Northern Flicker

I've been waiting to catch this one with the camera - this looks like a red bellied woodpecker, but the light brown coloring overall suggests that it is actually a Northern Flicker, which is where Mom leans on this.  It's clearly different than the red bellied ones that we have.  Like the red bellied woodpecker, these particular birds are larger than most, which makes you think they have a more dominant attitude of sorts.  But they're a little skittish.  They see the slightest movement inside the house, inside the window, and they fly off as quickly as possible.  That said, I've been waiting on this picture for a few months now - the red bellied one is difficult enough, but this one is more rare still.  Mom set up some new suet in the feeder and that was the attraction.

Pretty cool.  I got another square filled out with Exotic Bird Bingo! 

Anyway, today was a recovery day of sorts.  I did a walk with a new series in Oregon this morning, at least on the iFit, and it's been encouraging - we're learning about depression, looking at the clover model, and then looking at a few simple things that can help attack seasonal depression (water, warmth, sunlight).  Interesting and insightful, and then there's the walking while learning.  

Poor Mom.  So overwhelmed with costumes this season.  It's tough.  She's at the sewing machine racing against time, listening to her phone and drinking tea as she works on these dancer costumes.  Meanwhile, I was working on Sunday and helping out with the costumes from yesterday, taking them back to the church to put by my desk.  I was doing a lot of other work there too - squeezing in what I could.

Maddie was at school, of course.  There was a pep rally today that was fun, one where one teacher tried to tip the scales in the favor of the teachers vs. sophomores.  It didn't help enough, as the sophomores won to much excitement.  It was a fun Friday here.  It sounds like it's a scary Friday elsewhere though, as another round of big storms is coming in across the Southeast.  More rain.  More storms.

Mom and I finished the online Exodus teaching this morning, and it was fantastic.  We got a 100% on the final exam, and we learned quite a few new little things along the way.  So glad we took the class!  There were eight online classes and some really fascinating thoughts about classic passages we've read time and again.  

Look at this card that Maddie made!  She has a friend in taekwondo that has a birthday coming up, and he likes Shrek a lot, so she spent a bit of time with the idea of making a really goofy looking Shrek card.  Mission accomplished!  But it's actually pretty fun and good quality!  

We were sitting down to watch something tonight, and that's when Mom discovered online some new connections to other famous people in history.  Look at this list:

George Washington (7th cousin, seven times removed), FDR, Ginger Rogers, Elvis Presley (11th cousin, three times removed), Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth (eleventh cousin, three times removed), John Wayne, Susan B. Anthony, Winston Churchill, Wilbur Wright, Jaqueline Kennedy, Judy Garland (14th cousin).

Yes, Mom is in line for the throne of England!  Ironically, it's through her dad's side of the family, but there it is.  All we need to do is eliminate all those hundreds of thousands of other in-between folks, and Mom can be the new Queen of England, and of course that makes Maddie a princess.  But we always knew she was a princess, so there's that.

Tonight was taekwondo, and yes the card was handed to her friend after everyone signed it.  It was nice though.  Maddie was doing some sparring and she was also helping as a guest instructor too.  It was challenging, but she was patient and hanging in there.  

The rain!  It's raining again.  Pouring!  Always a tough ride home.  We stopped by the grocery store and picked up some more Lucky Charms cereal, and got some crackers for that Irish cheese we picked up from Aldi's earlier.  There were a few blends of cheese from Ireland that sounded interesting.  I'm a sucker for seasonal holiday food.  We got home after that, and our movie of the night was inspired once again by our recent Disney Cruise - the cruise director was a big fan of "Big Hero 6," to the point that she did the fist bump all the time.  On top of that, the movie itself was playing on the Funnel Vision screen on the eleventh deck by the pool.  We were watching that for a few moments on the boat, and that got us all wanting to see it again when we got home, so tonight we were back with the heroes, even to the point after the credits where Stan Lee makes one of his famous cameos.

We read again tonight, and we slept easily to the sound of heavy rain outside.  Tomorrow's another big day - hopefully a little dryer, maybe?