Weekend Review

Friday:Nothing exciting. Made pizza, watched a movie, relaxed, did some math.

Saturday: Mowed lawn, cleaned up junk that the tree dumps in our yard (cut it down! =) Mum and Dad looked at carpet and came back with a sample. Dad and I don't like it, but Sarah and Mum do, so it appears that we are going to get some other kind...

Okay, I'm going to stop the day-summary as Sunday and today are full of details.

Mr. Farley preached on Psalm 4, and exhorted how we should not be ashamed of Jesus, His works, and the church. He also talked in the beginning about the chief musician and some history about that in Deuteronomy.

The Claydons got their fairly-new baby, Royal, baptized also. He didn't cry when the water came on his head, and Sarah whispered to me that it must have been warm (I can think of a certain little relative that got cold water on her head and she did not like it). A reception followed with some simple breads, cheeses, meat, fruit, and vegetables. Oh, and there was another cake from the Buttery (yum!!)

Not long afterwards, we Machamers left for the Johsens with tour-guide Nai-Noah giving directions, and there's no need to tell about the drive as there is more interesting stuff. I liked their house a lot and had fun talking, playing some games, and eating salmon for an early dinner. An exciting game of chess was played (with a battery taking the role of the rook, such a positive element) and a check-mate squashed me.

The psalm sing was at the Brownlee's, about a 10 minute drive from the Johsen's, and what fun it was! (Complete with Mr. Farley wearing his 1st baseball cap.) Everyone split into two groups, the men practicing their parts first, and the women watching the children. Approximately 10 minutes go by and roles are switched. Most of the guys start playing knock-out, (a basketball game) where you try and shoot a basket before the person behind you does; otherwise you're out of the game. Once the women were done practicing, the people gathered in "the room" and sang Psalm 100. Then, repeat the same mixture for Psalm 1 and you have the cake (actually, there were cookies). After singing, I finally joined in on knock-out and watched as Mr. Farley beat all the players up (most of the time) without even losing his flip-flops.

End Sunday.

Today, swim lessons started! (See note)
While waiting, I chatted with Rayman, an eleven-year-old Asian (yeah!) boy who lives close to the pool. All the cattle (er, kids) were ordered to sit down, and we were classified in levels 1-6; though the unknowns were taken for testing (Rayman and I). Our level-3 teacher, Katelyn, went ahead and started the lesson while also watching to see if we could keep up. We went through some basic kicking, freestyle, back stroke, and a little bit of side-breathing. By the end of the course (3 weeks of Monday and Wednesday), we will know the common strokes, be able to do a perfect back-stroke (her own words), and even be able to utilize side-breathing.
And since the lessons are semi-private, there are only two other boys in my class.
The lessons are very fun and also, it gives me a chance to swim as our own modest pool
has a hole-filled sun-baked liner.

God bless,

~Bradley






Note: Mum signed Katherine and I up for aquatic swimming lessons (Mondays and Wednesdays) for different reasons. I want to re-learn the main strokes and such, and Katherine needs to learn how to swim (she has almost done it in the past but has had various incidents that have prevented her from doing so).