The Saturday 7

1. Welcome to fall! It swept in with a vengeance this week, and I'm not ready for it. I really prefer to wait until October to turn the heat on, but I don't think I'm going to make it this year. 

The only good things about fall are breaking out the sweatshirts to cover my fat belly, and making soups and casseroles. I can't wait for soccer season to be over, so we can actually eat dinner together at the table at a normal dinner hour. I mean, my kids won't eat anything I make, but they can sit at the table and watch Justin and I eat our delicious soup. 

This one's my absolute fave. Definitely making it this week.

2. Of course the change in weather wreaked havoc on our health. Or our immune systems might just be worn down from the first few weeks of school. Either way, Justin is just getting over a cold, I've been fighting one for a few days, and Lucy got hit hard with it today. So I fully anticipate Lena and Levi getting it by Monday and having to decide if they're too sick to go to school. I hate making decisions like that - especially in a post-Covid world where every sneeze is met with a side-eye. And especially now that it means I'll have to take the day off work. Sorry, kids. I can't afford for you to be sick. Go to school.

3. I saw this "meme" this week, and it resonated with me. For context, it's a Twitter thread about why early millennials (born 1985-1995) are "the best." 

Apparently we're also the generation that grew up with spell check and a low respect for punctuation. 🤦

While he's referring to an appreciation for tradition, I think it also applies to a respect for authority. I get so frustrated sometimes that everyone is so quick to push back against authority of any kind these days. (Read a few blogs by teachers struggling to keep control of their classrooms if you want proof.) Any such frustrations are quickly met with "But authority=power and power=corruption" followed by a slew of sob stories. So perhaps the generation or two before mine accepted authority too blindly and allowed for absolute power and corruption. But the generation after mine won't accept authority of any kind, which leads to chaos and the breakdown of society. My fellow elder millennials and I beg for a happy medium. Discernment without anarchy would be great. 

4. Some of my frustration is probably born out of my recent habit of following Not the Bee. If you ever want to genuinely fear for the state of our society, take a gander at some of their recent articles. Now listen, I understand that they are extremely conservatively biased, but that doesn't mean they don't speak the truth. The horrifying terrible truth. Here are a couple of articles about the hypocrisy of the pro-abortion narrative:
And then there's this one, which is honestly so disgusting I almost wish I didn't read it (so consider yourself forewarned). But it's such a perfect example of leftist hypocrisy! 

In light of those articles, this one should come as no surprise:

What astonishes me after reading article after article on Not The Bee is that there is plenty of proof that celebrating sexual depravity has catastrophic consequences, that life undoubtedly begins at conception, that Covid vaccines don't work, that lax border control has negative effects, and that our president is not fit to lead . . . but nobody cares. It doesn't matter how many exposés Matt Walsh delivers or how many scientists speak up against covid vaccinations, or how many feminists insist that the transgender movement is erasing women's rights. Right wing politicians and supporters continue to be vilified and condescended to, the media continues to report with a left-leaning bias, and celebrities with zero credibility continue to be lauded. It makes me want to rip my hair out! 


Ok, that revealed way too much about my political leanings, so it's time to move on! 

5. If nothing else, those articles and others like them have driven me to pray for my kids! I hesitate to share this, because I have a really bad habit of sharing things and then dropping them. I didn't buy Dr Pepper for two weeks, wrote about it on my blog, and immediately started buying it again. I walked on the track at the beginning of the summer, wrote about it on my blog and stopped walking. I walked on the treadmill. Wrote about it on the blog. Stopped treadmilling. Started a new exercise program. Wrote about it. Stopped exercising. 

Alas, I'm going to share anyway. 


At the beginning of the school year, a friend on facebook asked what other parents pray for their kids as they start a new year of school. Another friend commented that she was praying Ephesians 3-5. Lo and behold, I happened to be in Ephesians for my devotions that day, so I looked it up and couldn't believe how perfect it was. I've always struggled with prayer. I don't like praying the same thing every day, and I worry that my prayers are so shallow (help us have a good day, keep us healthy and safe). I also had an idea last April to start "prayer notebooks" for each of my kids. I thought it would be such a cool gift if years down the road, I could give them notebooks full of my handwritten prayers for them. Is there really any better way to show how much I love them than to pray for them? I bought 3 cheap notebooks from Dollar Tree and wrote a couple prayers for each kid in them, then gave up. But writing out prayers inspired by (or sometimes taken directly from) Scripture has been so encouraging and fulfilling. It also doubles as devotional time for me, because I end up mediating on the same passage all week. I have 3 days off during the week, so I devote one day a week to one kid. This also keeps me motivated, because I don't dare write a prayer for Lucy on Tuesday and Lena on Thursday and then not do one for Levi on Friday. Paul's prayers in his epistles are the perfect place to start. I started with Ephesians 3 and then kept going. I usually only do one or two chapters a week, because it takes a long time to handwrite everything.  Here's an example of how it works from Colossians 2:2-7. This is the text from the NLT:

I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

And this is how I would write my prayer:

Jesus, I pray that my kids would be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. Empower them to have complete confidence in their understanding of your mysterious plan. Give them grace to grasp that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in you. Please protect them from false teachers with their well-crafted arguments. Instead, let them live as they should and stay strong in their faith in you. I pray that just as they accepted you as Lord, they will continue to follow you. Make their roots grow down into you and enable them to build their lives on you. Let their faith grow strong in the truth they're being taught, and let them live lives that overflow with thankfulness. 

Who wants to join me? I'll be doing Colossians 2 this coming week. 

6. That's it for today. Good night!

Enjoying the last vestiges of summer Monday night before the weather turned. 

Levi has been obsessed with making "fall decorations." I remembered this week that I bought some craft stuff at Michael's last year for 90% off! Winning!


At church on Wednesday

This is our neighbor girl who's just a little younger than Lena. She comes over all the time, but I had to get a picture of them dressed like twins, because they really do look a lot alike - especially from behind. Same height, same exact hair color and length. Lena's just a little scrawnier. (She had her well child appt this week - up to 7th percentile for weight and 15th for height! 😂)

Number 16 kills me. Oh, thanks! I never thought of that! Might as well add "rob a bank" or "commit insurance fraud." 



Actual footage of me . . .

I posit that your reaction depends on your financial stability. I'm Person A by necessity, not by choice. Lol. 

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