Heaven

This was one of those rare weekends when we had zero plans, zero commitments, and zero projects calling our names. It was heaven.

Friday, I got word that I had a grant fully funded. I almost fell over. I might have cried. As grants go, it's not very big, but it will go a long way towards helping with some of the outdoor ed initiatives at the kids' school. Such happy news clearly got me out of cooking, so off we went for Mexican food accompanied by many, many laughs.

Saturday, we got up and went to Daddy's favorite bakery. He often makes expeditions there for breakfast pastries, but this was the first time I had ever been inside. We ate there, and just enjoyed a leisurely cup off coffee to start the day.

The next stop was a used bookstore. Issa had been there on a field trip last year, and we've been meaning to go. They accept trade ins, so we assembled a basket of books and headed out. Issa had told us it had boxes and boxes of books and felt like a warehouse. Let me tell you, the girl speaks truth. Had she not been, I never would have walked in. It is quite literally a warehouse. No windows. Metal siding. The whole deal. You walk in to find clearly cobbled together shelving and huge boxes of books that come up to my waist. It's hysterical. The books are well-organized if you appreciate a very organic wandering sense of organization. It feels a bit like someone stood in the middle and said, "Oh, we have more children's books. Let's put them here, nowhere near the other children's books. But these children's books will be all of the holiday books so it's okay." We wandered for over an hour and found some great treasures. I would never go there looking for anything particular, but if you just want to get lost in the smell of old books and have an adventure it's great fun. We will definitely be back.

We headed back home, locked the door, and didn't emerge until this morning. We made some recipes from Issa's bookstore cookbook find, played board games, played Infinity, managed some high quality naps, and watched the Super Bowl with our favorite munchies. There were snuggles and books and piles of blankets. It was warm and cozy and simply heaven.

Today, we head back to reality and rejoin the world, but I am always grateful for the weekends when we can just be us. I hope these are the weekends the kiddos remember.