Procrastination!

In the seventh grade, they do a giant, months-long project. Everyone chooses a career and then researches it, interviews someone in the field, writes a paper, does a speech, etc. It all culminates in an "everyone's invited, come walk around and learn about different jobs!" event later this month.

So every so often, i ask Houston, "How's that project going? Are you up-to-date on everything?" And he's all, "Yes, yes! I'm doing GREAT!"

Until today, when he was all, "Oh. I have to make my entire tri-fold board today and also write a speech and memorize it, because i have to present it to the class tomorrow!"

Because OF COURSE he does.

And so, he's been working nearly tirelessly all afternoon, typing and printing and gluing and despairing of ever finishing and then working some more. It's an incredibly difficult thing, as a parent, to offer advice like, "Um, You probably want to put something in this giant hole right here?" without stepping in and being all, "Okay, SERIOUSLY. You've got three things on this giant board. You need to make it more ... full!"

He's nearly finished. It's 11:30. I'm hoping he'll .... Wait. Now it's 11:45, and (just after i took that picture and sent him to bed) he just came back down and said, "I just remembered that i need to put a graph on it somewhere." So! Rearranging!

The poor boy is really so tired. At this point, i'm just hoping that he won't fall asleep as he's giving his speech tomorrow.