The Saturday 7

1. I'm officially in Christmas mode! I just heard that Thanksgiving is the latest date possible this year, which means we have even less "approved" time to celebrate Christmas than usual!

We got our first real snowfall this week, which only served to heighten my Christmas spirit! We woke up to inches of snow on Thursday morning. The girls had a scheduled day off, so we cranked up the Christmas music, made gingerbread cookies, and Lena and Levi made an adorable snowman.

2. It's also deals season. It seriously makes me giddy to get good deals! Lol. I stalk all kinds of deals websites (Brad's Deals, Hip2Save, etc.), have been scoping out the Black Friday ads, and am counting down the minutes until Kohl's Veteran's Day sale tomorrow and Monday. Are you ready?? Use the code PRIDE10 to get $10 off a $25 purchase. Kohl's cardholders can also stack a 30% off code (GIVING30) and a free shipping code (NOVMVCFREE). Plus, if you spend $50 on housewares, you can get another $10 off with the code ENTERTAIN10. The best part is that (at least in years past - hopefully nothing has changed!) you can do multiple orders! The annoying part is that Kohl's has started to exclude more and more from being eligible for discounts: namely toys (grr), and name brand apparel (Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Levi's, etc.). But if you're shopping for clothes, home goods, etc., this is your sale!

3. In other news, we had parent/teacher conferences at school this week. I feel like a failure as a parent about 95% of the time, so it's enormously reassuring to go to conferences and have the teachers gush about my sweet, cooperative, friendly, smart girls. Haha. They're both performing above average academically, behaving respectfully, and interacting with their peers socially. Whew! I didn't totally ruin them with one year of homeschooling. Now if only a little of that sweet, cooperative, respect could make it home with them . . .

4. I continue to battle the never-ending cough. It's how I roll. Once I get a cough, I can't get rid of it. I hardly slept this week because I was up coughing so much. I finally slept through the night both Thursday and Friday this week. It was magical! And I'm coughing much less today, although when the fits hit me, I sound like I have black lung - it's all phlegmy and rattly. I probably have bronchitis, but since it seems to be improving on its own, I'll wait it out some more. I think Levi got another cold on top of the one he had last week. He's coughing less, but is suddenly full of snot. Gross. If this is what we're in for all winter, count me out!

5. I've been reading a lot lately, so I'm only 7 books shy of my yearly goal (of 75). I've actually gotten in a bad habit of reading secular romances. I just really like something different than the same ol' same ol' of Christian Fiction. But then I feel guilty for reading smut, so I'm not sure it's worth it. I should probably work on broadening my genre horizons, but life is too short to force myself to read anything I don't enjoy.

6. That's all I've got. I've just been reading and coughing and playing Words with Friends and scoping out deals online. I didn't even take very many pictures this week.