—1—
Usually my 18-year-old just ignores scammy texts that she receives, but she recently responded to one and a hilarious conversation ensued. My daughter drew it out so long, I have no idea why the other person didn't give up and move on.
The funniest part was when the scammer asked my daughter to send pictures of herself, so replied with a text that said "download image" and asked "Did you receive it?" Then she acted like she couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, asked for step-by-step instructions on how to text a photo, sent a few more "download image" texts and "photo.jpg" texts, and finally started accusing the scammer's phone of being the problem and arguing with them that they needed to turn it off and turn it back on again.
It was utterly ridiculous and I loved it.
—2—
Overzealously, I signed up at church to have a dinner group at my house this past Sunday. Not only do I dislike hosting and cooking, I don't have the energy to pull it off right now even if I did like it. I am insane.
Thankfully, I have the best husband in the entire world. On Saturday he wrote out a weekly meal plan, made a shopping list, and took the youngest to the grocery store with him. And while he was there, he not only knew about our dinner plans for the next night, but he had the thought "I wonder if our guests will be disappointed if there's no meat in the curry" and brought home a big package of chicken in case we needed it.
I keep picturing myself telling this to someone and having them turn to me and ask "So what exactly is it that you do here, again?"
Honestly, I don't even know. I feel like Phillip carries so much of the load around here but I still feel maxed out. Lately I've been wondering if I actually have some sort of a physical problem that is causing me to feel so drained, but then I look at my mile-long to-do list and it kind of seems like the problem is called LIFE.
—3—
The dinner guests were all people I knew from church, but one of them brought a friend and his reaction to being with us as we ate and talked was interesting. He said a few times during dinner that he was enjoying it because it was so "quiet."
I assure you that it was absolutely not quiet: we had 16 people in our relatively small house, including kids and teenagers who were the literal opposite of quiet.
But in our church we talk about feeling the calming influence of the Holy Spirit when you're in places or with people who follow the teachings of Jesus, and I think that may have actually been what he meant.
—4—
Part of the reason I didn't have the mental bandwidth to handle hosting dinner on Sunday was because I was planning a camping trip on Tuesday for the church youth group I'm in charge of. Thankfully I have amazing co-leaders who shared the burden of packing and planning and checking the weather obsessively.
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| The view from the campsite shelter as it was raining. |
We hung out at the campsite, played games, went river tubing, took a hike, did a service project, and visited a church history site. I think the girls made wonderful memories and even though it was really hard to put together, all of our prep work was worth it.
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| Hiking and stopping at a water-filled basin in the canyon. |
As we were driving home at the end of the trip, I almost had a heart attack when an LED sign on the side of the freeway said "Accident Ahead: All Lanes Closed." After a moment of sheer panic, though, I realized that we were taking the next exit and we wouldn't in fact be trapped in standstill traffic for hours with three vans full of exhausted teenagers eager to get home.
—5—
I knew this before, but the camping trip affirmed to me that I hate being in charge. I like to be a helpful cog in the machine, not the one who everyone looks at when something unexpectedly goes sideways and asks "Now what do we do?"
Some people can handle that without letting it turn them into basketcases, but unfortunately I am not one of them.
Ironically, it doesn't show that I often feel like my hair is on fire. I've been complimented numerous times on my unflappable demeanor and been told a few times that it's the reason I was asked to be in charge of a certain project. LITTLE DO THEY KNOW.
—6—
When I came home from the camping trip, my 20-year-old saw how hot and tired I looked and offered me some of her ice cream in the freezer.
I sat on the floor and ate it while listening to her tell me a funny story about the kids at the theater day camp she's helping out with for the week, and it was probably the best ice cream I'd ever tasted.
—7—
You know what's a funny sight? When you walk by your dining room and it takes you a minute to realize that you didn't actually see a middle-aged guy sitting at the table drinking his morning coffee and reading the paper: it's just your 10-year-old, who poured his breakfast smoothie into a mug to drink while he reads.
And what he's reading is actually a Dogman comic book.
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