7 Quick Takes about Chariots of Fire, Fulfilling My Civic Duty, and Passive-Aggresively Baking Bundt Cakes

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

—1—

My 14-year-old was super excited that his cross-country team made it to the district meet. It was supposed to be this past Saturday... and then when weather forecast didn't look good, they changed it to Sunday.

For us, Sunday is the Sabbath, and we have certain beliefs about what's appropriate to do on the Lord's Day. Unfortunately, running races isn't one of them, so he had to tell his coach he wasn't going to be there. 

It was a decision he made a long time ago so it wasn't a hard choice, it was just unfortunate.

Because of recent events, we figured it was as good a time as any to introduce our kids to the movie Chariots of Fire, a true story about two Olympic track runners during the 1920s. One of them was a devout Christian who dropped out of his race because it would be on a Sunday, but through an unexpected turn of events, he was able to switch to another event and won. 

(It actually looked for a moment like my son was going to have his own Chariots of Fire moment, because the team did well in the district meet and is moving on to the all-state meet this Saturday so we thought "Your season isn't over! You still get to run!" But then he got sick and isn't going to be able to run, after all.)

—2—

My 8-year-old is doing an indoor soccer workshop on Tuesday nights with some other boys his age, and it was my turn to drive carpool. Usually I take the minivan, but it was needed for something else so I drove Phillip's car.

It's an economy commuter car, without any of the fancy bells or whistles, and the boys were hilarious getting in it.

"What's this?" one of them said, grabbing the window crank and fiddling with it. "WOAH!!! It makes the window go down?!"

"You control the windows with it?" another one yelled. "All my car has is a boring button!"

Then one of them noticed the stick shift up front and asked about it, and the whole car was spellbound as I explained to the boys how it worked.

I'm sure each of them went home convinced that the Evanses have a futuristic car straight out of The Jetsons. I mean, none of them know who the Jetsons are because that would've been the same era as stick shifts and window cranks, but you get the idea.

—3—

The Primary program was last Sunday, and it was so cute. One Sunday a year, the children's organization of my church (called Primary) runs the service, singing the songs they learned that year and talking about what they've been learning at church. 

There's always the kid who puts their face right on the microphone and breathes deafeningly loudly, followed by the kid who whispers their line, followed by the kid who practically yells into the mic and gives a heart attack to the whole congregation who was straining to hear the kid before. It's so great.

This year, each kid was each given the beginning of a sentence and was asked to fill in the blank. One preschooler had the prompt "When I think about Heavenly Father, _______________" and he said "I feel like going into the sky."

Another kid, about 7 years old, was asked "When I am tempted to make a wrong choice, I _______________" and he said "Don't."

—4—

My 6-year-old is now missing both bottom teeth, and he has a wiggly front tooth on top (so it's about to get a lot more difficult for him to eat.)

The morning after he lost his most recent tooth, he came downstairs and asked "Does how much money you get depend on the size of the tooth?"

—5—

I was called for jury duty this week. Again. I have been summoned three times, and Phillip (who's 2 years older than me) has been called zero times.

The last time was in 2018, and since then they'd built a new courthouse. It was a nice-looking building, but the walk to the entrance for the jurors was a little intimidating.

Looks like a scene from a dystopian movie.

It was mostly waiting around and playing on my phone like last time, but the court officer who kept us updated as we waited (and waited and waited) to be impaneled was funny. He stood up and the first thing he said was "As you all know, there's only 38 more shopping days until Christmas..."

—6—

Speaking of which, as of this moment I have done zero Christmas prep. None. And I'm not stressed out about it. I'm really counting on our no-gift system to make that possible again this year. 

I'll probably start thinking about Christmas after Thanksgiving. But not a moment before.

—7—

For Phillip's birthday, I made him this glazed apple bundt cake. He likes bundt cakes, but only to spite me.

Let me explain. When I first started decluttering the house, Phillip (who's kind of a packrat) wasn't exactly on board. The YouTuber who inspired me loves her bundt pan and says you should never get rid of yours, but we never used ours and I was about to throw it away. When I mentioned how funny that was to Phillip, his fight-or-flight response kicked in and he insisted that we keep the bundt pan. 

So I did, out of respect for his wishes. But if he can go for 10 years without eating a bundt cake and when I go to throw it away it's suddenly his most prized posession, I'm making him eat a bundt cake every year on his birthday for the rest of our lives.

Now I think about it, maybe that actually makes me the spiteful one.

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