Hey guys! I’m sure a lot of you know Friday was my birthday! It was a great birthday and I had a wonderful weekend so I thought I’d recap it here in case you were interested. I’ve never done one of these recaps via Instagram but I’ve seen other’s do it and wanted to try. Also, stay tuned at the bottom of this post for, not one, but two announcements about Instagram! Get excited!

Birthday Weekend Recap:

A photo posted by Charlene Maugeri (@charlenemaugeri) on Jan 8, 2016 at 9:29am PST

It rained all day Friday and I had no desire to go out. I just wanted to stay home and read while curled up next to the fire.

Earlier when it was raining, I just wanted to stay home & read. But I’m having a dance party while getting ready & now I’m excited to go out

— Charlene Maugeri (@CharleneMaugeri) January 8, 2016

But I turned on some music and got pretty pumped as I was getting ready.

Pretty proud of my arm party and nails for my birthday dinner. ??⌚?? #handsinframe

A photo posted by Charlene Maugeri (@charlenemaugeri) on Jan 8, 2016 at 3:09pm PST

Pearson and I went to The Cheesecake Factory which has become sort of a tradition for my birthday. Cheesecake is my favorite kind of dessert and I love their burgers. The prices and the wait times make this a special occasion place for us and what better occasion than my birthday, right?

Chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday! ??#cheesecake #chocolatechipcookiedough #WhereIsPenny

A photo posted by Charlene Maugeri (@charlenemaugeri) on Jan 8, 2016 at 5:07pm PST

We walked around Barnes & Noble and a couple other places in the mall after dinner before heading home and watching The Mindy Project all night.

On Saturday we finally took down our Christmas decorations… We decided a couple years ago to wait till after my birthday and it stuck.

We put away our Christmas decor today. A couple years ago we decided to make it a tradition to wait till after my birthday (yesterday) because we’re always gone so much in December and we don’t get to enjoy it. It feels good to have it down and to have a fresh new look in the living area, though. #tradition #MaugeriWinter2K15 #MaugeriHolidays2K14

A photo posted by Charlene Maugeri (@charlenemaugeri) on Jan 9, 2016 at 2:20pm PST

Saturday night we went to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged. A friend who was in The Music Man with me was in it and it was awesome! If you’ve never seen this show, I highly recommend it! I’ve seen it on DVD but this was my first time seeing it live. We were all in stitches! If you’re in the Columbus area, you have one more weekend to see Madlab’s production! Here are the details. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!

Loved the The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged tonight! #willyshakes

— Charlene Maugeri (@CharleneMaugeri) January 10, 2016

Sunday started out as a normal Sunday, but we got an inch or so of snow and for some reason that caused the power in our church building to go out. I went to a baby shower in the afternoon and as everyone at the shower were members of our church, we all found out together that they couldn’t get the power back on and that evening service was cancelled.

There’s nothing better than curling up in front of the fire on nights like tonight. We’re enjoying our electric fireplace that Pearson’s parents gave us for Christmas! #ItsABeautifulWinter

A photo posted by Charlene Maugeri (@charlenemaugeri) on Jan 10, 2016 at 6:09pm PST

So when I got home from the shower, Pearson and I had a relaxing evening at home consisting of Netflix and our latest reads!

All in all, it was a pretty great weekend! Now on to the announcements…

Introducing #MyMarriageEndures

You guys I am so excited for this! As you could probably guess, Instagram is my favorite social media tool. And as you should also know, I re-branded my blog at the beginning of this year and I want to focus on building a marriage that endures everything. So why not bring that to Instagram?

I’ve created the hashtag #MyMarriageEndures for anybody to use on any marriage related Instagram posts (especially posts about working on your marriage or getting over obstacles etc.)! One of the reasons I love Instagram so much is because of the community that hashtags can create. I will be checking out the hashtag often and I’ll certainly like and comment and I might even repost my favorites! Let’s celebrate building a marriage that endures anything together!

Also Introducing #LoveBlog

Here’s something else I’m really excited for: Brita of BelleBrita.com and I will be hosting the #LoveBlog Instagram challenge in February. Download the picture above and post on Instagram throughout the month using these prompts. Be sure to follow both of us on Instagram and us the hashtag #LoveBlog on all your posts for a chance be be featured on one of our blogs! 

Along with the Instagram challenge, Brita is hosting a blog challenge in February in which she will blog everyday in February based on these prompts (some of the prompts are slightly different between Instagram and Blogging). Each prompt will be a link up on her blog and I will be co-hosting some of the days along with a lot of other great bloggers! So head over to Brita’s introductory post for more information and I hope you’ll join us on both Instagram and your blog!

So I hope you had as good a weekend as I did and I’ll see you on Instagram!