Mid-February Faves

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that it is mid-February already and as of 2 pm today, I am officially on Winter Break from teaching.  One whole week off.   I'm super thankful for that....and for the fact that it is a paid holiday.  I'm blessed indeed. 

Speaking of blessings, it's time to share our FIVE FAVES from the past week....things, big or little, that brought smiles to our faces.  A bunch of us bloggers then link up together over at Susanne's site who hosts this "blessing ministry".

• OLD MOVIE:  I was working in the kitchen Saturday late afternoon when Dave turned on the cable tv in the family room (we rarely watch cable) and all of a sudden I heard "Moses" voice (Charlton Heston) say something about art.  I asked Dave what in the world he was watching and he told me the old classic movie about the making of the Sistine Chapel.  Well, I was immediately drawn in because we have been IN the Sistine Chapel when we took our youngest daughter to Rome in the summer of 2017.  In fact, she and I stood there surrounded by about 200 other tourists and had tears in our eyes. It's just spectacular. All the main parts of the Bible painted by Michelangelo.  (the character that Heston was playing).  Rex Harrison, a fave actor of ours, played the Pope.  It was a magnificent movie and I'm thankful I stopped cleaning to sit with Dave and watch it.

my fave white wine:  Reisling

• VALENTINE'S DINNER (EARLY):  Sunday evening, Dave and I went out for dinner and called it our "valentine's date" because yesterday, he had to leave early for  Plymouth County to check on his mom (his dad is currently in rehab) and then attend a weekend-long writers conference in Boston.  We really don't celebrate Valentine's in a big way now that we've been married for 28 years...we know we love each other and we don't need to spend a lot of money to prove it to each other. But we hadn't gone out to dinner in quite a while so we thought we'd do that. I was happy to have a day off from cooking and to just sit with a glass of my fave wine and some yummy pasta.  I'm thankful for this man I married.....and I'm thankful we had good conversation and food.

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• SNOW DAY:  Tuesday afternoon there was a major winter storm warning for our capital region of NYS and up into New England and across the Adirondack mountains.  Thankfully the school I work for called a "snow day" and cancelled school as many of our special needs preschoolers live over an hour away from the school and their districts were closing early.  So we decided to just not open at all.  It was a good call because by 11 .a.m. the snow was coming down fast and furious. My town ended up just getting about 3-4 inches so it wasn't too bad.  Yesterday was warmer again so some of it has started to melt again.  I enjoyed the day off and got some reading done, Bible study work done, housework.  Dave and Courtney both got home early from work and had to work from home for a couple hours in the late afternoon but by dinner the driveway was cleared and a layer of ice was forming from the sleet that was falling!  So the next morning (Wednesday), my school had a 2 hour delay.  I'm just thankful Dave and Courtney made it home from work safely on Tuesday evening and that I had a day off to catch up on some stuff. 

• NYC BALLET TICKETS!  The NYCBallet comes to our area every July.  They used to come for 2 weeks. Now they are down to just 4 nights.  But I managed to get great seats inside the amphitheater for the classical ballet, Coppelia.  If you don't know the story click here to read it.  It's my fave story ballet.  Claire of course loves it too and insisted we get inside seats.  The other evenings, we will get lawn tickets.  Since it's a 3 hour ballet, we figured real seats are better than lawn chairs.  We've seen Coppelia before so we are super excited to see it again. I'm thankful I got a special Valentine's discount too and it only took 3 days to get them in the mail once I placed my order! 

• FITNESS CLASS:  I took a fitness class this past week offered by our PT at work.  A few of the other teachers and staff were there too and what fun we had!  It was during our 30 minute break after the students leave but before our afternoon work/meetings. We just bring our work-out gear to change into after the kids are on the buses. It was a stretching/yoga/pilates class and it was loads of fun and a great work out. Our PT offers it 4 days a week so I think once winter break is over, I will do it 2 out of the 4 days.  I particularly am interested in the pilates and the weight work outs.  I'm thankful this is done right at work!

That wraps up my faves for the past week.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend doing the things you love best.