The Scarlet Blade

Here above is our banner idea for the upcoming series, Level Up!  It's based on video games, of course, and is something we've been tinkering with the last few weeks.  We're pretty close to a final design, one that involves a bit of synthwave and retro graphics.  We have all sorts of pixilated characters on the screen there, ones that may appear bigger in the more square-shaped graphic.  Anyway, it's a start, and it is starting to look pretty cool.  We'll have a new series in just three weekends, which is amazing when you consider how fast this current one has gone by.

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, which of course is a major holiday that you can't just let go by without celebrating.  We were listening to pirate music all day in the car, soundtracks to the movies, and this morning we watched the old video of all of us dressed as pirates, heading out to Krispy Kreme for free doughnuts.  They used to do that each and every Talk Like a Pirate Day, offering a dozen free doughnuts to anyone who dressed as a pirate and showed up at Krispy Kreme.

We brought a whole scurvy crew and walked out of there with over a hundred doughnuts one year, and we'd return year after year with many other pirates.  I'm not saying we're the reason Krispy Kreme no longer offers this deal, but as of last year, they no longer are doing that offer.  No free doughnuts.  :(  I think they just give a free doughnut to you if you walk in and talk like a pirate.  Which for us is a lot of effort, as there isn't a Krispy Kreme too close to here.

We always mused that it would be awkward for that guy with a legitimate eyepatch coming in to Krispy Kreme that day.

Anyway, we watched "Dead Men Tell No Tales" this past Sunday, and at the end of the month we're actually going to see a pirate play, "Sophie and the Pirates," so this pirate theme is clearly not just for one day!

To be fair, nearly every day in our house in Talk Like a Pirate Day.  We're always in the mood for plundering treasure and so forth, or at least simply talking like a pirate.  Arrr!

Today in hour of the big holiday, Daddy was working on the KidPak series, "Arrr!" from a few years ago.  It was our first official series we ever did at KidPak, and yes it was a pirate series.  We had been doing some semi-series ideas before then, but this was one where we had a logo and actual books with messages inside them.  And this was the first series to have a devotional as well.  It was our first one back in 2006.   I know the year well because it was so significant for us as a family, as Mommy was diagnosed with cancer right during this series.  She was on chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and before we even did the series, Daddy had written her in as a pirate character, The Scarlet Blade.  She was a visiting pirate, a menace of the high seas and a presence that struck fear into all the other pirates.  But she was diagnosed with cancer, and Daddy was sort of trying to figure out what to do there.  Mommy was still wanting to do the part, although she was considerably weaker by this point already.  That's when our friends who made the sets did something remarkable:  they built a litter for Mommy.

A litter is one of those chairs that you see important people sit on, one that rests on two bars that are carried on the shoulders of four other people.  It was simply amazing that our friends spent the time making that for us!

I had the scene timed out just right:  the end part of the instrumental "Presenting the Hook" was playing, as Mommy entered the scene from the audience, rather triumphantly.  In she was carried on her throne, carried on the shoulders of four pirates as the music played loudly.  Daddy will never forget looking on at her as she entered the audience, such a presence.  I beamed with joy and pride.  Despite all the chemo and the diagnosis, she still was the Scarlet Blade, and she made us all walk the plank!

It was a good day today, of course, filled with fun at KidPak tonight, and a good day for Madison as well.  We didn't have time to read today, as Daddy had class tonight.  Instead, we focused on studying for a science test tomorrow.  Madison and Daddy were studying all these famous astronomers, and together we were memorizing what each one was famous for.  I think Madison was having the most trouble with Keppler, but in the end, she had them all down rather well.

It was a good day today, Talk Like a Pirate Day.  We'll have time to play some of our pirate games a little later, and sort of stretch out the one day to a week or a month.  Like I said, it's always piratey around here!