No Taco title

 

Maddie’s pov:

This keyboard for the iPad is tiny omg

 

Anyway, the pic above is me trying to draw pics in procreate as Polaroids cause why not. I’ll probably be going back to doing Stardew Valley today real quick.

As you can read above, today was a completely epic sort of day.  Okay, maybe that was a big sarcastic.  But we're about to have an epic weekend with Forward, and today we were doing all kinds of prep for that of course, including trips down to the Gas South Arena in advance, running through things and rehearsing.  The church temporarily relocates to that arena down there, and we have free rein of the place, although there are tags we wear that determine who gets to go in what hallways.  I have the good tag again, as I'm doing voice work for a robot, a new channel host, and a walrus.  Which is absolutely ridiculous to type out, of course.  I'm doing a lot more than that, and so will Maddie.  It's going to be a great weekend.

Tonight was the prayer meeting for Forward, and all the youth got together for that at the Gainesville campus, getting ready for the weekend.  There were other things going on tonight too, of course, including snow cones and outside games.  It was a nice evening.

We made time to watch "Secret Invasion" tonight, a new series that starts today with Nick Fury as the main star.  It's a darker series, a thriller of sorts, and we'll see how things go.  But we keep up with all things Marvel lately, and Nick Fury has been with us in the MCU since 2008.  Yeah, that's fifteen years ago.  Wow.  I remember that moment too - it was one month before we met Maddie.  Mom and I went over to see "Iron Man" after church, and we had no idea that this was the beginning of the MCU and all the subsequent movies and series.  

Anyway, we read tonight and we said our prayers.  It's a busy season.  Also a tiring one.  But it's going to be an unforgettable weekend coming up.  Maddie's excited about it!

Mandalorian Message

Pretty quiet day today.   Maddie was doing Stardew Valley for a good party of the day, and even tonight we were doing some video games - Maddie and I were playing "The Lone Ranger" some more, and again, this is just a fun game.  We were making up our own games within the game itself, which usually means hide-and-seek and things like that. 

So we're moving forward with a Star Wars series again, the fourth one, at KidPak.  It starts in August and goes probably into October a bit. We'll be building a Tatooine set on the stage, likely, and so now we're sort of thinking of ideas for new costumes and new messages.  We'll probably use a lot of the same material from before, as it was pretty successful.  We have some great old messages, and Josh made some fantastic videos for that as well.  But we hadn't done something for "The Mandalorian" yet, and so we had some ideas.  For a time, we thought about a new title for our series, and Camille even made this fantastic graphic.

But ultimately, we're good with the same title as we did before.  Still, this graphic is so good we'll be putting it on a t-shirt hopefully.  The last "Star Wars" theme shirt we made sold a whole lot and was really, really popular - so we'll see!  Meanwhile, here's the new message we were working on, one based on that Mandalorian series.

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“This is the Way”

    This is the Way.  Throughout the Star Wars series, “The Mandalorian,” this one phrase is repeated time and again.  These words are a reminder to each Mandalorian how they are to live their lives.  It’s a code of honor, something held very sacred.  But who are the Mandalorians?  They are somewhat like the knights of old, a noble group of warriors who live by that code of honor, always wearing their sacred beskar armor as they go forth in life.  

     Din Jjarin and his newfound friend Grogu are Mandalorians now, although they were once known as foundlings with no family to speak of.  But as we see in this series, they are indeed adopted into a very special family.  Their story is filled with challenges and adventure, but it is also one that shows the importance of following the Way.

     Some of this might sound familiar if you read your Bibles.  Some time ago, Jesus told us that He himself was the Way, the Truth and the Life.  As Christians, we follow Him and the code of love that he set up for us to live by.  Like the Mandalorians, we are set aside for a higher purpose.  Our footsteps are ordered of the Lord, and we listen for His voice to tell us, “This is the way, walk in it.”

     And also like the Mandalorians, we put on our Full Armor of God.  We should never take off our helmet of salvation, and the rest of the armor is equally important.  It may take a few moments to put on all that armor, but each day we need to prepare ourselves, reading, praying, and getting ready to follow the Way.

     So are you ready for adventure?  God has adopted us as a part of His family, and He wants to add many more.  You have something they want:  a message of His love for everyone on this planet.  God doesn’t want anyone to perish, so put on that full armor and get ready for action.  This is the way!

“This is the Way”

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6 NIRV

 

“It is true that I worship the God of our people. I am a follower of the Way of Jesus. Those bringing charges against me call it a cult. I believe everything that is in keeping with the Law. I believe everything that is in keeping with what is written in the Prophets.” Acts 24:14 NIRV

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30:21 NIV

 

     “Finally, let the Lord make you strong. Depend on his mighty power.  Put on all of God’s armor. Then you can remain strong against the devil’s evil plans.  Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world.  So put on all of God’s armor. Evil days will come. But you will be able to stand up to anything. And after you have done everything you can, you will still be standing.  So remain strong in the faith. Put the belt of truth around your waist. Put the armor of godliness on your chest.  Wear on your feet what will prepare you to tell the good news of peace.  Also, pick up the shield of faith. With it you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Put on the helmet of salvation. And take the sword of the Holy Spirit. The sword is God’s word.
     At all times, pray by the power of the Spirit. Pray all kinds of prayers. Be watchful, so that you can pray. Always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Ephesians 6:10-18 NIRV

1.     This is the _________.  In the Star Wars galaxies, the Mandalorians are a people that are set apart from others, following a sacred code and reminding each another, “This is the way.”  We’re not too different from these noble warriors.  We too and set apart, but for a much higher calling.  We follow the Way – His name is Jesus, and his code is love.  He’s called us and set us apart to show others the Way, the Truth, and the Light.  
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6 NIRV
a. end                          b. way                         c.  ugnaught

2.     Put on your full ______________.  A Mandalorian’s armor is everything, and some are told to never remove their helmet.  Our armor is mighty, which is why our Bibles tell us we should put it on each day – the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, and more.  
“Put on all of God’s armor. Then you can remain strong against the devil’s evil plans.” Ephesians 6:11 NIRV
a. weaponry               b. armor                     c.  moon

3.     We’re all _____________.  At first they are lost, but Din Djarin and Grogu are both adopted into a new family.  It’s a pretty cool one, too!  But we’re adopted also!  God Himself wanted to adopt us into His family too, because of what Jesus has done, and there’s no greater family.  This is the way!
“So He decided long ago to adopt us.  He adopted us as His children with all the rights children have.  He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done.  It pleased God to do it.” Ephesians 1:5 NIRV
a. foundlings              b. armorers                c.  bounty hunters

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It was a decent day today - summer is moving along one day at a time here, and of course there's a lot still to come.  We closed out the day with reading, and with prayers of course.  Getting a good night's rest now, because things are about to get busy!

An Inconvenient Tooth

Pretty average summer day!  Except for the dental work that I had to have done.  Yeah, this back tooth was the molar story of the summer!  If only the Tooth Fairy could be there for me - I could sure use a friend in that dentist chair.  I can see him now in that pilot's hat with the goggles, what looks like a mailman uniform and of course the tiny wings on the back that no one ever would make fun of.  That would be nice to see him drop in my view out the window of the new dental facility.  This was an "Inconvenient Tooth."  Root canals are no fun, Maddie.  Brush your teeth and stay safe.  Floss, and probably biggest of all, see a dentist a few times a year for those regular cleanings that make sure you won't have to do this so much.  As for why I myself had to have it done, the reason was grinding.  Yeah, stress.  I have a mouthpiece that I've gotten used to.  It helps with the nighttime grinding.  

Anyway, Maddie had her taekwondo tonight, and that was good.  We had a lot of rain.  Again.  We'r not talking the occasional storms, but rather the frequent amount of rain that defines places like Seattle or the Northwestern Coast.  I'm not entirely sure how we wound up in this pattern, but I'm grateful for the lower temperatures at least.  And the fact that it doesn't seem to rain on us when we plan outdoor activities.  We've made this summer work.  Or rather, we've had help from God on that count. 

So it's a rather quiet day, and the root canal may have something to do with that on my end.  But we do have a butterfly bush outside that I want to share some pictures of.  One of the reasons for that is that we have actual hummingbird moths on our property now, which is pretty cool.  This may be a fairly mundane thing, but I just didn't know of their existence until a year or two ago, and I think they're pretty nifty.  These aren't as big as the ones I saw at the Botanical Gardens earlier, but it also may be early in the season.  Regardless, they're pretty cool.  Here are a few pictures of our butterfly bush with some visitors, including the world-famous hummingbird moth:

As for the rest of the day, it was simple.  We read some tonight, and we said our prayers of course.  Things are busy here, but we're doing okay!  Here's Maddie's take on the day:

Maddie's pov:

So it was a pretty average summer day. I had taekwondo today and we were working with kamas. It was fun. We had also did some tricking and kicks. In black belt class, we did sparring (again) but whatever along with forms. Dad had went to the dentist this morning for his root canal stuff. A lot of rain...

Father's Day 2023

 

It's Father's Day, and this is the card that Maddie made for me - she started out with the stamps, leaves, water and figures there, making a nice little scene, but then noticed the angle there of the horizon.  At which point, Mom made a suggestion that it was the Titanic, and now I have a Titanic-themed Father's Day card.  With palm leaves.  It was a fun card, and then I opened it up...

Ha!  It was laugh out loud funny!  Maddie was laughing too - it was a really nice card, and both she and Mom got me a really cool gift for Father's Day:

This is the Electric Mayhem's first album, so I actually  now own a vinyl record from some of my favorite Muppet characters.  Of course I put the record on right away, listening to both sides.  The record itself is really groovy.  Yes, it has grooves in it.  But furthermore, it's this translucent purple color, and the cover of the album itself is psychedelic, and just amazing.  

So what did I want for Father's Day?  Well, went to Colby, Texas for a revisit with an old game we had a really good time with.  

The Lone Ranger and Tonto ride again!  We were exploring this old Western town, completing missions, and just largely folding around to be honest.  There's the things the programmers planned for players to do, and then there's the stuff we always wind up doing, which usually involves fighting each other with cannons and gatling guns.  And mystical Indian spirits too.  The aesthetic of the game is nice, and the memories of playing this with Maddie for the first time back ten years ago... nice memories.  

The fledging wrens are loose!  They have a little empire there in the room where we store the wood, the three of the fledglings having free rein there.  The parents pop in and out, bringing all kinds of food, much of it coming from our feeders just a few feet away.  They have a pretty good set up there!

So we had another good morning at KidPak this morning.  A family emergency left me doing an entirely new and goofy skit for this morning, but I actually really enjoyed it.  Maddie and Skylar were friends of Jeremiah, who had a fun character on the verge of a big life changing decision:  would he do a dare and have them record himself eating a piece of cheese off the ground?

Fortunately, some time travelers from the future come and tell him the bad results of what would happen if he succumbs to peer pressure and allies himself with people he shouldn't.  It was a simple sort of skit, but it was pretty fun.  The kids were laughing all the way through.

It was a good day.  We closed out tonight watching "Frequency," which is a great Father's Day movie if you think about it.  It's also somewhat of a time travel movie, so there's that.  Maddie hasn't seen it before, but enjoyed the mystery and the twists and turns.  There's a lot of concept to this movie, and it's one of our old favorites from the past.

We closed out the day with some more time travel, as we read about Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect going backwards in time on the planet Earth.  It hasn't been revealed yet, but it's somewhat of a cliffhanger on the way.  They're way back there in the past, so what happens next?  We'll be reading "Life, the Universe, and Everything" next to find out!

After prayers, it was time for bed.  It was a noisy night though - we had another one of those very loud thunderstorms coming through that made it difficult to sleep through all the fireworks.  It's going to be rainy all week - a very wet summer so far.

Visit with Nana

We had a visit with Nana this afternoon, and there were plenty of smiles - and that was good.  She's got her teddy bears, and for a few hours this afternoon we were there to share pictures of our recent goings-ons, as well as bring her favorite grapes and orange cuties.  We watched a large portion of the "Trooping the Color" from England, so Nana could watch King Charles and the royals there in a very formal ceremony with plenty of equestrian choreography.  

It was a nice little visit.  Nana is decidedly weaker, and she asks certain questions with more frequency, with plenty of repetition.  But we get her on the phone with her brother in England, and then we spoke to Uncle George, her son on the phone too.  Maddie brought along her Mad-lib book, and she gets the three of us to give her words to write in, afterwards reading the story.  Those will be precious mad-libs someday, the ones that Nana contributed to.  

This morning we were at Team Edge practice, and I was grocery shopping too.  I got everything we need, except there's a coconut water shortage, and at certain stores there is a distinct lack of tater tots.  It's a Tater Tot emergency!  I got back to watch the rest of Maddie's training, and they were doing a group game, one of those mysteries where one of them was a killer, one was a healer, and one was a detective.  Maddie was the detective in the last round I saw, and she correctly identified the killer before he could viciously murder any more innocent villagers.  

It was a good morning.  Tonight after visiting with Nana, we went over to see the latest Spider-man movie,  "Across the Spider-verse."  It was a good movie, but left us with a massive non-ending, a huge cliffhanger.  The animation in this movie is amazing, and the Easter eggs are plenty.  Lots of things for us older Spider-man fans, and so much going on throughout.  We sat in our spots at the back of the theater and enjoyed the movie together, along with many others.  Spider-man is doing great at the box office, with one big hit after another, but also some great quality movies.

The three of us went to Applebee's after that, and it was a nice meal there with plenty of options for Mom.  She got ribs, of course, while Maddie and I got something to eat along with some onion rings as an appetizer.  It was a nice time together.

We got home afterwards, and we got to bed on time.  There was reading, and there were prayers.  We have an early morning tomorrow at KidPak, and it should be another nice day.

Falling Bread

 

While up in Tennessee last week we were feeding the ducks quite a bit, which is why we had several slices of bread and biscuits as well.  And somewhere along the line, we began to discuss falling bread, and how people are sharing videos of falling slices of bread online.  You know, the ones that stand up right for a moment and then flop over?  Maddie thought why not film a slice of bread falling over for herself?  One thing that's funny about this video is that there's this view from the balcony behind us, the Little Pigeon River running by, a picturesque setting there by a camping ground and a generally peaceful vista.  Yet the camera is turned inward and down, looking at this slice of bread and watching it fall over.  There must be a demand for seeing this sort of thing, because within a few hours, there were over 150 views when Maddie shared this video on her online account.  Mom suggested naming it "Fainting Bread," and there we are.  I think that this might not be the last slice of falling bread we film this summer!

It was a quiet Friday.  I was down in Braselton rehearsing for Forward Conference, but also writing up a skit for Sunday, something I didn't plan on doing but there was a family emergency with the girl who was going to write it, so I stepped in with a crazy time traveler madlib that should work.

Anyway, here are some pictures from Braselton...

A few of our Forward hosts, running through the flow on a small stage - before doing the whole thing in front of thousands next week.

I snuck in to see KidPak in Braselton - the lights were off in the auditorium, but the stage lights looked pretty cool there.  We mirror the set in Gainesville with what we do, and this looks pretty fun.

In the warehouse there is so much space, with props all over on shelves and pallets and on the ground, and styrofoam pieces piled up here or there.  I thought this arrangement here looked interesting, a styrofoam landscape.  Reminds me of something from that first "Tron" movie.

Ah, and there's Jerome the dinosaur.  Good to see our old friend from our "Lost World" series.  It's as if the photographer here is hiding in a darkened room, nervously waiting for the dangerous raptor to lurch by the window, desperately hoping that the dinosaur doesn't crash through that window or doorway!

I got home, and we got Maddie to taekwondo for her class.  I finished up the script there, and caught up on this blog too.  Maddie is doing well, of course, and having a good time in class.  There's always something to talk about afterwards, all the way home.  Lots of excitement and adventures - or occasional misadventures - with friends.  Maddie is pretty happy to be learning some more with nunchucks lately, and honestly, who wouldn't be?

We got home and finally got around to seeing "Avatar 2."  It's three hours and sixteen minutes long, and we just want to make sure we have enough time to see it!  Anyway, we're glad to have finally seen it!  The movie was actually really good, and we've discovered that running theme through Disney movies in this season:  animal rights.  This movie and the last "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie feature a strong theme of fighting against cruelty to animals.  Unlike other messages from them of late, this is one that everyone should agree with.  The story is great, and the CGI and effects are magnificent - you hardly notice the playing time, in fact, as things move along so well.  

It was a good day.  We read tonight, and we're approaching the end of this story with Ford and Arthur stuck on a mysterious planet that has yet to be identified.  And Zaphod and Trillian have moved on after meeting the ruler of the universe, a generally nice guy.

We said our prayers, and then it was time for bed.  We were all a bit tired, but tomorrow we can sleep in a bit and enjoy a new day.

Seventeen

Maddie had a big birthday today.  Yes, she's finally turning... 

It was a pretty nice day today.  She had a few friends over, and the entire theme of the afternoon was board games.  And I love that idea.  One of the greatest things you can do with friends is a simple thing:  gather around a board game or have a card game ready, and just spend some time playing.  

You can see here that Maddie had her Polaroid camera ready to take a few pictures from her birthday gathering.  She's got an app on her phone that allows her to collect those photos taken and make digital copies:

And of course there was time for a selfie with her phone as well.  The girls were playing games her for about four or five hours this afternoon, and it was super nice.

There were all the traditional moments of a birthday party, including pizza and decorations and birthday presents.  There were also cards made and signed by her friends, some of them handmade and very nice.

We had gotten Maddie a few things, including an Funko Pop Alligator Loki, and new Mad-libs because she's been having so much fun with those lately.  

We also got her the same exact box of pastels that we saw the chalk artist use last week when we were speaking with her.  She brought out the box to show us, and we were able to find it online easily, get the same exact one, and wrap that up for her birthday.  

Maddie was really enjoying seeing this lady's work, visiting about three times over the course of the week just to come up and see her.  

But here's the neat thing we got for her, the "main event" sort of thing:

It was an iPad.  We're going to put this art program on there and she'll be able to do some creative work once we get that pen.  We'll get that soon.  But she was pretty excited to get a new iPad.  She'll have fun with that.

It was a really nice time!  The girls were playing games, eating, sharing, opening presents, and just enjoying the summer afternoon together.  After all the noise of last week, and all the activity next week, it's just good to sit back and relax and have a quiet afternoon together!

As always, Mom did so well with decorations and preparations.  She had a card-theme going, with cupcakes she made, table cloth and the wall hangings.  Maddie blew up the balloons too, which are still hanging up there now. 

It was a good day today.  One of her friends stayed even later, and that's okay.  Maddie had a good day today, a really nice one.  She's officially seventeen!