7 Quick Takes about Staying Up Late, Finding Emojis in Unexpected Places, and Music for People Who Definitely Aren't Otters

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

—1—

Phillip's parents are here for a visit, and did they ever come at a good time.

Over their 8-day stay they get to see the 13-year-old's orchestra concert, the 15-year-old's school play, the 13-year-old's concerto competition at her music school, the 8-year-old's baptism, and a piano recital for all the kids except the 3-year-old, who's only in it for the refreshments, anyway.

The best part is that my mother-in-law's flight came in at 11:59 PM on Monday, and guess who got to pick her up from the airport? Maybe that doesn't seem like fun, but allow me to explain.

I really hate sleeping. Shutting down a completely good day for 7 boring hours of nothing feels depressing to me. And because Phillip needs/wants more sleep than I do, I end up either sulkily putting on my pajamas hours before I'm ready or, more commonly, staying up late feeling bad that Phillip is waiting up for me (or gave up on me and went to bed by himself.)

But Phillip's mom coming in on an 11:59 PM flight was my ticket to a completely guilt-free late night. I had to stay up so I could get her from the airport! It couldn't be helped!

All I'm saying is that someone had to volunteer to do it, and I was willing to make the sacrifice.

—2—

My 3-year-old didn't remember Grandma at first. We saw her in July, which seems pretty recent to me, but considering that's 10% of his short little life I guess it's understandable.

When he woke up in the morning, they spent some time playing and getting reacquainted. After about 10 minutes, he followed me into the kitchen but when we went back into the living room, Grandma had gone to the bathroom and wasn't there.

Confused, my 3-year-old looked around and asked, "Where is that person who was in our house?"

—3—

Recently my 5-year-old was talking about illegal animal poachers for some reason (I guess when you're the fifth kid you just learn about these things earlier,) and with a jolt I suddenly remembered the movie The Rescuers Down Under.

Do you remember The Rescuers Down Under? I loved it as a kid and watched it several times on good old VHS.

I suggested we watch it and everyone, even my 15-year-old, said it was funny.

As a child watching it in 1990, I didn't know that poachers don't really live in evil underground caves or have easy access to missile launchers, but even knowing that now didn't make me enjoy the movie any less. I thought it was hilarious.

—4—

We have so many downed leaves right now, and we're waiting for the last of them to fall before leafblowing the yard. (It's always a gamble that it won't snow first, and some years we've lost that gamble.)

But for now, the kids are having so much fun raking up gigantic piles and jumping in them. We brought out a stepladder so they could get a little more height and took slow-motion videos of each of them launching off.

After a while I had to put my phone back in the house because it became all about the technology, and I started to wonder, "Is this ruining my kids' childhood? Should I be concerned that they can't even enjoy the simple, wholesome pleasures of jumping in freshly fallen leaves without a device being the center of it?"

—5—

Well, I'm not sure about the answer to those questions, but I can say that we definitely live in a tech-saturated world.

We were reading a passage in the Bible the other day and my 11-year-old started laughing. I was a little confused until he pointed out the smiley face emoji at the end of verse 4.

The King James Version: still relevant and "with it" in 2019.

—6—

If you would like to fall down dead from deliciousness, may I recommend this recipe?

Over the weekend we made this strawberry brownie cheesecake and it was everything you could ask for in a dessert. I don't even like brownies but with the strawberries and cheesecake, I could not get enough of it.

We have closer-up pictures that are actually in focus, but to be honest, our cake turned out looking a little wonky so trust me, it looks better from farther away. 

Parenthetically, it just now occurred to me that Trust Me, It Looks Better From Farther Away is a great title for my autobiography.

—7—

I've heard this song on the radio a few times in the last couple of weeks. It's jazzy and easy and I like it... but I can only understand like three words.

In fact, until I went to post it here and looked up the lyrics to make sure it wasn't about anything terrible, I was 100% sure he ended the song with "I shan't be like an otter."

The lyrics were totally clean, but in retrospect I wish I hadn't looked them up because I liked the song better when it was about otters.
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