Friday, April 3, 2020

7 Quick Takes about Surprises at the Door, Chicken Pot Pies, and Time Traveling to Deliver a Critical Message to the Future

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

1


Our April Fool's Day was uneventful. 

Which was fine by me. I've never been that into pranks and besides, wasn't the last half of March basically an April Fool's joke, anyway?

2


On Sunday, the doorbell rang and we all froze. Like startled cavemen, we were all looking at each other grunting "Did you hear something? What was that? What do we do?"

We seriously had a discussion about whether that was a real noise or whether we'd just imagined it before sending our bravest hunter-gatherer to open the door and see if there was anyone behind it.

Oh, quarantine. You do such crazy things to us in such a short time.

As it turned out, there actually was somebody out there. In our church, we're all assigned to be a "ministering brother" or "ministering sister" to another family or individual to look out for them and basically minister to their needs; our ministering brother was standing behind the door (actually, in the yard about 6 feet behind the door) with a surprise:

First thing I pulled out of our was this roll of toilet paper.

He had a "quarantine survival kit" for us, and besides the toilet paper, there were a few games and activities for the kids and the fixings for root beer floats for the family.

I think I enjoyed that root beer float more than I've ever enjoyed a root beer float before. It was so nice to know someone was thinking of us during this weird, stressful time.

3


As I mentioned in my post last week about our social distancing schedule, I mentioned the kids were getting a little bored and we decided to have theme days this week to keep it interesting.

Wonder Wednesday was fun. One of the things we did was have each kid look up something they "wonder" about.

My 5-year-old picked earthquakes, my 8-year-old why trees have roots, my 11-year-old how/why a potato battery works, and my 15-year-old ancient African history.

Over dinner they shared what they learned. My 13-year-old made a PowerPoint slideshow for hers like she does at school, which I thought was pretty amusing in itself, but when the first slide popped up with information on the origins of chicken pot pies in ancient Greece I lost it.

Yes, she researched chicken pot pies. I even don't mind people subverting my attempts to be educational as long as they're funny about it.

4


This rainy spring weather is killing me, since going outside makes staying at home all day so much more tolerable.

We've always been a family of hikers, but we got a hot tip about a neat trail in the next town over that we'd never tried, so we headed out this weekend to check it out.

It was amazingly beautiful.

Just casually to the left of the main trail, like "No big deal, I'm just the most gorgeous place you'll ever see in your life."

Farther down the trail, there was an outcropping of big boulders to climb on, and for the first time in 15 years, all my kids are coordinated enough for me to just step back and let them have fun instead of following someone around having heart attacks every time they slip and almost crack their head open.

At the end of the hike there was a pretty peninsula of land just off the trail, so we went over and stood on it to gaze at the water.

I watched my 3-year-old leaning motionless against a tree for a while, and when he noticed me looking at him he explained, "I'm just thinking about the trees and the natures and stuff." The whole thing was very Thoreau.

5


My son lost a tooth and naturally, I forgot all about it as the day went on.

I would've gone to bed without a second thought about the tooth, but as fate would have it I was scrolling through my blog's Facebook page just before bed and was reminded to go put money under his pillow by my own meme:


That's right, I made this meme years ago and happened to see it that night as I scrolled through Facebook. It was like past me time-traveled into the future to save me.

6


Next week, the school is supposedly rolling out a program for online learning. Up until now they've just had optional meetings and activities.

It's been kind of a struggle coordinating my younger kids' Zoom meetings with their class. It's also been quite a role reversal to worry about being quiet so I don't disturb my 6-year-old's conference call.

Things are just different now, I guess, and I have to adapt.

For example, the other day I scheduled a playdate... for my kids to talk to the neighbor boy over the fence. A few weeks ago his mom and I had a Zoom breakfast, and maybe if it ever gets warm and stops raining, we'll sit in lawn chairs and yell across our yards to each other.

7


Some of you might know that in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe our church is led by a prophet and apostles, and twice a year they give a weekend of talks on spiritual topics important for us as we navigate today's world.

I like to think of it as what it would be like if Moses gave a TED talk, if that helps you visualize what it's all about.


People of all faiths are welcome to listen, and in fact I'd love hearing if you did and what you thought of it.

Talks are broadcast on Saturday and Sunday from 12-2 PM and 4-6 PM Eastern time (check your time zone!) over the church's website, YouTube, and various other channels.

So you're all invited. After all, it's not like you aren't going to be home.

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3 comments:

PurpleSlob said...

#4- awww! I just wanna hug him!

Ann-Marie Ulczynski said...

Yes, but what I want to know . . . Is the stay at home stuff interfering with the snacking during the conference?!?

Jenny Evans said...

Ann-Marie Ulczynski: Of course not! I've been planning this way in advance so I picked up snacks last time I was at the grocery store fighting over the last roll of toilet paper. Tomorrow we've still got to make some cookies for Elder Cook, though.