The Saturday 7

1. I've started putting away some of the baby stuff - the baby bathtub, the playmats, the rock n' play. - and it's kind of breaking my heart. I really don't think there are any more babies in my future, so it feels so final to be done with the stuff. Watch me be one of those people who gets rid of all the baby stuff and then accidentally gets pregnant when my kids are teenagers. (I wouldn't be crushed. Lol.)

2. I was looking something up in one of my old blog entries this week and came across this, that I wrote two years ago. I was talking about people living in the 1800s.

Part of me wishes I lived back then. People didn't have as much time to think. They were too busy surviving. My washing machine does my laundry, my dishwasher does my dishes, I buy my peaches pre-canned. So I have too much time to think about what a failure I am and how I'm so tired all the time which probably means I have a tumor on my brain. I don't think the women of the 1800s worried about being a bad mom. They worried about keeping their children alive. Maybe I should take up canning . . .[9-27-14]

It's funny that I just had the same realization again recently. I reminded myself of this all week when I was feeling depressed. I kept saying, "Would the pioneers be wallowing like this? No. They would be making soap. Go make some soap." (It wasn't the most helpful pep-talk.)

3. The good news is I did work up the courage to call my doctor this week and she called in a higher dose of my meds for me. So I'm going to be happy and lovin' life again soon - for real this time.

4. I'm getting a little sick of thinking up blog posts for my Write 31 Days series. Fortunately, I only have 9 more days to go. Sorry if the last few are a little lackluster . . . (like this edition of the Saturday 7)

5. We had a little "fall fun day" today with some friends. My dad has a flourishing apple orchard in our backyard, and his own cider press. So today, our friends came over and we picked apples and ran them through the press for some farm-fresh goodness.

It was too cold for Lena. I don't know how she's going to survive winter.

And of course they had to go for a "wagon" ride.

6. Ok, I need some advice from my wise and wonderful readers. Lucy has developed a tic over the past month. I thought she'd grow out of it, but it's actually getting worse. She looks up - like she's rolling her eyes - a million times a day. I'm not even sure that's an exaggeration. She does it all.the.time. But in the past few days, she's added something new. Now, she randomly closes her eyes. I can't even describe it. She'll be talking or playing or watching tv and close her eyes for like 5 seconds. She's not falling asleep. She's just closing them out of habit. It is getting so out of control and I don't know what to do with her. I try to tell her to stop every time I catch it, but that hasn't helped. I don't know if the kids at school say anything about it, but that hasn't thwarted her. Her Sunday School teacher asked us about it a couple weeks ago - probably because it looks like she's being a brat by rolling her eyes. But she doesn't do it in response to anything. She just does it because it feels good. The problem is, she comes by it naturally. I actually had some weird eye tics when I was younger, too. I don't remember how I got over it, though. I think I finally just grew out of it. So, the question is - should I wait for her to grow out of it on her own? Do I need to be on her every time I see it? Does she need therapy? Haha. Advice welcome!

7. I shamefully did not take many pictures this week. Here's what I've got: