Week in Review, 8/3--8/9

Last week was tough, partly for easily discernible reasons listed below, and partly because I just felt "blah" and unmotivated. (Fortunately, I feel more energized today than I did all last week.) So I decided to get the "nays" out of the way first and end on a more positive note.

Nay

1. We had a round of sickness: a stomach bug for Miss Pink and Mr. Blue and an upper respiratory infection for Justin. I think everyone's all better.

2. Our church is sponsoring Dave Ramsey's course Financial Peace University, and we're attending, because who couldn't use financial peace, right? When we calculated our current budget, my head exploded. I had no idea we were spending that much on eating out. And there were many trips to Target that I have no idea what I bought. No wonder we never had money left over! The silver lining is that we have already started changing these habits and while it will no doubt be difficult at times to stick to the budget, I know it is doable and it will feel better to have that money in savings than on our waistlines and in our closets.

3. I felt like the worst mother in the world this week when I noticed one of Mr. Blue's fingernails was coming off. Yes--somehow he had hurt his finger badly enough that the nail was coming off and I never noticed (!!) until it was nearly off. The new one is growing in, but we had to bandage it until the nail came off on its own. Gross, I know. It was hard for me to look at. And I'd thought I was reasonably attentive to my children.

Yay

1. Miss Pink is obsessed with the Olympics. She wants to watch it all the time. She doesn't quite get certain concepts, though. During the opening ceremonies, she kept asking, "Are they still in China?" Like they could magically be transported to another country on the same evening. And during the women's gymnastic qualifying round, she rooted for the Chinese team because she hadn't seen the Americans yet. "I want China to win," she kept saying. " I told her, "No, we want our country to win!" Which she agreed with once she had seen Shawn Johnson perform (and who I think is Miss Pink's new hero). Whew--the sports patriotism base is covered.

2. Mr. Blue is a lover, not a fighter. I wish I had a video of my dad kissing all over the side of his face on Sunday and the way Mr. Blue just sat still with a stoned, blissful look like a dog getting his tummy scratched.

3. We went over to some friends' house on Sunday night for an informal dinner. We hadn't gotten to spend much time with them over the summer, and it felt good to reconnect.

Here's to a good week ahead!