Two weeks in

I should have known better.  (Why am I suddenly feeling the urge to go rummaging for my old Richard Marx tape collection?)  I spent the day yesterday feeling pretty good with the way the school year has started out.  We are getting in the groove.  Getting the wake up times and leave for the bus times all memorized.  Figuring out specials schedules and what day to wear gym shoes.  I even logged into the school portal to check the kids' grades thus far and was thrilled.  In the four classes that had grades already - Spencer had all A's.  He has transitioned to middle school seamlessly.  Man what a great mom I am!  Cough.

When Spencer got home from school, my perfect year of school utopia crumbled away quickly.  No sooner had he walked in the door with a "Hi Mom" when an email popped onto the screen from his math teacher.  You are receiving this email because your student failed to turn in an assignment today. Until this assignment is turned in they have a zero in the grade book.   A quick log back on to the school portal and his one hundred percent A in math is now a big fat D. 

I asked him what assignment it was that he missed and he told me it was the one he was working on last night.  You mean the one I sat there and helped you with and watched you complete?  Why did you not turn it in?  He said it must have fallen to the bottom of his locker when he took out his lunch that morning.  He said he wasn't even sure that he remembered to put it in his backpack.  He thought it might still be sitting on the counter at home.   He told me that he could still turn it in tomorrow and get a ninety on it and it would still be an A.  I tried to get it through his head that an A was not the point.  The point is that he did the work.  It was finished.  Just by sheer laziness, disorganization and carelessness he failed to turn it in.  I just can't fathom that mindset.  I don't know where it comes from.  If I was in sixth grade my stomach would be in knots in the same scenario. 

He was immediately banned from all types of screens and forced to go out and mow the lawn (even though it was Evan's turn).  I told him if the assignment was not turned in today he would not be going to the youth hunt this weekend.  I was already beyond frustrated and then Evan and Hailey got home and Evan informed me that he could only find one of his pant legs. 

Maybe that needs a little clarification. 

Evan has a pair of pants that unzips at the knees to turn into shorts.  He wore them to school the other day as pants and came home with shorts.  I told him he needed to bring the pant legs home so I could put them back together.  And then he came home and said he found the one pant leg in the lost and found and didn't know where the other was.  Fabulous.  Can you explain to me how you don't remember where it was that you unzipped your pant legs and left them?  How in the world does that happen?  He was already still missing a sweatshirt that he had worn to a sleepover on Saturday night.  I swear Hailey leaves her coat and water bottle at school everyday.  I pack them snacks in little plastic containers so I don't have to go through ten million baggies.  I started with six and am now down to three.  They have no idea where they go.  I realize that I am a bit high strung.  But I don't think that is a totally bad thing.  I like to know where my stuff is.  I expect that any thing I send with the kids will come home.  Is that really too much to ask?

When Evan told me he lost the other pant leg and basically left the pants useless, I about lost it.  I told the kids that their carelessness had earned them all a trip back to school.  They knew they didn't dare grumble and climbed into the car.  I sent Evan and Spencer to the playground to scour it  (he finally fessed up that he took them off at recess) and Hailey and I headed into the lost and found bin.  After a quick dig through the bin, surprisingly I found it.  I couldn't believe how full that bin was after two weeks of school.  I know for a fact they donate anything unclaimed at the end of the year.  Apparently my kids are not the only ones that can't keep track of anything.   We checked the lockers for anything else but they were empty.  The classrooms were locked so I couldn't ransack their desks.  We will see what comes home today.

That was yesterday.  Today can only get better, right?