weekend

I had another good weekend. Chris is finally feeling better (he was out most of last week)! I love going to bed on Sunday night with the laundry done, fresh sheets on my bed, the house cleaned, and as much crossed off the list as possible. Yesterday we put a bunch of items on eBay to sell, and got through some things that have been on our list for weeks. It felt great to end the weekend with some relaxing time spent together. I got a couple of good runs in, and I feel ready to tackle the week ahead!

It made me think, how do others approach the end of their weekend and the changeover to a new week? How do you make sure you are relaxed and you get some rest before your week starts?

On Saturday, I was waiting for an elevator to go into a building for an appointment and I had this overwhelming sense of gratitude and appreciation for life. The thought that came to me was to not take any of this for granted. I then went over many large things in my life that I am grateful for – what a humbling experience.

Since it is Monday, and I had my humbling moment on Saturday, I wanted to share a bit of inspiration with you. I have included the quote from David’s blog here, but be sure to click to also see the great painting he included (Thank you, David Kanigan):

“You can be fully satisfied with where you are, understanding that you’re eternally evolving. When you get into that place of feeling appreciation of where you are and of who you are, and appreciation of what you are, and you accept that you are a never-ending, always unfolding Being, then you can stand in that delicate balance of being optimistic about what is to come, without being unhappy about where you stand. Find a way of eagerly anticipating future changes, while at the same time you are in love and satisfied with who, what, where and how you be.” —- Abraham

And a not so serious post from David. For those of you that do not click on the link it says:

“I do 5 sit-ups every morning. May not sound like much, but there’s only so many times you can hit the snooze button.”

Happy Monday!

Happy Friday! So it is ALMOST the weekend. What do you have planned? I am looking forward to the weekend, to relaxing, spending time with my hubby, sleeping, some good food, and getting caught up on a few things. I recently blogged about the book: “All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending” by Laura Vanderkam. She talks about how we can have better weekends with just a bit of planning. Some weekends could be on the frugal side and some weekends we could splurge a bit. What would your ideal weekend look like? Here is an excerpt on this topic in her book:

“What would it be like to fill a day, or even better, a whole weekend, with one’s favorite things? How would one do that? What are those favorite things? And most important for the sake of this book, what would that cost?” page 109-110

So my ideal “frugal” weekend with my favorite things: It would start with sleeping in, then getting my run in, showering and heading into Portland for a yummy breakfast. If I were to pick my favorite place in Portland for breakfast it would be VQ (Veritable Quandary). Afterwards, going with my hubby to explore new boutiques in town. Exploring new boutiques gets my creative juices flowing and inspires and encourages me to look at design, patterns, colors, and then when I come home I want to paint, write, and explore what has interested me on our boutique adventures. In the evening, I would want to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. Just a top of mind ideal weekend.

I thought I would also share a few photos that we found while out exploring recently. This we found in Santa Barbara, California. It is a fun way to grow plants, using an old or used wine rack.

planter idea in Santa Barbara

This chair (I cannot imagine how much it weighs) we found at Anthropologie. I love it. Not at all comfortable, but just a clever design using old radiators!