Tonight the boys put the finishing touches on their school supplies and packed their backpacks.

They both have a binder for A day and a binder for B day.  They both have highlighters and pens and pencils and erasers.  They have loose leaf paper.  They have notebooks.  They have note cards.  They have folders.

We had a discussion about how you don't give away your school supplies.  Why did we have this discussion?  Because last year on the first day Younger Boy gave away ALL of his pens and pencils and had NONE.  He admitted he did it to make friends. 

Middle Boy thought it was crazy and told him he didn't need to buy friends.

They both labeled everything and tried to memorize their schedules.  I have them both memorized, but neither of them do.

Praises for a little bit of excitement surrounding the start of school.

We had lunch out this afternoon after our shopping spree.

The boys were hungry. 

When Middle Boy is hungry and we are at a restaurant he ALWAYS wants to go overboard and it nearly always turns into an argument.

Today he was SURE he could eat an entire large pizza plus and appetizer BY HIMSELF.  He was THAT HUNGRY.

What Middle Boy tends to do is over-order...by a lot.  When I told him I didn't think he could or should eat that much he was pretty mad.  I told him this wasn't the last meal we were eating today and we had plenty of food at home which he can eat whenever he would like to.

He is pretty sensitive to not having food.  It is more baggage from the neglect.

We were finally able to agree that he should just get a burger.  He couldn't even finish the entire thing. 

Praises that we ALWAYS have an abundance of food.  Prayers one day Middle Boy will get over the survival part of not having enough.

This afternoon we went furniture shopping. 

We needed a couple of twin bed frames for when we move into the new house. 

I had a list of furniture I wanted to buy and a budget I needed to stay within.  We were able to get nearly every thing that was on my list.

The boys actually had a good time.  The tried out a bunch of furniture.  They have VERY distinct tastes in what they like and what they don't.  I do as well.

We got one piece of furniture for the family room which will be fought over all of the time.  It was such a blessing to have the furniture which was given to us as a starting point.

We had a good time.  The boys now know what their "dream" bedroom furniture looks like.

We also had an interesting discussion about working on commission.  In fact the man helping us at the store was really good about explaining it to them.  They couldn't understand why he would just want to hang out with us while we made decisions.

Praises for teachable moments in real-life situations.

While Middle Boy was at therapy Younger Boy and I ran some errands.

We stopped by the bank and made a deposit.  Younger Boy had a lot of questions about how a bank works.  It started with him thinking you were assigned the bank to go to based on your neighborhood.  He was quite confused by the fact that we could go to a bank all the way across town and they would still have our deposit.

Then we went to the pet store to buy a couple of things for Sophie.  He asked A LOT of questions at the pet store.  At one point he stopped and said "Wow, I have a lot of questions today.  Do you think it has been one thousand?"

Yes...it feels like it.  What I wanted to say and what I actually said were two different things.

We got out of the pet store and he called his biological siblings to set up a competition for grades for this coming school year.  They are going to compare each quarter.  Of course he is already convinced he will get second behind H, his sister, but definitely be able to beat Older Boy.

It was a nice time with Younger Boy...even with the questions.

Middle Boy had group therapy this morning.  He has four presentations left to give before he can move on to step two of four.

He was able to present three of the four.  So...at this time next week he should be able to move on to step two.  It will be such a blessing when he is able to finish up this therapy!!

Prayers for being able to present the last packet next week!

Tonight we were going to go to an open house and carnival at our foster care agency.  It was scheduled from 4:00PM to 7:30PM.

When we neared the building we saw there was a fire truck, ambulance, and police cars there...all with their lights on. 

It could be that they were part of the open house, but I really don't think so.

We decided it would be best if we skipped.  In fact, the boys suggested it first.

Maybe it was a blessing, because we had a nice evening at home together.

I am going to screw this up this year.  It isn't going to be good.

Both boys are on block schedules which means they do four classes per day and have A days and B days.  Unfortunately they don't have the same A days and B days. 

Younger Boy has A day on Monday.  Middle Boy has A day on Tuesday. 

At some point in the year they might be the same, because it alternates between A and B and they don't have the same vacation days from school.

I need to make a calendar.  I hope I can find the time...otherwise this could be a mess.

Prayers for getting organized.  It used to be my strong suit in high school...now not so much.