I cwit

A few weeks back I decided to order the California Achievement Test (CAT) for Mary Clare. I figured it would be a good way to assess what she has learned the past 2 years of homeschooling, to determine where she stands compared to other children her age, and to figure out the areas we need to work on this school year.

I wasn't sure how to present a standardized test to my very opinionated young student, but decided to just start it when things were calm and slow last Friday afternoon. She seemed intrigued at first and enjoyed filling in the bubbles as we followed the directions for the first few sections. She was moving along well, until we came to a portion where she had to complete about 6 vocabulary questions on her own.

I explained that she might not know the answers but to just make a good guess and told her to begin, as I slipped out of the room for a minute to check on Ellie who was calling me. I returned to the kitchen table to find that Mary Clare had disappeared and left this on her test booklet:



"I cwit." Oh my funny girl! She can be quite the perfectionist at times, but I told her she could not quit and that if she was unwilling to complete it now, we'd just finish later that evening when Steven came home. She did eventually complete that section and a few others later that night, but as of today is going to need some more cajoling to actually finish the test, especially with the long reading comprehension portions.

But oh, wouldn't it be nice to just opt out of some of our own motherly duties? Leave an "I quit" notice in the morning and stay in bed all day? This is definitely how I'm feeling recently with the challenges of late pregnancy, the summer heat, an injured husband, and the needed household repairs driving me to exhaustion. Sometimes I do need that break in bed for awhile, but then I come out and make it through the day.

Still in my own life though there are those sections I can't quite finish yet, they are left undone and waiting for me to take care of them. There's that huge pile of winter clothes, that messy patio, those walls that need repainting, and most of all this soul that needs some consistent daily prayer time with the Lord.

So hopefully as I complete the CAT test with Mary Clare, I'll be motivated to complete those things that I've quit. It will probably take some months...but I know I'll get there slowly but surely, taking baby steps each day.