Friday, May 31, 2019

7 Quick Takes about Birthday Gifts, a Bunch of Theater Performances, and the Key to Happiness (Apparently)

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

1


Well, we had just about the nicest Memorial Day you could ever hope for. Everyone was home, which doesn't happen very often when you've got school-aged children in May, and I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

In the morning, Phillip went to play basketball and I took the kids to the playground right across the street. When he was done, we sat in the shade by the curb and waited for the Memorial Day parade to go past so we could wave at our 9th-grader, who was marching with the band.

After lunch, we spent a few hours at the beach with some friends and it felt so nice to be outside I never wanted to leave.

Ten years ago I used to feel sorry for people who had "nothing" to do on holidays, but now that I'm the parent of a family who is busy all the time, I know it's actually the best thing in the world.

2


We also celebrated my birthday on Memorial Day. My actual birthday was last Wednesday, but when you have a bunch of school-aged kids in May you can only get the entire family in the same room about once a week if you're lucky.

I loved Phillip's gift, mostly because Phillip knows me well enough to realize that telling me he got a great deal on my gift is like a gift in itself.

I get super-excited about saving money on stuff, and this means I get all the exultation of scoring a great deal without any of the work involved in tracking one down.

Anyway, I've had my eye on some new dishes for a while and Phillip found them on clearance at Kohl's for $11.

Eleven dollars, people.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable

Then we had brownies and my favorite mint ice cream in my brand-new dishes.

Bonus: our old dishes were too deep to lick the last dregs of ice cream out of the bowl, but these are much shallower profile so I was able to enjoy every last drop of my birthday ice cream.

3


From the kids, I received some sweet DIY birthday coupons (not these, but almost as good) and a few other handmade gifts.

My 11-year-old made me a personalized, moving e-card using computer programming, which was pretty cool.

My 7-year-old made and illustrated this book for me:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable
The cover.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable
I love that she is thanking me for doing the vacuuming.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable
The time I sewed her doll that was coming apart at the seams — see Take #6 here for the full story.

She even had her older brother help her write up a table of contents to put at the beginning. It was legit.

4


Phillip and I really enjoyed going to see our 15-year-old in her school play.

We left the 13-year-old in charge at home and it was sort of like a date, if on a date you also swing by the town dump first to drop something off. #marriedlife

Later I wished we'd attended the following night's performance, because my daughter told us that when the female lead Caitlyn kissed the male lead, Caitlyn's 7-year-old sister could clearly be heard in the audience exclaiming "EEEEEEWWW!"

5


We also watched a friend from church perform in a kids' community theater production of Les Mis, and though Les Mis sounds like a pretty ambitious musical to pull off using only cast members under the age of 19, they did a phenomenal job.

I've never seen a collection of teenagers with such incredible voices, in particular the kid who played Enjolras, the leader of the French revolution. He was only a junior in high school but had the kind of voice that was so big it wasn't that much of a stretch to picture him as an opera singer.

I asked him after the show how long he'd been singing, and he said he'd never taken a voice lesson in his life. Some people are just born amazing, I guess.

6


I received this in the mail from a bank that wants me to apply for their credit card.

For the first 6 months they will only charge me a low, low rate of 3.99% on my purchases, and if that alone isn't enough to convince me, just look at this happy gal chillaxing in a canoe! I could be her!

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable
Clearly thrilled to be in debt.

I didn't know paying an extra 4% on all your monthly purchases could be so liberating. Apparently, I'm doing life all wrong. SIGN ME UP.

7

I went clothes shopping, which is something I only do once every couple of years because I don't like doing it.

But I tried to enjoy the process as much as I could. I went to my favorite thrift store in the whole world and found a handful of things, my favorite being this T-shirt.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! This is the place to catch up on the week's funny quotes from my kids, relatable parenting moments, and the spring chaos in the Unremarkable Files household.  #7qt #7quicktakes #unremarakblefiles #funny #relatable
Didn't realize until posting that there was a funny shadow on my shirt in this picture. I'm not a fashion blogger. Sorry not sorry.

My family members all say they don't get it, but that must be because they're not moms of 6 kids who feel most of the time like they have an actual hamster running on a wheel for a brain.

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5 comments:

Diana Dye said...

I love that shirt. I don't know if it's because it is clever or if I relate....

Jenny Evans said...

I think both. That's why I like it, anyway.

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness. I've never seen such a perfect shirt for you. I'm so glad the 7 year old recognizes all you do!!

PurpleSlob said...

The book and the shirt are my 2 fave things from this post.
My brain has a squirrel on a purple wheel. I feel your pain!

Jade said...

Such a wonderful article, thanks for sharing@\!