O Dark Thirty...

And I am awake. For the second night in a row I slept badly. I'm not to sre what is going on. I am worried about the 14yo religion grade. I have a small situation at work that has me disturbed. I guess finanials have me worried.

I was keeping my head above water, but 3 car repair bills in October put my credit card over what I can pay off. I had been using my "Emergency Fund" to get through the months. And now Christmas. But Thankfully both hubby and I are both well -employed. We just need to cut back on spending. My biggest frustration is that my idea of utting back is very different from Hubbies idea of cutting back. He lives in a financial fantasy land where there is room for just about everything. He also likes to dream big. I want to hunker down and batten the hatches for a year or so.... But look out come January family!

So I need to get calmed down so I can sleep. I have been hitting the gym. I need to continue this.

Don't tell anyone, but.....

I fired up the Christmas music on the iPod today. I love Christmas music.

update

I have been neglecting my blog. But I felt like I would be boring blogging about football games. That seems to have taken up a large portion of my time outside of work. Oh and I am a member of the PArent technology advisory committee for my son's connected high school.

The 10 YO has had a really good start to the school year. We wonder how much his playing football with classmated has contributed to it. Week after next he starts plyaing basketball with more classemates. He is a happier kid then he was 6 months ago.

DS14 finished his first quarter in high school. He did quite well. We followed his grades online through the quarter. He had a few late assignments, but they eventually got turned in. He got an eqaul number of A's and B's. We gave him a hard time because he missed an A average by 0.07 of a point. "If only he had remembered his gym uniform one more day" "or made a layup in gym class", or turned in one of his english assignments on time and got full credit instead of 50%. But we are proud of him.

All Football, all the time

Ah yes, Football. Third week of the High school and the pee-wee season, second of the College season.

Friday night - High School football. The Opponents were the public high school of where I grew up. (I went to the Parochial school). We won! Here's a pciture of my 14 YO in his full band Uniform

The Saturday we went to the Game at my Alma Mater (and employer). We went becasue it was band day. Various High School band played on the field with the College band. My Hubby went to help with the instruments. the 9 YO and I spent a few hours Tailgating prior to the game with a group of my co-workers. But I made the mistake of going into the book store with my credit card and a 9 YO who thinks everything is cool (much like his Mom). We came out with hats, Rally beads, cups and a foam finger. Sigh. There went my money to buy a new Blackberry. I have to keep using my old one that doesn't always like to answer calls for another month. Our team won buy a huge margin.

Then finally on Sunday the 9yo played. They gave up 4 goals int he first quarter, but none after that. My son also played a new position, defenseive tackle and he was in on 2 tackles. So he was very happy.

My ADD-er in High school

I can breathe a sigh of relief. He's doing quite well. We attended "meet the teacher" night at the High school this week. All of the teachers talked about how they use the student's laptops in class in addition to their expectations. Can you believe the Math class is all electronic except for tests? For some reason that amazes me. Other classes are more hybrid.

But allg rades are online and accessible for parents. Teachers tend to post them several times weekly. The Math teacher talked about the test they had had that many of the boys did not do well. "I asked hte boys how many of them got a good talking to.." I had not looked. I gues working at a University, I hear way too much about "helicopter parents" and was trying to give him some room. Fortuantely, it turns out my son did well, getting an 85 on that test.

When I did look at his ggrades, it looks like there were a couple of quizzes he was not quite prepared for, but since that first week, It looks like he got the message and has been keeping up on his homework.

His biggest hurdle seems to be remmebering when he has gym and making sure he has his gym uniform. I think I am going to go and get him a pair of athletic shoes to keep at school. The Uniform code will soon change from summer dress to a more business casual where they cannot wear athletic shoes. Because of their block schedule, he had gym every 4th day, so it is not the same day each week. Even the Phys Ed teacher said he struggles with this after 7 years.

I guess we'll just need to keep an eye on his scores and help him if he starts to fall, lend him a hand. But we are starting off great.

My son and his Drum

He really enjoyed this night.

ADHD File system

So I am sitting here at 6 Am on a Saturday morning going through paperwork. Handling paper tends to be difficult ofr ADHD-ers. IN my Household, 2 of us have been diagnosed and treated for ADHD. Most people think I "Outgrew" it, but I say I just learned good coping techniques.

So when paper comes in, I have a "bill basket" it is actually a box that some bath gel came in. I found this time that I left this a bit longer than usual and the box was full and I had another basekt (Longaberger Spring) that was about half full. So I sat down, opened the envelopes and immediaely started 2 piles, trash and shred. I also have a simple box folder filled with several file folders. They are labeled: Tax, Medical/Dental, Assets, School Insurance and "credit crap". Every few months I sit down and go through all of my statements. I shred what needs to be shredded, throw away the trash (envelopes, other pamphlets without personal information). I also find I have put reciepts for thing like Prescritions that I used the flexible benefits debit card for. This way if I need to go back and find something, I can go throguh one file folder thinking "I know I saw that somewhere."

My file cabinet is more divided, but I tend to file stuff away in it once a year, usually when I run through taxes. The two step file method works well with my personality. Just remeber to keep it simple.