The Saturday 7

1. We had a nice Easter. We actually all made it to church and Lena lasted for the whole service in her class!! That hasn't happened in weeks!! We alternate every other year for Easter with our families. This year was the VanderKoddes, but Justin's wonderful mom didn't want to cook, so we went to Olive Garden instead!! Glorious! We've got a good system there. I order one meal for the girls. Lucy eats the macaroni and Lena eats the sides (grapes and fries). Haha. I actually got something different (!) even after my post last week about how my tastes never change. I've been a little underwhelmed with their chicken alfredo lately (my usual), so I got the chicken carbonara instead. It was amaaaaaazing, but expensive! Thank goodness for gift cards. Here are the girls in their Easter best:

I tried to talk Lucy out of the ice cream dress, but she insisted. Haha.

Lena was not in the mood for pictures, so this is the best I could get. Haha.

2. On Monday, I took the girls to KFC for lunch. Lucy ate half her weight in mac n' cheese, then we went to Meijer. Lucy was in rare form at the store. In and out of the cart, running in circles, jumping around, repeatedly crushing Lena in hugs. We were almost done with our shopping, standing in the yogurt aisle, when all of a sudden she stopped, grabbed her stomach and said, "I'm going to puke." I glanced all around, looking for something/anything for her to puke in, but came up short. I finally said, "Ok, let's run to the bathroom." She clamped a hand over her mouth and started running, but only made it a few steps before puke started spewing out from between her fingers. Lol. Lucy is infamous for puking. She's puked in more restaurants than I can count. She's puked in the car and her bed and even the toilet a few times. She's great about letting us know when it's coming, so we always catch it in something. This is the first time she's puked all over the floor of a public place. It was horrifying . . . and hilarious. She just kept puking and puking and I didn't know what to do, so I just kind of stood there laughing. Lol. Another customer saw the whole thing happen and smiled compassionately at me before saying, "I'll go find someone to clean that up." I got out the baby wipes and started cleaning Lucy up. As I was scrubbing her shoes, another customer came up to me and said, "Don't you clean that floor. That's what they have maintenance workers for." Lol. Finally a worker came over and started calling for a bio-hazard kit in her intercom. Haha. She assured me they'd take care of it, so I apologized profusely and walked away. So sorry, Meijer! We finished our shopping without incident and Lucy was totally fine the rest of the day. The only thing I can think of is that she ate too much and then was being too wild. Although she did have a free cookie from the bakery. She never takes one because she does't like their usual sugar cookies. But this week they were giving out M&M cookies, so she ate it. Maybe something in it upset her? Ugh. And then, while I was at Bible Study that night, Justin texted me that she puked again. So who knows???

3. I've still been majorly slacking with school. I finally came up with a new system that we're going to start next week. Every day, Lucy will draw one of these sticks:

I bought a workbook from the dollar store that she'll start doing page by page. I've also been searching the Teachers Pay Teachers website for free phonics worksheets. I scoured Pinterest for easy crafts. I still need to make some flashcards of blends, sight words, numbers, etc. And I need to get some sight word games ready. Some she's going to enjoy more than others (LeapPad math game, crafts). I'm anticipating a bit of pushback on a few of them (counting to 100, handwriting). But since it's just one a day, I'm hoping it'll be doable. I'll let you know how it goes . . .

4. Lena watches a lot of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It's the only show she watches, and she watches a lot of TV. Haha. But lately, I've noticed she's picking up a lot of positive attributes from the show. When she struggles to do something, she always sings to herself, "Keep trying. You'll get better!" And if I ever offer to do something for her when she's struggling, she says, "No mommy. I big and strong!" I use the songs on her sometimes too. I sing "grown ups come back" when I drop her off at nursery. I sing "You can take a turn and then I'll get it back" when she and Lucy aren't sharing. And we've been singing "If you have to go potty, stop and go right away!" a lot lately. (It doesn't help, in case you were wondering.) Haha.

5. I didn't read much this week. I told myself I had to finish one non-fiction book before I could read anything fun, and it took me 3 days to read the one I chose. (Ordinary by Michael Horton) Then I read When I Fall in Love (Susan May Warren) and Beyond This Moment (Tamera Alexander). I didn't make my deadline of 15 non-inspirational-fiction books by April 10. Maybe I'll try to read something today . . .

6. I took Lena to the movie theater for the first time this week. Celebration Cinema does a Family Flick thing where certain movies are free for kids, $5 for adults. This week was Big Hero 6, which Lucy really wanted to see for some reason (even though it's totally not her kind of movie). Both of my sisters (aka free babysitters) are soaking up the sun in warmer areas of the nation for Spring Break this week, so I decided just to try bringing Lena with us. I did end up bringing my nephews (who are 15 and 17) along so they could sit in the theater with Lucy if I had to leave with Lena. We purposely went to the 12:45 showing, thinking maybe Lena would fall asleep. But she stayed awake the whole time, and did great!! She sat on my lap mesmerized until the last 15 minutes, when she got down and stood in front of me. (It might have helped that the boys brought skittles. Lena ate about 16,000 of those little rainbow colored candies. Haha.) At the beginning, when the lights first go down and the volume goes up, Lucy always claps her hands over her ears for a while until she gets used to it. Lena, however, wasn't phased. She never acted nervous at all. #theaterpro

Bright flash.

Oh, Lucy . . .

7. I read an article this week about postpartum practices in other countries. Those women get 40 days of "lying in" where other women come in and do their housework and childcare and food prep! They're encouraged to stay in bed for weeks and rest while bonding with their baby. Wow. Sounds good to me. The author contrasted that culture with our American culture that encourages women to get right back to life. It's a sign of weakness to stay in bed or to rely on others for help. Reading the article made me thankful for the care I received after having my girls. I didn't get 40 days, but I had people bringing me meals for 2 weeks. My mom and sisters came over often to let me sleep or drive me to the doctor. I even had a nurse stop by once a week free of charge after Lucy was born to weigh her and help me with breastfeeding/answer any questions I had. (Not sure if I qualified for that because we're poor, or if that's something the hospital does for everyone.) That article also made me thankful for our my Christian community. Our church has a meals ministry for new moms/people recovering from surgery, etc. And my small group stepped up immediately with meals. I love how every time someone in our small group has a baby (which is often - haha), we ooh and ahh over the facebook pictures, then an email starts to circulate with "Who's going to bring a meal when?" Yay for community!

This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links. Purchases you make help support my blog a little bit without changing the cost to you!