Robert Graduates!

Robert graduated from high school yesterday. I was unemotional about it all until we were at the ceremony, and the music started. Then it hit me: what a journey this was!

You see, Robert had some trouble at school starting in 5th grade. We didn't know it at the time, but he had a mild learning disability which was causing lots of problems for him at school. Plus he was being bullied. This all came out one night when Robert, not quite 11 years old, broke down in tears begging to be homeschooled because he couldn't stand it anymore. Homeschooling was something I had been thinking about and looking into anyway as a maybe for subsequent years, but it was not something I was considering for right then.

But after a frustrating experience dealing with the public school, particularly about the bullying issue, we went ahead. Kristin ended up joining us after the first year, an arm fractured in two places confined her to home with a tutor from the public school coming over weekly; she ended up liking what she saw with homeschooling, and finished junior high and high school at home. We had to spend many months building up Robert's self-esteem, as he felt "stupid" because there were certain things he could not do well. So our initial months were very free.

We became members of the Field Museum in Chicago and went there almost every other week (they have an excellent learning library for teachers, both regular, and homeschool, where boxes of learning aids and collections can be checked out for three weeks at a time). We joined two homeschool groups, one Christian, one secular, and attended group classes with other families. Most notable were homeschool fitness classes at Lifetime Fitness, a marvelous Shakespeare class, that both Kristin and Robert attended for several years, and a innovative video history class one of the other moms designed that Kristin and I went to. Robert did get some LD assistance through the public school in 8th grade, for English class; he attended one class at the junior high and had a specialist help him out. Homeschooling was a wonderful experience for us. It was a blessing for both Kristin and Robert, and for us as a family.

As Robert got older and felt more confident, he eventually felt that he wanted to try going back to school outside the home. He started high school at Loyola Academy, went there for two years, and then spent his last two years at New Trier. I am so happy to report that Robert learned to work around his disability. His writing and penmanship will probably always not be his strong suit, but he got really good grades in high school, was named a member of the Honor Society, and got a partial scholarship to De Paul University.

So, you can perhaps understand why I was fighting to hold back tears at the ceremony yesterday. And when it was all done, and a smiling Robert, handsome in his white tux, met us outside the auditorium among the crush of all of the other happy graduates and their families, why I did cry a little bit!

Garden Plan 2011

With my surgery and the bad weather, gardening has been very delayed. I am really not supposed to do any strenuous digging for 12 weeks. I am allowed to put plants in planters, provided the soil is loose. And I can do a little in the square-foot garden (again as long as the soil has been loosened up by Paul ahead of time). On Memorial Day, we went to the local parade, then spent the afternoon in the garden. Tyler and I walked to the nearby Jewel and picked up tomato and pepper plants. At least those are in the garden now:

I have made a plan for other seedlings and seeds to be planted, which I hope to get a lot of done today:

Then there are more pretty flowers for planters and for the corners of the square-foot boxes:

Spring Flowers

After living through an entire springtime of almost no good weather, we finally had a nice break. We can finally appreciate this:

Rhododendron

Lily of the Valley

Iris

Economical Beauty

A while back I went to an Arbonne party at a friend's house. I loved the products and started using the facial products they have. The trouble is, they are very expensive. I have been gradually replacing my facial regimen with less expensive, but still good quality products. The thought of giving up the toner in its spray bottle was hard for me. I just loved it, used it after cleansing and for a quick spritz now and then. I finally realized that it was the spray action and the smell of witch hazel that was truly behind my love of this product. So I bought some Humphreys Hydrating Toner for a fraction of the cost, and poured it into the empty Arbonne spritzer. Voila!

Jammin'

Here are Paul and Tyler practicing violin together. We have discovered that Tyler likes to walk about as he bows. As long as he is walking, he plays the rhythms ("Mississippi-hotdog", and "run-pony run-pony") very well and concentrates on his practice. What's really amazing is to see Paul playing a musical instrument. But, anything for the boy!

P.S. Look at the creepy cat eyes in the background!

A Fruitful Day and a Mystery Bird

After going to bed early last night, I awoke at 6:00 am, unable to sleep an longer (this almost never happens to me!). I was able to do some light housekeeping tasks while the rest of the family slept, and get Tyler fed when he woke up about a half hour later. I then got him set with his current movie obsession (Toy Story I - he had seen it before but is finally aware of the sinister Sid, and wants to watch this movie again and again), and went out for a long, energetic walk. I stopped at the grocery on the way home for a few things, had breakfast with Paul and saw him off to work. I was able to fit in some time with a Bible study I have be wanting to continue for a long time. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was errands; I am driving again after two weeks off.

When we got home, Kristin, who had been weeding part of the garden, showed me some photos she took of an unusual bird in our cherry tree that neither of us had ever seen before. He was black with an orange front, and had an unusual call. While I was planting flowers in a planter, I saw this bird myself. How lovely he was! We are guessing he is a Baltimore Oriole:

Bird in Flight:

Finally I took Tyler to the park, the one he calls "Bratty Gwel Park" due to the rather rude little girls who were there the one and only time we had gone before. This time there was a nice little boy, who played with him. Perhaps we can rename it to "Nice Boy Park"!

Busy Weekend

This past weekend included both Prom for Robert, and Mother's Day for Julie and me. Getting Robert ready for for Prom was fun for me: just in helping him with this totally un-Robert-like event, and for the gentle razzing I gave him. I was glad to offer pearls of wisdom on gentlemanly behavior, and corsages and such. I also had fun teasing him a bit about meeting the young lady's family and all of the potential hazards that could go along with that (stumbling up the stairs on the way to the door, being unable to think of what to say). But Robert handled it all with grace, and they both had a wonderful time. Here they are at a friend's for pre-Prom photos:

The following day was Mother's Day. I was having a hard time at first, in spite of the lovely breakfast and gifts I received. I had been trying to reduce my pain medication, but this was a terrible idea, as my post-surgical pain became very bad. I felt very helpless, like this would all be forever, that I was old, and other depressing thoughts like that. I rested a bit, then we all went out to dinner together. Finally, Paul and I had some quiet time together which really has been missing these past two weeks. He has been so busy doing the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively) around here, and taking care of me and Tyler. There was no time for us. So it ended up being a very nice Mother's Day, and gave me a good start to this week with feelings of hope and happiness.