First Day of the Rest of your Life

My boy is a typical teenager and, because of his learning challenges, a disorganized hot mess.  His superhero name is pretty spot on.  He is wild! Keep that statement in mind as you read the rest of this.

Last week, we started our first full year of homeschooling (we started in November last school year).  My biggest goal for this year is to teach the kids good habits and organization.  I bought them nifty binders and planners in matching colors, in an effort to keep them organized and on track.

WF, showing his plain black binder.

MF is displaying her pretty teal student planner.

The first week of school, WF got up, not only on time but EARLY.  We've all seen information on how teens need more sleep and how schools start too early for teens. I intentionally scheduled his school start later to be later, so he could get enough sleep. He gets to wake up on his own and he is choosing to get up early.

He has also filled out AND marked off his planner every day! Let me say that again! HE IS FILLING OUT THE PLANNER AND MARKING OFF HIS COMPLETED ASSIGNMENTS EVERY DAY! I know, I'm yelling, but this is a big damn deal around here and totally worth yelling about!

Besides that, he, of his own volition, added his daily chore to his planner and offered to fill it out during his "study hall" the day before.  These are choices he is making to be more organized and keep better track of his time.  This is absolutely amazing for him and has kicked his school year off on a really impressive note.

Cruisin' for kids with cancer

We did our ride for Cruisin' for kids with cancer today. This is our 4th year in a row doing this ride, as a family. RF, his mom and dad, my dad, The Boy and several people that RF (and my dad) works with showed up to ride. For a while, it looked like the weather would get a little dicey but it turned out ok. Hot and humid but sunny and a good day to ride.

The ride ended up being notable for it's problems this year. We took off and rode through the loop at the hospital (usually they stop and patients from the peds oncology ward come down and see the bikes but they started in Urbana this year and didn't want to stop again 10 minutes after they started. Before all the bikes left there, a couple of bikes peeled off and stopped, although we didn't know what the issue was.

The ride took off out of Urbana, through St Joe towards Ogden. As we came out of STJ, over the bridge and around the turn headed for Ogden, we saw 6 or 8 bikes pulled to the side of the road. As well got closer, I noticed it was several from our group. RF, my dad, The Boy and my MIL were noticably absent from the group and it caused a moment of panic, until we found out that one of the guys had blown a tire and that MIL, RF, TB and Dad had been ahead of them so they went on into town.

We stopped at Ogden and the kids drew marbles for all the their riders and TB decided he was done riding. We found out that one of the guys with the guy with the tire had a patch kit and he was able to get his bike to Homer, where he lives. We took the kids and headed for Homer, where the ride was ending.

When we got there, we found out that the people that peeled off in Urbana had a fuel leak and never got out of town. I helped set up the hall and my mom took Ms Thang to my grandma's house in Homer. TB found some boys to run around with and generally was a pain.

The riders made it in about 3 and everyone ate. After they ate, they announced the winners of the poker run part of the ride (sadly not us), then moved on to the raffle portion. We won a couple of minor prizes (gc to Culvers, BOGO to Silvercreek) and then they announced they had 2 tickets to Holiday World, where we are going in 2 weeks.

Sadly, we didn't get them but I called TB over (I was manning the raffle table so I couldn't leave) and told him to go tell the young girl (probably around 10 ish) that he was going there in 2 weeks and would give her $20 for them. That was still a bargain for me since they cost $40 a piece to buy. He did and she said she had never heard of Holiday World and doubted she would ever go. Her parents confirmed that and they gave him the tickets. I handed him the money to take back to her, which he did. Then she turned around and walked back over to him and gave him back the money. She told him that she wasn't going to use them anyway so he could just have them! So score for us! I did get around to booking our hotel room finally, so we are completely set for our vacation. Woohoo!

My MIL won some tickets to Knight's Action Park in Springfield, which she gave to the kids. The guy who blew his tire ended up going home, getting his car and finishing the ride in the car. Then he came to the raffle and took home a butt load of prizes! They and the rest of their table won a ton of the prizes!