The Saturday 7

1. Lena loves to add numbers and tell me, "Mommy, 3+4 is 7!" or what have you. When I applaud her she says, "I figured it out with my helpful fingers!" Lol.

2. Yesterday Lucy asked me why Justin and I wear wedding rings. I told her it's a sign for other people to know that we're married, but she kept asking, "But why?" So I finally said, "So other people know they can't marry us. Like if a girl looked at Daddy and thought, 'Wow. He's cute. I want to marry him" but then saw his wedding ring, she'd be like, 'Oh bummer. He's already married.' Or if a guy saw me and thought he wanted to marry me, my ring would show him that I'm already married." She nodded thoughtfully and responded, "Yeah, I can see how that would happen to Daddy." Lol. Thanks for the vote of confidence, girl.

3. I finally finished re-organizing Levi's room upstairs so we spent lots of time up there this week. Levi adores sitting at the low window and waving frantically, shouting "hi" at every car (and glorious tractor or semi) that goes by.

4. I finished Hawaii 5-0 this week. I was tempted to sign up for a free trial of Hulu so I could watch the next season, but I figured I should probably have a little self-control instead of getting sucked into another season. With all my free time, I decided to start reading some of the huge pile of parenting books I've amassed.

I started with one that many of my friends have raved about: Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman. I've read one other book by Furman, but try as I might, I just can't fully grasp her message. She's got an amazing passion for the gospel, but her writing style is too wordy and abstract for me. I feel like understanding is just barely out of reach most of the time. She really makes me feel dumb. Lol. I was also a little put-off by the title and marketing of this book. In actuality, it has very little to do with motherhood. I would love some practical advice about how to breathe the gospel into my kids, but this book contained almost nothing about that. The entire first half of the book is a meta-narrative of the Old Testament. Many of the reviews I read were annoyed by it, but I thought it was fascinating. Thanks to my years of Christian upbringing and education, I know the major Old Testament stories inside and out. But Furman was able to re-tell them in a way that made them feel new and different (while still being Biblically sound!). She weaved the gospel and the need for Jesus into each story, reminding me of The Jesus Storybook Bible. The second half is theoretically about how to be missional as mothers, but she's adamant that all women are called to be "mothers" regardless of whether or not they have children. She posits that "mothering" is a verb meaning simply making disciples. So the second half of the book is basically a call to worldwide evangelism and making disciples - which of course is honorable and true, but not what I was expecting.

Flipping through the book, now, to find quotes, I will admit there were tons of nuggets of truth. But her overarching theme was hard to grasp and apply to life.

5. I also read the sequel to the book I shared last week. I liked this one even better.

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It feels good to be reading again! Even though I do miss Steve McGarrett . . .

6. In the continuation of the potty training saga: I buckled down and forced Lena to wear undies again this week. She got a pull-up at rest time and bedtime. It was traumatic at first, but by Tuesday she was crying less and we even went out shopping for 4 hours in undies. So we're back to making progress. Whew!

7. Everyone's favorite part: Pictures!

Justin and I went to a Cinco de Mayo dinner at church last night, and our kids don't eat Mexican food, so they got to spend the evening with Justin's parents and Uncle Jesse: