We found a car for son-and-heir to drive and purchased it. It is a nice older model Honda sedan. A much smaller car than anything he has ever driven (to date he has driven an old Chevy truck and our Pontiac Minivan), He is happy to have something that won't eat up so much of his paycheck in gas, and we are happy to have his transportation issues sorted out long before we have to leave.
Our oldest daughter's car was broken into outside her boyfriend's apartment. She had left the money from the paycheck from her second job loose in her purse on the back seat, but had taken her billfold into the house with her. The thief got away with about $120 in hard earned income. She was in tears when she told me about it this morning. She called the police and reported the break in and was informed by the police receptionist that she herself had a car broken into in the same neighborhood. Sadly, another hard lesson about how to handle money learned by our dear daughter. Now she has to work twice as hard this week to make up for the money she lost so that she can pay her bills (like rent on the apartment she isn't living in, but that is another sad tale).
Our beautiful autistic daughter (the one in the middle) has spent and exhausting year since she graduated from High School trying to find a job and unfortunately for her no one in this liberal and progressive college town would give her a job. She must have filled out fifty applications and went on interview after interview, but nothing turned up after almost an entire year of trying. In trying to make lemonade out of this whole mess, we have decided that she should come with us to Florida for the summer, and then we can continue the job search when we return in August. Much to my delight she went to the website and applied for admission to the local community college and was accepted all on her own and will be taking classes there in the fall as well. In many ways this year has been one of a lot of growth for her. The adversity and rejection has made her much stronger and more determined to make it on her own terms.
Graduating daughter decided that she wants a party, so the day before we leave for Florida we are going to have an open house (call me crazy but I think she should get some sort of party no matter how crazy the timing may seem). I am planning on saving myself loads of trouble by catering in all but a few of the food items -- mrangelmeg will man the grill for burgers and dogs, and I will make brownies the day before for dessert -- the rest will be from our local deli.
The angelbaby is going to miss her week long religious education class, which is the bulk of her mandatory hours for the year in the program at our parish and is always scheduled for the first full week after the school year is over. If she doesn't go she is supposed to be held back and not allowed to register for the next grade level in the fall. Although when we read the bulletin this weekend the wording about this exact topic was vaguely ambiguous (I believe the exact phrase was that missing the week would render your child unprepared for the next level of study or a sentiment similar to that, which is much more open to interpretation as to whether or not the child is actually held back or allowed to progress unprepared. I sent a letter to the DRE with a cc to the Pastor suggesting that since I have my Catechist certification and a Masters in Theology I would be willing to present the fifth grade curriculum to my daughter while we are away so that she doesn't fall behind. We plan to make it a part of our schedule, a bit each day exploring the topics that the Archdiocesan Curriculum suggests that fifth graders should know.
I have spent some of the weekend scanning pictures of the kids when they were very small for a surprise for graduating daughter's party. I am going to put together a slide show of pictures of her throughout the years to run on the computer during the party. It has been a lot of fun looking at all these old pictures and remembering when the kids were that small (especially since all but the angelbaby tower over me now).
Mrangelmeg and I are in our twenty-fifth year as man and wife. Our vocation is stronger every day because of the little details we share. Yesterday we went to the YMCA together for a workout (he on his own, me with my trainer) and then home to putter about doing our jobs around the house. After dinner we actually got to spend some time watching television together. We enjoyed the first part of the new The Andromeda Strain and are looking forward to the second part tonight. Although I will say that some off the digs at the present administration were a bit heavy handed, the additions to the story to flesh it out to a four hour mini-series have been at least creative and fun to watch. Or maybe it was just because I got to spend two hours sitting with mrangelmeg. Who cares, I get to spend another two hours tonight sitting next to him while we watch the final two hours. Sounds like a win-win to me.
My week is packed with details leading up to graduation on Friday, Party on Saturday, leaving on Sunday (and making sure that my two adult children who are staying here have all the instructions they need to be safe and secure while we are gone). Hope you all have a blessed week.
Pax
No comments:
Post a Comment