7 Quick Takes about Painting the Sistine Chapel, Being Reminded to Death, and Bait that Tries Really Hard

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

—1—

Having kids get older is wild. One minute they're toddlers you can't take your eyes off of for 15 seconds or they'll find a way to kill themselves or destroy the house, and the next minute they’re big kids who could stay home alone all day long if there's leftover pizza in the fridge

This week I asked the 10-year-old, my littlest buddy in the family, “I have go to the hardware store, wanna come with me?”

Looking up, he politely declined and said, "No, but I’ll give you a hug goodbye.”

—2—

We're currently in the middle of painting our living room. It's a beast to paint because of the high ceiling. We rented a scaffolding from Home Depot and that makes it less scary than a ladder, but it's still a pain in the butt. 

Yesterday I did the first coat on the blue wall... it took me 2 and a half hours (not including taping) because of all the tediousness of getting up and down from the scaffolding and moving it around.

Yes, we know the top level of the scaffolding is crooked, Phillip is putting it together and hadn't adjusted both sides yet. Don't worry, Mom, there is a railing for the top.

Until we finish painting, the house is a mess. The piano is in the middle of the living room, which the kids actually love. 

The contents of the bookshelf are in piles on the dining room floor (the other day, someone asked like it was totally normal, "Can you hand me Throne of Fire off the second stack from the end?") 

The couch is in the entryway, right by the bathroom so it looks like a waiting area. Actually, we really could have used a waiting area when all 6 kids lived at home. 

—3—

We have the scaffolding rented for one week, and it's a lot of work so I knew that we (mostly meaning I, because Phillip is at work all week) needed to focus and prioritize well in order to finish in 7 days. 

I know that, but once Phillip took out all the seats in the van to bring the scaffolding home, I got distracted by how dirty the van was and spent two hours deep cleaning it.

Sometimes I realize that my productivity is misguided, but I let the irresistible compulsions win because who knows when I'm going to feel like doing that particular unpleasant task again. Best to just go with it while it's still there.

—4—

My 14-year-old thinks I’ll forget everything unless she reminds me. Before I'm supposed to pick her up, for example, I'll usually get a text from her saying "If you haven't left, you should leave now." 

I'm offended. Of course I remember! Don't you trust me? I said I would! About 90% of the time, it's insulting. Of course, there's always that 10% when I actually would have forgotten had she not reminded me. (Which I guess is why she does it.)

But still, sometimes I get a little grouchy at her reminders:

—5—

Our family needs a new TV series to watch for family "pizza and a show" night, so we pulled up Netflix and took a vote on what to try next. We settled on a series called Raising Dion. As I watched the first episode unfold, it seemed like a very straightforward coming-of-age story about a young superhero learning to control his powers.

I was not expecting 8 minutes before the end the discovery of a mysterious note in a dead man's pocket, making me correct myself ("Oh, this is actually going to be a mystery") or 2 minutes before the end for them to randomly see ghosts, making me correct myself again ("Wait, is this a ghost story now? I'm confused.")

Just before the show started meandering across all the genres, Phillip had to leave to pick up the 14-year-old from a school event, so it was a little hard to catch him up because I had no idea where they were going with all of this. If you know, don't spoil it, we're going to give Episode 2 a shot next week.

—6—

Saw this sign for fish bait outside of a gas station:

The small print at the bottom says "our worms catch fish or die trying!" It's a little gruesome, but true and effective advertising.

—7—

I subbed in nursery at church for the last few weeks and saw the cutest thing. After playtime, a snack, and a short lesson, we had just started blowing bubbles for the kids to dance around in when one 3-year-old's mom came to pick her up. 

Surrounded by floating incandescent bubbles, she jumped up and down in her sparkly dress and squealed in her little chipmunk voice "Mom, we learned about sharing! And Jesus!" 

If it had been a scene in a movie, I would've rolled my eyes and thought, "This screenwriter has never met a child in their whole life." But this actually happened. It was definitely the most wholesome thing I've ever seen.

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about Makeshift Scaffolding, Ancient Relics, and Life Skills You Gain at Age 44

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

—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.

As Phillip was finishing up, he said he was starting to feel kind of dizzy so I asked, "Do you want to take a break? Do you want some water or food? What can I do to help?"

"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.

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about More College Move-Ins, Adventures in Milwaukee, and Topics for Your Next Luncheon

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

—1—

After moving my 18-year-old freshman son into college last week, it was time to help my 22-year-old super-senior daughter do the same.

Her off-campus apartment this year is a real upgrade. Last year she lived in a character-building place (i.e: a poor college kids' dump,) but this semester's apartment is a respectable place for an adult to live. 

After moving in her stuff, I asked her to stand on the steps of her building so I could take a picture.

“Is this my first day of school photo?” she joked.

Yes. First day of 17th grade. We're very proud.

—2—

When I wasn't busy moving both kids into their respective college living spaces, I spent the rest of the visit with my family in the area. I stayed with my in-laws and spent a lot of time with my little niece and nephew.

We took them to the zoo, and it was a great time. They rode the carousel, fed a giraffe, and could have touched the lions if there wasn’t two inches of safety glass between us.

Too young to realize that this is pretty cool.

As cool as the close-up lions where, I had to say my favorite was these monkeys taking a nap. It’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on in the picture but there are four of them huddled together, each pair with their tails wrapped around each other.

—3—

My in-laws introduced us to a card game called Flip 7, which is kind of like family-friendly Blackjack. I quickly got the reputation for being the worst gambler at the table. It was well-deserved. I always push my luck too far and lose everything. Everyone kept joking that I should never go to Vegas. 

When my 14-year-old won, she said, “I also won Blackjack when I played with my friends for cookies. Maybe I should go to Vegas.”

Okay, fine. I'll drive her, but I'm staying in the car.

—4—

Our flight home was sort of a disaster. We had a connection in Chicago, but there was a thunderstorm when we got there and no planes were allowed to land or take off. So we just circled around the airport for a half hour. 

Not a big deal, because our connecting flight was also grounded in Chicago with the thunderstorm and was going to be just as late as we were. 

But then we started running out of gas and had to divert to Milwaukee to refuel. We waited an hour in line to refuel, waited some more for some passengers to get off who just said "Screw it, I want off this plane and I'll make my own way home from here," and then waited another hour for our turn to take off and go back to Chicago. By this time, flights were moving again in Chicago and our connection left without us.

Luckily we were able to squeeze on to a flight leaving later that night and made it home by 1 AM.

—5—

Did I mention that this was the night before school started for my three K-12 kids?

As you can imagine, I woke up at 6:45 to get them up for school feeling like Ryan Gosling coming out of his coma in Project Hail Mary. I was sleep-deprived and disoriented from going straight from all-day flight saga to rushed school morning routine for three. But it was manageable because Phillip is amazing.

Over the past year, we've been having lots of conversations about the mental load at home, and this was the big, beautiful payoff. 

He arrived at the airport with food for me and our daughter and briefed me on the way home about all 3 kids' first-day after-school activities. He didn't ask me about them, he briefed me on them. He'd already checked the calendar, thought through everything that needed to happen for each item, and researched the murky details on after-school soccer tryouts and made sure our son had cleats that fit. I came home to a reasonably clean kitchen where he'd planned, prepped, and packed the kids' lunches, remembering what each one likes and that one of our kids has to meet a specific calorie count from his nutritionist. When I went to print a copy of our son's class schedule for his school binder, Phillip had already done it for me.

The amount of space this stuff takes up in your brain is HUGE, you guys. Having your partner share it is life-changing. I don't want to bash Phillip at all, but in the past I may or may not have had to remind him which grade the kids were in. Now he knows each of their school start times and, more importantly, everything that needs to happen in order to get them there.

—6—

I went to a laundromat to wash our pillows and comforters in the large-capacity machines and oh my goodness, it was such a cute place.

It looks like it's right out of the 1950s. The machines still take quarters. I can't even remember the last time I put a quarter in a machine for anything. I was probably 6 years old getting stickers out of a plastic egg.

—7—

Back in 2019, I went to a luncheon of church ladies where someone had the idea to "go around the table and say what we're reading right now." Well, I outed myself as a complete weirdo, since at the moment I was reading the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. (I probably raved about it a little too much, now that I think about it.) 

Fast-forward to a few months ago, and one of the sweet ladies who was at that luncheon approached me after church and said, "I remember how you said you loved that other book by Mary Roach. This is for you!"

So now I'm reading Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. If anyone wants to invite me to your next dinner party, we can go around that table and I can share a lot of disgusting facts about the process of digestion. Or maybe you want to pick a different topic of conversation. It's up to you.

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about College Move-Ins, Ways to Get People To Be Nicer to You, and Staying Motivated When the Going Gets Tough

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

—1—

Last week I talked about how ridiculously well-behaved my 2-year-old nephew is, whose family was staying at our house. He's absolutely obsessed with cars, so when I interrupted him playing with matchbox cars to tell him it was time to eat, he predictably said "No!"

"Time to put your cars away and eat dinner," I repeated enthusiastically, but he didn't budge.

"No!" he yelled again. But he couldn't even be bad without being good.

With an emphatic "NO!" he threw the car in his right hand in the toy bin. With another "NO!" he threw the one in his left hand. And then he took my hand to go downstairs.

However, as time went on I did see a few legitimate temper tantrums (like when we went sightseeing and his did wouldn't let him throw his favorite toy into Niagara Falls) and he also bit his siblings a few times. So that evens it out.

—2—

The day after my brother- and sister-in-law and their kids went home, I got on a plane with my 18-year-old son to drop him off at college.

There was a free arcade in the terminal (I won 2 out of 3 games of two-player Tetris) and then we watched a thunderstorm underneath us from the plane window.

It felt like that scene in James and the Giant Peach when they're floating through the rainstorm.

—3—

Moving a son into college is way different than moving in daughters. My two girls didn't have the kind of dorm rooms you see on Instagram, not even close, but they did think hard about every single item they brought. And they just had a lot more than my son did.

We brought all of his belongings to his dorm in two trips from the car, each time passing girl parents on the sidewalk carrying fuzzy ottomans and full-length mirrors and potted plants and cute pillows and air filters. We moved him in quickly, then went out to lunch and the whole thing was just... enjoyable. The most time-consuming part of the whole move-in process was probably setting up his wi-fi router.

—4—

My son's wi-fi network is named Rocky,. Can you guess why?

This is his router. Amaze, amaze.

—5—

At Target, our cashier accidentally dropped something we bought. "Sorry, it's my first day," he apologized.

When I told him he was doing great, he laughed and said "Good, because I've actually been working here for years."

It's kind of like when I leave the 'Student Driver' magnet on the car and suddenly everyone on the road is nicer to me. I think it's a valid strategy.

—6—

When i'm not moving my adult children into their college places (my 22-year-old daughter is next) I've been playing with more toddler nieces and nephews. It's been so much fun.

I'm staying with my in-laws, who babysit several days a week. It's been so nice to play pretend, make someone laugh with silly noises, and read books about farm animals again. 

My nephew is 1 and he's found an alternative to crawling: sitting up and using his heels to scoot everywhere on his butt. It looks silly, but when you think about it, crawling seems inferior because you can't hold stuff while you're doing it. 

With the butt-scoot method, he gets where he needs to go with a cracker in each hand and abs of steel. Velcro a Swiffer pad to that kid's pants and it's a win-win-win situation.

—7—

I'd like to end with an inspirational thought from my 12-year-old. 

He sometimes likes to join me when I work out, and the last workout we did together was a tough one. He was struggling with 15 seconds left on the timer so I tried to encourage him by saying, "When it gets to this point, I like to tell myself 'I can do anything for 15 seconds.'"

"You can't fly for 15 seconds," he replied. So remember that when life gets hard.

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about Not Being Prepared, Headless Cautionary Signs, and Waterfall Overload

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

—1—

This week we more or less successfully completed a multi-state, multi-family road trip with Phillip’s parents and one of his brothers and his family. I’ll spare you all the convoluted details, but trust me, it had a lot of moving parts and little kids to keep track of.

“Are you nervous?” my mother-in-law asked me the day before she flew out here to begin the trip.

“Nervous about what?” I asked. I’d been working so hard to get my college freshman ready to move in, getting the younger kids’ school supplies, figure out my seminary teacher calling before it starts, and getting the house ready for my family to stay here, I’d only spent a grand total of about 15 seconds thinking about actually being on the trip. I just didn’t have time to get that far.

So it was no surprise to me when we had to turn around and go back for our passports 20 minutes into the first leg of the drive. That was exactly the level of preparedness we were bringing to the table.

—2—

I’ve already done this trip and seen these sights before, but I’ve really enjoying spending time getting to know my brother-in-law’s kids, who are 11, 8, and 2 years old. They are unbelievably sweet, and I don’t mean that in a figurative way. I mean it literally.

“Are you even real?” I asked the 2-year-old suspiciously at the hotel breakfast on our first morning together. He was independently spoon-feeding himself a bowl of Cheerios with milk, without a bib or high chair, and his clothes were spotless. I watched as he conscientiously leaned over his bowl for each bite, and wiped his chin with his spoon afterward to catch any milk dribbles. 

For comparison’s sake, when my kids were the same age they ate meals stripped down to a diaper so they’d be easier to clean, and it still took a while to get all the food out of their eyebrows.

As I was contemplating whether or not we were actually related to this clean child, my nephew squealed and pointed at a fly that had landed on our table. My 10-year-old went to slap it, splashing a puddle of my 12-year-old’s spilled orange juice everywhere.

Forget about being on the same family tree, we may not even be on the same evolutionary tree.

—3—

Our first stop on the trip was to visit some church history sites in New York, the place of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (More on that here if you want to 

We saw the farm where most of the Book of Mormon was translated, the hone where the prophet Joseph Smith lived, and the woods where he went to pray and saw God and Jesus Christ. My 10-year-old climbed all the trees there. 

We also went to the shop where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed, and also to the hill where the original Book of Mormon plates were found. 

And then, even though it’s not a historical site (it was built in 2000), we took pictures outside the Palmyra temple.

—4—

After we finished with church history sites, we headed back toward home with a stop at Niagara Falls on the way back.

We rode on the Maid of the Mist and were the very first group to board the not-very-crowded boat, so we got prime viewing at the front. Hopefully the other people on the ship didn’t mind us all whooping and cheering to make the 2-year-old think that getting pummeled by the pounding spray was fun and not scary.

I couldn't get it all in the frame, but this rainbow was so visible we could see it curve downward into the water, looking more like a ¾ circle than an arc. If there was a pot of gold at the end, I would have seen it for sure.

When we went to Niagara 8 years ago, our youngest child got a stuffed duck wearing a Maid of the Mist poncho. It became his favorite stuffed animal, which meant that ducks became his favorite animal, and now he owns a hundred duck stuffies and paraphernalia. We had no idea we were building a core part of his personality, but parenting is like that. 

So we checked in the gift shop before we left for Ducky's brothers and sisters, and they were still there! They were also selling sloths wearing ponchos, and knowing what we know now we got the heck out of there before someone could imprint on the sloth stuffy and alter the trajectory of their entire life.

We did get a ducky Christmas ornament, though.

Stuffed ducky is looking a little threadbare these days, but this guy can stay with us forever.

—5—

At Niagara, the 10-year-old pointed out this sign and asked, “Why don’t any of the people have heads?”

I told him I didn't know and forgot all about it, until that night when I saw another headless sign at our hotel!

“Why don’t any of those people have heads?! What’s wrong with this place?” I exclaimed. This time, he was the one who had no answer.

—6—

That night, we went to a Hibachi grill for dinner. While we were entertained by the chef’s show (although our group was so big he only had time for a teeny bit of spatula-flipping and food-throwing), my 2-year-old nephew was busy playing with the brightly-lit claw machines nearby. 

We didn't put any money in it, but that didn't prevent him from having a great time. He thought he was playing a video game, reinforced by the fact that every time he looked at us we all clapped and told him he was winning the game.

My 10-year-old, though, actually did win the game. Twice. Grandpa gave him some money and he got toys out of there 2 of the 4 times he tried! I have never in my life seen or heard of anyone winning anything from a claw machine. It was weird.

—7—

Our last stop before going home was Watkins Glen State Park. My brother-in-law said it was the #3 state park in the U.S. as far as bang for your buck (scenery per square mile) and he was NOT kidding. 

We did the gorge trail, and it was like this basically the entire way down. One a half miles straight of beautiful scenery and beautiful cliff faces and beautiful waterfalls. I can't hardly even describe it.

There were just so, so many waterfalls. I think the official count is 19, and the way they organized the trails was brilliant because you went over some and under others and even behind a couple of them which was really cool. I walked part of the way with my 2-year-old nephew and he kept yelling "'Nother one waterfall! 'Nother one waterfall!" It was a really great end to the trip. 

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about What You Might See When You Put Down Your Phone, Doing Blanket Math, and Eating Food Like a Star Wars Character

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

—1—

The other day I was in the car with Phillip and our 12-year-old, and we decided to stop by the grocery store on our way home. Phillip was going to run in for something, and both of us were just going to wait in the car. I was doing something on my phone, when the 12-year-old was like, "Mom, look at the sky."

I looked out the window, saw nothing, and went back to my phone.

A few seconds later, he said, "Woah, Mom, did you see that?"

I looked up again just in time to catch a distant lightning storm lighting up the clouds in deep purples and pinks, and then go dark. It was far enough away that the sound didn't reach us at all, though. We got out of the car and sat on the hood watching the storm until it started to move away 5 or 10 minutes later, but it was a pretty cool experience.

It's not easy because so much of life is on our phones now (I wasn't just doomscrolling, I was checking my to-do list and scheduling an appointment for one of the kids), but when I can I should remember to put my phone down.

—2—

 

Our 22-year-old daughter received her mission call! In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, young adults can apply to be missionaries and then they're assigned to a certain area of the world by church leadership. 

You can learn why I trust that the process of assigning missionaries to this or that place is an inspired process here and here (no dartboards involved), but one thing is clear: you yourself don't do the choosing.

Before she opened her mission call to find out where she'd be going, I had this conversation with the 10-year-old:

Me: Where do you think she'll go?

10yo: I don't know, it's random.

Me: It's not random. They do pray about it, you know.

10yo: Well, I wasn't included in that prayer so it's random to me.

We were all making guesses based on her language experience and her personality, and in the end when she opened her call and read it we were way off: she is going to Omaha, Nebraska! 

—3—

I took the 12-year-old with me to do some errands this week. Our first stop was picking up a bag of books that were on hold for us at the public library. Most of them were for the kids, so I pulled out mine (The Collapse of Parenting) and set it on the car seat so it didn't get mixed up with the kids' books.

Our next stop was at the dollar store to grab a few things. The 12-year-old said he'd rather stay in the car and read his newly-acquired books than come in with me, so I rolled down the windows and told him to come in if he started overheating.

And then, with The Collapse of Parenting sitting prominently visible in the front seat, I left my child alone in a hot car to go shopping.

I wonder if that's in the book.

—4—

In a few weeks we're having extended family come visit the area, and we offered for everyone to stay here. That means we will have 15 people in the house, and we do not have a big house.

We can do it, make no mistake about that. But it requires some complicated logistics, and it's not as simple as it sounds because we're going to be relocating some of our kids to give their beds to the guests and everyone's personal preferences have to be considered.

I put together a literal spreadsheet of blankets, pillows, and what surface everyone will be sleeping on to keep it straight and figure out if we need to buy anything.

—5—

Getting a young adult child ready for their first year of college is hard, particularly when you live in another state so you can't just load up all their stuff in the car and drop them off at the dorm on move-in day.

You have to buy plane tickets and then think about what to buy here (mostly clothes that they'll need to try on and make sure they like,) what to order and ship to Grandma and Grandpa who live near his college (thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa, and for Amazon), and what to buy when you get there like toiletries.

Again, there's another spreadsheet.

Everything feels really rushed, especially since we're trying to get it done before our family comes into town so we can enjoy being with them. And when I say everything is last-minute, I mean everything. We just made an orthodontic appointment to get his braces off the day before he leaves for school.  

—6—

I'm also trying to learn the ropes for my new calling at church. I was asked to be the remote seminary teacher for our stake. Seminary, in our church, is for teenagers and it's an early-morning scripture study class every day before school. Ideally it's in-person at a physical building, but where we live in New England people are kind of spread-out so that doesn't logistically work for a number of kids, who can opt to do it online instead.

It's never been difficult for me to leave one calling for another before, but this was difficult for me. I loved working with the kids in Primary. Not only that, but I thought I was good at it and fulfilling a real need with talents that come naturally to me.

However, I don't think teaching seminary over Zoom taps any of my natural talents. I'm not a morning person, I'm not good at tech, and honestly I don't feel capable of teaching an engaging lesson over Zoom to tired teenagers at 6 AM (I'm not sure that anyone is, honestly.) But I suppose that's kind of the point. If you never did anything that stretched you, you'd have less reason to be on your knees asking God to help you figure it out every day.

Anyway, it's going to be a demanding calling. The amount of meetings and training I've already had dwarfs anything I've ever done in the church before, and I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing. Pray for me.

—7—

Last week for the Educational Summer Vacation, we learned about Malaysia and read a folk tale about a sneaky little mouse-deer who schemes his way to some fruit from the rambutan tree. 

As I looked at the illustrations I thought, "Hey, I've seen those at the grocery store before!" They're not there all the time so I didn't see them that week, but they had some this time so I brought them home.

Not the ripest things in the world, but beggars can't be choosers. Also, we live in New England, not Southeast Asia.

My kids love it when I serve them unfamiliar food that requires instructions on how in the world to eat it:

Actually, they were pretty excited to try these. My son said they looked like something you'd see in a funny scene from Star Wars when they ask for food on another planet and have no idea what to do with what they're given.

Cut, pop out the white fruit, and spit out the pit as you eat it.

In my opinion, they tasted a little like grapes. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

Click to Share:

Read More »

7 Quick Takes about Rollerblading, Being in the Water But Not, and Living Room Parkour for No Discernible Reason

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

—1—

Back-to-school shopping is easier now than it used to be. For one thing, the older three are adults now so I only have three school supply lists left to juggle. 

Also, the 14-year-old buys all her clothes on Depop on her own, all I have to do is sign off on the purchase and tell her to put it on my card.

That said, I do have two school supply lists staring up at me from the computer desk that I need to go through this weekend with the boys.

—2—

This week we didn't get much done, other than the unscheduled cleanup of a small tree that came down in our yard for no reason. But we did stay really busy with fun stuff.

On Tuesday we met up with a friend of my 10-year-old. It was their first playdate out of school and my first time meeting this friend and his family. They invited us to their neighborhood's private beach, and they were the most calm and gentle people. They're the kind of people I meet and think (1) I love being around them, and (2) I hope they aren't absolutely horrified being around us.

Their teenager came down to the beach for a little bit and had a full-on conversation with us, including full sentences and eye contact and everything. I think he may have been a cyborg.

—3—

On Wednesday I took the kids to a roller rink. We used to go a lot when my oldest was young, but fell out of the habit and the younger kids claimed that they'd never even gone before. 

One of the kids was ready to go about an hour before everyone else, but everyone else had fun. I used to rollerblade in college but haven't done it in about 10 years. It's kind of like riding a bike, but also kind of not. So I looked mostly competent with a few almost-falls when I lost my balance for no reason.

Also, they played a trap remix of the Barney theme song and I enjoyed it both ironically and unironically.

—4—

On Thursday we went swimming at this beautiful clear water lake that I just love, it's my favorite place and we absolutely have to go there at least once a summer.

It was such a humid day, just perfect for the beach. Stepping out of the car, the 22-year-old said, "This feels like being in the water... with none of the benefits of actually being in the water."

We discovered a sort of sandbar across the beach that we didn't know was there, probably because the other times we've been there, we didn't see people walking around on it and looking like Jesus performing a miracle from our point of view on the other shore.

—5—

On Friday, the whole family went hiking at a state park that I'd found at the beginning of the summer when making a list of things to do. It wasn't the kind of day you'd think would be great for a hike: it was 85 degrees and a million percent humidity. But Phillip had taken the day off work, we'd reserved a park pass ahead of time, and we were going no matter what.

Most of the 5-mile hike was in the shade, and there were wild blueberries (which I think might be illegal to eat in a state park, but I'm not sure about that), and truthfully, all of the kids did really well. I heard very little complaining, even though two of them had already done intense physical workouts (cross-country practice and gymnastics practice) earlier that morning.

Afterward, we went swimming at the beach area. That's where I saw this sign prohibiting portable speakers "or other noise producing devices" that would bother other people. Which I read as my kids raced whooping and screaming into the water.

Sign that may or may not ban my children from the lake, emphasis mine.

—6—

When no one can agree on what to watch for family movie night, the rule is that Mom and Dad get to introduce them to one of our favorite 90's movies. 

This week we watched Sister Act, and I have to say that it held up. You never know if you're going to put it on and spend half the time cringing and trying to communicate the following to your spouse with your eyes:

• I didn't remember that being in there
• I hope that part goes over the kids' heads
• This aged terribly and is incredibly _____ist
• Wow, I really did not remember that being in there

But none of that for Sister Act. Everyone enjoyed it, and Phillip and I didn't have to hold a debriefing about it afterwards, either.

—7—

Boys are funny. I remember thinking something was wrong with my first son when he was a preschooler, because I kept comparing him to his two older sisters. When they get excited, girls will run around and scream, but boys will straight-up punch a hole in the wall. They just have too much energy to be contained by their bodies, and honestly I'm not sure when that ends.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch with my 18-year-old son making a plan for college move-in. I asked him to go check something upstairs, so he bolted up, leapt over the living room couch with a deafening thud, and thundered up the steps three at a time. There are no words.

Click to Share:

Read More »