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Eventful weekend. Watched the crapfest that is Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace Saturday afternoon, and I nearly fell asleep, as did the kids. Just mind-numbingly boring. But they’re into Star Wars, so we’re ticking them off.

Ran my first half-marathon on Saturday morning in Greensboro. 1 hour 50 minutes, which bettered my 2-hour goal considerably. Nice little run; would do again. Crisp and clear 45-degree morning, lovely scenic out-and-back course with a nice long shallow downhill straight around mile 8 or 9. Felt really good.

The kids wanted to go “camping” last night, so I set up the tent borrowed from my father-in-law and the kids eagerly got ready. I thought it was going to be cold, so I had them wear long-sleeve PJs and found extra blankets. We went to bed around 8 PM and Penelope lasted until about 8:45, when she declared she was “hot” and wanted to sleep in her own bed. So I took her inside and went back out to Luke, who was sleeping soundly. Pictures of the event forthcoming.

The other thing is that this morning, as we were getting ready to leave the garage and go out to the car, I had the garage door open like I usually do so we can walk through that opening, and the kids, standing there watching the rain come down said, totally unprompted, “It looks like Dagobah, Daddy!”

Make of that what you will.

Today is Luke’s last day of kindergarten. There’s no way to understate this: He’s undergone a huge transformation in the past year. He’s acquired social skills, made friends, learned to read and write so much better than he was able to, done some amazing artwork and just had a fantastic time. I can count on one hand (maybe even a couple of fingers) the number of times he’s not wanted to go to school in the morning; most times he’s chomping at the bit, excited to get in the car and go. We’re so grateful to his teachers, Mrs Conley and Mrs Upton, as well. They’ve really been understanding, patient and communicative and have helped draw Luke out so much, and have helped us understand him better as well (though he remains an enigma in many ways).

I’m going to attend “Young Authors’ Day” at his school in a little bit. He’s going to read (perform) a story he’s written, to polish off the school year. Looking forward to it.

I was bothered by what I saw of the presidential debate last night. I returned from working for my father-in-law around 9:30 and saw the last few minutes of it. Diane had watched the whole thing and filled me in a bit. My primary issues have to do with the moderator and the substance of the questions. He seemed far too intrusive and would seem like he was about to cut in when the candidates were only a few seconds into their answer. Between that and the “fluffy” nature of many of the questions, we really didn’t get an opportunity to really learn about any of the candidates. The whole event seemed like a dog-and-pony show more than anything else, which was disappointing.

I was impressed with Bachmann, though. I’ve always been impressed with her determination to stick to the principles that inform her positions on bills that come to her desk in Congress, and knowing that (it’s not as if it’s a secret), I’m a little surprised at pundits who seem bewildered by her campaign for president. They say she can’t win the nomination, which is probably true, but given her voting record, the idea of winning or losing above all else certainly doesn’t seem like something she’s constrained by. I respect and admire that, too. Possibly more than any other candidate (at least those with records of public service), she stands for principle above politics. I hope she goes far.

All that said, and this is something Diane regularly gives me grief over, I do hope Rick Perry decides to jump in. If you look at the big picture, I really do think he has the best shot, out of any Republican candidate announced or rumored to announce, of winning the general election. He’s got the charisma and the record, and is “battle-hardened” (to borrow another pundit’s phrase) by winning three (!) Texas gubernatorial elections. There’s just no dirt left to dig up on the guy. The skeletons have been out in the open for ages. His Achilles heel is the fact that he’s yet another governor of Texas, so if he announces a run, expect a nonstop “Bush’s third term” chant by the MSM all the way through, never mind the fact that the ties between the two are not nearly as close as might first appear (Bush endorsed Perry’s opponent in the 2010 Texas governor Republican primany, for instance). He’s not Bush. He’s much more articulate, a better communicator (Bush’s greatest failing) and arguably more fiscally conservative than W. He’s not perfect—no candidate is—but I think he would be a great fit.

With Luke, it isn’t so much what he loves as how he loves it. I’m realizing this lately. Actually, I think it’s something we’ve realized for a while, but with him getting older, and his approach to his interests maturing accordingly, it’s brought the realization into sharper focus.

What I mean by my initial statement is this: The common thread that ties Luke’s passions together isn’t necessarily what an outsider would think it would be, on first glance. For example, he’s interested in the planets, and by extension space, so logically, one would assume he’d have at least some interest in, say, astronauts or spacecraft or rockets or things like that, right? And it’s not to say doesn’t—he does, to a degree—but in our observation, he’s far more interested in aspects of his space interest that he can organize and systematize in his mind. That process of organization and systematization is the modus operandi that ties his interests together, as opposed to elements more intrinsic to the interests themselves. Again, it’s more how that what.

I can relate. With me, the appeal of airplanes, at least in my early years, wasn’t first and foremost things you might expect: the speed, or the flying (though those things were present)—it was the aesthetics. It was the way the airplanes looked that drew me, and that aesthetic fascination was part of the reason I connected interests as seemingly disparate as, say, aircraft and whales. They both had the streamlined, teardrop shape that I was after. Another way of putting it is there was as much of me as there was of the interest itself in whatever I was into. The interest and I “met in the middle,” so to speak.

Same goes for Luke. Focusing on his how instead of the what explains the connection between the geography interest, the astronomy interest and the way he systematizes information about each of his friends and family members, among other things. It helps explain his conversational style, and part of why he has such a hard time with discipline—the overarching “grid” of behavior and consequence is really hard for his mind to grasp. Every situation is a little different from the last, and that difference throws him off the track completely.

I want to use that knowledge of him going forward. I want to introduce new interests, or reintroduce older ones that have “glanced off,” into his rubric of how, rather than presenting them conventionally. Hopefully, it’ll help flesh out the number of subjects he can relate to, and create jumping-off points for deeper topics of discussion.

Beautiful Friday. When it hasn’t been raining, the weather’s been uncommonly “California-ish” this past month, with sunny skies, dry air and temperatures in the 70s. Love it. And it’s a great weekend to head to my parents’ house in Chapel Hill for a little visit. Looking forward to that.

The kids are growing up. Penelope has nearly full command of complete sentences now, and has naturally adopted many of the social graces that even now, Luke can’t seem to find a use for, like greetings and goodbyes, among other things. For his part, Luke’s interest in astronomy is deepening, and his mastery of the computer is coming along too. I read him an information-packed library book about the planets last night and didn’t have to skip as much as I used to; I could read straight from the text and be fairly confident that he would understand it, as full of astronomy-related terms as it was. He certainly loves his planets.

And I’m grateful for that inasmuch as it’s a point of convergence between his interests and mine. I do have a very wide range of interests, so it was nearly a foregone conclusion that there would be a point of contact, but I’m glad it occurred in such a pleasing spot for both of us. If he had decided to be passionately interested in, say, baseball trivia, I probably wouldn’t have been able to “hang” as well as I am.

He doesn’t seem to have much interest in the things I’m really passionate about, though, which is totally and completely fine. Cars, airplanes, spacecraft… He doesn’t really track with me there—again, something utterly fine and expected. Interestingly, however, Penelope might be the one who’s more into those things than he is. Granted, she’s only 3, and as such is kind of all over the place with her interests, but I have demonstrated a few things about the car, and it’s held her attention, and she does point out with some frequency when an airplane flies over. Who knows. She’s such a crazy quilt of interests at this point: clothes, vehicles, sticks, animals, being “a superhero to save you,” TV, and many other things. Never a dull moment.

1. They reported late last night that Osama bin Laden was killed. I feel strangely numb about the whole thing. I’m glad justice was done (at least, as close an approximation of justice as can be done in this world), but part of me hesitates to rejoice in the death of another. As evil as he was, he was still an image-bearer of God, however corrupted and twisted that image might have become. But, on the other hand, there are many verses in the Word where David, a man of an upright an pure heart (but a man nevertheless), pleads with God to avenge him, and tells God how much he hates his persecutors (see the end of Ps. 139 for an example). Is that prescriptive? I don’t know. Suffice it to say that while I firmly believe bin Laden was killed justly, and by the proper agents to perform such a task, it’s still a strong reminder we live in a fallen world desperately in need of redemption. I’ll leave it at that.
2. I’m sure the link will stop working eventually, but for the time being, enjoy this. Make sure you listen to the 250 GTO—the sound is like catnip for a car buff. Unbelievably good.
3. Luke and I went stargazing for the first time Friday night. He stayed up late, until it got dark, and we went out there around 9 p.m. We used his new telescope, the one he got for his birthday, and it worked well. It was a really “productive” first time, and I was happy about that. We saw Arcturus, Capella, Sirius, Betelgeuse and Spica, as well as Saturn and the Beehive. I was really proud of Luke; he remembered from his excursions on Google Sky that Saturn was supposed to be in Virgo this time of year, and sure enough, when I checked the star charts, there was a “star” in that constellation that wasn’t “supposed” to be there. And it was Saturn. Pretty neat. We both had a great time.

Luke’s 7th birthday last Saturday was a lot of fun. We all went to Funigan’s, same as last year, but this time he invited his Kindergarten classmates. Many RSVP’d, but unfortunately the “big two” he would have liked to have seen make weren’t there: Evan and Caleb. But Dominic, the Triplets and Sophia were there. His party was solar system-themed, and it was neat to hear from Sophia’s mom how he’s been teaching Sophia about the planets in school. Neat little quasi-mutual interest they have. All the relatives were in attendance as well, and Luke’s behavior was exemplary. He had a great time. He received lots of space-related books, a pair of telescopes, a water gun, a huge crawl-in inflatable ball and a few other odds and ends.

Or at least, such a claim was scrawled by Luke on a piece of paper now residing on the fridge. It’s amazing how literally he takes this stuff, how black-and-white it is for him. I tell him that the environment on the surface of Venus is like the inside of our oven, and I can just see the gears turning in his head as he works out the similarities between cooking foods in the oven here and what it must be like on Venus. It’s palpable.

Here are some of the latest Penelope-isms:

• A determined “No FANK you!” when a suggestion/command is unwelcome.
• Every morning she asks, “Dad, is it time for tasty breaktast?
• She loves to sit and watch TV with you, but she hates Pinky Dinky Doo.
• She loves to wear her headband, shoes, watches, any kind of accessory.

I finally found all our long-overdue library books after the move, returned them and was able to check out H.A. Rey’s Find the Constellations for Luke. We went through and it interested him, though he wasn’t exactly captivated by it. He’s getting a telescope for his birthday, so I foresee many stargazing nights ahead. I love that he loves the stars and constellations, by the way.

Finished reading the recently-published, excellent Children of Hùrin. Started the Silmarillion. Yes, I’m on a Tolkien kick.

A few little things to update you with:

1. Home improvement continues apace. Diane and I (mostly Diane, whilst I tended the kids) completely painted the family room downstairs, and she’s been painting other things like the TV cabinet, doorknobs, picture frames, decorations, etc. I installed stick-down vinyl tile flooring in the main bathroom upstairs, and it looks surprisingly good considering what it is. We think we might actually install stick-down vinyl “hardwood-look” flooring in the kitchen as a cheaper, lower-maintenance alternative.
2. There have been a few car repair successes to report. The ripped PCV hose on the Minkevan (causing a check engine light and very rough running) was repaired by using a copper pipe, heater hose and hose clamp pliers to remove the old unit. The E34’s ICV hoses, throttle body gasket and intake boot have all been replaced, along with its fuel pump and filter (after it failed to start on me last Monday morning). So things are good on the car front. If only I could get a longer hose so I could give them a proper bath…
3. Luke continues to be obsessed with stars and planets, but particularly stars these days. I want him to learn the constellations before I pull out the telescope, and I plan to use the H.A. Rey kids book to teach him, the same book I used when I was only a little older than he is. There’s a local astronomy club I want to take him to as well. I think he’d like that.

1. Luke requested that I make him a couple of paper airplanes last night. I obliged and made him a “long” airplane before making him a “wide” airplane. The wide one flew better, as they usually do. After that I made him a paper popper. He’s loves them, but he’s continually amazed both by my ability to make them pop and frustrated by his own inability to do the same. He tried really hard last night, though, even going so far as to windmill his arm a few times before he brought it down in another futile attempt. He’ll get it.

2. Earlier that evening, before his sister went to bed, Luke pulled out her dress-up box, so he told me, to have a “rummage sale,” like he’s seen on Max & Ruby. Eventually he found the wings and halo from Penelope’s Halloween costume and put them on, dressing up as an angel. I was getting Pen ready for bed when I heard him announce, “I’m an angel!” and then, “Penelope, you’re a shepherd so you need to be scared of me.” I told Pen to act scared, which she did, then Luke came over to her and said, “Okay, let’s go see baby Jesus,” before leading her by the hand over to a pile of clean laundry, where baby Jesus “was.” It was very cute.

3. Penelope gets more expressive and creative by the day. Yesterday during her bath I peeked in to observe her playing with the dragon/alligator washcloth and mimicking a deep dragon voice as it interacted with the other bath toys. Her “robot voice” is something to behold as well, a monotone, “I am a robot. I am a robot.” And her pirate, “Arrrrgh!” is excellent as well.

4. We were in Chapel Hill all weekend for Paul and Carrie’s wedding, which was wonderful. We’re beyond happy for them and excited about the prospect of them moving closer than Juneau. David, Rachel and Catherine stayed at my parents’ house with Diane, Luke, Penelope and myself and we spent a lot of good time together. It was especially fun to watch Luke and Catherine interact. He loves her and is just excited to hang out with her, prance around her and “help out” his aunt Rachel. For her part, she seemed to welcome the attention and smile and laugh at him. Most 6-year-olds don’t have much time for their younger siblings, much less babies in the family, so it’s nice to see Luke enjoy interacting as much as he did.

Luke started his first year of public school recently. Where to start? Let’s just say academically, we had no doubts he’d excel—he’s always been smart and fully able to apply his mind to understand the matter at hand. His social skills, being underdeveloped like they are, have been a source of concern. I have to say, though, that after taking him to a Halloween party thrown by one of the class moms and witnessing Luke playing and interacting completely normally with a little boy his age (Evan), we’ve been less concerned. It was truly refreshing to see him chase Evan around the playground and to watch Evan chase him and converse.

He did have some particular challenges the first couple of weeks. He would come home and tell us the most outrageous things the teacher had supposedly said to him, like threatening gruesome punishments for disobeying and the like. Those have thankfully tapered off. Luke did torment a couple of the girls in his class, too, trying to put glue in their hair and spitting on them, etc, not out of any malicious intent so much as to just provoke some kind of response. But every report we’re hearing now from school indicates he’s making a lot of progress socially.

He really likes school and looks forward to going every day. I drop him off in the mornings on my way to work, and he’s always chatty and excited. He looks expectantly over my shoulder when I crouch in front of him and tell him I love him before “releasing” him into his class. And he’s learned so much, too—his drawing skills have exploded and he’s been writing continuously and asking questions about words and language. He’s got to figure it all out.

Went to Tanglewood for Penelope’s third birthday party. We located a table near the kids’ (and our) favorite playground and turned them loose while we set up. All four of the grandparents, one set of great-grandparents, and four of the aunts and uncles were in attendance. We had strawberry cupcakes just like her first birthday, and she received some dress-up clothes, a game and some other odds and ends. Near the end of the party Luke and Granddad, and Pen, Grandpa and myself took paddle boat rides. Luke and Pen both loved being out on the water.

Luke had a good time too, though I did have to “manage” him like I do most birthday parties. He’s just got an insatiable desire to be in the middle of everything. I suppose that’s a normal kid desire that needs to be tempered; the perceived need to be the center of attention, especially with relatives around, whose attention you’d like to have and around whom you feel more entitled to behave just as you feel. We’ve been doing more “imagine how you’d feel if you were X and they treated you a certain way” exercises, but I’m doubtful they’ve taken hold. Just have to do our best to be patient, consistent and persistent.

Luke and Pen are both under the weather today. Luke in particular seems to be feeling it (though he’s always in denial about his illnesses)–he’s running at about 60%-75%, I’d say. We went through our normal evening routine (take out trash, take out Maple, check mail, climb on the rocks) and he was well-nigh mute the whole way, totally focused on making through his evening routine at any cost.

Just like everywhere else we’ve lived, he and I go on walks, and inevitably half a dozen or so of the landmarks we encounter become “stations” we use to describe our route, and that we focus on. Setting off on a walk, we’ve had many exchanges of this nature:

Luke: “Daddy, are we going to go by the Regular Wheat and the Rocks today?”
Me: “Yes, and we’ll see the No-Mailboxes, the Fancy Wheat and the Gazebo too.”

“The Rocks” has become one destination we visit more regularly than the others. During the construction of the apartment complex, some earthmoving machines deposited a pile of sizable rocks and boulders at the end of one of the parking lots, and Luke’s favorite activity any given walk is to climb all over them. We actually call them “the Himalayas” and we’ve named a few in particular–there’s K2, Nanga Parbat and of course, Mount Everest. Our visits to the Rocks always culminate with his ascent of Mount Everest and subsequent jump down while holding my hand. Lately, we’ve actually named the “faces” of Mount Everest; today, for instance, he scaled the “north face” before jumping down. We have a good time.

The joy of parenting reared its ugly head again this evening… Dinner was done, yesterday was payday and it was time for the weekly shopping trip. Diane hadn’t been feeling well all day so Luke and I made the trek to Wal-Mart, (extensive) list in hand.

It’s not like we hadn’t done it before–Luke is actually really good in stores, very patient, chatty, friendly and all the rest. We’d even made at least one, possibly two, lengthy trips to Wal-Mart before with the intent of making good progress in acquiring the week’s necessities. So it’s not like it was uncharted territory.

Luke’s in a funny place as far as his development is concerned. As soon as I say that, though, I have to swiftly amend my statement to disclaim that Luke is a unique boy in many (most?) aspects of his development: far ahead in some areas, significantly behind in others. He’s never had a problem acclimating himself to new groups of people; case in point: When we were visiting churches, I’d just drop him off in Sunday School each different church and he didn’t show any uneasiness in just sauntering into the classroom and making himself at home. These days he’s friendly to a fault. He offers a cheery “Hello!” to anyone within earshot (and often yells it when they’re some distance away), usually followed up with some chipper comment about his age or our activities, i.e. “I’m six years old!” or “We’re taking the trash out!” It’s cute and I encourage his friendliness, within the boundaries of social norms and conventions, but just knowing him as we do, it’s a fragment of an overall picture of a boy who’s not overly concerned by how others perceive him.

In the grand scheme of things, this is good; however, a knowledge of how one comes across is often very helpful in many ways, a few of which are empathizing with others (an area in which he lags) and grasping the principles behind social conventions without having to have each one explained in exhaustive detail–and even then it’s a toss-up as to whether he gets it.

What does this have to do with our trip to Wal-Mart today, you ask? About halfway through our trip, fortunately in a near-deserted aisle, Luke pinched his finger very mildly between two portions of the cart’s structure. His response was a blood-curdling yell, subsequent yells, thrashing about, hitting everything in sight and general pandemonium. I contained the situation as best I could and once again explained that getting hurt wasn’t a no-no, but not being self-controlled was. I held him as he wound down, deposited him back in the cart and we continued shopping. Needless to say, though, I was rattled for at least 20 minutes, possibly more, as we wrapped up our trip.

I know every kid has to learn that yelling at the top of his lungs in a crowded space will inevitably bother those around him. Maybe Luke is on track compared to other kids in his apprehension of that reality. I guess it just seems like at 6 years old he should have gotten it by now. Tantrums are more characteristic of the younger set, kids Penelope’s age and the like. Prayers appreciated for wisdom in knowing how to teach Luke to temper his emotional outbursts, communicate through them and bring them under control.

In other situations, say, when we know we’ll have to turn a request of his down and there could be some back-talk, it’s easier for us as parents to anticipate the outburst and “prep” him, i.e. “Luke, Daddy’s going to tell you something and you need to choose what kind of attitude you’re going to have when Daddy tells you. If you show Daddy you have a bad attitude, there will be consequences. Now, what kind of attitude are you going to have?” He’ll answer “A good one,” and then we’ll continue with the conversation. He generally does very well when prepped, but how do you prep a kid to control his response when he gets hurt? There’s no way to step in between the event and the outburst, so the best you can do is stay engaged and try to prep him in a situation where he might possibly hurt himself, like before a meal where the food being served is hot and he might burn his mouth. An explanation of the possible incident and the consequences of certain responses is about all we have in that scenario.

So it’s tricky. Again, prayers appreciated. Kids are a magnificent challenge, all the time.

Overall, the Thanksgiving break was lovely. We visited my parents in Chapel Hill this year and enjoyed a relatively small dinner, with only Gran, my aunts Jeri and Cheryl in attendance in addition to our family and my parents. Turkey was great, as were the other dishes and especially the bean dip, something Diane prepared at my behest this year even though it’s not typically Thanksgiving-ish.

After we returned Saturday night, we went to see the drive-through Christmas light display at nearby Tanglewood Park. The lights themselves were extensive and gorgeous, as they have been the past two years we’ve been. However, Luke was in full-on brat mode and Penelope has the attention span of a mosquito (and was up past her bedtime besides), so from a parental perspective, the outing was, um, difficult. Pen is two and we can’t expect a whole lot from her given her age and the circumstances, but Luke’s a different story.

We recently checked out a book on manners from the library. It’s a little old for him, but it has cute illustrations of good and bad manners in various situations and I thought it would be good to get him acclimated with politeness and rudeness in everyday life. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped, though—Luke is much more interested in acting out all the ways to be rude, rather than their counterparts. In other words, it gave him a truckload of new ways to test his parents and push the envelope. Kids really are naked, living proof of the desperate condition of the human heart without the Lord. Not only that, the current situation with Luke is a perfect illustration, in a microcosm, of our sin nature’s response to “the Law” as described by Paul in Romans. The more rules we’re given, the more our nature will chafe against them. As Paul says, “Is the law sinful? By no means!” The rules aren’t corrupt or flawed—the condition of our hearts and minds is.

Halloween was Saturday. Luke was a lion for the second year in a row and Pen wore a lamb costume my mom found. It was a cold, drizzly day—pretty much the worst possible for trick-or-treating. We made a quick trip ’round the apartment complex but only found one house that was participating. We ended up returning home, putting the girl to bed and doing trick-or-treating in the house, which consisted of Diane and myself hiding behind the bathroom and bedroom doors, respectively, and Luke going between the two, knocking and announcing himself. It actually worked out pretty well.

Penelope wasn’t all that thrilled about her costume…until she saw herself in the mirror. That distracted her for a little bit. An orange lollipop helped too. Luke, on the other hand, loves his costume like nothing else. He wore it for several days before the event and was wearing it when I awoke this morning. I think the fact that he’s able to put it on and remove it himself helps—it’s a rush when you’re 5 years old and have that kind of control over your own wardrobe, I guess.

1. BT’s new song "Rose of Jericho" is slightly disappointing.  It’s like he’s trying to merge the more classical, experimental leaning of This Binary Universe with the more commercial-friendly ventures of the previous albums.  It sounds good on paper, but in reality it just doesn’t work too well, sounding like less than the sum of its parts.  One thing I’ve always appreciated about his music is the creativity within the song itself–the variety of beat structures and vocals dancing around one another.  His more straightforward house stuff is well done, but it’s never been very interesting to me.  Maybe the rest of the album, when it comes out, will be more varied.

2. Luke is coming up, within the next month or two, to his first experiences in a class setting.  At this point we’re planning on homeschooling him, and we’ve enrolled him in this curriculum/program called Classical Conversations.  He has homework to do throughout the week, and once a week he and all his "classmates" meet and go over the material they’ve learned.  We’re more than a little apprehensive about how it’s going to go since Luke has exhibited some noted developmental delays, especially in the social arena.  We’ll see how it goes.  If he just isn’t able to handle it we’ll try something different, but it seems like a great program and we hope it turns out well.

Random scenes around the house: Penelope’s tongue in overdrive during breakfast, a beautiful rainbow after a summer rain a few weeks ago and Luke singing his favorite hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” during family devotion time last Sunday. He sang it much more enthusiastically the first time, but as usual the camcorder wasn’t close at hand. Next time…

Luke has warmed up to Maple. She’s been learning, ever so slowly, not to bite the members of her family, and he’s been learning to have fun with her and enjoy being chased by her, as evidenced by the photo below. She’ll accompany us on our walks around the neighborhood and has already become something of a celebrity, with folks making conversation from their front yards and cars when they otherwise wouldn’t, asking about her breed, what she’s like, etc. She loves the walks and is quite the trooper, given that she’s a little dog and Luke and I don’t exactly take short walks.

For his part, Luke’s greatest source of fascination at the moment, besides his seemingly perpetual interest in geography, is a particular azalea bush in one of our side yards. There are a total of five, planted in a row, but he is drawn to one that has decided to grow out of the ground at an approximately 45-degree angle. He calls it his “leaning plant” and loves to visit it every chance he gets to go outside. Granddad jokingly refers to it as Luke’s “blasted sapling,” a moniker I particularly like. I’ve been working a lot on the yard lately and Luke often accompanies me on my tasks, buzzing especially around the Leaning Plant. We’ve already had a couple of running-through-the-sprinkler sessions, and could have some more this weekend. The azaleas in the backyard still need weeding and watering.

Recent camera photos, just a tad photoshopped (crop, grayscale):

My beautiful wife, conversing with me off the end of the bed.

Luke in the midst of morning antics today.

Pen being social for company on Wednesday.