The Saturday 7

1. Last Tuesday, I got to go to the zoo with Levi for a field trip. I'm glad he still wants me to go on field trips with him. I've noticed little ways he's growing up lately. For instance, my kids have always called me "mommy." Lucy has taken to calling me "mother" now that she feels too old for "mommy," and Levi's been doing the same thing the past few weeks. 🤦What ever happened to "mom"? At least Lena still calls me "mommy."  Anyway, we had fun at the zoo:

2. I read a couple of books over the last two weeks: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park and The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day. They're both considered YA, but I liked them both! I decided to read A Long Walk to Water to my fifth graders - mostly because it's short, but also because it's clean and interesting and gives us rich, spoiled Americans a good wake-up call. 

3. Speaking of books, last Saturday I went with a couple friends down to a church in Portage to scope out their library! Haha. (#thingscoolpeopledo) We're toying with the idea of starting a library at our church, and the librarians at Berean Baptist were willing to give us some tips and tricks. It was so much fun, and made me long to make our vision for a library a reality. I remember going to the church library as a kid. Pretty sure I checked out every Christopher Churchmouse book over the years. And I'd love to offer the members of our church books that they know are safe for their kids. I saw something recently that said libraries used to be known for their impartiality, but they've become centers for advocacy. And they're definitely not advocating for traditional family values or growing closer to Jesus! 

4. May continues to be absolute madness. I ate both breakfast and dinner in my car a few times last week. And I only have one kid in sports! I don't know how the rest of y'all do it! Of course, to compound the busyness, I came down with a brutal cold this week. I noticed Sunday afternoon that my voice was sounding weird. By Monday it was completely gone. Levi was up all night Sunday coughing his guts out, so I took Monday off of work and we both stayed home. I couldn't speak above a whisper, but felt pretty good so I got lots done around the house. By Wednesday evening, though, the coughing began. 😭😭😭And it has not let up. I haven't slept more than 4 hours at a time since then. Most of my sleeping is done on the couch, which is not the most comfortable. I am absolutely miserable. But life is too busy to stay in bed like I want to. Tuesday night was Lucy's band concert, Wednesday night was a bowling party for Arise, Thursday night was the last night of my Bible Study that I really didn't want to miss (although I should've stayed home, because I just coughed the whole time). I had Tuesday off of work, but I worked Wednesday through Friday like usual. I finally got some medicine yesterday and it helped me sleep four hours instead of two, but I'm still coughing like crazy and feeling like I'm going to die. Yay. I just keep telling myself, "This too will pass. I won't have this cough forever."

Band Concert

Bowling

Oh yeah. I also had to help Levi make a diorama this week.

5. We've finally had some nice weather! The kids broke out the sprinkler and Levi even jumped in Niki's freezing cold pool for a minute. It's making me itch for summer. Only five more weeks of school! Next year, Lucy will be in high school. I can't even wrap my mind around that. I was just in high school a couple years ago, wasn't I?? She'll be 14 a week from today, and I feel like I should have parenting figured out by now. Alas, I do not. Every stage brings new challenges. And I'm constantly wondering if I've completely failed my kids. Sometimes I want to go back and start over. I want to be more intentional, create better habits, pray harder. They're good kids, but I'm worried to send them out into the real world - worried that I haven't done enough. That they'll end up in therapy blaming me for everything that's wrong with them. And maybe they'll be right. 🤷(Although I read a really interesting article about therapy this week. You should check it out.) Not really sure where I'm going with this. The meds I'm taking make my brain kind of fuzzy. Lol.

6. I better wrap this up with some pics and memes.

Lena and Levi discovered that they can write on windows with draw-erase markers this week. They ended up tracing each other and the results were hilarious.

Lena:

😂😂😂

Levi:

She didn't actually draw him with boobs. Those are supposed to be the designs on the front of his shirt. 😂😂😂

Levi got an idea in his head that we need to plant a tree in our front yard. He spent an hour digging a hole for one the other day. 🤷 It kept him outside, doing something physical, and away from the TV. Dig away, buddy.

Sprinkler under the trampoline.

I got caught up on alllll the laundry Monday and Tuesday. And yet today, Levi was complaining that he was out of underwear. How?! He has more then three pairs of underwear!

Sorry for the profanity. I just can't even with these names. 😂😂😂