Penultimate Testing on Purim

Maddie had her black belt testing again tonight, and we've been through several of these over the last few years, but this is the last one before she tests for her second-degree black belt.  That should be this summer somewhere, and that will be a great moment for her as she marches along, enjoying the journey.  It's not so much about that destination as it is the great moments along the way.  And there have been plenty, of course.  You can hear her in the car all the way home sometimes talking about this or that, and there's plenty to share.  Maddie had a few sparring matches tonight, and pulled off some great carefully timed spin kicks that seem so risky and yet when they work out they look great.  Tonight they were pulled off perfectly, and though a lot of that can be credited to chance, there's a whole lot of skill involved too.  Also tonight, Maddie was one of the few that came up to the boards and on her first try, slammed through them with both a side kick and a fierce elbow.  It was almost as powerful as a People's Elbow, in fact.  Her form was near flawless, and in fact the parents out there probably wouldn't have known there was anything off about her synchronized form with a good friend of hers as they both went through the new form.  But Maddie said later what got mixed up, and the funny thing was that her friend did the same thing at the same time.  Still, it was effective, and of course by night's end she was celebrating another good testing.  I was snapping a lot of photos for the other parents, and of course for ourselves.  I even filmed her board breaking too, which you can see some screen captures of below, along with other photos throughout the evening.

It was a good night!  We got home, and there were hamantaschen cookies for everyone because tonight at sundown was when Purim began!  We started the celebration last night with "One Night with the King," but tonight we went with "Veggie Tales:  Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen."  I forgot how much I loved these old Veggie Tales cartoons!  This one was great.  We also got some noise makers out from the basement because tonight we decided to join in on a Purim party online, where they performed the story of Esther on stage, and if you know about this sort of thing, you know that every time you hear the word "Haman," you make a lot of noise to blot out the memory of the name.  And of course you cheer when you hear the name of "Mordecai."  We watched the play and made noise right there along with the audience, which was super fun.

We had an encouraging and much longer visit with Nana today.  She seems to be doing better socially, and that may be related to the nicer weather outside.  We all sat together at a table outside, enjoying the sunny day along with another guest there named Virginia.  I also spoke with another resident named Ann, and both love Nana, although both agree that Nana should be eating more.  That's the only issue of major concern at this moment, getting her to eat more.  But otherwise, things are better than they were, and that was of great relief to Mom.

It was a nice day today, and there's this big beautiful full moon out there.  We read from our devotional tonight, and then our book in Discworld, which we should finish this week.  It's been a great day.