4 things I’ve learned recently

Each season, Emily P. Freeman invites us to consider what we’ve learned — the serious, silly, sacred, or useful. It’s a way to take a brief look back before looking ahead to the next 90 days. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned this Fall, in no particular order.

1. I like big coffee mugs.

In our kitchen cupboard we have two shelves FULL of mugs… and only two of us drink coffee. When emptying the dishwasher, I find myself putting the big mugs on one shelf and the regular size cups on another. Turns out, my husband always chooses the regular, flat-bottomed mugs, and I simply choose the ones that hold more.

2. The night before the fall time change, have friends over.

Before having kids, I loved the “fall back” time change (yay an extra hour of sleep!). After having kids, I hated it (why are you up at 6:00?!? oh… right…). This year my girls had a couple of friends over on the Saturday night before the time change while their parents were out at an event. They didn’t head home until 9:30pm. Bedtime for our girls is usually 8:00pm. After the excitement of the night, they crashed, slept in, and made the time change transition without an issue.

3. Always have a spare pair of kids glasses.

My 8-year-old got glasses for the first time this summer. Two weeks ago she was playing on the floor with her littlest sister, and Penny suddenly grabbed Abby’s glasses off her face and the frames broke. I called the eye doctor the next day and they ordered new frames, but with the Thanksgiving holiday we knew it would be awhile before they arrived.

We superglued the frames. They lasted a day or two. We glued them again. They came apart at school and her teacher taped them. She went the entire Thanksgiving weekend and the first three days back to school without her glasses. Thankfully they came in yesterday, and now everything’s back to normal. Today I’m heading to Zenni online to get a cheap back-up pair…

4. When I need a pick-me-up, The Greatest Showman Soundtrack does the trick.

Even my youngest will point to the Amazon Dot and say “‘lexa, ohhh-ohhhhhhh-ohhh!” I don’t know what it is, but the orchestration, harmonies, Hugh Jackman, and the full choir added to amazing lyrics make it absolutely impossible for me to stay in a bad mood once the 11 songs are finished.  (for fellow fans — have you seen this video?? I saw it yesterday and ended up with tears streaming down my face at the amazingness)

 

What have you learned this season?