7 Quick Takes about the Other Letter, Things You Find in Your Hair that Aren't Snakes, and a Very Anti-Climactic Mattress Reveal Party

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

—1—

My kindergartner came home from school and informed me that her class finished reviewing the alphabet.

"That's great," I replied. "So now everyone knows all the letters."

"Sort of," she answered. "But we didn't learn that other letter I see in books."

"What 'other letter?' You mean like this?" I was drawing ampersands and all other kinds of symbols, but none of them were it. Finally I asked if she could draw it for me.

"I think so..." she said, and proceeded to draw me a Roman lowercase 'g,'

The 'other letter.'

When I think about it, this looks nothing like the lowercase 'g' we've all been teaching her to print so no wonder she was confused.

The moral of the story: if your kid can't read, typography might be to blame.

—2—

One afternoon the kids and I went outside to play Messy Backyard. If you don't know this game, the rules are very simple: you divide the driveway/yard in half with a line of cones and get out all the frisbees and balls, and on the count of three each team tries to get them ALL on the other side at the same time.

It's a pretty crazy 45 seconds before mom has to sit down or suffer a massive heart attack.

After we finished playing and went inside to eat lunch, my 5-year-old looked at me in horror and screamed, "There's something green on your head! SNAKE!!"

Now, I was reasonably sure there wasn't actually a snake on my head. But she's normally a pretty level-headed girl so there was obviously something there, and in that split-second I did recall seeing two gardener snakes in the yard when we were playing Messy Backyard, and I started to get a little freaked out. I ran to the bathroom mirror and found...

...an inchworm in my hair.

The kids played with it for close to 30 minutes and had a grand old time watching it inch around. The 3-year-old kept asking, "Can I hold the worm-squinch?"

I seriously love how that kid mostly remembers a phrase but gets it hilariously wrong. He does this all the time. In fact, when we were playing Messy Backyard he kept calling it Nasty Garden. Which I absolutely will not correct him about because that is adorable.

—3—

For the last 13 years, we've had our cars insured through GEICO and I love them. Every couple of years I call around just to see if anyone else can give us a better price and no one ever can.

Also, their customer service is amazing. When I backed into a car in a parking lot, I left a note with my phone number, called GEICO to set up a claim, and they handled everything. I hardly had to talk to the guy whose car I hit, which was good because it was a nice car and he was mad. (The lady at GEICO thanked me for being honest; he certainly did not.)

Recently, GEICO reviewed our policy and lowered our premiums (I'm coming up on the 10-year mark of not backing into any more cars so it makes sense) and mailed us a check for $180. As if they didn't have my heart already.

(This isn't a sponsored post, by the way, I just love GEICO.)

—4—

I already mentioned General Conference this past weekend, and I had no idea how many of you would remember our snack tradition. Even those of you who aren't Mormon were asking about it.

Well, you'll be pleased to know we did it again.

Before conference the kids taped pictures of church leaders to different packages of snacks, and when that person gave a talk during conference, the kids got the treat.

I tried to offer some healthier options alongside the junk food this year but the kids outsmarted me. When it was announced over the pulpit that President Monson wasn't at this conference because of his health (he is 90, after all) and therefore wouldn't be speaking, I saw the kids stealthily move his picture to the canister of dates so they wouldn't have to eat them.

We hunkered down and made ourselves comfortable in the living room, watching all four sessions of conference over Saturday and Sunday, each of them 2 hours long.

Entertainment during conference to keep the kids' hands occupied as they listened.

Between the cleanliness of the house and the attentiveness of the children, you can assume the photo below was taken during the first 5 minutes of the first session. 

Just like at church, I usually found myself sitting there with someone (or several someones) leaning, lying, or sitting on me. I don't know if it's because the Holy Spirit is making them feel all lovey or just because I'm a captive audience and they know I'm not going to run away to do 100 loads of laundry or what. It just happens every time.

Left: My notes. Right: The 5-year-old's notes.

All in all, it was a pretty great weekend. I had fun hanging out with the family and the talks made me feel encouraged and hopeful, giving me ideas of how I can be a better mom, wife, Christian, and person.

But before I put on my rose-colored glasses and tell you how amazing it all was, I should also warn you that my children are human and prone to get bored and/or make messes.

The 1-year-old noticed we were all occupied in the living room and seized the opportunity to do some reorganization in the kitchen:

The towel and swipe marks lead me to believe he was at least trying to clean up and cover his tracks, bless his heart.

At one point during the last session, I looked over to see my 9-year-old watching like this. I have no idea how long this was going on.

It was at least a few minutes until he finally noticed me watching him.

Feel free to compare what our house looked like at the beginning of conference versus the end of conference. Please note the blurry child catapulting over the sofa at the corner of the second shot who is clearly done with all the talking.

—5—

I mentioned a few weeks ago how we needed to replace a mattress for one of my children, and it took us a while to get around to ordering it.

Since then the mattress-less child been sleeping on the floor (don't call CPS, they actually sleep on the floor voluntarily all the time — I'm not even sure why we bought them a bed now that I think about it.)

The mattress came rolled up in a box and I'd heard it was pretty cool watching it unfurl so I called all the kids to come and watch. I think I may have oversold it because it was actually very boring.

The kids were much more interested in playing in the box that it came in, anyway.

—6—

It's fun having kids old enough to give you a hard time about stuff.

I probably do this 20 times a day, but when I walked into the kitchen as my son was getting himself a snack, I completely blanked on why I was even in that room.

"Why did I come in here?" I asked, more to myself than anything.

"I don't know, I can't read your mind." My son quickly responded, not even looking up from shelling his pistachios. "And even if I could, it wouldn't help."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because you don't know, either."

Oh. Right. I knew that.

—7—

Phillip just came home from a business trip to Europe, so for most of this week we were on our own.

I expected it to be a pretty tough week, especially doing all the after-school activity drop-offs and pick-ups during homework and meal prep time single-handedly, but then 3 of our 9 after-school activities ended up being randomly canceled and I found a bag of snickerdoodles in the freezer that we made and forgot about last week.

So don't tell me that miracles don't happen.


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