Finding joy in the journey

This has been a big week in the life of our 6-year-old.  On Monday he aced his 25-word written test, putting him first in line for his class spelling bee held Wednesday.  For the past several weeks we have been spelling words while eating, playing, driving, shopping... The night before the bee, James and I were talking and I got emotional telling him how proud I was of his efforts, and how much fun I'd had practicing with him.  The kid never let out a whine, complaint, or bit of frustration at my constant holloring of "sleep" "around" "rattle" or "which".  I never had to bribe him to pass off words on the 75-word list, and it really was fun.  As I've mentioned, James has a wonderful teacher who let me (and my 3 little ones) sit in on the class bee, as I was very aware that there were at least 3 other kids studying equally hard for this bee and I knew despite his efforts, that class round may be as far as he got.  Sure enough- he got out #4 on "yestrday".  He was bummed, but handled it well.  I later realized there were some technical rules which we didn't catch, and he shouldn't have been out just yet.  Had this been another kid, I would say let this class have 4 champions they send to the school bee. But I am on the spelling bee committe.  I've decided I've just got to drop it.  Someone's gotta come in 4th, and I'm trying to learn from him to let it go;)

Engineer Daddy was excited to come to the rescue though.  James had a project due (his first!) Friday where he was to build a house that would keep an ice cube from melting for a long, long time.  Jim and James constructed a styrofoam house full of air pockets, foil and sawdust.  Afterall, sawdust is what the pioneers used, so it must work!  Evidently the pioneers would have benefitted from dry sponges.  Nope, not in the top 3 with that contest, either.
Life is full of excitements leading to disappointments.  These are good lessons to learn, whether 6 or 36.  (That 36 year-old may need the same reminder come Tuesday when he plays his championship city-league basketball game!)