She made a

mess sailboat!

Photos for a senior

My friend Catalina met us in Greer early in the morning to take senior pictures for Tabitha.  It was a lot of fun.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

  

Dino puzzles

the curriculum said we were to make dinosaur puzzles

who are we to argue with our curriculum

 

80’s Dance–Hope Co-Op

I have the photos that I have because of friends who sent me pictures.  The blog has suffered the last few months as I found that my iPhone was storing photos in formats that are incompatible with blogging. 

Johanna was able to attend her first co-op dance.  This photo was sent by Taylor’s mom.

Johanna is seemingly following in her sisters’ footsteps… she appears to have more dude friends than female friends!

Meanwhile, Melody, Tabitha, and Emily got decked out for their last thematic high school dance.

 

 

cactus flower?

Katriel is the sixth Butler to enjoy her Hearts of Dakota Preparing Hearts for His Glory curriculum.  She is doing great things.  On her own, she made some Egyptian bread, yesterday.

And today she pretended to be a bat eating out of a saguaro cactus.

 

Physical science for Johanna

So many experiments for her first high school credit.  Grateful for warm days to do the activities!

First responders to co-op

The building got too hot.  There were some odors.  People felt ill.

And then we got to see the community services at work.

It all ended well.  And we have a story.

I was in a hurry…

I was trying to back into a spot and get into the building before the meeting started.  I let the girls out and continued to maneuver the van… and went backwards instead of forward.  Zero sense.  No idea how after a decade+ of big van driving I managed this mess.

Thankfully, the best place to be with a car issue is in a building filled with homeschooled young men.

I won’t pretend I wasn’t scared.

But the car was freed and no one was hurt.  There was a lot of prayer!

Graduation 2023–no Butlers!

we hurried home from our vacation so that we could attend graduation parties and the ceremony.

 

These beauties will get their moment NEXT May!

Prom 2023…

A/K/A Thank-God-that-is-behind-us!

 

I simultaneously want to tell the whole story for history’s sake and also want to just put it all behind us all…..  Immuna go with just the facts…

 

Tabitha went to the prom solo.  A lovely young man did invite her to the prom back in March. She thought it would be best to decline his thoughtful invitation as it may have been the breeding ground for rumors, something she has had front row seat in learning how to navigate this winter. 

We went looking for a dress in the mall when Nan was here, and couldn’t seem to find just the right one.  Though we had gone in looking for purple, she left the store with red on her mind.  Lo and behold, a quick peek at JCPenney.com found exactly the right dress for my elegant daughter.

That morning, on the way home from CBS, the little girls and I stopped by Claire’s boutique to procure a crown.  Seriously.  This girl had earned the freaking crown this year. 

I flexed my parallel parking skills with my 12-passenger van in downtown Greenville and we headed to Falls Park to find some of her friends who were going to be meeting there.

We caught up with some of the ladies and gentlemen and they waited their turn for photos by the fireplace.

Tab headed to dinner with her friends, and I followed a bit later just to be on call as a driver. 

They had some food at Gather Greenville and had some fun upstairs,

and I grabbed a Coke and chatted with some other parents on the lower level.

I left before they did, confident Tab was in good hands (and henceforth I do not have any photographic evidence of 8 of them riding in a Ford Escape from the food to the venue.)

At that point, I sat in the parking lot of the venue for the next three hours.  Not going to lie, we weren’t 100% sure who might want to be done with the prom when.  It hasn’t been a drama-free semester, and there was no telling which way things would go.  And I am now a card carrying Mama Bear.  God saw fit to have another mom stop by my van and we talked for well over an hour.  It was such a blessing of a conversation!

 

When it was time that parents were welcome into the building, I could see Tab and her friend doing the photo booth.  Tabitha was not Nathan’s date; he just happened to be wearing a red tie.  They spent the first half of the evening correcting people and the second half not giving a hoot what people thought. 

After the prom was over the kids spent an unbelievable amount of time figuring out where they were going to head.   A fair number of them headed out in the party truck, but I had given Tabitha  red light on that the day before. 

Lemmetellyousomething.  These kids – who walk around with communications devices our parents only dreamed about have zero ability to hammer down plans!!!

I drove Tabitha and Jay to Cook Out, and while the kids socialized, I visited with another mom who was chauffeuring her daughter.

Cook Out closed, and I drove Jay to meet up with her mom who was with another group at a Waffle House.  When we got to Waffle House, the plan was that Tab and I would then head home.  But as Tabitha walked Jay in, one of the moms I had been talking to at the prom waved me in… and I did something crazy and got out of the van and had myself a seat.

And now I can say I hung out in a Waffle House after midnight.

Beauty and the Beast at BJU

This photo doesn’t do a thing to highlight the amazing performance we were treated to by BJU.  Over 2000 people were in the auditorium for their “educators' performance” (the last night before opening night). 

Marie and John will be going in a few nights.

Tab’s Winter Formal.

 

I love my girl so much.

I dropped her off at the Winter Formal, which had a medieval theme.

Not all of these photos are mine. Many came from the event photographer.

She hung out with Melody.

This is the junior class.

You can just make out Tab on the left next to Melody in the red dress.

Tab and her friend Ben.

And Emily W. and Melody.

The girls did not attend with dates.  They did dance with many of their friends.

The line dancing is my favorite to watch, and I did make it back before pick up to catch some of the coolest young people in the world doing the paired line dancing (think square dancing, but along a line.)

 Tab and Mark.

 

At one point, the smoke machines set off the fire alarms… and I am sure this fire fighter is still talking about this call.

Most of the moms dressed up for the event.