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.