The Saturday 7

1. Good news: My new phone arrived on Monday and I'm back in the 21st century! I did not feel "so refreshed" after being phone-less for a weekend. I was delighted to feed my addiction again on Monday afternoon. When we switched to Visible last year, I was so sad that I couldn't bring my Google Pixel with me. But they're accepting Pixels now, so I quickly snapped one up. It's a newer version than my last one, so it's a learning curve, but you can't beat that camera quality! 

2. I was able to break in the camera immediately since Monday was Halloween. It was the warmest/mildest Halloween in recent memory, and we made the most of it (along with the rest of the town - holy cow, it was busy!). As my family continues to grow, it's getting harder and harder for us to work around each other's schedules. It worked out that we had a fifteen minute window where we could all meet at Niki's for a quick cousin picture. It went spectacularly bad. Lol.

At least I got a couple cute ones . . .

A knight and a ninja

Two Moanas and Elsa

After pictures, some of us headed over to our street to Trick or Treat. 

After that, we went our separate ways. My family went to the church in town for trunk or treat and free hot dogs. We did some of the nearby neighborhoods (although more than one house had a sign up that said, "Sorry! Out of candy!" I told you it was crazy busy!), then drove out to Justin's parents' to see them. They had Little Caesar's, so of course we ate some of that, and Levi acted wild with Jesse. I'm sure you see where this is going . . . 

Ugh. I'm so sick of cleaning puke. 

3. Now that Justin is done with soccer, I've decided to make a bigger effort to eat dinner as a family at the table. (During soccer season, he had practice until 6:30 every night, so I never even bothered to have "family dinner.") I'm also implementing another "eat what I make" rule in an effort to broaden my kids' palates. If you've read my blog for long, you know this is something I attempt every few months. So far my success rate is 0. But this time, I came up with a genius idea to incentivize eating meals they don't like. If they eat the entire portion I give them every single weeknight, they get to get fast food on Saturday. So if Lena eats everything but Levi doesn't, Lena gets fast food on Saturday and Levi doesn't. Not only are they incredibly motivated by fast food, they can't bear the thought of someone else getting something they want. 

I was nice and made what I consider "kid friendly" meals. And we eased into it since Monday was Halloween hot dogs at trunk or treat. On Tuesday, I made tacos. 2/3 of the kids will eat a cheese quesadilla, but I told them they had to have meat this time. I made one cheese quesadilla with a tiny sprinkling of taco meat inside, cut it into fourths and made them each eat one fourth. Levi thought he was going to die, but he did it! Wednesday is always frozen pizza night, so that was easy. Thursday I made homemade mac n' cheese with ham. The girls choked it down, but Levi puked up almost every bite he took. 🙄 Eventually he ate most of the portion I had scooped up, so we decided that was good enough. Friday was pigs in a blanket. Levi actually liked them and ate it without complaint! It was Lena who cried for an hour that it was disgusting before forcing it down. But by the end of the week they had all eaten their entire portion every night! 

Driven senseless by my shock and awe, I did something unthinkable and let them each pick their own restaurant today instead of insisting that they agree on something. As a result, I ended up driving to Papa P's, Little Caesar's, Subway, and Wing World tonight for dinner. Lol. (The Wing World was for me. I'm so over pizza.) I originally told the kids that we're doing this for the month of November, but it might become a permanent fixture in our house if it makes them eat real food!! 

4. In less exciting news, I had to have a mini-conference with Levi's teacher this week because his behavior has been so bad lately. 😭 It started on Monday when his class had a sub. He just really doesn't deal well with change. But that's not an excuse for him to be disrespectful. It continued throughout the week, even when his regular teacher came back, and I was absolutely livid/mortified when she had to meet with me to address it. The girls have always been such model students, and even if they're terrors at home, they would never dream of being disrespectful to a teacher or other authority figure. So I'm at a loss with Levi. Especially because he denies ever doing anything wrong. 🤦 On Wednesday, after talking to his teacher, I started to have a stern talking-to with him and he just kept saying, "But I wasn't naughty today! I didn't do anything wrong!" Finally, I emailed his teacher asking for specific examples of his misbehavior so I could remind him. I seriously can't tell if he's lying to me or really that clueless that his behavior is inappropriate. Once I was armed with his teacher's concrete examples, we were able to discuss that his actions were disrespectful. He had some immediate consequences that night, and was threatened with more severe consequences should the behavior continue. I think it did the job for the rest of the week, but I'm sure it will require more reminders and consequences down the line. I'm still getting used to raising an extroverted boy! And God continues to keep me humble about my parenting prowess (or lack thereof). 

5. A couple weeks ago, I started the new lower dose of my depression meds. I'm down to 50 mg (from 200 at the beginning of the year), and was worried that it would be too much for me. But so far, so good! I mean, I definitely have my moments of extreme irritation, lethargy, and despair, but I was having those even when I was taking 200 mg a day. I've also been sloooooowly easing back into my exercise routine - as in, once a week, because I'm so sore for days afterward that I can't bear to do it again. Haha. This was the first time I worked out on Wednesday, and didn't have to scoot down the stairs on my butt by Thursday. I'm not sure if that means I'm making progress or if that particular workout wasn't as strenuous as some of the previous ones. Haha. But I would really like to replace my reliance on meds with a reliance on exercise to combat depression. It seems like a much healthier coping mechanism, with much fewer negative side effects. 

6. Today was a good day. A day that I'm able to feel confident in lowering my dose. And a day that makes me happy to be moving into this next season of life with no babies or toddlers. Since taking permanent measures this summer to avoid getting pregnant again, I've been a little sad at the finality of it. But this morning, the kids all got up on their own and Justin and I slept in luxuriously late. Can't do that with a baby or toddler. Once I made the kids turn off their devices, they miraculously each entertained themselves for almost an hour without intervention or supervision! Can't do that with a baby or toddler. 

Then I read a chapter book out loud to Lena and Levi for half an hour. They sat quietly and listened, laughing at the funny parts, and begging for more when my voice got tired. Can't do that with a baby or a toddler. This afternoon, the neighbor girl came over and they all played outside for an hour while I stayed inside doing my own thing. Can't do that with a baby or toddler! This season of life definitely has its perks! 

7. Pics and memes

Testing out the new camera

When Levi does my makeup

His sweet little concentrating face while he was painting my face green.

When Levi does my hair.

My poor sweet great-nephew, Cove, ended up in the PICU with RSV this week. He's still there, trying to breathe on his own without the help of oxygen. Please pray for him, and for Ty and Rieley who have to watch their poor baby suffer, and be away from his big sister while they're in the hospital. 

Apparently this applies to pre-teens as well. 🤦

Truth.

This made me LOL