Solo date

Recently I told you about my low key, kept it super casual anniversary date with my hubby.  Well I also took myself out on a date a short while ago.  And it was AMAZING.

For Christmas my in laws gave me a gift certificate to participate in a furniture painting workshop.  Ever since we bought this hobby farm, I have fully embraced the shabby chic, rustic decor trend and my inner artist was just itching to get out and make some fun decor pieces.  However, I really have no experience with this kind of painting and needed some lessons.  This workshop was a perfect gift!  Only glitch was that it is an hour and a half drive away from our home here.  I tried inviting friends who I thought might be interested, but they were busy.  I invited my husband thinking we could make it a fun date night, but unfortunately we had some out of town guests who of course needed a host.  Eventually I realized that I would just be going solo.

And then I really got excited.

The thing is I so rarely get any moment away from my role as a parent (re: personal assistant to very vocal and needy tiny people), so any time off is a treasured gift.  I also fancy myself a singer and I ALWAYS use the car as my rehearsal space if I am alone in any capacity.  So an hour and a half drive sounded like bonus reward with my Christmas present.  Another perk?  Hitting up the local coffee shop that has one of my favorite blended coffees.

I enjoyed every last sip of that drink, lemme tell ya!  Calories do not count on a self date!

And I couldn’t help but be amused at this quirky and totally-fit-for-the-area tip jar this was.

I made sure to arrive hours ahead of the scheduled workshop in order to peruse the antique shops that were open and do a little shopping as well as have a quick bite to eat.  You know, the kind that I didn’t have to cook and could eat while it was still warm.  So basically a perfect afternoon.

I went solo into my workshop and throughly enjoyed my creative outlet among other enthusiastic women and came home with several new techniques and decorating books to further my interest in distressed painting.  I had such a wonderful time getting recharged in my spirit that I am already planning to go to the next level workshop so I can have the same experience again.

I highly recommend that every mommy or daddy find a hobby and allow themselves and their spouses a little time away from their parental duties as well as their spousal commitments in order to renew their spirit and re-energize as an autonomous person.

Because everybody deserves a re-charge.  I can’t wait until my next one!

A real gift

Recently Music Man and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  We actually got a babysitter and went out for most of the day without children to celebrate our marriage.  We haven’t gotten a few hours off duty as parents in such a long time that we honestly didn’t even know what to do.  We had no game plan and no schedule, just hours to be ourselves and to be with one another enjoying the company.

We simply drove around our quaint little town and nearby areas and went exploring.  This is our 3rd summer here and we barely have scratched the surface as to what is out here.  There were many places closed due to the Sunday sabbath observance, but it didn’t stop our need to inspect what our town had to offer.  We discovered a near by lake that we plan on taking the children and visitors.  There was teeny tiny itty bitty town that didn’t even have stop light, but held a fantastic meat market that we wholly wished was open.  We ate at a local joint that many of our friends have recommended, but I had yet to try.  We had an ice cream cone that was out of this world.

No gifts.  No cards.  Nothing exchanged.  No fancy restaurants.  No fancy date.  Just good ole fashioned us time.

Quality time might just be my biggest love language and this was a special treat for me.

Happy 8 years hunny!

1st field trip!

We are already starting out with a bang here at Mommy on the Mic Academy (I have no idea what to name our school so for now it will be unceremoniously called blog title academy)  The lovely thing about starting school during the summer is that we can go to popular field trip destinations without having the hassle of competing with other school groups.  Plus, nature is looking its best during the summer months, so we decided to take advantage and hit up a local national park that just happens to be just minutes from our house.  Score!

Since we can count outings like this as school, we made sure to bring a few necessary items like kid binoculars, pencils, colored pencils, drawing paper, bird book, magnifying glasses, and our science catchers (egg cartons that Miss Ariel and Mini Man decorated in order to bring home a few found treasures).  Now since daddy was carrying a heavy baby, mommy wound up carrying all of these said items, and its worth noting that I will not be bringing all of these items next time!  It got heavy for this 6 month pregnant momma!  I would however put the binoculars, pencils and drawing paper in a backpack that one of the kids could wear.  Much better plan….

We are off down the hiking trail…

Here is daddy discussing what type of leaves we are discovering on our walk.  He is a wealth of knowledge!

We made it to our destination, a waterfall!

Obviously this is a perfect opportunity to try your hand at skipping stones.

Oh how he wished to get into the water!

We brought along daddy’s childhood bird book.  It was quite helpful in determining what types of birds were around us.  Miss Ariel was more engaged in this activity then I was expecting.

Here is one of her drawings of one of the birds she discovered on our outing.  She was able to draw 3 birds while we were enjoying the scenery!  I was excited to put these in her fresh science/nature journal.

All of us!  Can I just say how difficult it is to get us all looking at the camera with smiles on our faces?!  Yah… so this was our best one.  Good enough!