Adventures in La La Land

I have . . . 1. Eaten honey straight from the honeycomb 2. Pretended to be Amish for a day 3. Been as far north as Marquette, as far east as D.C., as far south as Venice, FL, and as far west as Las Vegas. 4. Driven through the Appalachain Mountains and the Rockies. 5. Climbed sand dunes and run down them. 6. Nannied for triplets. 7. Been in a glass-bottomed boat 8. Done the splits 9. Climbed a rock wall to the top 10. Blogged for 12+ years 11. Acted in a play (actually at least 4 of them) 12. Biked around Mackinac Island 13. Been featured in an Art Prize piece 14. Been to Disney World 15. Got married when I was a teenager. 16. Met an online friend in real life. 17. Had my portrait drawn. 18. Learned and performed a choreographed dance. 19. Read 100 books in a year 20. Memorized a chapter of scripture 21. Been to a Wizard tournament 22. Homeschooled my kids 23. Made cider 24. Read through the Bible at least twice 25. Had a kidney stone 26. Swam in the ocean 27. Gone on two Youth for...

Sorry for leaving you hanging last Saturday. I was reading a book all night and it never crossed my mind to work on my blog. I honestly don't even have that much to share today either, but we're going to be gone all weekend, and I don't dare deprive you two weeks in a row! 1. I had my yearly physical last week. My doctor declared me her "healthiest patient." As Justin said, "that's a sad indication of the health of her other patients." Lol. I think she probably tells everyone that - especially since I didn't have any complaints. I asked her to lower my depression med dose. I'm flirting with the idea of weaning off of them entirely (especially after the new study that shows meds are only 15% more effective than placebos 🤦), but winter is coming, so this might not be the best time. Anyway, once again, I must point out that my sedentary lifestyle and Dr Pepper habit aren't killing me as quickly as "the experts" said they would. Ta...

1. Welcome to fall! It swept in with a vengeance this week, and I'm not ready for it. I really prefer to wait until October to turn the heat on, but I don't think I'm going to make it this year.  The only good things about fall are breaking out the sweatshirts to cover my fat belly, and making soups and casseroles. I can't wait for soccer season to be over, so we can actually eat dinner together at the table at a normal dinner hour. I mean, my kids won't eat anything I make, but they can sit at the table and watch Justin and I eat our delicious soup.  This one's my absolute fave. Definitely making it this week. 2. Of course the change in weather wreaked havoc on our health. Or our immune systems might just be worn down from the first few weeks of school. Either way, Justin is just getting over a cold, I've been fighting one for a few days, and Lucy got hit hard with it today. So I fully anticipate Lena and Levi getting it by Monday and having to decide if t...

This is going to be a quick one, because I don't actually have that much to say this week. Mostly, I just want to share the exciting news that I teased last week:  1. Lucy got baptized on Sunday! When she told me a couple months ago that she wanted to get baptized, I was shocked but tried to play it cool. Lol. Our church does two baptisms a year. At Easter, the baptism is in the pool at church. You record your testimony ahead of time and it's projected on the big screen. In the fall, the baptism is at a lake in a nearby park. You have to give your testimony in front of the crowd into a microphone. Lucy was mortified at the thought of appearing on the big screen, so she wanted to do the fall baptism in the lake. It was actually quite a process of attending a meeting to go over the Biblical definition of baptism, then a meeting with the deacons to essentially prove that you're a Christian and you have the right reasons for being baptized, and then the actual baptism itself. W...

1. We left camping a day early last week because two nights is enough for me. Haha. Plus, the weather was chilly, and there's not much to do at the campground when it's not warm enough to swim. So we came home Sunday night and I was never so happy to take a shower in my bathroom and sleep in my bed. Then on Monday, we went to Niki's to swim in her pool that was warmer than the air. Haha. I've gotten really bad about taking pictures lately, so there's not photographic evidence.  2. We had some excitement in our neighborhood this week. On Tuesday night we were all sitting at the dinner table with the slider and windows open, when all of a sudden there was a huge bang. We looked outside and saw our neighbor standing by his garage with a gun in his hands! 😬 But no one was hurt. His girlfriend was out there and she wasn't screaming or appearing afraid. I heard her say something about, "Well the neighbors are going to call the cops," but since she didn'...

1. We had a great first week of school! Everyone was excited on the first day and got up and ready without a fuss. Lena and Levi were nervous, but there were no tears from anyone, and they did fine. (It helped that I was there all day working on their first day.) Levi was allowed to bring a stuffed friend on his first day, so Fluffy Puppy got to go to school.  I didn't do checkouts on the first day since my cart and computer weren't ready yet, but I had fun with the kids and enjoyed figuring out my new routine. Of course I bragged last week about not having to do recess and was pulled in to sub on the first day. Haha. It's seriously not a big deal. Just ironic.  At least it was a beautiful day. I'll be less enthused about subbing when there's snow on the ground! 2. On my first day of work, I had kindergarteners and first graders. On Thursday, I had 4th and 5th graders, so I had fun explaining to them how I went to this same school from K-12. I even dug up my old 4th...