Check

Jason pulled off something I think he’s never done before, which is totally surprise me.

The kids and Jason all secretly organized themselves to dress up, in coordinating outfits, come over to the house when I wasn’t there (a trick in itself—I had a meeting with some ladies at church), and take photos.

and apparently had a good time doing so

I have been squished and I’m pretty much out on the other side. 

My five children ❤️

Jed and Ada graduated. It’s done! No vital details were forgotten. The speaker loved the thank-you gift I put together for her. I managed to get out a heartfelt speech to Ada on stage, and though I wondered the whole time if the mic was too loud or too soft or making those horrible dog-whistle noises in the audience, I was told that my brevity, at least, was appreciated. 

{Pro tip: for maximum feasibility, don’t be sick as a dog for your child’s high school graduation.}

We pulled off a lovely ceremony, a well-attended reception, the hard work of clean-up, and then a big crowd of friends and family back at our house. Hopefully the guests left feeling well-fed and thanked for their support.

And now I feel enormous relief that it’s over. 

The resulting Mother’s Day gift—the best thing I could’ve gotten. It has a place of high honor on my puzzle table.

a wonderful Mother’s Day

So Ada is done, and Lizzy is no longer buried in schoolwork; the only thing she has left to finish her year is behind-the-wheel driver training. I mailed the paperwork to the DMV at least a week and a half ago, so we check the mailbox every day for the letter authorizing me to be her driving instructor, only after which can we begin. So we won’t be done in May, as hoped. The training takes at least seven days. And in the meantime, she has absolutely no school at all. Caleb is the only scholar I’m working with these days (not counting Buck). So my days are pretty easy breezy…now that I’ve officially finished all my school prep for next year. 

Ada has now progressed in her latte art from swirls and dots to pregnant penguins.

graduation practice

The inability to spend my time driving with Lizzy, plus some help from Jason to clear my time, highly motivated me to work long hard days putting together a high school English course. I finally printed it off on Friday night. Whether it will be way too easy for Liz and Caleb, or way too hard, or they’ll learn absolutely nothing, remains to be seen. But I did my best and hopefully they’ll at least enjoy it more than Ada enjoyed her online English class, which was less than not at all. Plus it taught her to write stilted prose and cost like $600. So I didn’t think we had much to lose by making our own attempt. I do have an English degree, after all. More to the point, I have a pretty clear memory of my ninth-grade English class, which was excellent.

waiting for graduation to begin

Sunday school teacher appreciation day has come and gone and the summer schedule is full of volunteers. Yesterday I worked up opening activities, so we are well prepped for the summer quarter.

 

The slew of every kind of appointment I can think of, and the soccer season, are all over. 

brief heartfelt speech before the handing over of the diploma

Double graduation: ✅

Next year school prep: ✅

Lizzy’s ‘real’ school: ✅

Feeling of having my brains squeezed out: ✅

Ready to kick back for summer: ✅