The Saturday 7

1. I only work two days a week, and I'm fanatical about checking my alarms before bed to make sure I'll get up in time. (I don't care if the kids are late to school, but I can't bear to be late to work.) So imagine my surprise when Lucy woke me up 40 minutes after my alarm was set to go off on Monday. There's a fun way to start the week! Thank goodness I have one responsible kid. The other two were sound asleep still. (And of course, Levi was up before 7 every day they had off of school this week - how does that always happen?!)

2. So I may be slightly obsessed with the bin store. I went two more times this week. I wasn't kidding when I said $1 day at the bin store is going to be my new Wednesday morning tradition. This time I only spent $14. There wasn't quite as much good stuff as last time. But then I went again on Saturday with Niki. We decided to do a mystery package game for Christmas Eve and mystery packages were buy one, get one free on Saturday. We couldn't pass up a chance to search through the bins while we were there! I actually got a steal on a straightening brush. It was an Amazon return, so I ran the risk that it wouldn't work, but when I saw the price for it online was $60, I decided it was worth it for $6! Good news! It works!

This is the thing with the bin store, though . . . did I actually need a hair straightening brush? No. Would I have bought one at full price anyway? No. So did I actually save money? No. But I got a good deal, dang it!

3. On Wednesday afternoon, Lena got invited to a birthday party at the roller rink. Levi got to tag along, but he is not nearly as athletic as Lena is, so he pretty much just clung to me and made me drag him across the floor - which was a feat, considering I'm not athletic either. Lol. I never fell, though, so I should get points for that. Lena had a blast with her friends, and has been begging ever since to go back.

4. We had Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year. When planning our menu a couple weeks ago, I was automatically assigned rolls. I don't mind that because they're easy (I buy the frozen rolls that you thaw and bake) and I hate cooking. But then I saw this on Instagram and realized my family's true motivations!

We even had a discussion about what brand to buy - allegedly because of Casper's allergies, but apparently because I'm untrustworthy!

Not gonna lie, I wouldn't be mad if I got demoted to ice next year. Lol.

I did manage to make this adorable cheeseball, and I don't think I even poisoned anyone.

I got my baby snuggles!

World Cup!

After dinner, Madi went downstairs and noticed the floor was all wet. After some investigation, the men decided there was something wrong with one of the pipes and forbade us from running the water or flushing the toilets. So we packed up and moved to Mom and Dad's for the rest of the festivities! #adventure

Watching hunting videos with Braden

Cheeseball aftermath. Lol

5. I've been listening to Christmas music and doing my Christmas shopping for weeks, but yesterday Justin finally let me put up the tree.

The kids decorated the whole thing themselves, in case you can't tell from the above pictures, but I don't care. I love that they get excited about it and enjoy reminiscing about all of the ornaments as they put them on. And nothing beats this view:

Bring on the Christmas cheer!!

6. This week I read a 6 book series about a group of siblings. Each had their own book, chronicling their quest to find love. In case you're not familiar with the romance genre, most books end with an epilogue that gives us a peek into the couple's "happily ever after" a year or two down the road. The last book in this series had an extra long epilogue to show where the whole family was ten years later. It was set at Christmas time, and filled with antics from all the couples' kids, showing how they grew to be one big happy family. And I realized that if someone was to write a series about my siblings and I, we'd be living the epilogue right now. It'd be Thanksgiving at Niki's mansion with one big long table. It'd be hands clasped while Dad prays for the meal. It'd be the men yelling at the TV during the World Cup and good natured ribbing in the kitchen about my inability to cook. It'd be the kids chasing each other around the island on scooters while we all yell at them to "get out of the kitchen!" It'd be the basement flooding and hurriedly packing up all the snacks and desserts and transferring to a secondary location. There'd probably be a lot fewer loaded looks at your spouse across the dining room table than there are in my romance novels, but it'd still be a whole lot of love. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. 💗

7. More pics