Friday, November 22, 2019

7 Quick Takes about Odd Things to Hear on the Radio, Improved Names for Exercise Moves, and a Giveaway

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

1


My 8-year-old's baptism on Sunday was very nice. Twice as many people as we expected came, including two of her friends from school who are not members of our church, just to support her.

Also, the police showed up.

They didn't bust down the door or anything (which would have made a great story,) but they did walk into the building politely asking if any of us had called 911 on a cell phone and said they were checking it out.

2


After the baptism, someone told us to take anything we wanted from the church's lost and found because they were just about to get rid of all the contents.

We perused it and ended up taking home this timely reminder:

In case you're confused by the cover illustration, this boy is taking the sacrament (what we call the communion or Eucharist,) which we regard as a weekly way to recommit to the promises we make with God when we're baptized.

We thought it was quite serendipitous and plan to review the book at home often, since if you ask my daughter about the most memorable part of her baptism I'm 95% sure she'll tell you about the space heater someone put in the bathroom to keep her warm while she was drying off after going under the water.

3


I have a complicated relationship with exercise. I guess it's not that complicated, I just don't really like it.

I've been on hiatus lately, but when I started feeling some instability in the joints in my back I was like, "Okay fine, I'll exercise!"

It's been a couple of weeks and I've been working out almost every day. My back feels better and my boys no longer ask what I'm doing when I start flailing around to a YouTube video.

In fact, they're really interested. The 5-year-old likes to invent new moves, and the 3-year-old likes to watch me closely to make sure I'm doing the same thing as the people on the screen.

One day he was watching me follow along, doing squats while holding weights in my hands, and asked, "What's that?"

"My weights?"

Pointing at me, he said, "No, THAT."

I looked down. "The drawstring on my pants?"

"No, THAT!" he said, jabbing his finger at the screen. "The squashing!"

"Oh, the exercise?"

"Yeah."

"It's called a squat."

But I'm totally calling it "The Squashing" from now on.

4


The kids had a piano recital this week. We didn't start preparing as early as we should have, but I'm toooootally trying to be fine with that and accept that we were doing our best to keep up with the rest of life and not obsess about it.

This duet of "Merrily We Roll Along" was pretty epic.

Anyway, it was a time crunch getting their songs performance-ready. Each child was playing two pieces, one classical and one fun song of their choice.

Our 8-year-old's classical selection needed a lot more work than her fun song (which was actually pretty solid,) so we told her to spend her practice time on the classical piece.

Ironically, when the recital came around she completely bombed the fun song because she straight-up forgot how it went.

Phillip tried to make her feel better by telling her about his recent voice recital where he forgot the words to "Unforgettable."

It's not her: irony just follows our family wherever we go.

5


Phillip likes to do this annoying thing where he steals my thunder when I ask him to "guess."

For example, when I come home from a couponing trip to CVS loaded down with what is obviously hundreds of dollars of merchandise and gush, "Guess how much I paid for this??" Phillip guesses something ridiculous like 50¢. When I tell him it actually cost $5.49, it doesn't seem that impressive anymore.

But this takes the cake.

On the way to pick up the 15-year-old from school, a song came on the classical radio station that sounded weirdly familiar, but... not. When I asked my phone to identify the song, I learned it was "She's Leaving Home" by the Beatles, but redone in a Baroque style.

Forgetting how Phillip outdoes me every single time, I said that night, "I heard the weirdest thing on the radio today  you'll never guess what it was."

"Ummm... an American eagle farting the national anthem?"

I can't make this up, ladies and gentlemen. There's no way to top that.

(If you're not too preoccupied thinking about farting eagles, I'll have you know there's an entire collection out there called Beatles Baroque. So if you've ever listened to "Penny Lane" and thought, "Eh, it's okay but it could really use a harpsichord. Maybe some pan pipes," I know just the album for you.)

6


We got our family photos for our Christmas card taken at JC Penney.

Usually I have the appointment on my radar way ahead of time and spend days going through the kids' closets finding coordinating outfits for everyone to wear. But this time I didn't remember until 9 PM the night before.

I don't think Phillip knew what he was getting into when he offered to help me out. Cobbling together matching outfits for 8 people using only what we have on hand (especially when we're all kind of minimalists when it comes to clothes) is a Herculean task.

But in the end, did we do it? Yes!

And did we get everyone there on time the next day? Yes!

And if you're wondering, "Yeah, but did anyone in your family pee their pants in the middle of your photo shoot while the studio was running an hour behind schedule and 3 irate families were rage-waiting in their Christmas PJs for you to finish blotting urine off the photo background with a paper towel?" the answer is also yes!

7


The last thing you need to know this week is that I'm hosting a product giveaway and I want you all to go enter to win.


I'm giving away a copy of a fun new board game that's perfect for families as the holiday season starts ramping up.

It's called Stella Nova, which means "new star" in Latin, and it's all about the Nativity as we know it from the Bible. If your goal is to celebrate a Christmas that's more about Jesus than it is about presents or Jingle Bells, you should definitely enter to win a copy.

You can visit the Stella Nova website to learn more, then read my family's review and enter the giveaway here.

And if you have friends or family or people from your church who might be into winning, I'd consider it a personal favor if you'd tell them about the giveaway. Thanks a lot, guys!

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6 comments:

Jenny in WV said...

I had to check out the Baroque Beatles and it's great! I'm going to be listening all day!

Elizabeth said...

Jenny, thank you so much for consistently blogging. I LOVE your writing and your stories always cheer me up. You are amazing!

PurpleSlob said...

My post will be up Tue!

PurpleSlob said...

Here's the link to my post, Jenny.
http://www.purpleslobinrecovery.com/2019/11/game-giveaway/

Ann-Marie Ulczynski said...

Oh my gosh. Just to all of it. This really cracked me up. We were playing a board game one time, and Brian kept getting frustrated about people getting the answer before he did. So I kid you not, after the first of ten clues, which was “a fictional male character,” he said Harry Potter. And he was right.

Stella Oliver said...

Appreciate you bllogging this