I had a very good fencing session last night. One of our veteran ladies made the US world team this year, so it was very exciting to see her after a long break, first mine, then hers. She does beat me, but I am closing the gap :) I think I got to the point where I am starting to feel how unbalanced fencing is. I need to do some additional training to even out the growing power gap between my left and right sides, especially arms and shoulders. Unfortunately, I can't afford anything organized, and making myself do it at home is hard.

I am trying to get back here :) After our trip, I barely exercised in June, with an exception of an occasional 30-minute swim, gained 5-6 pounds, and started sliding into depression. I started regular fencing in July, but felt really meh to post. I read this thread occasionally, but couldn't bring myself to post. To add to the negative vibe, I hurt my right wrist somehow, probably by overworking it, and it still acts up. I should probably give it a complete rest, but I am afraid that without fencing I will feel worse mentally. Anyway, I am still those 5-6 pounds over my June weight, which was already above my ideal weight. I do fence regularly, and hopefully improve, at least according to my coach (in his words, my lessons have finally started to get close to what proper lesson should be, so not very encouraging :) ) In plans for this month is a competition next weekend, with two event, one of which is my first time fencing only veterans event, and just fencing and hopefully eating better.

Practically always, but it is very late. Normal for us is anywhere from 8:30 t0 9:30pm. Lately, it is also because the kids and I have sport practice till 8-9pm 4 times a week, so we all get home at about the same time.

Yes. Their website just had a sale, with a discount and free shipping.

My DD doesn't really know that Bio is optional :) Well, she does, but she loves CC and labs, so she is doing it. Actually, I encouraged taking many science classes, so that she could get some exposure to them, to help her figure out what she wants. I didn't think Astronomy would be the class to do it. I suggested it because she spent her break between chemistry sessions in the Planetarium, listening to some free astronomy lectures. I though it would be just a fun elective, but she came out of it with this sudden decision to do engineering. We'll see if it stays through calculus :)

DD blindsided me with a sudden decision to go to an engineering school. That is from "maybe biochemistry, but maybe not, because it requires calculus and calculus-based physics." Wish me luck rewriting the rest of her HS plans.

I wouldn't trust my DS's opinion about food, but Caltech really is close to downtown Pasadena, where there are plenty of restaurants. I haven't seen much of the campus though, only one of the parking structures and one of the gyms, where we had a fencing competition. The gym was a glorified warehouse, without AC, in August. Let's say it didn't leave a good impression. Combined with the required year of PE, that really dings Caltech in DD's eyes. :)

DS apparently also decided to pick a school by its cafeteria. Although we didn't plan on camps other than fencing for this year, we signed him up for IDtech camp in Caltech. So, now he will seriously consider Caltech, as apparently the burgers were really good. At least, much better than Loyola Marymount where CTY camp is :). As for the camp itself, he loved it. I can't say they learned, or even could possibly learn, a lot in 5 days, but it really sparked his interest. He is now writing some text adventure game with DH.

I am not sure I qualify. We recently landscaped our yard and I started a garden. I would really like to blog about it, mostly to remember things, but I am not sure I have enough drive and discipline. Maybe such a group is exactly what I need

So sorry about your DD's health. I hope she gets better soon! I am still not 100% sure on some things, but here is what we have right now: Science: Astronomy (DE summer), Intro to Bio (DE fall) Math: Intermediate Algebra with AOPS online. It ends in November, so I thought about Precalculus after that, but we'll see how this one goes. We may switch. English: Most likely CTY and maybe Bravewriter, and some Literature at home or DE in spring. French with tutor. Maybe SAT at the end of the year. History: Medieval. We did US history to take the SAT this year, I want her to have something she actually enjoys this year. We do plan on another DE or two (depends on the number of credits, our CC only lets to take 6 for spring and fall, and 3 for winter and summer), but we are not sure yet. She might pick another elective science. Fencing as PE/extracurricular. I am a little worried that her transcript is going to be intro level science heavy.

Whenever I found one, there were others nearby. Might be my luck, but I would be very careful.

I thought PE was required for graduating a public school in CA, but not for admissions, but we are still a few years away from applying.

We are on the west coast, so by the time I am up, so are the scores :) I am also impatient. Good luck to everyone waiting!

We are back home. The good thing is that I didn't gain any weight after all those yummy meals with wine and dessert. The bad thing is that jet lag is killing me. I'm going to figure out this month's fencing schedule on Monday when I take the kids to the camp. Until then I hope just to stay somewhat functioning past 4pm.

Well, we came back from France trip, which was amazing (yay to my planning skills :) ). The garden is growing, the novel - not so much. I haven't mentioned Math Kangaroo in the post, but he did it the second time and showed amazing improvement in his score. AOPS prealgebra class is coming up in July, but he did quite a bit of Alcumus already.

While I agree with most posters here that even a week is not enough for more than one country (we are spending three weeks in just France), it doesn't mean that you should do it that way. Travel is a very personal experience, and it all depends on your interests. What is a must see for one person is a waste of time for another. So listen to what everyone has to say, then go to sites like Rick Steves and Tripadvisor, and plan your trip. Think what *you* are interested in, talk to your DH and DD and ask what makes them excited. Then check the time it takes to get from one point to another, check what is open on what days, check the weather and how it may affect your trip, etc. Go to expedia and check if it makes financial sense to fly into one city and out of another. We did that in Italy. It will save you some time. It is all really doable. You homeschooled your DD, you can plan this trip :) As for where to go, if this was your only trip ever, where would you go? Start there.

I think most of your questions have been answered. I agree with pps- 5 days including travel time is barely worth your time and money. If you decide to visit more than one city, you can easily spend as much time traveling as being out, enjoying the place. As for picking the places to visit, I like going to Rick Steves Europe website and reading through the itineraries of his tours. He also has lists of major places to visit for many cities and countries. I used it as a starting point for planning my trip to Italy a few years ago, and now for our upcoming trip to France. With Italy I felt I was well prepared for everything we experienced. We'll see how it goes with France. One thing I would want to stress is if you want to get the most from your trip, plan those few days to an hour, but don't forget to include some down time, even if it is just a relaxing lunch. Again, with only three days I wouldn't want to spend one minute of it cooking.

Mine looks like it is from the central office. Very impersonal. I would still wait until official results to decide whether your kid won.

I guess they only sent winner notifications. The email I got says nothing about the actual results, just that DS is a winner. Not even if it is state or national. Says stay tuned for further notices. Actual state/national rankings will be by email by May 15, individual results will be available online after May 20.

Sorry you had such a difficult month, Scoutermom. You really had a lot on your plate, but here is to the better May! It was really interesting to read about tennis. I never played it, and never was interested in it, but now that I "see" you and wintermom playing it, I am becoming interested, although only on intellectual level ;). I even googled the tennis levels, just to get an idea what you are talking about. I hope you can play more with nice 4.0 players. I found that high rated fencers can be either nice, or fall into one of the two less nice categories - either they don't make an effort most of the bout, and win at the last moment with minimal difference, which doesn't help me improve, or they try to bulldoze over me, which is not a problem in tennis, but in fencing it just plain hurts. Anyway, it's great that you have a goal. I found that I improved more since I decided to compete a couple of months ago than I did in the previous two years :)

I think it is a good idea. We only get a couple of pages a week, so in a month it will still be manageable. ETA: Since May starts tomorrow, you could just rename the new thread.

Greta ~ If you want to start doing something that requires coordination, don't let your perceived lack of it stop you! You can do it, and something being hard is something that is worth doing. I am not the most coordinated person either, and while my visual-spacial skills are great, they do not transfer to body movements at all. I can't, like some people, watch someone perform a move and repeat it, but I learned to ignore that. I get it eventually, it just takes longer, and I may stumble more than others, but when I do, I laugh and do it again. Plus, the more I do it, the better I get, as it is just another skill. We don't need to become Olympic champions, and for improving the quality of our current and future life any improvement is good. So, pick something you enjoy and do it. I don't think I said it before, but we are going to France, and it is going to pretty intense, so I don't think I'll have any physical or mental energy left to do anything at all. We went on a 2 week long trip several years ago to Italy, and it was a weird experience as those two weeks felt as long as a month at the very least. It was great though, and I hope it is going to be as great this time. I can catch up on my fencing later. I did it once, I can do it again, right? Or maybe I can walk around the chateaux and imagine myself in one of the Dumas' novels, complete with duels on ramparts ;)

Today I did my last training until June :( I feel really sad about it, since today I finally felt that I am starting to see and understand everything much better, you know, that qualitative shift in understanding what you are doing. I am afraid that skipping a month will set me back significantly. For three weeks of May walking will be my main exercise, the rest just regular running around and trying to keep my sanity while I am finishing up the school year, planning the next, and getting ready for the trip. Laurie4b ~ that is very interesting. My DH and I both have Alzheimer's in the family, so I watch for those things. I read before that certain sports (and I believe dance) have great effect on keeping the brain healthy. Fencing is one of them, and some other games where you need to make decisions very fast and very often, but it is not something my DH is interested in doing, so it is great to know that other things have positive effect. Thanks!

Congratulations, wintermom! I hope the rest of your day is just as special! You totally deserve to feel like a princess :)

Wintermom ~ thanks for the words of wisdom! I mostly know that but sometimes it is necessary to have a refresher :) It's just with sports like fencing (or tennis, I suppose) it is very difficult to judge progress without comparing yourself to others, and the sport is just too small to have a representative sample. I think, in my age group there are no more then a hundred female epee fencers in the entire country. As it is, I fence mostly 14-year old girls, with some teenage boys and a couple 60+. I went to the club today as usual, and I just realized that it is my last week before a month-long break. We are going on vacation for three weeks and the week before that is just busy, plus, it would cost me almost as much as a whole month to go for just that one week. I am going to miss it while I am still here, and then it will be a pain to get back into the routine.