7 Quick Takes about Not-So-Worrisome Selfies, Learning Not to Be Scared of Spain, and Kids Who Might Need Slight Attitude Adjustments

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! And I remind you that Friday lasts until 11:59 PM. 

My kids had a school vacation day today, which meant it was a crazy monkey zoo house here and it's 9:30PM and this is the first time I've sat down all day. 

—1—

My 11-year-old daughter sneaked my phone into the backseat while I was driving and was playing with it. I finally noticed she was taking a bunch of selfies and made her give it back. 

My first thought was: "Oh no! I'm raising one of those girls!" Obsessed with appearance and popularity. Destined to a life of seeking approval from others and deriving her self-worth from their evaluations of her looks.

Then I looked at the camera roll and said  "On second thought, never mind."

—2—

Did any of you watch general conference last weekend? Because of the kid's activities I did listen to parts of it in the car as I was driving them here, there, and everywhere, but I enjoyed what I heard.

This talk was probably my favorite. It reminded me that literally everyone is important to God, and that "regardless of how insignificant our efforts may seem, if we are sincere, the Savior will use us to accomplish His work."

—3—

On my language exchange app, it's really hard to find people who are available during the weekday to talk. Most everyone only has time on evenings and weekends, which are precisely the peak hours for chaos here. When all the kids are home I can't even concentrate enough to have a phone conversation in English, letalone in another language.

I've previously avoided talking to anyone from Spain, because I'm using and learning Latin American Spanish. (If you don't know, there are some significant differences between Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish.) But I recently came to the conclusion that the only way to find a daytime practice partner was to look in a time zone 6 hours ahead of me. Which meant Spain.

Luckily, on Thursday I had my first conversation with a Spaniard and not only was she one of the nicest people I've spoken to in any language, her Spanish was also extremely clear and easy to understand.

We talked for an hour and at the end of the conversation, she confessed that she almost didn't respond at first when I said hello to her, because I was American and she was learning British English. The sword cuts both ways, I see.

—4—

It's true, the last kid gets away with EVERYTHING. 

First of all, there is no newer, cuter model to replace your youngest child so they remain your baby basically forever and you indulge them in all sorts of ways you never did your older kids. 

Second of all, you're so exhausted by their older siblings' problems that you're more likely to just roll your eyes at their shenanigans when you probably should be disciplining them for it. Possibly, you even think it's a little cute because, as has already been pointed out, they're the baby.

But I've got to start doing something about my 6-year-old's attitude.

A few weeks ago he told me he didn't like what we were having for dinner and I shrugged and told him, "Then I guess you should've made something else." (Implying that since he didn't make anything, he can't complain.) He just looked right at me and said, "Well that's your fault for not buying me the ingredients!"

And the other day when I needed a chore done, I asked "Do you know if there are any big strong men around here?" He somehow knew what I was getting at and chirped "No, thanks!" and kept on reading his book.

—5—

I spent part of the day on Wednesday helping a friend from church move. I'm going to miss them. We didn't spend very much time together, but our kids were similar ages and really did hang out a lot. 

And I think she and I could have been good friends, had we not been so similar in that we were always busy with a million things (and possibly were both too introverted to mind that very much.)

—6—

My 16-year-old was annoyed with her younger brother and said to me jokingly "Why did you have him?"

Smiling, I shrugged and said, "I don't know. Maybe if you'd been a better kid we wouldn't have felt the need to keep going."

Instantly she replied with "Well, I couldn't have been that bad or you would have stopped."

So she's probably where the 6-year-old has been getting it from, to be honest.

—7—

The last thing I wanted to post here was this Easter challenge from the prophet of my church. It's a short video, like 5 minutes:

It's pretty bold for us Latter-day Saints to claim that our church is led by a living prophet, one who's like Moses and Noah and all those guys in the Bible. But I stand by it. The prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is for real, and I feel so strongly that confidently following his counsel is hands down the best way to live a fulfilled, purposeful life. It points me to the Savior every time. 

Whether you're a member of my church or not, I hope you try out the advice in this video and just see if it improves things for you. I'm willing to bet that it does.

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