Friday, February 18, 2022

7 Quick Takes about Sporty Things, Walking Group, and Something about the Curtains that Could Have Been Brought to My Attention Yesterday

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

1


I happened to watch a compilation of gender reveal fails online. Of course there were funny ones where the florist accidentally delivered purple balloons and no one knew what that meant, or where they all shot pink confetti canons and the person holding the camera started screaming "No! It's a boy! We're so sorry, we must have ordered the wrong ones!" 

But there were also a lot where the older siblings were furious that the baby wasn't the gender they wanted. That's something I could never recall happening in our family, but then I wondered if I was misremembering things so I asked the kids.

They all told me it had never occurred to them to prefer one gender over the other, or even that they could do that. The baby just was what it was and that was presented to them as a fact. Maybe a gender reveal sets it up like there are two options, and when you do that then you inevitably root for one of them?

I don't know. Did you ever have a gender reveal, and have your older kids cared much one way or the other? 

2


Speaking of rooting for one option over the other, my 10-year-old's basketball tournament was on Saturday. 

Now, I highly doubt anyone gets more excited about the end of a sports season than I do.  I can sit politely at my kids' games and appreciate the effort they seem to be making out there on the field/court, but that's about it. I guess I'm just not a sports person.

Sometimes the other parents on the sidelines seem so highly invested in the game, I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks that way. But on Saturday when I waved to a friend in the gym and asked if her daughter was playing the next game, she answered, "I was hoping they'd lose their game this morning, but they didn't so here we are."

And I respect that. 

3


This Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday at my 10-year-old's school, and she said she wanted a crazy hairstyle. I was actually thrilled because she never wants me to do her hair, and I have fond memories of how her older sisters were basically famous at school for their "fancy hairstyles" when they were her age.

(I'd prefer that she mention it more than 15 minutes before she has to catch the school bus, but I'll take what I can get.)

Took twice as long to take out as it did to put in.

She requested "something that looks like a spiderweb," so this is what we came up with. Fun, right? 

4


A friend of mine is going through some similar parenting challenges as me, and although we've never really talked much about it (because when you're dealing with teens their privacy means you aren't at liberty to share a whole lot) we did get together and go for a walk which was really nice for both of us.

It also reminded me of this stand-up comedy routine:


My friend and I walked 3.5 miles that morning, so I think we definitely did our part to fight crime in our own way.

5


When we moved into our house, there were forest green countertops in the kitchen which attaches to the entry area that we use for a home office space. A wise friend told me "Decorate the space you have, not the space you want" so I made some curtains that tied in the green counters and they served us well for 10 years.

But now that we've gotten new counters, we no longer needed to work with the forest green and I was free to make our kitchen and office area red like I've always wanted.

I found this fabric and while I wasn't completely sure about it, decided to make some curtains (it's an odd-sized window so making something is the best and cheapest option.)


I like the pattern close up, but it turns out I don't love it when it's all over a set of big long curtains. It's just too cutesy for me.

My 15-year-old says they look like dollhouse curtains, and she's not wrong.

That's kind of a disappointing to find out after you spent 12 hours making them, but oh, well. Maybe they'll grow on me. 

6


More decluttering has been happening on the homefront, and I was able to clear out another piece of furniture (the one acquired in Take #3 here). 

Since I started my decluttering journey in the spring of 2021 I've gotten rid of six  SIX!  pieces of furniture. I realized I didn't really need most of the things in them, and everything that was left was easy to consolidate into other furniture we already had.

As someone who was already considered kind of a minimal-leaning weirdo before, this is a surprise even to me. If you feel overwhelmed by clutter, I advise anyone to do the following: challenge yourself to go through your stuff today and put 10 things in a box that you don't really use but you're hesitant to get rid of. 

After a few months, look inside the box and you'll be amazed to find out that the contents have all turned into junk that you have no idea why you wanted to keep in the first place. It's such a weird trick but it works 90% of the time.

7


The CVS app prevents me from taking a screenshot to show you this, so I did it the analog way by taking a picture of my phone with another phone. Here's a list of the coupons on my account:


And this isn't all, ladies and gentlemen. It keeps scrolling and scrolling. 

I don't mean to brag, but I've apparently earned nine $0 ExtraBucks rewards... "woohoo" indeed.

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3 comments:

mbmom11 said...

I cheer for my kids' teams, but for tournaments - I'm praying "please lose". Once my son's team, which wasn't very good, was in a tournament, and they lost and we still had to come back the next day because it was double elimination. I nearly cried.
My kids never cared about the gender of the baby. I was happy when my second boy came along because #1 son was henpecked so badly by his sisters. He needed a little more help on his side!
Your daughter's hair is gorgeous - you are amazing. I can't imagine it being any better even with more time to plan!

Anna said...

I have two boys and five girls, in that order, and for the last two babies, my second son really struggled with getting another sister. He struggles when he finds out (not through a gender reveal, we just tell them), and he struggles during the pregnancy, and for the first couple of months after they are born, and then one day a flip switches and he suddenly becomes their best friend. And they absolutely adore him. So...it's funny, but I just don't stress about it now, I know he'll come around.

Unknown said...

When Jenny found out Taylor was a boy she burst into tears and went running out of the house. I never could understand it. She had a sister ahead of her and a sister behind her! Love the "spiderweb" Wonder if that will lead to her asking more often.