Hello! How was your week? I am so happy to have had over a week off of work, to just relax and hang out with family and friends, but I am definitely getting ready to head home and catch up on life again. It really does give me this odd sense of pleasure to get myself and our house back in order after a vacation. I am already looking forward to putting everything away, doing the laundry, going grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and getting a few good workouts in. Then I will feel like I’m ready again for work on Monday.
But anyway, this week was really great. I talked about it a little bit the other day, but Chris and I have been in Ludington, Michigan with my whole family this week celebrating the holiday. Therefore, the things that have made me the happiest are way different than they would be on a normal week at home:
1. My sisters
Since we were little and all living at home, it has been very rare that there is a solid week where I get to hang out with my sisters for a solid week. All three of them have completely different personalities, and I can honestly say that I truly enjoy hanging out with each of them individually and all of them together. I am five years older than the closest one in age to me (Jenna) and 12 years older than the youngest (Olivia), and for as long as I can remember I have felt like the mom of the group. But it is so much fun now to consider them my actual friends and not just my baby sisters.
This week we laid on the couch together, sat by the fire, hung out on the water, and ate all our meals together. Like I said before, I loved not having an agenda and just having us all in one big house together for the week. And magically, no one really fought or had any big disagreements – a miracle!
2. Sunsets
Sunsets are something so beautiful and calming that I take for granted on every other day than those that I am on vacation, anticipating them at the end of the day. My mom worded it perfectly when she said that two of the only things she could sit and watch forever are water and sunsets – and how true is that? What other time would a random group of people sit in silence together, just staring out into the sky? Not many other times, at least in the world I live in.
Some of the sunsets here were just beyond beautiful and a huge reminder of what an expansive world we live in.
3. Being outside
Along with the two things mentioned above, it is one of the best things in the world to be able to spend 99% of your time outside for a whole week. I barely wore shoes for the entire time we have been up here, and we have really just rotated from pajamas to bathing suits to comfy clothes at night. And no makeup or doing our hair. There is just something about the fresh air that allows me to think clearly and really appreciate whatever it is that I am doing at the time. And then when I’ve had enough and do finally go inside, it makes me appreciate the couch and air conditioning even more 😉
4. Chris
I know I’ve talked about how wonderful my fiancé is probably more times than I can count, but he really just is. Being away on family trips like this with him makes me realize even more how grateful I am to have him in my life and how seamlessly he has just fit into my family. He just makes everything easier for me (like driving because I hate it and am also not good at it, carrying a water bottle on a run for us, and making little decisions for us because I can never settle on something, just to name a few things) and really does help every single situation to be more enjoyable than it was before he came into my life.
And contrary to what this picture would lead you to believe, we really do get along wonderfully and love each other very much. I’m really not sure what was going on here, but I think it’s funny and there’s a gorgeous sunset behind us and I love it.
5. No lists
As much as I love a good to-do list and structure to my day, it was amazing to not even think about any of the little things that I usually do at home. Sure, I worked a little bit up here and worked on wedding invitations with my mom, but other than that it was basically just reading a lot of books and watching some Chef’s Table at night on Netflix. Like I said before, something it’s necessary to step out of your comfort zone and everyday life to realize what is truly worth it in life – for me this week it was totally family and realizing what a good life I have. Even when I think everything is going wrong.
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Even though this week was wonderful, I am very excited to head home this morning. Chris and I both decided we feel gross after a week away and not exercising/eating like we normally do, so we have big goals this weekend (lol) to get back on track with working out, grocery shopping, and meal prepping really good for the week ahead.
We have also been big on Chef’s Table (a Netflix documentary series about the best chef’s in the world – WATCH IT) lately which is totally inspiring me to get back into cooking again and work through some new recipes this week. So I’m going to make time to sift through a bunch of our cookbooks and pick out a few things to make in the near future.
I hope you had a great Fourth of July holiday, whatever you did, and that your weekend is fantastic! <3
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