It's Friday; I'm in Love!

I don't have much in the way of Casual Fridays in my life.  I know we like to tout them as days of jeans and t-shirts, but on Fridays I volunteer at my children's school.  They have a very strict dress code, which is not casual in the least, and I'm there all day-8:15 to 3:15 without a break and it's a very demanding, exhausting day coming at the end of my regular work week.  Some of the children are absolute dolls who hug me and call me their school mom.  Others are unholy little goblins that I dislike.  Most of the goblins will probably grow out of it, I guess.  The point of all this is that school is hard for everyone no matter how old you are, so to celebrate the end of each week, my girls and I have come up with a new ritual.  Once we're out of the parking lot, we crank up The Cure's Friday, I'm in Love and sing!  I was never much of a fan of The Cure growing up and my girls dislike them immensely, but since they love me and they love Fridays at 3:16, they indulge me.  So, today's post in a little homage to Fridays, Blue Jeans, and being in love with life, the good, the bad, and the irritating.

 I think it's important to find reasons to celebrate good things even if they're small things.  We know all about the celebrations for really big stuff like a wedding or a birthday.  Then there are those time when we celebrate the medium things like promotions with dinner out or buying a really beautiful dress.  But I don't like to stop there.  I have several weekly traditions that help me find something to look forward to.  Wednesday is my phone call with my friend day.  Our schedules are pretty packed, but we set aside an hour or two to chat each Wednesday and my week just isn't the same with out it.  Thursdays are the unofficial end of my work week.  I still work on Friday and Saturday, but the really stressful part of my job is over with on Wednesday at 5:00p.m., so I celebrate the break on Thursdays with a slice of cheesecake or a really decadent lunch and a glass of wine. 

 As a kid our Friday nights were celebrated by heading straight from school to the video store to rent as many movies as our card allowed.  Next stop was the grocery store to buy all the ingredients for my mom's amazing homemade pizza and usually she'd let us pick out something sweet to go with it.  Then it was time to go home and get all our chores and homework done while mom got to work on the pizzas and we waited for dad to come home.  I don't remember what we watched—we pretty much watched everything during those years—all I really remember is how excited we all were each week and how anytime I stopped to look around every face in the room was eager and happy. 

This is a tradition I've carried on with my own children, although I'm far more selective about what movies we watch than my parents, or anyone's parents, were back then (can you believe I watched Robocop when I was like 6 or 7?!  It's so violent!).  And since I'm the one making the pizza now it does take a little of the joy out of it for me, but it's all worth it when I look around the room and see all the people I love are smiling.

How do you celebrate the end of the week?