St. Andrew the First-Called Day

In Georgia, but not the state, today is St. Andrew the First-Called Day.  They seem certain about his being first-called, but there's possibly some debate about it.  But for the sake of the day, we'll give him a pass.  One reason was this first trivia question Camille's online small group had tonight.

We were sort of weak on holidays today, so we went with the "Andrew" theme, and extended it to all Andrews, or at least the ones the girls could recognize.  Like this one here:

And here's another that the girls probably knew the answer to right away:

The girls had their small group tonight, and it was nice again, something Maddie really looks forward to, as do all the other girls in the group.  It's much-needed, and I'm so grateful to Camille, as is Maddie, I'm sure.  It's just great to have girl-time like that.  

It was an ordinary day today, the second-to-last Thursday of the school year, as Maddie was saying earlier.  We were over at the middle school in Gainesville earlier with the KidPak gang, doing one last after school service of the school year. 

Tonight we were at taekwondo, of course, for leadership and also helping the younger students as an assistant teacher.  Maddie is doing well, and will be testing next Monday, the halfway point of this journey towards her second-degree black belt.  Amazing the passage of time - how long we were looking forward and working towards that black belt, and here we are already moving towards the second-degree status.  She was practicing her form lately, and she's looking outstanding.  Her sparring is so clever too, really a mental calculation with quick strikes.  She balances well and extends her foot, pulling back and then striking out with calculated precision.  It's fun to watch her spar agains fellow students, and she's really enjoying it too.  When doing her form, instructors don't have as many corrections or adjustments to suggest to her, because she's got it down so well.  It's a really amazing thing to watch.  You could almost compare it to ballet, the precision and artistry, but at the same time there's this strength and speed that are on display.  It's great, or to quote Tucker after practice, "that was awesome!"

We got home tonight and there wasn't much time for watching anything, but we did eat.  Mom has been making these chicken dumplings that are amazing, and Maddie had some tacos too.  But she wanted to get a shower and there was of course the small group.  So we skipped watching anything tonight, and soon enough we were reading again, the whole gang up there in bed.  And then we were saying our prayers, and ready for sleep.