Our son 15yrs, more often than not, has trouble with a lot of what he does. He has ADD and a slow processing speed, yet doesn't progress the way most ADD kids do, as they get older. He has Neurofibromatosis, yet it's very mild and research is still very new regarding this disorder. We don't know how it affects all aspects of the brain. He shows many issues with processing, recall, transfer, carryover, and impulses, yet there is not a lot to explain it. So we’re working on it and trying to advocate for him and help him in whatever way we can. He is in the local high school, not a good choice academically or socially, and we are fighting to get them to USE the IEP he has--with the hope that he will be able to effectively use these tools on his own soon. AND keep our patience at a high and anger at a low. Not something at which I excel. He has many interests and is very smart. He has been playing on the youth worship team at our church and I hear many compliments come his way about his playing. I’m so glad he has that outlet.

We now only homeschool our 8 year old daughter. She has different challenges than our son and none of the learning/behavior issues. Her biggest challenge keeping her room picked up. My current challenge with her is putting a stop to "the grumblies" and complaining. We are training her to put on a heart of thankfulness and cheerfulness in all situations. She does gymnastics three days a week, so usually we leave the house at 2:30 with dinner packed and don’t get home until between 8 and 8:30. So today’s schedule is typical until 2:30. I always make double dinners on the day before gym in order to have leftovers the next day AND so I don’t have to try to come up with dinner 10 minutes before we have to leave for gym!

5:30 am -- alarm goes off. I tell it to stop.
5:38 am -- alarm again. This time I turn it off, pray for a moment and commit that I am going to get out of bed with a good attitude about my house, my kids, and whatever else God has in store for me today.
6:05 -- I'm downstairs, showered, dressed, brushed, moussed, searching for coffee and listening to D stomping around in the shower--hoping he will get downstairs soon so he will actually have time to eat something before the bus comes at 6:40.
6:10ish -- I've got the coffee and God is reminding me that NOW would be the time I need to pray BEFORE D comes down, does something without thought, and I loose it. So I take the opportunity to get on my knees and blurt it all out.
6:20 -- I go to rotate a load of laundry, give the bunnies new pellets and D comes down. He starts putting the dishes away and finishes in time to heat a couple sausages and a bagel before grabbing his sweatshirt and running out the door.
6:35 -- He's out the door with a short reminder about something his engineering teacher told me the day before. And I sit down to be at the computer for a few minutes.....something I usually don't do at this time. But, I had to walk away when telling D how to defrost the bagel (as opposed to cooking it and sucking all the moisture out) in microwave so it doesn't come dry and hard as a rock. He tells me that he likes them hard. I sense that it is one of those stupid "stand off" moments and walk away. So I'm at the computer looking out the window and I see him start to run. Sigh.
7:05 -- I go to wake up S because I forgot to put the alarm in her room.
7:15 -- laundry into the washer and I make a berry smoothie for us to share while S gives the bunnies new water (reluctantly).
7:30 -- Breakfast. We read The Island of the Lost Children from Medieval Myths. We talk about how medieval stories were often gruesome or filled with death because they reflected much of the war, disease and hardship that people lived in during that time.
8:00 -- We finish up and I turn on Good Morning America to see if they are doing a segment of the Twin Towers. Unsure.
8:10 -- We begin our Bible study from The Explorers Study Bible. S chooses to read silently and highlight the word meanings on her own. I would be interested to see how others use this curriculum with a third or fourth grader. She's doing the whole page herself which she usually doesn't do. I print math mad minute pages while she works.
8:50 -- mad minutes. S is having trouble remembering her subtraction facts and rules. I need to pay more attention to this review.
8:57 -- New math lesson begins today. I take one look at it and realize that she totally knows it. I tell her that if she can take the test perfectly, she can skip to the next lesson in the book. She has trouble with a couple add/subtract review problems, but that isn't what the lesson was on. We will keep up with the review, but skip the lesson on skip counting.
9:07 -- Spelling Workout C. S will do 15 minutes in the activities. I go to put away laundry and do a five minutes pick-up in the bedrooms.
9:20 -- Trouble with spelling. She needs to be reminded that she has to actively think about what the word means in order to find the answer. Guessing won't work. She finishes the rest very nicely.
9:35 -- time for snack and phone call to our friend to find out about free apple picking today. No luck. We are told that orchard isn't allowing them to do it yet. Next week maybe.
9:45 -- Grammar. We are using Rod and Staff 3. She is having trouble remembering what she learned in the lessons. I need to identify the problem and correct it.
10:15 -- She begins the writing portion of the lesson. Usually, we are done at 10:00 but she is having trouble today. I make copies of some diagrams in the Grammar book to help her with the pronouns. Hopefully, she will want to color them and it will be a fun way to learn.
10:40 -- Finally it's time for break. She is off to play with the frogs in the pond and pop the seedpods on the wild snapdragon that is outside our front door. Grammar was tough, but she actually didn't grumble at all. I told her I was proud of her for that.
11:00 -- Time for Latin. S asks if we can skip it. It's getting boring. In my head I agree with her. So we discuss how we can make it a little more fun. We decide to make a matching game out of the vocabulary words. She sets off with index cards to make them. My computer decides to freeze. I lose the message board question I was typing. (Sigh)
11:30 -- She finishes the cards. There was a bit of grumbling, but not much. Part of it had to do with the fact that she asked for hot cocoa, but I don't have any milk today. I went out to make her some cinnamon toast. When she saw that, she brightened and set up the new Latin matching game. I ate lunch while we played and S had tea.
12:20 -- Done with the Latin game....it made Latin a little more fun. S eats lunch...leftover chicken potpie from last night. I read Augustine Came to Kent to her. She isn't convinced that she is going to like the book. I encourage her to give it a chance.
12:55 -- S heads to her room to have 20 minutes of reading time alone. She is reading Before Green Gables the prequel to Anne of Green Gables. I tell her to take a pencil and lightly underline any word she doesn't know or can't pronounce. I spend a few minutes on the computer before going on to do a little house pick-up. She tells me that she didn't come across any words to underline. Yeah, right.
1:20 -- Science. Today we are talking about molecules and sugar crystals. The lesson sparked a lot of extra talk. We went beyond the lesson to talk about oil and water, look at sugar under the microscope, and that sparked us to look at our cheek cells. She said, "disgusting, but cool!" Yup.
2:30 -- Piano practice. We are about an hour off our regular schedule. That's okay. We looked at cells today. Being off was worth it. She seems to be back to her old piano self. She has been frustrated for a while. Songs are getting more challenging and she can't get them as fast as she used to. Her teacher assigned her a new song yesterday to practice for a recital in December, but she has such an easy time with it that I had her practice the other song the teacher has suggested. She sight-read the whole thing and didn't have much trouble at all. Maybe she needs a more challenging song for a recital!!
2:55 -- Off to the store for milk and bean sprouts. Making fried rice tonight.
3:40 -- We return and hot cocoa is made. I check on the rabbits and scold Daisy for (once again) peeing on the floor. I imagine how she might taste if made "original" or "extra crispy." S puts in Pooh's Grand Adventure. We have to return it to the library soon so I'll allow her to watch a movie today. Pick up in the kitchen and try to get the rest of the house picked up for the weekend.
3:53 -- Uncontrollable laughter comes from the living room. Pooh and friends are causing happiness to emanate from my daughter.
4:25 -- D comes home from detention. Yup, detention. According to him, it wasn't that bad. He had to use the time to catch up in his favorite class, engineering. I probably would have liked it too. Sigh. We talk about school and assignments for a while. He forgot his assignment book two days ago and just picked it up today after school, so didn't get anything written down yesterday or today. Something his IEP is supposed to be helping him with. But no one has met with him yet so I seem to be the acting Ed Tech. Which I'm not supposed to be doing either.
4:30 – Try to start dinner and get D to do homework, but I'm not even sure what he is supposed to be doing.
4:40 -- NOW I'm starting dinner after more talk with D. He brought up the casting callbacks for the play he tried out for and didn't get a part in. :-(
4:45 -- Okay, now I'm starting. D brought up his engineering teacher again and how he was in the Air Force. He needs to start his homework! And I need to cook!
4:50 -- D is done with his "homework." Well, that was stimulating. And I'm making dinner.
4:55 -- D starts chores. Changes the bunny litter (but he escaped to the bathroom in order to take a break. I know how it works!) And wiped out a moldy bag from this summer, finally, that I have refused to touch. I'm making dinner.
5:15 -- S's movie is done and I have her pick-up those little bitty things that seem to find their way around the house. I ask her if she actually put them away or are they just sitting on a desk or dresser somewhere because if they were I would have to punish her for not listening to the instruction "put AWAY." She puts her finger to her lips and says, "Let me go check." And I'm still making dinner.
5:20 -- Both are done and I send them outside to play. And I'm making dinner.
5:35 -- Kids come in saying they can't agree on what to do. I tell them to play separately if they want (sheesh)! But, go back outside! And I'm making dinner.
5:50 -- And I'm done making dinner.
6:00 -- Yea! Food! I'm hungry and tired of making dinner. I call the kids and ask God to help me continue the patience I seem to have today. Please let the rest of the night go on without trouble. I read about St. Nicholas to the kids while we eat.
7:00 -- Hubby calls and tells me that he ripped his pinky at work. Ouch. He's not coming home tonight. Haven't seen him since Sunday night. D went off to do something and S is playing in her room.
7:20 -- Wow. Everything is quiet, nice and I can relax. I ponder how this has been a good, relatively uneventful day.
7:22 -- I shouldn't have said that or checked the computer. High school website informed me that D got a D- on an Algebra quiz. Stuff he totally knows. Very disappointed.
7:25 -- A mysterious little British lady comes into my den in order to sell me pearls. She says she needs money to pay her taxes and for food. I give her $10 for all her stock and ask her if that would cover it. She says yes and heads off to play my piano.
7:40 -- S heads off to get ready for bed. I check my email and find one from D’s IEP case manager. Now I'm really not happy (with the case manager and IEP, not D) and so much for relaxing. I begin an email back to her.
8:50 -- My mom calls. I tell her I'll call her back. I'm finishing the email and STILL have not tucked S in.
8:52 -- Done. Head up to S, tell D to get ready for bed, consol S who is now crying because she misses Daddy. I distract her by reminding her of the Pooh movie and the parts that made her laugh so hard.
9:00 -- Return call to mom.
9:50 -- Got off the phone. It always refreshes me to talk to my mom. I decide to leave the email in my drafts until tomorrow. I may be able to type with less anger and grammatical errors.
10:00 -- Should go to bed. But snacks and mindless TV are calling.......But instead I read with my 94% fat free popcorn. Yum.

Wow. No wonder I’m tired.