The Saturday 7

1. I has been kind of a rough week. During birthday week no less! My depression was out of control. I hate it when it gets bad like that because I start to panic that there's no hope for me. I'm already on pretty high dosage of antidepressants. What am I supposed to do when they stop working?? It was worse than usual, though, because I actually cried this week! Multiple times! I thought I was too medicated to cry, but this week proved me wrong. Oy. I hate crying.

2. The week didn't start out bad. We had some crazy warm October weather that we tried to enjoy while it lasted.

He loves that mower.

I'm going to miss this view.

And Monday night my sister came to Bible Study with Baby Nash. I've been accused of being a baby hog, but really, can you blame me??

3. Wednesday was my 33rd birthday. Levi was apparently excited, because he woke up at 5 am. Fortunately, he went back to sleep in my bed, and I woke up to this:

The girls and I made [canned] cinnamon rolls, then met my mom and sisters for lunch at Olive Garden. It rained all afternoon so Justin got out of work early and I abandoned him with the kids and took a glorious afternoon nap. Then we dropped the girls off at Awana (left Levi with Gma and Gpa) and went to Logan's for dinner! I dragged Justin through Home Goods for a while then we headed home for the birthday cake that my dad had bought me. My stomach has hurt ever since. Lol.

Justin got me a cute sweater, and he and my parents went in together to get me an Instant Pot! I'm excited to try it out! Justin also took the kids to the dollar store to get me presents and they came home with this. Lol.

They know the way to my heart!!

4. Things started to go downhill by Thursday. Thursdays are always hard for me for some reason. But this week was the perfect storm of birthday hangover, hormones, and bad news about the house. We've been in negotiations with the sellers to either fix some of the major issues that showed up during the inspection (furnace, asbestos, mold, ventilation issues) or lower the asking price so we could afford the repairs. They agreed to replace the furnace but not address any of the other issues, and they refused to lower the price. Friday morning, we signed the papers releasing them from our contract and walked away from the house that I loved. I know, logically, that it was going to be a money pit for us. And realistically, it wouldn't make sense to sink much money into it because of the location/neighborhood. We'd never get a return on our investment. But I was emotionally attached. Our kids were emotionally attached. It was hard to say good-bye to that dream.

5. Friday was just as bad as Thursday. It was our final day of Canada for homeschool, so we were supposed to have our "Canada Party." That didn't happen. We didn't even do any schoolwork except for reading. I read a whole bunch of educational books about Canada and turtles (Lena's theme of the week) and called it good. I let the kids watch TV all day so I could wallow in my bed. It's stupid cold already and we haven't turned on the heat yet. I tried to make a fire in the woodstove, but I'm a failure and I just wanted to snuggle under my warm blankets. That night Justin went to a football game with a friend, so I decided to take the kids out to dinner. We went to the Garden Patch because I had a gift card and lo and behold they had poutine on the menu! I couldn't talk my kids into ordering it, though.

Posing with this sign in the restaurant because it had Canadian maple leaves on it. Haha.

We got pizza and potato skins. I specifically asked for the potato skins with no onions, but they came out with onions baked under the cheese - so I couldn't even pick them off. And then, as I was trying to put pizza onto plates for the kids I spilled my entire pop directly in my lap. I was completely drenched. The booth was drenched. The floor was drenched. Lena, who was sitting next to me, was drenched. Lucy hated the pizza, Levi started crying that he was going to puke, and I just sat there in a Cherry Coke puddle trying not to cry. Lol. We scarfed down our food, attempted to clean up our mess, tipped the waitress well and busted out of there. Justin's dad had invited the girls to go see a movie with him. I thought we were supposed to meet him at the theater at 7:00. We got there at 7 and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I called him and asked if I was at the wrong theater. It turns out, he was waiting for us at his house! And then, of course, when he finally did make it to the theater, Lena chickened out and refused to stay without me. Sigh. At least Lucy enjoyed it.

6. The kids slept until 9:00 this morning so I got a good night's sleep. And then I said sayanora and set off to go thrift shopping all by myself. I went to 3 different stores, took my precious time, looked at everything, tried lots of things on, ate McDonald's in my car in the sunshine, and got some steals.
Like this one:

When I had gotten my fill of thrift shopping, we went to see another house for sale. It was a beautiful house with lots of character (beautiful banister, cute little door to storage under the stairs, original wood floors from the 1920s, amazingly wide pocket doors) but it was over our budget and, of course, needed some work. So I think we've ruled it out . . . again. This is the only picture I took.