OK.  It seems so distant to post to my journal that I almost forgot how to login.  Suffice it to say that life has been pretty busy.

David has completed another semester at college, earning a 4.0 for the semester.  His cumulative GPA is 3.84, which I understand is nothing to sneeze at. Speaking of sneezing, it seems he as a cold right now.  We are praying he'll get rid of it soon.  He has applied at a temp agency to get an office job for the summer only.  Then in late August, it's back to the books.  He should graduate in May 2010.

Michael and I are still homeschooling.  He's finishing up 3rd grade over the summer.  He would have finished sooner, but we had a couple of interruptions over the course of the school year.  He got a cold in early March that was progressing towards bronchitis.  Since he'd previously had pneumonia the year before, we didn't want to see him move anywhere close in that direction.  His doctor prescribed an antibiotic and he began to rebound very quickly.

Just after Michael started that prescription, we got word that my grandmother was dying.  David was on Spring break, but needed to do a take-home exam and homework, plus lab reports and more studying.  Michael and I went to see my grandmother, in another state, before it was her time to go.  David wanted to go too, but couldn't.  My Grandma went home to be with the Lord the day after we arrived and spent time with her.  She was 84.  I know we will see her again.  I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Love you, Grandma and Grandpa

Michael and I stayed with my mother for a week afterwards, until we had to go home because David's break was over and needed to be back in school the next day.  I wish I had been able to visit with my grandmother more than I could.

After we arrived back home, it was hard getting back into the daily schedule of homeschool.  We were finally able to get back to it fully within a week.  Michael has been plugging away at it ever since.  He's learned to write all his letters in cursive, and has been practicing writing assigned words (in cursive).  Here's a scan of his first attempt at writing his first name...

For being 7 years old, I think that's pretty good!  Michael is also enjoying getting back into multiplication.  He learned it late summer last year, but his 3rd grade math book took him back to reviewing addition and subtraction.  He was glad when they finally came to multiplication, and soon it takes him into division ... like sometime this week.  That will be new.  Later yet, he gets to review fractions, which he enjoys.

I've been looking for a full-time (or nearly full-time) job myself, in addition to homeschooling and the part-time job at the studio.  I need a job where I can work 8 PM until 2 AM, six days a week.  Those hours will accomodate David's work or school schedule for the next couple of years.  Then, I won't need to work!  I've been toying with the idea of either that or else going into business for myself, in portraiture, of course.  But, I'm not sure yet what to do.  If I did go into business for myself, I'd have to do it different hours of course, but I could earn more in less time too.

Last weekend, we went on our congregation's retreat for the first time.  It was a lot of fun.  Michael was beside himself, getting to spend about 3 days with his girl friend from our congregation.  They played together at the playground, went to the pool together, ate together, were in the same class for the children, danced together ... and generally followed each other around most of the time.  Besides getting to know some of the people from our congregation better, we met new friends and saw some old friends from our previous congregation.  (It was a joint event.)  One family travelled in from the midwest!  I was very glad to make their acquaintence.  Very nice family...

Well, Michael has finally woken up, so it's time to start our school day.