7-Quick takes

1.  Some scenes from the grad party –

I look at this now and it doesn’t seem like much, but it really took hours and hours to plan and execute!  I learned how to use a flash drive and a digital photo frame.  (Not seeing those particular skills on Linked In!)  Glad he had a good time.

2. High school grad party on Sunday, and five days later, college orientation!

3.  I have discovered that despite my 57 years of life, I am unprepared for some of the circumstances that I sometimes find myself in. For example:

• A niece turned nephew asks you to use respectful pronouns, 
• Your granddaughter refers to “mama’s boyfriend.” 
• In-town relatives don’t come to the party you planned and invited them to.  

In all of these situations I ask myself, “What would grandma do?”

On the other hand, I know what Mama have done. She was always gracious and avoided confrontation directly – at least until she had some time to think about it. Then she would broach subjects directly.

Grandma was more of a firebrand – which I guess is why I wonder more about what her responses would have been!! They would not have been…dull!

4. Father’s Day is this weekend.  We will celebrate with Mr. Pete grilling something (he loves to grill) and spending time with the kids.

This time of year always makes me think about my own father and I spend time trying to figure him out. Sometimes I think of him kindly and with the benefit of a doubt, and sometimes not.

Yesterday, I was reading a transcript from the trial my sister and I are in. This is in regards to some property my father owned. The plaintiff, who knew my father, was asked about Sis and me, and he replied, ” I didn’t know they existed. I didn’t know he even had daughters.”

So I guess this is going to be a “NOT” year.

5.  Mr. Pete has developed something he calls the “SWAG” answer.  It stands for “Scientific Wild Ass Guess.”  Since he’s a dad, and a repair technician, I guess people look upon him as a fount of wisdom, knowledge and experience. And indeed he is very wise and knowledgeable and has tons of experience. All the same, sometimes when he’s fishing for an answer to a question, such as “Why won’t my clarinet play?” asked by a disturbed customer over the phone, he has to come up with something that may, or may not be the correct answer. Of course that answer is based on all of the wisdom knowledge and experience backed by science and common sense, but nonetheless it’s a shot in the dark aka the “Wild Ass Guess.”

For example, today I asked him my computer makes such a horrible sound when I turn it on in the morning, and then the sound disappears.

He glances down over his glasses and replies, “Do you want my SWAG answer?” and of course I do!
Without looking at my computer he guesses that there is a bearing loose in the new fan the repair tech put in my computer and that is what is sounding off until the computer quits its initial boot up process.

6.  So I finished all of my NCAA paperwork and sent it in, and apparently some stranger out there whom I have never met, or talked to, someone who knows nothing about our homeschool or about Noah, will make a life changing decision about his eligibility to run races in college. This is in God’s hands now. Noah  said he is okay with whatever decision is made. No one can stop him from running or training on his own, and if it comes to that, he’ll just focus on work and school.

I was looking online and found some pretty depressing experiences of other homeschoolers who tried to become NCAA eligible.  This in particular caught my eye:

Then her coach from HS, Joanne Dow, and Olympic race walker, became head coach at SNHU. She knew our daughters abilities and especially her work ethic well. She had our daughter, Aria, Apply to SNHU. When they saw her transcripts, they were impressed. Aria has never thought of herself as smart, but she is a hard worker. They gave her a full scholarship, primarily for her grades. Here comes the almost funny part. She has a full ride to SNHU, a 4.0 at a local CC, a 3.8 her first semester at SNHU and they still don’t allow her to run for the college. Does this make any sense at all? The sad thing in all of this is that this young lady, is just a really devoted athlete, student, friend, and ‘kid.’ She kills herself working. Meanwhile kids that are allowed to compete are partying every weekend,

So I asked Mr. Pete, “Why would the NCAA keep a girl runner from competing but allow some of these  lesser academically talented football players to keep playing?”

And my dear husband looked over at me and said, “Do you want my SWAG answer?”  I did.  Here it is:

“Because the NCAA is run by people. Fallible people just like you and me. And there’s got to be a certain amount of ownership to making these decisions about who does and who doesn’t play.  Sounds like someone made a decision about this girl and then felt very territorial about that decision. At some point, justifying that decision becomes more important and the human being the decision was about, became secondary.”

7.  One of the unique things about being an older mom in with a group of young women who are homeschooling is that I have developed friendships with women who are 10 to 15 years or more younger than I am. I felt uncomfortable with that at first, but after spending time with these women I don’t even think about the age difference.  We are Catholic women, wives, and mothers first and that gives us much in common right away!

One of those young women, and a mom of 8, was in a terrible car accident this week and sustained some pretty severe injuries that will keep her in the hospital for a while and affect her mobility for months to come. I’m so proud of this community of homeschoolers and the Catholic community in general for rallying around this mom and her family to provide child care and meals while she recovers.

Dear readers, please join me in praying for a swift and full recovery for mom, and for the family as they face the daily struggles without her for while. And prayers especially for the little ones who might not totally get what is going on and might have an especially tough time right now. May they feel loved and comforted through it all.

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