The Saturday 7

1. We had kind of a crazy week. Sunday after church we had family lunch at my parents' house while we still could. I just love having everyone together. It's so fun to interact with my nephews and their significant others now that they're adults, and I love having so many babies in the family again. These are the moments.

Coloring with Grandpa

2. We've been battling some sickness in our house (thanks a lot, school!). Lena stayed home from school on Monday with a random fever. Levi has suddenly come down with the cough that Lucy's had for a month. (Lucy's is actually much better.) Levi puked every night this week because laying down in his bed makes him cough like there's no tomorrow. Fortunately, we caught it almost every time. He's fine during the day, but a disaster at night. And this morning, I woke up with a man voice that hasn't gotten much better throughout the day. Oy.

3. On Tuesday I had a physical therapy appointment. The more the therapist gets to know me, the more she's been focusing on my back issue instead of my female nonsense. I thought the nonsense was causing the back issue, but she doesn't think they're as linked as originally thought. This week she had me try a bunch of exercises to strengthen my core, but every one of them hurt my back. Sometimes I think she's totally flabbergasted by me. Haha. She'll pause and say, "hmmmm. Really? That hurts? Hmmmm. You're weaker than I thought." This week she asked me if I was a dancer or a gymnast. I told her that I dabbled in gymnastics, but have always been abnormally flexible. She thinks that's a huge part of my problem. Coupled with constantly arching my back while I was hugely pregnant three times, my back has learned to make up for my weak abs. And my abs are just getting weaker because my back does all the work. But I can't strengthen my abs without "fatiguing" my back. It's a vicious cycle. And this is probably really boring to read about. The point is I'm glad she's working so hard to find something that will help me. We did finally find one exercise that works my abs without hurting my back. Now I just need to be disciplined enough to do it and hope that it makes a difference!

4. Ok, on to the exciting stuff. Libby was watching Levi during my appointment on Tuesday. Just after I got to her house to pick him up I got a call from the school. I immediately assumed that Lena was feverish again, and wasn't surprised when her teacher came on the line when I answered. I was surprised, however, when she said, "We're having a bit of a smoke problem at school. The fire department is here trying to find the source and recommend that we evacuate the students. Can you come pick up your girls?" Say what?! Haha. Fortunately, Libby lives five minutes from the school, so I was able to make it there quickly. I was certain that Lena would be terrified. But the smoke was on the other end of the building from her classroom, so she was mostly ok. When she got in the car, I asked if she was scared, and she said, "Not really. But as soon as our teacher told us about it, I started shivering. I just couldn't stop!" Ha! Welcome to the wonderful world of anxiety, my friend!

A cool "God moment" happened amid the chaos at school. While the computer lab was filling with smoke and a terrible "burning rubber" smell was permeating the school, the Kindergarten teacher happened to walk by and mention, "The fire chief is here right now giving my kids a presentation on fire safety." !! How's that for timing? Long story short, after cutting into the ceiling, they discovered a malfunctioning vent fan motor. Something about smoke bearings was causing the problem. I don't understand, but it wasn't a big deal or an expensive fix. The girls did get the day off on Wednesday, though, to let the building air out and the ceiling be repaired. So much excitement!

I made monkey bread/cinnamon rolls out of some leftover Rhodes rolls to celebrate. Mmmmm!

5. In less exciting news, I decided to scale back my Zoloft dosage this week. A couple months ago, my doctor upped my dosage because I was unraveling. But I've been feeling better (duh - increased medication) and hoping that at least some of that was because the girls are back at school and I'm not feeling like such a homeschooling failure. Unfortunately, I've started to notice some of the old symptoms creeping back in. I've been really angry all of a sudden about dumb things, feeling weepy, and isolating myself from my friends and things I usually enjoy. I really don't want to be on the max dose, so I'm going to give it another week or two and see if it regulates. If I'm kind of a witch between now and then, it's not my fault. It's withdrawals. 😜

6. Lucy changed her mind about me attending her field trip, and generously tolerated my presence. So I woke all the kids up before the sun, packed them up, hustled Lena and Levi to my parents', and met Lucy's class at the school an hour before school starts so we could pile on the bus and drive two hours to the state's capital. I didn't really even want to go, but field trips count as volunteer hours, and I knew, despite Lucy's reticence that she would want me there when all the other kids had their parents. She had a good attitude the whole time, and had wayyyyyy too much fun taking pictures on my phone. (I don't think it's an exaggeration to say she took 1,000 pictures. I'll share some of the gems below. Haha.)

Stairs in the capitol building. Wow.

6 pictures of these brochures on the wall.

7 pictures of this door hinge. Lol. You get the idea.

She took some pretty good ones too:

Looking up at the Rotunda.

This thing is gorgeous. She took like 15 pictures, but I would've too, so I can't blame her.

Beautiful floors/ceilings/doors. The floors and stairs reminded me of Chilton. Anyone get that reference?

Empty House of Representatives. They don't work on Fridays . . . or Mondays . . . 🙄

All the selfies. I guess she likes me sometimes.

Her whole class + teacher. I love our tiny Christian school.

After the Capitol, we went to the state history museum, where Lucy took more interesting pictures . . .

I think this was supposed to be our first governor. I'm not sure he would appreciate the likeness . . .

We had fun walking through the exhibits representing early pioneer life and finding things that are currently in my parents' house:

My parents have a quilt identical to the one on that museum bed, my dad had cigar boxes just like those in his den, and he has an anvil that looks just like the one above. I just tried to move it the other day so Nash wouldn't fall on it. Those suckers are heavy!

It was a good trip.

7. More pictures: