Math Balloon

After an hour of stressful mathematics,
tears,
depression,
feelings of failure,
twin girl disappeared upstairs.

She came back down and stood half behind a door
to tell me she was making something.

"It's to help with my math facts,"
she said with a grin.

"Show me!" I said.

She pulled out a balloon from the Teenager's
birthday celebration this afternoon,
and said that while she is lying in bed,
she can toss it up in the air.

When she catches it, she looks at whatever fact
is facing her,
and she says it aloud three times.

Then she throws it up again.

Unconventional.

We may not be good at math in this house,
but we are good at shaking off the bad stuff
and trying to make it into something happy.

*