Oz is on the Horizon

It's Canada Day, and once again I'm lamenting the fact that there's not much to watch on television to celebrate.  I suppose we could have watched "Dudley Do-right" episodes.  But Canada needs to get their collective act together as a country and have a movie that just screams "Canada," and isn't "Strange Brew."   Still, I celebrated in my quiet little way by wearing my Toronto Blue Jays hat, and then dropping by Kroger with Maddie and Nana in order to pick up about five or six bottles of Clearly Canadian.  We got home later to drink these festive beverages, and of course nobody was really big on them except me.  Which is fine.  I'll drink 'em all!  These are a comfort drink for me, in that there's a whole lot of nostalgia packed into these bottles.  I used to drink these all the time over twenty years ago.  Wow, has it been that long?

As I mentioned, we were at Kroger, but this was after taekwondo.  Madison had her taekwondo classes tonight - she was helping instruct tonight, and then she was at leadership class as well.  As a bonus, at the end, they were doing flying kicks (that's what I call them, anyway), and these kicks were directed at the large stationary punching bags.  It's always the goal to kick with enough force to knock these over, and compared to Maddie, these things are pretty big and heavy.  Nevertheless, she was knocking hers over tonight and quite proud of the fact that she was the first to do so.  It must be pointed out that she was kicking her bag over last summer.  We don't know the date on that one, but it was during a camp last year that she was first able to kick the bag over.  It's a big deal!

We got our first tomato picked today!  That big one was turning red, hanging off the plant there, and now we have ourselves our first fruits!  Tonight we were watching the last episode of season three's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  I'm looking forward to the next episode though, as we're saying hello to Ghost Rider again.  

Today we were doing a lot of preparations for "Legends of Oz."  Camille made this awesome graphic above using an image she found online, and we've got that title there that she made recreated in styrofoam on the stage now.  Mom was working at home, getting together the Scarecrow costume, which looks great. We were filming that today, and in fact I was in the upper portion of the Scarecrow costume for a video that will premiere this weekend.  I'm seen looking all over the church for wisdom, and of course the host Josh is going to show me where I can find wisdom.  If I only had a brain!

I had my cardio walking this morning, although I didn't get my heart rate up above 130 today.  I couldn't tell, as I didn't have any monitor from where I was.  The nurses monitor everything though, and can see where I'm heading and so forth.  I've been very tired lately, exhausted.  It might be residual from Forward, or it could be this medication.  I don't know, but I'm going to take it easy a few days and just rest the body with the physical exertion. 

It was an okay day today.  Nana was difficult, not eating again.  We have to struggle to get her to eat.  I was frustrated and went outside, and saw the beautiful tomato out there that I picked and looked around at all the lightning bugs, blinking gold lights floating in the back yard and in the woods.  It was beautiful.  I walked over to the blueberry bush to check on those, and all the joy was gone.  I had placed a net over the bushes to deter birds.  Little did I know a chipmunk would get caught in the netting.  I even heard the noise of it yesterday, a loud noise as if it were a deer or something in the yard, but when I went over, it was quiet and I missed the netting and what was in it.  I went inside, unaware of the struggle.  The chipmunk had died there, and when I found him tonight, I was broken.  I went from such a moment of worship to a moment of ... well, I don't know how to describe it.  The only thing I felt in my spirit was this this thought, "You showed much more emotion over a chipmunk than you do for her."  I was thinking of my mother-in-law.  She had a little of her soup, and was now walking up the road.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, the rain started to pour down.  It was so unexpected.  She was way up the hill.  Rather than drive up there to get her, which would have been easier, I ran up there with the umbrella, and started to walk her down the hill.  I wasn't expecting her reaction, but she kept saying that I was her hero.  I prayed for a softer heart towards her.  God is so relentless in His love for us, even when we repeatedly do things He's not pleased with.  It has to be so annoying, and yet He still loves us deeply.  

We had a burial for the poor chipmunk.  You have to understand that I love animals dearly, and I've especially loved the chipmunks that have been with us this year.  The chipmunk is resting in the backyard now, a large stone marker above the spot where we dug the hole.  It hurt my heart very much.

Tonight we said our prayers, and yes we read some more from our book.  As mentioned earlier, I am very tired throughout the day, so it certainly didn't take long for me to go to sleep after that.