7 Quick Takes about Being Waldo, Homeless Bags, and How Kielbasa Is Saving Our Summer

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

—1—

I lead the teenagers at church, and we do weekly activities. We can do anything that interests the girls, really, so we do all kinds of stuff. This week we had a Real Life Where's Waldo activity, and it was so fun.

I got the idea here and the girls thought it sounded like fun. So all the youth group leaders put on disguises and headed to the grocery store where the girls split up into teams and searched for us. 

As I snuck out of the house in my wig and glasses (I didn't want to spoil it for my own teenager if she saw me first) I heard my 11-year-old asking, "Who was that?"

Pretending to shop in the store and hearing the girls scampering around behind us, recognizing their individual voices as they whispered excitedly to each other "How many Waldos are here?" and "Where do you think they are?" was so much fun. They had a really good time, too.

—2—

When I got home, of course all the kids wanted to try on my borrowed wig. When it was my 9-year-old son's turn, he yelled "Hair flip!" and tossed his head to the side like he was trying to get the hair to sweep over his shoulder like girls do.

But it didn't work.

"Hair flip!" he tried again, but he was still unsuccessful. The hair stayed where it was.

Frustrated, he turned to me and demanded, "How do y'all do this?!"

—3—

This week was end-of-school year everything. I helped a friend with her daughter's graduation party, and attended a graduation "clap-off" for my 5th grader.

While we were there, this guy's shirt caught my eye:

First, I love this shirt. Second, I didn't get too close to the woman in the white skirt, just in case.

Today is Phillip's and my anniversary, and I joked that I was going to get him this shirt. He squinted his eyes at the blurry picture and read, "'I love mentally unstable women.' Hey, that's perfect! I've got four of them!" I'm sure that our three daughters would be thrilled to know that they're included, as well.

—4—

Our traditional Father's Day gift is deep cleaning Phillip's car. We vacuum the floors, scrub the seats, wash both sides of the windows, dust the dashboard, and hose off the outside of the car. The car desperately needed all of these things.

Made sense for the younger two to clean the backseat, since they made most of the mess back there.

The 13-year-old was in charge of taking out random pens, water bottles, and other odds and ends that had accumulated in the car. Holding up a big Ziploc bag filled with toiletries and snacks (pictured on top of the car in the picture) she asked, "What's this?"

"That stays in the car," I said. "It's a homeless bag."

At a church activity a few weeks ago, my boys assembled homeless bags to give out to people on the corner asking for help. But apparently that wasn't clear from my answer, because she just said, "Sooo... you're kicking Dad out?"

—5—

Now that we're officially on summer vacation, it's a new kind of crazy. I'm excited that I no longer have to wake kids up for school, but having them home full-time brings its own set of challenges. The calculus involved in sharing 3 vehicles among 8 people becomes more difficult. I spend more time with the kids so my to-do list gets longer every day as things keep getting pushed to tomorrow. And the house is never, ever clean.

I need things in my life that are easy, which is why it's perfect that I came across this wonderful sheet pan meal. I'm obsessed with it and we eat it once a week.

I'm not a food photographer, but trust me, it's delicious. (It's way prettier if you use baby red potatoes but this is what we had in the house.)

—6—

I'm currently watching the Pride and Prejudice BBC miniseries, and I just don't agree with the way they portrayed Mr. Darcy. They "did him dirty," as the kids would say. Why did they make him be so awkward for the first three episodes? 

Nobody in the novel was like, "What misfortune that Darcy should be at this party, he's so peculiar!" He just thought he was too good for everyone and everything and it showed. People thought he was a snob, not a weirdo. 

I think the problem is that the miniseries took out most of Darcy's lines of dialogue, so all that's left for Colin Firth to do is stare with an inappropriate intensity at Elizabeth whenever she's in the room. I know it's supposed to be a smoldering gaze but all I can think of is that scene in Twilight where Bella walks into the classroom and Edward leers at her like he's going to either take off like a rocket ship or vomit:

I'm sorry I just compared Pride and Prejudice to Twilight. I didn't mean it, honest. I guess I just really prefer the novel to the screen adaptation. (Also, I kept watching and discovered that Mr. Darcy suddenly becomes more normal in the fourth episode so there's that.)

—7—

Having all three of my older kids work at the same place is amazing. Already this summer, there have been so many times when one has a conflict so they just talk among themselves and trade shifts, share the car for rides, or brings the other their forgotten glasses/wallet/Chapstick when they come in later that day. Sometimes Sibling A works in the morning, and when Sibling B drives there in the afternoon they just hand off the keys and it comes home with Sibling A 30 minutes later. It's great. Also, it's the only way this car-sharing scheme can work for a whole summer. Wish us luck.

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