I Love My Dad's Job

Well, at least one of my dad's 'occupations' since he also is one of the pastors in our church. Janelle here writing to say that I LOVE my dad's other job as an educational consultant. Want to know why? When he travels, I can sometimes go along to some really cool places.

So this morning I find out that I'm going TO THE WHITE HOUSE tomorrow! Woohoo!!

Okay, actually it's the White House complex, but it's just about the same thing right?

We'll be attending a policy briefing on "The Dropout Epidemic in the U.S." Whoa. Sounds very important and Mom says that even if it's over my head, I should pay attention. And, I may get to meet Colin Powell's wife who is speaking. There will only be about 100 attendees, so maybe I'll get a shot at a picture or something! It all seems very intriguing to me and I'm very excited to go! We even had to send in my full name, SSN and date of birth for security reasons and have to show up early to get checked out.

This is definitely a super cool field trip. I'm going to try and convince Jackie to go along as well, since permission was given for both of us to attend. I'll tell you more about it & post pictures if I can get any. Tootles!

Less Than 30 School Days....

....until graduation!! Hello once again everyone, it's Jackie the senior here.

Yes, only a precious few more days of this side of my educational journey. A few more busy days as well! There are exams coming up, end of the year activities, grad practices and all of the like. It's a full month and somewhere in there my family also has stuff going on--Mother's Day plans and our my dad's annual extended family reunion. So, it's going to be a fun time as you can tell!

I've been getting a little tired of everyone asking me what I'm doing after high school. Specifically, where am I going to college and what am I studying?? {sigh}

Now, don't get me wrong, I want to go and have a sketch of a plan, but the pressure to 'have it all together' is a bit much. Fortunately, my parents & I are of the viewpoint that I don't have to figure it all out before September! Right now, their strong encouragement is that I finish well. Then, take a breath over the summer and start some general courses in the fall...all the while pausing, thinking, praying and discerning. I think I'll do that! This summer I'm especially excited to have a part in the musical The King and I at a local theatre; Janelle got a part as well, so get to share that together.

On another note, Mom and I are busy talking & sharing about plans for the upcoming celebrations, namely my grad party and my blessing party. In our home at age 13, 18 (which I'll be this summer!!) & before we get married (which is NOT on my agenda right now) we have a time of blessing with our parents and other significant adults who have been people of influence in our lives. My 2nd round of blessing is coming up and besides my dad who will be there at the beginning, it's all women involved.

I plan to make it very feminine and full of pastels (because I still love the color pink), and am browsing through magazines for ideas. See the pics--either of these might be a style for the invitations. We've already contacted the about 10-13 women who are invited to 'save the date', but haven't sent out formal invites yet. What do you think?

above: the one on the left with the ribbon & twigs?

below: this one in pastels?

The blessing party is at the end of June & will be in our home, so I'm also thinking of decorating some with florals....we thought this was a cool idea to do around the ceiling, except that the word would NOT be 'fairy'!!


Well, it's time to make up our minds Mom says! So, I need to figure all that out.

My parents are also letting me have a drop-in party for friends at the end of May (volleyball, outdoor games, FOOD, and such), AND a brunch for our family members that come for the actual graduation event on June 5th. THREE special times of celebration...yeah!

So, instead of blogging--let me get to my party planning. See ya!

Time to Plant!

Both children are SO excited to get these into pots! We'll keep updating.

Spring Science

Since the talk around our home is about gardening, we thought it would be a good idea to post some of our favorite books on the topic! These have been checked out of the library, so hint, hint grandparents--we don't own them and would love to! No pressure or anything.

Roots Shoots Buckets & Boots ~ a great book on gardening together with our parents! Fun and informative as well. We really like this one.

Up, Down, and Around ~ wonderful for preschoolers! Here we learned about veggies that grow underground, some that grow above ground and others that grown all around the garden.

The Vegetables We Eat ~ a good source of info on how various veggies are grown and then the process of how they get to our grocery store. We learned much about how botanists catagorize veggies--by the part that we eat: tuber, leaf, stem, bulb, flower bud, root, seed, or fruit.

A Seed is Sleepy ~ this is Mom's personal favorite, you can find her looking through it on her own! This book has gorgeous illustrations and information on seeds and their 'abilities'. Such as...a seed is clever: it knows to seek the sunlight, to push itself up, up, up through the soil.

In all of this talk and reading, Mom has also explained that God planned for seeds to do their job from the very beginning of creation. Isn't that amazing? He made every tree, every plant, every fruit with the ability to make more of itself. That way, He wouldn't have to keep speaking words of creation every time we needed more fruit or another tree somewhere. In one word, He planned for it to go on, and on, and on....Wow! How super-duper intelligent of God!!

Oh, one more book: One Bean, which inspired this project:

We're growing beans! A bean is a seed that we can eat; and we started it off by placing two between wet paper towels. Their hard skin will get soft and wrinkly and begin to sprout. We'll update as we go along!

Boyhood

exploring, seeking, playing, finding...water, sunshine, tall grasses & rocks.

and one little boy enjoying it all.

Jordyn, The Domestic Diva

I love to help Mom out and am often on the lookout for ways to get involved around the house. I especially enjoy cooking. Fortunately, Mama doesn't mind me slowing her down with my numerous questions--yeah!

More recently, I asked to learn embroidery. Mom is working slowly at teaching herself and it seems interesting to me. So off we went to get some sturdy burlap material and a tapestry needle (it's pretty blunt); I chose my thread from Mom's stash and voila! Lots of fun going on.

idea of how to teach children embroidery from The Creative Family

Hello Again!

We're back after an intentional break! Let's try several little posts about what's been going on instead of one really way-too-long one, shall we?

First, Janelle's show was GREAT! She did an excellent job throughout all 12 performances and has fallen in 'love' with acting, singing and all that jazz. If you enjoyed Schoolhouse Rock from the 70s and 80s, you would have loved the show--75 kids singing their hearts out to the famous 'Conjunction Junction', 'Interjections!' and many others. A favorite in our home, 'Just a Bill', is pictured below.

See her? Janelle is one of the many grumpy 'bills' stuck in committee!

Oh, yeah! Now they've been made into a law!

Confused? Well, check out the original Schoolhouse Rock cartoon & see how a bill becomes a law.

The theatre was wonderful to work with and made the job easy for parents. In the last few weeks, we heard about another audition and yes....Janelle AND Jackie decided to go for it. They both got cast into The King and I for this July! Exciting all around! We're looking forward to playing around with the face makeup needed to play the Asian parts. And, we've rented the original 1956 musical so that they can learn the songs. More on that as it develops!