1.) Anna is participating in a science fair at school next week. And I cannot even BEGIN tell you the level of anxiety I am feeling. Everyone in her science class is expected to participate by doing a project and a display. Eek! You can imagine my amusement this morning when I dropped her off at her science class, only to find the sweet teacher outside, surrounded by anxious homeschooling parents, fielding question after question about the fair. SO glad it's not just me! And if you're not a homeschool mom, then maybe you don't know the terror that strikes our hearts when our child is expected to come up with something for a class. But it is downright horrifying. Trust me.
2.) Read this over at Elizabeth Esther's blog this week. LOVE.IT. As in, I have SO much love for this post. As in, it makes me happy, happy, happy. And this may or may not have to do with the fact that I may or may not live in my yoga pants. And the built-in bra with the shirt, plus the hoodie to cover up the, uh, leakage. Mmhm. I've breastfed three babies so far, people, two of them being extended nursers, ONE of them STILL going strong at nearly 17 months old with no end in sight. I love nursing my babies. So I gotta have that hoodie.
3.) Then I read this by Rachel Held Evans. A to the MEN. OH my goodness, I have been bothered for YEARS by this strange idea within evangelicalism that women are supposed to be in full makeup with perfect hair all the time and if a man cheats it's somehow HER fault and we're all supposed to pretend that we didn't birth babies and that our hips and stomachs are the same as before and if they're not and we're not wearing makeup then he will surely cheat and, remember, if he cheats it's HER fault??!! Hello??!! Womens' bodies are designed for birth. For breastfeeding. (That's why you need a hoodie.) And let's be honest ladies: our fabulous bodies are NOT the same afterwards. They're not supposed to be. Birth is a miracle. Thus the post-birth, post-breastfeeding body is a miracle. See it as such. Quite frankly, I wasn't born wearing makeup and, guess what, I have the thickest, most wild and crazy hair that isn't straight OR curly. So I'm generally walking around with it halfway towards being one or the other. If I'm leaving the house I'll pull the flat-iron out, which basically buys me ten minutes of pretty...before it puffs up like a frizzy mushroom again. (My current haircut helps a little bit, at least. The mushroom is slightly more controlled.) But my husband loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, and most importantly my God loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, so I don't really care what random church people have to say about it. (I must say that belonging to an egalitarian-ish church, even if I don't really necessarily consider myself an egalitarian, has been a breath of fresh air in this regard.) Don't believe the myth, people.
4.) I'm really, really trying to figure out Twitter. It's like a weird, obsessive-compulsive goal I've set for myself. And not for any rational reason, I just want to be a part of it. High inclusion needs and all that. I even joined a phone conference the other day to learn more about it. (Apparently that's a complete and utter FAIL when you're yelling at your kids and doing dishes during the call. And don't judge--I had it on "mute." So no one could HEAR me yelling at my kids.) SO, if you're on Twitter, won't you "follow" me and talk to me and stuff? Pretty please?
5.) Sickness has finally left our house. YAY! I'm feeling SO much better, the kiddos are all well, and things are really looking up as a result. We have a fun weekend ahead, including Saturday night dinner at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's home, and then we're having some new friends to dinner at our home Sunday evening. Fun!
6.) A few days ago we were driving in a nearby suburb. Outside of our own city limits. And we were behind a big truck with multiple pro-gun bumper stickers, a bumper sticker about how "we speak English in the US", and...wait for it...a replica of, um, part of a bull's anatomy hanging from the bumper. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Who IS this person? I was seriously speechless as we sat there in traffic. Well, not totally speechless--I WAS able to point it out to Kevin, who was equally dumbfounded. As if the gun- nut and random English-is-the-best-language-in-the-world-because-we-speak-it stickers weren't enough (and truly, they were), they had to have a pair of plastic bull's (gross word coming up) testicles (I warned you) on their car??!! I guess at least it was entertaining(?) A slice of Americana I rarely see. (A friend of mine thought it would be funny to secretly slap a "Free Tibet" sticker on there. I'm still laughing about that. And I think it's a fabulous idea.)
7.) Why do my children insist on eating PB&J sandwiches open-faced? When I don't serve them that way? Why do they prefer, as a result, having jelly in their hair, on their clothes, on their SOCKS? A question, like so many on this blog, for the ages.
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Do your own Quick Takes, because it's fun. Then link to Betty Beguiles, who is guest hosting this week!
