#tbt

This one is getting ready to graduate.

 

9 days old

I attended the initial “interest meeting” for a homeschool-parent-planned graduation ceremony.

2 weeks old

One of the many benefits of homeschooling is that you get to collectively pick the date for high school graduation, which is proving tricky, not least because my eldest is graduating from college at the same time.

7 weeks old

I was recently discussing with a friend with a son of similar age how much having a child who can drive is helpful overall.

2 months old

As in, yes, she can get herself where she needs/wants to go, AND she can take her siblings places…but it also rapidly multiplies how many places she wants/needs to go, leaving my middle-aged head spinning to try to remember where everyone is at any given moment and who needs a ride from whom.

13 months old

What with extra appointments and Caleb’s soccer team unexpectedly deciding to practice at the field a gazillion miles away from us, we told Ada she had to come home after her morning work/classes and pick up Lizzy for volleyball, lest I completely lose my mind.

That time one of the times she was hospitalized for wheezing, almost 2 years old

I realize—especially as she shortly celebrates her eighteenth birthday—that it’s tiresome to clear every detail of her life with her mom first, especially when her mom’s addled brain can’t remember anything without immediately writing it down.

Home from the hospital

Ah, youth, with its intrepid thirst for adventure that drives us to fly the nest. I, too, at seventeen, wanted nothing more than to strike out and do All The Things with All The People. 

And then I met my one person, and my greatest desire became to settle down.

4 years old

And then I procreated four other people. And now my greatest desire is to wear pj’s and leave the car parked in the garage. 

Home repairs

After we had the living room ceiling ripped out, Jason bought a water detector and a camera scope that he used to search every nook and cranny of our house between the upstairs bathroom at the east end of the house (where the Incident occurred) to the downstairs HVAC closet at the west end (where the result of the Incident was discovered in the form of an unwelcome waterfall).

After DIY replacing a bulging balloon of an HVAC flex that was threatening to burst over our couch any minute, at last it was determined that we were water-free.

So we got a new ceiling.

Gary, endlessly generous grandpa and home fixer extraordinaire, spent a few days painting.

And then—we moved the furniture back in, oh happy day.

We still have the dining room chandelier to replace as it seems to have gotten damaged in the chaos, but everything else is, thankfully, back as it should be.

Flying

 

Under our balcony, where we often eat lunch, birds like to make nests in the eaves. Jason doesn’t like it because he says it’ll rot the house or something, but I find the drama of mama bird flitting in to feed her chirping babies endearing.

Unfortunately, some birds seem to be better at nesting than others. We have found dead, underdeveloped baby birds smashed on the concrete under the nests before. I don’t know if it was a random mishap, or a stiff breeze, or baby walked to close to the edge and didn’t listen to mama saying don’t do that, but that bird leaving the nest was the last thing it ever did.

Here we are still getting used to Jeddy having an actual permanent address that’s not ours, and already the next birdie is getting ready to fly.

Unfortunate smooshed birds notwithstanding, it’s not the possibility of my birdie plummeting to disaster that scares me.

My fear is that she’ll soar. 

I know her wings are strong and healthy and there’s no reasonable danger in her perching on the very edge of the nest. Soon she’ll step off, and flap away…and she’ll be completely fine. She won’t need me to bring her worms or sit on her to keep her warm anymore. She’ll soar, and she’ll flourish, and she’ll succeed, away from us. And we won’t get to see it up close.

Is it true that mama birds push the babies out to force them to fly? I don’t know (Lizzy would know). Maybe some of them have to. 

But maybe there are some that the mama bird kinda wishes would stay a little bit longer. Maybe those mamas have to be brave birdies to watch that baby step onto the edge and jump out, waving goodbye and heading for the clouds.

Wordless Wednesday

 

First day of school

Before the great flood of ‘25 ravaged the living room, I had taken my courage in my hands to face the school room.

It was in its usual end-of-summer state.

Buck was very interested in the proceedings

In my archaeological digging I discovered this legally binding document.

Once the room was fit for human habitation, I sat at the table and worked on school stuff while Buck sat as close as possible, staring unblinkingly at me.

In progress and much improved

I decided I wanted a little rearranging, which required Buck’s area to shift while he was in it. After a summer of solitude, this was absolutely the most exciting day of his life in months.

And he was completely exhausted afterwards.

Clean, “after” pictures:

And a bunny still recovering from the frenzied hopping occasioned by the furniture rearranging.

After my school preparations were pretty much done, we had Caleb and Lizzy each invite a friend and we brought them to the fair.

We got them in the gate, slapped ride wristbands on them, handed each pair $20, and waved goodbye. Then Jason and I walked off hand in hand to browse the exhibits or sit in the shade as we pleased.

I love having big kids.

First stop after lunch: duckies.

Second stop: bunnies.

Sooo many bunnies.

All the bunnies.

The girls’ volleyball games started a week before we started school.

They practice and have home games at a facility in this breathtaking setting.

I dropped Liz off early to warm up for their first game and then took a walk with my camera before the game started, and I encountered this critter which is either a very young R.O.U.S. or a juvenile groundhog.

Lizzy is on JV, whose games are followed by Ada’s varsity games.

Our very exciting local civic development is the opening of a new coffee shop less than a mile from our house—the only coffee shop in town, which has been sadly lacking therein.

Lizzy and I were determined to contribute our patronage as soon as possible.

Lizzy got some playing time in the second game.

And both teams won!

date night

This week, Monday was the big day.

Ada had to take her own picture since she left for work before Caleb was even up for school.

Although my schedule looks easier on paper this year—so much so that I had been wondering what I’ll do with all my newfound free time—since the kids get more academically independent every year; I have found out what I’ll do with my time.

Read the Federalist Papers.

We can do all the discussing, homework assigning, and correcting that needs to be done in a few hours a day, but the upshot of deciding I’m going to teach high school government this year means that I have many hours of homework myself.

The plan was to write a total of 25 essays

The work divided evenly among the three men

In the end, they wrote 85 essays in the span of six months

John Jay got sick after writing five

James Madison wrote 29

Hamilton wrote the other 51

How do you write like you’re running out of time?

Write day and night like you’re running out of time?

Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Non-Stop”