An Inspiring Story

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I used to be a grief support volunteer at our church. It wasn’t a job I sought out, but one I was asked to do; I only agreed to it after praying about it and feeling prompted to say yes.

Like so many service opportunities, it turned out to be a good experience. I met some awesome people who, despite suffering great emotional pain, taught me an awful lot, even as I sought to help them.

One of the things I learned about grief is that it’s important for the grieving person to keep busy. Grief can be so overwhelming, even for Christians, that it can knock you down. It’s important to get back up and keep moving so you can keep living.

Rosie was one of those people knocked down by grief. Her beloved husband died, and she didn’t know how to live without him. But she did know that she wanted to call attention to prostate cancer, the cause of his death, and she decided that instead of letting her grief knock her down, she would get up and run, literally, to bring attention to the need for a cure for prostate cancer.

She decided to run around the world. It took her five years; she covered 20,000 miles. During the course of her travels, she would be stalked by wolves, meet up with two murderers, be hit by a bus and nearly freeze to death. Oh, did I mention that Rosie was a 57-year-old grandmother when she set out on her journey?

I just have to share her fascinating and uplifting story.

Harder to Raise: Girls or Boys?

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Little Boy with Toy Machine Gun and Cake
Little Boy with Toy Machine Gun and Cake

I have a friend who has six children: two in their 30s, two in their 20s, a teen and a preteen. The eldest and youngest are girls, and she says those two girls were (and still are) harder to deal with than all four boys put together.

I’ve had a different experience. I have four children, two in their 20s and two teens, and they go like this: girl, boy, girl, boy. One girl and one boy are strong-willed, while the other girl and the other boy are more compliant, though not completely so. I always believed that the sex of the child doesn’t mean much in how easy they are to raise, that’s it’s more a matter of personalities, both the child’s and the parents’, and how they mesh (or don’t, as the case may be).

Here’s an article that compares boys and girls (which is good, because that means people are finally getting back to the common sense theory that the sexes are different!) and discusses which sex is harder to raise. What do you think? Are girls harder, or boys?

Frank Family Current Events

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My Dear Graduate
My Dear Graduate

So it’s been a busy few weeks, as you may have guessed, since most of my recent posts were about one subject (college), which is often a sign that I’ve been pre-posting  😉

I think May is quite busy for most people, but this year our May is special because we have another homeschool graduate who also has a May birthday. Last week Mary, our dd17, turned 18, so that naturally involved some celebrating. She was born on Mother’s Day 1991, a very welcome gift who has continued to be a great pleasure in our lives.

Last week she also played her violin in her final concert with the Door County String Academy in beautiful new Juniper Hall at Birch Creek Music Center, where she received a plaque for being a graduating senior. Then on Sunday she played at a fundraising concert for the Academy at gorgeous Bjorklunden on the shores of Lake Michigan. (Sorry about all the adjectives, but Door County really is an incredibly scenic place!)

She still has a few projects left before she officially finishes homeschool high school. This year she also earned some credits at the technical college an hour south of here, so I’ve included those on her lovely homemade high school transcript, the last one I’ll ever make. (Sniff!) She has plans for the fall, but is keeping that news on the QT until it becomes official. We’re having a graduation party for her next month in the Chicago area, where most of our family and friends live. Congratulations, Mary!

This year is shaping up to be another big year of change in our lives. Not only are we graduating another “home grown kid,” but it looks like we’ll be moving again when our lease is up in August. My husband’s career status is probably going to change again, and mine might too, we just don’t know yet. We know God has a plan; I just have to remind myself to stay calm as I wait for it to unfold  🙂

Great Tools for Financial Literacy

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I’ve been using Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers with dd17 for the past 18 months or so, and we’re almost finished. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the projects.

Funny how using Life Prep has been a different experience with each of my children.

Our eldest was very eager to get out on her own, so we emphasized the rent, food and utilities projects over the others. Our son was completely college-minded, so we stuck to more reading and less projects. Dd17 is not in a big hurry to be out on her own, but she’s not sure about college either (she’s already racked up a few credit hours and isn’t sure if she wants to keep going), but she really gets into all of the projects.

She has run a couple of small businesses, so she understands the need to watch your expenses and make prudent choices. She seems to really get into studying how loans work, and how you can save a lot of money by prepaying them.

While working on the projects from the book, she enjoyed playing with some online financial calculators at Bankrate.com. They’re wonderful! I plan on adding mention of them to the next edition of the book when we update it again in a few years.

Frugality 101

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Breakfast under the Big Birch by Carl Larsson
Breakfast under the Big Birch

I don’t usually post on Sundays but had to share this article about how families can save money. A couple of the tips are specific to the Chicago suburbs, but most are not, and you’ll find some good info there.

Here’s my favorite part:

Do things your mom used to do. Remember how your mom and her friends sat around the kitchen table drinking coffee, rather than meeting out at a local coffee shop? Or how you’d be forced to bring your lunch to the ballgame or museums? That’s probably why your parents have money in the bank now. One mom suggested buying a bag of Starbucks coffee for $8 and then brewing enough for everyone.

Some of my fondest memories are of sitting around a kitchen table having coffee: with my grandma when I was a kid (yep, Swedes let the kids drink coffee with lots of milk in it), or with the other playgroup moms when I had little ones and we met weekly at each other’s homes. Who says you need money to have fun?