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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