Test Love

I was reading this great blog about art, and loved what Austin said about each of us being a mashup of what we allow into our lives.  This great quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe fit awfully well: “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."   Austin also recommends marrying well (and he doesn't just mean your mate), but choosing well who and with what you surround yourself.  You absorb what they are saying and doing and become a reflecting pool.  It's kinda like "You are what you eat." (or read or watch or hear)  When you put good in, you can't help but get good out!  (maybe this is what I try with the kids? hahahaI)

So, maybe you should spend more time with those really motivational, inspiring friends.  The ones who make you the best version of yourself.  (Do you remember that class I took, Building Better Families?)  This rings true again! : )  Who are you when you are around them?  Are you built up?  Or do you leave feeling bad about yourself or what you think?  Do you leave inspired to do something worthwhile?  If you don't have someone who shines their sunshine on you, you can still find one. :o)  Show up in life, and when others keep showing up at the same places, you probably have something in common, and you've made a friend. ; )  (maybe that's why I see all my friends at the grocery store...)

I showed up today, and had so much fun!  My friend Veronica came over and brought her kids to play with Ethan.  I didn't even think to take pictures!  Her kids are beautiful little people, and her daughter is talking so well now-and smart!  They all had fun playing trains, and ponies, and (*gasp*-guns!) (I actually did set a timer and take them away after a while-I used to not let him play with them, but then he was building them out of his tinker toys and eating out a gun-shape in his sandwiches), and playing outside in the wind.  Arkansas = swimming yesterday, jackets and wind gusts today.  Maybe it'll be warm again tomorrow in time for the kids' Benchmark tests?

I used to *love* standardized testing.  I lived for it.  I can't say if it was my OCD in loving to color bubbles, or if I liked that there was always one correct answer (how neat and clean would that be-if there was always one right answer in life?), or if it was just the orderliness of it all: the timed tests, clean booklets, sharp new pencils, the time to read if you finished early or the quiet for 55 minutes?  Umm..all of the above?  I even loved teaching (well..being in charge of?) the tests.  Cleaning up their bubbles, bubbling their information, giving the tests, the quiet while they were wracking their brains, how earnestly they would work.  Loved.  It.  And even after trying, I can't convince my kids of my Test Love.  They are not excited (to say the least).

I must go and do my Bible study homework.  I have procrastinated long enough.  It's 9:30pm, and I have made snacks for tomorrow's BS group and their children (chocolate banana muffins and fruit!), made the kids' lunches, read other people's blogs, checked blood, adjusted a basal, given drinks, headed off freakish anxiety, cleaned the kitchen, and now it's time to invest in Acts 19 and 20.  I'm thankful for sweet women seeking God's Word and His will.  I think I'm surrounding myself with good friends..I hope I become a better version of myself! : )

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ said Paul in Acts 20:35

Who thought of toothbrushes with wheels?

Stupid dishwasher is still broken.  I'm still washing by hand.  I even bought a dish drainer-scary, since it means I'm in the Acceptance Phase.  I haven't had time to call a repairman.  I only remember when I'm washing at 7:40 in the morning, or 6:30 at night.  Ugh.  I even went to the store to buy disposable "dishes", and I forgot to actually BuY them (have to remember the List, or it's not Effective).  I got sidetracked looking for a "car" toothbrush (which they no longer sell at Wal-Mart or Target!).  Ethan's been brushing his teeth with one of Clay's Hot Wheels toothbrushes, and he wants his own, only now I can't find them anywhere!  It's like the zhu zhu pet of our house! Frustrating.  And I like to encourage tooth brushing.


I went back for my hcg testing today, and I took Ethan, (wrongly) thinking it'd only take 10 minutes tops like the past few times.  Wrong.  I waited for 30 minutes before I went to ask what was going on.  The lab is always so fast!  Anyway, he was pretty good (since he had that toothbrush hanging over his head), and we made it.  He wouldn't sit in a separate chair from me while I got blood drawn, so he sat in my lap in my chair with the "faint bar/pad".  We both fit, so it was okay.  I told him he could look away, and he asked me if I was getting a boo-boo, and I said yes.  He watched!  Reminds me of Sissy watching her own blood get drawn last year! Ick!  Kids are too brave.  Anyway, they never called me back, so I don't know how it went.  I'll call in the morning to get an update.  It's hard to expect some information and not get it.


Clay tried the teensy, tiny medicine today, but I don't know if it did anything.  He said he didn't notice anything, but he was moody after school, got mad at Sissy at dinner (post meds), cried about his spelling test (Irregular Plurals including: alumni, parentheses, vertebrae, diagnoses, phenomena, antennae-I mean, why?) and wanted to stay home tomorrow to miss his spelling, math/multiplication, writing, handwriting, etc. tests.  I'd rather him study and have confidence than have fear, but he feels differently, and cried.  It may be the meds, but I still feel sorry for him.  He also picked at his nose and eyes (and the nervous ticking/picking can get worse on meds).  He said it felt like something was in his nose, and he thought he had a black dot (pimple coming up, he said) inside his bottom left eyelid!  I'll see how the next couple of days go.  It'll have to be worth it, or we'll have to try something else.  Being a parent has to be the hardest job.  Your job matters now, and in twenty years.  Everything you do matters.  It goes home with you at night, and you only get out of it what you put in, so it requires all of you. 

(I just found one of the car toothbrushes!)