The Saturday 7

1. Another glorious week of summer! We had our first "cousin fun day" at Deer Tracks Junction. It was a hot one, but that didn't stop us from having a blast.

Not our best work. Lol





Just a little sweaty


That bear was in the pool when I walked up the stairs to to the overlook. Apparently Levi climbed up on the fence and the bear jumped out of the water and charged at him. I'm glad I wasn't there because I'm not sure I want to know if my reflex would be to save my kid or run from the bear. Lol.

Had to stop at the splash pad/park afterward to cool off!

Levi, being a gentleman 😂

Oops. The pics are out of order. Not gonna fix them.

Splash pad cuties.

2. You'll be happy to know that I did, in fact, clean my basement this week. Well, mostly. One corner is full of Justin's "stuff." He's almost done finishing the extra room in the basement where all his stuff will eventually go, but in the meantime, it's taking up a lot of real estate in the downstairs living area. I cleared enough room to set up my puzzle table, though. It was in the high 80s most of the week and 90s by this weekend. Our poor old AC can't keep up with our bi-level house, so I was happy to have a place to go when it was hot.



3. The clean basement also came in handy tonight when we randomly lost power from 5:30-10:00 p.m. Because the air had been running since 9:30 a.m., it was nice and cool in the basement. 

I worked on my puzzle.

Dinner on the treadmill, while watching a movie Lena had downloaded on her tablet.

Reading in Levi's room.

We also played a game together until the power came back on and I shoo-ed everyone off to bed. It was kind of fun for a little while. Of course, it got up to 82 degrees on the main level while the AC wasn't running. Thank goodness my bedroom is in the basement. Haha.

4. That book I'm reading ^ is Jane Eyre. I've often been vocal about my distaste for classics. But my cousin Esther has been on my case to try them again. I swear I read Jane Eyre in college and hated it, but I have absolutely zero memory of anything I've read so far this time around - and I'm already on chapter 10. It's not as hard to read as I expected. It's just so slowwwwww. And long. I don't think I'm going to be whipping through it very quickly.

5. By contrast, I did whip through a non-fiction read yesterday. I've been trying to find some that are a little more light-hearted/easy to read than the heavy theology I've been doing lately. So I ordered a couple Peggy Rowe books from the library. Justin loves Mike Rowe's podcast and told me that his mom became a published writer in her 80s. After researching her books, I decided they'd be something I'd enjoy. Of course, the name of the one I read is Vacuuming in the Nude. And I had forgotten that I ordered it when the librarian mentioned I had books on hold last time I was there. I asked, "What did I order" and she had to say, "Vacuuming in the Nude" out loud in front of everyone in attendance. Hahahaha. Peggy Rowe would've loved that. The book was hilarious, heartfelt, and delightful. I read it all in one sitting. I'm almost halfway to my nonfiction goal, and I'm holding my own against the girls in our family reading challenge. Lucy and I are already over 1,000 pages, and Lena's very close. (She's been zipping through the Keeper of the Lost Cities books.) I can't wait to see what our page totals are by the end of the summer!

6. I've read a few articles recently about how Chat GPT is making is dumber and numbing our brains. I'm not surprised. But I still can't help but enjoy some of the perks he offers. I uploaded this picture and asked him how I could modernize my kitchen:


🤩 Yes, please! Now if only he could fund the renovation for me.

That said, we also had this conversation last week: 

🤔

7. Pics and memes

Taking advantage of the Kids Bowl Free program and the bowling alley's AC!


Making no-bakes with Levi. (How about that #selfcontrolsummer? 🤦)

It's not summer without ice cream!

I can have as much ice cream as I want now, because I switched to diet pop. #science






A couple serious ones. Sorry. 

Typo aside, I thought this was really interesting. 


I'm not a fan of Doyle, and I certainly won't be striving to spend 1,000 hours outside with my kids (#becausewinter), but I really liked this sentiment.

Stay cool, friends!

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