Wednesday - A Day at Both Ends of the Pendulum

We've had a sad event in our small town today. Two youth were hit and killed as they drove down a fairly "sane" road....by a 26 YO who swerved into their lane. The boy was the son of a MSgt on base. Please pray for these families, and the driver, as led.

We had an exciting event in our town today, as well. Jamin got news that one of his articles will be published - in our church's magazine. It's a start.

Jared had 3 or 4 hours of Honor Guard training. This had to do with Civil Air Patrol. I THINK the base honor guard was showing them the tricks of the trade.

Since I was on base dropping Jared off, I went to the gym. A gentleman there noticed my Alton Gansky book, "Crime Scene, Jerusalem", and wanted to talk about the author. I've not read his series. He likes them. Liz doesn't...hmmm...I think he was about to offer me $ for my book - and I plan to mail it to the girls.

I had the fun of hosting a friend and her new baby this afternoon.  She wanted me to show her how the United order process works; it was fun.

We made "nola" bars.  Stacia was my helper. It was a challenge but she seemed to enjoy "helping".

I went out for dinner with a couple of friends tonight. It was fun and relaxing. No, I didn't take pictures. My friends don't pose quite as easily as some of youz friends or y'alls friends. ::Snort::

I got home in time to clean up quickly, read a few blogs, and go retrieve Jamin from Chick-Fil-A.  I dod not put any new diapers in the freezer - today.

Senior Moment

ACK - it happened. This is NOT a staged photo. ::snort:: An aging, Quiver Full, Senior moment......

I could not for the life of me figure out where I'd set down Stacia's diaper. I KNEW I had one in my hand and was ready to change her...but where did it go?


I found it when I went to get Spaghetti sauce from the freezer...which I'd also started to do several times during the day. ::snort::   Yes, it was a clean one.

GRADUATION???

I consider our schooling to be very strong *average.* By that, I mean that we are not learning Latin; my children are not winning Spelling Bees nor Science Fairs - we've never even entered.  Krista took Calculus, etc, but no one else has gone beyond Alg 2, the older 3 have taken Chemistry as their top level science, but we've not required it of Jamin as his "bent" is obviously tracking to writing and business. In other words - we are an average family. Our focus has always been character development and "strong" academics, but we aren't the "super-performers" of the world.
I did actually READ the Tapestry of Grace manual last year (after 3 years of use) and discovered if you do each assignment (as our boys do) that it is considered honors and AP.....well this is NEWS to me. ::snort::
I got a call a few days ago from NARHS. They were reviewing Jamin's portfolio. She was VERY impressed. She told me again that our work always shines in the stack. She said that what we are doing is "wonderful," "amazing," "stands out in the crowd," and I'm always shocked. Honestly. We are NOT, by far, the most academic family around. We plod along. We aren't the least academic family I know - we're just a solid average. LOL
She asked about Jamin graduating this year. He's in his Jr year. She said he only needed to take 2 credits to graduate this year. He's taking 12, I think. She said it is totally our decision, but after looking over his work she began to wonder if he may be ready to be "done" with high school and ready to pursue his future.
The state of Maine, where NARHS is situated, only requires 17.5 credits. We wanted him to have at least the 22 that are typically required in states such as TX. He'll have those at the end of this year.
Hmmm.... Jamin had asked about graduating this year and spending his "Sr" year writing. He then came up with 22 credits he wanted to take THIS year, and so, we opted to say this was his Jr year and give him another year to pursue those other credits. We're re-thinking. I don't know if we could get into the whole graduation thing with our support group this late in the year.
The disadvantage of graduating this year is that he would not be able to take dual-credit courses at the local university. He's not talked about doing that - he's talked about writing next year, but I hate to close options.  The advantage is that he could concentrate on his passion - writing. I KNOW he would still do the reading and such for year 2 of TOG as he considers it research for his writing. He'd have time to pursue those tracks (filmmaking, et. al.) that he wants to pursue - he just wouldn't be getting CREDIT for it...but do you need CREDIT in order for learning to be meaningful?
Pray for Jamin and for Mike and I as we seek God's face about what Jamin should do next year. Honestly, is there any reason to graduate EARLY?????? I can't think of a reason to encourage accelerated growing up - they seem to do that all on their own at the speed of light. ::snort::