Happenings

It's so hard to believe--Joshua graduated last Friday! I'm having a hard time getting my mind around the fact that I'll be homeschooling just one child this fall. By the time we start the new school year, I suppose I'll have comprehended it!

Graduation was nicely done. The homeschooling convention which hosts it always makes the graduation a memorable occasion for the families of graduates and those who attend the convention. We were so glad that we some of our extended family was able to be here. Thanks to those of you who came! Joshua was really glad you were here! I actually didn't break down as much as I did with Heather...well, not while we were on the stage with Joshua anyway.

Saturday we had not one, but two track meets. There were junior high and senior high medal meets at different schools here. Joshua and Hannah placed in several events each and Hannah again had a personal best in high jump! She cleared 4'8"! Grandma and Grandpa L. were able to stay for the meets, so they saw Hannah use her long legs to sail over the bar. We missed a lot of Joshua's meet, but we saw him run the 400m dash to win a silver medal.

Today we spent some time outside planting some flowers that Mom brought to me. After pulling out a bunch of rocks, Joshua had to get a bucket of dirt so that we had something in which to plant the flowers. Then we needed a place to put all those rocks that we'd dug up, so we started throwing them in a hole that was from an uprooted tree during construction. Hannah's dog, Logan, thought we were throwing away his treasures, so he tried and tried to pick up the rocks that we tossed in. We finally finished the flower bed by planting an old-fashioned rose, some lily-of-the-valley, and a few wildflowers that Hannah dug in the woods. Since we let the goats wander freely at times to graze, and the dogs don't understand that the freshly dug dirt is not for them, we fenced the bed in hopes of actually having the flowers there for more than a few hours!

Tomorrow there is a forecast for rain, so I suppose I'll have to actually do some of the inside work that I really don't want to do. I'd rather be outside digging in the dirt!

Here we go...

Since Heather has officially turned the blog over to me, I suppose I ought to do something with it. Life is a little wild, but I'll try to post here once in a while.

This week is especially crazy. Baseball practice, track practice, cleaning the 20-plus years of trash on our land, planting the garden...and those are just some of the normal weekly tasks. In addition to that this week, we also have three track meets, the annual home school conference and Joshua's high school graduation!

What has happened since Heather last posted here? Indoor soccer season ended, baseball practice has begun, and track season came flying at us. Joshua and Hannah have had several track meets and have done well at each. Joshua is in a 4x100 relay and they have placed 1st at each meet. Hannah's 4x100 relay has also done very well. Joshua has only competed once in the triple jump (his favorite track event) because the track where we have many of our meets was reconstructing the sand pit. Also, the track meet held on Saturday ended early due to a severe thunderstorm and Joshua had not been able to make it to the sand pit yet. Hannah has had a great season so far with high jump. She has placed 1st or 2nd at each meet--in two of the meets she was competing against high school girls. Saturday she not only won the gold medal, she jumped a personal best of 4'6"! She jumped the same height as the girl who won the high school division. Heather is enjoying helping with high jump again this year. She is really good at encouraging the high jumpers and helping them improve. We've even roped in Justin to help at track meets a few times! He helped with discus at a very cold, rainy meet and with high jump at a couple of meets.

We're slowly cleaning up our land of all the trash that's been dumped here for years and years. The kids and I worked on several piles last week and found all sorts of things. One thing we found was an old wood stove--too bad it wasn't usable! Tim cut down quite a few trees north of the barn so that we can fence in an area for the goats.

The weather is turning warmer slowly. I'm ready for lots of sunshine and temperatures in the 80s! We planted some of the garden two weeks ago, and we've had lots of rain, so we're seeing some green in the very rocky soil of our garden. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny, so I'm now heading to bed so that I can enjoy it!