The Saturday 7

1. This was a big week for us. On Monday, we finally closed on our house! Selling our house, that is. We're still living with my parents indefinitely. We left with a box of cheese from our realtor, a box of chocolates from the title company, and the promise of funds being wired to our account the next day. They arrived right on time on Tuesday, and I immediately started paying things off. I paid off our credit card debt and over half of our student loan debt. I wish it wasn't a faux pas to tell you how much. It was so exciting. Haha.

2. On Thursday night, Justin and I drove down to Charlotte, MI to look at a car from craigslist. I've never bought a craigslist car before, and was admittedly nervous about the craigslist killer or some kind of scam. The guy gave me his home address, but then changed his mind and asked to meet at Wal-mart, so I felt a little better that we'd at least be in a public place. And then when we got in the car to test drive it and he had the channel set to a Christian radio station I started to feel a lot better. We ended up buying the car and making it home without incident. I think I'm really going to like it. It's an '07 Ford Freestyle that was owned by an older lady with no kids, so it's really clean. We'll see how long it stays like that. Ha!

3. I feel like I've been so overwhelmed and busy all week. I don't even know what I've been doing. At the beginning of the week, I spent a ton of time re-arranging our bedrooms. They're finally starting to look good!

Reunited with our queen sized bed! 

And our full-sized dresser/normal closet!

The view from the bed. 

Lena's room!

I know this looks chaotic, but it's actually very organized. Clothes, toys, baby stuff, random stuff.

I don't know what is going on in this picture. Lol.

Lucy's room from the stairs. We have a twin bed for her, we just haven't set it up yet. 

The wall of dollhouses and Lucy's "office."

Lucy loves this little office area. I filled the cubbies with art supplies, her quiet time boxes, and activity books. She's in her glories! (Sorry about the awful pictures. It's ridiculously difficult to take pictures in a room with sloped ceilings.)

4. I think I've also been a little overwhelmed because I've been trying to do more of our Advent activities/Truth in the Tinsel lessons. So this week, we did peppermint ornaments, peanut butter bird feeders, family game night, and special ornaments. I was skeptical about the peppermint ornaments, but they actually turned out really well.

Only one casualty (the star at the top)

We hung the peanut butter bird feeders by the window so we can watch them.

Checking for birds. (Lucy's using binoculars. Haha.)

Every year, I buy the girls an ornament that represents something they were really into that year. I bet you can't guess what they got this year . . .

Lucy's Elsa

Modeling her ornament

Lena's Anna. As soon as she opened it, she shouted "Anna!" So cute.

Lucy also had to make a salt-dough ornament as part of Truth in the Tinsel. The recipe made a ton of dough, so we went crazy with the cookie cutters and paints. It was a great activity!

5. The last Advent activity we did for the week was our annual trip to Frederick Meijer Gardens to see the Christmas trees. Justin's grandparents literally live across the street and buy a membership every year, so they can get us in for free. We love spending time with them, and Grandma always feeds us well! This year, Justin's grandpa is in a rehab facility after just having had hip replacement surgery. He's actually not recovering that well, but will be coming home this week. If you think of it, we'd appreciate prayers for him. Anyway, the girls loved the trees and all the lights.

And afterward, we went back to Grandma's for dessert:

Lena couldn't figure out how to cut her cake, so she just picked it up and shoveled it in.

6. A couple weeks ago, in church, our pastor made a comment about how his kids don't earn their presents. They receive them by grace as an example of how we receive salvation by grace. I'd never thought of that before. I'm admittedly not a fan of Santa. Mostly because we didn't believe in him growing up, so I don't have sentimental memories attached to him. But also because I'm hesitant about lying to my kids. I loved this connection, too. I don't want my kids to think they have to be good enough to earn their Christmas presents. I want them to know they receive them as an expression of our love for them. And it's a great analogy to explain that we receive salvation as a gift from God because he loves us so much. *Sidenote: of course I don't condemn anyone who chooses to include Santa in their Christmas festivities. And I think the Elf on the Shelf stuff is totally adorable. To each his own!!

7. I'm going to end with the obligatory kids' Christmas concert video. I never watch other people's when they get posted to facebook, but this is a short song and look how cute that kid is in the front and center. :-) She was so excited to sing on the big stage and wasn't nervous at all until we pulled in the church parking lot, when she said, "I'm starting to feel a little shy." Haha. But she got right up on stage and sang every word. So proud. :-) (I zoomed in too far, so you can't see the kid drop his bells twice - hence the audience's laughter.)