The Saturday 7

1. Did I tell you I gave up Dr Pepper for the month of March? I haven't been thrilled with the progress I'm making while taking Plexus, so I decided to give it a better chance of working by cutting out Dr Pepper for a month. I replaced it instead with Diet Cranberry Ginger Ale and Diet Cherry Dr Pepper. I cheated twice, but other than that, I really stuck to it . . . and it didn't help at all. I didn't lose a single pound. I didn't have less sugar cravings. I didn't feel any more energetic. In fact, my depression was worse and I've been more exhausted than usual. Forget that! I've been happily drinking Dr Pepper again since April started. I can already feel the endorphins pumping through my veins. 😁😂 I'm still fat, but at least I'm fat and happy!

2. Last week, Justin and I got a babysitter on a Friday night and went fridge shopping . . . as one does in their 30s. Our fridge technically works, but the handle fell off, one of the drawers is broken, the "railings" in the door that keep the condiments in place are duct taped together, and it leaks so badly I shove sponges in the back to keep it from puddling on the kitchen floor! Anyway, while we were at Home Depot, we got cornered by one of the "design consultants" trying to sell us on a free kitchen consultation. She explained that it's cheaper than a regular kitchen remodel because you keep your existing cabinets, they just get refaced and you get new doors/hardware. We'd been toying with the idea of updating our kitchen, and that stimulus money is burning a hole in our pocket, so we decided to let the cabinet guy come out and give us his spiel. He came on Tuesday, chatted it up with us, took a bunch of measurements, asked about our style preferences, sketched an impressive blueprint of our kitchen, then gave us the grand total. Now listen. We have a tiny kitchen. And it's not like we're replacing any cabinets, just repainting and adding new doors. I seriously expected the total to be around $5,000. I had to work to hide my shock when he handed us the paper with the number $18,000 on it!! He tried to sell us on financing (if you put 20% down, that's only $462 for the next 3 years!), and he offered us 10% off if we signed a contract that night, but I needed more like 75% off. Haha. I felt terrible that he came out on a week night and spent two hours trying to make a commission of us, only to leave with nothing. We got a lot of stimulus money, but it sure wasn't $18,000 worth! Our kitchen will just have to stay outdated for a few more years. (Maybe it'll be stylish again by then!) Sorry, Home Depot guy!

3. I got an email this week from my college's Director of Student Development, Diversity, and Equity congratulating me on being an SFCC MOSAIC Star because I ended the quarter with a GPA above 3.0. I feel like such a millennial with my gold star! (Although technically it's a "mosaic" star because #diversity.)

And a few days ago, I got my kids' report cards. Levi doesn't do letter grades, but he's mastered most of the major academic milestones, and is getting at least satisfactory in all of the behavioral and social benchmarks. Whew! The girls are both getting all As, and sailing through like the little mosaic stars they are. It's obvious where they get their smarts. 😁

4. In case you don't remember, last Easter fell during the strictest portion of our state's "Stay Home Stay Safe" order. Our church was closed, so we watched the service online, and we didn't even go to either of our parents' houses for lunch. I made my first ever Easter dinner all by myself. It was fine, but we were so looking forward to a real Easter this year . . . Psych! This week, 3 of our 4 pastors came down with Covid. So our Good Friday and Easter services were cancelled again! 😭 Honestly, the devil is working overtime to keep people out of church. But he can just stick a sock in it, cuz we're going to celebrate victory over the grave anyway! Even if we have to do it from home for the second year in a row. Actually, in lieu of a Good Friday service last night, my family all got together for dinner and discussion. Nice try, Devil. "Where two or three are gathered!" 

5. The Easter festivities continued today with my least favorite holiday tradition: dyeing eggs! We tried the whipped cream method this year. It worked ok, but we still had to do the traditional dip dyeing as well. Thank goodness for tablecloths and baby wipes.

Later this afternoon, we went to the park for an Easter egg "hunt." It was more like an Easter egg free for all. There was a huge field covered in plastic eggs. The kids were sectioned off by age (toddler - 1st grade, 2nd - 5th, etc.), then let loose to stuff as many eggs in their basket as they could! It was absolute chaos, but nobody got trampled, we all got some candy, and we have a good story to write about on our blogs. 

Nova was being camera shy, but this picture is adorable.

All smiles with the Easter Bunny!

6. I've been struggling a little bit with facebook lately. There have been a few incidences that have made me so incredibly angry that I've wondered if I need to take a break and remove myself from the situation for a while. I'm glad I didn't start yet, though, because so many people shared such encouraging Good Friday thoughts. A few of my favorites this year focused on how God used what appeared so bad to ultimately be so good. Good Friday is an annual reminder that our finite minds can't comprehend God's grand plan. When Jesus died, the disciples must have thought, "No, God! This is wrong! We thought this was the one we've been waiting for! We've seen the prophecies fulfilled! We've heard your voice from Heaven declaring that this is your Son! He can't die! This can't be all there is!"  In the moment, it seemed that Satan was winning through the cross. But what the cross meant to degrade, God meant to glorify, what the cross meant to destroy, God meant to restore, what the cross meant to silence, instead causes us to sing. I love that. One of my facebook friends wrote this week that Good Friday was kind of the ultimate April Fool's joke. While Satan may have thought he won on Friday, by Sunday he knew he'd been played. And while our world seems to be spinning out of control, and evil seems to be winning much of the time, we know the story isn't over yet. It's Saturday. We're waiting. But we know that Sunday's coming. And ultimately our God will have the victory!

7. Just one more picture, cuz it's 11:48 and I still have to fill Easter baskets . . .

Helping Daddy dig a hole. When Justin told them to put on grubby clothes, Levi kept saying, "I need my construction shirt!" We didn't get it until Lena came out in her VK Construction shirt. Haha. #represent