Shift in Seasons

Maddie was outside today for a bit, helping out with the Beta Club and new students that were looking around for clues to join.  It was nice to be outside - the temperature has cooled off about five or six degrees and it just feels nice out there, particularly on the front porch, which has been a staple for Mom and myself, who have our coffee out there, a different flavor every day.  Lately, we've been drinking Army of Dark Chocolate, a flavor inspired by "Army of Darkness," complete with a chainsaw-wielding Bruce Campbell on the front cover.  But yes, we do our devotional time out there, and watch the hummingbirds flit to and fro.  We saw a few chipmunks, some squirrels across the street, and of course the neighborhood cat that comes by to say hello.

Maddie's day at school was good.  She had some homework, but she's also doing a good bit of stuff at school, including this project that puts famous photography people on polaroids - Maddie's even made her own polaroid camera to go with the project.

Tonight, of course, she had FCY.  You can see her talking with a few friends this evening before going inside.  The weather outside was just gorgeous, finally at that bearable temperature, the humidity gone and just a pleasant evening, perfect for sitting around talking, or playing volleyball too.  The weekly volleyball game goes on and on, anyone joining in at any time with sort of approximate values on either side and the occasional spike that sends a ball into the parking lot.  As for the message, Bailee spoke tonight - there are different speakers each week, all of them staff from FCY, sort of like we rotate with KidPak.  Maddie enjoyed the night, of course.  It's a school night though, and we got home at a reasonable hour so we can spend some time reading the latest short story from our "Return of the Jedi" short story book "From a Certain Point of View."  The stories have been okay, but this isn't a book series we'd seek after.  We're almost done though, and the completist in us drives us forward to that last page.

Anyway, we finished that up and said a quick prayer before bedtime.  I spent some time working on a new message for our "Call of Duty" series that's upcoming.  We had to keep the Toy Story backdrop, and were trying to think of something from that world that could work for a new series.  So army soldiers it was!  But we're needing some new messages and some new updates for the series.  I'm okay with revamping it, which of course is what I'm doing now.  The new message is related to Joshua, and the next new message after that is titled "War Room," and is all about prayer.  Should be interesting!   Speaking of scriptures, I've been in the book of Psalms this summer, reading the commentaries and really getting into the stories behind each Psalm, which is fascinating.  Along the way, I'm using the AI to generate music to each of these lyrics, and it's a great collection of songs that help me in getting some of these scriptures into my mind - music is like glue that sticks scripture to my mind.  On more than one occasion I've had a song stuck in my head like an ear worm, and yes, that song was a psalm I had set to catchy music.  Interesting where this technology is going.  Again, I don't know if I'll trust musicians again after this fully - AI comes up with the melody, and even lyrics if you ask it to, and the music actually is pretty good.  Things will only become better in quality as the years go on.  And that's just the music.  Already there are programs that can write - I can only imagine now a blog like this entirely generated by artificial intelligence, complete with pictures generated by AI as well.  

Anyway, we're writing new material for this weekend, and beyond.  Things are moving forward at Kidpak!  And at FCY too - Maddie has Camp FCY in a little bit.  The weather is changing and there's a shift in the air as we look forward to this amazing new season.