Seven Quick Takes Friday

1. The kids' clothes are packed for our camping trip. Consequently, they have very little to wear. Ben is currently sporting training underwear and a t-shirt while Jacob is wearing his bathing suit. Joe somehow dressed himself this morning in Hannah's skirt. My first thought was that he looked like a Mennonite cross-dresser. This picture causes me to laugh uncontrollably. 2. My cousin, visiting from the very big city, came over for supper last night with her two children. While we were in the kitchen chatting, Dave was in the front room opening the box that enclosed our new dishwasher. (We have been without a dishwasher for around three weeks now and finally bit the bullet and put in an order with our local appliance store.) In the midst of our conversation, Dave piped in very calmly with: "Elena, would you come and look at this, please?" I traipsed out to the front room to find Dave looking quizzically at the new dishwasher. I walked around to where he stood in order to gain his aspect and saw the source of his confusion. Now, I know that all of you probably know right away that the blue on the front of the dishwasher is a protective covering ... but we didn't. Dave, my cousin and I all stared for a while at our newest appliance wondering who could possibly be able to match their kitchen to this blue behemoth. Well, thank God for visitors from big cities, because it was my cousin who found the chink in the armor and began to pull the covering off the dishwasher to reveal a standard white appliance - phew. 2. Joseph after a very tactile dessert.

4. Outraged. (Perhaps at the thought of Take no.1.) 5. Unfortunately, due to my non-existent spatial skills, the following pictures are reversed. The first is Ben during his haircut and the second is the before picture. Oh well, he is cute in both. Pardon my attire - I was just back from a run.

6. Pre-shearing. Lately, Ben has taken to repeating sayings that he hears frequently. For example, Dave has inherited a questionable mode of discipline from his father. (At least, that is, I question it.) When the kids do something really objectionable, Dave says in an extremely strident tone, "Shame on you!" I have heard Ben using this phrase quite regularly with his siblings. I found myself using this same phrase with little Ben the other day after an act of disobedience. He whipped around, looked me straight in the eye, pointed his index finger and said (stridently), "There is no shame on me!" Oh, sorry I mentioned it.

7. Just so you don't think that our week at a Catholic family camp means that we are living in a tent - think again! We are in cabins. I officially can't stand camping. A friend of mine expressed surprise at this because he said that he always thought of us as outdoorsy people. I replied that we like to swim, run, bike and play outdoors but we prefer to sleep and shower in doors. Something about being dirty. Camping in a tent or trailer is actually a form of torture for me that is probably due to a genetic condition caused by my parents' honeymoon. In a canoe christened 'Nick and Julie' they spent their first month of marital bliss on a month long canoe trip on the Bancroft river after which my mother swore off camping for the rest of her life - some things are generational. Whenever I think of their honeymoon, a photo of my mom with waist length hair, wearing a black turtle neck and jeans while standing waist deep in rushing water comes to mind. I guess I shouldn't complain about the rain on our honeymoon.