Happy Friday! For some reason, I love Fridays, even though they are often very similar to the other days of the week for me. Maybe one reason I love them is because it means Michael will be home for the weekend, and that’s always an exciting thought around our house.

Tonight I had a Creative Memories workshop, so Laura and I were excited to get out and get working on our scrapbooks. Before we got to the workshop we made a few other stops, including a little shopping trip to Meijer. They were having a big clothing clearance sale, and we were able to get some things for some great prices. Probably my favorite item is a pair of overalls decorated with rhinestones. They are size 6, for Amelia, and they match exactly a pair we got for Laura there a few weeks ago. It will be fun to see the girls in matching overalls. Hopefully I can get a photo and post it here for you to see.

We had such a nice time at the workshop, and we would probably still be there now (after midnight) if we hadn’t gotten a warning message from my sister’s husband to be aware that ice was starting to form. We are on the edge of a major ice storm that is just to the south of us. We don’t know exactly what the weekend will bring. We may get iced in, or we might just get to read about the bad weather that missed us. For some reason our town often gets skipped when there’s exciting weather happening in Illinois. It often veers to the north or the south and we just get to hear about all the adventures everyone else is having.  (I just read this on our local newspaper’s website:  The worst could be south and north of the state’s center. Chris Geelhart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, said the St. Louis area could get more than an inch of ice from the storm that extended all the way to Texas.  Chicago could get 6 to 8 inches of snow.  See…it’s not just my imagination!  It really happens!  All the exciting stuff skips us. 

Tonight my niece, Naomi, arrived for a visit. She is working in Chicago for a few months, so she took the train down for the weekend. She’s a favorite here, and all the kids were excited to hear that Naomi was coming. For that matter, I was excited too! Naomi is a breath of fresh air and brings a spirit of pleasantness everywhere she goes.

Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, Laura and I will head back to the second half of the scrapbooking workshop. Hopefully I can slip away even earlier and go for my traditional Saturday-morning coffee and cinnamon roll at Kelly’s Bakery. Yum!

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll tour a house that Naomi’s parents are considering buying if they move to this area. We’re eager to see if it’s something they’ll like, and they are so glad that Naomi can be here to give her opinion.

Tomorrow evening we’re having supper at some friends’ house. It will be a perfect way to wrap up the day.

Sunday will hopefully bring a day of worship and rest as we gear up to leave on our trip to Virginia and then Orlando starting very early Wednesday morning. The children started packing their suitcases earlier in the week, and every day we must calculate exactly how many days before we leave. Every day Miguel asks, “NOW can we go to Disney?” He doesn’t seem to understand what I mean when I give him a number of days. Fortunately, he does seem to understand the progression of our trip. He knows we’re going to go see Grammy and Grandma Jo first before we end up at Disney.

I hope you have a good weekend. Ours is certainly a busy one!