The Saturday 7

Well, well, well, would you look at that? What day is it? Saturday! And here I am on time and full of interesting things to share. ("Interesting" may be a stretch.)

1. My dishwasher finally came this week! Hallelujah! My sweet, wonderful husband spent hours installing it and sweating all over the kitchen floor. Levi was also a biiiig help.

I am so thankful for modern technology. Dishwashers are one of my favorite inventions. I really wanted one with the third rack for silverware, but that extra rack costs a couple hundred extra dollars! Yikes!

2. Wednesday night, Levi ended up in bed with us, which is not unusual in and of itself, but he slept so restlessly all night and drove us both crazy! Part of his problem overnight was that his nose was stuffed up. He kept begging me to get a "nose pick" - aka q-tip. I explained over and over that that's not what q-tips are for, and it wouldn't help. But he woke up acting pretty normal. Around 10:00, I noticed that his eyes were looking a little glassy, and he was being whinier than usual, so I felt his head and sure enough: 100* fever. Oh snap. (That was confirmed with a thermometer. Detecting a specific temperature with my palm is not one of my many Mom Talents.)

We ended up spending the day snuggling on the couch and in my bed, watching a lot of TV, and informing everyone that we'd been with recently that we possibly exposed them to the plague.

I feel like there's been a push lately not to medicate fevers - supposedly it's better for the body to work it out on its own. I tried that for a while, but by 4:30 the kid was so miserable, I finally broke down and gave him ibuprofen. He definitely perked up after that, although the fever persisted, and then this happened:

You guys know what a terrible sleeper Levi has always been. This does not happen. Justin carried him down to his bed, but when I went down to bed hours later, I found Levi laying in my spot. When I lifted him up to take him back to his room, I noticed that his fever had broken. And he woke up Friday morning fever-free and acting totally normal! He still has the sniffles, but I think we successfully dodged the covid - for now at least. Whew!

3. I started poking around in genealogy research again one day this week. Usually I just follow the patriarchal line of my ancestors. For instance, I'd follow Justin's dad, D. VanderKodde to his dad W. VanderKodde, to his dad Something VanderKodde and so forth. I rarely follow the wife's line - even though we're just as related to that side of the family. Well, without revealing the common security question of my mother's maiden name, suffice it to say that I took a little turn one day in my own family line, followed the path of someone's wife, and ended up here:

Bam! There's my Native American blood that lets me tan so well! Lol. And are you ready for the best part? Drumroll please . . . Her aunt was none other than Pocahontas! So not only do I have Native American blood, I have royal Native American blood!

Oh yeah. I definitely see the family resemblance.

4. I got my hair cut yesterday for the first time in a couple years. My personal rule is that when it takes more than two hair-ties to contain it all in a messy bun, it's time to chop it off. Well that milestone passed somewhere around March, which, as you know was terrible timing. Anyway, I finally got in for an appointment this week. Here's the before:

I only wear it in a messy bun. It never looks pretty and wavy like this, except for the fifteen seconds after I take the bun out. After that time has lapsed, it becomes limp, stringy, and sad.

A few inches gone, and looking much healthier! Although, I don't know why I didn't have her do my eyebrows while I was there! Doh!

Lena has been begging to get her hair cut all summer, but I hate to pay for it. After mine though, she was insistent. So I finally just did it myself. I've done it before, and I've said this before: I have no plans to quit my day job. Lol.

Before (with her very strange "nervous" face)

After (and posing like a pro!)

5. Just for the sake of recording history: This week, our governor cracked down on the "mask mandate." For the past few weeks, stores have had signs on their doors declaring that a mask must be worn to enter the building, but very few stores actually enforced it. Apparently word of that got to the governor (and the number of cases are spiking again), so she made a new executive order stating that businesses must refuse service to people not wearing a mask (unless they have a medical condition - which is tricky, since there are laws that prevent people from asking others about their medical conditions). The few stores I went to this week did, indeed, have a "bouncer" at the door making sure people were wearing masks before entering. I'm not going to touch the mask debate with a ten foot pole, but I love this tweet that started circulating in response to it.