Also Today . . .

In addition to the bowling party, the kids were part of a commercial shoot for their karate club. They wore full uniform and brought all their weapons. It ended up kind of like a review class, where they repeated one line of a form or one drill or part of a weapons series over and over for the videographer. They also did a section of sparring on *film* (Caelan was excited, because they've rotated out of the sparring training for this testing cycle, so it was a bonus chance to kick people in the head :)

Their karate instructor kept it light and fun (and loud! lots of kiyups!) He said there was no audio being recorded, so when they all took a knee to look at him and pretend he was saying something wise and important--lol :) This basically just made everyone giggle.


We're all excited to see the final product(s)! The kids say the shoot is for promotional videos for the karate school to use on social media. There's no way they can edit out all four of our Crew, so sooner or later at least one of them will show up somewhere :)



Afterwards, a dad whose younger boy had been part of the color belt group, came up and complimented me on how good my son was at karate. He didn't specify which son, so I told Graysen that we'll just say he meant both of my sons and that made him happy :) Brennen was looking particularly sharp and focused during his drills. He said he was trying to look scary :)



That wasn't the end of Brennen's compliments for the day, because between the bowling party and the karate shoot, and then again after, Brennen spent several hours working with our retired neighbor on landscaping. He helped mix soil, wheel plants up a hill, set them in a prepared strip of soil, and then reported to us how we'd likely planted ours incorrectly (and thus they are no longer looking alive).

Pretty soon, Brennen received careful instruction on the use of a very nice push mower and may have just added lawn care to his resume :) Apparently he is taking over for a grandson who now has a sweetheart and no time (and likely soon no money if he is turning down the sweet deal at his grandpa's house :).

As Brennen was finishing up dumping some of the cuttings into a bin, our neighbor came over and noted what a hard worker Brennen is, how he pays attention to instructions, and how he keeps looking for more ways to help. It made us proud to hear such a good report. It sounds like they've agreed on an hourly "help around the yard" wage, and a weekly lawn-mowing wage, plus the dog related yard clean-up he and G$ already do each week. I told Brennen we're probably going to have to look at opening up a savings account for him again, because I can't let word get out that he's got all this cash in our house ;)

I'm just glad he's a willing helper--and to be honest, he probably would have done the whole three hour job for just the can of Sprite that he brought home in between shifts. I dig my entrepreneurial-minded kids who are finding ways to help people by using their God-given skills and interests. Pretty special!