Experimentation in my field....

Many people have jobs where they are required to do research. Some do more than others. In my line of work I do experimentations when I feel they are needed. Maybe this is because of my degree in psychology and my keen interest in that and of sociology. Who knows why, really.

Most recently I tested the overall and individual reactions to elivated household stress. The main focus was on lack of clean habiliment.

There were 6 test subjects. I will refer to them as:
1. Man
2. Woman
3. Child #1
4. Child #2
5. Child #3
6. Child #4

The trial period was over a period of 2 weeks, during which time the laundry facilities were left untouched.

After two weeks, these were my observations:
1. Man: Not too phased, seemed to not even notice improved space in dresser drawers .
2. Woman: Quite relaxed. Compared to the other test subjects, she had remarkably low stress levels.
3. Child #1: Highly stressed, quite irritable. Was prone to much screaming and yelling. Borderline dysfunctional.
4. Child #2: Adaptable. Never spoke on the matter, seemed quietly contained and satisfied to wear shorts and t-shirts, despite going outside in 40-degree weather.
5. Child #3: Also adapted well. Resorted to wearing and re-wearing dirty clothes.
6. Child #4: Maybe a little too young to have been tested. But, subject was found to be spending abnormal amount of time in pajamas.

Conclusion:
While stress levels of individual test subjects varied greatly, the overall stress level was not too much higher than normal. Would like to have continued experiment for longer duration but found my own clean undergarment supply to be lessening. Would also like to try similar experiment with gauging stress levels in response to subject #2, Woman, not answering to the whiny call of "Mom." Will need to purchase heavy, gauge ear plugs, first.

The next decade....

I gave birth to a little girl in the fall of 1999. Fast forward to now. (Do you really think I could possibly try to cover the past 10 years here? TMI!!!!)

What do I have to look forward to in the next decade? Well, basically, I'll blink and my baby will be a sophomore in college! If she's like her mom, at that age, she will be just a few months away from meeting her future spouse. Oh my.....

We celebrated the momentous occasion of turning 10 with friends from church and school....

Making windchimes--thanks http://www.kiddiegardens.com/garden_wind_chimes.html

Wish I'd gotten a picture of everyone's--they all turned out so cute. All that time spent drilling holes was worth it.

Pass the Parcel

Balloon Stomp

We played a few other party games--one of them involved the girls taking a quiz about the birthday girl--just how well did they know her? (I should do one of those. Oh wait--that's what facebook is for).

Leaf print goodie bags.

She LOVES to read!

(The paper says: "Treats from some of _____'s favorite books")

Pumpkin tassies (Little Debbie pumpkin treats)---Harry Potter series

Knocker's listening stones (chocolate rocks)---The Ironwood Tree (Book 4 of Spiderwick Chronicles)

preserved crocodile tongues (Halloween gummy worms)---James and the Giant Peach

dragon's egg (giant jawbreaker)---Eragon

gold (chocolate coins)---Inkheart

Never bugs (Keebler graham bug bites)---Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg

dream trumpets (Oreo Stix)---The BFG

Well now...off to plan the next decade....