All good trends come to an end
Matt. The child I cried about most when I found out there was going to be a fifth child turns out to be one of the best rewards ever. He was a fairly easy baby, he got along with his older sister to the extent that they kept out of my way because they played together all the time, and he tickles my funny bone daily.
But let me tell you a different kind of Matt story. This past Monday, he came home from school in a panic. He had lost his school library book, which had his reading log in it. He said the book had been gone for about a week. He needed to find it so that he could turn it in on Wednesday. He looked everywhere in the house for hours. I helped some but not for hours. All for nothing, even after offering up pleas to the library book fairy, the homework fairy, the dust bunnies under the couches and several spiders who know the nooks and crannies of the house better than I do. (and I offered up many silent prayers to the Almighty) All I could offer in the way of comfort was that he should check at the library at school to see if the book was turned in and if they had seen the reading log.
I sighed inwardly, knowing that I could not save him from the consequences of losing his reading log. It would mean an F on a large portion of his trimester grade for Reading. I was not, however, going to approach the teacher myself and ask for leniency for my son. This needed to be a lesson for him on keeping track of important papers. Too bad he had to learn it this way.
So he went to school.
And later he came home from school. I asked him if he had gone to the library to look for the book.
He replied with this story:
"So here's what happened. I went to Reading class and asked the teacher if I could go to the library to look for my lost book and reading log. She said ok. I asked the librarian what they do with homework that is left in returned books. She says it is thrown away after a day. I was all sad. I went back to class with my head like this [he hung his head down in the most dejected manner he could. I imagine he was probably dripping tears too because he tends to leak optically like I do when bad things like this happen] and when I sat down at my desk with my head hanging down, I saw my book on the floor of the classroom. And my reading log was still in it. If I hadn't had my head hanging down, I wouldn't have seen it."
We discussed the importance of being organized and keeping track of important things, but we were able to be upbeat during our discussion.
I am grateful for little miracles, like homework being found and Matt himself.
But let me tell you a different kind of Matt story. This past Monday, he came home from school in a panic. He had lost his school library book, which had his reading log in it. He said the book had been gone for about a week. He needed to find it so that he could turn it in on Wednesday. He looked everywhere in the house for hours. I helped some but not for hours. All for nothing, even after offering up pleas to the library book fairy, the homework fairy, the dust bunnies under the couches and several spiders who know the nooks and crannies of the house better than I do. (and I offered up many silent prayers to the Almighty) All I could offer in the way of comfort was that he should check at the library at school to see if the book was turned in and if they had seen the reading log.
I sighed inwardly, knowing that I could not save him from the consequences of losing his reading log. It would mean an F on a large portion of his trimester grade for Reading. I was not, however, going to approach the teacher myself and ask for leniency for my son. This needed to be a lesson for him on keeping track of important papers. Too bad he had to learn it this way.
So he went to school.
And later he came home from school. I asked him if he had gone to the library to look for the book.
He replied with this story:
"So here's what happened. I went to Reading class and asked the teacher if I could go to the library to look for my lost book and reading log. She said ok. I asked the librarian what they do with homework that is left in returned books. She says it is thrown away after a day. I was all sad. I went back to class with my head like this [he hung his head down in the most dejected manner he could. I imagine he was probably dripping tears too because he tends to leak optically like I do when bad things like this happen] and when I sat down at my desk with my head hanging down, I saw my book on the floor of the classroom. And my reading log was still in it. If I hadn't had my head hanging down, I wouldn't have seen it."
We discussed the importance of being organized and keeping track of important things, but we were able to be upbeat during our discussion.
I am grateful for little miracles, like homework being found and Matt himself.
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