The Saturday 7

1. I got to work in the library for the second time on Monday. On my first day a couple weeks ago, I didn't have to aid in the morning art classes, but this time I did, and it made the whole day a different experience. I was running around school non-stop all day. I literally sat at the computer scarfing down my lunch while I checked in books, because after my lunch I aid in the Kindergarten room, then go straight to recess duty, then straight back to the library for my 3rd graders. It was craziness, and despite the shoes I bought with memory foam soles that were so comfy in the store, my feet were killing me by the end of the day. I even had a blister on my bunion. 🤦#youknowyoureoldwhen . . . So I'm on the hunt for supportive dress shoes that will accommodate my bunion without looking like they're made for someone with a bunion. The best part of this story is that I had two different friends text me to ask how my second day of work went Monday afternoon. I gave them both the same sob story I just told you, and these were their responses:

Friend One:

Friend Two:

They both jokingly recommended the same random shoe! Is that a sign?? 😂

2. On Wednesday, I had big plans to do some epic thrift shopping with my sister-in-law, Esther. She told me about the Goodwill outlet (where the thrift store castoffs go to die) and graciously drove me down there and spent hours pawing through bins with me. There are two ginormous warehouse rooms filled with bins on wheels: a "stuff" room and a "clothing/linens" room. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the bins aside from that. The "stuff" bins were full of stuffed animals, toys, puzzles (with the pieces spilled all over the bottom of the bin), figurines, dishes, utensils, books, old VHS tapes, holiday decorations, etc. There are not "toy" bins or "kitchen" bins or "electronics" bins. Everything is thrown together willy-nilly. And the clothes bins were no better. Nothing is sorted by size, gender, or even adult/kid, so you have to dig through every item to find anything that might fit a member of your family. I'm not usually squeamish about germs, but why does anyone donate used underwear to a thrift store? Can you just not, so I don't have to touch it while I'm looking for clothes for my kids? *shudder* The best part, though - and what makes the hassle worth it - is that everything is priced by the pound. The "stuff" is 99c a pound, and the clothing is 1.69 a pound. It wasn't worth it for me to buy heavy books, but I got a kite for Levi (almost weightless), a Christmas tin, some kitchen tongs, and a couple random toys. I also threw clothes in my cart with abandon, grabbing anything that someone in my family might fit into/like/actually wear. I even grabbed a couple of name brand shirts in nice shape that won't fit my kids, but I can re-sell to Once Upon! Esther had told me that she's never spent more than $15 at the Goodwill Outlet, and I was worried I'd blow her record out of the water with all the clothes I grabbed. Imagine my surprise and delight when my total rang up to $14.56! If I wasn't starving and if my back and feet weren't killing me, I could've stayed longer and kept digging through trash to find more treasures!

3. Of course, while we were treasure hunting at a warehouse 40 minutes from school, Esther got a call from my mom saying, "Is Sadie with you? The school is trying to get ahold of her." Sure enough, I had two missed calls and voicemails from the school telling me Lena was in the office crying that she thought she might puke. Her anxiety has gotten out of control again, and I was reasonably certain that was the only thing causing her stomach problems, but I called my mom back and asked her to go pick Lena up from school anyway. Thank goodness she and my dad were both home and live 3 minutes from school. I told my mom that I was sure Lena would be fine as soon as she got out of the school, and Mom texted me a little while later to tell me that I was right. So Esther and I finished our shopping and grabbed some lunch before heading back.

Poor Lena dreads school with every fiber of her being, and begs me multiple times a day to homeschool her so she doesn't have to go. She can't even fully articulate what she's anxious about, which makes me think her body is expressing symptoms of anxiety just because she's predisposed to that - and when she gets that anxiety-fueled stomach ache, she immediately panics that she's going to throw up . . . which makes her stomach hurt more. And because it only happens at school, she associates school with stomach aches, which gives her another stomach ache, which . . . it's an endless cycle. And we all want off the hamster wheel. After arming her with every tactic in my arsenal (and they are many, thanks to the years she and I have both struggled with this) to no avail, I reached out on facebook and was flooded with wisdom and suggestions. I ordered a couple of books from Amazon, started her on a new vitamin, and am looking into therapy. I'm so incredibly grateful for my community who wants Lena to succeed as much as I do.

4. Here's a quicker one: Levi's first kindergarten assignment was to make a timeline of his life so far. He had to choose 4 pictures from the past 5 years, note his age in each picture, and write a brief caption. His teacher sent home a template, and we just had to attach the pictures and write the notes. The first box said "birth" under it, so I printed a couple pictures of him as a newborn in the hospital. When it came time to do the assignment, he completely lost his mind about the baby picture - screaming and crying and trying to hide it from me. Fortunately, I printed more than one because he literally ripped one of them in half! When I finally got him calmed down enough to tell me what his problem was, he whispered in my ear "I'm embarrassed for people to know that I was a baby." Lol. What?! I tried to tell him that all the other kids in his class were babies at one point, and they would have their baby pictures on their timelines, but he wasn't convinced. Crazy kid.

5. On Friday, Lucy got to participate in her first "Middle School Service Day," and I was recruited to be a chaperone/driver. I chauffeured a bunch of 6th-8th grade girls to City Impact - a church/food pantry/community outreach center. It was "Grocery Garage" day, so the girls got to help sign people in, restock shelves in the grocery garage, help people carry their groceries to their cars, and clean up when everything was done. I've heard of City Impact, but didn't really know what they do. I'm glad I got to be a part of it with the girls on Friday. It's a really cool ministry. I think it's good for our comfortable, private school kids to know that there are people who struggle to afford food and necessities even in our rural community. We tend to think of it as a "downtown" problem. But there were people lined up at the door an hour before the Grocery Garage even opened. My phone is on its last legs and rarely lets me use my camera app, so this is the only picture I got of Lucy.

6. And now, a post about how I'm so wealthy and privileged that I have gotten fat and need to go on a restrictive diet. Lol. My nephew is getting married 4 weeks from today. I'm not in the wedding, and I'll only be in a handful of pictures, so it's not a big deal for me. But I really want to be able to wear a cute dress without looking 6 months pregnant. I also know part of my foot pain/back pain/inability to function like most people my age is because I'm overweight, sedentary, and have a diet that consists mostly of sugar and carbs. So I've decided to take a drastic step and try out the Keto diet for 4 weeks. It's going to be brutal, but I've been doing lots of research, have created some meal plans, spent 2 hours and $200 on groceries today, and I'm really really going to force myself to do it for the next 28 days. I can live without sugar for 28 days right? . . . . Right? . . . Now, naysayers, I want you to listen up. I know this is not a sustainable diet. I know that eliminating an entire food group is not healthy. But neither is drinking 48 ounces of Dr Pepper a day or eating 6 no-bake cookies in one 12 hour period . . . not that I would know anything about that . . . I'm going to do this Keto thing and I want you all to hold me to it. If I write next week that it was too hard and I gave up, I expect angry comments like, "You're such a quitter!" and "You're going to look so pregnant in a dress that people will ask if you're having twins!" Make me feel bad enough to get back on the wagon. Lol. And if anyone who's successfully used Keto to lose weight has any great advice or recipes to share, lay them on me!

7. Just a few pics from my phone since it's being stupid, and then some from Libby's phone of the bridal shower we threw for Madi today!