Dusting off the Blog / Graduation

When you are not at all a techie person, anything at all can cause technical difficulties. This is embarrassing, but I basically fell into a blogging funk last January, the day my old laptop died. We got a new laptop that day. But when it came to writing another blog entry, everything looked different. The writing isn't a problem; I'm not afraid to write. It's the photos. And for some reason the Photoscape app I used to use looks totally different on the new laptop, probably a much more recent version, and I was confused about how to navigate between the photos I've been taking more and more on my new (well, 2 years old) I-phone and that get stored in a different cloud than the old pictures. It seems like it should be simpler. Actually, I was just able to figure it out, more or less, but that was kind of my excuse for neglecting my blog for so long.

And the librarian, historian, writer and generally opinionated person in me has been missing this outlet for several months now. Facebook is just not the same. So, I will strive to conquer the hassles of graphic interface and photo editing in order to get my blog voice back. Some important milestones have gone unblogged until now:

Emma graduated from High School! She will receive her final diploma in 3 years when she completes her current transition program, which she is enjoying very much. Previously known as Tertia, she is now a young woman and entitled to be free of anonymous blog names.

We received the invite to the Honor Assembly. We knew about the departmental award for Life Skills, but we didn't know that she would receive one for Choir as well. Miss Bravo was a student teacher in her choir class her Sophomore year, and this was her first year of teaching on her own. I was just fast enough to snap a blurry photo, but I do love the expressions on the faces of the Admin folks sitting on the platform.

Even more blurry, my photos of the graduation ceremony itself.  But I have successfully broken the photo-editing barrier, and I'll declare victory and post this. 

22

Daniel's 22nd birthday is today. And he just graduated from college, and he's getting ready to head out to Washington D.C. and the Capital Fellows Program in September. We're pretty excited for him, and proud of all he's accomplished. If you're in town this weekend, there's an open house at our house from 2-5 on Saturday.

Following tradition of the last few years, Daniel grilled for his own birthday; today it was chicken in an apricot/honey marinade and salmon in a citrus and chili marinade; grilled asparagus and grilled corn on the cob. I did potato salad and a blackberry pie for dessert. It was all very nice.

The argyles are finished and were presented. By this time it was not a surprise, other than the fact that I finally finished them! We also bought him a pair of  Chaco sandals, which he requested and I drove to three different Portland shoe stores looking for on Saturday. It was an adventure. I aspire to be hip enough to shop for shoes in Portland on a regular basis.

Other exciting events of today: a raccoon was hanging around early this morning when Steve left for work, sniffing around Smudge's food bowl, which was empty at that point. He returned in broad daylight today when Daniel was on the back deck, and when I came along and growled at him to move along, he did not display what I thought would be the proper respect for humans... he bared his teeth at me and did not retreat. I ended up turning the hose on him and he climbed a birch tree, and there he stayed for the rest of the day, grooming his paws and taking over what I think was a jay's nest to nap in. He is the uppermost of the two dark blobs in this photo. Stay tuned. I'm hoping he moves along without the confrontations becoming a daily event. The bared teeth were a little creepy.

I really need to get cleaning for the party Saturday. 16 years of Latin books and files are still spread out over the living room floor. They are gradually getting sorted and somehow I'll find room to store them. I still feel like I need to have a big retrospective post about my years of teaching, but it's all still too exhausting to think about. I'll settle for clean enough, and process later. In my mother's Latin for Americans test booklet, which I've had for over a decade, I found a mimeo copy of a letter she wrote to friends in 1968, when I was 9 months old and we were living in the Netherlands. It was a beautiful treasure that I don't remember ever reading or knowing about before... maybe I'll scan or type it in to share here in the future.

Time, Like an Ever-rolling Stream

We were at Grove City College last weekend for Daniel's graduation. Graduations are happy events, even when they have to be held inside because of the rain, with limited seating in the gym and overflow in the IM room.  The Baccalaureate on Friday night at least was on the quad, facing into a beautiful sunset:

Michael Horton spoke at Baccalaureate; and in a last-minute change from William Bennett, who was sick, the gentle doctor Ben Carson spoke at Graduation. It was mercifully free of political speechmaking, and full of the joy of life and finding one's purpose in life, with grace and humor. Afterwards, students and families crowded in spots all over campus, processing the momentous life change, connecting with old friends briefly before parting once again, packing up dorm rooms and reminiscing about old days.

I've written before of the disorientation of returning to my own Alma Mater as the parent of a current student. I see the archetypal faces of generations of students, of earlier versions of my own friends, almost rushing past me, superimposed on the fresh young faces of the current crop of graduates who are living only in this present moment. I see the places where old, diamond-leaded windows have been replaced with newer versions, or where 1930's bathroom tiles coexist with automatic soap dispensers, and I concede that the newer ways of managing things are probably better even as I am nostalgic for my particular group of archetypal friends and patterns of life from the old days, which can never come again. I remember the day of my own graduation, and how anticlimactic it was to pile into the family van and drive away, never again to experience the same heady mix of personalities and intellectual stimulation that made life intensely real and personal and engaging for four years. It was a loss, but also a beginning, and I wish for all graduates that they may be able to make a good beginning and keep the best of the good things they are of necessity leaving behind.

I am so grateful for the good friendships Daniel has made; the kind hospitality given to us by the McClelland family after packing up the dorm room and saying many good-byes, easing the transition to the future with good food and baby kittens. I'm glad Daniel and Steve get to travel back overland, taking one more version of the great father-son road-trip. So far they have seen Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, William Faulkner's home in Oxford, MS, Hot Springs National Park, Fort Smith...

The rest of the family flew out and back, and we are mostly but not completely recovered from that red-eye. Here at home, another school year is hurtling to its close and there are many details to manage and coordinate. I feel the ever-rolling stream of Time as it bears its sons away. It is good to hang on to the constancy of the Creator in the midst of it all.

Randomday and real life

So, this guy graduated.  And we're really proud of him.

Grandpa, Grandma Deb and Uncle Andy flew in to help celebrate.  They have not set foot in the Pacific Northwest for many years.

Peter celebrated by going to the beach with his classmates, and participating in a triathlon.

There was even a graduation party.  It was kind of like the Last Noel, but with barbecue and warmer weather.  And without Steve, who had to be in Seattle for a software conference.

Graduations are kind of a big deal.  It's just as well that they don't happen all the time.  All the regular end-of-school-year business was finished, or passably finished, in reasonably good time.  Now only Tertia has two more half-days of school to finish, and we have the summer stretching in front of us.  For Peter, he has AIT in July, which runs into the fall school schedule so he will be taking a gap semester.

Field Day and Hypothermia

Our family is always pretty busy, but this last week takes its place in the Chapman Book of World Records as the week that I'll look back on as the benchmark of craziness.  "Remember that week with the 2 graduations, 2 graduation parties, a play, a concert, puberty, a Senior trip to Washington D.C., a work conference in Maine, a migraine from hell, a refinance, Field Day, and teacher inservice?"  I probably won't, because I'll be blocking it out the same way you block out other traumatic events.  So in the interest of jogging my memory with only positive triggers, here are some of the pictures from Field Day.  Only a week late!  (If you're looking for quilts, check out my Jack's Chain tutorial from a few days ago).

Quarta with the 4th grade handbell choir during the Field Day talent show.

This was a few days before Field Day, but here is Quarta's costume for history day.  She represented a colonial lady of Boston and described the Boston Tea Party with words and edibles.

My contribution was figuring out how to attach the Necco wafers heads to the Twizzlers bodies by cutting a slit in the Twizzlers... better than frosting!

One of the best improvements ever in Field Day was getting the Rhetoric students, not the teachers, to captain the teams.  Here's Secundus organizing his pyramid.  He does a great job with the little kids!  And yes, it was chilly on June 8 in Ridgefield, WA.  I don't think it ever hit 60.

Field Day looks a little different seen from a distance through the woods.

Fabricius has a cool shirt!

Saints vs. Phoenix watermelon-eating contest.

All in all, I think I prefer grading the 18-page Dies Irae.  I spend part of every Field day finishing that bit of grading; it's very appropriate.

That's Quarta upside down on the play structure.  There were scattered showers throughout the morning.

It was really too cold to sit on the rock eating a popsicle and reading the yearbook, but that didn't stop kids from trying.

Afterwards the Rhetoric students went up-county to the Leutholds' farm, and the parents of the seniors joined them for a barbecue.  Primigenitus won honors in the toilet paper cap and gown contest.

Secundus took a dare to go swimming in a hailstorm.

This was probably not one of his brighter moments.  You really can cramp up from hypothermia and shock, and your friends would feel really bad if that was the last thing you ever did.  Fortunately he floated on his back until he got close to land, and then spent the rest of the afternoon warming up.

The seniors were subjects of some good-natured roasting.

We left early to attend another graduation, and then the Seniors and Juniors left very early Saturday morning for the D.C. trip; I dropped off Primigenitus and Steve at the airport at the same time; Steve's AASHTO conference was in Portland, Maine this year.

It has been a week since the events in these photos, and I am just beginning to recover.

Graduation

A blur is how the last several days have been, anyway.  I can't apparently hold the camera steady at emotional moments, and there have been a lot of them.  In addition to his valedictory status, Primigenitus received the academic achievement award and some kind of award from Washington State.  I stopped trying to capture all the moments as they sped by.  Somebody will post them on Facebook or we'll eventually get copies.  Primigenitus might even let me get a copy of the text of his speech.

The choir never sounded prettier.

Pastor Bronson, previous owner of our house, came to give the commencement address at the school he helped to found more than 13 years ago.

Other people take blurry photos too.

Take two a little better.

Fortunately not all of them were blurry.

He should know everyone's very proud and happy.

Glad Grandma could be there too.

How about a photo of the photo collage?  That baby shirt was prophetic.
I remember my mother always used to cry when she said goodbye to her mother, my grandmother, after a visit as a child.  I always thought it was something strange my mother did.  Then when she dropped me off at college the first time, she started crying when she said goodbye to me.  I've never been that emotional, usually, but I'm starting to get a feeling that will change, rather too quickly for comfort, in the coming months and years.

Middle School Musical and other family notes

Source: portalsso.vansd.org via Katherine on Pinterest

Beauty and the Beast coming up this week at a middle school near us!  That's Tertia, second from the right.  She's a villager/shopper and she's been practicing every night until 6 or 6:30 lately.  I'm looking forward to seeing her in the actual show.

Primigenitus is graduating June 7.  He's very relieved to have his Senior thesis presentation done, and has noted that the school year is slowing down to a manageable pace.  In a nice little full-circle touch, the commencement speaker is the pastor who owned our house before we bought it, and his wife is the one who told us about the little classical Christian school that was going to start meeting at the church three doors down from our house.  (I think they'll want to stop by and see how much the trees have grown ... I REALLY need to clean!)  I homeschooled Primigenitus for Kindergarten but was more than ready to join the co-op the next year, and I've been teaching Latin ever since.
Secundus is running with a friend just about every day.  It's hard for me to understand, but some people actually like running.  Even stranger, they view it as a social event.  And Secundus is good at it.

Quarta had my help putting together her costume for her final history presentation.  They've been studying colonial America this year in G2, and she's got a skirt, shirt, vintage bonnet and apron from my stock of vintage Great-Grandma linens, and my recently completed Traveling Companion shawl.  With all of these together, it's a passable impression of a colonial lady.  My philosophy of costuming for kids is to pick accessories that suggest the look I want, and I don't worry about absolute historical accuracy.  I have had good success in pulling together costumes for kids in less than 5 minutes this way.  I'll take a picture of her when she's in full costume.

Emperor's Day is coming up for my 6th grade class.  In 7th and 8th I'm just planning on finishing up our longstanding projects and playing Latin Jeopardy.  But first, we have to get through the Final Exam this week.  And the grading.