7 Quick Takes Friday {#6}

Better late than never, right?  You can do your own and link up at Conversion Diary!

1.)  I was on an elevator yesterday and immediately knew what my first Quick Take would be for the week.  See here's the thing about me and elevators: when I get on, and the elevator starts going up, or down, and the doors eventually open...I get off.  Doesn't matter if it's not my destination yet and the doors are only opening for someone ELSE to get on or off.  I just leave.  I walk right through those doors.  And of course once I realize my mistake, I'm way too embarrassed to hop right back on with the rest of the people I just left.  So I pretend that I'm actually supposed to be on that floor, and then go back and wait for the elevator to take me where I'm actually supposed to go.  Something is really wrong with me, I know. 

2.)  Yesterday morning I was flipping around the radio stations in the car and landed on one where two DJs on a Christian station were ARGUING.  Yes, arguing!  I guess a song had just played where the lyrics talked about how great God is, and the one DJ said he didn't like it--that it was real arrogant, and taunting people who didn't believe in God.  The OTHER DJ was sooooo flabbergasted by this and immediately began throwing scriptures around, saying the song was Biblical...oh my goodness it was hilARious.  So funny.  The way the one DJ was defending the song lyrics, you'd think he was concerned about the other DJ's salvation.  Maybe he was.  The whole thing just made me chuckle because mainstream evangelical Christian culture is seriously hysterical sometimes.  Really, really funny.  ALSO on the Christian station, they talked about how some publication just reported that some secret drawings of the brain stem were discovered in Michelangelo's work.  THEN the DJ went on to talk about how much of Michelangelo's art is risque, but the station's website had some of his SAFE art to look at, that even the kids could see.  Um...REALLY??!!  It's Michelangelo!  It's classic art!  We all have bodies.  Have we really not moved past, oh, I don't know, 8th grade?  Oh man.  I got a good laugh out of this as well.  (And yes, I do regularly laugh at the K-LOVE DJs.  I am a terrible person.)

3.) I just started reading Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years at the recommendation of a friend.  I'm LOVING it!  It's my first Donald Miller book I've read, though I did skim parts of Blue Like Jazz (which SEEMED perhaps a bit overhyped for what the content was).  Anyway, the book is great so far.  I love the idea of life as a story, of God entrusting each of us with a unique and potentially amazing story to live, but that a good story will involve facing and overcoming great conflict.  And, the author makes me laugh.  He's pretty funny.

4.) My kids didn't attend VBS this summer.  I think I feel a little guilty about it.  But they went last year, and we received some extremely offensive and awkward comments about our family size, and our adopted sons, from the people putting on the VBS, so I didn't want to go back there...and our neighborhood VBS is really expensive.  (Honestly, I think charging money for VBS is ridiculous.  I know materials cost money, but please don't call it "outreach" when it is no less than $20 per child.)  So, no VBS.  I'm moving past the guilt though because my goodness, we can't do it all.  I find that there are just so many opportunities for activities and we really have to cut out what isn't essential for us.  Apparently this summer, that was VBS.  (And swim lessons.  More guilt.)  Maybe next year we can get back into it.

5.)  My kids have been playing happily, looking at books, coloring, and jumping on the trampoline all morning.  It is really nice to have a day at home.  It's been a busy summer--filled with great things--but we seem to all go sideways if we don't have a handful of stay-at-home-days in there too.  Some of this is for my own sanity.  I'm a hermit an introverted homebody and during the winter, I will go days at a time without leaving my house.  This does not bother me in the least.  I have no trouble staying busy with five children to raise, a home to keep, books to read, and a computer to use.  I'm just one of those people who doesn't get bored.  This may be the strangest thing about me--if not, it's definitely up there.  I don't know why exactly I'm like this, but some of it probably has to do with growing up out in the country and not constantly going places.  I never took dance (well that's not ENTIRELY true, I did do a two-week dance program through city rec once and I was awful, but hey I had a good time), or karate, or sports (I'm not athletic at ALL, so this was probably for the best.)  I found other stuff to do, read a lot, spent time with family and friends, came up with imaginative play, and I loved Barbies.  I also swam a lot at the community pool.  All of that to say, I never developed a need to be entertained and I have a low threshold for fun, meaning I am amused quite easily.  This probably helps explain why, when we receive our year-end breakdown of spending on our credit card statement, the "entertainment" category shows pretty much zero dollars.  (I apparently married someone like this too.)

6.)  I was reading through old blogposts today and I have to say, I miss when my kids were smaller.  The days when Anna was 3, and Kaitlyn was a baby, and Yosef and Biniam were 2, oh my goodness those were some crazy and fun times.  I refuse to be that person who claims the past was better, but oh how I miss it all.  Well, I miss MOST of it.  (Three children in diapers wasn't always the most fun.)  And yet, getting to know my kids more and more as they grow and mature is pretty amazing too.  Time just keeps marching on and things change each day, even if it is so gradual that you can't see it.  I have loved each stage of my kids' lives, but there was something really magical about life with three toddlers, and then three toddlers and a baby.

7.)  We were up WAY too late last night watching a {certain} show on DVD from the library.  We are working our way through the series (which is not being made anymore).  No, I'm not telling you what show it is, because I'm afraid someone will spoil it for me.  (Apparently I have trust issues.)  But suffice it to say that we are completely hooked on and addicted to this show!  I'm always thinking about it, and wondering how it will all end, what else we will discover, etc.  So today I'm sleepy, but it was worth it for sure, because Breyer's cookies-and-cream ice cream and watching ______ with my husband makes for a great evening.  (And yes we continue our tradition of not really seeing any current TV shows.  I seriously think most of what is on TV is ridiculous.  Back when I had mono (nearly two years ago) I watched a lot of TV and it killed me how lame most of it was.  It helps pass the time I suppose (especially when you're too weak and tired to do anything else), but I am consistently amazed at how many shows are on and the sheer number of people who watch them.  Especially the random, trashy comedy-type shows.  Or any of the shows on the CW or WB or whatever that station is called now.  All these teen shows about vampires and scantily-clad girls who gossip.  PUH-LEASE.  And YES I am aware that I'm eighty years old at heart.  Grumpy and disapproving of pop culture and all that it stands for.  Oh and we don't pay for cable or satellite, we just have an antennae we set up sometimes.  Yet another reason I'm actually an elderly person in disguise: we don't keep up with new technology!  If you're up for a game of shuffleboard, you should come on by.)