This weekend

Although the office where I work doesn't open until 10, my weekdays start at 6:30. I get up early enough to make coffee, start breakfast, and put together lunch for James before I wake him up at 7. Throughout the week, I cook a lot of meals and I love everything that I do for my family. I am blessed to have the life that I have. I've heard that moms don't get time off, even weekends and vacations... but this was one of those wonderful, vacation-feel weekends, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

A warning: This blog post is probably boring to anyone who isn't my mom, my mother-in-law, or me in four years, but I wanted to share my weekend with the three of us so we can all be grateful at how fortunate I am.

Saturday morning, James got up early because his brain had turned on and wouldn't stop, so he fed the cats and I got to sleep in until 9:00. I got up,we all had awesome new cereals I'd bought at Trader Joe's on Friday, and then had a leisurely time getting going.

At a little bit before 11, we went to Central Market for their chocolate festival. There was a Valentine's event for kids (and grown-ups, actually; they had a grown-up card-making table) on the patio, so the actual store wasn't very busy. We walked around and got to sample Vosges bars (I had been curious about the green tea matcha), couverture chocolate, "The Other Macaroon," salted caramel hot chocolate (with marshmallows), two or three other different bars, some date-based sugar-free cocoa macaroon things, etc. Behind the hot chocolate sample table they had some health and beauty items, so I picked up chocolate shampoo and conditioner.

They also had sushi, hummus dips, and some wines, also... but while James enjoyed that, I had only room for chocolate.

After sampling and purchasing a few items, we went next door to Zinger Hardware, which is a fun store to browse, even if you're not planning on buying anything. We did end up getting a few things, but had a good time testing the wind chimes and laughing at some things that people spend money on. James and I had been to Zinger when he first moved into town, but this was Daphne's first trip.

It was almost time for Daphne to go see a friend of hers, so we dropped James back off at home and headed up toward Cedar Park. Although D and I had felt pretty full after the samples, we realized we were hungry for food food, so drove through a Jack in the Box where Daphne got a deli melt and I got their sweet potato fries. It was a gorgeous day, so we sat in the car and ate. I love those opportunities just to hang out and talk to her. When we're home, very often I'm working, or she's doing school, or she's on the computer. So having a good half hour just to listen to her was a treat.

Every other time I drop D off at her friend's, I'm rushing back to work. So Saturday, I went in and visited with her friend's mom for an hour or so. It was nice to catch up.

When I got home, James helped me prepare some stuff to juice, and we made a beautiful carrot grape pear juice. I used about half of it to fill four Popsicle molds we'd bought at Zinger. Then we went out on the front porch and played Scrabble outside, taking advantage of the warmest day in weeks.

By the time we were finishing that up, Daphne was home. I had a pizza shop for dinner, then James and I watched a movie while Daphne role-played with friends online.

Sunday morning, Rudy started bugging me about breakfast at 6:30, so I got up and shut the door so that James could sleep in. I had the computer for the a/v display at church, and needed to get it to the building two hours before service started, so I packed everything up and rode my bike.

It was 46 degrees and very foggy when I left the house. I was wearing a waffle shirt, hoodie, coat, gloves, scarf, ear band, leggings, shorts, shoes, and socks. By the time I got to the church building (AKA Elk's Lodge), the fog was burning off and I'd worked up a sweat... that hill on Dawson is a butt-kicker (for me). And, no, for those of you familiar with the property, I do not try to bike up the driveway. I walk it.

Handed off the computer, and replaced it in the backpack with my coat, scarf, and gloves. I kept the ear band on and occasionally wished I'd kept the gloves, but not enough to stop riding and access my backpack. I'm sort of lazy like that.

By the time I got home, it was sunny, though still pretty chilly, but I wasn't cold at all. Daphne was up, so we chatted for a bit before I took a shower and used the chocolate shampoo and conditioner (review coming on the other blog soon). Since I still had so much time to kill, I pulled all of the hair spray, razors, tooth brushes, facial cleanser, etc. that are on the top shelf of our open-air medicine cabinet, rinsed them all off (we don't use a lot of that stuff, but have nowhere else to store it), and wiped down the shelf. Then I did the middle one, which has my curling irons, hair dryer, etc. And the bottom one, which has my curlers, the spare toilet paper caddy, and my "jewelry" (which I practically never wear). I ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff, and my allergies feel better, if just through the power of suggestion.

I also had time to do one load of laundry and sweep the entire house before we had to go. Then after church, Daphne and I came home to get James and we all went out to lunch at Red's Porch, thanks to a gift certificate Khrys and Mei Li had gotten James for his birthday. It was good, and the restaurant was fun, and it was so much food we all brought home left-overs. We'd started out sitting inside because there was a wait for the patio, but half way through our meal, they opened all of the garage doors and we were outside, too! We got to watch some of the winter Olympics, too.

After lunch, James and I walked to the library as I had a couple of things to pick up... actually, I thought one of my held items had been returned to stock, in which case I would owe the library $1, but I guess because of the "ice" closures, they'd left the pick-ups out past the deadline. It was very warm on our walk, and by the time we got back, I was ready for a nap. I got to lounge for a couple of hours, then we all had left-overs for dinner and did our own things until bedtime.

So, basically, this was the perfect stay-home-and-enjoy-the-weekend.

When I got up this morning at 6:30, I was ready to go. It helped to know that I had a delicious glass of carrot grape pear juice waiting for me in the refrigerator.