Elevate's End

We had our last service this morning for "Elevate," although the snow is staying up there on the stage for another series.  Yes, that's been there since 2019.  At least we're still doing different series, and varying things somewhat.  We're getting our toes back into the full stage changes though.  Immediately after the service, the cabin came down and the Rebel base is back up again.  

The series "Elevate" worked though, with lots of laughs in the skits, and some great classic messages.  There was a new one in there too, and two different devotionals, plus lots of games and just a really solid series.  We're on to "Star Wars" next, and we'll see how that goes.  Today Mom and Nana were out looking for some costuming add-ons, so we'll see if we can pull all that together.  UPS misdelivered a package for costuming, and no one ever delivered it to us.  We always make sure packages get to the proper destination, but some people get the wrong package delivered, and they just assume that it now belongs to them.  Which is in fact called "stealing," but at least they are re-shipping the package again at no cost to us.  I digress.

Madison was at the upstairs service first, the one in the main sanctuary.  She enjoyed the message from Pastor Javon, particularly the joke about the three rings of marriage:  engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffer ring.  That was an unexpected joke that she got a kick out of. But she also got the overall message too, and then served at KidPak afterwards, as usual.

After that, there was the Parent Info Meeting in the KidPak auditorium.  It was about a half-hour long, and a good bit of work to prepare, along with the small group sheet that I created for the youth groups.  Madison is a part of that group now, a part of that ministry, so she was there in the audience as I ran the slides I created.  There were about 80 slides or so - lots of info, but hopefully we came off looking prepared to take Free Chapel Youth to a new level.  I know there has been a lot of preparation and planning.  It's been an honor to be a part of it - I'm certainly behind the scenes more on this one, but playing a fairly extensive role in writing and developing curriculum.  And creating graphics, apparently.  That's a new one.

Anyway, we got home, and Mom had something nice for us to eat today.  She and Nana were out doing work in the front yard today, so they were ready to come in.  We finished our manatee puzzle, by the way - I'll have to share a picture of that later.  I was doing that while we were watching a movie with Nana - I wanted to see "Aliens of the Deep," which I assumed was a movie about discovering new creatures super deep in the ocean.  In fact, it was that with a huge emphasis on exploring oceans on other planets.  And while that was somewhat interesting, I was more interested in the actual creatures discovered at that depth beneath the sea.  Those parts of the movie were the most fascinating.  It held Nana's attention, at least. 

Madison was getting a shower, and then studying for a Spanish test.  After she was done on her end, we had a bit of a Marvel night:  we watched "Captain Marvel" and even the last episode of "WandaVision" again.  Popcorn included, of course.  And that was pretty much it for the day - the majority of it was at church, and that's not a bad thing.

Tonight we continued with the book of Exodus, and following that a bit back on the planet Batuu.  Then it was prayers, and a good night's rest.  I was reading in bed, while Maddie was setting up plush animals in front of our bedroom door for me to see when I woke up.  She sets them up in the bed, including the singing frog, before I get there each night too.  Always a prankster!

Lunch Date

Noon brought a lunch date with a friend named Hannah, and that was just really sweet.  She met Madison at Texas Roadhouse, and even treated her to a nice lunch there.  They had a good time talking and just hanging out.  It was a quiet day today - I was working on the first FC Youth outline, and came up with this look for it:

The theme is "Here's to the Future," and it's a different looking thing than what we do at KidPak, but the flow seems to be the same as far as there being a three-point message with supporting scriptures.  I was working on that somewhat today, and then later we were out at Goodwill again, looking for Hoth clothing again.  Hard to believe that series is almost upon us, but sure enough, here it comes again, ready or not!

We watched "The Book of Ruth" tonight, which went with Madison's recent small group that talked about Ruth.  This movie features Carman as Boaz, and the movie's pacing picks up when he enters the scene.  But until then, it's a bit rough to watch.

It was a quiet day, a decent one.  We got to sleep early tonight after reading and prayers, and the usual rituals.  Got an early morning tomorrow!

Putnam's Back

This is Putnam.  A few years ago, he was somewhat of a mascot for KidPak, and kind of a running joke too.  He's been in the prop room for a while now, but recently Madison has latched on to him again.  He was going to be the central figure of the giant version of Yeti Spaghetti that we made up, but we opted for a plush Donkey instead, as Putnam was a little too top-heavy.  Anyway, Putnam is now with us, joining the crew of plush animals and puppets that listen at story time, or join us downstairs when watching a movie.  You can only see his head in the picture above, but he is a rather ridiculous plush thing, but at the same time sort of taken on this legendary status because of his involvement in KidPak over the years.  He's been in several skits, and almost a video.  I'm fairly certain he'll pop up in a future KPTV now, just because.

Anyway, it was a good day today.  Madison had her classes, and her grade point average is climbing somewhat.  Although down from last year, it's nearly all A's at this point, and it's just a matter of time before it actually becomes all A's.  She had some good test results lately, and that's always good.  She's still studying Anne Frank in ELA, which makes three out of four years that these kids are learning about the Holocaust.  What's interesting is that she's learning about the Holocaust - again - in her ELA class, instead of history.  This makes me wonder what's up with the department of education here, not that there's anything wrong with studying this.  It's just that there's been more studying of that topic than studying something like physics.  I'm not sure what the goal is here.  I know it's good for them to learn about such things, but it just seems like they keep coming back to it. 

Moving on, I was working a lot with the youth program again today, and I used the treadmill some to go for a walk in Jackson Hole.  It was raining outside, but the weather is warming up some, and you can tell that winter has had it, and spring is on the way soon.  The Groundhog was right.  

Tonight was the latest episode of WandaVision, one that was basically the backstory for Wanda Maximoff.  It's super sad, but also important.  Hopefully things will pick up for this last episode, but it's been an enjoyable watch.  We also watched the first five episodes of "Secrets of Sulphur Springs," which pretty much sucked us in right away.

It was a good day today.  Nana continues to have her troubles, but there are just as many good memories too.  We just have to work them all out, and focus on all the good here.  The bad can really start wearing on you.  

We said our prayers tonight, and read from this book about "Black Spires."  It's picking up in speed, sorry-wise, and it isn't too bad.  We're interested in seeing what happens next on this one.  With Madison's increasing grades, we may very well be visiting there soon enough.

Almost to the Black Belt

Mom made the hamantaschen today, and because it was a rather spontaneous idea, she went with cookie dough instead.  The end result was not as triangular as she hoped, but it still got the idea across, and let me just go ahead and say these are so delicious.  Seriously, each one is so rich and sweet - I brought a good number of these into the office, and they were gone in less than two minutes.  Nana had a few of them at home, and so did we.  They are already gone!

Tonight was Madison's longer night with taekwondo.  She had leadership and regular class.  Nana and I were there watching, while Mom was at home getting some rest.  This is it, the last regular class before she tests for her black belt.  She's not really nervous, and in fact studying her form even further, as you see above, learning more moves than she's even actually required to know.

She's very much into this, obviously.  It's been quite a journey for her.  It was spring of 2018 when she started this, beginning with her white belt.  Since then, she's been working fervently towards each ranking, taking a break only once to do some acting on stage for Christmas.

Her kicks are higher.  Her splits are wider, and her form is so much more improved.  She's shown so much progress over the past three years.

She's always teachable, and she's very focused in class.  She even practices at home when possible.  Obviously, she did a lot of that with the crazy Zoom classes of 2020.  But she even goes to the videos to practice form at home, just to help commit it to memory.

This Tuesday she takes her test to get her black belt.  She and one other student will be testing for that, although the other student is doing a more private testing session.  But she'll be the only one getting that rank for this upcoming class.

She deserves it.  It's so great to see her practice and do her form, watching the choreography and focus.  

It's also fun watching her spar.  She takes it easy on the lesser ranked kids, but she's heading to the black belt class soon, so she may have to adjust her strategies when that happens.  Until then, she's been pulling her kicks a little, not making contact so much, but it's clear with a foot from a high kick in your face what might have been.

Here she is practicing her multiple kicks, keeping that leg in the air for multiple strikes.  While the others spar, this group was there, almost like ballerinas at a bar.  

And there she is with the kamas again.  They'll move on to a new weapon next week, but these have been super fun to watch.  She's gotten good with them, and I suspect may train with them further in her upcoming immersion classes that start next week.  More on that in a bit.

Anyway, it was a good day today.  We're starting with the book of Exodus tonight, and we read from our Star Wars book again.  After that, prayers, and bedtime.  She did do some math homework, and we all had rather busy days before this.  Madison was doing a lot of the same things:  physics, quadratics, and reading a play about Anne Franke again.  She was also finishing up her painting that she's done in art, the one of the lilipad.  She's taken pictures of it, and it's turning out well!

Esther

 

Tonight we watched "One Night with the King," mainly because this week is Purim, which of course the story of the Esther from the Bible.  The four of us sat together and watched the movie, which of course adds a few things that aren't in the Bible.  But it was a decent movie, and a great tag-on to the small group tonight led by Camille and Lauren.  The two of them also talked about Esther in small groups, so that by the end of this evening, I felt like Madison really knew this story backwards and forwards.  Again, the movie isn't exactly like the Bible telling of it, which is something we knew from our reading of it a few weeks ago.

Madison also had piano this evening, which went well of course.  The years go by.  Off the top of my head, I can't tell you how long ago it was that she was in with Mrs. Pam's class.  It seems so long ago.  We still show up at that same little building there, although now it's just Madison and her teacher there.   We drive over there during the small group lesson, so I get to hear the message from that too.  Afterwards, she's on her way into piano class. I sit in the parking lot, and Madison practices with her teacher.  And she brings her screaming goat along.  It's a small plastic goat that when you press a button on the bottom, he (or she) screams.  Madison is relentless with it!  But it's somewhat of a mascot too.  Anyway, she was playing piano tonight, this after small groups, and then a tiny bit of math homework.  She's been doing quadratics again, or as she likes to call them "quack quack." She's also still studying Anne Frank in literature, and studying Newton with her Physics class.  She also had Live to Give this afternoon after school, and the group has grown too.  She's enjoying that.

Mom is going to make hamantaschen for tomorrow, and that's going to be exciting.  Tonight, given that we just watched and did a small group on Esther, we saved the Bible reading for tomorrow night.  For one thing, the movie was longer than I remembered it being.  We prayed tonight, of course for Nana, and for all of us and our health.  

We did read a bit from the Black Spires Outpost though, and that's been pleasant.  Nothing much happening in the book, but we're getting some behind-the-scenes on some of the locations there at Galaxy's Edge.  Someday we'll get there!

Pulsating Blob of Death

We saw one of these guys again on television tonight, a peacock mantis shrimp.  He's one of the stars of the movie we saw tonight, "Dolphin Reef," and that was completely unexpected for us.  After all, the movie is called "Dolphin Reef," and not "Peacock Mantis Shrimp Reef."  He was somewhat of a sidekick character, busy maintaining his stack of coral pieces and keeping it nice and tidy, despite the challenges a neat freak like him must face.  The worst challenge is this cuttlefish that comes along, one that changes colors in a hypnotic sort of way in order to confuse its prey.  Things don't look good for our hero, as he's facing off against the pulsating blob of death, but fortunately, everything works out in the story when a dolphin comes along.  You see, dolphins eat pulsating blobs of death.

Anyway, it was a pleasant evening.  We had taekwondo tonight, and that's moving along, here in the last week that Madison trains as a student with less than a black belt.  Next week, the black belt is here, and she's going to be in a whole new level class.  

We got home tonight, and Madison was registering for classes online for high school, and we're not doing AP geography this next semester.  Instead, she's doing theater and culinary classes.  This is okay, as she's also doing honors math, honors ELA, honors science, and honors something else.  I can't remember.  Anyway, there should be some balance to her year, so she's not doing nothing but all these classes with lots of extra work and so on.  It was a bit of a debate about classes, but I think it's important that she takes a few classes that she's into as well.

Anyway, we said our prayers and we read tonight.  It was a good day.

Back on the Treadmill

Here is the "rough draft" of our upcoming series.  We're sort of going through a few different looks before we arrive at the final one, but here's an early idea.  It was a decent day today, at least for a Monday.  It's generally a day I have off, but today we were out looking for costuming for the upcoming series, while doing other things too.  One of those other things was a walk in Dublin, at least on the treadmill.  Then there was this manatee puzzle that Mom and I have been working on.  Madison has been getting some good test grades, so there's been a good upward trajectory with her grades.  Tonight she had leadership, and it's always fun to watch her with the kamas.  She did great with those, and had a nice time with her leadership class.

We got home and while Madison was doing math homework, we were watching a few episodes of "The Muppet Show," along with a few episodes of "Be Our Chef."  It keeps Nana's mind from wandering to the default setting of tears and calling out for Ba-Ba.  

Eventually it was time for bed though, and of course that's what happens anyway.  Tonight we read from "Black Spires" again, moving along on that book.  We'll have to pick up the pace though, as we'll need to finish it in four weeks now or something like that.  The reading has been slow-going.  It's a slower paced book, but it's not too bad right now.  

We said our prayers afterwards, and not long after that, everyone was asleep.  The weather is supposed to get nice the next few days, so that gives us something to look forward to tomorrow.

Elevating

KidPak was fun this morning, still rolling along with a fantastic cast and just the best time.  We had a message about "getting a grip," or in Biblical terms, "holding on to our faith."  It went well with mountain climbing, and here we are suddenly at the end of this series.  We have one more service to go, but still, we've flown through "Elevate" once again.  The great thing about this time with "Elevate" is that I got two "bucket list" videos done during it, one of them being the rock climbing wall video.  I was wanting to do something goofy like that since somewhere around 2006, when we first did "Elevate."  I believe we've done the series four times now, which is amazing.  This time, the ongoing drama has been quite a bit different, but we've made it work.

Maddie was at the first service in the main sanctuary, and then down serving at KidPak for the following service.  Meanwhile, Nana and Mom were doing the opposite, down at KidPak first, and then up at the main sanctuary.  It was a good service up top, and in fact it set up a prayer service at 5pm today for the upcoming youth services, something I've been working on a bit the last few weeks.

We got home and ate a pretty big meal that Mom cooked up for us, and then it was time for some rest.  I was really zonked!  Madison was studying social studies, and we were reading some too.  I've been starting up the book "Wintersmith," and yes, that's another Discworld book.  I've got them all lined up pretty much for the rest of the year, thanks to Mom.  She got me a lot of Discworld books for Christmas, and by my estimates, I'll be reading them until this fall, or even until next Christmas!

We did go to that prayer service tonight, although it was just Madison and myself.  Maddie sat with Camille and another friend Jade, and they sat up closer than I did.  This was for the youth, so a good number of her friends were there from her small group, and so I sat towards the back with Josh and his sister Amy.  It was a good night, and it was great to see so many people show up, all hungry for something new.

We got home, and Madison had some more studying to do, so the rest of us were watching old episodes of "The Muppet Show" and this other cooking show called "Be Our Chef" which has been pretty entertaining.  We went to bed earlier, this after reading some more from "Black Spires," which hasn't gone anywhere so much with the plot, but it's held our attention pretty well thus far, so we're still with it.  After prayers, we were off to sleep pretty quickly.  I'm sleeping much better lately, but this is due to some medication that I'm taking.  It's just that I wake up so easily each time Nana awakes in the night, and that sort of keeps me up a lot.  With the medication, that helps tremendously, so I can sleep through the night.  That's helped with the blood pressure too, although I haven't been able to walk at all this week.  I'll have to start that up again tomorrow.  First, a good night's sleep!

Supermercado

 

We did a homework assignment today, heading out to a Hispanic grocery store, and Madison spent a good deal of time identifying various products there for the camera, speaking out sentences about what this item was, or where it was located and so on.  The conversation above was one of the parts of the assignment, which was super awkward for her, as she didn't know Spanish, of course.  But she gave it a go, and didn't do too badly!

That's about it for anything we did outside the house today.  I was finishing up a script for tomorrow, and then there was the usual letter to parents, so a good part of the morning was work for the church.  Madison played piano, and sounded great doing so.  We had a super great breakfast this morning, courtesy of Mom and a big skillet.  She also made the Irish breakfast tea, which is astoundingly good.  In honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day, we got out the Celtic music and started listening to a few of those tracks as well.  

This is Madison wearing upside down glasses.  They make everything look upside down, and that's part of the game these glasses come with.  We tried playing a game of catch with these on, and it's nearly impossible.  I made the picture itself upside down just for fun, but it gives you an idea of how difficult it must be to do much while looking through those.  And that's the fun of it!

Tonight we watched "Age of Ultron," just to break out of the animal video trend we've been on lately.  The reason for this would be the introduction to Vision and Wanda, of course.  And yes, we watched that latest episode again for good measure.  The song "It was Agnes All Along" was fun to hear again!

We prayed and read tonight, finishing up the book of Ruth.  Tomorrow night we'll watch that movie, "The Book of Ruth," to wrap up that theme.  It was a better day today.  We had a few moments, but overall, it went better than yesterday.  It's late, but we're ready for tomorrow, and ready for another good day.

Star Wars Gargling

Exciting times!  All five seasons of "The Muppet Show" came out today on Disney+, and of course I went straight to the Star Wars episode, plus the one with special guest star Roger Moore.  Tonight we also had the next episode of WandaVision - Madison has been super into that lately.  There's a group chat we're involved in, and as soon as everyone has watched it, the theories and speculations begin!

Madison's waterlily is coming along well, as you can see above.  She's been working on that, and it's taking some time, but it's coming out well.  Today was a more relaxed day for Maddie at school, as yesterday the tests were taken all at once.  No clubs, taekwondo or piano tonight meant an easier night for all of us, plus the bonus of not having to get up early the next morning too.  

I've had some writer's block with the skit, and have to wait until tomorrow until it gets done, but hopefully it will then.  In the meantime, today was a lot of brainstorming for the youth department, and even some filming with spaghetti.  That will show up soon on our online service soon enough, another pretty messy game!

We read tonight from the book of Ruth, and we also read from "Black Spires" as well, which is basically a guided tour of Galaxy's Edge in a book format.  It's been okay so far, but it's primary purpose is to get us all ready for an actual trip to Galaxy's Edge.  Hopefully soon!

After prayers, it was an early night for us.  We get to sleep in, but maybe not so much - I have some writing to do in the morning.  

High School Glimpse

 

We had an event tonight that was like an open house for Madison's upcoming high school, only... the high school isn't complete yet.  A lot of the people who were at the event tonight hadn't even been inside East Forsyth High yet!  Nevertheless, all the teachers and administrators were standing in various stations, introducing themselves to everyone.  We met the theater department tonight, and found out Maddie was registered already for her classes upwomigs, although we'll probably make some tweaks to that line-up.  Currently the AP Geography class is in the schedule, and Maddie would rather take theater.  Indeed, it seems that these honors classes leave little room for some other things.  I'm all for getting in as much as you can, but there needs to be a little something more enjoyable in there too.  Not saying algebra or biology aren't enjoyable to some people, but when compared with theater, I think that's fairly obvious which one is a little less intensive on studying and testing.

ANYWAY, we got out of there and immediately went over to taekwondo afterwards.  We missed the regular class because of this event tonight, but we were able to make it to the leadership class.  She's been swinging around those kamas, and even training a few other younger students.  She's got less than two weeks to go until her black belt testing, and she's doing well  She'll focus on a few things this upcoming week with her form, but otherwise, she's ready.  

Speaking of tests, she had three of 'em today, three summative grades that were all part of the 80% of her total grade.  And all on the same day.  Fortunately, she was ready for all of them, and she believes she got A's on all of them.  Good for her!

At the office, we were working on scripts and videos and service flows for KidPak today, plus youth as well.  There's so much going on.  I'm sort of stepping back and forth between two ministries for a lot of kids, and it certainly keeps us busy.  But it's working out.  We got our new booklets in for KidPak, and that's always a thrill.  In fact, we've got some new graphics for the Storm Chasers series.  I'm on day seventeen of that devotional, and plugging along with that.  We're basically working on three series at once here, plus the youth department stuff.  Like I said, lots going on!

We're reading at night, reading from "Ruth" for a short while, and then of course visiting Galaxy's Edge with the Black Spires Outpost book.  And we're praying.  Lots to pray for lately, as there has been a lot of bad lately.  But sometimes the bad comes to drive us closer to Him, and indeed we can even be grateful for the bad, as odd as that may seem.  We said our prayers tonight, and not long afterwards, were all fast asleep.

Rock Wall Team

This is a picture of our rock wall climbing team, and the impressive wall behind us was what we conquered this afternoon, believe it or not!

Of course, the wall is pretty small as far as heights go.  We've had this wall at KidPak since the beginning, and though we do have some climbers, it's never been too heavily used.  I thought it would be fun to finally honor this wall with a video about some brave mountaineers (all filmed inside the tent before their big push up to the top).  And then the reveal - they're just doing this little climb here.  There's a slight Monty Python influence with references to the skit that has hair dressers climbing Everest.  We filmed this one today, and the end of it is rather surreal, as you'd expect.  But it was fun!

Today we were doing more planning for youth.  Madison was playing dodge ball, and getting ready for a few tests too.  She's actually got them tomorrow, three tests all in one day.  These make up 80% of her grade, so it's a big day in a way.  It's just bad timing to have three all in one day.  I know they don't coordinate it intentionally that way, but it made for a longer night of studying tonight.

She had Live to Give this afternoon, and after that there was small group night too, which of course led to piano class tonight.  Lots going on lately, and we're all rather busy.  It was cold outside, but we were dressed up rather warmly today, ready for it this time.

We read tonight, and we prayed.  We lost another American icon today, and it's been a depressing few days.  It's been a real downer of a  season.

26

Here's a picture of a thoughtful yeti.  With a dinosaur in the background.  And a Clone Trooper helmet.  This is normal.  And... it's actually a warm sort of costume, given the temperature outside.

We've settled in to colder temperatures, which is only fitting because it is in fact winter.  This morning, it was 26, and it didn't really get much higher than that throughout the day.  It just felt like the coldest day of the winter so far.  The rain sort of sandwiches around the subfreezing weather in such a way that we don't get the snow or even ice, but rather just the cold rain.  We started the day earlier, despite the late start for school.  The reason for this was a dentist appointment for Madison that couldn't have been more well-timed.  She didn't want to miss school, and there it was:  a two-hour school delay.  And the roads weren't even icy.  it was still 26, but there were still puddles on the ground that were liquid, so apparently conditions weren't so bad that we couldn't drive anywhere.  

As for Madison's dentist appointment, all was well.  We'll have to return in about a month to put some sealant in around some incoming teeth, and that will help keep the Cavity Creeps away.  We made a couple future appointments for days where we aren't in school, so that will keep Madison happy too.

Anyway, it was a day.  She's getting ready for a few tests, and I was writing for "Storm Chasers," plus some youth planning.  Okay, a lot of youth planning.  That's for the older kids.  We were planning out messages and themes for the upcoming series for the youth now as well as the younger kids.  We're keeping busy!  I did the last of the voiceover work for the animated series we're currently in the midst of too.  That all wraps up in two weeks with the end of this "Elevate" series, which has been fun, although a bit tricky to write for.  

Tonight we watched a few new things, including a series called "Be Our Chef," which was fun.  It's a cooking competition that seems pretty creative.  We also watched a special about a team of scientists going up Mt. Everest to do tests that confirm global warming.  Of course at one point they do blame humans for global warming, but there's no scientific explanation as to why humans are to blame for global warming.   I guess that's just assumed.  Actually, I just wanted to watch something for "research," a little special about climbing Mt. Everest, and if you take away all the preaching, the climb itself was interesting.  The amount of people that are trying to get up there on that one narrow trail is just ridiculous though.  It's definitely no longer this place of solitude, where you're up there on the mountain all alone surveying the vast panorama at the top of the world.  Instead, you're in this big line, attempting to wait patiently as your oxygen tanks run low and there's people behind you and you get up there and stand at the top and take a selfie or whatever, and then you go down again.  It's a huge undertaking to get up there, of course.  But it's certainly more of a mountaineer tourist destination now, versus the remote location, forbidden and aloof.  There are definitely mountains out there where danger and mystery abound.  Link Sar and K2 are two examples.  Everest doesn't seem to be that as much.  Still, it was interesting in that respect to watch.  I remember reading "Into Thin Air" in the late 90's, just like everyone else, and I remember the terrible disaster from 1996.  And it seems as if with all those people stuck on the mountain at one time, they're sitting ducks should something else come along.  So there's obviously still plenty of danger.  It's just that the imagery we have of a solitary team of climbers ascending upwards to a  dangerous and desolate snow-covered peak is not exactly what is Mt. Everest.

Anyway, tonight we prayed, and we read from our book again too.  We're done with Matthew, and we'r moving next to the short book of Ruth.  This is to complement the Bible study the girls did in small groups last Wednesday night.  And further complementing it, we're going to watch "The Book of Ruth" soon, the movie featuring Carman as Boaz.  Which leads to his untimely passing today.  Carman was an icon of Christian music in the 90's, one of the guys who helped bring Christian music forward to a place where young people could actually listen to it without getting bored.  Until that time, it was just old-time gospel music.  And while there's nothing wrong with that, it was still great to hear a new sound.  Carman's "The Champion" was one of those songs that you could hear time and again in youth camps or even Sunday school, if you were blessed with that sort of church.  The rest of that CD is great too, as are the ones that follow.  Some songs may be dated or even maybe a bit cheesy.  But many others have stood the test of time, and the more important point is the impact Carman had on the Christian music industry, and of course the souls his ministry touched along the way.  He's been off-and-on sick the last few years, struggling with cancer.  Defiant to the end, he even released a new album, a collection of songs that take you back in a wonderfully nostalgic way.  I'll be listening to that this week, and of course we're watching that movie soon.   We'll miss him.  He was a fighter to the end, and he had the Heart of a Champion.

Sir Henry

Meet Sir Henry.  Each visit to the chiropractor lately has been a visit with their new pet, a puppy that usually hangs out in Dr. Williams' office, but on special occasions likes to visit with customers.  Nana needed a visit with Sir Henry today, and it was just what the doctor ordered.  We were waiting in our room for our adjustments and massages and Sir Henry was there as well, keeping us company.  He's a very pleasant friend, calm and certainly loving all the attention he was getting.  Madison took this picture above as we were seated on the floor there, keeping him company.

We had a few appointments today, one of the other ones being a dermatologist appointment for Mom.  She was concerned about a spot on her arm that has been growing the last few weeks, and there was some slight worry going to the doctor's office this morning.  Fortunately, it was all okay.  The spot is unusual, but nothing to be worried about.  The doctor there gave a pretty thorough examination of Mom's skin, and she got the "all clear," and we were very happy to hear that.

It was an indoor sort of day, rainy and cold.  We had off of school, and we heard later on that the temperature tonight is supposed to plummet to such a point that all the water left on the roads might freeze.  As such, school has been pushed back two hours tomorrow morning.  The funny thing about all of this is that tomorrow morning we had another appointment, one at the dentist for Madison.  It's a routine visit, but you have to have these every six months or so.  Madison hates missing school.  I mean, it's a big deal to her.  So she was going to miss the first part of school tomorrow because of this dentist appointment.  And it's such an ordeal.  We're like doing the best we can so her teeth don't cause her trouble, and she's upset about missing an hour of school because of some extensive list of things that will happen during that hour that she's more than happy to share with you in bullet point form.  So God helped us out a little here, and said, "Behold!  I shalt solve the problem, and push thy school's opening time back to allow Madison to go to both the dentist appointment and not miss any school."  And there was much rejoicing!

Seriously, if it were me as a kid, I'd be trying to angle a way to take the entire day off of school.

Anyway, tonight we had taekwondo, and I was starving.  Our chiropractor appointment went a little later in Cumming, and the rain was torrential.  The drive back was insane.  Visibility was very limited, and the amount of water pouring down from the heavens immense.  We decided to drive straight to taekwondo to allow ourselves time to get there at a much slower pace, as driving conditions were so poor.  Upon arrival, I turned around and went over to Chick-Fil-A to get us something to eat.  We had dinner and a show!  The three of us were munching on dinner while watching Madison do her practice tonight.  Don't worry - we timed it right so she had a good meal as well.

Tonight we read from Batuu, and we are wrapping up the book of Matthew.  It's been a more intensive look at the first of the gospels, and it's been interesting looking back at all the prophecies and seeing different translations.  Afterwards, we prayed and were off to sleep.  Of course, every night there's still hide-and-seek, and the "Decoy Madison," a blanket covering some plush animals that is roughly the shape of Madison, usually found on the floor hiding behind something as a decoy.  And then, finally resting my head on the pillow for a good night's rest... only to hear that Frog Prince singing again... 

Valentine's Day

We started Valentine's Day out at church, and it was a nice service this morning.  Madison was upstairs for the first service, and serving at KidPak for the second.  As usual, Nana and Mom were at the first service at KidPak, and upstairs in the main sanctuary for the second service.  It was a good morning at KidPak, with our story moving forward closer to the end.  Soon we'll change out themes, but this one has been nice.

We got home and you can see the Valentine's Day madness here.  Most of these decorations are from years previous, but the cards are new, and the conversation hearts are new too, of course.  Those would be gone in just two days, completely scarfed by the four inhabitants of this house.  Mom got a few items from me, including an Irish Christmas CD, a movie, and a few Crunchie bars, plus the Valentine's Day card I got way back at the beginning of January.  I got four ornaments from the White House Historical Association.  For many years, they've been releasing an ornament each year that goes with a President from the past.  I've got many, many to go.  But I added four new ones today from Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Herbert Hoover, and Theodore Roosevelt.  We already have one for Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Warren G. Harding and Harry Truman.  Anyway, they were nice additions.  Madison got Nana a heart with chocolate in it, as well as a card, and we got her a stuffed bear along with some extra chocolates as well.  

 Here's the puzzle that we were working on yesterday and today, finally complete.  We've had this puzzle for years now, and the last time it was completed was probably over fifteen years ago.  It definitely has a Valentine's Day theme to it.  But so does this:

We got a heart-shaped pizza!  We also made a cauliflower pizza to go along with this one, but this was a fun little treat this afternoon.  Afterwards, we made a care package for Mary Shannon, who was having a rough week.  Camille and her mom dropped by to talk with us for a while, having started the care package.  I drove over afterwards and we had a nice talk with them at their place.  Last time I was over there was Christmas, so it seems like I'm just waiting for holidays to visit!

Today's feature was "The Monkey Kingdom," which was a part of our ongoing nature series.  This was actually a really good addition to the series, maybe the most surprising.  We all enjoyed this one quite a bit. 

We get to sleep in a little tomorrow, although we do have a few appointments throughout the day, plus taekwondo.  Madison has off of school, so that works out well.  Tonight we read, and we prayed, and that frog sang his song once more.  It was a good Valentine's Day.

Interesting Times

When getting this book, I never thought about the title or the fact that its story takes place in the Counterweight Continent, specifically in the Agatean Empire, which is basically a parallel of China here.  You can see evidence of that with the Great Wall imagery on the cover.  This was one older book I did not have yet from my growing collection of Discworld books, and Mom got it for me for Christmas, with this new, updated cover.  It looks great, by the way.  And the book has been so much fun to read, because once again, there's Rincwind, and yes, there's the Luggage too.

The expression "May you live in Interesting Times" is something new to me.  It is said to be a Chinese curse, although there's no actual evidence of that being from China, other than one person saying it's a Chinese curse.  Regardless, I can't help but think that we are in fact living right now in Interesting Times.  Uninteresting times would be something quiet and peaceful and even full of rest.  That is not where we are quite yet, not in our country, not in our world, and certainly not even in our home at the moment.  

Today we were out shopping again at a thrift store, and we're building up a pretty good inventory of Hoth gear.  We got some other things too, but we went home after that... and watched animal videos the rest of the day.  That was basically all we could do, given the circumstances.  Madison took a shower, and played some games.  But we saw a few animal movies today.  One of them was "Crimson Wing," which we didn't realize would feature so many dead flamingo chicks.  It was interesting, but frequently traumatic.  The kill count was probably slightly higher than a Schwarzeneggar movie from the 90's.  After that, it was a lot of dog videos, and a few veterinary videos... these seemed to keep things quiet for a while, and that was good.

We read tonight, and then we prayed.  Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and it should be a good day!

Year of the Ox, Revisited

Today was the beginning of the Chinese New Year, and you can see some of the gift items we got for Madison in celebration.  There was a definite theme to this year, as you can see from the red envelope we made to the Mulan figure and the movie of course.  Yes, we watched the movie tonight, although we did have to watch "WandaVision" first.  But afterwards, we all sat together in front of the roaring fireplace to watch "Mulan" once more.  Of course you can find it on Disney's channel, but we just wanted to have a physical copy of it to add to the collection, as it's a good movie for us to own a copy of.

We went to taekwondo tonight because we were able to.  The earlier start time typically prevents us from making it there on Fridays, as Madison's school schedule gets her out late.  But she had today off, and so she was wanting to go.  We went over with Nana, and enjoyed the fourth night of taekwondo in five days, something Madison obviously enjoys.  While there, I placed an order for some Chinese food at a place called Wang's Chinese Restaurant.  First of all, I love that the words "Chinese Restaurant" are part of the title of the restaurant, just in case there's any confusion there.  Humor aside, the food there was really good tonight.  We picked up some various items, and got home to a splendid happy family of a feast.  Mom pulled out all the wonderful Asian plates and bowls, and had brewed some special tea, and on top of that had her own shrimp and fried rice.  We had this amazing dinner tonight!

It was a good day today, and thus the Year of the Rat has ended.  There was a lot to complain about in the Year of the Rat.  But there was good in it too.  It was the Year of the Rat when we met Madison for the first time, although that year too had some very unfortunate things going on.  But it all worked out in the end.

And here we are in the Year of the Ox.  My memory of that year is that we finally got to take our daughter to the Chinese New Year event the parents with children from China put together each year.  We'd been attending that for years, and familiar faces would be there, and the inevitable question was put to us, "Do you not have your daughter yet?"  We'd have to confirm that, and year after year, we'd be there thinking someday we'd be at this event with our daughter.  The log jam and slowing down of the process made things drawn out for us, and we found ourselves waiting for two and a half years from the log-in date.  The Year of the Ox, we finally got to bring our daughter to this event.  And ironically, it was the last time the event took place.  The slowdown affected that event too.  But at least we got to go to one with her.  And at last we could present ourselves as a family for the first time.  The following year, the event was more of a dinner together, and then after that, things sort of faded away, just as the idea of Chinese adoption did too. I'm not sure how many children are even adopted from China currently, actually.  It was a good number back in the day.  I remember going to a fact-finding event at a library in Roswell, maybe in early 2005.  That was the start of our association with Great Wall Adoption.  There was always an attraction to the process because it was so streamlined and efficient.  Six months after "the paper chase," you go to China to get your child.  Boom.  Of course, that didn't pan out for us the way it all was advertised.  And that wasn't necessarily the blame of anyone in the agency.  For years, that was the process.  Suddenly, things changed.  And again, it all worked out for us anyway, as Mom had developed cancer during the paper chase, and that was revealed shortly after our log-in date.  It would take her those two and a half years to recover, and by the time we were told to go to China, the timing was just right, as she had just recovered well enough that she could make the lengthy trip overseas.  The story of the invisible red thread was a huge part of our patience - we knew if we went any sooner, we would not have the right daughter for us.  God had the right child waiting for us.  There was an invisible red thread, one that could not be cut, stretching from Mom to Madison, and apparently it was several thousand miles long.

Several months later, we brought Madison, now two years old, to the Chinese New Year celebration of the Year of the Ox.  There were strips of bubble wrap on the ground so kids could pop and make noise.  There was a Chinese dragon dance.  There were other dances and musicians.  There were vendors, and there was Chinese food of course.  And there were families all over, each with children from China, all of them dressed up in beautiful Chinese clothing.  Madison was adorable - I have to find those old pictures.  That first year predates this blog, so those old pictures might take some time to find.  But I'll be looking!

Before bed, we read tonight from the book Matthew - almost done there.  And we read from "Black Spires" as well, slowly moving forward with that story.  We said our prayers, and not long after that we were all fast asleep.

Waffle Party

 This morning KidPak had a waffle party!

This is the sort of thing we did a while ago, but this time around it was much more involved.  Everyone brought various ingredients, and all of the Georgia folks showed up together to the office to enjoy some waffles and conversation.

You can see the Mickey Waffle up there.  Mom brought along her waffle maker, and she brought along Nana as well.  Mom had some gluten free waffles, and Nana waited until they got home before she decided to have a waffle herself.  

It was a busy day today with lots of planning and so on, but we got a lot done.  Madison had a good day at school, her last of the week.  Tomorrow and Monday she has off, as it's the Presidents Day Weekend.  We aren't going anywhere at the moment, so no plans in any particular direction.  There are a few holidays in the weekend though, amongst them Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day.  So there might be some consolation there.  

Anyway, tonight was the longer night of taekwondo, and it was nice for all of us to be out and watching Madison in her advance towards the black belt.  Only a few weeks left!  This was the longer night, which meant normal class plus her leadership class.  She was working with the kamas, and working with some other younger students tonight in normal class.  She is the one that has seniority lately in this particular class, so she bows out every time - she might be glad to have that out of the way when she gets to the black belt class.  Just about every time she's used to leading everyone in the creed before they bow out.  

It was a later night getting back, but we did make time to read, and we made time to pray too, of course.  It's cold outside.  We prayed for Nana, and for all of us really.  It's just a tough season, but we're believing that we're moving into a good one, a time with more good news, and more waffles.

Return to Hoth

So here's Jason working on our newest set for the Star Wars series.  We're back on Hoth again, as the snow on the stage lends itself to that world.  I mean, there are other snow planets in the Star Wars galaxy, such as Maldo Kreis, Ilum, Vandor, Krownest, or Orto Plutonia.  But despite actually remembering these as I looked them up, none are as iconic as Hoth.  So Hoth it is once more, the best sort of planet to build on stage when you have snow and ice already there.  Incidentally, that snow and ice has been there since 2019, quite some time!

Madison had Live to Give today, gluing chocolate kisses to hearts, for items to sell so they could raise money for Hoops to Hearts.  They sold a whole lot of these afterwards, making as much as fifty dollars.  Tonight was piano class, so that meant a quick jump over to Gainesville for her weekly lesson there.  She was listening to Camille and Lauren's small group tonight, as she does each and every week.  It was about Ruth, a true romance story from the Bible, and part of their ongoing discussion of great women from the Bible.  It was nice to listen to from the driver's seat as Madison hears as well.  Of course, she loves the games too - it's a great small group.  Lots of fun!

Madison was doing some math homework tonight, still on quadratics.  She also was doing some grid work for her latest art project, which will be a waterlily that she's working on.  We'll post pictures, of course!

Nana has been watching dogs on television lately.  There's a recent show where Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy, goes to visit various dogs as they do jobs like search for survivors, do stunts, or help Paralympic runners.  It's been interesting - that's our programming lately, different animal programs.

I've been reading "Interesting Times" this month, and coincidentally we're approaching Chinese New Year.  It's a great book so far, made even greater by the presence of Rincewind, and his luggage too!  There's an interesting threat to the Patrician Vetinari too, which holds a bit of possible promise of an interesting conflict.  We'll see!

Anyway, we said our prayers tonight after reading, along with all the fun nightly rituals... and we were asleep much earlier.  It's a school night!

Bears

Here are a few pictures Madison took tonight on the way to taekwondo, just some interesting pictures of the nice sunset we had tonight.  It's Taco Tuesday, and so there were tacos.  We lined up the taco trucks and had a Mexican feast together before heading off to watch Madison kick people.  She's getting good with that, but is merciful to the less experienced.  Those who are too aggressive get a kick to the head!

Today she had a lab where she was checking to see if various liquids were either basic or acidic.  Students were using pH strips on items like lemon juice, baking soda, and molten lava.  Okay, just kidding with that last one.  Just checking to see if you were paying attention.

After taekwondo tonight, we watched the movie "Bears," which is part of the "watching nature movies because Nana seems to do better with that" series.  It was actually a pretty good movie though!  I did spend most of it very tense and supremely worried for these two cubs that we followed along through the whole movie.  But the cinematography was incredible, and things worked out for everyone by the end, as if it were a Disney movie or something.  Mom had made us some delicious dessert, giving each of us a bowl of flan she made earlier.  It was really delicious!

Of course, by evening's end, Nana is still in her room muttering and crying in the dark, but at least we had a little bit of peace for a short time.

We said our prayers for her tonight.  After that, we read from Matthew, and from a new book too, one that takes place on the planet Batuu.  We'll be there on that planet for a while, although we haven't quite gotten to that part of the story yet.  We're meeting a new character named Vi Moradi, who we'll hopefully see in person some day.  We'll see as time goes on!

"Nobody Likes Quadratics"

So we're watching nature specials, because that's one thing Nana likes to watch.  But at the same time, I'm enjoying these nature programs, so that's not exactly a bad thing at all.  In fact, tonight's movie was "Oceans," and it was pretty amazing.  There were some stunning visuals, and as long as I've been around, you'd think I'd seen it all, but in fact there were some creatures I've never seen before in the ocean.  And some of the footage of whales and great white sharks and blanket octopi and dolphins and walruses and rockfish and narwhals and... well, it's a fairly large list.  Anyway, it was super fascinating and enjoyable.

Today Madison was enjoying quadratics at school.  Okay, that's an exaggeration.  Okay, maybe it's not even close to true.  Her inspiring quote today:  "Nobody likes quadratics."  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this could actually be a true statement.  I mean, given the choice between an ice cream or quadratics, I'd say it's an easy choice.  Or watching something on television or quadratics.  Again, easy choice.  I mean, there might be some people out there that actually enjoy quadratics, but those folks probably enjoy uncomfortable visits to the doctor too.

Anyway, elsewhere in school there was science, which featured acids and bases, and in ELA she's once again returning to Anne Frank, suddenly an area of Madison's expertise.  She had no problem with this topic, as she did a rather extensive project on it only a few years ago.  Anyway, school is going well.  We've had a few issues with the phone, and in fact an email came home to all parents about all students talking about excessive and even inappropriate use of phones at school.  Kids and these phones - oy!

It was a warmer day today, but despite that we were out looking for Hoth Gear.  Which should be a new line of winter clothing.  Anyway, we were at a thrift shop looking for things that Rebels might wear on the planet Hoth.  We'll be doing that in the coming weeks as we "gear up" for the new Star Wars series.  I still have to escape this mountain climbing series first, and we're simultaneously writing the devotional for the Storm Chasers series.  Lots of writing going on!

Tonight Madison had taekwondo leadership, and that went well as always.  She's doing great with the kamas.  She looks pretty vicious, in fact, if one wants to tangle with her while she's carrying those around. I think she should have a pair on her at all times when she gets to college, in fact.  It would be fun to have some holsters there, and if any unwanted attention comes forward, she'll pull those out and quickly make an end to any perceived threat!  Of course, I'm exaggerating.  Again.  She was learning a new move that she liked, one that was on the ground more, and certainly a little more different.

We got home, and she got busy with math homework.  Quadratics are fun!  Meanwhile, Nana and I were watching a television show hosted by Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy.  It was about dogs, appropriately enough, and it's interesting and fun.

We said our prayers tonight, and we read from Matthew - almost to the end of that one.  We'll be moving on to Ruth next, I think.  But no other reading tonight, as we finished "Scoundrels," and are waiting until the next book comes pretty soon to the library.  We're reading about "Galaxy's Edge" in Star Wars, all prepping for a future visit to that interplanetary destination some day.  

Anyway, after the usual hide-and-seek, the hidden Frog Prince, and all the other usual bedtime rituals, it was off to sleep for all of us.  It was a decent day today.

Winter Pics

 

This morning we made our way to church, just Madison and I, and she was snapping some pictures with her camera.  Here's one across the new bridge.  You can see the remnants of the old Browns Bridge still there, and of course the rising sun.  You can also see remnants of snow on the hood of the vehicle.  It was covered, and had to run a bit to warm things up enough to make it easier to scrape the snow off.  

When we got to the church, we took a longer walking route in so Madison could snap some more pictures with her phone.  It was just such an unusual morning with the thin layer of snow covering everything and the rising sun there.  She took all these photos you see here.

I asked her to take a few of these.  It was cold outside, which is what it looks like, but it wasn't that cold.  We weren't exactly racing inside as we've done previously because of the cold.  That being said, we knew the snow was probably not going to be here when we got out of church.

Still, it was pretty while it lasted.  And part of these, of course, is the rising sun there.  The snow just make everything look very nice.  Also, Madison does very well with the camera.

We were actually a little later coming in this morning, this due to a few factors, one of which being the snow and ice on the car.  But we actually took our time coming in, just taking in all the winter scenery around us.

As for service, it went really well, with another visit from the yeti, and even a visit from our groundhog!  Yes, he's been a fixture this time of year, and it was just great to see him up there on stage again, this time emerging from inside the window of the cabin we have up there. 

He was making fun of the fact that we've had snow on our stage since 2019, and that it didn't look like there was going to be any change in the next six weeks either.  But that was on stage.  Off stage and outside, winter was still here, although the prediction of General Lee was that spring is around the corner.  Just how far around the corner, we'll see!

Anyway, we got home, and Mom had a spaghetti meal for everyone ready.  And after that, it was time for a bit of rest.  

We finished a jigsaw puzzle together, and had a whole bunch of nature programs on for Nana throughout the day, as those seem to capture her fancy.  She's still having a hard time, and still with a natural tendency to weep and cry and call out for Ba-Ba, and it's all very wearing.  

We finally finished "Scoundrels" tonight, and there was reveal that one of the scoundrels - on the last page - was discovered to be Boba Fett in disguise.  This was a fun reveal for Madison, who was started to wonder what was going on when a character formerly calling himself Eanjer picked up a Mandalorian helmet.  She really liked this book, and so did I.  We'll probably read another Star Wars book next, just for "research."  It won't be long before we start doing another Star Wars series at KidPak.

We read from Matthew, and we prayed tonight.  It was a good day today, but now it's time to get some sleep...