I really don’t have time to write today, but if I don’t link up with Jen, my week feels incomplete somehow. So here, jotted down between diapers, costumes and a burst radiator pipe on the van, are my deep reflections from the week.

1. Tony “accidentally” left this article up on the browser for me to discover. Maybe one day soon he’ll walk in and “accidentally” discover me throwing away his pipe, or reading up on ‘How to Serve Man’ or something.

2. Teddy’s love of action figures is not limited by time and space. One can only wonder, if the real crusaders had access to John Deere tractors, would Jerusalem have ever fallen into the hands of the Saracens? (These photos really cry out for word balloons and doodles but the kid’s Halloween costumes are really sapping all my creative juices right now.)

The carnage to generic GI Joes, plastic army guys and Eskimo men was unspeakable. Teddy gathered up the remains in the trailer for a mass burial. Notice the ambulance laid to waste at the top of the picture? There’s no immunity for the Red Cross here.

4. This set up made me chuckle, until it somehow joined forces and became the out of control living room at war with my bare feet. I spent one evening reorganizing and picking up everything and yelling, “We have too many toys! We have too many toys!” which is everyone else’s cue to walk on eggshells for the rest of the night, or offer me a glass of pumpkin spice liquor. People seem to think that 1,899 square feet of our 1,900 square foot home should be devoted to toy storage. At least, that’s the message they send by buying my kids enough toys to fill an orphanage. And then, when they realize I might have thrown out an old toy to make room for one of the many new ones they just drug into my house, they get upset. Okay, I’ll end that rant here before the liquor starts making me name names.

5. Every evening we recite a litany of saints; kid’s patrons, family favorites, etc. But as the kids have gotten older, they keep trying to add more saints until the litany takes longer than the rosary itself. I piped up the other night and said they needed to stop blurting out somebody just because they have a cool name or died in an “interesting” fashion. To which Tony quips, it might be the “prompting of the Holy Ghost”, and persuaded me to let the kids add whomever, whenever. Now how the heck can I argue with that? grumble…grumble…

6. While shoveling in huge bites of pancake, Tony asked Addie if she had said grace. Addie managed to say “Yes” without slowing down.  “I didn’t hear you,” said Tony. “Well, it was a contemplative prayer Papa.” Zing! Must be the “promptings of the Holy Ghost” at work in her.

7. After dinner, Byron came down with a bad case of the hiccups. Addie, always helpful, gave him some advice she gleaned from a recent  ‘Highlights’ Magazine. As he ran into the kitchen to retrieve a cup of water, Addie followed behind. “It always works for me. If it doesn’t work for you, maybe we can sue ‘Highlights.’ Luckily for Highlights, the hiccups subsided.

Go forth and be inspired by the rest of the Seven Quick Takers.