Midweek Holiday

I accrue a day a pay period of vacation, but am capped so often lose time because I just can't get away from work to use it.  With less than three weeks, and two pay periods left at this job, I am making sure I don't lose anymore time so took today, and will take Monday (a new period) off. DH has every Thursday off because he works Saturday's.  Normally his Thursday is filled like my Saturday's with errands, household tasks, kid running, and maybe a bit of down time.  We decided to take advantage of a rare weekday off together sans offspring, and putter out and about.  We did nothing very special, and in that, it felt like a good day. 

We did some browsing in the home section in Kohls.  We had water damage a few years ago to our third level family room and bathroom, but haven't had the drive to rip up the water stained carpet, and complete some needed repainting.  We have budgeted and saved for it though.  I love Kohl's, and am absolutely crazy for their clearance area. Paired with a 30% off discount promotion, and the chance to earn Kohl's cash, and I could do some serious spending.  I found these gorgeous  toss pillows in a chevron blue pattern.  They had removable covers, so would be just perfect on a new coach (part of the saved money) in a creamy neutral color, in a newly refurbished family room.  There were also some cute  faux metal baskets with wood tops, "repurposed" for side tables.  They also would be very cute, and just the right thing to hold a beverage or a bowl of snacks while watching a movie. In the end, I refrained, and we walked out of the store with nothing in hand.

We took ourselves out for a frugal lunch, compliments of a $15 bonus card to a restaurant we had purchased a gift card to for DD#2's God parents at Christmas.  The bonus card had to be used by the end of the month.  We feasted on lunch entrées paired with a really great salad bar. This is my favorite place to eat salads as they have the good mixed greens and spinach, and not just the  tasteless iceberg lettuce bowl.  There were tons of gorgeous vegetables, and eggs, olives, and other toppings as well as some fruit and pasta salads.  It really was enough for a meal in itself, but I still managed to scarfed my crispy and hot French fries. I had a mini burger pair, and took one home, along with the biscuits they give you to nibble. I'll grab a yogurt and the leftover burger and have lunch sorted for tomorrow. With tip, lunch for two, with leftovers,  was under $15.00. They gave us a couple more coupons for buy one, get one 50% off.  I think I'll drop those off to the God parents and let their gift card stretch a bit further, probably into two nights out for them.

We ended our day seeing a matinee showing of American Sniper.  There is a lot of controversy over whether he was a glorified  killer or  a great American hero.  I don't understand the protests over the film, or the hate statements towards the actor and director. Clearly war is awful for all involved, and the movie did nothing to glorify war and violence, and made evidence that the mental scarring is very real. Not wanting to incite controversy on this blog, I'll wrap up this chapter.

There were probably a lot more interesting and worthwhile ways we could have spent this week day holiday, but it felt right for us today. Anyone who has kids at home knows finding couple time, more than a few hours, is a luxury in itself. We spent the day talking, and planning, and looking forward to what's next on the horizon.  We have no  plans or commitments tonight, so in about an hour I'll make us a simple supper-lunch will have been burned off by then, and pull the cork on a bottle of wine.  There's a Minnesota Wild hockey game on the television at 7:00 and a worn out couch in a dingy basement family room calling my name.  My kind of holiday.

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