Endings, Beginnings and Celebrations

It seems we are at a birthday party nearly every other week over the past two months.  It is a shame that my homeschooled children have so few opportunities for socialization.  (big snicker here folks!)  Saturday it was a party for a 4 year old. We are friends with the whole family who have kids ranging from 4 up to Rob's age.  There are also two near KC and Lissa's age.  We mesh well together, a couple of loud gaggles of kids and congenial parents.    KC had actually put a lot of thought into his gift for the little girl and she loved it which pleased him greatly.  Celebrations are so much fun for all of us!

Rob was not with us at the party, though as he and my wife were touring a college.He liked the campus.  It is much closer than his other college choice and I hope this works out.

Sunday was the Youth Group service at church.  Rob played an original piece that he wrote for the prelude. Very jazzy sounding, and very beautiful. I am honored that he shares himself through his music with us.  He also played the opening hymn.  I was so proud of him.  Reading music is harder for him. He tends to memorize pieces as opposed to reading the music.  He didn't have a lot of time to learn this piece and though he made a few mistakes, what I was proud of was that he was courageous enough to try. There was a time when just the thought of flubbing anything in front of people would have made him refrain from stretching and trying at all.  It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this is the last Youth Group service that he will participate in.

This afternoon he spent his time at his girl friends house.  I confess to some parental concerns over his girl friend's behavior lately.  She seems to need a lot of adoration and adulation. To further that in her life she has begun bringing a young male friend to church with her.  Said young male is clearly smitten by her and hangs all over her.  Rob has been handling this with far more grace and maturity than I think I had at that age. At least I am hoping it is grace and maturity and not naivity. . .   I keep reminding myself that this is his life lesson to learn, which is hard for this momma.

While he was gone, the littles and I set up our Lucky Leprecaun art gallery.  KC this year found it easier (thank you goddess) to edit his work and actually willingly disposed of a few obviously unfinished sketches or pieces that he knew were just practice and not up to his usual quality.  He helped me to decide how to group the art. This year we have a wall of abstract and modernism, and a wall of mixed media.  The latter has become increasingly his passion.  He loves to use oils or markers and then embellish or deepen the art with stickers, or cut out pieces of paper, tissue paper layers etc.  Then there is a long wall that encompasses, holiday art, nature, and his growing passion for drawing comics.  To be sure the other kids have art in this display as well, but for the most part this is KC's passion.  He even made the Lucky Leprecaun Art Gallery sign on the computer this year, almost without help.

I'll try to remember to take some pics to share at some point!