Pet Mantis

Look who came by to visit today!  We officially have a pet praying mantis now, something we used to have all the time at our old house, a familiar face we'd see each time we went out the door.  We haven't had that here at this house so much, but we do have one now.  In some African cultures, if one of these lands on you, it's supposed to bring good luck.  But beyond that, there's terribly practical pets to have around, ones that dine on insect pests.  We just like having one around.

Madison was playing a new form of tag at PE today, one where if you were tagged, you had to do push-ups and other various punishments.  She enjoyed it, although I would probably not.  In fact, I would insist on being "it," so I wouldn't have to tag anyone, and so long as everyone paid me enough money, I'd spend all my time narrowly missing all the other players so that nobody ever had to do a push-up.  Those who refused to pay me would be captured by my loyalists and brought to me so that I could tag them profusely, and inflict severe push-up penalties upon them!

Tonight, Madison had marital arts again, and Daddy was there to watch through the parent window there.  She's doing very well, very intent and very focused.  She's pretty much the only girl there, but she's keeping up with everyone and having a great time.  No looking back!

We painted a few planets tonight, working on our solar system project.  It should be finished up by this weekend, I think.  We did some other things tonight, although not that much because there just isn't that much time.  We read another part of the current X-Men story, and finally ran into Mr. Sinister, one of Daddy's favorite villains from the comics.  Madison hasn't met him yet, so she doesn't quite know that much about him.  But she's about to, because he's got a lot of involvement lately with the X-Men, and he is in fact sinister.

We watched a few episodes of "Star Wars Rebels," and read from our book tonight, "The Slippery Slope," which is also drawing to a close.  The librarians were funny, because they knew we were doing this marathon, and they're big fans of the book series too.  In fact, they have one recommendation beyond the 13 book series, and we may read that before the final book.  If that's the case, this reading may go on deep into October.

School seems to be going well for Madison, and she really doesn't have any complaints.  She talks a lot, sharing this memory or that story, and we're grateful that she seems so positive and full of energy.  She's a wonderful person, and a sweet spirit.  Each Sunday, she goes around making sure all the teachers have a little bit of chocolate as a gift.  She helps new kids, and loves volunteering and doing the work it takes to set things up for service.  For the most part, she's on top of her homework and reading assignments, usually doing things ahead of time or writing more than necessary.  In short, we're really proud of her.  She's smart, she's sweet, and she's been a wonderful blessing in our lives.