Solar Minimum Murder Hornets

Here's today's Zoom meeting, where Daddy was calling in from some place in Polynesia.  Tahiti is a magical place.  We'd actually love to go some time!

It was a busy afternoon, especially with some taekwondo thrown into the mix.  Madison was refining her technique with her form and her kicks, one last stop before her belt graduation.  Next Tuesday is brown belt decided, and she's earned it.  She's earned it at home, online, and in small classes the last two weeks as well.  It's been such a unique journey, and all along Mr. and Mrs. Edge have been nothing short of spectacular.  Their enthusiasm carried over, and their schedule was simply exhausting.  Neverthelesss, they've been professional, caring, and instructional through it all.  We're super proud of them as well!

Daddy was out for a bit today, pressure washing one part of the driveway, and watering a lot of the new plants we've just gotten, including those herbs on the back deck.  The sun was warmer today, although there's reports of something called a solar minimum.  Which is exactly what we don't need right now.  Basically, a solar minimum is a lack of solar activity, such as sunspots and solar flares.  Whether this has any effect on the earth is a matter of debate, and remains to be seen.  But it still makes for a new exciting reason to panic, this along with murder hornets.  Apparently, there's some new Asian invasive hornet that has everyone spooked on the West Coast.  There are a lot of fear stories out there right now by fear mongers, and the best thing to do - frequently - is shut off the news.

Before moving on, I just want to say again that "The Murder Hornets" would be an amazing rock band name.  So would "The Fear Mongers," but I digress.

Okay, back to reality:  Madison is wrapping up school work.  Today she got her final grade in math, a summative grade of 95, which just seals the awesome year she's had in that class.  She was still working on her ELA project on "The Outsiders," something she's been chipping away at since Monday.  It's a larger project, but she's been pacing herself really well, doing quite a bit each day towards the goal of completion.  She should be done tomorrow.

Mommy has not passed that stone yet.  Still waiting.  There was minimum discomfort today though, so that's good news.  Still, the medication has some side effects, including a bit of dizziness this afternoon.  And then there's the digestive issues that the medication causes.  But otherwise, she's been fine.

Tonight we watched one of the plays we got in the mail, the Sight & Sound production of "Jonah."  This was the second one we've seen now, the first being the production of "Jesus" we saw around Easter time.  This production tonight was really amazing too.  We were wondering how they were going to accomplish some of the more famous parts of the story, and they did a fantastic job with it.  This would be really neat to see on stage.

Afterwards, we were watching "Big Hero 6" and "Kickin' It" again, just moving forward with both of these series.  And after that, we did some reading and praying.  The hide-and-seek continues, and Madison is as always very particular about how she is tucked in each night.  The black blanket goes down first, lengthwise.  Then the two pink blankets on top of that.  The first goes horizontally across the shoulder, and then the second pink blanket lengthwise down the legs.  Then the sheet over that.  Then the blanket.  Every.  Single.  Night.

Like I said, evenings are a routine that is predictable in so many ways, from hide-and-seek to throwing stuffed animals at Daddy to reading to prayers and then tucking in, and then maybe reading some more before going to sleep.  Despite all that's going on in the world, from solar minimum to murder hornets, it's nice to know that some things never change.