The Saturday 7

1. We celebrated the 4th over two days this year. On Monday we went to Justin's parents' friends' cottage (got that?). I only stayed for a couple of hours because I had to get to work, but I went out fishing with Justin for a little bit. We fished for 45 minutes and I caught 6 fish! Including this beaut:

Lucy has been a reading machine lately. She finished all of Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen, and Katie Wheldon, plus the spin-off Christy Miller series. I just got her started on the Tradewinds series by Taylor Bennett. The library doesn't have all of them, though, so while we're waiting to see if they'll buy the newest ones, she's been reading The Charmed Life series by Jenny B. Jones.

After work on Monday, I swung home to pick up the kids, then went to Niki's for a kid-friendly firework show. My phone does not take very good pictures in the dark, so forgive the poor photo quality . . .

Justin buzzed Levi's hair for the first time on Monday. Levi hates it. Lol. I think he looks cute!

When we got home, Lena and I climbed on the garage roof to watch some of the other fireworks shows going on in our neighborhood.

2. On the actual 4th, we spent the day at Niki's with the fam.

There was an intense volleyball tournament. Can you see Levi sitting on the steps? He was the ball-boy and took great delight in fetching the ball anytime it went out of the pool.

3. I've spent the rest of the week preparing for Soccer Camp. We plan so diligently for months ahead of time, but the week before is always crazy. On Wednesday I organized all the donated snack supplies and made my grocery list. On Thursday I spent a few hours buying fresh fruit and snacks for 225 kids. (You should've seen me trying to push a cart full of 6 watermelons and 16 pounds of grapes through Meijer. 😂) And on Friday, I printed and cut out 1,000 postcards. I've also been juggling the online registration, making sure the teams are evenly sized and kids get put where they need to go. I think we're ready. Now we just pray for good weather!

4. Here's my Once Upon story of the week: When we buy clothes from customers, we usually pay them in cash. But if it's over $100, the shift leader has to write a check. Yesterday, the shift leaders were two girls in their late teens/early twenties and neither of them had ever written a check before. They had to call over the old lady (me) to do it. Lol. Nothing makes me feel my age quite like working with a bunch of teeny-boppers. I took the week off at Once Upon for Soccer Camp, and I'm looking forward to being old in peace at home.

5. Something else we're doing next week . . . screen free week. I'm fairly certain I've lost my mind, but it's something I've wanted to try for a long time. The kids were actually watching an episode of Tic Tac Toy (some dumb kids' vlog) this week where the family gave up screens for a month, and I just felt so convicted. Lena and Levi naively think it's going to be a fun adventure, but I know it's going to brutal. I just keep feeling like it's something we need to do, though. Levi especially does hours of screen time every day - either watching TV or playing dumb games on my phone. And we have to cut back. I purposely chose next week because we're going to be busy with Soccer Camp, but I know it will be hard - especially in the morning. Levi gets up between 6:30 and 7 most days, and I most assuredly do not. He lets me sleep in peace as long as he has a screen to entertain him. So I may be changing my tune about this week-long detox by about Tuesday, but I'm really going to try! We'll actually probably only do Monday through Friday. I'm not a total glutton for punishment. Pray for me.

6. That's all I've got this week. Enjoy the memes because I won't have any next week. (Screen-free week applies to me, too. No scrolling through Instagram!)