The Saturday 7

1. One week, people! One week! This is not a drill!

I told my mom today that I don't know how people with jobs can move. It has become my full time job for the past two weeks. Between that and homeschooling, I can't get anything else done. At the beginning of the school year, when I was planning our year, I intentionally took off the last week of February, just because I know February burnout is a real thing. Lo and behold, the last week of February is moving week! Thank you, Jesus! So we'll be playing the game of "Can I live without this for a week?" as I continue to pack up the last six years of our lives. Also, word of warning: there will not be a Saturday 7 next week. Contain your disappointment.

2. On Sunday, my friend Kelly gave me a book she recently read and loved.

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It was very short, so I read it all that afternoon. But it was really good. Kelly has gotten me on a Rachel Jankovic kick lately. I've been sporadically listening to her podcast and following her on facebook. She's a breath of fresh air in our generation of "Love yourself" and "Follow your heart." She also doesn't sugarcoat anything, so some of her stuff is a hard punch to the gut. Haha. But she's a solid Biblical teacher, on a mission to remind Christian women that life is not about us, it's not about comfort or constant entertainment, it's about being faithful and depending on God's grace - not our own power. One of my favorite quotes from the book was this: "We need to spend less time listening to ourselves, and more time talking to ourselves" (96). She talks about how the Psalmist in Psalm 42 says, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him!" (that was my own paraphrase) We spend so much time looking inward and searching for the source of our discontent or for a magic formula to make life easier. We have to spend less time listening to ourselves whine and more time telling ourselves to shut up and praise God. Haha.

3. A few people have asked me recently if we're really sending our kids back to ACS in the fall. I hinted at it in a blog post a while ago, but that may have been wishful thinking. At this point, with buying a house and reacquainting ourselves with utility bills and property taxes, it's very unlikely that we'll be able to afford it. 😭 So right now I'm praying for one of two miracles (and an answer to either would be truly miraculous): either money to pay for ACS or a change of attitude regarding homeschool. I'm really hoping God will choose the former, but that latter would certainly be more sanctifying. 🤦

4. Last week, Lena finished her math book. We skipped a lot because it was way too easy, and she flew through the rest. I patted myself on the back a little and pinned a bunch of free worksheets on Pinterest to hold her over for the rest of the school year. Then, as I was packing up the school stuff I had shoved on a shelf and never look at, I realized she has a whole second book to get through! Lol. Worse yet - so does Lucy! And she's not even halfway through her current book! I need to talk to some ACS parents or teachers and see if they do both books in one year and if they skip sections or something. I don't know how we can be so far behind! Looks like we'll be doing math through the summer . . .

5. Poor Levi is turning 3 this week, and I have barely even thought about his birthday. I tried to buy a train table/tracks from someone on Craigslist, but it was probably a sex trafficking operation because as soon as I said my husband would pick it up, all communication immediately ceased. So I just have the pink LeapPad I bought from the facebook marketplace and a bag of Thomas the Train Duplos that I got at Goodwill for $1. Lol. #thirdchild Does anyone have any wooden tracks or train sets they're looking to offload . . . before Thursday? Otherwise, let me just say thank goodness for Amazon Prime!

6. This weekend I got to participate in the IF: Gathering with my church. The actual event was in Dallas a couple weeks ago, but they make it available to people all over the world through Internet streaming. Some very creative, dedicated, godly women in our church put it together and were blown away by the number of women who signed up. The best thing about it is that you hear from a variety of speakers. Some are very excitable, screaming into the mic so much I wonder how they don't go hoarse. Others are calm and collected. I didn't love every speaker, but I really enjoyed others. The theme of the weekend was "trust," with an emphasis on discipleship and living in community with fellow Christian women. I took pages and pages of notes and left the weekend with a desire to become more whole-hearted in my pursuit of godly living. These women have done incredible things for the gospel, sacrificed much, been through unthinkable tragedy, and lived through it joyfully for the sake of Christ. I, on the other hand, have played 682 games of free cell in the past month. (That's not an exaggeration. I looked it up.) We were challenged at the end to write down one word or phrase that we wanted to have as a reminder of what we learned. I chose the word "immerse." I want to immerse myself in the Bible, in prayer, in books that can help me on my spiritual walk. I've been taking baby steps toward having a better devotional life, but I've been a Christian for 30 years. I should be beyond the baby steps. I need to immerse myself in it, so that I'm able to disciple others - even my own kids!

7. Pictures:

Lena learned about rocks this week. The kids were delighted to paint rocks and make a volcano. We also sang, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock" over and over and over. 

I put this on facebook, but it deserves to be memorialized here as well. A mite creepy!

Ruby snuggles

My turn!

Black glue mandalas for the end of our India unit. We're going to fill in the white space with watercolors. They just took longer to dry than I expected!