The Saturday 7

1. The girls finished their first session of gymnastics on Monday. Lucy has definitely made progress since the first week and is excited to start the second session next week. Lena's teacher described her as "a natural" and again recommended that she move up to the next level. And, again, Lena flat out refused. I'm hoping a couple months of sitting on the sidelines watching Lucy will encourage Lena to try again.

2. Her anxiety as a whole is out of control again. She cries every morning before school, she doesn't want me to leave her to go to Bible Study Monday nights, she clings to me and cries if Justin and I ever want to go somewhere without her. And Cubbies on Wednesday night is a disaster. She wails for 2 hours beforehand that she's scared and doesn't want to go. But week after week she comes home happy and smiling! We have conferences with her teacher at school next week. I'm going to ask if she has any advice for me. She's been teaching pre-k and kindergarten for 25 years. This can't be the first time she's dealt with an anxious child, right?

3. In honor of The Reformation's 500th anniversary next week, I decided to read up a bit on Martin Luther. But I'm a wimp about long theology books, so I took the easy way out and read a fiction work loosely based on his life and romance with his wife. I don't know how historically accurate it was, but it was a really good novel! And I was surprised by how much I didn't know surrounding the reformation. I don't remember learning about the Peasants' Revolt or the extent of the persecution the reformers faced. I'm so grateful for their sacrifice that allows us to have access to the Bible and knowledge of grace! I also read Many Sparrows by Lori Benton (good!) and re-read for the third time Meant to Be Mine by Becky Wade. I've decided that Meant to Be Mine is my favorite contemporary novel. I'm not sure anything can unseat Redeeming Love as my favorite novel of all time, so MTBM wins the contemporary award.

4. In another installation of "cherishing the little things" I give you the instance of Levi's Empathy. One day this week, Lena fell and got hurt. Levi immediately ran over and gave her hug after hug to comfort her. When she picked herself up and he could see her face, he was amazed by the tears pouring out her eyes. He kept trying to touch her eyes and the tears on her cheeks and continued to give her hugs. Precious boy.

5. I started listening to Christmas this week (#nevertooearly). And I started my Christmas shopping. We drew names for my family this year, so we're only buying a few gifts instead of 15. My checkbook thanks me, but I'm a little sad not to buy for everyone. I'm trying to remind myself that we're doing it this way to save money on Christmas, not to free up more money to spend on my kids. #ihaveaproblem #wantneedwearread . . . #plus10more . . .

6. To further my education on Luther, we went to The Reformation Faire at our church this afternoon. The weather was abysmal, but the activities and skits were fun.

Archery

Silliness with my sisters (and Lena)

Silliness with friends

Puppets!

7. Other than the Reformation Faire photos, I only took one other picture this week! Unheard of! Unfortunately, it's a picture of Lena in nothing but underwear and rain boots which is adorable but not really appropriate for the Internet. So instead, I'll share the pictures our friend Christina took with her nice camera at our Fall Festival last weekend: