The New Year Begins?

He and Lola came with us to the insurance office to sign over the title and accept the insurance check for our totaled car.   This mask was in their toy box. 

I spent the week in bed (mostly).  This means the teens have had to work quite hard at managing the household on Sir Walter Scott's days at work.  And Sir Walter Scott has carried the weight of working to support us and taking care of us during his "off" hours. 

It has been hard for me to ask this of my family, but I have been quite badly affected by this miscarriage (I am of quite advanced maternal age).  I think that my time in bed has prevented a hospital stay, and I know that the service and learning are good for them . . . in theory.  In reality, it's really hard to look at their tired faces and keep asking for more.

But we found out that Pixie was accepted to BYU-Idaho.  It was pretty much a given because this school's goal is to welcome all students who want to further their education and are willing to abide by church standards, but her early graduation which means completion of only 3 out of 4 years of seminary made us kind of wonder what would happen.

Actually, her acceptance was sent on December 6th, but Pixie doesn't check her email, and I had a snail-mail letter in mind, because that's how it was when I was accepted into college.  It suddenly occurred to me that an application submitted completely online might be answered online.

It was.

Because we didn't open the email until a month had passed, we missed the window to select which academic track she wanted (there are 3 semesters per year, and students are allowed to take classes for 2 of the 3 semesters--this allows more students to attend the school), so now we have to just wait for an assigned track.  We'll know sometime in February.

We've outlined a few plans for how to handle life depending on which academic track she's assigned.

In the meantime we've completed the FAFSA and found out she'll qualify for enough federal money to pay for her tuition and books.  She'll have to work her tail off to earn her housing and food and travel expenses. 

She's been working on her scholarship essays.

I ordered her textbook for the American History course she's taking at the community college this semester.

Oh!  And she got a "B" in World Geography.

I'm proud of her.

Super Star has had an emotionally devastating week.  Growing up is simply the hardest education of all. 

For the rest of the family cold, cold temperatures meant lots of indoor play with Legos, library books, wooden trains, puzzles, play dough, and Bunch 'Ems.
 

Sir Walter Scott took the kids to the zoo one afternoon.

The only pictures he sent me are of them inside a tree. :)

It's warming up to spring-like weather now, and the kids are outside without even jackets--some of them. :)

In Morning Meeting this week, we finished reading Book of Mormon Stories; we continued reading and loving The Jesus Storybook Bible, and we began the Come, Follow Me curriculum for families that our church published.  Our scripture for this week and next is Doctrine and Covenants 88:118, and our song is Seek the Lord Early.

This video about the Parable of the Sower made my heart happy and served as good inspiration for a chat about preparing our hearts for the gospel.

Seminary started on Thursday, and the teen responded by taking 2 hour naps after the first class!  I'm sure they'll settle into a better rhythm in the coming week.

Other than that, I've done zero brain-dumping, zero planning, and zero organizing for our regular homeschool.

But the year has begun.

Monday is coming . . .