The Saturday 7

1. This week, we worked on letter B.

The butterfly craft is something I made up with Chase and Lyla years ago. The bee craft came from notimeforflashcards.com. 

I came across this free preschool curriculum online this week. I totally love it! It's based on the letter of the week theme I've already been doing, but includes a Bible story, and activities for every day.  The lesson that goes with B is Jesus in the boat. I told Lucy the story of Jesus and his disciples caught in a storm. I explained that Jesus made the storm stop by shouting "Storm, stop!" (Complete with sticking our hand out like the "Swiper, no swiping" motion on Dora. Haha.) I told Lucy that Jesus had the power to stop the storm because he is the boss of the weather. Haha. Hence the little catch phrase below. Lucy decorated the plate (I drew the windows), taped on the popsicle stick, cut out the triangle flag, and glued it on. 

2. I tried out a few new recipes this week. This one has been floating around pinterest for a while and looked so good.

Picture from pinterest-healthy-foods.blogspot.com

It was an utter fail. My version looked nothing like the picture. Maybe because I did it in a skillet instead of the crockpot? It was just watery and bland and gross. Blech.

On Wednesday, I wanted to make French toast, but Justin was going running before dinner, and I didn't want to wait for him to get home before I started flipping each piece individually. So I looked up an oven-baked version that I could just stick in the oven and have ready when he got home.  I chose this recipe because it was the most basic.  

Picture from allrecipes.com

I didn't have French bread, so just used regular sandwich bread. It was delicious, but practically dessert for dinner thanks the the stick of butter and 2/3 cup of brown sugar! Haha.

3. Yesterday, I had a hankering for cookies. I decided to try a recipe  I had found for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that were supposed to be semi-healthy because they don't have flour or white sugar. When my dad saw me making them, I warned him not to get too excited. The batter looked really weird, so I didn't have much hope for them. The recipe said the batter should chill for 2 hours. When I went back to get it, I was totally grossed out by how oily it was. The only ingredients are peanut butter, vanilla, 1 egg, brown sugar, baking soda, and chocolate chips. I decided the oil must be from the peanut butter, and was just really visible because there wasn't any flour to soak it up. Either way, I put the cookies in the oven still feeling pretty pessimistic about them. I had nothing to fear. They are so delicious. I highly recommend them.

Picture from loveveggiesandyoga.com

4. Lucy had another one of her puking/fever episodes this week. She woke up from her nap on Wednesday with a 101* fever. She was absolutely miserable all evening, but never puked. Thursday morning she woke up fever free and acting totally normal. But after dinner, we were all standing in the kitchen talking when all of a sudden Lucy started crying that she was going to throw up. Justin rushed her to the bathroom, she puked in the toilet, then was back to her normal self again. So weird.

5. And of course I jinxed myself after last week's entry about Lena doing so much better lately. All weekend, she did this weird grabbing at her head thing - usually accompanied by a lot of screaming.

After a few days of screaming, I decided to take her to the doctor to check her ears. We saw a new doctor (L's is still on maternity leave). He told me that babies don't pull on their ears when they have an ear infection - that's just an old wives' tale. Not sure I believe that. But in Lena's case, it was true. No ear infection. He said she probably just has gas. I also asked him if she could be constipated. She's been going days without pooping, which is very unusual for her. He said breastfed babies don't get constipated, they're just erratic. Not the most helpful trip to the doctor. Haha.

6. Just for my records: Lena went in the Bumbo for the first time this week. She did really well and seems to like it! I know I put Lucy in it at this age, and she hated it and could not hold her head up. Haha.

Lucy in the Bumbo. Haha.

Lena in the Bumbo.

7. So I've been feeling a little depressed lately. I'm hoping it's just a hormonal surge or something because it's really annoying. Every day around 4:30 it hits me. I start to panic a little bit about the sameness of my life, about how I have no alone time (which isn't true), about how overwhelmed I am (which is ridiculous). I feel like I get about 2 hours to myself during the day while both girls are sleeping. And it frustrates me that I have to choose every day whether to spend that 2 hours cleaning or doing my sweepstakes online or sleeping or reading or studying the Bible. I want to do all of those things every day. I don't want to choose just one. It's such a stupid thing to get depressed about, but I can't help it. I've tried to do some of that stuff while Lucy is awake, but she is so needy. I think that's contributing to my depression too. She watches waaaaay too much TV because it's the only way I can do anything without her climbing all over me, begging to be held, begging me to play with her, or bothering my Dad. So I feel guilty about her watching so much TV, I feel guilty about not playing with her every waking second, I feel guilty that my Dad entertains her so much. 

And then there's the self-esteem issues. Usually around 5:00 every day, I finally get around to doing my hair and putting some make-up on before Justin gets home. I usually end up practically in tears in front of the bathroom mirror, frustrated beyond belief that I'm so incapable of making myself look cute. I almost always end up just giving up and putting my hair in a ponytail. I've become one of those girls that I hate who shies away from the camera. I realized the other day that I probably have less than 10 pictures of me with Lena. And only 1 or 2 have made it on facebook because I'm so insecure. Blech. I'm really not fishing for compliments by writing this. Just being real. 

Well, this has gotten ridiculously long, and Lucy has been watching Caillou the entire time I've been working on it, so I better wrap it up! Have a great week, everyone!