Homeschool Prom

Yep, you read that right.  Homeschool prom.

Last fall, when I first heard about our homeschool group planning to have a prom in the spring, I thought, "Oxymoron."  You know, when contradictory words are together in the same term or phrase:

• jumbo shrimp
• act natural
• civil war
• found missing
• crash landing
• original copy
• growing smaller
• homeschool prom 

But, it happened!  And it was such a great night.  The prom committee did an excellent job putting it all together.  The music was very tasteful, as were the girls' dresses.  They did a lot of group dances (Civil War Era, Ceili, etc.) where everyone could join in.  Emma can't wait for the next one.     

Can you believe she'll be a senior soon?!?!

Cotton Eyed Joe 

(at least, that's the song they always use for this dance)

Waltzing was a bit tricky on the scooter, but they had fun!

 My Lydia (blue) slept over at Marie's (in the pink) house this night.

When Marie's family dropped off her older brother, they just had to take a peek!  

Fourteen years old can't come soon enough for the younger siblings!

Hanging out at the music table

Freestyling with Friends

Not sure what's happening here...but it looks like a blast!

Emma & Maddi

(Maddi did SO much work for this event!)

The amazing food!

Learning a Dance

Grand March (?)

"Crack the Whip" as a dance

Virginia Reel

Broom Dance

Three start at the front of a line of girls on one side and a line of guys on the other.

The guy gives one of the girls a broom, in this case a peacock feather, 

and then sashays down the row with the other girl.  (Note broom girl's face.)

Then two guys go on either side of the girl who was left behind, and she chooses.

It's a cute dance, full of laughs and a ton of fun.

Waves of Tory

I love this one.  You alternate going under one couple's arms,

and then the next couple goes under your arms.  It looks really neat.

Group Shot

"Unsocialized Homeschoolers"

*Special thanks to my friend Lisa.  Most of these pictures are hers.  And a huge thanks to my neice, Niki, for loaning us a dress for Emma.*

Ceili Dance

Lydia, Sam, and I went to a Ceili Dance last night.

SO. FUN.

Ceili (kay-lee) dancing is Irish folk dancing.  It's not quite the same as step dancing (e.g. Riverdance), but some of the moves are the same.  If you could marry step dancing and square dancing, that would be about it.

I think I got the basic jig step down, but the Rise and Grind is a bit trickier. This will take some practice before the next dance.

 And this is really slowed down.

I wasn't quite sure what the demographic would be for a dance like this.  I think I was expecting a lot of older folks.  However, besides the caller/teacher and the band, we six homeschool moms who brought our kids were the oldest people there!  Most of the attendees were in their 20's, I'm guessing.

Ceili Swing Hold

Put your right hand on your partner's side.  Hold left hands underneath the right arms.

Stand more to the side of each other rather than in front.  (Photo is not from last night.)

For one of the songs, I had to swing with someone else's partner for eight measures using the Ceili swing hold pictured above.  He meant business.  He swung us so fast that my feet barely touched the floor.  Super-fun!

Here's Lydia (middle) with a couple of her besties--and
 an attempted photo-bomb on the right.

Here are some of the youngest dancers.

(Sam is on the right.)

At one point between songs, Sam was clinging to my arm while we waited to hear what the next dance would be.  The second that the caller said, "You're gonna need a group of three for this dance..." Sam dropped me like a hot coal and ran over to these two.  Not a hug.  Not a word.  Nuthin'.  Complete and immediate abandonment.  I had to dance with random strangers.  (It was still fun.)

I got a few seconds of video footage of the last--and most difficult--dance of the night.  I had to sit this one out because I was still catching my breath from The Bonfire Dance (my favorite).  This is the complicated arch part of The Fairy Reel.  So here's my kid who complained about the dances being too hard in the musicals, yet he volunteers himself to learn the trickiest dance of the night.  *shrug* 

Aren't they cute?

I hope they didn't hurt the guy from the other trio.

These three are at a bad height for him. 

Dinner Conversation with Kids

Lydia: "Let's go around the table and say our favorite colors."

Jeffrey: *Starts to get up to literally go around the table saying his favorite color.*

Me: "Sit down, Jeffrey."

Lydia: *Big sigh*  "So Sam, what's your favorite color?"

Sam: "Ummm...light green!"

Lydia: "Mom, your turn."

Me: "Sage green."

Lydia: "Dad?"

Dave: "Let's see.  I'm gonna say...dumpster green."

Lydia: "Ewww!  Do you mean the color inside the dumpster?  Or the color it's painted?"

*Laughter*

Me: "Well, I'm glad that I didn't name any of you Dumpster.  That would've been embarrassing."

(Our last name is Green, so we felt we couldn't really name any of our children names like Kelly, Forest, Jade, or any kind of flower/plant.  Dumpster really never made the list...until now.)

*Laughter continues with everyone offering a shortened version of Dumpster as a first name, such as: Dumpy, Dump, Dum, Dummy, and Dumpsty.*

************************************************************************************************

Some families have enlightened conversations about world events, politics, and theology.  
Our family?  Not-so-much.  

Rummage, Yard, or Garage?

We have so much stuff.

Way back in January, I set a date in my planner to have a rummage sale on June 20th.  I was going to work on de-cluttering this room in February and that room in March...blah, blah, blah.  Though I haven't stuck to the plan exactly, I have gone through a number of areas in the house.

And we still have so much stuff.

*SIGH*

I'm still planning to have that rummage sale, but now it's already May (gulp) and there's a lot left to be sorted through.  And we're trying to catch up on schoolwork.  And camp is starting up.  And...basically...I fear I'll run out of time.

So I should get off this blog and get back to work!  I only thought that if I made my intentions more public, I'll be more likely to carry them out.

So what do you call it: rummage sale, yard sale, or garage sale?
Have you ever had one?
Got any tips for me?

(Please pray that it doesn't rain here on June 20th.)

Mother's Day

I had a strange Mother's Day today.

Last night, I went to bed before dinner.  I prepped most of the meal, and then Dave offered to finish up for me since I wasn't feeling well.  I think I slept for 12 hours (which is why I'm awake now at 1:30 AM).

When I awoke, Dave had already left to do camp promotion at a church north of Milwaukee.  I felt a little better, but I've got a sinus thing going on where I wake up with a head full of gunk, a sore throat, and a sinus headache.  This morning I had some vertigo too.

That being said, I had a pretty good Mother's Day!  Weird, I know.  But after a hot shower to clear out my head a little, I put on some fresh pajamas and read books in bed--all day.  The kids were really sweet about letting me rest.  I got up now and then to do a little laundry, eat, and even clean my room a bit--since it was also Clean Your Room Day today.  Whenever the vertigo acted up, I just went back to bed.  I closed my eyes for a few minutes while the room stopped spinning, and then I cracked my book open again.

I love days when I'm sick enough to stay in my jammies, but not too sick to read.

When Dave got home, most of us watched Fiddler on the Roof followed by the season finale of Once Upon a Time.  So, a really nice and laid-back Mother's Day, though I was disappointed we missed church.

Also, Dave the kids got me this lovely Willow Tree figurine.  I'm not usually one for tchotchkes, but I do really like these.  They have a simple beauty.  This one is called "Quietly".  It's perfect because all of my kids are so quiet.  Kidding!  They're all so snuggly--and these two kiddos look so cuddly, don't they?  *sigh*  Kind of makes me miss those toddler days.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sam's Thoughts on Communion

In my last post, I mentioned how I was going through old papers.  I emptied over half of a filing cabinet so I'd have room to sort homeschool papers in there.  

As I was sorting through the piles of homeschool papers in the stackable letter trays I'd been using, I found this gem tucked in there from November.  We have communion on the first Sunday of each month, and this is what Samuel (7 years old) drew after reflecting on what Christ did for him on the cross.  The front of the card is a self-portrait.  He feels sad, yet full of love for God and feeling loved by Him.  The back of the card is Jesus dying on the cross.  

Front of Card

Back of Card

I love how the Gospel is so profound, yet a child can understand it well enough to be saved from sin.  I guess that comprehension sort of grows with a person as he matures in his faith.  Hmm...as he matures in his child-like faith.   Paradoxes everywhere....

If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.  Romans 12:9-10 (HCSB)

Maps Bring People Together

The last couple of weekends, I've been doing some deep cleaning and purging. (Yes...again.  The clutter keeps coming back!)  But this time it was really old clutter.

I knew we had an ancient filing cabinet out in the garage, and I needed a better way to sort & store our homeschool papers--papers still to use, papers to grade, papers to save for record-keeping.  That almost-full filing cabinet would be perfect for the job, but I would have to go through it.  And clean it up.  It was going to take a while.  

After vacuuming up a few drowsy spiders and wiping it all down, it looked pretty good.

That part didn't take too long, but the next part did--going through all of those files!  I had copies of my taxes from high school in that thing (not too smart since those have my SSN on them and our garage is not the most secure spot).  Most of the files were notes, papers, and exams from college, though, and those were pretty fun to go through.  Dave didn't want for me to get rid of any of his things yet...and that's fine.  I recycled all of mine except for a few favorite classes and/or notes I knew I'd use for homeschooling.  Dave and I took many of the same classes.

Bible 101 ~ Old Testament Survey

(I wish I'd found these before Emma & Jeffrey did this course in our homeschool.)

S.J. Bedmizan, Mgr.

(12 Tribes of Israel w/ land assignments)

"Minor Prophets" Question on the Exam

*snicker*

And these are from my favorite class of all--Bible 308 "Acts".

I loved that class.  It really made me think...and study...and think...and write.  I don't believe I've ever had 100's on two papers in the same class besides this one.  And it's because I threw myself into it.

I also loved this class because of the black outline map at the bottom of the picture.  Sure...it's a great map and all, and I'll likely use it with my kids when we study Paul's missionary journeys, but that's not why this map is special.  The day I make those copies for the kids, I'll tell them how this isn't the only time I've copied this map.  The first time was in my college's library--where their Dad was working--way back in 1992.  And that's the day when he and I first started to think of one another in a more-than-just-friends way.

Awwwww....