The end is in sight... sort of

It's been a long year. For those who have followed you know that last year at this time I was very sick... mono, CFS and FM. This year, although I wouldn't say I'm 100%, I feel so much better. That's not to say there haven't been hard days, but over all a big improvement. And, there's been an incredible improvement in attitudes as well.

MMH was just baptized, and joined the church. That was a huge thing, and the fact that it happened on Mothers' Day made it all the sweeter. WeeOne has been learning about stepping out and stretching her world. When Big Sis had to quit track WeeOne was NOT happy, but she stuck with it, and made new friends. And academically I've also seen such huge strides.

I did take a very low profile in teaching for our Friday co-op. I only taught art this year, which I believe makes for 7 years in a row of teaching art. But, praise God, I'm done with art, at least for now, and next year have the joy of teaching 2 or 3 high school classes: 2 semesters of communications, 1 semester of missions based reading and perhaps a year of "The Fallacy Detective." Exciting stuff. At least to me.

Back to this year... one of the focuses in art this year was photography. We began with a full 10 weeks or so of photography under my tutelage, and then just finished 5 weeks this past Friday under Kristin Peters, who does photography on the side. Such a nice end to the year!

Anyway, thought you all might enjoy a few of the kids photos, so enjoy! Part of these last five weeks was learning to alter the photos, and currently we're using a free trial of Adobe Photoshop Elements. What a toy! (The first three are by WeeOne, shot at the local university. The last shots are by MMH, and are explained below.)

Just a quick note on MMH's rose photos... we had a special time for just the high school students. I supplied them each with a rose and told them to try as many shots as they could think of taking... these were just a few of MMH's shots. Quite gorgeous I think!

Anyway, we have just completed our Friday co-op, have two days of standardized testing and 2 weeks left in Western Civ. After that it's just math for the summer, as usual. So, by the end of May we'll basically be done. I'm so grateful, as last year at this time I wasn't even sure I could do another year. The Lord has been gracious, and not only restored much of my energy, but is renewing in me the desire to teach. (As long as it's not art!)

Shalom,
Kim