Karate Tournament 2011

Today we are sitting in the gym at the College of Mines in Golden to watch Grant compete in a Japanese Karate tournament. He will perform his kata and them spar.Grant started classes the second half of second grade. He takes one day a week after school so progressing is quite a bit slower than with the Kenpo Karate classes he took a couple of times a week in Carrollton.

Last year Grant competed in Japanese Karate for the first time. Being a beginner he didn’t score high, but the idea he performed in front of so many people, remembered all of the moves impressed me. In Grant’s group there are 6 boys.

Wado-Kai is the name of the styles of Japanese karate Grant is learning. Wado-Kai is one of the four main styles in Japan and Europe. The name means “way of peace”. A visual used, empty hands, is the same as used in Kenpo.

Grant won’t go home with a metal today, but he will go home with high marks, and a proud family. This year his movements are stronger and crisper than last year.

Spelling Bee

Tad and I sit in the gym waiting for Grant to walk in from his class to join the other kids in front of us that will compete in the spelling bee. Both our boys amaze me with there willingness to try new challenges seemingly without fear.

Most weeks Grant get all of his spelling words so we already know he is a strong speller. We practiced on and off the week before the competition.

Grant is the last student to show up. He takes his sit and I begin to relax. The 25 contestants introduce themselves, tell the name of their teacher and their grade level.

When the rules of the bee are explained we find out it’s just fourth and fifth graders competing with each other. Oophs, we should have been practicing those fifth grade words too.

On the first round several kids go out. They exit to the side wall and sit with a teacher that gives a couple of pats as tears roll down the cheeks of the kids.

Grant goes out in the second round and my heart goes out to him. Its the luck of the draw to quite an extent, you may get words you know or perhaps like Grant, the word you don’t know.

Round seven starts with seven kids. This time they drop one by one until the last boy is standing. Eirik is one of Grant’s friends and he is also I strong speller. Then the work, rodeo. What? Rodeo is kind of a let down.

After the bee parents and kids hug, and everything is good again. I find out Eirik’s parents offered him a bribe. It worked.

P.S. The first winner of a national spelling bee died at the age of 97 on March 23, 2011. Here's the link to the story.

Dig It!

Before Christmas Justin tells us he has a speaking part in the 3rd grade musical. The homework folder he brought home for winter break had instructions for the parents on types of costumes and the two pages of the script containing his lines. Wow, he has l-o-t-s of lines!

Four days before winter break is over we remember the lines are still safely in the homework folder. Justin starts memorizing the lines one segment at a time. Within three days he knows them all, plus he in the embodiment of his character,Gilgamesh. He has the swagger and pompous air of the warrior and leader that will build a great city in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Back at school the kids continue to practice during music class. At home we start looking for things he can wear. We look through the costumes he and Grant have collected and Justin suggests his purple top from Halloween. Adding black and silver amour he has a royal tunic. Adding a narrow black headband and sandals he is warrior.

At the play the gym is packed. There are three 3rd grade classes and his is up first. He delivers his lines just as practiced, with confidence and animation. I’m so proud of Justin and happy for him. Can’t wait to see what interests he will carry with him; what activities will feed his soul.

Qigong

It’s Saturday morning and I’m on my way into Denver to join twenty-five people for a medical Qigong class. After the introduction we start the exercises. Come to find out its very similar to the meditation and visualization I learned in college over thirty years ago.

My Tai Chi instructor had shown me a couple of Qigong stances to help the flow of energy. In medical Qigong positions aren’t stressed, visualization is.

In the afternoon we added chanting. I knew how wonderful sound vibrations could feel from listening to music. Chanting was even better because you make the sounds yourself.

Last year I had acupuncture treatments for a cold, a sore shoulder several times, a bladder infection, and stress. When the acupuncturist mentioned bringing someone in to give a Qigong class I signed up.


During class my shoulder hurt a few times and the teacher mentioned people react differently. She shared how sick she’d felt the first day of intensive Qigong she’d done.

After four hours of class I walked to my car feeling energy and contentment in equal degrees.

Sky lights

The skies in Colorado are beautiful.

Often streaks of pinks feather across the sky in the early morning. As the sun rises above the mountains its as if someone turned a light on in a room; sections of the hills are electrified and bright white floods the area. Section by section the mountains come awake.

During the day pure blue is often the color. Driving through the mountains it feels as if you are driving into the sky. If there are clouds they are usually fluffy and white.

In the evening pinks and yellow join the blue; you can’t ignore the contrast. The combination of mountains and sky gives valleys of lights and darks. Section by section the mountains go to sleep.

Yep, the skies in Colorado are beautiful.

Christmas Season

This Christmas season I’ve enjoyed about 10 pounds of memories. It all started at the beginning of December when my cousin sent a bag of soft peppermints. They are chewy, red and green, and only available at Christmas.

After trying them at my aunt’s house years ago I was hooked. Since I liked the candy so much Aunt Loyce started buying me a bag a year to take home, and later two bags.

The first holiday party we attended I cooked Sweet and Sour tidbits from Aunt Loyce’s cookbook. This is a mixture of sausage balls, little sausage links, maraschino cherries, and pineapple cooked in syrup. It’s a dish that smells delicious from the time you start browning the meat, and continues to fill the house will aroma from the warming dish.

Plain, fast cheesecake made from cream cheese was something mom would whip up to snack on while listening to Christmas carols. I baked a batch and filled all five CD holders with music. Singing, decorating the tree and remembering the stories behind each ornament I get the same lump in the throat feeling I get watching the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Looking at the tree I see a glass ornament Mauri painted for Tad, porcelain Santa heads Katherine painted with detail, a real wool lamb from Tad’s grandmother, pictures of the kids surrounded by popsicle sticks, and a hollowed out eggs my grandmother made 50 years ago. With the ornaments the faces of family smile from the tree.

Around the house nutcrackers stand guard over their tiny domains; the boys painted two of them three years ago. Other items: ceramic gingerbread houses covered in dollops of snow, and huge tree toppers that our delicate tree can’t hold pepper the tables and shelves.

Pumpkin pie is the one dessert I remember dad enjoyed. Normally he didn’t care for anything sweet, except for a small bowl of vanilla ice cream once every four or five months. We eat ours with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon. And some how a piece of pie just doesn’t work with pumpkin pie. It has to be two pieces.

We got a gift from friends in Texas, cookies baked with real butter. Each bite melts in your mouth. The problem is with several cookie choices, “Which one do you start with?” is easily answered by “How about these three?”

Like the song, Twelve Days of Christmas, eating also increases as the days pass. After dinner our family usually doesn’t snack, but during the break from school we make an exception almost nightly. And if we’re not eating we’re consuming a meal in a glass—eggnog, hot chocolate with whipped cream, or chocolate milk shakes with chocolate chip and extra chocolate syrup.

I’m still enjoying lots of memories but our refrigerator is back to its pre-season capacity. Just in time so I don’t have to think up a New Year’s resolution involving sweating. This week we’ll get extra exercise while having lots of fun skiing. And I’ll make a trip to the grocery store to buy produce for our new juicer. Got to stay healthy for more memories!

Journey Cake

Here's a cake recipe you can take on your next covered wagon trip since the ingredients won't go bad:

1. Mix together 1 1/2 c sugar, 3/4 c butter, 1 3/4 c apple cider, 4 1/2 c flour and 1 tsp each of baking soda, cinnamon cloves.
2. Adjust apple cider as needed for consistency.
3. Bake at 350 until brown, about 50 mins in a 9x13" pan.
4. For sauce you can cream 1/2 c butter and 1 c brown sugar, add a little nutmeg; then spread on cake.

This cake smells wonderful cooking, and tastes great too!

This was our take away from yesterday's school field trip to Hiwan Homestead Museum. We saw pics on pioneers walking beside covered wagons coming from St Louis to Colorado. The kids walked beside the wagon and didn't have shoes on so they would have them we they arrived. The wagons were small and held all the belonging a family could take. They were leaving a populated area to come to a wilderness where supplies would not be available except from the occasional vendor that passed through selling his wares, or during the once a year trip to a trading post for supplies.

I have a hard time making it a week without heading to the store; the thought of being used to having supplies and suddenly having to "make do" gave me plenty to think about. Seeing kids walking all day, collecting buffalo chips for fires, and helping with chores I checked the faces of the kids in our group, they couldn't imagine what it would have been like. I wondered how many adults that signed up for the journey back then did either-- until they were on their way.