Seven Quick Takes

 

1.) Adjusting to Little Boy being at school is harder than I thought. 

It's odd not having him around during the day, both because Little Girl doesn't have anyone to play with for most of the day, and because I'm honestly not sure what to do with myself. My household chores had working with the kids to help them learn to clean their own spaces as a big part of our normal routine, and Little Boy had a certain genius for coming up with games for him and Little Girl to play. It's just...odd without him around. 

He seems to be really enjoying school though. He gets home in a good mood, and he's excited about the games he gets to play in PE. 

2.) The screens have become my worst enemy (again). 

A side effect of our home routine becoming so disrupted is that I find myself using screens more. Little Girl has been watching WAY more TV lately, and I've found myself wasting way too much time on my phone (I've successfully managed to avoid getting back on Facebook, but it turns out YouTube is pretty darn addicting too). 

Whenever I feel bored or overwhelmed, I find myself reaching for it. I guess I'm just going to rearrange my routine so I don't fall into that...again...

Sigh. It's a cyclical battle. 

3.) DIY home renovation! 

What you see here was a garden tub this time last week. 

Now it's our washer and dryer, moved out of our backdoor entryway/ laundry area and into our master bedroom bathroom (which is weirdly at least the size of the back bedroom...for a house that crams the laundry area into an entryway, the space priorities are a bit strange). It took running some pipe and cutting a hole in the wall for a dryer intake (and a full day of work), but it works much better for the space that we have than the old arrangement. 

We also got a new-to-us washer off of Facebook Marketplace for $150 because the old one was pretty much completely rusted out and wobbly (and LOUD) whenever it ran. Turns out if you overload a machine too often, it breaks. 

Chalk it up to life lessons, I guess. Still getting the hang of this whole homemaker gig. 

4.) Little girl is obsessed with pictures. 

I lucked into a photo album in pretty decent shape at Goodwill, and was able to finally put some pictures of the kids into a sturdy, easy to actually look at place. 

Little Girl has become enthralled. She's constantly asking me to get them down for her.  

It's cute, except that she sometimes takes pictures out of the clear plastic sleeve thingies and tries to rearrange them. So I have to keep a pretty close eye on her so that nothing gets lost or torn up. 

5.) Rain, rain, go away...

Current state of our yard. Notice the massive puddle in the grass. 

It has rained, and rained, and rained this week. I'm glad I already got the garden pretty much in, and hopefully it'll mean a productive season, but on the other hand, it's making it pretty much impossible to go outside between the mud and mosquitos. 

And there's a hurricane/ tropical storm rolling in sometime next week, so we might be about to get even MORE rain. 

Sigh. 

6.) I've started Christmas shopping and planning in earnest.

Got going kind of late this year. I usually start in August. 

Christmas shopping is kind of a game for me. I do my best to find gifts that will make people genuinely happy, but I also try to get them as cheaply or creatively as possible. So far, I've found the "main" gift for Little Girl, and a couple of books (we always do at least a couple books a kid for Christmas). 

So, yes, I am one of those weirdos that will buy their kids gifts from the thrift store. I'm open to buying new stuff as well, but only if I have something specific in mind that I can't find elsewhere. Gifts for extended family are pretty much always homemade. 

Those...tend to be pretty hit and miss. Hopefully I'll actually manage something consistent and genuinely enjoyable this year, we'll see. 

7.) If you're in Kansas, or lived in Kansas in the 90's, could you help out this lady? 

She's a victim of childhood molestation by a priest. The priest is still in ministry, and she's trying to gather evidence to re-open his case in the diocese, and hopefully protect others from what she's suffered. 

Jessica is a friend of mine. I've witnessed a little of how much she's suffered and struggled on a day to day basis as a result of what happened, and I know being able to protect others is really, really important to her. She prayed and discerned for a long time before taking this step, and I know that it was a really big deal for her and took a lot of courage. 

https://www.inspiritandtruthblog.com/post/an-update-from-jessica-my-heart-can-find-no-peace

You can read her story here (trigger warning: graphic description of sexual abuse of a child). As you can see, she originally chose not to reveal her face or identifying details, so her doing so now is pretty significant. 

https://www.inspiritandtruthblog.com/post/jessicas-story-part-1

See the rest of this week's takes here.