The state of things

The state of things:  

We’re six weeks into the school year.  Our days are a bit unpredictable as far as how much schoolwork is on the schedule.  Today Caleb was done before 10am; other days we still haven’t finished at 4:30.  

Jeddy got his license six days ago.  It was a roller coaster day that involved getting up really early to drive out of town to the only DMV we could get an appointment at during these unprecedented, etc., times; realizing halfway there that the car we had selected for him to test in was four months past the inspection date; turning around; starting over; being 17 minutes late; rushing through the paperwork while praying the next appointee didn’t show up on time; getting kicked out when said appointee did show up; sitting dejectedly in the parking lot despairing over the lack of availability at any DMV; and getting called back inside when the punctual appointee was rejected as ineligible.  

After all that, he took his test, which turned out to be a road test since we were clear in the next county (our county is only doing tests in the parking lot, with cones and a masked official calling instructions from outside the vehicle).  Fortunately, however, part of the usual testing route was shut down because a work crew was trimming trees or something, so he only performed an abbreviated test.  Which, after all that drama… he passed.

So far he’s driven to the grocery store for ice cream, brought a couple of friends home, and gone to youth group and Bible study.  And thus far, as far as my knowledge extends, he hasn’t crashed or taken the road to perdition.  

Ada turned 14.  Fourteen!  Her maturity is pretty much summed up in Jeddy’s recent comment that I only have one teenager.  When I pointed out that I have two teenagers, he said, “Yeah, but one of them’s Ada.”

Also…Lizzy is turning eleven.  And as Hagrid said, it’s not every day your young lady turns eleven.  Forgoing a party of her own (see: maturity, above), Ada jumped on my idea to throw Liz a Harry Potter party, which we are working on together to surprise her with.  She already received her Hogwarts letter via post owl.

I’m doing my best to live in denial that fall is here, telling myself every morning that it must be especially cloudy, which is why it’s so dark outside, and wondering why my feet are so cold every day while I still wear flip-flops.

The national downward trend in covid infections doesn’t seem to be affecting our area; it seems like half the people we know are either suffering or recovering from covid this very moment, and I’m pretty sure it’s sweeping through our church.  The Lord only knows what this winter holds.  

In the meantime, Lord willing, we’ve got PSATs to take, the orthodontist to go to, laps at the (heated) pool to swim, school to work on, birthdays to celebrate, and Hogwarts to attend.