Too blessed to be stressed

OK, so maybe the bumper sticker expression went out of style years ago, but it's not a bad idea to remind yourself of the concept every once in a while, you know?  Things at both of our jobs continue to be pretty stressful, but we both feel blessed to still be collecting paychecks and regularly make decisions to be purposeful about being charitable with our giving.  And with a roof over our head, a happy marriage, and good health, well, you get the picture.
 
We are grateful for our loving families as well, in fact, we had a nice holiday weekend with the Barton's parents in town from Illinois.  They like to joke that they are always well fed when they come for a Michigan visit, and this time was no exception.  Friday night we dined at the Royal Kubo in Clawson, they even let me pick the Filipino fare to sample.  But there was no karaoke indulgence to be had, instead we headed up to Paciugo's for gelato, seriously good stuff, folks.  Saturday morning found us walking on Paint Creek Trail, so we just had a little breakfast & lunch at home before cleaning up and heading down to the DIA to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit, which we all enjoyed.  Afterwards we took them to Polish Village in Hamtramck for an early dinner, they couldn't believe the affordable prices or the line out the door at such an early hour.  We also stopped into the New Palace bakery to pick up a few sweet treats for later before ending the evening walking around downtown Royal Oak and cooling off with some refreshments outside of Bean & Leaf.  Sunday after church we enjoyed a delightful brunch at Josephine's in Ferndale, and in the afternoon we loaded up and headed to my parents house for a little family/friends barbecue, good times and good food!  Monday took on a slower pace, Mr & Mrs Mac headed to Somerset Mall, I stretched my legs with a bike ride before a little work (boo) and some errands in the afternoon before I left the crew with dinner in the fridge so I could visit for a couple hours with my friend Karin who was in town from Florida.  I arrived back home after an apparent Scrabble showdown (hubby won again, that bugger! :), just in time to join the group for a short walk to the local Dairy Queen.  They headed out Tuesday morning to zip up north for a quick trip in Traverse City before driving home.
 
Wow I should really buckle down on the whole calories in/calories out thing, I'm pretty sure that the yoga class that I forced my tired self to last night didn't quite cover the spread, but we had a good time and that is certainly something to be thankful for!