7 Quick Takes about Ineffective Signage, Drinking Glasses, and Returning Home from Barbieland

Really, really late 7 Quick Takes this Friday! I haven't had a chance to sit down and write this post until now because I've been camping all week with my church youth group, but more on that later.

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—1—

Here's what happens when you clean the kitchen before you go to bed, leaving behind a helpful "NO DISHES HERE" reminder note on the counter for your night owl teenagers and early riser children:

In the morning, this is what I woke up to.

To be fair, there are no dirty dishes directly on top of the sign, so technically they still followed instructions. I will either have to be more specific with my next sign and specify exactly where "here" is, or maybe just send them all to boarding school.

—2—

We're in the process of switching out our light bulbs on the main floor for daylight bulbs instead of warm light. It's amazing! 

I've always been bothered by how dark our kitchen seemed, even with the lights on, and now it's like staring directly into the noonday sun. Okay, not really. But it's a lot brighter and I like it much better. 

For now we're not switching out the lights in the bedrooms or bathrooms, because my daughter claims that daylight bulbs make you look bad doing your makeup and Phillip says warm light is better for relaxing and getting ready for bed. What do you think we should do? What kind of light bulbs do you have?

—3—

The other household change I'm loving right now is my new water glasses. I never thought I would say that, since I'm 42 years old and I've never owned or even seen a drinking glass that made me think "Wow, what a nice glass!" At best, we just owned or inherited whatever we had and went "Meh, this is fine."

Now that's a classy-looking glass of milk.

These glasses are very minimalist, which is probably why I love it. I actually drink more water now because they're so pretty to look at and fun to hold in my hand.

—4—

Most of this week, I've been at a camp for the teenage girls in my church congregation and other area congregations, with maybe a total of 75-ish girls. 

Each day there were workshops, scripture study sessions, a devotional, and a service project. Girls spent their free time swimming, making stuff in the craft barn, or shooting at the rifle and archery ranges. They could drop off nice notes for each other at the camp post office, or spend the tokens they earned for kind behavior at the camp store on little trinkets, stickers, jewelry, or toys. 

There was a polar bear swim every morning (optional, but the girls did get a Klondike bar for participating), special hikes, and a 1-mile swim (also optional.) There were silly camp songs, an outdoor concert, glow-in-the-dark games, and a ridiculous skit night that the girls loved. Luckily, I didn't have to plan any of it, I just showed up and supervised.

The view at night from the beach.

—5—

One other woman and I were assigned to watch over the 11- and 12-year-old campers. I hadn't met Danielle before but I adored working with her. She made the week so enjoyable, and I think we made a good team. Honestly, I would like to see her again just for fun!

Danielle and I handled any emergencies that came up (at 7AM wake-up on Saturday morning I already had 1,344 steps on my fitness watch, mostly because we'd been up way past midnight dealing with campers' problems the night before) but the bulk of the day-to-day work of getting the younger campers where they needed to go was done by the older campers, who are designated Youth Camp Leaders. It was a beautiful system and I loved seeing almost all of the older girls rise to the challenge.

Seriously, though, I'm going to need about a week to catch up on sleep.

—6—

The Youth Camp Leaders chose a Barbie theme for camp. The dining hall was festooned in pink and white balloons and streamers. As campers checked in, they were given pink T-shirts that said "I am Kenough" and got their photos taken behind a big wooden frame that made them look like a Barbie doll in a box. It was all really well done.

The funniest part was the Ryan Gosling memes hung up all over the place. I kept finding new ones throughout the week, but this one in the bathroom was my favorite:

One of the camp caretakers was a man in his late 60s or early 70s, and when he saw the shirts he asked me what "I am Kenough" means. Even though I didn't see the Barbie movie, I'd heard enough about it to give him a brief summary. 

His response? "Sounds like a movie I'd only watch if I was on my deathbed and my nurse turned it on before she left the room because she hates men." (I laughed, but actually that's kind of why I never saw it, either.)

—7—

At the camp rifle range, I discovered a new activity that I don't have an ounce of natural talent or ability for.

My very first target. Believe it or not, my second attempt was even worse.

When I showed my target to someone standing nearby, I got the most diplomatic reaction ever: "Well, look at that! You aimed for the T and you got it!"

I sure did. I started to perforate the edges like a stamp, too, but I unfortunately ran out of bullets.

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