This Lovely Thursday

Thursday was a day that I could easily see mayhem and destruction. However, I have chosen to see the loveliness of the day instead.

It was our last day of Classical Conversations which held in it nervous jitters about the kids blue book exams, large pieces of paper to go with them to class to identify every teeny bit of the whole big world, costumes for speeches, snacks, gifts, the works. It was a lot to send with them for the day and fortunately we made it through without any crying and with only a minimal amount of yelling. I love in the midst of family squabbles, simply sitting there quietly interjecting “our therapist says there’s no yelling”. I feel I am adding to the situation in a valuable way. Maybe not but they can’t say I didn’t remind them. ha

I had to record the adorableness of this teacher gift we found for Cal’s teacher. One, I LOVE Dabney Lee products. And two, I am such a sucker for gifts with cute packaging. This was amazing! Or the bomb…eh? Eh?

In the morning I had coffee in my lovely rifle paper mug. This mug and my scissors in this post match perfectly in case you were interested. I said to Nick in the morning “I just wish I could drink coffee all day long” because I just love waking up to that hot creamy drink in a fun cup. If you missed my post on my instagram cup, then you missed me talking about how this cup reminds me of God’s faithfulness. In the winter I went to the Anthro in Chicago, loved these mugs but they were out of “L”s. Sad face, sad face. I was in the Goodwill a bit later and found this cup. The exact one I had wanted so bad. And it was just this one, not a bunch of letters or something, nope, just this one. So incredible.

After dropping the kids off, Nick and I proceeded to have a day to ourselves where we ran all over God’s creation running errands. How fun.

First we had plans to drop our little red car off at the service station for new tires. This car was my Grandma Jean’s car so it is near and dear to my heart. Such a sweet little car. Such a sweet little car that had a dead battery. So we got to charge that puppy…and nothing. Dead as a doornail. So we went to the next errand…estate sales!

We first went to an estate sale in a neighboring town. I was on the hunt for a bird bath and the photos showed the lady had 8 of them. That’s a lot of bird bath maintaining was all I could think. The prices were super duper high but I managed to find some cute stuff. The weird thing was that the people who lived there were in the house during the estate sale. This happens from time to time at estate sales but rifling through peoples drawers in front of them never really sits right with me

We then went to another estate sale where again the lady was there who owned the house but she was super kind and practically giving the things away. It had a totally different vibe than the first one. We found some really great vintage books and everyone knows how happy vintage books make my heart.

Then after the estate sales Nick and I had a business meeting. We went out to lunch to go over our monthly budget and to talk big picture finances. I really appreciate doing this because it gets us on the same page. I have always paid the bills and managed our budget by myself. It is just my business-minded personality vs. Nick’s laid back spirit. We’ve tried a few times for him to take the bill responsibility over and for one reason or another it never works out. We are really working on doing it together so everyone is on the same page and I’ve been enjoying it. We both have a clear picture of our finances and what we are working on savings for.

After our lunch meeting we had to take my car in to be serviced. While the idea was that we were dropping it off, they were able to find and fix the problem before we could even hand over the keys. We went to Discount Tire and I could not recommend them enough. They were fast, courteous, and helpful.

Since we thought we were dropping off, Nick and I each drove. Since it was the last day of school for the kids (school at CC) Nick went to Aldi to pick up pizza and I went to fetch the kids from CC. We stopped at Starbucks on the way home for an end of year celebratory drink. I am still loving their brown sugar oatmilk jobby. Whatever kind of drink that is, I like it.

At home we then began our normal schedule of kids relaxing before all of the night time activities, getting dinner ready, and then getting the kids to their evening activities. I do have to tell you that Nick brought me these right before dinner that he had picked up at Aldi. Have you seen these? They’re quarter holders. The last time they had these was in 2017. I still have mine from then but have had so many friends ask where I got it from that I had been looking for these so I could give them to friends…and he found some! He’s amazingly thoughtful…sometimes. So thankful he grabbed these for me. <3

With pizza we all decided to sit in the living room and watch a program. Which still feels naughty because I always used to make the kids eat at the dining room table. But having teenagers is about bending the rules and meeting the kids where they need me to meet them so we do what we have to do. We’re all currently working our way through “The Office” together. It’s nice to finally be watching a program that we all like rather than having to endure Caillou or Backyardigans. It’s taken years to get to this place.

I’ve got to admit that for the rest of the evening we seriously got our chill on. It was so nice to veg on the couch. I think we’re all ready for a bit of a break (we start our new school program Monday, so not a long break!). And good news…Emma’s birthday is Sunday! Can’t wait to celebrate our sweet, sweet girl for her sweet sixteen!

Hope you had a lovely Thursdays, lovelies. I hope if you’re reading this that you know you are loved and blessed beyond measure. Look for the good in each day.