Quote #9.

Sorry for the delay. It was a busy weekend and start of the week (which I'll detail more soon) so I'm a bit behind. ;) I find the quote I picked ironic... 

No great thing is created suddenly. –Epictetus

I’ve never appreciated the saying that patience is a virtue. I’m an impatient sort. ;) I’m working, though, on reminding myself that some things are worth the wait and that doing things right may take time. Sigh. Here’s to acknowledging the potential advantages of time…

First karate tournament.

Asher and Micah had their first "official" karate tournament earlier today. It was a fun opportunity for them to see what a "big" karate tournament would be like, but in the comfort of their own school and classmates. They broke the kids into small groups of 2 or 3 to "compete" in their forms (sets of memorized steps including blocks and punches and such). The groups were designed to place similarly aged and ranked kids together (and meant that everyone placed no lower than third). Each child had to individually walk up, bow and present themselves (they had certain things they were supposed to say...about five lines...Asher was to memorize his but they offered to help the kids in Micah's division, as they'd not told them the lines ahead of time). After that, they performed their form and then awaited their scores from the 4-5 judges. 

Micah and the other "pee wees" went first. Micah was the last in his group of three to go. He surprised the judges by having memorized the lines from the couple of practice runs they'd done just before starting. (I'm sure it didn't hurt that he'd been watching Asher practice at home this week, lol...plus, the kid actually does have a really good memory.) He did a great job and snagged the gold medal:

He's, um, freakin' proud of himself. :)

After that, the larger group of kids were split up (more roughly by age and size than rank this time). Asher did a similarly beautiful job:

In the end, Asher came away with a silver medal, having scored very slightly below the orange belt in his group (he's still a white belt, so two full belts below orange) but having scored higher than the yellow belt in his group (belts go white, yellow, orange). He was less thrilled than Micah but still very happy...and knows he did a great job. :)

Tomorrow, we'll go watch day two of the tournament...sparring. Asher was eligible to compete but opted to observe this time around, particularly since he's only just started back to sparring sessions in the past couple weeks after getting his cast off. 

And. A great big THANK YOU to all who donated to St. Jude's and helped Asher and Micah reach their goal for this fundraiser/tournament! You rock! (Apparently, the boys will receive a bronze medal (and some other stuff) for their efforts...though that will come after the tournament. Asher and Micah agreed ahead of time to share whatever incentive they reached.) They both very much appreciate your help!

President's Day.

1. Micah would like to know why he didn't get any President's Day cupcakes. It just so happens that his class at Options has gotten cupcakes for the last few weeks (for Valentine's and for student birthdays). He felt deprived today. :)

2. When I explained to the boys that today is President's Day, I also asked them (just for curiosity's sake) what one new law they would push for if they were president. Here are their answers:

Micah: "I'd make it so schools couldn't start until 10:00." 

Asher: "I'd have schools start at 10:30 but I'd have us go to Options two times a week to make up for the later start."

(Yes, I happened to ask this in the morning...whilst they were still complaining about having to wake up early this one day each week. And, yes, they know that they're fortunate that they only have to wake up early on Mondays. It doesn't prevent them from complaining about it, lol.)

Noah: "I'd require the government to give everyone over the age of 8 a free iPhone 4 and then make all cell service in the United States free. Sure, it might put the government into more debt, but I'd have a cell phone." ;)

(This was his "final" answer after debating with himself about the possibility of requiring everyone in the world to speak just one language (to which Asher pointed out that I'd only said President of the United States, not of the world) or requiring everyone to switch to the metric system (which he admitted was more doable and "so obvious").) 

3. Yeah, I didn't really have a third point. Just wanted to document these quick thoughts. ;)

Science Fair Prep.

Just a few quick pictures. Yesterday, the boys worked on their science fair projects. (We've been talking things through for awhile now but this was the first actual action beyond reading stuff and making lists and gathering supplies, lol.) Asher made models to illustrate the formation of our moon:

Micah painted the planets in our solar system:

And Noah did something with a bunch of acids and bases:

(I'm not entirely clear on Noah's project...am leaving that up to him and Nathan this year, lol.)

Need to just finish up the various write-ups and will report back after the actual Science Fair. :)

Quote #8.

Here's today's:

Indecision may or may not be my problem. –Jimmy Buffett

I can’t think of a better quote than this right now. I don’t know if it’s due to too many options or too much on my mind or the simple inability to make a choice. There ya have it.

I suffer from this often, actually. But acknowledging the problem is the first step, right? ;)