7 Quick Takes about Not Conserving Electricity, Shoveling All Day Long, and Dinner Reviews Put to Music

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

—1—

Phillip and I had a great time watching our 9-year-old's gymnastics meet on Saturday, but we did not enjoy getting up at 5:30 to be there. Neither did our son, and whatever you imagine that means, it was worse than that.

However, once we got there it was fine. I can't imagine being upside down nine feet in the air on the still rings at 8 in the morning, but that's what he did.

He placed first on pommel (his favorite event), and that's a great accomplishment but I really wish they would calm down with the awards. They divide the kids up into way too many age categories and give out a bazillion medals down to 5^th, 6^th, and sometimes even 7^th place, so the room sounds like a herd of sheep romping around with bells on by the end of the awards ceremony.

It's a little ridiculous, in my opinion. But I don't think a campaign to give less medals to our kids is going to gain much traction so I will just continue to clap and be happy that they're happy.

—2—

At home, we’ve started calling the kids “environmental terrorists” when they walk out of a room and leave the lights on. 

It makes no difference in their behavior.

—3—

It snowed a ton this weekend, and we thought that snowblower was not working so our whole family kicked butt and cleared our big driveway of 15" inches of snow with nothing but muscles and shovels.

Front walkway.

We did three passes throughout the storm to clear the driveway, and then Phillip raked the snow off the roof and we had to shovel that, too. It made excellent heaps on the side of the driveway for forts.

You might have noticed that I said we thought the snowblower was broken, which I don't want to answer any follow-up questions about or talk about ever again.

On the plus side, it turns out that weight training has been good for something, after all. I don't notice a difference in my strength on a day-to-day basis: heavy things still feel heavy and I still struggle to open a new jar of spaghetti sauce. But my endurance is 500% better than it used to be. I think I shoveled for a total of about 6 hours, and I wasn't even sore the next day.

—4—

On the long car rides to and from the gym four days a week, my 9-year-old and I have started listening to a podcast called But Why? It's an educational podcast for kids and even though their target demographic is age 4-10, I think I love listening to it as much as he does.

I learned that Icelandic horses have a special kind of gait called tölt that other horses can't do. I learned that emoji were invented in Japan (e = picture, moji = letter) and that a nonprofit organization called Unicode approves new emoji and decides how they appear on different devices. I learned that horseshoe crab blood is blue and is used in the biomedical field for its antibacterial properties. I even learned how space toilets work.

Anyway, this is not a sponsored post but I love But Why? and recommend that you check it out, especially if you spend a lot of time in the car with your kids.

—5—

While driving, I saw a license plate with an American flag on it and the plate number was "GG 76". 

After some discussion with my 17-year-old who was in the car with me, we decided that it was a reference to the Declaration of Independence and meant "Good game. 1776. We won."

—6—

To everything there is a season, including reading. I regularly get really busy and don't read anything for 6 months, then pile a stack of books on my nightstand and plow through them in quick succession, then go back to another half-year of illiteracy. 

Right now I'm in a reading phase.

I just finished Reina Roja, my first for-adults novel in Spanish. I definitely used the Internet a lot to help me understand complicated grammar and unfamiliar Spanish colloquialisms (apparently slamming the door on someone in Spain is "closing the door in the noses"), but I did it! While I was looking online for the name of the sequel, I also learned it was adapted into an Amazon Prime series but I'll probably skip it. The book didn't usually dwell too much on the gory details of the murder mystery, but I imagine it might be a pretty graphic watch that I might not enjoy as much. 

I also just finished an oldie from the '70s called Love Comes Softly. It was recommended to me as a easy read that's not too complex and not too riveting, so I checked it out as my bedtime book. It delivered on all those promises, and what I loved mostwas being able to hand it to my 14-year-old daughter afterward. It was hands-down the most lovely representation of a healthy romantic relationship I've ever read, with absolutely no spice. It's apparently the first in a series of nine books, so I also checked out the next few for both of us to read.

—7—

First there was a viral video of a kid reacting to a new food he tried, and then some guy composed a song around it because the kid's voice had this slightly melodic quality to it. The Facebook algorithm decided that it was something I would want to see, and it was 100% right because I love it.

Catchy, isn't it?

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7 Quick Takes about Snow, Not Having Dementia (Yet), and Pigs with a Sense of Humor

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

—1—

Well, it's been a regular winter wonderland in New England this year. For the last few years, we've had brown Christmases and barely any snow, but this winter has been really different.

Taken on my drive to the high school.

Up until now, we have had several snowfalls under 4" or so, but this weekend we're supposed to get a foot of snow or more. It takes me right back to January 2015 (take #4 here).

—2—

With all of the new snow, we took advantage of the kids having Martin Luther King Day off and met some of their friends for sledding.

 

I was planning to go down the hill at least a couple of times with the kids, I really was. But there was a lot of powder flying up in everyone's face on the way down, and I just didn't feel like that was something I needed in my life. 

Besides, it was a little entertaining to stand at the bottom watching one kid after another flying past me with a literal facefull of snow.

—3—

Phillip came sledding, too. He was sick with some kind of sinus thing, but he just loaded up on Benadryl and went to make memories with his family whether he felt good or not. (Don't worry, I drove.)

He wanted to come because he'd had a grueling week at work during which he barely saw the kids, and he and I were just two garbage barges passing in the night. Then over the weekend he got sick - really sick - and spent all day Saturday and Sunday in bed. 

Now that he's feeling a little better (but honestly, he's still not 100%) I suggested that we do something together.

"Maybe we can sit down and buy new tires for the van," he said.

Not exactly what I was thinking of, but I'll take it.

—4—

My 11-year-old asked me to play a card game with him, and I chose a game called spit. I picked it because it's an extremely fast-paced game (here's how to play) and I know I'm not that old, but I've been thinking lately about keeping my brain active as I age.

After we were finished, I was Googling other ways to exercise my brain and read an article that said bilingual people develop dementia at a later age. I showed it to my 17-year-old who snorted, "Mom, you showed me this article 6 times already!"

Ha, ha.

We'll all know when I start to develop dementia for real, because the kids will finally be able beat me at Bananagrams.

—5—

We took the kids skiing for their Christmas experience gift, and ever since they've been asking when we can go again.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

Why we introduced our kids to one of the most time-consuming, expensive, faraway hobbies we could think of is a complete mystery to me. We certainly did not think this through.

—6—

Lately I've been taking a while to get to sleep and sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping poorly after that. Any tips for sleeping better? I mean, besides drinking enough water and not exposing myself to blue light at night and having a stable bedtime routine, because I don't like doing any of those things. 

For now, I'm managing by regularly taking power naps in the parking lot of my son's gym before turning around and driving home a few times a week. Luckily he's not old enough to be embarrassed yet, but I have a feeling there will come a day when he no longer wants me passed out and drooling in plain sight of all his friends and their parents.

—7—

Apparently my kids still read my blog, because after I indirectly called them pigs a few weeks ago (see take #7 here), this mysteriously appeared as our screensaver the next day and I kind of love it. Even though no one will admit to being the one who changed it.

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7 Quick Takes about Gratitude for Groceries, Texts for the Elderly, and What It's Like to Watch Sports When You're Me

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

—1—

Phillip has taken over all food-related duties at home, which is turning out great because he likes cooking and I hate it. He's also doing the grocery shopping.

The rule in our house is that when someone comes home from grocery shopping, everybody has to drop what they're doing and come help put it away, so we were all in the kitchen unloading groceries. Pulling out a bottle of the hand soap I'd asked him to buy, I said, "Oh, this is the wrong soap. It's orange, and we always use clear soap."

My 9-year-old son looked at me disapprovingly and said, "I think you meant 'Thank you, Dad, for buying all the food.'"

This moment is brought to you by my 4th grader, Miss Manners.

Wait, does this mean that my 9-year-old is actually listening to me when I say that to him?? I mean, I'm thrilled, I just didn’t expect him to use my own words against me so perfectly.

—2—

I've spent a lot of time this week planning this year's bulletin board in our Primary room at church. Bulletin boards are like birthday party decorations: as a general rule, kids don't care or notice them at all, so unless they're involved in it somehow you're just doing it to impress other adults. So I wanted it to be something interactive.

Since we're studying the Old Testament at church this year, I had the idea to make a path where we stop once a month and add a picture of a Bible story to the path. We'll take a few minutes to talk about how we can be brave like Esther, or whatever the story is, and if they actually do it they can add a footprint sticker to the path the next week.

The part I'm proudest of is that I made this board without buying anything. I repurposed the burlap background that was already there, used lettering I found in the Primary closet, and made the border with tissue paper (also found in the closet.) I think I want my family to put on my tombstone: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." That's what makes me happy.

—3—

We keep getting severe-sounding letters from our auto insurance company. Ones that come in official cardboard envelopes you have to sign for at delivery. Our car was totaled in October, and they keep pestering us to mail them the title. Which we already did, a month ago.

I finally got around to calling them about it, but they wouldn't tell me anything because I wasn't on the title of that vehicle. So Phillip had to call them. After he explained the situation they said to ignore it, they'll take care of it and we won't get any more letters.

We got another one by certified mail the next day.

—4—

I liked this article about 5 conversation-starters that might lead to gospel conversations with other people. These are ways to ask people about how they answer life's Big Questions in a non-denominational way. Kind of a guide to go beyond small talk. If you need that kind of thing. Which I do.

I really like to share my faith and talk about what's important to me, but most of my friends and acquaintances outside church aren't religious or particularly interested in talking about it, so it doesn't happen often. (My life is basically the opposite of my son's friend's missionary experience in Brazil, where he would just board a city bus and say "Who wants to hear a message about Jesus Christ?" and people would raise their hands.)

—5—

I recently got a phishing text that read: "Hey old man, how's it been going lately?" I laughed briefly and then deleted it.

Later in the week, I read a New York Times piece on a scam center in Myanmar where workers were punished for a low response rate to their "hi" texts, which made me wonder... did I just tank a stranger's performance review?

—6—

My 21-year-old daughter got a Pimsleur subscription for Christmas to learn the basics of Japanese before she does a research internship in Japan this summer, and you're allowed to add other users to your account so guess who's using it to practice her Spanish?

Seriously, my Spanish is so weird. I've been studying for almost four years so at this point, I can read anything and get the gist of it. I know the words for 'overbite,' 'stunned,' 'flint,' and 'kidnapper,' but I still struggle to verbally put together simple sentences without hesitation, so this is the perfect thing for me.

My daughter (who researches everything, which is probably why she got the internship) tells me that Pimsleur was developed to optimize the intervals at which you review a concept in order to commit it to memory. After a few weeks on Pimsleur, I can totally see that.

—7—

A few months ago, some football player sucker punched another player in a Bears-Saints game, started a big fight, and got kicked out of the game. Not giving one flying fig about any type of sport, I naturally didn't know any of this until my 17-year-old son showed me a video with a hilarious voiceover that put a whole new spin on things:

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I thought it was funny, but probably for a different reason than my son did. I understand so little about sports that every time I watch it, it could have commentary that doesn't match at all and 9 times out of 10, I would have no idea.

I could detect the sarcasm in this one, but barely.

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7 Quick Takes about CAPTCHAs from Hades, Unplanned Kitchen Renovations, and Broken Appliances that Call You Out on Your Social Life

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

—1—

Last weekend we took down all the Christmas decorations, and Phillip removed the tree and propped it up on the deck until we could dispose of it properly.

Since then, it's tipped over and then we got some freezing rain. I haven't gone out to check yet, but I'm pretty sure we have a Christmas tree frozen to our deck until spring now.

—2—

Our 21-year-old daughter went back to college. While she was here she caught up with her high school friends, went to her sibling's sporting events, and even checked some secretarial to-dos off her list — including renewing her expired driver's license.

During the two weeks she was home, we drove her everywhere because she didn't have a valid license. Which I didn't really mind, until her very last day home when she took another look at her license and said, "Oh... this actually expires next year."

In any case, she'd already renewed it so this won't be a problem again until 2031.

—3—

Did you know that CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart? 

I can deal with the ones where you have to transcribe some wobbly numbers and letters, or click all the fire hydrants on a 9-square grid. But this week I ran across the most insane one ever designed. I may or may not have taken a break halfway through to Google "How to become Amish." It was that bad.

Now, I'd like to think I'm a person of average to above-average intelligence, but I had to re-read the directions three times to even understand what I was supposed to do.

Basically, you look at the number on the left and then scroll through the twelve different pictures of dice on the right until you find the picture with the matching total. In every picture, the dice are a jumble of dots and numbers, with some sideways just to be mean, so you're simultaneously adding in your head and trying to figure out out "Is that a sideways 9 or a sideways 6?" without forgetting what number you're at so you don't have to start over.

And to top it all off, this is only screen 2 of 3. You have to perform this same task THREE TIMES to prove you're not a bot.

Sir, I'm trying to access my online photo album, not the nation's nuclear launch codes. Settle down.

—4—

Over the winter break, our kitchen got a little out of control. No one cleaned out the fridge so it was jam packed with scary leftovers in the back, everything in the freezer was a chaotic heap, and the cabinets were stuffed because Phillip took over the household food shopping (and the man makes sure his family will never go hungry.)

It was driving me so crazy that when everyone went back to school on Monday I immediately started tidying the kitchen and it accidentally turned into a 3-day project. It was unplanned so I didn't take any before pictures, but I did take some afters:

I'm proudest of the shelves I found for the top left above the microwave. They are the exact right height for what I needed to put in them, like, to the millimeter.

I even did the freezer!

My kids came home from school after the first day and nothing was in the same place as it used to be. Opening all the cabinets, my 14-year-old murmured, "It's like the Upside Down!"

—5—

Speaking of Stranger Things, I’m growing out my hair from a pixie cut and right now it's at this really awkward length that makes me look like Jonathan Byers. 

 

—6—

Someone from the power company rang the front doorbell and it got stuck. So after they left I tested the doorbell and realized that it sticks every time it gets pressed. We must have gotten a broken one when we did a front porch upgrade in the fall!

Which means that apparently this is the first time anyone has rung our doorbell since October. I guess not being voted "most outgoing" in high school wasn't a mistake, after all. (To be fair, we've had people over in the last 120 days but they've come in at the other door or we just opened it when we saw them in the driveway.)

Thinking about next steps now. I'm embarrassed to take it back and explain to the guy at Home Depot how long it took us to realize the doorbell was broken, and if you think about it, the doorbell fits in perfectly with our lifestyle so maybe it's not even that big a deal. 

—7—

I pulled up behind this car at a stop sign, looked at the bumper sticker, and thought, "Me, too, lady. Me, too."

Then I noticed the stuffed animals in the rear window and realized she was probably talking about an actual pet pig. Oops. 

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7 Quick Takes about Picking My Battles, Going Skiing the Hard Way, and How to Be Ultra-Wealthy

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

—1—

This week was a complete and total blur. That week between Christmas and New Years, when the kids have no school and Phillip is home from work, it's always a little like "What day of the week is it?" But this time we also had the flu, so it was even more disorienting than usual. 

Everyone's sleep schedule was all messed up, and it was the kind of sick where you'd pass out and wake up without a sense of whether you'd been asleep for 15 minutes or 10 hours. Forget about figuring out whether it's Wednesday or Saturday; I was thrilled when I knew if it was morning or evening.

—2—

We were worried, actually, that our kids' Christmas experience gift was even going to work out. (This is our fourth year of giving the kids experience gifts instead of physical gifts and I recommend it 1,000%. See here if you're interested in how it works for us.) 

Usually we get a separate experience gift for each child and invite whatever siblings would be able/interested in the activity, but this year we rolled all their experience gifts into one and booked a 2-day ski trip for the whole family.

It was non-refundable so we were counting down the days wondering if some of us weren't going to be able to go, but by the day of the trip everyone was feeling good enough to at least go and enjoy the trip. There was some coughing and I lost my voice, but at least no one had to stay home chugging cough syrup while everyone else was on the ski slope.

—3—

Just a note about losing my voice: I HATE IT. I can only squeak out so many words per day, so every time there is a stupid argument, every time someone is slacking off instead of doing their chores, I have to decide: is this what I want to use one of my words on? It's the very definition of "pick your battles."

The kids keep forgetting I don't have a voice and yelling questions to me from across the house, and then going "Mom? Mom?? MOM!!!" when I don't answer them.

And forget about calling to someone in another room. They might as well be overseas, as far as I'm concerned. I'll just have to talk to them in a few days when I have a voice again.

—4—

We had never been skiing before our trip this week. If you're going skiing for the first time and don't really know what you're doing, I recommend not taking along 5 other people who also have no idea what they're doing. It's really stressful when your group takes up half the room and gets in everyone else's way while you're taking a million years renting enough gear to clothe a mariachi band. 

As I was sweating to death in my winter coat trying to jam my 9-year-old's foot into a pair of ski boots, half an hour late for the lessons that had cost us an arm and a leg, I'm not going to lie: I was pretty sure that this trip was a terrible decision. 

But once we actually got out there, the rest of the day was great. Our instructor was nice and gave us some extra time. The little kids learning around us were so cute, especially the preschooler sliding down the slope on her teeny skis with a hula hoop under her arms (her parents were behind her holding the other end of the hula hoop.) 

By lunchtime, we'd graduated from the bunny hill and went to the smallest hill that had a ski lift and spent the rest of the day there. The kids had a great time and want to go back. 

I would consider it.

—5—

As is our New Year's Day tradition, the kids each took turns smashing the gingerbread houses they made over Christmas break. 

When my 11-year-old made a Nativity scene I thought it was so cool... but I didn't think about how sacrilegious this second part was going to be until he had the meat tenderizer raised over his head.

And... 

We are so sorry.

—6—

Phillip was trying to make a point with the kids about the sort of habits that lead to success in life, and asked the kids, "What's something that really wealthy people do?"

One kid said, "Golf!"

Another yelled, "Tax evasion!"

I didn't hear the rest of the lesson, but I'm guessing from that little sliver I overheard that it went really well.

—7—

This week I've been re-watching the first season of Stranger Things with my 14-year-old daughter (first time for her.) And even though I know what's going to happen, it's still suspenseful and scary and all-around amazing. 

The first season was basically TV perfection, so it made a lot of sense when I read that the original idea for Stranger Things was for every season to follow a completely different story. Unfortunately season 1 was too perfect, so they kept going with the same story. I liked season 2 okay, but it felt to me like the well had run dry by season 3 and I stopped watching a few episodes in.

Phillip and I also watched the movie Wake Up Dead Man with our 21-year-old, and I was wary at first. It's a murder mystery in a church where one of the main characters is a priest, and anyone who's watched a movie in the last 15 years knows that there are only three kinds of religious characters in Hollywood:

1. zealot/nutjob (if you're a parishioner)
2. power-hungry hypocrite (if you're clergy)
3. superstitious fool (can be either)

But I found this movie's treatment of religion to be so refreshingly fair. The priest was motivated by a genuine desire to help people come to Christ, and he stayed that way from beginning to end. There was no shocking reveal ⅔ of the way through where he turned out to be a serial puppy murderer. He was just... inspiring. Note: I did not say the entire movie was inspiring, so don't watch it expecting an episode of Veggie Tales. I'm just saying it was definitely deeper than I expected from a whodunit movie.

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