The Saturday 7

I figured I might be in trouble if I skipped two weeks in a row, so I'm going to try to crank this out before midnight. No guarantees.

1. In homage to a pathetic year, we had a pathetic New Year's Eve celebration. We always send our kids to my parents' and have a party with our small group on New Year's Eve - at least we have for the past 13ish years. But it wasn't in the cards for us this year, so we stayed home and treated it like pretty much any other night. Justin watched TV downstairs. I watched TV upstairs. Levi went to bed at his normal time. The girls played in their rooms until 11:45, then we all converged in the living room to watch the ball drop and toast to the new year with sparkling grape juice.

2. I started my college classes on Monday! I'm only taking two classes, but I've never done online learning so I had no clue what to expect. I couldn't even access the course information until Monday at noon because the school is in Washington, so they're three hours behind us! Haha. I spent a few hours exploring everything and getting the lay of the land. I'm still unsure of what this online learning thing really entails. This week, in each of my classes, I had to read a few articles, then share my opinions on a class discussion board. That was it. There was no lecture, no textbook, no power point slides. Just articles and opinions. The syllabus refers to quizzes and projects, though, so I'm guessing the first week was just easing us in . . . which I appreciate. I haven't done formal schooling in 12 years. In each of my classes we were asked to introduce ourselves, and I was thankful to discover that I'm not the only middle aged mom re-entering academia. My classmates are a good mix of 30something women, teens fresh out of high school, and even a guy who said he's been teaching for 20 years, so he's no spring chicken (rooster?) either. The classes I'm taking are "School Libraries and Media" and "Library Tech," so I've enjoyed the material so far, and am looking forward to the next few weeks!

3. The girls started school on Monday, and Levi on Tuesday . . . and I reveled in the quiet. I'm one of those bad moms who likes her kids going to school. I pretend it's because I'm an introvert, but really I'm just a selfish brat. (#honesty) On Tuesday I worked on my classes, did some cleaning, took a nap, got groceries, and broke out this bad boy:

I purposely waited until Levi was out of the house before setting it up for the first time. Haha. And it took me a solid half hour to pick everything up off my living room floor before I could set Red free, but then I sat on the couch with a glass of Dr Pepper and watched him work. 😁 It's the best. He doesn't really move around the room with any rhyme or reason, he just zooms all around until he tires himself out, needs to recharge, and docks himself back at his station. But I was impressed with how clean he got the floors! Definitely a worthy investment . . . and hopefully one that will last despite Levi. He noticed it as soon as he got home from school, figured out how to turn it on, then chased it relentlessly around the house, putting things in its path, jumping over it, picking it up and moving it to different spots, he even stepped on it once. 🤦 

4. I wrote in my 2020 recap that I didn't have high hopes for 2021, but I honestly expected to make it more than a week before witnessing another major historical event. Oy. I was oblivious about the march at the Capitol, and knew nothing of the coup that broke out until a mom in the pickup lane at school grabbed my arm and said, "What is happening to our country?! They broke into the capitol! Pence is in hiding!" So I hurried home and turned on the news. Ugh. I have very little say that hasn't already been said. I'm angry that this radical group is making republicans (and Christians) look bad. I'm happy that Pence didn't give in to Trump's pressure to decertify the election results. I'm confused and slightly concerned by the rampant censorship that has gone on in the wake of this craziness. Mostly I'm disillusioned by politics and government, and hopeless that anything will change. Even in my own circle of friends, there's been a lot of discussion about standing up for freedom (not to the degree of staging a coup at a government building) versus showing Christlike humility. I'm having a hard time finding the balance between them, mostly because I don't feel like our freedoms are under imminent attack. But maybe I'm just burying my head in the sand? Maybe I'm buying into the media's lies? I don't truly want to have a discussion about this in the comments. Please don't try to sway me one way or the other. Because honestly, at this point, I'm here: 

For now, I'm going to err on the side of humility. 

5. While I was watching the news, Lena was nervously taking it all in. She asked a few questions, wondered why people were breaking windows and waving around guns. I told her some people were very angry about the decisions our government is making, and they were doing the wrong thing by acting on that anger in the way they did. When she asked why the police were pointing guns at people on the ground in the Capitol building, I explained that the people on the ground were the bad guys, and the police were not hurting them, but stopping them from doing bad things. She asked why the bad guys were doing bad things and I explained again that they were mad and wanted things to go their way. To which she very innocently replied, "Well they're not going to get their way by acting like that!" . . .  Out of the mouths of babes, y'all. 

6. On Thursday night, Justin and I were in the living room attempting to have a conversation while Lena and Levi screamed and fought and ran circles around us and interrupted every four seconds asking for a drink or a piece of candy or a Ferrari. Lucy had just stormed to her room, slamming the door behind her, and Justin looked at me and said, "Do you think we could have a date night tomorrow?" I've realized lately that he and I get almost no alone time together. Even on school nights, I can't get Lena to sleep much earlier than 10, and Justin goes to bed at 9 since he wakes up at dark o'clock every morning. Every conversation we have while the kids are awake is listened in on. If I ever try to go downstairs to talk to him, either Levi or Lena will notice my absence within minutes and come bounding down the stairs looking for me. It's exhausting. So I asked my brother and sister-in-law if they'd like to watch the kids for a while, and they graciously accepted. Lena freaked out when she realized I was leaving them there and not coming back for a few hours, but after I physically hauled her out of the van kicking and screaming, she did ok, and I was able to leave without theatrics. Of course nothing is open these days, so Justin and I got dinner to-go, pulled up a movie on Amazon, and ate/watched in peace. We talked without interruptions. We ate while our food was hot. We put our phones down and looked at each other. Haha. It was amazing. And then we picked the kids up. Levi screamed most of the way home because he didn't want to leave, and Lucy pouted in the backseat because Lena wouldn't trade seats with her. At least Lena was happy to see me! #backtoreality 

7. A few more pictures.

Lena rang in the new year with Legos

He managed to haul himself up the deck stairs, then literally rolled across the deck to the door, and banged on it until I came and opened it/dragged him inside. 🙄🙄🙄 Dramatic, much?

I actually watched Ruby and Casper for a couple hours Friday morning. This picture sums it up. Ruby is a peach. Casper isn't too sure about being away from his Mom. Levi is confused by Casper's unhappiness. He kept asking me, "What's wrong with him? Did he get hurt?" Haha.

But then he fell asleep on me. Look at those cheekies!! 😍

Dinos in the sun

I'm not even pretending to try this year! #donutsanddrpepper #fatandhappy