The Saturday 7

1. We had a nice Mother's Day. The girls (and Justin) made me breakfast in bed. I was easy on them this year and bought microwavable cinnamon rolls from Daily Deals. They were delicious. The kids all made me cards. Lucy's contained a Roses are Red poem and Bible verses, so I obviously have this Christian parenting thing down pat. ;-) I told Justin not to buy me anything because I've bought myself a couple of expensive things lately. #responsibleadult

2. I went back on my diet this week: no pop, tons of water, tons of vegetables, limited carbs (but not being crazy about it). I haven't lost much weight, which is always discouraging. I don't understand how I can cut hundreds of calories out of my diet each day by eliminating pop and not immediately start dropping pounds. I'm really going to try to stick it out this time, though. (How many times have you heard that before?) My crazy goal is 25 pounds, but I'm going to force myself to keep going until I lose at least 10. Then we'll see how I feel about keeping up with it. Ha. Also, I cheat on weekends. Like seriously cheat . . .

Justin and I still had an Olive Garden gift card we needed to use up. Waste not, want not! ;-)

3. I "read" my first audiobook this week. You'd think as a bibliophile I'd be more on top of this kind of thing, but I'm a traditionalist and audiobooks weird me out. I don't like someone else's voice reading the story to me. I feel like the narrator put the inflections in all the wrong places a lot of the time. I've also realized lately that I'm somewhat of a speed reader. I don't read every single word. I like the ability to glance ahead and see what's coming. Even with the speed increased by 1.5, I still felt like it was too slow. And if I made it faster I couldn't understand or keep up. My brain obviously works better visually than it does auditorily. That said, I did appreciate the convenience and the entertainment while doing menial tasks that I couldn't do while holding a book. I enjoyed listening while doing the dishes or even sitting outside in the sunshine with the kids. I could keep my eye on the wanderer (Levi) while listening to my book instead of getting wrapped up in reading and forgetting to watch him . . . not that that's ever happened . . .

4. I finished NCIS on Netflix this week and I don't know what to do with myself. Justin and I have been re-watching the Office, but he won't let me watch it without him, and he goes to bed at 9:00 every night. I need something to entertain me from like 9-11. I've been thinking about trying The Crown. I couldn't care less about the current Royal Wedding, but I do like history and I've heard good things about The Crown. I'm concerned, though, that it's rated MA. Who's watched it? Is it full of nudity? Profanity? What's the lowdown?

5. This weekend was the men's retreat at our church. Justin actually didn't go this year, but all my friends' husbands did. So when the wives decided to have a Retreat Widows and Kids pizza party, I jumped at the chance to join in. Justin was happy to go fishing by himself while we went off to a chaotic play date. Between us 7 moms, we have 19 kids 8 and under. I think. It was hard to count them all. I tried to take a picture, but as you can see, they never all sit still at one time. Ha!

And a few were in the house still at this point . . .

I'm so thankful for friends in the same stage of life as me. It's a blessing I never take for granted.

6. And a play date with my best friends was exactly what I needed yesterday. It was one of those awful "you laugh or you cry" days. Levi started crying at 10 am because he wanted to pick Lucy up from school and then lost his ever-loving mind when I said no. At one point I texted my sisters that I thought he was possessed because he was so out of control. For a solid hour he screeched at the top of his lungs, stopping only to cough and puke (from the screaming and coughing). I tried everything in my mom arsenal, including a ride in the car (where I had to use all my might to force him into his carseat long enough to get his buckle on), a trip to the park (where he ran to the car every time I set him down), and every attainable bribe I could think of. Finally, we got home from the park, I gave him his Binky and made lunch and he slowly settled down. After lunch, he was over it and back to his normal self. Which was fortunate because we had no time for a nap. It was field day at the girls' school. Lena technically wasn't supposed to participate because she doesn't have school on Fridays, but she was devastated that Lucy got to do it and she didn't, and I'm a helicopter entitling mom who emailed her teacher and asked if she could participate with the Kindergarteners. We were given the go-ahead, so we piled in the car for field day. I was worried about having to chase Levi around the whole time, but he brought his motorcycle and was happy to play with it in the dirt or run in circles around the field.

Lena was the anchor in tug-of-war. That might not have been the best strategy . . .

Lucy throwing a Frisbee

Levi trying out softball

Can you see his little mouth saying, "vrooooom"?

Friends!

Anyway, after Field Day is when things got especially dicey. After the events, the kids (including Levi) all got snacks and a drink. Levi chugged a Capri Sun and downed a popsicle and a bag of goldfish after having spent hours running around in the sun. So it came as no surprise that as soon as I buckled him into the carseat he started crying, "Puke!" Yes, he is another Lucy who pukes at the drop of a hat, but always seems to know it's coming. I quickly thrust an empty grocery bag under his chin and caught most of what he spewed out, but he panicked partway through and pushed the bag away. As I attempted to clean him up with baby wipes, Lucy was wailing that she was "so hot" and literally started taking all her clothes off in the van in the school parking lot. When we got home, I was apparently being too slow to get Levi out of the carseat. Lena climbed into the driver's seat and opened the door to climb out that way, while Lucy pushed past Levi and me to get out. Of course, Lucy braced herself on the side of the van just as Lena slammed the driver's side door shut, catching Lucy's hand in the process. Lucy started screaming in pain, I started yelling at Lena, and Lena started crying because it was an accident and she didn't mean to do it. Meanwhile Levi is still half-covered in puke and yelling for me to get him out of the car! Fortunately, Lena's not strong enough to close the door with any real force, so Lucy's hand was ok, Levi was fine once I changed his clothes, and Lena calmed down after I apologized for yelling at her. It was such a joyous day. Lol.

7. And with that, here are some more pictures:

Levi fell in the driveway on Sunday and scraped up his nose and forehead. He also had a pretty nice goose-egg that doesn't show very well in this picture.

Levi came down with a random fever early this week. It only lasted for about 24 hours, but he was a miserable wreck.

Where's your belly?

Sprinkler fun

I can always tell when Levi's been playing with the girls' dollhouse.

Trying to be creative with vegetables. I made turnip fries. They were bitter and not very good. (This was the day Levi was sick and I had to eat with him on my lap.)

Another attempt at being adventurous with veggies. It was incredibly disgusting. I forced myself to choke down half of it so I wouldn't be starving all night, but it's definitely not something I'll ever make again.

Unfortunately true for me as well. (See first picture in this entry for further proof.)