Sunday, March 17, 2024

Shenanigans


It's St. Patrick's Day, and it's been a good season for celebrating.  Tonight as we were looking back on the month, we even had time to stop and enjoy our traditional Shamrock Shake at home.  Yesterday we got some green mint and chocolate chip ice cream, so we mixed it with some milk and made some festive green shakes while we watched a movie together.  Our movie of choice was "Muppets Most Wanted," partially because part of it takes place in Dublin and features muppet leprechauns... but really, it's mostly because we love this movie so much.  Seriously, it's our favorite Muppet movie.  I think we got the idea after watching that classic clip from the Muppet Show where Animal, Beaker and the Swedish Chef all sing Danny Boy.



Must-see viewing right there, folks!  It was a very full day, and it was a Sunday, so you know where we were this morning before all this started. 





We continued with Exodus, and it was great - we had this matching game where kids in the audience had to pick cards on stage that would get turned over... and their goal was to guess the Ten Plagues in the correct order.  The message focused on that part of Exodus, with a great skit, the game above, an awesome message, and a really fun retelling of the story using animated versions of ourselves that Josh created.



It was a great morning!  Yes, we had green on.  Maddie had her Edge shirt on, but I had my Buc-ee's St. Patrick's Day shirt on.   I got this one last month and have been anxious to wear it! 



Let the shenanigans begin!  We got home after that, and we ate a bit, and after that returned to Middle Earth for a good bit, moving forward with our game.  We seem committed to get to 100% of the game, and after several hours, we're only about halfway there.  It's a big game, but it's been fun!


But our day was far from over.  Tonight we were invited over to Aunt Shain's house for our annual family St. Patrick's Day gathering.  I got changed - yes, I wore the kilt tonight!  We went over to the family event, and it was really nice to get tofgether, a very pleasant evening with the whole family there.  There was corn beef and cabbage, plus Irish soda bread and yes, potatoes.  We brought the key lime pie that Maddie made (with our help), and there were other desserts too.  The food was nice, but the whole evening was really nice.  "Darby O' Gill" was playing in the background, and there were plenty of Irish decorations all about. It was a great night together.


We got home after that, and of course there was the movie, and after that it was pretty much time for bed.  We finished our Kingdom Keepers book tonight with Eli knowing that his father was in fact a Kingdom Keeper.  The head of the mice, Leader, is back with something to say... but we'll have to find out in the next book what that is.  We'll see soon when we start that next book, which might be a little later on.  Until then, it was time for prayers, and ... a great joke.  We've been going back and forth with the Frog Prince, that vibrating singing frog that makes itself known when you put your head on the pillow, because he's under there singing.  Well, today we announced that it was time to put him up for the year, as its more of a Valentine's Day thing, right?  So after all that, Maddie set her head down on the pillow, and now she heard the Hip Hop Bunny rapping about Easter.  Here we go again.  This rabbit is going to be popping up all over the place.  I'm telling you right now that after night, he's now lurking in Maddie's taekwondo bag.  She'll find him tomorrow!


It's been a fun day.  Mom seems to be feeling better too, getting better as the day went along.  We said our prayers, and yeah, it's time for bed.  We're very blessed.


Saturday, March 16, 2024

St. Patrick's Day Weekend

Maddie got to sleep in late this morning, always a big deal for her - but this morning she slept extra late.  Why not, right?  It's a day off, and that's okay.  Today is the day before St. Patrick's Day, and we actually did a good bit of celebrating the Irish weekend.  For example, while Maddie was asleep, I was doing another 5K, this one in New Hampshire.  Of course, virtually.  These are on the treadmill as always, and for this one I ran the entire distance, and it was pretty awesome.  There were lots of folks wearing green, with shamrock glasses and St. Patrick's Day trivia going on to keep your mind off the chore of running.  It was fun though.  Best of all was my blood pressure afterwards, astoundingly low.  


I was out doing some leaf-blowing today afterwards, and Maddie was up at one point of course.  She had one big task of the day, and that was this:  making a pie!




Maddie mixed the ingredients and made a pie with Mom and I nearby, but it was a delicious key lime pie.  We added a hint of green food coloring, and decorated it to bring along tomorrow to Aunt Shain's St. Patrick's Day celebration.  


Easter is crazy early again this year, and so we're at this weird crossroads of Easter decor and St. Patrick's Day decor.  Given that it's the weekend, I went out there and got the tree decorated, with small plastic Easter eggs hanging from branches all there at our front porch.    




The other thing I did was set up Happy Hollow.  It's an amazing little Easter village, a happy community of bunny rabbits.  Times are changing, but the small town has kept its businesses going strong, like the BZBee Honey Company and the nearby Eggery.  



The Flower Shop is absolutely bustling with activity!  I moved a few of the houses and shops around, and it looks good this year.  Again, the joke is that we got these from the Dollar Store many years ago, buying them all up for about a dollar a piece and giving my dad the whole set.  He passed them back to us a few years later and we figured why not keep them?  I've grown rather attached to them, in fact.  Anyway, I just looked them up online, and surprisingly, a good number of these are being sold for about $15-16 each.  I suspect others have grown kind of attached to these pieces too.


So Mom was not well today, but it's just a stronger sort of cold with the coughing and the sore throat.  She had some medication and took it easy.  We went out and did some grocery shopping, Maddie and I, getting a few things for tomorrow, and some more ice cream too.   Mom was at home relaxing more, doing some more looking around with ancestry.  She found out she's related to Bob Ross, actually - twelfth cousin, once removed!  Next time we head down that Florida Coast, we'll have to stop by the gallery there near Daytona.  She's also been sprouting some seeds in our bedroom window - they're growing fast!



But here's the big fun of the day - Mom got me a St. Patrick's Day gift, and a special one at that.  See, my grandfather's kilt was passed down to me, but I didn't have the rest of the outfit to wear with it.  Mom ordered the new high sock flashes, flags, shirt, and a sporran!  Now there's a word I've recently learned - it's that little pouch in the front.  It's not a purse - it's a sporran!


We closed out the day with our early viewing of "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," which is always great.  This year we rewatched the Disney special from so long ago, the one where Walt Disney goes to Ireland to find the King of the Leprechauns.  It's great if you've never seen it!  


Afterwards, we headed upstairs where the Plush Entourage could hear another few of the final chapters of "The Shimmer," where we found out how the wicked Carnius was defeated by the next generation of Kingdom Keepers.  We should finish this book up tomorrow, but I actually liked reading more the next time around.  Still confused about Storey Ming's new abilities, but I'm assuming that gets cleared up.


Anyway, we said our prayers after that and sorry Maddie, but not sleeping in tomorrow.  It's a big day at KidPak!


Friday, March 15, 2024

Dunkin Ides

 
Beware the Ides of March!  Although, we actually didn't have much to worry about today really.  You can see Maddie and I above at the church.  We went to this event that I was helping out with, and event called Dunkin with Dads, for Dads coming to visit the preschool daycare.  I had spent some time making up trivia questions and hosting a good part of it.  Meanwhile Maddie came along and was super useful, taking photos of the event.  We shared them with dads and with the social media team - Maddie's been amazingly helpful as a part of the team, taking really good quality pics, like these.




It was fun, and there was food and games and a sort of March Madness feel.  Our questions involved a lot of basketball statistics, and some doughnut statistics too!

Earlier in the day, the whole family was over at Doc Williams for a chiropractor appointment.  Maddie has the day off, so it made sense to do the appointment today.  Mom's been working hard lately, so it was certainly a good visit for her as well.  It's always fun there though!  Maddie always hides in the room until he gets there, and jumps out for the surprise, and there's usually a great deal of laughter as she's getting her adjustment.  

Getting home, we went back to Middle Earth again, and it looks like we'll be there for a good bit.  We went over to taekwondo after that, and Maddie spent some time as an instructor, teaching some of the younger students about side kicks and other maneuvers.  She's still learning herself, learning how to instruct for sure, but she's really enjoying it, and she's good with that too.

We got home tonight, and Mom seems to be coming down with something.  She's just finished a series of dance uniforms, which look amazing by the way.  But we agreed to stop and watch something short tonight before bedtime.  We're still marching forward with these Monk episodes, somewhere at the end of season five right now.  

The reading continued tonight.  The Plush Entourage came down the hall and listened in as I read to Maddie some of the closing chapters of this latest Kingdom Keepers book.  We're excited about this next one, which we'll hopefully be getting some time soon.  We have other options to read next should that one not come in by this weekend - there are a few Star Wars books Mom picked up for us for Christmas, so those will e fun to read.  

Anyway, we said our prayers, and Maddie's pretty happy to be able to sleep in tomorrow.  It's going to be a another good day.

Key Lime π



It's π Day again, and we did something fun today to celebrate the occasion.  The other day, I picked up some ingredients from the grocery store, some of which you can see in the first picture above.  We followed the recipe and made ourselves some Key Lime π!  For those of you now aware of what π is, of course it's equal to 3.14, which is the date on the calendar, 3/14.  Anyway, we mixed the ingredients together, and put our pie in the oven for fifteen minutes to cook - and afterwards, used cool whip and some lime slices for decorations.  We had a good bit of zest in this one, and in fact it might have been a little more than the recipe called for - it was quite limey!  But it was still pretty good, so much that Maddie and I had a second slice.  I'd like to say we had 3.14 slices, but that would be quite a bit of pie.  Or π, rather.


Once a year, we turn on this one independent game, a π game on the X-Box 360, which is really just a memory game to see how many digits you can get in π.  Maddie got as far as twelve digits, which is pretty impressive, actually!


So it was a shorter school day for her today, and no, not because of π Day.  At least I don't think so.  It was a teacher's work day, and she'll be off tomorrow too, which is just as well because it's the Ides of March.  These important holidays are all clumped together here in March!  


Anyway, tonight Maddie and I were back in Middle Earth again, going off to visit green ghosts and who fight very fiercely, and grab at your ankles a lot too.  We're definitely enjoying this one again, and the music is in our heads pretty good too.  I'm guessing we'll be re-watching these soon enough.


Maddie did have a forensics test today, and despite being somewhat unprepared, she still got an A on it, which of course is nice.  I was at that elementary school today for Bible Blast, a weekly thing where we lead the kids in worship and have some fun with games, our videos, and a good message.  Lots of kids show up for this after school program. 


Mom is working hard on these dancer costumes, and only has a few left to make in this one batch... until she starts working on something else.  She's been pretty busy!  We're meeting about Easter a little more frequently - it's getting closer to the big day!


The night was closed out with reading from Kingdom Keepers, which is also closing out.  I guess about four more nights and we'll be done with this first book, which has been fun to revisit.  After reading, prayers and getting tucked in for the night.  It was a good day, with good pie!


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

1923




Maddie had Youth tonight which was fun as always - it's a great service mid-week, and it was nice to see friends pop in to enjoy church with worship, a good message from Pastor Jacob, games, food and some socializing afterwards.

It's been a good day, but a busy one.  We're really gearing up for Easter, which of course is a lot earlier this year than usual.  Easter in March?  Who does that, right?  Anyway, we had plenty of Easter meetings today, and meanwhile Mom is plugging away at various dresses for the dance team, new creations that are turning out pretty well.  You'll see pictures eventually.

We had other meetings too - including one to discuss Summer Xtreme 2024.  We're working on a logo, destinations, messages and all of that.  Also scripts too.  I think we really hit the gas pedal after Easter is over with.  Right now we're overwhelmed with Easter... but there's also a new series in April at KidPak, a visit back with "Hang 10," which we haven't done in a long time, back in 2010.  Maddie was super young back then, three years old about to turn four.  But she was ready to surf back then!  We'll see if we can get in any surfing now.  

In the meantime, here's our new look for "Hang 10," created by an outside graphics artist we asked to do this for us, as we're all pretty busy.  We sent him some other things for a general look, and this is what he sent back.


Looks good!  It's a series that's dedicated to the Ten Commandments, and it should be a lot of fun, hopefully.  It's just after Easter, so we can't give as much thought to it until we get there.  But it does make me want to try surfing again.  In the meantime, we're still in Exodus, and of course that's where the Ten Commandments first appear.  

For research, I had one more movie to check out.  We went to 1923's "The Ten Commandments," which is on a DVD, part of the set that includes the 1956 movie we watch every year.  The 1923 version is a silent movie, and honestly I wasn't expecting as much but wow!  The set pieces in this movie are huge!


This movie is huge.  The first hour is an abbreviated version of the Exodus story, starting pretty much right after the ninth plague and moving on through the Passover story, through the Red Sea, and straight to Mt. Sinai and the Ten Commandments.  The second hour of this movie is a movie that features two brothers, one of which decides he is going to break all Ten Commandments.  Of course, some things - like murder - he doesn't intend to do for real, but inevitably events happen, and as a result, his life goes terribly wrong.  Meanwhile, his wife repents and finds healing and salvation in one of the earliest appearances of Jesus on a big screen movie.  This was the highest grossing movie of 1923, which was one hundred and one years ago.  The movie's opening titles tell us of a world population no longer turning to God, that is until the world was at war.  1923 would mean world war was only four years ago... and an even greater world war was sixteen years away.  Just as devastating - in only six years, the nation's economy would collapse in an unprecedented way that would affect us all for decades to come.

It's a fascinating slice of time here - and add to this the fact that movies were still silent.  There was the accompanying Wurlitzer piano, played live while audience members watched this movie.  Could you imagine that?  The restaurant we visited on the Disney Cruise was themed to 1923, when Walt and Roy Disney got things started so long ago.  It's an interesting year - President Harding passed away in August, and by the time this movie released in December, we had Calvin Coolidge serving as President with the Roaring Twenties truly roaring along.  One hundred years ago, here we are in a different sort of Twenties.  Time will tell how historians view it, but of course the pandemic, inflation and social issues of the day are painting a different picture than any other decade.  And yes, there are quite a few more Dan McTavishes out there.  That's the guy laughs in his mother's face, riding away on his boat called "Defiance."  Anyway, all that said, it's a great thing to watch from a historical perspective - I've not seen a silent movie since the one Mel Brooks made many years later.  And the quality of the movie is really good for it's time.  Imagine trying things out like the parting of the Red Sea, and using special effects to accomplish that in 1923.

Okay, moving on.  Tonight we had a few episodes of "The Bad Batch" to watch, some of the best episodes of the season for sure.  And we had some of that green mint chip ice cream too.  Yummy!  Afterwards, we got to bed at a reasonable hour - Maddie still has school tomorrow, but just a half-day.  We read a few short chapters of our latest book, said our prayers, and then it was off to sleep.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Lucky Charms



I hadn't shown a picture of the little area we set up for Irish decorations this week, but here it is above, along with the kitchen table, complete with a fresh bowl of Lucky Charms.  We've gone through a few boxes of that cereal already, as it is gluten free and Mom also likes it as a snack!



Tonight we had a Cheshire Cat moon in the sky, the crescent moon smiling down on us through the overcast skies.  It was a nice little hello from above - whenever it happens we smile back of course.


Maddie was back at Chestatee Elementary this morning, and the kids seemed more aligned with the schedule now that two days have passed since the horror of Daylight Saving Time.  She had a little homework tonight, but not much.  That's why we returned to Middle Earth, plugging away at our story line - we're somewhere in the third movie now, early on.  Also, we've got the legendary Mithril disco Phial now, so here we go with that theme song over and over again!  It's kind of catchy, actually.  The two of us were exploring Hobbiton and Mordor a bit too.  This game is so huge though - it'll take us a long, long time to finish it again.  But we're enjoying it, and yes we'll wind up watching these movies again, sure.


Later on, we wound up watching a few episodes of Monk, nearing the end of season five.  Then we went upstairs where we read more from the Kingdom Keepers, where the original team is getting back into holographic form, ready to keep the fight going as Children of Light.  We said our prayers after that, and we're still a bit tired, so it was time for some sleep under our big covers.


It was a quiet day.  Of course there were elections today, but they hardly seemed that big of a deal, given that the two primary candidates already seemed to have a sense of inevitability in their positions.  The current President didn't have any substantial rivals, and many of those newcomers seeking to challenge the former President didn't last long in the campaign.  So tonight, both candidates officially locked up their nomination with enough delegates to claim their spot in the upcoming election, making this the most boring selection process in recent memory.  There were no back and forth moments, no "horse race," no come-from-behind thrillers... it was just two candidates steamrolling the rest.  Of course, with the President, there's traditionally not supposed to be any competition anyway.  Anyway, so here we are, about seven months away from Election Day, and we have two guys running for office with various issues.  We'll see how things go, but there is plenty of time for outrage and heated conversations and accusations and venom.


Changing the subject, Mom ordered our season tickets for next year's City Springs productions, so we'll once again be at the front of the balcony for some great plays.  Two of them are "Frozen" and "The Music Man."  Should be super fun!  


Monday, March 11, 2024

Exodus Puzzle


Finished the puzzle today!  Mom put in the last piece, and as you can see above, we’ve got a completed jigsaw puzzle that tells the story of Exodus!  It’s a pretty cool puzzle with lots of frogs, locusts, the basket at the beginning, the Nile turning to blood, the parting of the Red Sea, hail and fire from the sky, lots of Egyptians, chariots, and the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.  It’s much more fun putting it together piece by piece, as you discover the little things along the way.  Fun puzzle, and of course it goes with our theme lately.

 

So today was the first work and school day after Daylight Saving Time, and that means all the kids were wiped out.  They weren’t alone.  We were too.  Maddie noticed that with the kids today at Chestatee, and it was kind of funny.  She was also learning to instruct again at taekwondo, remembering (at least internally) to treat certain students as if they were seven years old!  She’s doing well though.

 

I was out getting ready for Pi Day.  At home we’ve elevated the status of Pie Day to something much greater than other dates, and simultaneously elevated the desire to have a homemade Key Lime Pie on that day.  After watching Loki, season two, we wanted to try a Key Lime Pie.  We did that at the Marvel restaurant, and that was really good.  We’ll try it again this week, because I got the gluten-free crust, a dozen eggs, the Key Lime juice, the sweetened condensed milk, the cool whip, and of course the limes themselves.  Can’t wait!

 

So Mom has been super busy lately.  She’s just sewing, sewing, and more sewing.  But she did take a break to watch “Monk” with us” tonight, at least one episode where the three of us sat down for a break before bed.  Maddie had some history homework to do tonight, and we are still feeling the effects – slightly – of that time shift.  So tonight we got to bed and read a few more chapters from our Kingdom Keepers book, one where we get to see a grown up Charlene attack someone with a croquet mallet, which is definitely a highlight of the book so far.  Anyway, we said ours prayers afterwards, and got to sleep once the Plush Entourage was all tucked in.

 

It's been a quiet day.  I was out blowing leaves earlier – it’s a big project though, one that will take another two times I think.  Lots to remove.  Also, I did another 5K, although somewhat inadvertently.  I say that because I was under the impression on the treadmill that I’d be just going down a mountain that we’d climbed over the past three sessions with the iFit program.  That’s Mt. Baldy, by the way.  Anyway, this time, we basically covered the entire distance traveled in those first three walks uphill, and ran for a good bit of it.  The end result was over 5K, and much of it was run… phew!  Pretty good workout!  I checked my heart rate and all that afterwards, and the results were super encouraging.  I’ve been walking and building up to run again, and this was a good moment.  

 

The sea monkeys are still hanging in there, by the way.  We’ve nearly reached the one-year mark, and I think there are three adults still in there, maybe two.  Look, I’m just happy they’ve lived this long.  That’s surpassing any expectations I’ve ever had.  There are lots of little ones in there too, though no in-betweeners – I’m not sure what’s happening there, as I was hoping to see some “teenagers!”  We’ll see as the weeks go on.  

 

Outside, the birds, squirrels and chipmunks are still visiting.  The cat is still around too, and we have to sort of gently persuade him to go away so everyone else can visit.  There’s an increase of coyotes around here, so I’m happy to see the cat is okay.  I’ve seen a few crossing the street, and one by the church.  It’s quite a shock to see, because you’re just not expecting to see a large dog like that – and they’re pretty smart too.  All this time they’ve been in the woods, biding their time, waiting for their next big move, completely unbeknownst to us.  We’d better be ready for them when they strike!

 

Okay, that’s an exaggeration.  The point is, there are certain creatures out there that are quite surprising.  Anyway, we said our prayers tonight as I said earlier.  And after that, it was time for a good night’s rest.