redeeming

I'm not gonna lie-- overall, it was a pretty sucky week. The news from Tuesday pretty much shot the rest of the week and even though nothing else bad really happened, I've just been in a sad mood and...yeah, whatever.

I had high hopes for today, though. Like the past 2 summers, this summer my district is on a 4-day workweek. That means we work some LONG-ASS hours Monday through Thursday (7-5 with no lunch break and a 30 minute commute on each side) (don't judge me if you regularly work hours this long or way longer. This is long for me. And I make like $4 a day)...but we get every Friday off. Basically I hate this schedule Mondays through Thursdays, but really love it come Fridays. With the emotional drama of this past week, I was really needing today to be a great day so that I didn't have to go find a cliff to jump off or something. Luckily, the day pretty much delivered. That is why I will share with you some of the high points...so that you can't say "Erika does nothing but COMPLAIN all the time!" Because that's probably what you're thinking.

6:20 am- Wake up. This was me attempting to 'sleep in.' For what it's worth, it was a good 50 minutes later than I normally get to sleep. I tried to go back to sleep and it didn't happen, so I just got up and made coffee like a big girl.

7:00 am- Coffee, reading, and plant-enjoying on the back porch. See how the sunflower has opened up? I took some pictures with the Big Girl Cam, but haven't put them on the computer yet. So sorry.

8:00-9:30am- blog-reading, emails, Facebook and G-chat. If you haven't read Amanda's post on the Ideal Fertility Clinic already, you need to go do that immediately. I was seriously LOLing.


10am-noon- Coffee, chatting, and general shenanigans with Catherine (and a really cute 2-year-old).


1-2pm- Zumba. OMG can I please go to the during-the-day Zumba class every day? Talk about amazing. Enough personal space to actually not crash into people while you dance? Not already being exhausted from 10 hours of work before class even starts? It was like living a dream.

3-6pm- Recover from this really exhausting day by relaxing at the pool.

Image via

 I started and finished this book today and really enjoyed it. My mom has and loves all of the books in this series and lent them to me this summer. It's perfect mindless pool reading...and unlike on my Kindle, I can read them while floating. :)

7pm- ate Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Source: family.go.com via Erika on Pinterest

We'd thrown the ingredients in the crock pot before leaving for the pool and they were slap-your-grandma good. I pinned this 39 weeks ago (haha, thanks for telling me that, Pinterest) and it has been re-pinned 52 times since...and now that I've actually MADE it, I am happy to report that I have not led these re-pinners astray. YUMMY!! We will definitely be adding these into the rotation of super yummy, easy, and healthy dinners.

After dinner was a long walk (sans dogs) around the neighborhood, the nightly Watering and Inspecting of the Plants, and more reading/blogging. Oh, and we rotated the mattress on our bed...because we're wild and crazy on a Friday night like that.

Whew. That was detailed. But I needed to write it down because one day, when I am either rich and/or retired, this is how I'm going to operate every day. Because it was definitely working for me. A nice blend of relaxation and productivity. And the best part?? Technically, the weekend hasn't even started!!