The Saturday 7

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, but is actually very nice. It was only 15 minutes from our house, and I was shocked by how empty it was! We were there for three hours and only saw two other groups of people - neither of which came down to the beach by us. We had the whole place to ourselves!

Look at those arm muscles!

Everyone can do this, right? 😱

Hunting for fish

Caught a turtle!

Saylor and Lena's Sand Ice Cream Shoppe

3. On Thursday we went to the Cameron Zvara Magic Show at the library. We ended up bringing both NGK and Nova, which was fortuitous because we doubled the number of attendees present. Lol.

It worked out well that there weren't too many people, because both Levi and Nova got to participate in the show!

They were both adorable, and giggled the entire time.

4. Lena also made ice pops this week. She decided to try freezing root beer, but the ice molds don't seal very tightly, so of course the pop expanded and oozed allllll over my freezer. I spent a while cleaning it out the next day! Here's where the Bucket List stands now:

I shouldn't have crossed off Millennium Park yet. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm not going to go back to change it. Haha. School starts in 16 days and we have 7 left. I may have edited a couple of them to make them more do-able. Lol. (N, anyone? 😂) I've put off all the ones that are labor intensive or expensive/far away. So I have that to look forward to over the next two weeks! Haha. Next year, I think we're going to make a "Free Summer Bucket List." This year was a little out of control. My budget is feeling the strain.

5. Fortunately, I should have more time to do all these labor-intensive ones because . . . drum roll please . . . I quit my job at Once Upon! I technically have one more week there because I'm nice and gave a full two week's notice (plus, I have to pay for all these expensive memories we're making). But I have the whole week before school starts off. The reason we're financially able to make this move is that I picked up a second job at school. I'll be working one more day (on top of my library days) as a social media specialist/copy writer. I'm a little nervous, because for all my love of social media, I'm not exactly "up with the times" like the kids these days. I don't know how to make reels or edit videos or anything fancy like that. But the Internet is rife with tutorials that I will binge over the next two weeks. And I can start slow with pictures and old-fashioned captions. The copy writing is a little scarier because it involves appealing to donors. But there are a lot of internet tips about best practices for that as well. It's essentially combining all of my passions - amateur graphic design, writing, and even research - without taking away from my first love: my beloved library work. I'm excited about the opportunity, and excited to have two days off a week to "tend my home." I've been really overwhelmed this summer and feel like I've majorly failed as a wife/mom/homemaker. Justin and the kids have helped, but I feel guilty that they have to. I'm looking forward to having extra margin in my life to keep up on the laundry and meals and maybe even do some of those tasks I've been putting off for months (scrubbing the shower . . . ugh). I'll miss the friends I've made at Once Upon, but I'll most likely be back next summer. Believe it or not, school librarianship is not a salaried position paid year round. 😁

6. Oh yeah, Justin and I celebrated our 19 year wedding anniversary this week! And by celebrated, I mean we saw each other for literally five minutes as I was getting home from work and he was going to bed. We left cards and candy for each other on the dining room table as the extent of our celebration. Another thing I won't miss about working evenings at Once Upon! Tonight, his parents took us out for dinner at Logan's, then he and I ran a couple errands and stopped for ice cream before going home. I don't think I've ever been to the ice cream shop without kids in tow!

Obligatory selfie.

As Kristoff says on Frozen 2, "Our love is not fragile." We don't need flashy dates or gifts to celebrate 19 years of marriage. Although I might need something more than candy and ice cream for our 20th . . .

7. Memes