a typical Saturday

Tonight I just feel like writing about our day, as though I were emailing a friend and musing about our everyday life here in Fayetteville. So, that's what's on the docket for tonight's blog.

We planned to "sleep in" in the morning, which really just means that Annabel comes in and gets us (no, ME) whenever she wakes up. We all went to bed late last night, so we thought we might get lucky and sleep until at least 8. But alas, Annabel showed up promptly at 7 - her normal wake-up time during the school week. I know, I know, many of you are rolling your eyes that I'm complaining about 7 AM, but in normal life (aka before preschool) she and I would sleep until 8:30. So, it's EARLY to me. For a Saturday anyway. Okay, moving on.

Anyway, the rest of the morning involved snuggling, pumpkin waffles, and a classic rundown of simultaneous Saturday family activites: Veggie Tales for Annabel, random internet browsing for me, some project in the workshop for Nate, and sleeping for Levi. (In life's cruel irony, he is the only one in the family who actually did sleep in - until 10. After being awake half the night, we figured he needed it and just let him sleep. So entirely unfair though.)

Then...Garage Sales!!! In our first several weeks here, our Saturday mornings actually looked nothing like the above description - we set the alarms, got the coffee ready the night before, and were out the door as close to 8 AM as possible. This is essential if you want the best deals. We've gotten a lot more lax since reaching that critical threshold where we have enough furniture that I feel able to kinda, sorta live normally in our house.

There weren't any particularly great sales today, unless you count the fun surprise of running into our dear co-workers at what turned out to be their neighbor's "big fat yard sale." (That's apparently what they call their annual sale.) That was a nice moment and made our world seem suddenly a lot smaller than it normally feels (in a very good way).

Then home for naps, errands, and house projects. Normally we do chores in the afternoon but we were uber on top of it this week and got everything done Friday night. I know, really exciting Friday night plans. But actually, cleaning our [3] toilets was a surprisingly rewarding Friday night activity - it felt SO GOOD to have the bathrooms clean when I was done, and even better to wake up to a clean house this morning. Oh,the joys of home ownership. And also, Annabel discovered that she loves scrubbing things. The bathtub, the sinks, the walls, the doors, the trim...she was on a take-no-prisoners mission with her damp paper towel. One of my favorite parenting moments OF ALL TIME. (However, I will now be watching for early signs of OCD. Ha!)

Anyways...about that errands thing. I ran out with Levi to a couple stores looking for various homey things and found some awesome treasures (and of course DEALS) that I came home very buzzed about.  In the half hour I had between getting home from the store and leaving for the church we were about to visit, I ran around my house like a crazy woman placing and rearranging area rugs and throw pillows. I dug out the first layer of our garage-saled decorative items, and started giving my house some of the first touches of home. Very, very exciting for me. I wrote at least three blog posts in my head about it as it was happening, so you may be hearing [and seeing] more about some of this in the near future.

Then tonight, we visited a house church that we had heard really good things about. All in all it was a good experience, but being that their actual worship gathering doesn't start until 7:30 PM, which is the time at which our kids are usually in their beds falling asleep, we're not sure it will be practical for us right now. Which is a bummer, because we really did like it. It was a much better fit than any churches we've visited so far. But, there are more places to visit and we know God will land us exactly where we need to be.

And that gets me to where I now sit, totally exhausted after a long week and not anywhere near enough sleep, yet once again choosing to sacrifice just a little more sleep to put some life into words. And once again, I'm glad I did it, even if just to remember for myself someday what these early Fayetteville Saturdays were like. All in all, pretty darn great.