Happy Friday! Even though this was a short school week, Friday still feels good! I am linking up with Erika, Narci, and Andrea to share my favorites from this week!

Favorite 1: RUNNING!! I’ve started running a little more than a mile a day to keep my run streak going and it feels so good! I ran my Zooma LoveRun 5K outside last Friday. Oh, how I love when it is warm enough to run outside!

I ran a few treadmill miles on our Wednesday snow day and on Thursday evening while Luke swam.

Favorite 2: BOOKS!! I read The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory this week. I had a bunch of time to read with our time off school so I was able to read it pretty quickly. It was totally not what I expected. I didn’t read anything about it but I’d heard good things about The Wedding Date, also by Guillory, so when I had an opportunity to read it for free I jumped. This book was nothing what I expected. I was expecting a wedding planning story and it surely wasn’t! The two main characters, Nik and Carlos, meet each other when Nik is proposed to in a terrible way and Carlos helps her to escape the situation. As you may have guessed, Nik and Carlos start dating. It’s a good story. I really liked all of Nik and Carlos’ friends and they way that they influence the story. I will say there were some racier scenes than I was expecting or usually read, but it didn’t take away from the story. I give it ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ I started reading Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One by Raphaelle Giordano. It is a French bestseller described as a “charming, feel-good, and universal story of one woman’s journey from boredom and dissatisfaction to happiness and true fulfillment” and it was recommended at the publisher book talk I attended in December. At first I was struggling to get into the book, but now that I am in chapter seven it is picking up. The first few chapters read like a self-help book and I was looking for a realistic fiction novel I could relate to. The character is 38 and a quarter (I am 38 and a quarter) and trying to figure out how to be as happy and fulfilled as she can. Sounds like a good goal to me! I’ll let you know what I think. I also read the third book in the Peachtree Bluff series by Kristy Woodson Harvey. The Southern Side of Paradise is so good! I recommend all three books! Go ahead and read the first two so you are ready when book three comes out on May 7th!!

Favorite 3: SWIMMING!!! Jack and Luke had a swim meet this weekend and they were amazing!! Both boys had some best times and placed in their events!! Jack got his first winter swim first place in 100 backstroke!! He was over the moon excited, and I was too!!

Luke got 3rd in 25 butterfly and dropped 5 seconds! He also scored a goal in soccer with a powerful free kick Saturday morning!

Favorite 4: SNOW DAYS! We had a snow day on Wednesday and it was a good one! There was enough snow to sled and play in before it started sleeting and freezing raining. We watched a movie, ate yummy snacks, and hung out together. I am hoping this will be our last snow day so that we can spend more time at the pool in the summer, but the weather isn’t up to me I guess!

Favorite 5: SUNSHINE!! It seems a little silly to put this right after my snow day favorite, but the Maryland weather is all over the place. Last Friday, we had great weather and sunshine. We ended up with a driveway full of neighborhood kids playing basketball, riding scooters and bikes, and running races. I was loving it!Then on Thursday, the day after our snow day, the sun was shining bright again. Jack and Luke decided to be teammates for their swingset American Ninja Warrior course. I kept the back door open for some fresh air and listened to them laugh and cheer each other one while I made lunches for Friday. It was a great afternoon!!Little boys with their hats backwards give me all the heart eyes!!

Throwback Favorite: FUN!! 3 years ago, we went on a winery bachelorette party and had so much fun!! This was most definitely not our first winery, but it also wasn’t our last. 😂

The 9 of us laughed and tasted all kinds of wine all day and late into the night.

Have a great weekend full of sunshine and books!