Happy Saturday! I actually had to hold off on coffee this week. Last night, I did the responsible thing and went to bed at a decent hour. It was all in preparation for battle, as I knew this weekend would be a little taxing. More on that below. So, if we were going to coffee today, I would probably insist on you coming to my house and drinking hot tea. It’s unfortunate that I was on the way to becoming a tea-aficionado right in time for Teavana to announce its departure. I am borderline obsessed with their Lavender Cream blend, and now I’m faced with a potentially-life-altering-decision: Do I spend $2,000 and buy out their entire supply, or do I just move on?

Either way, I still have roughly two ounces on hand, and I would love for you to come over and sample some! Here’s what I would gab about for this week:

Life is supa crazy around here. Last week I told you that we were on the way to fixing thangs around here. At the time, we didn’t even have a quote. Well, now we’ve officially started renovations and there was no fooling around! We ripped the front deck out, moved the front door to the other side of the living room, creating the need for new shingles, new drywall, and a new porch. All of those have been completed over the course of this week! And when I say “we” I mean we paid someone to do this. It’s not completed yet; I will share those details and befores and afters once the whole thing is completed. So, we’ve been living in a construction site for the last few days which is an adventure on its own, but we also have that little two-year-old to manage.

We are potty training. No Macarthur Genius Grants coming this way. Who decides to potty train in such living conditions? Well, her teacher told me she’s been acting “ready,” and since she spends way more time with Novella than I do, I trust her judgment. She said we could wait until Monday and then start, but I guess I wanted to be part of the process. Around 10 this morning, I had regrets about this decision. But when she got like a milliliter of pee in the potty,  I was thrilled to celebrate with her. So, we’re having a weekend exclusively at home- playing games, giving pedis, watching movies, and going to the potty every 30 minutes. My bladder has never been so empty.

I was kind of underwhelmed by the eclipse. OK, it was kinda cool. But considering how much people talked about the eclipse leading up to the eclipse, the eclipse itself was like maybe 2 minutes here and we didn’t have totality so we were like, “Is that it?” I feel bad saying that because so many people were flabbergasted by it. The biggest “WOW” factor for me was the cicadas. Oh, and the whole town was like a ghost town. I know this because we took advantage of the day off by running errands. My dad gave a great review of the whole ordeal.

I am so obsessed with Richard Rohr. I first heard him on a podcast in June, and now I just can’t get enough of him. He’s a Franciscan priest, it’s kind of hard to sum him up. His theology closely matches my own, and he says things I’ve intuitively felt but couldn’t quite articulate. I’ve been listening to his book Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Second Half of Life. But I would suggest not listening to the book, but instead reading it the old fashioned way so you can highlight and flag it.

So, I guess that’s it for this lovely Saturday! Since we are trapped inside, I’ve got a fresh plate of pumpkin muffins out of the oven and chicken for tacos in the crockpot. Don’t tell me it’s not fall yet!