Yesterday I just got tired. Tired of fighting with my 7-soon-to-be-8 year old daughter. I try, I really do try not to get sucked into it. You know, the yelling and talking back?

You're mean!

Nobody loves me!

See? That proves you don't love me. (After telling her she can't eat as it's 9pm.)

You're rude!

No!

Take those 5 statements, mix 'em up and then press *random play* & *continuous play.* That is what we've been subjected to every single night. Did you read that right? Every. Single. Night!

Hero & I talk daily and pray daily for the fortitude to get through this. To get through to HER that we DO love her and BECAUSE we love her, doing her homework & going to bed on time is the best thing for her. We explain that she's doing a lot of growing and her body needs that rest. And hasn't she recognized yet that when she's tired, she starts making poor choices? As for her homework, we expect her to do her best because we know she has the capability to shine. We've seen it. She just wants to rush through and not care about it anymore. Unfortunately, when she does that, she makes mistakes.

Yesterday, I got a call from the school office saying that she had a fever of 99 degrees and she's complaining of a stomach & head - ache. I sighed. I went there and sat with her in the nurse's room and talked to her calmly about what was going on. The first thing I notice is that she's wearing a sweater and had just been at recess prior to coming in. Hello - she plays hard and so, yeah. She's gonna be a little bit hot. We talked for a minute and then I decide that we'll take her home and get her changed (she had fallen in a puddle too) and bring her back. The gals in the office were a little surprised but hey. On the way back to school, I asked if there was anything else going on. She finally admitted that there was a BIG SPELLING TEST and she was nervous about it. I asked what words were troubling her. Echolocation & nocturnal. I asked her to spell them both. 100% correct. I told her that if she starts feeling nervous or stressed about school work, she needs to tell her teacher. Her mom. Her dad. The school dean. ANYBODY that can help her work through the stress. I don't know if she processed what I said because the next thing I know, she's skipping on her way back to her classroom. Her teacher came over and asked what was going on and I told her. She got a look of disbelief and said, "She needs to come talk to me!!! And anyway, the test isn't until next week! And she keeps getting them all right, anyhow!" Oy. Now, I don't know if this test was really stressing her out or if she needed to just break away from school for a minute or what. But I'm really concerned about her. I feel like I'm wading through a vat of baubles, trying to find the one that will explain it all. Not a good analogy but that's all I've got at the minute. You know, the newborn deal?

And the picture above? There really is a point to it but that will have to wait until a later post. My Slugger is fussing and it's time to nurse before picking up Boo. I really hope, REALLY hope that she'll leave that junk behind.