Where are all the brainiacs when you need one

My brother, though he will humbly deny this is true, is one smart cookie. I remember at his high school graduation party someone asked him how he was so good at school. It was a strangely phrased question, but I was just as curious for the answer as they were. He answered that he had basically a photographic memory and that everything he read he just knew/remembered. And I am sure I stood there thinking, "So he got my share of THAT!" When I was a junior in high school and he was in 7th grade, we took the ACTs together (me for college, him for "fun"). He sat directly behind me. He beat me. For years I sarcastically told people that he just cheated off of me and the one he couldn’t see, he guessed right on, therefore he beat me. And then he took the ACT for college and got a 35 so my story no longer held water. It was obvious. The kid has brains.

My dad is much like my brother. He, too, has this mathematical brain that never quits. But he has an added component - problem solving. My dad can solve any problem. I don’t know of anything he cannot fix or repair.

Last night, as I was working in our nursery on some (long story) wall-decor, it occurred to me that there was probably some mathematical formula for or some type of method to what I was doing of which I was not aware. And as tempted as I was to call THE BRAIN and ask him if there was indeed a smarter way to be doing this, I plugged away at it in my stubborn determination to figure it out myself.

This is the funny thing about growing up with or knowing someone really smart - you never stop challenging yourself to do something in a better way. I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped to say to myself "How would my brother do this? How would my dad do this? How would my husband figure out what 15% off this sweater is?" It has basically become my secret bad habit - problem solving. I spend much of my day problem solving various tasks or household things in my mind. Brian probably gets very tired of my "instructions" because even when I don’t have the brawn to accomplish the job, I have the problem solving brain to figure out HOW to do it.

So in the end, I guess it all evens out in a way. I may not know the square root of 457, but I do know how to fix the drain in the tub and install a new doorknob on the front door. And you will be happy to know that I did eventually accomplish my project in the nursery. I am now ready for some brawn.