Building our Own Lightsabers

This was fairly easy and unique to do.  Our jedi padawans needed some lightsaber hilts this weekend, so we went out and got the material to begin our lightsaber construction.  Where did we go?  Why, a home improvement store, of course!  We went to the plumbing aisle, and found some of the random pieces, putting them together and making three different variations that you can see above.  Then, we took them home and painted the first layer black.  And they we used the spray paint on a paper towel to wipe a metallic silver on top of the black.  They turned out really well!  Madison picked the one to the right to use.  We may add some clips soon enough so that everyone can wear them on their hips, but we'll see how that goes as time goes by.

Today was the first day of April, and yes, it's super cold outside.  Amazingly cold for April!  It was April fools Day, so there were plenty of pranks, including a pretty funny morning news segment at the middle school, one Madison couldn't wait to share.  Tonight at taekwondo, Master Edge told everyone about the new pink belt that would be introduced right after the camouflage belt.  Some of the students were disappointed to hear about a new belt that extended the time they'd have to wait until getting a black belt.  Others were really disappointed that it would be a pink belt.  I mean, who wears a pink belt?  Of course, he was playing a prank upon them, and there were a lot of laughs.

Tonight there were studies for a science test tomorrow, but we had time to watch some Muppet Show episodes.  Earlier today, the windshield doctor came to fix up that windshield crack that we earned a few weeks ago on 400.  And speaking of things to be fixed, while we were at the hardware store, we ordered a new washing machine - our old friend is not working anymore.  We had this washing machine in the old house, something like twenty years now?  We got another of the same brand, and we'll have that on Tuesday.  Until then, no washing quite yet.  Yikes!  And simultaneously, the oven?  Yeah, it's seeing its last days, getting old and not in spry in its steps anymore.  These are some pretty big investments, so ... yeah... spring break.

Not that we would go anywhere anyway.  This week has been a super rough one with Nana.  We're doing our best, but it's been very difficult.  Very, very difficult.

We said our prayers tonight, and read from Kingdom Keepers again.  Madison enjoyed the part where a whole lot of "It's a Small World" dolls were attacking the protagonists relentlessly.  It's been fun to read once again, and great to see Madison's reaction.  It's definitely a nice thing to do each night before bed, all these years, reading a little bit at a time from all sorts of books.