Autopilot

I'd be lying if I said that things were going smoothly. Sure, the autopilot thing is true, but most of the time it feels as if we're flying by the seat of our pants. And we've been at this for years! But high school has really made me extra anxious. I know I'm capable of teaching it, and I made sure to purchase what I felt were the best materials, offering tons of teacher helps, but I'm still anxious. And when I'm anxious, I tend to over-compensate. So there have been several projects, and even tests. I'm not a "tester" per se, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to start, particularly considering the fact that my daughter has exhibited a sincere interest in enrolling at our local high school for her sophomore year. I guess we'll cross that bridge soon enough.

Fifth and Sixth grade are going along swimmingly actually. I'm glad I decided to combine my younger two this year. My son, a full year and a half younger than my sixth grade daughter, has been ready for a bit of a challenge anyway. He keeps up very well, only he hasn't yet mastered written speed. While he comprehends everything, and composes well, his physical writing is still painfully slow. And slower yet when he makes an effort to write neatly. Any assignments that require writing are still challenging for him. He is learning to type now, so that may help matters, but it's still important to me that he gets past this little bump in the road.

And in other news, it's 86 days until Christmas. EIGHTY-SIX! As is common for me every year, I always plan to get done with my shopping early. Every year, I broadcast this plan, making a futile attempt to establish some sort of accountability. And yet, I recently read that telling others your plans is the absolute worst thing you can do, as it sets you up for failure. Oh well, I still think I work best under pressure, so consider this my disclosure.

I fully intend to be done with Christmas shopping by the first week of December.

There, I've said it. And I really wavered for a moment there, as I had initially planned to write that I'd be done by Thanksgiving weekend. Now, while getting done early has been tough for me in the past, I think the greatest challenge I have this year is to really stick to my budget. But this is always a challenge. And it's not because I can't realistically stay within budget. My problem is that I love to give gifts, and I have to keep myself from over-purchasing. Lest I be mistaken for the type of person to go grossly overboard, rest assured that I am not. Our budget is very modest, and what I consider as going overboard would seem laughable to most people.

The urgency of staying within budget is due to our recent transition back into being a one-income family. Overall, this transition hasn't gone badly. Of course, I planned in advance, so we are still able to share a lot of the financial responsibility. Eventually however, my husband will be doing it all on his own, and that does concern me a bit. But I'm still hopeful that I will think of something to do to make money. The only thing that worries me is how to continue going at the pace I'm going now with our schooling, once I'm gainfully employed again. Sure, I managed for about three years, but we certainly weren't as busy then as we are now. This year we're out of the house for activities and volunteering at an average of about four days per week. This doesn't include once a month classes/activities, or weekly errands. When I see everything written out like this, I can't help but feel panicked.