Jack's child, Sarah's child

The combination of genetics and environment has created a bizarre creature in our house.  That school pic this year is my child.  The child who free hands pictures that look traced is Jack's.  The child who is okay with mediocre spelling grades because spelling is unimportant on most days is also Jack's.  The child who melt's down when she is tired or who has a fit when the spelling (that unimportant spelling) is not a 100 ( because perfection is important ) is my child.

Today's child was a challenge to my meager two cups of coffee.  Probably there wasn't enough coffee on the planet.  Thankfully there was a dad, a phone call away, to talk reason into her.  

This is strange and macabre, but Jack and Bell collect bones, particularly skulls of animals.  After cleaning the bones forever, they study their structure and have science conversations about species and why one animal is built this way and not that way.   This all seems slightly odd, but harmless.  These skulls are usually found in the pasture or near the lake.  Today, however, below the house, a coyote had been hit by a car.   Bell was furious because I woudln't stop and get its head.  On the way to school.  7:15.  School clothes.  40 degrees.  Dead coyote.  Absolutely not.

My refusal infuriated her beyond belief.  I was thwarting her interest in biology and that coyote was dead anyway and by the time we came home, some truck would have ran over it and crushed it.  

Here's the thing.  As ridiculous as her request was, her response to me was, well, just like me.  Stubborn.  Tenacious.

So I have been thinking today about personalities and quirks and how most of us fall a bit short of perfect.  Bell is a handful when she is tired and makes me crazy, but I am pretty sure I make Jack nuts at times, and I know I made my parents crazy.  My students undoubtedly would like to change a few of my quirks.  

I need others' patience and support, their love.  But that means I have to practice patience too, and not just my eccentric child, but with those 90 other children, their parents, the annoying woman in Walmart last week.

  A lack of coffee really isn't valid.  Neither is technology that didn't work all week.  I need to work a bit harder at that patience, no matter what.  Even when dead coyotes show up.