This is a post of several things--all of the photos were taken with my (not smart) phone. So the quality is not so good.
But--this sunset turned out spectacularly!
Last weekend I got to go to
The Great Homeschool Convention, Memphis-style. Luci and JT went with me. Luci got to take part in the Kids' convention, which was a lot like Vacation Bible School--she had a ball! JT went to some of the Teen Track lectures. He was not as thrilled, but he did hear some great speakers. (Chuck Colson was on the docket until he got so ill in the past few weeks. We were sorry to hear about his passing this weekend.)
Thank you to my Mom and Dad, who sent me some money so I could buy whatever I wanted while we were there, without any guilt or credit cards. That was incredible! THANK YOU! (JT thinks most of it was spent on torture materials for Sophomores in High School, but, whatever. I loved it!)
While there, Luci got to hold a real, live baby duck! JT did, too, but his photo came out even more blurry (is that possible?).
The hotel and conference center were right downtown, very close to the river. There are several trolleys in Memphis, and one goes in a loop (perfect for we tourists who want to venture out some, but don't want to get lost). We rode around and saw
the pyramid, the
Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King, Jr was killed--Luci kept saying, "that's where The King was shot"--not sure if she understood this was not Elvis, even though she had heard the story of his life several times), and we even saw the Occupy Memphis encampment. We did not see any people out, though. (well, there is that one guy right there on the left--maybe he
was part of that group, but he looked like he was just walking by, to me) It was a beautiful day, so perhaps they were out working somewhere? Yeah, I don't think so.
JT was wearing this t-shirt while we rode the trolley:
I told him he ought to get off the trolley and go preach to the Occupy Memphis crowd about earning one's own way, but he declined the invitation.
After we got home, we told Bryan about what we saw. He said his friend (a college student, a pretty smart fellow) had never heard of the Occupy Wall Street group, so of course had no idea what Occupy Memphis was about, either. We saw some of the inlaws this past weekend, and the ones around my age did not know what the groups were about, either. I was stunned. Hadn't they watched the news? All three of my kids knew about the groups (Luci didn't know
what they were there for, but she has seen them on the news). They know about the presidential elections, about the shooting in Sanford, FL (Trayvon Martin) and quite a few other current events.
Even Luci has an opinion about Michelle Obama.
JT said it was because I watch the news a lot (love DirecTV for those 24 hour news channels!). I guess I owe my news-hound status to my parents, who also had the news on a lot as we grew up. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
I can mark off "Current Events" from my list of things to teach my kids.
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This Tuesday I went to the commissary all by myself. ALL BY MYSELF. Did I mention that I was all by myself?!
It was wonderful, just having my own thoughts and no squabbling from the back seat. It's 75 miles to the commissary, and 75 miles back. All. By. Myself.
In Limestone County, if the road is wet, they drop the speed limit to 45.
Which meant only that I got nearly a whole 'nother hour of solitude as I tooled along at 45mph.
