Make The Most Of Your Special Day....Week....Month....year....

Being that it's graduation season, and I am partaking in the excitement this year, I deem it appropriate to post something of this category! 

Being a homeschool graduate is great, because even when you graduate you can never stop being homeschooled or homeschooling yourself. When your every day life is learning, you never stop! The same goes for public-schoolers too, I know.

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Most everyone asks about college, so here you go, and you're welcome.

I got my "home-college" assignments long before I finished my last schoolbook, and I've already started in on this exercise of Home Management. It's all fine and nice (and really wonderful) to know how to cook, or do your own laundry, or keep your little brothers busy with school when your mom is gone to town. It's also great to be able to clean a toilet or organize a kitchen cupboard. 

But can you do all those things, (plus shopping, hospitality, menu planning, more cleaning, dishes, more cleaning, AND self care) all by yourself, all day, week, month, long, without help? Well, that is what my parents wanted to see, so I've started to gradually get into the project of being the main homemaker on Humphrey Hill. I haven't done a "complete takeover" yet but that is planned for a week, in a couple of weeks. 

Beyond this interesting and creative exercise, I am writing a book that is near to being stamped as a first-draft. I have been writing it for years actually, but my goal is to finish it this month and my goal is coming along nicely. I plan to publish it, and well, I don't know, but doesn't that sound college-like to you? 

Between these things, perhaps starting a business, improving my skills with musical instruments, some travel Lord Willing, and daily life (don't forget the new ideas that pop up from time to time) I'm busy!

Oh, I didn't mention sewing in that list, but it deserves a place there and I have some projects planned for this summer. I am working on an A-line dress made with a very slippery imitation wool dobby fabric, a first experience working with specialty cloth. So far I don't like sewing with specialty cloth - please give me back the cotton I was raised with!!

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There are so many fun ways to celebrate life accomplishments like graduations. We're having a family camp-out complete with hot-dogs, s'mores, snacks, and a river with 1,110 rocks to maneuver in a kayak. In addition to this, my mom and I have been scheming a girl's day out to "do the shops" in our local quaint, charming little town. But there are so many more ways to celebrate!

Most everyone has a party* with their friends and family when they graduate. Will you have a themed party or a free-for-all fun party? 

*Note: Parties do not have to be wild; in fact, as you already know, parties are more fun to look back on when you don't have to regret being stupid and childish as a celebration of your adulthood.

Many graduates are into sports. ("Ah, all that youthful energy," sigh the visiting grandparents.)

If your family or friends are collectors of outdoor games, I can think of few things better than having a evening of back-yard sports, when it's deliciously warmish-cool outside. Don't forget your coolers of fun pops and juices and iced teas. 

Of course, not everyone is into passionately flinging objects at other passionate people and expecting them to catch those objects, screeching hysterically when they do and when they don't. If you are one of those young persons who would rather sit with dignity in a decorated room and have a fun, interesting conversation with others your age, I think you would enjoy an Afternoon Tea or Literary Dinner. Of course, you can't really stay inside the house on a nice summer evening, so a game of croquet or a stroll about the grounds might benefit your party.

There are also those in-between people who don't fit in either box. They are serious hikers, outdoorsmen & women, fishermen. Sometimes they are the kind of people who would rather not bring 15 teenagers on a fishing trip, and instead would enjoy a group hike in an amazing location they've been wanting to see for awhile, or an organized white-water rafting trip with a picnic or hotdog roast at the end. 

Anyhow, whatever way you celebrate, (and I would happily celebrate all 3 ways) keep in mind that the celebrating ain't over when the guests leave. Entering a new time of life is exciting! And since that was so completely cliché, let me put it another way: Celebration, when done right, is so, so good for people. A merry heart does good like medicine, and celebrating, when done right, brings family together and friends together and strengthens important relationships with the bond of happy memories. Ever since I was born I've been one of those kids that wanted to make a cake for most everything, and I'm not stopping now. I love what God has given me in my life, and though I don't need a special reason to make my life, and my family's life, special, I've got one now so I want to milk this one for all it's worth!

Which could mean many things*: bribing my brother to take me hiking, baking that basket weave cake and giving brother No.'s 4 & 5 the icing bowl to lick out, buying those long-needed organizers for my fabric shelf, taking a walk through the tall, stickery grass at sunset and just enjoying being God's happy creature in His creation.

(*Here's the translation of this thought: "Ooooh! I just LOVE this planner!! Oh, I'm graduating. I'll get it. And those chocolates look so good that I should really get them for myself for graduating. I really, really don't want to do the dishes right now. I'll ask [un-named brother] to do them for me since I'm graduating.)

Just kidding - sorta. Don't get any bad ideas!

Congratulations on your accomplishment, whether it's finishing high school, 9th grade, your new dress, a project, or that pile o'dishes that's indwelt the kitchen for a week.

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey