thE aRt of QueStioN asKinG

im thinking it has to do with the fact that i field entirely too many questions in a days time, but whatever the reason, ive been speculating a lot lately on the topic of question asking. being the mother of a five year old, answering questions is a daily task of mine. im thinking joey is on the high end of the spectrum as far as the number of questions he poses in a days time, but i have no concrete data with which to compare. i did, however, decide to get a baseline idea of the number of inquiries he inquires of in a 24 hour period, so this morning i began counting as soon as his feet hit the floor, which is the exact moment the first question pops out of his mouth, i am not even kidding. however, 30 minutes into my data gathering, id already encountered 34 questions (again, im not kidding) and decided to end the technicalities of my research. conveniently, i am, as you all know, so fortunate to be partaking in a statistics class and used this accumulated knowlege to get a rough estimate of joey's average number of questions posed per day. so maybe statistics wasn't exactly the tool that i used to gauge this, but, humor me people. anyways, after some rough calculations, giving the child 12 hours for sleep and 5 hours for school, eating, and generally keeping his mouth silent (which realistically has really never been the case) i found that in the remaining 7 hours of joey's day, he may be likely to pose an average of 476 questions. you may be pondering how this indeed may be the case, but trust me, spend an hour with him, and you will see, its true. granted, many of the questions are mundane and silly (i.e. whats for dinner and then 5 minutes later, whats for dinner) there are some rather well thought out and inquisitive questions which he throws at me. don't get me wrong, i am thrilled with the fact that he is hungry for info, he should be, he's five! this is all very good, im just merely relaying how talented joey is at asking questions. anways, my speculations began as i started to think of adults and how most of us land on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as far as asking questions goes. let's face it, we mostly suck at this facet of friendship and relationship. i can carry on hours of convo, relaying facts and details about the most trivial aspects of my life yet can get off the phone without asking one question about the life of whomever i was blabbing their ear off. i dont think im wrong to conclude that we, as the adults of society, all have a tendency to be self-absorbed in relationships and to slack in asking the questions that need to be asked. at times it seems uncomfortable or inappropriate or prying yet i think each of us yearns for somebody to truly reach in and ask us those questions. i am personally grateful to have a few of those in my life who break this mold and pose the questions which lend themselves to genuine and loving relationship. and so, as im so good at doing, ive made some conclusions... we need to learn from the little people. perhaps not from the quantity of questions they pose, but from their inquisitive nature to know. we need to pursue others in hopes of knowing others and to ask about their lives, their hurts, their fears and their desires. this is relationship, and most of us aren't too great at it. there is a middle ground to be reached in the number of questions that children and adults pose. the little ones aren't gonna change, but we can. that so sounded like a sermon ending. can i get an amen? :)

So sAd...

some things in life are very cruel and although i know that God is good and has His purposes, I struggle during these harsh times to understand why He doesn't intervene, although i guess this is the point, it is not mine to understand. friends of mine have recently been plagued with the news that their daughter has a fatal genetic disease. yesterday they found out that their second child has the same syndrome. they are awesome people. good Christians. they love Jesus. they love their children and eachother. not that these things disqualify you from turmoil, but nobody should have to face this reality. and yet they received the worst news that is possible, in my opinion: both of their beautiful children will hurt more then any child should ever have to hurt. i ache for them and yet cannot even fathom the pain that they are feeling. it is hard for me to synthesize the truth that i believe with the reality that they are facing. i guess that is why God has made His truth truth regardless of the feelings that are attached at the moment. His truth remains throughout joy and sorrow, yet it can seem so far away in the midst of such sorrow

sHhh...dOn't tEll JoEy

although sweet cereal holds fond memories for me, i am not a big connesuier of the sugary variety of breakfast fare these days. growing up, saturday mornings were special days when my brother and i were allowed to enjoy any cereal we so desired. it was the designated morning that we could indulge in cartoons and the empty calories of cereal sweetness. i loved this day as a child and savored every bowl of this sugary goodness. as an adult however, ive found sweet cereal as a whole to be sub-par. it is certainly not a filling cuisine and given the choice, id rather spend the calories on the more luxurious varieties of sugar. icecream, cakes, chocolate, you get my drift. but, last night as i searched the pantry for a little snack, i ran across joey's box of lucky charms and it just appealed to me for whatever reason. although the box was more then half empty, i poured myself a bowl and sat down to reminisce on the days where such food was considered a delicacy. as i finished the bowl, i realized my palette had not been satisfied and i went for another round. yet upon going to pour another bowl-full, i realized my affinities were not towards the cereal as a whole, but only for the charms, the marshmallow bits of yummy-ness. and thus, i proceeded to pick out every last marshmallow left in that half box of lucky charms. i am not proud of this, as 15 minutes later, i was still relatively hungry and there was not a marshmallow to be found. i had eaten each and every one. while i should have just thrown the rest of the cereal away, i decided to avoid a conflict with the ever so observant child of mine who would look into the cupboard the next morning and inquire what had become of his box of lucky charms. i returned the marshmallow-less box to the shelf and am hoping to get to the store before my indulgences are discovered. i have carried on the tradition of saturday being the official sweet cereal morning and therefore have a couple of days with which to tamper with the evidence. it was a rare binge which i wouldn't recommend as it did nothing to satiate the hunger, or the taste i was looking for. ive thus concluded to keep sweet cereal as a novelty for the young. apparently ive outgrown my childhood tastebuds...

iNseRt: Pep tAlk

ok, deep breath. i am writing this to myself in hopes that in every crisis moment (which will number quite a few over the next 13 weeks) i can read my following words and truly believe that my life will turn out ok. this is the deal...i am almost closing in on an undergrad degree in psychology. feeling i have some degree of competence regarding the intra/inter personal skills, i surmised that this was a promising choice as far as degrees go. and thus far, ive been correct. however, unbeknownst(how in the world do you spell that??) to me, there are 3 required statistics classes which are required (imagine that) to be taken in order to graduate. and i, being the personality-type that i am, have chosen to leave them until the very end. i did complete one in an earlier semester and remember having these feelings which i am now re-experiencing all over again. i made it through and actually did quite decently in the class however in the midst of it, i felt like i was drowning for the entire 8 weeks. and im there again. math is not my thing. i know this and i therefore in the end know that these are the classes with which i will struggle most. but this sense of dread has overtaken me and i am worried about not even passing which in essence means not graduating. this is all ludacris when i step back and look at my history. every time i experience something such as this, i expect the worse and yet somehow, i make it through each and everytime. and thus, i write this to remind myself of this. i've spent, i dont know, probably 15 or 20 hours this week on t tests and anova tests and spss analysis and as i went this afternoon to test my accumlated knowledge, i found that i know nothing. i feel like crying or pulling out my hair or just applying to mcdonalds and being done with it all. my life feels consumed with this stuff. i cant stop thinking about it, ever. its this dark abyss and its freaking statistics. ahhh. i will make it through, i know this, although it certainly won't be my own power ...if anyone should so desire, i could use some prayer. actually, it would be even better if somebody would just step in and take this class for me. any takers??