Around the House

• Hannah has found her sport ... rock climbing. She took a class in it for her PE credit this semester and went on to buy extra sessions at the MSC (Student Union) climbing wall. She and her instructor and a varying group of enthusiasts just keep climbing and climbing. She always looked fit and trim but now she's buff ... poking her arm is like poking a board.


• Rose passed her second Kung Fu test and now has a purple badge on her belt. In conversation about the class I found out that one of her instructors evidently is nationally famous. People come from all over to special sessions he holds a few times a year. What impression does this make on Rose? Not much. He is her "Sigun" (sp?) which means her master's master. Her master (instructor) is her "Sifu" (sp?). Each teaches one session a week and Sigun holds them to a much tougher standard than Sifu ... which is to be expected I'm sure.
  


• Rose also got her driver's license last Friday. I now invoke the intercession of the angels and saints every morning when she leaves to drive the carpool to school. I'm only partially nervous about her driving. I'm much more nervous about everyone else out there...


• Tom and I are now reading a devotional together right before bed. The only problem is finding something that he likes. His plain common sense pokes a hole in the selections we've tried so far. It's kind of like reading with Goldilocks ... this one's too preachy, this one's too simplistic, that one's too touchy-feelie. And he's always right. We may wind up reading a book together, something simple that can be read a few pages at a time ... maybe The Screwtape Letters. We'll see.
  


• Rose had an English paper about honor and justice for which she had to watch a variety of Westerns. She watched High Noon, The Magnificent Seven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and Rio Bravo. Rio Bravo was an unexpected delight and has become one of her favorite movies. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence on the other hand ... what a disappointment it was to Tom and me who always have had it held up as an example of Western elegance. Not only was the heavy handed script a complete disappointment but it showed up Jimmy Stewart's acting style in a way that I may never be able to forgive. Oy veh, how we all hated that movie.


• We were going to put up the tree last weekend and then Rose reminded me on Friday that Hannah probably would want to be there too. I can't believe I didn't think of that but I'm certainly grateful that she did! The funniest part was that when Tom came home that evening, he said, "We can't put up the tree without Hannah here!" I said, "Oh, I know! She'd be so disappointed." He looked at me with a funny look on his face and said, "I didn't think of that. But I sure don't want to do all that with only three people!" Oh how different we can be!