Getting It Over With

Ah!  We don't have to go to Disney World to get Mickey ice cream bars!  Because here they are!  And let me just go ahead and say that these taste pretty much exactly like we remember them from the parks.  This is one of those park traditions that we have to do, and how nice to see them at the grocery store.  The three of us enjoyed a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar this afternoon, a perfect treat to lift the spirits.  And mighty tasty too!

We had storms today, and the weather was remarkably cooler, given the time of year it is.  We expect it to be so hot outside, and yet when the weather remains this cool we sort of look around to see who it is that is pulling a prank on us.  Surely the weather can't be this nice outside?  Of course, the rain outside helped in that regard, but it wasn't terribly rainy today - just the sudden pop-up storms that occur this time of year.  Meanwhile, it's the sort of weather that you can actually be outside, sitting on the porch, doing nothing in particular.

Madison was doing some things, although not as much as the previous weeks with school work.  She was doing some online meeting with teachers, some reviews of classes and so forth.  She won't see her grades for a few weeks, I don't think, but the assumption is that she got all A's.  We'll see all that in a bit, but her grades have been stellar.  The letter we got as an email was startling:  only 40% of the students have completed their online assignments.  We're not sure if that is just for one particular class, or for the school, the county or the state - whatever it is, Madison is part of a select group that "finished the race."  She has been somewhat of a self-motivated type too, doing all the assignments without us really having to say anything.  Her motivation was "getting it over with," which she says with a laugh.  But that's a lot of life, doing certain things that need to be done so you can "get it over with."  So that's your theme for the school quarantine season:  "Get It Over With."

But we're here in the last week of the school year, officially.  You can see her first day of seventh grade here.  Who out of any one of us would have thought this year would turn out like this?  It has never happened before, and hopefully it won't happen again.  Once more, though the end of Madison's year was spoiled, it is the seniors in high school you feel the worst about:  no proms and virtual graduations.  Her cousin Hannah graduated this year, and there was an online graduation service.  With a wonderful gesture, Ye-Ye and Nana built a graduation set, complete with a cardboard podium, curtains, and an inflatable diploma.

The best part is the school administrator masks her brothers are wearing as they pass her the inflatable diploma.  We'll see them all soon enough to celebrate together.

We were saying our prayers tonight for Ba-Ba and Nana, who are having a challenging week with his treatments.  The blood counts are lower, which means a special injection of something we're very familiar with, a drug that increases the blood production.  Its side effects were strong for Mommy when she was going through her chemotherapy.  He's still positive, and he's talking with us on FaceTime, and we're grateful for that.  But we're praying for him, for miracles and healing, and that he too can "just get it over with."  Amen.