Fruit Island

A return for work today for Daddy, who had to prepare for a Sunday service of course.  Before leaving, Madison had set up a special place she called Fruit Island.  You can see it in the picture above. It's called that because of the fruit you see all over it, which makes it a pretty healthy destination.  Madison was putting various stuffed animal friends on a make-shift boat, and shuttling them over to Fruit Island, one at a time.  When Mommy went to ask her how things were, Madison replied, "This is Fruit Island.  Everyone poops better."

This was one of the funnier things I've heard her say lately, but it's related to an incident earlier in the day:  for the first time ever, and without going into specifics, she had some difficulties in the bathroom.  It was a long and painful process, and a new one for her - which made it all the more frightening for her.  But we worked things out, so to speak, and talked about her diet lately, which has been a lot of sweets - and not enough fruit or liquids.  Madison naturally started eating more fruit as a prescription.

But time went by, and the issue went away for a bit.  That's what makes a joke funny sometimes:  bringing up something a lot later, as Madison did.  Of course, to her, it wasn't necessarily a joke - she was making sure all of her friends were eating right.  Which was a good thing to do - and a great outlook for the new year:  healthy choices!

Speaking of "healthy choices," the buzz word of the past few months has been "fiscal cliff."  This is a reference to the dire state of our economy of late, and the governmental spending that a majority of Americans didn't vote for, and yet happened anyway.  There are plenty of Founding Father quotes to pull up that seem rather prophetic about what we're doing wrong as a nation these days, and as a result, there is currently a generally pessimistic feeling we have as a nation.  Two statistics:  77% of Americans are about to pay hundreds more in higher taxes.  That includes us.  We'll pay more in taxes, and circulate our money elsewhere less as a result.  Multiply that by 77% of the country, and there you go.  The other stat, which may be related:  23% of Americans are happy with the direction we're going as a nation.  2013 is going to be a challenging year for our nation, no doubt.  We have no Mayan apocalypse to blame this time, only ourselves.  This may be a more economical year for us, but as with everything we'll keep our chin up.  Things can always be much, much worse, and one easy step to being more optimistic about life is taking a look at all the tremendous blessings we currently have.

Anyway, today went long with work, but we did get a lot done and ready for tomorrow's service.  It will be somewhat of an awards show, showcasing a lot of our videos over the past year.  There's been a lot to look at - we've had a lot of fun.  Madison has been in several as well, which makes them even more fun!