Oh the (test) anxiety...

where can i order a coffee drip...
that may come in handy.

It's coming up on exam week and anyone who is in school or has ever been in school knows what this means. Test anxiety! It's a real thing I swear! Now some of you current and past students of academia may be thinking 'I never had such a thing' but you my friend are the one percent. The rest of us agonize over this fateful week and are constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Or maybe I'm just a drama queen and overreact to a simple compilation of questions. Who knows. Anyways, I thought I would share my pre-exam ritual.

What I FEEL like i have to study...

 It starts with a panic attack. Usually something along the lines of "fudge! The exam is tomorrow and I haven't even opened my book." I know what your probably thinking, if I just opened that darn book before panic sets in than maybe that would reduce the anxiety. And your probably right...but this is my exam ritual, not yours. So I freak. This is usually followed by a mad dash to get all that information out and ready for studying purposes. But alas, when I see the extent of the information that is supposed to cram in my little brain, another freak out ensues. And then preparation begins. I lay out all the material, brew some coffee and retrieve my note cards to begin the futile process of learning everything.

Reality of what i have to study.

Upon looking over the mass amount of information, with the initial overdose of caffeine beginning to set in, well you may have guessed it, I panic. But eventually I calm down (as much as I can, remember caffeine overdose) and I begin. I read, make notecards,.and sip coffee. It's my process. So far I've never failed a test so it may just be working! Although to all you not yet in college, I do not recommend this method of studying at all. It induces panic, causes stress, and you may just end up in the hospital due to excessive abuse of caffeine. (there was a case in the 90's where a man has caffeine induced psychosis, ahhh the 90's). Anyhow, I did learn something whilst studying for my final today, psychologist Bandura showed that when students watch a video of a student saying that "they also have test anxiety but this is how they deal with it", the students watching do better on the post video test they are given. So find a video that has this magical quality in it and pass every exam you ever take*. So there are my thoughts on tests. To summarize for those of you who hate reading (sometime a requirement on tests) tests are the worst, but finding your own special way to study could make it a lot easier.

When finals are finished...

*statement has not been proven true in any sort of scientific test. Also you cannot learn the information by putting your textbook under your pillow at night.

Hide and go seek!

There are many different kinds of hide and seek players...especially in the 6 and under age group. My kids are across the board when it comes to their particular way of playing this game.

Under A Coat in the Closet...So Creative!

 Lily is by far the ultimate player. She actually scares me sometimes because I can't even find her! I have spent more time than I would like to admit searching for my stealth little 6 yr. old. She is what I will classify as the 'ultimate' of the hide and seek variety. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Caleb. Sometimes his hiding spot is directly in front of whoever is counting. Other 'brilliant' hiding spots consist of standing in the doorway of a closet (with the door wide open), under a table with some body part still visible, or when he's feeling sneaky it's the exact same cupboard he always hides in. today though he surprised me by hiding under the bed (giggling the whole time). We can classify Caleb’s type as the 'hide-and-seek-is-more-fun-when-your-found-right-away'. 

In His Favorite Cupboard

Under The Bed...

And then there is Christian, who falls squarely in the middle. Now don't get me wrong, Christian is a great hider and he would put other 5 yr. olds to shame with his mad skills, but he has his usual spots and rarely changes it up. He's not like Caleb in that he has one 'good' place and doesn't branch out from that, but he's not quite like lily and her apt for creativity. Lily has been known to pile clothes on herself to go un-detected. Christian, while not a 'clothes-piler' is quite the 'cupboard-hider' and if you have seen my kitchen you know that he has a good amount of potential hiding spots and the seeker had quite a few doors to open. So Christian can be classified as an 'any-small-space-will-do'. So there you have it.

 I have classified each of my children in a 'stage-type' theory of hide and go seek. Piaget would be proud! So next time you play this timeless game of wits, take a moment to figure out which type your little hider is. And more importantly...what kind of hider are you? Me? I'm a 'hide-behind-the-most-opportune-door' type of gal. What are you?

The Amazing Bunchkins!

My kids are adorable. Almost perfect perhaps. Now I may be a bit biased since, well....they are my kids. But I come across enough other kids to realize that I am a pretty lucky mom. My kids don’t hit, bite, scream, etc. They are (most of the time) fairly well behaved and polite. In fact today, at a birthday party my daughter actually apologized for being impolite, even though she wasn’t being anything close. Her and her friend were sitting on the floor eating birthday cake and made a bit of a mess. Lily promptly said "I am so sorry! How impolite of me!” Obviously we expect great things from her. Speaking of expecting great things...Caleb has some strong expectations on him. He is a bit of a genius (again, possibly biased) and someday he will for sure win a Nobel Prize....or be living at home till he's 40. We’ll see where it goes. Christian on the other hand is Mr. Independent and will probably end up like his dad, smart, successful and very good at talking his way out of a situation. He’s already practicing now, on me, and doing pretty good. Now this post is not really supposed to be about how amazing my kids are, though I guess when you have such amazing kids it’s hard for any post about them to not turn into a brag fest ;). But let’s bring it down a notch. When it comes to day to day things my kids excel. When it comes to bed-time, they all turn into master manipulators. Anything that can be done to extend play time is done. In fact, they had even suggested CLEANING to get out of bed time (obviously I use this to my advantage as much as possible). So when the teeth are finally brushed and the pajamas are finally on, the game begins. Tonight it was toys. I made the mistake of allowing them all to pick out a stuffed animal before bed. Usually they have a favorite in their bed or nearby but tonight the usual's were nowhere to be seen. I, being the practical mom that I am, said "just pick one that’s in the room and get in bed". They did and I kissed them goodnight and shut the door, quite pleased that I had stopped potential chaos from ensuing. But I was wrong. It took about 20 minutes, but eventually Caleb came downstairs and informed me that the action figure he had picked was "too hard" (go figure). So to avoid any bedtime disruption or tears, I said grab and animal from the toy closet and run back up to bed. BAD IDEA! Pretty soon after, upon hearing that Caleb had been allowed to get an upgraded toy, Lily came down the stairs. She told me that she would rather have a different toy and don’t worry mom! I know just which toy and where it is. Again I relented and Lily got a Barbie (what it is with these kids and plastic toys for cuddling?) Finally Christian made his way downstairs, offended that he had not gotten a new toy. He had also brought along Caleb, who told me that Christian had requested his presence at the toy choosing melee. Kids! So after extending bed time for a good 30 minutes, all kids had the toy of their choice (for now) and were in bed. Now they aren’t sleeping, I can hear their sneaky little voices probably plotting another way to extend bed, but at least they are great kids 99% of the time! So, although bed time is sometimes (i.e. always) stressful, I just have to remember, at least my kids are such a wonderful blessing, and are just fantastic on a regular basis. So here's to children, an incredible blessing from God, an exceptional gift of joy, even if they don’t come with an instruction manual. :)

Christmas is coming!

      

Its a Charlie Brown Christmas!

Christian

I am not one for patience, I'll just preface by saying that! So waiting til the socially acceptable time to put up my Christmas tree? Not happening! I want it to be Christmas now so, in my mind, putting the tree up now will make it come sooner right? I know! Completely logical. So last night we did just that. I had mentioned it as a possibility earlier in the day and from that moment on it was a constant barrage of questions until we finally followed through! From 10am until we finally put the tree up I was bombarded by my begging children. It was like the 'are we there yet' repetitiveness only it was 'can we do the tree now'. Like a broken record they asked throughout the day until finally I consented. Not that I was upset. I mean, I wanted to put it up more than them. So at 6 we got the tree out. Every year when we get out the tree I think ' is this really what we have to work with?' As the Christmas season draws near I always imagine our tree as this gorgeous, Martha Stewart esque tree of glory, but upon setting it up I realize its my overacting imagination working against me. Before the lights an ornaments are put on, its reminiscent of the classic charlie brown tree.

Lily

So we got to work on sprucing up this artificial greenery. Usually I put all the decorations on and revel in its perfection but this year I relented and allowed the kids to put on all the ornaments. (I did put the lights on it, I'm not good at giving up all my power...).
The joy of opening up the box of ornaments is almost indescribable. Weird, I know, but something about the anticipation of the Christmas spirit gets me every time. Each ornament has a story or a memory associated with it and telling those stories and reliving those memories is so great! Seeing the twins and Lily's first Christmas ornaments always takes me back and makes me smile, and this year each of the kids put their own on the tree.

The finished product...

Over all it was a wonderful beginning to the Christmas season. The kids did such a great job decorating! I did have to rearrange some ornaments due to the fact that every decoration was at kid height and below, and a few were hung on top of each other. For the most part though, the task of decorating fell squarely on the kids shoulders and they rose to the occasion. We did lose one ornament in the process, Jon's 'babys first christmas' but it was ok. A casualty of the season and, with two cats and three kids, probably not the last. The final product is beautiful and now our house is Christmas ready. The only downside of an early Christmas tree? The kids have been asking if tomorrow is Christmas and when there will be presents under the tree....oh well! I suppose it comes with the season!

Putting the angel on