Spar Wars

This is Madison tonight, sparring again.  And as a Daddy, I was having a great time in the waiting area, peeking through the glass there and watching all this unfold.  I mean, look at her expression.  It's one with this weird mix of joy and ferocity!

Last time she was sparring, she was more on the defensive, and a bit more reserved.  But tonight, Madison was unleashed!

It's such an odd thing to laugh at and cheer on your daughter as she unleashes violence upon others, and it's probably a good thing that she didn't see me over there cracking up.  Other parents were there too, and we were laughing at the surprise on Madison's victims as she attacks them with a foot-fist fiesta!

She had a good day today, although she didn't do as great on her science test as hoped.  Still, it's a B, and that's not terrible.  We're going to go out to eat Friday night, although she thought we might not because she got a B.  But really, it's about doing your best, and we let her know as much.  This drops her down to a B in the class average, but we have a long semester to go, and I think she'll be able to pull up that grade easily.

The rest of her day was good, all indoors of course, as it is still pretty chilly outside.  Meanwhile, this historic polar vortex north of us is simply stunning.  The temperatures are so low in certain areas that weather maps ran out of color codes to use for certain areas.  As mentioned earlier, the temperature in Antarctica is actually warmer than it is in Illinois.

Meanwhile, here, it's rather mild when the sun comes out.  Comparatively speaking.  One thing that Daddy did today was do some recording for Summer Xtreme.

I'm playing a minion character named "Sims."  He's pretty funny, a cross between that bat from "The Great Mouse Detective" and a certain local radio talk show host we know with a pretty nasal voice.  It's an odd frame of reference, but the voice came out really funny, and I think it'll work in the end.  We've been recording these in a makeshift Soundbooth, a lot of sound boards surrounded by clothing, props, stuffed animals and so forth.  There's a lot of recording lately - and we're calling this spot "The Fortress."  It's in this kids room down the hall, out of the way, and now occasionally pretty noisy!

Madison was doing homework tonight, a writing assignment where she was answering questions about an interview she found online.  She found an interview about "A Wrinkle in Time," and was doing that assignment just before bed.

Of course we read and prayed.  And of course we did our nightly game of hide-and-seek.  We do that every night.  She says, "Ready!"  And Daddy runs upstairs to see if he can find her, which of course he cannot.  Lately, her hiding spots have been hilarious.  She's been in a clothing hamper once.  Another time underneath the pillows in our bedroom.  Tonight she was in the big tub in our bathroom.  Sometimes she's hiding in plain sight in a dark corner.  All the time, it's a fun game of hide-and-seek before bedtime.

We read from our devotional, and another chapter or two from "The Secret of Rundoon."  Molly Aster keeps disobeying her dad, and it keeps saving the day.  Will it happen once more?  Probably, but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.  We said our prayers tonight, grateful for warmth.  We prayed for healing for certain people, and warmth for others.  We're grateful and happy together, and quite blessed with what we have.

Mack

We made some more Dr. Seuss trivia questions for Sunday's service, and we did some writing too.  We'll be doing a mini-skit based on the Dr. Seuss character Gerald McLoy, otherwise known as "Gerald McBoing Boing."  It should be fun - Daddy first met this character late last year when immersing myself into Dr. Seuss stories, and found this television special.  The artwork is amazing, and the story was unique enough to try out on stage this weekend.  We'll have fun with that.

Madison was studying for science tonight, but Daddy was able to come home before church and do a bit of quick reading.  We did the devotional together, and then we also did some more from "The Secret of Rundoon."  It's nice getting home to be with family, the three of us sitting on the couch and spending time together.  It's sweet, and restful, and then Daddy's out the door back to the office.

Tonight went really well with the kids, a large group service based a little on the Lorax, and the whole idea of the word "UNLESS."  If you know the story, you know what that means.

It was a good day on top of all this, and there's actually hope of the weather warming up for us later on.  Not only us, but the rest of the country that is freezing.  Ironically, while we've been looking at Dr. Seuss with his "Pale Green Pants with Nobody inside them," there's been a trend in the midwest to freeze pants, and stand those pants up outside... with nobody inside them.  I kid you not.  This is a latest meme, something people are apt to do and take photos of.  More and more people are doing it, and to be honest, if we could, we would be doing it as well!

It's just funny that this is going on, and meanwhile we've been talking about pants with nobody inside them here.

Anyway, it's been a full day.  Wednesday usually are, with college students and lots of things to do.  But Mommy feeds me well, and Madison keeps herself busy with piano and her studies.  This Friday, I think we're going to go to Chili's, in celebration of her recent achievement with grades.

But beyond that, she's got a great heart, a really sweet person, and a joy to race home just before service to see.

Flurries... of Punches

Daddy is sitting here watching Madison do jumping kicks, screaming and throwing flurries of punches in the air.  Not as many kids made it tonight, and this might be because of the questionable weather. We had no ice on the roads today, as the temperature was above freezing for the good part of the day.  Tonight it may dip down enough to freeze what is there, but the winds and sun have helped dry much of it out.  All that remains is a biting cold, and a quieter night here at the studio.  Madison is doing some new moves, some jump kicks and some of these other high kicks that involve keeping your legs up in the air much longer.  A lot of flexibility is required for those, and she's just getting started.  But she still loves it, and loves all the new friends she has here.  There were some exercises where one person would get on top of another or visa versa, and they were learning how to throw someone off of you.  Madison and this other girl were giggling as this was being practiced, which sort of loses all that aggressiveness you sometimes see in martial arts practice.  Imagine being in a dark alley and getting attacked by a giggling little girl.  Okay, in a way that would be terrifying.  The point is, she's enjoying this, and with enough practice - even with the giggling - it'll stick with them so that they'll reflexively know what to do in certain self defense situations.  Which of course we hope never happen.

Today Madison was doing her classwork at home, including gym!  Yes, she was required to do some basic calisthenics, which is a word I just typed correctly and am in awe that spellcheck didn't kick in. I must have gotten it right on the first try.  Anyway, she was actually doing jumping jacks in the house, and stretches and push-ups... she had to record on the computer how many she did of each.  I just thought that was funny that you can't even skip a day of gym when you've got a "online learning day."  So she had a lot of other work to do online, and was at it for hours on her laptop on the couch.  When she gets into it, she's really focused.

She had a bath today, and also had some rest and relaxation, playing some Minecraft, a game that never seems to get old for her.  She was in survival mode, mining deep into the earth and creating a large network of connecting caves.  Unfortunately, there was no snow whatsoever to speak of outside.  Meanwhile, the rest of the country is in the freezer, practically.  It's not just a freezer though:  it's historic what is happening this week.  It will literally be colder in Chicago on Thursday than it is in parts of Antarctica.  The wind chill today made parts of Minnesota feel like -66 degrees.  The actual "high" for Thursday in northern Illinois is going to be -15 degrees.  The warnings going out are severe:  just five minutes outside with your skin exposed can result in frostbite.

Here in Georgia, we're cold, but nowhere near that cold.  We're at the thirties tonight, and expected to dip into the twenties at night.  But not as cold as a few states up.  And there's not really any precipitation expected soon, so despite all our wishes for a little snow, so far this winter is coming up a little short.  But we were talking with Madison about that one March snow storm that none of us in Georgia can forget.  The one back in the nineties?  I remember trying to drive a few days afterwards, and still couldn't get anywhere because the roads were so covered with solid ice.  The snow was thick, and it was just amazing.  We were all stuck for a week.  We haven't had anything like that in a while.  But the point is, that happened in March, of all times.  Which is still two months away.  Yes, winter has fifty-nine days left, a fact that is depressing to many lately, because it is somewhat of a miserable post-Christmas sort of gloomy weather.

But we're not miserable here.  Sure, we're cold.  But life is great.  There may be no flurries of snow, but Madison is throwing flurries of punches, and is all smiles tonight.  It's Taco Tuesday, and Mommy has a Mexican fiesta at  home, after which we'll probably have just enough time to watch an episode of "Star Wars Rebels."  The Mandalorians are growing on me with their clans.

After that, we'll return to the book of Acts, followed by our devotional and some more of "The Secret of Rundoon."  The Others are planning something big, as are the Scorpion Tribe, so we'll have to see what happens next.  Madison and Mommy are riveted, each listening carefully - Mommy lying on the bed beside Madison as Daddy reads from the floor.  It's a nice nightly ritual, one we don't take for granted each night.  We're warm in our house, and we're praying for those who are not tonight.  It's dangerous weather out there, and hopefully folks will be safe and warm wherever they can find that shelter.

Reality and Optimism

Back to school Madison was today, although we have a day off tomorrow, to be explained below.  In the meantime, things went well today as always for her.  Days are just gliding by, and she's enjoying her teachers and the classes.  She got an A on her math quiz, and she's gotten several A's in a row on her grades recently.  In fact, we haven't seen anything less than that yet, so she's doing well in school. She has a big summative Science test upcoming, so we're studying for that on and off.  And elsewhere, she's focused for the most part, remembering to study and spending serious time on her laptop as she looks over assignments and lessons.  Here below is something she's written about optimism and reality, an oratorical paper:

********

Is there a fine line between optimism and reality?

Reality has its obstacles that will seem hopeless, impossible. It may seem impossible to get over, but you stay optimistic, it can help you through reality. It may be hard, and it may take you a while, but you can get through it with optimism.

Being optimistic will help with achievements in your reality. It might take a while, but you will get there. Helen Keller once said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

Optimism can help you through your darkest times; even when something bad happens to you. You may feel pessimistic, hopeless. That is what makes it feel like you will fail in life.

Over a decade ago, my mom had cancer before she got me. Having cancer would make a lot of people feel hopeless, pessimistic, but my mom stayed optimistic instead. She stayed strong, hopeful, even through her darkest times in reality. She was thinking of getting me. If she had stayed pessimistic and lost all hope, she might not be around today, and I might not be here in this state.

Low points like having cancer or something minor will come at you in your reality when we grow up, but we have to be hopeful, and we have to have faith that we make it through. I’ve faced struggles myself while I had to go to another school and let go of some of my friends is hard to go through. Everyone can relate to that sooner or later, even us 6th graders. It was hard to get through at first, but I had stayed optimistic that everything was going to be fine. Going to another school and losing some of your friends is hard to go through, but that is part of reality.

My mom and I had to face reality head on no matter what, and we made it through our reality with our optimism. Everyone else had at least once faced reality head on. Optimism will just help you when you face hard times of reality. You will to somewhere in the future.

“You have to look to the future with optimism instead of negative ideas. Take the good and the bad and face it head on,” Goldie Hawn had once stated. Don’t we all at times have to take the good and the bad then face it head on at certain points of our lives? Reality will put the good and the bad up in front of us whether we are ready or not. Bad things will hit at you and any time, so try to stay strong about it, try to be confident and optimistic about what is going to happen in reality. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but word will never hurt you if you stay optimistic.

Don’t let reality make you hopeless, scared, unconfident, pessimistic; walk through life thinking that you can do it, that it isn’t as hard as you first thought, that you were never hurt or never had failed at it. You may feel hurt and you won’t recover, but stay on the bright side, stay optimistic. Don’t even let other people break you down with their mean words. Friends will turn, and life may not be as you expected it to be. The tables may turn quick or slow.

There may be the hard times, the obstacles, our lower points in life, but we have to stay strong, we have to stay optimistic no matter what. We will not expect some things in reality to happen whether we want to or not. We have to go through it with our optimism, our hope, and our faith. Reality is what is real in life. Optimism helps make reality more hopeful, more exciting. Nothing good will happen if you are not that all optimistic and your head is down with a frown.

We just have to keep moving through our own reality with optimism, with our own hope and faith. Optimism will help you go through Life’s reality. Lucy Macdonald once said, “It’s not that optimism solves all of life’s problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing.”

*******

It's a touching thing she wrote.  We have nothing to do with this writing - no guidance or input.  She's just writing from the heart, and doing it nicely.

With Chinese New Year season upon us, we generally watch a lot of Chinese-themed movies.  In the past, that's included a lot of animated movies, but this year we seem to be gravitating towards Jackie Chan movies.  Tonight's movie was "Shanghai Noon," which is one of our favorites - this was the last movie Mommy and Daddy saw together before we got married.  The first movie we saw after we were married was "X-Men."  That was a few years ago, wasn't it?  Anyway, everyone enjoyed the movie, pretty much expecting to watch part two tomorrow.

The reason we expect that is because we're supposed to get rain followed by a big drop in temperature afterwards.  We're not sure what will happen tomorrow, but we do know this:  there's no school.  This means we get to sleep in, which is always good news!  But tonight we were up a little later, watching, reading, and doing the things we generally do each night - only later.

Mommy and Daddy were spending a lot of time in the basement, still clearing things out.  It's been fun to get all this stuff organized and clean.  We were able to donate a box of toys to Mrs. Pam at piano tonight, adding to her stash in the treasure box.  Madison was at piano in her regular class, which seems to be going well.  We're not 100% certain, but we do hear her playing some things well at practice times in the house.  The soundtrack of our daughter playing piano is always nice, even if there are things that are slightly off with rhythm or notes.  But really, most of the time she gets her notes right, even if they're a little slower.

Daddy was writing a message about the behemoth today, as we've been writing for our dinosaur series upcoming.  I'm thinking of the title, "The Lost World," but we'll see as we get closer.  As is, I've got about six messages now written for this series.  We're looking forward to this one!  This is the scripture that so captivated me today, but it is a version called "The Message."  Imagine when reading this that we're talking about a huge sauropod:

“Look at the land beast, Behemoth. I created him as well as you.
    Grazing on grass, docile as a cow—
Just look at the strength of his back,
    the powerful muscles of his belly.
His tail sways like a cedar in the wind;
    his huge legs are like beech trees.
His skeleton is made of steel,
    every bone in his body hard as steel.
Most magnificent of all my creatures,
    but I still lead him around like a lamb!
The grass-covered hills serve him meals,
    while field mice frolic in his shadow.
He takes afternoon naps under shade trees,
    cools himself in the reedy swamps,
Lazily cool in the leafy shadows
    as the breeze moves through the willows.
And when the river rages he doesn’t budge,
    stolid and unperturbed even when the Jordan goes wild.
But you’d never want him for a pet—
    you’d never be able to housebreak him!”

Job 40:15-23 MSG

God Himself says this is "most magnificent of all my creatures."  Other translations say it is "1st among all creatures."  From there, I sort of used this and a few other lines in that scripture above (with Mommy's help) to come up with a message.  Here's the overview:

    In the book of Job, God tells us the behemoth is “most magnificent of all My creatures.”  This enormous animal had a long tail swaying like a tree, huge and sturdy legs, plus a skeleton made strong as steel.  It was so large, it could stand in a raging river completely unbothered by wild waves crashing against it.  This creature was ginormous, strong and powerful – and yet it was a peaceful presence too, as “docile as a cow.”  It let field mice frolic in his shadow, taking lazy afternoon naps under shade trees, grazing on grass and cooling himself in reedy swamps.
     Now there is nothing alive today that matches the description of this remarkable animal, so it’s difficult to identify exactly what it may have been. But if you think of the massive size, and the large tail swaying like a cedar in the wind, one image that springs to mind is that of a sauropod, the largest dinosaur to ever walk the earth.
      God created all life, from every last person today to the dinosaurs that roamed the earth.  And like these dinosaurs, especially the behemoths, we’re created with an incredible strength and power.  The Lord spoke of this creature being unperturbed by a raging river crashing against it.    But we too can stand strong and in peace when the out-of-control things of this world try to come against us. Furthermore, as we walk the earth, each one of us has a mighty presence, leaving huge footprints that others can follow.

      The key is not forgetting who is God.  Hint:  it’s not you.  As great as we are, and as great as we can become, never forget that our Creator God is even greater, the very source of all our strength.  We are nothing without Him, and only find our true power when we follow Him.
     As we read from Job, chapter 40, the behemoth was a creature with astounding strength and power, but also one with a very peaceful nature.  This is how God designed it.  But this is how God designed us as well.  Not long ago, Jesus walked upon this earth with more power and might than any before or since.  Yet consider this:  his walk was one filled with love and service to others.  He is rightfully known as the Prince of Peace.
     The lesson is hopefully clear:  Our Creator has made us each very strong, and yes, a most magnificent presence!  Each day, let our mighty footsteps walk in peace, and lead others in the right direction:  to Him.

It's going to be a great series!

Break Fast

Daddy spoke this morning, a Dr. Seuss themed message based on "The Lorax," which actually  turned out pretty well.  Madison and the other children were in for a shorter service today, this due to the Miracle Prayer Service that took place upstairs.  Some time ago Daddy was having excruciating kidney troubles for weeks on end, and the x-rays of his kidneys looked like constellations, so many tiny dots in those kidneys that you could play a connect the dots game, and probably spell out the word, PAIN.   This was a while ago, but Daddy went to that Miracle Prayer Service, and was in fact healed.  When prayed for, I felt no surge of anything, no tingle, no nothing - but a few days later, I felt nothing then either:  no pain.  I've never had trouble since.

As for today's service, we were praying for the kids afterwards, every single one as they exited the building.  You can see here Pastor Lance, Craig, Tucker and Josh, and then on the other side, Isaac, myself, and Bailey, each of us praying for hundreds of children as they pour out the door.

It was a good, solid morning, and a long one for the folks upstairs.  We hung around a good bit, and of course there were Dr. Seuss characters as well out there greeting.  The message went well, and Daddy is getting a bit more confident in his public speaking than in previous efforts - things seem to be more fluid than before, which is to say things go off script a little more often, and that's okay.

We got home today, a little later, but also because we're breaking our fast, Mommy had this tremendous fish dinner for us.  Madison was okay with pizza, and all of us were okay with all kinds of Christmas chocolate that we'd been eyeing for the past three weeks.  There was some of the chocolate from the "Taste of Britain" store, Crunchie bars and chocolate orange slices.  We probably overdid it a bit!

Madison was studying a bit for her science test upcoming, but soon after we were playing this game we just got called "Stacking," which features these nesting dolls set around the turn of the century.  It's a puzzle game, and Madison was enjoying the puzzles and the little bits of humor all throughout.

We watched "Incredibles 2" again tonight, and it was better the second time, visually a pretty amazing movie actually.  The architecture and clothing alone bring a lot of smiles, and those cups of water at the restaurant bring back memories of the old restaurants we visited growing up.  Anyway, we loved watching the movie, and then afterwards of course there was the bedtime ritual.  Mommy and Madison are so very much into this next "Peter and the Starcatchers" book, with Madison always asking "One more chapter, please!"

We read the devotional, and we read from the book of Acts again tonight, about Peter and Cornelius, a great passage about all of us being the same, gentile and Jew.  It's common sense, although to see events in the news these days, you wouldn't know it.

After prayers and zerberts, it was time for bed... and maybe another piece of chocolate!

Saturday Birthday Party

Madison was at a surprise birthday party this afternoon, one at the church, and you can see her with all the other children who came by to wish Jordan a happy birthday.  She's actually next to Jordan in the picture above.  It was a mid-afternoon sort of thing, and Daddy found himself driving to the church and back home and back to the church again.  The reason for the first visit was related to Summer Xtreme 2019:  we're starting to record voices for the animated movie we're making!

It was a day without much going on outside of the work and the party.  We're cleaning up that basement in a major way, which means ousting a lot of books, games, boxes and things.  They're going to various destinations, such as the elementary school, the library, a charity bookstore, the grandparents, the church, or perhaps a garage sale upcoming.  Slowly but surely, we'll tackle all the rooms in that basement and get a handle on things.  It takes a while to do though, as we have a lot of stuff piled down there, lots of books and boxes.  But we're making heads or tails of it, organizing and keeping things straight.  One of the big things we organized was this shelf filled with puzzles and board games.  Some things we just don't play anymore, and the rest of it was just a disorganized mess.  So we attacked that and got it straight, along with the Christmas and holiday room, a bit.  That will be a project in itself, but we'll take it one room at a time.

Speaking of board games, tonight we did another Chinese New Year themed thing, playing a few rounds of a game we picked up two years ago, one that's quite enjoyable with three or four people.  It's called "Lanterns."

Mommy, Madison and Daddy sat down and played a few rounds of this game tonight.  We had the Chinese music playing for atmosphere, and actually played this for over an hour.  Mommy was the winner in both games, but we all had a great time.  The second game was where we started to really get the hang of it, attempting strategies and thinking ahead with various moves.  It's an interesting strategy game, one we like because of the theme and the uniqueness of it all.  We had a good time playing, and soon enough afterwards, it was time for bed, time for reading, time for prayers, and time for sleep.  It was a nice day today, the last day of our fast in fact.  Daddy sent this email out earlier tonight, talking about this poor Santa.

It's Santa's last day alive!

Optometrist

Today was a busy day with some more appointments at the doctor, this time around a visit to an optometrist.  We picked up Madison from school early today, which is actually the first time we did that all year so far, and the first time for Little Mill Middle School.  We were not familiar at all to anyone up there, where as at Chestatee, we were there pretty much all the time.  Still, Madison was ready for the call, and with some identification, the faces were a little friendlier at our approach.  I think one thing that was giving them a more "alert" status was the fact that they were about to do a lock-down drill.  This is the world we live in, where the kids are instructed to go hide in the corners after the magnetic strip is removed from the door, locking it.  They were about to have a lock-down drill again, the second one of the year, so Madison was about to miss out on that.  But she did this same thing earlier this year.  We never did that in school, but then again we didn't do the drills that kids went through in the fifties, where they were preparing for bombs to drop.

Anyway, we took Madison to lunch, to Chick-Fil-A, although Mommy and Daddy couldn't eat much - at least, not yet.  We've got just a few more days of the fast to go.

Afterwards, we were there at the optometrist, and we spent a good deal of time there.  Both Mommy and Madison had appointments.  Mommy's was similar to Daddy's, which is something reasonable with a bit of "status quo."  The difference this time is that she now has a prescription for some bifocals, and that will be wonderful for her.  We're very excited for Mommy about this.

Madison's first appointment went just fine.  She has been telling us about her difficulties seeing the board at the front of the classroom lately, and seeing things farther on.  The visit with the optometrist confirmed this:  she's "classic nearsighted."

She got to look through the device, and do all the various tests that we do at the eye doctor, and in the end, it appears we'll have a prescription for her as well.  Madison is not worried about this, whereas we were dreading it as kids:  glasses?  Me?  But Madison walked right in the place and immediately started checking out all the glasses and looking for the nicest ones, because glasses are great accessories, right?

Speaking of which, both Mommy and Madison had those glasses on afterwards, the cheap sun shades that help protect the eyes.  These two had the eye drops in that sort of blur the vision and relax the eyes, letting in more light.  Therefore, 2/3 of my family looked like Terminators walking out of the optometrist's.  Madison, however, had a nicer idea of who she looked like:  she said, "We look like Cyclops."

After the appointment, we raced over to the school again - yes, back to school.  The reason was an after school meeting for Live to Give.  She was designing these donation barrels after school, decorating them with a bit of a Super Bowl theme.

She was coloring in the barrel dedicated to the Patriots, along with a few others, while there were some decorating a barrel for the Rams.  Here's a closer shot of the logos that they also worked on:

When asked who she is cheering for in the Super Bowl, we're delighted to report that Madison has no idea what anyone is talking about.  Still, this prompted a conversation as to why people cheer against the Patriots, which of course always includes accusations of cheating and so forth.  And then there's this socialistic thing about why you cheer for:  why not let everyone else win too?  Indeed, the Patriots have won many, many times, and here they are again.  Meanwhile, the Rams are here, and many folks in New Orleans feel they don't belong there.  The Rams benefited from a bad call in the last game, and that's what got them to the Super Bowl.  Speaking of optometrists, New Orleans eye doctors are offering free eye vision tests for all the referees that blew that game.  So there's the backstory in a jiffy.  Daddy is strangely cheering for the Patriots this year, and I'm not sure why, other than the simple fact that everyone in this country is sick and tired of the Patriots.  But we're living in a historic moment with that team and their quarterback.  Not that we talk much about this with Madison, nor is it a huge deal in our household.  We haven't watched a Super Bowl in a long time.  Even when Atlanta was in it, we didn't even tune in the first half.  No, we got to see just the end, when of course the Patriots supernaturally did well while the Falcons did supernaturally bad at the same time.  That's what it took to lose that game, and sure enough it happened.  It was supernatural, further cementing the legend that there is a curse on Atlanta sports teams.  That being said, conquering Atlanta is not that big of an accomplishment, so bragging about it afterwards is pretty dumb.  It's not you that won, it's Atlanta that lost.

Of course, this rule of thumb does not apply to our soccer team.  Which many people aren't exactly into at the moment, but we'll give that time.  Eventually we'll collectively realize that maybe this was a bigger accomplishment than it is being given credit for.  It just sort of snuck up on us!

So it's cold outside.  The weather is going to be this way for a few weeks now because - get this - it's winter.  We're reminded suddenly why we long for spring, but this is a time to endure, and endure we shall!  Daddy is looking into getting some firewood, because there are warnings about some heavy duty cold weather coming this way.  We'll see how that is when it gets here.

Tonight Madison was drawing a lot, doing artwork for a few hours, listening to music and expressing herself with colored pencils and markers.  She was making a few pieces of artwork, and they came out very nice.  Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy were sorting through all these books, determining which would stay and which would go.  We have a lot of different categories in our outbox:  donations to the elementary school, donations to KidPak's office, donations to a local bookstore that sells books for charity, and finally a stack of what could be valuable books that the grandparents could sell online.  They've been into that lately.  We actually found about three books signed by Cal Ripken, Jr., each one of these selling for about $90 now.  But we found plenty of others, and yes, inevitably, you spend all this time not sorting, but instead reading through things.  Amongst the found items was an essay I wrote in college based on the book, "Frankenstein."

Also, and pretty cool here, we a book we wrote about fifteen years ago called, "Making the Inferior Obsolete."  This story was written in this fashion:  one person wrote up to ten pages, and then sent them within two weeks later to the next person, and so on.  The order was randomly created each time, so you would always follow a different person each time you got the next part of the story.  No one planned what the story would be from the start: the first person just started writing, and then the next person continued and so on.  Naturally, with five of us writing this, it became a science fiction sort of story.  But more amazingly, we managed to finish it.  We got a good ways in, and realized our story had to have an actual end.  So we worked together on that, and Daddy actually did the finishing writing, completing the story.  It was pretty fun.  Daddy took it to the printers here in town and had them bind all the pages together to make a booklet, and it came out really nicely.

Tonight, we started the third Peter Pan and the Starcatchers book, "The Secret of Rundoon."  It starts out with a couple of chapters of bad guys, and here we go again.  Both the girls are excited to hear this next book, demanding that Daddy read this book next over all the others we have.  Daddy was thinking of reading a few others, but the girls were adamant about it.  Of course we read from the devotional, and we read from Acts, chapter nine tonight.  We're happy to continue with this reading, and next we'll tackle the book of Romans.  And after that, we found a few books in the collection tonight to read with her, and it'll be fun to tackle each night.

But for now, it's time for prayers, and time for sleep!  G'night!

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday:

Soup de Jour!  During the fast, it's all about soup some times, and that's a perfect sort of food item in the winter anyway.  But we've got all kinds of fast-friendly soups and vegetables as well, and it's been really not as bad with Mommy making preparations.  Of course you miss chocolate and hamburgers and so forth, but eating healthier has been nicer.

It's Wednesday night, and a small group setting once more for us and the kids.  It was a more relaxed sort of night, one where we did a few illustrations about the power of our words.  To that end, we showed the clip from "Toy Story 4," one where they can't figure out what it is that Buzz Lightyear actually says.  Of course, it's "To Infinity and Beyond," but the other characters doubt that, and start saying other things.  Yes, we all know what it's supposed to be, and what it's always been.  It's just that suddenly there's this seed of doubt, and strong voices that are suggesting it is something else entirely different.

That's the point of the night though, where God's word is one thing and it is what it has always been and always will be.  God's word over us is one thing, but the world may have something else to say that is contrary.  And the world may have some pretty strong voices in support of that.  And so there's the dilemma, which one to believe.  Obviously, we know the answer, and that's "To Infinity and Beyond."  Yes, the world may think that's crazy because it makes no sense.  You can't go beyond infinity, dummy.  But we know the truth, because with God we can do just that, and beyond.   In fact, God is infinity, infinitely powerful and infinitely capable.  And He can take us beyond anything we ever hope or ask for.

Daddy raced home to read, of course, and we read some more of the adventures of Peter Pan, along with Molly and the others.  We're reading the devotional too.  It's a short time home, just a brief time to touch base, but it's worth the drive to see Mommy and Madison.

Madison is doing well at school still.  No clubs today, but she's getting to school early a few times a week for art club and Live to Give.  There aren't any other big events coming up soon, but that's because it is January, which is in fact the most boring month of the year.  Try as it might, the month is completely reliant on weather to come in and save the day to make things more interesting.  This year, it's not doing that at all, aside from the brutal weather up north.  But here in Georgia, things are amazingly mundane.  And that's okay, I suppose.  We need a month to calm down a bit before things rev up once more.  Next month, registration for Summer Xtreme starts, a new series "Romans" begins, a new class for actors starts, and there's a few holidays in there and a big marriage conference our church does, plus some vacation time towards the end.  Maybe we'll actually get to go do something for that, but I'm not entirely sure at the moment.

For the time being, today was an average day, a little chilly outside, but not too eventful at school.  Madison said her day was, "fine," which is to say there was not as much to talk about.  She's writing reports on things she finds in the media, studying tectonic plates, inequalities, and playing dodge ball.  It's all good, and she's doing well in school.  She has good friends, and all is well.  That being said, it's not so mundane a month after all - it's a month where we're blessed and highly favored.

Thursday:

We're working on this ginormous project, cleaning up the basement.  It's part of the tradition around the Chinese New year, sweeping out the dust.  Mommy also cut Daddy's hair, another part of the tradition.  But in all honesty, both of these things were needed.  The basement is out of control, and we're wanting to get it all organized and clean.  We're getting rid of a lot of things along the way, a lot of books and items that will go to garage sales or get donated to friends or elsewhere.  It's a project, but it feels better to to come back and see things cleaner, one section at a time.

We've been listening to Chinese music again lately - it's the replacement for Christmas music in January.  We picked up a few CDs in China, and a few at EPCOT's Chinese Pavillion, and these are not only good, they're a tradition for us that take us back to the earliest days of our longing to adopt a little girl from China.  She's a bigger girl now.

This is the Year of the Pig upcoming, now Madison's second Year of the Pig.  We didn't know her the last Year of the Pig, but we did celebrate that year.  We were going through a lot that time, but there was this celebration with the Friends With Families from China.  It took place once a year in January or February, and was basically an organization of people who had adopted children from China.  We were there at all these events while we were waiting for our referral.  It took forever, and we kept coming back to these things without a child, and the others there recognized us and wondered what was up with us?  Where's the baby?  As a reminder, the referral process took us two and a half years, so we had to endure this amazingly long wait.  I remember getting a Year of the Pig t-shirt one year, thinking next year - next year - we might get to bring Madison back to this family celebration.  I think we had to wait another year afterwards, or maybe two actually.  By the time we finally did bring Madison to one of these celebrations, all the kids from before were much older.  The huge surge of Chinese children had diminished significantly, and Madison was with a few others on the tail end of the Chinese adoption trend.  We were glad to go to a few events, but these had so fewer numbers than previous events, mainly because everyone was growing up.  It would have been nice to keep on going to these, but what was once a huge amount of people filling a large area became a smaller dinner, and then nothing at all.  That said, we had to find alternate ways to celebrate, which we did.  Mostly these were dinners at our house along with the rest of the family.  A few years, we've been going to a library in Forsyth that has had Chinese dragon dances, performers, crafts, and other things to do.

This year there's another event with the families from China, and we're signed up to go.  Hopefully there will be plenty of people there to meet and share with.  If not, we've got other things planned.  The Year of the Pig is on the way, and Daddy will wear his t-shirt again, the one he bought 12 years ago, when all we had was a lingering hope of something great coming.  Here we are 12 years later, and she's in our house, and it is wonderful.

Tonight we were studying a bit, and also playing some games and watching an episode of Star Wars Rebels.  Madison is really into this lately, wanting to go through all four seasons.  We're on the third season, just plugging away.  We read tonight, and said our prayers.  Our government is a mess, and there's a lot of struggling going on for power and direction.  This we prayed for, for our President, and for this mess they all have to clean up.  Kisses and zerberts afterwards, and then an early night for Mommy and Daddy, who were ready to dive under the covers and read for a little bit before bedtime.  It's chilly, and the big comforter is just right for nights like these, in fact really difficult to escape from sometimes!

Sparring

We got to school early this morning for "Live to Give," and there's a plan for a new drive for food, a competition of sorts between two different barrels, one for each team playing in the upcoming Super Bowl.  Madison and the other students were working on the barrels somewhat this morning, arriving early for Live to Give.

She's enjoying school.  She loves dodge ball, something she was talking about on the way to taekwondo tonight.  She is getting better at it, and just as fun, she's enjoying it, and she's enjoying the newest thing in taekwondo now, which is sparring.  Daddy sat nervously as Madison put on her gear and went to war against a few other students tonight - it was her first really session with kicks and punches and all sorts of aggression.  Madison was blocking, and kicking, and punching, and lunging forward with counterstrikes.  Of course, I'm sitting there the whole time, anxiously looking through the window for any moment I need to jump up, trying to control myself so I don't jump up and rush in, and I see her taking a few hits here or there, but it's nothing, she says.  She's got the gear on that protects her, as do all of the students.  And furthermore, she had such a great time out there.  Daddy, tense with a slight sense of anxiety, was worried for no reason.  She's really loving it out there, sparring.  This was her first time against other students with much more experience and practice, so as you would expect, the results were a bit mixed on how well she did.  But there were some good moves in there, and I was trying not to cheer too loudly.

Madison got a 90 on her test with inequalities, and is starting off the year pretty good in that class.  We're studying volcanoes too, which is convenient because we found a book downstairs to donate, one all about Surtsey, a volcanic island that formed between 1963 and 1965 just off the coast of Iceland.  It was a great opportunity to talk about the formation of islands due to eruptions and magma.  

Meanwhile, she's also in another class about entrepreneurship, and of course there's her health class as well.  She's got an A average in school, and things seem to be going well there, which of course makes us very proud and very happy.

Tonight we watched a few episodes of Star Wars Rebels, as that's what Madison has been into lately.  We're also reading Peter Pan some more - we've decided to read the first three books of the series, and we just might keep on reading them all after that.  We have eight books from the "Peter and the Star Catchers" series, and Madison and Mommy are all about it right now.  The lunar eclipse is still an ongoing thing going on as this book two wraps up, and it's just a funny coincidence.  Or is it?

In other news, the state of New York is run by pretty repulsive people.  But Daddy has very few fond memories of the place anyway.  To think that's where my ancestry comes from.  No wonder we left.

No Cavities!

First of all, we slept in.  Big time.  All of us were up late watching the lunar eclipse last night, so it was great timing that we actually all had the day off today.  Good news for all of us!

Speaking of good news:  no cavities!  There wasn't any bad news today so much, but the fact that Madison is doing so well with her teeth is something to brag about.  We went to the dentist this morning, squeezing in yet another appointment for her.  We have a few more to go, including a big visit with the optometrist this Friday.  But let's celebrate today, shall we?  The dentist office is a nice place for Madison, as the staff there are always very pleasant.  Madison was complimented a few times on her smile, and the dentist confirmed that everything was coming in to place very nicely.  A quiet reality has struck:  no more lost teeth, or visits from the Tooth Fairy.

Afterwards, we went and did a bit of grocery shopping.  Daddy has been feeling much better lately, as our diet has been really different in January as usual.  We got a lot of soups and salads and fruits, and a lot of vegetables too. We try new things, and with Mommy cooking, it's all been so good.

Of course, today is MLK day, so we had a day off for Madison, one she used to do a bit of catching up with piano at home.  She did some reading, and some drawing too - she's working in an art book, sketching out on pages a few drawings of people, learning to draw the basic form.  She keeps at it, and it's nice to see.

Piano was good, and Madison is doing better there - we're starting to hear a little progress on certain numbers.  She's keeping at it, and this soundtrack of piano practice sounds nice throughout the house.    Mommy was a little tired, so we didn't do the board game tonight, but we did watch a few episodes of "Rebels," a few where they were back on one of Daddy's favorite planets, Genesis.  Don't ask why.  But that led us to go back to Battlefront II, where we were playing that level for a while.  Madison and Daddy always team up - it's always a big place so you never really have to worry too much about stepping on each other's toes.  But we're still enjoying the Star Wars games.

Afterwards, it was time for an early bed.  Last night we were up late with the eclipse, so it was good to try to get to bed earlier tonight.  How funny and ironic that in our reading tonight, there's a total lunar eclipse that takes place in this book.  Daddy had no idea about this as we picked the book, or as we were reading along.  It just so happened that there was a total eclipse in the story!

We read the devotional too and said our prayers tonight, and got to bed a bit early all of us.  It'll be good to have a good night's rest as we start our short week tomorrow.

Super Lunar Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse

I have no idea why they keep adding all these adjectives to the full moons, but tonight's was worth having a lot of adjectives to it.  The reason was that tonight we had a lunar eclipse, and it was rare because the weather was so amazingly clear.  It was also amazingly cold!  But you could actually see from inside the house the moon as the earth's shadow started to cover the surface of the moon, one bit at a time, until at 11:40 or so, the moon was completely enveloped in shadows, giving off a characteristic reddish glow when lunar eclipses take place.  

This one was magnificent!  Daddy was outside - even in the cold - with the camera.  You can see about four of the shots taken of the moon tonight, each one showing the progress of the shadow of the earth slowly marching across the moon's surface.  The last shot was pretty difficult, because the moon was straight up and I needed a tripod, and the temperature made it difficult to use things ...like fingers.

But it was amazing to see, this almost supernatural celestial thing in the sky, so unusual from anything else we see from night to night.  And it happens so quietly, just like the solar eclipse did a few years ago.  Something as dramatic as this seems to need a soundtrack, right?  But no, it needs no soundtrack.

We were blessed very much tonight because we could see this.  We could see it from our windows inside, and despite the late hour of the event, we didn't have to worry about getting up early the next morning, none of us.  Tomorrow is a holiday, and therefore we could stay up late watching this.

We were killing time a bit waiting for it, so we had ourselves a Jackie Chan marathon.  It started with "Forbidden Kingdom," this movie that takes place in China.  We've been inserting a few Chinese movies to see lately, given that it's around the time of Chinese New Year.  It's a new movie for Madison, one she enjoyed.  Afterwards, we still had some time to kill, so we made it a marathon of sorts by watching "The Tuxedo," another Jackie Chan movie.  By the time that one was over with, the real show in the sky was just getting started.  The moon was so brilliantly bright tonight that it was easy to see the earth's shadow begin its creep across the surface.

Of course that's not the only thing we did today.  You can see above that the whole gang was back for another Dr. Seuss morning at KidPak.  This morning Fox in Socks was here, and you can see we added a few costumes for Horton and the Lorax.  Daddy wanted a group shot this weekend, and by gum, we got a good one above.  The characters look great!

Madison was back as Thing Two, having a great time with her new friend Skylar, who is also trying out some acting.  There wasn't much of a part this morning for either of them, as Fox in Socks was the main character in the story.  But these two did well, and they did their part with fun and energy!

You can see here that during the skit we had kids and adult volunteers trying to read tongue twisters.  Daddy was looking for some classic ones that might be tough, but then the thought occurred to me to just take selections from the book, "Fox in Sox."  There are some really crazy ones in there!

Afterwards, the characters were out there greeting, not just downstairs, but also by the main entrance.  You can see this little boy above actually wore his Cat in the Hat shirt to service today.  The parents are really into this series as much as the kids.  We are getting so much feedback on it!

It was another solid morning at KidPak, and just like that, there are only two more weekends left of this series.  But it's been memorable, and the kids are learning of course.  As we close up for now, here's sort of an overview of what we were talking about today, a really fun morning at church!

“All of us get tripped up in many ways. Suppose someone is never wrong in what they say. Then they are perfect. They are able to keep their whole body under control.” James 3:2 NIRV

If visiting your house one day
a Fox in Sox comes there to play,
just watch out, friend! Do you know why?
Your tongue, this crafty fox will tie.
He’ll ask you, “Try to say this please!”
These words he uses with such ease:
“New socks. Two socks. Whose socks? Sue’s socks. 
Who sews whose socks? Sue sews Sue’s socks.
Who sees who sew whose new socks, sir?
You see Sue sew Sue’s new socks, sir.”
Though games start easy when he talks,
your tongue he twists, that Mr. Fox!
But in the end perhaps his goal
is giving your mouth more control!
And that’s not bad. In fact, you should
be careful what you say. Be good!
Much harm can come when we proclaim
bad things spoken – it starts a flame!
One little word can start a fire
and brings your troubles even higher.
The best thing you can do today
is watch all those things that you say.
Don’t lie, insult, or call bad names
You’ll find that in the book of James!
A person should watch how he talks,
just like our friend, the Fox in Sox!

Mary Poppins Returns

Brrrr!  The weather is turning cold again, and more rain too, which made for quite a dreary sort of Saturday.  Our plan was to head to this outdoor park where there were plans for a Chinese New Year celebration, but unfortunately the cold rain sort of played a spoiler to those plans.

So "Plan B" it was, and that was a marvelous one, because we went to see "Mary Poppins Returns" today, and lo!  It was "International Popcorn Day."  We got our popcorn for free today, and we actually filled two tubs.  And .. faced the consequences afterwards, with somewhat queasy tummies!  But at the time, we were in a pretty fine place, and a month later, this theater was actually filled with people to see Mary Poppins, which was surprising to me.  I think one thing was the overcrowded Christmas movie list was too big, and like us, many were out to see something we wanted to see a few weeks ago.  Add to this the fact that there hasn't been anything new lately, and that made for an auditorium full of people out to see the movies.  We were in our traditional spot, and we were pleasantly surprised.   I mean, the bar was set amazingly high, and the task near impossible.  Let all that go, and just enjoy the movie, and remember there are lots more adventures from the original books that never made it to the big screen.  That's what this movie does a lot of.

And it would be impossible to get close to the original Mary Poppins movie's legendary performances by Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews.  Even more the star of that original movie are the songs by the Sherman brothers.  There is something so amazingly magical with that first movie, still all these years later.

Yet this movie came really close to capturing that once again.  One thing we loved about this movie was how it drew from the books.  You can look here on this blog how we read through about four of the books by PL Travers.  So we recognized certain things as they happened, and it was respectful to the source material.   I loved how they incorporated the others characters such Admiral Boom into the miniature adventures, and how there were lingering questions afterwards about if this really happened.  And of course the children find one little bit of evidence that proves that it really all did happen.

On top of that, the movie was respectful to the original movie in wonderful ways.  Some were subtle, like the font and opening credits, while others were amazing, like the return of Dick Van Dyke.  Having Angela Lansbury in the movie as well was such a wonderfully uplifting moment.  Which brings us to the new songs:  they're really good.  We bought the soundtrack right away, and of course how can you even compete with the original songs from the first movie?  Ignore the comparisons, and just enjoy these songs for what they are, because that's what we did, and we found ourselves singing along with songs that we've only heard for the first time.  Additionally, this score and the songs captured that magic again.  It's a movie where you can't help but smile.

And that's what we did today.  The three of us loved this movie, and it was too bad we didn't see it any earlier, really.  Part of that delay may have been the so-so record of Disney movies over the past year.  But this was a great one to end the year on.

We got home afterwards, driving home in the rain of course, and scurried inside to continue our various tasks, like taking down the Nutcrackers, or practicing piano.  Intense cold weather may be coming soon, and we've got our eyes on that to see if it is anything significant.  We'll see soon enough, won't we?

Madison and Daddy were battling and racing with Mario Kart today, something we've never done together before, if you can believe that.  At least, not on the big television with the Switch.  But we've purchased this game, and we've been having a fun time with the courses and the battlegrounds.  We played this a good while, actually!

It was a day to do some catching up at home, some writing and reading too:  we continued with a few chapters from Peter and Molly's adventures as Starcatchers, finding "The Keep," and learning where Molly's father has gone off to.  We read from our devotional too, of course.  And then we went to bed a little earlier tonight, as we get up earlier tomorrow for one more visit with the Cat in the Hat.

Today was a great day though, even despite the gloomy, dreary weather outside.  It's getting profoundly chilly outside now, and tomorrow we're all in for quite a shock.  We've been very well accustomed to our reasonable temperatures here, even in the midst of the winter.  Somebody forgot to actually turn the outdoor thermostat down this winter, and we've all been enjoying the weather outside lately.  But that's about to change pretty dramatically!

Dr. Seuss Costuming

You can see the Horton hat we got in the mail here, which is similar to the Lorax one that Daddy will probably be wearing on Sunday.  We made three t-shirts today, one for the Lorax, one for Horton, and one for Fox in Sox.  We used up the last of our iron-on transfer paper to make designs like this one here:

Daddy would make up the designs, and then we'd iron them on some t-shirts that we've ordered of the appropriate color.   Once you put the hat on, you've got a nice little costume, which you'll see when this Sunday comes.  We've got some nice looks for our characters.

Today the weather was really nice outside, wasn't it?  Of course it was.  But tomorrow is cold rain, and Sunday is really cold rain.  So we're enjoying it while it lasts.  In fact, there are rumblings about some amazingly cold weather coming next weekend.

But this weekend's weather seems to foil our plans to do a Chinese New Year celebration of sorts.  That said, we decided to stay indoors tomorrow - the event we were going to was outside.  Still, tonight we did a movie filmed in China, "The Karate Kid."  Madison hadn't seen it yet, but we all sat down together to watch it.  She liked it, of course, with a new appreciation because she's in martial arts herself, and quite competitive.  But the Chinese scenery was nice to see again, bringing us back to a time ten years ago now.  We'll be back, I believe.  I think Madison wants to return, in fact.

Daddy was working towards Summer Xtreme, towards this weekend, and even towards our newest series, "Romans" today - lots to do, and lots going on.  It can all get a bit overwhelming, but the best advice is just do one thing at a time and focus on doing that one thing well, and then the next.  At least until you're interrupted several times over by various other things that need to get done.  One thing lately is the influx of people interested in our material, which may increase even more exponentially as this year goes on.  It seems to be increasing quite a bit of late.  We'll see what comes of that, but until then, the plan is simple:  one day at a time.

Madison was practicing her piano some tonight, and sounding good with the songs she's been playing.  She is getting better and better with those tunes, as you'd expect from hearing her play them time and again.  But she's sticking to it, and that's good to see.  She's also making time to play around:  Daddy got home and she's working on some Minecraft project.  On top of that, she's watching some channels on social media that have videos of people doing various things on Minecraft.  She's still into that game, as well as the other stuff too.

Anyway, it's time to head to bed and do some reading.  Peter and the Starcatchers need some help with this Lord Ombra character!

First is Fourth

One of the more insane things about the schedule at Madison's middle school is not necessarily the fact that every few weeks the kids shift their class schedule around, but the strange insistence that they keep identifying each class as first, second, third and so on.  This obviously makes sense when first period takes place ... first.  And so on.  But right now, if we were to take Madison out of school early, as we're doing in a week or so, we'll be taking her out of first period.  Which is in the afternoon.  Mommy and Daddy are like, "But that's not your first period.  Your first period is the first class you attend that day."  But Madison is like:  "First is fourth.  And second if fifth."  And so on.  And this makes perfect sense to her, and we're both looking at her like we're in the middle of some Abbott and Costello sketch!

Anyway, that's just an aside.  Today was fun, although not entirely the most exciting sort of day.  Madison had fun in taekwondo, of course.  She's super punctual about this class and others, to the point of extreme stress if it is even suggested that she might be a fraction of a minute late.  I'm not sure if this is going to continue throughout life, but we probably want to work on that a little, telling her to relax a little if there's an occasional delay because of some reasonable situation.  Obviously, perpetual tardiness and a lackadaisical attitude would be bad form.  At this point though, I can't imagine Madison ever being late for something, because she's all about the rules.  And the rules state that we should be here at this time or that.  The end result is sometimes a slightly worried feeling from the backseat as we drive to our destinations.  She has things carefully measured out by time in some cases - tonight on the way to taekwondo, she noted that we turned off at one road at precisely 6:04, which means that we'll arrive at the studio at 6:10 or 6:11.  It's like I'm Passepartout and I'm driving around Phileas Fogg in the backseat, at least in regards to the precise measurements of time and estimations.  Phileas was much more relaxed though.

Well speaking of racing, Madison and Daddy were doing Mario Kart some more tonight, which has been a nice little thing to do in the evenings.  Madison does piano each night, pretty much, and there's no sign of any significant homework yet.  She is writing a few assignments on current events in one class, and sometimes that spills over to home where she either writes to get ahead or catch up.  She's writing about tariffs in one case, and in another she was writing about China landing something on the dark side of the moon.  She studies a little for math, but she's fairly bright in that department.  She was just showing us how to solve a simple algebra problem involving an inequality.  I love how confidently she started teaching Mommy and Daddy about this.

Daddy was doing a lot of writing today, some of it based on the new series, "Romans," and some of it for this weekend's skit with Fox in Socks.  This Dr. Seuss series has struck a chord with many, many parents who love these characters, many of which are the ones we grew up with ourselves in books.  This weekend's message promises to be a powerful one though, a clever tie-in with tongue twisters and so forth, and the importance of speaking the right words over yourself.  Some kids are simply unable to say the words, "I'm awesome," because they just don't think they are.  They aren't told enough perhaps, or it could be that they believe lies that say otherwise.  But we're all created in God's image.  We tell Madison how awesome she is daily, how beautiful she is and how smart she is.  Because she's all of that.  And so is everyone.  We just need to speak that out more often, not in a bragging sort of way, but we need to understand that we are not simply piles of useless dirt, but children of the Living God.  

Anyway, it'll be a great message this weekend.  That will be the first message on Sunday, which is in fact first - and not fourth.

The Waiting Place

We made a board game tonight, one based on "Oh the Places You'll Go," but it has a lot of Dr. Seuss characters in it to add a bit of craziness to it all.  The kids enjoyed playing, really getting into it.  We even made these oversized paper dice to throw as characters moved forward and occasionally backwards, or wound up waiting in ... THE WAITING PLACE.  That's the spot you don't want to really be at.

Today was a Wednesday night service, although Madison wasn't there tonight for classes.  She has a test tomorrow, and on top of that we had baptisms tonight at the church, which usually means it is a longer service.  So Daddy was off in that direction, and Madison was okay at home taking a bath, studying, and getting some piano practice in as well.  The weather is colder outside, so it's nice to have the fireplace on in that piano room, adding a bit of heat, and a bit of atmosphere.

Daddy did race home to do some reading.  We're reading from the book of Acts, and we're also reading the devotional and a book from the "Peter and the Star Catchers" series.  It's been such a great thing to do together each night, sitting and reading.  It sort of brings us together as a family, and then introduces us to new characters and worlds, just the right thing before bedtime.  Or, in this case, before Daddy had to turn around and go back to work.

It was a good day though, a good night at KidPak, and a good day at the office preparing for Summer Xtreme, of all things.  Daddy has been proofing and putting the finishing touches on the new series booklets for the series, "Romans," which used to be called "Gladiators."  Daddy wanted to change the name to reflect what the series was all about, which is a closer look at the book of Romans.  It's going to be a great series, and it'll be here before we know it.

This was a page I put in at the end as filler, but I love the expression on the Gladiator's face.  It's great to have our next-to-last Tribes mascot with his own series.  A few years ago, we had seven tribes:  Pirates, Cowboys, Ninjas, Vikings, Heroes, Luchadors and Gladiators.  Six of these now have their own series, and each one is a mascot that represents that series on it's own - sort of like the Avengers having their own movies.  And then they come together for the Tribes series, and it is amazing.  But for now, we're focused on Gladiator, and his adventures in the book of Romans.  A little over three weeks to go...!

Pummeling Cushions

Madison was having a fun time tonight at taekwondo, rolling around with a padded cushion.  The entire room was filled with students and these cushions.  The students were on their backs, and then rolled over on top of the large cushions, proceeding to pummel the cushions.  This is presumably because the cushions were on top of them, which of course is no place for a cushion to be.  Nevertheless, with each student, the cushion found its way back on top again - only to be rolled back down on to the floor and pounded into submission.

You might be tempted to defend these cushions, and ask the question, "Why are they beating these cushions senseless?  They're not actually attacking our kids!"

Don't worry:  these cushions are actually helping the kids, and can take a beating.  And boy, those cushions were taking a beating!  It is thrilling as a dad to see his daughter roll over something and beat it senseless.  I have no idea why.  Perhaps because it is so out of character for our daughter, who has such a big heart and loves everyone.  Yet look what can happen if you get on her bad side!  There's this unleashed, focused, well-trained fury.  Yes, Madison is getting weaponized, and the bottom line here is don't mess with her.  Or her dad, right?

Anyway, today we continued our fast, and I bring this up because Mommy makes this infused water that is just such a hit at the office.  We go through a couple of gallons of this per day, and I am not exaggerating.  It's simple:  she just puts mint, cucumbers and lemon slices into some water.  But it's refreshing and healthy, and perfect for our fast.  Everyone at the office loves it, to the point that we bring it in every day.

Madison was excited to see the new "Spider-Man" trailer that came out today, the international one at least.  Now suddenly there are all these superhero movies coming out soon, and it's a lot of fun to be alive right now.  Back "in the day," the superhero movies were pretty limited because there weren't many things we could do with special effects.  Early Marvel movies were the worst, in fact.  But along came the "X-Men" movies, and everything changed.  Soon after that, the first "Spider-Man" movie, and suddenly Marvel was back on top of things again.  At least with the movies.  As far as their actual comics go, you can't beat the earlier eras.  To that extent, we're still reading our comic series at home - Daddy read a few "Wolverine" comics with Madison today - we're still back in time a bit, currently before he loses his adamantium the hard way.  Don't tell Madison that yet - it'll come as quite a shock.  But Daddy has all these X-comics, and we're going through "X-Men," "X-Force," "X-Factor," "Cable," "Uncanny X-Men," "X-Men Unlimited," "Wolverine," "Excalibur," and quite a few more right now.  They all weave in and out to tell a larger story, and I've got quite a few of them to go through with Madison, so that she's getting a "proper" education!

She had a good day at school, and things are fairly normal there.  It's difficult to write about learning inequalities in math, although learning about tectonic plates is interesting.  This morning when we talked about tectonic plates, we showed Madison a video online of Victoria Falls, and then a map of the big crack in the earth that goes straight north from there right up the middle of Israel.  Of course, there are all kinds of prophecy about that one.  But the falls were amazing to see, and there at the edge of the falls is that one pool - the Devil's Pool.  Perhaps you've heard of this?  It's a place at the edge of Victoria Falls where you can swim right up to the very place where the water goes over - and be completely submerged in that water.  The river is rushing by just a few feet away, but right there, people dive in and aren't swept away and over the falls.  In fact, they can swim right up to the ledge there, and look over the side.  We had a conversation this morning about this - would you do it?  Two solid no's from Mommy and Madison.  Daddy would do it though - it's harmless, right?

Anyway, it was a rather ordinary day today.  It's actually Martin Luther King's birthday, so on the way to taekwondo we had a little discussion about him once more, a teachable moment.  At the end of that, Daddy had U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" song ready to go.  There's that one, and "State of Independence" is another great one to listen to this time of year.

Dinner was interesting - because we're fasting.  But we had this guacamole that had a bit of pepper in it, and Madison was interested in that.  It wasn't too terribly hot, but it did have a bit of a build-up over time.  You were definitely reaching for a glass of water at one point or another.

We read tonight, and had a nice quiet and early evening, ready to get a good night's rest.  It was a quiet, ordinary day.  But these are the wonderful days together as a family.  You know, the ones where you can sit there and watch your daughter pummel a cushion?  That sort of stuff will bring a happy smile to my face many years from now... !