The Saturday 7

1. I won't leave you in suspense any longer (*ahem* Amy Dematatis). We have made a decision about school: the girls are starting at ACS on Monday! Thank you so much for your wisdom and advice and prayers. I also want to take a quick minute to clarify that I have nothing against public school. I don't want y'all to think we're "above" public school. We just have highly anxious children, and don't feel particularly prepared as parents to be the sole source of their Christian education. It's going to be a major stretch financially, but we finally decided it's a sacrifice we're willing to make. The girls are beyond excited. We made a trip today to stock up on school supplies, they've dug out their backpacks and lunchboxes, Lena even has her first day outfit picked out. It is going to be brutal getting up at 6:30 every morning, when we're used to rolling out of bed around 9. But hopefully it will tire everyone out enough to sleep better at night! I'm really looking forward to my days with just Levi. And I'm really looking forward to not homsechooling anymore. Lol. Even if I feel like a failure for giving up. Oh well. I never intended to do it long-term. I just wish I would've realized how short-term it would end up being, before I bought this year's curriculum! 🤦If anyone's looking for My Father's World 1st and 4th grade with the first three weeks used, let me know! 😉

2. Ironically enough, this year a group of homeschool moms from church got together to form a more official group - complete with activities scheduled out through January. We went to our first - and last - one on Monday. And it solidified my decision to send the girls to school. They're just so uncooperative and ornery. Granted, it was the nature center, and neither of them is crazy about nature, but c'mon! All the other kids were excited to look at the stuffed (taxidermy) animals, exclaimed over the cool insects, felt the soft pelts, loved the nature walk, petted a turtle, answered the leader's questions and asked questions of their own. My girls stood next to me whining that they wanted to go home until we got to the playground. Sigh. At least Levi enjoyed it. He and I might still tag along on some of the homeschool group activities.

Levi's on the end in the blue checked coat. The girls were standing behind me refusing to participate.

At least Ruby was a good sport! She loves nature.

3. I had a physical on Tuesday where we spent lots of time discussing my depression. I was kind of hoping she'd put me on a new medication (maybe one that won't make me gain so much weight?!), but she wants me to max out the dose on my current med before messing with a new one. So I'm medicating myself to the gills. She also "prescribed" two servings of green vegetables every day.

She explained that a recent study compared results between people who ate 14 servings of green vegetables a week with people who had intensive counseling, and the improvement in their depressive symptoms was the same! Well there's my problem! I don't eat vegetables! Ugh. At least she didn't tell me to cut out sugar, dairy, or gluten. I can add veggies to my diet a lot better than I can remove things. I've been trying, but did you know that green vegetables are gross?

4. I'm hopeful that between the medication, the stupid vegetables, and sending the girls to school, my moods will be much more stable in the future. So far, I just feel dizzy from upping my meds. And last night, I was so angry at my kids that when Justin got home from work I said, "I have to leave until I can get my attitude under control." But I know it takes more than a few days to feel results. My doctor also ordered a hormone panel to make sure nothing is too out of whack there. I need to get my blood drawn this week, but I have to fast and I never remember (also testing my cholesterol as part of the physical).

5. I know that Harry Potter is about to get really good (book 5), but I just can't make myself pick it up and read. Instead, I've been on a Kristan Higgins kick. She writes for the general market and is not super clean, but I've definitely read worse. I just love her characters and romance and humor. I stayed up til 1:00 a.m. twice this week to finish a book. I'm going to miss that when I have to wake up at 6:30 the next day.

6. Levi's been going to sleep marginally better (it still takes a least an hour and a half of sitting with him), but now he's started climbing into our bed in the middle of the night and sleeping completely horizontally between us. Half the time I don't even realize he's in bed until I get kicked in the spleen. We've tried taking him back to bed, but then we have to start the whole screaming/crying/begging to sleep with us for another hour and a half in the middle of the night! I'm not sure how much more of this we can take! I've had a couple people recommend melatonin lately. Has anyone else had success with that? I don't have a lot of faith that it will work.

7. Pictures galore!