The Saturday 7

1. Birthday week! I actually didn't do anything too fun and exciting because I'm an adult and have bills to pay. Boo. But I think I only made dinner once, so that's a win. And I definitely treated myself to restaurant food and thrift shopping throughout the week. Sadly, I spent much of the week cleaning as well. On Sunday, my nephew and his wife moved into their new house . . . well it's new to them. It's a very old, very dirty house. Sunday happened to be Ty's birthday and all he wanted was help cleaning the nasty new house. So I headed over and helped scrub the kitchen. It was pretty gross and we kept saying, "How can people live like this?" The house wasn't abandoned before Ty bought it. People lived in that filth. It actually inspired me to look at my house with an outsider's eye. If we unexpectedly sold this house tomorrow and didn't take the time to clean before we left, what would people think? That thought compelled me to deep clean the fridge, wipe down/scrub grime off of the cabinets, clean out my microwave, and use a carpet cleaner on my couches/arm chairs. I also had big plans to scour my bathtub and oven, but by Thursday my back hurt so bad, I decided not to worry about things that visitors don't see unless they're snooping. 🤣

2. Tuesday was my long-awaited hearing test. And it was epic. Lol. If you're my friend on facebook, you've already seen this. For all the rest of you stalkers, enjoy . . .

A little background: I wasn't at an office strictly used by audiologists. It was a large medical complex that dealt with multiple specialties. I checked in at one central registration desk, then waited in a huge waiting room with many different doors. I had no idea which door I'd be called back through. Hahahaha. I still can't stop laughing about this incident.

As for the actual hearing test results . . . I have mild to moderate hearing loss. I'm just below the threshold that would qualify me for hearing aids (at least according to my insurance). The doctor said she'd fight with my insurance if I wanted the hearing aids now, but I'm still not ready to take that step. Mostly, I wanted the hearing test to rule out anything abnormal. The doctor said my hearing (or lack thereof) is equal in both ears, and there's nothing wrong anatomically, so I'm just one of the lucky few who has unexplained early-onset hearing loss. Yay me! I'll go back in a year for a re-check. Maybe I'll qualify by then . . . or maybe I'll hold out 'til 40 at least . . .

3. By Wednesday I had a large portion of my house clean and wanted to keep it that way despite watching 2 extra kids (because I hosted book club on Friday). So I got brave and took all 3 of my at-home kids to Schwallier's. Libby came too, so I wasn't totally without help herding them all. The weather was beautiful and we had a blast!

It was really windy. Haha

Nash and Levi (at the top)

Libby getting her workout for the day! (We got another wagon when we realized what a heavy load this was. Lol.)

The best part of Schwallier's!

4. Yesterday, after dropping the girls off at school, Levi, Ruby, and I went to a friend's house for coffee and conversation. It was great to catch up and hang out. They have a new puppy who is adorable, but definitely still a puppy. Levi loved her, but had a little run-in with her claws:

Don't mind the picture. He kept squinting his eyes and I wanted a pic of his eyelid, so finally I told him to pretend he was asleep. This is what I got. Lol. When we picked the girls up from school he said, "that puppy scratched me from my cheek all the way to my brain!" Lol. It's looking much better today, and he still loves the puppy, but he did inform us that his new favorite animal is cats. #shiftingloyalties #catsdontscratchdothey?

5. Today I am 35, and it's honestly a hard one for me. It seems like, in life, there are various phases: childhood, teen years, college, newlywed, young mom, mom of elementary aged kids, mom of teens, empty nester, etc. And with 35, I feel like I'm sliding from "young mom" to "mom of elementary aged kids." It's saying goodbye to a phase that, while fraught with anxiety, depression, anger, pain, and frustration, was also one of my favorite phases. I loved pregnancy (to a degree), loved having babies, loved the toddler stages of walking and talking and discovering the world. But now it's just done. I'll never do that again. I'm not really sure I'd want to anyway, but it's still hard to move on from. 

6. I had the thought recently that as a teenager/young adult, if you would've asked me what I wanted out of my life by the age 35, I probably would've described the life I have now. Married to my high school sweetheart, living in our own home in the town I've always loved, three precious kids, strong relationships with our families, siblings that live nearby with kids of their own for my kids to grow up with, a solid group of friends, our kids back at the Christian school we grew up in, the financial stability to be a stay at home mom, and a church family we love. I certainly wouldn't have asked for or anticipated some of the bumps in the road along the way: miscarriages, depression, living with my parents, jobs I hated, jobs Justin hated, dropping out of college, homeschooling, so many car problems, etc. And of course we never feel truly content. While we love the area we live in, we'd love to be outside of town (aka - not paying township and village taxes). While I love my mommy-mobile, I'd love a newer version with all the bells and whistles: automatic sliding doors, DVD player, door handles. While we're technically making enough to pay our bills and still have fun, we'd love to make just a little more so we'd feel more secure. I'd love to stop taking medication for depression and dealing with Lucy's inherited anger issues. But life is never going to be perfect. Most people I know wish their income was a little higher or their car a little newer. Most people have some kind of relationship struggle they're working through. But I refuse to look past the beautiful life I have right before my eyes. If this milestone of 35 has taught me anything, it's that once it's done, it's done. There's no going back. This is it. 

7. On that uplifting note . . . some pictures:

Very strange bruise that appeared on the underside of my forearm. I have no clue where it came from, but it's such an odd shape. The chiropractor asked me about it and seemed a little suspicious when I said I didn't know how I got it. Pretty sure that got written down in a file somewhere . . .

Birthday dinner at Red Robin! My birthday consisted of sleeping 'til 10:30 am and being woken by my kids with breakfast in bed (cinnamon rolls) and presents (sweatshirts and candy). I lounged around most of the afternoon, played some card games with Levi and Lena, made a quick thrift store run, then dropped the kids off at my parents' to go out to dinner with Justin. After Red Robin, we stopped at Barnes n' Noble and browsed books for half an hour. 35 is off to a good start! Thanks for all the love today!