Nutcracker Army

The nutcrackers came down today:

We're starting to amass quite an army.  This sufficiently explains why we don't have any rats in our house, or really this end of the neighborhood.  The slightest sound of scurrying is met with this super team of nutcrackers you see above, marching forth in force to obliterate the ranks of the opposing rats.  Honestly, the rats know their efforts would be futile, and so they go off to sulk in another neighborhood that lacks the presence of such might.

For now, they're all back in their boxes and safely packed away, standing guard in the basement.  Before heading downward, they all got together for one more group shot, as they've added a few to their ranks this year.  You can see to the left of the M&M nutcracker a newbie with a sea turtle theme.  At the left on the end is the Tribes Christmas Nutcracker from KidPak, and next to him on horseback is the Lone Star Christmas nutcracker.  The two tallest ones are new acquisitions for the year, an inheritance from Great grandma.  The king there is so huge, perhaps designed to crack coconuts.

Anyway, as you can tell, today was a day to finish taking things down from Christmas, which is a long overdue process.  But it takes a while to do.  While doing that, Madison was studying a lot, doing some catch-up work, and getting ready for a test tomorrow.  It's Martin Luther King's birthday, so she was at home, off for the day.

We were studying together today, with Daddy helping Madison learn about the Roaring Twenties.  Madison was learning about Louis Armstrong, so Daddy pulled up a DVD that had Louis Armstrong playing aboard the Mark Twain in Disney Land.  She was studying Babe Ruth, so we were looking up footage of the early Yankees, and talking about the House that Ruth Built.  She was studying the Harlem Renaissance, so we watched a few videos of the Nicholas Brothers dancing, as well as video from many years later of Gregory Hines tap dancing as well.  We spent quite a bit of time learning together, reading and watching related videos.  It was a fun kind of learning!

But we watched some movies as well.  Today Madison finally watched "Revenge of the Sith," the only Star Wars movie she hasn't seen yet.  It's a tough one to watch, and Madison agreed it was her least favorite.  It's just all bad news all around!  But it does help when we all sit together and read the book "Ahsoka" at night.  It's been a slower read, but Madison is into it.  She's got the Ahsoka Infinity figure up on the counter in the living room right now.

We ate well today, and as I said earlier, Mommy makes the fast a unique experience to try new and exciting foods.  We've been trying new soup combinations, and all kinds of different things this year, all healthy choices.  We had veggie burgers - minus the buns.  And this morning, spinach omelettes that were just delicious.

Still doing LEGO Dimensions, we did a Scooby Doo level that was a lot of fun.  We'll have to revisit Scooby Doo - those cartoons were great fun.

Anyway, tomorrow Madison will go back to school.  And perhaps that'll be it until Friday:  there's talk of more snow coming.  We'll see what that amounts to.  In the meantime, it was off to bed tonight for all of us, after reading the latest fasting devotional, reading a chapter from John, and then of course reading more about Ahsoka Tano.  Here's the devotional, as we close up:

“Let us not become tired of doing good. At the right time we will gather a crop if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIRV

     There’s a popular expression mountain climbers have: “Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”
     The point is simply this: you’ll get there, if you just don’t give up. While fasting and praying, there might be a strong temptation to do just that: give up. Whatever goal you have might be a long ways off, and if you start focusing too hard on how far away things may seem, you might get overwhelmed. How can you possibly make it?
     Just keep climbing. Don’t give up!
     One way to be encouraged is this: look upon each step you take, and see how they are adding up. There’s another old expression that goes like this: “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
     Small choices add up, and pile upon one another until you have something amazing to look back upon. It might not seem like much now, but you have to see that big picture when all is said and done.
     The greatest success for your life is not that far away, and in fact is getting closer every day with each small step you take. When you fast and you pray, you’re making sure those steps you take are pointed in the right direction. You’re also making sure your feet are planted firmly where they should be. Just keep going. Keep fasting. Keep praying. Keep climbing. And don’t give up!