Small Successes

1.  Flexible!  Took my kids to Underwater World a the Mall of America this week since we could get in for home school days for $24.50 (otherwise it would cost $84 and we would NOT have gone!)  The day got totally off schedule since I planned to arrive at 9 am to give us enough time to enjoy the sights before leaving at 11 am for a nearby appointment.  But, I hadn't planned ahead, the place didn't open until 10 am.  I was getting frustrated looking around the MOA (I seriously dislike the constant background noise of this mall).  I saw Nathan there with sort of a sad look on his face, and he had been so excited to come, I realized my attitude was ruining it.  So, I decided to forgo all my afternoon school/cleaning plans and come back after our appointment, pay the price of mall lunches for 8, and get home at 4:00.  It was a good choice.

2.  Found my Righstart math manipulatives.  I've been working around them for a week and was actually on my way to order them when Terese asked me to help her with a math question.  I sat down to help her and there it was - the box of manipulatives and cards - someone had cleaned and shoved it under the desk hutch behind the CD's).

3.  Filled out my home school form and accompanying letter to send to the school district this morning.  It's due before tomorrow.  I'd been putting it off because I need to have a letter notarized to go with it. I have NEVER been this late with the form.  I guess I'll be heading to get the letter notarized and then directly to the district office to hand deliver it.  Oh joy.  

I seem to be stuck in an "always behind" rut the last year or so.  I used to have this stuff done way ahead of time.  Sometimes so far ahead of time I actually had to set things aside because it was  too soon to mail them ( and...I didn't lose them in the process either).  I know I'm adding extra work (like driving to the district office today) and extra stress.  I am working hard on changing this.  Maybe a couple cans of Jolt will give me an extra 8 hours (overnight) to catch up a bit and get ahead.  No, that always ends badly.  Maybe a 2 hour movie some night for the kiddos, yeah, and that will help my 9 year old get his 5-7 hours of TV time that we find so hard to find  (OK - eye patch time - but unless he is absorbed into TV land it's really bothersome for his weaker eye to work so hard - and it was the ophthalmologist's suggestion).  Or...I could have spent this last 5 minutes organizing my bills instead of blogging...nah...it's enjoyable and I only spend less than 10 minutes a day on it.