The Saturday 7 . . .ish

1. On Tuesday, our local library hosted storytime at Schwallier's - an apple orchard/play area/petting zoo. It was a nice day, so my sisters, cousin Esther, and I decided to take our kids. Apparently every other stay-at-home-mom in the tri-county area also had the same idea. It was madness. Poor Schwallier's was totally unprepared for that kind of turn-out. They kept pulling out more picnic tables and started baking a plethora of donuts. When we bought donuts before heading home, there was only one variety left and the poor woman working the counter said, "We didn't expect such a crowd for a library event!" Hahahaha. Never underestimate a free event geared toward stay-at-home-parents of young kids who have been largely cooped up for the past 18 months.

There were a bunch of kittens roaming around that Levi was completely enamored with. 

Levi didn't like his donut, so I may have eaten two. Didn't want to be wasteful!

2. Wednesday was my first kid-free day this school year! Last Wednesday I watched Nova, and the kids didn't have school on Friday/Monday for Labor Day. But this Wednesday the stars aligned, I dropped my kids off at school, then drove home and spent the day in peace and quiet! Haha. Truly, I spent the day catching up on tasks I've been putting off forever: preparing for my fall semester of college, making up a couple games for the bridal shower I'm throwing next weekend, and setting up my new Internet service. I've been so fed up with Charter because they keep raising my rates. But I didn't think we had any other options in our area, until my brother told me about T-Mobile home Internet. I don't really understand it. I don't think it's a hotspot. It's a legit home Internet service. They sent me a router, and I set it up all by myself on Wednesday (*pats self on back*). The best part is it's only $50 a month (with the $10 monthly discount for autopay), and that's a lifetime rate. It includes taxes and service fees, and it will never go up! So far, I haven't noticed any difference in our Internet service, so I think I can safely say I recommend it! 

3. On Friday, I ended up keeping Levi home from school. He'd been having some weird stomach issues for a couple days that culminated into this:

Making creations out of Solo cups and seeing if they floated in the bathtub seriously kept him entertained for an hour!

He had random bouts of diarrhea throughout the day, but was totally fine in between. He ate like normal, ran around, climbed on me, acted like his normal self. That afternoon, we went to pick the girls up from school, and as we were sitting in the pickup lane, he frantically clutched his stomach and said, "I have to poop!" I whipped out of the pickup lane, zipped into a parking space, and threw open the van door to rush him inside. He made it outside the van, but then promptly puked allll over the [fortunately vacant] parking spot next to my van - in full view of the pickup lane. Lol. I'm so accustomed to public displays of vomiting that it doesn't phase me, but I'm sorry to anyone waiting to pick up their kid who was traumatized by the sight! I cleaned him up with some baby wipes, and he hopped back into the van, saying, "I feel better now that I finally got that out. Did you see it come out of my nose?!" Hahaha. That evening we went back to school for a "Kickoff Carnival." I had signed up to work a booth, and Justin had soccer practice, so I brought Levi - with the intent of having him stay on the field by Justin. Before we even made it to the soccer field, Levi puked again in the weeds next to the gym. 🤦 Thankfully, my mom lives two minutes away and was available to come pick him up. He was not happy to miss the carnival, but got over it when the girls brought home a bunch of prizes for him. He slept through the night for the first time in a couple days last night and hasn't had any belly problems today, so I think he's on the mend! Whew!

4. Today is the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which seems so crazy. I was a junior that year, and we were in history class of all places when the administrator came in to tell us what was going on. At that point, both planes had hit and it was obvious that this was no tragic accident, but a premeditated attack. My first thought is kind of funny in retrospect. I was afraid the communists were going to take over. Lol. Our 5th grade teacher did a good job of impressing the horrors of communism on our poor little minds, and I always kind of lived in fear of communist oppression. I also had no idea what the World Trade Center was. TVs were rolled into every classroom we went to that day, and I remember that we didn't really do much work - we just watched the footage. I don't remember seeing the towers fall or hearing about Flight 93 or the Pentagon, but that must have happened while we watched. When we got home, my older sister came over and we all just kind of processed it together. I kept the newspaper from that day because I knew it was history in the making. I still have it in a box in my basement. It's weird to think that there's an entire generation that has no memory of where they were on that day. My nephew who is getting married next month hadn't even been born! And it's one of those things that is hard to explain to kids - especially kids that tend toward anxiety like mine. We've never really talked about it in detail. I know they've learned about it at school, and I've left it at that. But today Justin and I turned on a documentary in the living room and I let them watch. Lucy and Lena both voluntarily went to their bedrooms when the documentary started talking about people jumping out of the buildings and I wondered if maybe I shouldn't have let them watch it. Levi just kept saying, "Wow! Look at all that smoke!" and eventually he lost interest. I guess I just want them to know how horrendous and tragic it was. 

Later, we walked down the street to watch the "Freedom Cruise" our town put on in honor of those lost both on 9/11 and during the subsequent war. Lena asked if we were celebrating 9/11 and I said it wasn't really a celebration, but a remembrance. Sometimes I feel like all the facebook admonitions to "never forget" are a little bit trite, but it struck me today that it's my responsibility to make sure my kids know this piece of history - to remember that America is not invincible, to know that our futures are not guaranteed, but mostly to find their hope in Jesus and not in the power of our nation or any precautions against death. Of course, I didn't share all of that with them today. They just thought it was cool to watch a bunch of motorcycles and wave their flags. And I'm thankful for the freedom we have that allows them to be kids. The older I get, the more awful news stories I hear, the more I realize not all kids around the world have that privilege. 

5. That's all I've got for today since I just wrote one of these on Monday. We've got a crazy week planned so I should have more to report next Saturday. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures:

My aunt posted this question about canning tomatoes, and that response is from my mom . . . which explains so much about why I'm the way that I am . . . Lol!

Levi is not a fan of the little readers he brings home from school. It was so sweet to listen to Lena say, "Come on, buddy. Just a few more words. You know this one!"