Adventures in La La Land

1. Lucy went to the dentist for the first time this week. She's on medicaid and I'm having a terrible time finding a dentist that takes it, so I decided just to bring her to my dentist for her first trip. 20 minutes, one toothbrush, and $150 later, we left. Un-freaking-believable. They hardly even did anything. Brushed her teeth, flossed between the 6 teeth in her mouth that actually touch each other, declared her free of plaque and cavities, and brushed on some fluoride. Oy. I'm going to get more serious about finding somewhere that will take her insurance next time. She did great, though. Followed directions, sat still, opened her mouth wide, and looked adorable: 2. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home with my family. Earlier in the week, I had everyone trace their hand and get it to me, so Lucy and I could make these cute place-cards: We had way too much delicious food, including these hilarious Pinterest fails : I even made a homemade Chocolate Chess Pie

1. We got the news this week that the original couple who wanted to buy our house is getting her mom to buy it instead. So we're back on track to sell it! We signed the paperwork yesterday, so hopefully we can close before Christmas! 2. It has been an awful, snow-filled week. We broke the record for the month of November, and it's not even over yet! Since my van doesn't have heat and doesn't handle very well in the snow, we stayed home most of the week. Two words: cabin fever. Although I actually did surprisingly well on the depression front - another sign the new meds are working. I kept busy cleaning the house and doing craft projects with the girls. We even broke out the play-doh, which is not one of my favorites. Haha. 3. It's also been a rough sleep week around here. Lena has been randomly waking up and screaming for [what seems like] hours. One night, she got up around 12:30 am and I tried everything I could think of to get her back to sleep but nothing

A couple weeks ago, I happened to come across this book on Amazon: God and the Gay Christian . I spent half an hour reading recaps and reviews and came away from it feeling discouraged that people are so willing to twist God's word. I mentioned as much in a comment on my pastor's blog and he recommended that I read Out of a Far Country by Christopher and Angela Yuan. This is the Amazon synopsis:  Christopher Yuan, the son of Chinese immigrants, discovered at an early age that he was different. He was attracted to other boys. As he grew into adulthood, his mother, Angela, hoped to control the situation. Instead, she found that her son and her life were spiraling out of control—and her own personal demons were determined to defeat her.   Years of heartbreak, confusion, and prayer followed before the Yuans found a place of complete surrender, which is God’s desire for all families. Their amazing story, told from the perspectives of both mother and son, offers hope for anyone aff

1. I made a yummy new recipe this week: chicken enchilada soup . The weather has turned nasty - cold and snowy, so soup seemed appropriate. It's an easy crockpot meal - one that Lucy was able to help with. It mostly required opening cans of beans and corn and cream of chicken soup and dumping them in. My kind of cooking! My dad and Luke thought the soup needed more heat, so they added hot sauce. I thought it was perfect as is. Justin put sour cream in his. Deliciousness all around! 2. Good news everyone: I think the new depression meds are really working! I've been feeling so much more even-keel lately. I've been much less irritable, too, which everyone is benefiting from. Haha. 3. Are you all getting excited for Christmas?!?! I've been scouring the Black Friday ads and making lists all week. But as I've been marking things down, I've noticed a huge disparity between my girls. Lucy is easy to shop for. She has many obsessions and interests. Lena, however,

I started and finished Book 2 of my 30 Before 30 yesterday: The Secret Keeper  by Kate Morton. I don't think anyone recommended it to me. I can't really remember, but I think it was just a highly rated book on goodreads that I thought I'd like. I was right. I loved it. It reminded me a lot  of one of my all time favorite books: Eve's Daughters  by Lynn Austin. They're both those books that jump back and forth from the past to the present and span generations of mothers and daughters. I love them, but they always make me a little sad. In The Secret Keeper , we're introduced to Dorothy as a dying 90 year old woman, but throughout the book, you find out about her childhood and young adult years and get to know her as a young woman. It makes me sad to see her wasting away to nothing like the vibrant, colorful character she was. And it makes me think about my own life and how death is inevitable. Haha. So uplifting. I got to thinking why it bothers me so much an

You're getting this special advance edition of The Saturday 7 today because I'm leaving for Ladies' Retreat tonight and will be gone all weekend! I'm excited now, but the an xiety about leaving my girls will hit me at about 5:00 tonight when it's time for me to go. Haha. 1. I made it to Ezekiel in my One Year Bible this week. Wow. That is some weird stuff. I've always avoided reading it because I knew it was strange, but seriously, in chapter one alone: 15  As I looked at the living creatures,  I saw a wheel  on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.   16  This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz,  and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.   17  As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction  as the creatures went.   18  Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes  a

1. It dawned on me this week that when we set our clocks back tonight, Lena is going to start waking up at 5:00 am instead of 6. Oh boy. So I decided I need to get really serious about dropping her morning nap. It is not going well. She actually does pretty well with skipping the nap. She's usually pretty grumpy by 11:00 am, but nothing too ridiculous. The worst part is that she is not making up for it elsewhere. She used to take a 2 hour morning nap, a 2 hour afternoon nap, and sleep about 9.5-10 hours at night. So 14 hours total. Inexplicably, since dropping the morning nap, her afternoon nap has gotten shorter ! Only by about 15 minutes, but I thought it would get longer ! And she is not making up for it at night. Last week, when she randomly started getting up at 5:30 am, I started putting her to bed at 8:30 at night. One day this week, Lena was up from 4-6am for no apparent reason. She wasn't in pain, she didn't need anything, she just wanted to be awake. I ended up pu