An Introvert Walks into a Group
The kids are resting soundly after an evening of fun and over stimulation. Piper came through the door announcing that Gideon is just over tired and that Cubbies was SO FUN. Gideon came through the door overwhelmed and ready to get in bed. Since his night involved football practice and sand at a park, he was ushered into the shower. He told me there were six billion kids in Sparks. He told me that this night was not like the other nights and they didn’t do anything normal. He told me he didn’t have any fun. He told me he doesn’t like Awana.
Good thing Jud was there to record this:
He was having fun here. He is smiling. Of course, he is hanging out with high school students in a much smaller group of people than the giant group of children his own age.
But here is who [I am pretty sure] he is: Planner Inspector: ISTJ. His Meyers Briggs profile provides the following:
Relationships
Family is of the utmost importance to the ISTJ. The order and schedule of a home life is very important. Any family member who rebels against order is likely to anger the ISTJ who revolves their life around a sense of conformity. The ISTJ is likely to want breakfast at 8, lunch at 12 and dinner at 6 no matter what, holidays with the family are of paramount importance and no sacrifice is too great to keep the unit intact.The ISTJ likes to also have order in their friends and in their appearance. Hanging out with the wild and crazy isn’t likely to happen. ISTJ’s tend to develop strong, loyal, consistent friendships that stand the test of time. ISTJ’s may have trouble showing emotion but within the strength of a time-tested friendship they often find comfort.
In love relationships the ISTJ is a strong believer in taking responsibility. They also say the things they mean. Often they are accused of being uncaring but they view the benchmark of commitment by actions and not words. The ISTJ is more interested in being the Rock of Gibralter and day to day success than words that are not backed up with actions.
Career
The predominate configuration of the United States Military is ISTJ. If you like order the military is the place to be. Other professions that tend to draw the ISTJ’s wants for schedules and results oriented satisfaction are general surgery, law and accounting. The ISTJ can be a success at any career but tend to shy away from careers that require abstract thinking and interpersonal spontaneity. Other popular ISTJ career directions include: Management, Accounting, Auditing, Engineer, Dentists, Stock Brokers and Law.Education
The ISTJ is often a good student. In classes such as science and math they tend to excel due to their factual nature. More abstract classes tend to frustrate the ISTJ but they try to do what “should” be done. In summation the ISTJ student will usually try to do what the instructor asks because that is what should be done.
Piper had only happy thoughts to share from Cubbies. Her friends were there! They colored! She got papers in her bag! Look! Papers!
And here is who I think she probably is: Envisioner Mentor: ENFJ.
Relationship
The ENFJ is known as the great communicator. They often focus their direction on other people and are adept at understanding other people. They are ready to lead friends and display loyalty to those who follow them.In love relationships the ENFJ is looking for happiness. They do sometimes over indulge in this pursuit and can forget to listen to a mate rather than force their view.
Family events are fun for the ENFJ. Without even being asked the ENFJ will assume responsibility for entertaining those around them. If the ENFJ is affirmed, all the better for their efforts.
Career
ENFJ’s are drawn to careers that serve others with minimal chance for conflict. Detail and paperwork can cause angst for the ENFJ who hates to be alone. They are often drawn to religious groups and academia, situations where they can interact with others and be challenged. Other popular ENFJ career directions include: Entertainer, Artist, Psychologist and Occupational Therapist.Education
The ENFJ is an imitation learner. They like to have role models or heroes and do their best to emulate them. They will follow these heroes to roles that may be far away from their natural talents.
Two very different, wonderfully different kids. Two different nights and two different perspectives. I love them so stinking much.
Read MoreHow We Store It
One of the scary parts of homeschooling for me was the idea that our entire house would suddenly turn into a classroom. Don’t get me wrong. The whole house already is a classroom. We’re learning everywhere, but I didn’t want it to look like we live in a public school room. We still need to live here, ya know?
So here is how we are keeping our sanity in the midst of the addition of books and math games and geography puzzles:
Each day has a slightly different set of subjects to cover. This is Wednesday. Thursday’s includes science lab, Friday has history too. Math is first thing every day so that we start with his favorite thing.
One for each day! Once he starts reading these will make more sense.
These are the bins (thanks, Target!) that hold the school stuff. Well, they hold everything except the Science experiment bag. It has some semi-dangerous stuff in there, so we’ll be storing that somewhere higher.
Math manipulatives, tiny books with stories about Dan and how he ran, dry erase markers, dry erase crayons. This is the bin that makes me feel nervous for the day I find one of the girls writing on a wall. I’m sure I’ll let you know if/when that occurs.
The school books…all ripped up and inserted into page protectors so that he can write with dry erase markers and we can use them for the next child too. They fit so nicely in the bins. My organizational heart is happy.
Part of how he’ll learn geography this year — puzzles of every world region.
The best part! When school is over, everything is packed away.
Do you have an organization project that you are loving right now? Have you solved the problem of laundry baskets (you know, the one where I put the laundry in there but it takes forever for me to put the clean stuff away)? Tell me! Tell me how you are doing it!!
Read MoreTriple Threat
If this picture doesn’t convince you that you should have another baby, nothing will.
It’s so much MORE fun every time. Nothing wrong with the kids you already have, of course, but this is the part of parenting you already KNOW. It’s the baby stuff. The easy stuff [it didn’t feel easy the first time. The first time it felt like someone kept throwing me into a washing machine and letting me whack my head into a concrete wall over and over again while everyone else in the world was asleep. And the second time I was finally just exhaling. Finally breathing again but not all at once because I hadn’t even successfully potty-trained a person yet, so what was I doing with two human beings relying on me all the time for sustenance and entertainment? Who had left these kids with me and when were they going to come pick them up?] is the stuff that comes first.
Of course, I didn’t have any real pukers or babies with heart holes or colic or breathing disorders. Those things would obviously complicate matters far beyond anything I’ve ever dealt with in Babyland.
We’ve had sleep deprivation and strange rashes and random screaming and babies who can’t soothe themselves and tooth pain and fingernails cut too closely and ear infections and all of this stuff and more with which I can deal. It’s easy now. The third kid [and her incredibly easy temperament, to be sure] is making me feel like I’m running in stride.
The older two throw me curve balls now and again. They are walking over ground I’ve not covered before. Soon they will both have two activities outside the home each week. Two separate items for which we must plan and execute totals four total events for the two of them. And Greer will roll with it. She’s great at rolling. Their Mama is going to need to roll right along and enjoy the ride, even over these uncharted territories.
Read MoreThe Whelm
Every time I look around, I see something new that I should be doing. Today it was clean eating. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been sort of playing around with it for a while now, but I’m still consuming processed stuff too. It’s easier with our meals to eat veg and meat and grains that aren’t processed. It’s mostly how we were already eating, but there have always been those quick meals that don’t take any thought and don’t have very much nutritional value (think processed noodles in some kind of fake cream sauce with garlic that I could toss tuna into and serve with…wait for it….potato chips). I know. I know. It’s trash food. It’s not real, but it’s easy and it’s tasty (because it’s packed with addictive chemicals in it that will make you crave for it nightly). But I don’t want to eat that way and I know it’s a good portion of what is wrong with ‘merica or Amercia.
So clean eating had my attention today. Don’t get me wrong, we had processed bread at one point and graham crackers with jello pudding and cool whip for dessert. It was not a day of clean eating. It was a day of THINKING about clean eating. See the difference? Yes, yes, I’m sure you do.
And I thought about how I need to be weight lifting, but I didn’t actually lift any weights. I climbed 2.4 miles of stairs, but I didn’t lift a weight, just a baby and a three year old.
And I thought about buying some curriculum so that I can teach my oldest how to read good and stuff. I did (FINALLY!) make a purchase to help us with the learning for next year. It had free shipping. I really liked that part and the answer they gave to a person’s question on their facebook page (Basically: My kid has Aspergers and is struggling to write well. What curriculum do I need to help him? Answer: Why does your kid need to stress out about handwriting? Have you thought about helping him type and learn to love express himself in story form without worrying about forming letters? [I may have shed a few tears over this, I thought it was so fantastic]). It will be here some time and then I’ll tell you about it, if you promise not to tell me that this is the worst purchase I’ve ever made.
And I thought about putting one of the kids into speech therapy. We’re struggling with the sound of Ls and Ws and my goodness is that a stressful idea for me (He’ll get an IEP?! What?! It’s just speech therapy. I went through speech therapy…wait…did I have an IEP? Oh, probably not. Nobody did that back then. They just sent you to a special room near the principal and kind of freaked you out like you were in trouble for your Kindergarten year).
There are too many good things that I need to eventually accomplish and too many good things that are just not going to happen (see: flossing daily and keeping my vehicle clean). It’s sometimes incredibly hard to figure out which good things need priority, but it’s not hard to know right now. Good night.
Read More
JUNE
May is the most insane month of all the months in our year. We have birthdays and mother’s day and our anniversary and graduations and weddings and bridal showers and baby showers. One moment I’m decorating Alderaan and the next moment I’m sitting at a splash park wondering where the last thirty days went.
It went to Gideon’s Star Wars party (an entire post will be given to this…soon?). It went well and he still loves to go over the pictures from his day.
It went to brunches at Baileys (why did I not know about this play before?). I had some kind of egg dish and a mimosa while the Greer slept on Poppy’s shoulder, Gideon and Piper devoured their meals. YiaYia enjoyed her…waffle? pancakes? something sweetish? How terrible that I can’t remember! The most interesting part was when we pulled up and backed in next to a sweet car that looked like it had been rifled through and its driver door was wide open. No one was around. Poppy eventually found the owner who seemed put out about it all. That kind of reaction can really make you wonder about people.
It went to four days of a friend in town from out of town. We went to Corkscrew and Flemings. There was some dancing and yogurt parfaits and no air conditioning in 80 degree heat. There was a bright orange sweater purchase and conversations about things I’d never put on the internet.
It went to nights spent celebrating friends’ graduations in backyards and with cake and fun.
It went. And now we’re spending our days outside as much as possible (which is how I got this burn on my skin, unlike all of those burns I usually get from the oven). It’s summer and we’re enjoying it. Things are happening, but I’m trying to keep from planning much. I’ll keep you posted.
Read More