7 Quick Takes about Good Advice, How to Quit Something You Don't Want to Do Anymore, and Realizing I've Been Trying to Fit an Adult-Sized Brain in a Child-Sized Skull All These Years

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

—1—

I told you a few weeks ago that my 17-year-old recently got her driver's license. Well, soon after that a little present from her grandmother arrived in the mail:

We don't have a third car specifically for her to drive, but she can use it for the spare key to my car so she always knows where to find it.

—2—

Phillip and I were on our way to a 5th grade band concert when the phone rang. It was our 17-year-old.

"I found some sheet music online that I want to buy," she said. "Can I use your credit card and then pay you back in cash when you get home?"

Reaching for his wallet, Phillip said, "Sure, let me give you the number."

She hesitated. "I... already have it memorized, actually. I just wanted to ask you first so I don't feel like I'm stealing."

At that moment, I wasn't quite sure if I should feel proud of her honesty or alarmed that I have a child capable of maxing out my credit card and using my car as a getaway vehicle while I'm at this band concert.

—3—

At the band concert, the band played a few songs all together, and then the director had several kids come up to play a short solo or duet from their lesson book. And no one was more surprised than Phillip and I when our 11-year-old got up to perform one of them.

Just a minute before, I'd seen her jump out her seat, run across the stage, and whisper something in the band director's ear. Apparently that had been the moment when she decided she wanted to play a solo. 

We're currently working on my daughter's impulsive streak, so maybe next time we'll shoot for 10 minutes' notice on these kinds of things and go from there.

—4—

In the spring, there's always a lot of weeding and yardwork mocking me through the windows, but we had a streak of really hot days where it wasn't really possible to work outside for very long.

On a day that was slightly less hot and miserable (but only very slightly,) I asked my 7-year-old to come outside and help me transplant some plants from one area of the yard to another. Of course he wanted to stay inside and watch someone playing Minecraft instead, but once I made him come outside he had fun with his spade. 

He was really engaged, until he wasn't. One minute he was proudly showing me the plant he successfully dug up with all the roots intact, and the next minute, he put his spade down, matter-of-factly announced "I'm done" and went inside the house.

Honestly, I'm jealous. I've wanted to do that about 10 times today already, but I didn't realize that just declaring it to the universe and actually following through was an option.

—5—

Now that I have short hair, I wake up in the morning with the craziest bedhead you've ever seen. My kids call it "chicken hair." I've been throwing on a knit stocking cap on in the mornings if I need to drive the kids to school before getting ready for the day, but it's June now so I'm looking for something a little more seasonally appropriate.

The problem is, I have a teeny tiny little pinhead. I've never even been aware of it because I'm not a hat person and don't go hat shopping. But it's ridiculous. Everything is too big. I finally found one on Amazon that fit... because it was a child's hat for kids aged 5-9 years old.

Laughing at my daughter who was making faces at me through the screen door while I was trying to take a selfie.

And even this child-sized hat, to be honest, pushes my ears down a little if I put it all the way down flat on my head.

—6—

Since I'd (maybe) found a plain hat, I thought I'd look around for a little patch or something I could put on the front, just to make it a little more interesting.

I went to Etsy and searched for "hat patch."  This wasn't the very first result that came up, but it was definitely on the first couple of pages:

WHO IS PUTTING THIS ON THEIR HAT. I demand to know. I want to meet this person and possibly become their best friend.

—7—

One day, my 11-year-old came and told me that her stomach hurt. For the record, she often complains about random ailments that come and go as quickly as her moods, so my first impulse was to distract her.

This particular day happened to be the first day of a trial gluten-free diet for my three youngest kids and I, though, so I joked, "I think we found the problem. You're allergic to not-gluten. If you don't eat gluten you get violently ill."

She didn't think it was funny. But the stomachache did pass as soon as she got involved in something else.

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