Friday, August 31, 2018

7 Quick Takes about Feeling Pressured, Scaring Away the Menfolk, and Guessing the Identity of the Ringmaster

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


I got a new phone! Well, new to me, anyway. It's a refurbished phone 3 generations newer than my previous phone and I love love love that the camera is so much better.

I'll tell you what is stressful, though: shopping for a phone case. I don't know why, but I feel so much pressure to pick The Right One that is totally representative of my personality. Which is dumb because a case is $10 (not exactly a once-in-a-lifetime purchase if I change my mind) and I'm literally wearing hand-me-downs from my 14-year-old so it's not like I care about customizing all other aspects of my appearance.

(I ended up going with this one. It's not flashy but it looks really nice with the rose gold color of my phone.)

2


Speaking of my appearance, I can honestly say I've had better weeks.

Right now I've got a swollen lump on my eyelid (no pictures, sorry/you're welcome.) It's about the size of a pea, which doesn't sound that big but when compared to the size of your eye it really is.

I've also got a nasty poison ivy rash all over my ankles from pulling weeds in the yard. This was kind of a shock because I'd never before gotten a rash and there's so much poison ivy around here I'd kind of assumed I was immune. The oozing blisters on my calves, however, say otherwise.

The family was playing Taboo (a word guessing game,) and when the clue-giver said "It's gross," the first and second responses were "Mom's eye" and "Mom's leg."

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, forgetting to put on my wedding ring before I leave the house now isn't that big a deal. The gentlemen are keeping their distance, regardless.

3



While my oldest three were visiting their grandparents for a week and a half, Phillip and I took the littles to a children's theme park geared toward the 8-and-under crowd.

I've been ridiculously excited about this trip all summer, and the kids loved it just like I knew they would. At 2, 4, and 6, they are the perfect ages for this.

We all had such a good time. We rode the teacups. We went on the carousel. We took the train around the park and I saw a 7-year-old wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt. (Must listen to a lot of Dark Side of the Moon under the slide at recess or something.)

I also spied this freak-out room at the park and decided I really need one of these installed in my house.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
A dark, quiet place for overstimulated children to decompress.

Just to be clear, in my house the room would be for me.

4


When my older kids came home, I arrived at the airport to pick them up with plenty of time to spare.

But when I got to ticketing, the agent looked at me and said "You know this flight arrives in 20 minutes, don't you?" They were over an hour early. How does that even happen on a 3-hour flight??

So I got my special ticket, booked it through security, grabbed my stuff as it came through the X-ray machine and ran through the terminal (luckily, I was wearing my cross-training flip flops.)

I got to their gate at 4:10, five minutes after the agent told me they were supposed to land, and there was no one there. No plane. No boarding agent. Nothing. Confused, I looked up the flight status on my phone and they were only going to be 15 minutes early, not an hour like the guy had told me.

FYI, the first thing my daughter said when I hugged them hello was, "What's wrong with your eye??" It's good to have them home.

5


My 14-year-old is really bad at hearing song lyrics correctly. When she knows she's heard way wrong she sometimes tells us about it and we have a good laugh.

Most recently, the Spice Girls came on the radio and she shared that for a long time she thought they were singing, "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get rid of my friends."


I was trying to remember the names of the Spice Girls as I watched this video, using my memories of '90s pop culture and what they were wearing for context clues.

The one in athletic pants must be Sporty Spice, and I know Victoria Beckham was Posh Spice, and I remembered there was a Baby Spice who was probably the one in pigtails... but what about the girl wearing the sequined leotard? Circus Spice? I had no idea. I had to look it up.

6



We listed a small assortment of ceramic floor tiles on our local Freecycle group, and I was thrilled when someone wanted them since there weren't enough of them to actually tile anything.

The time we arranged for her to come over and pick them up, though, happened to be the exact time my 2-year-old was outside scraping dirt off the driveway with a garden hoe while wearing a bike helmet. She looked a little suspicious as she pulled in.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
Probably not what she expected to see when picking up the tiles.

But her surprise was probably just because I'm such a good mom. By leaving full-size gardening tools lying around and letting the kids roam, we provide so many enrichment opportunities for imaginative play, sometimes I even surprise myself.

7


Next week the kids head back to school, and it's always a little sad to say goodbye to summer.

All the school supplies have been bought and put in backpacks. We went to the classroom meet-and-greet for my 1st grader's teacher. My 12- and 14-year-old went to an end-of-summer party at the beach with our church's youth group.

However, my 10-year-old did point out that it's only a party if you do it at the beginning of summer. At the end, it's called a funeral.

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5 comments:

Mom of Six said...

Hope your eye gets better soon!

Karen said...

a funeral! that is awesome!
Hope the 'gross' is better soon

Rachel said...

Happy funeral to summer! Or something like that. The little kids theme park sounds like it was awesome. We're thinking about going to a theme park soon but it'll be the first time with a baby in tow and for a bit I was thinking...oh, I heard that theme parks can be overstimulating for babies, I wonder how Cyrus will do...and then I remembered that this particular baby's favorite locations are 1)the mall 2) the grocery store 3) the hospital (we have to go every month for vaccines and he is so happy every time!) and 4) potlucks with lots of strangers. I think he'll be fine at a theme park.

Jenny Evans said...

Thanks, it's getting there!

Jenny Evans said...

It's taking its sweet time to go back to normal, but at least now I know who my real friends are...