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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