It's been awhile, and where to start. Hmm..well, we'll start with the "new" van. Back in March, we decided it was time to try a decent and small-ish vehicle for me. We almost always buy used, and have never had much trouble with that. (At least with the Beast, we knew what we were getting into anyway) So, we found a car, nothing fancy, but much smaller Toyota Sienna, and figured it would also be good for Ginga' to learn on. Well, three weeks into owning the silly thing, it starts acting up. Big time. Long story made much shorter, we discovered it had been in a wreck that had been unreported and covered up very well. The mechanics we took it too both said that they had to really get in there to see what work had been done and what problems it had. Basically, it will need a new transmission and there's no guarantee that would make it work fabulously. So, now we are trying to figure out the best way to lose money on it. Fix it or trade/sell it. Hmm...yuck. For now, it mostly sits in my driveway. Fabulous. And I'm back to driving the temperamental Beast.
On to much more positive notes-Choir has just wrapped up, and the kids had a blast. Here are the two soloists from their performances. Rock and Nutmeg didn't have any close ups, when they were singing, they were usually blocked by other people. What to do.
The little girl in red-she's the same age as Squirrel. Crazy, huh? She got tall genes and Squirrel got short ones. Funny thing though, Squirrel never would look at her choir director to know when to come in on the song. She performed it four times, and every time was unique. But she loved it!
My phone had a new camera on it, and I couldn't figure out how to make it so that it wasn't so glaring. Oh, well. Ginga's on the right, and sings first. Just in case you can't tell due to the white out. :)
Aw, still cute. Love that girl!
Rock. It's been a harder year for him as he has been transitioning in his studies. Growing up can be hard to do. He started our scholar class this year, and I've said so many prayers on his behalf that he could catch a spark and get excited about the things we were doing there. I don't expect him to be like his brother, they are complete opposites, but I do want to see him excel in his way and get excited about what he is learning. As the year has come to an end though, I was still thinking and wondering what to do with him. I finally thought that perhaps he should see how another Vanguard class worked. He went to a class, and enjoyed it, but in his Rock like fashion, didn't say very much about it at first. He tends to think on things for a while before sharing what he's thinking with anyone else. He finally came to me and shared that he just didn't feel like what we were currently involved in was working for him. He didn't really feel like he had any really bosom buddies in the class, and that made it hard for him to want to push himself there very much. So, we decided to let him attend another class at the other Vanguard again, but this time he looked over what was being taught the day he was going to go, and he did the work to attend so that he would be able to have a more meaningful experience and understand what they were talking about. (He has done all the work for our group all year too, so at least he knew what was happening, but he never really got excited about what we were learning.) Anyway, the mentor of the class had assigned each youth a letter from the Hebrew alphabet and they were supposed to come prepared to teach the others what they had learned about their letter. At first, I thought, yea, he's not going to want to do all that she has for them to do. But I handed it to him, watched a couple videos on Hebrew with him, and off he went. Like crazy. He got super excited, made a power point presentation, and worked through most of what she had put on the assignment to help them prepare for the day. He was having fun, and was excited to go. Then I thought that he might not really want to give the presentation to a bunch of kids that he barely knew. (He knew a few pretty well, but a lot of them he didn't.) When it came time for his letter, the letter tet, he got up there and did it. It was awesome! His eyes were dancing, and he was smiling, and having a fun time. I could tell he was a little nervous still, but he pushed through and did awesome! Afterwards, I talked to the mentor and told her that at first I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, and told her that he hadn't done anything like that in our class all year long, and she was so surprised to hear that. She thought that he'd been doing things like that. When we got home though, he was happier than I've seen him in a long time, and he couldn't stop talking about how it felt, and how much he enjoyed being there. (Okay, so he didn't talk very long about it, but for him he talked about it a long time. :) After seeing his excitement to them and that experience, I knew that we needed to make some changes, no matter how hard they would be for me personally. In the home school world, it's easy to get attached to these moms and their families, and so when changes come, as changes always do, it can be hard. It's a bittersweet thing, I love all the mom's from both groups, so although it's sad to be moving on from some of them, it's happy to be able to spend more time with the mom's from the other group. Talk about mixed emotions. If only all our kids needed the exact same things, then we could all just work together forever! :) (keep dreaming, girl, kids in the same family don't even need the same things, let alone kids in different families!) I just hope that these mom's know how much I care about them. (yea, I know that some of you read this, but I really do want you to know how much you've helped me grow and learn through the years. Thank you so much! And I'm glad that our paths will always cross, even if it's not as often as we would like, and thank goodness for technology to help us stay in touch!)
As this school year is winding down, I am grateful for all that I've learned this year, about myself and about those that I am here to serve and grow with. Changes sure can cause growing pains, but I am grateful for the opportunity to stretch myself and become better than I was before.
Please forgive any typos and such, if I have to proofread this, it may not get posted for another three months!
yeah...if only life were that uncomplicated :). how boring, right :)?
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