The Saturday 7

1. What a crazy week. I'm a stay-at-home mom with more free time than ever thanks to Levi starting school, so when people need something done, I'm usually a pretty safe bet to help out. And I love doing it. But this week was the perfect storm of a bunch of those things colliding and demanding my attention all at once. My mom, sisters, and I threw a bridal shower today. I'm the OGC (Official Game Coordinator), and of course I can't just print off a word scramble or something. I have a reputation now for creating new games or putting a spin on old ones. So I created a fairly labor intensive game that required a lot of my attention this week. 

2. Then we decided it was time to do our annual Christmas name drawing with my family. We've been using Elfster the past few years, and since I started it, I'm the admin and the one responsible for re-creating it every year. This year, we changed a few things and I messed a few things up and had all kinds of problems with it. 

3. On top of that, our school is gearing up for its annual auction. Each class is assigned a "theme" and parents are asked to bring in items for each class's basket. Lena's teacher has been asking for someone to coordinate her class's basket since the beginning of the school year, and I kept waiting for someone to step up, but no one did. So I dove into that as well. It's so not my forte - communicating with a large group of people, trying to throw out ideas without being pushy, getting pushy and making executive decisions when everyone else says, "I don't care," and then begging people for money to make those ideas come to life. Honestly, the parents stepped up and were very willing to give. I think everyone was relieved that I was willing to head it up so they didn't have to do it, and they were more than happy to just hand me some money and let me do what needed to be done. Haha.

4. I also had a dentist appointment this week. When Justin changed jobs a couple years ago we lost our dental insurance, so I haven't gone since then. (Ew.) Finally, I realized the place I take my kids also accepts Medicaid for adults, so I could get a cleaning there. Holy cow. I do not remember my old hygienist being so rough! Maybe two years of plaque really makes that much of a difference, but it hurt so much! And blood was pouring down my throat almost the whole time! (#gingivitis) But I didn't have any cavities! (#goodgenes) I also got a special x-ray (I think it was panoramic?) that went all the way around my head instead of just those gag-inducing inserts. When the hygienist looked at the results she asked me if I still had one of my wisdom teeth. I told her that, no, I got all 4 of them pulled years ago. So she was surprised to see that I have an extra tooth hidden back there where my wisdom teeth were! Isn't that crazy?? (#imsoextra) The dentist confirmed that it appeared to be some kind of calcification or extra/not fully formed tooth beneath my gums, but it's nothing to worry about. I'm just special. 

5. I've been going to the chiropractor regularly for about two months now. When I first started, he asked me what my goals were, and I said, "I'd like to be able to clean my house without being in horrendous pain afterward." He agreed that that was a reasonable goal (especially because by "clean" I mean pick up, sweep, do dishes, and laundry. I'm not talking about scrubbing baseboards or even bathtubs.) Then he set me up with a 9 week plan (3x a week for 4 weeks, 2x a week for 5), and all but promised me that I'd be cured at the end of it. And my back has been feeling decent. It's still not great, but I'm not sure it ever will be . . . at least until this week. Yesterday, I picked up and swept my main floor. It's not a big space. But it totally incapacitated me. I was having the same pain that sent me to the chiro in the first place - starting in my mid back/lower ribs, spreading down to my lower back, into my SI joints, then into my sciatic nerve. It is sooooooo frustrating. I can't even admit how much money I paid for this "master plan" that seems to have completely failed me. Fortunately, I'm feeling much better today. The pain is still there, but it's much more bearable. I guess that's saying something for the chiro. But part of me wants to march into his office Monday morning and demand my money back!

6. While I was laying in bed in agony last night, I decided to finally watch The Social Dilemma. I put it off this long because I love social media. It was a lifesaver during quarantine, and it caters to my ambi-vert personality. I need people, but I'm awkward around people, so I'd prefer to communicate through a screen. Haha. But lately (during Covid and an election year), I've been so disillusioned with the whole thing. I've seen how it has the power to skew elections, to polarize people, to destroy relationships, etc. And the movie agrees. It was seriously fascinating. Especially because they interviewed a dozen people who used to be high-ups in social media venues: the former president of Pinterest, high-level engineers for Facebook, Twitter, and Google, the people who created algorithms that suggest "what to watch next" on YouTube. And all of those people say social media is dangerous and destroying not only our culture and our kids, but democracy as we once knew it! Yikes! The interviewers also asked each of them if they let their kids use social media, and they all replied with a resounding no. We live in a weird, weird world, and this film made me seriously question my media usage. I highly recommend it!

7. Pictures 

On Monday, these three wanted to eat lunch outside. They were being so cute, I attempted to snap a picture, and got this. Lol. I laughed so hard. This is definitely one of those they'll have to remake as teenagers. 

We've been witnessing such amazing sunrises on our way to school every morning. I know the sun appears red because of the fires out west, so it's hard to be that excited about it, but there's no denying it's beautiful. Lucy snapped this pic on a foggy morning this week. 

I finally bought some washable paint, because these two adore painting so much. 

Yesterday, Levi asked if he could paint some of his cars. My first reaction was "absolutely not," then I thought, "Why not? He has hundreds of them. They're not valuable or collectible or anything." So I gave him the go-ahead, and he meticulously painted probably 20 of them. It was the perfect activity to keep him entertained while I laid on ice packs on the couch!

Tonight, Justin went fishing, so I took the kids to the ice cream shop for one final hurrah before they close. 

Today was their last day, and we showed up about two hours before closing time, so they only had weird flavors available. Haha. But everything was half off!

One of the interviewees on The Social Dilemma was a plastic surgeon, who said that in the past few years they've been inundated with requests from young women to make them look like snapchat filters. Not gonna lie, if I had a disposable income, I might ask for that too. Case in point:

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