Life is Good

I've realized that I've done a lot of stories lately, not a lot of "What's happening right now" things on the blog.  This is because it's kinda the same old thing around here.  Which is to say, life is going GREAT, but there's not a lot to write about.

The boring stuff:
I'm still in school 2 days and 2 nights a week.  It's more credits than I've taken on before, but it seems to be working alright so far.  There's a lot to do, and I find that this semester I actually need to write out all my assignments in a planner (actually a piece of paper, because I'm cheap) instead of just remembering it all in my head.

Rob is still teaching every Tuesday and Thursday and is teaching on-line sections of general Biology as well.  This hasn't changed for years and isn't likely to change for a while to come.  For one thing, he loves it.  For another thing, it's helping us achieve our financial goals. 

These 2 things mean that there isn't a ton of time for other things.  We both still have our church callings, and those have fallen into a pleasant rhythm.  The days when I think about asking to be released are fewer and further in-between.  Teaching Gospel Doctrine is fun, even when I feel like I'm just up there making an idiot of myself.  Apparently making an idiot of myself is endearing because people tell me that they love it.  Rob is the ward mission leader, though he's been lobbying to be the membership clerk instead.  I'm all for it, but it's not going to happen.  Oh well.

Things that happen every week:
Miciah's piano lessons.  She's doing quite well, and we're happy with her progress.  It's nice to hear songs that are worth hearing - she's past the beginning songs that are so awful.  She doesn't like to practice, but we got mean about that:  If she doesn't practice, she doesn't get reading time at night before bed.  She loves to read, so she practices.  It was a moment of pure evil genius, when I came up with that one!

Elijah just started piano, and he actually loves to practice so far.  He's meticulous and wants to be GOOD.  I like it.  Unfortunately, all those awful beginning songs are still going strong in our house.  ...  Rob is teaching him for now, which is working out much better than when he tried to teach Miciah.  Hopefully that will work for a while longer, because it's saving us $60 a month.

Things that happen every now and then:
- For the next 5 weeks Miciah will be able to do an art class on Saturday mornings.  It's a class offered to "gifted" kids, which is a term I still don't like.  Either way, Miciah loves art and she's really excited about it.

- We see friends and family sometimes.  I think that one of the best lessons we've learned from being so busy is Balance.  It's more of a forced thing, not something we chose.  For a while we took friends almost entirely out of the picture and I hardly ever called my mom, things like that.  But then I started feeling isolated and stressed and busy.  I got mad about it!  I realized that those things aren't "extras" in life.  They're something I need.  We still don't see family and friends as much as before, when time was a luxury, but that's okay.  "Turn, turn, turn."  (Sing it!)


So there you go.  A mini-update about what's going on around here.

Random extras:
- Tank has 2 teeth that are rotting out of his head.  Which is awesome.  We're hoping he makes it to his mid-March appointment, where they'll try to save the teeth instead of pulling them.

- Miciah and Elijah both participated in a study where they were given IQ tests, in essence.  (I'm skipping the why and just giving you the story.)  Both of them are smart, no doubt.  Miciah's reading and math scores (more of a standardized test instead of IQ stuff - Elijah didn't take this part of the test) blew me away.  She's well ahead of her actual grade level.  But here's what I found most interesting:

We got back the scores, which were adjusted for age, and in all categories but 1 Elijah did better than Miciah.  He bombed that 1 category and so their cumulative scores were nearly identical.  That one category, though, is Miciah's strength, and it's the main reason why people, including us as parents, pin Miciah as the smart one:  Verbal skills.  Miciah can talk.  Elijah is categorically horrible at talking.  The thoughts inside his head never quite connect with the words coming out of his mouth.

Here's the thing, though.  Elijah STOMPED Miciah in all the other categories.  And I realized that we've been vastly underestimating the boy.  It was a good lesson for us as parents.

- Speaking of Miciah's verbal skills, I'll give you one short story.  Elijah and Miciah were fighting downstairs and I heard it and called Elijah up.  I decided, calmly, that he was to blame and sent him to his room for a half hour time out.  He went without complaint.  Miciah came up, too, even though I hadn't called her.  She started explaining her side of the story and I told her that she wasn't in trouble and to go back downstairs and play.  Here's what cracks me up:  She stayed upstairs complaining until I was so frustrated that I grounded her, too!  Leave it to my daughter to talk her way INTO trouble!

That's all I've got for now.  Hope you're all having a great 2012!  (I write out 2012 as often as I can.  It's such a pretty year!)