—1—
We started painting the main area of our house! It's been a decision that was long-overdue, but we procrastinated because of the pain it is to try to work on the two-story areas.
We even got a quote from a professional painter to come do it, but I could never in my heart of hearts bring myself to pay someone 4 times as much to do a job we could technically do on our own.
Phase One was tackling the stairwell, which involves a DIY scaffolding that was technically sturdy but felt very precarious to be up on.
 |
| You wouldn't know it from this picture, but Phillip absolutely hates heights. |
"Just... stand there," he said.
"For moral support?"
"Well, someone’s got to tell the cops what happened."
Everything ended up fine, by the way.
—2—
When we set up the scaffolding to paint, I was especially excited to extract the Nerf dart in the lampshade in the picture above. It's been there for years but it wasn't exactly easy to get out, being situated high in the air over a set of stairs.
When we went in to retrieve the Nerf dart, we also found a wool dryer ball inside, in case you're wondering what it's like to have boys.
Also while I was painting, my 14-year-old complimented my jeans and told me it was too bad I got them all full of paint because they were so cute. This was an old bootcut number from 1999 that I decided was too embarrassing and out-of-style to be seen in public anymore years ago.
—3—
My kids assemble their school lunches the night before, so one evening as we were trying to get the kids ready for bed I yelled to one of my boys and asked, "Did you pack your lunch?"
"No!" came a distant response from deep in the house.
"Where are you?" I yelled back.
"In the bathroom!" came the answer.
Someone in the family had the audacity to look at me and say, "We could say he's unpacking his lunch."
I love being a mom and think it's the best job in the world, but sometimes I could really use some PTO.
—4—
In what feels like maybe a related note to Take #2, I went to pick up a WalMart order and when the employee handed it to me through the car window, he saw my phone and said, "Woah! That's an old iPhone!"
I wasn't offended. It is old. So I laughed and figured that would be the end of the interaction. But he couldn't stop marveling at such an ancient artifact. "What year is that?" he wanted to know.
I'm not techy and I don't buy the household phones so I told him I wasn't sure, and in the end he walked away muttering "That's an OLD iPhone.”
I’m sure he’s still telling his friends about that day.
—5—
This week I’ve been working very hard to get ready for my new online seminary class. (In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, seminary is what we call the weekday religious class for teenagers. I'm not handing out doctorates in theology, but I'm flattered you think that.)
Anyway, my co-teacher and I spent all week setting things up online, visiting our students before the first day of class to deliver their materials and say hello, and practicing using all of Zoom's features like breakout rooms and whiteboards for the first lesson on Thursday.
It went... okay.
Zoom teaching is a bazillion times harder than classroom teaching. I’m still figuring it out, and the kids are still figuring me out, so as time goes on I hope we'll all get more comfortable. Thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
—6—
This is the time of year when my inbox is flooded with emails from all the middle and high school teachers with subjects like “Welcome to 7th grade math!”
Respectfully, I'm not in 7th grade math. I'll talk with a teacher if there's a specific concern that my kid can't resolve by themself, but there's really no reason I would need to know the daily ins and outs of the classroom late work policy. By the time my kids are in middle and especially high school, I feel like that’s their job to know and manage, not mine.
And they do know what the late work policy is. I know that because after the first day they brought home a paper copy of the class expectations that I had to sign for some reason.
—7—
The best thing I ever did for my back was to start lifting weights. It totally taught me how to bend over and pick up stuff the right way. I couldn’t do it wrong now if I tried.
The right way, if you’re wondering, is to hinge your back. Imagine you’re holding a broomstick (or go get an actual one, I don’t care.) Put it in front of you so your head, chest, and pelvis are all touching the broomstick. Now imagine you have to bend over and pick something up, while keeping all those points of contact.
I shared my observation about learning to hinge correctly with Phillip and he replied, "My hip mobility exercises are teaching me to walk the right way. My hip doesn't hurt anymore after I go for a run."
So at 44 and 45 years old, I’m learning to bend over and he's learning to walk. This is great.
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