The delightful, grand and frustrating: my last two months

My sister Claire informed me that I need to update my blog. Has it really been two months since I wrote last? Here are some highlights:

My list of students has grown to 14 from 2. Praise to God for this since I was really wondering if I would be able to get students at the start of summer. I have a nice mix of kids, teens and adults. They are a pretty interesting and fun lot.

Finished Spring quarter and that darn American Lit. Class -what a waste of time! I appreciate a lot of American authors (like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain) but in this class, we read and discussed more fashionably elite and politically acceptable writers whose works focused primarily on how their ethnicity, background, dysfunctional family and/or strange ideas of reality has left them damaged and unable to be productive and happy. Every short story we read dealt with the seamy underside of life in America: it distorted the country I know and love into a land of oppression, injustice and idiocy. I won't deny all absence of these things but sheesh- there are good qualities too! Argh. That class was frustrating.

Attended the Bradrick family picnic this past weekend! I so enjoyed meeting some new and old friends and hearing about their lives and dreams. There are godly young people out there who have character, intelligence and creativity- these people are inspiring! A low point of the day was when Sarah Cowles and I tried the three legged race and lost horribly- sorry Sarah, that was quite an embarrassment. The high point was when I tied for the grand prize in the pie contest. What a shocker! I had labored over a pecan chocolate chip pie (wish I'd taken a picture now) but more with the hope that I wouldn't be terribly put to shame by the other bakers. Imagine my joy to hear that I had tied for top prize! Claire took 1st place in the "other" category (non-fruit) for her lemon cream pie so we have two beautiful ribbons at home. Here's the truth though: I was pressed for time when I made the pie so I used a pie crust MADE BY CLAIRE from the freezer. Obviously, top prize really goes to Claire.

Here's to a productive summer! I am going to start posting some pics soon (wow, I am so high tech) since I've decided that pictures really make a blog more interesting. Kudos to Paige, Allison, Sherri and Claire for showing me the way to a better blog!