Morning.....believe it or not I am as work already.   LOL!!  I had to be in early as I am on the hiring committee and we have interviews all this morning.   Wish us luck....we need a good social worker that can step in and handle the caseload.  

Well time to call it a night.....I have to make sure to quickly do my bedtime routine and head to bed.  I need to be at work before 8:00am so I am able to be at the interviews. Our evening has been pretty quiet.    I made super for us all, we had spaghetti and meatballs and then Josh and Amy went to church.    I took a little nap and slept for about an hour.    Once I got up I did a load of laundry and cleaned up Tommy's room.   Hubby did the supper dishes for me while I napped......gotta love that! 

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week and it is our weekly cleaning night so that will all be done so I can enjoy my Friday off!     Next week is already booking up for me again.   I tend to be pretty busy at work, never a dull moment.  

Received another book in the mail today.....

I bought this one for my son, Erik, but will read it first to see what I think of it before I give it to him.   Iti s called Learning to SlowDown and Pay Attention:  A book for Kids about ADHD.     I discovered this book while at the Children's Mental Health Conference earlier this month.  

Today I started listening to the Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver only to discover I have already listened to this book.  LOL!!  Ooops.....how quickly I forget.  

Well I am off to take a little cat nap and than do laundry and clean Tommys room.   This is our off night of church so we are home this evening, which is very nice.  

Short day at work....YEAH!!   I should only have to work 10 hours today.  LOL!!   I had an early IEP this morning.  I am glad I didn't become a teacher, that is initially what I thought I wanted to do.  Too EARLY!!!  LOL!!   I like the flexiblity of being a social worker.   Last night I worked until 9:15 at night, man do I get alot done at night here.  I am more productive in the evening anyways.  

I just finished another book last night.   I finished The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler.  It was an ok read....

Children of God Go Bowling - Shannon Olson - 3.5/5

The Jane Austen Book Club - 3/5

Rating Scale Used -(From the Bookies WebSite)
5 = Highly Recommended / Another "Classic."
4 = Recommended / A good read.
3 = Okay / An average book.
2 = Would Not Recommend / Less then satisfying.
1 = How did this get published? / Poor.

Currently Reading..... 

• Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
  
• Peaceful Parents, Peaceful Kids: Practical Ways to Create a Calm and Happy Home - Naomi Drew
  
• Queen's Fool - Phillipa Gregory

I must say the little bit of the Peaceful Parents book I read last night, I really liked.   I am reading it for our class at church, another parent recommended it.   I read alot of parenting and disability books for work and always can gleen a bit more info or ideas for them and a refresher of info is always helpful too.  I send out resources to the families I work with too.   There are those parents though that say..."Oh I have read enough books on that subject".  Those are usually the parents who have read one book on parenting or their child's disability.   Truthfully as parents I think we have to keep trying to learn and be better parents every day of our lives for our children no matter if then have a disablity or not!  If you have the above attitude I think you are pretty closed to learning and trying new things.   Even if you don't have a child with a disability, reading parenting books came give you new insight and ideas....some aren't worth the paper they are written on.....and some are great.   Things in the field of autism are always changing so the research and literature is every changing.  I am always impressed with LindaC61 and the research and reading she does to improve her son's independence!   I find alot of info and resources to check out from her site from time to time. 

My desire it to be the best wife and mother possible so I will read books to help me on the quest.    As a person I don't think we should ever stop learning or developing into an authentic person.  I want to be the best me I can be!!

Time to head home and put an end to this work day!   My last 12 hour day for the week.   I have to be at work early tomorrow for an IEP meeting.   And early again on Thursday for interviews.  Tiem to drive home and go to bed.  Good night!@

Yawn....these 12 hour days kill me...but I am happy for them when I can sleep in on Friday and not go to work.   This week I will be working more than 40 hours.  My supervisor asked me to assist with interviews for the new social worker so I have to be in early for that.   Hopefully she will have applications together for me today to look at.   Today at work I have to do a bunch of paperwork and then have a homevisit late afternoon, then I will return to the office and work until 8:30 or 9:00 tonight.  

Well it looks like our furnance is finally fixed and not leaking water.   I was not that happy about having to take 4 days off of work to get this fixed and they fixed it for free for me.   They jsut want me to be a happy customer.   Hopefully I don't have to do anything more!

Today is Josh's GF birthday.  He took her out for supper last night.  He has to work tonight from 5:30 to close.   He is getting more hours now so has a bit more money.   He had some flowers delievered to her today at school too.  

Tommy slept in bed with us all night last night and he was such a restless sleeper.  He whimpered and cried in his sleep a couple of times and kicked and hit alot.   NOt a great night of sleep for us all. 

It is getting late I better get to work......have a great day!

Back from Weight Watchers...and I have to share that I made it to my first award.  I have lost my first 5 pounds.   I am very happy about this.  This week I lost 2.2 pounds!    That makes me feel better about my gain last week.   Now to just stay on the program this week.  Just have to keep moving forward!

Monday.....ARGH!!   I am so tried.  Hubby was up late and wanted to chat and I wanted to sleep.   Tommy didn't want to stay in bed with me since he was waiting for daddy to come to bed.   So I didn't get to sleep as early as I would have liked.   YAWN!! And today I am suppose to work a 12 hour day!    I am not sure what will happen.   Josh left us a note saying the leak in the laundry room is still happening and now it has gone thruogh the wall and gotten the carpet wet in his bedroom.   I just had the repair people out on Friday and they said they fixed it!  So now I have called them back again this morning already.  I am not a happy camper.  So I might have to stay home if they are going to come out and fix the leak today.   Not so thrilled about that!

Time to get going with our day.....Later!

Still working on laundry.......we just got back from the park.  We took Erik, Tommy and two neighbor children to play at the park for a while.   So I got two nice walks in today.   The rest of the evening will be preparing for the week.   Tommy needs a bath and I need to do a bit more laundry.    Another weekend gone....sure went fast, but we had a great weekend with family and friends!   I hope you had a great weekend too!

Sneeze,Sneeze....aaah...the sound of lawn mowers!  Yep, I am allergic to grass so not so great for me.  Time to shut up the windows.    I jsut woke from a little hour nap.  Tommy is still napping and hubby is mowing our lawn.   Josh is working and Erik is downstairs.  

I think I am actually going to go read for a while until Tommy wakes up, then I will do dishes and more laundry.   I will grab this quiet time while I can.  

Sermon today was very good.  They are doing a series.  Today was about a life well lived and contributing to life and your church.   My hubby and I contribute in many ways to the church but how we raise our children and make them a priority in our lives is also contributing to me.   My hubby and I will have plenty of time for other pursuits once our children are grown.  I feel that the most important job we have right now is to raise good christian children.   My oldest is going to be 17 next month.    I look at him and I know all we do is so worth it.   More than my children having good grades, what I want most for them is to be a person of good character.   That is what stays with you for the rest of your life.   My oldest has good character, is kind, honest, respectful and loving and have never gotten into any sort of trouble.   What a blessing.....now his grades.....are on the average side since homework isn't his favorite.  Though in the last year he has been on the honor roll every quarter.  The importance of grades in his life has become apparaent to him.  I know I have had a life well lived if people continue to come up to me in church and tell me what nice young boys I have.   They aren't good, nice boys by accident, it takes ALOT of work and dedication to making rasing your children your priority. 

Proverbs 22:6 admonishes parents, "Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it." (NLT) It is a sobering thought when we realize that ultimately we control our children's destination.  I truly believe that who my children are when they are 25 is all our fault!

Make your children your priority!   You have them for such a short amount of time and make the largest impact on them, good and bad.