It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?
You know the "wet floor" sign you see in the store sometimes? Well, I spotted one this week in our hardware store but the illustration really made it look like a lot of fun.
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—1—
My 9- and 11-year-olds are still on a high from a church youth activity last week where they went to an archery range and learned how to shoot a bow and arrow. The 11-year-old was so into it that he begged us to dust off our archery stuff in the garage, clear out an area in the backyard, and try it out.
So we did.
He's already busy brainstorming ideas for a device that helps track lost arrows, if you want to know how it's going.
—2—
Inspired by the archery, Phillip and I suggested that the kids watch the Robin Hood with us that evening.
"What year was this movie made?" Phillip asked as we headed to the basement to watch it.
I looked it up and told him, "1973."
"Wow, the animation is going to be terrible."
"What are you talking about? It's going to be awesome," I answered, thinking of this meme I recently saw floating around Facebook:
So how was the movie? Actually, it held up better than most of our childhood favorites. The animation was a little crude, but it was so creative. The chase scenes in particular were epic and hilarious in their own way.
I also loved how they straight-up rewrote the laws of nature for so much of the movie. Like how Robin corrected his misfire by shooting a second arrow that caught up to it in midair? Or how Sir Hiss stuck his head in a balloon and blew it up, changed his carbon dioxide into helium, and flew through the air using his tail as a propeller? THAT IS ROAD RUNNER-LEVEL PHYSICS. They just don't make cartoons like that anymore.
—3—
I've been trying to figure out how to structure our summer now that my 9-year-old's three-hour gymnastics practice is right in the middle of the day, Monday through Thursday. It's an hour round-trip to his gym, so either I do it twice (too much driving) or abandon the other kids for 4 hours every afternoon (not why I became a stay-at-home mom.)
This week, we tried something different. I brought my other son with me and we hung out in the area for three hours doing stuff. I was wondering if we'd get bored, but I think it's going to be alright. The public library is impressive, especially for a small town. Their "library of things" has a ton of games, electronics, and other items. We came home with a few books on space, a puzzle, a giant Jenga game, and a murder mystery tabletop game.
The puzzle, by the way, is called "Dad Jokes," and we're about halfway done with it.
After spending hours searching for the correct pieces, each corny joke is permanently seared into the kids' consciousness. |
—4—
The big news this week is that we replaced our sliding door to the deck, plus two French doors that lead outside!
The old sliding door had no handle and was so hard to open that only adults could do it; the French doors were sagging so badly that one set wouldn't open and the other had a gap the size of a golf ball in which we stuck a T-shirt to avoid heating the entire neighborhood or getting mice in the winter. Having new ones that just open and close effortlessly is wonderful!
A half dozen guys arrived and started hammering on the house at 8 AM, and the teenager slept right through it all and still had to be shaken awake at noon. I only wish I could sleep like that.
Of course, getting work done on your house is kind of like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Now that we can easily use the deck again, we need to replace a few boards and put on a new coat of paint so we don't get splinters. And once the deck is nice enough to spend time on, we'll need some patio furniture out there to sit on. And then...
—5—
Exactly two days after replacing the doors (and wondering how in the world replacing three doors can cost 1⁄13th of the purchase price of our entire house), our washer and dryer simultaneously decided to give up the ghost.
The dryer has been slowly declining for a long time, and we miss it but at least it's not suffering anymore. The washer, however, went very suddenly and it was quite a shock. One minute it was chugging along just fine, and the next minute we were pulling out sopping wet clothes because the spin cycle stopped working.
I know it's a first-world problem, but not having a functioning washer and dryer in an 8-person household is stressful for even a few hours, letalone days. We may be searching for a new-to-us dryer, but not until Phillip will take apart the washing machine to see if he can keep it running for just a little longer.
—6—
We have to do something about the mosquito situation in our backyard. Honestly it doesn't really bother me: I figure if I'm going outside into their home, the onus is on me to just wear bug spray, but Phillip says it drives him crazy and he'd like to figure out how to keep them away from the deck so we can enjoy being out there.
I've seen candles, torches, chemical sprays, and so on, but I remain skeptical. I just had two people recommend a product that they swear by called mosquito dunks, and the reviews on Amazon were overwhelmingly positive, so we are going to give them a try. I'll let you know what I think in 2-4 weeks when they reach effectiveness.
Here's a related conversation between me and my 11-year-old son from this week:
11-year-old: Why can’t all the bugs and spiders just go extinct?!
Me: Well, the spiders eat the bugs so they’re actually good!
11-year-old: [looking at me and flatly] If all the bugs are extinct, there’s no need for the spiders.
Good point, I guess.
—7—
I think it's the jazz hands. Slipping and falling looks like such a great time and not at all something that will land you in the hospital.