My ADHD-er and 7th grade

 

Last night I arrived home form work and Hubby was commenting that the 7^th grader had a lot of homework and was not working efficiently. Hubby is concerned that he is not taking advantage of class time to finish his work. But he got his homework completed shortly after dinner. I asked to see his plan book. The school supplies (for a $4 fee) as plan book for the students. My second grader has one also.

 

If you were around last year, I got him a teachers plan book as recommended by the book “The Organized Student..” . While that last school also had agendas, they were small with tiny lines and not very effective. This school has good ones for the kids. The 2nd Grader’s is different from the 7th Graders. I initial the second graders every night to vouch that he did his 15 minutes of reading.  

 

I was pleased to see that the 7^th grade plan book is set up very much like the teacher’s planner. It looks like my boy has done a good job of writing everything down. But there were also 4 stamps of “Missing assignments.”  The excuse was “I forgot to look at my plan book.” Ok, I can help there. So now I need to remember to ask to see the plan book on a regular basis. I’m also glad the 2^nd grader is starting young. I think the 7^th grader started in 4^th grade with a planner.

Portable Hard Drive Giveaway

I'm not really big on entering bloggy giveaways, but I decided it was time to enter this latest one at 5 Minutes for Mom. Janice and Susan are giving away 3 Western Digital Portable hard drives.

So why am I entering? Well, last week hubby went on a business trip. They drove the 4 hours to NW Indiana. Somewhere int eh rental car his thumb drive fell out of his pocket. He was in a tizzy. He had put a copy of spreadsheet with the paswords to all of his account on it. IN his momentary panic, he was thinking that he would have to cancel all of his current accounts and open new ones until I said "You have another copy of that spreadsheet here on our home computer, right?" After affirmation, I then suggested that he simply go in and change all of his passwords. Yea, panic mode makes us forget the simple things.

However, many of his co-workers have portable hard drives. He had been talking about getting one. Now since I am the computer geek of tha family, I was digging for his "requirements" and he came to the conclusion that the Thumb drive is meeting his current needs. Except for the fact that it is small enough to put in his pocket and small enough to fall out. So he would get the portable drive. It would make him feel more "geeky" and he likes that feeling.

Oh YEs, He was able to retrieve his thumb drive from the rental car the next day.

Jr High Dances

So my 7th grader has atended 2 dances at the Catholic High School. We no longer have feeder schools to the High Schools in our (Arch) Diocese, but this is the school we intend to send the boys too. The Cross Country team looks to have scheduled 3 Jr. High dances (7th & 8th graders). The first two were the past 2 Fridays. Dad gave the boy the $6 for the event.

The first Friday he comes down, dressed in his finest: Khaki pants, Button down shirt, good shoes and a tie. As we are dropping him off, two boys jump out of the car in front of us. Theya re wearing shorts and nicer T-shirts. He decides to leave his tie in the car.

This past Friday, for the second dance, fresh from a shower he comes down and he is wearing the Khaki pants, dress shirt and tie (he was wearing his athletic shoes - so 80's his Dad remembers). So we are guessing he got some very positive feedback. It also seems as if he has some friends of the female gender.

So my guilt about moving and changing schools for 7th grade is reduced. He is doing really well, fitting in and he really seems happy. I do have to be on him not to procrastinate too much on his homework, but otherwise it has been a good start to the school year.

New 8 Year-old in our house

So today the child formerly know as the 7 YO becomes the 8 YO. He did not want a regular cake, he wanted a giant decorated cookie. I over-rode his request to buy it form the store and made 2. Here are pictures of him helping to decorate them. He choose the beautiful color combination of Purple and Orange. Happy Birthday Tiger!

New School report

Last Tuesday was Cirriculum Night at the school. You got to your child's classroom and see what they are learning about. I am delighted to report that while the 12 YO is not popping out of bed smiles and sunshine, he is still happy. He did get caught putting off his homework one weekend until late on Sunday. I talked to his Language Arts teacher who said he's doing well and participating in class.

Friday night, the local Catholic H.S. had a dance for 7th and 8th graders. He enjoyed himself so much he wants to go back to another this Friday.

We bugged him yesterday asking if he homework was done. He swore it was. I told him that as long as his grades stay good that we will stay out of his business, but if he starts to have trouble, we would be all over him.

The 7 YO is enjoying himself. He got his cast off Friday. I gave his hands and arm a proper scrub right there at the sink in the examining room. We are all so happy he can bathe himself again. He's excited for his birthday on Thursday.

I stay out of his business pretty much too. Yes he's only in second grade, but everytime I quiz him on his spelling words, he knows them. I looked over a bunch of papers he had in his take home folder (On the "keep at home" side). When he got things wrong it was usually a stupid mistake, proably from going too fast. He gets that honestly.

He grew a lot over the summer. At the end of the school year, size 8s were too big. I took him shopping yesterday and got him 2 pairs of size 10 pants.

He abhores silence

Saturday we are leaving my niece's soccer game and going to meet my parents at the local pizza joint for lunch. The Seven year old says "So Mom, what's for Dinner tonight"

I feel the frustration rise in me. This kid is always asking about his meals, He always wants to eat.

Me: We are on our way to lunch and you are asking about dinner? I don't really know. (Deep, calming Breath) Are you asking becasue you want to know or are you asking to have something to talk about?

7YO: I'm asking to have something to talk about.

Phone Calls from Mom

While my phone calls with Mom are not as good as Everyday Mommy's or even Boo Mama's, I enjoyed this one Friday night:

My folks were in town for their 45th HS reunion. Since my parents went to Gender-specific schools, Friday night was informal, Sat was a formal dance for all three schools. So Mom calls me form the restaurant (bar?) they were at.

Mom: (lot's of noise in the background)What's my email address?
Me: No Mom, it's RJsmith* at Yahoo
Mom: bSmith* at cris?
me: No Mom R. J. (Robert, Judith) at yahoo?
Mom: Oh yes, he changed it so it's Rsmith at yahoo
Me: NoNoNo! R J
Mom: Ok R J at Yahoo, Ok I've got it. Bye.

I thik she probably hung up the phone turned to the lady next to her and said "Man she is just like her father"

Menu Plan Monday - Sept 10th

I haven't played in a while, but I do have a well-stocked freezer now after moving.

Mon - London Broil
Tues - (School Open House) Grilled Chicken Breasts. - My boys are starting to appreciate spice rubs now.
Wed - Sirloin tip roast in the crockpot. We'll slice it and eat with crusty bread.
Thurs - Spaghetti
Fri - Leftovers.

This past Saturday I picked up my Market Day order. Market day is a program here int he Mid west where schools orchestrate a sale of frozen food. The schools keep 5% of the profits. Money-wise We could probably get some things a little cheaper, but being able to make a purchase once a month and stock my freezer is wonderful. It is becasue of this program that I plan my meals the way I do. Monday - Ground beef night. Even if I don't know what I will do with the ground beef, I know Sunday night as I am cleaning up from dinner that I need to pull a chub (or two) of ground beef out of the freezer. Tuesday tend to be Chicken night....

Market Day does carry a lot of pre-made foods. I tend to stick with the plain meats: Chubs of Ground beef, Frozen shrimp, turkey cutlets... Their chicken steaks are popular, but thee is something about theen I am not partiularly fond of. We get their frozen veggies and snack foods. If you have an opportunity to try them, I would encourage it. It does simplyful meal time for me many nights of the week.
So Blogger is not allowing me to upload Laura's new banner. But for more recipes, check out her blog.

Trouble

You know you are in trouble when youa re sitting in the chair with you bare feet in the air and the Podiatrist walks in and says "Those are some mightly flat feet you have there."

Ah yes, and Please make them stop hurting.

She is sending me for an MRI. I have in inflamed tendo that has been a problem off and on for over a year. (This is a different doctor in the practice than the one I was seeing.) The Orthodics have not healed it. So she wants to see what is up. Is the tendon torn?

Make New Friends...

Friendships are hard for me. I tend to speak my mind and I like to produce some mild drama. (I try to be aware of it.) However, I think that that my turn some people off. I have a hard time nurturing close friendships. I had such a friend in high school. Or maybe I thought I did. This friend loves to be a part of a large group of friend. Not exactly my scene, but I played along.

It just dawned on me this weekend that I am on her D-list of friends. I have been fooling myself for the past 13 years or so, since I was pregnant with my first child. She had a hard time with that. It was what she wanted so much in the world and she did not have it, so she pulled away. Ok, I dealt with that. She developed a new, deep friendship to someone I introduced her too, Ok, I could deal with that. She became engaged. Cool I thought. Maybe we can do some activities as couples. So I invite her and her new man to my house for cards. She felt sorry for the third friend and invited her along. She wanted to spare S. feeling and yet she crushed mine. This was the one incident I have not been able to get over. It’s been probably 5 years. But this weekend, she and S. were so close to my house for another event that they could have spit on it. I was home, but they “did not have time” to stop by and say hi. Once again I allow myself to be hurt.

I have decided that I am no longer willing to allow her actions to hurt me. If I no longer have high expectations, I will no longer have my feelings crushed. I do not plan to cut the friendship off, but I will not initiate contact anytime soon. It’s sad, but I actually feel better. Time to go off and see about meeting new people.