Hummingbird Migration

Hurricane Ida is on it's rampage across the country, and we were spared a direct hit here.  We got a lot of the residual rain though.  Bands of rain spiraled out and over our area, resulting in occasional heavy downpours that reminded us that we need to get our gutters taken care of.  Yeah, they're clogging up.  We've got someone getting that taken care of next week or so, getting them actually covered so we won't have to worry about clogs.  

But the one thing we did see a lot of today was a hummingbird visitor.

And so my one thing I wanted to get done this summer is now done.  I wanted a few good pictures of a hummingbird, and I got a few that aren't too bad today.  It's funny because we have these more elaborate hummingbird feeders, and yet this little plastic thing is the one they like the most.  Mom is a part of a group online that specifically deals with hummingbirds, and she discovered that the red cocktail that people put in the hummingbird feeders is actually not the best thing for these hummingbirds.  She made something based on recommendations, and that seemed to do the trick.  Also, it helps that we're a part of a migration route right now.  We might see even more of these friends during the week.  But until then, I have a few pictures that I took right here:

Today was the last day of August, which was not one of those months I'd like to revisit too often.  It was dominated with illness, but meanwhile life goes on in other ways.  I suppose Dr. Ian Malcom's words are true:  "Life finds a way."  We made our way through this month.  Tomorrow, the "Ber months" begin, and those are always the best of the year.  I'm glad we'll be healthy for those.

Scarecrow Work

So this year we've decided to create an entry for the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (in Gainesville) event, "Scarecrows in the Garden."  We registered online, and gave our creation a name, "Autumn Beauty."  That was Mom's idea, the name.  Actually, most of this is driven by Mom, who made this head you see above.  She's covered the mannequin head with burlap, and then covered that with a waterproof material.  She added the leaves and flowers afterwards, so this is a really good start to things.  We'll share updates as they come, but we've got about three weeks or so to finish this up.

Hurricane Ida was a lot worse than expectations, and it will take a while to recover for the folks along the Louisiana coast, but meanwhile, it's slowly moving in a northeast direction.  We're getting soaked here, with heavy downpours, but fortunately none of the high winds that usually come with this sort of event.  Only the outermost bands passed over our way, spiraling as the entire system churned over the land, slowly moving up and towards New England.  New York just had a tropical storm hit there, one named Henri.  It was widely mocked online because it wasn't that big of a deal.  Hurricane Ida is much bigger, so we'll see what comes of that.

During one of the gaps today I was able to grill burgers, which is a plus, right?  I made them just right too - the smell was luxuriant!  Seriously, they were good burgers.  The deck area is nice, a great place to chill in the mornings, especially with a little rain coming down.  Under the canopy, the sound of rain in the summer is just so relaxing and pleasant.  We have a hibiscus out there now - it's been blooming all summer long.  The blooms just pop up all over the plant in different spots, so at any one time there are three blooms or so in random areas of this plant.  We're hoping the hummingbirds like it.

Anyway, Maddie was at school today, and then taekwondo.  We got to see her at taekwondo, kicking and instructing and in black belt class, actually helping another new black belt with her form.  They're friends anyway, but Master Edge was appreciated by Maddie's initiative.

We got home, battled some joro spiders.  I have removed so many of them this summer.  Hundreds of them, many of which are huge, the length of your thumb.  We got some sprays, but we'll have to go back to the hardware store to get more spray.  It's a spray that's supposedly not harmful to plants, but I'm not kidding:  we're constantly removing these monster 3-D webs.  You can't walk out the front or back door without caution, or you could find yourself face to face with one, and that would be not cool at all.

Oh, I forgot.  Today we were at the chiropractor's.  Not Maddie, because she has school.  She'll be at the next appointment though.  They've really settled into their new location, although I still have a little trouble figuring out when to turn off the main road to get there.  But it's nice, and it gave us a little trip today.

Maddie was studying a little tonight, watching her YouTube channels, and talking to friends on her phone.  That sort of thing.  After that, we were reading, and then prayers.  

Pachycephalosaurus

I took this picture for Mom.  After service, we were out there in the lobby, and the kids were coming up to the baby dinosaur, which turned out so great.  Even some adults were trying to figure out how we did it, and some of the kids could be heard asking, "Is it real?"
 

Here's a good bit of our cast outside in the lobby, greeting kids.  Ezra there to the right is wearing a shirt we got at the thrift store yesterday.  We shredded it today, because he came in during the script saying he was mauled!  Not by raptors or a T-rex though.  No, he was attacked by preschoolers!

Those shirts look nice, don't they?  Daniel, holding the baby dinosaur, made those for us and they are super popular.  Others are wanting them too, in fact.  As for the service, it went well!

This is a picture of the game segment today, where kids were encouraged to "use your head."  That was the theme of the day, and yes, there's Josh there in an inflatable raptor costume.  Just wait until we get that real raptor on the set next week...!

The skit went well.  Maddie had a few lines to learn, and she did well as always.  So did the rest of the cast, including Nerdo, who came back with thunder, or at least the kind of thunder you'd expect from him. Ahem.  

And as for our pachycephalosaurus?  He showed up in the message, and in this video Josh created.  The dinosaur demolished Josh's SUV, or at least did some substantial damage with its head, as you can see here:

The message today was "Use your head," which went with the theme of the pachycephalosaurus, a dinosaur with a four-inch thick skull that used to charge into things.  Or other dinosaurs.  We were thinking of people charging in or saying certain things without "using their head."  The whole idea of "butting heads" also comes to mind, of course.  We sort of took that and ran with it, and I'm pretty proud of how obscure our message themes can get.  I mean, how many other ministries have a message dedicated to a pachycephalosaurs?  I would say none.  I'm fairly sure of that at this point.  Who knows about the future.

Anyway, we got home, and Maddie had a lot of studying and homework to do, so she was on that pretty quickly, as well as a shower.  I was taking a nap, having not slept well yesterday.  Mom has been painting the deck and porch, and later on I was out there battling joro spiders again.  They're everywhere.  We're making plans for our back yard for a fire pit, and some places for gardens.  It's a work in progress, and it will be nice.  

We watched tonight's church service online, and it was great having it up there on our big television, rather than a little laptop.  The signal and video were just fine, and the service itself was good to see.

Tonight, we read again from Kingdom Keepers, and then we prayed.  Hurricane Ida hit Lousiana as a category four, and we're in that period of time where information is not instant, as hurricanes are huge and it takes a while to hear how things are doing in the affected area.  The lack of power and communication and transportation doesn't help either, so it may be a while before we hear how bad it is there.  It's also going to affect us here locally, of course.  There will be weather here, but economically there will be an impact as well.  Tonight we were praying for those affected in the area, and then after that... we were asleep.

Baby Dinosaur Puppet

 

Here's the costume that Mom is working on - the arm looks a little long, but that's because the guy who's wearing it is much taller than I am.  The concept is something we developed, and of course Mom did all the legwork, cutting and sewing, and creating this illusion of a baby dinosaur being carried around.

We got the dinosaur over a year ago, just before we thought we were doing the series.  We've been holding on to it, and finally this week we're getting to use the idea.  Mom spent a good part of the day making this one up.  We were out getting a few things today like the gloves, and picking up the lab jacket there, and the basket too.  

Maddie had Team Edge today, which she was doing while we were off shopping.  We were at the thrift store looking for items to use, but while there, I noticed a pretty big record collection.  Fifty cents for records!  I got about twenty of them for ten dollars, and when we got home we were listening to a few of them while doing the costume work, and while Maddie was doing homework and class studies.  She's got a few tests next week, so she was there at the kitchen table studying.  I was doing some writing for KidPak, so today was pretty much a work day, outside of a nice little walk outside to kill another 20-30 of those ginormous yellow spiders.  The joro spider population is massive.  Mom is noticing a lack of moths and butterflies, and I can only assume this is one of the culprits.  

There's another big hurricane coming, one named Ida.  This one looks serious, or at least it's strengthening quickly.  It's heading towards Louisiana, so we're not quite sure of the impact on our area directly.  But we'll have to keep an eye on it.

Tomorrow we've got a big day.  We watched a few short streaming things tonight, but not much.  We were reading at bedtime - past four hundred pages of this one book now, and after that we got to bed early tonight after prayers. 

Half-Mile Stadium

Tonight we went to a Broncos game at Half-Mile Stadium.  Of course, we're talking about the East Forsyth high school football team.

It was Maddie and I, soon to be Maddie and her friends.  I sat nearby, trying not to be a dad that stands over people or anything like that.  In retrospect, I could have sat a bit farther away - next time, Maddie!  The plan, according to Maddie, was to "find my friends and ditch Dad - no offense!"  Which I get completely. 

 

I brought my camera along to snap some shots, which you can see above.  But Maddie was taking pictures too - there was a great sunset tonight, going down slowly while the game was playing.

As for the game itself, you might be able to read the scoreboard above.  It didn't go our way.  Part of that reason of course is the youth of our team - we have no senior class, and this is literally the third game this high school has ever played.

Rabun Gap came all the way down to dominate this game.  By the end of the first half, I think the score was thirtysomething to zero.  The only thing to celebrate of significance is this one time I believe we may have gotten one first down in the first half.  We stopped them the first series, and they had to punt, but things took a major downturn from there.

And that's okay.  We're not there to rain down judgment on a super new team.  They've got a ways to go, and we're okay with that, just there to support them.  Which we did, of course.  And we supported the band too, as they came out and played a few songs.  It was nice to hear a high school band again, and here's a fun fact:  the high school is so close to our house that Mom could actually hear it back at home!

Anyway, the second half started out much like the first one, and it got to be 45-0 with about four minutes to go in the game.  We were hoping time would go by just a bit quicker to get this one over with, when suddenly, we made this one play that actually got by the opponent's defense.  And then we did another play, and remarkably, we got two first downs in a row.  And we were in striking distance of the end zone, just like that.  We were thinking, maybe - just maybe - we could get a field goal.  And then for two plays in a row, the opponent had a false start or there was another flag on the play that I couldn't remember.  Anyway, two times in a row, there were penalties against the other team, and there we were, just a few yards from the end zone.  Could we do it?  Could we get a touchdown?  First and goal... we had a few tries, and maybe we could pull it off.  Here's what happened on that first attempt.

Touchdown!  With three minutes and twenty seconds to go, we scored our touchdown, and the East Forsyth parents had something to really scream about.  It was such a great moment, and then we scored that extra kick, and there were were on the board.  I think it was the player's first touchdown, too.

The opponent got the ball with three minutes to go, and they drove it down the field like this was a close game or something.  They were determined to get another touchdown, just to show us a thing or two.  How dare we score on them, right?  So with a minute to go in the game, they were there at the thirty yard line or something like that.  They were going for it, wanting to get that demoralizing score, I guess.  I mean, most people would slow down at 45-7, but I guess this is a bloodthirsty sort of game.  Anyway, it was such a great moment when that opposing quarterback threw the pass to show us a thing or two - and what great timing for us to get our first interception of the game.  Take that!

We didn't have time for another play after that, but we ended the game well with a score, and a drive-killer.  We were crushed at the scoreboard...

...but we were super proud of our team.  They had some great momentum at the end, and gave us something to cheer about.  It was hard to watch early on, like trying to listen to our President make a speech.  But in the end, it was all about hanging out and watching a game together, supporting our team.

It was a super fun night!

Dino Nuggets

 To celebrate this series properly, of course I had to buy these.  They're Dino-nuggets, and although I'm not really supposed to eat fried items, I had to make an exception with these.  I've actually never had a Dino Nugget before, so yeah, we'll call this a "bucket list" item!  We picked these up when we were doing some grocery shopping tonight, our usual stop after taekwondo.  Maddie, Nana and I were going up and down the aisles as we usually do, trying to remember what we needed.  We were there just to pick up drinks and lemons, and of course there were Dino Nuggets... so yeah, we got those too.  

Taekwondo went well of course.  Maddie was helping as guest instructor, and then after that class she was a student again, this time for leadership class.  They were doing high jump kicks, and working with the kamas again.  Maddie won't miss this class - she loves it.  She was working on form, and today she was instructing kids, although some weren't listening.  She came up with a little incentive to listen for one of the students though:  "Each time you fall for no apparent reason, you'll do five push-ups."  That student stopped falling, which suggests to me that previously the student was falling for no apparent reason!

So while we were over there at taekwondo, Mom was doing some gardening outside and some painting.  She reached down to move a tray of potted plants, and you can see what was underneath that.  This is right next to our house.  I think because it was moist and cooler in this area, this copperhead decided to take up residence here.  It snapped at Mom a few times, and of course she was startled.  Who wouldn't be, seeing something like that inches from your bare hands as you reach down.  There was a shovel nearby, and Mom dispatched it right away.  We let just about everything around our house live, except for poisonous snakes and joro spiders.  Those spiders, by the way, multiply so quickly and are everywhere.  They make these huge 3-D webs that you can see four or even five spiders in, all surrounding one monster.  We've been going out there with some spray and a broomstick, fighting the daily struggle.  I can't imagine what would happen if we just let them go - there are so many of them.  I know it's a losing battle, but we just can't stand webbing all over our house.

Anyway, today was a good day for Maddie at school.  She got a 100 on her geometry unit test, and she's gotten a few other good grades lately.  She was studying tonight, working on an advertisement that she's been developing for a few days now, one promoting a story she's written.  

While she was at school, of course I was at work, but also down in Buford revisiting my cardiologist, who I haven't seen since April.  He confirmed a few things:  that I need to reduce my medication by one pill (my blood pressure has been pretty low lately - this morning after the treadmill it was 88 over 60, and it generally hangs around the 90's or low 100's).  So we'll pull back on one pill - I still take seven others, so it's still a lot to take each day.  But we're weening off of these things.  The other thing that was confirmed was that I actually told him during the heart procedure the answer to who was singing a song on the radio that they couldn't remember the name of:  Eddie Vedder.  They were trying to remember that, and I told them the answer.  I remember Guns n' Roses too, "Sweet Child of Mine."  We were talking about the procedure, and he remembered that, and he remembered that things were "pretty tight" in my heart.  But now things are well, and I'm doing good.  Good news.

Tonight Maddie was doing homework, and meanwhile, we were watching a Disney parks behind-the-scenes video about the castles of all the parks.  When it was bedtime, I read to Maddie a few more pages of the ongoing Kingdom Keepers adventure, and after that we said our prayers.  I was pretty sleepy tonight, and we all got to bed early tonight.  We had several things to be really grateful for today, including a snake not biting Mom, and a good report from the doctor.  And some good grades for Maddie too.  And Dino Nuggets!

National Banana Split Day

Today is National Banana Split Day, and as you can see, we celebrated in a pretty awesome way!  It's important to stop and properly celebrate these sorts of days, and we made sure we got it done right.  I stopped on the way home to pick up all kinds of tasty ingredients, including ice cream, bananas, and whipped cream.  After dinner, we sat together and enjoyed these masterpieces.  Maddie designed her own, top left, but I think ultimately they all taste the same - delicious!

It was a quiet day today.  Maddie had her small group tonight, which featured a game of concentration that was based on National Banana Split Day, where the girls had to match the different ingredients.  Maddie won the game last week, but this week all she was able to match was a bowl!  Still, it's fun, and the message and time together is important.  She's enjoying that.  Afterwards, we were watching the latest episode of Marvel's "What If?"  And after that, she was back to studying.  She's got a lot of different things going on, including a geometry unit test, among other things.  She spent a great deal of time studying and doing homework tonight.

We read tonight, reading about how much trouble Philby was having with a battle in one of the state rooms, one he was unable to leave because of a strand of hair he picked up on a pillow.  Meanwhile, Charlene and Willa are lost on Castaway Cay, which doesn't sound like the most terrible of circumstances, but I suppose they're mission-minded, wanting to get back and save the day.  The different characters are having their own adventures - we're about three hundred pages in, but there's another two hundred to go.  And then the next book.  We'll be reading these for quite some time, I think, maybe into early in the next year.  I guess it makes it easy to decide which book we're going to do next.  We've got a long way to go on this series, and then there'll be a new one coming out soon enough!

We said our prayers, and then we were off to bed tonight.  It's been a good day, but a quiet one.  Having a banana split always helps though!

Jurassic Park Cups

I went back to work today, after a really long absence.  It's good to be back again - it's good to be doing anything again.  We were working towards the continuation of our "Lost World" series, and thinking to the future with a return to Neverland as well.  We've got a lot going on with KidPak, and with the Youth as well, with a new series called "Friday Night Lights."  Along those lines, Maddie wants to go to her high school football game this weekend, so I got a few tickets today.  We'll be there this Friday, the first high school football game I've been to since... well, maybe 1988?  

Tonight we had piano practice, so Maddie and I were off to that for a bit, before we headed back home to do a bit of homework there.  It was a quiet day - we were writing this weekend's script at the office earlier, and doing some online meetings too.  These meetings weren't actually online, but instead about the material we've been creating for so many years, and what it takes to make it available online.  We'll see, and we've been talking about this for so long with the uppers, so we'll see if this goes to the back burner again.  It's just that for years, we've had so many people asking about our curriculum.  We'll see!

So in honor of our dinosaur series, I found my old Jurassic Park cup collection.  I used to collect these a long time ago, when they were around.  Places like McDonald's would have a series of large plastic cups, one per week with a different design.  I found the old Jurassic Park cups, and of course I have all six of them.  I've got all six of the "Batman Returns" ones as well, along with a lot of different plastic cups with X-Men on them or two with "Apollo 13" on them.  Relics from the 90's.

Tonight, we read some more from Kingdom Keepers, and clearly something is amiss on Castaway Cay.  In lieu of an actual vacation there, the book is nice, despite the dangers from the Overtakers.  Clearly, we're in this book series for the long haul.  

We said our prayers tonight, and Maddie was tucked in like always:  black blanket first, then the two pinks ones in the right position, then the sheet, and then the cover, and then the Star Wars blanket, and then the one with the motivational quotes on it.  Then the night light, and the diffuser.  Maddie's had the sniffles lately, and more than likely it's allergies.  So we've got five drops of Raven in the water in the diffuser, and it helps her sleep through the night.  Of course, after all that, it's "Good night, stink face," and throwing different round plush objects at me before I escape the room.  This happens every night, and it's pretty funny.

Dino Puppet

 

We've had this dinosaur puppet for ages now, purchased some time ago for our new series that took years to get to actually do.  But here it is, and we'll debut it on Sunday morning during service.  He's a cute little guy, although Nana thinks he's ugly.  We'll let the kids decide on Sunday!

Anyway, today I got back on the treadmill again, the break coming from my battle with a certain virus that got me incapacitated for a few weeks.  So I took it easy to start out with.  I got a video on the laptop of a POV walk around Castaway Cay, just because we've been reading about that lately with our Kingdom Keepers book.  

Maddie was working out too, back at taekwondo for two classes tonight.  She's having a great time, as one of her friends is now a black belt and in her black belt class as well.  The kids are having a great time each night, a testament to how the place is run.  We love Bart and Chris.  Nana came with me this time, so she's back.  Some of the other parents talk with her and I, and she had a nice time conversing and catching up.  

Tonight Maddie was doing a bit of studying.  She's doing a lot of work at the kitchen table, her books and paperwork and laptop spread out across the table like it's a war room strategy table.  She's working diligently already.  Meanwhile, the rest of us were watching a few things, and after that we were reading of course, yes back on Castaway Cay.  And then we were praying.  It was a quiet day, and that's okay.

All Kinds of Things Going On

 

Maddie was onstage again today, part of a group visiting Dinosaur Park at KidPak!  She was part of a smaller cast today, but she did really well with both services, not having any problems with her lines or the acting involved as well.  It was a great start to the ongoing story with the cast, although we started this series last week with a few different games and activities.  Here's the game we had this week:

We use the inflatable dinosaurs as much as we can, because they're funny!  Today's game involved trivia questions, and whoever missed three questions first got attacked by a T-rex!  The T-rex was the theme of the day, with a really solid message, and the return of the animated "Scribbles" characters!  Josh, Pastor Lance and I recorded the voices for this cartoon way back in February of 2020, way back when we thought we'd be doing this "Lost World" series in March of 2020.  But things happened, didn't they?  Anyway, the files for our voices were sitting there waiting all this time, and finally Josh did the animation for it, and the final product is fantastic.  It was a super solid morning, with a great message from Pastor Lance at the end. 

We picked up some pizzas on the way home and all of us had pizza for lunch today once we got home.  And then it was time to get ready, because tonight was the big Y2K party.

Maddie's been looking forward to this all week.  She's been putting together her Y2K outfit, planning it out for several days now.  She did a great job!

As for me, I wore my "VOTE FOR PEDRO" shirt, which was a big hit.  It was spot-on too, a shirt from right there in 2006.  I have about four Napoleon Dynamite shirts, but this one was fairly obvious, and got a lot of comments.   If only I had some moon boots!

Anyway, it was a good night.  There were rides and games, and Maddie had a great time with friends outside.  The rain was pouring in the morning and early afternoon, but by the time this thing started, all was well and the weather was perfect, if not a little hot.  There was food there, these amazing tacos and cotton candy and popcorn too.  

We got home afterwards, and Maddie was off studying.  The rest of us watched a movie called "Yesterday," which will probably result in us singing and listening to Beatles music the rest of the week.  It was a good movie though.  Maddie got to bed at a reasonable time - we read tonight, and then we prayed, and then it was time to get some rest.

Inconclusive

Here's an artistic look at our kitchen floor, right below a kitchen chair.  Maddie likes the close-up shots and unusual perspectives.  This represents the excitement of our day, in fact.  If someone asked me if it was fun, I'd say it's "inconclusive."  It did rain, and that added a bit of flavor to the overall day - I had briefly thought about going down a bit south of here to see some dinosaurs, but the weather was certainly a factor in that.  Anyone who's seen "Jurassic Park" knows how an approaching storm can mess with the dinosaur population, and we didn't want to see a t-rex start destroying our car.  We have insurance, but I'm not entirely if that's covered.  

We thought about going to do something interesting, but as usual, we didn't, because we can't.  And perhaps that's for the best, as some of us are feeling certain remnant symptoms, despite the all-clear I just got.  Yes, I checked my online medical page and the results came back and the results are negative and/or inconclusive.  That's my word of the day.  I'm not sure why they have to put "inconclusive."  What's the point of the test if there's no conclusion?  Is that what they put down for anyone who has a negative test, that it's "inconclusive?"  Either it's negative or positive, right?  "Inconclusive" is like a hung jury, like the doctors saw the test results and just put a theory out there and couldn't find enough evidence to support it.  

Anyway, I'm clear to go back to church tomorrow.  That's not inconclusive.  So at least we're going somewhere with dinosaurs!  One place we did go today was Team Edge, which is where Maddie will be going on Saturdays from this point on, every Saturday a little after noon.  It's a longer class - I was there to watch the team try to get coordinated, which was actually a bit challenging today.  They had their individual maneuvers done, but the team has to work on getting it all timed out correctly.

We got home and Mom was hungry, which is a great sign.  To quote Chicago, we're feelin' stronger every day, and that's of course good news.  Mom was in the mood for chicken nuggets, so we went off to the Chick-Fil-A in Dawsonville to get a nice meal to-go.  Once home, Mom had a small table set up on the front porch and the four of us sat there in the cool of the day, having a nice meal together.  It was drizzling a bit outside, but we were covered there and it was actually kind of nice.  It was something a little different, and different was good. 

Maddie studied some science tonight, and then we watched another episode with Ghost Rider, which is easier to type than "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." over and over again.  Clearly Uncle Eli is a terrible person, and although he's powerful, he hasn't met an angry Robbie Reyes yet.  It's fun watching all these again, although they're all about to head to a tough new world within the framework.  We're plugging along.

Tomorrow we'll be at KidPak again, and it'll be nice to be back.  The new set looks great, and we have these new t-shirts that are amazing.  We're looking forward to visiting our new Dinosaur Park.  Hopefully all the dinosaurs will stay contained.  Of course, life finds a way and all that.

We read tonight, and we prayed tonight, and we went to bed early tonight.  We've got a big day tomorrow!

 

Rainy

Maddie took this picture of a car on the road in the rain recently.  We've had a lot of rain this week.  Tropical Depression Fred started things out, but after that we've been caught in this cycle with a lot of heavy downpours throughout the day, big thick and gray clouds, hanging low as they move across the sky. It's been pretty rainy lately.

Maddie was back at taekwondo tonight, and early too.  I pick her up in the car line afterwards, and today I got there a little earlier, and got her home about ten minutes earlier.  It was an extra twenty minutes waiting on my end, but at least I was off the road and in the parking lot.  I might do that again on Monday. I just sat there reading my book as I waiting for Maddie to leave the school.

We got over to taekwondo, and I got to go inside this time.  No test results yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm fine, as it's been well over two weeks since I first got sick.  There are just a few symptoms that linger, one of them being this drainage.  Mom is getting her taste back, but she's still super tired.  

It was great getting to be in there and watch Maddie with taekwondo again.  She did well, of course, and things have changed in there a bit.  For one, a lot of remodeling was done inside, and the observation area is nice, as well as more roomy for people walking back and forth.  Maddie was in leadership first, and then in her black belt class, where she's practicing with some other new black belts now.  She was happy to have some new friends in class from the previous one.

We got some ice cream on the way home because why not.  I'm not eating any, but I got some for Maddie. I'm trying to cut down on saturated fats, to keep my heart healthy.  Speaking of which, I need to get back on the treadmill, but I'll probably do that next week.  

Tonight there was nothing really new on the television, so we returned to an old standby, continuing our "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." marathon, still in the early part of season four.  We watched a few episodes with Ghost Rider, and here we are back on schedule, marching on towards the end of the season.  This was a great episode tonight, one that featured Johnny Blaze as "The Good Samaritan."  

Maddie's been eating pizza with at least a tablespoon of ground hot pepper on it.  I hate to admit this, but I'm the one who introduce ground hot pepper to her.  I didn't expect her to smother her pizza with it though!  Her love of hot sauce and spicy things knows no bounds.  We're talking about heading back to a wings place to try an even spicier sauce.  She has her limits, but they're up there.  Coming home, she got some chips at the gas station, and of course they were super spicy.  She just loves spicy foods.  But Mom and I are starting to eat again.  We've lost a lot of weight over time - no appetite, and queasy stomachs.  But we're starting to eat a bit more again, and that's good.

We're still in the midst of this Kingdom Keeper book number five.  The characters are currently on Castaway Cay, and I'm wanting to be there now too.  The idea of a cruise sounds really nice, but there's other trips on the horizon, hopefully.  Hopefully.  We haven't been anywhere in a really long time, and the idea of a vacation is just a dream right now.  So even though there's peril, and Tia Dalma, at least we're on Castaway Cay in a book each night.  That will have to do for now.

We said our prayers tonight, and we were off to sleep again.  We don't have to get up early tomorrow, and that is good.  Despite the dominant symptoms fading away, we're still plagued with fatigue, and this drainage.  A good night's rest will help out a lot.

A Clutter

Maddie snapped this picture in the morning of one of the flowers on the front porch outside on the way to school.  The morning drop-off has been pretty easy.  She gets up and gets ready, we say a quick prayer and that's pretty much it, although we do take a picture at the fireplace each morning.  Mom and I are starting to get a bit better.  I went by to get a test today, the one where you stick the cotton swab up your nose a bit.  It was quick and easy to do, and we'll just wait on those results.  The joro spider battle continues, as this is clearly a very massive swarm of these things.  I just looked it up, and the official word is "clutter."  It's a clutter of spiders.  I was opening windows on the second floor here, reaching out with the broom stick and trying to convince these spiders that Halloween decorations don't go up until later on in the season.  I knocked down and cleaned out so many webs - it's gross!

Anyway, we were over to taekwondo tonight, where Maddie was training the young whippersnappers to kick other kids in the face.  Okay, that's not a completely accurate assessment.  But her learning to be an instructor is continuing, and she's learning to be patient.  She started out one exercise reminding one of the students that's it's a good idea not to fall just this one time.  He falls down a good bit while doing certain kicks.  And other moves.  They all fall from time to time, but for some reason, this one student does that a little more, and Maddie was making a joke about that, which tickled the instructors.  She's doing well though, and afterwards, the instructors and came out to the car to meet me, as I've been isolating myself in the car for a few weeks here.  Tomorrow I'll return to taekwondo, but tonight it was nice of Bart and Chris to come out to the car to say hello.  I was reading my book on Washington still.

Speaking of social studies, Maddie was working on her AP Geography assignment when she got home.  It's been a long assignment, one she's been working on and pacing herself with throughout the week.  Mom, Nana and I were watching "The Castaway Cowboy," which is just the type of movie I purchased Disney+ for.  It's 1970's movie, and it's obscure and old-school, and we enjoyed it, actually.  Maddie finished up her homework about the time we finished our movie, and then it was time for reading, and time for bed.  It was a decent day, and we're starting to feel better, Mom and I.  

National Fajita Day

It's National Fajita Day, and although we wanted to celebrate with something a lot more grand, we used our fajita slices to make something simple at home.  Our appetites were pretty low, at least Mom and I have had a pretty low desire to eat food for the past few weeks.  As you can imagine, we've lost some substantial weight.  I've lost at least twenty-five pounds since April, and about seven or so pounds since this latest battle.  I'm not sure how much Mom has lost.  Anyway, we had some of those fajitas, but we'll have to try something a little more elaborate later on.  In the meantime, Maddie was celebrating with her small group, which is a place you can always find out about obscure holidays.  Camille was speaking with Lauren to the girls in the small group, continuing the FC Youth theme and discussion from this past Sunday, but the game segment - where the kids all play a game together online - was something new, and it's usually related to some obscure holiday that each Wednesday happens to be.  Today is National Fajita Day, and to help out, I made this game for the girls in the group, a game where they see these closed fajitas and have to guess which one has the good peppers in it.  One point for the good pepper, two points for the two good peppers, and minus a point for the mean pepper.  

They had fun.  I'm not sure who actually won the game this time around because Maddie has no other competing events tonight - she has no piano or taekwondo.  Therefore, she can do the entire small group from home, and she usually takes the computer - or the phone - up to her room where she can enjoy all the messages, games and conversations in the privacy of her own room.

It's been two weeks since we've been sick, and finally, the queasy stomach is going away for me.  Although the appetite is still gone.  Mom can't taste things, which makes a cup of tea a miserable experience, because she loves tea.  I've signed up for a test, and it'll confirm the obvious.  The reason we haven't been to any doctor lately is because the general prescription we've heard from others with this same ailment is that we just need to take the appropriate medication and "ride it out."  So that's what we've been doing.  

Maddie was working hard tonight on some geography homework, and she also did some work with geometry and ELA.  She's keeping busy now that school is in full swing.  She's doing well right now, keeping up with things, so she's not stressed out.  That's good.  We're super proud of her for staying diligent with all this work.  She sets up at the kitchen table with her headphones, listening to music, studying, writing, creating, and just staying focused on her work. 

After she was done, we had enough time for the latest edition of "What If?"  It was such a great episode, so bittersweet though.  It's Chadwick Boseman's last performance as Black Panther, and as for the episode itself, it was so well done.  It's so great, so much fun, and just a lot of creative fun.  Just like the last episode.  But it sinks in again that this is Chadwick Boseman's last performance, and it's like a punch to the gut.  I can't wait to sit there and watch it again.

We read tonight afterwards, afterwards, we prayed.  We're starting to feel better here, and that's good news.  Lots to be thankful for in our prayers - we're making our way through it.

Sweden

Maddie will be doing research on a Scandinavian country this year in geography.  It seems random, but each student is assigned a different country like Grenada or Sierra Leone.  Some get countries like Germany, and Maddie has a country that's somewhere in the middle, the nation of Sweden.  It could be something like Tonga, so there's that.  And besides, Sweden has a lot of great things to do research on.

Like this guy!  The Swedish Chef!  Maddie could do some research on cooking, and maybe even show a clip or two of this classically trained chef, and perhaps even serve up some Swedish meatballs and Swedish fish.  

Sweden has a great girls soccer team that absolutely destroyed the US Soccer team at the Olympics, and it's always fun to talk about Vikings, although one thinks about Norway and Vikings than Sweden.  One thing that always look to in December is the Gävle Goat, of course.  We'll have to focus on that one this year - hopefully it will survive once more.  The last few years, it's survived getting burned down, and seems as if that trend will last.  We have our small Gävle Goat that we bring out every year, but we don't burn it down.

Oh, and there's IKEA stuff from Sweden.  We don't have any IKEA stuff at the house, but our office has plenty of that famous do-it-yourself furniture.  Also from Sweden:  Minecraft.    Yeah, that's actually a pretty big contribution to society.

Anyway, school seems to be going well.  She's already doing her research, and will be doing that for the year.  Life is good.  

Tonight Maddie had her first piano class of the season, and she was pretty rusty.  But it's good to get started again, practicing again and loosening up those fingers.  It's now time - already - to think of a recital piece to play, and on the way home she decided that it would be good to do "Once Upon a December" from the movie "Anastasia."  She's always liked that song, and it's been a while since we've watched that movie, so we might do that again.  But it could be December when we have the recital, and that would be a fun song to play.  We'll be looking for the sheet music soon enough.

We read tonight, and we prayed.  Mom and I are starting to come out of this illness.  The symptoms are clearing somewhat, although Mom can't taste anything.  But it's been nearly two weeks and that's about the course this runs in most folks.  So we should be back to starting again and feeling human again soon enough.  Again, thankfully Maddie never had any symptoms.  She's been good, and that's something to be grateful for.

Fred

Tropical Depression Fred is here, and it was okay with the wind and so on, but the rain was significant.  It rained a lot, and it rained hard, and it was on and on and on for quite some time.  Fred is such a friendly name, and one we don't hear as much as we used to.  Now the only thing I think of with Fred is Mr. Flintsone, or a member of Mystery Incorporated.  Oh, and Mr. Rogers of course.  I don't think Tropical Depression Fred has made an impact that would be more memorable than other hurricanes or tropical systems, so I imagine we'll see another Fred way down the road.  But today was clearly one of those days we weren't going outside.  

I got in that daily car line to pick up Maddie today, and after that we were on our way to taekwondo again for a longer session.  I sat in the car reading, self-isolating, while Maddie was in there doing exercises and working on form again.  They're using the kamas again, which are easier weapons to work with.  For one, the bruising is less often.  But they're not things that require as much coordination as the sword or the bo staff, and obviously less coordination than nunchucks.  She enjoys all of these, but the staff is still her favorite.  It's great to cycle through all of these, and this time around she's enjoying the kamas more.

After taekwondo, Maddie and I went to the grocery store to pick up some essentials, including ginger beer.  Okay, so that wasn't an essential.  But it was a nice little treat, a six-pack that we'll be enjoying a few more times this week, I'm sure.  But we did go through the store and we nearly filled up the cart with a lot of the things we need.  We haven't been able to grocery shop much over the past few weeks, or at least Mom hasn't.  So this was a good stop.  We got home and put everything up, and then Maddie was ready to get some studying done, and a little bit of homework.

Of note in the news is this sudden disaster in Afghanistan.  It appears as if our government has made some miscalculations, to put it mildly.  There have been some troublesome things going on, and I'll just leave it at that.  We've been praying for the administration, because we've been going in a bad direction in many areas.  After reading this evening, we prayed tonight for our leaders, our government, and for peace.  

Jurassic Tennis

We started out today watching Jurassic Tennis, and I was so happy to see it finally get done.  We'v even waiting for our new series "Lost World" to start, and one of the ideas we had early on was Jurassic Tennis.

Having seen "Jurassic Park" a squillion times, of course I remember the screen with "Jurassic Tennis" on it.  And of course someone else involved with "Jurassic World" remembered that screen too, and there's a reference to Jurassic Tennis in that movie as well.  And again, we ask the question, "What is Jurassic Tennis?" 

That answer came in the form of three contestants wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes.  It was three matches, and the battle was simple:  hit as many tennis balls over the net into your opponent's side, using  your tennis racket, while in your dinosaur costume.  Whoever had the least tennis balls on their side at the end was the winner.  It was super fun, and it reminded me of the old days, watching KidPak online only, as if we're all still quarantined.  Which, I guess we technically are...

Anyway, we kept with the dinosaur theme, and today we finished watching "Camp Cretaceous" season three, and now we're all wishing season four was out there because it's been fun to watch.  The end of this series has been one of those things where we kept saying, "one more episode."  And we said it three times, watching four in a row until we were done with it.  It was a dinosaur binge, and it was good.

I dropped Maddie off at FC Youth, and they're still on their "Y2K" theme.  Next week, they're all dressing up as if they're in the first part of the 2000's.  I think that could be anything from "Napoleon Dynamite."  I might break out my "Vote for Pedro" shirt.  Anyway, they were reading about Paul again, and about the end of things, and the start of new things.  Like Y2K itself, but also about how God moves us from one thing to the next.   She's really enjoying the series.

We got home tonight, and we read of course.  And we prayed.  We're ready to be over this illness, but it takes time.  We're ready to move on to the next thing, right?

Return of the Joro

Mom and I have been engaging in a battle around the house, day after day, and we didn't really want to start this war either.  But these Joro spiders are everywhere, and they grow to be these large gooey spiders that build fairly huge webs with strong anchors.  We used to have a few orb spiders around each year, and they'd sit there with these massive webs dangling right there at the middle of the forest.  You gave them space.  These are the same types of spiders that you give space, but the problem is... they're everywhere.  I'm not exaggerating:  we've killed over a hundred around our house.  I didn't want to do that, as I generally like to leave spiders alone, unless they're black widows, which are dangerous.  But these are so plentiful, and they grow, and they leave large industrious webs everywhere.  We've decided to ban this import, and so Mom and I are in this daily struggle to remove all the natural creepy Halloween decorations, but it's amazing how invasive these spiders are.

Anyway, today was Team Edge for Maddie, and she enjoyed that, working on her flips and choreography.  They're going to start meeting every Saturday now, all of this leading up to a performance in December.  She's having a great time with it.  I'm still in the car though, isolating myself until I get a little better.  Mom and I are still super under the weather, affected by this relentless illness.  Another unwanted import from China, just like the spiders.  Anyway, while she's in there, I'm in the car reading this George Washington biography which is pretty interesting.  I think I've read a lot about all the other Founding Fathers, particularly Jefferson and Adams, but after watching "Hamilton" recently, I was wanting to read about George Washington some more.  A lot I've already known, of course, particularly the troublesome situation at New York and the miracle we actually had a standing army still after that.  One thing I didn't think about so much is how much we owe the French during that season.  Of course, they were after their best interests, and there was a bit of getting back at Great Britain, but still, the siege at Yorktown certainly would look a lot different without the French army there.  Anyway, I know we came in and saved them during World War II, but I come from an era where we generally don't view the French as highly as other nations.  Which is ironic. 

Anyway, Maddie was reading "Mysterious Benedict Society," racing to get that one done before the library needed it back, and tonight we read more from Kingdom Keepers.  So a lot of reading today.  And a lot of dinosaurs!  We finished up the rest of the Jurassic World movies, watching the last two movies and even "The Battle of Big Rock," which is great stuff, by the way.  We're ready for our "Lost World" series - but just not tomorrow.  It'll feel weird not being there at KidPak again, and it's awful that we've waited so long for this series, only to not be there for it.  But such is the way of things, and in all things, it could be worse.  

We said our prayers tonight, and soon after that, we were off to sleep again.  We'll be sleeping in tomorrow, although we'll be watching KidPak online.  Maddie will go to FC Youth tomorrow, but that's about it on the day.  We just need to keep resting and getting better.

Belt Testing

I didn't get to see it because I've been in the car lately.  Still sick, I just drop Maddie off at taekwondo and wait outside.  Today, sadly, I missed out on another testing.  Fortunately, it wasn't testing for any significant mile marker - it was her first testing with the black belt.  This is the first step on her way to the second degree black belt, which is still some ways off.  But it would have been nice to see it.  She did well, and not only did she pass, she also got her official certificate for earning her black belt, the end result of her test last spring.  Normally the official certificates take a few months to arrive after the fact, officially certified and so forth, sent from ATA headquarters.  This certificate, because it is a black belt certificate, is a huge one.  We'll call it "the long form."  Most of these certificates fit nicely in a binder that we had set up for Maddie where she could show off each one.  This particular certificate is about twice the normal size, so I'm guessing we'll need to get a frame or something for it.  It's big.  

Anyway, she did well.  On the way home, we passed the high school as we always do, and there was the first football game.  I wish I could have gone, but again, we're not well.  It was a scrimmage game versus White County, which is a wonderful irony, given that this is the school I went to.  The White County Warriors rolled in, and might I also add how amazing it is they are still called the "Warriors?"  Anyway, they easily defeated the East Forsyth Broncos, 34-6.  I'm not sure of too many of the details of the game, but I'm fairly sure East Forsyth has no seniors, so there might have been a slight edge there.  The other advantage was that the Warriors are from White County, which automatically gives other teams a pretty good edge.  

I digress.  Maddie has expressed an interest in checking out a football game some time, and we may do that on a Friday night.  Hopefully when I'm feeling better.  Right now, Mom and I are still under the weather, and not doing too great.

Tonight was the last episode of season one's "The Bad Batch."  These endings can sure feel melancholy lately, although our series heroes are safe and on their way - for the most part.  We watched that episode, and then "Jurassic Park III," which I actually think is a fun movie.  For one, where else can you see a spinosaurus with that much screen time?  The pterodactyls are terrifying, of course, and the raptors are what you'd expect.  But the spinosaurus steals the show, rather relentlessly too.  Much controversy was stirred up when this movie showed a spinosaurus take down a tyrannosaurs rex.  As sentimental as we feel about the t-rex, the size of the spinosaurus gives him an advantage, as does the fact that he has actual arms.  We only see a spinosaurus skeleton in the next movie, one broken apart by the most famous t-rex, of course.  But one might wonder what happened to the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna?  This movie is the last movie to show the alternate dinosaur island, and from what I read, basically all the dinosaurs from Isla Sorna moved to Isla Nublar, which of course doesn't work out well for a lot of them, given the volcanic nature of the island.  But what happened to the Spinosaurus?  That sounds like an interesting question.  It could be that skeleton that's destroyed at the end of Jurassic World is the skeleton of spinosaurus from the last movie.  It doesn't explain what happened, and so there's a bit of an unexplained mystery there.  I personally think he swam off to another tropical island where he set up a nice comfortable home, munching on islanders occasionally and enjoying beautiful sunsets as he rests in a fifty-five foot long hammock.  

Anyway, we were reading tonight, and we said our prayers too.  We're riding out this illness, and we're praying for good health.  We're certainly ready for that!

Blueberry Pancakes

 Mom makes these incredible blueberry pancakes.  And again, the pancakes are from our own garden, so there's just something magically delicious about these pancakes.  She made some for all of us, and we were eating more of these than we probably should have, but they are so good.  Those blueberries just pop in your mouth, explosions of delicious flavor. 

As for our blueberry harvest, it's been huge.  Mom and Nana head out there to the blueberry bushes, and just keep bringing back all of these large quantities of blueberries, as more and more are ready each day.  They fill up a little tub, and then add that amount to the motherlode.  We're adding these to the freezer, because there's more than we can actually eat right now.  Blueberry muffins are coming soon!

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, but I'm hanging out in the car, rather than go into the studio.  Eventually I'll get around to going inside the ATA studio when I'm absolutely confident that I'm good for that.  I've got a test coming up to confirm one thing or another, and there are so many people signing up for these types of tests lately.  There's a definite rise in things here locally, and schools and other places are going back to strongly recommending that people wear masks.  I wear one for courtesy, although it's just for optics.  As for the vaccination, obviously I won't need one now.  Nor will Mom.  Nevertheless, despite the fact that there are antibodies in our systems to prevent us from being carriers or spreaders, there's still this odd pressure to get a vaccination.  It's like you just had the worst flu, and right after that being pressured to get a flu shot.  That's the world we live in now.  From what I understand, some states are requiring that you "show your papers" before going into restaurants or public places.  As in, show your vaccination papers.  I was raised watching movies about how awful the Soviet Union was, where its poor citizens were forced to show their papers all the time, whether for travel or anywhere else.  It's a hard sell for my generation to show paperwork to go eat at a restaurant.  

Anyway, today went well for Maddie at school.  She's got some plays coming up, and she's got all kind of different directions at school - molecular studies in biology, honors geometry, Spanish and more.  It's a lot of work, but she's sticking with it.  For that reason, we got a couple cans of ginger beer for the road home, a nice little reward.  We both love that stuff.  It's also good for the stomach, so hopefully that will help me out somewhat.  But she's doing well in school, and she seems to be enjoying it, and the new friends she's making in theater and other classes.  I'm so glad.

We read tonight, and we said our prayers afterwards.  We're getting to bed early lately, as we're trying to stay healthy, and Maddie is wanting to make sure she's well-rested for school.  It was a good day today.

What If?

Maddie was excited to see the first installment of a new series, "What If?"  It's basically a deviation of the standard Marvel story line, pretending certain things happened, or didn't happen, and following that story to see what would happen - what if?  I actually have a few of these "What If?" comics in my collection, including an imagining of "What if Conan the Barbarian and Wolverine teamed up?"  Tonight's episode featured a favorite character of Maddie's, Agent Carter, who took the super serum instead of Steve Rogers.  It was a lot of fun - everyone enjoyed it, just based on the strength of the characters, and a few surprises along the way.  We're looking forward to more surprises each Wednesday night with this series.

Maddie had her small group again tonight.  Despite the "plague house," her life is moving along as best as possible.  She was up in her room for the small group, which has topics lately that echo the youth group's topics on Sunday at FCY.  Nothing wrong with that - the girls are enjoying both FCY and small group online now.

Trying to keep busy without doing too much, we took down the patriotic tree today, carefully packing away the White House ornaments and other patriotic ornaments, at least until around Christmas time.  We moved some furniture about, and I started a book on George Washington.  Maddie is still reading her book, "The Mysterious Benedict Society," and telling us of the differences in the written material and the television show that we watched.  She's already asked for some of these books for Christmas.

We're still reading about the Kingdom Keepers at night.  Maleficent was on the big Funnelvision screen there, and that made everyone uncomfortable, as there are some worries that there could be real danger.  We'll find out soon enough!  This is one of the larger books, but we're plugging along, and Maddie is enjoying the tale.  We might actually be finished with this book series by the time the next one comes out - we'll see how that times out.

Anyway, we said our prayers tonight, and despite it all, we're still quarantined and miserable here - at least Mom and I are.  I'm not sure how long this will last.  It's like a bad "What if?" story...!

Mystery Tie-Dye Theater

Maddie had her first after school meeting today with the theater group, and she had a great time - it was a murder mystery!  There was a lot more than just that, of course, but murder mysteries are always a lot of fun, unless you're the victim.  Fortunately, Maddie was not the victim, but instead just one of the suspects, and as suspected, she enjoyed the afternoon making accusations, or perhaps covering up her own secret agenda.  Another thing the students did was make tie-dye shirts - we bought a shirt yesterday at a craft store for just this purpose.  Maddie made shirts which will be nice to wear somewhere down the road.  And speaking of down the road, there were a few announcements about future plays that the students would be doing, one of them being "Oklahoma," which I am quite familiar with.  Also on the list of things to come is "Steel Magnolias" and "Seussical Jr." as well as something called "All Together Now!"  We'll find out more details as they come around, but Maddie had a great time this afternoon, and is excited about the future there at the theater.

Her other classes seem to be going okay, and she seems to be finding her way.  And that's where we'll leave things at for the moment.  Mom and I are still not well, but at least we're sleeping through the night. The dominant symptom has become drainage, resulting coughing, and a queasiness in the stomach that just doesn't go away.  None of this does quickly.

We were watching dinosaur movies this week, going through all the "Jurassic Park" movies now as we gear up for the new series ongoing at KidPak.  Maddie had never seen the second one, and the reason for this is that the movie just isn't that good.  But it's canon, and has one or two good lines or characters in it, so we rented that one tonight.  We'll move on to the third, fourth and fifth movies later on this week, I'm sure.  

We said our prayers tonight, and we read again from our book.  Maddie is reading her other book when she gets into her room, "The Mysterious Benedict Society."  She's wanting to get that one finished before the library needs it back, but hasn't had as much time for reading lately.  School is here, and it's going to fill the calendar quickly.

Memory Maps

The plague house continues here, but Maddie is okay, and so is Nana.  I managed to get Maddie over to taekwondo tonight too, although I just sit in the car in the parking lot, and hope for the best there.  She's doing just fine, and she had a good day at school.  Spanish is largely review at the moment, and there are some plays coming up in theater too.  Math is review at the moment, and there's a science quiz upcoming. Her geography class seems to be fun, one where she's making maps based on memory, somewhat like the earliest maps ever made.  Here's a memory map, something she's made using her recollection of where things are approximately...

I picked her up at school today, something I'm doing a few days a week, just to get her home quicker so she'll have enough time to make it to taekwondo.  The bus schedule is not favorable for that.  Apparently, her bus route takes her everywhere else before coming to our neighborhood, so she gets to see Celtic Point and Castlberry, two nearby neighborhoods that she had no idea were as large as they are.  They aren't huge, but when you're wanting to be home in a hurry while on a school bus, they're bigger than you'd think.

Maddie is still reading a book from the library, "The Mysterious Benedict Society," and is nearing the end of that one.  Just in time too, as it's due pretty soon.  She's enjoyed reading that one, and no doubt will be reading more of that series when the opportunity presents itself.  There is other reading to do for school though, some new assignments for ELA upcoming.  We'll cross all those bridges when we get to them.

We've been watching a few things at night, just a few like "Camp Cretaceous," or sometimes we have to catch up on programming like the latest episodes of "Monsters at Work."  We read at night still, and yes, that's still "Kingdom Keepers."  The team is currently on the Disney Dream, a cruise ship that Maddie remembers well.  The adventure is cruising on, and Maddie's enjoying the ride again.  Not actually on a cruise, but at least we can pretend we're on one with the team.  

We said our prayers tonight, and we went to bed early as we could.  Symptoms are still there, but it's easing off a little.  It's still there though, queasy stomach, drainage, cough, and so on.  Very persistent. We said our prayers, and were off to sleep not much later.

New Youth Series

We missed church this morning, as Mom isn't feeling well either.  Maddie was understanding, but I also didn't want her to miss out on youth tonight, as it's important to me that she gets in there in that environment as much as she can.  Tonight they were starting this new series with the youth, one that I had very little do with on the planning side of things, but it looks interesting!

Of course, I was there for all those faces and names, but Maddie probably isn't as familiar with them.  There was a lot of reminiscing with this series, as these younger guys here were having fun remembering songs, television shows and sports icons of that time in the early 2000's. 

 

As for the service itself, Maddie enjoyed it.  Obviously I wasn't there for this one.  It's been a bad, but at least I can get Maddie to church.  We read tonight from Kingdom Keepers, and we said our prayers.  At least I'm starting to sleep through the night now.  Maddie isn't sick either, so that's a huge plus.

Snozzcumbers

We planted cucumbers for the back garden, but what's come out doesn't resemble a cucumber at all.  They're more like these yellow squash or gourds or something, and they're all pretty ugly.  We've got some great produce coming out of the garden, from tomatoes to peppers and a huge amount of blueberries.  But these things are not a favorite at all of mom's, and there's a lot of them.  We call them snozzcumbers, although they don't look exactly as a the BFG's least favorite vegetable do.  But the resemblance is close enough, and it's kind of comical how we've got this super unattractive vegetable coming out of our garden.

Anyway, today was a birthday party for Maddie - she went over to a a friend's house to celebrate, and she had a great time, even despite the rain.  Mom and I are suffering through these symptoms though, in full swing now.  I'm guessing we'll be grounded the next week or so - it's been that bad.  But at least I can transport Maddie here or there.

Tonight we watched "Mitchells versus the Machines" together, and it was a really good movie I've been wanting to see for a while.  Everyone enjoyed it.  We got to bed early tonight, separate, miserable.  I'm still reading to Maddie, and we're saying our prayers together.  And thankfully she and Nana are okay.  But we're on high alert here.  We went to bed early tonight, or at least I tried to.  

Spirit Wear

Day two!  Maddie's wearing her East Forsyth t-shirt we got at open house, and it looks great with the general gray color that she likes to wear nowadays.  Long gone are the days of pink and so on.  She had a good day at school again, and we even learned of an upcoming field trip - a major one - in March.  We're talking Disney World with her theater group, and the band too.  It's a lot of money, but there's time to start saving up.  We're talking about it and how to make it work for her.  Mom and I might not be able to go anywhere, but at least we can send Maddie off.  At least that's the hope.

Today is Friday, so again there was taekwondo tonight, and a lot of it.  My symptoms rage on, so Mom and Nana took Maddie there.  We got back to watch some of our programming, including the last episode of season one of "The Mysterious Benedict Society."  It was good.  There are obviously some differences from the book, and as Maddie has been reading the book along with watching the show, she's been telling us about different things and events within.  She's almost wrapped up with that book too.

The Bad Batch feature the end of Tipoca City, which is such a great visit in the game "Battlefront II."  Maddie and I have spent hours there battling the Empire or whoever.  It turns out, in the end, the Empire wins, these ginormous star destroyers descending downward and raining down a punishing barrage of laser fire.  It was a sad ending to the episode, and it matched the tone of the revelation that one character Crosshair made moments earlier.  It's certainly a great cliffhanger episode - we were all sitting there with our jaws dropped, and nothing to do but wait a whole week for the next episode.

As mentioned earlier, I am sick.  I'm isolated, watching from a different room, sleeping in a different room - all of that.  We don't hold hands when we pray, but we do pray, and I do still read.  Tomorrow we can sleep in a little, but unfortunately, I haven't been sleeping much at night at all.  Hopefully that will change soon.