sharp dressed man

Josiah was invited to be a part of an exciting learning experience this year! He is a proud member of “The Masterpiece Literary Society”. It is a group of homeschooled teenagers, who meet once a month for a formal dinner and a lively discussion of that months book choice. The leader of this Society is a history buff with a love for classic literature and a true gift for teaching.

I love the booklist she chose for the year, and am hoping to read along. (my favorite part of homeschooling? It’s the excellent remedial education which I am receiving!)
Josiah had already read a few of them, but he never minds repeating an old favorite, and is excited about the new ones. You might like to join us in the reading? You know it would thrill Josiah to have family or friends reading along!

This years choices are:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

(we get to host next month and are planning a Jungle/Island theme dinner.

You know I have always wanted to host a party where I could put paper umbrellas in drinks)

Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Short Stories by O’ Henry

House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Last night was his first dinner and he couldn’t finish getting dressed until Dad got home…because I can do a lot, but I’ve never worn a tie. It took a bit, because I think the last time John wore one was when his Dad got married, over a decade back, so he needed a few practice runs…

Okay…we got that figured out…

Did you notice how Josiah is rapidly catching up to 6 foot three Dad, there?

I had a little flashback to when I, too, was newly 14 years old, getting ready for an 8th grade dance…

How mascara was so hard to apply, and I burned myself with the borrowed curling iron, and how nervous I was, poured into a ruffled satin dress that was so pink as to make your fillings hurt.

That moment where my Dad looked up casually from the television, how his eyes went big and his face changed. The surprise of this stranger coming down the stairs.

I get what he might have felt, there in 1986.

I’ve experienced how your heart kind of flips around, gasping for oxygen,

when your child starts to resemble some strange, yet familiar, adult.

Because one day it is this…

and then, despite you not giving consent, they quickly start looking look like this!