The Saturday 7

Whew! What a week!

After months of planning, we finally put on our second annual Soccer Camp for kids this week. It went so well. The weather was absolutely beautiful - high 70s/low 80s and cloudy most of the time. There was about 10 minutes of rain on Monday, but no thunder or lightning, and the most of the kids thought playing in the rain was a blast! We had an amazing team of volunteers that worked hard to teach soccer, have fun with kids, share the gospel, make snacks, build relationships, organize everything, and clean up. By Monday morning we had over 200 kids pre-registered! But we never had more than 180 a night actually show up, so it was manageable. My position on the planning committee is mostly marketing, content creation, and registration, so I didn't have a ton to do at camp every night. And yet, by Thursday night I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. My body is not used to so much standing and walking (#embarrassingbuttrue).

2. Lucy is officially too old for Soccer Camp, but Lena and Levi participated. The only reason Lena can handle it is because my sister Niki is her coach every year.

This picture was taken right after Niki got pie-d in the face. She's getting so many jewels in her heavenly crown!

Even with Niki as her coach and a team consisting of some of her best friends (I was in charge of the team assignments. Perks of your mom being on the planning committee!), she was still overcome with anxiety on Wednesday and refused to participate. 🤦 And I ask yet again, how young is too young for anxiety meds? Levi had a blast running around like a maniac and goofing off with his friends. I didn't get very many good pics . . .

We brought our neighbor girl to camp every night, and one of Lena's friends rode with us another night. #Leviandthegirls

We on the Planning Committee will take a week or two to recuperate, then start planning for next year!

This is a picture of a picture. Sorry for the bad quality.

3. On the Sunday before Soccer Camp, I made a huge grocery run to buy all the snacks for the week. Of course Sam's Club was out of stock of some of the snacks we planned so I stood in the store with my phone calculator trying to figure out the best deal on treats for 200 kids. And you should've seen me trying to push the cart around! Haha. 💪

This was just my Sam's Club order. I jammed a cart full at Meijer too!

Unfortunately, while I was at Meijer this happened:

I've never been in a fender bender before, and as this experience taught me, I do not have quick reflexes. Lol. I was pulling into a parking spot next to a parked car, when all of a sudden said car whipped out of its spot. His reverse lights were not on when I started pulling in, and he must not have looked behind him before going, because I don't know how he didn't see me. I sat there with two thoughts in my mind, "Reverse!" and "Honk!" . . . and I did neither. Lol. Instead I held my hands out in front of me and shouted, "No, no, no!" 🤦 So helpful. Fortunately, my van didn't sustain much damage (even though it took a chunk out of the other guy's bumper/headlight! 😬), and the other driver was really nice. I braced myself for yelling, screaming, and swearing, but we just exchanged insurance information, said sorry, and went our merry ways! Whew!

4. I decided this week that I'm ready for school to start again. That's right on schedule for me. 6 weeks of no routine is enough. My self-imposed routines during the summer aren't enough. I need the real thing. I need 7 solid hours a day that my kids aren't glued to the TV or eating crackers on the couch (#somanycrumbs) or using another bowl or leaving the slider open leading me to shout, "Shut the door! That air's on!" That said, I'm not really ready for 6:30 wake up calls, packing lunches, or *shudder* fall weather. So I'll enjoy these last few weeks of freedom even if it means a lot of vacuuming and screen time.

5. Actually, this is my genius mom tip for avoiding screen time:

What you can't see in this picture is the audiobook playing. Levi will actually play with his toys if there's an audiobook going in the background. I get books through the library app or hoopla and play them via bluetooth on my phone. I've even splurged on a few from Audible so he can listen straight from Alexa. Best thing ever. Right now he's listening to The Baxter Family Children series by Karen Kingsbury. He's also listened to The House of Robots series by James Patterson, Treasure Hunters by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, and random titles from The Puppy Place series and The Boxcar Children series.

6. I managed to read one book myself despite Soccer Camp this week: The Beekeeper of Elderflower Grove. It's mass market romance, but very clean. It was a super sweet story and I enjoyed it. But I was thinking recently that my hobbies are pretty lame. Like last week when I spent a ton of time putting together a puzzle and listening to an audio book. Neither of those things is particularly productive. Puzzles are stupid because you work on them for hours only to break them apart and put them back in the box. And sure, my voracious reading gives me an excellent vocabulary and some knowledge of the world/history. But maybe I should take up gardening or crocheting or something that actually serves my family or society in some way . . . . Nah, I'll probably just keep reading.

7. Pics and memes

Do you see my ~~barnacle~~ ~~leech~~ trusty helper in this pic?

RC Vehicle battle

Not really sure what's going on here . . .

Another perk of voracious reading: major Scrabble skillz. (Played in spare moments against another member of the Planning Committee during Soccer Camp. Isn't my travel Scrabble board so cute?!)