The Saturday 7

1. We're making progress on the summer bucket list. Last Saturday we went to a Whitecaps' game. Lucy loved it - mostly because we went with a group and got tons of free food and little trinkets: bubbles and glow sticks and cookies galore! My mom and sisters were there, so I don't think I watched a single minute of the game, but we had a blast. As we were leaving, Lucy said, "We should do that again someday!" Haha.

On the morning of Independence Day, Justin took Lucy fishing. This is how it went:

Lol - she fell in the water and was not a happy camper. 

2 events crossed off the bucket list!

2. I pinned an article on Pinterest this week from a couple who have gone on a weekly date night every week of their 8 year marriage. The article was a bunch of creative date ideas. The people obviously have money, but I liked a lot of their ideas. Anyway, she linked to some other blogs and got me looking at all these lists of date ideas (obviously written by women). So many of them are so cheesy. I can't imagine Justin ever doing anything like this: bake together, build a snowman and sip hot chocolate together, make handmade cards together (?!) . . . gag. So I got to thinking that it'd be interesting to see a man make a list of creative date ideas. But then I decided a man's list would just be many variations of one specific deed. Men!

3. Lena has been suuuuuper attached to me lately. She freaks out any time I leave her line of vision. And you can forget about anyone else holding her!  Today we went to a lake with Justin's parents. His mom was holding Lena while Justin, Lucy, and I paddled across the lake. We got about half-way (it's a small lake), when I heard screams echoing across the water. Lena decided she'd had enough of Grandma. As soon as I took her back, she stopped crying, sighed, and laid her head down on my shoulder as if to say, "I thought you abandoned me forever. Don't ever leave me again!" Haha. My hopes for getting away for our anniversary are looking slimmer and slimmer!

4. We had a fabulous 4th. My friend Becky brought her kids over. Lucy adored playing with them all day, and they are such good, sweet kids. We never had to referee or entertain them. They played so nicely together!

5. I was inspired by this beautiful pinterest post for my 4th of July baking:

This was a minute after we made them:

This was 5 minutes after we made them:

Lol. Pinterest fail!

6. We didn't do much with the letter N this week. I had big intentions of going on a nature walk, and picking up grass and twigs and stuff to make a nest, but it rained a lot, and then we had the 4th, and then I was just feeling lazy. I printed off a picture of Fancy Nancy for Lucy to paint. She painted her completely black. Haha. Not very fancy.

7. My Aunt Claudia sent me the sweetest hand-written letter a couple weeks ago about motherhood and raising kids and comparing ourselves to others. One day this week, we were facebook chatting and she mentioned that when she's tempted to compare herself, she "takes every thought captive" and stops that line of thinking in its tracks. I thought that was such good advice - and something I've been trying to implement. When I start comparing myself, I stop, ask God to help me take my thoughts captive, then do my best to replace them with something else. I tell myself that I am a good mom/wife/whatever, God chose me to be these girls' mom, and even better than that - he chose me to be his child. Not only that, but he delights in me. He actually likes me, despite my failures! And despite my pinterest fails and parenting fails and marriage fails. Another thing I've been working on is stopping the negative self-talk. Until recently, I've just considered that psychologist psychobabble, but I've noticed that I get so depressed every night, laying in bed thinking, "I didn't do the laundry today. I didn't do my devotions today. I didn't sing with Lena today." Instead, I try to think of what I did do. "I gave Lena a bath. I read to Lucy. I swept the floor. I made a decent dinner." It seems kind of obvious, but it has helped!