How It's Going: Work and School

The boys are just about three weeks into school and it's going very well. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself on the days I'm home all day, but I have gotten some neglected projects done and have been able to meet friends for some much-needed coffee dates.

Nathan's teacher told me yesterday that he is a "model student" (although he has been having some issues with acting out once he gets home - I think he's still adjusting to the longer day and ends up tired and cranky). It's good to know that I don't have to worry about him. He enjoys telling me about his day, and his reading abilities have just skyrocketed in the last two weeks. I am so proud of him and love to watch him get excited about being able to read longer and longer words!

Aiden is doing SO well. We were definitely worried about how this school year was going to go, but we had a great summer and were hopeful that would continue into the school year. There have been no issues so far! He's doing all of his work, his taking part in the assessment testing like he's supposed to, and he hasn't been getting frustrated. We had a TAG meeting at the school last night and found out that they had put all of the TAG students from each grade into the same classrooms this year (so all of the TAG 3rd graders are together in one class, while the struggling 3rd graders are in a different class). I think that's a huge reason why he's not feeling frustrated this year. In the past, his frustrations have mostly been based upon the school trying to place him with struggling students as a "helper". Well, Aiden doesn't work that way. He doesn't understand why someone would struggle with things that seem so easy to him and he doesn't like trying to teach people things that they're not understanding. It's just not his personality. But so far so good, and we have high hopes that it will continue to be good for him. We also were able to stop seeing the family counselor after a year and a half, as he felt that Aiden was doing very well and didn't need it anymore. Praises!!

My schedule at work changed right after the boys started school, so now I'm working during the day on Mondays while the boys are in school instead of the evening shift. I get off work 30 minutes before the boys are done with school for the day, so it works perfectly. I still work Friday evenings, but our babysitter that we had hired over the summer was able to stay on for Fridays. I'm hopeful we get to keep her for a long time, but it all depends on her class schedule (she's a PCC student). We know we're set through December at least!

It's not a work/school update, but I realized that I hadn't done a check in on John's weight loss journey lately. He is down a total of 15 pounds! Finding time and energy to exercise can be a struggle because of how stressful his job can be, but he's been able to keep up a fairly good schedule of either a mile or two on the treadmill or 10-15 minutes of tae bo a few times a week. We are hopeful for another 10 pounds down by Christmas.