Week 24 ~ Finding Our Way

We traveled up to Washington, D.C. last week to attend my Father's Memorial Service and help clean out his home a bit. He had a four room man cave that was and still is busting at the seams. It is going to take time to properly sort through all of it. The Memorial was amazing with about 200 people in attendance. Anne signed the Irish Blessing while I read it. One of the loveliest parts was that my Dad got his "last ride" on his motorcycle. One of his motorcycle buddies brought his ashes to the Memorial on the back of his motorcycle. My husband was so busy at the memorial either working or recording moments that he missed being in any picture I took. This was an all-around hard week, but there were glimmers of joy, too. I am so grateful that my mother and husband were able to come for the event. I am also happy that my stepmother has so many friends to support her through this difficult time in life. I got to see many relatives and old friends. Some of them I hadn't seen in over 20 years.

My Dad's motorcycle

My tall cousins and stepmother

We got home around dinnertime on Monday and immediately hit the ground running. Anne had a mandatory dance class and Dean just needed to get some energy out so went to his Live Action Role Play class with The Wandering Swordsman.

Tuesday ~ We all spent the day feeling sick and exhausted. We unloaded the minivan and trailer with tons of books to sell on eBay, as well as lots of memorabilia to assimilate into our home. I am a wanna be minimalist, and I am overwhelmed by the state of my basement activity room at the moment which is overrun with boxes and bags. Nothing is allowed to leave that area until it fully processed.

We spent the rest of the week trying to get back into the school groove. We have decided to just concentrate on completing two of three subjects until they are done. Then we will go on with other subjects. I am hoping this will stop the disjointed feeling we are having with some of our studies. For example, I am putting Conceptual Physics away for now (maybe even the rest of the year). Doing it one time a week was not a good way to get it to stick in the children's minds. On the bright side, I think Dean and Anne will both finish two or three credits by the middle or end of March. That gives me hope.

Our School Accomplishments ~

• Dean completed nine World Geography lessons that included Italy, The Horn of Africa, Somali, The African Great Lakes, all episodes of Guns, Germs and Steel found on YouTube, plus our Yum, Yum subscription box from Universal Yums, which were snacks from Italy this month. 
• Anne attended all of her dance classes except the one that we did not get back to town in time for. She even got to take a master class with a Russian-trained ballet teacher who is visiting our studio for the next month. 
• They both read their literature books and had discussions with me about the books. They will be done with Treasure Island (Dean) and A Gathering of Days (Anne) next week.
• Dean did six math lessons and Anne did three math lessons. 
• Anne attended work one day this week.
• Anne attended her sign language class.
• They both played a host of games that don't fit into my lesson planners but do keep the mind engaged and learning. They played Magic, Timeline Inventions, Uno, Monopoly Deal, Blockus and Chess.

Universal Yums sent us a larger box of snacks this month to thanks us for being loyal costumers.

Anne has to do so many technical things for her Cecchetti exam and they have to be perfectly clean. She gets to perform a solo this year with props. She has a choice of two dances and will be picking it out soon with her teacher.

I wish I could say we were home for a while, but that is not the case. I am off to Duke Medical Center for Tim's cardiac care on Tuesday. I expect this appointment will lead to more since our local hospital saw some serious issues on his last echocardiogram. That will be an eight hour round trip (just driving) each time. There is also travel on the schedule for Anne's Cecchetti exam. All this means that we have a very hectic spring ahead of us and that I must guard our time and choices carefully. I am so thankful to homeschool. I don't know how we would get through this if they were in public school.

Blessings, Dawn