The Saturday 7

1. This is old news, but I want to record it here. Last Saturday, Lena was running through the house, crashed into the corner of a tall table and fell to the ground screaming. I picked her up, looked at her forehead (where she told me it hurt) and didn't see anything, so figured she'd just have a nice goose-egg. She laid her head down on my chest and I consoled her for a while. When she sat back up, I noticed blood all over my sweatshirt. I turned her head a little bit and saw blood streaming down the side of her head. I pride myself on being pretty laid back. I don't freak out. I handle problems. But all that blood made me immediately woozy. Justin stepped in, told me to calm down and put pressure on Lena's head. It turned out to be a tiny little gash, but as I've learned, head wounds bleed viciously.

FYI: hydrogen peroxide works like magic for removing blood from clothing! Thanks to all who suggested it on facebook! 

2. I read 4 books this week. The first was The Great Gatsby. Blech. Then Perfectly Matched by Maggie Brendan. It was so dumb. I read the Amazon reviews after I finished it and was outraged that so many people actually liked it and gave it 5 star reviews. It had almost no plot. The main conflict throughout the book was the newlyweds adjusting to each other's personalities. They fought frequently, but then the guy would be overcome by the girl's beauty, they'd fall into bed, and he'd give into whatever she wanted. Maybe I'm just not that pretty, but that is not how conflict is resolved in my marriage. Lol.

I also read Love Unexpected (Jody Hedlund) and Dear Mr. Knightley (Katherine Reay). I loved Dear Mr. Knightley and stayed up 'til 1:00 am to finish it!

3. I did my "Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Mom" thing again this week. It's my 3rd year in a row. I love seeing written out for me where my day goes every day. Most of my time is spent cleaning up messes and refilling cups. Haha. Or so it seems.

4. We did ok with my new "school sticks" program:

On Monday, Lucy drew Leap Pad Math Game which worked out well since Monday was chaos with running errands and getting groceries (no puking in Meijer this week!). Tuesday, she drew workbook and did one page in her new workbook with very little whining. Wednesday we were busy all day again. Thursday she drew craft and flashcards. And then yesterday we were busy all day again. For flashcards, I wrote a bunch of sight words, letter blends (ch, sh, th), and some random numbers (16, 34, 79, etc.) on flashcards. She amazed me with how well she knew the numbers. And flabbergasted me with how she still can't identify the word "the." That was our very first sight word back in September, and we have been practicing it for months!!

5. A random Lena update: she cracks us up daily with the things she says. Her new thing is that she hates her freckles. She has one on her knee that she notices every time I change her diaper. She always begs me to "get it off." I have told her repeatedly that freckles don't come off, but it doesn't stop her from crying about it. Ha. Her other cute phrase lately is, "I want you show me something." She says that when she wants to show me something. She just gets her pronouns a little confused. :-) One more thing: it warmed up this week so we spent a lot of time outside. She adores it and spends allll day begging me to go outside. She and Lucy are getting a little braver, and have actually spent some time playing on the deck without me. I didn't think that day would ever come!

6. On Monday, I cleaned the moldy food out of the fridge and thought to myself, This is so disgusting. This must be my least favorite chore. Later that day while emptying the dishwasher, I thought to myself This is so tedious. This must be my least favorite chore. On Tuesday, I vacuumed and thought again I hate vacuuming. This must be my least favorite chore. It dawned on me then that perhaps all chores are my least favorite and I just despise cleaning in general. Haha. #lazyhousewife I will say, the one chore I don't mind is doing laundry. I actually have to do very little work. Throw the stuff in the washer. Come back an hour later to throw it in the dryer. Come back an hour later and throw the clean laundry on my bed. Watch Gilmore Girls while folding and putting everything away. Gilmore Girls makes everything better. ;-)

7. The other big piece of news for the week is that I got my hair chopped! I have a habit of growing my hair out long, getting sick of it, and chopping it all off. I've been doing it for years. It's actually only been just over a year since my last hair cut, but all I ever do with it is put it in a messy bun, and it was getting so long that I had to use 3 ponytail holders to keep it all on my head. I toyed around with the idea of getting it permed, but figured even if it was curly, I'd still put it in a messy bun every day. Then one of my facebook friends posted a picture of herself where her hair looked so cute. I sent her picture to my stylist and said, "This is what I want. Cut and color. And please teach me to style it like that." Haha. Yesterday was the big day.

This picture isn't totally fair. It's not just the haircut that makes me look so much better in the second picture than the first. There's also the issue of lighting, the big bulky sweatshirt vs. lightweight tank top, make-up and an eyebrow wax. Haha. But, my hair does look pretty amazing if I do say so myself. ;-) I got highlights added and about 8 inches removed (and donated to Children with Hair Loss). I'm admittedly uncertain about my abilities to curl my own hair to look that cute, but I also like how it looked straight, so it should be ok. :-) People are always so amazed at my boldness when I chop all my hair off, but it's seriously not a big deal to me. As long as I can still get it in a ponytail, I don't care how long it is. It grows back ridiculously fast anyway!