June

The month of June was an insanely busy month for us. It's mostly Brynne's fault. Eli and I are content to just sit at home doing our thing. But that Brynne just has to be busy, so we let her drag us all around.

Here is a summary of our month:

My heart almost broke dropping her off the first day.

Brynne attended summer school this month. She studied math, English, genetics, and newspaper, and then took some elective courses including cooking, survival camp, and the building of a ground drone. The students took pre- and post-tests in math and English, and Brynne scored the highest in math of anyone in her class. If you are a homeschool mom I am sure you can relate to my feeling of relief not only that she did well but that apparently I have been an adequate enough teacher for her over the past 7 years. Really I am just so incredibly proud of her and am excited to see how she does in public school. I think she's going to knock their socks off.

I coached Brynne's softball team this year. We did not have a successful season in numbers ending with a 2-9 record, but we had several close games, learned a lot, and had fun, I hope. I have decided that being a coach is not my calling so I have demoted myself back down to dugout mom and secretary for next year and am going to let this year's assistant coach take over. (In all honesty, I only agreed to coach this year because there wasn't anybody else to do it. Motivating mom, I am. Technical coach, I am not.) The team sure was cute, though! And, Brynne really blossomed this year in softball! She found that she is an excellent 3rd baseman, moving there from 2nd base. And she was without a doubt our most consistent hitter, hitting the ball at almost every single at bat this year. She rocked!

I am the slowest runner .. but I actually beat a few people!

The first Saturday in June I went to visit my blogging-turned-in-real-life friend, Jodi, who used to live in West Virginia but now only lives two hours away from me. We had such a nice time just talking, eating, drinking wine, and antique shopping. She also supported me in a 5k for Pathways Community Health as we have one of their facilities in our town. I beat my personal record by about a minute.

Brynne participated in two volleyball camps and a basketball camp at University of Central Missouri. She always walks away from those camps a better player.

While Brynne was at summer school and various camps, Eli was staying up late and sleeping till lunchtime. In the afternoons he did some schoolwork. We have continued on with our daily Fix It Grammar lessons, he has read every day from 30 minutes to 1 hour, and he started a new online math class with Mr. D. Can I just say THANK YOU LORD FOR MR. D!!! Eli has only been participating for two weeks but he has actually been smiling when he finishes his lessons each day! He said that Mr. D is the ticket for math. Thank goodness! Eli has also been going to speech therapy, and next week our family is traveling to Dallas to attend the National Stuttering Association national conference for the first time. He is really excited about that!

On Friday nights we are participating in a family bowling league. It's fun to play 9 pin and win a little money. The kids are really enjoying it!

We have had some visits from Dawson and Alyssa. They are moving to Dallas starting this weekend so seeing them has been good for our souls.

Older brothers rock.

Finally, Brynne celebrated her birthday a little early with a swimming party and sleepover at Kyndal's. One of her friends is moving away this summer, so she wanted to have her party before she moves. The girls had a great time swimming, playing washers and dodgeball, and making tie dye shirts. Twelve year old girls are fun!

And that was our month! Brynne is done with summer school and softball now, but that doesn't mean our July looks any less busy.