The Saturday 7

1. We're continuing to get settled in the new house. I'm loving the layout of the kitchen/living room/dining room/bedrooms. Except that the girls are still sharing a room and they never sleep. They literally don't fall asleep until midnight, but then they sleep until 9 or 10 am and I kind of enjoy that. Lol. Levi has officially moved to the toddler bed. I think we've had 2 nights in the past 2 weeks that he's actually slept all night - or at least until 6 am (then he sleeps in my bed with me until 9ish). Twice, he's gotten up around 3 a.m. and climbed into Lucy's bunk bed (top bunk). He wakes her up and gets stuck at the top of the ladder. I usually hear them eventually and go intervene. The one downfall to having our bedroom in the basement is that we don't always hear Levi when he sneaks out of his room - despite having the baby monitor turned up full blast.

2. I've been slowly putting up decor. I'm nervous about putting holes in the walls, so it takes me forever to decide where to hang things. I managed to commit to these this week:

This looks better in the daylight, but I never remember to take a picture. Isn't that welcome sign perfect?? My cousin gave it to me as a housewarming gift - because she knows me well. 😂

This is in our school room. I have so many fun ideas for that letter board, but my girls constantly beg to put their own phrases on it. This was Lena's contribution. Haha. (And Levi contributed to the white board.)

3. Today, we finally got to work on the basement. I've been avoiding it because I didn't even know where to begin:

After 3 solid hours of family cleaning time, it's finally coming together. It's definitely not done, but it's better. As you'll see, I have a bit of a problem with children's books. I may have had 13 boxes of them . . . So that ledge running around the basement really came in handy! Now I just need a few more bookcases to put the rest of the books in!😂

So.Many.Toys.

That corner still needs work, but we're saving all the boxes for my sister who is moving soon too!

4. In non-house news, I started watching my niece this week. My sister-in-law went back to work just 2 days a week, and I'm watching Miss Ruby. She is an amazing baby - such a great sleeper, so laid back, so adorable. And my "hours" are 10:00 am-5:30 pm. Perfect for my sleeping schedule!! Lol. The girls looooove having her here.

On Wednesday, I also watched my nephew for a few hours. The two overlapped for about an hour and a half. Most of the time, everything went smoothly. But for about half an hour, there was chaos. Lol. Levi, Nash, and Ruby were all crying at the same time. I was feeling very grateful that I never had twins!!

Lucy is truly a very good helper.

Nash and Ruby are only 3 months apart, so their size difference cracks me up. This is also when things started going downhill . . .

5. We've been studying China for the past couple of weeks, and Justin's brother Jesse just got home from a year of working in China! So we had our homeschool friends and Jesse over for a "China presentation." All kids love Jesse, so it was a great time.

He also brought his friend who went to China with him.

Excited to show off their "BFF" shirts

6. We got a tiny glimpse of spring for the first time this week. March has been very disappointing in the weather department, so we were all thrilled when we saw the 50s this week!

The sun was out for a couple hours in the morning, so the girls took advantage of the slice of deck that wasn't wet from melting snow to do their schoolwork.

It started raining later and the kids had a blast running in the puddles. Even after the girls were done, Levi couldn't bear to come back inside. The poor Michigan boy was desperate for some fresh air!

The warmth was short-lived, but it was wonderful while it lasted. It's amazing how you can forget, after 6 months of winter, that it's possible to step outside without having your breath stolen away by mind-numbing cold!

7. More pictures: