Friday, May 13, 2011

Seven Quick Takes - late to the party edition






UNO**  So I was all excited to join the Seven Quick takes at Conversion Diary this week, but Blogger was being dumb.  And since do not have the know how to write all my html (what is that?) and must use Blogger, I am late.  Speaking of dumb, there have been other problems with Blogger, so I'm thinking of switching.  Wordpress?  Typepad?  Which is better?  I know one is free, the other is not, which factors in, but do you have a preference?



DOS**  Since the weather has gotten nice, this is the Lola dog's preferred place to sit.  From her vantage point she can bark, yelp and growl at passerby to her heart's content.  It's the small furry equivalent of "Hey! You kids! Get off my Lawn!"







TRES**  The Chicago Tribune ran an article yesterday on a blind couple who adopted two blind little girls.  It's just a happy feel good story, but I kept the article and keep going back to it, just to look at the pictures.  I showed it to the kids last night and it blew their minds.  How? they kept asking.  How do they shop?  How do they pick clothes?  How do they know how to eat?  This prompted a blind dinner.  Did you know it's hard to eat ramen with your eyes closed?  The kids have all kinds of questions about this family, and I am just amazed by this family.  The way things have changed in the last 100, heck, 50 years!  There was a time when a blind person was destined for an institution or was thought of as less of a person, simply because he was blind.  This couple's little girls are from India and China, both countries where it is difficult to live, let alone be blind.  And now they are in the U.S., happy, loved, and leading wonderful, regular lives.  Just amazing.

CUATRO** Some of you have asked, and some of you already know, how our home for the elderly is coming along.  Long story short, it's not really.  There are so many details I won't get into here, but we have done all we know how to do, and unless we go kidnap us some old people, they are just not coming.  Which is crazy.  What old person wouldn't want to live with four children ages 8 and under, a small adoring lap dog and whatever Mike and I are, in a teensy house in idyllic Chesterton?  Apparently, NO old person.  So we are having to take a big step back.  We have other plans for our future, but none nearly as exciting as an old people home.  The thing is, in our morning reading the kids and I have been reading stories of saints who did nothing.  Nothing big.  They were either sick their whole lives, able to do nothing but pray, not even feed themselves, or they were unremarkable.  Just ordinary people serving God in ordinary faithful ways.  Some of them had great plans but were felled by terrible illnesses and after a period of bitterness, they found peace and contentment in just loving Christ.  Nothing else.  We are also reading the story of Joseph in our picture bible.  Today's portion of the story was where Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, while weeping and praising God.  The concluding lesson was that God has a plan.  It seemed like God didn't care about Joseph when he was sold, enslaved and imprisoned.  But God had a plan.  I suppose we could draw some lessons from that.  I guess.  If we have to. 


CINCO**    I hurt my foot a few weeks ago.  The best diagnosis I can come up with after all my internet perusing is either a bruised heel or planter fasciitis.  The latter makes more sense, seeing as how this is not the first time I've hurt my heel, but this is definitely the longest time it has taken in healing.  I could go to the doctor, but being a Hanna, and with apologies to my doctor and nurse friends and family, Hanna's aren't really big on doctors.  Which is dumb, but that's what we do.  Or don't do.  Anyway.  Last weekend we went to a wedding and I wore some stupidly high heels, the kind that used to make sense, but no longer do, and I realized something.  My foot didn't hurt!  Apparently standing on my tippy-toes all night makes the hurt heel feel so much better.  So I wrote myself a prescription (sorry doctors) for a lot of high heel wearing.  Yesterday I made breakfast in pajamas....   and heels.  The husband was all like hey, babeeee.  And I was all like NO, my heel hurts.  Poor husband.


SEIS**  Speaking of husbands, this morning I went for a super early walk with a friend and I came home to this:


Seven A.M. and the husband had both boys out in the backyard working on the fort.  It looks pretty amazing.  Wild and crazy and cool.  Tomorrow we'll add some burlap to the roof and maybe even some moss.  It's kind of hobbity and Where the Wild Things Are-ish, and just fun.  I need some photographically inclined friends to come over and take cool pictures of it.  *ahem*  Yes, I'm talking to YOU.




SIETE**  Speaking of moss.  While looking at the picture above I just realized that Del has been wearing the same pants for four days and nights straight.  With no underwear.  And I'm really not joking.  I wish I was.  He may need to change tomorrow.  Or for church on Sunday.  Sometime, anyway, he will change.



Thank you, Jen, for hosting!  And someday I will learn how to add the little post-it note at the top.  (See number UNO for my computer savvy...)

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8 comments:

Unknown said...

I needed a good laugh this afternoon, and you gave me **SIETE**!

Beth Hanna said...

It was fun writing Siete Takes, but did I do it right? Probably not. Let me know!!

Ruthie said...

If I were old and had no where to live, I would totally want you guys to adopt me. Or take me in or whatever. I laughed out loud at the high heels! And I want to come see the fort!!! I just maaaaybe in your area NEXT weekend...

Emily Lorelli said...

Oh Kris -- this made me laugh out loud so many times! very good medicine!! Aren't families wonderful?

Beth said...

I love this post- the pants without underwear and length of time they have been worn (wait didn't Russell wear that sweater and shirt to church yesterday, sleep in it, and then throw on a pair of pants for today? Absolutely. Saves on wash). And am totally jealous about the fort. Thomas keeps asking to saw and hammer and somehow a homemade bird feeder is just not cutting it. And thank you for the reminder that ordinary is alright. Love to you and your beautiful family.

Michelle said...

I missed this post earlier, and am I glad I read it! Laughing, so hard!

the heels, the fort, the clothes.

(yes, more times than I can count I have said, "13yo, why did I not fold any underwear for you this week? And only one shirt and pair of pants?" Yikes!)

And I vote for WordPress. Hands down. It's free & it works. Waiting anxiously to move my blogger blog to wordpress. Waiting for my computer tech (aka dh) to help me. Which will take forever.

clairesd said...

I have heard good things about wordpress and now I kind of wish I had gone for it instead of Blogger. I have no idea how to transfer over, nor do I know how to make a backup of a blog. If you find the answer to either question, let me know.

About the pants and no undies: this is a bad thing about living with my inlaws. They KNOW when I ignore the kids. They KNOW how long its been since the kids have been bathed. I have to be all like, "Oh, we have had a bath in TWO days, wow, I must have forgotten or something..."
Yeah right.

clairesd said...

Oh, i forgot to say, about saints who do nothing: most of the saints I've come across lately have been the kind who are like, "well, I'll do it, but I'm not really good at it." St John Vianney almost flunked out of seminary (patron saint of priests), St Francis Xavier felt he was a terrible pick for a missionary (patron saint of missionaries). On the one hand, this is awesome. On the other, it's freaking me out.
Can't some of us just be legitimate underachievers, please?