The end of Autumn

There is a website called Family Education that had a quiz on personality style and parenting. So I took the quiz here. I’ve done Myers-Briggs a few times and I got my exact same personality profile based on my parenting style. I was intrigued so I picked up the book. Motherstyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths
Overall I found the book to be very affirming of the differences in mothering styles. She points out that the ideal of the perfect mother is unattainable because you cannot be extroverted and introverted at the same time. You cannot make decisions as a thinker and a feeler in the same moment. You have to pick one or the other. If you go with your preferences, which are usually your strengths, you will be a better mother even if you don’t parent like your: mother, sister, neighbor, coworker... She has some really great parts about the unsung heroes who break cycles of abuse in their families and relating to your own mother, etc...
I bring this up because it is helping me realize that I need to start using my strengths more. They were recently asking for volunteers to help with the school Christmas play so I signed up to help with costumes because it is an introverted activity that interests me. And because I’m perceiving, I made sure I had back up if I couldn’t meet the deadlines.
Anyway, so we (family) do way too much for my introverted preference and we have too much scheduled for our family perceiving preference… As illustrated by the rest of my post. I’m working on it, but a lot of this stuff was scheduled a while back and/or was not optional.

We had Parent Teacher Conferences recently. No major problems and everything was as I expected. He got Excellent in everything math/spatial related which was not surprising. He got Very Good in most of the language stuff. He did great on the science, social studies, and religion parts too although I don’t remember his marks. At one point during the conference Daddy actually had to stop the teacher and tell her she was giving us too much information (about hand writing techniques, they were on a time schedule) and to just send the information home in a note. This makes me happy on so many levels, mainly because I like to know everything. The only real issue is that twice he didn’t do his work in class so we talked about motivators like LEGOs. Speaking of LEGOs, there is LEGO robotics club for the older boys at school. After a couple weeks of JD standing in the door way looking longingly at the club meeting when I would pick him up, we’ve started going in and observing (I got permission and everything). JD just sits there and watches with rapt attention and longing. He already wants the robot set, but I think he’s going to have to wait for a few more years.

We went to the Rice Festival in Crowley. It’s a big deal to people who live in that area and since it’s part of JD’s heritage I want him to grow up going. (Little known fact, Daddy was a Junior Rice Festival King one year. True story.) We had a great time. We all went Friday Night. Rides were ridden, games were played, and funnel cake was consumed. On Saturday, Daddy had to work but JD and I stuck around town and went back for some daytime attractions including the arts and crafts. There is a church between the park where the crafts are set up and the fair itself that puts on a fall festival at the same time with free inflatables, food, music and demonstrations. We saw a black smith and a corn mill. They also had pony rides, but JD wasn’t interested. I bought an Iron Triangle from the black smith. It’s hanging by my front door and I ring it when I want JD to come in for dinner. JD runs home when he hears it; I don’t have to holler and JD doesn’t whine, WIN!

As we have for the past couple of years, we went to the haunted swamp hike at the Bluebonnet swamp. In the past it had been one of our favorite Halloween events but it seems lots of other people thought so too. It was very crowded this year and not as much fun with so many people as we prefer a dark quiet swamp. Next year I’ll have to call and see if one weekend was less popular than the rest.

This year for our big family Christmas card photo we borrowed our cousin’s fishing camp for the week-end. We all drove down to the camp near Lake Verret. It was AWESOME. I want a camp. I think I’d prefer something more woodsy, but honestly if I got outvoted I’d still go to a fishing camp once a month. Both JD and I caught 6 or 7 small bait fish, but I also reeled in a catfish. I’ve never been much of a fisher because I usually don’t catch anything. Catching fish is much more fun than not catching fish. We saw a bald eagle, we went out on a boat, we had a marvelous time.

JD came down with croup again. It wasn’t as bad as last time (our only ER trip to date) and we also knew what to do this time. JD stayed out of school for a day. Daddy stayed home in the morning and I stayed home in the afternoon. I made an apron (no photo currently available) that is so cute. It’s the one I’ve been most interested in pre-production, and I think I’m going to keep it.

I went to Corks N Canvas for the first time. Daddy thought it was a little silly (we’ve got painting stuff at home, of course) but I went none the less. He was right. I took painting at LSMSA and I just got frustrated with the way they were telling us to paint the picture so I went rogue and did it my own way. I liked not having to clean up, but I think I’ll just paint at home from now on.

Last night we went to Greater Baton Rouge State Fair for opening night. Ride bracelets were included with admission, although we didn’t end up riding many rides. The highlights were the great American petting zoo and the Human Canon Ball Show. I wanted to milk the cow, but that must be earlier in the day. There’s a sheep riding competition for kids JD’s age on the week-end… I’m so tempted to bring him.

Now is a marathon week-end when we have 6 parties we've been invited to, not including trick-or-treating sunday plus church on Monday.