Our Week - The One with Two Special Lunches, Dinner with Old Coworkers, Poker Night, and Sunday on the River Walk

Last week was a bit less busy compared to previous weeks, and it was nice to have some downtime. 

Monday, February 26

Monday morning, I got the kids to school, I swung by our favorite local donut shop to pick up goodies to bring to Olivia’s class at lunch for her birthday, and then I headed to my semi-annual checkup at the allergist.  I have to see him twice a year since I have asthma and terrible allergies.

After that, I headed straight home to work, and by work, I mean I had to manually pull all of the pictures and videos off of my phone and email them to myself one by one.  Sigh.  I had issues all day and spent the day alternating between that and doing laundry.

At lunch, I went to the kids’ school to sit with Olivia, and after the kids were done eating, the whole cafeteria sang to her and I passed out the donuts.  I know once she’s in middle school I probably won’t be doing this much anymore, so I’m enjoying it while I can!  I can’t believe we only have one more year of her being in the lower school.  :o(

I made it back home just in time to work for another hour, and then I had to go right back to the school to pick up the kids. 

We had a free evening on Monday, and it was glorious!  When we got home, I did my Bible study, and right as I was wrapping that up, Jacob’s music school called to let us know that he’d been accepted into the honors recital!  Woo hoooo!  (He had tried out last week in case you missed that.)

After my Bible study, I headed downstairs to get dinner in the oven, and then I headed out for a run.  It’s nice when Brian works from home because I can do stuff like that and not worry about burning the house down while I’m gone.  Haha.  And while I was gone, the kids played outside because it was glorious on Monday!

After my run, we all sat down to eat a super early dinner because Brian had a tennis match that evening.  Monday, I did one pan sausage and veggies because we needed aaaallll the veggies after aaaallll the birthday desserts we’d had the last week!

After dinner, Brian headed to his tennis match, and the kids and I took Maui for a walk around the neighborhood.  We didn’t want to waste that beautiful weather.

When we got home, Olivia started on her paint my numbers kit that she’d gotten for her birthday, Jacob watched some YouTube videos, and I got showered and in my PJs.  Then while the kids showered and got ready for bed, I got caught up on some of the things that hadn’t gotten done during the day since I was fighting with my computer.

When B got home, we got the kids in the bed, and then we spent the rest of the evening watching American Idol while I continued to catch up on stuff I had neglected all day.  Spoiler alert, I still didn’t get everything checked off the list, though.  OH well!

Tuesday, February 27

Tuesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to work.  Mid-morning, I had an appointment with my therapist, and then I swung by Target to return a couple of things.  The rest of the day was spent working on blog stuff until I had to get the kids, and then after school, I did my Bible study while the kids did homework.

Jacob and I drove Olivia over to dance at 5, and then we headed back home.  Jacob did some computer time while I got in a stair stepper workout, and then I put a lot of the laundry away. 

We made breakfast for dinner – eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, toast – when Brian and Olivia got home from dance, and then, I worked on my medical and health spreadsheet while Olivia got ready for bed.

Tuesday is our late night, so by the time she was showered, it was time for them to get in bed, and then Brian and I finished the week’s episode of American Idol and started The Bachelor.  It was just a very basic Tuesday!

Wednesday, February 28

Wednesday, I had no place to be, so I settled in and worked all day after I dropped the kids at school.  After school, we dropped Olivia at dance, and then Jacob and I headed home.  He got his homework done and did some computer time, and I did my Bible study.

I headed to a local Mexican restaurant at 5:30 to grab a table for a dinner I’d organized for my old coworkers.  They all arrived right after I did, and we had the best time chatting and catching up for the next few hours over margs and dinner.  I started working at that corporate job waaaayyyy back in 2004 which means that I’ve known some of these people for TWENTY YEARS, y’all.  Goodness, where has the time gone?! 

I do see most of them for lunch from time-to-time, but I hadn’t seen a couple of them since our last dinner which was just over a year ago.  I’m so grateful for that job for bringing us all together, and I’m even more grateful that we’ve all kept in touch all these years even though most of us no longer work there.

When I got home, Brian and the kids were watching Disney ride videos on YouTube, so I got in my PJs and watched with them until it was time for the kids to get in the bed. 

After they went to bed, B and I finished The Bachelor from this week, and then we headed to bed, too.

Thursday, February 29

Thursday, I spent the whole morning working on blog stuff, and then at noon, I headed out for a special lunch date.  We had a wonderful group of friars at our church several years ago who we all adored and grew close with, and then they all had to move on to different assignments in 2022.  We have missed them dearly ever since, but thankfully, we still get to see our beloved Father Manny every now and then as he comes back to visit a couple of times per year. 

My momma and I had a lunch date with him at one of our favorite local restaurants in midtown at noon, and it was so wonderful catching up with him for a couple of hours.  He is just the kindest, happiest, most interesting human, and I’m so grateful to know him.  It was such a treat to be able to spend the afternoon with him and my momma on Thursday and it just made my whole week!

By the time we finished up and said our goodbyes, it was time for me to get in the car line to pick up the kiddos, and then we headed straight to music lessons.  Olivia’s voice lesson had been rescheduled since her teacher was out of town, so I ended up sitting with her in the main room instead of going back with Jacob to his lesson.

Olivia made bracelets on her new rainbow loom she got for Christmas.  She has been making them for everyone she sees since she got the thing!  Jacob’s teacher, Mr. Jarret, picked out his colors, and she made one for him during Jacob’s lesson.  :o) 

During his lesson, another teacher at the school, Mr. Steve came out to chat about the honors recital tryouts that Jacob had attended the previous weekend, and he started the conversation by saying, “I had no idea Jacob could play the piano that well.  He walked in and started playing and he blew us all away.”  He was one of the judges for it, and he proceeded to gush about Jacob’s natural, God-given talent for playing.  He was still gushing about it when Jacob and his teacher came out of their lesson, and Mr. Steve and Mr. Jarrett both agreed that it’s not typical for someone to be able to play as well as Jacob does after only 1.5 years of lessons. 

I don’t take lessons and have never taken lessons, nor do I know how to read music, so I have no idea what the typical pace is for learning, so I can only go by what I’m told.  And based on everything all of his teachers have always told me, he has the gift of music.  All of the women on my paternal grandfather’s side of the family played the piano/read music their whole lives, so it’s in his DNA, I guess.  :o)

And I’m sure it also makes a huge difference that he had an amazing first teacher.  We are forever grateful for Mr. Joseph for pouring into him during his first year of lessons and giving him a great foundation as well as a love of learning to play.  I know he had so much to do with Jacob’s success because Jacob just adored him.  And Mr. Jarrett, his new teacher, has continued to be amazing.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many teachers at school and extracurricular activities who care as much about the happiness and well-being of our kiddos as we do. 

We did find out Thursday that they decided to change the Honors Recital this year, and instead of being recorded (and not in front of a live audience like in previous years), it will, in fact, be in front of a live audience.  Jacob has skipped all previous recitals because he doesn’t like to get up in front of people, so he’s a bit apprehensive about doing this one now.  However, since this one is so special (he was one of only ten kids in the entire music school to be accepted… and that’s across all instruments – piano, guitar, violin, and voice), he is considering doing it. 

We are trying to encourage him to step outside his comfort zone and give it a try since it’ll be a small audience, but I told him we will be absolutely supportive of his decision should he decide he doesn’t feel comfortable with it.  So far, he is leaning towards doing it, and I’m hoping he sticks with it, but we’ll see!

After piano lessons, we headed home.  The kids worked on homework while I did my Bible study, and then I got started cooking dinner – beef and parmesan pasta with zucchini and garlic cheese bread.  When Brian got home from work, we all sat down and ate together, and then afterward we got the kitchen cleaned up.

I got in a mixed cardio/arms workout while the kids got showered and ready for bed, and then Olivia and I shopped for Taylor Swift pajamas online since she wanted to buy some with her own money.

After the kids were ready for bed, we watched trailers for several movies so we could try to find something to watch next, and then they headed to bed.  B and I watched another episode of Behind Her Eyes (SO good) and then we called it a night.

Friday, March 1

Friday, I dropped the kids at school and headed home to work on blog stuff all day.  It was cold and it rained all.day.long, so it was the perfect day to stay indoors. 

After school, the kids put away all of their stuff from the week, and then I let them have some computer time while I did my Bible study.

Friday evening was poker night with our monthly group, and it was Jeannine and James’s turn to host.  We headed to their house at 5, and then spent the rest of the evening there eating pizza, drinking beer, and playing cards while the kids ran around and played.  We’ve had these monthly poker nights going for nearly a year and a half now, and our whole family looks forward to them so much!!

We got home a little before 9, and then after the kids were in the bed, B and I finished the series Behind Her Eyes.  Y’ALL.  I could not believe how it ended.  It was wild… a brilliant ending to a series that I’ll never forget, and I have a feeling I’ll think about it often.  Haha.  If you haven’t already seen it, we highly, highly recommend it.  Just know going in that there are spicy parts.  It’s worth the watch, though.

Saturday, March 2

Saturday, we all slept in – yessss! – and then I made homemade waffles for breakfast.  After that, the kids watched cartoons for a bit while I sipped some hot tea and caught up on life stuff in my office.  Olivia also worked on a new craft that my mother-in-law had dropped off for her (a late birthday present).  Then, the kids did their Saturday chores like laundry, scrubbing their bathroom countertop, cleaning the toilet, tidying, etc.  While they did that, I got in a mixed cardio workout, and I tidied and tackled various house chores as well.

After lunch, the kids played outside for a bit since the rain had finally stopped, and I finally took the time to clean out the front sitting room and the living room.  Those are relatively easy rooms to clean.  The front room has all of the games and puzzles, so it took a bit to go through.  Olivia had just received a couple of new games and puzzles for her birthday, but I realized that we had moved Jacob’s old nightstand in there a couple of years ago, and the drawers were still empty.  So, I rearranged a few things and I got all of the smaller puzzles stored in that, which made room for the new games and puzzles in the big cabinet.  I also found a giant stash of paper airplanes that the kids had been hoarding and hiding behind one of the chairs in the front sitting room.  Haha.  So random. 

After that, I rearranged a couple of things in the living room for functionality, and then I handwashed some new serving platters and storage bins that my mother-in-law had let me take since she was getting rid of them.  She just happened to be getting rid of some storage containers that are identical to the ones I have for flour and sugar in our pantry, so I took a few, and now I’ll have matching ones for our brown sugar, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips.

After that was done, the kids came inside and got showered, and then they settled in for some video games while I got a couple of things done in my office.  Then it was time to get ready for 5:30 Mass.

After Mass, we went out for Mexican with our usual crew – my parents, my Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg, Uncle Billy, and Mama Cass – and then we swung by DQ for Blizzards.  When we got home, we started the new version of The Haunted Mansion, but it was way too late to watch the whole thing, so we watched about half and then got the kids in the bed.  B and I started a new show called Pieces of Her.  So far, it’s okay, but I wouldn’t say it’s fantastic or anything.

 

Sunday, March 3

Sunday morning was cinnamon rolls with the fam for breakfast and then yoga and an excellent sermon – one of the best I’ve heard in a while – for me.  I also spent some time planning the week ahead as I always do. 

After that, we all got ready for the day, and since my mother-in-law and step-father-in-law weren’t cooking Sunday lunch, we had a free day.  We headed downtown to eat a place that we love that has a mix of different cuisines, but apparently they have started closing on Sundays, so we had to make the last-minute switch to the little French boulangerie that we love so much.

They have the best croissants, so their ham and cheese croissant is what I get every single time, and of course, after lunch, the kids had to get macarons – lavender for Olivia, and lemon for Jacob. 

Since it was 70 degrees on Sunday, we decided to head down to the River Walk after that.  It was pretty gloomy all day, but I was happy for the fresh air and the warmer temp.  We finally got to see the finished mural that was done down there, and we ended up walking over two miles before calling it quits.  The kids had brought their scooters along, so they enjoyed being able to ride those for a long stretch rather than just in the driveway like they usually do.  We also found a painted rock!

After our walk, we headed home, and I spent the rest of the afternoon working in my office while the kids played video games.  Brian had a tennis match, and he made it home just in time to head to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner.

 

Momma cooked the most delicious crockpot lasagna with salad and bread, and then caramel spice cake for dessert (OMG, so good).  I ate way too much, as usual… I even went back for seconds on the cake because caramel is one of my weaknesses. 

After dinner, I spent some time with my Daddy in his studio.  He’s an artist, so he has a studio full of artwork that he’s done over the decades, and he showed me a few new pieces he’s been working on. 

When we got home, the kids went to bed, and then B and I watched another episode of Pieces of Her before going to bed.  And that was our week!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!