1. The following pictures were passed around my family a while ago and really, they're just too good not to share.
Phoebe, Levi, and Prince are not having any of your nonsense. The side-eye game in the next generation of Knechts is so strong.
2. There's a stretch of the 60 freeway that I drive on almost every day, between Central and Reservoir, that is lined with these tall evergreen trees in front of the sound wall. The wall is covered with a viney plant and every year around this time the vines burst forth with big, bright yellow blossoms. They're so rampant, these vines, that they have woven their way into the evergreens, so that the yellow blossoms pop out all over them. It is so glorious and wild. Most of our nature in these parts is tamed so it's refreshing to see signs of it that will not be controlled. No sir! Those vines will wend their way wherever they please.
I feel like I should have a moral here. Like a, "So too is life..." because I teach seminary and I deal a lot in metaphors. But I've got nothing. I just really like how showy it is.
3. (Commence Old-Lady Rant) Do you know what really drives me crazy? The totally made-up word for an ancient and inevitable concept: adulting. Like, when fully-grown people say, "Ugh, I've been adulting so hard today." When all they've done is pay some bills. "Adulting" is code for, "I'm lazy and don't want to do this thing that I have to do because I don't live with my mother any more." Because "adulting" is really just doing things that need to be done, that humans of a certain age have been doing since the Dawn of Man. It is one thing for a 20-something to say it. The shock of doing your taxes the first few times is not for the faint of heart. But when people over 30 say it I want to shove them out a window. Guess what else adulting includes but no one ever mentions? Eating ice cream for dinner. Not having anyone tell you when to go to bed. Getting a pay check. Sure, you have to work for that pay check, but even then you get to choose what you work at. I don't know about you, but I never had a choice of doing the dishes or not as a kid. (End Old-Lady Rant.)
4. Heather, dear friend and mother of the Art Society, is recovering from an appendectomy. I went over to visit her and while there she showed me this video even though it risked her laughing and laughing caused her great pain. So that her sacrifice does not go in vain, I show it to you now. Let's coincidance!
