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Senior Pictures Arrive

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Nature Angel graduates in about 8 weeks.  She took a series of gorgeous photos with Pixie, but the emotions of the day were so hard that when she looks at those pictures, the hard comes back to her.  She's not able to separate the emotions from the quality of the pictures. So she hired a friend who is just getting her photography business started and had a totally different photo shoot. Here are some of my favorite results. My main reaction is "How gorgeous is she !?!?!" (I admit, I do react that way to all of my daughters.) And then I wonder how it is that she's a young adult . . . I remember her like this most of the time: Nature Angel:  1 year As more of my children reach adulthood, the sense of change--of time gone by--gets stronger. But this week, Nature Angel didn't feel well, so we only had high school on Monday.   On Tuesday, Little Princess had the opportunity to go to the state capital as part of a CAP event.  She got to tour a few buildings, meet...
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In a Groove

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  I have no idea why this is such a tiny picture.  I took it with the same camera as the rest of the pictures in this post, and I did not edit it.  If I enlarge it, it is nothing but huge pixels.  I'm including it because, even though it is tiny, it has about 3 of my kids during one of our Couch to 5K running sessions. We've now run consistently for 2 weeks!!  Several of the kids and I opted to repeat week one, and if we keep that pace, we will complete the 6-week program in 12 weeks instead, but I don't care about taking so long.  I'm just happy that we're getting out and being consistent. The kids have the 50 states and capitals memorized (not Lola, though, I hope she's absorbing what she can by listening), so I printed blackline maps and assigned the kids to trace the shapes of the states.  Over the course of the rest of the week, I had them fill in all of the states and capitals. Lola was working.  Beowulf was struggling. Working on their map...
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We Got a New-to-Us Minivan (edited)

 I've been writing and writing about car troubles this year, and we were finally done in by our teen car.  The current set of necessary repairs were to cost more than we paid for the car originally, so we decided to donate it to a veteran's organization, and I spent the week shuttling people to and from work. I don't mind serving them at all, but the time it took felt like it took over my mind, my body, and my schedule.  I started to feel sick and exhausted, and I struggled to get normal things done.  I eventually said to Sir Walter Scott, "The girls are free on Friday to babysit.  We are going car shopping, and we are not coming home without a car!" We are 2 years and 2 months away from fitting "the whole family" at home into an 8-passenger minivan, so we decided to go that route, and then when we don't need our full-size van we'll trade that for the pick-up truck Sir Walter Scott craves. I remember choosing to buy a 15-passenger van (despite ou...
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Gardening, Writing, and Singing

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 In many ways, it was a typical week for us. Morning Meetings Daily school readings and oral narrations A written narration An art project A hike A show Time playing outside Chores Bedtime reading Church activities The weather included a blizzard, 60-degree sunny skies, ice, and fierce wind.  I got out into the garden and the kids got some football and basketball in on Monday after school. I ordered raised beds because our garden beds are hard to work in.  It reduces the planting space, but it's already making the space more accessible, so I think it will be good for productivity. Helping me dig out compost We spent Tuesday and Wednesday indoors because of the weather, and we finished The Taming of the Shrew .  Because I love the Zeffirelli version so much, I rented it quickly, and we settled in for some good fun. Interestingly, it doesn't translate well for our modern sentiments.  This batch of younger kids watched Petruchio's abuse with very serious faces, and...
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