Opportunity

A year ago we dared to dream.

We built our castles - built them high,

And while we spun them out of reach,

We searched for stairways to the sky.

Each took his different, questing way,
Our paths together, yet alone.

"Impossible," we would not say,
But "Courage," through the world we roam.

Today, quite unexpectedly,

My feet have found the cloud-built stair.

Is this my castle? This, my dream?

These steps could lead me anywhere.

These steps - they could lead anywhere.

{photo credit}

The Make-Over of a Fashion Failure

Once upon a time, there lived a little laptop. Her name was StarDaughter (known affectionately as "Dottie" by those who loved her), and she...how do I put this politely?...she just didn't know how to put outfits together correctly. On her best days, she came to work looking like this:

And on her worst days...you just don't even want to see it! I think everyone would agree that blackonblackonblackonblack just isn't the right style for her, but how do you just tell someone that? I finally worked up enough courage to broach the subject of identifying her personal beauty profile, and she jumped at the chance to get some advice from me (you all know what extensive fashion training I've had). First, we went over her proper color palette. 

Then, one sunny, Saturday morning, Maddy and I began to work our magic. I asked Madeline to assist me because, while I unquestionably hold the best eye for color combinations, Maddy is my top fashion consultant. Naturally, the two of us wore our most inspiring designer clothes to give Dottie confidence as we began work.

After opening her eyes to how revolutionary bright colors can be, I gave Dottie a couple weeks to adjust to her new wardrobe hues before completing her look with some snazzy accessories. With her new style sense, Dottie has become an entirely new laptop, finally free to live the life of which she had always dreamed.

World, meet StarDaughter. The most fashionable, most colorful, most Hawaiian laptop on the earth!

News: The Good and the Bad

Almost every class we have, I get a new giggle from my Littles. These past few days have been no exception, as we've color-coded and labelled sentence structures, simultaneously learning whatever tidbits about Martin Luther's life I can convey without prepositional phrases or too many adjectives. Upon being informed that they have a test tomorrow, Zachary and Madeline (hereafter called "The Wise Ones") asked for me to print off a couple practice sheets for them. Forgoing our reformer theme (because I couldn't think of new facts right away), I hastily typed out a couple pages and went about my merry way. On the way upstairs this evening, however, I spotted Maddy's practice page:

The good news is: some amount of information from her sentence analyses is getting through. The bad news is: it's all getting dreadfully tangled up with Jane Austen & Lady Catherine de Bourgh.