I haven't done a Friday 7 Quick Takes link-up post in a dog's age; but now that I've deleted all of the social media accounts that were taking up WAY too much of my time, I seem to have a lot more time for blogging. Which leads me to my first Take...
Take 1
I'm finished with social media, for a whole lot of reasons. I was becoming increasingly alarmed about the way Big Tech is tracking individuals and trying to end free speech in America, and that was definitely the primary reason that I wanted to get as "off the grid" as possible. But I was also just concerned about the increasing amount of time I was spending in scroll mode. I mean, I had grown really, really attached (read: addicted) to Instagram. I deleted Facebook first, and then Twitter and LinkedIn; however, I dragged my feet a bit when it came to saying good-bye to my favorite platform. But I finally did it. I broke up with Instagram, and it was initially a little painful. Yet to my surprise, I haven't really missed it as much as I thought I would.
Take 2
Last week, our fourth-born son's wife, Braveheart, and her four little ones (triplets--identical twin boys and a girl, aged 3 and 1/2--plus their little 14-month-old baby sister) came to our house for their weekly playdate. Our other local daughters-in-law were not able to join us, as they have pre-school and kindergarten drop-off and pick-up schedules to deal with. But so far, the triplets are not in school; and their mom really needs to have some social events to look forward to each week, to give the kids (and her, too) a much-needed change of scenery. So for her, it almost always works out to come over for lunch and playtime sometime between Monday and Friday while her hubby is at work
Braveheart tells us that just about every day the triplets wake up and ask if they're going to "Papa-Grammy's" house. (They usually just call us both Papa, because to them we are joined at the hip and share one long name, and Papa is easier to say.) Their eagerness to see us is about the sweetest thing my husband and I can imagine. And we hope they always love to visit us as much as they do now.
So last Thursday, that crazy little gang of four was at our house from about 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. At one point, just after lunch, I noticed that Paquita was sitting on the floor looking at some of the children’s books that we keep in a basket just off the kitchen area. And then much to my delight, I realized that she was flipping through her Grammy's illustrated My Little ABC Book, which I self-published in 2019 as a gift for her and her many cousins. If that doesn't fit the bill of dreams coming true for me, I don't know what does.
On my honor, I did not set up this photo. That really is the book she chose to "read." |
Take 4
When we moved to VA in 2017, we didn't want a fixer-upper. Not at this late stage of the game, and not after the more than two decades we'd spent doing DIY projects in the NH home we left behind. We bought a house that was pretty much move-in ready, with the exception of needing the stained and worn-out upstairs carpeting removed and replaced with a more allergy-friendly wood laminate. We thought that eventually we would want to finish off the basement and make a big, light-filled playroom for the grandkids. But we didn't do it right away. We hired a contractor to put in a full bathroom down there, but otherwise we lived with it the way it was for a while.