7 Quick Takes (Volume 209)

1) Who knew that the morning paper could cause such a fuss? I should know that an outburst from Kevin is only a page away when he flips through it each morning. On the front page this day was an article about the library celebrating literacy week which is wonderful, except that the picture showed a woman reading to a dog.

Kevin: Oh my gosh! Why is she reading to a dog?! How does that promote literacy?!

I wish you could have witnessed it for yourself. The kids and I just looked at each other and smiled, anticipating the diatribe that was sure to follow. He flipped the paper to the continued page and saw a picture of a cat in a kennel and someone holding up a book that had a picture of a cat in a cage on it.

Kevin: What?! What good does that do? We're sympathizing with the cat who's in a cage by showing him another cat in a cage?! And WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH LITERACY?!

To the paper's defense, if you read the article, you saw that the library was teaming up with the Humane Society to draw the attention of kids and perhaps adopt a few animals out at the same time. But that information did nothing to soothe Kevin's angst.

Kevin: If you don't read the article it looks like we're a bunch of idiots in Nebraska.

Ladies Man remembered the last time we got into this discussion.

Ladies Man: Yeah, we read to dogs and ride in cow tanks.

Oh my. I love how ordinary days produce fun in my house.

2) And speaking of Ladies Man, he did a super job playing Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof.
Kevin and I were both misty the first night as he sang his big song. This kid has come SOOOO far. Only a little over a year ago he was too intimidated to talk in church about his experience on the youth group's mission trip and now he's standing on stage singing solos, and doing it well! Wow. God does good, good work.
So, SO proud of you, Ladies Man!

3) I often have moments of sheer brilliance while in the shower. It's very annoying because I can't write them down quickly and sometimes lose them. The other day as I was pondering why God would give me great ideas while it's hard to do anything about them, I figured it out. IN the shower I think I'm a genius, but once I get out and catch a glimpse of the naked truth I remember, "Oh yeah, Tam, you're not all that."

But I still keep a little notebook and pencil nearby. Just in case.

4) Drummer Boy and Drama Queen got to travel with the band to the Michigan State game last weekend. Two days of sixteen hours in a bus would not sound exciting to me, but they had a blast. A highlight of their trip was hanging out with the Michigan State drum line.
The center stick player for Michigan State is a girl and both of my kids were quite impressed with her. Usually the section leader will clue the others into the tempo and cadence by what is called a tap-off, a little ditty played before the others by the section leader. The Michigan State chick did it in an extraordinary way.

Drama Queen: She did a tap-off by BREATHING!

Me: What? How can you do that?

Drama Queen: There was no playing. She breathed and they all came in. You couldn't even hear it. It was SICK!

Sick is code for over-the-top amazing. So there's your great nugget of trivia for the day: The Michigan State drum line is sick.

5) Imagine stopping to eat with six bus loads of hungry college kids. What fast food joint can handle that? They can't, which is why the band stopped at malls to eat. Apparently they had plenty of time eat and look around, because I got this picture text on Sunday.
I love this. She looks so cute. The puppy's not bad either.

6) When I realized I'd said nothing about Miss Innocent One this week, I told her I needed something about her.

Me: Anything funny happen to you this week?

Miss Innocent One: Nah. Kind of a so-so week.

Me: What about your high and low for the week?

She didn't want me to mention her low, but her high was typical for her.

Miss Innocent One: Probably seeing Drummer Boy and Drama Queen at Ladies' Man's musical.

She loves her siblings even though they used to drag her around the house by her feet. Maybe she really did like it as they always said she did. She's already dreading the day Ladies Man graduates and leaves her alone with me and Kevin. Don't worry, babe. I promise we'll give you some entertaining moments. Think of it this way. How many years did you wish to have our full attention? Soon you'll get it. (Too bad you'll be getting it in the years you'd rather have us looking elsewhere.)

7) The Women of Faith conference was incredible. So much learning took place. And hanging out with these girls is pure joy.

And that's enough for you to take in on this beautiful Friday. Go out and enjoy your weekend, friends! Check out Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.