Our family has been running its own marathon, it seems, with endless homework, school and church activities.  I think it's finally starting to catch up with all of us, especially J.  Although we've talked many times about how middle school is more demanding and the need to be more organized, she is starting to live that message.  Yesterday (Sunday), she informed me that she couldn't find her school library book and forgot to remind me that the Scholastic book order was due Friday.  She also got a low score on a science quiz, although she told me everyone in the class did poorly on the quiz.  As someone who likes to have total control, it's been hard for me to let go and let her make some of these mistakes.  I told her I hadn't seen her library book in the house and that she would have to miss out on this month's Scholastic order.  We tried to cover science better last night, in preparation for another test today.  Still, I know that if it were completely up to me, I would do things so differently.  I guess it's one of the worst parts of parenting--letting your kids fail so that they will learn how to handle situations better in the future.  Let's hope J figures this one out soon, so Mom has a lot less gray hair!  How do you let your kids handle these situations?  Any advice for getting her to step up and be more responsible? 

PS--My husband completed the Hershey Half Marathon yesterday.  This is part of his training to run the full Marine Corps Marathon at the end of the month.  He finished the half marathon (13.1 miles) in just under 2 hours.  He was quite pleased with his time and we were very proud of him.  It's quite invigorating to see the runners finish the race, and know how hard they work to train for these races.  Incidentally, the full marathon will be his 2nd marathon.  He ran the Marine Corps Marathon for the first time four years ago as a sort of "I'm turning 40 and want to cross this off my bucket list" thing.  Marathoners are a fun but strange breed--these people actually ENJOY running 26.2 miles at a time!  So the training will contine for Oct. 31--another update will follow!