Friday Faves Edition 49

Friday.

I hope that you all have had a beautiful week. I also hope that you have had more sunshine than me (unless, of course, you don’t love sunshine…and then I hope you’ve had whatever weather lifts your spirits). This was a long week to Friday. The teens haven’t been to school for the ENTIRE week. As I mentioned in Monday’s post, and you probably already know, it was a holiday in the United States. Tuesday had already been scheduled as a day off for students and a day of work for teachers to finish up the end of the quarter grades.

The little snow symbol kept coming and disappearing on my weather app. Would it come? Would it pass?

The snow came…

Its last minute decision to actually show up meant that the phone call to close school came in the early morning. 5:21 a.m. on my phone, to be exact. Since it wasn’t planning to melt and the roads would be icy…no school on Thursday. I was hoping for a 2 hr delay for today. But nope! Canceled again!

The teens being home means that most things take me longer because things are more chaotic in general. Music playing, people talking, food to be made, wet clothes to dry, snow and salt and mud to clean (from boots and dogs, mostly).

 

Friday Faves.

But I definitely found time to embrace some things to share for my Friday Faves.

On Monday, the hubby and I went out to lunch at the Green Goat Restaurant, here in Roanoke. I checked out their menu ahead of time since this is my month of going vegetarian. I remembered having had (and liking) the eggplant fries and a Crankpin wrap (lightly breaded portabella mushrooms constitute the “meaty” portion of the wrap), so I knew I would choose that again.

The restaurant is located beside the Greenway, which lends itself to eating outdoors when the weather is warmer. The hubby has actually joined in this challenge so he got their 3 cheese veggie sandwich and we split our dishes. With no room for dessert, we called it a success, left to brave the frigid cold…all the way to the Jeep….and then to settle into the warmth of the house.

Tuesday, I put together the post about the Paul Villinski exhibition at the Taubman Museum of Art. As mentioned above, everything took twice as long due to teens being home. I also started editing my photos for Wednesday’s Photowall post, since I had put my canvas print together over the weekend.

I’m so glad that I put that “ahead of time” work into Wednesday’s post because a good snow requires some time out playing in it.

Snow.

The snow wasn’t that deep, but it was enough for Miss Sunshine and me to go to a nearby hill and take down the snow tube. I shared a video of me flying down the hill on my Instagram story. It’s still in the highlights if you are interested in watching.

Well… then she took me over to the next hill. She tells me that you have to slow yourself down a little toward the end to keep from flying into the ditch. It isn’t a deep ditch…maybe a couple feet. I didn’t record this ride because my phone got covered in snow on the last one and I didn’t want to damage it.

I start down…about halfway down I start trying to dig in my feet. The thing about tubes is they spin. I see Miss Sunshine at the top of the hill… I’m not stopping… I yell… “Mis-s S-u-n-s-h-iiii-N-E” (only I use her real name, which slightly shorter, but you get the gist). Oh no, I feel myself flying up over the rise…I know what’s coming… My life is flashing before my eyes (a bit melodramatic?! Yeah, my husband accuses me of that too). I land on my back. The wind should be knocked out of me. I lay there assessing. My wrists hurt. I must have caught myself with them. My left shoulder hurts. I turn my head to the left and see grass poking out of the snow. Ahh… a mound that was higher is what my shoulder landed on. The base of my skull hurts…the last to land.

Miss Sunshine yells down “Are you OK?” She isn’t 100% sure I’m conscious (it really wasn’t that bad of a landing, I just didn’t get up immediately because I’m 40 and things hurt a little more when they are crashed upon….plus… I may have been being a little melodramatic because she had sent me spiraling toward my death). She asks me to head to the next hill. I decline but say that I will go get my camera to take some photos and watch her do the final hills.

Photos.

I’m still sifting through my handful of snow photos, but I thought I’d share a few of them. On our walk back home, I was fiddling with something and dropped my glove. I liked how it landed to appear as if there was someone clawing their way out from beneath the snow.

Filter.

The next two photos are to share how much a filter can change a photo. The photo above I took to capture the fact that the sun just could not break through the clouds. Miss Sunshine was wearing ski goggles and commented on how amazing the sun looked trying to peek through the haze. Then she took her goggles off and realized it did not look exactly the same. She handed me her goggles to check out what she saw.

Through the Ski Goggles.

Looking through the ski goggles definitely created a different image. Her goggles are small so the distortions at the edges were the only way to actually capture the scene and see the difference a filter makes.

I know that I’m always most amazed by the sky when my sunglasses have amber tinted lenses.

Have you ever noticed the color difference in the sky between sunglasses or not? Or the different colored lenses of sunglasses?

Exercise.

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention anything about the gym. I’ve been trapped! Cabin fever! I shoveled the snow from our entire driveway. I have three teens who could have done it. Two of which are strapping young men, who stand over 6′. I needed to do it. I could feel my anxiety rising and it helped burn through some of it. Then today, I got to go to Pilates! My first time in the gym all week. I will probably hurt tomorrow.

Travel.

In yesterday’s post on our hotel stay in Edinburgh, I mentioned that one of the major things I’d been working on was travel plans. While my mother and I are still working out the plans for a trip together, it is looking like it’s firming up to be a return trip to Scotland.

However, we did firm up spring break! Just like that gloved hand saying “get me outta here”…. we decided we wanted a warm weather vacation.

So we’re going to Aruba!!!

Even though I was born and raised in Florida, I have no recollection of crystal clear water. I grew up on the Gulf Coast, where the water appears. blue-gray. Once, I traveled to Key Largo and snorkeled in the canal behind the house, but don’t remember much about the water beyond that. Finally, I lived on the East Coast of Florida and only recall one day out on the boat where you could see down into the depths, but never at the shoreline. To say that I am excited is an understatement.

I will be bringing lots of sunscreen because not only did I come out of the womb pale, my legs have been hidden from sunlight since there was even a glimpse of winter on the horizon.

Any tips for a Caribbean vacation?

Music.

Of course, you have to already know what song I have picked. As soon as we decided on our travel plans, it popped into my head and the singing has been going on ever since.

Aruba, Jamaica… Ooh, I wanna take ya…

Bermuda, Bahama, c’mon pretty mama…

I actually saw the Beach Boys in concert when we lived in Florida and had annual passes to the theme parks.

We are continuing to thaw out and should see warm weather this weekend! I hope that you find a moment that warms your heart in the coming week.

Even if your body wants to rebel, I hope you get out there and find the freedom of adventure that you had as a child. You might find yourself landing in a ditch, but it’ll be exhilarating until then. 😉

 

Let your light shine!

Amy