We needed a great weekend and after a really long week work (as in more hours than I have worked since prior to having kids and having to put work ahead of the girls in the evenings), when 5:00 p.m. came Friday, I made up my mind that I was going to be intentional, loving, and slow down.
Emerson received a kid’s baking cookbook for Christmas. She had showed me a few of the recipes she flagged. I thought to myself what good was giving her a cookbook if I never had the time to make anything with her! I set out four eggs before she came home from school…once they got to room temperature, I called her downstairs so we could spend time together in the kitchen making a cake. She made the zebra cake from scratch….I was so proud of her and she cherished the quality one-on-one time.
The cake was done just in time for me to put dinner in the oven. We had a great meal (southwestern chicken balls with roasted red pepper sauce) and dinner conversation. In fact, we had “homerun” dinners four nights last week…food was superb and conversation great, which was pretty amazing considering I worked late hours all last week. A lot of prep work on Sunday and Justin’s help during the week still made it possible.
Fast forward to dessert time, the girls were so excited to eat Emerson’s creation!
Saturday morning was Harper and Daddy’s one-on-one date. She had filled her marble jar the week prior and picked her “best bud” for their date. She had known she wanted to go mini golfing when the time came since her first date night which was intended to be mini golfing in the summer got cut short on the fourth hole due to severe thunderstorms. Saturday was bitter cold and windy…and I mean bone chilling winds and temperatures. They golfed anyway in the frigid temperatures. Their date also included breakfast at the Vienna Inn, a pit-stop at home to warm-up after golf which included some T.V watching and candy eating, and lunch at CAVA. Harper loved her date with her “best bud”.
Meanwhile, Saturday morning, I got to spend some time with Avery and Emerson. My nails were in desperate need of getting done. I took them with me to the salon but didn’t make appointments for them. They were disappointed at first but used the time wisely and did their reading and multiplication tables. They knew that if they completed their work, we would have time to buy some quick drying nail polish and stop at Michaels for some clay. We did both and even ran into Papa in the shopping center….he may have been stalking us as he knew where we were from a phone call earlier!
I then treated the girls to lunch out…something we do not do frequently on the weekends. It felt amazing to be able to go to SweetLeaf and have the girls both be able to find something to order on the menu which they actually liked! A mouthwatering brussel and pear salad for me that also included bacon, goat cheese, kale, lime pepitas, and sweet potato. 
A quesadilla with a side of bacon for Emerson and a turkey and bacon sandwich for Avery.
All five of us met at home at 1:00, just in time to make our way to our 2:00 home renovation related appointment. We took the girls with us and they each had workbooks and spelling words to complete. Imagine their delight when we were told they had a theatre room for kids. A deal was made to work for 25 minutes and then it could be theatre time. Our appointment was close to two hours, so these girls were in heaven watching Sam and Kat on the big screen in the middle of the day.
When we got home, all five of us spent an hour cleaning and organizing piles of our own papers, schoolwork, bins, desk, etc. It is amazing how staying on top of organizing and doing a little bit here and there keeps the situation from becoming overwhelming. The girls were very cooperative despite not being too into it.
A quick dinner was in order Saturday night and we made do with what we had in the house so that we could be in and out of the kitchen in a reasonable time. It was movie night and that was the priority. Often the girls fight about which movie to watch. Emerson would like to watch adult movies all day long and Avery would like a cartoon or pretend movie. I intervened and found a mermaid movie that I thought would suit all….Scales was the name. It was rated PG and there were definitely some references to a period and a girl coming of age! It was weird, and had some scary parts, but it was also good. I know they liked it as they have already spent their 30 minutes of Netflix time a day that they earn watching portions of it and even last night watched it at my parents’ house (they slept over last night since no school today for Super Tuesday).
Sunday morning, we were planning on going to Church. I knew it was critical for me to go since I haven’t been going much recently. Kids learn by actions. I also knew it was important for me to have my me time before Church. So rise and shine 6:15 a.m. on a Sunday….something I never thought I would do in a million years. I woke up, did my affirmations, gratitude journal, 15-minute jog, and yoga. I even showered and put on some make-up before leaving for church at 8:45. I even sat through church…well all but the last three minutes! I dressed down so that the second hour when their girls were in the 10:00 class, I could go for a walk to finish my workout. I had a great walk exploring some new streets around Vienna that I hadn’t been on before listening to a combination of the book Languages of Love and some country music during my 40-minute walk. I ended my walk at Whole Foods so I could get a jump start on the grocery shopping. I moved quickly around the perimeter of the store and only had about five minutes of shopping left when Justin and the girls arrived at 11:15! A quick trip home to drop off the groceries and then we were back out.
Lunch at home is our norm, but we end up spending so much time in the kitchen so I decided we would eat lunch out again before heading to some open houses. I wanted to check out a few open houses, so we were really thinking through the right approach with our home reno process…do we truly want to do a home reno? Is it better to move? So much to think about! Anyway, lunch was so good at SweetLeaf that we went back Sunday. The girls thought I was crazy! I had the same delicious salad, Justin had the same, and the girls all were very satisfied with their choices!
Then it was open house time. The girls had a blast and love sharing their opinions of what they think we should do and shouldn’t do to our house. We had to cut the last open house short as we had promised the girls that with good behavior, we would take them ice-skating. Skatequest in Reston had public skating for two hours from 3:10 to 5:10. We made it on the ice about 3:45 and after the first five minutes, I thought to myself this is going to be a long 90 minutes! The girls had a great time. Emerson and Harper grateful for us finally taking them (it was their first time) and Avery grateful for going again (it was her third time). There were some falls but they all had a great time and were very appreciative of us taking them. They were all pretty impressed with their skills too!
Dinner….I had quickly prepped some boneless pork loin chops earlier in the day and Justin grilled them along with orange cauliflower and brussels. I even made mashed potatoes as Emerson has been asking for awhile. A basil avocado sauce to top it all off…and wowzers…it was phenomenal.
A truly bitterly cold glorious weekend.