1. H-O-M-E
It’s SO good to be H-O-M-E!! After a 10-day trip to Israel and Italy with little sleep, long days, and staying at multiple hotels along the way, I was so excited to arrive back home on Tuesday evening and be able to sleep in my own bed, snuggled next to my husband.
It was SO good to have the opportunity to go on this trip, but it’s also SO good to be HOME with my people. I realized just how much I love our quiet, simple life. This Year of Rest has made me savor life more and savor a slow pace with lots of room to be and breathe. I didn’t get much of that on my trip and oh how I missed it.
2. A Night of Fun
We celebrated my return home with go-kart racing, arcades, and dinner/s’mores at a really fun restaurant.
I’m so thankful for the sacrifices all of my people made to make this trip a possibility. Jesse not only ran the house, homeschooled the kids, and took the kids to all their activities, but he also spent countless hours on the phone listening to me and encouraging me through the highs and lows of the trip.
Our wonderful friend, Brian, who is not only on our team but also one of our dearest friends, took over many of my business responsibilities so I could mostly be unplugged, babysat our kids multiple times so Jesse could get a break, and kept me encouraged and laughing with his text messages throughout each day.
I’m so humbly grateful to get to do life with these people. Also, I may be a speed demon on a go-kart. 
I’m quite confident that this book will be in my top 10 books read in 2016 list this year because it is just THAT good.
I hadn’t heard of Amy Cuddy or seen her TED talk before reading this book… I just happened to randomly pick it up because the title intrigued me. And I’m SO glad that I did — because it messed with me in such a profound way.
I shared on this scope how it changed the way that I approached engaging and interacting with people on my Israel/Italy trip and how it made such a difference for me. I’ll probably share a post with more in-depth takeaways in the near future.
4. Remembering Back to the Early Years of Marriage
A friend sent this picture to me this week of when our second daughter was a baby and Jesse sort of looked like he hadn’t even gone through puberty yet.
When I first saw this picture, it took me a few seconds to even realize that was Jesse! He was fresh out of law school, we had just moved to Kansas City for job that only lasted for a short while, finances were tighter than tight, and we were both trying to figure out anything we could do to keep our bills paid and stay out of debt.
This was also right around the time when I started MoneySavingMom.com as a little side project to try to help supplement our income. Little did we know that that little side project would change the trajectory of our lives!
5. Breaking Out of Ruts and Discovering New Things I Love
While I’m SO happy to be home, I’m missing much of what I experienced in Israel — especially the amazing authentic food.
I’ve never been one who is much of a foodie, but after days and days of eating incredible 6-course meals and hot-off-the-brick-oven food and experiencing so many delicious combinations and varieties and colors, I realize that I’ve become more adventuresome when it comes to food.
I may also: have woken up the past few mornings craving croissants and fancy coffee, want to put a brick oven in our backyard, wish I could figure out how to make really authentic hummus, be looking for a recipe for Israeli pitas, want to try new and unique local restaurants, and feel a little bit let down when there’s only one or two courses at a restaurant.
Either I’m more of a foodie than I thought, or I may have just discovered that there’s a whole lot of flavor and richness to be had when you break out of your ruts of always doing and eating the same things!
What are YOU loving this week? Tell us in the comments.
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