So much going on

Haven't written in a couple of days because I've been falling into bed exhausted at night.  Something about 5.5hrs of sleep each night and then running around all day seems to do that to me.  No clue why tho. LOL

First, Nicholas tested last weekend and is now a yellow belt at KSW.  Yes, for those who remember, he had a yellow belt before but that was with following mommy for everything.  When he went into the Little Ninjas program, he went down to just above a starter white belt and spent months gaining the self-discipline to do class on his own and learn the material for himself instead of having to always follow along.  He has truly earned this yellow belt and we are super proud of him.  (I'll be posting pics and videos later after I get them off my phone).

Second, this was our last "quiet" week and things are now starting to gear up around here.  Clay class starts back up on Tuesday and I just got the call from Nick's soccer coach and he'll be practicing Tuesday night.  So the Tuesday schedule will be swim @ 9a for J&N, clay @ 11a for N, clay @ 1p for M&J, soccer @ 6p for N.  Jon wants to start cooking again and planning dinners and I want to do that with him but Tuesday was looking like our best night until this came up.  Now I'm starting to think we may need to do a weekend evening instead because I'm not sure I can do all that plus some sort of school AND a big fancy dinner with Jon.

Third, I've got a well-used but still incredibly frustrating almost 17yr old for sale.  Heck, I'm at the point some days where I'll be happy to pay someone to take him for a bit if they can knock some sense into him.  I've had to take back the chore of cleaning the kitchen because even with a brand-new kitchen, he will not put forth the effort to keep it clean.  The dishes come out of the dishwasher still dirty.  The fronts of the new cabinets are covered in crap.  The beautiful counters are buried under stuff he won't deal with and what little he does clean, he refuses to wipe down with a dry cloth afterward so it has a dull film instead of a beautiful shine.  The sink is always filthy because he refuses to even hose it down after he "does" the dishes.  It's been driving me insane and I finally couldn't take it any more.  Yes, I know he needs to learn to do these things but right now, I need it to be kept clean both so I can use it for cooking and also so it doesn't get destroyed before we even start showing the house.  We are currently trying to figure out what new chores he can do to take the place.  Ones in which a good attention to detail is not necessary.  What is the most frustrating thing tho is that he gets calls from several of our friends to have him come over and do work around their place.  I've been told he does need a bit of supervision and he can get distracted but it doesn't seem to be near as bad as it is here and since they keep bringing him back, he can't be that awful.  I just really worry about his needing so much supervision as it's been apparent so far in college that he isn't making sure he gets what he needs from his teachers and in a job situation, they want independent workers and his needing constant supervision will not help him to keep it.

Lastly, the memorial for Ken was yesterday.  It was a wonderful service with the right touch of dry wit to keep everyone from doing nothing but bawling the whole time.  Linda did a wonderful job on the slideshow after and kept it together beautifully during her speech.  Ian had asked Matthew to read for him but neither of them was sure they could make it through without crying.  In the end, Ian did go up and speak but Matthew was there next to him for support and ready to take over should he need it.  I'm very proud of Ian for getting up there and making it through and I'm also proud of Matthew for being such a true friend during this time.  He has really shown a maturity beyond his years lately and I find myself incredibly overjoyed at what I see.  I can only hope his teen years won't force me to sell him to gypsies.

So that's the news around here.  I hope to have Nick's KSW pics and videos up tomorrow.  Tuesday will be tons more pictures between all the activities starting up especially since it's Nick's first time doing clay.