Snow Day!

I stayed close to home today because of the wacky weather. I had plenty of work that I brought home with me, so I just set up a station at my dining room table facing the big picture window and watched the weather happen. The kids went to daycare after a slow morning getting ready and out of the house, and during the day I got a ton of work done. The type of work that includes filling out paperwork, writing grant applications and contracts. It was a perfectly quiet cozy day of get-er-done busywork.

The snow was on and off throughout the day and started to really come down right around 3:30 so decided to pick the girls up early to avoid any crazy driving conditions. We made the most of the shortened day and the afternoon together. Bundled up and played in the snow, made applesauce muffins (and cupcake-ized them), made dinner, and now are all cozy watching a movie. The pleasant afternoon just has me thinking about balance of life and work. Two young kids, full time work with a commute, making jewelry and finding ways to sell it, it all adds up to busy. Busy is good, but the right combination of busy is the ‘carrot’ or the constant goal. Not sure what the right combination is…but one of these days I’ll figure it out (hopefully).

# 6 Weekend away with hubby

#6 on my 35 Things to do when I am 35 is to have a weekend away with my husband.  This past president’s day weekend we headed south to drop the kids with the grandparents in Portland and head out on our own adventure.  We were originally planning to head to McMenamins Edgefield, but apparently called to book a room too late because they were all full! (who knew)

Well after some discussion and some Facebook polling we settled on heading out to the coast to the small little burb of Manzanita.  Found a house to rent through Ocean Coast Vacation Rentals (more about the house later) and let the kid-free weekend begin.  Bonus too, it turned out to be dog friendly so Daisy Dog got to come along.  Pubs, fragile-thing shops, long walks, leisurely dining, and other things that are hard to do with two young kids were the agenda and pretty much no plan that we had to follow.  It was wonderful.

Manzanita Beach from above

Manzanita Beach

The house that we rented “Davenport Sunset” was a complete trip.  It was build circa 1972 and hadn’t been updated since – not anything.   It was such a complete experience – the carpet, all the furniture, the decorations, even the smell all came together perfectly to create an absolutely honest retro experience.  The only new (by two decades) were the TV and some of the silverware – seriously it was incredible.

Sunset Davenport

Sunset Davenport (photo altered)

Davenport Sunset - Kitchen

Davenport Sunset - Horse Art

Sunset Davenport - Owl Art

I forgot to take a picture of the bedroom – imagine blue shag carpet.  Nice.

But beyond the house, we had an amazing time and returned to the realities of parenthood refreshed and reconnected with eachother.  We’ve already started talking about where we’ll go next.