Friday, January 20, 2017

7 Quick Takes about Sights for Sore Eyes, Side Hustles for Dentists, and Acts of Subterfuge from an Overactive Brain

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

1


Forget snow-capped mountain vistas, this aisle at CVS is the most breathtaking landscape you'll ever see.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
Seriously, look at those stickers.

After-Christmas clearance has arrived. If anyone needs wrapping paper, I think I'm stocked until about 2025. I only spent $4 though, so I'll share.

2


While I was drooling in the clearance aisle, I also decided to pick up a 40-cent Santa hat because I realized I'd forgotten to take any Christmasey pictures of the baby for his baby book (yes, I'm still pretending that I'm totally going to make a baby book for the 6th kid in my spare time.)

The photo shoot after we got home went about as well as you can imagine.

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

The one where he was screaming and trying to literally crawl out of the Santa hat was probably the best one of the whole bunch.

3


School started 2 hours late on Wednesday because it snowed a little, but we didn't find out about it until after we'd already gotten everybody up and basically ready for the day.

With two extra hours suddenly on our hands, it was really interesting to see how the different personalities in our house chose to spend them.

One child just goofed off and asked to play computer games.

One decided to work on projects there aren't regularly time for after school.

Another used it to get ahead on all their chores, instrument practice, and everything else they'd normally do after school.

And they say siblings are genetically similar. Pfft.

By the way, how in the world do snow days happen when both parents in the house have jobs? You'd be practically ready to walk out the door to go to work when that robocall from the school comes in: "Mwahahaha! You have 2 and a half minutes to rearrange your entire day. Good luck with that."


4


We have this old Rubik's cube sitting around and for some reason, my 8-year-old picked it up and got really into it this week. He Googled "how to solve a Rubik's cube" and tried really hard to follow the steps, but he could never get the colors to match the diagram on the screen.

Phillip and I even stayed up late with the Internet trying to figure it out before realizing that our son had messed it up by illegally twisting the corners, making it unsolvable.

He ordered a new Rubik's cube with his own money and is so excited for it to arrive. Now he just owes us a few hours of lost sleep.

5


I was a little nervous to switch my kids to a new dentist, especially since I picked the office blindly off a list from our new insurance.

But it turned out to be the best. I loved every single member of the staff from the pediatric dentist down to the receptionist at the front desk, and the waiting room was gorgeous.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
The 2-year-old loved the train table but was highly suspicious of the seats because they "looked like spaghetti."

My daughter got to watch Sofia the First during her cleaning and came out with a bag of goodies and a balloon animal, you guys.

I figured they had some underling come in to make the balloon animals at the end, but I asked her about it and nope, the dentist personally made her a flower and a blue poodle for her brother.

No wonder dental school is so expensive.

6


My brain does this cute thing where if I get woken up at night, it's like "Wow, you're really tired! Let's get you back to sleep. But first, it's time to think about something disturbing."

Last night I woke up because the 5-year-old had a bad dream, and then my overactive brain started going through all the logistics of what the kids and I would do if Phillip died. Seriously, ALL the logistics. We'd most likely have to move, and at one point I was mentally listing which of his belongings I'd give away versus which ones I'd pack to take with me to our new home for sentimental reasons.

Meanwhile, Phillip's brain was doing a similar trick, giving him a really long nightmare about going on a backpacking trip and trying to survive after he forgot to bring any food or extra clothes.

Apparently we both need to start doing yoga or something before bed to quiet our minds.

7


Parents always laugh and say "this is why we can't have nice things," but in our house we can't even have regular things without them getting broken.

Somehow the kids snapped the head off of the broom, and for now I have the broomstick propped up by the door until I can drop it off at the dump. In the meantime, I tell the kids to stop playing with it a billion times a day.

The other day I stopped mid-sentence and decided to set a timer and just watch for 10 minutes. In that time, the broom was picked up by various persons in the house and used as:
  • a hobby horse
  • a walking stick
  • a pole vault
  • a twirling baton
  • a light saber
  • a milkmaid's yoke

It was also used to touch the ceiling and turn on a light switch. Twice.

After that eye-opening 10 minutes, I'm starting to rethink throwing the broomstick away as it's currently the most-used toy in our entire house.


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12 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the Santa hat photo shoot! We have a few of those same shots even when my kids were older :). Those rubik's cubes are rough. My son got something similar to one recently and it's been driving me crazy trying to solve it. Maybe I need to check for a operator malfunction too!

Unknown said...

I want one of those ones that gets ahead on chores! No fair! Mine would probably end up doing chores, but it would be the regular nagging, yelling, and threatening I do after school on the rare occasion we are home long enough because of basketball.

Beth Cotell said...

Sounds like you definitely need to keep that broom stick! And I have one planner who likes to work ahead and then relax and I have one procrastinator that complains about having too much to do when most of it could already be done if they would just stop complaining!

AnneMarie said...

Wow, that dentist sounds amazing!!! I think it's hilarious that you saw so many uses for that broomstick. Kids really don't need much to be entertained, and it's awesome. One of our little guy's favorite toys is a cup. We just had a plastic cup sitting in our cupboard that for whatever weird reason has white stuff on it and I don't feel like using it for drinking purposes, so I gave it to him and he has the best time with it!

Unknown said...

Rubik's.com is awesome! It has step-by-step instructions, and the man giving the instructions is so encouraging: "You CAN do the Rubik's cube!"

Crystal Green from Sharing Life's Moments said...

It's amazing how the things we want them to leave alone are the very things they can't resist. It's all about that forbidden fruit syndrome.

I love those pictures of your son the top middle and top right are my two favorites. He's truly adorable.

That dentist waiting area is really nice. I like how it appeals to all kinds of different kids personalities instead of just a couple.

That is a great food for thought concerning snow days and having both parents working. Down here we get notice the night before because snow is such a rare occurrence.

Queen Mom Jen said...

Ballon animals?! That is a keeper Dentist for sure!

AiringMyLaundry said...

Woohoo 90% off excites me too! I love to find a deal.

Jenny Evans said...

Our kitchen utensils are also huge hits with the littler ones. I don't even know why we buy them toys.

Alicia @ Sweeping Up Joy said...

Thanks for the giggles, as always. My 3yo would love a big stick for his next birthday. I know it would be his constant companion and favorite toy. But I worry about all the breaking of regular things that would happen...

Terra Heck said...

After Christmas sales are my thang! Love seeing the yellow stickers. Kids play with the darndest things.

PurpleSlob said...

Clearance?? YES please!! Those are my fave!! I've been known to hyperventilate in that aisle!
And the baby pix, could.not.be.any.blurrier. I meant CUTER! cuter!