I am so, so happy it’s finally Friday. This has been a long, but eye-opening week – in both positive and negative ways. It was full of work, sunshine, good girlfriends, yummy sushi, and babies. This weekend is going to be consumed with family time, laying on the couch watching Criminal Minds with Chris (we are trying to get through season 11 this weekend….), hopefully some meal planning and brainstorming of new recipes to try out next week, and a lot of home re-organization. All of a sudden I’m passionate again about changing anything and everything in my condo. I’ve recently realized that there are a lot of little things that I’m unhappy with that are easily changeable, so why not start on a few of them?
To add onto last week’s post, here are the top five things that made me happy this week:
1. Going to a yoga class with Chris – his first one!
Since I still have my 15 days for $15 pass, I’ve been trying out as many classes at my new studio as I can until it expires. On Tuesday I convinced Chris that a yoga basics class would be good for him and that it was something fun we could do together. He did really great, says he enjoyed it (although he could totally be lying just to please me), and it was nice to mix up our typical week-night routine with the class. It probably wasn’t the type of class I would be interested in taking on my own, but it was definitely a good stretch and a relaxing hour. I was really proud of him for doing this though. I know how tough it is to walk into a class like this when you’ve never done it before!
2. A sushi dinner downtown Detroit
On Wednesday, I had a meeting in the city near the end of the day, and Chris surprised me after with dinner reservations at a new sushi bar in Detroit called Maru. It was UN. REAL. We are both big sushi fans, and this exceeded any expectations I’ve ever had for sushi before. We are also big fans of asking the waiter for recommendations, so we ended up with a green tea gimlet for me, a fancy type of manhattan for him, and three things to split – edamame with srirarcha salt, an “ocean’s eleven” roll, and a “madagascar” roll. I can’t really remember what was in them (because it was like ten random things in both of them), but they were amazing and the presentation was beautiful and if you really care you can go look on the website. 🙂 I will say that I’m bound to love anything that comes with a sliced, raw jalapeño on top. I am a big fan of a date night in the middle of the week.
3. The WEATHER!
All I really have to say about this one is that for three days of this week it was about 65 degrees and sunny. In February. In Michigan. That is just unheard of and put me in such a good mode for most of the week. The power of a 20 minute walk in the sunshine in the middle of the workday is greatly underestimated, and I feel really thankful that I got to experience that multiple times this week.
4. Dinner date with my dad
My mom and youngest sister went up north to visit my grandma this week, so my dad was on his own for a few days. Last night we went out to dinner at a local burger place, Bagger Dave’s. Well I suppose it’s not necessarily local – I think they have it a bunch of other places? I don’t really know. If they have one of these by you, please let me know so I can clarify this! It was really nice to spend some time together, just the two of us, and have good burgers, fries, and sweet potato chips. After dinner we did a little shopping in the Kirkland store next door to the restaurant, which was a bad choice for me since I went home with a huge mirror and a really pretty jewelry stand that matches the furniture in my room perfectly.
5. Getting slippers from my aunt that she knitted for me
My aunt is a really cool person. She lived in Chicago teaching yoga and doing pottery for a lot of years, but she recently moved back to Michigan. However, she’s still really into the same hobbies and leads a lifestyle that I am super envious of (really calm, aware, and intentional). Included in those hobbies is a new one – knitting. Sidenote: I wish I was the kind of person that can knit, but I’m just not. I much prefer to color than get frustrated by yarn while I am watching TV. But I wish I could. Anyway, she recently did a really nice thing and knitted my grandma, mom, sisters, and I all a pair of slippers. And they are just the coziest things ever. I’ve been wearing them around the house this week every chance I get. They are perfect to curl up with under my heated blanket on the couch or in bed with my favorite book and a mug of tea. You can kind of see them peeking out in the picture below.
This was a really good week for me, although there were a couple of really hard days. Looking back on them now, I’m grateful for those hard days because they have forced me to think about what I really want and if what I am doing is moving me closer in that direction or further away. My main intention for this weekend is to think about those things that mean a lot to me, those people that I feel good spending my time with, and the ways in which I can alter my daily activities to reflect joy and peace, rather than sorrow and frustration.
I hope you all have a really, really fun weekend and are happy beyond belief. 🙂
What are you looking forward to this weekend? What made you happiest this week?
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