The Saturday 7

Let's see if I can come up with more than I did last week . . .

1. Lena and Levi had dentist appointments on Tuesday. Neither of them had cavities, which always continues to amaze me. Lena at least brushes her teeth. But then there's Levi . . .

2. Monday night we had parent-teacher conferences. Levi's teacher said he's smart but lazy (in much nicer terms), and he struggles with being respectful and staying on task. Ugh. She also said he's very good at making persuasive arguments and she can see him excelling as a lawyer someday. Lol. Lena's teacher said she wants to adopt her and bring her home. 😂

3. We didn't have school on Friday, and Nova had a half day, so we met up with the cousins to pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Niki's actually on vacation, but we used her house since it has the best space. Haha. We lay all of our purchases out on the counter, then let the kids make their way down the line to fill their boxes. Lena, especially, loves this tradition and has been looking forward to it for weeks.

Drawing pictures to add to their boxes.

4. Levi was up at 3:00 this morning. I've been giving him the expensive magnesium gummies for a month now, but I don't think they're helping his tics or his sleep issues. 🤦 Last night, he agreed to go back to his bed if I would sleep on the couch in the playroom instead of my bed. Desperate for sleep however I could get it, I took him up on it and slept on the couch the rest of the night. Stella enjoyed this new development and laid on me for hours. Who needs a weighted blanket?

And apparently my RBF game is strong even in my sleep!

5. Today I went grocery shopping. I've been really stressing about money with Christmas and our vacation coming up, so I've been trying to find ways to cut back on groceries. At the same time, I've been trying out new recipes in an effort to eat at home more often, and invariably my attempts are always bland and meh. I'm sure the main reason for that is that if I don't have a spice the recipe calls for, I just omit it. So when I made my meal plan this week, I added those random spices to my grocery list. It kills me to spend money on something I'm not sure I'm going to like - especially something tiny like this that will only last one meal.

Fortunately, the fresh thyme was only $1.99, but dang that pile of groceries was expensive. I still spent more than I wanted to. And I didn't even buy any good snacks . . . which I'm regretting now.

6. I read a good book this week: Where Grace Appears by Heidi Chiavaroli. It was free on Kindle Unlimited and is the first book in an 8 book series. I love series where each book is about a sibling or member of the family. But I was appalled to discover that the subsequent books in this series aren't on Kindle Unlimited and my library doesn't have them! 😭 Those tricksty authors. That's how they get you - make the first book free to whet your appetite, but then leave you hanging for the rest. I guess I'm going to have to request my library to buy them and wait weeks for them to respond to my request and then purchase and process them. I'm up to 72 books for the year, but it's not looking like I'm going to make my goal of 100. #failure

7. Pics and memes: