Weekly Check In {Jan. 25, 2014}

Well it's been a crazy week, but crazy in a much different way than usual. On Sunday, I was sitting planning out my menu for the week and thinking about what we needed for groceries. I remember thinking 'oh boy, here we go with another busy week being out of the house every evening for the girls sports and activities!' ... Little did I know all that would change!

Here is my weekly catch up!

Sunday Bob headed out of town with a couple friends to ski for a few days. I know it's so good for him to do these things but I really miss him when he's gone! 

The girls and I spent Sunday afternoon cheering for our Patriot's {who sadly lost!} and watching movies and relaxing. Thankfully we had NO SCHOOL on Monday for MLK day so we took advantage by staying up late and having fun together. 

On Monday we drove about an hour from here to a HOBBY LOBBY! I had only been in one once many years ago and let me just say ... my hubby should be VERY happy it's not closer to my house! That store was AMAZING and we spent so much time {and money!} in there! I could have taken pictures for hours of all the cool stuff they had but I was so busy looking around I wasn't focused on taking pictures. I came home with a few cool things for my house, some scrapbook supplies and NEW fabric for my kitchen! {When my husband came home on Wednesday his first comment was 'wow, it looks very ... retro!'} =) 

After Hobby Lobby we went to The Olive Garden for lunch, then Savers for a little while. It was a fun girls day out! Monday night we THOUGHT Haley had bball practice, come to find out it was cancelled because of the holiday - so we enjoyed a quiet evening at home. 

{Haley is very into decorating her room lately, she picked these fabrics to make throw pillows for her bed.} 

The other thing I bought at Hobby Lobby was some denim duct tape. I have this hardcover Bible that I have had for MANY years and it's filled with notes I've written, verses I've underlined and all sorts of stuff. Well, it was falling apart and I just didn't want to get a new Bible because this one means a lot to me. So I bought the duct tape and got it all fixed up - might be a little redneck, but it's as good as new now!

Tuesday we went to school/work - but there was snow arriving mid-day so they called it a half day and everyone was sent home early. With that happening it also meant all our evening activities and sports were cancelled. 

I'm including this picture from our school, I just LOVE these pictures that have been hanging in the hall lately! I love walking down the halls and seeing all the neat artwork, it might be one of my favorite things about our school! I wanted to be sure I snapped a pic of these ones before they were taken down and sent home. 

And this is a project Haley had to do for Social Studies, I think her lady is drawn pretty well! 

It snowed most of Tuesday and Tuesday night into Wednesday morning ... so with that, school was cancelled for Wednesday - woohooo! We woke up to a winter wonderland!

Unfortunately the temps have been FREEZING this week, so other than shoveling the driveway, we really haven't been out to play in the snow. Wednesday was a pretty lazy day - did the shoveling, then worked on some of my sewing and we also just laid around being kinda lazy. And again, the evening activities got cancelled. 

Thursday morning was the most bitter cold day I've seen/felt so far this season. The moment I stepped outside to go warm up my car, my nose hairs froze! It was also the first time I'd seen the negative temps in my car this season. It was definitely a BITTER COLD day. We did have school and work that day, but we had indoor recess because it's too cold for the kids to be out. And because there was a band concert at the middle school that night the basketball game for the evening got cancelled. {How funny that I went from being busy every single night to have things cancelled every single night!!} 

Friday was another bitter cold day, we did have work and school again. AND the kids were indoors again! These poor kids really need to get outside and RUN around a little! This is probably the one thing I like least about winter, being cooped up for so many weeks on end. 

Friday night we went to the LUKE BRYAN concert with some friends. We went out to dinner at Sol Toro before the show {one of my fave Mexican restaurants!}. Our seats were great, the opening acts {Cole Swindell & Lee Brice} were great, the show was AMAZING and we had a great time ... unfortunately my hubby wasn't feeling great though {I'm certain he has what I had last week} but he toughed it out the best he could because he really wanted to see the show. 

And that's our week! Last Friday we had a half day, Monday no school, Tuesday half day, Wednesday no school, then Thursday/Friday were regular days  -this sure has been a strange week but hopefully next week will be much more back to normal! Enjoy the weekend friends! 

Wedding Flowers

Last weekend I got to help arrange the flowers for a wedding at work. I loved the simple blue and white theme with lots of hydrangeas and callas. Everything looked just gorgeous! These are just a couple photos of what we did. The centerpieces were the blue hydrangea, we sprayed glue on them and sprinkled them with glitter - they looked SO pretty!

Busy but fun.

Last week I worked a lot of hours. Sometimes it's hard because I have to balance work with my family life. Thankfully most of the days/times that I worked the girls were able to be home with Bob, or with my MIL, or with my friend and her kids. It makes me feel better about working when I know the girls are in good hands, and are having a great time too.

I have a fun job. Busy, but fun. We were super busy last week preparing for Mother's day and did hundreds of flower arrangements. I love that it's a rewarding job because you know that some special Mom will be thrilled when the flowers arrive at her door.

Here are just a few of the arrangements I did. The first one is a fun Margarita one.

A busy week

Valentines week proved to be one of my busiest weeks since leaving the full time work force 6 & 1/2 years ago. When you work at a flower shop, Valentines is your biggest time of year. I ended up doing about 40 hours in 4 days, and that was continuous working on my feet, rarely getting a moment to sit. But it was fun and fast paced and I learned so much and actually got pretty good at making really beautiful arrangements in a very short amount of time.

We were busy all week, but on Thursday alone we made 164 arrangements ... and that's pretty good for such a small flower shop with only 3 people doing the flowers and 2 people handling the phone and walk-ins. My kids were shuffled all around with Daddy and my MIL stepping in to help most of the time. I truly appreciated them helping so much so the kids had a good week too, even with Mommy gone so many hours.

I didn't have much time to take pictures, but did manage to snap a few, so here they are:
The cooler was FILLED with tons of finished arrangements:
LOTS of people order a dozen red roses ...
We had roses in a lot of beautiful colors ...
A basket arrangement that I made:
"Jewel of my heart" arrangement ... the vase was a beautiful purple color ...

Thankful Thursday

So I'm going to steal some ideas I've seen out there in bloggy world ... one of which is Thankful Thursdays ... because don't we all need to find reasons to be thankful more in our lives?

Today I am thankful for my job. I work part time at a flower shop that my friend owns. Last year I went to floral training school to learn some tricks of the trade and recently have had more chances to try them out and put together some really fun arrangements.

My job is fun, it allows me a little time to myself out of the house, it generates a little extra change for the family, and most of all it allows me to use my creative mind. I was talking to my co-worker and my boss today and saying that I love being a Mommy and a homeschool Mom ... but if it weren't for those things, I would love to be doing my job full time. I kind of wish I had discovered this fun and creative career way back when before I had kids and was working full time.

But for now, my choice in life is to be with my family (almost) full time and to just do this job part time. And it works really well right now .... of course, if you talk to me next week while we are in the midst of the Valentine's Day rush I may say otherwise!!

Anyway, on Thankful Thursday I wanted to say thank you Lord for my job. Thank you for wonderful bosses who understand my obligation to my family, thank you for great co-workers and a short commute. Thank you that it's fun and exciting and I truly enjoy it.

And here is an arrangement I did just the other day ...
And a closer look ...