a year in the making.

On this weekend of last year, we were packing up our earthly belongings and moving home.

I'll never forget what it feels like to have 100% of your life on wheels, making a voyage.

Homesteaders, gypsies, pioneers- just a few words that come to mind.

Driving through the night was like a bad acid trip. I was following Carlos, who was driving the truck, and towing the car. I just make myself focus on the word 'BUDGET' plastered across the back of our moving truck. I couldn't have navigated the trip. I pretended that there was a rope binding my van to the truck...I just had to keep straight. 1am, 2am, 4am, 7am, 9am- straight, straight, straight. Mentally, it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

I'm still so happy to be home.

It's not for any particular reason.

Home is its own reason, and home is its own reward.

for more thoughts on home: click here

labor of love.

more baking!

I hosted a baby shower for my original sister-friend, Kelly.

She and I grew up together, and she is very special to me.

I made 3 kinds of mini cupcakes...

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Chocolate fudge with peanut butter frosting.

Vanilla cake with buttercream frosting.

We (Rachel, Aiya, and I) also made hand dyed coffee filter pom-poms.

They weren't very photogenic hanging from the ceiling, but they looked great in person. I love them, and I can't quite say goodbye just yet, so I threw them on top of my china cabinet.

I also took the Christmas ribbon off my coffee filter wreath, and added some pom-poms to that. I'm not sure why I love paper decorations so much.

I also made a banner, but I didn't get a picture of it hanging...

almost there.

The first day of classes is getting closer and closer!

I would like the federal government for inventing a little something called the pell grant- without it, none of this would be possible.

I would like to thank all the nice people who have helped me along the way. It's been a little intense, retrieving buried records from 1993. I might as well have been digging up dinosaur bones- that might have been easier. It was all to prove that there was once was a girl named Holly Duke, and she did in fact graduate from high school. And now we can proceed.

At the same time as my classes begin, my boys will be getting out of school for the summer.

I can't even wrap my head around the fact that Abraham will be done with his elementary years.

I mean seriously, what the heck.

My eyes water when I think back to those first days of the school year. Those were really hard days. Everyone always says that kids are resilient, but that's kind of hard to prove. The truth is, kids internalize things, and we don't always know what they are going through. I'm so proud of them- they made excellent grades, and conducted themselves like little gentlemen. Alexandria attended a home school co-op, and did extremely well.

For next year, all 3 have been accepted to one of the best private schools in the city. It's such a blessing that it worked out for us... they know a lot of kids that go there, and I work right next door. I dreamed this for my kids, and now it's happening...and they deserve it.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. - Proverbs 13:12