Welcome to my weekly Sunday post where we take a break from money-related posts and I share about what I'm loving right now and give you a little peek into our life from the past week.
It was such a great whirlwind trip to Kansas last weekend! Silas and I flew there Saturday evening and flew back home on Monday morning.
But in that short timeframe, I got to cuddle with my new nephew (look at those shoes!!), watch my youngest brother play trumpet in his final Youth Symphony concert, help my family serve lunch after church to about 200 people (they are in charge of a Fellowship Lunch at church once a month), enjoy a FREE Chipotle dinner with almost all of my extended family (my brother had made HOT status on the Chiptopia game and earned a Free Chipotle catered meal for 20!!), have some long conversations with dear people I’ve not seen in a long time, and spend a lot of quality time with Silas on the flights there and back.
What I'm Celebrating
The kids had their 3rd quarter Presentation Day at school this past week — which means that they all had to memorize a poem chosen by their teachers, create a visual representation of the poem, and then recite the poem using hand motions and voice inflections in front of the entire school — students, teachers, and parents.
They were all quite nervous and I was kind of nervous for them! 🙂 I sat on the front row with all of the words to their poems on my phone, just in case someone needed some prompting. Okay, I admit, it may have also been for my own nerves, too. 🙂
They all went up and did such a great job and we all breathed a big sigh of relief when it was over!
Saturday, Kathrynne competed in the Destination Imagination Middle TN Regional Championships. Her team had to design and build a structure that could hold as much weight as possible, as well as perform a skit about two nations working together to solve a problem. They had a number of different parameters they had to work within such as budget, materials they could use, and everything had to be done by the kids — no parental involvement or input was allowed.
Kathrynne’s responsibility was to go in front of the judges and add as much weight to the structure as possible without it breaking. She ended up being able to add on 278 pounds and was cool as cucumber while all eyes were on her, the panel of judges was watching, and you could have heard a pin drop.
Just a year ago, Kathrynne was scared to death of social situations with kids her age, being on a stage of any sort, and doing any public speaking. It’s amazing how far she’s come in just a few short months for her to do both Presentation Day and the DI competition back to back in a two-day period and to do an amazing job at both!
Their team qualified for the state championship which will be held in April and they are already talking about how they are going to improve their performance to hopefully get even higher scores!
What I’m Laughing About
So I decided to finally get my Instant Pot out of the box and try using it to make Hard Boiled Eggs. I decided to do a Facebook Live video of this attempt.
And that turned out to be quite the video… um, yeah. If you need a laugh, you can check out my Facebook Live video here.
What I'm Reading
I started listening to Lilac Girls on audio this week because I finally was next in line at the library for it. I almost stopped listening to it because there was some edge-y stuff in the first part and I was afraid it was going to get worse as progressed.
But I kept with it and I’m glad that I did because it’s a really compelling, tragic, and gripping story of the horrors of concentration camps. And I think that the audio book is very well done.
I’m only halfway through, but so far, I’d definitely recommend it — especially the audiobook version. (Do note that it it is very much PG-13 and I would only recommend listening to it with headphones in if you have kids at your house!)
I also finished It’s Not About Money, 30 Days to Calm Parenting, and Just Do Something. (See all 29 books I’ve read so far in 2017 here.)
What I’m Watching
We started watching Season 2 of Designated Survivor this week. I love it when we find a show that both Jesse and I love. Season 1 of this show was SO good and we have high hopes for Season 2.
What I’m Trying
We’re going through Stacy’s Home Management How To Course over on the Facebook Group I created (it’s been SO good to have accountability there! If you haven’t joined us yet, you are welcome to still jump on the bandwagon and sign up for Stacy’s course and join us over on Facebook.)
One of the things Stacy really encourages is to have different days of the week for different assigned chores.
I have to be honest: I fought against having assigned chores to days of the week. When I saw Stacy suggest that, I immediately thought, “That will never work for us!”
Our schedule is really varied, every day is different with different activities, work stuff, practices, games, school projects, etc.
BUT… a friend challenged me to just jump out and try it. So, the past few days, I’ve been mulling over how this might look for us.
Here’s what I came up with:
- Monday: Laundry Day
- Tuesday: Office Day
- Wednesday: Baking Day
- Thursday: Errand Day
- Friday: Prep Day
- Saturday: Cleaning Day
- Sunday: Rest Day
I don’t know if this will work or not, but I’m committed to trying it out for 3 weeks to see what happens!
As we go through the lessons, I’m making up short lists of what I want to accomplish for each day and figure out when I plan to fit it into our schedule.
I’m excited to see how this works — or doesn’t work! — and what I learn from this experiment. I’ve heard SO many great things about this set-up so I’m genuinely anxious to try it out!
What I’m Pondering
She accidentally forgot her lunch one day this week. Instead of feeling frustration over the inconvenience of needing to make a lunch and bring it to school for the forgetful girl, I thought of all the times I’d forgotten things and others had extended grace to me.
And I made her lunch with love — choosing things I knew she especially likes. As I was finishing, I grabbed a little sticky note and wrote a quick love note.
She told me later, “I cried when I saw your note. And then I kept it on my lap and just kept staring at it all during math class.”
It was such a simple gesture. It only took 30 seconds. But it spoke volumes to my girl.
Her mama loves her — even when she forgets her lunch.
And I had to think: What if I had chosen frustration instead? Look what I would have missed out on! Look what she would have missed out on!
These seemingly little things, little opportunities, little choices… they aren’t always so little.
In Case You Missed It
My posts from this past week:
My YouTube video from this past week:
Want to win this stack of books?
I thought it would be fun for me to do a giveaway here every once in awhile on Sundays — giving away some of our our products, items I've been sent two of, books I've already read and want to pass on, or other items I have that we no longer need and would like to pass onto a great home!
Today's stack includes an old copy of Thinner Leaner Stronger, two adult coloring books, a used copy of It’s My Pleasure (a business book I loved!), a Gratitude journals, an extra copy I received of Only Love Today (a book I hope to read really soon!), Lilac Girls, plus a book on marriage that I was sent.
To win this stack this week, leave a comment telling me about what you are celebrating this week.
I'll choose one winner from all of the comments and will email that winner personally + post the winner next week on my Peek Into My Life This Week Post.
Congratulations to Raquel who was the winner of the stack of books I gave away two weeks ago. Raquel, you should have received an email from me asking for your mailing address!
