Stick Battle!

So tonight Maddie picked up her sword once more, swinging it around for a large percentage of the leadership class.  They were really training with these swords, moving from position to position.  It was a large class tonight too.

But that's not the end of practice... there were a lot of students in black belt class afterwards, and it was an odd number, and Maddie had been paired up with someone she's already been sparring, so it was time to face off against a new opponent, and who was that opponent?

Master Edge and Maddie clearly were both having a really great time with this, judging by the smiles on their faces.  He was very complimentary of her, and honestly, watching this was the highlight of the day.  It was about a minute or two, but that smile never left Maddie's face!

Here's someone not smiling.  It's a photo of our snowman today, and he seems a bit glum.  Surprisingly, he's still there after eight days or so of sunshine, and even a little bit of rain one day.  This morning, the squirrels were picking on his backside somewhat, which was amusing.  Poor guy!

Maddie had a good day at school - she's got a good bit of homework tonight, and I was there to pick up her at school, which is what happens each Monday afternoon.  Usually I get to read in the car, or listen to some podcasts - lately there's been a Sherlock Holmes series I'm listening to, and a Presidential one that goes through the Presidents one by one.  Today was all about William Henry Harrison, who I learned probably did not die of pneumonia as I've always thought, but in fact may have fell victim to a terrible plumbing situation at the White House.  In fact, that terrible source of water for the Executive mansion may be responsible for the deaths of not only him, but a later President as well.  It's hard to fathom that something so obvious is responsible for something so dire.  It's terribly sad too.

Anyway, we were taking down ornaments today, putting up puzzle pieces and so on.  I was listening to some stuff as I was walking on the treadmill, and Mom was doing a lot of cleaning up where she could.  The neighborhood cat has been spending more time with us, sitting on the bed up in our bedroom taking long naps, and then getting ready to go out and chase the squirrels after eating some of the tuna Mom puts out for him.

We read from "The Syndrome" tonight, and Maddie has been keeping up with her chronological reading of the Bible.  She's at the story of Joseph currently.  Mom and I have been watching episodes of "The Chosen," which has been really good.  Tonight's episode showed friends lowering a paralytic man through the roof to see Jesus.  It's all really well done, and will change a lot about the presentation of passion plays from this point on.  

We said our prayers tonight, and went to bed, this time with a new guest inside the house.  Our neighborhood cat was sleeping on some cushions we brought in from the front porch, and amazingly slept through most of the night right there.  He was worn out!  He's been happy here, and quite content.  And quite comfortable apparently!