Well, I have a standing date with a friend of mine for coffee on Thursday mornings from 9 ’till11am at a coffee shop about a 25 minute walk from my house. This morning, she had to leave a little early(10:15am) to get to another appt.

Not a problem, and not what this post is about.

I got Jon to drop me off at the coffee shop this morning and he was supposed to be in a meeting with a customer in between 9 and 11am, then we ‘d go and pick up J from school.

Have you guessed where I’m going with this? Yup, I’m so good! I walked home. I figured that if there was no way for me to get a ride home, and I knew that Jon was supposed to be in a meeting and couldn’t come and get me……THEN I’D HAVE TO WALK HOME. Yup, I’m so lame that I have to force myself to walk. Back myself into a corner so that I have no other options. But I did it. Got home 25 minutes later, and I’m done. I did my exercise for the day. I know it’s not a 4 hour exercise session, but for crying out loud, people! Baby steps! I’ve gone from slug on the couch to walking twice in two days. I think that’s pretty good for someone who still feels like passing out when she stands up from the couch.

Yah! I’m still a little woozy, but getting better! Oh,………….and High doses of Vitamin C…..They are my friend! Nothing like Vitamin C to help things out when your Iron is sitting a little heavy in your system.

In other boring news, and this will probably not mean much to any of you, but I almost cried when J brought home his work from school today.

My son had a 32 word spell-a-thon list that he got just before the kids went on spring break. Three weeks ago he brought home 32 words that he had to learn. In case you have no idea as to how bad that was stressing me out. I figured that there was no way that he would be able to do it. He can’t even tell you what the letters of the alphabet are by looking at them. He can sing the song with only a few mess ups, and he knows the sounds that the letter make if you ask him…….”J, K says??????” He can tell you “K says kuh!” But he has so been struggling with the letters and reading is brutal. Sounding out words….the little things that most of the kids in his class are doing…..He’s not really up to speed with where the majority of the class is. We got his report card home the day before Spring break, and….well…it wasn’t very encouraging. It was actually very depressing!

I know that he is really smart, and that he is SOOOOOO creative. He can remember stuff that happened WAY long ago. He can tell you which way is left or right, something that I as an adult still have a hard time doing unless I really think about it. He just processes things differently. It’s so very hard to watch him struggle.

Any way, back on topic. The spell-a-thon words! I have bashed my head against a wall for the last 2 weeks trying to get him to sound out and print the words. We have fought and encouraged, and fought and encouraged and fought and encouraged J all through every. letter. of every. word. as he threw himself around like a rag doll in frustration. In fact, last night he wouldn’t even finish the list, and finally we gave up. I figured that whatever he didn’t know now, that he wouldn’t know for the test the next day.

Apparently, like I believed some where in the deep recesses of my brain, all the info is actually somewhere inside of him. Today he had a great day at school. He got 31 out of the 32 words CORRECT! I was in shock! It was amazing. I don’t know if it was the work we did over the last two weeks, or a fluke or what it was. It’s not neat, and some of the letters are upper case and some are lower case, some of the letters are backward, but he could name every letter of every word(except one), and he got them right. I was so proud of him for even trying.

We bought him a Happy Meal as a treat! The biggest thing that we tried to praise him for was not getting 31 words right, but for trying his best. He actually put effort in and I am just so proud. Almost makes all the banging my head into the wall after working with him worth it….Almost!