The Saturday 7

1. I did it. I made it to 40. I'm always excited to make it to the next decade, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to die young. Well I don't have to worry about that anymore, since I'm officially old! My sweet sister got up very early in the morning on my birthday to decorate my front yard/van. So now the whole neighborhood knows I'm officially old! 

I really tried to get Lucy to drive to school that morning. Can you believe she refused??

I stopped at the bakery on the way home from dropping the kids off at school, and a guy who saw me get out of my van paid for my donuts! That made the embarrassment worth it. 😂

2. Our upcoming Mexico vacation is our gift to ourselves since Justin and I both turned 40 this year, plus celebrated our 20th anniversary. Thus he didn't buy me a gift. But Lena crocheted me a bookmark, and Lucy gave Lena and Levi money to ride their bikes to the gas station and buy me candy. 💗 I also got to eat a lot of good restaurant food all week. #birthdayweek

3. My birthday celebrations culminated today in thrift shopping, dinner, and games with friends. And when I got home, I saw that my talented sister-in-law had dropped off a special loaf of bread for me! 

I always say that aging is better than the alternative (death), so I'm grateful to be 40. I'm excited to see what this decade will bring. My 20s were the years of having babies. My 30s were the years of raising those babies. What will my 40s bring? Other than grey hair and declining health . . . 

4. The other exciting news of the week is that I accomplished my goal of reading 40 nonfiction books between my 39th and 40th birthdays. I knew the goal was lofty when I set it - not because 40 books is that many, but because nonfiction is not usually my genre of choice. And true to form, I waited until the very last minute to finish. I read the last 11 books in 13 days. Toward the end, I was mostly just reading whatever was short. Lol.  I'm really glad that I did it, though. I learned so much and was challenged in so many ways. Here are all 40 books, categorized by my rating. 5 books earned 5 stars. Most of the rest were in the 3-4 range. 

5. In less exciting news, Lena has suddenly been stricken by anxiety again. This week was very rough and she missed a lot of school. I truly don't know how to help her, and which is better - letting her stay home or making her go even though she cries through all her classes. She's begging me to homeschool her again, but even if that were feasible I think it'll only feed the anxiety monster. As hard as it is on all of us, I'm afraid she really just has to push through it. 😭

6. That's all I've got - other than this real life picture of Christian school graffiti I snapped in the pickup lane on Friday. 😂

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Here's to the next 40 years! 🍹