This week we are participating in the homeschool association's standardized testing. Braden and Brogan are taking the tests for their grade (Brogan is testing just for the fun of it), and Colson hangs out in the nursery.

Braden's a pro at this testing thing, and he was calm and cool while we packed our lunches and backpacks. Colson and Brogan, however, were like two hyperactive puppies, tumbling over each other while racing back and forth with items to bring. Both were proud to wear their backpacks to the car like "real schoolkids" do.

While the boys were taking their tests, I was administering one. I am in charge of the 3rd graders and their tests this week. We had a long day, and the children were real troopers. I told them up front that we were the last class to eat lunch and had the most tests to complete on Monday. (Third grade tests are brutal.) We had to contend with broken air conditioning, police sirens and helicopters roaring nearby (I posted about our fair city earlier), a garbage truck that unloaded the dumpsters directly underneath our window, and tornado sirens being tested. They hung in there, though, and didn't complain.

When it was time to go home, one of the little girls gave me a drawing she had done of me.

Look at me! Aren't I lovely? Look how thin I am!!!

And ...um.... jaundiced and oblong as well! (Ahhh... the price I must pay to be so thin!)

My favorite part is the shadowing she'd done on my neck. I half-expected her go all slack-jawed and squinty-eyed, and tell me in a deep, sleepy voice, "I spent like three hours doing the shading on your neck. It's probably the best drawing I've ever done."

It is a good drawing, though. Much better than I could ever do. And not a liger or a delicious bass in sight!