Seventh Cousin, Four Times Removed

Look who's awake!  I think the chipmunk family is emerging from their burrows in front of the house to take a peek around at what could be spring finally showing up.  This one posed on the sunflower rock that Mom painted some time ago at the Red Apple Barn.  Sadly, they stopped with the rock painting there, but we have a legacy of small rocks in our gardens, some of which still have their paint on them.  This chipmunk seems to like the one Mom did too, stopping to admire her artwork.

The weather is warming up somewhat, the sun emerging after a pretty wet day.  Regardless, things were soaking wet outside, the lake filling up if not already at full capacity.  I did my final walk in Namibia this morning, which was a refreshing and educational trip on the treadmill.  I've been on that every day, and I think it's helped with my increasing HDL count and overall blood quality.  Hopefully!  The last blood test was encouraging.

This morning we had Team Edge practice, and that was a big part of Maddie's morning, of course.  I was off grocery shopping, something we hadn't done in a while.  The end result was a pretty full car, and a pretty huge bill.  The rise in grocery prices is getting noticeably more substantial.  I did have to get more than usual, but still, the prices are clearly rising across the board.  

One of the items I got from Publix with Maddie was a limited edition ice cream:  Irish Creme Salted Caramel.  Mom and I had a cone of that tonight and it's pretty delicious.  Maddie had chocolate - there was a buy-one-get-one-free sale, and so we got some mint chocolate chip too, the idea being that we can make our own Shamrock Shakes soon enough.  'Tis the season!  Oh, and don't forget the Lucky Charms!  Mom and I will be enjoying a bowl of that soon enough - it's like dessert to me!

Speaking of which, we have our leprechaun salt and pepper shakers out on the table.  We mentioned the garden flag out there and the St. Patrick's Day wreath on the door.  But also included are St. Patrick's Day themed towels in the bathroom, plus some little themed gnomes in the bathroom too.  The house is festive and green!  Add to that some festive music - I unearthed an old "Revival in Belfast" CD we were listening to, and we'd also pop in the Chieftains vinyl records.  

We had a little time this afternoon, so Maddie and I were off in Moria, or at least the mines there.  We've been revisiting LEGO Lord of the Rings, and it's such a massive game.  We got 100% on it before, but it's been a long time, so long that we forgot about a lot of the little side journeys one can make.  I say "one," because "one does not simply walk into Mordor."  Well, we plan on doing that eventually.  Right now, we're just escaping the mines though, and that big ol' Balrog.  Not the boxer, but the large fiery thing with the whip that shall not pass.

Tonight's flick was part one of "The Ten Commandments," which is still a great movie that holds up so well.  It's also pretty long.  The director tells you so at the beginning!  One thing we learned was that bye Moses was portrayed by Charlton Heston's newborn son, which is pretty cool.  But anyway, we watched that in honor of tomorrow's start of "Exodus" at KidPak, and honestly a seasonal thing we do now.  We've already watched "Prince of Egypt" and soon enough we'll re-watch the Sight & Sound version of "Moses."  Finally, there's a first-time viewing for me:  this DVD set we have also includes the 1923 version of the movie "The Ten Commandments," which we'll plan on watching too.  Include with that our Hillsdale course on "Exodus" and a few other things, and we're really diving into this book this month.  And oh yeah, I'm reading it of course...!

Mom still spends some time studying ancestry, and she discovered she was distantly related to none other than Emily Dickinson!  In honor of this discovery, I wrote a little poem in her style:

Seventh Cousin, Four Times Removed

Mom spends some time in studies -

Upon her laptop screen -

She studies all her ancestors

and that is when she'd seen -

connections to a poet

that might be pretty fun!

You might have guessed, you know the rest:

Emily Dickinson!

We laughed as we both read this -

Mom said she's quite bemused.

For she is her seventh cousin

And then four times removed!

A yellow rose in Texas

is likely closer, still - 

she's related to that poet,

which must be quite a thrill!

I'm distantly related to all the Sleepy Hollow people, and very distantly related to the Van de Graaf generator guy.  No presidents here!

Moving on, it was a nice little Saturday.  We went to bed at a reasonable hour - not watching part two of the Ten Commandments - and we got to bed sooner.  We did spend some more time reading Kingdom Keepers, and we did say our prayers.  Tomorrow's going to be a big day!