Elena 
We are in the last few weeks of Rosie’s senior year. In a few weeks, I will no longer have my own child to homeschool, drive places, go to meets, plays, performances, etc. And even though she will be living at home with her sister while they both commute to college (two different colleges) it’s weird to not be pouring over curriculum choices for her, planning a schedule, picking out co-op classes, or planning CLEP tests. That’s all over. It’s done.
I will have graduated all six of my children from our homeschool. Three will have gone on to college, one is becoming a chef via experience and work, one became a paramedic via hospital training, and one went right into the work world. Three are happily married. No arrests or incarcerations. Most are also practicing the faith. AND – we all still like each other! All in all, I think we did okay with parenting, and educating our kids.
I’m proud of them, and I’m proud of us.
And I still have my very beautiful and sweet granddaughter to homeschool as well, so I’m grateful for that. It’s a privilege I’m cherishing every day.
Welcome new baby
The big news this month, is this little, guy, Mr. J. who decided he didn’t want to wait until Holy Week to come into the world, so he came on April Fool’s Day – no one will ever forget his birthday!
He’s my second grandchild, first grandson. Can’t wait to meet him in person.
But before that can happen, we have to make it through spring.
Spring Track
Rosie is running her last high school track season. She is specializing in the 800 m free and 800 x 4 relay. She has no desire to run competitively next year in college. She will train for the Akron half marathon with a friend and then perhaps some 5ks next spring. If she wants to run NCAA after that she can. Her physical therapy program runs six years so she will still have five years to use her eligibility.
At first, I was against this. I started to fill out the NCAA homeschool course forms and I paid the $100 fee. But the more I thought about it, the more I think this is a good move for her. This way she can carpool with her friend to school, she can be acclimated to the campus and school, and she’ll have time for other things like choir and maybe even their chamber singers.
I mainly want her to be very comfortable with her daily commute which is about 33 minutes on the highway. Trying to compete and thinking about that too would be very stressful. So this may be for the best. And if she never gets back into running competitively, that would be okay too. Her interest seems to be more in fitness and coaching, two areas where I think she would be brilliant!
Miss C and track
Our local CYO sports decided two add second graders to the track team. Then they divided the team into 2nd through 4th grade and have those kids run on Saturdays, and 5th through 8th grade with meets on Sundays. Clearly, the people who thought about this didn’t have large families, or kids in both groups!
Miss C. already had soccer in the mornings with the homeschool league and art class in the afternoon on Saturdays.
So she is just going to practices but not competing. If I had known about this before I signed her up, I wouldn’t have bothered. But on the other hand, it gets her out there and active and making friends, which is the part she’s most concerned with.
In a couple of weeks, both girls are in a piano recital.
The week after that, Rosie is in a play that our homeschool co-op produced.
Then it’s on to graduation weekend.
Akron in the News
In the midst of all of this, the city of Akron was waiting to explode when a grand jury failed to indict eight police officers who shot and killed a man named Jayland Walker last summer. There were riots last year after the incident that were so bad, we literally lost the July 4 celebrations because the city shut down.
Everyone was bracing for it after the grand jury announcement. Schools were closed, Izzy’s college courses were canceled, the entire city was boarded up and some roads were closed. There were gatherings and a few windows were broken. One demonstration even had tear gas but I understand only 20 arrests and no serious injuries. The great savior here has been the weather! It’s been cold, wet, and rainy. And we are a fair-weather group when it comes to practicing our right to assembly.
As it warms up next week I think other than a few professional protestors, the worst will have passed and I’m hopeful that summer will bring us more peace.