Guess who got glasses this week? Little love bug Lillian! Doesn’t she look more like her daddy? Isn’t she the cutest? I love her so much.
In addition to getting glasses, all of our children went to VBS this week. Two attended, and the other two volunteered, which is a very full-circle moment for our family. There are very few opportunities where all four are involved in the same summer activity.
Here is what we talked about this week…
ONE.
We set up a celebrity crush bulletin board in the HH kitchen. It is anonymous, so I am not going to embarrass anyone by posting their crush on the internet, but it has been a source of hilarity. It is also really revealing to see who people choose and why. If you had to post a celebrity crush, who would you choose? I’ll never tell.
TWO.
Timm joined Instagram! You can follow him at @timmsass. Twitter has been Timm’s social media platform of choice for a lot of years, and he is quite skilled at concise witty retorts and opinions. He was on Facebook for a while but then excused himself from the room because he didn’t care for the negative toll it takes on your soul after a while. Now he is giving Instagram a spin. I (along with several other folks who know him well) can’t wait to see where this goes…his feed is sure to not disappoint.
THREE.
“Affordable.” What does this word mean? Specifically, what does this word mean when you are looking online for someone to provide a good or service? Affordable to whom? The Queen? The single mom who works two jobs? The college kid? When you post online that you are looking for something, and you say that you want it to be “affordable” what you’re really saying is, “I want this thing, but I want to pay as little as possible for this thing, and if you are outside of my budget then you are not ‘affordable’.” Wrong. Fairly priced items may be outside of what you are willing to spend for said item. But this is determined by you, not the person making the item. What would it look like if instead of posting, “Looking for an affordable wedding cake,” you posted, “Looking for creative solutions for serving delicious cake at my wedding. We are on a small budget. Any ideas or recs?”
FOUR.
Maybe this is TMI, but here we go. Four of us were sitting around the table this week, and the topic of daughters starting their periods came up. All of us commiserated on how awkward and uncomfortable this whole topic and event can be for everyone. Then we started thinking of ways to reverse the trend and completely normalize it. We came up with a Period Party. Picture this. Maxi pads plastered all over the walls. Tampons in bud vases. Bottles of Advil as party favores. And, of course, red streamers everywhere. How could you not laugh? I can’t decide if this would be the world’s best idea or the world’s worst. Maybe there’s a Pinterest board for things like this?
FIVE.
Be nice. Or leave. On Tuesday I woke up to a long, terrible, awful, long, personalized, long comment someone had left on one of my blog posts. At first I went into a tiny bit of shock. Next I went into management mode to make sure I had a copy of the comment for future reference but also making sure it was deleted from public view. Then I dealt with the emotions. Sadness mostly. A twinge of depression. Some feelings of worthlessness and despair. My husband took excellent care of me. I dug deep into my emotional tool box and put some healthy coping mechanisms to work. And I made sure I told my inner circle people about the incident so they could love and care for me too. I read the comment on Tuesday, but I felt the sting all week. It was an emotional slap across the face, and the palm print is just today beginning to disappear from my metaphorical cheek. I don’t mention this to garner pity, but to remind us all to be kind with our words. And if you do have something hard to say or ask, then let’s make sure we do so with care and civility. Be nice. Or leave.
Leave a Reply