Thursday marks the first day of school for Brandon- Let the games begin!

School is always a challange for Brandon. He is ADD so following through on homework is just this side of impossible for him, and etremely frustrating for Patrick and me.

Patrick had his stroke in Feb and I was in a daze the last days of this past school year, consumed by helping Patrick to recover. Now that school is upon us again, I am really nervous. I remember the beginning of last year, Brandon had a leaf project assigned that turned into the project from hell. I fear he will have to collect bugs or something this year and now it we be left up to me to help him.

I have hired someone to help both Brandon and Patrick, but I don't know if her help will be enough. I don't know how I am going to do this. I wish I could be the parent who is relieved to have school starting again. I am not. I am scared I will let one of them down or both because I am not able to keep up.

Brandon also takes after me in the "night owl" arena, and no matter what time he goes to bed, he is nearly impossible to get up in the morning. Last year before Patrick's stroke, we had really been working on Brandon getting himself up and ready for school, but that ended when I no longer had the energy to try to teach him to do this on his own- it was easier to just get him up myself. His getting up and ready for school has been so frustrating in years past that if anyone would ask me about stress as the possible reason for his stroke, I would say this was the one thing that really stressed Patrick out. (He was usually the one to get him ready for school.)

I hope this year is good.

Kristen