Wendy Wu

Today we were watching several movies as we were taking down all the remnants of Christmas and really getting things straightened up around here.  We haven't had that full opportunity for a day of cleaning, so this was it.  Much like you sit around and have the Christmas movies playing when things are going up, we have other things on while taking everything down.  We had a lot down already, but this is a pretty extensive project.  Anyway, given that we're in the season of Chinese New Year, we had this movie on, "Wendy Wu:  Homecoming Warrior."  

It was actually pretty good!  We were remembering it from long before, and talking about it with Madison, who was slightly interested.  But when she saw the martial arts, she got more interested, and we were all following along with the story.  Of course, it relates to a girl who has a Chinese heritage, but doesn't exactly know that much about her own ancestry.  Over the course of the story, she grows to appreciate and treasure her background, whereas before she was more inclined to not thing about it too much.  While Madison is not exactly the same here, one commonality is that she isn't as intensely focused on her heritage as one might think.  It's a case by case thing with children adopted from other places, I guess.  We offer as much as we can, honoring and celebrating her Chinese heritage, certainly this time of year, but also beyond where there are events to be visited or stories to be told.  But presently, it's not something she's super passionate about.  Again, it's not that she doesn't care.  But at the same time, she's not saving up her pennies to go on a heritage tour in the near future.  She does want to go visit some day.  But at the same time, she wants to go to Dollywood too, so for at least the near future, I believe Dollywood might be the destination of choice.  Besides, there is a virus in China currently that has the world worried.  It's spreading, and it sounds as if travel to China may be limited for many people for the time being.  We'll see.

Anyway, we were watching a few things.  And of course there were board games and video games and even a bit of studying.  Madison did some piano practice as well - we're about to start on a new motivational chart thing, one of those calendars where you click off practices until you get to a reward.  I'll post that here, but every day will be a Tsum-Tsum picture on the chart.  She's wanting to get a Tsum-Tsum game, and we'll knock off these practices until she checks them all off, and then get her reward.

Here's something new, a different design for our upcoming "Northern Lights" series.  That's of course something that Daddy has been working on, a devotional that is twenty-eight days long, and each day dedicated to something from Scandinavia, and of course with a Biblical concept to share.  These booklets sort of weigh down on you with looming deadlines and so forth.  There are no "off hours" until these booklets get done, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Anyway, tonight we were reading, and doing a bit of preparation for tomorrow's KidPak service, although not that much.  We have plans for a game and a small skit, but we're also leaving a lot of time for Camille to deliver a message as well.

It was a quiet day today, and that was much-needed.  I think we'll be doing something on Monday that will be fun.  But a good quiet day is always good too, and it was productive at home, with lots of cleaning up going on.  We read tonight, and we prayed tonight, and there were zerberts and yet another round of hide-and-seek.  It was another very nice day.