DIY Orrery

It's the last day of the month, and Madison spent some time when she got home painting the last of the planets of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune.  Tomorrow, we'll glue them to the galactic blackboard and have a finished product, but until then, here's a project Daddy was working on, our own personal orrery.  Yes, you could say we were inspired by the Lara Croft movie.  But coincidentally, there was a "build your own orrery" project online, so we thought we'd give it a try:

Here's the orrery, along with our pet porg.  It works somewhat, with the earth actually spinning as it rotates around the sun.   The big yellow one is the sun!

Today was a quiet work day - a lot of the folks at KidPak are either feeling a bit under the weather, or heading out to a camp for the older youth members.  It might be the same illness that Mommy and Daddy had last week, a little sinus trouble going around.

Madison had a decent day today, although there were some lower grades than normal in her business class.  An extra 100 in the class later on helped bring things back up to an A average, but we'll have to focus on that class next.  We may do some typing exercises or something this weekend, along with the finished work on the solar system.

Labor Day is here, and with it a whole lot of odd events like Burning Man and Dragon Con.  There's a rodeo we're thinking of going to, but there's also plenty of other events going on, not to mention all the college football.  We're not big watchers of college football, so we'll have a little more free time than most tomorrow.  We just have the  one assignment, and then a largely free weekend with an extra day tagged on there for Labor Day.  We may just stick around the house, or we could go out and do some small things... whatever!

Pet Mantis

Look who came by to visit today!  We officially have a pet praying mantis now, something we used to have all the time at our old house, a familiar face we'd see each time we went out the door.  We haven't had that here at this house so much, but we do have one now.  In some African cultures, if one of these lands on you, it's supposed to bring good luck.  But beyond that, there's terribly practical pets to have around, ones that dine on insect pests.  We just like having one around.

Madison was playing a new form of tag at PE today, one where if you were tagged, you had to do push-ups and other various punishments.  She enjoyed it, although I would probably not.  In fact, I would insist on being "it," so I wouldn't have to tag anyone, and so long as everyone paid me enough money, I'd spend all my time narrowly missing all the other players so that nobody ever had to do a push-up.  Those who refused to pay me would be captured by my loyalists and brought to me so that I could tag them profusely, and inflict severe push-up penalties upon them!

Tonight, Madison had marital arts again, and Daddy was there to watch through the parent window there.  She's doing very well, very intent and very focused.  She's pretty much the only girl there, but she's keeping up with everyone and having a great time.  No looking back!

We painted a few planets tonight, working on our solar system project.  It should be finished up by this weekend, I think.  We did some other things tonight, although not that much because there just isn't that much time.  We read another part of the current X-Men story, and finally ran into Mr. Sinister, one of Daddy's favorite villains from the comics.  Madison hasn't met him yet, so she doesn't quite know that much about him.  But she's about to, because he's got a lot of involvement lately with the X-Men, and he is in fact sinister.

We watched a few episodes of "Star Wars Rebels," and read from our book tonight, "The Slippery Slope," which is also drawing to a close.  The librarians were funny, because they knew we were doing this marathon, and they're big fans of the book series too.  In fact, they have one recommendation beyond the 13 book series, and we may read that before the final book.  If that's the case, this reading may go on deep into October.

School seems to be going well for Madison, and she really doesn't have any complaints.  She talks a lot, sharing this memory or that story, and we're grateful that she seems so positive and full of energy.  She's a wonderful person, and a sweet spirit.  Each Sunday, she goes around making sure all the teachers have a little bit of chocolate as a gift.  She helps new kids, and loves volunteering and doing the work it takes to set things up for service.  For the most part, she's on top of her homework and reading assignments, usually doing things ahead of time or writing more than necessary.  In short, we're really proud of her.  She's smart, she's sweet, and she's been a wonderful blessing in our lives.

Typing and Zombies

We had two skits tonight, and they went rather well this time around.  These are the ones that Josh and Daddy have been doing on the stage in the main sanctuary, in front of a whole lot of people.  They've been fun, and a bit stressful, and now that these two are under our belts, we're feeling better about it all.  We'll be re-recording them for future use, so it's not the last time we'll be doing them.  But it is the last time we're doing the in front of a whole lot of people.  There's something a little less stressful about remembering lines in front of a camera person, rather than thousands of seated people and of course all those watching online.

Anyway, today Madison was working at home on the solar system.  She was painting Saturn, and then Earth and the Moon.  It's a slow process, but she should be done with the entire project by this weekend.  We're really proud of her.  She's doing all the painting, pretty much.  Daddy is helping with the continents of the Earth, but other than that, Madison is responsible for all the paint you'll see on the finished project.  She's taking it one planet at a time.

She was watching the livestream tonight, watching Daddy do his thing on stage.  And soon enough, I was home to read to her - bedtime stories are important!  We don't miss them often, especially with this run of "Unfortunate Events" books.  Tonight we continued with "The Slippery Slope," nearing the end of that one.  We'll be done with these books soon, although from what I understand the author has other books out as well.

Madison did a little piano today, and worked on her typing skills at home as well.  Thus far, I believe she's in the top three for typing speed in the class.  This comes from killing zombies.

This is a screen shot of a game that Madison can actually play at school.  She gets to type words and obliterate zombies at the same time!  I can't really fully express how thrilled I am that there are so many "typing vs. zombie" games out there.  I'm not a big zombie fan, personally, and don't like the shows with zombies in them, typically.  But "typing vs. zombie" games are pretty funny.  I love the panic you have trying to type out, "Brad asked Susan to the dance on Saturday," while a hulking zombie with a chainsaw stumbles towards you.

Madison is doing so well right now with typing, near the top of her class with speed.  Daddy types well too, so the two of us are ready for a zombie apocalypse.  Each day she's going to school, she's training for this sort of thing.  Sure, most people think typing is useful for term papers, business communications, and various presentations.  But no, we all know the truth is that we're training up this next generation to survive a real life-and-death battle against zombie infestations.  Type or die, indeed!  If a plague of zombies comes lurching down River Stone Drive, Madison and I will be out there, armed with our keyboards and ready to take them down!

This one game above is actually school approved, which is to say her teacher recommended it along with others.  When searching for this one in particular, I noticed something.  A quick look online for this game led me to find a few other "typing vs. zombie" games, and all of them are a bit different from each other, but all have the same concept:  type the word before the zombies get to you.  I believe all the designers of these online games were inspired by one of the most important "typing vs. zombie" games ever created, "Typing of the Dead."

This game is legendary, and Daddy still has it, along with the Dreamcast and a keyboard for that system.  This might be the year that Madison tries it out, somewhere during October of course, when it's a seasonal - and educational!  The special agents above are armed with keyboards and a Dreamcast system, and they're ready to battle against these zombies by typing out words as quickly as they can.  If only the cast of "The Walking Dead" or other zombie movies tried out this technique, I think there'd be more survivors.

Anyway, if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, we're ready for it.  We have food, water, and a sturdy base of operations - but most importantly, we have our keyboards!

The River Wild

Well, we had a little adventure today.  Or, at least Daddy did.  He and the guys you see above went kayaking down the Chattahoochee (where it gets hotter than a hoochie coochie).  It was a team building exercise of sorts, as you can see the group here is mostly the guys from KidPak, wanting to see just around the river bend (why do all our dreams extend, just beyond the river bend).  This was in fact Daddy's first venture out in a kayak, which is basically one of those small plastic boats that you row all by yourself down all sorts of rapids.  For some reason, I was under the impression that the river would move and we'd go straight down it, but being completely unfamiliar with kayaking, I was probably doing much more work than I needed to just to stay straight.  The end result is a very sore body tonight, and presumably for the next few days.  But it was fun, and there were times we were out there all alone along the river, and just enjoying a pathway that God created so long ago.  A few times we'd go ashore to a remote beach designed just for those on boats, and we'd do a little swimming, and in one case there was this large rope swing set up that launched you way out and deep.  Yes, we all did that a few times.  That thing was way up there, and it sent you plunging down into the water.  But it was fun, and it was challenging too - you really had to pay attention for rocks and rapids, especially towards the end there when we happened upon some rapids that actually had a classification.  I have no idea what that classification was, but we were all given instructions to go down sideways, and then straighten out in one particular direction.  Being completely an expert by this point, I ignored the first part of the instructions.  Actually, it just worked out that I didn't have to go sideways, because I had overshot the first part so much that when I went to turn and go down the bigger part of the rapids, I went straight down the flume and made it safely.  We didn't turn over once, although there were moments where the water threatened to knock us this way or that.  Our guide didn't have any trouble of course, and he was helpful here or there, and very encouraging as well.  It all went by rather... rapidly.

It was a fun time for us, and it all started actually a little later in the day than normal.  I think we began at about 3pm or so, which is why we were able to get a lot done at work leading up until that moment.  The tail end of things, however, kept us out pretty late.  We got home well past 10pm, this after eating together up there in Cornelia.

Madison and Mommy had their evening together while all this stuff was going by.  Madison had martial arts, where she's learning this two-step kick in the air.  Both feet fly up in the air, and she was anxious to try it on Daddy the next time she saw me.  They found black foam board, and there was much rejoicing there - that means we can paint a backdrop for the solar system and get that project done.

It was a great day all around, a hot one, but on the river that didn't matter too much given the cold water splashing all around us.  I doubt Madison or Mommy would come with us down the river if we were to do that again.  But there is a great place to go fishing up there, and an invitation to do that if we want to.  I think we'll take our guide up on that offer, and I think you'll be seeing pictures of that soon enough.  Madison is anxious to go fishing again, and in fact all of us are.  It's more relaxing anyway, but it's just very nice to get out and do things like that, or even kayaking, for those moments that you're out in nature, away from it all, enjoying all that God has created for us.

The Great Black Foam Board Shortage of 2018

Tonight we had piano again, so Daddy got Madison to class just in time as always.  It's a bit of a spring when she gets off the bus to eating whatever it is that Mommy has carefully timed to getting in the car and going, but we've managed to make it all work so far.  Her teacher is pleased with progress so far, and she's doing okay - we won't be there next Monday though, as it is Labor Day.

Daddy was out looking for this black foam board to use for the solar system project, and after dropping by two stores, there was none.  I suspect everyone else is using black foam board to create their own solar systems, and thus the Great Black Foam Board Shortage of 2018 has started, with panicking parents making a run on all the black foam board sources, some buying extra black foam board just in case an emergency comes along.  The resulting shortage is something that cannot be underestimated, and must be addressed by our political leaders!

Anyway, we got home and did some reading, part three of the recent Marvel comic book series we've been checking out.  In the "The X-Cutioner's Song," our old friend Cable has just come back, and of course it's quite a surprise what's going on.

Madison did not have any homework today, so that was a blessing.  We did a bit of Star Wars tonight, starting with "Battlefront II," which basically inspired us to play as the dark troopers, because we saw one of them yesterday.  He's not exactly the same, but we liked playing him regardless, especially in tight corridors.  After that, we watched an episode of "Rebels," moving along with the complete binge-watching of the entire show.  We learned that the Grand Inquisitor used to be a Jedi Temple Guard, which makes a tiny bit of sense.

We read tonight from "The Slippery Slope," and from our devotional, and after prayers and zerberts, it was time for bed once more.  It's a full day at school, and it's been great because it starts later for us this year, so we sort of get to sleep in somewhat.  The drop-off process at the middle school is a complete breeze too, so there's no stress at all in the mornings, really.

When Madison was off to school, we were working on a few different things, such as the new "Level Up" series, catching up on this blog somewhat, and the important task of sitting on the front porch, reading.  Yes, first thing in the morning, it's great to sit out there and relax, reading a book.  I've been on this Barnum autobiography for a while now, and enjoyed reading a bit from that this morning. But after that I was writing thank you notes and future messages as well.

Mommy and Daddy decided to have a little date today, going to see a movie while Madison was at school.  We checked out "Crazy Rich Asians."

It was a good movie, although probably not one that would captivate Madison at this time.  Still, there is significance to the movie, as it has been very popular and uses an entirely Asian cast.  It is surprising to read that there hasn't been a mainstream movie in America that has an entirely Asian cast in something like twenty-five years or so.  The simple fact is that they haven't made one.  Don't blame us for not wanting to go see it.  Make a good movie, and we'll go see it, right?  That's generally how things work.  It's not that we're not ready for it.  It's that it hasn't existed.

Anyway, this movie was very pleasant, and a nice little romantic comedy to go out to see together.  It was so different going to see a movie without Madison in between us, but it was good to have some together time.  Madison was just fine with it - this was a movie that isn't on her watch list, at least not yet.  I think she'd like it some day.

Shadow Troopers, Jawas, and Thermal Detonators

The Star Wars fun continued today with our third part of the series, "The Spirit Awakens."  You can see us celebrating afterwards, for what appears to be now a tradition for this series.  The members of the 501st that came wanted to do a group shot, so we joined them on our Hoth set once more.  You can see some of the new t-shirts in this picture above - we'll show them again in a bit.  But above you can see Madison out of her Jawa costume, along with Mommy, Pastor Lance, Mary Shannon and several others from KidPak.  It was another great morning!

Here are our newest visitors from the 501st.  They've really made this series what it is, a constant parade of new characters.  Strangely, Daddy was most excited about the Imperial Gunner there to the right, mainly because that was something new, and somewhat obscure.  These were incredibly kind members of the 501st, enthusiastic and just wonderful people.  We had a Shadow Trooper, and Imperial officer, and of course the Imperial Gunner there.  Don't they look great?

Madison is a jawa in our series, a member of a team of scavengers that got a tip about the Battle of Hoth that just happened.  Furthermore, one of the team members has instructions to pick up something important that was left behind.  We haven't found that item yet, but along the way we've run into a stormtrooper that is trying to infiltrate the group.  She's been called a traitor by the kids, but after today, there's a bit of doubt about her character:  she heard the jawa's story, about how the Empire did something remarkably bad.  Madison - or "Jinky," as her character is named - is off to one side in the picture above, because she's been reminded of the pain of loss.  The stormtrooper character you see above, the spy, is affected by the story, and is now suddenly in a position similar to Finn from "The Force Awakens," where her heart is telling her one thing, but orders are saying another.

Here's some of the crew outside in the lobby afterwards.  There was a massive, massive line for kids and grown-ups to come and take pictures with these characters.  We were there for an hour between services, and almost an hour after the second service.  The line didn't stop!  Madison came by to pose again, but afterwards she was busy with her weekly ritual of distributing chocolate to all of the teachers and staff members - and Mommy.  The kids earn "KidPak money" for memorizing scriptures and filling out their books, and Madison promptly spends that on chocolate at our concession stand (it  is called the Pak Shack, and we have candy and chocolate there as incentive for kids to memorize things and fill out their books).  Anyway, she doesn't keep the chocolate for herself:  she hands it out to all the teachers and staff members.

Here's Josh holding a thermal detonator.  This was a funny segment, a game we played on stage with the kids, something like "hot potato," where kids passed along this thermal detonator until it "exploded," which means we had one less kid.  Eventually that number of kids was whittled down to our winner - it was a loud game, with lots of cheering and frantic passing.

The message today was about the bounty being paid.  Here's a letter I wrote to the volunteers afterwards, that pretty much sums up the message and our gratitude.  I send these out each week, and this one illustrates what Madison learned this morning:

Hey there!

      Thank you so much for an amazing morning at KidPak!  I asked Madison what she learned yesterday on the way home in the car, and she walked me through the message points: “All of us are scoundrels” (Romans 3:23), “we all have a death mark” (Romans 6:23), and best of all, "Jesus paid the price when he died for us” (Romans 3:24).  This was all off the top of her head - she was paying attention to what Pastor Lance was saying (and the bottom line and videos helped reinforce that).

     I know for an absolute certainty that lives were changed forever yesterday.  The altar service alone is proof of that.  But beyond that, I know these kids learned the most important thing you can learn from the Bible.  That’s a huge moment.

    You played a part in that, literally.  It’s a big deal, isn’t it?  All of us who are parents know there is nothing more important than delivering this crucial message to our children.  So thank you once again, from a grateful dad.  It was a remarkable day, and I’m so glad myself to be a part of this amazing team with you!

Oh, and the new t-shirts - you can see them here.  Madison has one, as do Mommy and Daddy.  We even got the 501st members new t-shirts.  In fact, they completely sold out in one morning!  We sold all the child size t-shirts and all the adult ones too.  It was a sudden rush - these t-shirts were super popular!

Of course, KidPak isn't the only thing that happened today.  It's a big part of the day though.  We got home, and did a bit of piano practice, and we read part two of "The X-Cutioner's Song," which is the first "X-Factor" book that Madison has read, meeting characters like Guido, and one of her all-time favorites, Quicksilver.  

Madison also spent some time with Minecraft on this story mode, which Daddy is enjoying with her.  It's a one-player game, but as Daddy was doing church-related work, he was watching her try to solve a murder mystery on the game.

We took a break and went to the pool after this, going down there while it was still open for the season.  The hours are counting down for that, but the weather was nice and the water temperature was okay - it was a bit cool, but you got used to it.  Madison and Daddy were playing games like "Yes and No," or throwing a sponge ball back and forth, or "Marco Polo."  Which reminds me:  there's a kid in my 3rd grade class now, and his name is Marco.  It must be frustrating for him to go to the pool, right?

We got back, and pretty much got ready for bed after this.  We saw another few episodes of "Star Wars Rebels," and read another chapter from "The Slippery Slope."  We've met Quigley now, and suddenly, we're only a few chapters away from finishing this book.  Three more to go after this, and the girls are certainly very much into it.

We said our prayers, and zerberts were made, and accusations of who made the stinky noises were leveled at one another.  The nightly rituals keep going on, from hiding from Daddy each night in a different place to reading the devotional and sweet goodnights.  It's been a good day!

Painting the Sun

The big yellow one is the sun!  Madison is painting the sun here, as we started on the solar system project for the week.  We've got one more sphere to go get and that's one for Saturn, otherwise, we have the planets all lined up - even one for Pluto if we're being a bit rebellious!  Madison began to paint these today, and got Jupiter done right after the sun, and then Mercury, Venus, and Mars.  That leaves Earth, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and perhaps Pluto if get to it.  Can't wait to show you the finished product!

Today we did a lot of different things.  Of course, Madison was working on her piano a little bit.  There was also bath time, and a bit of grocery shopping too.  We were picking up groceries for the 501st visitors tomorrow, some new faces were excited to meet.  Darth Vader is fantastic, but the more obscure characters are always lots of fun too.  An Imperial Gunner?  Yes, please!

Madison and Daddy each had their sheets of paper, and we plotted out the picture on the worksheet Daddy made a few days ago.  Madison had no idea what it was until the very end, constantly asking, "What in the world is this?"  Line by line was drawn, and eventually the picture became clear - she did a great job with the Loth Wolf!

Daddy was working on the board game again, this time while everyone was watching the next few episodes of "Rebels."  The episodes on the planet Seelos are pretty amazing, visually.  If those were live action productions, they'd be something pretty amazing.  As is, we wound up with "The Last Jedi" instead, which came afterwards, and in this humble writer's opinion didn't have the great sequence that this episode did, with sandstorms and AT-AT's.  It was a pretty amazing episode, anyway, and the girls were on the couch watching it while Daddy was cutting out small pieces and gluing them together.  Hopefully this board game will look good at the end, but it will take some time.

Yes, I have all these cards for the series too.

Another big thing Madison and Daddy started was "The X-cutioner's Song," the next part in the X-Men books, a fourteen-issue crossover, and one of the first ones that Daddy picked up so long ago.  We're reading through it again, and Madison is meeting all these extra characters now.  We'll probably go through this story the next two weeks or so - it's a longer crossover, although I don't think the longest.  These were such big epic events for Marvel.

Madison has been playing the Minecraft story mode lately, following the adventures of Jessie, from one episode to the next.  One of our favorite characters is Ivor Sigge, who I just learned was voiced by Paul Reubens.  That might be why we like the character so much - he's been pretty funny.  But the game itself has been a lot of fun for Madison.  She was up first this morning, and much like Saturday morning cartoons used to be, she was out in the great room right away, playing the next few parts of this ongoing game.  Daddy came down and just watched, enjoying the ongoing story as much as she was.

Speaking of which, we're still reading tonight.  Big developments going on with "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  Each chapter is revealing a little more, and you can tell this series is approaching an end, although there are three books after this one.  Regardless, it's been a fun read for all of us.

It was a good day today, one that involved a little bit of preparation for tomorrow.  The trip to the grocery store was a nice little getaway, but for the most part we were indoors today.  Madison wrote a thank you note to a friend for sending her a nice gift.  Madison even wrote the address on the envelope, put a stamp on it, and then put in the mailbox.  She learned how to do all this for the first time today, the mailing part.  But she did it all with a bit of guidance, and of course it was a nice thing to do.

We said our prayers, and there were zerberts as well.  We went to bed early tonight, because tomorrow we've got a big day at KidPak, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Tetherball

One of the things Madison is doing at school is tetherball, which she's really enjoying.  And yes, from this point on in my life, anytime I think of tetherball, I think of Napoleon Dynamite.  I never really got into tetherball, which is one of the reasons I think the scene in Napoleon Dynamite is great.  Madison actually likes the game, so maybe it's something I need to take a second look at.  Maybe I need to set up a tetherball game in the back yard, right?

Anyway, it is Friday.  Madison is still doing well in school with her grades, which is amazing to check on any moment we want to.  We know her grades many times before she does, which is probably a little unsettling, I'm sure!

But we're helping her out, in fact getting a few more supplies for the solar system today, one that we're probably going to work on building tomorrow.  The idea is to hopefully finish it by Sunday, so we'll see how that works out.

Daddy was working on all the usual things today at work with a new service upcoming.  Mommy was working a little in that direction too, although the day-to-day work of the house is keeping her busy as always.  Add to that the fact that she's still a bit under the weather.  Daddy must have passed that along to her, unfortunately.  It's not a severe sort of thing, but it does require constant medication, because of the congestion.  Madison is showing no signs of it at all, and that's obviously a good thing.

We watched "Rebels" again tonight, finishing up season one.  Daddy was working on his board game while we were watching, and now the base is done.  This paper craft Haunted Mansion is going to take a while, and I've got one month to do it, but the base is done as of tonight, all glued together for support.  Finished product will come later, but it's one of those projects that I'm working on, one small step at a time.

Speaking of which, I spent a long time working on the "Wonderland" binder today, which is binder #39 of around #63.  It's been a huge project I've been working on, getting all the series that we've done at KidPak presented in uniform presentations, all lined up on wall behind my desk.  It basically is "my life's work," over a decade's worth of messages and skits and videos and games and graphics and... well, you get the idea.  We were in Wonderland twice, so I took pictures from that, and of course all the printed material and made it into something that can be useful once you selected that binder.  And I've been doing that all along with the other series that we've been doing, but it takes a while to do each one.  I literally started this about a year ago with the first binder.  I'm estimating being done by early next year, which is amazing to think about how long this all takes.  It would be done sooner if I completely focused on it, of course.  But there are other things to consider, like what we're doing this weekend and so forth.

Speaking of "what we're doing," it was just recently discussed that we may do Fall Festival after all.  For a time, we thought we were not doing Fall Festival this year, based on things we heard from "higher ups."  But that may not be the case now, which has Madison excited again.  It may be a different sort of Fall Festival this year, but at least we're having it.

The weather is getting cooler, which is amazing.  Daddy wrote a good deal this morning while out on the front porch.  He and Mommy shared a tea, did some reading and writing, and just enjoyed the pleasant morning together.

Getting home, Daddy brought the new Star Wars KidPak t-shirts home for each of us.  Madison was excited when she got hers - we'll all have matching t-shirts on Sunday!

Tonight, we read "The Slippery Slope" before going to bed, and it was later.  We actually read in our bed in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom, so that Mommy could go right to sleep after that.  The medication makes her sleepy, which is what Daddy was experiencing a few days ago.  Soon this will be done with though, and we'll all be better again., just in time for the weekend.

Lekku

Here Mommy is, making her own lekku.  First, typing out all these Star Wars terms with autocorrect is a pain.  Second, and more importantly, she is doing a great job, isn't she?  Camille is going to be a twi'lek when she appears on stage, and those are the aliens that have the lekku on the back of their heads.  In case you're wondering what a lekku is, it's plural for "lek."  And if that doesn't help, it's the two blue things you see in the picture above.  Camille will paint her face that same blue color, and put that on her head, and suddenly, she's a twi'lek!  We'll meet her soon enough on stage, as Mommy will be developing the costume over the next week or so.  It's based on Hera Syndulla and Aayla Secura, so it should be a fun add.

Daddy got to watch Madison in martial arts today, and I'm really impressed with what she's been doing.  She's very intent on learning, very focused, but also having a great time at the dojo.  It's been a real pleasure watching her trying something new, working on her form and learning something pretty valuable.  With current events as they are - various isolated incidents here and there in the news - it's good to know self defense.  A confrontation is not something you're inviting to happen, of course.  But it's good knowledge to have as a line of last defense.

We watched a few episodes of "Rebels" tonight, per Madison's instructions - at least once she was done with her homework.  She's been reading poetry now, which is a fairly new area of literature that she hasn't explored as much.  She's studied it before, but I think this time it is a big more extensive.  She's read "Casey at the Bat," and "The Walrus and the Carpenter."  In regards to the first poem, we've been following the Braves on the radio here and there, because that's how Daddy has listened to the Braves for over twenty years now.  They're in first place again, and it's been an exciting divisional race, with the Braves hanging on to a narrow lead lately.

As for the "Walrus and the Carpenter," that makes me think of Wonderland, which is where the poem takes place.  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum tell the sad story of those oysters, and it reminds me of our series "Wonderland" that we did at KidPak some time ago.  Alice in Wonderland was such a prominent part of Madison's early life, with visits to Wonderland, tea parties and of course all the books and movies and games.  It'd be nice to go back there.  10/6 is coming up again soon, and perhaps we will.  Caloo, calay!*



* Another few words that spell check hates.   I suspect much of Lewis Carroll's writing would be hated by autocorrect!

Squirrels with Lightsabers

Tonight's message was a continuation about lightsabers, and about the Word of God, a "Sword of the Spirit."  To celebrate this, we were showing a few of the easily found clips of woodland creatures battling with lightsabers.  Super fans have made these over the years, inserting lightsabers into these fights.  In fact, Daddy made the image above to use as a background for those who know how to use a lightsaber.  And then we showed the "Star Wars Kid" from ten or more years ago, the one who - at the time - didn't know how to use a lightsaber or bow staff, and came off looking pretty goofy.

This set up the clip from "The Phantom Menace," where Darth Maul very briefly meets Qui-Gon Jinn in a lightsaber battle in the desert.  A long time ago in another desert, there was another "duel of fates" between Jesus and the devil.  Both were using the Word of God, the "Sword of the Spirit."  Jesus obviously knew it better, as he was the Word of God.

The more time you spend with the Sword of the Spirit, the better you get at it.  That said, we were training kids how to use a Bible tonight, and even gave out this little homework assignment that Daddy reconfigured to have a Star Wars look about it:

It was a long night at KidPak tonight.  Madison was there with the other kids, and it probably went on for too long for the kids.  We got home pretty late.  The repaving of Browns Bridge Road didn't help much - we were stuck in traffic an additional twenty minutes or so, waiting as the one-lane road shifted cars by.  There's been a lot of road and bridge work here lately.

But it was a good day today, of course.  Madison is having a great time at school, and all our worries are really not that much.  We can check on her grades whenever we want to, and we're all in it together, helping her along.  We ordered the yearbook today, one with her name on it.  We ordered one with her name on the front cover, and were laughing about the fact that you could put anything on there, like Madison Superfly.  She was like, "NO!"

It is interesting that you can already buy ads for your child for the back of the book.  Something like $225 can get you a full page ad, which is crazy.  Imagine if all the parents did that.  A quick search online says there are 871 students.  Divide that in half, sort of.  The point is, your book would have FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX extra pages.

Apparently, there must be something wrong with the ordering system.  I mean, surely we can't already go out and buy a full page ad for a sixth grader, right?  For even an eighth grade student, it seems like a full page ad is sort of big, right?

This puts financial pressure on the moms and dads, of course, who want to "keep up with the Jones," and show the world how beloved their little child is.  And our child is beloved, of course.  And a yearbook is forever and all that.  But a full-page ad?  That just seems too much.   Again, imagine an extra 436 pages in your book.

One last thing for today, one that sort of reveals the way this writer feels about animals, and a story that happened here at the house.  I guess it sort of reveals the character of your father, and how I'm just not cut from the same material as a big game hunter or even a high priest.

I could never be a high priest.  I’d see that lamb sitting there, begging me to let it go, and I’d be like, “Be free, little one!”

And I’d go out there to the other priests, and they’d go, “Did you sacrifice the lamb?  The atonement for the sins of all our people?”

And I’d probably mumble something like, “God loves you,” and quickly shuffle towards the exit, trying to act as holy as possible.

****

Where is this going?  There was a snake on our driveway on the way home.  As the garage door was open, it slithered into the garage to get away from the approaching car.  I told everyone to stay in the car so I could deal with it, putting a bucket on it.  The bucket got the tail end of the snake though, so the thing was trapped, visible to all of us, but it’s tail end was stuck under the bucket.

So now the big question:  what to do about it?

I know there is some confusion about “good snakes” vs. “bad snakes,” and I was pretty clueless about this one.  It was so young anyway.  I posted a picture on Facebook, in hopes that the “community” would give me a clear idea.

Several people said immediately it was a copperhead and to kill it.  Some were “good old country folk” that we sort of figured knew this type of thing. There were about two people that said it could be a “king snake,” but that was just based on their internet research right there at the moment.  But the “kill it” crowd was way bigger.

Anyway, it’s still on my brain now, because after looking at the photos I took of this snake, I am pretty sure it was a baby black snake, which was one of the “good ones.”  I saw pictures that look exactly like this one, the same eyes, skull shape and skin patterns.  I made a mistake, and killed it.

You don’t know how this profoundly bothers me.  First of all, it didn’t look black at all - it had markings on the back that made it look like a copperhead or something.  Why was it made this way?

Secondly, I didn’t pray about any of this.  I went to Facebook to get a consensus.  That was dumb.

Thirdly, I willfully killed one of God’s creations because of my ignorance.  I was considering the danger a poisonous snake would present to my girl, and the children in the area, and that fueled me in thinking this was the right thing to do.  But ultimately, I believe I made the wrong choice.

Outside of houseflies and black widows, and the occasional garbage truck-sized palmetto bug that gets flushed down the toilet, I don’t willfully kill anything.  I wish I didn’t have this stupid sensitive heart towards animals.  But here I am still thinking about what I did.  


Anyway, we write about the good and bad here, and although this might not be a big deal to most, it was sort of a bad moment for this writer.  I love animals, and I'm feeling pretty bad about what I did.

Graphing a Loth Wolf

This was a video posted on social media of one of the students (at right) doing a demonstration of various moves.  You can see Madison looking on, although it's all been pretty fuzzy.  Daddy doesn't bring the camera along to class, so I don't look too much like a martial arts tourist!  But the video online is there to help Madison learn and practice a few moves at home, so hopefully she'll advance some more in her learning.  She had a great time tonight, as she has each night at the dojo.  There's been no looking back, no real longing to put the hair up and the ballet shoes on again.  This is something she's enjoying, and something we think she'll be sticking with for a while now.  Perhaps a black belt is on the way eventually, but Madison tells us that's a long ways off right now.  One step at a time, which is good advice.

We had rain again today, and overcast weather as well.  Madison has spent some time this week with graphing points on a grid, and actually has a test on that soon enough.  You may ask her this deep and philosophical question, "Where's the point in all of this?"  And she'll say, "Here at (3, -5)."

Following our recent "Rebels" trend of late, Daddy thought he'd make up a homework assignment of his own, a sort of connect-the-dots game where you first have to plot the dots.

Speaking of "Rebels," we indeed are watching the entire four seasons all over again, per Madison's instructions.  This was decided after a bit of homework and studying.  Tonight we read more from "The Slippery Slope," with a chapter that featured all sorts of possibles answers to what "VFD" stands for.  After prayers and zerberts, Daddy suggested it was "Voracious Fart Disorder," which got a lot of laughter.  Zerberts always bring on the accusations of who made the noise and why, so this was kind of well timed.

Anyway, today we were helping some other churches and outreaches.  Mommy has spent a good amount of time arranging bags, setting aside a certain amount of books, and helping to set things up.  It feels great helping out other small churches with their children's ministries, an honor really.

Mommy is a bit sick today, and Daddy is still getting over it - at least we'll be done with this soon.  It's a yucky seasonal thing, and it fortunately isn't too bad so long as you keep taking medicine.

We met some of our new college students today for the church, and there are more now than there have been the last few years.  Three from last year's KidPak students were hired at the church, a "third year" in which they have actual jobs.  One is with KidPak, Mary Shannon, and we're delighted to have her.  Mary Shannon lives in our neighborhood, so we'll be seeing more of her in the future, as occasionally we all carpool together to the church.  Madison loves Mary Shannon as well.

The week is going by, and so is the forgotten month of August.  It's "filler" month now, the month before all the fun of the fall season begins.  There are no holidays in August, and now that school is here, no reason to really look forward to it so much.  We'll do some fun stuff to close out the month though, hopefully this weekend.  And, of course, we'll keep the Star Wars weekends going - this week, I think we'll have an Imperial Gunner and a Shadow Trooper.  The 501st has been so good to us!

Jinky

Here you can see a modification of an old sheet that Daddy made a few years ago, one that shows kids how to use the Bible, basically.  It's a "two-edged sword," according to Hebrews 4:12, and this sheet above is fairly basic.  And yet it's so obvious sometimes we miss out on things like this, so Daddy made it for the new kids coming in as small groups start up again this new school year.  There are a few other sheets we made too, but this one was the most recent, something that goes with our Star Wars theme as well.  Note the scripture Rey is searching for is in the book of Luke...

Speaking of which, you can see Madison's new Star Wars friend with us above, as we wait at Funderful World of Music.  Madison and Daddy got to piano class a little early, so we posed for a picture with Madison's new little figurine, a Jawa that now officially has a name:  Jinky.  That's Madison's character's name, Jinky.  So now she's officially canon, right?

Anyway, it was a great day today, one with more rain and one with the beginnings of school.  We're all planning out the solar system, and maybe a walk along the solar system soon enough.  Madison and I talked about posing Jinky by each planet through Gainesville's walk through the solar system.  It's something we've never walked before, so it'll be appropriate enough to do it now.  Expect those nine or ten pictures soon enough, from the Sun on Gainesville's square to Mercury and the other planets across the square to Jupiter down by Matthews Printing, Saturn along the park there, and all the way to Pluto by the tennis courts.  It's a pretty good walk, but it'll be fun. 

Mommy and Daddy had the day off today, which meant some front porch time, a new pastime of ours on the front porch reading or doing a bit of writing sometimes too.  Daddy is still writing the devotional for the video game series, up to twenty-two days now.  But we're still reading too, checking out this PT Barnum book that Mommy gave me as well as some old comic "Excalibur" comic books, a few of which I read with Madison later on tonight.

We saw some more "Star Wars Rebels" tonight, and Madison's intent is to go through all four seasons, so here we are, moving right along.  And we're doing that with our book we've been reading tonight, "The Slippery Slope."  We've just started this book in the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books, and this one looks a bit longer than the others so far.  Things are wrapping up, and answers are forming a little more, so we're anxious to see how things turn out.  One chapter at a time though.  That said, we've got three books left after this, so if we're on chapter three, that means we've got about 49 days left until we're done with this series.  It's been a long ongoing sort of thing, but again, the girls are terribly into it.

Madison is learning to plot points on graphs at school, and also longitudes and latitudes a bit.  She taught the class for a few moments about the autocracy of China, sharing with her classmates the bits about the one child policy and more, which was terribly mature of her, if you ask me.  Questions were asked, and the teacher let her speak a few moments about China, as she was probably more qualified to talk on that topic than anyone in the room.  

She's doing well at school overall, still with an "A" average, which is easily seen on the computer now, as we can check on her grades whenever we want to, not just overall, but on daily test, homework and project scores.  She's doing well, and we're very proud of her.

R2-D2 Jokes

R2-D2 was back with us today, and in a pretty good humor as you can see above.  Evidently, he's told Madison some jokes.  I think I could translate one of them:

R2:               "Knock-knock."
MADISON: "Who's there?"
R2:               "Art."
MADISON: "Art who?"
R2:               "Artoo-Detoo!"

I didn't say they were great jokes.  Don't tell him I said that though.  Anyway, today we had another great service, another trip to the Hoth system, in a galaxy far, far away.  We had our races this morning, Josh animated a race through space with an A-wing, a B-wing and a Y-wing.  We had characters out greeting before and after the services, including R2-D2 of course, and a few others:

You can see Madison here with a few of the extra characters, including a visit from Princess Leia herself.  She was a last minute visitor, and a welcome one.  Ashley, the young lady in the stormtrooper costume there, is a member of the 501st, and has been getting us various visitors, including Princess Leia today, who R2-D2 was happy to meet.

But that wasn't the only visitor at KidPak today.  Here below is a first time visitor that made quite an impression!

Darth Vader was here with us today!  To quote Moff Jerjerrod, "Lord Vader, this is an unexpected pleasure."  And yes indeed, it was.

Here's another group shot, although R2 and a few others were greeting upstairs at this time.  Madison was there though, right in front as her Jawa character, who is officially named "Jinky" now.   Daddy got her a little souvenir for her, as a way to thank her for helping out on stage.

She loves it, and she did great on stage today.  She doesn't have any lines to memorize - Daddy is up in the Soundbooth using a device to make sounds for the wookie Chubba Wukka, and the Jawa too, Jinky.  Also, we had a little bit of interaction today with a mouse droid.

This is MSE-6 droid that we had acting with us on stage today.  Josh was backstage, using a remote control while Daddy was doing the sound effects in the sound booth as well.  The mouse droid was interacting with the wookie on stage, and the kids were having fun with it - the droid kept hitting Chubba Wukka until the wookie had enough, and chased him off.

As for the message we spoke today, it was about lightsabers, as you can see above.  Or rather, the message was about the Word of God, which of course is "...is alive and active. It is sharper than any sword that has two edges.” Hebrews 4:12 NIRV

It was a fantastic morning at KidPak, quite memorable for all kinds of reasons.  We had a lot of fun, kids and grown-ups alike.  You'd think the smaller kids would be slightly taken aback by the Dark Lord of the Sith... but...

Yeah, he's actually a big softy!

The rest of our day was slow and relaxing - at home.  When we got there.  It was a long day at work, but when we arrived at home, we were playing "Rebels" characters on Disney Infinity for a bit.  But we also did a little bit of work:  Madison was playing piano, and then were studying the best way to make a solar system model.  YES!  It may not be a galaxy far, far away, but we're finally getting to make a model solar system.  This is one of those things that's pretty much a rite of passage for parents, and I was wondering when that big moment is, when I get to help make a solar system.  Well, that moment is now!  So Madison, Mommy and Daddy were looking through different ways we can make up a solar system.  There were a few different ideas, but we all settled on one method.  Madison wrote down the notes and the materials it will take for our next project, and pretty soon we'll be out collecting what we need to build the solar system.  But by gum, what do we do about Pluto?

Madison made the decision of what to watch tonight, and given our direction with Star Wars of late, she's wanting to binge-watch the entire series of "Star Wars:  Rebels."  Yes, we watched all of season four last week, which was pretty quick.  But now she wants to start all over again, and we're okay with that - it's a great show.

We went to bed a bit earlier tonight, reading and praying and delivering zerberts.  It's been a great day, with an obvious theme that was pretty fun.  We'll be sleeping easy tonight, dreaming of tauntauns and mouse droids.

And before I go, one more thing - I usually write a letter to our volunteers to thank them, and this afternoon was no different.  This one had a personal spin to it, so I thought I'd share it here in closing, as it attempts to explain the driving passion behind what we do at KidPak, and why we do it:

Hey there,

     Some of you may have heard this before, but I was raised in a Catholic Church.  As a kid, my main memory of the church was that every single blessed service had the same exact steps:  you did the Lord’s prayer, sang an old song or two, took communion, recited some long speech about what we believe, listened to a priest talk about ten minutes and then left.  I couldn’t wait for that last part!  And… I can’ t remember a single thing that was ever said by the priest there, because I was so focused on how many steps we had to go until I could get out of there!

      One day though, the priest started his short homily with the words, “Today I want to talk about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia….”  And suddenly I didn’t want to leave as quickly.  I was absolutely there at that moment, paying full attention and completely sucked in!   It’s literally the only thing I remember that priest saying, to this day.

      This month at KidPak, we didn’t just mention a few characters to get the kids' attention.  No, we brought Star Wars characters here, and brought the Star Wars galaxy to life in front of them.  And when Pastor Lance was holding those lightsabers while talking, those kids were really paying attention as he was speaking about the Word of God. If they’re anything like me, yesterday was a service they’ll never forget!

      We do that each and every week at KidPak, and we can’t do it without your help.  I am so grateful we can make these lasting memories with these kids - our kids!  Just think of all the foundation we’re putting down, the excitement of going to church, and the Biblical foundations were putting in place.  Thank you so much for your help, your passion, your friendship, your prayers, and your love for this ministry!

And may the force be with you!

-d

       

Hawkeye

Daddy and Madison took a little time today to go to Marvel drawing school, at least the home version.  Each month she gets a Marvel magazine that's meant for kids, and inside that magazine is a "how to draw a hero" portion that gives step-by-step instructions on how to draw various superheroes.  One of the more recent ones was the character Hawkeye, so we sat down at the kitchen table to give it a try:

This is Madison's drawing, and it turned out pretty good, actually!  I was hoping she'd learn some new ways to learn about drawing a human face, and this was a great exercise in that direction.  She's been doing other methods as well, and the more the merrier.  It's just a matter of spending more and more time getting the proportions right, and spending more time on the details.  I think this one turned out pretty good, all things considered.  Daddy's turned out okay too, but we like Madison's better!

Daddy has been sick lately, so he stayed at home today while Mommy was out getting groceries for tomorrow.  We're having more guests from the 501st at KidPak, and we wanted to make them feel welcome.  Speaking of which, Mommy had this amazing breakfast made this morning, all on a skillet, sizzling on the table there and absolutely delicious.  Even with a stuffy nose, I could smell all the delicious flavor, and the three of us sat down for a memorable breakfast this morning.

It was a rainy day today, as was yesterday and apparently tomorrow too.  The pool was out of the question today, and with Daddy not doing as well, that's okay right now.  We stayed inside, and Madison practiced her triplets on the piano, as Daddy started to do the work on this board game we're constructing.  It's a paper craft based on the Haunted Mansion, and presently it should take approximately forever to get done.  But we're getting started, one piece at a time.  Hopefully it'll be done by October!

We did a few things related to our service tomorrow, and wrote some video game themed devotional entries, including this one that I rather like, based on the game "Pac-Man."  I used to have Pac-Man bedsheets when I was a kid, and I desperately wanted to be awesome at it - but was instead rather mediocre.  I'm afraid I don't have the patience for it, and yet I still had Pac-Man Fever a bit.  There's so much nostalgia behind that game, one of the grandfathers of video game characters.  There's this magic behind the music and the sound effects, the very essence of arcades in the early 80's, a place that felt like Christmas morning to all of us nerds.  Arcades were quite magical - to this day I remember a birthday party I was invited to where we could play any game at all for one hour absolutely free.  That... was... amazing!

Later on, "Pac-Man" came out for the Atari 2600, and I got to be pretty good at it.  Of course, it was disappointing that it looked nothing like the original Pac-Man.  But we still enjoyed it.  I can still hear those sound effects as well, different from the arcade and a little less magical, but still potent enough to bring a smile to my face these days.

I digress.  Here below is a devotional entry as we close up for the day here.  It's not necessarily about the nostalgia, but more about the actual game itself, the legendary Pac-Man:

This was the pattern to my bedsheets.  True story.

“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.” Jeremiah 15:16 NIV

     Waka waka waka waka!  When playing the classic arcade games “Pac-Man” and “Mrs. Pac-Man,” there’s one thing each player does, and it’s pretty simple:  eat.  Pac-Man eats all of these dots found within a maze, and that seems easy enough.  That is, until you consider the fact that there are four not-so-friendly ghosts out there:  Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.  These guys would love nothing more than to ruin Pac-Man’s day.
      Fortunately, there’s something wonderful found within each maze:  power pellets.  When Pac-Man eats these, he isn’t chased around by these ghosts anymore.  No, after Pac-Man eats a power pellet, he’s the one that does the chasing.
     Do you ever feel lost, unsure of which way to go to, as if you’re in a maze?  Do you ever feel like those bad decisions you made are haunting you, chasing you around like ghosts from your past?  If so, why not follow Pac-Man’s plan:  eat the right thing.  Jeremiah talked about eating God’s Word, and of course he wasn’t really putting it into his mouth.  He was talking about reading scriptures and hearing from God in prayer.
      You see, the Word of God is more powerful than any energizer!  When we take time to read and consume the words of God in the Bible, amazing things happen.  We find direction, no longer lost or unsure of which way to turn.  It’s much easier to see your way through a maze when you have a heavenly perspective.  And furthermore, when we spend time with God’s Word, we’re empowered.  We’re no longer chased around by problems – no, we’re the ones that do the chasing!  Yes, we can move around in confidence, and be absolute winners!
     Take it from Pac-Man, you can get energized eating the right thing.  Or, to quote our famous yellow hero:  “Waka waka waka waka!”

Lothal and Saturn

So tonight we binge-watched the rest of season four of "Star Wars Rebels."  It is certainly an instance of "binge-watching," because we watched six consecutive episodes, and the accompanying "Rebels Recon" episodes as well.  Monumental events happened in the very first of the episodes we watched tonight, and therefore we just had to watch the next one and so on and so on.  Madison was up until midnight with us - we don't have to get up tomorrow, so we rationalized!  It was a really late night, so we didn't read tonight.  But it was worth it to Madison, who is really excited about this series again, so much that she wants to start watching the entire thing all over again from episode one.  We just might do that, actually.

So Daddy is sick, but the others are not and that's good.  He did a lot of writing today, but it is hard to focus sometimes when you're not feeling that well.  Madison did well on a test today for her business and computer science class.  We have access to Parent Portal, and can see the grades sometimes before she does.  She's doing well with nothing but A's so far, and feeling pretty good about things.  These online resources are great, because we can keep up with her work and help her keep on top of things.  We're not to heavy-handed, but it's good to know what's going on and what is being taught.  Sometimes it helps in ways that we can further her education, for example with the solar system studies, it might be good to pull out the telescope and give it a try.  I'd love for Madison to be able to see Saturn's rings with her own eyes.  We'll try that soon enough, actually.  About fifteen years ago, Daddy and Mommy were looking through the telescope at different planets, and saw the rings of Saturn, and sure enough:  they're there.  It's not a hoax, people.  The planet actually has rings around it, which is just amazing when you stop to think about it.  I mean, can you imagine a colorful planet with these ginormous rings around it?  Who does that?  God does, of course, and it's just simply amazing.

I'm anxious to set the telescope up now, and hope it all still works.  In the meantime, it's time for some rest.  The medication is setting in, and we'll all sleep in tomorrow - hopefully Daddy will be feeling better, and hopefully nobody else will get sick.

Until then, here's a wistful look back at the past with a devotional I wrote today about the very beginnings of Street Fighter.  We were looking at some current new characters to the game, and remembering the first time we saw the game, quite some time ago, and with a much different configuration than there is today.  Take a look!

“He makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. Under the control of Christ, each part of the body does its work. It supports the other parts. In that way, the body is joined and held together.”Ephesians 4:16 NIRV

     Not many people remember this, but the very first Street Fighter game in arcades did not have six buttons on it.  Not like today, where there are six buttons for each character.  No, instead, you moved your character with a controller, and how hard you hit your opponents was determined by how hard you slammed your fist down on two pads labeled “punch” and “kick.”
     To this day, I remember one match we played at the arcade.  I was in charge of the “punch” button, and one of my friends had the “kick” button, while the third friend moved the character around. For the entire match, I spent all my energy slamming my fists down on this “punch” pad randomly as hard as I could, while my friend was doing the same with the “kick” pad.
     The end result was an easy loss:  our character was flailing about in this really weird way, punching the air really hard, and kicking at nothing with all his might.  Sure, if we ever hit anything, it probably would have been great. But no, we lost right away.
      Why?  The problem was obvious:  we weren’t coordinated!  Perhaps if we worked together we’d stand a better chance.  Also, perhaps our hands wouldn’t be bruised and sore from all that pounding.
      The point is this:  we’re designed to work together.  We’re all parts of the body.  I was the hand, and one friend was the foot, while the third was the head.  If we worked together as one body, we might have stood a chance.
     We are all parts of the body, and God didn’t design us to go through life alone. You were made to work together with others, as one body.  Don’t worry, you’ll have your chance to make an impact in life, and yes, it’s going to be huge.  But there’s only one way to be a real world champion:  it’s when we work together.

Infinite Gauntlet

Not the best picture above, and that's probably because it was taken with this laptop computer!  But still, here's the view we have through the window when we watch Madison practicing at Edge ATA Martial Arts here.  I have a tendency to want to say "Karate," when in fact it is Taekwondo, or the more generic term here:  martial arts.  Of course, when I think of "arts," I think of paintings and sculptures and not beating someone to a pulp.  But there is an artistry to all of this, as evidenced by Madison's movements and positioning.  We've gone from using French terms with ballet positions, to Korean words with Taekwondo.

Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy sit out in the lobby area, talking with other KidPak parents.  There are lots of them here, waiting for their kids inside.  Today, Madison took a bit of a test with her instructors, and she passed, learning all the postures and strikes that she needed to.  Thus accomplished, the instructor put a strip of tape on her belt, signifying that she's one step closer to moving up to a newer belt.  I'm not sure how many stripes go here, but it's a black stripe on an orange belt - yes, she's a tiger.

Today Madison was learning about democracies and autocracies in class.  The latter is a nice way of saying "dictatorships," "regimes," or "oppressed countries."  That used to be a pretty universally shared opinion, although Communism seems to be back in style in a way.  Not sure where that came from, but there are more than a few candidates that are open about their socialism or communism, and it doesn't seem to be a problem.  Whereas before, that would be something like poison.  Which it in fact is.  Education is important.

Anyway, today was a day to work on the new skits and a few devotional entries.  Daddy sat in Hoth, that is to say I was working on stage for a bit, with all the snow planet around me.  A change of atmosphere helps sometime with the creative juices, although I suspect any lack of creativity was due to the sniffles and sinus trouble and medication.  Yep, that's right:  school season is here, and therefore we're all dealing with this illness or that ailment.

It was a rather routine night here as you can see.  We sat down and watched some more episodes of "Rebels," and there was also time for piano practice as well.  Mommy made a delicious salmon dinner for us, although Madison prefers the pizza.   And soon after we were finishing up "The Carnivorous Carnival," about to head into new territory with our reading of the "Unfortunate Events" series.  We said our prayers, did the zerberts - and of course Madison is always still hiding from us when we come up to say goodnight.  This tradition has not died - it's been going on since the beginning of school or longer, where we come upstairs and Madison is hiding somewhere, ready to jump out and say "Boo!"  Sometimes there are decoys, and sometimes she's hiding in a hamper or behind something very small.  It's been different each night, of course, whereas before it was always in the same spot generally, which was always funny pretending to be surprised!

It was a normal night though, and you'll excuse me as I'm sneezing and sniffing here.  Time to take some night time medication, and time to say goodnight!  But before I do that, here's a devotional entry, and maybe a long-sought-after answer about the original game of Gauntlet, the one you found in arcades. It's a fun memory, a true story, and perhaps a tiny point to it as well:

“So don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Galatians 6:9 NIRV

     Some time ago there was a game called Gauntlet in the arcades.  It was a simple concept:  four people could play at a time, all part of a team that had to fight off bad guys, find food and treasure, and get through a maze. When they got through that maze, the reward was this:  another maze.
     This sets up a true story from my college days, when a few of us set out to discover just how many levels there were in this game.  It just kept going, and surely there was an end to it, right?
     One day, destiny called!  Somehow the folks in charge of the arcade made a mistake with the way they set up Gauntlet. The game was arranged in a way that we could get unlimited lives, without putting any quarters in it at all. Yes!  Free gaming!
     This was our chance to answer an important question:  does Gauntlet have an ending?  Our team of adventurers had a plan:  when not in class, we would take shifts in playing this game.
     For hours and hours and hours, there’d be teams of us playing this game, one maze after another, all day long.  But the hour grew late.  Would we endure to the end?
     “Wizard needs food badly,” that game’s voice called out.  We had to go home.  But what about Gauntlet?  Overnight, we knew that the characters slowly died without food.
     That’s when we came up with a plan:  we pressed the buttons that made it seem like we were putting in a whole lot of quarters. Yes!  Now all the characters were full of life, and hopefully they’d survive overnight.  After a fretful night of sleep, we all raced back to the college arcade that morning, in desperate hopes that our characters were still alive in that maze.
      And yes, indeed, there was much rejoicing!  They all did, and yes the marathon continued into the second day.  And after that, the third day.  Yes, we played this game day after day like this, shifts of people playing maze after maze, a team working together with purpose. We were moving on and on and on, wondering if the arcade game Gauntlet has an actual end.  Level 500 was approaching – would this be the end of the game?
      No. And hopefully I’m saving you some time if you ever try such an exploit!  After a week of keeping the hope alive that we’d get to the end of this game, we found our answer:  this game has no end.
     And that brings us to the bottom of this page, and hopefully a point, which is this:  life is really about the journey, and not just the destination.  Sure, we didn’t quite end up exactly where we thought we would. But we had a great time getting there.
     Don’t be so concerned about where you’re going that you miss out on where you are now.  Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow.  He’s got it taken care of.  Live for him each day, and fight the good fight of faith so that together we can live with Him in the place that truly has no end:  heaven.