The Saturday "7"

1. My moms' group at church has been reading M is for Mama by Abbie Halberstadt. Truthfully, I don't love the book, but we came to a chapter this week on gentleness that I appreciated. Halberstadt calls moms to be kind and gentle with their kids - something we all want to be, but few of us actually are. I have many excuses to yell: I'm tired or hormonal, the kids don't respond if I don't yell, or it's how I exercise my authority. But Halberstadt points out that the Bible requires kindness even when our circumstances are unfavorable or our hormones are raging. Gentleness is kindness's twin, and they both require self-control. If you know your Bible, you may recognize those three attributes as fruits of the spirit! Anyway, the chapter concluded with a "Gentleness Challenge" and we decided to take it on. For seven days, we're going to strive for gentleness - not just with our kids, but with everyone around us. That means no harsh words, no yelling, and no irritated huffs or eye rolls. 

The challenge started Friday morning, but never once crossed my mind when Levi got into bed with me an hour before my alarm went off. He immediately started climbing on me and chatting my ear off and the first words out of my mouth were, "Get off of me! How do you have so much to talk about already this morning? Here, take my phone and be quiet." Fail. Lol. But as I laid there trying to fall back to sleep, I remembered the call to gentleness and did much better the rest of the day. However, my kids spent most of the day at school on Friday. Today has been much more difficult! It's crazy how natural it is to snap at them or to vent my frustrations with their disobedience by yelling. I might need more than seven days to correct these habits!

Part of the challenge is to inform your kids that you're doing it and ask them to keep you accountable. 😬 When I told my family, Levi said, "So wait. We can be mean, but you have to be nice?" Lol. I suggested that maybe we should all strive for gentleness this week. 

2. Yesterday, Lena had a couple friends over for a birthday sleepover. Her birthday isn't actually until the 23rd, but this was the only weekend we could make work. I brought everyone home with us after school, we got McDonald's for dinner and had cupcakes. The girls played games, did makeovers, played MASH (remember that game?), watched a movie, and stayed up until 12:30 giggling. But they all slept 'til 8:30, so it wasn't too bad! 

Random aside: I realized that Lena's three closest friends all have moms named Kelly. Lol.

3. Today, we broke the news to the kids that we're going to Arizona without them in 10 days. Lena took it much better than I expected! After a couple hours, she said, "I'm excited that Grandma's coming to stay with us, but I'm a little nervous about you leaving." There were no tears or exclamations of dismay, though, so that's a win in my book! We'll see how she feels as it gets closer.

4. I've been scouring the Internet for things to do around Phoenix, and for the best way to see the Grand Canyon. We really should've waited a while so I can get in better shape. Justin would love to hike all these amazing canyons and mountains. But I have to lay on ice after cleaning my house for one hour. Lol. I think I've found a few "scenic drives" we can do. And I've learned to look up "kid friendly hikes." Maybe I can handle those? Mostly, I'm just excited to soak up the sun! 

5. Since getting Stella, we've been talking a lot about our first cat, Lola. In case you're new here, we got Lola before we had kids and she was my baby for a while. We got her as a kitten, but she grew up to be quite mean and snarly. People were scared of her . . . for good reason. She died a few months after Levi was born, so he has no memory of her, and all our talk about her made him ask me to look up some pictures. I came across this one while I was looking and just have to share because it cracks me up.

Levi at 6 days old. Lola was such a fat lard. Lol.

6. I don't have anything else this week. Enjoy these pics and memes instead.

She has a rough life

Sleeping on my chest

Enjoying a rare moment of sunshine!

First encounter with a balloon

Poor cat. (This is where I'm forced to exercise gentleness most often. "Please put her down, Levi. Please don't swing her like that. I don't think she wants you to hold her right now.")

The text in the yellow box cracks me up. At least they saved the important things!

So many good egg memes floating around the Internet these days!