Test Anxiety

Reese's ITBS test results just arrived.
You know, those standardized tests they give in the spring every year? Reese practically had a heart attack that week, she was so stressed out about it. I told her not to worry about it, but that's like telling ME not to worry about a test. Yeah right.

I talked to her teacher during testing week. According to Mrs. Rogers, the state receives a certain amount of funding for the schools based on their performance on these tests, and they were seeking more dinero, so a higher level of tests had been distributed this year, basically setting them up to fail. She was really upset about it, and said she felt terrible for the kids because they work so hard, and the test was pretty confusing. She also told us not to worry about their performance for this exact reason. I can't imagine some schools being given a different test than others, it doesn't seem fair or honest, so I'm not so sure about how that went down. But she said that if you compared this year's Kindergarten tests to the tests they gave to the first graders, the kindergarten test was more difficult.

Reese literally came home from school crying every day of testing week, complaining that the questions were so hard and she said her brain hurt from answering them. She's a little (very) dramatic.

She's asleep right now, and her tests just came in the mail. I was so excited to tell her that I went in tried to wake her up.
I was given a look of death and she rolled over and went back to sleep.

My 6 1/2 yr old takes occasional naps. I'm one lucky mother.

I hope she gets up soon, though, because I freaking can't wait to tell her that her hard work this year paid off!

The results are a National Percentile Rank, (NPR) so the score is the percent of students in this grade in the nation with a lower score than her on the test.
Here are Reese's NPRs:

Vocabulary 87%
Reading Words 96%
Language 99%
Mathematics 95%

Mrs. Rogers should be very proud. She is such a great teacher and prepared those kids well! We were so blessed to have Reese placed in her class, this year.

Well done Reese! She had nothing to worry about. We will be proud of any score she receives, we just want her to give her best effort. When testing week rolls around next year, we're going to remind her of her previous success and hopefully, get that girl to relax a little.

Standardized tests have nothing on that girl. Way to power through, Reese.
You can do hard things!

Satisfaction

I received my Associate's Degree from BSU in the mail, today!

I know it's for crap, considering that I have nearly enough credits for a bachelor's degree, now, but it's a start. It's something, and it can't expire.
It took a year and a half of appeals, more appeals, appeals to appeal rejected appeals, frozen pizzas for my family once a week, a total of 4 schools, two additional tranfers of credits, a lot of crying, sacrificing nights home with my family, a horrendous online class from BSU to reestablish catalog calendar year, and 3 classes at NWACC to make up for Area II classes that would not transfer, but I got it.

It's just an Associate's, but it's mine. Yay!
I have proof for my children that their mother went to college.

You are never too old to learn.

I'll have a blueberry, I'll hug a blueberry, I love a blueberry..."

Of course, the ONE morning my kids decide to sleep in past 6am is the day we have plans to go blueberry picking. It wasn't easy to wake everyone up and get them out the door in 5 minutes, but it was totally worth it.

(Corbin and Quincy stayed in their jammies)



Once in the car, we blasted Blueberry Pie by Bette Midler (if you haven't heard it before, click here, and make your life instantly better.)



The first time Quincy heard the song, she started laughing uncontrollably.

We thought she was going to pass out.





We picked two gallons of delicious, plump blueberries, and my parents joined us to pick a gallon of their own.



This is one of our favorite things to do in the summer. One for me, one for the bucket. One for me, one for the bucket. Two for me...

Tonight: Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes with blueberry syrup.

My parents left today. As I suspected would happen, Reese has flipped a 180* and become a hot mess. She's on her third tantrum today. Something happens to that girl when grandparents go home that just breaks my heart. The separation and lack of constant attention sends her into a needy tailspin of rottenness. Do your kids do this? I think she gets used to having their attention 100% of the time, and the instant I can't give her exactly what she needs the moment she wants it, she just snaps and becomes a monster that is unbearable to live with for a week. I tried to calm her down after her meltdown (that was over her letter G not looking like my letter G) but was unsuccessful and finally had to send her to her room for unleashing a string of 6-year-old profanity and hateful words on us all. She took off all of her clothes, kicked the wall, screamed some more, then got in bed. I hope the detox process goes quickly this time. It's only been an hour and I am spent. The good news is that it has been about 4 weeks since Reese has had a temper tantrum of this caliber, so ugly as they are, that might be a new record so things are looking up. And really, until today, she has done an amazing job at coping with things that might usually set her off.

I feel sad for her and pray that when she wakes up and decides to join us (and apologize), it will be the happy Reese that went blueberry picking with us yesterday that she chooses to bring out of her bedroom.

Quincy Says

Some nights, it is just too late for scripture time with the kids and we practice learning an Article of Faith instead. Tonight, Quincy volunteered to recite the First Article of Faith, and said,

"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, with liberty and justice for all."

***************************************************************************

Last weekend when we ate dinner on the square, I took her potty at the Station Cafe. We passed the kitchen on the way back there and she asked about it. I pointed out that that is where the chef cooks the food that we ordered. She seemed ok with my explanation at first, but as she was washing her hands, she looked at me with fear in her eyes and a quivering bottom lip, and in all seriousness asked,

"Mom, do they cooked little children if they go through the door for the kitchen? Will they cooked us up?"

It's Good to Be Meg Willardson

It's good to be me.
Today I:

-started our summer reading program

-felt guilty that Henry's garage has not opened in 72 hours (another post. wait for it.)

-waited all morning for the A/C guy to show up. At 11 I called him and he acted all put out as though it was my fault he was so busy and wouldn't be able to make it after all (um, ya think? You were supposed to be here an hour ago.) He said he miiiiight be able to squeeze me in next week, but this week is too busy. Well, Mr. Fixit, you may have come highly recommended by friends, but that is what you told me last week, and that is WHY we had an appointment this morning. I had my Mom come pick up Quincy and take her to a birthday party for me, and I moved Reese's doctor appointment to the afternoon to make myself available for you. You didn't even call me to tell me you weren't showing up, so I think we'll be better off with someone else.

-fished Cowboy Boots out of a toilet bowl. No, not those kind of cowboy boots...
This kind of Boots...he's a cowboy. (yeppers, those are salad tongs.)

-moved that shirt to the "recycle bin" after seeing that photo.

-panicked after eating dinner, because I thought Aaron had taken the dirty "toilet tongs" out of the dishwasher to use them to take the hot dogs off the grill. (He didn't, but we all had a good laugh. Yes, I am just going to buy new tongs. Yes. You can come over for hot dogs.)

-lost a bunch of friends because they read my blog. hahaha! No really. Can we still be friends if you use my bathroom and find Boots in my toilet? Just tell me now ;)

-yelled numbers at a machine recording until it gave up and put a real representative on the phone to activate my new debit card (we canceled the other one because we thought it had been stolen, but it turns out I am just an airhead and remembered the cause of the high dollar mystery purchase-Quincy's ER visit for the quarter--less than 1 minute AFTER the old card was canceled. oopsie.) After forevah on the phone, my "immediately activated" card didn't work when I tried to buy lunch Chick-Fil-A. I have a hot date with customer service tomorrow for some PB&J's and troubleshooting.

-melted when temps hit 95* today. Ew.

-hit this cat with a rock before taking this photo. In my defense, I thought it was dead (he was sleeping). Aaron got him with the shovel. (in Aaron's defense, cats are disgusting and won't leave us alone.) Kitty got away. Point: Smelly Cat.
Dear irresponsible owners of the cats that think they live at my house,

I can't type what I really think about you and your disease infested felines because this is a family blog. Maybe on day when I haven't reached my word limit.

Until then, listen up:
Your cats flock to my yard like owls to Number 4 Privet Drive. There is now a $10 bounty out on your pets, and I will pony up some decent cash for anyone who permanently removes one of them from my yard. Dead or alive, I do not care. I am convinced that most cats sold their souls to Satan a long time ago, so I'm not really concerned about their mortality.

The traps are set,
Meg

-Took Reese to the doctor (ear infection). She did a great job waiting patiently for an hour to see the doctor. When she got home, she ran straight to her "good news journal" to write about her visit and put the sticker inside.

-Started a reading program with Quincy. She has a lisp, so I am going to go with a phonics program for her and see if it helps with her speech as well. Today we worked on some of the letter sounds that she doesn't know yet. Reese enjoyed reading the little books that came with the set.

-Filled a bunch of water balloons. It IS summer after all. The first two balloons lasted 30 minutes and were carefully cradled and carried around the yard. The rest were gone in 5 minutes of pure childhood bliss.





-Consoled the first water bomb victim. (Don't be fooled by the pathetic face. It's a ruse and she gleefully retaliated on her opponent just moments after this photo was taken.)



-Stuffed a couple water balloons in my shirt when Aaron came home for lunch and waited for him to notice. It was hillarious. I'm ten.



-I probably will not be laughing when one of my little girls copies my behavior and stuffs their shirt next week. It was still worth it.



-washed and dryed 4 loads of laundry, but didn't fold or put away one single item. My sheets are in the dryer and Aaron is happily asleep in a heap of towels and a spare blanket (love him.) I'm calling it good enough for tonight and will fold the lot tomorrow.



-the good news is that I found Aaron's pile of socks. I know that sounds crazy, but he's been missing ALL of his black socks for a week, now. They were under a lone shirt at the bottom of the whites basket and kept getting overlooked. Gross, but I am glad I found them because it means I am not crazy. I mean, who loses 10 pairs of identical black socks all at once?



-saw Something Borrowed with my mom. Laughed until I cried on the way to the theater, laughed in the movie, and laughed some more on the way home. Cute movie, great company.

-the hot, fresh, tiny cinnamon donuts weren't bad, either.


-called the police.

Yeah, you read that right. After the movie I dropped my mom off at her rental and headed home. There was a little old lady wandering down Trafalgar road. Some people were trying to talk to her but she wasn't speaking coherently. After they gave up, I rolled down my window and though she clearly had no clue where she was (or who she was, really), she waved her wicker handbag at my van to "get away". I left her, but felt uneasy the rest of the drive home. I called the nonemergency number and the police said they would send someone over to find her and make sure she is ok.

Did you lose your grandma? She's headed south/southeast on Trafalgar, near Commonwealth.



-researched how to clip the hens' wings. I may attempt it tomorrow.



I'm loving summer!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Reese and I started reading Meet Kit an American Girl together.



Kit Kitteridge and her best friend Ruthie love to read the newspaper and write stories about the "news" happening in thier own lives. The Great Depression is affecting everyone in the country, and Kit is tired of only seeing bad news on the paper, so she and Ruthie set out to write a newspaper of their own that is filled with good news.


One of the things I want to encourage Reese to do is keep a journal. After reading about Kit, we decided it would be fun for Reese to make a "good news" record of her own. I copied and stapled together a booklet of kinder-lined paper so she can have a page for each day of summer. Each page has the date, a "headline", a sentence or two about something she did that day, and a picture. I hope this will help keep her creative writing skills sharp during the break from school. At the end of summer, she will have a nice keepsake to help her remember her 2011 summer adventures.

Lemon Chicken Cordon Bleu

Directions for two:

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Butterfly a thick, 8 ounce chicken breast.

Cut that butterflied breast into two pieces along the seam that holds the two breast halves together. Imagine it as an open book and cut along the spine. Now you have two thin cutlets.


Lay a slice of ham and then a slice of provolone cheese on each cutlet. You may want to tear the cheese and fold the ham so that they do not extend beyond the cutlet, because they’ll just melt or burn in the oven.

Fold each cutlet over to almost seal the ham and cheese inside.
Roll in bread crumbs.

Sprinkle very generously with salt and pepper.

Cut two thin rounds of lemon and place one on each chicken bundle.

Place in foil pans, cover, label, and freeze

To bake:
Thaw in fridge
Bake for 17-20 minutes.

I made a few of these (it is just easier to make multiples since I filleted a bunch of chicken for the chicken parm. I cut up all of the chicken at once and made a few of both recipes)

happy freezing!
Cookie recipes coming soon.