The Saturday 7

1. We added another activity to our Summer Bucket List in Reverse: a Whitecaps game. Lucy got a free ticket for completing the summer reading program at the library, but there were only 3 dates to choose from. Justin drove by the ballpark Tuesday night and saw that Wednesday was "Princess Night" and it happened to be one of the dates available for Lucy's free ticket. We knew we couldn't pass that up! So Lucy dressed up in her princess garb, we left Lena with my parents, and we headed off to the game. Lucy was quite bored by the game, but she loved spotting all the princesses in the park. And I actually anticipated her boredom and brought a Junie B. Jones book, so we read in the grass while Justin watched the game. :-) Her favorite part was the 10 minute fireworks show at the end. Haha.

2. Thursday was my mom's birthday, and it worked out that all my siblings were available (unheard of!) so we all went out for dinner at Rio Grande. I ordered the Mac n' Cheese for Lucy, and when it came, there were fries on the plate with it. Libby said, "I hope those fries don't make her puke." Lucy's never eaten at Rio Grande before so I asked the waitress what the fries were fried in. She said it was some kind of vegetable oil, so I gave Lucy the go ahead to eat them. A few minutes later, the waitress literally came running back to our table frantically saying that they fry them in soybean oil. We all laughed and assured her that Lucy wasn't going to die, but she would probably puke. Sure enough, two minutes later, Lucy filled an entire glass with puke. Poor kid. She was fine immediately after puking, though, and proceeded to down her entire helping of mac n' cheese.

3. I realized this week that I found out I was pregnant with the baby I lost before Lena when Lucy was almost exactly 19 months old. Well Lena is 19 months old today and I can't imagine wanting to be pregnant yet! Haha. Don't get me wrong. I do want more babies. Just not for a while. Lena keeps me on my toes. I am not ready to be pregnant and chasing her around. Oy. 

4. I started a new blog this week. You know what they say. One can never have too many blogs! Haha. I wanted a separate blog to devote to my homeschooling stuff, so I don't clutter this one up with it. I'm probably going to be annoying and pin all of my entries in an effort to get some readership. I'm thinking about trying my hand at monetizing it with ads, but it has to be operational for 6 months first. We'll see . . . Anyway, you can check it out here, if you so desire. So far there's no new content that hasn't been on this blog. Once we actually start school, I'll start posting more frequently. I know you're excited. ;-)

5. I came across this article on Pinterest this week: The First Leap of Faith Toward Jesus. This quote really got me:

I want my boys to know Jesus AND be saved from difficulty. To be honest, I’ve tried to claim God’s role as the Holy Spirit in my sons’ lives as if I could speed up or control their Salvation.

I feel so much responsibility for my girls' salvation. I honestly panic when I start to think about them going to Hell. And I think I'm crazy to bring more children into this world when there's a huge chance they won't want anything to do with Jesus. I'm haunted by the stories of Christian families who do everything "right" and their kids walk away from the church, calling their upbringing cultish and oppressive. All that's to say, this article was a good reminder that I can't be my girls' Holy Spirit. It's scary to relinquish control (that I never had in the first place), but also a little reassuring that I don't have to carry that burden of saving them. I'll do my job to plant the seeds, to show them grace, to model what it is to have a relationship with Jesus, but then the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

6. We finally met with a realtor about selling our house this week. He gave glowing praise to our location, house layout, and cleanliness/nice decor. And then he shocked us with the price he thinks we can get for it. If we can actually sell the house at that price, we would be able to pay the realtor's commission and closing costs on the house and be left with exactly what we need to pay off our student loans. I never imagined we'd be able to pay them off this quickly. I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch. I know it could take a while for our house to sell, it might not appraise for what the realtor thinks it will, or we won't be able to sell it for that much. But if we could get even close, we could pay off the majority of our loans and have an extra $600 every month!!!! Thank you, Jesus!!

7. I can't think of a seventh point and I'm in a hurry, so I'm going to leave you with this hilariously adorable prayer I overheard from Lucy this week:

Praying before lunch after just having received a time-out:

“Dear Jesus, thank you that I got a time out and learned to be nice to my sister. Thank you that mommy washed all my pretty dresses. Thank you for Belle and Sleeping Beauty and all the other princesses. Amen.”