motivator

quiet time lately has been on genesis, which is kind of interesting.  granted, i've read genesis before, because it's pretty famous and the first book of anyone's plan to read the whole bible (before said plan usually fails ... somewhere around numbers or deuteronomy).  but with the church's reading plan, and the fact that our super-champ lisa sends out the qt every morning with the daily prayer, it makes it pretty tough to ignore.

add to that that i married a super holy man who gets in these moods of discipline and sets the alarm for 7:40am every morning and proceeds to ask me what i think about it.  (um, i think we could stand to do qt a little later in the day). 

that being said, it's been an interesting domino effect of accountability.  so young's new year's resolution was to spend 30 min a day with God.  he shared that with our tlc, which led alan to propose that to him that they do accountability and discuss the qt each day.  that was all well and good, but led to alan wanting to discuss it with me.  which meant that i had to do it.  (which i should, just saying this is where accountability goes).  so then it was going so well with young that alan decided to open it up to the rest of the boys.  so i think they have some emails going each day (which i hear are basically between alan and young ... though i bet sam reads all the emails even if he doesn't respond).  so that got me thinking, i should probably do this with the girls.

so i emailed all of the girls asking if they wanted to do qt accountability and discussion - but under the pretense that they would have to actively participate.  (bc otherwise i'm just sending out emails every day about my thoughts and people are probably deleting them). 

crickets.

i got one response.  and of course, a whole lot of maybe's.  (and we all know i can't stand maybe's).  so i let that go for a week, presuming that some people need to marinate before they make decisions.  (i don't understand this either, but sgl-ing is re-teaching me that i can't make people operate the way that i think they should, teehee).  finally i just laid down the ultimatem of in or out, and voila, people hopped on board. 

score one for being a teensy bit more patient.  (outside of but pressed right up against the box).

that being said, i had a hilarious conversation with p last night at his lesson.  i'm going to start tutoring him next week, because his mom thought that i would be the best person to motivate him.  this may well be true, but not quite the way i expected.

p:  when you come to tutor me, will you bring that yellow stick that you use to whack me with in taekwondo?

me:  uh ... sure.  why?

p:  well, i think fear is a good motivator

me:    haha you know, i don't actually whack you with it all that much.  usually i'm just waving it around and then you fix things

p:  i know.  i just think i'm mostly motivated by fear and it's good for me.

HAHA. 

this reminds me of how in grad school nancy used to say that she could hear my voice inside her head every time she did the cornell hoojin (which i worked so tirelessly to get out of her system) so that even if i wasn't there she would hear "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" 

or maeve used to say that she'd hear me clear my throat every time she didn't show her work, even at school during tests.

my poor future children.  they're so clearly going to like alan more than they like me.  but hopefully they'll show their work, not be lazy, and never do a stupid hoojin.
 

vanity cards

while watching bigbangtheory, alan would often try to pause at the end of the show when the screen would flash a bunch of text, numbered something.  i thought he was weird until we did manage to pause it and read ... and realized that chucklorre is pretty funny.

http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php

well lo and behold, they're called "vanity cards" and they're archived on his site.  for all of my 2 readers out there ... you're welcome.

i had private lessons with m + p yesterday - it's kind of wild to think that they're 14 already.  i've been coaching them for half their lives ... though they're not all that different as teenagers as they were as 7 year olds.  except they're amazons.  p has already surpassed 6 ft and m is probably sitting pretty at 5'10". 

twins always fascinate me - and while these two are obviously fraternal since they're boy-girl, they're just so different (and yet so much alike).  i've long since learned that i can't teach them together (they end up bickering and nagging each other and it's unproductive) - and now that they're older we work on very different things.  but i realized, when you watch these kids grow up (literally up), you really do bond with them.

a side note on growing up - since they're freaking giants now, the running joke is something like this:

darlin:  HAHAHA.  you're looking up at patrick now.

me:  yeah, that's weird.  p, fix this situation

p:  is that better?

me:  much

these kids crack me up, because honestly they're athletic and strong and young and could probably out-do me in anything we tried.  but for whatever reason i think they still remember me as that giant who was always yelling at them to do something faster or better ... or making them cry.  (though i'm reassured that they appreciated it, thank goodness).  but to me they're still those little 7 year old monkeys who wouldn't stop talking or smiling (they still don't). 

yesterday i was thinking about how to fix m's sidekick balance, and she said "that's six!"  and i asked her what she was talking about.

apparently i have five (well perhaps now six) "thinking faces".  she can imitate them (including the accompanying hand motions) - which is kind of creepy but kind of endearing.

of course her last observation was "well they all end in torture, it's just a matter of what kind". 

the funniest moment of p's lesson was when i was stretching him, and i said what i always say when he's fighting me:  "be jesus!"  (meaning put your arms out to the sides spread eagle).  at a certain point he can't take it anymore and he says "but i'm not jesus!  i'm st. patrick!"

jan was watching all of this, and like the good filipino catholic that he is, responds with "and what do people do on st. patrick's day?  drink and get in trouble!  so that's why you should be jesus instead of st. patrick!"

haha these guys just crack me up ...