7 Quick Takes Friday vol.14

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The Hunger Games movie will be out on March 23. Thanks to my favorite blogger, I was turned on to the books a couple of years ago and I found them to be fantastic stories. I think Eric and I may even splurge and go see the movie at the theater (date night!). We have a (modestly firm) rule in our house that you have to read the book before you see the movie, so Eric has 28 days to start and finish the book. Given that he only has time to read a handful of pages a day (we can't count those pages he "reads" before bed with the book propped open but his eyes closed), seeing The Hunger Games in the theater may be a pipe dream. But I sure hope we can make it happen!

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When you take photographs, with which eye do you look through the view finder? I am left-eyed. I would never have noticed it, but people comment on it fairly often since it strikes them as odd when they see me taking pictures. Most people seem to be right-eyed. I guess that would make sense given that most people are right-handed, but I am also right-handed. So, maybe the two don't always coincide.

Are you "handed" and "eyed" the same or are you a mix-match, like me?

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Betty Duffy recently recommended a memoir, The Me Years by Ellen Finnigan, and I decided to check it out. I am a newb to the memoir genre, but have found the few memoirs (make that the one memoir) that I have read fascinating. The Me Years continues the trend. The book is full of foul language and most of the characters epitomize what is wrong with the current generation of 20-somthings; but, Ellen's process of discovering Truth that slowly unfolds as she painfully makes the same mistakes over and over again is extremely insightful. I recommend it but be forewarned that she is very honest about the lifestyle she lived during her "me years".

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Jonathan and Elizabeth receive an allowance every week. A portion of each allowance goes into savings, a portion is for charity, and the rest they are allowed to spend. For charity, they would bring their money to church and put it in the collection basket; at least that is what happened in theory. In reality, we would forget their church money almost every week. It was a small, but fairly irritating, problem.

But, I finally came up with a solution to the Kids' Charitable Donation Problem.

Now, each week they put their charity money in a jar. We went to foodforthepoor.org and the kids chose a gift that they want to buy for the poor in Latin America. Jonathan and Elizabeth chose 20 baby chicks, which cost $25. So now every week when they add their charity money to the jar, they know they are saving up to buy those chicks. They are so excited about it and it really puts a value and a face to the money they are donating. It's turning into a great Lenten project, as well, as they are trying to find creative ways to come up with extra money to put in the jar (like adding the money we save from fasting and from not eating meat).

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For Christmas this year we got Jonathan the perfect gift: a small video camera. It was a bit more expensive than what we normally spend on Christmas gifts, but there was so much potential for creativity. I imagined the kids creating their own movies, maybe starring themselves or their Lego creations and mini-figures. I foresaw hours and hours of imagination-expanding play.

Well, that's not what happened.

Instead, Jonathan uses his camera to video cartoons as they play on TV. He and his siblings will sit around and watch these jiggly, background-noise-filled videos on the camera's teeny tiny screen for hours if I would let them. And, not a single original movie has been created.

Sigh... Oh, well. You can't win them all.

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I've mentioned before that we are still having a difficult time with Gustin's potty training, even though he will turn 5 in May. We picked up the registration packet for Kindergarten last week and in it it specifically states that children will not be accepted at the school unless they are potty trained.

Panic!

How am I supposed to motivate this child to get potty trained when nothing else has worked so far and now we have a hard deadline (registration is due by March 7th)?

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit came to my rescue.

I casually mentioned the other day that pretty soon Clara will be ready to potty train and that Gustin will have to teach her how to do it. Well! That motivated him immediately! He went and dug his dusty, little child-sized potty out of the garage and cleaned it up all by himself. He then got Clara to sit on the potty and she even went! Clara has now tinkled in the potty at least half a dozen times in the last 2 days. And the best part: Gustin hasn't had a single accident. Hallelujah!! Miracles do happen!

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I can't have entire post without a single picture, so here are a few random photos that I've taken recently. Roll over each photo with your mouse to see the unedited version (I did this for you, Jill!).

Have a great Friday!

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