7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 2)

ONE

I finally actually won a contest!! For realsies! That's my name at the top of the contest post! (The closest I've ever come before was when my friend Devin won all five extant Radiohead albums and gave them to me because he already had them all, sweet thang. Yeah that was twelve or so years ago.... Moving on.) I won a bunch of great stuff from the delightful Betty Beguiles, including a signed copy of Style, Sex, and Substance, which I cannot wait to read, the new Audrey Assad CD (love seeing her career blossom--and I also like to pretend that the successes of anyone I'm even vaguely connected to will automatically rub off on me), and a collection of Sephora samples, among many other awesome things (moleskine journal--heart!). I try to spend my days sitting by the front door now, so the UPS man is treated to a good look at my baby-breakfast-laden yoga pants and sweatshirt before he escapes into his truckI can open the package as soon as it arrives.

TWO

Things that should not have changed: The Battlestar Galactica theme song (from the first season version). The recipe for Dawn. My three year old's enjoyment of sleep.

THREE

James (12 months old now) has started copying us a lot. He's saying words and mimicking facial expressions. He even folds his hands when we say grace before meals--although I'm pretty sure he thinks we're all just getting ready to clap and he wants to join in. Which makes sense, actually, considering Stephen's enthusiastic rendition: "BLASS US o LERD, and DESE dy GIFTS we are aBOUT to reCEIVE from dy BOUNTY. True CHRIST our LERD, AAAAAMEN! In da name a da FODDER, SONNNN, and hoLY SPIRitAAAAAAAAMEN!" Encore, encore!

FOUR

Laurence Olivier was truly a genius. Whether Peter Sellers was an equal or a greater genius has yet to be decided...but this should help.

FIVE

And here I am, stalling after #4 again. It's my default setting. Thou shalt have four quick takes, and four quick takes alone shalt thou have. Thou shalt not have three quick takes, and neither shalt thou have five. Seven is right out.

SIX


This week I started fantasizing about potty training both boys at once. Wait a few more months, until James has taught himself to read and possibly cook his own breakfast and helping me plan Stephen's 4th birthday, and then I'll park one on the toilet and one on the potty chair. They can pee together to their hearts' content while I go watch a movie. I heard somewhere that's how it happens.

SEVEN


I'm too old to turn on iTunes by myself these days, so my music enjoyment has been greatly enhanced by the  addition of Spotify to my life. Recent obsessions include...well, stuff I already loved. I'm too old for new music. But I have very good taste. For example: Sia. Goldfrapp. Radiohead. The Flaming Lips. Janelle Monae (I guess she's new...still have a youthful spark in there somewhere). Daft Punk. Corelli. Go listen to Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree and tell me your day didn't just get better.

For more quick takes head over to Betty Beguiles!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 1)

--- 1 ---

My sister tricked me into doing this, my first quick takes. As usual. When we were kids (like, age 7), she tricked me into eating a PB&J with mustard on it (she told me she was putting strawberries on it), fooled me into believing our baby brother had decapitated my Barbie, and had me going for weeks--weeks!--that she had a friend with brain cancer. (I was a little confused about how she had a friend that no other friend or family member had ever heard of, but I regularly inquired after the progression of the cancer and fretted over the difficulties of facing mortality at such a young age.) She's made up for all this by promising to beat up anybody who gets in my way. She hasn't done it yet, but I'm totally sure she will.

--- 2 ---

I've been wanting to join in the quick takes fun for ages, but I have a disability as yet unrecognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act--an inability to be random. I've started countless quick takes posts . . . but after about take #4 I'd start struggling to come up with more, and then I'd realize all my quick takes revolved around a theme--which is totally legitimate, but most of the fun is the random snapshot of a moment of someone's life. Trying to be more random in my posts felt totally TTH. Like a middle school girl with no attention span who doesn't know what she likes yet, so she just says she's "soooooo random!" and then spends the whole day trying to prove it by squealing about whatever pops into her head. I love reading everybody's, I just can't quite seem to generate one (. . . until now?). And, like I said, Sydney tricked me into it, so here we are.

--- 3 ---

There are lots of important things I could be doing with my time, like working on my current editing project or parenting my children or paying my bills. But none of that matters right now, because I've found something so beautiful, all other cares dissolve. That thing is . . . warm vinegar, mixed with Dawn dish soap. If I told you it cuts through soap scum, I wouldn't be making false promises. If I told you it makes sinks and fixtures look brand new, I wouldn't be lying. If I told you it's the best granite cleaner I've ever used, I wouldn't be telling tales out of school. If I told you accidentally inhaling the spray mist would make you hack up a lung, I might be exaggerating a little bit. But seriously, folks, this stuff has changed my life and made my bathrooms and kitchen and dining room table and Stephen's tricycle and the living room box fan beautiful, fresh, even sparkling. (You've probably seen the recipe floating around Pinterest--just one part warm vinegar to one part Dawn in a spray bottle. Mix it a bit. Spray, scrub, rinse. Relive the magic of having new things.)

--- 4 ---

So I'm not usually a coupon clipper. I love the idea, but keeping up with the activity, organizing the coupons, and having them with me at the appropriate time is all somehow beyond me. Target coupons, however, I am all over. Since I can only run one errand at a time avec les enfants, I'm never combining a Target trip with any other errand, so I have a dedicated Target coupon folder, organized and up to date--and I actually use them. I know, I know--just grasp that chair and put your head between your knees, and you'll feel better in just a few minutes. I'll warn you the next time I try to be consistently competent with something.

--- 5 ---

Today I left the kids with my mom and went to the doctor, and I felt giddy and light--I was on a solo outing! I seriously need to get out more.

--- 6 ---

Texas Pete, I don't know who you are or where you've been, but I know where you're going: into my mouth. (To clarify, I'm talking to a condiment. One that's really good on eggs.)

--- 7 ---

I did it. (~pant, gasp, splutter~) I did seven. I don't know how. I need a drink.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!