7 Quick Takes about Taking a Moment to Thank the Envelope People, Shortcomings of Artifical Intelligence, and DIY Car Detailing

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

—1—

There are two student pickup areas at my son's school, so when I'm on my way I text to let him know which spot I'm in. Except the day I forgot my phone.

I went to one pickup area and then when no more students were coming out, I went to the other one, but I didn't see him at either place. I started to wonder if maybe he'd had to stay after school to talk to a teacher or make up a test (he'd just been out sick for a few days) and I just didn't see the text because my phone was sitting at home.

So I drove home, where I checked my phone and had a bunch of texts from my son asking where I was. Apparently he'd gone to the second area first, waited for me, and then went around to the first area while I traded places with him. It was like when you get stuck in a hallway doing a stupid dance trying to get past someone, but this time one of the dance steps was me making an additional 15-minute round trip home and back to school.

I was pretty annoyed, but I cheered up a little when I got home and saw the Christmas cards that had come in the mail that day. Especially when I turned this one over to open it:

Giving credit where credit is due.

—2—

I did it! I took my high school senior's graduation photos myself. I didn't use any equipment beyond my smartphone and whatever light was available to us at the time. But with Google Photo's editing tools, they actually turned out pretty good!

On my favorite picture, taken at the head of a hiking trail, there was unfortunately a bright red sign in the background saying 'PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG.' 

Phillip advised me to remove it with AI (Google Gemini) so I gave it a try. It did such a seamless job that I also asked it to remove a weird-looking weed in the foreground. It erased the weed and even added some leaves scattered on the ground in its place to match the rest of the grass. I was impressed.

—3—

I didn't stay impressed for too long, though. A few days later I was trying to remove a timestamp on the corner of a photo of my daughter from her mission so I tried Gemini again.

In fairness, AI did remove the timestamp. But it also messed up the letters on her missionary name tag at the same time, even though the two things were nowhere near each other.

I tried asking again: "Remove only the timestamp." It still turned her name tag into gobbledy gook. 

I tried being indirect to avoid bringing attention to her nametag: "Remove the timestamp but leave everything about the subject of the picture unchanged." 

I tried being direct: "Remove the timestamp but do not alter the subject's nametag in any way." I think you can guess what happened.

No matter what I did, her nametag would come out looking like: 

SŒSTER EVAƞS

ǁ||E CʜǙʕCㅞ OH

Jレ⥌Uζ  CHƦÆǤT 

O₣ LƋTTEƍ-ƕAY ŞȺIךTƼ

AI tries hard, it really does. But it's got a long way to go.

—4—

A friend told us about a local church that does a massive Nativity set showcase for the weekend. I only wish that my college daughter (an amateur artist) had been with us to see and appreciate them with us.

We walked in to a large room that was positively filled with nativity sets of all shapes, sizes, and materials. Most were labeled with the country they came from. 

This one was made with painted shells.

Oil drums beat into shapes with a hammer and chisel.

Made from recycled bike and auto parts. I spy a spark plug baby Jesus and a bicycle chain mane for the horse.

When a woman with a name tag who looked like she was in charge came by, I had one burning question for her: "Are these sets loaned by members of the congregation? Where do they all come from?"

"My garage!" she answered.

You guys, this was her personal collection. She'd been collecting for 32 years, and of course all her friends and family were also keeping their eyes peeled for interesting Nativity sets for her whenever they traveled.

My kids got bored quickly, but this trip did inspire the 11-year-old to make a Nativity in Minecraft so I guess that's something.

—5—

I drove behind this truck for a while and could not stop thinking of it as a face.

Two eyes and a cute little mouth.

Is it just me or do you see it, too?

—6—

Overheard the kids snapping at each other one grumpy afternoon.

14yo: Why is your underwear on the floor?! *stomping upstairs*

9yo: Are you bringing it up here?

14yo: Ew, why would I be bringing your underwear upstairs?

9yo: Because... I thought you were a good person.

First of all, way to deflect that burn. That is "I'm rubber, you're glue" level stuff. 

Second of all, if this is a preview of what Christmas break is going to be like, I think I have a pre-headache. An anticipatory headache.

—7—

We're doing a major cleanout of my teenager's new/used car. There is a faint cigarette smoke smell from the previous owners, so we rolled up our sleeves, did some research, and made a plan.

I bought (and probably overpaid for) a professional grade upholstery cleaner, a drill brush set (actually, I already had this, I use it to get the scuff marks out of my white dishes a few times a year), and extractor attachments for our Shop-Vac (oh my gosh, SO FUN to use these). We used this method to clean the seats, floor, and headliner (the ceiling of the car):

My son changed the cabin air filter and we hit the interior with an ozone machine I borrowed from my friend Melanie. After we were done, we put an activated charcoal bag in the car (I bought a 6-pack so we could use the other ones in the house) and I think we'll run a HEPA filter in there overnight just to be extra. 

If this doesn't work, I've got nothing. Actually, that's not true, I've got an extractor now and that thing is freaking fun to use.

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7 Quick Takes about Cute Little Cacti, Bent Little Photos, and Enjoying My Very Last BLT Sandwich

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

—1—

Right now we're sick. Most people in the family have felt missed a day or two of school and felt better after that, one of us hasn't seemed to be affected at all, and I have just felt a low-grade crummy all week.

It's not just my family, though. On Wednesday I coordinated a shift at the temple and everyone was out sick. Even the substitute for one of the people out sick texted me in the morning saying she got sick.

—2—

As the Primary secretary at church, I've been assembling teacher appreciation gifts to hand out at the end of the year. 

How cute are these little succulents??

The part about these succulents that I can't wrap my head around was that I ordered them online from Home Depot, who shipped them to me. They came a week later in a box marked "live plants" and they were, surprisingly, still live plants. 

I can hardly get plants to survive when I'm attentively taking good care of them, I don't understand how they can be just fine after several days of manhandling by UPS workers inside a pitch-black cardboard box, but okay. I'm definitely not jealous and thinking there is something wrong with me.

—3—

The United States Postal Service, on the other hand, seems less adept at handling packages:

Just photos for the walls, it's not like anyone will notice the crease running through the middle of my kids' faces.

This is the second time the mail carrier has looked directly at an envelope with an all-caps DO NOT BEND notice, folded it in half, and shoved it in our mailbox.

I'm not a complainer, but what are my options here? I could call and ask the company to reprint the photos, but (1) it's not their fault and (2) the mail carrier would just smash up the new ones if I did! 

Which is why I took it in to the post office and talked to a very unhappy postmaster general who asked if she could keep the envelope, I assume to threaten train the new mail carriers.

—4—

Exciting news from my 21-year-old: she got a summer internship! It is so perfect for her. Not only will she be doing research that is relevant her neuroscience degree and helpful for getting into grad school, there's also a huge cultural immersion component for the six Americans getting sent over there and she is just about the most curious person in the world and loves learning about other places and cultures. 

In fact, she's been doing that every summer vacation for her whole life. She would gladly pay for this experience, but instead she gets a stipend to do it. In fact, according to her math, she's going to make more this summer than she would have at her normal summer job. I am so thrilled for her.

—5—

My family had a craving for BLTs one night for dinner, but we're going to have to take out a second mortgage if we want to do that ever again. When did bacon get so expensive?? It's extra terrible that we prefer the uncured kind, which you can buy in a pathetic pack of seven strips that costs $7.49! I just about died.

My 14-year-old, who was helping me grocery shop, looked over the price tags on the various packages and said, "Mom, my kids are never going to know what bacon tastes like! They'll be like 'Mom, tell us about bacon' and I'll be like 'I don't remember sweetie, it's been a looooong time.'"

—6—

In my email was an Evite for my son to a classmate's birthday party. I was smiling from ear to ear reading it, because the birthday boy had obviously written it himself without parental oversight and it was hilarious. The "host notes" section simply said, "For presents just like robux and lego stuff and just something i don't know." I was dying laughing.

I went back to the Evite when I was writing this post to remind myself of exactly what he'd said, but apparently his parents had realized what he'd done. The "notes" section now read "We'll be celebrating [name]'s 10th birthday at our home. No presents please. We would love to see you there!"

Now I'm not really sure what to do with the Robux gift card we already bought him.

—7—

I'm a sucker for white Christmas lights, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra singing Christmas music, and all that is classic and timeless around the holidays.

My local stores? Not so much. They're pretty much as unconventional as you can get this year.

I might joke about it, but I would pick "Snoop on the Stoop" over Elf on the Shelf in a heartbeat if I had to choose one.

This epic Christmas display at another store took someone a really long time to put together. I mean, someone came up with the "what if Santa was on WWE" concept and took it all the way home. The longer I look at it, the more details I notice. 

Oh my goodness, the chair. They put a metal folding chair in the ring.

I just don't think anyone every could've predicted that this one day this would be how we as a culture are commemorating the birth of our Lord. People are wild.

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7 Quick Takes about Crooked Tree Toppers, My Kind of Christmas Craft, and Learning What a Carburetor Is (Maybe)

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

—1—

Almost every year we go see The Nutcracker, and while the ballet this year was pretty good I think what I enjoyed the most was the kids sitting in front of us. 

It was a brother and sister who were maybe 5 and 7 years old. Their family had a box to themselves off to the side so the kids weren't blocking anyone's view but their parents', but they kept standing up, twirling past each other to the music, and plopping into each other's seats before getting up to dance and trade places again practically the whole time. The boy was clapping so hard after the Russian dancers I thought he was going to lift off. Those parents definitely got their money's worth that night.

—2—

We went to a farm stand and brought home a pretty tree, but the top branch was comically long. And when I pointed that out, my super-helpful family just put the tree topper on it crooked to accentuate it. 

Breathtaking.

After they'd all had their fun taunting mom with the goofy-looking tree topper, they finally cut the top branch down to a reasonable height. They probably wouldn't have except we were having people over that night, and Mom doesn't play around when we're having people over.  

Much better.

—3—

A look at my Monday to-do list should provide you with a snapshot of my glamorous life:

Yes, "clean vomit out of van better" is one of my tasks for the day.

After one of my kids threw up green smoothie all over the van like they were audition for The Exorcist, I'd cleaned up quickly in the 30° weather and the freezing wind after but apparently not well enough. 

I was alerted to a lingering smell later on, and had to go back out there a second time the next day when it was just as cold to do a deep clean. And what I learned from that experience is that Mother's Day once a year is just not often enough.

—4—

The 14-year-old has been hoarding fingernail gadgets, paraphernalia, and styling tools for a few months and is now walking around like this:

Winning the award for Most Festive so far.

The nails themselves are extensions (which I guess is Gen Alpha for "fake nails") but you guys, none of these designs are stickers. She did them by hand using a combination of nail art tools and witchcraft. 

Not only do I not think I have the coordination to do that, I don't have the eyesight, either. I have to blow up pictures of the instructions on the back of prescription bottles with my phone so I don't accidentally overdose.

—5—

Unlike my daughter, I'm more at the level of these super-easy yet snowflake crafts that I did with my boys this week:

The only materials you need are paper, Scotch tape, and a stapler, and the instructions are so easy to follow. 

(Full disclosure, we did make the cuts in the wrong direction twice, but I'm pretty craft-challenged so that's to be expected.)

Yes, the 9-year-old has been wearing that Santa hat nonstop, even to school, ever since he found it in the bin with the Christmas decorations over Thanksgiving weekend.

We made a few and hung them from the railing across the hallway, and they look way fancier than they actually are.

—6—

We haven't really started our Christmas shopping yet, although I've been writing little notes to myself for the last few months whenever I notice that someone in the family needs something.

It's funny because we have one child who never wants anything, and another child with a running online wishlist who constantly drops hints so hard I worry they're going to give themselves a hernia. How can they both have come from the same people and the same household?

—7—

This Facebook reel showed up on my feed, probably because Phillip does a ton of work on our cars and I don't even know what a carburetor is, and the algorithm is able to deduce a creepy amount of information about us and knows all of that.

Aside from feeling spied on, I did get a lot out of this video. (I plan to watch it again later because I already forgot everything I learned the first time I watched it.)

Hope it helps you, too!

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7 Quick Takes about Dropping the Ball, the Broken Basket, and The Things You Find on Facebook Marketplace

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

—1—

I'm in the middle of reading a fantastic book called Drop the Ball. The author explains that her husband does things in a much different way than she or any mom/wife she knows would do it, but she's learned that diversity in the traditionally female-dominated domestic space is good, just like diversity in the traditionally male-dominated workplace is good.

In related news, this week Phillip picked the 9-year-old up from a gymnastics workout and I asked him to buy him something to eat on the way home since he'd be hungry after practice. "Already did," he said. 

I later found out the "something" was 12 Oreo cookies, in case you're wondering why you saw me with an eye twitch muttering "Diversity is good, diversity is good" under my breath.

—2—

I got a good laugh out of this Apple Newsroom announcement on the iPhone pocket (a.k.a: the iSock.)

Isn't "a piece of cloth" more of an object than a concept? I guess at $229.95, it kind of has to be a concept.

—3—

In our house, we have something called "the broken basket." 

In theory it's a place where we put things that break or need minor repairs that we don't have time to take care of right now, and we go through it when we have time.

In practice, we forget about it until we look at all the random crap we've thrown in there over the last six months and have no idea what any of it is.

Thoughts, anyone??

—4—

I was asked to participate in a musical ensemble for our church's Christmas service, and though it's not something I would have volunteered to do I agreed to do it. We had a rehearsal at the church this week, and then I stayed afterward to organize the closet in the Primary room. (I was recently called as the Primary secretary, and I just can't work in a cluttered space.)

When I came home several hours later, Phillip looked alarmed. "Were you rehearsing the whole time?"

"No, it's fine, I was having fun! I forgot to tell you I was organizing a closet," I laughed. Which is honestly way more fun for me than the singing part.

—5—

The 17-year-old is thrilled that soon, he won't have to get picked up from school in his mom's minivan anymore. Phillip found a used car on Facebook Marketplace, and they brought it home today.

Since we're not in a big hurry to throw a car at him after he totaled the car he used to drive last month, he bought this one with the agreement that Phillip and I will buy it back from him at the same price when he goes to college and needs the money next fall. If it still exists.

—6—

How was your Thanksgiving? We spent ours this year with a family from church. We've done Thanksgivings together off an on for years now, and with both of our our kids getting older it sure is a lot less noisy and lively. It was nice that we only had to cook half the meal (I mean the royal "we;" I washed the dishes while Phillip did the cooking with help from the kids) and we played some new games after dinner.

Everyone ate a ton of food, and the kids discovered that jumping on the trampoline right after dinner was a bad idea. (The good thing about kids getting older is that they're old enough to realize that before someone throws up.)

—7—

We also watched our first Christmas movie of the year: Klaus. I think it's a Netflix original, and if you haven't seen it then you haven't seen the best Christmas movie of all time and frankly, I feel sorry for you.

Other favorites of ours include The Man Who Invented Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Santa Clause. What are some other good Christmas movies we should watch as a family this year?

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7 Quick Takes about Invisible Labor, Skipping School But Not for Real, and Using K-pop for Evil

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

—1—

Well, my favorite Sunday of the year just happened, Primary Program Sunday. The Primary is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' children's organization, and once a year the kids run the Sunday church service singing all the songs they've learned throughout the year and delivering short speaking parts on gospel principles. 

My favorite song in the Primary program was this one. I will preface this by saying I'm not a huge fan of recordings of kids singing for the same reason I get creeped out by pictures of certain aging celebrities (too much autotune/plastic surgery generally makes things worse, not better), but if you can imagine this song sung by a group of regular, average children it's really quite beautiful:

—2—

Phillip and I are currently adjusting our division of household labor. It's a tricky balance. After all, my full-time job is literally home- and kid-related tasks. But there are two of us, and more than 40 hours a week of home- and kid-related tasks. Most of our responsibilities just fell to one or the other of us without a conscious decision, so maybe it's time to change some things up. 

To help, we're using this process and are currently on Step 3:

Step 1: Have a big fight about who does what around here.

Step 2: Agree to focus on the future. Make a spreadsheet of everything that goes into running the family, from sorting the mail to maintaining the cars. Try not to bring up who currently does each one. (Stuff a rag in your mouth if necessary.)

Step 3: Go through the list and spell out exactly what each task entails, including simply noticing that it needs to be done. Ours is really specific. "Notice when the lawn needs to be mowed" means wildly different things to each of us, so we established a maximum allowable height for the grass. For other things, we said things like "take the trash to the dump every Saturday" or "mail out Christmas cards by December 20."

Step 4: Separately, each of us will go down the spreadsheet and rate each task as either 

• Want It
• Don't Want It
• No Preference

Step 5: Divvy out each responsibility on the spreadsheet. Some will be easy decisions, because one of us will want it and the other one won't, and for the rest, we'll hopefully figure out what makes the most sense.

Step 6: Try it for a week. The important part is: no reminding or having anything to do with the other person's responsibilities. If I don't own a chore, it ceases to exist to me. We'll review the chores at the end of the week and hopefully it can't get too bad before then.

We borrowed some of these ideas from a 2019 book called Fair Play, and some of them we thought of on our own. Hopefully it will help us both feel better about how we're doing life together.

—3—

And while I'm on the rampage about household chores, I'm also doubling down on the kids about owning their responsibilities. 

Nominally, they do their laundry. But half the time that means I have to tell them when it's time to do laundry, remind them to switch it to the dryer, take it out of the dryer for them, then trip over the basket in the hallway for two days until I tell them to take it upstairs and put it away. I told them that for every step I have to remind them about or do myself, they owe me $5 or five extra household chores. I'm done messing around.

With Christmas coming up, I also want to outsource more of the magic-making to the 4 kids who still live at home so it's not just me. Each of them picked one of our family Christmas traditions to be in charge of, and I think they'll rise to the occasion. Because making plans for which Christmas movies to watch is more motivating than doing their laundry.

—4—

My daughter was sick this week, so I had to call the school attendance line. But according to the recording at the beginning, the school now prefers you to email instead of leaving a voice message.

So I hung up and attempted to do that, not realizing how hard it would be to write this without sounding like a kid hacking their parents' email to skip school.

My first attempt:

Hi, 

My daughter ___________ won't be in school today. She is sick.

Thanks,

Jenny Evans

Writing this was the email equivalent leaving a store without buying anything. I wasn't doing anything wrong, but it felt like I definitely was.

The whole thing sounded like a badly-worded forgery, but what could I improve? "Hi" sounds like a kid, but "hello" just sounds like a kid trying to sound like an adult. No salutation sounds rude, and also like a kid.

Do I need to specify "my daughter so-and-so"? If I don't, it sounds like the kid is writing it. If I do, then it also sounds like the kid is writing it, because my name is already on the email and of course she's my daughter.

In the end, I never did figure out how to rewrite the email to make it sound legit, so I just sent it off and tried not to think about how it looked like it was from three kids in a trenchcoat pretending to be an adult. 

—5—

The 9-year-old was emptying his papers from school. Among them was a drawing of a fall leaf with this text at the bottom:

The time is autumn

Because of that, the leaves fall

Blown around by wind. 

 

"Is this a haiku?" I asked.

"Yeah, and it's a really good one."

"What do you like about it?"

"I don't know. I don't remember what it says, but I know it's good."

Look out, Walt Whitman!

So... I kind of already knew this, but I don't think we'll need to worry about this kid's self-confidence very much.

—6—

While my middle schooler and I were waiting in the pickup line for her high school brother, the song "Golden" from K-pop Demon Hunters came on the radio. She joked about embarrassing her brother by blasting it as we rolled up to the school in front of all his friends, but apparently she didn't expect me to follow through.

Because when I rolled down the windows and cranked the music up, she turned white as a sheet and hit the floor of the van so no one could see her.

My son, on the other hand, thought it was funny. 

—7—

I'm not a big social media user, but this was an amazing video about really any habitual time-waster and some new ways to think about it.

At the 3-minute mark, my 11-year-old thanked me for not getting him a phone. I'm going to need that in writing.

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7 Quick Takes about Deserted Islands, Being Amused by 5-Year-Olds, and All the Pants

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

—1—

The 14-year-old has been claiming that she's not hungry at mealtimes, but I've been paying attention and it's only until something with a higher sugar content appears that she magically feels like eating.

"You, my dear, are addicted to sugar," I told her, watching her turn up her nose at another healthy dinner to help herself to a glass of milk and a bakery muffin. "I think we need to send you off to live on a deserted island until you get over it."

Her 17-year-old brother looked up and said, "She's like, 'Mmm... desserts...'"

That's probably exactly what she was thinking, too.

—2—

My mom and I picked up some jigsaw puzzles from the take-one-leave-one table at the public library to do while she visits. They were unexpectedly hard. 

Spurred by this puzzle of The Mandalorian, the conversation turned to Pedro Pascal and how weird it was to see him in another role in a different movie or show.

"Pedro Pascal? Who's that?" One of my kids asked.

"He's a famous actor," I said.

"Are you a famous actor?" my daughter asked, being goofy.

"Yes, I act like I enjoy making lunch and dinner every day."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "It's not very believable."

—3—

I got a new calling at church after having been released as Young Women president. I'm now the secretary in the Primary presidency, the children's organization! I loooooove working with those little kids ages 3 to 11, and it's been a really long time since I had a Primary calling.

On my first Sunday, I subbed for the 5-year-olds' class and it was everything I wanted it to be. We played a matching game, I got at least three completely irrelevant and off-the-wall stories in answer to a simple question, and when I was helping a child learn the words of a song and whispered "This is my sacred duty" he laughed and told me "You said 'doody'."

Absolute perfection. This Sunday is the Primary program, and I simply cannot wait.

—4—

My 14-year-old is super excited to get her first job. She applied at a grocery store and is going to start in a few weeks! She's beyond thrilled to serve the public with a smile make her own spending money so she can order something other than a free tapwater when she hangs out at Dunkin' Donuts with her friends.

We had to go find her social security card and she was confused at why it was printed on such flimsy paper, which reminded me of this comedy bit I saw on a Facebook reel:

I pulled up the reel to write this blog post and then got distracted by other chores, so it just played on loop for two hours until I came back. I'm sure the algorithm thinks I LOVE this comedian now. My feed will be nothing but this guy tomorrow.

—5—

It's getting seriously hard to find human-sized pants that will fit my 17-year-old. He's as tall as his dad and even slimmer, and we have a hard enough time buying pants for his dad already. 

We tried ordering a few things online with mixed success, so I asked him if he wanted to go shopping in some brick-and-mortar stores, like a boomer. He was doubtful they'd carry his size but went anyway.

Why do department stores have a "Big and Tall" section? I feel like I see way more guys that are either big OR tall, but not as many who are both. I'm convinced that "Big and Tall" is just a euphemism, anyway, because we saw a pair of 54x30s in there which is big with no tall at all.

However, I need to give a massive shout-out to JCPenney. They had multiple pairs of 30x34 pants in stock and I have never even seen one in the store, letalone several!  

—6—

Speaking of pants, my 14-year-old has been asking for a pair of running leggings. It's getting too cold for shorts and sweatpants bother her. 

Full disclosure on leggings: I hate them. Exercise ones are the worst, too. Do we really need to run looking like we just stripped naked and painted our legs a different color? And they are so thin, they leave literally nothing to the imagination. I don't even want to know how/if people are wearing underwear under those things, you can see every dimple from outer space so I don't even want to know.

Anyway, I told my daughter she could order the running leggings she wanted at Target and I'd pick them up, but if they were too skin tight we'd have to return them. 

What do you think? Too tight?

It turns out she accidentally ordered a child's size 4/5, so back to the store they go.

—7—

We're still working on getting the right color stain to finish the sliding door we had replaced in July (see the above picture for the unfinished door.) 

We've accepted our home for what it is, and what it is is a product of the 1990s honey oak craze. So we're going to stain the trim around the doors to match the rest of the honey oak in the house but that's proving a little tricky. We just can't find the right color match.

I'm going back to the store tomorrow for Try #3, and if that's not right I'm just going to mix a few of the closest ones together and call it a day. 

Because nobody has time to get it perfect, especially when perfect means neon orange.

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7 Quick Takes about the Trick Part of Trick-or-Treat, Trying Not to Anthropomorphize, and Reading in Spanish

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

—1—

This year for Halloween, my 14-year-old decided to get serious about trick-or-treating and brought home 467 pieces of candy.

Yes, you read that right. She organized her hoard into 5 separate gallon-sized Ziploc bags by category: chocolate and peanut butter, regular chocolate, fruity candy, gummies, and snacks like little bags of pretzels or chips. Our kitchen counter looks like the candy aisle of a Kroger.

I have noticed, however, that with the cocoa shortages and tariffs and general inflation, fun-sized candy bars are getting slightly smaller. I often see articles like "Why Gen Z Won't Make More Than Previous Generations," which made me think of a really good headline for The Onion: "Today's Trick-or-Treaters Have to Work Harder Than Their Parents."

It's rough out there.

—2—

On Halloween, the kids in our family all went their separate ways and did their own things.

The 14-year-old had a themed costume with her friends. They had cowboy boots and hats, but they also wore cow footie pajamas with tails, so they were either cowgirls or girl cows. I think you might have to be 14 to completely get it.

The 11-year-old joined a neighbor friend and went as a mad scientist (we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of these costume steampunk goggles) and my 9-year-old went with a different friend group as a duck.

And the 17-year-old totaled the car.

Everyone was okay, except the car of course.

Most importantly, everybody in both cars involved was completely okay. My son was driving his sister to her friend's house for trick-or-treating when the teenagers in front of him slammed on the brakes. My son couldn't stop fast enough and plowed into them. 

Yes, he hit a BMW. I don't want to talk about it.

The front of the car did exactly what it's supposed to do and crumpled to absorb all the impact so neither of them were hurt. And it was another random small blessing that just after I got there, my ministering sister from church happened to drive past and ended up taking my daughter to her Halloween party so she wasn't even that late.

—3—

So all of a sudden, there's no vehicle for my son to drive himself to school or work or anywhere else. Not only that, but he also can't help out by driving his siblings to their activities, either, which I've really come to depend on.

But I can't exactly complain about how hard my life is without a third car. Like, boo-hoo, why don't I just get on my yacht and have a good cry about it? We have a lot to be thankful for.

It's logistically complicated, but we're figuring it out one day at a time. For now, my kids who need rides are — as the lady who interrupts your hold music says — currently experiencing longer wait times than normal. 

—4—

The accident happened on Friday evening, and in the chaos both kids left their backpacks in the car when it was towed to the towyard, which is closed on weekends. So they both had to go to school with nothing on Monday morning until I could get over there to retrieve their stuff.

After it opened I went over and got the backpacks, took everything out of the glove compartment and the trunk, and searched under the seats for library books and water bottles. And then I took one last look at our smashed little car (why, oh why do the headlights have to look like sad eyes??) and left it there.

For the rest of the week, I got a little misty-eyed every time I passed a double-decker trailer full of totaled cars on the freeway.

—5—

My 17-year-old has been working really hard on his college essays. He's been making daily and weekly goals to stay on track and get everything done in time for one school's early decision date, but he told me, "I hate self-imposed deadlines. Because I know the guy who set it, and he has no idea what he's doing!"

So far, though, he's in pretty good shape. When they were his age, both of his older sisters stayed home from school frantically finishing their essays on the day their applications were due.

—6—

After almost 5 years of learning Spanish, I'm still not sure that I'm much better at conversation (to be fair, I'm a below-average English conversationalist, too) but my reading skills have definitely improved.

The first book in Spanish I read was a translation of a kids' graphic novel, then I graduated to a translation of a book from the YA section. And now I've just started my first adult novel!

Not a translation, it's originally written in Spanish so the grammar is really challenging.

Look at how thick this novel is! This is the real thing. It takes me half an hour to read 3-5 pages, so assuming that speed I'll owe $50 million in library late fees by the time I finish.

—7—

I've also been lifting weights with Kaleigh Cohen on YouTube since April, and not only am I proud to say I've put on 10 lbs of solid muscle and I can do squats holding a cinder block, it's actually functional (because how often do most people really need to squat cinder blocks?) 

This week I did a reorganization project that required moving around heavy boxes for an hour, and I felt NOTHING in my back afterward. In fact, I wasn't sore anywhere, at all. A year ago, just thinking about doing a project like that would have made my back hurt.

On a related note, here's an inspirational meme I saw on Facebook that made me laugh:

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