~ Senior Camping Trip ~

We were blessed by the most amazing weather while camping with my son and his friends. Three sets of parents came as senior sponsors. There was no agenda, just free time to rest and fellowship (and eat)!

These are some of our best friends...I just love this photo

blooming prickly pear and butterfly

After breakfast 'round the campfire

The Lad!

Isn't this fun? This one will definitely go in his Senior slide show. Our thanks go out to the Beehive Clan for clothing the Lad and giving him some pointers for his trip to Scotland. Queen Shenaynay said he looked so right in this outfit...because of his hair (quite authentic :-). This was just some of the fun and shenanigans to be experienced at their oldest daughter's graduation reception. I hope they post some photos of the evening soon (most of mine didn't turn out well), It really is such an exciting and bless-ed but incredibly busy season.

Javamom




as you can tell in the photo, he does NOT play the bagpipe. Terrible posture and embrasure, here :-)

Graduation Presents

Pictured here is one of several graduation presents that I'm making. I will custom cut sketch book paper for the inside text block so that it can be used for sketching, journaling, as a guest or signature book, whatever is preferred. I'm pleased with how this one is turning out. The dimensions are 8" x 8".

p.s. Now that the party is over and the present is delivered, it was for Fa's graduation. The endpapers are words from a dictionary...and there are some funny ones, but some "splendid" ones, as well!

Javamom

The kids' band!

The kids got to open for Bread of Stone last night. It was their first big gig like this. The Bread of Stone guys were so encouraging and helpful re: what to do next. A friend of mine who works with Song of Solomon ministries took some good shots of J's band and BOS together on her camera, so I hope to have those to post sometime.

A newer youth group worker enthusiastically volunteered himself last night to design t-shirts for them, and now they need to produce a newer demo CD. They were called back out for an encore, which ended up being there most interactive and fun song.

After their set, someone in BOS handed their Nikon D200 to J to take some photos of the BOS set and worship time. I cannot wait to see those photos. Hopefully they will be up on their blog soon.

As I said recently...Good times, (which are sweeter on the heels of hard times ;-)

Javamom

nature observances

Visitors to our yard ~ the ducks stop through every day, making their rounds...in between the rains, that is. Yes, it is a marsh in our yard. No hay problema, I don't mind, at least not in the spring :-).


Also visiting today ~ Hackberry butterflies (en masse). Our bushes were covered with them, and I got so many photos, some with six or seven butterflies in the frame.

Lutherie

Dread Pirate Sparsebeard is a luthier, as you may have noted in the margin of my blog. A luthier is a craftsman who makes stringed instruments, such as lutes, mandolins, guitars or violins.

He is also an English teacher, who has "guitar club" in his classroom. Evenso, he spends as much time as he possibly can throwing sawdust down in the art room.

This time, he has built a ukulele from scratch, instead of a mandolin :-). Yes, it is in a mandolin case, but we already have an antique Martin Ukulele in our only uke case.

This new one was crafted out of mahogany, with a dark mahogany stain finish. I like that it is so plain and simple. Hubby usually adds inlay and decoration to his instruments, but not this time. The finger board is probably spruce. I'll have to ask him about that.

Isn't it cute? He's going to narrow down the neck somewhat, and he needs to file on the frets a little, so it will tune up better, but I think it is simply adorable.

Senior Photo

J ~ one senior photo

He shaved the day after this was taken.
His band opens for a newish Christian band this week, which is a pretty cool opportunity! He even asked his sister to play bass for them.

Spiderwort

Have you ever seen the wildflower "spiderwort?" And if so, have you ever seen white spiderwort? I have not, until now. Isn't it lovely? The inside (stamens) has the tiniest bit of purple. The rest of the flowers in the vase are the more common purple spiderwort that grows along our roadsides this time every spring. The white must be a hybrid.

Spiderwort flowers have a very short life, only a single day, but each plant will produce 20 or more flowers per stem. The petals quickly die after blooming. These are another of my top five or six favorite wildflowers.

Flowers and Poetry

Not only did we have a pitcher full of flowers that I bought for the party (above), some of the girls at K's birthday party brought me bunches of wildflowers. Some of them were three feet tall! Those are some old, healthy plants! You can see them (well, maybe not the tall ones) in the photos below of the feet.

Here is a poem one of the girls made for K with our fridge poetry magnets:





Good times :-)

This 'n That

Our daughter got the job she has been pursuing, now that she's old enough :-). She starts on Monday. She'll officially get her driver's license in about two weeks.

Oldest son finally got his fund raiser letter finished so that I can get them in the mail. He was recruited to work and train at a youth discipleship camp this summer in Scotland. I've been busy making mailing labels, and becoming frustrated by the word processing program.

We got almost all of our son's graduation invitations out. It is almost like sending Christmas cards...there are always a few unfinished, not quite addressed envelopes lying about. I hope we can find the correct addresses and get them sent! I do not want to see them six months from now tossed aside in a card box on a shelf somewhere!

I'm still collecting memory and blessing letters in order to make our graduate a hand bound, hardcover Blessing Book.

I organized all my plannings and details for May-June in a binder today. It has multiple sections in it with the following labels:

Homeschool Graduation Plans/Needs:
~Bind J's Blessing Book
~make handbound journals for some graduation gifts
~Plan joint reception with son's friends
~Scan photos (about 60) for graduation slide show and write the voice-over script
~Arrange slide show in power point
~Dry Clean graduation gown
~Attend Senior Banquet
~Invitations to close, important family/friends for the banquet
~Get J's senior pictures printed (he procrastinated...the photographer with photographer
grandparents...)

Scotland Mission Trip details
~Manage mail
~Purchase tickets
~Check on status of passport

Final Prep for co-planning and chaperoning the Senior Camping Trip

Bookbinding and Mending/Restoration Projects:
~I won't type them all here, but I have TEN on my calendar!

Speech camp for our final three students ?

Family summer trip together to south Texas

Review New Spanish Class resources and possibly teach summer school where my hubby teaches English and lit.

College Prep info and updating and submitting of all transcripts for DD (who wants to go the dual-credit route) and DS (who may stay in Scotland and take a gap year).

Sign dd up for entrance exam and for a summer class at one of the local colleges. Find myself another bookbinding class for late summer. I will actually have a degree for this with two more classes under my belt.

Well...

Now you know why I'm too busy to blog most days. I apologize.

Pray for lasting energy, safety, and open doors as my family pursues all these things this summer!

¡Muchas gracias!

Javamom