Frustrating day!

It was a busy day today and it was not a pleasant day for either of us. It started out on the wrong foot when JD did not get up. I finally had to go military "T.I." on his little butt to get him "up." He actually wanted to argue with me about the meaning of "get up." (Ok, Bill Clinton..."get up" means get up off the bed and start your day. Not wake up and watch T.V. or get off the couch and lay on the floor.) Once he knew "get up" meant he did get off the couch and he actually had the nerve to lay on the floor. "Well, I'm off the couch." (That's about the time I went all T.I. on him.) The day only escalated from there. At one point I told JD I was ready to put my fist through the wall. (It was during the writing portion and yes, I took a break.) All of this was probably escalated because the three of us were exhausted from our beach trip. However, I wanted to set the pace for “middle school.” I have been warning JD about his role in middle school all last year and through the summer. The schedule this year will be slightly modified from last year. Almost everyday will consist of the following: devotion, reading, english (grammar, writing, comprehension), science, math, and social studies. Today we accomplished most of them but because of his lack of actions and debate rehearsals it was a LONG day of both school time and homework time. (Yep, you saw that correctly...homework.) If he didn’t finish (or start in some cases) it turned into homework. He dragged his feet, became easily distracted, argued, and did not give me his “best” so those actions turned into homework. Today we did roman numerals and whole number problems for math. It included homework. Social studies was a lesson on early map and globe making without homework. The lesson taught him about map projections. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of them. We did not do a science lesson today. We forgot to open with our devotion so we did that next. The last topic of the day was English. It was supposed to be an easy and relevant writing lesson. He was to write one paragraph about things he liked at the beach. (3 sentences.) The next paragraph was things he did not like about the beach vacation. (Another 3 sentences.) The last paragraph was things he wished we could have done at the beach. (3 more sentences.) Jonathan took forever to get started. The ultimate delay was “How long do the sentences have to be?” After much discussion I told him, “Don’t be concerned about the number of words per sentence, just write a descriptive sentence.” Only after he threat of any unfinished writing would be completed on Saturday did JD finally finish his writing assignment. JD's homework was partially completed in the car on the way to football practice and then after football practice too. (Did I mention it was a LONG day?)

JD had a routine Dr’s appointment for a medication renewal. The doctor refilled JD’s meds and ordered a blood panel. I requested one 6 months ago but JD was too anxious to get it done then. The doctor informed me that JD gained 15 pounds in the last 6 months so she agreed to order a complete blood panel. There she can possibly detect any reason for this weight gain. He also has a complete physical scheduled for the morning of 16 Sept. The doctor noticed it has been a couple of years since his last one. (Good maybe we can see if he has a hearing problem, a q-tip problem, or a disobedience problem.) I waited for 40 minutes for his medication before I left realizing he couldn’t take his meds until after the blood work.

I will take JD first thing Thursday, 31 Aug for his blood work. Of course I won’t have the results for a while unless something is wrong. I had the laboratory technicians do a walk through with JD today so he won’t be so nervous tomorrow. He asked questions and wanted to see the needle, but he seemed ok with the process. I reminded him of all the things he used to be scared of (like the blood pressure cup, immunizations, and allergy needles) but now he can look back and laugh at it. This should be the same situation.