Finding Beauty in the Weekend

Multitudes on Mondays, counting the many ways God shows His love for me, always makes my Monday better!  I haven't done very well at recording gifts in my journal lately, I've let business and stress crowd it out, not realizing that taking the time to slow down and reflect on God's love towards me is the perfect antidote. But now, I'm back. 
370. School is over!!! I turned in my final project last Friday, and I've already received some of my grades- both A's so far!

371. To celebrate, Brian and I had a wonderful date! Dinner and a movie at the two dollar theater, always a good choice. 

372. I got dressed up for our date, and really enjoyed wearing a skirt and feeling pretty.

373. We went to Old Chicago for dinner. I'd never been there before. The food was amazing! I had an Italian sausage stromboli, and Brian had the "meat me" calzone. So good!

374. Good conversation. During dinner, we worked through some questions to help us evaluate our family priorities, strengths, and goals for the purpose of writing a family missions statement. I'd been wanting to do this for a long time. We used the questions from Simplemom.net for creating a family mission statement. The idea is that having a purpose statement allows you to be intentional about how you spend your time, resources, etc. so that you can achieve your goals as a family.

375. Killing time at Barnes and Noble. We had several hours to kill between dinner and the movie, so we hung out at the bookstore and read magazines. I got to read all about the royal wedding, and browse In Style magazine. 
Hats worn to the royal wedding
376. White chocolate caramel Macadamia nut cheesecake. After reading for awhile, we had enough room for desert. We shared a piece from the Cheesecake factory. Even though we were both sharing only one piece, it was too rich for us to finish!

377. The movie we saw was "Unknown," a Bourne Trilogy type movie. I really like the Bourne movies, but this was a little scarier. I spent much of the movie curled up in a ball in my seat with my sweater over my head, and Brian's hands over my ears and eyes. So why is this a gift? I enjoyed Brian protecting me! 

378. Spending time by the pool Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It was great to finally have a weekend without any schoolwork to do! We are very blessed to have a swimming pool in our complex, and we really enjoyed working on our tans and cooling off. It's been in the 100's lately!

379. Mail! I love getting mail, and Saturday we got an invitation to my niece's first birthday party, my younger sister's graduation open house, and Brian's cousin's wedding. 

380. This is big news: we will be moving in July! I mentioned awhile back that a couple we'd just become friends with was moving in July. Well, they decided to rent their house, and our apartment lease happens to end in July also. We'd looked for a new apartment, but hadn't really found anything. When we rent their house, they will leave a lot of their furniture for us to use, and their dog! They'll be moving around a lot and can't take him with them, and their company provides furnished apartments. Brian will get the garage he's been wanting, and I'll get a pet to keep me company! We are really excited, and I can't wait so show you some pictures!

381. We signed the lease last night and enjoyed ice cream afterwards, and played with the dog. He is seriously the funniest dog I've ever seen. He's also the best behaved!

382. I finished the Fashion 101 homework from the second week, the shopping your closet challenge. I've already referred to the pictures I took twice when looking for something to wear, so it's been very helpful!
This is my accessorized outfit. I wore it to church yesterday :)

Same shirt, but this is the casual version.


383. A quiet, cloudy Monday morning. 

384. Talking to my mom on Mother's Day. 

385. DaySpring's e-cards. I didn't get my Mother's Day cards mailed in time to get there by yesterday, so I also sent e-cards! It worked really well! They have some wonderful cards, including cards you can send to friends who are moms to brighten their day.

386. On Saturday, we went to Walmart to look at eye glasses for me. After we finally decided on a pair, we found out that they don't take our insurance. At least, now I know what style I like. 

387. While at Walmart, we picked out some paint color ideas for the house! 

388. The maintenance man came by and replaced light bulbs, fixed our shower drain, and replaced a broken outlet cover, little stuff we just hadn't gotten around to getting taken care of earlier. 

How was your weekend? What gifts did God give you? (They're there, you just have to look for them!)

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