7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 1)

Following Jen's lead at Conversion Diary, here are this week's 7 Quick Takes:

---1---

My kids are still talking about the light snowfall we had on Wednesday. Such a rarity in Southeast Texas. The looks of excitement and awe on their faces were priceless. I wish I had thought to get out the video camera, but I was having too much fun snapping still shots. Please bear with me, but I have to share a few. You can see the wonder in their eyes!



And, I know it's hard to tell, but there really is snow in these pictures. You can see it on Elizabeth's eyebrow and hair and on Jonathan's eyelashes and hat. I know you northerners probably think our little snowfall is pretty pathetic, but to us it was breathtaking.

---2---

An unexplainable mystery is lurking in my laundry room. My dark clothing regularly comes out of the dryer with greasy looking spots sprinkled all over it. The spots weren't there when I put the laundry into the washer, so often clothes look dirtier after washing than they did before! I've put my ace laundry detective and master Googler on the case (aka my husband), but he hasn't been able to crack it. These are the facts:
- The spots only show up on dark clothing and look like grease stains.
- Changing detergents/prewashes/etc. has not effected the outcome.
- My washer and dryer are old. We bought them almost 10 years ago from people who were getting rid of them because they were old. We have been unable to determine which one, the washer or the dryer, is the culprit. The way to find out is to line dry a load and see if the spots still show up, but I just haven't bothered to do it.
- Unfortunately, these spots are not a good enough reason to go buy a new washer and dryer.

Stay tuned for more updates in the Case of the Greasy Spots on my Dark Laundry

---3---

All Elizabeth wants for Christmas is a purple bathrobe. Unfortunately, "Santa" has already completed all the Christmas shopping and really doesn't want to buy anything else. But, Elizabeth doesn't know that and has been asking for a bathrobe daily for the last few weeks. She even knows what store to find it at. Santa came to visit at Jonathan's Christmas program on Wednesday and my shy girl went and sat on his lap and even spoke to him just because she wanted to make sure he knew that she really wanted a bathrobe for Christmas. So what is a Mommy...I mean Santa, to do? Should she get the bathrobe? If she does, does she then have to get one more gift for each of the other two children? Dilemmas, dilemmas...

---4---

From the "When I'm a Mom, I will never..." Chronicles:

I always said that my kids will eat the crust on their sandwiches. I was not ever going to cut the crust off my kids' sandwiches before putting them in their lunch boxes. It's wasteful. It's silly. The crust doesn't taste any different from the bread. And, it's one more extra thing to do in the morning that I wanted to avoid.

So, every morning I cut the crust off of Jonathan's sandwich. Why? Because, he refuses to eat the crust and he'll only eat two bites out of the middle of his sandwich and throw the rest away. He dislikes the crust so much that he won't even eat within an inch of it, lest he be contaminated.

That's why I now am a crust-cutter mommy. Because throwing away the crust is much less wasteful than throwing away an entire sandwich with only two bites taken out of it.

---5---

I made a new chocolate discovery this week. I try to keep dark chocolate around the house because it's kind of healthy and satisfies my chocolate cravings. This week I tried Lindt dark chocolate with cherry and chili. It was . . . interesting. I can't decide if I like the little kick that the chili gives it or not. It's definitely very intriguing and Eric loves it. All you chocolate lovers should give it a try.

---6---

All of my children seem to start talking around a year and a half or so, and Gustin seems to be right on schedule. He can say "ball" and "book" and this morning he pointed at his sister's baby doll and said, "eyes," correctly identifying the feature. He can also say "mama" and "dada", but he seems to prefer a generic "Na Na!" yelled at the top of his lungs. We interpret it to mean "Hey you!" and it is usually directed at the closest big person who will give him what he wants.

---7---

We have a lot to do this weekend. Jonathan has pushmobile races with the Cub Scouts. I don't know what to expect from this event, but it sounds like fun! We also have to put up the Christmas tree and the rest of the indoor decorations, put up the outdoor Christmas lights, write our Christmas letter, stuff, address and mail the Christmas cards, make fudge and cookies to give to the teachers next week and finish shopping for and wrapping the gifts for the family we adopted from church. Whew! I'm worn out all ready!

These 7 Quick Takes posts are a lot of fun. But, they're really not all that quick. It's ridiculous how long it took me to write this post! But, I hope to make it a more regular feature on this blog.