Adventures in La La Land

1. Good news! I finally lost 10 pounds! Bad news. I've lost all motivation to continue. Haha. My pants are looser and my belly is flatter (I look 3 months instead of 6 months pregnant.) At least until I eat carbs. Then my belly pops right back out. Ugh. I'm telling myself that I'll diet during the week and eat what I want on the weekends. But we'll see how long that lasts . . . 2. I've been reading a book about the Charlotte Mason method to prepare for homsechooling. Our curriculum is largely CM based, but I'm not a die-hard follower. (I like worksheets and structure - sue me.) It's been interesting to read about her ideas. She's a big proponent of unstructured play - especially outside. I love anything that tells me it's good for my kids to entertain themselves instead of heaping on more guilt about how I don't spend enough time with them. We had really nice weather last week, so we spent lots of time outside. As long as I'm physically pre

1. After a few weeks of being in a reading rut, I've finally gotten back to my regular voracious reading schedule. Thanks to Terri Blackstock's If I Run series, I've been reading a lot of romantic suspense. I also read and enjoyed the new Francine Rivers book ( The Masterpiece ) , and one that's been getting rave reviews on Goodreads, but wasn't as good as I expected ( The Lost Castle  by Kristy Cambron). [affiliate links] I'm up to 51 books for the year - which puts me at halfway before the end of June! On target!  I stayed up until midnight or 1:00 am a couple times this week. Lucy and Lena have been sleeping in, but Levi hasn't gotten the memo. I need to get that kid some blackout curtains. 2. I can't believe I forgot to share the news that I've been keeping a secret - my little brother and his wife are having their first baby!!! So my sister and sister-in-law are due just 12 weeks apart. I'm so thrilled that we're going to have two new

1. This was our first real week of summer. We implemented our summer schedule - including chores and "healthy" eating choices. We have a goal for each day of the week: Make Something Monday, Take a Trip Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Fun Day Friday. Justin was out of town all week again so it was nice to have something planned for each day. The girls did awesome with their chores and even had pretty good attitudes about trying new foods. We tried spaghetti and meatballs (Lucy went hungry, Lena ate the required 5 bites, Levi wolfed down the meatballs and kept asking for more), cheeseburgers (none of them liked them), scrambled eggs (fail), homemade pizza (fail again), deli turkey (actually a win by all 3!!), fruit dip (fail), energy bites (2/3 liked them), and fruit leather (only Lena liked it). 2. We went to a couple libraries, a splash pad, and McDonald's throughout the week. We also went to a traveling aerialist show hosted by the library. The girl

1. Justin worked out of town Monday through Thursday this week and I was thankful for my increased dosage of medication. Lol. I definitely think it's helping, because I didn't feel out of control at all this week. And I even noticed that I've been more productive around the house. I haven't noticed any side effects except a little bit of nausea that is probably just my body adjusting. So while I'm not thrilled by being on such a high dose, apparently it's what I need to function as a responsible adult. And I'm grateful to have it . . . Especially because Justin just found out this job is going to last longer than the 2 weeks he was originally told. At least through June he'll stay on the other side of the state Monday through Thursday, and come home Friday through Sunday. It comes with a dollar an hour raise for the duration of the job, so it's worth it. It's just going to be interesting for all of us for a while! Thank goodness for Zoloft and my