What Goes Around...

Shortly before parent teacher conference, Nathan informed me that he had a project in his social studies class.
No problem.
He had to build a model of a Native American home. A teepee or a long house, etc.
No problem.
Then he told me it was due the next day.
And it was already 10 PM.
And he didn't have any of the paperwork for directions or requirements for the teepee.
And it had been assigned for a month, he thought.
Now we have a problem.

I was more than a little perturbed at his lack of responsibility, but had to keep my tongue in check because someday my own mother hoped that/warned me this would happen.

I was in Mrs. Achziger's class for 7th grade English. She was just as her name sounded: awful.
We had to do book reports once each month. The requirements for the reports varied, sometimes we had to do a simple description of the report, sometimes we had to do it verbally.

There was one way we could get out of it. It was by reading a book that was extra long. Then we could skip a month and there was one less book report to do.

I decided that was the way to go when I had procrastinated one month and didn't have time to read an entire book before the report was due.

Now I just had to find a book that would fit the bill.
I picked Jane Eyre.
Not a short book.
Very long, very complicated for a 7th grader.
But I read it, and mostly liked it.

For the next report, the teacher had decided that we were going to illustrate each chapter with a drawing.

I had to illustrate each chapter of a 600+ page book.
Plus, this happened to be over Christmas break. Who wants to do a stupid book report over Christmas break?

So....

I found myself doing some drawings the Sunday night before school started. I didn't realize how long it was going to take until I had been working for an hour and had only done about three pictures.

My mom was hanging around the kitchen while I worked, asking questions. When she figured out what a predicament I had put myself in, she had pretty much the same reaction I did when I found out about Nathan's teepee assignment.

Grrrrr.

She let me work for a few more hours, but finally took pity on me around 10 PM and grabbed some paper and worked with me to get it done.

We worked for a while longer, and finally finished the report long after my bedtime.

I got an A.

But,

I have never heard the end of it since.

Which is good, because it helped me have a smidgen more patience with Nathan as we worked on his teepee.

He got an A.
He will never hear the end of it.