The Saturday 7

1. I think Lena hit the terrible twos this week. She has been testing me at every chance she gets. And she is so ridiculously persistent. Every time I tell her no, she continues to beg and plead and cry "pleeeeeeeease" on and on and on. It's driving me crazy! I know I just need to be firm and consistent, but it is so exhausting. At least there are still these moments. She's my snuggler . . .

2. I forgot to mention that at Lucy's friend party last week, the kids were all playing upstairs being incredibly wild. They were screaming like banshees and running back and forth, and jumping all over the place. All of a sudden, they all started running downstairs shouting, "Lucy's puking!" And I realized then that my poor child has the Pitch Perfect Puking Syndrome. Anytime she gets excited, she pukes. We're going to have to strongly discourage a future in acapella singing . . .

Nik and I went to Pitch Perfect 2 last night. It was awesome. Loved it every bit as much as the first.

3. I had a startling thought this week: I met my husband in my Kindergarten class. My best friends to this day are the people I grew up with at school. The kids that Lucy starts school with in the fall could be her future husband/lifelong friends. Whoa. Of course, that isn't true for most people. I don't think either of my siblings (who were also lifers at our tiny Christian school) are very close with any of their classmates. But Justin and I are deplorable at making new friends, so we stuck with our old ones. Haha. And God blessed us with an amazing class. I better start praying that He blesses Lucy the same way. (Even though it's pretty unlikely we'll ever be able to afford to send her there K-12. Boo. Money.)

4. Speaking of school . . . I found a set of BOB books at the library this week and checked them out in the hopes that they might interest Lucy. I was shocked when she actually took to them! They're the basic, level two - just CVC words, so it's easy enough that she can read them without much trouble, which gives her confidence. She read a couple to me one day before her rest time, then I heard her reading them upstairs all by herself! It's so awesome to hear her reading!

5. I only read two books this week. (Although one of them was over 600 pages, so it should count as two. Haha.) Of Moths and Butterflies and 60 Acres and a Bride. I enjoyed them both, although the first could have benefited from some editing. No book needs to be 600 pages. (That said, the next one on my "to read" shelf is over 900 pages. Stay tuned to hear how that turns out.)

6. I came across a couple different pins on Pinterest this week that I wanted to share.

I really pinned the second one for the caption that came with it:

If love dwells in your home, there will be kindness and patience with other's faults. When we love others more than we love ourselves, kindness and patience are our natural response. We say "Please" and "Thank you," appreciating anything kind someone does for us. We don't demand our way but give way to others.

I've been thinking lately that one of the biggest things I want to impart to my girls is the importance of kindness. Few things make me angrier than when they're mean to each other. The verse I find myself quoting to them more than any other is "Be kind and compassionate to one another." [Side-note: I saw another Pinterest pin recently that emphasized the importance of quoting the whole verse ("Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Eph. 4:32) It's important that we don't just demand kindness for kindess' sake, but because Jesus showed the ultimate kindness. So I've been working on that.]  

I think kindness was also really important to my parents, because it's been drilled into me since I was little. And it's a characteristic I'm so glad was instilled in my siblings and me. I see so many families - even Christian families - that are so rude and nasty to each other. They're constantly getting in embarrassing facebook fights with each other and tearing down their relationships. My siblings, parents, and I always try to be genuinely kind to each other, and we have an incredible relationship as a result.

It goes beyond familial relationships, though. I try to be kind to everyone - cashiers, waiters, annoying people (ha), even people I can't stand. It is after all a fruit of the spirit. How's that for a segue into . . .

7. I started reading the "She Reads Truth" devotionals about the Fruit of the Spirit this week. Honestly, I didn't read all of them. But the last one touched on something I've been so confused about. The author says that we can't achieve these fruits on our own. We can't work hard to attain them or conjure them on our own effort. They grow as a result of abiding in Christ. That's the part I just can't wrap my head around. So often lately, I've been hearing, "You don't have to do anything. Just abide. Just be still. Just be present with Jesus." I don't understand. My natural bent is toward laziness. If I don't do something, then I'm going to do nothing. I'm going to read mindless fiction and watch frivolous TV and sleep and eat more than any one person should. It comes back to my eternal question: how do I cultivate a relationship with Jesus? Read my Bible and pray? Is that what it means to abide? Sit cross-legged and empty my mind of everything but Jesus? There still has to be some effort on my part. I still have to try to be kind and loving and patient and have a little self-control. Or can I just start stuffing my face full of donuts and say, "Not my fault. I'm just abiding and waiting for my self-control to kick in."?