Tidbits from My Week

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This morning was hard.

Well, let me back up. So yesterday, I woke up at 3:30, got Hannah ready and we headed out for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Knoxville to our ice rink. I watched Hannah’s hour long lesson and then watched her skate for another hour until the ice time was over and for this first time ever, I met up with my husband and he took Hannah and I went back home.

I was really excited because I knew I would get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted time to work on the 2018 edition of the Purpose 31 Planner – and I ~~rarely~~ never have that much time in one stretch to work. My husband arrived back home with Hannah and Laura around 10:00 last night.

We usually spend Wednesday and Thursday nights in Knoxville because it is such a long drive and I want her to have as much time as possible on the ice. I can say, though, that keeping that kind of schedule where I’m gone from home for 3 days a week – every week – has it’s challenges.

When I’m home I try to squeeze in work and blogging, house cleaning, karate, music lessons, and horses – and there’s just never enough hours in the day.

Anyway, so back to this morning {Thursday} I woke up at 3:30, hit the snooze button a few times, got Hannah up at 4:00 and I went to take a shower and get dressed. My husband had offered to take Hannah back to the ice rink this morning but last night Hannah asked me several times if I was going to come – and I knew she really wanted me to come. I’ve never missed a lesson in four years except maybe once when I was sick.

I ended up staying home and I felt so guilty hugging her goodbye. I know she’ll be okay and I’ll go with her next week. But it was hard watching them drive away.

But I should have the bulk of my prep work for the planners done by the end of today! So that’s good news!

In other exciting news this week, Emily sold another piece of her artwork:

She also got a commission for two more pieces of artwork. If you are interested in Emily drawing a picture for you, let me know! She’s hoping to support herself and get through college by selling her art!

We went to the park on Saturday and the lake on Sunday. It was a good weekend and the weather was pleasant – even chilly at times! The girls had fun taking some cool pictures of of Laura at the park:

On Sunday morning we woke up early, loaded everything in the truck and took the horses to our local arena to ride and make videos of the girls riding for Laura’s YouTube channel. We were there about six hours before we left and went to the lake for the rest of the day.

The girls worked on jumping the horses – something they’ve only done one other time.

On Monday night, Emily received her purple belt in Kempo Karate. She has worked so hard over the last couple of years to get to this point and now she’s getting ready to leave for college in just a few days. I’m still hoping she’ll manage to get her black belt. I think she will.

She’s leaving for college this coming Tuesday. We went shopping this week for back to school/ college supplies and we got some great deals on back to school clothes for the girls at Kohl’s. I love shopping at Kohl’s. My total at the checkout after sale prices was $269.00. But I had a 30% off coupon and a $10.00 coupon for back to school clothes as well as a $5.00 Yes to You Rewards coupon.

After all of the discounts, I ended up paying $184.00 with tax! The total savings including sale price discounts was $463.00. For this mama who needs to stretch every dollar, I was super excited. Oh, and I got $30.00 Kohl’s cash to spend next week. I didn’t buy anything for myself, but I just might use part of that $30.00 Kohl’s cash to get myself something new. We’ll see.

Only 40+ days until Sarah gets married to Ethan. She’s been anxious and stressed over all the wedding planning, but the venue is gorgeous and it’s going to be a beautiful wedding!

Last week we went to our annual retreat for pastoral families – it’s a tradition we always look forward to! I was so nice to have all four of my girls there! The retreat is at one of our church’s summer camps and while dad is in meetings – the girls and I get to have all kinds of awesome fun!

tubing
boating
canoeing
kayaking
swimming
arts and ceramics
horseback trail riding
games

So, as we wind down the summer, it’s been a really full – busy – few days!

What was your week like? Did you do anything special? Are your kids back in school yet? I’m ordering our books this week so we can start in the next couple of weeks.