December 2013 or What We're Doing Now

So what's happened since April 2012? A lot.

Yakov will graduate from UNC Chapel Hill in the spring. He will graduate with a degree in Peace, War and Defense. He interned the summer of 2012 for his congressman, David Price, and spent this past summer as an intern for J Street. He is the current national president of J Street U Student Board. At their conference in October, he had the honor of introducing Congressman John Lewis who was one of the keynote speakers. Yakov did a beautiful job and received a vigorous hug from Congressman Lewis. He recently had a article published on The Daily Beast.

Shoshie will graduate form UNC Asheville next December. She has studied International Studies, focusing on the Middle East and Northern Africa. She spent a month this past summer in Ghana. She is involved with lots of activities in Asheville, such as belly dancing and tutoring middle school kids. And so much more. It is much harder to describe the many things she is involved in than it is for Yakov. She has several jobs. She is doing independent research as well as helping a professor with his research. She's just always on the go. And soon she will visit Japan with a friend for 10 days.

Noach has made some major changes as well. Last December, JP and I decided he needed to go to school. The reasons are many. He was resistant to any change and had never been to school so we had to made a careful decision. In January he began mid10th grade at the local Quaker school. He loved it, made good grades and was very well liked. He has made good friends and was recently asked to be one of the school's ambassadors, the students who show prospective students and families around the school. He has really transformed the way many at the school look at homeschooled students. Like his brother Yakov, Noach has taken on some leadership roles with Young Judaea and perhaps will work at camp this summer.

Big E, my oldest, was with us in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. His wife and 2 girls were with him. They are all wonderful. And busy.

And I have retired again. From homeschooling this time. My post retirement activities include pottery, birdwatching and politics. I started pottery classes last year and I love it. My work is not that good but I'm working on it and each pot is better than the last. Often I go birdwatching on the weekend with a local group and I have introduced a friend to birdwatching as well. Until recently the two of us went one morning each week.

But recently I have been absorbed with helping people get information on the Affordable Care Act. Over the summer I joined the League of Women Voters and through that group I became involved with Enroll America. Now I am the captain of the team for my city. I have a group of 12 or so people who attend or host events where we discuss basic ACA info. Soon we will be helping them to make navigator appointments also. I am relieved that the website is working much better now.

JP continues to practice medicine at the VA. I know he would like to retire soon but it's hard to retire when we have two in college and one yet to go. Next summer we will celebrate 25 years of marriage. We're looking for a fun trip to go on to celebrate rather than a party.

So that's it. We keep muddling through, doing our best.