Almost to the Black Belt

Mom made the hamantaschen today, and because it was a rather spontaneous idea, she went with cookie dough instead.  The end result was not as triangular as she hoped, but it still got the idea across, and let me just go ahead and say these are so delicious.  Seriously, each one is so rich and sweet - I brought a good number of these into the office, and they were gone in less than two minutes.  Nana had a few of them at home, and so did we.  They are already gone!

Tonight was Madison's longer night with taekwondo.  She had leadership and regular class.  Nana and I were there watching, while Mom was at home getting some rest.  This is it, the last regular class before she tests for her black belt.  She's not really nervous, and in fact studying her form even further, as you see above, learning more moves than she's even actually required to know.

She's very much into this, obviously.  It's been quite a journey for her.  It was spring of 2018 when she started this, beginning with her white belt.  Since then, she's been working fervently towards each ranking, taking a break only once to do some acting on stage for Christmas.

Her kicks are higher.  Her splits are wider, and her form is so much more improved.  She's shown so much progress over the past three years.

She's always teachable, and she's very focused in class.  She even practices at home when possible.  Obviously, she did a lot of that with the crazy Zoom classes of 2020.  But she even goes to the videos to practice form at home, just to help commit it to memory.

This Tuesday she takes her test to get her black belt.  She and one other student will be testing for that, although the other student is doing a more private testing session.  But she'll be the only one getting that rank for this upcoming class.

She deserves it.  It's so great to see her practice and do her form, watching the choreography and focus.  

It's also fun watching her spar.  She takes it easy on the lesser ranked kids, but she's heading to the black belt class soon, so she may have to adjust her strategies when that happens.  Until then, she's been pulling her kicks a little, not making contact so much, but it's clear with a foot from a high kick in your face what might have been.

Here she is practicing her multiple kicks, keeping that leg in the air for multiple strikes.  While the others spar, this group was there, almost like ballerinas at a bar.  

And there she is with the kamas again.  They'll move on to a new weapon next week, but these have been super fun to watch.  She's gotten good with them, and I suspect may train with them further in her upcoming immersion classes that start next week.  More on that in a bit.

Anyway, it was a good day today.  We're starting with the book of Exodus tonight, and we read from our Star Wars book again.  After that, prayers, and bedtime.  She did do some math homework, and we all had rather busy days before this.  Madison was doing a lot of the same things:  physics, quadratics, and reading a play about Anne Franke again.  She was also finishing up her painting that she's done in art, the one of the lilipad.  She's taken pictures of it, and it's turning out well!