A school year in a box. I finally finished assembling last year's transcript, so of course now it's on to planning next year. Eek.
365_2018, homeschooling If you light it, they will come. (And they did...eventually).
365_2018, friends, neighborhood Anniversary drinks. Fifteen years.
I've been seeing a lot of posts on facebook lately about anniversaries and the passing of years, probably because summer is wedding season. Posts like "First anniversary: roses, chocolate, expensive dinner out; Umpteenth anniversary: move over, you're hogging the couch". Thanks to leap year, our first anniversary fell on a Monday, and in the beginning of tech week for a musical theater production that Jon was the musical director of. We spent it mostly apart, and enjoyed fondu and champagne in our wedding flutes, seated on the floor at our coffee table, in our pajamas, when he finally got home around 10:30. That same production stilted our first two anniversaries. A newborn curtailed celebrating the third (we actually went to a restaurant but ended up bringing our dinner home because he was upset with at grandparents'). I honestly don't remember each and every anniversary through the years, but all of them, including fondu on the floor and a dinner cut short by a needy baby, were heartfelt and meaningful. All of them.
But there is a difference between year one and year fifteen, to the extent that we this year we plum forgot. It was a busy week. The 4H Youth Show was a drain all week, and Jon has been busy preparing for a presentation he is giving in Virginia next week, so I don't think it was so much that we forgot our anniversary as that we didn't even know what day it was, or up from down or left from right. My first clue came when a package was delivered from my parents, who have been out of town. I was perplexed at first. Why go to such effort to have it delivered then and there? An anniversary card? Whose anniversary is it? Oops.
I texted Jon when I realized at 3:30:
Me: Did you remember it was our anniversary?
Jon: I'm on my way, did you want to go out for a drink?
Me: That doesn't answer my question...
Jon: No
And that's fifteen years for you. Fifteen good years of being partners in crime that add up to it not mattering if both, or even just one, of us forgets the date, because we're still the same great partners. But we did get to go out for that drink. Cheers.
We are not what most people think of as a 4H family. I know growing up I was only vaguely aware of 4H as a thing, and to me it was a farm thing. It was for the kids who raised cows and pigs with slaughter as an end goal. In later years I realized it also included kids with other farm animals, like horses and chickens. But it wasn't until my adult, parenting life that I learned how much more 4H is. If you're like me, going through life with only a cursory understanding of 4H, here's the skinny: it's an umbrella organization that provides guidance, support, and insurance to clubs in exchange for dues paid and a pledge of complete tolerance, open acceptance, and dedication to helping children grow and learn in any area they choose. It's actually a perfect fit for organizations like our secular, inclusive homeschooling club even though none of us are raising animals (or at least not under the 4H eye).
The 4H year culminates in their annual youth show. Held in the last week of July just as crops are coming in and animals are fattening up, the show is an opportunity for kids to show off their projects from the year, be that cow, pig, horse, or a Lego Robotics kit. Our club submits a plethora of what are called stills projects, or projects that are not living and breathing. This year nine of our kids submitted a total of 58 projects, earning 55 A ratings, 18 Honors distinctions, and 9 Best in Shows. Calvin was responsible for 12 of those projects, 9 of the Honors distinctions, and 3 of the Best in Shows, and he's already planning his work for next year...
365_2018, 4H, homeschool group 