The Saturday 7

1. This was our first real week of summer. We implemented our summer schedule - including chores and "healthy" eating choices. We have a goal for each day of the week: Make Something Monday, Take a Trip Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Fun Day Friday. Justin was out of town all week again so it was nice to have something planned for each day. The girls did awesome with their chores and even had pretty good attitudes about trying new foods. We tried spaghetti and meatballs (Lucy went hungry, Lena ate the required 5 bites, Levi wolfed down the meatballs and kept asking for more), cheeseburgers (none of them liked them), scrambled eggs (fail), homemade pizza (fail again), deli turkey (actually a win by all 3!!), fruit dip (fail), energy bites (2/3 liked them), and fruit leather (only Lena liked it).

2. We went to a couple libraries, a splash pad, and McDonald's throughout the week. We also went to a traveling aerialist show hosted by the library. The girls loved it. I was anxious the whole time that the crazy acrobats would plummet to their death on the cement parking lot.

As soon as we got home the girls broke out the hula hoops and ballet bar and put on their own show.

3. Lena had a well-child appointment at the doctor this week. She's 33 lbs (3%) and just shy of 40" (13%). She keeps asking to move up to a booster seat in the car and I keep telling her she has to do the 5 point harness until she weighs 40 lbs. It might be a while. Lol. Poor little shrimp.

4. I felt so overwhelmed by the housework this week. I don't know if we were out of the house too much or if just having the kids home all day every day makes that many more messes, but I didn't feel like I could keep up. It was all I could do just to keep up with the laundry, dishes, and basic pick-up. That doesn't even begin to touch vacuuming or scrubbing toilets or figuring out what the gross smell coming from kitchen sink is . . . And that's with the girls' help. They each clean up one room a day and help out with washing windows and kitchen counters and the bathroom mirror. Unfortunately, this is our life now. They're always going to be home. There's no end in sight when they'll go back to school and the house will get back in order. The house is school now. I try to comfort myself with the thought that we'll be too busy doing school to be making messes, but then I remember about this guy:

He's pretty much just a walking mess.

5. Another contribution to the mess was Lucy's obsession with baking. I bought her a princess cake kit for her birthday that she's been begging to make. I finally ran out of excuses to avoid it, so we made it this week. So much work and so much mess. I feel like I spent half of my week at the sink doing dishes. And we have a dishwasher!! That was just stuff that was too big or awkward for the dishwasher. This is why I hate cooking.

But look how proud she is.

6. Justin came home Thursday evening for the weekend, so on Friday after he did some fishing and made a trip to the chiropractor, I fed the kids lunch and hit the road. I spent the next 5 hours shopping to my heart's content at Once Upon's clearance sale and the Toys R' Us going out of business sale. I looked at every single thing and got some good deals on clothes, toys, and Christmas presents! It. Was. Glorious.

7. This morning we participated in Life Walk for the first time. It's a 2.5 mile walk put on by our local pregnancy resource center. We raised money and walked with a bunch of other families to support life - stopping at various points around the city to pray. The forecast for today was 90* and I was kind of dreading it, but a storm front came through that kept it cloudy and mild and we only got the fringe edge of the rain so we barely got wet. I almost grabbed both the jogging stroller and the umbrella stroller because our kids are lazy wimps, but I told myself it wouldn't be that bad. I was wrong. The kids each got a turn in the stroller and Justin and I carried one who wasn't in the stroller while telling the walker to quit whining and just walk. It was kind of rough. When the walk was over we were supposed to have lunch at the park, but Lena had an epic meltdown because she needed to use the bathroom and refused to use the park's restroom, so we just went home. But we were happy to raise a little money and show our support for a cause that's important to us - while teaching our kids that their comfort is not our highest priority, and it's ok to suffer a minuscule amount for a cause.

Before the walk, when spirits were high.

After some much needed naps (Levi and me), we headed to the theater to see The Incredibles 2 with some friends. It was Levi's first theater experience and I wasn't sure how he'd do.

He wasn't at all scared by the dark or the loud noises, but sat completely still on Justin shoveling his face full of popcorn . . . for the first 30 minutes . . . then he was done. Incidentally, the first 30 minutes were all previews. As soon as the actual movie started Levi just wanted to get down and run around. He was climbing the stairs, walking down our row, running down to the front of the theater where Justin had to run in front of the screen to grab him, and yelling, "No!" anytime we tried to restrain him. He would get distracted by the movie for a couple minutes here and there, but toward the end I just gave up and took him out in the hall. He found a handicap ramp and gleefully ran up and down it over and over until the movie was done. Lesson learned. Don't bring a 2 year old to the theater.

8. Bonus point for pictures!