In between trying to read through the Bible in 100 days, discovering a new-to-me TV show, and the daily fatigue from getting up early to take Calvin to soccer every morning my writing has taken a big hit. So far I’ve managed to stay on track with the Bible reading (except for the few days that I binge watched Revenge so I skipped Deuteronomy and will catch up on that book later) and am part way through Judges. I’ve read these books before, but not in such big chunks each day. There’s a whole lot of blood and a whole lot of killing of both people and animals. It’s a bit disturbing — especially when entire families are killed for the wrongdoing of the head of the household. My goal this time is just to read through, not study, so I keep plowing on.
Balancing out my holy pursuits is my love for Revenge. In real life it’s in its 4th season, but since I’ve been in a Middle Eastern time warp I only discovered it last week. Ironically my sister was trying to recommend a different show, but I mistakenly started this one instead and love it. It’s about a wealthy family in the Hamptons who uses their money and power to hide all the illegal and unethical actions they take to preserve their wealth and power. In the pilot a woman moves into their neighborhood with the sole intent of entering their exclusive circle and getting revenge on all the people who wronged her when she was a child. At the beginning of the series each episode focused on her plan of revenge for a particular character. It’s also told with a bit of flash forward/flash back so I may find out that someone dies in the first episode, but not how or who did it until many episodes later. Each show unveils more pieces of the puzzle.
As we’ve moved further in, the show has lost some of its cleverness and preciseness and turned into more of a big picture soap opera (a character was even in a coma last night. Thankfully no one has had amnesia yet!) but it’s fun, pretty clean for a TV show for adults, and I love seeing what the writers come up with as they weave a story full of twists and turns. I love when a show is unpredictable.
Alas, I am totally predictable. We went to another rug flop last week and surprise! (or not) came home with another rug. We went just to have a fun night out with friends, but this 40+ year old Qashqai was too pretty to pass up. I saw it and thought it looked like the baby cousin of the rug that I just bought for Josh’s birthday (similar colors and shapes with the little medallions sprinkled throughout) so when he said “Qashqai” I wasn’t surprised. (And quickly raised my hand to snag it before someone else could say they wanted it.)
It was a good price and the cat seems to especially like it — he stretches out and rolls around on it like he owns it. One for the dog, one for the cat, one for me . . .
We are heading into the last week of the semester so a few days ago Camille and I went to school to watch Carter perform in his drama final. His class performed several plays for the elementary school kids and any parents who were able to attend. When we arrived in the auditorium Caleb frantically waved and called Camille over to sit with him and his friends. She’s such a lucky girl.
Carter with the cast of his play: Fractured Fairy Tales’ Little Red Riding Hood. The general story of Red, the grandmother, and the Wolf, but with a comedic twist. Red is an airhead, the Narrator (Carter) interacts with the characters and in the end Red is saved by a prince/woodsman who has to be told which story he is in because he first tries to save Cinderella. The kids all thought the show was very funny. Especially at the climax of the play when the fight scene was set to the song Kung Foo Fighting and all the characters did marshal arts moves in slow motion.
Carter was expressive, projected well (no microphones in a large room), and seemed very comfortable on stage. It was my favorite play of the 3 that were performed. (of course!)
After he took a bow, he helped set the stage for the next show
and then my sweet boy came and found me in the audience and watched the other two plays with me.
Also this week Calvin had his first soccer tournament. He made the varsity soccer team (yay!) which means he has practice every morning at 5:45 am (boo!) and had to turn in his varsity basketball uniform (boo!). It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but he will get more playing time as a goalkeeper than he was getting on the basketball team. It’s also his second year on the soccer team and his coach gave him a great opportunity last year based on his potential over the next 2 years so I’m happy to see him moving up in status on the team. He’s still jockeying for the position of starting keeper and working hard for that top spot.
Front row seats for us behind Calvin’s goal. Their team tied in pool play so Calvin was hoping it would go to penalty kicks, but one of the other teams ended up with more points and moved ahead of them into the finals.
My mom just arrived and we are having a great time with her and her ukelele. When I was a kid Mom used to play the guitar and sing to us at night before bed, but she hadn’t played in a while. Recently she got back into music and branched out into playing the ukelele so our house has been full of strumming strings as Camille, Caleb, Calvin and Carter all take turns on her instrument and their own. I suspect we’ll be purchasing a few ukeleles soon.
