Wordless Wednesday - Grad Photo Album

So my son graduated earlier this year, and I did post some of my pictures of the great occasion, but I haven't yet posted the "official" pictures from the ceremony. I didn't really take pictures at the ceremony because we had a photographer looking after that for us. She is a member of our homeschool group, and she had a lot going on this summer, so it was a little later than usual when we got access to all the photos she had taken, and consequently it's taken me longer to do this.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Portraits of the grads outside - she was a good sport and let Landon leave his new tie hanging outside of his gown for one picture! He was pretty proud of that Jerry Garcia tie, let me tell you.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Okay, but seriously:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Ready for the grads to walk in:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Here comes my grad:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

It was a challenge for anyone to get a picture of Landon at the drum kit, so this turned out pretty good.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

For each student, she got this series of pictures - mom presenting the diploma and receiving a gift and a hug from the student; dad turning the tassel and congratulating the student; and then all three together.

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Presenting the FAITH Class of 2016:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

And a family photo afterwards:

Photo courtesy: Creative Pair

You can see more about the ceremony and some grad traditions in my post From the High School Lesson Book: Graduation, but here are just a few more photo highlights of the occasion.

I was outside for some of the photo session, and took these pictures:

Making sure everyone sees the ties.

Setting up a group shot

I zoomed in during a group pose to get this one

And these are the senior portraits done by our friend and student ministries director, who also happens to be a talented and generous photographer.

This one is my favorite, and the one we used on Landon's grad announcements.

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont, and at Sometimes Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Tots and Me . . . Growing Up Together!

 

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - The Circle of Ceridwen

This post contains affiliate links. 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn at Books and Beat. To play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

Just a day or two after a friend recommended this book series to me, she found the first one offered free so I grabbed it. I'm hoping to start reading soon!

I did not know if she would weep or fume, but her anger won, and she cried out, "Never did I expect so great a slight! No one to greet me, and then I am cast aside into this monk's cell of a room to await him. I bring him a dowry that many a King's daughter might envy, and am thus welcomed!"
~The Circle of Ceridwen: Book One, by Octavia Randolph, at 11% on my Kindle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is a weekly link-up hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or two) of a book you're reading, or thinking about reading.

   I was daughter to two men, but no woman claimed me as hers. My dead sire was an ealdorman, the chief of our shire. He had long fallen in a skirmish with the wild Welsh beyond our river Dee, and his stony lands taken by the same. I was thus alone when I was wee, and Cedd, brother of my father Cerd, took me. Cedd became ealdorman, for my father had no son, and his ceorls, his armed men, came and pledged to him, and he gave them rings and bracelets to seal their love. Cedd had also freeborn cottars and slaves to farm his land, as an ealdorman should. Cedd's wife had died in childbed with her firstborn, and he had not taken another wife. So he took me as his daughter to the hall of upright timber he had built as a young man, and I lived with him until my ninth Summer.

Here's the blurb:

It is the year 871, when England was Angle-Land. Of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, five have fallen to the invading Vikings. No trait is more valued than loyalty, and no possession more precious than one's steel. Across this war-torn landscape travels fifteen year old Ceridwen, now thrust into the lives of the conquerors.

Lost in the frozen woods, Ceridwen is discovered by the warriors accompanying young Aelfwyn, daughter of a Saxon lord, sold against her will in marriage as part of a peace treaty with a marauding Viking war chief. Their destination is the captured fortress of Four Stones, a ruin holding glittering treasure. There Aelfwyn must keep her vow an wed Yrling - and Ceridwen must do all she can to support her new friend in the rebuilding of the ravaged village and great hall.

But living with the enemy affords Ceridwen unusual freedoms - and unlooked-for conflicts. Amongst them she explores again her own heathen past, and learns to judge each man on his own merits. Yrling's nephews Sidroc and Toki, both formidable warriors yet as different as night and day, compete to win Ceridwen for their own.

Through both guile and goodness Ceridwen and Aelfwyn begin transforming the world of Four Stones. But the threat of full-scale war escalates, and a midnight party of furtive Danes delivers someone to Four Stones who destroys the girls' hopes of peace and contentment. Now Ceridwen must summon all her courage - a courage which will be sorely tested as she defies both Saxon and Dane and undertakes an extraordinary adventure to save a man she has never met.

The first book of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga, the historical adventure saga enjoyed by thousands of readers in over 125 nations.

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

What I'm Reading - August 15, 2016

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This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! I also link up with Tales of a Pee Dee Mama for D.E.A.R. Monday (Drop Everything And Read).

I finished reading . . .

A Pressing Engagement (A Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber - A short but engaging read that will satisfy the curiosity of Lady Darby fans about the wedding! (Read my full review HERE.)





I'm currently reading . . .

The Winter Crown: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Elizabeth Chadwick - In general, I didn't get much reading done last week, but I have been faithfully working on this one.




A Tapestry of Secrets by Sarah Loudin Thomas - Also worked on this a little bit last week, and hoping to have more time for reading this week and next!

Next on the stack...

Charity's Cross (Charles Towne Belles) (Volume 4) by MaryLu Tyndall

The Reckoning (Legacy of the King's Pirates) (Volume 5) by MaryLu Tyndall

    

On my blogs last week . . .

Here on Just A Second:

Scripture and a Snapshot - Fan Into Flame
Recent Reads - A Pressing Engagement
Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - A Tapestry of Secrets


And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Weekly - Homeschool 101 Edition
52 Lists #32 - Favorite Scents
Homeschool 101 - Homeschool Pep Rally
Virtual Refrigerator - Back to Homeschool
Homeschool 101 - Celebrating Back to Homeschool
Homeschool 101 - Barely Managing My Home!
Homeschool 101 - Planning the School Year


What are you reading?

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Scripture and a Snapshot - Fan Into Flame

  

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything that we have done but because of his purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

What you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

~II Timothy 1:6-7, 9-10, 13-14~

Scripture & a Snapshot is hosted by A Glimpse of Our Life.

Glimpses is hosted by Embracing Every Day, a lifestyle blog by Barbie Swihart.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Recent Reads - A Pressing Engagement

This post contains affiliate links. 

A Pressing Engagement (A Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber - This novella came out after the fourth book in the Lady Darby series, and is a prequel to the fifth novel which was recently released. However, since I hadn't pre-ordered the fifth novel, and my library hasn't acquired it yet, I decided I would wait awhile to read this. It was worth the wait!

Kiera (Lady Darby) has little interest in her wedding to Sebastian Gage being a grand social affair, but she has been trying to allow her sister to plan the occasion as she wishes. In the midst of the last minute preparations, a cousin arrives to present Kiera a wedding gift - a gold torc that she and Sebastian are sure is the same one that they had once been asked to locate. At the time they had declined to take the case, but now presented with the item, they trace its journey to them and make sure it ends up where its original owner had intended. Other minor investigations also provide some distraction for them amid the whirlwind of wedding preparations, but in the end of course the happy couple weds and the stage is set for the next mystery they will solve.

A short but engaging read that will satisfy the curiosity of Lady Darby's fans who want to know who attended the wedding (does Gage's father relent and make an appearance?), and like me, are still awaiting the next full-length novel, As Death Draws Near.

By the same author: The Anatomist's Wife, Mortal Arts, A Grave Matter, A Study in Death

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/