The Masked Lime and Lemon Boy

Here we are at the first KidPak service of 2025!  This morning's KidPak service brought back the Masked Lime and Lemon Boy, a really old skit that we did some time ago for our series "Juicy Fruit."  Things went well this morning, with lots of laughs and a great introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit, which we'll be talking about the next few weeks.  It's only appropriate to talk about fruit, as we're starting our church fast today and we're staying away from sweets and meat for twenty-one days.  Of course, beyond that, we're doing some quality devotional time - Mom, Maddie and I were doing this new "Chosen" themed devotional... well, at least new to us.  Basically, it follows the show episode by episode, and it covers topics and highlights scriptures and gives guided questions.  Mom, Maddie and I sat at the kitchen table talking about the Old Testament and New Testament, and talking about Mary, Simon Peter, Nicodemus and Matthew too.  We'll be watching episode one soon enough, but this was a good introduction day.  We'll continue reading tomorrow, and continue the devotional time.

This morning's service was good, and right after that we went home to where Mom was with a good lunch for us.  She had some cream of asparagus soup, and that was really good and filling.  Mom and I had a good afternoon nap after that.  She's still under the weather somewhat, which is why she wasn't at service this morning.  But it's getting better.  

Tonight we continued our "High School Musical" marathon with the second movie, which is another good one.  We actually own the concert video too, so we might add that to the marathon.  Tomorrow we'll revisit the third movie, and then after that we'll even watch the Sharpay solo movie.  We've got hard copies of all of these, and it's been a while since we've seen them.  But they're still great movies with great choreography and music.  The second one is really fun, and the three of us enjoyed it again.  We'll see part three tomorrow.

The night was closed out with a few more pages from "Hogfather," which we're really winding down on now.  I think only thirty pages left or so, but it's a great book, a real page-turner.  Maddie and I used self-control and agreed to continue reading tomorrow, just because we knew we had to get to bed tonight.  After all, school is coming back tomorrow, the first day of 2025!

After prayers... good night!

First Saturday of 2025

The DeSantafication Process continued in earnest today as we took the ornaments off of the piano room tree, and even the lights too.  Bittersweet sort of times when you take down these trees, leaving just this darkened pine tree in your living room, a shadow of things that used to be.  We've still got a three more trees to do, although I suspect that will wait until Monday.  Maddie was helping me get the ornaments off the tree as we listened to some music on the laptop here.  Oh yeah, the music was part of my "Psalms" collection that I've just started to pick up again - I'm setting all of the Psalms to music from artificial intelligence.  In some cases it is pretty challenging because of the length or way the words in the psalms are organized.  Nevertheless, I have about a hundred of them done so far, and it's been a fun project.  It helps you remember scriptures, setting them to music.  This is why we were also working on a "Fruit of the Spirit" song too.  I just write out the lyrics and see what AI can come up with.  I used the terms "acoustic guitar, finger style, folk, upbeat, bass guitar, male singer lead" for prompts, and plugged in these lyrics:

[instrumental intro]

[verse 1]

You know Jesus set us free, 

so we can run the race.

So don’t look like sour grapes, 

or make that lemon face!

You know what I'm talkin' about -

just listen to His Spirit.

Galatians chapter five says it all, 

so now sit back and hear it!

[CHORUS]

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

[verse 2]

Keep workin’ at your garden.

Show Him and others love.

You have strong roots, and lots of fruits:

A harvest from above!

See we are all the branches, 

and Jesus is the vine

So don’t you sin, just follow Him, 

and all will be just fine!

[CHORUS]

Yes that fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

[verse 3]

Sin is like a rotten fruit

and it's bad for you and me.

Check out Galatians, chapter five

Twenty-two and twenty-three.

You judge a tree by it’s fruit,

so make your fruit the best.

Remember Paul's fruity list

You’ll see your life so blessed.

[CHORUS]

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

gentleness and self-control.

It's interesting the different results that came out, but one was good enough for us to use in the service as kids come pouring in to the auditorium.  

So it's cold outside, and that's about right because it is winter.  It'll be miserable a few states north of us soon, as there's a tremendous ice and snow storm crashing through.  It's going to be a big deal.  Down here in Georgia, not so much, although we could see some ice and maybe a little snow by the end of next week.  We'll see.  But right now:  cold.  We need to go out and get wood and get the ol' fireplace going for some ambience.

In the meantime, we're keeping the bird feeders stocked, and that brings great joy to all the birds out there.  "His eye is on the sparrow" has become a favorite scripture of mine, just because it brings to mind the Lord looking out as we do, and of course we see the wonderful variety of birds that come in and are well fed, all sharing the seeds - except for that robin, who acts like a total jerk.  But we even let him eat as well.  The blue birds are looking healthy, as are the others:  sparrows, phoebes, finches, blue jays, cardinals, tufted titmouse, chickadees, nuthatches, mourning doves, mockingbirds, and about four different kinds of woodpecker for the suet feeder.  We have a few grackles from time to time too.

Some time ago, we determined that Maddie needed to see "High School Musical" before the end of her high school experience.  And of course there are only four months to go, so tonight we watched the first "High School Musical" movie together, and yeah, now we're singing all the songs all over again.  I nearly forgot how well done these movies were, with great choreography, a talented cast, and some memorable songs.  Yes, we enjoyed it - again - it's hard to believe this, but this movie is as old as Maddie is.  Yeah.  Anyway, she's seen these before too.  The first time I saw this movie I had the bar really low, thinking this would be just a fun little made-for-tv thing, but in fact it was pretty awesome!  So anyway, fast forward to tonight, and it was amazing having our high schooler here watching the movie with us.  It goes without saying that we'll be watching the other movies next.

We had our last meal today, or at least the last meal with meat in it.  That's for me, at least.  Tomorrow is the start of the fast, which meant up until midnight we were doing a sort of "Fat Tuesday" thing, eating up all the sweets in the pantry and dining on a rotisserie chicken we picked up at the grocery store.  Maddie picked up a Mardi Gras flavor one, but the bag actually ripped open right there in the grocery store, and ... SPLAT!  The chicken hit the floor.  The five-second rule was long past by the time we got an employee over there to clean it up.  We're ready for soups and so forth during the fast, but more importantly, we're also ready for the additional Bible time.  

We'll be watching "The Chosen" again, and simultaneously reading some study guides for season one and season two.  It'll be a good time, and of course we'll be also reading other devotional material too.

Speaking of reading, tonight we read some more from "Hogfather," as we discovered the true identity of the Tooth Fairy and also dealt with Mr. Teatime, at least for the time being.  The story is winding down, certainly.  Every trip to the Discworld is special.  Mom got me this book of artwork from the Discworld, and it's just wonderful.  

This is a must-have for any Discworld fanatic like me.  No doubt Maddie and I will continue on with our Discworld reading for a good bit.  Maddie is enjoying it, and so am I.

We closed out the day with prayer, and getting under those blankets.  The Plush Entourage is keeping her company still, and I'm marching along on that treadmill still, trying to stay healthy.  Mom is feeling under the weather still, but it's gradually getting better.  It's a predictable sort of illness, only because I just had it, and I know she just needs about a week to go through the roughest patches of it.  Still, we take good care of Mom.  

Additional Household Lifeform Update

Before we continue, a few updates on some of the growing lifeforms within our house!  First, check out the amaryllis above.  Finally blooming!  Not all four blooms are out yet, but there are two or three of them blooming, a deep red color.  It looks great on our kitchen table there.  

The other lifeforms are our sea monkeys, which are actually moving to a third generation status officially now.  I wasn't sure if we'd get a third generation out of this, but one of the youngest sea monkeys grew to be a teenager or a young adult, and is fairly big now, doing well.  There are a few youngsters in there moving around, and that older one from generation two is still swimming about, also doing fine.  We can't believe this one packet of sea monkeys from Easter of 2023 has lasted us this long!  The secret is fresh water from time to time, adding air every single day, and then food once a week.  I love these little guys and gals!

Maddie had her first taekwondo of the year tonight, and it was a predictably small class because everyone is still on vacation or just getting back.  Whatever the case may be, Maddie was there with friends, and she was having a good time getting back into the swing of things.  One moment had her laughing, one where she was learning how to attack without telegraphing with her next move would be.  While just standing there with her opponent, she just whacked him on the head unexpectedly.  Mission accomplished!  And much laughter afterwards.

I was all over the map today at two campuses, Braselton and Gainesville.  We're getting ready for Juicy Fruit, a series about the Fruit of the Spirit.  But February is on the horizon, and we were getting ready for that too with a series called "Better Together."  The last-minute nature of all those changes means this:  we're writing it all in one week.  Yikes.  

Mom has been under the weather the last few days, and she spent the day at home just resting and that's good.  I had the same thing earlier this week, and hopefully it'll pass quickly for Mom too.  It lasts about a week, and just has the usual fever symptoms and drainage.  Welcome to winter, right?

Tonight, Maddie and I were playing LEGO Marvel some more, opening up new characters and so on.  This game is huge.  We've been playing in for months and are still only at 57% complete.  Wow.

We read before bed, of course, digging into "Hogfather" some more.  Almost done with that one.  Afterwards, we said our prayers and got to sleep.  Maddie gets to sleep in one more time before she goes back to school!

White Bird

We've been waiting to see this movie for quite some time now, haven't we?  I don't remember when it was first advertised as coming out, and then it was postponed and then we didn't hear anything and then it was released and it was in and out of theaters so fast we didn't get a chance to see it.  Well, Maddie got it for Christmas, and tonight she decided we'd get to watch "White Bird."  

What an emotional movie.  So moving.  It's historical fiction, but it hurts and it makes you angry.  To quote Julian, It hurts, but in a good way.  When the credits were rolling, we all sat there silently, all with tears in our eyes.  I looked over at Maddie and joked, "Is everyone all right?"  We were glad to watch it, although I'm not sure how many more times we'll actually see it again.  It's one of those movies that I think everyone needs to see once.  It's a reminder of the cruelty this world is capable of, and of course the power of hope and kindness. 

This was a sequel - and perhaps a prequel - of sorts to a movie called "Wonder."  This was, of course, a book first.  The story had a very big impact on Maddie a few years ago, something we've watched a few times.  Maddie read it too.  So she's been looking forward to seeing this in a way.  But at the same time, dreading it in a way.  It was sad, but again, a powerful reminder of a time in history that many try to forget.

Moving on, it was otherwise a quiet day today.  I was at work finishing up a script for our first weekend of "Juicy Fruit," our newest series.  It's going to be about the Fruit of the Spirit, and only one month long.  But it should be fun.  Here's the graphic for the series:

We start on Sunday, and we've got a silly skit with the Masked Lime and Lemon boy, my favorite Fruit Justice Heroes on the scene to make sure others show the Fruit of the Spirit.  It's somewhat ridiculous, and should be fun!

Maddie was finishing up her art project today, something that involved an incredible amount of intricate cutting.  We'll share that soon enough, but this has been an ongoing thing, and it'll be great to have that all finished up.

We read tonight, moving towards the end of "Hogfather" somewhat.  Less than a week left, I think, and then we'll more than likely move to the next Discworld book.  We're hooked on those now.  After reading, its as time for prayers, and time for bed.  It was a quiet day, and a quiet start to 2025.  Time for sleep.

Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah!

Okay, here's the final painting by Maddie, the one she started working on a few days ago.  She picked it up again this afternoon so she could finish it off, and it turned out really well!

I think in the end, she prefers using colored pencils and pens, but that isn't to say she didn't enjoy this.  She sat at the table to day working on this project while listening to her favorite channels.  The snowy landscape looks great, and of course that was sort of on our minds as we enter January.  There is another Polar Vortex on the way in about a week, and with lower temperatures there is a chance for an actual snowy landscape out there.  I'll believe it when I see it - we haven't seen snow here in North Georgia for quite some time.  Years, I think.

So today is New Year's Day, and of course we had the Rose Bowl Parade on.  We watched the coverage on  the national NBC channel, but the camera work and audio were so terrible, and there was so much cut out.  So right when it was over, we went to another local channel's coverage, and sure enough, it was immensely better.  As in, we'll start there next year.  

Anyway, we were enjoying that parade, and all the while we were taking down things, starting our DeSantafication process in earnest now.  We brought up empty tubs, and got busy.  And after the parade was over, we were listening to some vinyl records, whistling while we worked.  Here's a leftover from last night!

We didn't get to the trees yet, but I was taking some pictures of a few things, and got some more pictures of a few of my favorite ornaments.

Ah, and here below is the reason I had the camera ready.  I got the nutcrackers down for a big group shot:

Not only that, we packed up the Nativity set.  I wasn't taking pictures of the entire Nativity Empire, but I did take a few shots of some of the scenes to help me set up next time.

We did a lot of work today, and there were the chores - I was walking, of course too.  Mom and I had some Factor meals, and we fed our sea monkeys their weekly meal.  Again:  we dropped a package of eggs in this tank at Easter time two years ago.  There are still sea monkeys in there from that long ago.  That amazes me.  

Moving on, we also keep those birds well fed out in the back yard.  We've been watching all of them fly up to enjoy a free meal, all sorts of different birds.  And our neighborhood cat keeps coming up to the front door for a free meal too - Mom gives him a bit of leftover chicken from time to time.

Tonight we played dominos, and we actually played for thirteen rounds!  We didn't plan on playing that long, but I think it was just that easy and that fun of a game that we simply kept going on and on.  Everyone won a few rounds, and it was relaxing with some tea and occasional breaks.

And of course, tonight is the last night of Hanukkah.  We lit our final candle and did our devotional for this last night.  Maddie did a funny photobomb here!

It was a pleasant first day of the year.  We closed things out watching the first Jumanji movie, now having seen all three this week.  The next one comes out later this year, from what we're reading.  The first one is so good, with so much nostalgia.  There were so many great movies in the 90's, these big Christmas time releases.  That's one thing I noticed about all three Jumanji movies, is that they might be considered Christmas movies given that they all actually feature a bit of Christmas in each one.

Anyway, speaking of Christmas, we read more from "Hogfather" tonight, as Susan is now in the world of childhood imagination, and therefore closer to the villains of the story.  Things are coming to a head, and of course DEATH is hoping to help out.

We said our prayers tonight, and there were some prayers for New Orleans today, as a terrorist chose to end his life and many others there today.  The world is a more volatile place, at least in a more noticeable way in regards to entire nations mobilizing armies and taking aggressive stances.  We don't know what 2025 holds, but we know God is still with us.

New Year's Eve 2024

Happy New Year!  Tonight we got to use those crackers that we've been holding on to, and we each pulled on our ends and all three of us won our pulling contests, the loud crack snapping and the package opening up to reveal the goodies inside.  I like this tradition.  I think it usually is for Christmas, but with Christmas so full of things to do, I like opening the crackers on New Year's Eve.  Anyway, inside are the paper crowns, which you can see we put on our heads immediately.  And there were those small prizes.  One was a metal puzzle that Maddie was able to solve - I wasn't able to do it before the new year, but I'll try again tomorrow!  I got some marbles, so of course Maddie told me not to lose my marbles.  Mom got a small ring game, and we all got the little jokes inside like this one, perhaps my favorite:

Q:  Why did the doughnut seller quit his job.

A:  He was tired of the hole business.

Anyway, we had a good night tonight.  To help the time go by, we actually bought a digital copy of the new movie "Wicked," which actually premiered online today.  Why not?  We planned on seeing this in theaters tomorrow, but decided to watch it tonight.  It was a better movie than I expected.  Of course, we love all things Oz, so there was an immediate connection there.  We loved the little nods to the lore scattered throughout the movie.  I'm not sure how things will turn out, as we don't know the entire story.  I mean, we know what happens at the end of the "Wizard of Oz," and in fact that much is largely implied at the beginning of this movie.  However, all is not as it appears in this movie as well, and we're well aware of that.

We also checked out the latest episode of "Skeleton Crew" tonight, and that was also pretty good.  There was this one bit with these small robot creatures that seemed to take a section straight from a RL Stine short story, and that wasn't a bad thing.  It's been a fun series though, a welcome return to fun in a Star Wars series.  I think that's one thing we've missed in the new Star Wars series:  fun.

Anyway, after watching all that, it was getting close to midnight.  This used to take so long when I was much younger, that huge wait until midnight.  I mean, could I possibly make it? 

Look what happened while we were watching the movie!  The amaryllis is ready to bloom, and might actually open up tomorrow!

And Maddie was on her island in "Animal Crossing" again, watching her friends there count down the new year.

We had some different festive hats too, these we found in the basement this morning with a few other small decorations and noise makers.  So we had Animal Crossing counting down the time, but we also had a channel on social media where a couple were broadcasting live from Main Street at the Magic Kingdom, where there was a massive fireworks display, and then Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all started panicking, because it was time for the countdown!  Together we joined everyone at the parks, all of us together counting 10... 9... 8...7...6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...!

Happy New Year!  It's 2025!  The fireworks went off, and we gave kisses and hugs and wishes to each other for happy new year.  We got our our sparkling grape juice bottle, a tradition for New Year's Eve, especially in those little celebration glasses.

Happy New Year!  Here we are in 2025, and it's going to be a great year.  Wow, it's suddenly January!  Wait, what?  But before we go forward, let's look back earlier in December... or at least earlier today.

That's right, it's day seven of Hanukkah.  We lit our candle tonight as we read from our devotional.  We were all cracking up again at the attempt to light the candle as we read the scripture, but Maddie got the Shamash lit, and then the other candles as well.  The menorah is looking good!

And so is this menorah too!  Maddie and I did a craft today, and it took quite some time to get done, but we had these metal frames of Hanukkah shapes.  Maddie had the menorah, and I had a dreidel shape.  We had all these small colored bits of plastic, and the two of us used tweezers to place the bits of plastic into the metal frames, which of course were laid out on a sheet of tin foil on a baking pan.  After the long, long process of painstakingly putting each bit of plastic in the right place, we placed the baking pan into an oven, where the plastic would melt into place.

They turned out well!  It took longer than expected, but it was fun, and the end product was really nice!

The rest of our day was actually pretty productive in the basement.  We've got things set up so that the DeSantafication process can start tomorrow, as we start taking things down bit by bit.  But yeah, we were doing a lot of clearing out today.

Maddie closed out the year doing some gaming, and doing a bit of cleaning up herself.  The weather outside was really nice today, and we kept the bird feeders stocked.  We've had a lot of bird visitors on that back deck, always a great source of entertainment.

We closed out 2024 with a relaxing day at home, and together.  It was nice.  This morning we looked back on the entire year on this blog, and as always you marvel at the things that happened all in one year, much of which you forget about over time.  It had some roller coaster moments for sure, but here we are, healthy and happy at the very end of it, and starting out the new year with hopeful optimism.  It's going to be a great 2025.  

Happy New Year!

Paint By Numbers

Maddie was trying the paint-by-numbers kit she got from the family yesterday, and she was actually spending some time on that.  She'd be there with her headphones on, watching some of her favorite online personalities and videos while painting away - she didn't get done, but she got a good ways into it:

It was another quiet day of our staycation.  We spent a lot of time in the basement, cleaning things up and getting things organized and ready for the de-Santafication.  It's always a sad occasion to start bringing the stuff down, and we were glad the neighbors dropped by with some extra chocolates, not only for the chocolates but the company and the shared belief that it's okay to keep the trees up just a little longer.

I had to give an amaryllis update, which you can see above.  It's just about to open up, and might do so on New Year's Day perhaps.  We got it a little later in the season, but at least we got one.  I remember the struggle to find one, and to locate it at Sam's Club like that was pretty great, and also in that unique presentation.  Very cool.  The flower's stem has been rising, rising, and towering at the kitchen table, and now appears ready to bloom.

Hanukkah, Day Six!  This part is funny every night, where I read a passage as Maddie lights the Shamash candle.  But as I'm reading, Maddie stands there for a moment struggling to get the lighter to light at all.  Which is funny because the passage is solemn and reverent, and the whole time there's Maddie clicking and clicking on that lighter and struggling to get the thing lit until we all crack up.  Every.  Single.  Time.  It's hilarious.  But we get the candle lit, and Mom has the candles all in place so that we read the scripture from Deuteronomy as we light each of the daily candles in the correct order.  And then, when lit, we read from the book we picked up at Christmas, the eight-day devotional to go with the lighting of the candles.

I've been still walking on the treadmill this season, and doing so daily - but instead of using the programmed videos on the machine, I've been watching all sorts of Christmas movies and specials, many of which are on VHS.  We have this television downstairs, one with a VHS player in it, and it's been so great to watch some of these videos on VHS.  Many of them you can't find on any other format yet, which is wild.  Anyway, today I was continuing to watch something not related to Christmas at all, the first Star Trek movie, "Star Trek:  The Motion Picture."  This is a loooooong movie.  So much nostalgia though.  I can't believe I remember some of the dialogue from this one.  But for some reason, the thing I remember most are the happy meals from McDonald's that promoted the movie.  My goodness, those were some valuable happy meals at the time.  I don't remember the toys inside, but I remember a board game and the artwork on the happy meals.  I would love to see some of those happy meal boxes again.  From time to time, there have been some really great happy meal collections.  I remember one set where happy meal containers were plastic and shaped like different boats.  I specifically remember my sister and I floating the boats down the river at Pigeon Forge.  Nowadays those boats are pretty pricy if you want to find them online.  I think the ultimate happy meal treasure for me was much later when I was a lot older - it was Inspector Gadget.  Each week there's be a different piece of Inspector Gadget, perhaps a let or a head or the torso or just the hat.  Each piece would do something different, and then of course each piece would connect to the other so that by the end of the collecting, you'd have this larger scale Inspector Gadget.  Yes, I still have that larger Inspector Gadget, folks.  I remember my sister and I going to all these different McDonald's locations over the weeks, making sure we got each one. 

Not related to McDonald's, a similar fast-food collection craze came for me in the 80's, when Hardee's was giving out California Raisin figures.  I have all ten of those still!

Anyway, that took me down memory lane.  That's where I was for a good part of the day anyway.  We were organizing old tapes in the basement, and old audio tapes too.  I have some of those leftover, though not many.  The treadmill is a perfect place to catch all these old VHS movies though.  I found a Garrison Keillor special from 1989, and a VHS tape of Praise in Motion's "The Gift" from 2002.  There are old Disney movies that I've never seen, like "The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon."  I don't know if that was ever on DVD, or where you can see that anywhere.  But I found a copy on VHS, and during the playoffs I thought I'd check it out while on the treadmill.  

Mom and I were in the basement a good bit today.  And Maddie was helping out too, as she will be doing during the whole DeSantafication process.  We were bringing tubs up and putting them next to where some of the decorations are set up, making it easy to just pack things up and carry them down.  Also, I'm moving all my binders back to the church, the ones with the old messages and themes.  It might be a while before they all get to the church and set up again, but the office is going through quite a bit of change too - we'll be doing a lot of reorganizing in 2025.

We played some games tonight, including LEGO Marvel.  I opened up the character Fing Fang Foom, which is always fun to say.  And it's a crazy character too, with the ability to turn into this ginormous LEGO dragon.  We were spending time doing little missions here or there, and that was fun.

The movie of the night was "Jumanji:  The Next Level."  It's been a while since we've seen this one, and honestly didn't remember some of the details of it, but we all enjoyed it quite a bit.  I think this means we're going back to the original Jumanji tomorrow night, and maybe even the board game, right?

We closed out the penultimate day of 2024 with reading from "A Christmas Carol" first, which had us at Ebenezer Scrooge's grave, and a vow to honor Christmas.  Tomorrow night we'll wrap up that story.  And of course the other story we're reading still is "Hogfather," which I suspect we'll be still doing somewhere into the first week of January.  More than likely we'll continue in the Discworld after this with another book from that realm - we'll have to decide when we get to that point which book to do next.

Anyway, we said our prayers after that.  And then it was time for some rest.  Only one more day left of 2024!