Reunion Weekend Whirlwind

It's been an absolutely crazy week for me--it seems like everything fell on this weekend. My parents (from Ohio) are here, not so much to visit, though we're getting in a little of that, but for my dad's 50th class reunion at Wheaton College. Yes, he graduated in 1956--wow!

Before they could get into our guest room, though, I HAD to deal with the outgrown, out-of-season clothes I've been tossing in there; I've also been culling my shelves for stuff to sell at the homeschool used curriculum sale (this weekend, of course) and amassing it all in there. (I don't know what I'll do if we ever feel like we have to let a kid have that extra room.) So for the past week, when not attending funerals or birthday festivities (we had 9 extra children here for soccer, dinner, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe movie, and playing-guns-in-the-rain--the best part, they all said!) every spare minute I've been sorting and pricing and loading up my minivan. After they arrived, I took 4 boxes of stuff to sell at the curriculum sale, and 4 bags of stuff to the local charity resale shop. Felt so good--I'm praying that I'll only get back one box of stuff that didn't sell!

Yesterday I worked for 4 hours at the used curriculum sale, helping to organize it all by subject, and then I got to shop before the official sale began. We're going to use Sonlight's 3/4 and 100 level courses next year, and they are heavily literature-based. I was so pleased to pick up many of the books we'll be reading next year and a number of other things just for fun. (My greatest find--fellow homeschoolers aren't going to believe this unless you've just wanted shelf space more desperately than you wanted cash--was Saxon Math 87 with the teacher's book, for $2 (that's not a typo, it was TWO dollars), and Saxon 76, including the teacher book, for FREE! And they weren't even the really old editions. Thanks, Lord!)

Last night, I was scheduled as the Rehearsal Parent for the Tom Sawyer production we're involved with. I brought along my laptop and put on my other hat of Makeup Chairperson while I was there. What are we going to do with her hair? Who needs a haircut? Could he grow a moustache and sideburns? How many and what color beards and moustaches should I buy? It's so funny--I'm not that into hair and makeup, but I like this committee because I like the contact with the kids during the dress rehearsals and the shows. I'm growing to enjoy working with directors on the creative aspects of it more and more, though. Being a Chair is not too great of an administrative load on this committe either. I plan ahead like I did last night, but we can always make adjustments--that's what dress rehearsals are for. (Now The Wizard of Oz took some planning ahead--whew! I'll have to post some pictures sometime.) I have a great, now-experienced committee too--one of them ran a Makeup Clinic for new parents last week, without me! (Thanks, Denise!)

I need to prepare the Sunday School lesson for the first graders tomorrow--it will be my first week back after a break which began last year when I had our baby in February, and we have different curriculum now. Tomorrow we also have a church picnic, a piano recital (Bantams 7 & 11 will play), a quick dinner with friends whose kids are also in the recital and will be in the next event--a performance of a musical based on the story of Queen Esther, Malice in the Palace. I'd heard about this musical from my aunt in Texas (a faithful and encouraging reader of this blog!), who directed it at her church. Now our kids' friends (our friends' kids) are in it, so we're going, and my game-for-anything parents are going to trail around with us all day! But first my dad will walk with the class of 2006 at their Baccalaureate service--a special honor for the 50th year reunion class.

Any other Wheaties out there? My 20th is coming up next year. I can't imagine my 50th!

Time to pick up my kids from rehearsal--and re-enter my whirlwind weekend. Guess I'll have to study that Sunday School lesson...later.