Over Achiever

Karaia walked into the living room, holding a paper, and asked, "Mom, how do you get 100% in spelling?"

A bit confused because she hasn't gotten less than 100% in spelling all year other than the 1 time she fought me on studying and missed one (I know, nice lesson teaching ----if you don't study, you'll only get 99% and then how will you feel?), I said, "studying the words and practicing them. Did you miss some spelling words this week?"

"I only got 20/20 plus then I got the 6 bonus word right. But how do you get 100%?," she said as one who has done all they can do but still falls short.

"Honey, that's better than 100%!"

With tears in her eyes she explained, "But I saw Aidan's paper and it had 100% written on the top. Mine only says 20/20 + 6 on it."

Ah, now I see.

Aidan's mom had shared with me that spelling was a challenge for him this year and that Mrs. Pickett was very encouraging and always celebrating the little successes. I knew getting all the spelling words right that week would have been HUGE for him and deserving of some extra ink love from his teacher.

I tried to explain to Karaia how hard Aidan had been working in spelling and he didn't always get every word correct so getting them all right was a big accomplishment that Mrs. Pickett needed to make sure he knew just how great he had done. Mrs. Pickett was just as proud of her, but she had not had to work super hard to get good scores in spelling so Mrs. Pickett knew Karaia had the confidence she needed to keep up the great work.

She seemed a little placated by that information. I realized the lesson hadn't completely taken hold when I heard her mumble as she walked away, " I wanted my paper to say 100%"

Wow.  I was SO not like this in school. Don't get me wrong, I got very good grades, but never stressed about it much. This is new territory for me. Luckily for me I have a few amazing friends, who had similar feelings as Karaia, that I will be calling for advice.

Still, there are worse things to be stressed about.

Maidens

My good friend just had a baby. They used her maiden name, Beck, as his first name.

Our kids are very invested in this family and always love to hear happy news about them. When I told them about little Beck being born, our Beckham naturally thought they had named him after him. You can see where a 5 year old would get that.

So that brought on a lesson about maiden names which is not the easiest of all topics to teach a child. I used Karaia as and example and some made-up boy as her husband to illustrate the moving of Karaia's current last name to become her maiden name and her made-up husband's last name would become her new last name.

Beckham, wanting to make sure he understood, but also wanting to let me know of his future plans had this to say,

"So......whoever I marr---Lily's new last name will be D*** and her maiden name will be A********?"

I called Lily's mom right away to tell her that we would some day be related. It's nice to know what our future holds in store for us ;)

near screeching halt

Yes, the Disney post IS coming. It's all written, but I am still fighting with the photos. In the mean time too many things have happened and thoughts have been bouncing around in my head. Kevin's grandpa Frank died today. He was a good man and will be missed.

Death always makes me think about life and what I am doing with mine. It is now nearly 1:30am and even for my night owl standards, it is late. These thoughts need to be expressed, documented, and purged. Lucky you. YOU get to read them ;)

I am struggling with my fabric design dream. By struggling, I mean nearly standing still. Not quite, but to the naked eye I may as well be a statue. The dream is still there. Smouldering, with a white, intense heat. But I am at a loss as to how harness that desire, energy, and talent and convert it to real world tangibility. I know where I want to be, but getting there, well that is part of the fun....right?

I did stumble across an interview with Anna Maria Horner, my current all time fav fabric designer. My designer crush, if you will. Not only do I love her designs, but it's her story that inspires me. She just had her sixth child a year ago. Six people! And she is just barely coming into her own in the past couple years. It gives me hope that this can be done, it doesn't have to happen right. this. second. and it can be done at home, surrounded by the measure of my creation, my children.

My favorite quote from her interview, that I think I will have Annie print in vinyl for me (thanks in advance) is this:

"...even more important is to be like nothing else around you.  Imitating others could get you some attention and success for about 5 whole seconds.  Being you will never be realized by being someone else!"

I think this may be part of my problem. I have glamorized being a fabric designer so much in my head that I have searched, and researched designer's "stories", their beginnings, and then I find I tend to design like my current designer crush. My designs are well designed, but they aren't me.

Once I figure that out (easier said than done) I believe my designs will reflect that and hopefully be accepted.

Right now I feel as if I am running in place. Lots of energy and movement, without any ground being covered. I need something to push me forward...just a little. Just enough to move me off my spot.

There.

They are out.

The thoughts, I mean.

Good night.

Obviously.....

I have a lot of pictures to share. Which explains my lack of posting due to my obsessive need to post in chronological order no matter how many times I try and talk myself out of it.

Still, right now is not the time to post a million pictures. I really dislike blogger's way to post pictures. If I could download more than 5 at a time it would be a different story. And I don't want to do a slide show because I want the pictures to be printed in the books I make of my blog. So there you go.

Anyway, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. There has been a ton going on. Hopefully, soon, I will buckle down and get the pictures on here. I started about 2 weeks ago and it was giving me grief so I gave up for a few more weeks.

Soon.