Mitth'raw'nuruodo

Tonight we started a new book.  Having finished "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon," the plan was to return to Narnia for a bit.  But Madison is too much of a Star Wars fan, and she really wanted to hear this book that Daddy had originally gotten for just himself.  The book is called "Thrawn," and it is all about the Grand Admiral Thrawn, and not the Grand Admiral Thrown, as this spellcheck keeps repeatedly attempting to correct me on.

Anyway, here we go.  Off with chapter one, and I think the girls are already hooked.  It should be a good read - I have no idea what will happen here, but we like the author, and there's that.  The most difficult thing about this, and my primary gripe with Timothy Zahn right now is how to pronounce, "Mitth'raw'nuruodo."  I mean, it's there once, and then again, and again.  And this makes sense, as it is technically Thrawn's actual name:  Mitth'raw'nuruodo.  I'm sure we'll have a moment where folks in the Empire reason that this new name THRAWN is better because in the heat of combat, precious seconds are lost each and every time a subordinate attempts to pronounce the name Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

*****

SUBORDINATE, breathing heavily from his frantic race to the COMMAND STATION, staggers up to GRAND ADMIRAL MITT'RAW'NURUODO with urgent news.

GRAND ADMIRAL MITT'RAW'NURUODO sees SUBORDINATE.

GRAND ADMIRAL MITT'RAW'RURUODO:  "Yes.  What is it?"

SUBORDINATE:  "Grand Admiral Mitth...raw... new...re...  No, sorry sir.  Let me start again.  Grand Admiral Mitt...he....raw... newer...you... No, that's not it.  Grand Admiral Mither...aw...ruru...oh, man this name is ...okay, one more time.  Grand Admiral Mitty...rooroo...aw, come on!  Why is this name so long?  Mitts...raw...."

(A NEARBY STAR DESTROYER EXPLODES)

*****

So someone along the hierarchy comes up with a brilliant plan:  "Why do we keep struggling with the name Mitth'raw'nuruodo?  Why not just call him 'Thrawn' or something like that?"  Another suggested trying a name that spellcheck doesn't keep autocorrecting, but that idea must have gotten voted down.  And that's what this book is going to be about, I suspect.  Either that, or it will be about Thrawn's ascendancy to power or something like that.  We'll see.  Either way, we're off and running, and the girls are listening closely.

This morning we spent a good bit of our annual income, conveniently all in one place:  the dentist office.  Yikes.  Let's move on from that topic now, or else I'll become massively depressed.  A lot of our income has just been Thrawn away there.

Ahem.  Anyway, today was cold.  But it was warm inside our house and at the school.  Madison was there at the school studying sentence structures, religions in Asia, blood cells, and getting ready for a few math unit tests.  She had piano class tonight, and she's learning a new song again.  Tonight we were studying math, and working on a social studies project.  She chose to do one that she could write out, versus something that could be done on the computer. About three kids wanted to do it that way in the class, which was completely optional.  She made a lot of things for her project, including some origami as well.

We did some Super Smash Brothers, including some efforts from Madison on the car ride home from piano.  As a result, we have Pac-Man in the army now, which is terrible news for ghosts everywhere.  And dots.  But for us, it's great news, as this has been a fun game to play, with lots of glorious chaos.

After story time - and devotional time - it was time for prayers and bed.  It's been a good day, although a quiet one.   We were all tired, and went to bed easily tonight, dreaming of space battles, and an Imperial commander named Mitth'raw...Mitter'aw'throno.... okay, I give up.

Born in China

This morning we were back where we belonged, back on board at KidPak for another great service.  This morning was our "end-of-the-fast" service, one where the church staff prayed for everyone who wanted prayer for anything they've been fasting for.  

We had a fun skit this morning, one where Nerdo was given tickets to "go into all the world" with.  Dawn, our engineer, went out to prepare people's hearts to hear the message, and she even helped Nerdo know what to say.

Here he is with the tickets, and of course he was able to bring people all on board, as our series is called "All Aboard!"  That means God wants everyone on board, and doesn't want anyone to perish or miss out on this trip to heaven.

Afterwards, we were praying for the children as they left on their way, and presumably go home to scarf some candy!  But seriously, there were many of these kids actually fasting candy and even meat.   Some were giving up video games and screen time all these weeks, and that's just fantastic.  More importantly, there was prayer, and reading the Bible as well.  Madison has been fasting all this time too, and of course we're quite proud of her.

This morning, we were finally able to open that box of Whoopie Pies, or at least one of them.  We brought in twelve of the Whoopie Pies from our Maine friends, and of course those were gobbled down pretty quickly by staff and volunteers.  We'll bring in the rest on Tuesday.  They actually sent us two dozen!  These things are like neutron bombs of sugar - I'm not sure how such a liberal state like Maine with so many regulations has approved these desserts of death.  But judging by the reactions of those who ate them this morning - including Madison - it seems everyone was grateful for state officials looked the other way when approving the export of this sugar-infested contraband.

Anyway, we went home this afternoon and had a quiet rest-of-the-day.  We had leftover Chinese food from yesterday, which was still delicious of course.

There was bath time, and there was still a bit of homework to do, plus some piano practice as well.

Madison was watching some episodes of "Clone Wars," but we also had on "Born in China," which was good - did you know that pandas eat 40 pounds of bamboo each day?  This was a visually stunning movie, with so much imagery from China, it felt like we were back there again.  Madison, of course, was actually born in China too.  That's one of the reasons that we had this playing, just to have imagery and reminders of her heritage, really not that long ago.

The movie follows the lives of a few different animals that are specific to China.  Of course, the panda is the star of the movie. There are two pandas, a mother and a child that is growing up and hopefully learning to climb trees.  The movie mentions how pandas need to climb trees to avoid predators, but I don't remember them saying specifically what those predators are.  Given that a fully sized panda is a rather formidable opponent, I suspect there aren't many.  So, looking it up online here, we found that panda cubs are the ones that are in danger from jackals and yellow-throated martens (which I had to look up).  But ironically, they're in danger from one of the other stars of this documentary:  the snow leopard.

The snow leopard's story was tragic, as viewers kept thinking there was going to be something good that happens next to Dawa and her two children.  Dawa is relentless as a mother, but sometimes this fallen planet we live on can be more even relentless.  We just read that the kids survived, so that's good.

I'm going to propose a sequel where they grow up, train and use their Chinese skills to take out the wicked snow leopards that drove them from their land and were responsible for the death of their mom.  One by one, the bad snow leopards are picked off, until the ultimate face-off with the snow leopard boss, who of course leaps out to avenge the death of her gang, but misses and plunges off the side of a cliff or something.  And so vengeance is served up cold, and the land's original owners return and everyone is happy.  Except for the mountain goats.  The end.

Despite the harsh reality of nature and the fact that we live in a fallen world, this was a beautiful movie to see, with wonderful landscapes of China filling the screen, showing all the seasons of this beautiful place.

Speaking of beautiful, we finished "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" tonight, and it had such a wonderful ending.  This was a great book to read during this season, but really a fantastic read any time of the year.  The last chapter was just such a nice ending to it all, and a very nice way to go to sleep tonight, after prayers, kisses and zerberts.

Year of the Rat

This morning Daddy was up early in Tallulah Falls at the school there for some filming, which turned out well.  We were there for about four hours, and had lunch together at the school - a very pleasant morning doing a bible-based skit that hopefully will generate some laughs.

On the way home, Daddy turned off an on old road to just do a bit of reminiscing to see how it still looked, and I'm glad I did.  There was a significant accident that I just missed, and you never know about these things, but this happened pretty much in the time I would have still been on the road.  It closed the highway down for hours - we were turning around going backwards on the left side of the interstate, and then finding our way down some back roads there.  Anyway, it was one of those things to be grateful for, and pray for the folks involved.  Also, from what I understand, there was a driver that helped cause this, one that just drove off and didn't stop to help.

There were plenty of ambulances there and officers arriving there, so Daddy moved on home, and it was with a grateful heart.  Also, a lot of prayers for the victims.

Anyway, I had to get home because it was time to celebrate Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rat!

We got home, and as you can see, we had a few gifts for Madison, including a game of Chinese Checkers.  Madison got to play a round or two with Nana, who came over with Ye-Ye to celebrate the occasion.  We posted this picture online, a photo of Madison holding a present from the grandparents to celebrate the day.

It's a small stuffed animal, a little mouse wishing you a happy new year.  She also got a copy of the movie "Abominable," which of course is set in China.

We had a nice meal together, a big meal that we cooked some of here at the house, and also a lot that we got from a local Chinese restaurant.  Mommy had some Chinese plates out, and we sat down for basically a Thanksgiving meal, just with Chinese food.  It was all delicious, even with cups for the hot green tea that Mommy had prepared.  It was a really nice time together.

We watched "Abominable" tonight as we closed things out, wrapping up a really nice day together.  We celebrated Chinese New Year in a nice way - it was simply a wonderful day!

Red Envelopes

Madison had some of these red envelopes for her Social Studies class today, the class that is discussing China right now, so it was only appropriate that everyone enjoy a little gift from the Chinese.  Each red envelope had a chocolate coin inside, and a nice one.  Also, the envelopes themselves are wonderfully designed, each with a mouse or mice on them to celebrate the new year.  On top of that, there was little card that Daddy made, one that looked like this:

This side talked about the rat, and the other side talked about the tradition of the red envelope itself:

Anyway, these were nice.  We made a few for Nana and Ye-Ye when they come over tomorrow to celebrate.  She had a good day today at school, starting an hour earlier, getting up an hour earlier to go to an extra study session for the volume formulas.  It was a good day today.  She played piano tonight, and we had one last potato before the fast ends tomorrow.  Daddy finished up the booklets and did a few other things, including a new skit for Sunday's "All Aboard" series, and Mommy did a nice job decorating and cleaning up the house.

We watched a few things tonight, including "Kickin' It," which Madison has been quite addicted to as of late.  But it was off to bed earlier for Daddy, who is getting up early to go off and film something tomorrow.  We read some, and said our prayers, and closed out the fast... ready to wake up again and each some chocolate tomorrow!

Sore Fists

So Madison decided that she wants to go to school earlier from this point on, so she's set the alarm herself for about a half-hour earlier, and that being said, so do Mommy and Daddy.  And this is fine - it's just a half-hour.  We're getting there earlier, so Madison won't feel so rushed when getting to school.  Of course, up until now, she's had about a half-hour until school officially starts.  Now she's got more time than that, and it's time to study, or socialize, or both.

We were at taekwondo tonight, and doing some grocery shopping too.  The fast will be over soon, and Chinese New Year is upon us, so we're getting some groceries to celebrate that event, with lots of egg rolls and soy sauce and so on.  Mommy makes this fried rice vegetable mix that is delicious, but we'll probably have more than just these things when the day arrives.  We're planning a Chinese feast, which will be so much better because it's the first day we return to eating normally again.

Madison was punching a bag repeatedly tonight, learning to strike and strike fast and hard.  The objective was moving the punching dummies back with the force of her strike, and by the end of the evening, her fists were sore.  She really is improving dramatically with her skills here.  There are little signs that we see each day where we can tell she's more flexible, more quick with her response time, and certainly not one to be trifled with in a fight.  Seriously, she can be like a viper with her strikes, controlled, furious and fast.  If she ever lost her patience and lost her self-control, I already pity the person she attacks!  And this is just beginning.  She's scheduled for that brown belt in March, and then later on this year it will be the red belt.  And next year, if all goes according to schedule, she'll officially be a black belt.  Wow!  She's working hard towards that goal, as are her friends that are with her in class.  They're all egging each other on, inspiring one another and motivating everyone else to come along for this amazing journey.  And along the way, they're learning a whole lot, becoming more fit, and certainly very capable of defending themselves.

The impeachment thing was going on today, and other than the milk and the word "pettifogging," we've learned one other new thing that hasn't been discussed over and over again well over a month ago.  And that is this:  Senators use fidget spinners.  There were several spotted with fidget spinners during this ongoing presentation in the Senate Chamber.  This might seem disrespectful.  But then again, those on the other side of the argument might feel that actually forcing people to do all this is disrespectful.  One thing is certain:  the Senate isn't getting anything else done.  Insert joke here about what the Senate usually gets done.  Still, this just makes it more clear:  everyone knows where this is going, so why are we doing it?  The answer is to get on television, I guess.  Still, not as many people are watching it.  And not as many people care - the most interesting thing about it today was fidget spinners.  And crossword puzzles too.  So keep at it Senators, and good luck.  I raise a glass of milk to you in your honor.

Today we KidPak was at the elementary school, playing some games and leading worship too.  We do that each Thursday, and sort of figure out what we're doing not long beforehand.  We were working on a skit for Sunday, and Daddy is almost done with the proofing of the Northern Lights booklets, which should be great.  A lot is going on, and there's a lot of change here.  Some big changes are coming up, and Daddy has known about these for about two weeks, not able to tell everyone just yet. The word to describe some of these changes is bittersweet.  There may be some kickback, but it's not entirely our decision in the children's ministry.  Still, we have to comply, and it will be interesting to see how things develop.  It's been a tough year in other areas too, with lots of adjustments that seem to pull the rug out from under our feet.  We sort of spend a lot of time adapting and rolling with the last minute changes.  We've gone from micromanaging the year ahead to just figuring it out as we go along, and that's undiscovered country for Daddy.  But though we walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness, the Lord is with us, so why should we fear.  We just have to let go of the control a bit more than we're accustomed to, and see what happens next.  In other words, "let go and let God."

Tonight we said our prayers, and we were reading a bit from our story from China.  We're getting close to the end, and it's been such a pleasant reading experience.  The imagery from China is wonderful, and the writing has been superb.  We also read from the devotional, the one Daddy wrote exclusively about trains.  That's been interesting - and it makes me want to go on a train once more, although we just stood on one this past Monday.  Such a wonderful thing, doing an entire series based on trains of all things.  But it has worked out marvelously, and it is one of my favorite things we've done at KidPak.  Madison has enjoyed it, enjoyed the messages, the skits and the worship.  It's been good.

Academic Award Ceremony

This morning we attended an Academic Award Ceremony, one honoring the students for their performances last semester.  Madison had all A's, so she was there for that first group announced, and you can see her proudly showing off her certificate, along with her pencil.  The group for all A's has gotten a bit smaller over the years.  Back in elementary school, I'm estimating it was twice as big.  Things are a little more separated as the kids grow older, with the classes being of varying degrees of difficulty.  For Madison it was a lot of hard work last semester.  She's naturally bright in some areas, but in other areas she was self motivated to learn as best she could, or do as best she could on her assignments.  As always, I resent the implication that she's just born with this innate ability to do math well, knowing the quadratic formula before she's even in pre-school.  In fact, there have been a lot of math concepts that have been frustrating to her early on, as she struggled to understand how to solve this, that, or the other.  But she persevered, and continues to do so, and really wants to succeed. So today she got this award, and it was somewhat exciting for her, although she knew she had all A's over a month ago.

But it was nice anyway, and it was nice to go to school there.  We sat in the front row, as if God were saving us a seat up there to watch the proceedings.  There were awards for all A's, then honor awards for A's and B's, and then the perfect attendance awards, which I do actually resent a bit.  Madison missed two classes, leaving school early, and for that she does not have perfect attendance.  Which is somewhat annoying, because she actually didn't miss school that day.  But that's not what is most harmful about these perfect attendance awards:  The simple fact is that in order to get a perfect attendance, you've got to go every day, even when sick with some contagious virus that will infect everyone else.  So congratulations to all our perfect attendance winners, and special thanks to all those parents who overcame having to drop off your sick child at school to infect all the other students.  Great job!

I digress.  Anyway, Mommy and Daddy were there, and it was nice, and then we were off to go to home.  Mainly because this is middle school, and we're not supposed to be there at all.  The hardest part about middle school is how much of a separation it is from elementary school, where we're there all the time.  In middle school, the teachers hardly talk to you and the administration eyes you suspiciously when you walk in the front door, as if we're terrorists or something!  Whereas the elementary school - even now a few years later - the teachers all know us and still will stop to have a conversation.

Yet, that's the way it is supposed to be, from what I understand.  When asked, Madison repeatedly says that she prefers middle school much more than elementary school, which at one point she was devastated she'd have to leave.  It was a scary new future for her, and now she's perfectly at home.  She may not be queen of the castle here, but she's fairly cozy at school, with friends, and having a good time.  And getting good grades too.

Daddy had work to do tonight at KidPak, of course, and there was a lot of disco going on.  We did this one hand/foot game set to "Love Liberty Disco" that was just a lot of fun. We were still talking about the Soul Train, and still talking about Peter and Cornelius.  It was a pretty fun night with lots to talk about, and lots of illustrations.

Madison took a bath tonight, and did her homework and also some piano class.  For homework, they're studying the religions of China, which include quite a bit, but do not currently include much of Christianity.  There are some teachable moments there.  We can't say much about the Christian we met there, but once upon a time while we were there, we met a shopkeeper, a sweet and quiet Chinese lady who recognized that we were Christians by the cross that Mommy was wearing.  We had a long conversation there, one about the need to keep things a bit more quiet.  It was as if we were reading the New Testament, where Saul was out looking to persecute any Christian he could find, and Romans were imprisoning Christians, or worse.  She gave us a refrigerator magnet that we still have on our refrigerator to this day, one that is a red map of China, one with a small golden cross painted on it.  It's a reminder to pray for China.  We could tell her faith was sincere, and there was certainly some risk even talking with us about such things.  We purchased a few items from her, a few more than we probably needed, including some wall hangings that we have in our dining area to this day, one that represents each of the seasons in China.  They're beautiful souvenirs, and treasured items in our house.  And they're further reminders about this very topic that Madison is studying in school.

We prayed tonight, and we read a bit from our book, "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon."  Daddy got home a little later, but Madison was still working on some of her homework.  She's a bit stressed again, so hopefully we can help in some areas.  Maybe if we can't help her with the actual assignments, we can help her with some chill time coming up soon.  No matter what, we're so very proud of her.

Milk and Pettifogging

People might point to this day as the beginning of the impeachment trial, but it's been on the agenda since the President was elected, from what I understand.  So it's sort of a thing we've all been waiting for, and of course given the 53-47 status of the US Senate, we generally knew where this was heading to all along.  Apparently, during this process in the House of Representatives last month, there was a great deal of clamoring and overriding and complaining, and now that we're in the US Senate, that process is completely reversed, just the opposite, and just as predicted.  It's completely partisan.  You think of a trial jury and you think you have impartial people involved, but time and again, we had the vote at 53-47.  Over and over again.  Completely along partisan lines, just as it was in the House.

So it's all the same.  But there are two new discoveries that have captured our imagination as a nation!  Yes, there were in fact two things we learned through today's proceedings, two big stories that are super intriguing.

Firstly, there's milk.  Apparently, the only thing that these Senators can consume during their session here is water and milk.  And this begs all sorts of questions.  You're saying they can't have tea?  No coffee?  No coke?  A tiny bit of research indicates that this goes back to a Senator's request back in 1966 - he wanted a glass of milk, and asked for permission, and got a page boy to grab a glass of milk for lunch.  I'm hoping the dairy industry really capitalizes (pun intended) on this big promotion.  When you want to make big decisions, go grab a glass of milk!  I'd love to see which Senators get a glass of milk now, a complete list.  Does that list also fall along partisan lines?  Forget the other aspects of this session.  These are the real questions here.

Rumor has it that Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Richard Burr have had allegedly gotten glasses of milk on the Senate floor.  The Senators have to provide their own milk, so this is one thing not covered by tax payers.  But fortunately, there's a place where it can be kept cold there.

It is somewhat telling that this is one of the more interesting parts of this proceedings.  I think there's a guy up there going on and on about something... but hey, did you hear which Senator has been spotted with a glass of milk?

The second thing was the word "pettifogging."  It's a new word for most of the nation, but somewhere just past midnight, the Chief Justice admonished certain people there for treating the US Senate Chamber with some dialogue that is beneath the dignity of this spot.  Which we'll ignore the obvious joke there for a moment as we continue:  he cited an example of a word that was considered going "too far" in 1905, and that word was "pettifogging."  He told those there that we shouldn't worry about aspiring to that level, but to at least show a bit more respect.  And instantly, all of us were looking up the word pettifogging.

It means, "placing undue emphasis on petty details."

Anyway, this thing went on until almost 2am.  It would have ended about five minutes sooner if not for a stray Senator that wasn't there for the last vote.  Fortunately, that one Senator from New Mexico came back just before 2am to place his vote.  He must have felt sheepish.  He was probably going out to get some milk.

In the end, we have the same thing that happened in December, at least from my layman's perspective:  House Democrats push through impeachment proceedings despite the complaints and lack of witnesses from Republicans.  And now in the Senate, you just reverse that.

The upside of this is that soon it will be over with, and we can all start getting along splendidly, just in time for the national election.

ANYWAY, that's the national news.  I probably shouldn't have gone there, but it was the big story nationally of the day.  The big story locally was that Madison got a 97 on her area test that she studied for, and in fact it was as easy as pi.

She had Live to Give again today, although there were only two kids that could make it after school.  They were brainstorming ideas for February, and discussing the upcoming change in teachers that oversee that club.  Madison was studying China still, which is great timing of course.  Chinese New Year is rapidly approaching.  They were studying religions in China, which of course didn't really include Christianity, although Madison is familiar with the struggles of the Christian church there.

We had taekwondo tonight, which meant Daddy was looking at baseball cards with another dad or two.  But we were looking out at the kids sparring too, and they're doing well.  They're doing so well that Madison got a stripe towards her next belt, which of course is upcoming in March.  She's certainly already gotten enough hours towards that belt, given that she's been doing this since October or so.  She had a good time, and is getting pretty sharp.

On the way home, we stopped by for some taquitos, although Daddy is still fasting that particular food.  Madison had a few because why not?  Daddy had some mushroom soup when we got home, delicious as always, and Madison was busy studying math.  She's looking to find the volume in all sorts of random shapes, so we've moved on to 3D shapes now.

It's cold outside, and it ought to be cold.  It's winter, and that's the sort of thing that tends to happen.  It doesn't mean that we have to like it so much, but it does make those big thick blankets feel great when you dive beneath them at bedtime.  We were reading tonight, just a little bit and of course praying for our nation, and praying for Nana and Ba-Ba.  It's supposed to be cold down there too.

Anyway, so tonight Daddy stayed up watching the Senators in action.  The above picture is a captured image Daddy took while watching.  With all 100 Senators there, you could identify who was where, pretty much.  With so many roll calls for votes, you see them stand up one at a time, and can pick out the ones you recognize.  Daddy knows a lot of them, and it's fascinating to see such a diverse group all together like this.  We're used to see them making speeches, running for President, debating, or posturing on television.  It's a roster of 100, and it's this team that's supposed to work together, all connected to all the Senators of the past in this historic chamber.  Once upon a time, Daddy got to be a Congressperson, and debate a bill in the House of Representatives chamber in Atlanta's capital.  Seeing these folks in action, this reminded me of the dream job I wanted once upon a time, even if it were just a state representative.  But I'm good where I'm at right now, writing and making an impact with lots of kids.  And speaking of which, I've got to do that tomorrow and it's late.  So with that said, I'm going to stop pettifogging and get a glass of milk, and then get some sleep.