7 Quick Takes about Getting a Social Life Again, Crash Courses in Shoelace-Tying, and Santa's Little Helpers

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

—1—

For the first time in over two years, we invited another family over for dinner. 

I've never been the most natural hostess in the world (as a general rule I feel awkward about most group social situations), but I've never felt so completely clueless: how do we feed this many people? where does everyone sit? I felt like it was our first time ever inviting guests over.

Re-learning how to people is hard.

—2—

For most of the day Saturday, I was out of the house. Between having to run various kids to work, play practice, and orchestra, I also took them shopping for clothes and shoes. 

When I finally was done taxi-driving for the evening, I braced myself, opened the door of the house, and did a walkthrough of the house. 

As expected, the kitchen counters were overflowing with dirty dishes. The laundry room appeared to have been pillaged by Viking raiders. The younger kids were now feral and had piled every couch cushion and bed linen in the house in the middle of the living room to make a fort. And in the master bathroom I was greeted with this sight:

We've been having some problems with moisture getting into the walls and ceiling in our master bathroom, and Phillip was replacing the ceiling fan. 

I honestly have a love-hate relationship with YouTube. It teaches Phillip how to take apart everything in our house and fix it himself, but... it also teaches Phillip how to take apart everything in our house and fix it himself. 

—3—

When my 2^nd grader saw his older siblings coming home from the store with new shoes, he chose that particular time to tell me he needed new ones, too. His timing is impeccable.

I asked him to show me his old ones, and when he stuck his hand inside I could see his fingers in three places. So yeah, this kid needs new shoes, like, yesterday.

We ordered some online, then tried them on when they arrived and threw out the old holey pair. It wasn't until the next morning before school that I realized: this was his first pair of non-Velcro shoes and he couldn't tie them himself. But he had about 45 minutes to learn.

You know how your parents or grandparents learned how to swim when their dads just threw them in the deep end of the pool? Well, this was the shoe-tying version of that.

—4—

I don't know what got them all excited about Santa right now (this is kind of the Easter Bunny's moment) but the kids have been playing Santa at home.

I've been finding things like this around the house:

Santa's demanding to-do list

And occasionally catching my son hard at work drawing up the "nice" and "naughty" lists for the year:

They made a terrible mess doing it, but even I had to admit I was impressed with their creativity when they repurposed our tan couch cushions for "reindeer," set them up on their sides, and hitched them to a big cardboard box with yarn to replicate Santa's sleigh.

—5—

Every once in a while, I call the pediatrician's office just to check whether I've scheduled all my kids' checkups for the year. (I'm not going to lie, this is usually when I get an email from the school nurse threatening to kick them off the school sports teams if I don't get them a current physical for their files.)

It always makes for a funny call to the office.

"Hi, can you check when each of my kids last had physicals and whether I need to schedule one for them?" I ask the receptionist, and at first she's all "Sure!" about it.

After I've given the names and birthdates for the first two and made the necessary appointments she tries to say "Thank you for calling, bye!" and I'm like "Waaaiiit a minute, I'm just getting started!" and keep her on the phone for ten more minutes checking the rest of them.

I'm pleased to have you know I got a perfect score, by the way, on the little quiz portion where I have to give everyone's name and birthdate. Well, I said the wrong year for one kid. But still. Pretty good, right?

—6—

"Mom, look at this!" my 13-year-old yelled to me while making breakfast.

A heart-shaped egg yolk, top center.

And it's not even Valentine's Day.

—7—

For the past month, I've been watching the world's craziness on the news and getting more and more excited to hear my church leaders address the world at general conference on Saturday and Sunday.

One thing prophets do is help us be prepared for what the future holds, and I'm convinced that the best way to have peace, stay happy, and have hope in these troubled times is to listen to them, just like it was back in Bible times when Moses and Noah were prophets.

For example: before this pandemic, our prophet's unrelenting emphasis was on making your home (not the church) the center for your spiritual growth, and then all church activity was disrupted for two years and the reason why became crystal clear.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and if you feel so inclined please watch this slightly cheesy video about general conference and what it is, and feel free to tune in on April 2^nd and 3^rd (12-2 and 4-6 EST). Everybody is welcome!

Click to Share: