Homeschool Academy, dancing, and more! {Life update}

This blog is feeling pretty empty now! The weird thing is that I feel like I'm writing stuff for this blog all the time, but you guys don't realize it. The back end of this blog has probably close to 50 unpublished drafts of posts. Some of those are terrible, and will never see the light of day, but some might... We'll see.

I think it's time for a little life update! I'm blogging (semi-regularly) on The Daily Ramble about my day to day life, so for a more complete idea of what I'm up to, go over there.

I've been pretty busy this summer. I'm teaching Latin still, plus some friends and I teamed up for Homeschool Academy, where we teach a bunch of cool classes. I'm co-teaching Geology, plus I'm teaching Irish dancing each week. It's a ton of fun, and it's super relaxed and laid back, which is nice.

I'm not doing any ballet this summer, but I am doing Irish, and we have some more performances coming up! We're dancing and the Whidbey Island Highland Games in a few weeks, and then at Birch Bay State Park a few weeks after that.

College searching continues. This weekend we're going to the east side of the state to visit Gonzaga University and WSU. I don't have any interest in WSU, but my sister wants to visit, and I love college campuses, so it should be fun. Plus, I've never been to either Pullman or Spokane, so it'll be fun to see more of the state.

I just finalized my class schedule for the fall. I'm taking Intermediate Algebra (unfortunately I didn't get into Precalc I), German I, and Introduction to World Religions. I think it should be a fun load, albeit a challenging one.

In the winter, I'll be taking Precalc, German II, and Western Civ III (assuming all goes according to plan.

That's my life right now! Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Prep for the Lit Analysis class I taught for the Homeschool Acadmey.

Aslan and I.

Bad pic, but I got a WTNV shirt!

Awesome necklace I bought at the steampunk festival yesterday!

Beautiful sunset over the dogpark

Saturday July 25, 2015 {Steampunk Festival}

1. Mom and Isabelle were selling at the farmer's market this morning, so I just hung around at home for much of the day.

2. Mom and I recently finished watching Lost, and I spent a lot of the time they were gone reading fan theories and various things on the internet that I had avoided so carefully for so long.

3. When they got home, Mom dropped me off at the Steampunk festival in Fairhaven. I hung out with Grace and C. and their family for a few hours until they left. I bought a very cool dragon necklace while I was there.

4. I walked 10 or 15 minutes to the house of a family I babysit for, so that I could watch the kids for the evening.

5. Babysitting was a bit of an adventure. An hour and a half in, I had leaves and dirt in my hair, plus pieces of apple and pear, and I had just finished pacifying a flock of chickens so that I could put them back in their coop. And that was before the handstand lessons, the incident in which I could not figure out how to turn off the hose, or the trip to the dog park with the two kids plus the dogs, which culminated in climbing a very steep hill. Babysitting is fun, but it's also an adventure sometimes.

6. At least the sunset from the hill above the dog park was pretty.

7. I went home, and read Frankenstein, then went to bed, totally exhausted.

July 14-20 {Another Catchup post}

This is becoming a theme lately... Hopefully it won't continue too long. Here is what I did this week:

Tuesday 7/14

We had homeschool academy week 2 this day. Grace and I taught Geology together, then Spencer did math, Grace did Improv, and I did Irish dance. I took or taught all the classes this week, which was honestly a little too long of a day. Next week I might take a break for a while in the middle somewhere.

Wednesday 7/15

On Wednesday, I took the math placement test at Whatcom. I didn't end up getting into Precalc, which means I have to take Math 99 (intermediate algebra) in the fall. It's kind of disappointing, because we have to pay for 99 because it's below college level, but it is what it is. After I took the test, we went blueberry picking with Carolyn, and then went to park day.

Thursday 7/16

In the morning, we went to WCC to change my schedule. As a Running Start student, I can't register online like other students can. RS students have to go into see a RS advisor to register and to make schedule changes. To fit Math 99 in, I ended up having to drop all three classes I was in, and add three totally different ones. Now, I'm taking Intermediate Algebra (Math 99), Introduction to World Religions (Philosophy 140), and German I (German 121). In the afternoon, we were at our dad's house for dinner.

Friday 7/17

We didn't to much in the morning. In the afternoon, Isabelle went to a friend's house, and Mom and I watched Lost.

Saturday 7/18

Another relatively boring day. Went to the grocery store, watched Lost, and that was about it.

Sunday 7/19

We didn't do much in the morning again, but in the afternoon, we went blueberry picking again, this time with another set of friends.

Monday 7/20

I volunteered at the library in the afternoon, and then went to Chocolate Necessities and then to Irish dance. Gelato of the week: Lemon and Green Apple.

Monday July 13, 2015 {Gravity Falls}

1. Monday, I had an appoitment in town, and then went to my friends' house to hang out.

2. Grace and I worked for a bit on our Geology plans, and then Grace and C. and I watched a few episodes of Gravity Falls, a really awesome show that you should all watch.

3. They very kindly dropped me off at the library to volunteer, and I did that for an hour. Megan, who used to volunteer with us, dropped by for a few minutes to say hi, which was fun!

4. After that, I ran into Spencer and IP at the library, and we all waited for Julie. After she got there, we all went to Chocolate Necessaties. Gelato of the week: coconut and salted caramel (I know, I know, only two flavors. I get made fun of every time I do that :P).

5. We walked across the street for dance. We're learning new challenging dances in both light and hard shoe classes, and I really like both of them!

6. We stopped at Quizno's for dinner, and the woman who worked there said she liked Isabelle's new haircut! I think maybe we go there a bit too often... :P

7. Came home, watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

July 6-12 {Catch up!}

Monday

I went to the library to volunteer, to Chocolate Necessesites, and then to Irish Dance. It was the first day of the summer session. Gelato flavors of the week: chocolate, strawberry, and lemon. We've had a number of wildfires in the area, and early this week, the smoke was really bad. Monday in particular, I could really feel it effecting my breathing. It looked like we had full cloud cover Monday and Tuesday, but really it was all smoke!

Tuesday

This was the first day of Homeschool Academy classes! I got there around 1:30 and helped Spencer set up before his math class, which went very well! I then taught a literary analysis class in which we dissected the song American Pie, and then I had an Irish dance class. The dance class was a little underwhelming, but the rest went quite well!

Wednesday

I taught a Latin class and we did some Harry Potter translating, and then we went to parkday in Lynden. Grace and I did some planning for our Geology class we're teaching and then we hung out for a while with Hailey.

Thursday

Thursday was pretty quiet. I mostly did schoolwork that needed doing and read, and played a bit of Don't Starve. That game is really fun, but also endlessly frustrating. My best score so far is 17 days, and in that last one I was killed on Day 17 by a spider I was trying to kill because I had forgotten to put on my armor. Gah. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "Don't Starve." It's pretty great. Mom went out for dinner with friends, and Isabelle and I made a pizza, and hung out.

Friday

Another low-key day of school, reading, and such. Mom, Isabelle, and I took a walk around after dinner.

Saturday

I had a YARC meeting in the morning. It was another very quiet meeting, and another where all (three) of our boys were gone! That makes two in a row. In the evening, I babysat some kids, and ended up watching the neighbor kids for part of it as well, making for 5 kids under 10!

Sunday

It was my dad's birthday, so we went to breakfast with him and my stepmom. When we got back, we headed to my grandmother's house for her 80th birthday. Both my aunts and all my cousins were there, and we had lunch/dinner, and hung out for the day, which was fun. Two of my cousins are going to college in the fall, and one is going to the University of Edinburgh. She'll be home for Christmas, but we probably won't see her before then and it was weird to realize that the next time we'll see her, she'll have been living in Scotland for a few months already!

Sunday July 5, 2015 {World Cup}

1. I got up really late, close to 10, which is really late for me.

2. Didn't do too much all morning, but we did get an invitation to go to a friend's house to watch the World Cup final.

3. Around 4, we headed to Connie's. I'm not really into sports in general, but it was an exciting game to watch (particularly since we won :P).

4. After the game was over, we all had some food. I discussed various Homeschool Academy plans with people. Spencer and I discussed what song I should do for my Literary Analysis class I'm teaching on Tuesday. I was having a hard time finding a song that would be interesting to people without being offensive. The song I originally planned on had some swearing in it, so we decided to skip that. We tentatively  decided on American Pie, but I'm still trying to think of something that might be a little more relevant to the kids in the class.

5. We came home, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Saturday July 4, 2015 {4th of July!}

1. Didn't do too much during the morning. Mom and Isabelle did some cooking and Isabelle painted Mom's nails (after declaring mine too short)

2. Isabelle cut about four inches off of my hair, which was slightly terrifying, but turned out quite well. It's not noticeably shorter to most people, but it feels shorter to me.

3. At around four, we headed to Julie's for the annual 4th of July party, which was fun.

4. There was a Klikaklu hunt, some sparklers, water balloons and guns (for those who were brave enough, which did not include me), Smash Bros, and lots of food.

5. A bit before 10, most of us headed downtown to watch the city's fireworks display, and then we headed home.

6. I had a strange experience during the Klikaklu hunt. We were on teams of three, and I was on a team with Isabelle and my friend C. We were running around the neighborhood, and I knew I wouldn't be able to run much because a) it was really hot and b) I didn't have my inhaler with me. If I had realized I was going to be running, I would have used my inhaler before we started on the hunt. I've obviously had bad experiences with asthma before, but after running for a bit uphill in the heat, I had what was definitely the worst asthma attack I have had. I usually just have my lungs close up, but my throat was closing too. One of the problems with that feeling is that it is so easy to panic because  you are physically unable to take in air. I've had enough experiences with asthma to be able to not panic and know that it will pass, but it's a scary feeling, and not something I'd like to repeat.

Friday July 3, 2015 {Boating}

1. Got up and did stuff around the house for a few hours.

2. I went downtown to meet up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time. It was good catching up with her, though I had to head home before too long to work on some stuff.

3. I worked for a while on the homeschool academy schedule. Some of us older homeschoolers (or former homeschoolers, in some cases) have decided to put together a series of free classes in the summer. I am teaching Irish dance, and co-teaching Geology and Writing. We had sent out polls to prospective students to find out what classes they wanted to take and when they were available, so I was going through the data and organizing it.

4. We walked to Gloria's to have dinner and go boating. It was beautiful out on the lake, though the boat ran into a few minor difficulties. The inter tube ran into some major difficulties, when the cover (which was attached to a rope attached to the boat) started to tear, and then came off of the tube entirely. I never ended up going on the inter tube, but it was fun riding in the boat.

5. We brought the boat back in and hung out for another hour or two before walking home.

6. After I got home, I ran through all the homeschool academy data I had organized, and put together a potential schedule. I realized that there was no way to put together a schedule that worked for everyone, but I was able to put together something that seemed to work for the most part.

7. Read some Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Wednesday July 1, 2015 {Latin and Park day}

1. Got up, and did some math and history.

2. I made some worksheets and such for the day's Latin lesson. I always tell myself I'll do lesson planning some time other than mere hours before the class, but that never happens. :P

3. Walked to Gloria's house for Latin. We had our class, then had a Harry Potter Latin meeting, both of which were fun. I do need to figure out a way to change it a bit though, to make sure everyone is interested. I think the two younger girls tend to get a little lost when Spencer, Grace, and I are able to handle more of the grammar and such than they are. That is something I need to figure out for future weeks...

4. We went to park day, which was just down the street. It was quite hot and not super interesting, though my friend L. showed up, which was great!

5. We went home, had dinner, watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Tuesday June 30, 2015 {Inside Out}

1. Got up, got ready, worked on history.

2. Did some more math to study for the math placement test at WCC.

3. We went to Mt Vernon because mom had an appointment there, then we went to the mall in Burlington to watch Inside Out.

4. I am always a bit skeptical of animated movies, but this one was really good. Despite my "hardhearted" reputation (as given by my mom and sister), I did even tear up a little at the end. It was funny and well made, and the whole concept is very clever. I would recommend it.

5. We stopped at Target on our way out of the movie to pick up some stuff, and then went to Chipotle for dinner.

6. We came home and watched Doctor Who, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

7. Also of note: I know I'm years late to this party, but I recently discovered Homestuck, and it's amazing. Homestuck, Gravity Falls, and Don't Starve are my favorite fun things of this summer so far.