Happy Friday! It’s been a very productive week with my kitchen make-over project going at light speed. The other highlights from the week included a book club dinner meeting. This month’s book was The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown it was my pick and I lead the moderation. I did a review on the book several months ago here. Our next book is The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah, which made The Top Books of 2105 here. My husband, Kerry, is traveling more and while he was gone I took the kiddos to Barnes and Noble for an afternoon. My house is feeling cluttered and while we were at Barnes and Noble I wanted to skim through some pages of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo to see if I could glean any golden nuggets. One of the tips, actually, let me rephrase that – one of the absolutely fundamental requirements to permanent tidiness, is to physically touch every object that is a candidate for the donate/recycle/trash pile. Marie says that you must hold the object (a piece of clothing, a book, a birthday card) in your hands to determine if you feel “a spark of joy” from it. If you do, keep it. If not, discard it with complete ruthlessness. I’m going to blog more about the art of decluttering, but I need to start in my own house first. Have a wonderful weekend xo

{my sweetie is turning 4 in February, this is the photo I used for her birthday card invitations – and p.s. I didn’t ask her to put her hands on her hips, she’s got attitude}

{i heart snow and we got 7 inches of the white fluffy stuff which made me HAPPY}

{hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and whipped cream is a must after playing in the snow}

{I regret to inform you that the much anticipated ballet recital didn’t turn out as expected. Upon arriving at the theatre, Catherine refused to dance. Twelve weeks of ballet class down the drain, but we get to keep the tutu}