Cat announced to me earlier this evening that she had an interesting homework assignment. She is studying the various phases of matter – solids, liquids and gasses and needed to find five pictures of each matter type.

We decided to scroll through our iPhoto archives before butchering the magazine pile. Cat selected the photos and with each one, my mood noticeably lifted.

Her gasses photos depicted:
- gasses coming off of a volcano Chris and I visited while in St. Lucia for his 40th birthday
- sulfur coming off of fireworks at the Epcot lagoon
- smoke coming off of hot dogs Cat roasted over a campfire during our camping trip this fall
- skywriting of a smiley face on a clear Florida sky
- neon in the lights at Radio City from our trip to see the Rockettes last year.

Her liquid pictures featured:
- Cat on the Slip-and-Slide in our yard
- the geyser spraying at the Wilderness Lodge
- lighted fountains outside of a restaurant we visited
- bubbles from bubbles Cat and Tate were playing with in Williamsburg while our car was being detailed after the unfortunate spaghetti/ice cream/barf incident after visiting Paul’s Deli
- liquid cookie paint from a fabulous dessert at the Artist Point restaurant at Disney

Her chosen solids were:
- a dolphin she petted at Sea World
- our bulldog, Scarlett
- the Littlest Pet Shop monkey Amy, that she earned after a perfect spelling test
- the cookie from the Artist Point dessert
- Cat sitting on Grandma Liz’s lap

Her homework reminded me how fortunate we are. We have had wonderful adventures and we have fabulous memories. Scrolling through the pictures I saw literally thousands of photos of trips (an amazing number to Disney), smiles, hugs, laughs, people and places we love. Our life is an amalgam of solids, liquids and gasses that have combined to create a lot of happiness and love.

And it’s that matter that truly matters.

Last night when I walked in from work Cat was waving a paper in my face and hopping around the kitchen. “Mom, Mom, Mom, LOOK. I got 49 out of 50 right on my math test. I ROCKED it.”

Sure enough, I looked at the test and she had correctly answered 49 out of the 50 addition problems, in under five minutes. “Wow, I am really impressed, Cat” I said. “Good work.”

She then handed me a second test. On it, she scored 9 out of 50. “What happened on this one?” I asked, secretly relieved that I may not be footing the bill for Harvard after all. “Well, it was subtraction and I ran out of time,” she said.

“Looks like we need to practice a little more on subtraction so you can get better at it,” I said.

“I guess so Mom but really I like getting more things a lot more than I like having them taken away so I may always just be better at addition.”

“What is 6+6?” I ask.

“12″

And on we go for five or ten minutes.

Tonight she was stuck on 8+5. She began to get very frustrated and anxious so I decided to tease her out of her mood and help her to remember by playing with the math facts.

“What is 8+5?” I asked after she had already answered correctly previously.

“13???” she asked.

“Yep, and what is 5+8?”

“13″ she said more confidently.

“Yep, and what is 8+5 again?”

She paused and hesitated, looking very stressed and started to tear up.

“Let me ask it another way,” I tried. “At what age will you turn cross, grumpy and difficult to be around?”

Cat thought for a second and then said “What age are you again?”

“I don’t expect you to be perfect,” I said quoting the Good Mommy Manual chapter and verse. “I expect you to work hard and do your best. Besides, if you were perfect, it would be very boring, and you wouldn’t need your old Mom. Then what would I do?”

She sat quietly for a few minutes staring at her homework and then said “I think I can guarantee you some job security then.”

“Perfect,” I said.