Ok. Ok. Ok. The kids were obviously sleeeeeeepy than a MUG and I accept blame for that. Normally, it’s staggered bedtimes around my castle beginning at 7:30pm. My senior daughter? Ohhhhhh. You’re rocking with me and know the major players huh? #SaluteMyAssOff and *bows*. Well, HER UPSTAIRS (play off Bernie Mac 😉) isn’t really part of the bedtime process as a senior. WE (eldest daughter & parents) are doing the whole trust-me-share-info-be-honest approach so she’s usually in her room quiet by midnight. 🤷🏾♂️BACK on track; during the covid-19-kids-and-everybody-stay-home-season, bedtime has been 11pm. 😮😯🤐 I know. I KNOOOOW. #BadDaddy but I mean… My fallback is ALWAYS–> “Maaaaaan, I be TIRED homie. MS and shit remember?” They’re bed by 11pm, breakfast at 8am, we are going by 8:30 after kitchen is back clean. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were consecutively less energy from them. Me? Come on playa, I STAAAAYS ready DAWG. Friday was their lowest. At some point; everyday, one of them falls asleep, usually during reading on the couch. Friday? 1 at the table sleep on the computer. 1 sleep on the couch during reading. A 2nd sleep on the couch during a laptop research assignment. 1 sleep UNDER the kitchen table retrieving a pencil! 😑 In the immortal words of Nelson Mandela, “I don’t lose. I win or learn”. I learned to enforce the bedtime. THEY learned too. Daddy won’t wake me up but I still gotta finish my WORK.
The GOOD
My 5th grader cooked her parents’ dinner and she did GREAT. 😘 Silky Sicilian Penne tossed with veggies in a cream sauce. It’s one of those HelloFresh.com dinners delivered to your door. (S/O to the Parents-In-Laws 😍😍) She chopped, tossed, everything and looked cute as heck making our food too. All concentrating and stuff. Gon GURL! The kids as, a unit, were supposed to clean the kitchen but since my senior took till 10pm to start, she went solo on the kitchen like a normal school day. (Told y’all. It’s Daddy’s Academy of Gratitude MUTHAFUGGA and I ain’t fighting some stuff!) Don’t get me wrong, the kitchen was clean at 4am when I rose from the ashes so that’s all that mattered.
My senior had a loooooooong career test on Wednesday, day one. Yup, she’s taken them at school but I ain’t seen it so whateva. I had her take Cornell Notes over the results too, job title, salary, requirements, growth, the whole nine. The entire test, she would ask what different stuff was, stuff meant, big words, you get it. I dig ALL that. It helped me identify more of what my daughter knew, could do, understand, just how she applied herself. It was cool beans for me. I THINK she was ‘fine’ with it. Day 2? She had to read different Pinterest articles, watch videos and stuff I found over starting your own line of cosmetology products. Yup, you guessed it. Cornell Notes over all of it. Day 3? Research over niches, marketing plans, how the two relate, building a brand and designing a logo. She fell asleep on it before lunch. All my hard work to find appropriate and interesting stuff… 🙄 After lunch on day three, she had job applications DESPITE covid-19. That’s right. Taught her to search Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, ABC13, etc. then go to actual company website and apply. THAT she didn’t sleep on at all. She had very few questions but a list of places-not-worth-coronavirus. 🤣😂🤣 Quite a few group work type of assignments are coming in. Stuff like do-this-with-family-and-send-pictures, do-that-with-family-and-send-video, read-blah-to-your-parents-and-discuss it. I’m here for it ALL because dem kids do it together, not me. Noooope. We’re scheduled for 8am – 4pm and I’ll be damned if I do projects/homework after 4pm. They got plenty of time to solve any group thing together!
The Bad…
Sleeping on MY time was the bad. I fixed it tho. If assignments were NOT completed, that kid was NOT dismissed. On day 1, my 8th grader was finishing his Gratitude Journal until 4:30pm. I wasn’t checking it until the following day and he knew if it was done poorly, he’s write more the next day. Guess what? HE WROTE THAT MUG PROPERLY TOO! Day three, my 5th was grinding out work till 5pm. She couldn’t snack, missed a candy choice, lost some free time; she was hurt too! #Lesson My senior was doing her Gratitude Journal Prompt too. Past 4pm. Why? Sleeping during Academy time and got behind.
Gratitude Journal Prompt: Your energy is your currency! Spend it well. Invest it. Use it wisely.
1. Write the quote in your journal.
2. What do you think EACH part means?
3. Why do you think I used this quote? (Does it relate to YOU?)
4. How can this quote help you?
5. Rewrite the quote in your own words.
6. Give two examples of this quote in your life. When did it happen? Why did it happen? Does it happen a lot?