Kindergarten Assessment

This week my daughter had her Kindergarten screening. While registering her for Kindergarten made me a little sad and nostalgic, the assessment was exciting. Not because of the assessment itself but because, as we were touring the school I could see all the wonderful and exciting experiences that lay before her. Her eyes were round with wonder as she took it all in ...and she was disappointed when she couldn't stay and start immediately.  Honestly, I wanted her to jump right in too.

She's like a little sponge, absorbing everything, forming connections. I love the way her little mind works, picking out patterns others don't always see. Sometimes it's exciting to watch her grow...

Who Are You & What Have You Done with Jenn???

I know this is weird, but I don't feel like reading lately.

*gasps*

I don't know why. It's very strange. It isn't that I haven't been loving what I've been reading, I have, but I keep having to push myself to pick up a book. For example, I am adoring what I'm currently reading but it's a chore to do so. I always have a book with me and usually use every spare minute to get a few pages in. Even now I could be spending my time reading, but I'm typing this instead.

In all the years since I learned to read, I don't remember this ever happening before. At work I'm either working through my lunch or if I take a lunch lately I'd rather be checking in on social media. Even in the evenings I find I'd rather be catching up on things on the DVR or watching something on Netflix. At this rate I'll never make my Goodreads goal of 80 books for the year as I'm already so far behind.

I'm a little flummoxed with my current reading apathy.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Thoughts on Getting Older

Yesterday I turned 37 and it set me to thinking... when did birthdays go from being exciting to unimportant?  I think it must have been when my daughter was born... a complete alteration of perspective.  I'm just marking time, while she's growing and learning.

I had several people say to me,"Wow. I didn't think you were that old!" which I know was meant as a compliment, even if it was a little back handed.  In truth, minus the arthritis, I don't feel 37; perhaps that makes the difference.  I'm still me.  The same person I was when I was my daughter's age... and that always comes as a surprise to me.  Maybe it was all the reading as a child, but I always thought when I grew up I'd be different, feel different, grow into a different character?  (I'm not sure I'm explaining it all that well.)  I think the only sad thing about getting older is realizing I'll never be able to know it all... I can't learn everything, but it won't stop me from trying.

The physicality of getting older doesn't bother me yet (except the arthritis, but that I've had for years).  The 'will I die my hair when there are too many grey's to yank out' bit, the shape of my body, none of it seems all that important in the grand scheme of things.  Although,  every once in a while I look in the mirror and for a flicker of a second I see Gaius in my reflection.

Is that what it means to grow old gracefully?  I don't know that 37 can be considered old enough to count towards that particular expression, but I certainly see it dawning on the horizon.

Thinking about all this had the start of a Lewis Carroll poem rattling around in my head all day yesterday, and my new found appreciation for it made me smile:

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,"And your hair has become very white;And yet you incessantly stand on your head—Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

John Tenniel's illustrations of the poem

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,"I feared it might injure the brain;But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,Why, I do it again and again."