7 Quick Takes about Places Not to Take Naps, Kitchen Fun, and Definitely Not Showing Favoritism as a Mom

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

—1—

The seniors in our school district finish the school year earlier than everyone else, so sometimes I go on daytime runs with my daughter who just graduated. Partly because it pushes me to go faster, partly because it gets her out when she might or might not have gone by herself.

In the last two years that I've been running more or less consistently, I've had the thought plenty of times while running that I wanted to stop and walk. (I never have, but I've had the thought.) 

But on Monday we were out running and the thought seriously came to me that I wanted to stop and lie down, right there on the street. Still didn't, but I was sorely tempted.

This could be a long summer.

—2—

I'm also spending lots of quality time with my 16-year-old, because it's finals week and she only has to go in to school when she's got an exam. 

This is how she and I bond:

Courtesy of my daughter's pretty handwriting, and jars from Amazon.

There are empty unlabeled jars at the back because it's not finished yet; we had to order more labels and they haven't come yet. 

I wish I'd taken a 'before' picture for comparison, but when I start a project I'm so eager to start tearing it apart I rarely think to document it with photos until it's halfway finished. 

—3—

The next day, my daughter's friend Joy came over. Because I was driving right by her house on the way home, I picked Joy up and it was just the two of us in the car. While we were chatting, she asked what I've been up to and of course I told her all about reorganizing the spice drawer and the rest of the pantry. (She found it riveting, I'm sure.)

When we got in the door at home, I just had to laugh because the first thing my daughter did was pull her over to the spice drawer and proudly show off our work. 

Phillip and I often joke that our 16-year-old is my Mini Me, and this is why. We're a pretty unstoppable team, though. I love doing organizing projects with that girl.

—4—

I actually have way too many half-finished projects going on, so labeling spice jars is not something I should've been doing right now. But this video showed up in my YouTube feed, and I just couldn't help myself after that.

After watching it, I seriously thought about hiring a professional organizer. I Googled the company she used in the video. I listed out the pros and cons. I searched the web for reviews. And then I decided I'm way too cheap for that and started doing it myself. 

I expect to have photos of my finished pantry for you next week. (Again, without a 'before' picture. Gah!)

—5—

As much as I hate how the house gets destroyed when the elementary school kids start bringing home all their bulky art projects and writing journals at the end of the school year, I really like going through their cute "about me" papers and stories they've written.

Here's a picture my kindergartner did at the very beginning of the year, and it's cute but also horrifying. I love it.

It's especially funny that this is from the first day of school, when I'm sure my son's teacher didn't even know we had pet rats, so she probably thought this weird kid in her class was just drawing stray hairy sewer rats for fun. 

—6—

I have a clean car! I've been dangling it in front of my 10-year-old as an allowance chore, but she keeps inventing reasons to be busy.

Well.

The weekly youth activity was for the teens to gather at the church parking lot and clean people's cars inside and out, and I was all over that. 

I'm sure it will look trashed again in a week, but it will be nice while it lasts.

—7—

For my 18-year-old's graduation open house last weekend, I got a really cute K-12 photo banner from Amazon and displayed all my daughter's school pictures on the wall as a decoration.

I still haven't taken it down because I like it so much, although my other daughter did point out that it looks a little weird to have a shrine to only one child up on the wall, especially when I took all the other kids' pictures off that wall to do it.

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