Some grad photos...

Bard graduated from high school this weekend. The ceremony was lovely, and we had the very perfect weather for her open house on Sunday. We made bins and bins of food--barbecued chicken, baked beans, potato salad, veggies and dip, cake, cookies--and we had a wonderful crowd of people to share it all with.

Now, she's off for the summer and will be a freshman at a Christian college on a full scholarship (room and board, books, tuition, AND a laptop all paid!) this Fall. I will miss her greatly, but she'll only be about an hour away, and will be closer geographically to some of her friends when she's there that she has been at home.

It's been a great ride, learning with this girl, from the moment she was born, even up through today. I look forward to many years of learning with my younger ones, too.

With Sweetheart, Mom, Dad and Grandma.

Aunt Marilyn and Cousin Bella on the hammock with Uncle Aaron providing the motion.

Some twilight guests.
And she'll be heading off to college with a very special gift from her whole family--aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters, mom and dad. It's her very own guitar--which just happens to share her name.

D is for...

Daughters. I've been blessed and challenged by being given three incredible girls to live in my home and touch my life. It's clearly grace, because I don't deserve such a gift. They're so much smarter than I am, so much more forgiving and loving and patient. It grieves me that they will only be in my home for a short time; indeed, the seventeen years that Bard has lived under our roof has passed so quickly, and seeing Sweetheart and The Baby as they go through those years makes me thankful that I get to live it over again with each of them lest it be done too quickly.

Thank God for my daughters.