My ideal morning? I just may have had it. (Okay, not counting if I was on the beach in Hawaii or enjoying pain au chocolat in Paris or a pint of Harp in Ireland.)
Simple pleasures. And a free morning to enjoy them. That’s all it takes.
A mint condition mocha cooler from Caribou Coffee. Yes, there is coffee underneath all that whipped cream. Somewhere. Totally guilty pleasure for sure – I don’t have these often but today it was a treat.
A pedicure with turquoise green toes – heavenly relaxation. And my favorite color for toes!
Wine shopping at my favorite wine store, Haskell’s in Maple Grove. If you know me at all, then I don’t need to say anything more about this.
A few picks for the weekend – including a favorite of mine, the Mer Soleil Silver unoaked chardonnay. It’s fabulous – and pretty much the only chardonnay I currently love to pieces. It’s a little pricey ($19.99) but fun for a special occasion. This particular bottle will travel to my sister and brother-in-law’s new house as a little house-warming present. My sister, incidentally, introduced me to this particular chardonnay!
A little Easter basket – okay, Easter bag, I guess – shopping for my niece Morgan. I love the initials I found at Target this morning to decorate the bag! (This is about as crafty as I get, folks.) This bag is filled with a few fun toddler treats – like Play-Doh and a plant-your-own marigolds project – and some candy, of course.
Although Joe is 12 and a little beyond the whole Easter Bunny concept, he still gets his own Easter bag (very plain and manly, if you notice), filled with candy and a little cash that he can put toward the new computer he is saving his money for.
And speaking of Joe, this is a text he sent me this morning. Allow me to explain: on any given morning, he will always, ALWAYS put on the same black hooded sweatshirt and wear this to school. I know, right? Typical tween boy. Today, I decided it was time to put that hoodie in the wash, so I gave him a blue hoodie to wear instead. Hence, his text to tease me about this.
And more of Joe’s sense of humor, as long as I’m on that subject. This decorative sign pretty much sums it up, I’d say. He found this a couple of years ago and insisted he buy it to give to Teacher Man for Christmas. 🙂
(Total random shout out to my brother-in-law, Clay, who bought me the white milk glass bowl in the front of this photo a couple of weeks ago. It’s a a fabulous piece to add to my collection of milk glass and a perfect candy dish, too!)
Oh, one more thing to make my morning … a run on a sunny day (and why I never feel too guilty about that Mint Condition Caribou!).
Joe asked me what I was going to do this morning when I dropped him off at school. I told him and he said, “So you’re not going to be home at all on a day you took off as vacation?” He couldn’t quite understand why I wouldn’t park myself in the house, which I think would be his dream – along with unlimited video game time. I explained that, to me, a day off doesn’t necessarily mean I’m at home all day – although sometimes it does. But in this case, a day off is having the free time (and no schedule) to do things at my own pace and that make me happy.
So that’s it – a pretty ideal morning for me and the perfect way to kick off the start of our spring break. We’re not traveling anywhere – consider it another one of my staycations – but that’s just fine with us. We’ve got plans around the house, we’re helping with my sister and brother-in-law’s house move, and we’re looking forward to seeing family this Easter weekend out at the farm.
XOXO ~
Lara