'what's up' weekly, and happy birthday finneas!

This handsome brother is eight years old today.  I repeat, he is eight years old.  Doesn't that sound old?  Eight feels like a turning point in childhood to me; an eight-year-old is no longer a young child, but just a child.  And not for much longer.  How is he this big already?  I will give him his own birthday post next week, but for now just let me say he is the biggest-hearted kid in the entire world.  He loves strong, and he has taught me so much about passion and loving someone from deep down in the guts.  I have never met anyone else quite like him, ever, and I can't believe I get to call him mine.

Happy birthday, sweet Finneas!

What else is on the forefront of the radar?  Well, just for a flyover, here are a few things I'd like to highlight:

1.  I am not currently in a nail-biting stage.  I doubt it will last forever, but I'm enjoying my pretty nails for now.  I told Penelope I'd take her for a manicure if she'd stop biting hers, so she better get her act together so we can go before I start biting mine again.

2.  The weather has been b-e-a-utiful this week, which means I've taken full advantage of the opportunity to get some work done on the basement.  I know that sounds weird - thank the Lord for the good weather, so I can squirrel myself up in our underground cave-hole - but what I mean is that I have somewhere to send the big kids during naptime so that I actually have free reign down there for an hour or so while Juni's nap overlaps with Callista's and I'm off of baby duty.  I have gotten paint slapped onto a couple of walls, and rearranged, and I assembled a huge bookshelf and sorted all the books.  I'll show you pictures next week when I have a chance.  For now, all I have are a couple of photos of the kids playing outside so that I could get all that work done.

"Look, Mom!  We dug up some extremely rich, fertile soil."  Spoken like a true Midwestern garden nerd.

Actively digging up our rich, fertile soil.  You will notice it's in a part of the yard that is supposed to grow grass.

3.  I have actually stayed consistent in my exercise routine, and I am now a full two weeks in.  That might not sound like much to you, but this is big stuff for me.  I did miss a day this week due to a raging headache, but then I jumped right back on the wagon the next day, so I'm not too worried.

So, not to brag about myself or anything, but look at me go.  Decorating and organizing and exercising and practicing self-control.  It's as though February is over or something.  *Glory hallelujah, FEBRUARY IS OVER!!*


A few other things of note this week:

On Friday night, we celebrated our first post-Whole30 family pizza night.  The kids were thrilled.  There was also a moment in time when all five of the non-diapered set were vying for the two toilets at the exact same time.  (You know it's desperate times when they're willing to use the downstairs bathroom.)  Needless to say, bellies weren't fully ready to take on our normal routine yet, but no one complained.  They were too glad to be finally eating pizza again.  As Penelope put it, "There's nothing like Whole30 to make you realize how many blessings you have in your life."  True suffering does put things in perspective, doesn't it?

On Saturday, I headed to Lowes to buy paint for the basement, and dropped my keys somewhere in the store.  I was surprisingly good-natured about the whole thing, as I retraced my steps about 4.1 billion times.  (I wish I had been wearing a step counter, just so I could really see the silver lining of it all, but alas, my last one went through the washer.)  Someone finally found them and turned them in, so I'm happy to say I didn't have to end up living at the Lowes like some kind of handyman Novalee Nation.

Also on Saturday, Laurelai turned six-and-a-half.  As her half-birthday falls on Leap Day, it's rare we actually ever get to take photos on the actual day, but not so this year.  These are exciting times we live in.

On Sunday, the big girls and I went to a baby shower for our friends Meghan and Josiah, and had a blast.  It was our first time visiting Rocheport, which is a neat little town full of antique stores and bed-and-breakfasts.  One B&B is in this beautiful old brick school house, so you know it went on my bucket list.  And you know my bucket list is only in my head, and you know that the lists I keep only in my head don't mean one smidgen of a thing, so really this whole tangent comes to nothing other than to say it was cute and it even had a flagpole.

Anyway.  It was a great opportunity to say goodbye to Josiah and Meghan, as they're heading out for Quantico today.  The hope is that we'll get to take a trip out to see them this summer, though, so it didn't feel like as final of a goodbye as it could have, which was nice.

Most days this week were just were run-of-the-mill school days, which I am starting to looooooove now that our schedule is more manageable.  All of our books are so interesting, the kids are doing well, and things are just in a really enjoyable spot.

Have I told you lately how much I love having Big Kids?  This wonderful girl chose to strap Juni into the Ergo one morning while she cleaned the bathroom.


And that brings us back around to the fact that today is Finneas' birthday.  We're having Cinnamon Toast Crunch and coffee for breakfast, at his request, watching math movies instead of doing our regular Friday morning school stuff, heading to Shelter Gardens for lunch, and going out for pizza for dinner.  For those of you keeping track at home, that is literally zero cooking I have to do today (and I don't even make the PB sandwiches for our Shelter lunches anymore - the kids have taken that over).  A far cry from our Whole30 days, and I could not be more thrilled.

Shhhh, don't tell Finneas, but the kids are preparing a play for his birthday.  Penelope is an Anubis statue.

Happy Friday, friends!