The Best and Most Notable of June

All around, we really had a nice June with lots of exciting events. The month felt almost normal, as concerns COVID. The month went by in a blink of the eye, and now we are here on the last day of June. Rebekah is deep into an online ballet intensive with UNCSA, and Elijah applied for a job at Target and was called back for an online interview. Now we wait to see if he got the job. I am preparing for a yard sale in the coming weeks, and Tim is going to his brain injury program on a limited basis. He really wants it to return to normal, so that they can return to field trips. Dear Husband keeps keeping on at work. 

We enjoyed an evening at a rooftop eatery one night. The views of the city were lovely.

My husband and I enjoyed a lovely dinner out for our 23rd wedding anniversary.
These mocktails were so good.

 

I only got a picture of the three of us, but Tim, Elijah, my stepmother
and her boyfriend were there, too. We had so much fun on the haunted trolley ride
around our city.

Rebekah graduated! She is wearing the honor cords that she earned from
the National Honor Society of Dance Arts and from the North Carolina Home Education
for graduating with a cumma sum laude GPA. I am so proud of my girl.

Her graduation party was a great success.

Medieval sword play has returned every weekend. Tim and Elijah are delighted.

I turned 49! Wow, time just flies by.

We had a berry tart instead of birthday cake.

For my birthday, I got four books, including Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel (for my children's 

picture book collection). I also received hand towels, bath bombs, and comfortable sandals. 

In addition, my Mother paid for the some of the ceilings to be professionally painted, 

since painting them by myself was causing me a lot of pain.

Rebekah and I volunteered at the concessions stand, so that we could attend the summer dance

performance put on by Terpsicorps. It was stunning! I am so glad Rebekah gets to study with

their professional training program next school year.

My husband and I squeezed in a short dessert date downtown
with a slice of lovely berry torte and this gorgeous view.

My stepmother wanted to celebrate Elijah in some way while they were here, since were in lockdown during his graduation. They settled on going to Pack Tavern for dinner. It was fun to eat out! 

We are looking forward to July and all that it brings!

Blessings, Dawn

A Graduation Party!

Watch out! Here comes a picture heavy post. Rebekah graduated last weekend. We had a lovely party for her with almost everyone we invited being able to come. It was a perfect day. She had a wonderful mix of former teachers, friends, family and others who had impacted her life through the years. We rented a picnic shelter near our home and the weather cooperated perfectly. We were a bit worried because it rained every day for a week before the event. 

We did a quick photo shoot a few days before the party.
 

Rebekah was inducted into the National Honor Society for Dance Arts this year. One of the directors of the dance studio she danced at for the last 12 years presented her with a pin and certificate. He did a sweet presentation that took us on a quick journey down Memory Lane. 

We presented Rebekah with her diploma and then her brothers shot her with confetti cannons. It was a perfect addition to our celebration. ALSO,  I made it most of the way through my presentation without crying. 

The "photo booth" with gold streamers was very popular. The teen girls spent tons of time taking all matter of photos, both serious and totally silly.

We set up several games around the picnic shelter. We had Elijah's Giant Jenga blocks that so many people had signed and decorated for his graduation last year. Many of our guests were the same people who had decorated those blocks, and they really enjoyed seeing them in use and what others had written. We also had spike ball, corn hole, yard Yahtzee and Skittles. 

We served pinwheel sandwiches, cuties, chips, soda and cupcakes. I am so glad we picked food that we didn't mind eating, because there was a ton of leftovers. 

Some teens headed for the playground. Your never too old to play...right!?

We set up an antique suitcase to collect cards. She got so many sweet cards. We also made a poster board filled with photos of her homeschool years ... so many cherished memories.

We placed flowers at each table with a sweet picture of Rebekah in each bouquet. The one below was my favorite. It shows Rebekah receiving her first certificate for completing her reading program and officially becoming a reader. 

It was such a blessed day. I can hardly believe this part of my journey is over. It has been such a delight and honor to homeschool my precious children for the last 22 years. I am so very, very grateful for the opportunity to impact these amazing young people that we are blessed to have in our lives. I will be continuing to post ... we will just be transitioning to life posts.

Blessings, Dawn

Books I've Been Reading and A Field Trip

We had a nice day trip over Memorial Day weekend. It was nice to get away, but the return trip was a nightmare of traffic. What should have taken one hour to return home took just over three hours. Yikes! But we were still happy that we had left town and explored. We went to Greenville, South Carolina and visited their river park. We also ate lunch out at a restaurant that had outdoor seating (a first for the kids since the pandemic began). We wrapped up our day with a trip to the mall which is double the size of ours and, unlike ours, is thriving. We also attended a movie over the weekend. This was also a first since the pandemic began, and we had lots of fun. We saw Cruella. It was good and a fun re-entry to the movie theater world.  

All of the pictures below are from our visit to Greenville's river park.  I will insert the books I have been reading throughout the post. My goal is to read at least 12 books this year. I will most likely surpass that number, because I have already completed eight. My reading has gone faster than I thought it would. Some of the books were easier books that my kids had read years ago and loved, but I had never gotten to read. They still talk about them, so they must be worth reading.

An Hour Before Daylight by Jimmy Carter ~ This was not a page turner, but I did enjoy learning about the boyhood of one of our former presidents. I didn't know very much about rural farm life in the Deep South. I know a great deal more now. Jimmy Carter is one of those genuinely kind people, and it very much comes through in his book.  

Alexander Hamilton The Outsider by Jean Fritz ~ My kids loved this book and it was good. I enjoyed it and found it chock full of information as is the norm for a Jean Fritz book. 

Becoming by Michelle Obama ~ I loved this book. What a wonderful look into a life of an extraordinary woman. This book became Rebekah's very last assignment for high school. She is almost done and has enjoyed it as well. 

The Charlotte Years on Tide Mill Lane by Melissa Wiley ~ This is one book in an enjoyable series of books that were written about Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother and grandmother. They are fun, quick reads that Rebekah and I  have very much enjoyed over the years. We are slowly collecting the complete sets and this was our most recent find.

  

Evicted by Mathew Desmond ~ This was a very good but hard read. Hard because it really laid out the corruption of landlords, the mishandling of people's lives by government and the desperation of poverty (especially for those with intellectual deficits). This hits especially hard for me because I am raising a handful of high end special needs people that may well fall into this life after I am gone if I don't figure out how to protect them. Also, while reading this, we have been working to transition our daughter (Katie) from one placement to another which is proving much more difficult because she is now an adult. Her social worker even said she could probably handle being independent (although all of her doctors feel she needs tons of support) and that the system could help her if and when she became homeless and couldn't get back on her feet! Of course, we don't want to wait until that happens!

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin ~ This has been one of my favorite books this year. It is based on the true story of a terrible blizzard that struck the American West during school hours in 1888 and killed over 200 people (mostly children trying to get home). It was a sad topic, but very well written with an emphasis on the heroes. I always like to read about the everyday heroes.

The Walnut Tree A Holiday Tale by Charles Todd ~ This was an enjoyable and page turning book about a young woman who became a nurse during World War I and found her true calling and true love. 

To School Through the Fields by Alice Taylor ~ This was a gentle story about the author's childhood in rural Ireland in the 1950's, which was not as modernized as the United States was in the fifties. I love historical accounts about normal lives and this one was nicely written. 

Blessings, Dawn