7 Quick Takes about School Year Goals, All My Newfound Knowledge, and Misadventures in Air Travel

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

—1—

This week the teenage girls at church babysat for the moms in our congregation so they could socialize without their children. 

Leading up to the day, I was worried that it wouldn't work out; so many of our teens are on vacation right now, and to be honest, right now I feel like the world in general treats anything that hints at traditional womanhood like something that smells bad and I wonder if that attitude sometimes sways our teens a little. 

But I didn't need to worry, because it went great. One of the teenagers there told me that it made her realize that she actually likes taking care of kids (!) and I heard one of the children being babysat exclaim "This is the best day of my life!" 

This kid was only 4, so it hasn't been a very long life, but it was nevertheless a nice compliment. 

—2—

Around the dinner table, we were talking about our goals for the fall. When it came to my college kid, she thought about it and said, "My goal for next school year is to approach social situations like a normal person who knows a normal amount about ants."

Apparently there was a situation where she couldn't think of anything to say to someone she'd just met, so she randomly shared a fact she'd just heard somewhere about ants and it was a little awkward. But to my knowledge it only happened once, so I don't think it merits an entire goal to avoid repeating.

—3—

I just learned something crazy about the Bible. How did I never hear about this? And how is this not common knowledge?

When Christ was on the cross, at least according to Matthew 27, He cries "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Whether or not He also meant it literally, His words were quoting Psalm 22. 

The listeners would've been familiar with the Psalms, which back then weren't numbered like they are today. People would've referenced a Psalm by reciting the first line, and then like any good song, you would sort of finish it in your head. 

Well, "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" is the first line of Psalm 22, which directly references some of the events of the crucifixion, especially verse 16 and 18.

—4—

On the less important side, I learned some other factoids.

My daughter was petsitting for some people with dogs and chickens, and that got us thinking: without a fence around their little run, those chickens would all be eaten by morning. Where did this defenseless domestic bird come from, anyway? Turns out, from a wild South Asian bird called the junglefowl. Look it up!

Then later in the week, the 7-year-old played a Franklin Delano Roosevelt card in a history game called {affiliate link} Timeline and told me he was the only president to serve four terms. Thinking maybe he'd read it on a plaque at the FDR memorial this winter, I asked if he'd learned it in Washington, D.C. 

"No," he replied, "Because the fountains were off." I didn't see what that had to do with anything, and I still don't know where he got his Roosevelt trivia, but I guess I should stop chuckling at his desire to play timeline (Take #6 here) because apparently he knows more about history than I do. 

—5—

My 17-year-old finished her second music camp of the summer. Tonight was her final concert, where I got to hear her perform in a trio.

All in all, it was a really nice time. Last night, they had a guest violinist come and perform a concert which was probably the most epic concert either of us will ever see, but unfortunately Phillip wasn't able to make it. 

He was on the way to the airport to pick up the 15- and 11-year-old who were flying home from visiting their grandparents, but it didn't go at all as planned.

—6—

What happened to the kids' flight last night is that they ran into some bad weather, and their flight was diverted to an airport in Buffalo, NY. They waited on FAA updates for the next 4 hours to see if/when they'd be able to take off again, until the flight was finally cancelled and rescheduled for 12:15pm the next day. 

Luckily, because they were kids flying alone, someone pulled some strings and was able to get them on a flight from San Francisco headed to Boston that had also been diverted to Buffalo. They were finally able to take off at about 1:30 AM and made it home around 4 AM.

In the morning, my daughter looked like those "hot mess mom" Halloween costumes you see kids do on the Internet. I heard one of my other kids tell her, "You like you were dunked into a giant pool of water, then electrocuted, then blown off with a giant fan."

"That's what I feel like," she groaned, with her forehead resting on the dining room table.

—7—

I got just as little sleep as they did after being up all night on the phone with them and the airport people getting updates on flights. And of course I'd just read this article from the New York Times suggesting that chronic sleep disruptions might cause Alzheimer's to come for me ten years earlier... maybe. 

I'll sleep really well tonight after having tucked away that little factoid, thanks.

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