Filling the Gap

   First off, I would like to apologize for not posting for over a month. I did write a post, but somehow it didn't save and was deleted before I could post it. In a flush of anger I closed the laptop and didn't think about until recently. Let me fill you in on the highlights of my life from the past month.
   Our homeschool group finished it's semester and we had our variety show to finish out the year. It went very well. For the first part, we had everyone who wanted to do something perform. It was a very interesting thing to see everyone express themselves. Of everything our homeschool group does, I think variety shows are one of the best things.
   Many kids performed. Some danced, several sang, two boys with their mother sang a song listing the names of all the presidents, my best friend played a fabulous piece on her violin, a skit was performed, my brother and I played guitar with the rest of our class while a group of little kids sang, a presentation was giving on the topic of sharks (complete with a power point) and many other interesting things were done. I sang with one of my friends. We sang a song we wrote ourselves and our own arrangement of Kumbaya.
   I sang harmony to Kumbaya. You should know singing harmony is not on my list of talents. I was taught to sing the harmony part a week before the show and I practiced it daily. Still, the day before the performance, I couldn't get the second 'kumbaya' in tone. I was very worried. The next day I sang it with my friend with assistance from the lady who taught me the harmony, I finally got it. We practiced it many times and when we performed, it sounded nice. I was glad when that whole part was over and I finally had it down.
   For the second part, we had our black light puppetry team perform five songs. (Are you familiar with black light puppetry? If not, YouTube it. There's tons of cool videos out there.) Some of the kids choose not to participate in puppetry. I am in puppetry and I enjoy it. After the show, we enjoyed refreshments we brought to share with the audience.
   Six days after our initial performance we returned to perform the puppetry part for the senior meal (a monthly gathering the church holds for the senior citizens). They have a meal and then entertainment. We were the entertainment. The food was good and the show was fun to do. After that, all our homeschool group activities was officially over for the year.
   The next big thing that happened was Christmas Eve dinner, which we hold at our house. We cleaned like crazy for 3 days in preparation. We had a lot of things to clean up. We were busy right up until the dinner started on Christmas Eve at five. I was so exhausted by the time the last person left that I didn't even want to take a shower.
   The dinner was enjoyable. We invited all of our immediate family including our adopted cousins (my best friend and her family). We played Twister, Pictionary, and some of the kids played outside on the trampoline with glow sticks. All and all, we had a great time and it was definitely worth the work.
   The next morning, all I wanted to do was sleep, but my brother insisted I wake up at 7:15 in the morning. That's way too early for me even if I didn't do anything strenuous the previous day and went to bed early. He told me that mom and dad were already downstairs waiting for me. I begrudgingly got out of bed and got dressed, only to find mom and dad still laying in bed. I walked into their room where my brother has apparently told them the same thing.
   Eventually, everyone got out of bed and we were opening gifts by 7:30. We had to be at my grandparents on my dad's side at 10 for breakfast. It was good and after we ate, we opened presents there. We had to be at my grandparents on my mom's side at 12 for lunch. It was good and after we ate, we opened presents there. If you can't tell, we had a repetitive Christmas morning/early afternoon. We stayed there until 3. After that we went home and rested until we had to go back to my grandparents on my dad's side at 5 for dinner. As you can probably imagine, it was good. Christmas was very busy day, but it was fun.
   Hmmm....the next interesting thing I did was the day after Christmas. Mom and I watched movies most of the day. We watched Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man and Hulk. The last movie was watched was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then began my newest interest. I started watching the cartoons on TV. My mom's looking for the original cartoons on the internet. Oh, how I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
   Another mentionable thing that happened was going for wood. My brother got sick so I helped dad with the things that he usually did. I went with dad for wood and he let me run the chainsaw. That was fun. My arm was sore for a few days after. It was fun though. We went for wood several times through out that week. It wasn't that bad, even though I don't enjoy going for wood.
   Finally New Year's Eve came around. We had to host it, so instead of going to a grandparents house or just staying home, we were having people over. Also, that day marked the first practice of Bible Quizzing, a fun thing I do at our church. My brother's doing it too this year.
   We were asked if we could bring snack. We said we would and later decided to bring supplies to make ice cream sundaes. Early that morning mom and I went shopping to get the food for snack as well as stuff for later that night when everyone would come over.
   We came home around 1 o'clock and we had to leave for quiz practice at 2:30. We had many things to do, but I managed to get a few minutes of study time before we had to leave. Quiz practice went well and I managed to correctly answer three questions, which means I froze. I also got two answers wrong, but that's not what I prefer to advertise. :)
   We got home at 5:30 and everyone was coming at 6:30, so we had no time to clean, no time to prepare, no time to breathe. Even if I didn't want them to, everyone still came. There wasn't even anything good to eat. Everything was meat in a crockpot. I had some buffalo chicken dip, two cranberry meatballs and three pieces of cream puff cake. People left relatively quickly after eating. After a hour or two, only one grandma remained. That, I was okay with. Finally, the year ended and my grandma left. We went to bed and that was that. Overall, I had a partly good and partly bad New Year's Eve.
   Enter New Year's Day. I'm not a big fan of resolutions. It's really just a reason to sell gym memberships. So many people making shallow promises to themselves and others only to give up. It's kind of depressing. I've never made a lot of New Year's resolutions but this year, I made a few. I decided to become a vegetarian. So far, I've been enjoying it. I don't like meat so I wasn't a hard switch. If anything, it's surprised me how little my diet has changed. I think my family's had the hardest time adjusting.
   I also decided to take a photography challenge. It's a fifty-two week course that focuses on one thing every week. The first week was a self portrait. It was a bit of a challenge considering I'm very un-photogenic. Challenging or not, I managed to get a good one. Next week I'm supposed to shoot a simple landscape.
   Mom has also made some interesting resolutions. She's decided she's throwing away 500 things in 14 days. I think it's incredibly ridiculous, but it's her stuff she has to throw away. Unfortunately, she's making me throw some of my things away. I am perfectly comfortable with the amount of things I have right now.
   Finally, today was just another boring Monday, getting back to the daily routines of school and chores. I finally finished the summary of my life from post to post (I worked on this post for a day or two). Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful and indolence-free new year!