College Graduation #4

This weekend was my youngest daughter's college graduation. She earned a B.S degree in Child  Development, graduating cum laude from Appalachian State University.   It really hasn't sunk in yet that she is all done; no longer a student!  She has been living at home for the past few months while doing an internship to complete her major , and they have asked her to remain after graduation.  She will be running a preschool program and also assisting with the after-school homework help program for immigrant/refugee children at a city apartment complex.

It really is an amazing feeling to watch your children grow into awesome adults with lives of their own, separate from you. It hurts like ripping a bandaid off your heart, but it is amazing nonetheless.

Homeschoolers in College

Rivers Street Tunnel,  Appalachian State U.

Three of my children have already graduated from college and my 4th is a college senior this year.  All homeschool graduates, attending state universities.  All successful in navigating both college academic life and college social life.  All lived on campus for all or part of their college years, worked campus jobs, were active in intramural sports, ROTC, clubs, campus life. Three worked as RAs for  part of their time in college. 

What prepared them to be successful?  I'm not sure.  We aren't that special. They are not geniuses.  We did raise our children to be leaders, and gave them opportunities to build leadership skills through team sports, Boy Scouts, summer camp jobs, lifeguarding, and being part of a family that serves the lcoal homeschool community in various ways.  They entered college with a maturity that helped them to make good choices, focus on what was important, choose friends wisely, and work hard. As parents, we let them make their own decisions regarding classes, and didn't get involved with professors or making sure they were doing their homework.  That was expected. 

They each changed majors at least once in the process.  All but one managed to graduate in 4 years - 8 semesters -  except one, who needed one extra semester to finish. They have all pursued very different things - not a surprise.  Engineering switched to Political Science.  Interior Design switched to Photography with minors in  Media Studies/ Graphic Design.   Computer Science changed to Marketing changed to Sustainable Technology changed to Computer Information Systems.  Athletic Training switched to Child Life, transferred to a different college, and landed in Child Development - Family and Consumer Sciences.  

None are working in the field of their degree.  

 **I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing, as the education plus other experiences they received definitely prepared them for many things. Something to consider.

Our homeschool style is rather relaxed, but they each took a few outside classes during their high school years that gave them experience with other teacher's styles, expectations, deadlines, etc. Three of the four took a couple of community college classes, utilizing the dual enrollment program. The college credits earned were nice, but the primary benefit was learning to navigate a small college campus and schedule.   We did not do AP courses, nor did they take CLEP exams.  We did read widely, traveled some, encouraged a learning mind-set no matter where we were.  They learned to play musical instruments, took care of a pet, were expected to help with household chores and did not have TVs or computers in their rooms ( this was before smartphones ; they didn't get laptops until after high school graduation -  things are a little different with the youngest now, and we have to make smartphone and laptop rules)  

All but my oldest, who was an ROTC student, took out some student loans.  My husband and I paid half of the remaining amount, and my children earned money to pay the other half.  They did not have cars, so that eliminated a major expense. They found small scholarships to help -  the electric company,  department scholarships for their majors, Jr. Woman's Club, etc.  We are not one of those families whose kids earned full scholarships to college. I wish.  Nor are we rich. My husband makes a nice salary, but helping put our kids through college has meant sacrifice. Our house is kind of falling apart around us.  We don't take vacations.  We live pretty frugally. It is a season.

I guess I would characterize our family dynamic as encouraging excellence without being rigid;  using common sense when setting boundaries and limits, and offering increasing freedom as maturity was proven; laughing hard together;  fostering an attitude of gratitude over things big and small;  centering life around family above anything else, and celebrating each person's interests and achievements as a family; living out our faith in how we treat people and in the life choices we make; showing affection; living generously.  Perhaps these things played a part in their success. Perhaps it was just God's grace. 

We're not done yet. Our last child will graduate high school next year and then embark upon his college years.  His siblings will give him plenty of advice, I'm sure. That's how we do things in this family. 

An Unlikely Academic Success? Why Individualization is a Better Idea Than Common Standards

My 2nd youngest child went back to college today at Appalachian State to start her senior year. She has classes this fall semester, and then an internship next spring, and she'll graduate in May. Four years of college has flown by! Now, one thing I didn't realize until today is that she is "ahead" of her classmates, meaning most people in her major (child development) have 2 semesters of classes and then the internship to do after that. I'm a bit astounded, because she did her freshman year at ECU and then transferred, and had to repeat one of her Gen Ed classes that wasn't accepted because she changed majors. So even with that, she managed to get all her college classes done in 7 semesters. Anyone with college kids knows this is somewhat of a feat, because colleges will tell you at orientation nowadays that most students take 5 years, or 10 semesters,  to complete a major. Not all classes are offered when you need them.    When I asked her how that was possible, she smirked and said, "Nobody really knows."  Then she shrugged, admitting that she did take 18 credit hours just about every semester, so that's how she got it all in.

I am not saying this to boast.  I want to make an important point to you homeschool mamas out there who have kids who are struggling, or "behind", or late readers, or whatever.  This gal, who managed 18 hours per semester ( not all A's mind you - she has a B's and C's in there too, and likes to remind me that "C's get Degrees!"), has held a campus job each semester, also worked one semester as an RA, is president of her church's college group, and  enjoys hiking, lying in her hammock, and watching lots of Netflix, couldn't read  a chapter book until she was almost 12 years old.  She took 2 years to get through 6th grade math because fractions threw her for a loop.  Algebra was not her friend, she had a hard time with  high school Spanish,  and she took 3 years to barely squeak through high school chemistry.  This is not your typical "academic" kid.

 However, she has always been very creative, enjoying art and music. She loved playing volleyball and basketball.   Although it took a while to click, by high school she was a fairly strong reader. And she was a natural leader, had a lot of friends, and loved working with children.    She has very specific gifts and talents, but isn't good at EVERYTHING.  She took a year off after high school to "decompress" and figure out what she wanted to do.  She will freely admit that she chose a college major that wouldn't require too much math or science beyond the basic gen ed requirements.   She is a success at what she is choosing to do! 

Because we homeschooled, we took the time to slowly work through the areas that were the most difficult, even if it took more than one "school year". We worked hard not to stigmatize, so there was no shame in going at her own speed!   We found or made opportunities for her to grow in the areas where she was talented, and very importantly, didn't prevent her from doing those things because her grades weren't high enough!  (isn't that what happens in schools?  sports, the arts,  social activities. etc. are off-limits if you don't have certain grades? Even many parents impose this rule, as "motivation".)  Think outside the box.   Each of us is unique in how we learn and in what we are good at, and education should be individualized to allow each person to succeed at their own pace, in what they are gifted in!  This is one reason I so strongly oppose Common Core Standards and the philosophy behind it.

Our goal should be to teach our children how to learn, and to inspire our children to love learning!   That isn't the same as loving "school".   Be gentle and persistent in working on weaknesses, but don't neglect the areas that are strengths.  Just because your child doesn't like something, that doesn't mean they shouldn't learn it. But it might be that there is a different WAY to learn it.  Or a different PART of it to learn that will make sense for your child.  Always, pray for guidance and wisdom.

 

Back to College and Back to Homeschool

When my oldest started college in 2003, we quickly learned that it was pretty useless to try to start back with homeschool until the college kids had gone back to school.  Amanda and Jason share the same friend group from working at camp, so this week has been full of beach days, lunches with friends, watching the meteor shower, bonfires, packing and goodbyes.

Next week will be our first week of eeaaaaaasing back into homeschool.  Instead of having a "first day/week of school" that includes EVERYTHING and stresses everyone, we ease in with a few subjects each week.  We'll start with History, Guitar, and setting up his science notebook. Week 2 will add Anatomy, Algebra Review and Spanish. Week 3 will add English, Worldview, and Civics, Then Personal Finance and Geography.

Today my baby girl heads back to college for the last time! She is a senior, with just one semester of classes to go, and then a semester-long internship and then... Graduation!     Holy Moly I am feeling old.   She will be our 4th college graduate! One more to go.

In addition, this is the FIRST TIME I am not driving the loaded car to move my college student in. Amanda got a car this summer, the 1st time any of my kids have bought a car before college graduation. Not only is she living off campus, bunking in with her sister at her apartment for the semester, she also needs to travel to various schools in the area for practicums and observation for her child-development classes. So she loaded up her Honda and is driving herself!


 And I am feeling very emotional about the whole thing!

See more Weekly Wrap-Ups at WeirdUnsocializedHomeschoolers.com.




 

100 Days to 1000 Blessings - Day 8

Out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, that is often the way my brain works, and sometimes things don't get finished the way they should. I started to list 1000 blessings, 10 at a time, back in the early summer, but have gotten sidetracked. Well, I never said they were going to be consecutive days, right? And God is continuously pouring his blessings over us, even when we don't stop to recognize them. So here is another 10.


71. Sarah was just home for the weekend, and we had a really nice visit! She has been in TN since the 2nd week of July and this was her first visit back home.  This week she's heading down to Atlanta, where Safe World Nexus will have a booth at Catalyst, a huge Christian leadership conference, featuring speakers such as Jon Acuff, Francis Chan, Bob Goff, Blake Mykoskie, Katie Davis, Dave Ramsey, Lysa Terkheurst, David Platt, and more.

72.   Sarah bought Jason a new board game, Ticket to Ride, for his birthday, and taught us to play it this weekend.  It is a lot of fun!
*from the website:

Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway.

73.   Alex posted confirmation that his brigade will be coming home from Iraq early!!! They will be coming home in Dec / Jan instead of July!   Hallelujah!

74.  Fall weather has arrived! ahhh!  after a blistering summer, temperatures in the 60's and 70's are just divine!  This is my favorite season!

75. My knee is feeling pretty good after surgery to repair a torn miniscus a couple of weeks ago.  It still gets stiff and stairs are still tough and I'm not walking completely normally yet, but it is coming along.

76.  After surgery, my dear friends rallied around and brought meals for 2 weeks - I am so blessed to have people like that in my life.

77.. My friends are still enjoying my cupcakes, so I am able to send Sarah support to help her stay in her internship with Safe World a while longer.

Caramel Apple Crisp Cupcake

78.. We spent a day in Boone with Eric to celebrate his 22nd birthday.  It was a pretty day so we went to a park on the Blue Ridge Parkway to throw a frisbee around for a bit ( I watched -  bum knee ), then went out to Woodlands BBQ in Blowing Rock for dinner with him and his girlfriend, Ryan. 

79.  The freedom to homeschool and to raise my children according to my beliefs and convictions is precious, and tonight my support group will be showing the documentary, "The Child", which addresses some of the challenges to that freedom that our country is facing right now.

80.  Did I mention that Alex will be coming back from Iraq much sooner than expected?  And his contract is up in Dec. and he is planning to leave the Army?? 

Another College Graduation

Child #2 graduated from Appalachian State University on May 9th, earning summa cum laude honors along with her B.S. in Technical Photography. We are very proud of our girl and all the hard work she put into her college work. Sarah also had a lot of fun during the last four years. :-)

Here is a little poem Amanda and I wrote, which we included in the graduation announcements we made for Sarah.

In 2004 it all began,

When of the Mountaineers and Yosef she became a fan.

She packed her bags and headed to Boone,

Where in East Hall she settled into her first dorm room.

Sarah soon realized designing interiors wasn't her thing,

But learning photography was much more to her liking.

Shag dancing, gospel choir, club volleyball, and Cru...

Sarah found that at ASU there was so much to do!

An RA for Gardner, Daughton, and App.Heights;

With Sarah on duty, there were no drugs, drinking, or fights.

The winters were long and the weather was crappy,

But summer trips to Vienna and Africa made Sarah happy.

Studying and working took up some of her day,

But picnicking, zombie hunting, and waterfall jumping

was how she liked to play.

Now it is 2010 and her college years are done.

On May 9th she'll tak her diploma and run.

A year -long internship with Campus Crusade for Christ in Raleigh

Is what she'll do next, close to friends and family.

Buckle Your Seatbelt!

I dropped Sarah off at the airport this afternoon to begin her African adventure! She will be spending the next 4 weeks volunteering at a small school called Kechene School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The 80 students at this school are between the ages of 5 and 11, and are destitute, many of them orphans. She will be living at Cherokee House with several other volunteers, all working in various capacities in the city - education, orphan care, health care, community development, etc.

I have been a little bit nervous about her traveling to Africa alone, and traveling around a strange city in an impoverished 4th world country.

But God has shown himself to us in the details....

First of all, Sarah raised all the funds she needed, plus some, just by sending out letters to family and friends. Didn't the economy just tank these past 6-8 months? I did not believe that she would be able to raise over $3000 in only 4 months this way - but she did.

Second, there was the fact that Sarah still needed to EARN some money this summer to help pay for her senior year of college! Being out of the country for the month of June made approaching potential employers a bit difficult. But then friends who have their own business offered to hire her to help sort and organize files in their office this summer - with a flexible schedule that would accomodate time off whenever she needed it!

So she has been shopping and organizing and packing this past week or so, getting ready to leave on May 31st. She was given some money to buy things for the school, so she was saving that for last, once she could see how much space she had left, since the airline only allows her to check two bags, up to 50 lbs each. Yesterday afternoon she was sitting here in the kitchen with her friend Bekah, getting ready to go to WalMart, when my friend, Sabrina called. Sabrina is the travel agent who booked Sarah's tickets for her ( and got her a GREAT price, by the way!) Sabrina said she was just checking on something Sarah needed for her flight " tomorrow".
Tomorrow? Sarah and I looked at each other, Sarah ran to her room and grabbed her ticket - - - and lo and behold, her departure date was not the 31st, but the 30th!!!! How in the world we got that wrong, I don't know! But I do know that if Sabrina hadn't called, we would have been at the airport a day late!

So I dropped her off this afternoon and watched her make her way through the security maze at the airport. Her checked baggage squeaked in under the weight limit... whew! The first leg of her journey took her to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, where she had a layover of several hours. Sarah is excited, but was a little nervous about traveling alone and arriving in Addis Ababa, just praying that the promised person from Cherokee House will be there to meet her. I told her to strike up some conversations with other travelers at the gate - couples going to adopt, other young people heading over to do humanitarian work.
Then she could at least ask these new friends for help if she ended up stranded at the other end. Well, by another great "coincidence", Sarah got to the departure gate at Dulles and found out that two girls she had been facebooking who were also going to be living at Cherokee House were booked on the same flight. These two were supposed to leave for Africa last Wednesday, but got bumped from their flight and rescheduled for Monday. Well, they decided to just go to the airport this morning and see if they could get on an earlier flight, and they happened to get seats on Sarah's flight!!! So now she has traveling companions!

Do you see a coincidence here... or DO YOU SEE GOD? One thing I have learned from hanging around my friend Eileen is to see God in the details. I see God showing my daughter that He has indeed called her to this journey. I am so amazed that He would even reassure a nervous mother, letting me know that He has everything under control.

I'll be posting updates on Sarah's blog as she sends them to me.
www.sherbert-footsteps.blogspot.com


Another thing I've learned from Eileen is that not only does God continually show himself all around us, but He wants us to TELL OTHERS, that they might believe. So I am telling you.

Buckle up your seatbelt, folks. We are in for a wild ride!!!!


I'll be updating her blog as she sends me info, so follow along at
www.sherbert-footsteps.blogspot.com

Home Run Derby - a family tradition

We spent the day in Boone yesterday with the collegians. Sarah had her Gospel Choir Concert, which was awesome as always. We enjoyed the beautiful spring weather at Valle Cruces Park playing a mean game of Home Run Derby . My family is a tad competitive - don't know where that comes from!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is How My College Boy Spent His Saturday

It is called Twisted Falls; it is somewhere in the NC mountains - within an hour of Boone....

FUN!

Back to School

We are all back to school.

Whew!

Things have been super busy, and the computer has been very cranky, thus the lack of updates to this blog. Let's see, since my last update, I have moved E into his dorm at Appalachian State; started our TOG Year 2 Co-op; celebrated my and Mark's birthdays; celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary; gone to several of A's homeschool volleyball games; put together the Sept. newsletter for our homeschool group; and spent the long Labor Day weekend camping in the mountains.

Now I am playing catch up after that extra long weekend ( we got home late Tuesday afternoon ) and am trying to read the TOG Yr.2 Week 4 upper grammar and rhetoric assignments and prepare to teach literature and writing at Co-op on Friday, and also prepare for the first class of Creating Books With Children, which I am teaching to a class of 16 kids at Homelight Books starting next Tuesday. I'm also trying to do all the dirty laundry from the weekend ( camping creates lots of that ), and go clean out the camper so we can close it up before the rain from Hurricane Hanna hits on Friday!

E and S are doing fine at college as they go through week 2 of classes - both report that their professors have assigned entirely too much work for so early in the semester! E lost his cell phone today when it fell out of his backpack while hiking back from a visit to a local waterfall...

Alex is out on field exercises in TX - he reports that he'll be without a shower for the next 4 weeks. I guess that is part of preparing for the challenges of the battlefield. Get used to being dirty and smelly!

I watched some of the coverage of the Republican Convention on tv tonight. I must say, I am impressed with Sarah Palin. What a firecracker! I wasn't overly enthused with John McCain as the Republican nominee - although I knew I had to vote for him because the alternative is unthinkable - BUT I am definitely more encouraged and more excited after learning more about this VP pick. She brings something fresh to the table. Should be an interesting 2 months!

One Gone

Yesterday Eric, his girlfriend Ryan, and I took Sarah back to college in Boone and moved her into her new dorm. She is an RA ( resident advisor), so she has to be back on campus EARLY. Eric doesn't go until a week from Friday.

Boone is a 3 1/2 hour trip - one way - so this was an all-day-event. The weather was beautiful though, and we had a nice trip out there, arriving around 12:30. It took NUMEROUS trips for the 4 of us to carry all her belongings into the building and up the elevator to her room. Then it took us about an hour to rearrange the furniture in her room to suit her and make room for the rented micro-fridge ( combination microwave oven / mini fridge ) which was waiting in the middle of her room when we arrived.

Once all that was done, we walked over to the campus bookstore so Eric could pick up his new MacBook laptop computer! Oh, he is a happy camper! :-)

Then we made another trip to WalMart ( the shopping never ends) for the couple of things that we hadn't picked up earlier in the week - printer ink cartridge, make-up, and food - apparently the RAs are only fed sporadically for the first few days since dining halls are not operational yet.

All this work made us all hungry, so we pulled into Mellow Mushroom Pizza Restaurant and dug into a large pepperoni pizza before we dropped Sarah off at her dorm and started the trip back home, arriving around 13 hours after we left. I intended to drop into bed, but couldn't resist a couple hours of Olympic viewing. It was GYMNASTICS, after all.

We'll do it all again next week. :-)

What Have We Been Up To?

Well, I haven't been posting very often, have I? Summer is winding down quickly. Yesterday was the last day of New Life Camp, so Sarah and Eric are back home. But Sarah leaves for college on Tuesday and Eric follows 10 days later. That means trips to WalMart and Target and Kohls and Staples and the shoe store. Since Eric is a freshman, we are outfitting his dorm room from scratch. Sarah has most of her dorm stuff already, but needs new sheets ( she is moving from a dorm with reg. twin beds to one with x-long twins!) and school supplies and clothes and shoes. Whew! We don't do anything elaborate - no matching curtains and rugs and disco balls and hi-def TVs :-), but the list is still pretty long!



Because they are heading off to a college 4 hours away, we are also trying to get in doctor and dentist visits. Sarah has been bothered by back pain for a few months now, so we took her to a chiropractor this week. This was a first for our family! The x-ray showed a slightly out -of-position hip joint, which is causing her spine to curve slightly and creating inflammation that is pressing on the nerves in her lower back. He adjusted her back and pushed the hip back into place, but until the muscles in that area "relearn" the correct position for that bone, they will continue to pull it out of place. So she needs 5-6 weeks of treatments in order for it to stay put. So it looks like we know what she'll be doing over Christmas break!




I was in a "baking" mood Saturday, so I made a Chocolate Layer Cake from a new recipe from the Food Network website.
Oh.
My.
It was divine. I took it to a potluck lunch on Sunday and it was polished off in no time.

INCREDIBLE CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE

1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter, softened at room temp.
3 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour OR cake flour
1 1/3 cups lite sour cream
1 1/2 cups hot coffee

FROSTING:
8 T. ( 1 stick ) butter, softened
16 oz. lite cream cheese, softened
8 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cooled coffee
4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 3 ( 9-inch) cake pans.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment ( or with a hand mixer) cream the butter until smooth. Add sugar and eggs and mix until fluffy - about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix. Add 1/2 the flour, then 1/2 the sour cream and mix. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream. Drizzle the hot coffee into the bowl as you mix, until it is all added. The batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pans and bake until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean - about 35 minutes. Halfway through baking time, quickly rotate pans in the oven to ensure even baking, but otherwise try not to open the oven door. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Frosting: In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate, mixing to incorporate. Add the coffee and vanilla and mix. Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition, Beat until fluffy!

Set one layer on cake plate. Frost with about 2 cups of the frosting. Add 2nd layer, cover with frosting, add 3rd layer and frost top and sides with remaining frosting.

Refrigerate.

Camping in Boone

We just spent 4 days in the mountains, camping at the KOA in Boone while Eric attended his freshman orientation at Appalachian State University. The weather was wonderful - temps in the 70's, maybe low 80's during the day; a few scattered rain showers didn't dampen things very much.

The university does a great, 2-day parents orientation as well, with lots of good information for parents about the university and about the challenges that students face as they start college. But since we went through this same orientation program 2 years ago with Sarah, we only attended the first 2 sessions on Monday, and then opted to spend the rest of the time hanging out with the younger kids, playing frisbee and wiffle ball and hanging out at the campground.

We would have stayed out their longer than 4 days, but Eric had to get back to work at camp, and Jason has his town-league baseball tournament this week. So we took what we could get!

Appalachian State University Gospel Choir

On Sunday we drove out to Boone to visit Sarah. She is in the ASU Gospel Choir, and they had their year-end concert Sunday evening. I am trying to figure out how to load some of the video I took of her concert, but in the meantime, you can go here to see a bit of the that Amanda took with her camera, and you can go here to see a bit of a concert they did last year at a church in Raleigh. Gospel Choir is very SPIRIT-ed, and the audience usually gets into the performance right along with the choir, with a lot of clapping, swaying, 'amen's, and 'oh yeah's!
I love it!

Sarah has finals next week, and then will be leaving with her Honors class for a 2-week trip to Vienna, Austria! We brought home a little bit of her "stuff" on Sunday, but Mark will be driving out there next week to bring home the bulk of her dorm room contents. Next year should be interesting when we'll be taking/picking up TWO students and all their belongings! We might need to rent a U-Haul!

Penny Wars for Orphans

My daughter just completed a fundraiser for the Kolfe Youth Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in her dorm at college, where she is an RA. It was International Week, and each dorm held a fundraiser for an international charity. After reading about Kolfe on my friend Eileen's blog, Sarah knew she wanted to do something to help.
(read about the Kolfe Youth Center, an orphanage for boys ages 12-18 at
The Forgotten Boys , and watch the slide show here.)

They held a Penny War! Her dorm has 8 floors, with about 36 students per floor. In the lobby, they had a table with a large jar for each floor. All during the week, students could drop pennies into the jar for their floor, and the floor to collect the most pennies at the end of the week won - something - I don't know, a pizza party, maybe. Now the cool twist was that coins other than pennies - nickles, dimes, quarters - were NEGATIVE points in a jar. So students would drop those coins into the jars for other floors, hoping to boost their own floor's chance of winning the prize. At the end of the week, the dorm had raised over $200, which they are sending to the Gladney Center for Adoption's humanitarian aid fund for Kolfe.

Matthew 25:35 -40
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"
The King will reply, " I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Gotta Brag

Okay, I'm claiming a mama's right to brag on her kids a little. We found out today that Eric and Sarah were BOTH awarded scholarships for next year by our electric cooperative! The amounts aren't gigantic, but it all helps! And the lady said there were a lot of applicants, and the judges didn't know until they were done that they had picked a brother and sister.
I'm proud of you guys!

College Bound

Eric got good news yesterday! He has been accepted at Appalachian State University for the fall. Yeah! Sarah is excited that he'll be there at school with her.

College Graduation

Wow, this has been a really busy week. My oldest son, our first homeschool graduate, is now a college graduate! North Carolina State University held its Fall Commencement Ceremony at the RBC Center on Wednesday morning, December 19, 2007. My eyes were misty watching my boy enter the arena in black cap and gown along with the other members of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, to join the various other colleges, as well as masters and doctoral degree candidates. How can this be? Am I really that old? (rhetorical question ~ I obviously know the answer...)

Alex earned his B.A. with a major in political science. He also completed the Army ROTC program, so on Tuesday night, he received his gold bars as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army at the NC State Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony and Dinner. He looked really sharp in his dress greens, up on stage repeating the Army oath of office and afterwards receiving his first salute from a NCO.

The new officers all received a really nice gift in a presentation by the Officer Christian Fellowship Minister ~ a gear tree engraved with their last name on one side, and NCSU 2007 on the other side.

A second Joint Commissioning Ceremony was held on Wednesday afternoon, this time for all 4 branches ~ Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. Both ceremonies were very impressive. I am so proud of my son, both for what he has accomplished over the last four years and for what he has committed to do over the next four years. My parents and niece were here from MA for the festivities as well. Alex is their first grandchild, so this was very special for them as well.

Friday

Sarah, Bekah, and Alex all came home for Christmas break yesterday ~ but then Alex turned around and went back to his apartment on campus for the weekend. He realized that there wasn't going to be a car available for him to use anyway, since Mark and I have pretty busy schedules this weekend, so he might as well spend a few more days with his college buddies before everyone leaves campus and he graduates!

Amanda sings in the Raleigh Homeschool Girls Choir, and last night was their Christmas Concert! It was a quick 30 minutes, but they sounded wonderful! Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the family at Taco Bell, where they were eating after Eric's basketball game at Franklin Academy. It was one of those "divide and conquer" evenings ~ mom & dad couldn't be at both activities at the same time.

This morning was our TOG Co-op. We moved locations ~ we had been meeting at a small house on our church property which is used for Sunday School space. It was wonderful to have that place to meet, and we didn't have to worry about bothering anyone or making messes, so long as we cleaned up after ourselves. Well, the house's water and septic systems aren't doing so well, so we had to move into the main church building. We really appreciate that we were allowed to do that, since the church is very descriminating in allowing anyone to use the facility. We moms are a bit nervous about the new arrangement, but I think it went fine today. The first question the boys asked when we told them we were moving to the big church was "where are we going to play football?"!!! They have a weekly contest during our lunch hour, and had been playing on the house lawn. But all is well, because there is a small playing field adjacent to the church building as well. It is getting a bit difficult for all of us to get through the TOG reading and assignments at this time of year, with so many holiday preparations and activities going on. We will meet next week, and then take a 2 week break. We are expecting to get back into the groove after the holidays!

After Co-op, we headed to Creedmore for JV basketball games. Amanda's team played a tough game, doing much better against the Christian Faith Center team than during the previous two meetings. Amanda played great, although she is being bothered by a very sore foot ~ I think she might have a strained tendon or something like that on the side of her right foot. Mark wanted to stay and watch the JV boys play, but we had to get Amanda to our children's pastor's house where she was babysitting 9 children for the evening, while the parents enjoyed fellowship downstairs!

Sarah was planted in front of the TV tonight watching her college team, the Appalachian State University Mountaineers, win the NCAA Div. I Football Championship against the Delaware Blue Hens, 49-21!
CONGRATULATIONS, ASU!

Oh, and we finally got the ornaments on the Christmas tree tonight! We HAD to wait for Sarah to get home from school....I'll take a picture tomorrow!

Football Fever?

We are a basketball family. ACC basketball rules in this house, my husband coaches my son's varsity homeschool basketball team, my kids all play basketball, we watch college basketball on TV (but no NBA!) None of us has ever cared much for football , although my oldest son has become a Carolina Panthers fan since he's been away at college. So what was all that noise going on in the TV Room Saturday afternoon ~ screams and groans and excited shouts coming from my 19-year-old daughter as she sat watching football scores scroll across the bottom of the TV screen? Well, it seems that a certain football team from little ole' Appalachian State University was pulling off the biggest upset in NCAA football history by beating the Michigan ( BIG TEN!) Wolverines! We don't get the channel that carried the game, so she had to follow what was happening by the scrolling scores and the astonished discussion of the ESPN commentators!
Way to go, Mountaineers!