Oops I Did It Again!

This is soooo sad. Every time I promise myself I won’t do it again, and then days turn into weeks, weeks into a month and…. I always admire people that can juggle a million hats and still find time to blog on a regular basis. And as calming as writing can be, I am absolutely exhausted by the end of the day and figure blogging can wait until tomorrow.

A quick recap, my daughter is doing about the same.  Her charter school is failing her in my opinion. They aren’t following all that her IEP says they are to do. She is coming home soaking wet more days than I care to count and, this is rich, recently they sent home a referral because she has to be redirected too often in class… seriously?  The child has ADHD, duh! Of course you have to constantly redirect her.  And then she apparently rolled her eyes at the teacher. Again, I say, really? The child has a mood disorder um yeah, rolling her eyes, that’s pretty typical.  Don’t get me wrong, I know she must learn to follow rules and focus on her work, but this teacher had detailed days that she had to deal with the behavior, yet, I never got a phone call or a note. And if they sent the note home with my daughter, yeah, it’s a wing and a prayer if she actually keeps everything in her book bag. 

She has been more aggressive lately, more defiant. But when you add hormones on top of everything else, that is to be expected. They told me the middle school years would be tough but OMG, I never expected all of this!
Meanwhile my 8^th-grader is giving me a run for my money. Typical teen, he knows everything and his dad and I are totally clueless. It’s amazing how hard it is for kids to picture that their parents were once their age and that no matter what they come up with to try and break the rules, there is NOTHING new under the sun.  I don’t blog much about my son, not because I don’t want to, but he is at an age where he really values his privacy and I try to respect that. But even though he can drive me CRAZY and he can often want to take the easy way out when it comes to school work, he is an amazing young man. It has been a joy to watch him grow. He will be 14 in two short months. Even though I’ve been a witness to every moment of his life, I can’t believe how quickly time has gone by.

And I have really gotten into a new hobby – cooking. For years I’ve allowed most to believe I cook just enough to make sure everyone in my home eats, but I am actually pretty good at it. And over the past year or so I’ve discovered that when I kick my family out of the kitchen and have the room all to myself, it relaxes me. I am so focused on the recipe (if I am cooking something new) or on changing things up to keep it from getting boring, that I don’t worry as much about my daughter’s future, getting my son through high school with all of the RIDICULOUS changes the school system is making, or the fact that my husband left his shoes in the middle of the floor for us all to trip over (sorry honey). I will have to share some of my favorite recipes from time-to-time.

Meanwhile, I will blog again tomorrow (I PROMISE!). For all you parents thinking about charter school vs. public school, my next entry will be of great interest to you. Until then… hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.