The Saturday 7

1. I read a very interesting, very controversial book this week. I'm not even going to share the title with you because it was that controversial. Lol. But I did want to share these funny little blips from the end. A father is giving advice to his sons about how to be a good husband/father. I loved this part:

I am aware that you boys don't need much sleep. However, if you experienced a major operation every two to three years, having a twenty-pound "tumor" removed, and you had to lend your body to a dairy farmer, you'd need a little more rest, too. Allow your wife to sleep a little longer than you do . . .

Haha. Just call me Bessie and let me sleep! And then, a few paragraphs later was this gem:

Don't allow the brainless, subversive Sesame Street type propaganda to come into your house. Your children's thinking should be molded by the Word of God and Christian example, not by sex perverts and socialists. If you want to destroy your family, then get yourself a good TV and VCR to keep the kids company.

Lol. I'm obviously taking this book's suggestions with a grain of salt. I sure hope my kids don't become sex perverts and socialists because I let them watch Sesame Street propaganda!

2. Levi has continued to sleep through the night amazingly well - between 10 and 12 hours a night! Incredible! The girls didn't do that until I forced them to (with CIO - go ahead and stone me) around a year. When it got hot this week, we put the window air conditioner in our room. The window is about 3 inches from Levi's Rock N' Play next to my bed, so we decided to move him (into the closet - haha). He really could probably go upstairs into the crib since he's sleeping so well, but I'm not ready to be that far away from him! I was actually a little sad that he moved away from my bedside! #sap

3. Speaking of sad . . . I finally buckled down and purged the 12 totes of girl clothes I had in the basement. While I'm not 100% ready to say Levi is going to be our last baby, it's really looking that way. As much as I'd like to I can't save all 12 totes of clothes just in case we have another girl someday. So this week, I tackled the monumental task of going through each tote individually.

It literally took me 2 whole days.

I only saved my favorites and a few staples from each size. I'm still saving 6 totes (lol), but 2 of them are for Lena to grow into. And the other 4 are for sentimental value. Haha. I actually started with the biggest sizes and worked my way down because it makes me so incredibly sad to get rid of the tiny newborn skirts and dresses. I put it off as long as I could. So if you're in the market for girl clothes size newborn - 3T, we're having a garage sale June 17-18. Come buy my memories . . . ;-)

4. Lucy is 6 years old, has seen 2 siblings grow in my belly and come into the world, and has never asked me how the baby got in my belly. Lena is 3 and asked me this week how Levi got in there. I told her that Jesus put him there. Haha. She was satisfied with that for now. A harder question for me to answer is this one, also from Lena: How does Jesus live in everyone's heart? How do you explain omnipresence to a 3 year old? I just tell her that he's amazing and can do anything he wants. Oy. #notatheologian

5. Here's a great article I read this week: Building a Home Your Kids Want to Come Home To. I thought it'd be cliche, but it actually had some very helpful, practical suggestions. One that resonated with me was this:

If I want my sixteen-year-old to talk to me about life, then I must listen to my fifth grader. . . at this stage I’m very, very tempted to stop listening: the stakes aren’t super high, the stories aren’t super interesting, I hear a lot about different kinds of pizza, jokes, and play by play description of each sporting event. But every time I start to tune out, I think of what I want in the future and tune back in.

I've never thought about that. Admittedly, I'm not always enthralled by Lucy's stories right now, but I'm working on really looking at her and listening so that she'll always feel that she can talk to me and I'll listen.

6. Lucy has one more day of school next week, and then she'll be a 1st grader!! I'm definitely not going to miss taking her to and from school 3 times a week this summer. I despise waking up Lena and Levi to make the 5 minute drive. But I know myself, and I know we'll need some structure over the next 3 months. I've already made a rough outline of activities to do during the week, and we're going to implement a new "earn your screen time" plan that the girls are going to hate. Haha. I'm a lazy parent and let them watch way too much TV. And they're lazy kids and don't ever have to do chores. We're going to rectify both of those dilemmas this summer. Pray for me.

For the fun activities, I'm thinking pool day once a week. We got rid of our pool, but Justin's grandparents have a beautiful, in-ground pool. They live kind of far from us, but I want my kids to have a relationship with them, and we all love the water. Plus, swimming is the only exercise Lucy ever gets. And on a diet of mac n' cheese and pizza, she's starting to need a little exercise now and then. I'm also going to try doing at least one craft project a week. The girls both love crafts, and I'm just too lazy to plan and execute them. We're going to go to Story Time at the library once a week. And I signed Lucy up for AR testing at school. She loves reading the AR books and taking comprehension tests during the school year, so we're going to keep at it all summer long!

7. Our week in pictures: