Stuff for a Happy Friday

I have to be honest and say I didn't have a crazy week. Friday just sort of rolled in soft and sweet, and we don't have a lot planned these next three days.

I also have to be honest and say I can't remember when this last happened.

Oh my word, but it feels F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.!!!!

Do you do what I do? Do you go travel somewhere, and you're lying on the beach, or at an outdoor cafe, having a glass of wine in the flat middle of the day, or you're curled up on a chaise lounger, with something pretty to drink, sunglasses and flip-flops and a book in hand, and you think: "Next week I'll be back to my regular, crazy life, and there will be other people doing this very thing. Relaxing, taking it easy, smelling the roses. They'll have a view like this, and I'll be in the middle of doing laundry, or driving in traffic, or whatever." And you're struck by how the rest of the world lives, while you're running around in what feels like the eye of the storm.

That's sort of how I feel. Like I've been - for way too long now - in traffic, piles of laundry, appointments, cluttered kitchen counters, and a segment of our society has been curled up in the chaise lounger and I'm looking in at them.

By just slowing down, by keeping my calendar relatively empty for a few weeks I feel so incredibly refreshed. More ready to extend grace to myself and others. Less reactive. Just ask my husband.... or the sale callers who ring us at dinner time every night. Or the gas company phone person who took my call when they messed up our auto pay. They're ALL happy I've slowed down a bit.

It's not that I haven't done anything this week. I've cooked and shopped and done laundry and went to a highly exciting seminar on insurance and walked through some model homes and paid bills and made phone calls and went to book club and walked the dog and cleaned the house (a little).

I've also knitted and read and soaked in the tub, watched some TV, done some yoga, and gotten enough sleep. What I haven't done is run around like a chicken with its head cut off.

So this is a very new reality for me. Living balanced - who knew it would feel so much better?

This weekend for us doesn't have much going on. Football, church, maybe go see the new Tom Hanks insurance lawyer goes to Russia to save the world movie, likely more knitting, and a catch up phone call with someone I love.

Despite the very annoying fact that Texas is still stinking hot and the leaves are all still green and any pumpkin you see around here was picked somewhere else and hauled here and set down in a field, it IS fall. So I found a few things on the web that might make your - and my - weekend better:

First, Heather at Beauty that Moves posted this recipe for homemade pumpkin lattes. Not only do they NOT cost $3.50, they are simple, low calorie and good for you. What's not to love about that?

Next, I made this soup last night for Cub Sweetheart because he's come down with a rotten cold. The kind that makes me want to put a barrier between us in the bed, and walk around spraying all the door knobs and faucets with Lysol. It was easy (I bought meatballs and cut them into fours rather than do the homemade thing), and that with a 49 cent day old loaf of french bread made him feel loved. Thank you, Alyssa at Good & Simple for the recipe. You can find it on my pinterest board - Soup's On - here. 

Last, and maybe, just maybe the best thing I found on the web this week is a post by Mary - Giving Up On Perfect, titled "Why Flying Makes Me Apologize. I'm telling you, it will resound with you and you're going to want to share it with every single woman you know, no matter her size. Something we can all relate to.

So happy weekend everyone, hope it starts with your Friday being fun.

Blessings,

Bev