Long time no post

Between my 9 year old deciding to write a book on my computer, my husband taking MBA classes online in the evenings, three out of four of my kids uncovering the "Typing Tutor" (Lucy, the littlest tries but all she keeps doing is changing the pictures of my icons on my desktop. She's really good at it.) I haven't had much spare time on my own computer. We're on round two of antibiotics for strep throat, mom included. Life is crazy. This week I am contemplating these two things: Reputation vs. Character. REPUTATION is what everyone sees of us. CHARACTER is what we do when no one sees. AND, I am also contemplating these questions, Can I exhibit love under pressure? Or be kind when things are going wrong? I heard a speaker ask these hard questions and I felt like she was speaking directly to me in a crowd of 60. When Lucy took a red marker up and down 8 white dresser drawers last week, I'm pretty sure I wasn't feeling the love under pressure. And today, Beth put her coat on and kept saying it smelled. I kept thinking, "we've got to get out of here and get to school!" You know, the countdown to the start of school goes faster than any other and we're seemingly always late! If I would've taken a couple minutes to listen I would've realized a cat went pee on her coat and of course I wasn't going to make her wear it to school without washing it! And no, she didn't wear it to school. :) So many lessons, so little patience but I'm learning.