The Saturday 7

Bad news: I have very little to write about this week. That seems to be the growing trend. I don't know why. Am I getting less interesting? Haha. I think I'm struggling a little bit with depression, which just makes me listless and lazy. So we honestly don't do much these days. Anyway, here's what I've got:

1. I bought some delicious snap pea crisps on a whim at Meijer in an effort to consume more vegetables.

I actually really like them and have been inhaling them with gusto! They taste just like chips, so I tried to talk my girls into eating them too. Lucy absolutely refused, but Lena liked them. She ate 4 with dinner one night. But by the following morning, she had a terrible diaper rash - we're talking blisters. Neither of my girls has ever had a diaper rash like that before! I forgot that she's reacted to peas in the past. #badmom #veggiefail She's solid on the fruit consumption, though. My dad has a flourishing vineyard in the backyard, and Lena adores running down there, grabbing a fistful of grapes and chowing them down. They're not like the grapes you buy in the store, though. The skin is really tough. My dad taught Lena how to suck the grape out of the skin and she does it like a champ! She's also obsessed with picking apples from the orchard - even though they're not totally ripe yet. As much as she likes the sour green apples, I can't wait for her to get a taste of the juicy, ripe, red ones! And in case you were wondering, Lucy will eat neither the grapes nor the apples. Grrrr.

2. I read a couple books this week. Blue Moon Promise by Colleen Coble and A Noble Groom by Judy Heglund.  They were both set in the 1800s and made me realize that part of me wishes I lived back then. People didn't have as much time to think. They were too busy surviving. My washing machine does my laundry, my dishwasher does my dishes, I buy my peaches pre-canned. So I have too much time to think about what a failure I am and how I'm so tired all the time which probably means I have a tumor on my brain. I don't think the women of the 1800s worried about being a bad mom. They worried about keeping their children alive. Maybe I should take up canning . . .

3. We had a homeschooling fail this week. We're all fighting colds, Lucy was being particularly resistant to doing school, and my printer ran out of ink, so we did almost nothing all week. I managed to get her to do two worksheets, and we did circle time twice (although one of those times, she was laying on the floor crying, so I'm not sure it counts - lol). We did do one fun activity I'll share, though. My goal was for this week's theme to be "Apples." We're on the letter A, it's fall. It only makes sense. I also want Lucy to start learning our phone number. Well, my cell phone number. Who knows how much longer landlines will be a thing. Haha. So we went outside and picked up a bunch of apple "drops" - the ones that fell off the tree, but aren't actually ripe enough to eat. I wrote a number on each apple, then submerged them all in a sinkful of water. I gave Lucy a cheat sheet with my phone number on it, then had her "bob" for apples with a ladle and put the numbers in order. At first, I tried to have her "bob" with tongs, but she got frustrated after one try and refused to do it anymore. The ladle was much easier.

She did it a couple times, and then today I just gave her the bowl full of apples and had her arrange them to make my phone number without the cheat sheet. She's got it down! She's such a visual learner.

Oh, and we did a John the Baptist lesson and made some cute little edible locusts:

4. So, exciting news: we sold our house! We got our first offer yesterday. It was way lower than we were willing to go, so we countered pretty high and they came back at our pre-agreed-on price. So we accepted! Of course, I know there are a million things that could go wrong, but if all goes as planned, that sucker is sold!! It's been exactly 3 weeks since we listed it. Not bad!

5. The house sale couldn't come soon enough. Yesterday, the girls and I went on a little date in Sparta: the library, park, movie store, and McDonald's. However, by the time we headed home, my van could barely accelerate. And while I was sitting at an intersection five minutes from my house, the dumb thing started to smoke. The first thing we are going to do after paying off our mortgage is buy me a "new" vehicle!!!

6. I guess I'll just finish with some pictures of our week:

I was trying to take a picture of just Lena in her cute dress and necklace, and Lucy leaned right over to say "Cheese!"

Niki brought Lena a frosted donut. She was a big fan!

At the park.

Little fashion stars. Lena's 18 month capris were falling off her.

This is how we do school. At first, I tried to set up little activities for Lena on the floor, but I've given up and just let her play on the table the whole time. Lol.