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