Getting off the high horse

I've settled down a little, and it only took me three days!  I've decided my approach to my perplexing class is to keep a sense of humor and to remember why I decided to come to school in the first place.  (Why? Because I like people and want to help them live the best life they can--like Oprah but without the cash.) The key for me is to take the useful insights, the things I didn't know, and leave the politics at the door.  There are plenty of research-driven techniques that I can learn from with out drinking the kool-aid.  Thanks, Dr. Helen!

In the skills class we are practicing and practicing: reflection, check-in, open question.  Over and over, questions to friends, strangers, children, and inanimate objects.  Nothing makes you feel like you need to some counseling yourself faster than walking around asking the car, the sink, or the lamp an open-ended question.  This class, though, has some lasting effects.  I find myself able to listen to my kids better, without interrupting and without telling them what to do quite so fast.  I'm still their mom, but I'm definitely getting more information out of them now!  Someday I'll probably pay for their being my little guinea pigs, but right now having my own practice lab is a total bonus.

Sunday...time to teach my Sunday School class, go to worship, and then spend a quiet day in this glorious fall weather.  DH is finally back home after a whole week away and we have so much catching up to do!  And then there is always reading and reading and reading.  And writing.  The papers are starting to kick in and the first one is due tomorrow.  Juggling all of these priorities takes a lot of attention.  I need to think about this some more and then maybe I'll post about it.  Happy Sunday!