7 Quick Takes about Dubious Reasons to Celebrate, Getting Kids to Do Chores, and the "Fake It To Make It" Approach to Photography

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

—1—

You remember how I keep saying that my 13-year-old will use any excuse to make dessert?

This is what "running out of special occasions" looks like.

It's getting ridiculous. 

—2—

I started using a new free app called Tody to keep track of the household chores for the kids. For the past few years I've been using Google Tasks and it worked okay but there were a few limitations that made it annoying, but so far Tody is awesome.

It gamifies cleaning by making it a competition against a dustball named Dusty. The kids can see at a glance which rooms of the house are dirtiest and they earn points by checking off overdue chores. 

Screenshot from this morning.

There are even surprise challenges to motivate them to do extra cleaning. On the second day, it asked my 13-year-old, "Do you accept the Kitchen Battle? Do 3 chores in 15 minutes for extra points!" I just watched in stunned silence as she recruited her siblings, clicked 'accept,' and then they all cleaned like crazy to beat the 15-minute timer that popped up. I know the novelty will wear off sooner or later, but... that was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

—3—

I was at the GI with one of my children, following up on a digestive issue they were having. Things have improved since the last time we were there, and the gastroenterologist ultimately gave my child a clean bill of health. In true GI form, she waved us off by saying "Happy pooping!"

"Do you think anyone else will say that to you today?" I asked as I drove my child back to school.

"I hope not," they said.

—4—

One morning I was struggling to gather motivation for my morning workout, so I decided to scroll Facebook for a dopamine infusion. I had probably spent too much time on there already when I came across this meme:

I feel personally called out by this.

Okay, first of all, I didn't know that #4 was common enough to make it into a meme about midlife.

Second of all, it made me stop scrolling and go eat some eggs so I could do my strength training already.

—5—

The family went on another beautiful hike. We've been to this spot before, but took a slightly different route and the algae in the water was brighter and greener than before. 

I've been wondering how to get a few quick, cheap senior photos of my 17-year-old, and it was here that I got the idea to take them myself because I achieved one nice picture on this trip, even though I have no specialized equipment or photography knowledge. Wish me luck. 

—6—

These are the stickers at my kids' dental office that you can take as you leave. I love that someone took the time to categorize and label them, and even more I love that these are the 4 categories they chose:

Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor.

I noticed that the "random" bin is the least full, so everyone seems to be taking from there. It just sounds more fun.

—7—

I did join up with my family for the second half of their camping trip at the beach. I'm still getting used to the idea of camping at a teeny tiny site just a walk from the ocean, as we've always camped at more remote sites in the woods before. But the kids certainly had a good time.

Don't be fooled: by the end of August the ocean is frigid.

I heard one of them trying to convince their dad to get in the water by saying, "It's fine! Once you get in your whole body goes numb so it doesn't even feel cold!" They weren't really selling it, in my opinion.

I thought it was funny how this seagull was guarding this sandcastle:

Three other families from church were camping at nearby sites, so there were plenty of kids running around and playing together the entire time. It was a nice end to the summer and now we're back to school and everyone is starting sports and lessons. Time is crazy like that!

Click to Share: