The Saturday 7

Blogging is hard in the winter because I'm slogging through the doldrums, but I hate missing two weeks in a row, so I'll try my best today!

1. We've officially entered basketball season. Lena had her first games a couple weeks ago, and Levi's start next Saturday. Levi only practices once a week and has one game on Saturdays, but Lena practices every weekday and has multiple games. Her first two games were blowouts - her team tromped the other schools. Lena is, as usual, the tiniest one on her team, and she doesn't get a ton of playing time. But when she's out there, she's tenacious and trying her best!

The third game was a blowout in the opposite direction. The final score was 16-2. Our team literally only scored one basket the whole game. Lol. She was supposed to have two games last week, but they both got cancelled because of the weather, so we'll see what this week brings!

2. For the record . . . it was a crazy week of weather. Temps at or below zero, plus inches and inches of snow. We had a scheduled day off on Monday, snow day on Tuesday, went to school Wednesday, snow days Thursday and Friday!

This is an old forecast. I don't think it actually got up to 8 degrees today!

3. Of course the one day I actually had to go to work this week, I was feeling miserable with a stupid UTI. I haven't had one of those in years, and I forgot how uncomfortable they can be! I worked my normal day, then had two meetings back to back, picked Lena up from basketball practice (off-site because we don't have enough practice space at school), went home and put all the ingredients for chili on the counter then told Justin, "I'm laying in bed the rest of the night. Dump all this stuff in a pan and warm it up." (I had pre-cooked the meat.) Fortunately, my physical was scheduled for Thursday, so I was able to get some antibiotics. And good news: I got the new insurance figured out and it covered my appointment in full. I only had to pay $12 for the antibiotic. Whew! Sure beats paying the $500 they estimated! Also - hot tip of the day - now that I'm ancient, my Dr. told me it's time for a mammogram. I told her my insurance will only pay for it if it's considered preventative. She said that it's preventative as long as I don't tell the technician that you have any lumps or bumps you're worried about. As soon as you say you might have an issue, it becomes diagnostic. Stupid stupid medical system.

4. Speaking of expenses . . . the basement guy came out last week and diagnosed our leaking problem as a crack in the foundation wall. As far as basement fixes go, it's pretty much the cheapest problem to have. But his version of cheap and mine are pretty different! Haha. The worst part is that we'll have to rip up the drywall, pull up the floor, and tear out the closet (because that's right where the leak is, of course). Justin can do all of that and save us a ton of money, but we'll still have to pay for new materials to refinish it all. Oy. This house. I sure have been thankful for our new furnace this week, though!

5. Yesterday was Lena's 13th birthday. 13!

I have two teenagers now, and my baby is about to be double digits. I can't even think about it . . . Anyway, Lena got a snow day on her birthday for the second year in a row, so she was thrilled. Levi came up with a brilliant plan the night before to decorate the hallway outside her room. He and I made some cute little signs and I got out the streamers and tape for him. He was so excited to hang them all that he bolted out of bed at 5:55 a.m., and tried to stand on a stool in the hallway to tape the streamers to the ceiling. The stool wobbled and made a thumping noise every three seconds, so I went upstairs and told him he had to wait until at least 9. Lena never gets up that early if she doesn't have to so I knew he'd still have plenty of time to decorate. Haha. It was the sweetest thing ever to see him so excited to surprise her. 💗

Most of his notes were nice, and just said, "Happy birthday!" or "Yay you're a teenager!" This one says, "You'll be driving in three years - if you're tall enough. Oooooooooh! Burn!" Lol.

She got her traditional cinnamon rolls in bed for breakfast.

Justin actually had the day off too, since temps were dangerously low and his company doesn't have any inside work right now. So she didn't have to wait forever to open presents for once!

This year's requests were a Study Bible, Keeper of the Lost Cities books, crossbody bag, a donut maker, and lots of clothes. Haha. Fortunately, she's in the size that Once Upon a Child had a huge clearance selection of, so I was able to fulfill her request.

That afternoon, we braved the negative temps to go to Urban Air. A new location just opened pretty close to us, but it's soooo expensive. When the lady was selling me tickets, she said, "You should probably just get the membership because it ends up being so much cheaper than paying each time you come in." I literally said, "Oh, we're never coming here again." Lol. That wasn't quite what I meant, and I felt bad that it came across so rudely, but this was purely a birthday treat. We will not go often enough to make the membership worth it. At least Lucy stayed home, so I only had to pay for two kids - and they loved it.

6. Today is Justin's 41st birthday, but since we just spent all our money on a Mexican vacation and a bunch of house repairs, plus I'm still not feeling the greatest, we just stayed home where it's warm. I've actually read two books over the past two days. Frigid temps always make me want to hunker down and read under my electric blanket. I read the Waves of Mercy series from one of my favorite authors - Lynn Austin. It's the story of a woman who immigrates with her family from the Netherlands to create a settlement in West Michigan that becomes known as Holland. I know that the author lives in Holland, and that's only about an hour away from my house, so it was fun to read about so many places I know and have visited! It was also fun to see all the Dutch names that I've grown up with - all the Vanders and deJongs and 'stras. The second book actually had all three of my kids' names in it! Haha. Regardless of your interest in Dutch/Michigan history, I highly recommend the books. Austin does such a good job of addressing hard issues without typical trite answers that are often found in Christian fiction.

7. Pics and memes

Yesterday morning at 9:30 a.m.

Staring contest

I weeded some really old books from the school library last week. Look who was the first person to check out Dumbo in 1991! That's me. 😁 I donated the book, but kept the card.