One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Well, the day was going so well. The kids got off to school this morning with minimal hounding. Grace always takes care of her own business very well. She watches the clock for herself and packs her own lunch. She's been getting up extra early to do some Bible study as well. We were doing devotions together for a while, but that book wasn't quite what she was looking for. It wasn't much in the way of a scripture study. We found her one, though. It's a study I did when I first became a Christian, and it covers the very basics of the faith. It's a good foundation study.

Back to the morning routine, though. Ethan, on the other hand, will try to sneak the tv on or read a book, or play with Gertie or anything but focus on the tasks at hand for getting ready for school. So what occurs is I hound him CONSTANTLY. Have you done this? I told you you need to do this. Ethan, don't forget to do this. Ethan, you need to be doing this. It truly is ridiculous. Someone was telling me the other day about the mother that was waking her son up so he'd get to college on time. She thought that was ridiculous, and so do I. However, I feel like I can see myself doing that if I keep up this same pattern. Now, I realize he is only eight. There is a lot of life between now and then, but I am thinking I need a new strategy. We (Ethan and I) tried to create a chore chart from a template on Works. Well, we had two extra chores to add, and it was messing the whole thing up. Finally, I gave up. I know that's pathetic. You'd think I'd just get out a magic marker and a piece of paper. Not so. Maybe I better do that tonight.

Anyway, John and I had a great morning. John's back was feeling better for the second day in a row, so we tackled some yard work. He pruned the roses back, they needed it badly. Then he moved on to the garage. It's been needing some reorganizing. He was feeling so good that he could accomplish some things.

Ethan's school called us at about 1:15 to tell us that Ethan's braces were broken. John went to pick him up and I took him over to the orthodontist. She fixed them in about 4 seconds, after waiting about twenty minutes. The wait provided just enough time for Ethan to beat me 4 out of 7 games of tic-tac-toe. I was trying to win. I couldn't believe it.

We arrived home in good time to practice piano before his lesson. As we came home from his lesson, John was taking the homemade fries (I love those) out of the oven. Something in his back snapped and he is back to square one with pain. He tried to eat with us, but it wasn't pretty. He's been icing and heating, popping pills and trying to walk around, but this is so discouraging to him. I think he might have pushed too hard today. Please pray for him.

Grace was so concerned because the play tryouts were after school today, and she also didn't want to miss tennis practice the day before the meet tomorrow. I guess that all worked out well, too. She was able to audition first and then get off to tennis. Their last meet was rained out, and it doesn't look too promising for tomorrow either. We shall see. I did call the tennis coach last week to talk about his plans for the meet that ended up getting rained out. He said he was planning on pairing Grace with a more experienced player this time, and also maybe talking to the opposing coach to see if they could accommodate her inability to serve yet. (No other schools include the sixth grade in their program.) It was a good conversation. I just wanted to know what he was thinking. We'll see how it goes.

John had rented Syriana from the library. We are going to try to watch it. I just remember falling asleep at the beach house while watching it, waking up confused, and those that stayed awake said they were confused as well. I want to try again, though.