Thursday, September 04, 2014

Friday Five

1. This week I had a quick (and rare) lunch at Panera alone.  As I placed my order I repeatedly thought I could hear Elmo giggling and talking.  As a parent of two young children, I'm familiar enough with Elmo and definitely familiar with phantom cries/sounds (like I imagine I hear a child crying over the fan in our room, but when I check the monitor Jackson is asleep), but I've never quite imagined cartoon sounds.  After a few minutes I finally realize a mother has her iPhone in a stand with what must be an Elmo video loudly playing for her child as he eats his lunch.  I guess I see how it can help keep your child quiet and to each their own, I suppose, but I was pretty surprised someone would think it was socially acceptable to play a cartoon so loudly that I could hear it across the restaurant.  

2. I've had two girls nights (really just dinner) out in the last two weeks.  Tonight the discussion included homeschooling, breastfeeding, prayer requests, and similar topics.  Last week was a totally different group of women, and I drank hunch punch for the first time since college and ended up talking about sex.  A rare topic of conversation at my age and season of life.

3. My new goal is to have a date night every other week.  We have two dates in the last month under our belt now, so I hope this will become our routine.  I believe our marriage needs to be our priority (before our children), but practically I have a hard time actually doing that.

4. My children had sweet time with their grandparents this week.  Jackson would probably live with my mom if he could.

5. I'm on a real reading kick.  A lot of what I'm reading is easy fiction (the Divergent series, for example), but I've got some non-fiction in the line-up too.  One of my favorites of the summer was To The End of June by Cris Beam, a non-fiction book about the foster care system.  It read easily and opened my eyes to how poorly we're caring for so many children as a society.  

p.s. I'm thankful that I started my day with a walk with my friend Chasie. Happy Friday!

3 comments:

Dr. RJJ said...

Right about lady playing too loud. On Rest ------No Comment.

lisacng said...

Sounds like you're cultivating a quality life for yourself which is so important as a parent. I need to have date nights with my husband again. I loved Divergent by the way!

Bone said...

I think that's a great goal (having a date night). I've told myself I'll/we'll do something similar (once I'm married).

I'm glad Elmo was actually playing somewhere in the restaurant and that you weren't just hearing things :)