What a week!

Baylor started school this week in his new homeschool situation. Homeschooling is going great. He loves his teacher, he's performing well, and he's making friends with his new classmates. To top it off with a cherry, his teacher was bringing him to our babysitter's house every afternoon so I had ONE FREAKIN stop to make on my way home. I've been on cloud nine about that plan every since Kasie agreed to keep him afterschool. This afterschool situation was the one area of my life that wasn't stressing me out.
You see, I'm leaving to go on maternity leave on September 5. By that date I must have lesson plans done for my English II and my English IV classes all the way through December 1. (This includes copies, extra materials, fire drill instructions, duty schedule, how to let kids make up work, etc.) My classes are huge, and on top of planning ahead, I'm also having to plan for right now while I'm there, get papers graded, do my duty, you know, do my job. I've been staying for at least an hour after school each day, and honestly, I need to stay longer, because I don't think I'm going to get everything done.
Physically my pelvis and hips are killing me, and there are moments when I can barely walk. My classroom is upstairs, which doesn't help.
Wednesday afternoon when I drive up Kasie meets me outside and tells me that she doesn't think Baylor being there is going to work out. The short version of the story is that she caught him in about five lies in the two hours he was there. That doesn't count whatever happened Monday and Tuesday that I don't even know about. I ask her if he can continue going for a couple of days until we can find someone to keep him, and she says yes.
I blew a gasket. How could he mess up what was basically Nirvana? My reaction was completely inappropriate, and didn't help matters at all. By the time we got in the van Nadia was screaming hysterically because of what happened, Baylor of course was crying, and I was just beside myself. (I did apologize to him later for my inappropriate response, but that doesn't erase what I did.)
The next morning David printed a list of all the daycare centers on this end of town. He called all of them, and all of them said that they couldn't take him. One place said they could take him starting at 2:15, but they would charge $220 a month. (That's more than we're paying for his school, by the way!) We were thinking that we'd have to put him back in public school on Monday morning. We checked with his teacher, and she said she'd think about options.
Friday afternoon Raymond picked up Baylor at school. I stayed after to work on lesson plans, and my classroom sometimes doesn't have any cell phone service. I checked my phone as I was walking to my car and saw that I had 4 missed calls from Raymond's cell phone. My first thought was that something was wrong, and my second was that Mrs. Elaine agreed to keep him and he was so excited he couldn't wait to tell me.
I called, and Baylor answered. He asked if it was too late to get out of soccer for this season because he decided he wanted to go hunting with his dad. I told him I didn't know, and he said, "Well, call me back when you find out." As he was hanging up I said, "Wait! Did Mrs. Elaine say anything about afterschool care?" His answer? "Oh yeah, she said she'd check with the other kids' moms, and if they couldn't keep me then she would."
If he would have been in my presence I would have hit him again. I said, "Don't you think that bit of news is much more important than soccer or hunting?" He said, "Well, I forgot about it until you said something."
Something is wrong with my son. I've been crying about this situation since Wednesday afternoon, and I am so stressed out about what we're going to do. He could care less. He really doesn't see the magnitude of how bad he screwed every thing up. This issue has not touched his heart.
So I talked to my friend Jessica about it, and she came up with a great idea. I'm going to make him think about it and suffer the consequences for a long time. Basically, since he caused Kasie extra work with his behavior and his lying, he's going to have extra work to do. Everyday for twenty days he will have extra chores to do around the house. We will pay him for these chores and ALL of the money he earns will go to Kasie. (and he'll have to give the money to her himself.) He can't watch TV or play his PSP (which he JUST got for his birthday) until his debt to Kasie is paid off. Then, because we're going to have to pay for Mrs. Elaine to keep him, he'll continue working to pay us back.
You see, he messed up an entire SCHOOL YEAR (this year and next) in THREE DAYS. So he will work and work and work, and hopefully the lesson will stick. Hopefully the next time he opens his mouth to lie he will bite his tongue instead. Hopefully he'll be more concerned about how his actions affected our entire family than whether or not he gets to hunt with his dad.
Any suggestions?