7 Quick Takes about My Son's Inheritance Money, Glowing Reviews of Our Kitchen Notwithstanding the Health Violations, and Painting Mishaps

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

—1—

My 16-year-old's friend at church has the funniest sticker.

She put it on her water bottle, but I can think of all sorts of situations where Jesus peeking around the corner reminding me to do the right thing might be useful and/or a little amusing.

—2—

One night I was at the dinner table with my 9-year-old long after everyone else had left, pleading with him to eat more than just one individual grain of rice at a time so we could move on and not be stuck at this table until the day I draw my very last breath.

Instead, he kept talking about a variety of irrelevant things, one of which was some question about $89. (I can't tell you exactly what the question was, because I'd stopped listening about 30 minutes ago.) "I don't know," I told him, "but I bet you $89 that you are never, ever going to finish your food."

And with those magic words, he kicked it into gear and finished everything on his plate. Now he's hounding me because I apparently owe him $89.

A few days ago he brought it up and I said "Tell you what: I'll leave you $89 when I die."

Under his breath, I heard him whisper "YESSSSSSS!"

—3—

This weekend I am seriously looking forward to general conference, the twice a year broadcast from the leaders of my church. I often tell people it's like a bunch of spiritual TED talks from people who are specially designated by God to be His prophet and apostles. 

I personally get a ton out of general conference, and I'd love it for any of you readers to join me. Here's a cheesy video about it (our church's missionaries aren't paid actors, they're just nice people trying their best.)

It depends on your time zone, but here in New England the sessions are on Saturday and Sunday from 12-2 and 4-6, with an additional session at 8PM on Saturday. Up first on my list of things to do today after I get this post finished: replenish our Conference Snacks™.

—4—

My 11-year-old was assigned at school to write a one-page restaurant review of our house, and it was full of insights.

This was my favorite part:

I suppose that's the best I can ask for, considering the circumstances. Hopefully "not completely clean, but still friendly and kind" is the impression my kids will take away from their overall experience here when they grow up and leave the house.

—5—

We recently patched some areas of the tan walls in our living room, so I needed to repaint them. Luckily, I found a can of paint in the basement labeled "Egyptian Sand - Living Room" and I got to work.

Clearly not the right paint.

I thought it looked too dark going on, but I figured that paint usually looks different when it dries, and also it wasn't going to be an exact match because the paint on the walls would've faded over the years. Plus, the can from the basement had assured me that this was the living room paint... but once it was dry it was definitely an exact match for our dining room.

The can had been mislabeled.

Upon further investigation, I learned that Egyptian Sand is the color of the dining room, and I found a second (correctly labeled) paint can in the basement marked "Terracotta Sand - Living Room." 

So that was dumb.

—6—

Overall, it was just a really dumb day. First I had to repaint all the walls the right color (using a craft brush because our real paintbrush was wet with the wrong color paint,) and then I threw some stuff away by accident as I was cleaning it all up, then I started making pizza crust for dinner and forgot the salt.

Watching me, the 6-year-old said, "Wow, you're sure making a lot of mistakes today, Mom."

As the evening went on he actually started counting. Every time I sighed or said "Oh, no!" he'd update the total and call out "7 mistakes!" 

Which actually was a little encouraging. It turned a string of stupid little frustrations into a game. Every time I did something dumb, I could just smile to myself and think "Welp, looks like I beat my high score!"

—7—

I came across the article "What Happens if You Don't Wash Your Sheets on a Weekly Basis?" and just had to click on it.

Because once a week? Come on. Maybe I'm admitting to something super-gross here, but I'm pretty proud of myself if I get the sheets washed quarterly. With all the work to be done in a houseful of 7 people, laundering bedsheets that aren't obviously and visibly soiled is not very high on the list of priorities.

But anyway... I have to go wash my sheets now.

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