The Saturday 7

1. Last weekend was Ladies' Retreat with church. It was a blast as usual. We stayed up way too late, did some shopping, ate lots of good food, went out to eat a couple times, oh and went to a couple sessions. :-) We also played some hilarious games. 4 on a Couch is always a favorite. We had some new people this year  who made it really fun. And we did a scavenger hunt in the dark. I was running all over the place like a crazy person and was sore for dayyyys afterward. We came in dead last, so it wasn't even worth it! Haha.

2. The thing about vacation is I always expect to come back feeling refreshed and renewed. But that rarely happens. After ladies' retreat, I was definitely very happy to see Lucy, but I feel like I was a worse mother than usual this week! I don't know if Lucy hit the terrible twos all of a sudden or if she was just testing the limits or what, but she was absolutely out of control. On Monday, Justin went to a soccer game, so Lucy had spaghettios for dinner, then we got ready to bring a meal to my cousin who just had a baby. Lucy spilled spaghettios all over her shirt, so I told her she had to change and she absolutely lost her mind. I had to pin her down to get thenew shirt on and she screamed psychotically for the next half an hour. I had to use all my muscle to get her strapped in her carseat. Once I had her in, she started screaming so hard she made herself puke!! Fortunately, I heard it coming and caught it in a nearby blanket. She did the same thing again the next day because she didn't want to take a nap - screamed absolutely out of control for an hour, and ended up making herself puke. Grrr. I did not handle it particularly gracefully. Fortunately, there haven't been any more screaming fits of that caliber since Tuesday, but I know once could pop up at any time. Haha.

3. Here's some happier Lucy news. On Tuesday, my sister texted me that Once Upon a Child had a white, wooden toddler bed for $25. That's exactly what I've been looking for, so I had her snatch it up for me. We brought it home on Thursday, and Lucy was so excited. She went on and on about how she was going to sleep in her big girl bed because baby sister has to sleep in the crib now. So cute.

I wasn't actually going to start the transition just yet, but I figured I better capitalize on her excitement. I hope I don't jinx myself by saying this, but it has seriously been the easiest transition ever. Feel free to skim the next paragraph. It's just for my records.

The first night, she laid right down, cried once because she wanted her stuffed puppy, then went right to sleep with the puppy tucked under arm. At 12:30, Justin and I were sound asleep when all of a sudden a little voice came from right next to the bed, saying "Daaaady?" We both about jumped out of our skin. Haha. Justin put her back in bed and she went right to sleep. At 2:30 I heard her crying, so I jumped up and intercepted her before she could get out of bed. I rubbed her back and she went back to sleep. At 5, she appeared in our room again saying, "Me fall down!" Haha. Apparently she fell out of the bed, but she wasn't too upset. She slept 'til 8 am that morning, which is pretty normal for her. I was really worried about naptime (considering some of our nap struggles of late), so I kept her up later than usual so she'd be good and tired. She was all excited to take a nap in the big girl bed, laid right down, and slept soundly for 2 hours! Then last night (night 2), she went to sleep without a peep at 8:30 and didn't budge til 9:00 this morning! I was shocked when I realized what time it was! So proud of her.

4. I don't have any recipes to share this week. I was incredibly lazy, and we were unusually busy, so I think I cooked once this week. Last night, I was exhausted after a long week, and decided I'm going to claim birthday weekend this weekend since my birthday falls in the middle of next week. I told Justin I wasn't cooking, so he either had to make me something or buy me something. He made me leftover tater-tot casserole that has been in our fridge for a week. Haha. Maybe I should've just cooked . . .

5. I worked in the church office on Thursday. It was the best day ever. I did all the work Pastor Ken gave me, then had lots of time to spare using the fast Internet. Jill Miller came in with a pan of amazing cinnamon rolls. The vending machine guy came to refill the machines and gave me a Zinger that got smashed. My brother even came in and offered to buy me a fountain pop, but I had brought a couple 20 ounces with me. I'd get so fat if I worked there full time!! Mmm. Fat and happy! ;-)

6. I can't think of 7, and this is already really long, so I'm just going to finish with this one (which is going to be long as well - imagine that!). I've really been struggling with what to do about day care. I honestly have tried, and can't get the application to work. I feel like God keeps setting up roadblocks. I've been begging and begging him to tell me what to do, but I just kept thinking of the same 2 verses over and over: "Be still and know that I am God." (Ps 46:10) and "I will fight for you. You need only to be still." (Exodus 14:14). Of course I question if those verses popped in my head because God put them there or if it's just me taking the easy way out - like, "Oh, God told me to be still. I don't have to do anything." Anyway, I got to the ladies' retreat on Friday night and discovered that the theme was "Be still and know that I am God." Honestly, I don't feel like the speaker really touched on that theme very often, but it was coincidence enough that I felt like God was really telling me just to stop striving and start trusting. So I decided to stop worrying about the daycare application and just wait for a while for something else to happen. I didn't have to wait long.

On Monday, I got a phone call from a random number. I never answer my phone if I don't know who it is, but for some reason, I thought I recognized the number, so I answered it. It was a lady who had gotten my number from a friend at church looking for someone to watch her 5 month old daughter. It turns out she lives 3 miles from me (my biggest concern with daycare is that no one will want to bring their kids all the way out to the boonies where we live), and doesn't care that I'm not licensed. She came over later that day and we discussed details. She said she'd call me in a couple days. When she hadn't called by Thursday, I figured she must have found someone else. But she called yesterday and said she wants me to do it . . . starting Monday!

Part of me is terrified to add another kid to my menagerie. I'm having a hard enough time with the 2 I currently watch (including my own - haha). But this baby will only be part time. And we honestly can't survive on the income I'm currently making. I feel like I asked God what he wanted me to do and he gave me a crystal clear answer. So, if he's going to provide the kid, he'll provide the strength and energy to go along with her, right? :-)

Oh my goodness. I should've made that a separate post. Well, as usual, you get 10,000 bonus points for making it to the end of this entry! Have a great week!