Raise a Hallelujah

Happy Birthday to my sister!

There's a song that mentions "raise a hallelujah" and I always struggle with how to spell that word, but now I know that the song is actually named "Raise a Hallelujah" so that made it easy to find since that's the main part of the lyrics that I can remember (to be fair, they mention that phrase a.lot.a.lot). This comic was, unsurprisingly, inspired by the song which was playing in our kitchen off whatever playlist was selected. Back when I was in high school, I had a classmate named Julianna and most people sung her name to the tune of the initial "hallelujah" in the Hallelujah Chorus. I feel like if you named your kid Hallelujah, she would get sung at more than Julianna did. 

Text:
M: Are you ♪♪raising a hallelujah♪♪?
L: No, we are raising a Lucy.
L2: *raising her arms since we're talking about raising*

Alexa, Wrong Song 2

Happy December!
So apparently "Everyday I'm Shuffling" is a line from "Party Rock Anthem" and that could be an explanation for the scenario in the previous comic. Still not sure many times what's going on with Alexa's music selection. There was one time we asked her to play Indian Restaurant music (because we were cooking Indian food for dinner) and she said she couldn't because we have a "no explicate music" filter that blocks said things and I don't know why there was an overlap between the two, but I'm glad we have that filter to stop very wrong selections from automatically happening. 

Text:
L: Alexa, play "Sunday Everyday" on shuffle.
A: Playing "Everyday I'm Shuffling" by -
L: Alexa STOP.

Alexa, Wrong Song 1

 

So I have a playlist called "Sunday Everyday" and I like it - it's songs that we've sung at my church or my parent's church or just nice one from the local Christian radio stations. It does not have any party rock anthems. I tried looking into the Alexa app to see what she thought I had said, but I couldn't find that recording after a quick search and just gave up. 

Text:
L: Alexa, play "Sunday Everyday."
A: Playing "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.
L: That's not even close!

A Raisin for an Everything Bagel

 I thought this one up when drawing the previous comic about "there's a raisin for everything." I would totally swap a raisin bagel for an everything one - we often have a sleeve of each since my husband likes the one and I like the other and when you get them from Costco, you get two sleeves so you can get two flavors if you so desire. But I'm pretty sure nowhere will let you swap a loose bagel for a different flavor after you've handled it. Maybe Costco would allow it - depends on how you ask them probably. 

Text:
C: Can I exchange my bagel for a different flavor, specifically *that* one?
W: Sure, so that's a raisin for everything?
C: Wow, I guess so.

A Raisin for Everything

 

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much for which to be grapeful.

I thought this one up a while ago but finally got around to digitalizing it rather than just drawing it on cards (it works for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and many holidays!). 

Explanation: Raisins are dried grapes, and there's a phrase "there's a reason for everything." 

Text:
W: Are you interested in our selection of dried grapes? We have them packaged for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and many holidays!
P: Wow, there's a raisin for everything.

Be Gentle

So we've entered the slapping face of toddlerhood, and it's quite frankly annoying. She'll be all cute and happy then decide a slap to the face is the next step and also hilarious. While I know there are times when your kid does something hilarious and you can't laugh because you don't want to encourage that behavior (like when she launches Cheerios out of her mouth and across the kitchen), the slapping is not funny and it takes a lot of self-control not to slap back. 

Explanation: Monat, a MLM company that started out with haircare but has branched out to other areas like skincare, has a moisturizer called "Be Gentle", and we keep telling our little toddler to be gentle when she gets all crazy and wants to slap people and throw things around. 

Text:
L: Much like the Monat skin moisturizer, you need to Be Gentle™.
L2: *trying to slap me*

Crawling and Stairs

We are trying to get our little one to safely traverse the stairs, and it is a struggle. She wants to go fast. She wants to walk down the stairs. That is not a good combo. Seeing how she does all the little things makes me think of how else one could do them incorrectly, hence this comic mentioning crawling feet first up the stairs. I don't even know how or if that would work - gravity would very much be against you. Have fun explaining that one to the paramedic. 

Text:
L: Feet first when crawling down the stairs!
M: Feet first when crawling up the stairs is advanced.

Ivory Tower Living

I was pretty happy to think this one up. Yes, the phrase is "living IN an ivory tower" and I did think about how to comic that literally but I thought this one came out cleaner. Not much more to say about it. 

Text:
A1: I hear you've been traveling with an elephant.
A2: Yep, he lets me ride on his tusks.
A1: Is it all it's cracked up to be?
A2: Basically, living on an ivory tower is pretty sweet.

Grilled Candy

My church had an ice cream fellowship a few weeks ago, and there were boxes of leftover ice cream cones because it was an indoor event and everyone used bowls because cones are for outside with all the dripping and messiness. So we have several boxes of cones and were looking up uses for them since we don't go on ice cream walks anymore with the weather and such. Apparently you can make grilled smores using a waffle cone and stuffing it with marshmallows and chocolate and candies like M&M's. It's super tasty and a great use for waffle ice cream cones when you don't just want to fill them with ice cream. Apparently you can also crumble them and use them for pie crust (think like graham cracker crust but it's ice cream cone). We haven't tried that one yet, but we might. 

Text:
W: Can I help you find anything?
L: A bag of M&M's, for grilling.
L2: *enjoying walking through the store because drawing her in a shopping cart was too difficult*

Flag Search

So my husband works in our church's Awana ministry, and each week they pray for a country. To help visualize, he got a pack of flags so he can wave the little flag and they are keeping all the flags on display to help remind the kids where they've pray over the weeks. It's great but the bag of flags that he purchased seemed to be in no discernable order, so after searching through basically all of them (first I looked up the flag so I knew exactly what the goal was) I then sorted them into various piles (like ones with a star, ones with just horizonal or vertical stripes, ones with a seal of some sort on them, ...). Now I can search in a smaller stack to find the one that is desired, and also we are learning country flags through this so that's kinda cool. 

Text:
M: Help me find the Costa Rica one in this bag of 200 flags.
L: What does it look like?
M: It has red and blue.
L: Gonna need more info.
M: It has stripes!
L: Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

Quiet Getaway

English is weird - why do we have associations with certain words but not their synonyms? I had to look up that 'synonym' was the term I wanted because I get them and homonyms confused but back in grades school I learned "homonyms - hmmmmm - sound the same." Also, "Cabin in the Woods" is a horror movie and that's why I'd prefer to go to a cottage in the forest, which kind of sounds like the setting of a fairy tale so that could be good or bad depending on the fairy of the story. But our little getaway was nice! We stayed in a little house that had beautiful scenery around it and had an enjoyable time.

Text:
M: For our quiet getaway, I booked us a cabin in the woods.
L: Please call it a cottage in the forest.

Voting Options

 

Sadly, that's not on the ballot. Or is it??? It isn't in so many words, but be sure to research who you are voting for and get out and vote today if you legally can do so! There are many ways to look up what people stand for, although it can be difficult sometimes to get a straight answer on where a politician stands on a given issue (the classic "I was for that before I was against it"). But do your research or have a trusted person do it for you! Also, fill out your specimen ballot (which should have been mailed to you) so you remember what you researched AND remember to take it with you when you go vote (don't do the classic fill out a grocery list then leave it on the counter). 

Other Voting Comics: 1 2 3 4

Text:
A: (holding a ballot) I want to vote for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!
B: That's not an option, sir.

Truly Not A Fan

 

My brother-in-law has been inviting everyone over to watch football on Sunday afternoons, and it's a nice way to pass the afternoon (not nearly as boring as watching cars race in a loop, so that's nice). When I first moved to this state, I was sucked into the football fandom to become a casual fan. I mostly understand the sport, but I feel like it's rather violent and I root for the kicker since he doesn't get hit (at least he shouldn't). Also, Maryland has by far the best kicker so that's a plus. 

Gentle reminder that Tuesday (in two days) is election day in the USA, so please research and vote responsibly!

Text:
A: Ready for the game?
B: (looking at phone) I don't know who or when they are playing.
A: *scoff* How can you call yourself a true fan?!?
B: I don't. 

Can Stop

I don't know why this is/was a phrase, but it was rather popular for a while. I think "let's go" is now popular instead, and that's fine in my opinion. I feel like the phrase "can't stop, won't stop" can be a way to deflect responsibility for one's own actions. But that's just my opinion.

Text:
A: Can't stop, won't stop!
B: More like: could stop, won't stop. 

SWAK the Covenant

Happy almost Birthday to my grandma!
This comic is also spawned by a sermon, one that talked about marriage. Back in the like 90's, SWAK meant to "Seal With A Kiss" and it was used on envelopes to mean you were sending your love, at least that's what I recall about it. I had some stickers and I remember one of them was SWAK. I really liked stickers and would put them all over my pen pal letters. Wow, the 90's were a while ago. Hand-made letters are still a nice thing to do, but I stick with making cards for people which are a type of letter so that still counts I think. 

Explanation: Usually, the minister ends the marriage ceremony by saying "By the power vested in me, you may kiss your bride" or something along those lines. SWAK means to seal with a kiss, usually meaning seal an envelope, but in this case it would be sealing a covenant and I think the slang works. It would just be super informal at an official ceremony. But many weddings are not super formal. So use at your discretion. Wow, I super misspelled that last word but spell checker had my back. 

Extra note: Back in my college days, a pastor mentioned how after he was ordained, a friend asked him to officiate a marriage. Unsure if he could, he called up his dad who was also a minister and asked "Do I have THE POWER?" Upon further inquiry ("son, what in the world are you talking about?"), he specified if he had the power to say "by the power vested in me", and his dad told him that since he was ordained then he did indeed have THE POWER. 

Text:
Minister: By the power vested in me, please SWAK this covenant!
Bride and Groom: *standing there, maybe awkwardly*