You know what’s great about having weekend visitors? It makes it feel like you are on vacation too. Win!

My parents and sister came up from South Carolina to spend the weekend with Ayla us, and it was a great couple of days together with them. They came in late on Thursday night, so we spent a lazy morning over coffee, breakfast, and conversation the next day before going into the city for a lunch outing at Butchertown Hall (which has fast become one of our faves…the food is outstanding and the interior design feels like something right out of joanna gaines design book). We grabbed coffees and pastries after lunch and then settled back in at home for the rest of the day. Taco soup for supper, watching Woodlawn (really good, btw), sticky date cake for movie snack/dessert.

Saturday was such a lazy, relaxing day…well, at least for us girls. Ben and dad worked on finishing up the kitchen flooring and I love it! We still have some edging trim to finish it off, but we’re waiting to put that in until we get new carpet installed, hopefully within the next few weeks. The rest of us sat around with our books and magazines and it just literally felt like a vacation! Such a fun time. We had dinner at a friend’s house that evening before coming home to crawl into bed early since we were so exhausted from our lazy day, hehe.

Ben and I took advantage of the grandparents on Sunday morning and asked them to keep Ayla for us while we went out for a breakfast date. They so kindly obliged, and I think secretly liked that we were leaving them alone with their little grand-daughter for a few hours. We had breakfast at Steadfast Coffee, and the savory polenta porridge and poached egg/smashed avocado/pickled onion breakfast sandwich on brioche were some of the tastiest things we had all weekend. My family left for home a little before noon, and we spent the rest of the afternoon staying warm in front of the fireplace. According to the weather man, we were in for a big winter storm for the afternoon/evening, but it never really developed into anything much. But we soaked up the cozy day and the quality time together with my two favorites made it the sweetest Valentine’s Day yet.

What about you: what was the best thing about your V-day weekend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Our weekend was busy and full of house projects and trying to settle back in after being away on a work trip to New York for the past two weeks. While we were gone, my brother actually came and installed new kitchen cabinets for us and it felt like we walked into a brand new home when we came through the doors! I love the brightness that the white cabinets add to the our small space versus the orange-y brown ones that were really dated and also pretty grimy on the interiors. Now I really want to live in my kitchen, hehe. We are in the middle of putting in new flooring in the dining room and kitchen, and Ben worked on that most of the weekend. Our house was a little chaotic on Saturday, with all the dining room stuff crammed into the living room and laundry piles filling the hall way and cleaning buckets out trying to get rid of all the dust that covered everything from the cabinet installation and the tearing out of the tile flooring and hammering from the laminate being put down.

It was honestly kind of a weird Saturday for me, and I was feeling so annoyed and emotional at everything for no particular reason. We left in the afternoon to go find a love seat for our upstairs office/sitting room, and thankfully we found what we wanted at the first stop we made…but Ayla was in a fussy mood and she filled her diaper only five minutes into the trip (this happens all the time! it’s like the carseat is some kind of bowel relaxer or something…) and traffic was annoying me and it all culminated into an full meltdown when we discovered the restaurant we wanted to eat at had a ninety minute wait and I was so hungry that I wanted to eat anything in sight and Ayla was crying in the backseat and I was crying in the front seat and my dear husband did his best to calm us both down and I just felt like I don’t want to be an adult any more, ok? It was a doozy of a moment. Anyway, we managed to all calm down after a little while, and we changed our plans and grabbed dinner somewhere else (which was so yum, just not the burgers that we were majorly craving). And it was nice. Ayla made it through our meal without any major fusses (thanks to the dried sugar-free mango slices we give her to chew on…seriously, those things have been a lifesaver for eating out. it distracts her for a good twenty minute usually), although we did bail out pretty quickly once she started getting fussy at the end. She charmed the people around us by staring at them with the mango slice hanging out of her mouth and it looks so hilarious but people just think it’s cute.

Sunday was a gorgeous seventy-degree day in Nashville, and we had to get out for a nice walk around the lake at a park that’s about ten minutes from our house. It was so good to get out for some fresh air! I think it helped boost all of our spirits.

Best moment of my weekend: sitting on the couch next to Ben as he tells me about a beautiful, direct, and timely word that God spoke to his heart, and being reminded all over again that He cares for us so surely.
Best accomplishment of my weekend: finishing up the painting in our upstairs office/sitting room
Best taste of the weekend: the bites I had from Ben’s dinner of white bean cassoulet and lamb roast at Epice on Saturday night
Best laugh of the weekend: this video…hilarious and fascinating!

What about you: what was the best moment(s) of your weekend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!