1. Scenes from the Frozen Birthday party last week.
Calvin showed up and Miss C. even let him hold her!
Frozen birthday cake!!
Rosie with the picture Izzy painted for her!
Rosie opening her present. Now that little girl standing next to Rosie in the picture below – I don’t know who that little girl is. I’ve never seen her before. Every time we have a party in our backyard some kid who just happens to be wandering by, comes to the party. Such is life in the “hood.”
Izzy fixed Rosie’s hair to look like the Frozen girl. She also braided her own hair to look like the other sister!
Grandpa with Miss C.
2. Noah and Rosie played in their piano recital last week. I have video but I have to learn how to edit it on my new computer, so those will be up later. It was Rosie’s first recital and she was shaking like a leaf before she went up there to play, but once she sat down she was self-assured and confident.
Noah played from memory and he did very nicely too. He didn’t make any mistakes on his first piece and hid the imperfections skillfully in the second, although if you watch his face you can see that he made a goof.
I have been very happy with our new piano teacher and I hope we have many years with him!
3. Izzy got her acceptance letter from the city for their art program. She was one of 70 students selected for the program and she will be working on a mosaic somewhere in the city.
I had originally hoped that she would get the Glendale Steps project. But Izzy told me when she walked into that interview the reviewer didn’t seem impressed with her portfolio and seemed more intent on talking about the project than learning about Izzy. They didn’t really make a connection. In the mosaic interview she felt she made a great connection with the interviewer and that there was a good mix of asking her about herself and discussing the project. She definitely thought they made a connection AND she left with excitement about that project. And that’s the trick to having a good interview! What a good lesson for Izzy to have at 14 years old!
4. You know the parfait glasses I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago. We put them to good use!
5. This law suit that I’m currently in cracks me up. I’m co-defendant with a group of people that I’ve never met, but am related to, with a plaintiff that I have also never met. In many ways it reminds me of being on the internet where alliances are made between people in different states and even countries who have never met, and where trolls and snipers who are also complete strangers, can make the entire experience very unpleasant.
6. Izzy and Noah both need to take Biology next year. There is a homeschool private school about 30 minutes from us that is offering that next year and I was very, very tempted to enroll them. Long time readers might remember that about eight years ago we did belong to that school and travelled once a week to participate, lugging lunches and a baby and a diaper bag with us every week and then staying for most of the morning and part of the afternoon. It was challenging.
So I started thinking about it – 60 minutes of travel once a week with gas near $4/ gallon. All of the time and energy to pack and prepare, a $80 fee charged to all families just to use the facility and then tuition of nearly $1000 for the year for both students.
Right now, I’m leaning towards just doing biology at home. If either one of them were headed into the medical field, I’d do it. But I think I can do a good job with biology at home and will use my school dollars instead for Noah’s Latin and writing classes as well as Algebra II and Izzy’s art, writing and Geometry for next year.
7. I had a very enlightening experience in confession last week. Last weekend, one of my sons totally ignored my birthday – not a card, not a gift, not a phone call – nothing. This was a double down after almost completely ignoring me for mother’s day. My feelings of sadness, hurt and even jealousy at being unceremoniously supplanted in my son’s affections were pouring out of me when the the priest interrupted to scold me a little.
“Why do you let this one control whether or not you are happy? You’re a Christian. Your joy is in the Lord. As long as you keep Him the center of your life, you won’t have to depend on anyone else, even your children, to give you happiness.”
I left with an entirely different attitude about the entire situation – and almost a new look on life.
Hanging with my daughters on my birthday