The Saturday 7

1. Week two of this record-shattering heat wave is in the books. It's also the week I decided to go on a diet. Yeah, I know. You've heard that story before. This time I'm doing intermittent fasting. I don't eat between 8 pm and noon. Missing breakfast and holding out 'til noon usually isn't too hard for me. But not snacking after 8 is brutal!! In the first 4 days, I lost 7 pounds. But then 4th of July happened and I gained 4 pounds back. Haha. I have noticed that the combination of not eating and being out in this intense heat is not super great for me. I get very light-headed very quickly. I'm also probably dehydrated, because I'm trying not to drink Dr Pepper, and I'm terrible at forcing myself to drink water. Like I said - bad combination. #deathbydieting

2. I added a new kid to my menagerie this week. My niece, Brandy, got a full time job, so I get to watch my great-niece Nova! I only had her Wednesday last week, but I'll have her three days this week. She's so sweet. The girls are over the moon excited, and it will be so good for Levi to have someone closer to his age. He needs to learn to share before starting school in the fall. Lol.

Levi forgot that Nova and Ruby are well acquainted, and took it upon himself to tell Nova the important facts about Ruby: "She's so tiny and cute and she poops a lot." (True story: she pooped almost immediately after he announced that. Lol.) 

3. This Thursday was the long awaited 13th Annual Girls' Sleepover at Niki's House! Niki ran an in-home daycare for something like 20 years, and once a summer, she had all her day care girls spend the night. Once Lucy was old enough, she got to tag along. By the time Lena was old enough, most of Niki's day care girls were pre-teens, and for the past few years, Niki hasn't even done day care. But the tradition lives on with my girls, Nova, and the youngest of Niki's past day care girls. My girls look forward to it all year. They get to do makeovers and hair and have a photo shoot, watch movies, eat pizza and junk food, go swimming, and sleep on Niki's living room floor. Of course, this year, Lucy binged on so much pizza that she puked it up allllll over Niki's bathroom. I felt so bad that Niki had to clean that up. My kids and their stinking puking problems!!

While the girls were partying and puking, Justin, Levi, and I were out dishwasher shopping! Woohoo! Of course, thanks to Covid, dishwasher manufacturers are backed up and can't keep up with supply and demand, so nothing is in stock. Originally, they told me nothing would be in stock until August 5, but when I loosened my color preferences, I finally found one that would ship on July 14th. I put aside the need for my appliances to match in favor of only having to do dishes by hand for one more week instead of one more month!! Woohoo!

Trying to talk Justin into buying this cool lawn mower outside Home Depot.

4. Justin had Friday off, so we enjoyed two whole days of 4th of July festivities. Friday morning, Levi and I got donuts (sorry, diet), bought some fireworks, then went to Meijer with the rest of the world. (#socialdistancefailure) 

After we picked the girls up from Niki's, we headed to the Montgomerys' lake (friends of Justin's parents'). The lake was super warm, so we spent all afternoon swimming and fishing.

Mr. Montgomery regularly feeds the fish that hang out by the shore, so they are prevalent and comfortable around people. This is what you see looking over the side of the dock:

So the kids spent hours trying to catch them in nets or with their hands.

Levi jumping back in surprise when he realized Grandpa actually caught a fish.

Cautious inspection

Lena's catch

The kids are strictly forbidden from eating in the pool, so when they saw Persephone eating in the lake, they were astonished. When I told them that was fine, they were even more astonished! Haha. We had just finished off a sleeve of cookies, so when Levi asked to eat Doritos in the lake, I dumped a bunch in the plastic container and floated it out to him. He was ecstatic that he had a floating "Dorito boat." Lol. 

The big pike Justin caught. (He was pretty far from shore and this is the farthest my camera could zoom.)

After we had exhausted ourselves at the lake, we packed up and headed back to Niki's for the fireworks show!

My little white babies (and photobomber Levi). 

Fun with glow sticks

Sparkler time!

Ready for the big booms!

Chillaxin' and enjoying the show.

My anxious child and I enjoying the show from inside the house. Haha.

5. Day two of festivities was spent at Niki's pool.

This girl loves dressing thematically.

Making sure my potluck contribution makes it to Niki's safely.

Popsicles by the pool (but not in it! This isn't the lake!)

A whole passel of goofy kids

Niki got out the underwater camera and let the kids go to town with it. These are the pictures she sent me. (I can only imagine the ones she deleted. Lol.)

A rare sighting of a mermaid in her natural habitat

Levi looks dead in all the pictures. Lol. 🤦

Post-braid curls

6. Today, after a weekend of fun, I'm feeling overwhelmed by my kids' behavior and eating habits and feeling the need to implement some stronger rules/structure to this chaotic household. But I know myself, and know that it will never last. Really, I think they just need to go back to school. This has been the never-ending summer break, which was fun for a long time, but I'm ready for routine again. Although, I'm not in a terrible hurry for school to start, because Levi isn't quite potty trained enough. He's definitely doing better, but he never makes it through the day without a couple small accidents. It's majorly stressing me out.

On the school note . . . we got an email from our administrator this week saying that our school fully intends to open as usual in the fall - as long as the governor doesn't start going backward in the "5 Phase Reopening Plan." (If that happens, the school will close! No distance learning because the school can't pay the teachers unless people are paying tuition. And people won't pay tuition if they have to do distance learning.) He was also clear about the mask situation - saying that no one will be required to wear masks in the fall, but they can be worn at each individual family's discretion. I continue to be flabbergasted by the amount of division and derision a stupid piece of fabric has caused in so many realms of society. The day after the original email, our administrator sent out another email to say that nothing is officially formalized and he just wanted to give us a heads up about the direction our school is going. So apparently he got enough angry responses that he felt the need to clarify. (He also said this is a "school family" decision and we're not supposed to be sharing it on social media, so . . . . mum's the word. Lol.) 

I've been surprised by how many people are planning on homeschooling rather than sending their kids to public schools and their variations of distance learning/mask wearing/social distancing. So, I guess if you're looking for other options, keep our school in mind. (Although I can't officially promise anything. And maybe private message me with questions so I don't get busted on social media. 😉)

7. Let's wrap this up with a few more pictures:

Muffin face!

We have central air, but it's very inefficient. We keep the house closed up tight, and practically live in a cave with all the curtains closed, but the AC just can't keep up. Case in point: I keep it at 77*. It started running around noon today and hasn't stopped. It is currently (at 7:50 p.m.) 81* in here. This heat wave is going to kill our budget for electricity this month. (At least it's super cold in the basement of our bi-level house! We might just have to set the AC at 80* and start living in the basement.)

Crazy hair kids

My kids are bad influences on Ruby, teaching her to plug her nose.

My leech precious daughter.

I can't remember if I've written about this . . . Lucy is in a phase where she refuses to let me brush her hair. The result is a tangle/knot/rat's nest of epic proportions. I can't even adequately describe it. But Justin and my mom have both spent hours trying to get it out. One day when my mom was at the pool with us this week, we decided just to start cutting chunks out. We were all super nervous, but it was quite anti-climatic because the scissors wouldn't go through her hair. Lol. 

Once in a while all that swimming really does wear Levi out . . .

A little chuckle to end on (that probably won't mean much unless you've seen this episode)