smoldering

homeschoolers often have the coolest quotes in their signature lines. i saw one once that said, "argue not with dragons for thou art tasty and go well with brie." that still cracks me up...

but the one i saw last week that really caught my eye is this one...

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."
--Arnold H. Glasow

i understand the direction in this quote, but i do think success can come spontaneously. maybe not grand, sweeping success, but little brown bag ones.... i don't know. maybe i'm so undisciplined that i haven't experienced grand, triumphant success in a long time. maybe i don't know what it is anymore. maybe i've never known. i don't know. i do know that training for this half marathon is like nothing i've ever done before. (although, quite honestly, the last four days have been like something i've done before because i haven't run or trained...but truly it's because i wanted to get christmas up and out and, well, it's just been really busy.)

but the whole notion of setting oneself on fire...wow....this arnold man seems like someone kind of hellbent on success, doesn't he? because i can think of almost nothing else more counter-intuitive than setting myself on fire. yet he says i must to achieve success. as though spontaneous combustion would be success for a lazy person... (cracking myself up for some reason) i don't mind the idea of burning with a passion, yet the idea of setting myself on fire to succeed really offends me....

so maybe success isn't what i'm looking for. maybe success is just part of the journey i'm on...not the destination.

i titled this for the obvious reasons, but also because it's a day when three of my four children erupted into fevers. it was so odd... just like little dominoes..."my head hurts"...boom, boom, boom. three kiddos laid low. the oldest is maintaining health and i think he's kind of proud of it. but i suppose he's earned his immune system the hard way.... so we didn't do much school today. it was a hell of a teacher work day, though. and now i'm all caught up and ready to go. as soon as everyone cools down...

peace out