Seven Quick Takes: Bugs, Meatballs, and Graduation

1. With the emergence of the magicicadas (full post on that tomorrow), we have been fascinated with all things cicada, especially their beautiful wings.

I traced Oob on the driveway, then gave him cicada wings!

Then Choclo wanted bird wings.

Easy and fun!  Having older kids, I really relish the chance to do some younger kids' stuff before they also grow out of it. Sniff!

2. I got a new garden for my birthday!

The kids moved 2 cubic yards of compost as I directed them, and my dear FIL had me pick out plants at my favorite gardening center.

It's across the lawn from my "dream garden" which I planted 18 months ago and now looks like this.

4. I made spaghetti in meatballs!

I kind of pranked the Zoomlians with these, but they were so fun!

You just stick uncooked spaghetti through the meatballs, then boil them like you would regular spaghetti (meat balls and all). I used thawed store bought meatballs, but I'm sure you could do them with home made.

And a tip of the hat to Leena, who gave me the idea!

5. The Emperor and I actually left the kids on their own overnight for the first time ever, and they were all alive when we came back! The house was even cleaner than when we left!

The special occasion was a trip to Pittsburgh for the Nebulas to see my dear FIL receive a posthumous award for my dear MIL, the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award.  

I'm the one in blue

While I was there, I got to see my favorite living writer, Mary Robinette Kowal! Her books are like Jane Austen with magic, and magical they are.  Even better, she was one of my MIL's favorite people, and my MIL was clearly one of her favorite people!

Being honored while wearing a suit

6. Klenda joined the Phi Theta Kappa college honor society!

Mxyl joined also, but wasn't interested in going to the ceremony. They are both part of National Collegiate Scholars honor society as well, and he had been to that ceremony while she had skipped it.

So, two college honor societies.  Not bad, I guess we'll have to let her graduate high school. :)

He's in there somewhere

7. And speaking of graduating, Mxyl graduated from the community college last night with an associates degree and a professional certificate!

He's planning to head to University of Maryland in the fall.

Standing up, gold sash on the left

Where we are, if you graduate from community college, you are automatically accepted into any of the state colleges as a junior.

If you couple that with the fact that you can start classes when you are 16 (and the tuition is half off for dual enrolled home school high schoolers), community college has been a really nice transition from home school to college for us, while skipping the college admissions drama.

There he is!

The gold sash is his Phi Theta Kappa honor, but he also graduated summa cum laude and I think we were supposed to get an honor cord, but we didn't know to ask for it (we barely remembered to get the sash!). Ah well, the perils of being the first kid.

You know, for kids that never got graded during their 13 years of home schooling, they are doing really well at the college grade thing (as in 4.0), so if you're wondering if you need to grade your home schoolers, you don't.

Hope you had a fun week and an even better weekend!  More takes with Kelly!