Homeschool Homecoming!

Well, let me just tell you about the excitement for this year's homeschool homecoming! The girls chose their outfits (and actually Brennen's too) a week ahead of time, while the two boys pictured in the middle were on their hunting trip. This was their friend's first dance, and loads of other friends planned to be at the event as well. I was hoping the professional photographer would have uploaded the undoubtedly massive photo file from the dance itself, but I'll just have to share those when they are available.

The day of the dance Brennen wasn't feeling great--major allergies happening--and wasn't sure if he was going to go after all. Right up until the girls were styled, make-up'd, and dressed to the nines (whatever that means :), he still hadn't decided. But as Graysen set out for an evening at our neighbors' house with his buddy, B appeared dressed and ready to go (with a pocket full of kleenex and later cough drops from his friend's mom :) Actually, Graysen helped Brennen with his final outfit arrangements--which initially included suspenders. However, they quickly determined that the fact Brennen had outgrown the 'spender-span could pose a health risk to anyone dancing near him. Ping! Ha!

We decided to do pictures at our pastor's family's house, because we had already arranged to chauffer his son and because it is so beautiful there! At first we planned to coordinate with a whole carful of girl friends, but their driver (my friend C) said they were still working on hair and make-up when they were supposed to meet us for pictures. I'm sure the teens still got to get some pictures together AT the dance. 

Technically, these pictures posted backwards. But I'll still tell my stories in chronological order :) Obviously there was a risk of Covid by attending this dance, but our kids thought there were just as many students there as last year (in the hundreds), so fears weren't running too high. There are no follow-up reports of anyone getting ill as a result of attending, so that's great news. 

For the duration of the dance my friend C and I sat in the little ice cream shop across the parking lot, just talking and munching burgers and fries. It was so nice to have that one-on-one time with her! She and I actually lived in our last town together for a short time at the same time, but never met each other! Last year, I got to do this with my NGF while she edited photos. Oddly enough, just like last year, there was a massive rainstorm, out of nowhere, when we haven't had rain in weeks (months?) right at the end of the dance! Soon a series of soggy homeschool dance attendees in all their finery (plus some neon face paint, as was the theme) filled the little ice cream shop. We saw the boys' good friends, the twins who rode with us to last year's dance, one on crutches from tearing and repairing his second Achilles this year--but still dancing the night away :) As our table was needed for hungry teens, C and I hugged a farewell and collected our exuberant carloads of fancy kids.

After dance report: Brennen danced with no one (which is okay because he was very mucussy), Caelan danced with the friend we brought with us and a tall boy three times (Brennen said, "I just stood there and watched them." Good brother! :), Gabby danced with her friend C's daughter and together they discussed all the other dancing people :) It was loud (really loud), the individually-packaged pancake snacks were weird, the daughter of the lady who organized the dance got homecoming queen (all the seniors were in the running), and the DJ wasn't as good as last year. Oh, Brennen remembered his sore feet from the 2019 dance and packed a pair of comfortable shoes into which he changed between pictures and arrival at the 2020 event without me noticing; I thought that was pretty funny and smart :) I'm sure I'm forgetting more details. I should have had them write this blog post. Maybe the dancers can fill in the blanks when those other pictures get posted. Overall, they all had a great time, and Caelan, of course, can't wait until her next opportunity to dress up Cinderella-style to go to the ball.

Driving Force

Yay! Gabby's license arrived in the mail! The envelope was nearly impossible to open and her high enthusiasm to see her official permission-to-drive card made the extraction process seem even longer :)

So, last year in the same week that Caelan received her license, Gabby started her driver's ed, and the same week Gabby got her license this year, Brennen started driver's ed! Whew! That means next year, B will be getting his license and G$ will be starting driver's ed . . . that's 160 hours of driver's training by yours truly, double whew! Also, our insurance keeps climbing, climbing with all these drivers. It's a good thing we don't have any car payments this year, because our insurance payments are creeping closer to "I just bought a truck" level. Triple whew.

I just had to get a couple pictures of Gabby's first solo drive (even if a delivery truck decided to throw off my photo). She has been an huge help taking her brothers to and from weightlifting, and enjoys driving herself to and from one of her jobs. Now we just have to get Brennen behind the wheel, so we can start building up his hours, then I can take his first solo drive photos. But no rush! I still like it best when everyone is at home, cars parked in the driveway :)

A Hunting They Did Go!

Brennen: We had already pitched out tent when Caedmon showed up. I think almost immediately we started playing football. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t go hunting that night, but we played Pandemic with Caedmon and his dad. When it was time to go to bed, Caedmon, Graysen and I got into the tent. I’m pretty sure someone said the next morning it got down to 40 degrees! It was pretty cold in there but I was fine. We didn’t sleep in the tent after that! In the morning around 5:00 O’clock, we went to our first blind… We didn’t see much, so after a couple hours we headed back to the house. We ate breakfast, then tried to get the minibike started (again). That stinkin’ minibike wouldn’t start the entire time we were there. Also, I think that we played football with Caedmon every day. At one point it was too windy for football, so we watched “Love it or List it” XD. It was technically our second to last hunt when we finally saw something big enough to shoot. Caedmon wanted to go for the first deer he saw, but it kept looking behind him, so we waited. More deer came; Caedmon selected one, and shot at it. He hit it and it ran into a giant patch of burrs. We got covered in burrs. But hey, he got a deer! We did all the necessary cleaning and butchering, then went back to the house. We just sat there watching TV for the rest of the night. We were super tired. We tried to put away our tent while it was SUPER windy, and it didn’t go so well. So Caedmon and I took it to the garage and stuffed it in the bag (somehow). We tried to start the minibike every day of the trip, but it never worked. Like, we probably put a good 5 hours into trying to get it started. Oh well, our trip was fun enough without it.

Grayen is working on his account of their adventure, so I'll add that in when it is available. As you can see, McDonalds was part of the hunting trip equation--what is normal for the majority of American kids is an absolute rarity for ours :) However, as you'll see in the following pictures, captured by Buck, that food in general was not a rarity during this trip. All the goodies!

They stayed at my cousin Linda's beautiful house in the country. She was out of town and graciously let them invade her space. After the hunting party returned home, I got a text from Linda saying they did not eat nearly enough of her snacks and the house was so clean she couldn't tell they'd been there. I think she said if they were airbnb guests she would give THEM five stars :) Atta' boys!

The first morning, our pastor/small group leader/friend was able to join the hunting party. He later used the pictures Buck sent from the weekend to do a sermon illustration about being awake when Christ returns. I recorded that bit off of the tv (we had to stay home from all our church serving plans that morning because a youth group student tested positive for Covid. Although no one else at youth group did, the church leaders wanted to be careful not to expose others). Anyway, it was funny to see the pictures of the VERY tired boys sleeping in the blind on the big screen at church, and to hear Buck's admission that he thought the deer felt pretty safe that morning :)

Too bad this kind of roaming animal isn't available for hunting during the fall season (or any season) Ha! Who let the cows out? Who, who, who, who?

It was understandably difficult for the boys to settle into an early night's sleep given all the fun things like flying drones in the giant shed, playing football, eating a ton of sugar, and getting excited about the next day's hunt. But oh boy does 5 come early :)

They forgot their playing cards, so they decided to build things with bullets--I'm sure that's a perfectly safe alternative (eek!)

Finally, success!! Our boys kindly gave their turn to their friend, knowing they'll have another opportunity to fill their tags later this year, and their friend may not have a similar opportunity for years. My cousin Aaron provided all the hunting blind space, he helped with the deer processing, and he told lots of great stories to entertain Buck and the boys. Overall, I think they had a great time--and Buck was completely exhausted :) Another youth season in the books!

A Me Post

I tend to not have a lot of posts about myself, so I thought I'd throw one in. First, how can you not love that cute little nephew of mine and his skeptical mellowcreme pumpkin face?! I tried to recreate the effect, but he's clearly far more skeptical than I am--yay, yummy pumpkins!

I don't like injury pictures in general, so this isn't really one of those. It's more like a "What a weird way to treat an injury, who knew?!" type picture trio instead. About nine weeks ago, I hurt my "shoulder." At least it felt like my shoulder. I waited a week or so for it to get better, then tried chiropractic care for maybe a month? With still no major improvement, I decided to make myself an appointment at the orthopedic specialist. That doctor told me to try physical therapy. I've been doing physical therapy for three weeks with still no major improvement. The doctor prescribed a heavy anti-inflammatory (like four Aleve in one pill) and that did back down the discomfort. They also prescribed a steroid which I did not take. Instead, at one PT appointment, they stuck this crazy steroid patch to my area of ouch. It is battery charged and pumps steroid directly into the hurting spot rather than my entire system. I didn't think it was working until I ripped the crazy thing off after six hours and it left a "I've been working" white spot :) It did help for maybe 24 hours. 

Anyway, I recently went back to the doctor for my three week follow up. He asked if I was better, I said not really, so he said, "Let's do an MRI." Yeah, that's what I came in for originally. "Put me in the tube!" So, it will be another week or so until that happens. Ten weeks of a "sprained sternoclavicular joint" (an injury usually sustained in rugby matches, my oldest nephew should be proud :) is plenty for me. I don't think this is a surgery type deal, it's more like an injection or wait it out type deal. I'm less excited about the first option, but ready to feel normal again :)

One really cool thing happening right now is a reconnection to my nearly-forever Cali friends . . . . who now almost all live in states other than Cali. We consistently check in on our text thread, send birthday and holiday greetings, prayer requests and family updates, but it has been years, a decade? since we were all in one place at one time, face-to-face. Well, Alisa thought we should change that (her husband is the techiest, so it makes sense she'd get this started :) She suggested a Beth Moore study book that recently hit the bookstore shelves, and we all logged online and bought our own copies (well, Nic didn't, but she's overwhelmed with other things, so she just pops on to listen and connect :) We set up a time to Zoom and spent an hour or so praying and reading and discussing together. It was so amazing! Just to hear each other's voices and laughs and to see the well-known smiles. The goofy husband offering flowers and kisses in the middle of the call that "he didn't realize Lisa was on" or the husband just home from work about to drop his pants for something more comfortable. "Turn the camera back to you, Tam, QUICK!" Lol :) I am very much looking forward to next month's discussion of the book (which is in the tote bag next to me while I type . . . it's my alternate activity if the kids are still working on their tactical defense seminar when I wrap up my blog catch-up efforts). The book is okay, I've enjoyed sitting on my swing and watching my chickens while I read. However, the time with my friends is the real treasure.

Ha, this is a just for fun picture! I have a friend, my egg customer in fact, who also sells Norwex. She did a little video of the dust mitt pictured, and I responded, "That's exactly how I dust my house, just without the mitt!" So she got me one. And I love it. I want another one for Christmas so I can dust with both hands at the same time :) Isn't it funny how the gifts that make us happy change over the years?

Out of the Ordinary Things

It has been a long time since I posted, almost a month, in fact. I don't know how long it will take me to catch up, but it turns out I have a bit of a head start from these posts that I put together a couple weeks ago. Not the words of course, but just the pictures. I'll keep this account brief . . . the white rose lasted almost a month after we returned from vacation! That's amazing! (and out of the ordinary, hence the title :)

Going to music lessons has been unusual--with our teacher's board game business launch, he's been at more meetings than lessons--and we've been traveling and had other interruptions as well. However, we finally got a chance to meet. He taught the kids to play Another One Bites the Dust, and his cutie baby DJ was right in the mix, singing and dancing along (and also admiring Brennen :)

Daytime naps are very unusual for Graysen. He and Brennen arrived home from an all guy  "sleep" over at our NGFs' house. Although he did catch a couple hours at the gathering, he claimed he felt pretty good and was ready to take on the day. Until he came downstairs and said, "Now I'm tired." Immediately he fell asleep. I tried to get him to eat dinner, but he couldn't fathom what I was asking, so he went to bed :) I think he slept for 17 hours straight, starting around 3:30 in the afternoon.

And while he was sleeping, Caelan asked to play video games! What? Who? That's right :) She wanted to take her turn at the XBOX . . . normally these roles would be reversed. 100 percent!

Another out of the ordinary thing . . . a doggy allowed on the furniture :) But, Buck has a soft spot for cuddly animals and apparently that includes letting them climb into his lap even if that means the couch rule is broken. As you can tell, Muriel is totally fine with this arrangement.

I was very surprised that our lilac (which didn't bloom the first several years we lived here, so I didn't even know it WAS a lilac) bloomed this fall! That's the second bloom this year! Apparently, some do . . . our underachiever is now an overachiever among its kind :) Smells like spring in the fall, surely out of the ordinary.