7 Quick Takes about Tearing Down the House, Fun with Appliances, and the Power of a Good Inspirational Quote

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

—1—

They're tearing the old shingles off of our roof as I type this, friends! It's so exciting. Actually, it's mostly loud.

And remember when I said water leaked through the ceiling last time we got a heavy rain? Apparently the original installers neglected to put underlayment under the shingles in that very spot, so mystery solved.

—2—

Last weekend was General Conference, a two-day broadcast with spiritually-focused talks from the leaders of my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

I wore my comfy new sweatpants, and I think I did a good job of picking "cool mom" ones because my son thought I was his teenage sister when I was turned around.

The younger kids made a really valiant effort to listen and behave during the talks, and during breaks they built a mega fort out of every cushion, blanket, and sheet in the house:

"Huge amount of space. Fort of Awsomenes. Fits four people. Enter if you dare."

—3—

We also continued our Conference Snacks tradition, where we tape pictures of the leaders to different treats. When that person speaks, we eat the snack and write down something they said on a Post-It note.

Our snack set-up gets less and less Pinterest-worthy every year.

As you can imagine after this multi-hour affair, the room was littered with papers, coloring implements, and copious amounts of snack wrappers and packaging. 

Instead of picking things up, though, my son decided to let our pet rats Scout and Piper out of their cage to run around on the floor and get some exercise. Phillip chose this moment to walk into the room.

He took one look around and said "Okay, guys. When there are rats pawing through garbage on the floor, you know it's time to clean up." 

This seems like a really appropriate time to mention that when I met someone new a few weeks ago through a mutual friend, she said "I'm told you have an organization blog, right?"

Um... yes. Yes, I do.

—4—

Even though the topics for talks in General Conference aren't assigned, there always ends up being a common theme or two, anyway. Chalk it up to inspiration. 

I heard about the importance of taking questions to the Lord, patiently living life one step at a time, and changing our point of view. The quote "the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives" was repeated four times.

I enjoyed it all, but as a frequent spectator of pee-wee soccer, I particularly liked this 2-minute snippet from Bonnie H. Cordon:

My other favorite was this talk by our prophet Russell M. Nelson about fortifying our spiritual foundation in Jesus Christ, just as workers are currently fortifying the foundation of the temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.

—5—

Our dryer works great, but after 10 years of use and abuse it looks like garbage. The decision to put a plastic laundry basket on top years ago really accelerated the scratches and rusting action, and that's how we got to this place:

Taken right before painting prep, with the knobs removed for maximum ugliness.

I'd never sanded and painted a dryer before, and I was really scared to start this project. But after many hours of Internet research and telling myself there was no way I could possibly make it look worse than it already did, I finally got started.

The finished product looks great! Especially if you don't look too close.

It's hard to get a picture because this space measures 4 feet by 8 feet and the light makes it look yellow and the door casts a weird shadow, but you get the idea. No rust!

—6—

I took the 9-year-old to an orthodontist for a consultation. Her dentist referred us to a different orthodontists than we visited for my 15-year-old's braces, but it was closer so I figured we'd check them out. 

I'd heard about the circus-y atmosphere some orthodontist's offices are adopting, but I had no idea how extreme it was. This place had arcade games in the waiting room, a cartoon mascot plastered everywhere, and an elaborate scheme where kids earn points toward prizes of gift cards at each visit. 

My daughter got a gift because it's her birthday month and when she left, she spun a giant prize wheel on the wall with flashing lights. I was no longer sure whether we were in a medical office or Chuck E. Cheese.

We're not going to do anything right now (the orthodontist said the old wait-and-see approach would be fine here) but if I was, I'd be like "Um, hi. You know the $4,000 braces we're paying for? How about you just deduct the price of those gift cards from my bill instead of giving them to my kid to buy pop-its?"

On that note, if my daughter does end up needing braces I'm not taking her back to Six Flags. We'll stick with an office that primarily does teeth, instead.

—7—

My 15-year-old received a piece of mail from an anonymous friend at church. Her class is doing a thing where they're all supposed to do some nice or friendly little act for someone each week. 

She opened the envelope and there was this nice inspirational quote from Roald Dahl:

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." - Roald Dahl

Then she turned the paper over and the quote got even better:

Have a LOVELY day, guys!

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