It's Friday and I've had the whole week off from teaching due to Winter Break. It's been relaxing with some productive times, too, and some fitness times as well. Today I'm linking up at Susanne's with other people who look for FIVE FAVE blessings that occurred during the past week. How about joining in?
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| my fave color rose |
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| Valentine's Day treats |
- VALENTINE'S DAY! Sunday was so nice. Dave and I had breakfast together; I did the grocery shopping early and we watched church online as we didn't feel like getting dressed up. At lunch time, we exchanged little gifts...we never buy extravagant gifts for this day mainly because it seems like we just had Christmas and that's a huge gift holiday for us. I ordered Dave special truffles from a chocolate factory in the mountains where I hike. You can check out their products here. They make the best chocolates and some of it is vegan! I buy their candy bars for hiking. Dave got a beautiful rose in my fave color (he actually gave it to me Sat) and Courtney bought me a wonderful card with a handwritten message inside. Claire called us from UNH. She received her package with treats last week and we bought Courtney a cute pillow (see photo below) and her fave chocolates. We ordered food from our fave local diner and watched a romantic comedy together (Courtney had online streaming with friends so declined the movie). I'm thankful we had a nice day sharing our love.
I couldn't resist this pillow for my oldest girl
as she has a thing for naps
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| a doe outside our family room! |
- EARLY MORNING VISITOR: Monday morning I was up by 6:30. (about an hour later than a work day). Dave was in the shower; I had just poured a cup of coffee when I spied out of the kitchen window, a beautiful doe. She literally stared at me for about 3 minutes and then gently walked further up the neighbor's yard. I went to the family room with my iphone and snapped a pic through the window as I knew if I opened the deck door she would bolt. The yard behind us is surrounded by fencing due to them having 2 dogs so she must have jumped the fence from the other side of the road where there are some woods. We used to have woods behind us until about 2004 when someone bought the land and took down all the trees to put in his yard/house. I'm thankful I saw this early morning visitor because I've been missing my dad lately and he just loved deer.
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| These checks are trendy again! |
- DECORATING: I've been on a "put away most of the winter decor" kick but it's funny.....on Monday I finally got out our winter drapes for the family room sliding glass door. I haven't put them up in many years as they went out of style.....but checks are back in a huge way so even though they should have gone up in December, I finally hung them and then gave the family room a good cleaning. The cupboard is where we have our flat-screen tv, the bluray player and Courtney keeps her apple tv thingy there. The bottom holds our stereo system. We hardly ever use it since we just hook up our playlist to the little speaker via the laptop my husband keeps under the coffee table. I put away most of the winter decor, kept the Valentine's decor up and bought some new little shamrock decor for the month of March. I also mopped floors, cleaned the living and dining rooms and re-arranged the kitchen cupboards and counter spaces. I'm thankful to have this week off and get little projects done around the house.
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| bike path/walking trail Lion's Park, Niskayuna |
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| this path is part of the Empire State Trail system.. that's the frozen Erie Canal that goes from Albany across the state to Buffalo which is about a 4.5 hour drive. Yes, NYS is big! |
- OUTDOOR WALKS! I've been blessed this week with 2 days of walking outdoors. I've been a bit lazy...my walks haven't really been power walks...more like quick walks to burn calories and try to stay warm but not very long...only a mile per walk. (just too darn cold!!). Wednesday was glorious so I headed out of my neighbrohood to the next town over and walked the bike path there. There were many joggers and walkers out so I wore my mask as the path was crowded at one end. I love the bright blue sky with the white snow. The only wildlife I saw were many different kinds of birds: nuthatches, blue jays, crows, wrens, black-capped chickadees and a hawk. I'm thankful for late winter walks.
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| image courtesy of Amaz*n |
- RELAXATION: I've been most thankful for being able to slow down this past week. Winter Break is not my favorite time of year as I truly think it's a waste of a week.....I'd rather the students just kept right on going and either give us 2 weeks off in the spring or an extra week in the summer. But since we don't have control over the school calendar, I've made relaxing a big part of my week off. Time to do extra reading, extra studying the Scriptures, extra Netflix viewing. I started and finished Season 1 of Firefly Lane. It's excellent! (if you're a Kristen Hannah fan and read the novel, you will love the series). I've also watched a few more episodes of Last Tango in Halifax and am now on Season 4. I have a couple movies I may watch tomorrow and Saturday with my husband, too. I'm thankful for times to relax and refresh!
That wraps up my week!
Tomorrow I have plans to do a group event with some good hiking friends: women who want to start doing fitness walking together and I'm the coordinator! We are heading to a trail in a nature preserve just across the river to the north of where most of us live. I'm excited about getting outdoors in nature again!
Whatever you have planned for the weekend, I hope you are healthy and safe!
HAPPY WEEKEND!
9 comments:
Hi Faith. I love your low-key family oriented Valentine's Day. I also love that you saw a Doe out of your winder. Those locally made chocolates sound delicious! I am going to have to check out Firefly Lane. I haven't watched any episodes of Last Tango in Halifax since last weekend. I am craving a few more and need to find out what is going to happen next. I love the cute parents in the series. Their kids are kind of screwed up, but hey, what are families for! ;-) Have a good weekend.
It sounds like you've had a good week's break with lots achieved but also some down time too. I loved Last Tango in Halifax. Enjoy your weekend.
Hi Faith, your week sounded just lovely. What a blessing to see the deer very special. To God be the glory indeed. Blessings.
It sounds like you put the week to good use. How nice to have the deer right outside your door. That would never happen here. Enjoy your weekend!
You still seem full of energy ! We never celebrated St. Valentine's it only swapped over from the US since of few years. We are all tired from the lockdown, can't do anything but shopping, but for what when you can't go out ! The weather is moody, rain, snow, wind, cold, warm a real cocktail !
I have really enjoyed your post. I hope you have a beautiful Saturday (p.s. checks are always in, just saying, grin).
I miss my hiking buddies! Hoping we can find hiking friends this spring.
Your winter break week sounds like it was productive and relaxing (even though you aren't fond of it--and I tend to agree with you on that).
And your Valentine's Day celebration was lovely.
Happy Week to you!
I was going to say how nice you had a week off to do some nice things and some chores. When I was a kid this week only had the Thursday and Friday off and all teachers and school staff had to attend Teacher's Convention. Then they brought the holiday monday in and the schools moved to taking the whole week off. But I know what you mean about rather having an extra week in summer. We didn't get any gifts this year for Valentine's. We just ordered a really nice takeout dinner and called it done. I agree with you, it's too close to Christmas. How fun that you are getting a group together for walking and hiking.
Your Valentine's Day sounds lovely. You had a nice, balanced break--some projects done plus some relaxation. How neat to see a doe so close! We really enjoyed the new All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. My husband didn't think he'd like it, but he did.
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