Good morning!

At least it was morning when I wrote this. Blgoger threw fits.

Dad got off just fine early Wednesday morning (I think his flight was 4:45 or 5) and, if everything went well, is spending the night in Taipei (That looks wrong. My brain has fried and is not spelling today.) right now. BJ found a gullible King Car person that would actually take him until his flight for Kinmen leaves our Thursday afternoon, their Friday morning.

The weather has been beautiful here so we're doing loads of yard work: burning, pruning (those two are separate! Do not try to prune with fire!), moving dirt from high spots to low spots, fertilizing, dusting chickens and spreading compost. That will probably be the rest of this week. We'll clean on Saturday, take Sunday off, and then start on painting the floor of the new room. We thought "Why spend money on carpet we don't want? Let's save up for tile or wood floors and just paint the floor until then." So that's what we're doing. And somewhere amid the yard work and painting we have to do BJ's fafsa, Samuel's taxes, schoolwork (ha!), and keep everybody fed and clothed. I love being busy in the springtime!

Please pray for me to get a lot of chemistry and Spanish done! I'm frighteningly behind.

I got to fight both the Mr. Mu.s Monday night. I did fairly well against Jason. I've noticed that I've been focusing so much on getting my backfist and reverse punch fast and scoring with them enough that I'm not throwing enough combinations. Particularly I need to get my ridge hand faster (less telegraphing) and incorporate it, flip kicks, and inverse roundhouses with my backfist and reverse punch. I would also like to get in the habit of sticking my sidekick in the way of charging opponents.

I'm playing Ashoken Farewell on my violin for a special at church this Sunday. I'm just starting to get nervious.

Isaac has been learning the concept of borrowing in subtraction. He's a smart little fellow. We've been using, as our verbal sequencially challenged family says, the Mathison Mort blocks.

Mama, Naomi, and I went to Mardell's after band Tuesday to pick up Christian, American things for Dad to give away in Taiwan. I wandered over to the book section and found a book about C.S. Lewis and Freud that a PBS special was based off of. I was positively drooling. I couldn't talk myself to spending $15 bucks but I did spend $9 on a little notepad and something I can't say because we're giving one just like it to Ethan on the 13th. Oddly enough I've felt like he's been 15 for a while.

I'm hoping to tie-dye today or tomorrow a t-shirt for Rita's birthday. I think I'll do myself a pair of socks, too.

I better shut this down and get to work. Me and God love y'all!