7 Quick Takes about Possessed Succulents, Lifetime Warranties, and Days that Are Killing Me

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

—1—

I don't know very much about plants, but when I landscaped around our mailbox last summer and needed some plants, I looked for some pretty annuals and that was that. 

I ended up choosing these really cute succulents called hens and chicks that looked like this:

The hens and chicks made it through the winter and this summer they started out looking cute, and then all of a sudden I noticed that they had done this:

Just growing out of control like everything else in my life.

Three crazy cactus-like stalks emerged from the cute little star-shaped succulents and then started flowering on the top. Plants, you are too much. How am I supposed to anticipate something like that?

—2—

Here's a moment that really made me feel like a crap mom. 

I mentioned that my 8-year-old's gym just dissolved the boys' competitive program that has practically been his reason for living for the last two years. Well, this week my son's old gym mailed us a hardcover yearbook with pictures from the 2023-2024 season, but he wasn't in the group photo on the cover. When I asked about it he said "That's the first one they did on picture day. I was late." 

He didn't seem too bothered by it, but I felt awful. I mean, I know those things happen occasionally to everyone, but it's not every day that there's a commemorative photo of your parenting failures on the cover of a keepsake album.

—3—

Speaking of gymnastics, one thing I'e been doing this week is shopping around with my 8-year-old for a replacement activity. He's going to try out rock climbing and Ninja warrior to humor me, but his heart is set on joining another boys' competitive gymnastics team so we've been checking out other gyms, none of them close (or cheap). 

If you'd told me two years ago that I would seriously be considering driving 80-minutes round-trip for a 3-hour gymnastics practice four nights a week and paying out the nose for the privilege, I would have slapped you and you would've deserved it.

Generally speaking, competitive gymnastics is like the frog in the pot of water getting boiled alive. The commitment involved is insane, but it happens so gradually you hardly even realize how ridiculous it is. (If I'd known what we were getting into I never would have done it, but the 8-year-old is so passionate about gymnastics, I'm almost glad that we didn't. Sometimes.)

—4—

I was sick for a good part of the weekend, the worst day being on Sunday. That day I had meetings before and after church, a graduation open house for my neighbor's daughter up the street, a birthday visit to one of my Young Women at church, a good-luck visit to a second Young Woman before her wisdom tooth removal the next day, and an Eagle Scout court of honor for a third. 

I had to cancel all of it. I was so sad, because most of it (except for maybe a meeting or two) was something I was really looking forward to doing. But after 30 minutes of texting everyone to say that I wasn't coming, I realized that everyone was really understanding and the person who was least nice to me about having to back out of my commitments was me. I should probably be easier on myself.

—5—

Our grill cover ripped near the handle and I thought we'd test out the lifetime warranty it supposedly came with. I got stung by a wasp while I was taking a picture for the warranty people, but it worked and the new cover arrived today!

After that victory, I decided to see if I could keep it going with the Jansport lifetime warranty (yes, I just learned that the best backpacks in the world have a lifetime warranty). I took my son's mangled backpack and mailed it into the void, and now I'm waiting to see if the $15.35 I paid in postage results in a new backpack. I'm optimistic, because I got an email from Jansport the other day that said they received it and are "processing" a replacement. 

—6—

I overheard my teenager referring to an insurmountable obstacle as "a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Mike Wazowski" and that phrase has stuck with me. 

When I run into something that seems impossible to deal with from now on, I'm going to see a boxing poster of Tyson vs. Wazowski in my head.

—7—

What are you doing this summer? The lack of structure this week with the younger kids at home has been killing me (last week we did South Korea for The Educational Summer Vacation but this week has been a free-for all), so I think I need to start up my old tradition of posting a little weekly calendar on the wall with one fun thing we're doing each day.

If the kids know what the plan is, maybe they'll stop asking me 3,000 times a day to go to the beach.

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7 Quick Takes about Hardwood Floors, Scribes with Way Different Personalities, and Adventures with Amazon

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

{Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that if you buy something through these links then I may receive a small referral commission at no extra cost to you.}   

—1—

How was your Father's Day?

Having older kids is great, they did most of the cleaning of Phillip's car (our traditional Father's Day gift) and put together an impromptu fancy dinner complete with water goblets and I had nothing to do with any of it, even setting the table.

I only wish the older kids were around more so they could pull off stuff like this more often, that usually isn't the case because they have such busy work/school/extracurricular/social lives.

—2—

The carpet in the kids' room, particularly the boys' room, is at the end of its life and probably needs to be replaced. 

I know that hardwood floors is better for allergies and easier to keep clean, but carpet is just so cozy, especially in a bedroom where kids play on the floor. I decided to ask the boys what they thought.

"A hardwood floor?" mused my 10-year-old. "Can we paint basketball lines on it?"

—3—

We have a chest freezer in the basement which we usually keep stocked with frozen meat, fruits and veggies, and even staples like bread, butter, and cheese (yes, you can freeze those) to rescue us in a pinch. But over the last busy month we haven't been on top of restocking it as things get used, so it's getting pretty empty.

So I enlisted the kids to help me inventory the freezer, doing half of it on two separate days with two different children. I would look in the freezer and call out what we needed and how much, and they wrote it down for me.

The 12-year-old scribbled her notes all over the paper in every orientation, using Spanish and French when she knew the words and just spelling them as weirdly as she could on purpose when she didn't. It took me forever to decode afterward and when I asked her about one of the real head-scratchers, even she had to shrug and say "Sorry, I don't know what that is." The 8-year-old, meanwhile, wrote his notes in immaculate handwriting with everything in neatly labeled columns as to which section of the freezer it belonged in.

How did both of these people come out of me??

—4—

This week marked the beginning of this year's Educational Summer Vacation in our house. We choose different countries to learn about during the summer, which gives us some structure and the ability to extemporaneously identify obscure national flags to impress people at parties. 

This summer we're doing:

• South Korea
• Mali
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Syria

Since this week is South Korea, last night we went out to a Korean restaurant.

The 10-year-old made a huge dent in this bowl of kimchi soup and got full but wanted more, I was impressed.

It was also Phillip's and 21^st anniversary so it was only natural to go out to dinner with a 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th wheel (the 8^th was working).

—5—

This week wee tried to fix my friend Bev's vacuum. The motor and everything was working just fine, it just wouldn't roll because of one tiny little plastic piece that had broken.

Well, my 16-year-old and his 3-D printer were all over that. He spent half a day designing the new part, printing it, and using some tool in Phillip's workshop to shave off some of the surrounding plastic, then gluing it in with expoxy.

Ta-da!

Unfortunately, because of the way the 3-D printer was printing it, there was a weak point and it kept cracking at that exact spot. 

I was really disappointed, because my son had spent a fair amount of time on it, because it would've saved a big appliance from the trash, and because it would have meant that Bev didn't have to buy a new one. 

But failure teaches a lesson in humility, and skills were still learned that can be reused elsewhere, and we tried to help someone. And I guess that's the important part.

—6—

A few recent noteworthy Amazon purchases.

First, these. These are just underwear. They're not even particularly special or expensive underwear. But the box prepares you for your mind to be blown, anyway.

Get ready for the first day of the rest of your life when you open up these babies.

The back of the box had the care instructions, prefaced with "If you take good care of your underwear, they'll take great care of you." Again, wow.

The second is this duck. One of my kids got this a few months ago and it has become our go-to birthday present. It is so cute. 

It's not a hard plastic but a fun squishy texture, and when you squeeze it then it lights up. When you set it down on the edge of a counter, its little feet dangle off like a kindergartener kicking their legs on a too-tall couch. I think it can even be a phone holder, but we've never used it for that. 

I don't know if it's Japanese or not, but it's definitely the most kawaii thing we own.

—7—

Phillip has been reading a book called Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics is Different. I don't know anything about quantum physics, which is why I'm not reading the book.

But he was telling us at dinner about some of the crazy things he read and the 10-year-old wanted to know if he could read it. 

"I don't think you'd understand it," Phillip told him, "There are some more science classes in school that you need to take first."

"But I understanded Future of Humanity!" the 10-year-old protested.

Oh, the cuteness of the statement, especially when he used the word "understanded."

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7 Quick Takes about the Ending of the School Year, Agatha Christie, and Fruit Commentary

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

—1—

School ended here this week not with a bang, but with a whimper. Kids were out sick and frankly I don't think I've recovered from all the busyness of graduation and senior recital two weeks ago and it shows. The house is dirty and I'm fairly certain I've forgotten Spanish and will have to start all over. 

ANYWAY.

Enough about me, how is your summer going so far?

—2—

There is a weekly menu on the fridge to remind us what we have ingredients for in the house. One of the kids obviously got a hold of it and modified it.

The thing I love is that they also painstakingly copied all of the actual menu items in teeny-tiny letters in the bottom corner, proving that they're naughty but not too naughty.

—3—

My camera roll is full of photos from my 8-year-old's gymnastics practices. Usually I don't have time to sit and watch practice, but I made time this week because it may be his last. We learned on Monday that his gymnastics coach is leaving, and they're dissolving the boy's competitive team at the gym. Since my son has lived, breathed, and slept gymnastics for the last 2 years, this is a really sad shock for all of us.

We're not sure what we're going to do. We could follow his coach to the new gym he will be working at, but it's pretty far away. (I also just learned that their summer practices start at 6AM and I had a heart attack and died.) We could check out other gyms for boy's competitive teams, but honestly maybe it just doesn't make sense for us to pursue gymnastics. Over half the meets in the last 2 years have been on Sundays, and we don't do sports on the Sabbath so we've had to pay for them but not go. 

Maybe my son could maybe try another sport (swimming? rock climbing?) where some of those skills might transfer over. I brought up the idea with my son and he thoughtfully said, "Maybe, but it would be sad to take all that training and throw it in the trash."  

—4—

I visited someone from my church and we got talking about books, and when she found out that I'd never read a mystery novel she shoved this Agatha Christie in my hands and told me to borrow it. 

I've been mostly reading nonfiction for the last couple of years, so this is really different. I particularly like that it's set in the 1920s, when people had to rack their brains for days over a mystery phrase scribbled on a piece of paper instead of just Googling it and getting the answer in 10 seconds. How do you even write a mystery today when you can get a hold of everyone instantly and find out anything you want to know, at any time?

—5—

In our Young Women's group at church, we had a Father's Day activity that the girls have started informally calling "the dad talent show." We invite a few specific dads of girls in the group (if those dads belong to girls that don't often come to activities, even better because they will this time!) to teach us a skill for 15 minutes.

This year we learned juggling, how to change a tire, and how A.I. works. Last year, different dads taught us about job interview skills, how to install a drywall anchor, and how to make a perfect pie crust. It's been so much fun and sometimes I'm surprised at what secret talents their dads have that I didn't know about.

—6—

Among my 2nd grader's end-of-year school work that came home was this fun story:

What a beginning.

The narrative kind of devolved into chaos after that, but the beginning had real potential. An orange whale named Bob? I did not see that coming at all.

—7—

My 12-year-old convinced my husband to buy a pineapple and a papaya at the grocery store. We tasked her with cutting up both of them once we got home and here was her commentary.

Pineapple:

• "Half of this just gets thrown away! Why did humans decide this would be a good thing to eat?"
• "This is probably the stupidest fruit I have ever encountered."
• "Tips for families on a budget: do not buy this."

Papaya:

• "Ugh, this is disgusting! It's full of, like, caviar, but the Dollar Tree version!"
• "Why didn't I listen to Daddy when he said he didn't like papaya??"

It was a real learning experience for her.

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7 Quick Takes about Sitting Down in an Age-Appropriate Fashion, Graduation Burritos, and Serious Goal-Setting in First Grade

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

—1—

I recently noticed that I make old person noises when I sit down. Kind of a tired groan as I collapse into a chair. I think it might be a learned behavior from my husband, so I made him promise to stop with me.

"But it feels so good to sit down!" he protested.

I know. That's why I do it, too. But we'll just have to enjoy it in silence now so we don't sound like we belong in a nursing home.

—2—

My teenage son got his driver's permit! In a true DMV miracle, there were no problems with any of the documents he was required to bring to prove who he was, and we were in and out of there in 20 minutes.

A bird pooped on my hand as we were walking back to the car, though, restoring balance to the universe once again.

—3—

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this mylar balloon at the store wasn't a graduation burrito.

Yum!

I was disappointed when I figured that out.

—4—

Speaking of graduation, my 18-year-old is officially done with high school now. She covered her cap with little origami flowers made from copies of the sheet music from the Saint-Saëns concerto she was playing at her senior violin recital the next day. 

The graduation ceremony was nice. It was on the football field and they programmed the scoreboard to read "2024." (Although Phillip said it would've been more practical to use the scoreboard to count down how many people were left when they were handing out diplomas.) 

Graduation made me realize that not just my 18-year-old but all my kids are getting older: instead of crawling on my head and begging for snacks the whole time, my youngest just sat there in his polo shirt politely clapping for every single graduate. Time flies.

—5—

My 18-year-old's senior violin recital the next day was excellent. I made a commitment not to share my kids' pictures or videos on the blog, but I really wish I could make an exception this time.

I guess you'll just have to believe me when I say she sounded amazing and looked beautiful, and instead enjoy this picture of a mutant strawberry that I found while cutting up fruit for the post-recital refreshments:

—6—

In the fall my daughter is heading off to study violin performance in college, just as she predicted in the first grade:

Why, yes, I did bring this to her recital to embarrass her, as a matter of fact.

I love a lot of things about this drawing, but probably my favorite is that that she spelled "violinist" not with an -ist like "I want to be a violin player" but with an -est as in "I want to be the most violin."

She's going to be great.

—7—

Here's what it looks like to have both boys and girls:

Looks like Barbie joined the N.R.A.

Step 1: Boys rummage through the recycling to collect empty paper towel tubes, cut them up and tape them together to make a machine gun.

Step 2: Girls find the gun they made, paint it pink, and decorate the barrel with stars and hearts.

Step 3: Since girls aren't actually interested in playing guns and boys don't want to carry around a pink AK-47, it returns to the recycling bin from whence it came.

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