plan to get rid of a lot more of it this year.

 

{Husband’s Birthday}

Nunzio’s birthday was on Saturday, and even though he had to work the night shift, we tried to make the most of the day with him. Sunnie and I surprised him with his favorite cake and some new shirts and then we went out to dinner.

 

{Pumpkin Patch Fun}

Nunz and I took Sunnie and one of her best friends to the local pumpkin patch a few weekends back. It was before the weather changed drastically and was super hot out, but we still had fun. We went early to beat the crowd and the worst of the heat!

 

 {Career Day}

Sunnie asked me to come into the school last week for their career day and talk to her class about my job. I don’t have the most exciting job to talk about (Executive Administrative Assistant), but I won the kids over with strawberry scented pencils. 😉

 

{NKOTB}

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, but I’m a big NKOTB fan. I’ve been to almost all of their concerts in the past 10 years, since they started touring again. They announced their Mixtape Tour this week, and I’m going with several of my dance mom friends! It also happens to be the night of my birthday (May 4). Great birthday present!

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

 

{Friday Five} 9-21-18

Here are 5 things giving me joy this week.

 

{Family Time}

My husband had his days off work in the middle of the week, and when he’s home, we try to soak up as much fun and family time as we can. We spent one evening grilling out and having a fire, another evening we went out to dinner. And we started watching Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime. I’m loving it! I’ve never read a Tom Clancy book – should I?

 

{Top Read of 2018}

I’m going to go ahead and say that Daisy Jones & the Six is my favorite book of 2018. If you don’t have this book on your radar – go add it to your list right now. I finished it this week and can’t recommend it enough. And Taylor Jenkins Reid published a short story on Amazon this week, which I’m currently reading (and loving, of course).

 

{park Running}

It has been a busy couple of weeks at work, so most of my runs have been on the treadmill whenever I can make the time. I did fit in two park runs since Sunday – two very sweaty park runs. 😀 I don’t love running in the humidity. My favorite running temperatures are between 40 & 50 degrees, so I’m looking forward to next week (it’s finally cooling down in Ohio) and getting to the park as many times as I can.

 

 {My Little Cheerleader}

Sunnie got to cheer in the first quarter of the high school football game on Friday. She had a blast – it was so cute to see all the little girls out there. She wants to go to another game soon- she actually loves watching the game and the band (and the cheerleaders). It’s adorable.

 

{Goodbye, Summer}

I love summer, but I’m glad this weekend is going to be cooler with more fall-like temperatures. I’m looking forward to opening up the windows and airing out the house!

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

 

{Friday Five} 6-15-18

Here are 5 things giving me joy this week.

 

{Family Time}

It has been a busy week with work and adjusting to our new summer schedule. After my husband survived his first full week on his new job, we celebrated by going out for a late dinner at one of our favorite places. On Wednesday the whole family surprised my mother-in-law with a 60th birthday party. It’s been a good week full of family time!

 

{Weekend Fun}

Sunnie and I had a fun couple of days together last weekend. Going to the library so she could sign up for the summer reading program, painting our nails, watching a movie (The Greatest Showman, again). Not to mention all the time spent entertaining our new kitty, Mickey. She’s wild but she’s so sweet.

 

{Dinner with my Bestie}

Had a much needed dinner date with my best friend, Lisa, last night. I love when we can get together and catch up.

 

 {New Running Shoes}

Earlier this week, I talked about how I am trying to save money in my minimalism post, but that the one thing I won’t skimp on is running shoes. I was really happy to come home from work and have these sitting on my porch. The right pair of running shoes are SO important when you’re a runner!

 

{The Hunt for Epic Reads}

I used to be the type of reader who gives up on a book and never picks it up again. Some books I never have the desire to try again, most likely because I’ve outgrown whatever phase I was in at the time (Fifty Shades, anyone?). But there are other books that I set aside hoping that some day I’ll be in the right mood for it, usually because so many other readers have said it’s worth trying again.

Well, Beartown is one of those books. I picked it up over a year ago, and was not feeling it. I didn’t understand what all the hype was about at the time. But because so many people said it was fantastic, I figured it was just my mood and I’d try again some day. I picked it up this week, and I am so glad I did. There are some books that you read and the story will stay with you forever. This book is one of them. It was so fantastic. And now I’m on the hunt for other books similar to this one. Please let me know your recommendations!

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

 

{Friday Five} 6-8-18

Here are 5 things giving me joy this week.

 

{Summer Break}

We survived our first full week of summer break. I was fortunate to work from home a few days and spend a little extra time with Sunnie. This afternoon we’re meeting our friends at the park for a play date, and this weekend she has two birthday parties to attend. Busy girl!

This is also the first full week of my husband’s new job. He works 6 12-hour days and then has 3 days off in a row. By the time he gets home, he eats dinner and crashes. It’s going to take a few weeks for him to get used to this new schedule.

 

{Recital}

It feels like it has taken me a full week to recover from the busy 4 days we had of dance last weekend. Between rehearsals and 3 recitals – momma was exhausted. But it was all worth it to see my girl up on stage! Everything went well, and Sunnie had a blast. Now we’re going to enjoy a break from dance for a month before we start getting back into practices again.

 

{The Greatest Showman}

I don’t know why I waited so long to finally watch this movie, but I finally did this week. And I loved it, of course. And now I’m obsessed with the music and have been listening to it nonstop.

 

 {Dunkin’}

Without my large iced coffee (and sometimes egg and cheese wrap), I wouldn’t have gotten through the past week. 😀

 

{Stay the Path}

I ran 3 days in a row this week, and have plans to run tomorrow morning. I haven’t been back to my normal running routine since before I trained for the half marathon, and it feels great! I’m still dealing with some pain in my leg, but it’s not keeping me from running. It makes me so happy to get back on track.

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!