Friday, June 12, 2015

7 Quick Takes about Misbehavior in Mass, Going to the Limit for Love, and Kale-Induced Hysteria

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! That's 7 quick thoughts for the last 7 days.


1


For the last year and a half I've been overseeing our Mormon congregation's visiting teaching program, where every woman is given a partner and assigned 2-4 other women from church to visit every month. I love this program as it's the Lord's way of making sure that everyone has a friend and a way to ask for help if they need it.

But now I've been asked to do a new job at church instead: teaching the 5- and 6-year-olds!

I got to meet them and teach my first Sunday School lesson this week. It's been a while but I forgot how much I love teaching kids. Anytime you ask a question, they see their opportunity to say whatever's on their mind.

So if I ask, for example, "How can we talk to God when we can't see Him?" there's a 95% chance that the kid I call on will either show everyone the mole on their arm or launch into a story about their grandma who lives in Chicago.

2


In other news, my 1-year-old is fully mobile and really close to walking now. So our bookshelves permanently look like this now:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
The second shelf is ready to dust now, thanks.

3


A close friend's daughter was baptized into the Catholic church this week and was nice enough to invite us. It was our first-ever Mass.

I brought my usual church bag of drawing materials, but the kids were so interested in being at a different church with different rituals ("Why's he wearing a robe?" "What's that table for?" "What do those kids up there do?" "How long do you think a candle that tall can burn?") that they didn't even use them.

Except for the baby. He entertained himself by flinging diapers and wipes and board books everywhere, then shrieking when I was too slow in handing him another pretzel.

4


Phillip is now biking to work (getting a flat tire in his car gave him the extra motivation to start now.)

People bike to work all the time, but when he works 17.5 miles away that's a little excessive. You mathematicians out there have already worked out that it's a 35-mile round trip.

He's been biking to work on and off again for a few years now. When he started, he of course needed new gloves and some stuff for his road bike, and I'm such a cheapskate that I wasn't crazy about the idea.

Knowing this about me, he tried to sell me with the "Think of the money we'll save on gas!" line. I end up buying twice as much food to fuel his bike rides to and from work, so I'm not sure that's true. But at least he's happy.

5


We're nearing the home stretch in what I like to call birthday season. Three of our kids have birthdays within a month and a half of each other, which is just killing me with the birthday parties!

As evidenced by the fact that his party isn't even occurring in the same month as his birthday. His little face asking hopefully, "Is my party this week?" for several weeks in a row was pretty sad.

6


So my son's party may be overdue, but I'm making up for it with the ultimate sacrifice: having all his friends over for a Minecraft birthday party tomorrow.

Yes, I did it.

For those of you who don't know, I cannot stand hearing anything about that game. My brain turns to liquid and starts oozing out my ear whenever the kids talk about Minecraft. When they want to "show me their world" I smile and make appreciative comments, but inside I'm just wondering if this is what a lobotomy feels like.

If my son ever doubts that I love him, I'll refer him to this precise moment in time. House full of boys + Minecraft = I would only do this out of unconditional love.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
Goody bags all ready for the party.
I can now add 'being able to draw a creeper's face from memory' to my list of useless talents that I'm slightly ashamed of.

7


Our CSA started this week. Yes, it's healthy and sustainable and yada, yada, yada. But it's so much kale.

Seriously, the last time we did a CSA it ruined kale for us forever. The kids (previously good eaters) would just sit at the dinner table with surly looks on their faces every night, poking at their food and muttering, "Is there kale in this?" And there was. There just always was.

So when Phillip sent this email to me on Tuesday:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}


I sent this one back:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}


Feel free to send me your best kale recipes... it's going to be a long summer.


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5 comments:

Carolyn Astfalk said...

I hear you - esp. on Minecraft and the kale. I love our CSA, but enough already with the kale. And I'm a little lost with the swiss chard, too.

Jenny Evans said...

As far as I'm concerned, kale, swiss chard, and collard greens are the exact same thing!

Anonymous said...

What say is CSA? Thanks.

Jenny Evans said...

Stands for Community Supported Agriculture - you pay a flat fee to a nearby farmer's market and they pack you a weekly box of locally produced *whatever was ripe* in their fields that week.

Love the idea, sometimes don't love cooking with it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks... very interesting concept.