Adventures in La La Land

Well, well, well, you're in luck. There wasn't supposed to be a Saturday 7 today, but thanks to a wrench in my plans, there is. Stay tuned for more on that. 1. Lena did much better with school this week. She still made sure to tell me that she didn't want to go every morning, but there were less tears and theatrics. I think doubling her medication dose is definitely helping. She also started counseling this week. It went well. The counselor gave Lena some techniques to get through the anxiety - some we've tried before, but it's good for Lena to hear it from other sources than just me. On Wednesday night, she was actually over-the-moon excited  to go to school the next day. Now that she's officially in Middle School, she got to attend "retreat" for the first time. It was at a local camp and Lena knew she'd get to do ziplining and rock climbing and all the things. The kid is terrified to go to school, but loves ziplining. Anxiety is irrational, man. ...

1. We finished our Summer Bucket List with hours to spare. I finally finished combing through 15 years worth of videos and compiled them into a presentation that I cast to the TV. The kids loved it. It was so fun to see how much Levi looks/acts/sounds like Lucy at his age. And Lena was a character . Lol. Funny story, though. On Sunday morning, before I had finished compiling, our Pastor mentioned in his sermon that he doesn't understand Bucket Lists - they're a selfish way to spend the last years of your life. Lol. Oops! Good thing it was just for the summer. I was still happy that we were able to check everything off, though. And I'll still probably do one next year too. 😂 Bam! 2. Monday was the first day of school! Everyone was excited to go back. On Sunday night, Lena said she was starting to feel really nervous, but she woke up Monday morning saying, "I'm hardly nervous at all anymore!" so I was relieved that we wouldn't have a repeat of the end of la...

Oh boy. I missed a week and now I have so much to catch up on. 1. Lena is still killing it at gymnastics. She had a couple of weeks of random anxiety, but she's been powering through it and doing great. She officially got to put her handprint on the wall for mastering her roundoff-back handspring.  2. I had my last shift at Once Upon. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies and everyone raved like they've never had homemade cookies before. Haha. It was nice of them to make me feel good. I used Phoebe Buffay's secret family recipe: I'm so thankful for the flexibility Once Upon afforded me, but I'm happy for a break from it.  3. Honestly, we've been so busy   for the past week that I haven't even had time to miss it. I usually rely on my Google calendar to keep track of my life for me, but this week I actually made a document with each day broken down by tasks. Haha. That's what I get for procrastinating on so many of our bucket list items. This last week o...

We cranked out the bucket list items this week! 1. First up was Deer Tracks Junction. It's like the younger brother of Lewis Farms. Not quite as many attractions, but much closer to home. Honestly, the kids' favorite part is the huge climbing structure with all the tunnels. I'm not even going to pay for animal food next year. Haha. Levi and his birds Sweaty group pic I just think this pic is adorable.  Lainey and Nova checking out the goats. Not so sure about the goats now that they're invading our personal space! My favorite One of the better cousins pics we took this year. Too bad Ruby and Casper weren't there! Sisters pic! We all showed up wearing black shirts and messy buns, because that's how we roll. 💗 Sweaty boys with bunnies. In case you can't tell, it was very hot. Most of us went to Niki's to jump in the pool afterward! 2. It was actually very hot all week, so on Wednesday we met up with Libby and her kids at Grose Park. It has a terrible name...