Stressful Week, Awesome Weekend

So last week was tough for me.  The company I work for went through a Reduction in Force last week that was focused mainly on the US.  We knew it was coming and had known for almost 2 weeks, but we didn't know who exactly would be affected, of course.  We all finally found out on Thursday and my team was affected pretty strongly.  I won't go into details, but it was very sad.  I am fortunate to still have my job and this week we will learn more about how thing are changing for those of us still around.

So I really needed a good weekend to take my mind off things, and I got it.  We took the kids up to my parents' cabin Friday night.  The weather wasn't great yesterday.  It was cloudy and windy most of the day, but the kids really wanted to get in the water.  So we let them.  They stayed really shallow and pretty much ran around in the water a bit.  They both agreed it was freezing though.  Then at the end of the day I got the chance to get in the very cold lake.  The kids has been playing with some blow up toys.  They had all been on the shore when Mackenzie and I headed to Cadwell's to see when Emma was going to be up north.  When we got back to my parents they were about 5 cabins down and in the middle of the lake.  Grandma suggested we just let them go, but Isaac was not pleased with that.  I figured if the kids could play in the water I could swim out and get the toys.  Wow, it was very cold.  My toes were numb by the time I got back to shore, but I am pretty sure Isaac will be asking me, "Remember the time you swimmed out and saved the toys?" for a while.  He was very appreciative.

I also got a chance to go to what is becoming my favorite quilt shop, Heritage Quilt Shop (http://www.heritagequiltshoppe.com/) in Gladwin.  Brian helped me pick out a possible backing fabric for my newest quilt, which will hopefully be on our bed soon and indulged me and let me buy two fabrics for my next project, which I only know will involve a lot of navy blue.  After two weeks stressing about whether I was going to have an income a tiny shopping spree felt pretty good.  We also bought some plants for Mom's planters at the cabin.  Of course we bought too much, so we got to take matching plants home to plant here.  The kids had a great time planting the flowers in Grandma's hanging planters after dinner and Mackenzie continued planting with Grandma yesterday evening and this morning.  She also helped Grandma prune some of her existing plants.  My kids love to prune!

Today it was much warmer.  The sun was out and it was beautiful.  The kids got in the water again before lunch.  They said that it was still freezing, but they were much braver and went out deeper and even jumped off the dock.  They spent the whole morning outside.  Isaac liked playing with the badminton rackets and birdies and the wiffle ball and bat.  He connected quite a few times with both of them.  Mackenzie was super excited when Grandma brought out the hammock.  Not to lay in and relax, but to swing in and flip over.

We headed home after lunch and when we got home we spent the rest of the afternoon outside.  We planted blueberry bushes, strawberry and rhubarb plants in our front yard where we took out some overgrown bushes last year.  Here it is very warm, so we were worn out after than and we had peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and apples for dinner before heading to bath and bed time.