Tough days and nights with sprinkled moments of Mother pride

I took the week off work due to a plethora of kid appointments combined with early dismissal at school and student conferences. Any kind of change in this family sends off a reverberating effect.
Rockhopper naturally finds opportunity to take issue with just about everything I do/don't do - dinners are better at a friends house, why he can't be outside all the time, Mom - don't you know it is better to leave off the air conditioner and open the windows when driving in town but on the highway turn it on and be comfortable, why didn't you wake me up earlier, that's dumb, that's stupid, I think I should be able to....do you hate me? Yet, he did well in his presentation today and thinks he wants to attend BYU in the future.

Chinstrap takes vacation seriously - why should he have to do anything (ie laundry) anyway?. He did great on his student conference and has shown significant improvement in math, reading, and writing. I'm doing better at focusing, he said.



Humbolt was reluctant to give herself full credit for all the work she did in the latest group project, which really played to her strength. When she shines - she glows. This last individual project brought a few tears and a lot of agony, but her teacher loves teaching her and she is the most consistent good student among my children.

Adelie bemoans the fact that everyone else is out early. She keeps signing my name to all the forms that come home from PTA officer nominations to variety show participants and I know she doesn't know half of what she is volunteering me to do.

It's hard to get things done, and I'm glad I didn't take on a major project this week. I'm having a hard enough time doing laundry and planning a menu !