valentines faves

How is it mid-February already?  Seriously, this school year is moving so fast!  All of the schools will be on Winter Break as of today at 3 pm ( for where I teach, it is as of 2 pm!)  And in just a couple of weeks more, our youngest girl will be home from UNH for her Spring Break! It's crazy!

Let's take a pause and look for the blessings in all this busyness.....I do this by sharing FIVE of them that were my FAVES this past week and then link up at Susanne's site to join in with other like-minded bloggers.

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day!!

FIVE FAVES

Courtney and I
8 February

• MOM-DAUGHTER TIME! Courtney had to run to Albany, to the mall, first thing Saturday morning to pick up her new phone from Apple.  I had to exchange a pair of jeans from the Gap which was just a few doors down.  We did our errands and then met up at another store to shop for my niece's birthday.  After that, we shared a delicious hot pretzel from PretzelMaker.  Oh my it was amazing!  The really cool thing? She offered to drive her own car so I got to be a passenger for once! When we got home we realized we had both dressed in green so Courtney said "let's do a selfie!" It's becoming rare these days to have photos with my oldest girl. It made me happy.  I'm thankful for our morning time together.  

• LIP SCRUB!  Oh my goodness.  I have never owned a lip scrub and now I am obsessed with this one!  I had to run to Lush on Saturday while at the mall because that's where I wanted to buy my niece a gift card for her upcoming birthday.  I also bought some soap for my youngest daughter to stick in her Easter basket. (Yes, I buy ahead of time!).  Well, the store was featuring these lip scrubs for Valentine's Day and this one was my fave.  It's cherry-lime and once you put it on, you can actually lick the access off.  It's amazingly delicious and leaves my lips so soft!  I'm thankful for this company.  They're amazing.

• SWEATERS!  I'm super thankful for cozy, warm sweaters.  I have many varieties: fleece, wool (for hiking), cotton-ramie, and organic cotton.  I also see that cardigans are trendy again for 2020.  YAY!  I've worn some type of sweater every day this week because although our temps are in the mid-30s and not super cold, it's dismal and grey and that late winter damp feeling.  

• MUG AND MUFFIN NIGHT!  Wednesday evening, the small group that I lead had our mug and muffin night. I got this idea from Susan.  There were 6 of us because 1 woman was away on a ski trip and the other 2 were ill.  We each brought our fave mug for a hot drink (all 6 of us opted for herbal tea) and a half dozen muffins to sample.  A couple of women opted to bring something different (chocolate dipped pineapple, scones, homemade brownies). My contribution, besides the variety of teas, was homemade pumpkin-dark chocolate chip muffins.  Everyone had fun grabbing a heart-shaped plate and filling it with little samples of the goodies.  It was also fun to have a snack with our discussion as usually we just have hot or cold drinks.  I'm very thankful to be leading this great group of women.

looking out my bedroom windows at about 6:50 a.m.
13 February

• HUSBAND'S STRENGTH:  We had another two hour delay (we had one last Thursday as well!!) due to freezing rain mixed with snow.  We only received about an inch of the white stuff but it was heavy and sloppy.  I'm so thankful my husband goes out to shovel out what the plow left behind along the driveway...and he always scrapes the driveway to make it safe to walk on.  Because of the pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder pain, I haven't been able to help him much this winter. (although praise God, the pain is really starting to fade!) I'm just so thankful for my husband's strength...and he does this all before needing to leave for work his normal time because his software company does NOT have snow days nor work delays.  

That wraps up my faves.

I hope you have sweet plans with your significant other tonight for Valentine's Day.  

God bless you this weekend!!