Please bear with; it's a long post. :)
Like the lyrics of a favorite Rod Stewart song of the 70s, Maggie May: it's late September, but in this case; everyone really is back at school. When it comes to our entire family of nine, during summer months, there are only two adults working full time, and no one in school. Come fall, there are three in some form of school (used to be four until Older Daughter graduated with her Bachelor's in May) all through the week. While I teach Sunday School- for PreK to 1st Grade- it takes a good bit of time during my weekdays to make up the lessons and activities for my class of anywhere-up-to-12-kids on any given Sunday. I always loved school, myself, and spent several years in gifted/talented programs or being sent up one grade for reading, literature, or history subjects- all of which I loved. In grade school, I would gladly opt for staying inside during recess and reading a good book. To this day, I do my best work on my own, and our Younger Son is like that, whereas our Older Son is more of a 'works best with others' like Dad. I do have to say that every one of our family enjoys reading and keeping up to date with things. So education/learning has been a big part of our lives, and will continue to be so.
Whenever I think of my life growing up as the youngest of 10 kids, I'm always grateful to have had older siblings who cared enough to teach me things. I got babysat a lot because I was only 7 when my Dad came into my life, and brought me 6 more older siblings. The oldest- my Sister Sharon- was already married and had a baby. From the first, I looked up to her because at 14 years older than I was, and through the years, she was more like a "mom figure" to me than a Sister. She got after me when I was being bratty, and she didn't mince words when she explained why. She took time to bring me nightgowns as a teenager, and I knew she was only trying to help me when she's admonish the way I dressed or acted. My Dad would tell me what the older kids had done, like Sharon graduated HS with 10 more credits than needed, trying to keep me challenged to do the same. He was proud that 2 of his Daughters didn't wear much (if any) makeup in their HS Senior photos- just at the time I was getting ready for my own Senior Year. Our Dad was a quiet guy who spent the majority of his early retirement weekends with visits from family: his kids or his 5 Brothers & 1 Sister. And on Friday night, before taking off for the skating rink, was when I would see my siblings, almost like clockwork. Once I got married, it wasn't as often as I'd have liked, and in the past 15 years, it's been hit & miss. But just this past weekend, their Mom (known in my own house as Grandma Minnie) held a 70th Birthday Party for Sharon, and it was my first real chance to see everyone, and it was Sharon's first real chance to be out with everyone since in the past 20 months, she's spent in the hospital or in nursing rehab. But Sharon's tough....she singlehandedly raised 2 girls, both of whom are successfully raising their own families. She's worked her own way in jobs during years when men had the best chance to make good money. It's not been a perfect family, but then; none are. As the youngest, it's easy to watch what your older siblings do and learn from their successes and mistakes. But it's hard to see them getting older and you want to pull back time because you're just now having fun in that coveted older age they always had. I actually have 14 siblings. It's complicated, lol! 2 Brothers and 1 Sister have already passed, and of those 3, I didn't get to meet 2 as an adult. Time flies, so I make sure to tell them "I LOVE YOU".
That's the bottom line of where I got my inspiration from, I actually began this project back in May, and just got fortunate enough for it to work out as a gift to my Sister. So let's move on down and see where I incorporated TFJB's Die-Na-Mite theme and the SSS Fun With Stencils...
Here's what came out of all that due cutting...
