Adventures in La La Land

I've noticed a trend, lately, that my friends are making "30 before 30" lists. I just turned 29, so I considered it, but I don't have 30 things I want to accomplish in my life. Let alone accomplish in one year! Lol. Maybe that makes me totally boring/uninspired, but it's the truth. I do, however, have a desire to learn and grow, and spend my time more productively than constantly browsing the Pinterest humor boards and binge watching Gilmore Girls. Hence, my "30 Books Before 30" idea was born. I want to use this as an opportunity to "expand my horizons."  I traditionally read only "inspirational fiction," but I'm ready to branch out - which is where you, my faithful readers, come in. I'll be honest that I'm not ready to branch all the way to fantasy or sci-fi. That just does not  interest me. But I'll readily take general fiction recommendations. It's important to me that they be clean, though. I can handle a lit...

1.Last Saturday was our small group Halloween party. We all dress up, show off our costumes for 10 minutes, then change into comfy clothes to eat delicious food and play hilarious games. But I go all out for those 10 minutes that I'm going to be in costume. This year, I worked off of a wardrobe piece I already own: my jailbreak dress. I looked up some images of the hamburglar online and thrift shopped for the rest of the pieces. Justin is not a big fan of costumes, so I tried to think of something McDonald's related that wasn't quite as ostentatious as Ronald McDonald himself. He ended up as a McDonald's worker protesting for higher wages. Lucy painted the "M." And it says "Not lovin' it" in black on the side. Just didn't show up in the picture. 2. We got some bad news about our house sale this week. We were originally supposed to close this coming Monday (the 27th), but the buyers have had some trouble with their financing, and the ...

You know that phrase, "The good, the bad, and the ugly?" Well I feel like I share a fair amount of the bad and the ugly that goes on around here. I don't know why I focus on the bad. Maybe just to make others feel better about their "bad" or to commiserate and get sympathy, or just because no one wants to hear about all my perfect moments all the time. And sometimes, the bad and ugly is honestly comical and I want you all to get a kick out of our disasters. But in my quest to squelch the depression, I've been thinking about how I tend to dwell on the bad and just make things worse. I saw this poster on Pinterest and decided I was going to try it: So I started jotting down "the good things" yesterday and today. Don't get me wrong. Our life is not all happy moments and sweet snuggles. Lena has been sick and not sleeping. She was up for hours screaming both Saturday and Sunday night. I spend a lot of time breaking up fights between Lucy and...

1. I went to the doctor this week to discuss my depression. I've been on Paxil for 8 years, originally as a remedy for an xiety. It worked wonders for my anxiety, but hasn't been cutting it for the newfound depression. My doctor was sweet and assured me that the reason my depression has intensified since having kids isn't because I hate my kids or am not cut out to be a mom, but because my hormones were disrupted and haven't settled back into their pre-baby norm. That's probably just psycho-babble totally unfounded in science, but successful in relieving my anxiety and depression about having anxiety and depression. Lol. The good news is she switched me to a new drug (Prozac) and upped my dose. Give me a couple weeks, and then I'm going to be all rays of sunshine and dancing butterflies. ;-) 2. More good news: our house appraisal went through!! We were a little worried it wouldn't appraise high enough. When we re-financed two years ago, it appraised for $2...

1. Did you notice there was no Saturday 7 last week? I was wallowing in my depression a little bit. I felt like I didn't have anything positive to share and was feeling convicted about my lack of joy. So I just skipped it. I'm still fighting through the depression. I don't know why it's so bad all of a sudden, but I have an appointment with my doctor on Thursday to talk about upping my medication. And I've been trying to spend less time on the computer and more time in the Bible. I just finished Isaiah in my "One Year through the Bible" journey and was surprised by how much I loved it. I used to think it was just a bunch of "Woe is you. Israel has come to ruin" but there's also a lot of redemption and hope and love there too. In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength . . . (Isaiah 30:15) Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by namel you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1b) Even to your old a...

Bad news: I have very little to write about this week. That seems to be the growing trend. I don't know why. Am I getting less interesting? Haha. I think I'm struggling a little bit with depression, which just makes me listless and lazy. So we honestly don't do much these days. Anyway, here's what I've got: 1. I bought some delicious snap pea crisps on a whim at Meijer in an effort to consume more vegetables. I actually really like them and have been inhaling them with gusto! They taste just like chips, so I tried to talk my girls into eating them too. Lucy absolutely refused, but Lena liked them. She ate 4 with dinner one night. But by the following morning, she had a terrible diaper rash - we're talking blisters . Neither of my girls has ever had a diaper rash like that before! I forgot that she's reacted to peas in the past. #badmom #veggiefail She's solid on the fruit consumption, though. My dad has a flourishing vineyard in the backyard, and Le...

1. The Saturday 7 is going to be mostly about my weekend. Because all I did all week was clean up messes and wish I was sleeping.  2. I have really been struggling with exhaustion lately . I don't know what my problem is, but all I ever want to do is sleep. I think about it every waking moment. I plot when I'll be able to sleep ne xt. Justin had Wednesday off and I ended up sleeping on the couch from 8am-noon. I'm sleeping my life away. :-( 3. Justin left Thursday afternoon for the Bassmaster All-Star Classic in Escanaba (6 hours north of here), and won't be home 'til tomorrow evening. We did well until this afternoon when I started to melt down a little bit. Haha. It doesn't help that my vehicle is so unreliable that I don't dare drive too far. We were all having a bit of cabin fever. It's times like these that I'm grateful to live with my parents and have other people around to entertain my girls occasionally. My hat's off to single ...