The Saturday 7

What a week.

1. Sunday started off rough with another mini meltdown by yours truly. Parenting is hard and sometimes I want off the ride. But instead of wallowing in it like I usually do, I did the hard thing and opened up my Bible. I flipped through Psalms, stopping at every verse I've underlined over the past 15 years. I texted my friends asking for wisdom/prayers/verses to meditate on, then I pulled out the prayer journal I haven't used in two years and filled some pages. My parenting problems didn't go away, but my angst over them diminished, at least. And I felt compelled to finally start reading a book that I've owned for 3 years: Parenting by Paul David Tripp. My text to my friends earlier in the day said, "You know the phrase 'If God brings you to it, he'll bring you through it?' Is that Biblical? Do you know of any verses that back that up? Point me to them!" Look how chapter 2 of Parenting begins.

Thanks, God, for the confirmation!

I feel woefully ill-equipped to deal with my children's issues, and I'm overwhelmed by the extreme nature of them. Sometimes I worry that I don't have the skills/resources/energy/money to be the mom these kids need. But as my friends, this book, and everything else tells me: God is sovereign, he appointed me to be their mom, and he will empower me to help them. Now if only I could take that to heart . . . (Today has been hard too. Sigh.)

I also ordered the book some of you recommended last week (The Explosive Child ), but I need to finish Parenting before I start another one. Stay tuned.

2. The weather finally warmed up enough this week that we were able to go to Niki's pool! She's still off work since she works at a "non-essential" business, so it was nice to hang out with her (from a safe distance, of course) and Libby/Brandy/Rieley/whoever else happened to be around that day. We're extremely spoiled because Niki heats her pool, so my kids have been little fish - swimming for hours every day.

The kids aren't great at social distancing. Shhhhhh. 

By Thursday, the pool was up to 85*. Even I can swim when the water gets that warm!

Lucy finally got to break in the mermaid tail! She's actually getting pretty good at swimming with it!

Niki also has this really fun swing

I enjoyed the swing too! For some reason, this kind doesn't make me as sick as traditional swings.

3. I haven't been reading much other than the parenting book. I always have grand intentions of reading poolside, but I had Ruby every day this week and I don't dare take my eye off her for a second. Haha. Even when she's napping, someone always needs something. It's not worth starting a book. So I've been spending my evenings binge-watching Good Bones on hulu. I love a good home improvement show!!

4. Breaking news: quarantine was extended again. Apparently Michigan is one of the worst states for prolonged restrictions. Oh goody. Truly, many of the restrictions are loosening up, but nothing is totally back to normal yet. Everyone is still wearing masks (or supposed to be wearing masks), stores are operating at limited capacity, and many things are still closed - namely eat-in restaurants and salons. Justin and Levi are both in desperate need of haircuts, but we don't own clippers and I don't have any hair-cutting skillz. (And Justin is weird about clippers that someone else has used. Lots of people have offered to lend theirs to us!) We just need to buy some and do buzz cuts until this craziness is over!

Something good from quarantine, though, has been our gas budget! I just looked it up. In April, we spent $21 on gas! And so far in May, we're only at $78. I guess staying home all the time really does cut back on the amount of gas we need to buy! Lol. (#duh) It helps that gas prices were also insanely low for the past two months. Don't worry, though, I definitely made up for the gas savings with the grocery spending. Yikes! *Insert that meme from Tiger King about how I'm never going to financially recover from feeding my kids three meals and 400 snacks a day.*

5. And now on to sad news. On Wednesday, a dear family member passed away unexpectedly. Phil was the owner of Sparta Variety, where I worked on and off for most of my life. He was married to my mom's cousin - who is one of her closest friends - so I spent much of my childhood at his house, growing up beside his kids. Krindi is a second mom to me, and Phil was one of the most genuine, likeable, generous people I knew. I was crushed to hear that he died so suddenly and under such terrible circumstances. I, blessedly, haven't had much experience with death, and while this is still somewhat removed from me, it's a startling reminder of how fragile life is. We found out about Phil's death Wednesday evening - after spending a fun filled day at the pool. It's hard to look back on the pictures (posted above) knowing that he was dying while we were living it up. Of course, practically, that's illogical. We can't spend life moping around morosely because someone somewhere is dying.
But it seems unthinkable that life goes on for the rest of us while someone else's world is grinding to a halt. Throughout Wednesday night, as I scrolled numbly through facebook, I kept thinking, "How can all these people still be acting like everything is normal?" Of course, 98% of my facebook feed either doesn't know Phil or was as yet unaware of his death. It's another example of how ego-centric I am. When something major happens in my life, I feel like it should be affecting everyone else in the world. Haha.

6. Thankfully, Phil had a passion for Christ that assures us he is now in Heaven, in the presence of Jesus. Originally, I was sad that he didn't get to enjoy his retirement. But then I realized retirement on earth is nothing compared to retirement in Heaven. He loved the Lord, served him faithfully, and left an impact on so many that he left behind. It's been amazing to see how the community has reached out to offer support and prayer in the wake of Phil's death. His love was far-reaching, and he will be remembered well.

Our pastor posted this about Phil on Thursday. 💗

7. More pictures.

She makes me look tan. 🤣

Snack buddy

Painting rocks

Be still my heart!

Nash-man wasn't too sure about the pool, but he sure loved vacuuming these rocks! 🤣

Justin always takes the girls out for a date around their birthdays. Nothing was open this year, so he and Lucy got pizza, then went to a park that overlooks downtown.

I bought these books years ago, but Lucy was never interested in them. Finally pulled them out to read aloud to Lena, and she loves them! Score!

I'm getting into a good routine now that Ruby is bringing some order to our days: housework in the morning, set the kids up with their devices when Ruby goes down for her afternoon nap, then I sneak down to the basement to snooze on the couch. Usually, this kid finds me after a while, though. I don't mind the snuggles . . .

. . . or the silliness.