Adventures in La La Land

1. We celebrated Memorial Day on Sunday with my family at the pool. It was one of the nicest Memorial Day weekends we've had in a long time (weather-wise), and Niki had the pool heat up to 85*, so it was an awesome day for swimming.  Acrobatics with Tristan Levi "playing" cornhole with the big boys. We spent the day eating tons of food, playing cards, swimming, and talking - all of my favorite things! We rounded out the evening with s'mores When I put this shirt on Levi, he paused in confusion, patted each of his shoulders, then said with a big smile, "I like this kind of shirt!" Haha. Apparently he doesn't remember wearing sleeveless shirts in the past. 2. We had our first taste of real summer weather this week, with temps in the high 80s. I love the heat, but am thankful for central air!! And Niki's pool of course! Niki had to go back to work this week (😢), but we still got to hang out with some other family/friends. Lena's friend Aubrey came ...

What a week. 1. Sunday started off rough with another mini meltdown by yours truly. Parenting is hard and sometimes I want off the ride. But instead of wallowing in it like I usually do, I did the hard thing and opened up my Bible. I flipped through Psalms, stopping at every verse I've underlined over the past 15 years. I texted my friends asking for wisdom/prayers/verses to meditate on, then I pulled out the prayer journal I haven't used in two years and filled some pages. My parenting problems didn't go away, but my angst over them diminished, at least. And I felt compelled to finally start reading a book that I've owned for 3 years: Parenting by Paul David Tripp. My text to my friends earlier in the day said, "You know the phrase 'If God brings you to it, he'll bring you through it?' Is that Biblical? Do you know of any verses that back that up? Point me to them!" Look how chapter 2 of Parenting  begins. Thanks, God, for the confirmation! ...

Was Lucy's birthday really this week? It seems like so long ago. Man, quarantine is getting old. Anyway! . . . 1. Lucy turned the big 1-0 on Monday. She originally wanted to have her first ever sleepover, but that was of course forestalled by the dreaded stay-at-home-order. We tried to make her day fun anyway. It's long been a tradition for the birthday girl to get breakfast in bed with one present. I watched Ruby that day, so Esther generously picked up donuts for us! Later on that morning, one of her friends from school stopped over with a present and stayed to play and have lunch with us - Lucy's specially requested spiral macaroni. After Avery left, Lucy did lots of screen time (her favorite thing in the whole universe) and when Justin got home she got to open the rest of her presents. I think she was a little disappointed with the presents. Truth be told, I've been buying things here and there for months but when I went to wrap them I was surprised by how...