Dear Friends,

Hello again! As much as I enjoy organization, structure and planning, now that Get Healthy Month is over I admit it is really nice to have a whole month ahead of me with nothing specific planned for the blog. The one thing missing from the month of sharing health and diet information was the details from my personal life that I usually include in all of my blog posts, and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been up to at my house over the last few weeks!

Just before the start of Get Healthy Month, and just before the start of the new school year, Michael and I celebrated the end of our summer with a special date night. I got to do the planning and surprise him, which I loved doing. He had to make the seven hour drive to take his daughter home, so while he was gone I set to work shopping, preparing some yummy food, and decorating his back porch. He had just done a lot of work cleaning it up, washing furniture and cushions, and installing carpet squares. So I picked up some string lights and candles to make it cozy.

I borrowed his staple gun and hung, re-hung, then re-hung the lights one more time, until I had them perfect. I brought over a patio cart from my house, then made us some charcuterie, a caprese salad, homemade salsa and tortilla chips, and chocolate covered strawberries. I also put together a fruity sparkling water drink that was pretty darn delicious!

On August 31st, I took my boys to St Louis where Hunter participated in an event called Paint Louis. Artists from across the US and Canada come to paint murals and graffiti on a mile-long stretch of the downtown river wall, and Hunter got to design and paint a mural…with a little help from Logan and me as well! It turned out wonderful, and someone who saw his work on social media reached out to me to hire him to do a mural for an arcade room at her house, which made Hunter feel super proud! He will get to work on that project in November.

Next up was a short weekend getaway for Michael and me on the last kid-free weekend we would have until October 19th, which came the weekend after Labor Day. We drove up to Chicago on Friday night, dropping my boys off with their dad on the way. Michael’s brother lives in the suburbs outside of the city, so we stayed Friday night with him, then went into the city on Saturday. We hit the aquarium, walked back up to the Magnificent Mile and saw the infamous Bean and Buckingham Fountain on the way, had dinner at Purple Pig, then a drink at the 360 bar on top of the Hancock building with views for miles. We had a hotel right downtown on Michigan Avenue, so we went back to our room for some downtime to ourselves, with a window seat looking out over the commotion down below. The next morning we met his brother and sister-in-law for breakfast before making the trek back home.

Since then, things have pretty well been chaos! We’ve had at least one of our kids, even on the weekends that were supposed to be kid-free (this coming up weekend included, as Hunter has to stay home from his dad’s for his very first high school Homecoming). The weekend after Chicago my boys and I had a camping and hiking weekend. The next weekend Mia, Michael’s daughter, came to town for a visit and joined my friend Erica and I at the theater to see Downton Abbey. Then last weekend we had a family day at the St Louis Zoo. Mia didn’t get to come but we had all of the boys…I was definitely outnumbered!

It took a three week wait after we got home from Chicago, but Michael and I finally got to squeeze in a date night (we normally have them once a week!) this past Sunday night at Top of the Marq for a glass of wine and some one-on-one time. It was so nice to get a little dressed up and have some uninterrupted time to talk, flirt, and focus only on each other in a beautiful historic building with a rooftop bar and restaurant.

And now here we are, back in the midst of a work-week. Michael usually has his son every other week, but he has him this week since his mom is out of town for work, which means we’re each operating on a full house for the second week in a row. My mom is also in town visiting and staying with the boys and me tonight. Tomorrow night Hunter has his confirmation at St Vincent de Paul. Thursday night Hunter gets his hair cut and I get my six-week color — which is actually at eight weeks because my stylist was all booked up and it is desperately in need of a touch-up!

Then Friday is Michael’s birthday (and also our six month anniversary), but Logan has to go to his dad’s for the weekend so I’ll be traveling to meet his dad and won’t see Michael until 9. But Hunter and I will stay the night with him and I’ll get to celebrate his birthday with him on Saturday. Hunter will be home for his homecoming dance, but while he’s at the dance I’ll make dinner for Michael — he requested crab legs, so I’m doing a seafood boil with crab legs, shrimp, red potatoes and corn on the cob — and a birthday cake.

On Sunday I will finally get a day of rest, then next week will be mostly back to normal for me — no more weeknight events on the calendar at least! But next Saturday Michael’s sister gets married, and Michael and both of his kids are in the wedding so it’ll be lots of dressing up and running around all day, followed by dinner, drinks and dancing all evening. The night after that Michael and I will get our next date night, and our schedule will finally go back to normal. That following weekend, October 19th, will be our first kid-free weekend since September 7th, and neither of us have any obligations, which means we have some time to ourselves to enjoy life for a couple of days and for that, we cannot wait!

Are you exhausted from reading this?! I think I got a little exhausted just from writing it! Life has been very full lately, and while I’m definitely ready for some downtime, I also have to admit that I’ve been enjoying the heck out of all of it. It’s finally October, my favorite month of the year, and I’m ready for the cooler temps (90’s still today, but 70’s finally coming this weekend!), the pumpkin patches and orchard visits, the baking and apple cider, and playing dress-up at the end of the month. This will be the first time ever that I’ve been able to do a couples costume and I’m pretty pumped about it! Michael and I already have our costumes picked out and ready to go!

After that comes the holidays and it warms my heart just thinking about it. I can’t wait to share so many things with you over the last few months of 2019. I wish all of you well, and will write again soon!

Love,
Loren