Swords Drawn!

It's not her favorite of the weapons, so she's no Leonardo.  She's more like Donatello, in fact, as she prefers the bō staff.  Still, it's pretty cool when it's time to start practicing with swords.  She and the rest of the taekwondo team started a new season with swords tonight, part of the regular moving from one weapon to the next.  They were trying new tricks and ending in all sorts of dramatic poses.  This time I'm going to do what I forgot to do last time, and that's record a quick video of Madison swinging around a lightsaber using the tricks she's learned in class.  It might turn out pretty good!

So we're really into birdwatching this year, at least Mom and I are.  We spotted an oriole on the front yard,  and that's an infrequent sighting.  We've been on this "big year" kick, on an incredibly localized level.  I've spotted an owl, but then all varieties of the smaller birds, along with the raptors in the sky.  We've just put out the hummingbird feeders, because I've heard one buzzing behind me at one point - it is a very distinctive thrum of wings rapidly flittering.  It won't be long before we add that to our big year. 

Beyond that, there are the chipmunks.  Each night we watch them scurry around in our backyard, foraging and ignoring the small nuts that I throw out there from the back deck.  I mean, at least say, "No thank you!"

I was at cardio today, and things are going well there, and I am in fact getting stronger with each go.  To quote Chicago, "Feelin' stronger every day!"  Each day I'm increasing the speed.  My goal by the end of the week is to get to 3.14 miles, because I am in fact a complete geek.  We'll add the elevation soon enough, so it'll literally be an uphill battle.

Madison broke through the threshold this afternoon with a late grade in math, one that she got a 100 on, and one that brought her grade point average clearly above a 90, this without rounding up or down.  Her other grades are in the stratosphere, somewhere around a 98 or 99.  This one math class has been pestering her though, and she's pretty excited to have the complete sweep now, all A's.  She'll be on the honors roster there, and she'll have made it through all of middle school with all A's.  Needles to say, we're amazingly proud of her.  I didn't do that, and I don't think Mom did either.  We sort of get used to the fact that she's got yet another A in another class, and it just seems so unexpected or unlikely that she would do anything other than that.  It's because she's so smart, and so self-driven.  An example of self-driven would be these final projects she's working on in science and social studies.  She doesn't have to, but she's spent a really, really long time on both of them, doing a whole lot of research, drawing extra pictures and looking for photographs and just working on and on with them.  She could coast the rest of the year, but she's just so self-driven that she's going to finish strong.  She's doing a fantastic job at school, and I told her if she got all A's, we'd go to Galaxy's Edge.  Well, it's time to pay up, apparently.  We'll be making those reservations soon enough.

So we've put out the patriotic flags and the wreath on the front door.  It's that season again, and we even have our decorative patriotic star by the front door there, a wall hanging that looks nice with all the other red, white and blue.  Mom got some new flags, small mini-flags to post into the ground.  But the new thing this year is the tree.  We haven't put it up yet, but we've got ornaments and we'll be putting up a patriotic Christmas tree.  I've been wanting to do a "holiday tree" for a different holiday than Christmas, and this is probably going to be the year we'll do it!  We'll post pictures here, of course.

Meanwhile, our gnome population is growing.  Mom found some Mickey and Minnie Mouse garden gnomes from the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival back in 2013.  We have these on the back deck, and we've got some other gnomes from "Gnomio and Juliet" out in "Gnome Town" now as well.  We've got a hibiscus plant on the back deck now too, a gift from Nana to Mom for her birthday.  It is supposed to draw some of those hummingbirds as well, so we'll see how that happens.  Meanwhile, I've been having my hibiscus tea each morning.  That's the new trend for me:  herbal teas.  Mom makes peppermint, chai, hibiscus, chamomile, and other flavored teas, and it's been so pleasant sitting out on the back deck with a cup of tea under the canopy there. 

We've got eight days of school left.  Madison was working - as mentioned earlier - on the taiga project tonight, and while that was going on, the rest of us were watching an old movie, "The Treasure of Matecumbe," just because we wanted to, and had never seen it.  It was pretty dated, but I still do like these old Disney movies.  Afterwards, it was time for reading, both from the Bible and from the latest Kingdom Keepers book.  I finished up my Terry Pratchett book today, "Small Gods," and am ready to move on to the next one, "Pyramids."  I'm not reading them in any particular order, but I've determined to read a lot of Terry Pratchett this year, and thus far have finished five Discworld books in 2021 so far.  The goal is twelve.  

We said our prayers tonight, and we were all in bed early.  I get tired pretty early now, and that may be medication or the work-out in the morning or something. But sleep comes and I sleep through the night, and that's just fine.  We said our prayers, and we all got a good night's rest.