It's that time of year. I have no idea where the year went. It seems like I was typing Christmas posts from last year just yesterday. It's coming to a close fast and I just want it to slow down.  Having two kids in school doesn't help. Not only do I have to keep track of activity schedules but there are school schedules too. Job has come home for the afternoons because he needs a challenge in math.  He's just ready for much more. He has been going to the Math Olympiad after school and that's good for him.  He had to figure something out in base 6 so we skipped ahead and learned base 2 and from there any other base number just follows along the same rules. Anyhow, Lona went to her piano lessons and was reminded of the recital that was scheduled way back in September. I think I read the letter and just didn't write down the recital I don't know why. Well then she was put on the spot about not being there and I didn't have my calendar with me and knew that we had dance that night so we just weren't going to make it. I thought about and thought about it and decided that it was picture night at dance and I don't buy pictures anyway so why not skip it and just do the piano recital. I'm glad we did. It was great to see all the kids play and there were so many variations of jingle bells. I marked music that I like and am hoping that Lona likes some of that music too. After all, it's so much harder to play music if you don't like it. She was so nervous. 

Today wasn't that great as far as parenting goes. One got up early to finish homework after working on it for almost 6 hours. He did about 4 hours last night and then another 2 this morning, missed the bus because I told him that he had to finish it. Turns out that he had to work on science too.  Well, I looked at what he did, it was due almost a week ago. I kept asking him about his science and he'd tell me that his teacher had it. Then I looked at the grade and he got a zero! Really, why? Well his teacher had it and he just got it back. That's what I was told. His teacher had it from November 30th to now?  Yep. So we worked on it and finished it and then I drove him to school yelling at him the whole way. Wrote a note to the teacher about him getting a zero and not understanding it. Told him he wasn't going to school that day but had to turn everything in.  He came home and worked on two math assignments and then read a whole book because I told him he couldn't play computer until Tuesday.  While we were at soccer training camp, his science teacher called. Turns out Job did have his science before the due date and he turned in nothing. Then the teacher had him go to study hall to work on it.  What I saw in the morning that I had him erase was the effort he put in during study hall. Now I need to apologize to the teacher. We are trying to stay on top of this but I needed to handle the situation better.  I needed to keep my cool. I needed not to lose it because I felt horrible the rest of the day and then lost it with my husband. We are switching from a paper calendar to a electronic calendar but I'm having a hard time with that. I keep trying but it is so much easier to write it down than to type it in.  I like being able to see a week at a time rather than just dots under the day of the month. John is able to see what's going on during the day instead of calling me and asking but I'm just not in the habit of looking at the touch. I go downstairs and look at the calendar and then mentally go through my day. It's just not there anymore.