Last Stop

Another day, another Zoom meeting.  Daddy was dressed as a Pizza Planet employee this time with the Pizza Planet backdrop.  But you can see Mommy on a separate camera in the kitchen.  The reason for this is because Daddy was actually at Edge ATA, having just dropped Madison off there for taekwondo.  I was in another area while the kids were practicing their kicks and form.

We were discussing the new series, and new plans as we go forward.  It's time to start phasing in, and although we may not have KidPak initially, we may have skits and so forth on the stage.  Families will sit together, the thinking is, as we come back into church, and families will be together in the congregation.  That probably means KidPak will remain online for a good bit, and for the time being, the is working out for us.  Our subscribers are increasing dramatically, and the creation of each weekly video is still working out for us.  We're sustaining, and also in the meantime, we're doing some new things as well.  Daddy was working on the new form letters, which seem to be nearly a replacement for our old Parenting Matters.  And of course he's got the video material filmed yesterday - tomorrow we'll have to drive it all up to Josh's house, as it takes too long to send over the internet.  No problem - we're looking forward to a nice drive up in the country tomorrow, and Madison's got a photography assignment as well, so we can knock out a few pictures along the way too.

It was a quiet day today otherwise.  We stopped by the grocery store for a few items on the way home, and it's such a mix out there of people that are over prepared and overly cautious, to those that appear oblivious to what a pandemic is.  On one hand, there are people with gloves and masks and social distancing.  And then there are just as many out there - if not more - without gloves and fairly close by.  Many are ready to move on from this.  I know we are.  But there's a balance to it, and for the time being we're still being cautious, yet with a bit of optimism that this is going to all change pretty soon.  The pandemic will be done with soon enough.

Speaking of wrapping up, tonight we finished the "Pirates of the Caribbean" saga with the final movie (so far).  The Davy Jones thing at the end really changes the punctuation mark on the end of the whole thing, clawing out the exclamation point and adding a question mark.  What exactly happens next?  These movies are great at leaving people hanging for years without comment.  But they're fun movies, and in fact Madison said she could watch them all over again, which is a testament to how much she enjoyed the series.  Next up:  Jumanji.  We just got the latest Jumanji film, so we'll probably be doing that series next, especially given the adventure theme upcoming at KidPak.

We sailed on east of Narnia tonight, stopping at probably the last island before the end of the world there.  It's been a grand adventure, but the sailors are starting to feel like turning back towards home.  It's been a considerable voyage, and as far as I can tell, we've only lost about one man overboard during an early storm.  Another has decided to stay on this last island here, and not sail onward.  We've come too far to turn back now, and it's only a matter of time before we all see the end of the world here, and the end of this story.  We'll look back upon it as a wonderful adventure.

Tonight, we said our prayers for Ba-ba again, and the rest of the world.  We pray for guidance for our leaders, perhaps linking our prayers with theirs, as there are some big and difficult decisions to be made.  People are ready to move on.  There are protests and accusations, and there are hurting people.  It's a challenging time, and only God can help us move forward out of this into His grace.

Darth Shelldon

Meet Darth Sheldon, clearly a result of what could happen if this enforced quarantine goes on much longer.  This baseball mascot is just dressing up like Darth Vader now, but he could easily fall to the dark side if things last too long.  We did this as a response to a post from the Daytona Tortugas, one they hit the "love" button on.  But we would "love" to go see them again, and hopefully that will be sooner than later.

Tonight I was still at church, this after filming Nerdo for a good bit for our upcoming KidPak service online.

There's nothing particularly interesting about this photograph, other than the fact that it was taken at exactly 7pm on a Wednesday night, and under normal circumstances, this room would be filled with people, and lights would be on in the sanctuary behind me, and service would be starting with loud shouts of praise.  And that will happen again, no doubt.  But for now, we're still in lockdown, and for now, 7pm on Wednesday night has that same eerie quiet as it has the past few weeks.

As mentioned, I was filming today, and doing some behind the camera work for Sunday, and that took a good bit of time.  But it turned out well in the end, as we'll see on Sunday morning when the next service premieres.

Madison was working on homework for a large part of the day, taking a few tests and getting a few grades as well.  She's still doing well.  She did spend longer today on her classwork, but she also got to spend some time with friends chatting online.

We're doing "The Quest" again at KidPak.  That's our next online series - you read it here first.  The only ones that know that are our staff, and anyone who comes across this post, which is not that many, of course.  We don't keep up with this blog to share with the world, of course, but instead to remember each day and make sure we have something good - or at least important - going on each day we've been given.  Even in these self-isolated times, we're moving forward, although with smaller steps it seems.

Tonight, we watched "On Stranger Tides" as a part of our ongoing marathon.  I think with "The Quest" going on at KidPak, the next series might be related to "Jumanji" or "Indiana Jones."  Until then, we've got one more pirate movie to watch tomorrow.  Tonight's was good, of course, with Blackbeard and Angelica.  What ever happened to Angelica, by the way?  She finds the little doll of Jack Sparrow washed up on shore, and there's the smirk... and then that's it.  What happens next?  We got Will and Elizabeth's story wrapped up.  Except the possibility of Davy Jones, of course, in the post credits.  But now we've got more questions!  What happened to Anglica, and what's up with Davy Jones, and where's Mr. Cotton, Pintel and Ragetti?  Pirate fans want to know!

Despite these lingering questions, we enjoyed the movie, and will do the same tomorrow.  Arrrrr!

Tonight Madison and Daddy were squaring off on the planet Mustafar, returning to Star Wars Battlefront, and it was glorious chaos.  Madison loved it.  We were playing that game a little too late tonight!

We read tonight, continuing our voyage on the Dawn Treader further east, and praying again for all those who are sick, and those leaders who face difficult decisions in the days to come.  Stranger Tides, indeed.

Good to be Back

Ha!  This was funny.  As Edge ATA was only able to take about twelve people at a time this week due to social distancing, they asked us to make "reservations."

So I wrote an email asking for a spot for Madison last week, also asking for "reservations for two at your finest table in the back, seating with a nice view, a pleasant flower arrangement, and a dinner menu in place."

So they had this set up at the counter there for me!  That was funny, and it was also just such a super sweet time together for all of us.  For weeks, we've been doing this online, and it will continue that way for many others choosing to do things online each Tuesday and Thursday.

But each of these cushions is wiped down, and the floor is mopped, and shoes have to be left outside the mat, and each of these cushions is so far apart.

Daddy was snapping these pictures to share with everyone, just to get the word out.  Let's climb out of these holes we've been in.  Seriously, this place is just as clean as the grocery stores in the county.  We trust this place, and knew it was time to help support them.  There were only about seven kids to start out with here, but it's a start, and it's such a warm atmosphere of joy and hope.

There were two girls there, and a few boys as well, and with the exception of the distance, everything was as a typical training could be.  There was exercise to begin with, warm-ups with jumping jacks, running in place, and push-ups too.

The kids all worked on their form today, each with varying degrees of difficulty.  All of these students did exceptionally well on their first day back, because all along they've been working from home on their technique, as well as following along online.

They spent time with their nunchucks too, of course, just as we've been doing from home.  This class couldn't be as long as the usual class was, but that was just fine with Madison and all the others.  It was just so good to be back.

This studio will be filled with kids again soon, and it's great to see just the start of things.  You could tell the instructors felt the same way.

Obviously, they were all learning a bit more today.  With a smaller amount of students, the teachers had the ability to focus more on individuals who needed to make slight changes or adjustments.  But for the most part, that wasn't as necessary for this.  All the students here today have been doing the online classes, practicing, and following along at home, keeping up with it.  Moving forward, despite not going anywhere.

You can see Mrs. Edge here helping Madison with her form.  The two instructors worked hard to set things up here, and are working out the different phases of the studio, as to when to have people fully back again.

One wonderful surprise of the day was the unexpected earning of a second stripe.  The first stripe was earned online, and this one was earned in person.  Each belt was placed on top of a cushion there, and one by one, the students each got a second stripe, one towards their next belt.  That's #2 of 3, for those of you keeping score, the next stripe meaning they're good to advance.

With Madison, that simply means she gets a brown belt decided, whereas she currently has a brown belt recommended.  It's another brown belt, but it's the decided one, which is basically saying, "yep, she really earned it."  All of these kids really earned these next belts though, and I think this one will always be super special.

This is the one they'll always look back upon, and they'll remember the unique challenges they overcame to earn this belt.  Madison will always remember the brown belt as the one she earned during one of the most difficult times in her life.  It's great to see these kids pushing forward, and punching through all these challenges anyway.

That's what makes the class so great, really.  It's more than just the physical actions and discipline, but a spirit of overcoming things that has rested upon this class of kids.  They're champions.

We drove home afterwards, and Daddy got a lot of ice cream for our champion in the house.  It is Taco Tuesday, so we did have tacos today.  But we also had Choco Tacos too!  That's right, we got the taco ice cream as well, and even set it up on the little plastic taco trucks on the plates there.

Madison did a lot of school work today, pretty much the same things she's been doing lately:  "The Outsiders," Africa, and studying animals for math enrichment.  Yes, I know that makes no sense.  But she's chosen the black bear as a thing to study for math enrichment, as it is one that has been locally seen.  In fact, there was one spotted in a community not far from here, and last year of course we had one in our neighborhood right here.  Black bears are a big part of the story of the Smoky Mountains, so that may be fun to study as well.

Tonight's feature movie was "At World's End," which is such a convoluted mess, but it's fun.  The music is unforgettable in these first three movies, and even the fourth one.  I think that's one thing that makes a movie series so great - an unforgettable soundtrack.  Even now, we've all got different pirate themes going off in our heads.

We were reading tonight from Narnia, and we were praying too, of course.  We were praying for Ba-Ba, and for our nation - for all those small businesses to get back to work, to have money for families to survive in the coming year, and to bounce back.  To have the same spirit as these kids in class today, punching through adversity, and becoming champions.

Stuck in the Doldrums

Above you can see pictures of a virtual tour of a tomb within a pyramid, something we were journeying into earlier.  Madison is heading into Africa with Social Studies, this after a good bit of time spent in Southeastern Asia.  She's starting with geography, and based on our typical curriculum requirements, it seems inevitable to both of us that they're going to talk about pollution next, instead of history or culture.  That's been the pattern, anyway.  Regardless, Africa is an interesting continent, of course, and there are plenty of extra things to do to support the exploration of the dark continent.

Other assignments for today involved random photography, which is basically a way of saying, "take what you've learned and take a picture of anything."  Which should be easy.  Madison also has other assignments, of course, as school goes on.  But she's doing well, still with strong averages, and hopefully destined to end out the year with all A's again.  It will be a very unique and unforgettable end to the school year though.  There's some chatter of when students will retrieve the items left in their lockers, or how yearbooks will find their way to each house.  We'll cross all that as we get to it.

So Madison spends a good bit of time working on classwork, and in fact more on Mondays because she works ahead of time on some assignments, sometimes inadvertently.  But that gives her more free time later on in the week.

Still, today she had time for her piano class again, which is still going strong with a new book, and using Skype.  While she was doing that, Daddy went off on a successful grocery shopping trip.  Still wearing masks and gloves, we were out there shopping.  But certain restaurants and places of businesses are now open, under the directive of the Governor, who is taking a lot of heat for this decision.  A visit to get groceries today made certain things clear:  grocery stores are just as safe as any other place.  You have all kinds of people coming in, some without gloves or masks, and others hyper observant of the rules.  You have all kinds of employees too.  It just varies from store to store.  Why should that be any different than a hair salon or fitness gym?  Do you trust the employees and the owner to follow guidelines to make their place safer?  Do you trust the customers that frequent the place?  If yes, then go there.  If not, then don't.  If the curve has been flattened, and the hospitals not overwhelmed, then that's the best we can do.  If the hospitals start filling up, then go back to stricter standards and go back to crushing people's jobs again.  But right now, things appear to be okay.  We'll see, of course.  It's all speculation.  But faith over fear.  We can't be kept hidden in our homes with fear, particularly when there has been scientific evidence to suggest we're moving towards a place of freedom once more.

Daddy was doing some writing today on the porch today, working on a new message for a Narnia series.  We're still reading that at night time, of course.  And we watched the second "Pirates" movie tonight, "Dead Man's Chest."  Now we've got all that music stuck in our head, and quotes from pirates and so forth.  Savvy?  Captain Jack is now stuck in the doldrums, which is such a great equivalent for the world today.  The nautical term "doldrums" is used to describe an area around the equator with little or now wind, a region pirates tend to avoid because you could be stuck there for a long time with no breeze to propel you forward.  And indeed, that's right where we are.  We have no breeze to move us forward, and we're stuck here, it seems.  In the movie, Jack Sparrow's visit to Davy Jones' Locker is more fantasy, of course, where he's in the middle of a desert on his ship, the Black Pearl, and is quite literally stuck going nowhere.  The end result can be a bit maddening, or at least more madness than usual for him.  It's such a great visual for where we are as a country.  We're stuck in the doldrums, and there's this inherent frustration in the fact that we're not moving forward, which is a direction we all would love to escape to.  Of course, on board our ship, we can still do the best we can.  But we can't wait to escape all this madness.

Just prior to tonight's main event, we even watched that short video, "Tales of the Code:  Wedlocked."  It is worth a watch!  It sets up a few things about the first movie, and is a short video that highlights the bride auction, what was part of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride for so many years.  The ride has changed because as we all know, pirates would never do something like auctioning off a bride, because that's pretty low behavior.  Of course, it's still completely okay to get drunk, steal everyone's life savings, drop people into a well, shoot others, and of course burn down the city.  But having a bride auction?  That's going way too far!

Tomorrow we visit "At World's End" once more, and dive into Davy Jones' Locker.  The rest of the Monkees might be there too.

It was a beautiful day outside today, the weather just right for a game of catch.  Madison was not spot on with her catching ability, but practice makes perfect.  What she is immediately fantastic at is throwing a ball.  She's got great aim, and she can put a little heat into each throw.  That might be worth investigating.  She has great coordination about getting the glove where it needs to be to make a catch - we just have to work on her actual catching skills.  No problem!  We've got plenty of good days ahead, and a nice front yard for that sort of thing.

While on the porch today, we were still doing a little bit of studying of the upcoming election ballot.  Yes, that takes a while.  We do a little at a time, so we can study everyone and make the right choice on the ballot.  We were looking at judges today.  The commissioner candidates are next.

The final bit of news today was difficult to hear:  

Just before the weekend there was a CT scan, and the analysis of the scan was discussed today, and it wasn’t great news.

The future is more variations of chemo drugs, and some clinical trial medication.  But if he does nothing the doctor said about six months life expectancy.  We think that’s a standard answer for this sort of thing.  Anyway, obviously something is going to be done, and that starts next Monday with a few treatments.

He’s upbeat, going for walks along the beach and so forth.  He seems in good spirits, though options are limited.  We’ve just been listening in with the doctor’s meeting, and phrases like “quality of life” are being thrown around, as there apparently isn’t a “cure."

Though it’s been tough this week, the doctor just told us, “We’re not at a point where we have no options.”  So there’s a small bit of hope.  Zena’s dad has gained more weight since last time, and he’s up to 136 pounds or so, and that’s good too.  And again, although he’s realistic, he’s also upbeat.  His attitude is the best it can be given the circumstances.

Don’t give us a call quite yet.  Today is a day to sort of absorb.  This is obviously super challenging for Zena.  Madison is pretty upset too, of course.

We continued to pray tonight, and asked others for prayer too.  It's been a tough season for everyone, but for some of us, it has been worse.

This is the Way

This morning we started out a bit later, and that's so odd.  But we were in time for KidPak, as you can see above.  We watched our online KidPak service, although we watched our main Free Chapel service first.  Both services were great, of course.  With our KidPak service, Madison was actually there on screen again, although in the background.  Somewhat like Daddy.  We were there helping set up the game segment, which the girls won this week.  That's what we were filming on Tuesday.  It came out really well, thanks to Josh's editing.

We've had a pretty good response to our videos online right now.  One particular video has been shared 767 times with nearly 100 comments on it so far.  It's an odd side effect of the quarantine, a situation where people are looking for children's ministry online, and discovering us for the first time.  Here we go:  into a new world online.

This afternoon, Madison did spend some more time on piano.  Daddy tried out the new shower head in the bathroom, and we both did our rancor monster workout this afternoon.  We were back on the Kinect game, this time on a large spacecraft, fighting our way through battle droids in order to free some fellow padawan prisoners.  It was again quite a workout, and again, we didn't finish the entire game in one sitting.  We're crash-landing on the planet Felucia, and we'll just have to pick up from there what happens next with tomorrow's workout!

The rancor monster game has a co-op mode, and we didn't realize this until recently, so the two of us made quick work of Mos Eisley Spaceport, knocking down tie fighters and ravaging AT-STs.  Speaking of which, Daddy made this Star Wars graphic this afternoon as a joke, but Mommy liked it enough to share it elsewhere, so we did:

We were reading this scripture again, and there's the Mandalorian phrase there:  "This is the way."  We saw that in the Bible, and of course it made me think of our hero Din Djarin somewhat.  Obviously, it's God's voice that's telling us, "This is the way."  But we are like that Mandalorian warrior, marching forward with the full armor of God, sticking to the code that God has set forth for us.  Yeah, that all seems to have the makings of a future message, doesn't it?

Anyway, we had a conversation with Nana and Ba-Ba this afternoon, and that's because Mommy made a wonderful discovery today.  Someone on the ancestry website showed her a few pictures of Madison's great-grandfather during World War I.  That's Nana's father.  These pictures were recently auctioned off somewhere, and someone else bought them, which is a shame because that's Nana's father, and it seems like they should go to her.  But at least we got these digital versions, which I'll share here:

These two are of Reginald Ulett, Nana's father - and Maddie's great-grandfather  And this one below is her uncle Clarence, who also served Great Britain during World War I.

We did do some piano today, or at least Madison did.  As she always says, "Practice makes perfect."  It's a bit of a chore getting ready to dive into practice, but when she does, she's diligent to give it a proper go.  The end result is getting better and better, obviously.  Though not perfect, she's surely heading into that direction.  Her recital piece is sounding nice, and she's returning to some older songs she knew to see if she can handle those.  Some from her new book are nice as well.

Another thing she did today was write a letter.  Yes, we are bad parents.  Can you believe she has not written a letter to someone before?  So today, we found a greeting card we had in our collection, a note card meant to write this sort of letter on.  She sat down and carefully wrote out a brief message, and then here's the part where Mommy showed her how to write the addresses on the envelope, and then put the stamp on the envelope too.  Tomorrow morning's he'll put the finished product in the mailbox, and she'll have sent off her first letter!  It was to her friend Jolina, who actually wrote her a letter first.  This week's KidPak Challenge was about writing letters to others to encourage them, and so far Madison has done one.  She may do another later on, although technically she's done a few cards that weren't mailed, but rather sent off to the senior centers.

So tonight we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" again, this part of a decision to watch more of these movie series back-to-back.  So the next four nights are set in stone for viewing, as we've put off "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" off until we've finished reading the book.  During tonight's movie, Madison turned to us and told us she forgot how good this movie was.  At the time, there had been a vast expanse of many decades since a high quality pirate movie came out.  Until this time, all we had were the old pirate movies, Muppet Treasure Island, and Cutthroat Island, a movie Madison hasn't seen yet.  No one dared to make a pirate movie, or no one really knew how to make a good one.  Cutthroat Island was okay, and Daddy's philosophy was always that if you were rating a movie on a scale of one to ten, a pirate movie always got a plus one, despite your thinking of what the quality of the movie was.  It could be an absolute zero, but it's still a 1 because it has pirates in it.  That being said, "Pirates of the Caribbean" is an 11.  It was the pirate movie we were all hoping and waiting for.  The sequels, of course, were not as good.  But they're still enjoyable, and so for the next few nights, we'll all be doing a good bit of pirating in the Caribbean.

The sailing continued after the movie, this time aboard the Dawn Treader.  Lucy has read from the magic book, and the Dufflepods are revealed.  Tomorrow night, we head into darkness, a scary part of the journey.  Which sort of makes sense, as we're visiting with Davy Jones tomorrow night as well.

One more note about today:  the wind was so intense!  It was as if an immense storm was about to pounce on us, all day long.  And yet nothing ever came, or was ever threatened.  The wind blew in a way that looked like it threatened the trees, pushing the to and fro and testing their limits.  Nothing fell, but the mighty roar of the wind outside on more than one occasion had us marveling, and perhaps feeling a little concerned.  It was like that all day, and all last night, a mighty rushing wind.

As that wind roared outside, we said our prayers tonight, and we read from a Narnia devotional that we also picked up recently at Goodwill.  That was before the virus stopped us all from going out to visit stores and so forth.  We prayed for our grandparents, and we prayed for our nation, for our leaders and for everyone struggling with sickness.  We can get through this.  It looks bleak right now, it sounds like a storm out there.  But everything is still standing, and we'll walk out of this together as we hear His voice telling us, "This is the way."

Cheese, Chinks, and Chasms

Okay, so we've had this game for years and never got around to playing the actual game on it.  Let me explain:  we had Kinect Star Wars, and because Madison was younger and because of the sometimes frustrating responsiveness of the Kinect system, we just didn't do the longer game segment on this disc.  We did the shorter activities, such as the rancor monster rampage and the pod racing, but the jedi padawan game was just a bit too much at the time.  So here we are a few years later, and we're just now trying it now.  And we're enjoying it.  You can see our jedi master Mavra Zane above, who is training us, and inadvertently leading us on a mission.  We went to Kashyyyk today to do a bit of training, and how exciting was it to run into Mace Windu and Yoda there.  And then the Trandoshans showed up with battle droids, and all-out war.  The end result was Madison and Daddy jumping, swinging arms, kicking, and just generally flailing all over the place for a really long time.  Seriously, the battle went on for so long that Madison was asking for a break, and Daddy was grateful for the rest as well - we escaped from Kashyyyk, and went straight to the kitchen to get a drink.  That game is a pretty good workout!  We'll continue tomorrow, I think.  But on the horizon is the dance floor, which we've never tried before.  There's this instantly catchy song called "Han Solo," which we've already got stuck in our heads.  Yes, it won't be long before we're dancing to that one.

So, recently Daddy spotted a particular cheese at the grocery store, and finally picked it up:

This past week, I finally picked up some Camembert cheese.  Mommy has warned me that she doesn’t like it that much, although not for the reasons Monty Python warns us about.  We’ll see!

But I’ve had somewhat of a "Cheese Shop Bucket List" in my head for years, and I’ve put it off for too long.  I’ve had Wensleydale Cheese several times now, mostly thanks to Wallace and Gromit.  And of course I’ve had plenty of the single most popular cheese in the world, cheddar.  Also, I’ve enjoyed the more common cheeses on the list, like Gouda, Edam, Greek Feta, Stilton, Mozzarella, Paresan, and Gorgonzola.  Madison has tried some of these as well, although we haven't stopped to create a checklist.  

Still it’s taken me this long to actually purchase Camembert cheese.  And once I’m done, I may even brave the cheese that all Warner Brothers cartoons taught me to avoid:  limburger.  I’m anxious to see if you can actually spot a visible yellowish trail of stench-mist emanating from each slice.

One note:  there apparently is no such thing as Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, as there are no beavers in Venezuela.  As many years as I’ve been making reference to this sort of cheese, I’ve never known that it was entirely made up.  But fortunately, the rest of these cheeses are not made up.

That being said, Norwegian Jarlsberg, here we come!  And while we're in a cheesy state of mind, here below is a poem that Daddy wrote rather hastily for David Austen, Madison's cousin, who has a birthday today.  He was actually a cheesemeister for a time, which is why this poem below is so cheesy:

We hope your birthday’s gouda, and not at all runny
And in fact fairly grate, (yes these cheese puns aren’t funny)

Like Casu Marzu, these jokes are rotten and stink
They may smell like limburger, when you stop to think.

But we’ll say them regardless, so have mercy please
And don’t take our plate here, because it’s nacho cheese.

Anyway, happy birthday! We hope that it’s not blue
Because our dear nephew, we’re quite fondue you!

This year won’t be a muenster. Nothing will be amiss.
Because God made you holy, like a good slice of Swiss.

You won't start to crumble, like a nice piece of feta,
because you’re strong as Stilton, and sharper than cheddar!

So have a great birthday! It’s not our expertise:
We’ll stop with the puns now, because you’re the Big Cheese!

His birthday is on the perfect date, because it's not too hot and not too cold.  All you need is a light jacket.

Although today a jacket might have helped with the windy day.  It was breezy, but it was still good to go outside and do some yard work in.  Mommy did just that, planting some more in our garden.  Daddy was working on messages as well - got to keep moving forward!  Also, I've been working on a version of the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh the Places You'll Go" for Madison's other cousin, Hannah.  We got the book, and we've been adding scriptures on each page, handwriting them in.  It'll be a nice graduation memento.

Mommy made Swiss cheeseburgers today with mushrooms, and these were just the most delicious cheeseburgers we've had in ages.  They were so good!  Tonight, we really got into Narnia by watching the movie "Prince Caspian."  I forgot how good this movie was - having just read the book, you realize how much of a good job they did with it.  Obviously, there are a lot of things added here or there, such as a dreadful sequence where our heroes attack Miraz' castle.  And the "shipping" of Caspian and Susan, I don't remember that.  But there are key lines in this, key bits of dialogue, that are really strong, and the message is there certainly.  It was nice.

Afterwards, we continued our voyage east of Narnia, visiting an island with invisible monopods, although Madison and Mommy don't remember these characters at the moment.  They don't know anything about the monopods, which means they have more in common with the voyagers in the story, left in mystery by these unusual voices from all around.  Tomorrow we'll read the next chapter, and we'll meet the Dufflepods.  But it was pleasant reading again tonight, and really an entire evening spent in Narnia, which isn't that bad of a place to go if you're stuck at home.  Sadly, we have no wardrobe around here, or a painting of a ship on the sea.  But we'll keep looking around.  These chinks and chasms are all around, and surely we can find one.

Until then, we said our prayers tonight, and we did the hide-and-seek thing, which is always funny.  It's a game where Daddy has to find Madison before bedtime, and it takes a while, because she's getting more and more advanced.  The last few years, she's even set up things to make me believe she's one place, only to be on the other side of the house.  She'll put a bunch of pillows under a blanket, to look like that's her underneath there.  Or she'll lay a blanket over vacuum cleaner in a spot in the corner, but it's not her under the blanket.  And so on.  It's getting more and more elaborate.  And we've been doing this ever since bedtime began.  To think, it started out so simply, where she was in the same exact hiding spot every night, and Daddy had to march around pretending he couldn't find her.  Now, it's legit:  I can't find her!

One of these times, perhaps she'll find a chink or chasm to Narnia.  And won't that be a wonderful adventure.  Perhaps that is what we'll dream tonight.

Rancor Monster Workout

This morning, we were doing a bit of a Rancor Monster Workout.  For those of you unfamiliar with the image above, basically it's a game where Madison uses the Kinect to play as a Rancor Monster, rampaging through various environments.  It's actually pretty fun!  It reminds me of the old game "Rampage," but in 3-D with a Star Wars theme to it.  It's loads of fun.  In fact, look who else was trying it out:

Mommy was attacking Mos Eisley Spaceport, doing some serious damage!  By the time you're done wreaking havoc, the entire place is devastated, and the Rancor Monster is pretty much worn out.  But it's super fun!

Today was a lot of work for Daddy, who was spending a lot of time learning this new online service that allows KidPak to send emails out to massive amounts of people.  It actually took a good bit of time creating the graphics and putting it all together, but in the end, the final product should look pretty good when it is sent out.

Madison did some piano today, working on her new book as well as her recital piece, plus she's starting out with two hands for Victor's Piano solo from "The Corpse Bride."  If she gets that one by October, Daddy will be super impressed.

Speaking of music, Daddy got a They Might Be Giants release that just came out, one that is designed as a benefit... for the band.  Specifically, it benefits their band members and crew who suddenly aren't touring and making money in any particular direction during this national crisis.

It's called "Modern," and it's all the songs I already have elsewhere, but They Might Be Giants have been good to us all these years, so why not go ahead and order it?  I like to have jewel cases for all their CDs, but this is obviously a downloaded one.  Still, we made jewel cases for the download of "Long Tall Weekend" way back in 1999.  That was actually the first ever full album released online, and here we are 21 years later, and of course that's how many of these musical releases are done by everyone.  Anyway, again this is entirely material that's already out there and in my collection.  It's just a donation from a fan.  Plus another chance to hear a few old favorites like "Ana Ng" and "Mink Car."  It seems a bit random, which is actually saying a lot.  But I'm glad to have downloaded it.

We were indoors a good bit today, ordering things online like new stamps and also signing up for our taekwondo classes next week - in person!  That's right, we'll physically be on the premises next week.  It's a limited amount of students, so we signed up as soon as we could, reserving a spot for Madison next week on Tuesday and Thursday.  The time slot is different, but we'll actually be at Edge ATA next week, training with plenty of distance between the students in a pretty structured environment.  Life must find a way, and we can't just stay in the house all year round.  Eventually we have to get out, and we're glad to support this small business.

Mommy had a wonderful Italian dinner for us tonight, a pasta that was just delicious.  One thing about this time at home has been the wondrous variety of food that we've had, different meals and preparations.  Mommy is keeping it amazingly interesting, and we're never tired of her cooking.

Tonight we were watching the fireworks at Disney World, a livestream event that they had shared.  A lot of other people were watching online too, a large community of people watching the latest fireworks show, which is pretty astounding.  The things they can do with the castle now are hard to believe.  We all enjoyed that quite a bit.

We also enjoyed the new episode of "Clone Wars" immensely.  Wow.  It was so intense, with one of the best lightsaber battles we've seen so far, and such a big moment shortly before Order 66 and the fall of the jedi knights.  Ahsoka is caught up in the middle of it all, and we've been there since the beginning with her character.  We know she'll be with us for "Rebels," but this is a pretty painful time for the good guys in the Star Wars world.  Anyway, we watched that, and then a few earlier episodes - we're going through the older episodes one at a time.  We're way back in season one, so that will take a while.  But even watching these episodes, we're remembering why we loved this show so much.  The three of us are Star Wars nerds.

Tonight we read more from Narnia, and we said our prayers.  Things will start opening next week, and we're ready for it, even if we're just getting our toes back into the water first.  We're looking forward to diving back in though.  It's been too long.

Taekwondo Storms

Another Zoom meeting, another backdrop - this one offered from Pee Wee's Playhouse.  We were talking about mail-outs, and that will be a fairly big part of my day tomorrow, and probably tonight as well.  There's this monkey email system that I'll be figuring out, to send emails out to all our families at the church from OC to Georgia to South Carolina.  Madison stopped by in the meeting to say hello as well!

This was later on, and Daddy changed the backdrop to the classic school picture back drop with the lasers.  We had a few meetings today, and during that, Madison was doing some work at school, and not the Milestones testing she was supposed to have if this whole mess with the virus hadn't started.  And speaking of which, here she is doing yet another online taekwondo tonight as Mr. Edge looks on.

She's been enthusiastic and doing well for these classes.  This one was unique, as there were severe storms scattered all over the area, and some of the kids were getting hit by hailstorms and super heavy rain.  The martial arts studio actually had hail falling just moments before they started class, and it was pretty loud there.  Fortunately, everyone was okay.  They were doing their exercises all during the storm, and yes it was raining here as well.

Daddy was working on being a plumber during this whole practice, except for taking that picture above, of course.  I replaced the shower head in our master bathroom with a bigger one, and an extra extension as well.  So that will be nice.  I've never done anything like that before, so I'm kind of proud of myself for doing even this minute bit of plumbing.  Let's just say I'm at level 2 now, a yellow belt in plumbing.

Tonight was all about Narnia.  We watched the movie "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" this evening, all seated on the couch with our fresh popcorn.  And we read a chapter from "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" tonight before bed, the exciting part with a big sea serpent and the mysterious Deathwater Island.

It was a nice day, another part of our pleasant sentence at home.  Of course, we all wish we could get out and about a bit, and that is going to happen sooner than later.  But at least we're together.  We were praying today for Ba-Ba and a scan he's had on his lungs, and for all the world for healing.  It's an interesting time of unification.  That is, unless you turn on news outlets or super opinionated social media people.  We prayed for our leaders, for wisdom and guidance, and we prayed for our nation.  It's a troubling time, and we're uneasy until we pray and remember God is always with us, and that there's a plan in place.  We don't know what it is, but we'll trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding.

Napoleon Dynamite Zoom

Here's a copy of the latest school photo - we got it in an email this morning, along with some possible backgrounds to go with it.  It was okay - the three of us liked the one we did last fall much better.  So much so that we didn't even order this one.  Daddy snapped a screen capture of it, and that's good enough for now for posterity.  

School keeps moving forward, with assignments and tests and the usual things going on.  It's all just done from home, and how remarkable that our county was so prepared in this regard.  Other counties were not so blessed, and in fact we've heard some elementary schools are doing the whole year over again.  I personally find that hard to believe, and can't even imagine that generation of students actually graduating one year later.  You're saying that there'll be a year in your school system where no one graduates at all?  Interesting, especially since the kids were in their classrooms from August until mid-March.  

Anyway, we've been working along today.  Daddy was writing today as well, and also getting involved with some meetings online.  Yep, that means virtual backgrounds and costumes again!  For meeting number one, Daddy was a Pizza Planet employee.

But our second meeting was probably one of our favorites.  We were both seated on the couch with Napoleon Dynamite here.  This shot is towards the end of the meeting, after about twenty people dropped out at the end there.

Mommy's hair looks great, doesn't it?  She arranged it to look like Deb, and of course she has the "Vote for Pedro" shirt on as well!  Madison snapped a picture of us just afterwards.

We had a few meetings today, and those tend to take up some time.  But we got a lot discussed, and in fact we'll be doing a few new things this week.

Afterwards, Daddy and Madison went out to the front yard, and this time we did this ring toss game that we got for Christmas.  We had a pole in the ground, a short one, and the two of us took turns trying to get ringers, or at least get close enough to get a point.  If you were three feet from the post, you actually lost a point.  That made the game last a little longer.  The first first game went to Daddy, but when Madison discovered a different way of tossing the rings, more of a frisbee toss, then she started to do well, coming back to win the second game.

Madison did her piano, and she practiced her form as well, and as a reward, there was chocolate chip mint ice cream for everyone.  This helps to offset a gloomy sort of week, where conflicting reports of success vs. ominous forecasts have battled to dominate everyone's collective mindset.  Will we have faith or fear?  Is it okay to be optimistic and full of cheer despite the circumstances?

Tonight we were watching our regulars streaming programming, including those old "Clone Wars" episodes and a few "Kickin' It" episodes we haven't seen yet.  We read from Narnia, and we said our prayers.  It's a dark time in our nation's history, that much is certain.  But we can still be the light of the world.

Interior Architecture

We got to the church this morning, once again ready to film another segment or two for the upcoming KidPak service on Sunday.  For this morning's visit, Madison came along with us to work on her assignment for photography, one that had her taking pictures of architecture.  The church, of course, has plenty of that, so she was off periodically to take pictures inside this large abandoned church, and a few pictures outside as well.  Here are a few of those interior shots.

And here below is a quick shot she took of us before we set up the battle arena.  You can see someone already wearing their cardboard battle box!

The basic idea was a funny one, getting teammates to climb inside these large cardboard boxes that they couldn't see out of.  There were just a few arm holes, and they had to first find some foam noodles, and then use the arm holes to battle against each other.  It was really funny to watch, as it was pretty chaotic!

We got home in time for a piano lesson on Skype, and later on we actually had our online taekwondo as well.

It was a pretty busy day for Madison with school, and those few online classes too.

But she worked through it all, and in fact was working ahead in some classes.  This week would have been her Milestones testing week.  She's still busy working on class assignments though, still studying Japan, reviewing her earlier math concepts from the beginning of the year, and still reading "The Outsiders," which she's not a big fan of.  We both told her about the books we had to read in school, the ones we didn't like either.  For Daddy, it was "The Grapes of Wrath."  That was a long one for a kid that just wanted to read Terry Pratchett books.

Mommy made this wonderful meat loaf, all gluten-free, and we had ourselves a really nice dinner tonight with mashed potatoes and corn.  It was like a meal at Cracker Barrel, and it helps with the relentlessness of this being stuck at home.  Fortunately, we were filming today and out for a bit.  At least we got a little break from it all.

Tonight we were watching our standard viewing, but we were also watching various church productions at Christmas time for potential ideas.  We'll have a meeting later on this week, planning our own Christmas special.  The thinking is to make the best of our time now, thinking about Christmas earlier than we usually do.  Which actually sounds like a smart idea, of course.  But typically we're busy with other planning.  This year though, certain things have been cancelled, like our Forward Conference.  That decision was just announced, and of course that just compounds things.  It's an oppressive atmosphere, all these closures.  It just relays a bleak message, and of course in that case it's the wise thing to do.  It's just a gloomy forecast.

One thing that we were doing today is going through our ballot, as there is an election this year.  It's an odd election to be sure. But we were going through all the backgrounds and positions of various candidates - there's no way to get them all in one sitting.  There are too many running!  But we did the research on the US Congressional 9th District candidates, and even the local coroner.  Yes, there are two guys running for that office, and if there's one thing I don't like to do, it's pick one name over another without having any idea as to why.  So we researched both of those candidates too.  And so on and so on - we'll look them all up before we go in to vote.  But we have a good idea about how to vote for the various questions on the ballot, which seem easier this year.  And we have a good idea who to vote for with certain elected positions.  We just have to do some more research with the rest, and we'll be ready to go.

After some "Clone Wars," "Kickin' It," and "Big Hero 6," we were ready for prayers and reading.  Thank goodness for Narnia, which despite the dragons is still a place of wonder and adventure.  It's pleasant reading before bedtime, and with three other books after this, it might be a good thing to just keep on reading.

There were a lot of things to pray for tonight, including the usual prayer for wisdom for our leaders.  But also the healing of our land.  And there's the healing for Ba-Ba, who has a big scan on Thursday.  His lungs are hurting again, and we're praying for a complete and total healing.  But we're also quietly praying for Madison, and in fact I'm up at 4:30 in the morning right now, praying and thinking about her during this season.  I woke up with her on my heart, and here I am thinking about her, that she not be lonely and sad, and that she will soon be with friends again that can lift her spirits up.

Pet Picture

Madison had to take a picture of a pet this week as a class assignment, and she did get a photo of one of our neighbor's pets, but of course we don't currently have any pets.  That's why a picture of a plush animal was acceptable to the teacher, which is why we have a picture of a cat here above.  Madison submitted this picture today, and it's cute.  She set up the cat on our front porch, and it looks nice and cozy on the rocking chair there.

So today the Governor of Georgia made an announcement for all of us to hopefully step back into real life again, ending the quarantine in phases.  It's a controversial decision, but no matter what, it would be a controversial decision.  We could open everything up in December and walk out of isolation after eight more months of this, and still people would be enraged, and that's mainly because of this invisible threat that some asymptomatic person could walk into a crowd and infect everyone.  And that's a crazy way to live, isn't it?  Held hostage by fear.

When all these closures were first started, the shut-down was not about eliminating the threat of the virus completely, but rather about "flattening the curve," which is to say, it was more about making sure that the hospitals weren't overwhelmed.  I thought the plan was to spread it out more so that everyone didn't get it all at the same time.  That much was said over and over again.  "Flatten the curve" means the same amount of people get it over a more extended time instead of all at once.

And so the recent trends have shown we're "past the peak" and we're on the other side of the curve, and the cases of this are decreasing in many places.  So the idea is that now is the time to start planning our emergence from our caves to look out at the sunlight again.  At least that's the hope.

The other day when we drove over to Chick-Fil-A, we saw a huge line at Starbuck's, which to me is not an essential service.  Neither is Chick-Fil-A when you come down to it.  But nevertheless, businesses was booming for these locations, while other places like hair salons and bowling alleys are shut down, prohibited from saying open.  Why is this?  It is a fact that grocery stores have an identical amount of risk, depending on the diligence of the employees and the customers.  How are Starbucks employees screened?  We all know this is asymptomatic, so the fever check on the way in the door does not tell us anything.  And how do we know their counters are all washed, and how often are they washed?  Who touches the cups, or the door to the place that all employees have to handle to open.  What about the beans themselves?  The refrigerator and so on.  How often are these washed, and how often is enough?  This is just one example, and if you overthink it, you might as well shut the entire universe down.  Which we haven't yet, of course.

But somewhere along the line, someone determined what was essential and what was not.  Coffee, apparently, is essential.  Insert jokes about that here, but why does a place like Starbucks get to survive financially while all those small businesses on the Gainesville Square have to lose nearly everything?

While grocery stores can remain open because they are essential, the employees and owners of these small businesses cannot even afford to buy groceries if they remain closed.

It's certainly a quandary, and I think a matter of trust as we move forward.  I trust our martial arts studio to wipe things down and do their best.  I trust other places as well.  I can't control the other people that walk in, but am I going to let that control my life?

Do we trust others to wash their hands and not cough all over everything?  That's an exaggeration, but do we trust a place of business to be more vigilant about cleaning their counters, bowling balls, and hair salon chairs?  Do you trust that the other people who visit those locations will be equally attentive to the situation at hand?  If not, then stay home.  If so, then go do business with that place, and don't live a life held hostage by fear.

So we'll do the masks and the gloves, and we'll ride this one out.  But we're getting ready to walk into a new phase of this, one where we can all hopefully be free again.

Let's change the subject:  Madison was doing her classwork today, resuming her classes and working hard on various topics, including social studies, where she is looking into the nation of Japan.  This of course gives us a perfect excuse to watch a Miyazaki movie now!  But Madison is making a brochure about Japan, and she's even made some nice cover art for it that we'll share here soon enough.

Today Daddy was out getting some grocery shopping done, and also picking up a few things at the hardware store.  We were wearing gloves and masks, and I was able to get everything I needed rather quickly and conveniently.  It's been a while since I've been in a store, but there's still that level of care getting products and getting into the car and so on.  It was good to see a lot of other people in masks and gloves this time - I think it's caught on that there's a virus out there or something.

It was raining a lot this morning, but that gave way to a really pleasant day.  The pollen was lighter, and that's welcome news too.  Tonight we were watching some more of our regular programming, with "Kickin' It," "Clone Wars" and "Big Hero 6."  We've got a little rhythm going on now there, and of course we do our bedtime rituals with prayers, hide-and-seek, and reading from Narnia.  We're about to leave the Lone Islands, and go into some undiscovered waters.  But God is with us as we sail on, and not matter the storms that come, we don't have to live in fear.

Cool Sunday

Here's an animated version of Josh and myself dressed as Bible characters - apostles - assaulting a kid in order to get his two loaves of bread and five fish.  This is an oldie but a goodie, and part of our KidPak service online this morning.  We started our morning at KidPak, or at least online with KidPak.  Here we are watching our fifth consecutive online KidPak service, and our sixth weekend of Free Chapel's service.  It's becoming a bit routine now.  We're still super anxious to get out of the house, and of course this scripture has a whole new meaning for a lot of us:

I rejoiced with those who said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

-Psalm 122:1 NIV

This morning, Madison couldn't wait to see the game segment, which was a scavenger hunt race throughout the church.  Daddy and Josh were running all over the place, chasing down Bailey and Joey, picture below, as they solved clues and raced from spot to spot.

We all were so exhausted at the end!  That was brutal!  But Madison enjoyed the video this morning - Josh does a great job editing these.

After KidPak, we watched our main service as well, concluding the "Miracles in your Home" series with another great message from Pastor Franklin.  It was a very nice morning!

We had a lot of rainstorms today, which certainly prevented us from going outside to do any yard work.  Some of the rain was heavier, although nothing like the big storms we had last weekend.  The weather got really cool too.  Nana and Ye-Ye came over to visit for a bit, and we sat and talked on the porch for a while in a break between the rainstorms.

Madison did her usual work on the piano, but was taking it easy today, talking on her phone with her friends and doing some games on her computer.  Tonight, we all watched the very first Clones Wars animated movie, and I can't believe it's been that long since that first one came out.  We saw it in the theaters, because we're big fans.  But Madison wasn't with us at the time.  For years, we were faithfully watching each episode on the Cartoon Network, until the abrupt end there - now we've got new episodes all these years later, and only three new ones left.  It's hard to believe it's coming to an end!  This is one of those shows we've been there for since the very beginning.

We read again tonight, back in Narnia and meeting up with Lord Bern in the Lone Islands.  We've got along way to go on this nautical journey, but it's just been magical so far, a really enjoyable visit back to one of my favorite books.  I remember reading this when I was Madison's age, which of course was not that long ago.  Anyway, it's been a favorite of mine!

We're praying tonight for those who are sick, and for our nation's leaders to make the best decisions.  It's a difficult time for many, but we're thankful for the grace that is currently over us now.  May that continue, but may those affected in such severe ways find peace and that same grace.  We pray for healing, certainly.

Phantom

Madison spent a good deal of time reorganizing her room today, which was a big deal as many of the shelves have had the same things on them for years now.  These included stuffed pandas and ladybugs, reminders of her heritage some time ago.  These are now replaced with letters, cards, and Star Wars LEGO characters too.  The other material isn't being thrown away, certainly not the panda bear she got for her second birthday while in China.  But she's just ready for a different look.  So she was there doing a bit of restructuring there.  She also worked on her piano somewhat today, and did her taekwondo form practice as well.  There were five additional moves to the existing form, so she doesn't think it will be that hard to add these extra steps.  Nevertheless, she was practicing that.  She was also practicing a game of catch with Daddy out in the front yard, as the weather was super nice today.  We threw the ball back and forth, and again, she's got a great arm on her for throwing the ball, and is for the most part pretty accurate.  Daddy and Mommy were out there weeding again today, fighting back the thorny things that want to take over, and raking a lot of leaves back and out of the way as well.  It's starting to look better already, but we've got a ways to go on that.

Mommy made a delicious entry this morning for breakfast, some British soldiers.  We've got the recipe down pat now, bringing the water to a rolling boil, turning it back a bit, setting the eggs in there for six minutes, and then pulling them out to put them into some cold water for a shock.  Yes, Daddy has that memorized now after Mommy's careful instruction.  The end result was masterful, along with some toast.

We have a few different containers for British soldiers, and it's always great to have that for breakfast - a real treat!

Daddy finished up the Steampunk series he's done in the past, fixing up some grammar and making it more of a presentable pdf.  It turned out well!  It's called "Out of the Scrapheap," and does a good job of tying the Steampunk genre with some Bible stories.  It's been good!  Now that's three "imaginary" series done during this quarantine, with about four to go at least.  Daddy's hoping to have a Jungle Book one done soon, and a "Bible Blues" series also fixed up.

Staying at home across the world, we have been blessed with all kinds of new livestream shows and plays and visits to the library, and this is brought up again here now because today we were able to see "Phantom of the Opera" on stage as a part of an ongoing blessing from Andrew Lloyd Weber to the world.  Daddy has seen this play three times, and pretty much has every word of music from the first act memorized.  He and Mommy went in September of 2001, right after the attacks of 9/11.  It was a different world back then, but there are some similarities to today.

All that said, it was Madison's first viewing, and she really liked it.  Our friend Camille is a big fan, and again, I've got a good bit of it memorized, as I've listened to the music so much.  This production we saw was lavish and spectacular.  it was so amazing, and then to cap it all off, the surviving original cast came out at the end, and there were four actors who played the Phantom that sang alongside the original Christine.  This was a version from 2011, I think, and it's out there on Blu-ray and DVD.  But we had never seen it before, and this was just a nice thing to do alongside so many others across the world.  I think millions were watching this.

Today we had to get out of the house for a bit, beyond the yard at least.  We drove over to Chick-Fil-A, and went through the drive-thru, as that's all that people can do for the time being.  Even so, they've got such an efficient system down that it didn't take long to go through.  It was so great to see people supporting all these restaurants and so forth.  When the small businesses open up, hopefully people will flock to those with their stimulus checks to help these places survive.

We did hide-and-seek as usual tonight, and then reading too.  We're in Narnia, and it's just a wonderful read.  All of us are enjoying the time we spend there, almost as if we really are in Narnia.  We said our prayers afterwards, and not long after that, we were asleep.  We don't have to get up too early for church tomorrow, but we'll be up and on the couch on time to enjoy morning service.