Judo!

Every year, we sign the boys up for the town's local indoor soccer program, and they love it!  However we've had a difficult time finding out whether the program still exists or signing them up in time for it the last couple years so the boys have been missing it.  This summer the boys were invited to take some classes in Judo, and since the price was right, we jumped at the chance to allow them some extracurricular fun.  Visiting the dojo was a great experience as it's owned by a karate school, and we not only got to watch a judo demonstration but also got to see the karate classes in full swing while there.  Jayce had taken karate years ago and loved it, however the time, energy and money it took was too taxing for a growing family at the time.  So though I would love to have the boys also take karate, judo fit the bill quite nicely for their introduction back into sports.

Wikipedia explains judo as:


Judo (柔道 jūdō^?, meaning "gentle way") is a modern martial art, combat and Olympic sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an opponent to submit by joint locking or by executing a strangle hold or choke. Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defences are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori).


Gee, sounds violent!  Since I didn't even really know what judo was, Michael simplified it as a martial art form of wrestling.  Which is exactly what it looks like to me as a spectator.  This must thrill Michael since wrestling is very big in the Midwest, and he himself has experience as a wrestler.  Anyway, the boys have been enjoying the exercise, discipline and learning the moves.  Here they are in their gis...

 And here they are practicing their moves...

The only downside is Landon who isn't quite yet at the allowable age (6) and complains every time the boys leave for judo, and he gets left behind.  We've tried to remedy this by letting him dress up in Jayce's old karate uniform and letting the boys "teach" him some karate moves. :)

Landon's Newest Hobby

Landon, being 3 1/2 years old, is stuck between being too young to for his older brothers to want to play with him and not being the baby of the family anymore.  So his interests have led him to more independent activities such as playing on the computer and on the Wii.  Since electronics are on a very limited schedule in our house, he ends up being bored a lot.  He doesn't like playing with play dough like his big brother Jayce and isn't old enough to read like Reagan.  He doesn't even really like to color.  So what's a boy to do?  Well, he just discovered painting!  Which he asks to do now every day.  Here's a look at him busy at his masterpieces...

  

Planned Reading

I came across one of my friend's facebook notes regarding her Summer Reading List. It made me stop and consider such a thing. A summer reading list? I thought that was only for kids in school - you know, a program put on by the local school or library where they offer incentives for the number of books they'll read over the summer. I think these are wonderful programs and agree that summer reading is a worthy time filler. If you know anything about the Ortlieb house, you know we've got plenty of books on our shelves to fill every bit of our time. If only! {sigh} I'm a constant reader, and I love books. It can be quite the addiction for us actually - a couple clicks on amazon.com and voila! But the thought of actually compiling a reading list for the summer had never occurred to me. I'm a whim-reader - someone who picks up books based on one's whims and reads the next best thing that looks interesting or valuable. So besides being part of a book club or something, the idea of planning what I would be reading was very foreign to me. But since I've got a book or two (or twenty) on my bookshelf that I have yet to read, I thought it might be a good chance to sit down and plan on reading the books I actually have rather than buying or borrowing more books that I don't have. So here's my list so far:

Helen of Troy by Margaret George (one of my favorite authors)
What's So Amazing about Grace? by Philip Yancey
So Much More: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality by Debra Rienstra (finish reading)*
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Midwife's Song by Brenda Ray
SexGod by Rob Bell (finish reading)
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (read again)
The Shack by William P. Young (finish reading)
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (one of my all-time favorite movies)
Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens by Paul David Tripp
Jesus for President:Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw (finish reading & summer book club book)

This list is only after I actually finish reading the library books I've recently checked out which are: My Jesus Year by Benyamin Cohen, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming by Bjorn Lomborg, How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel and Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids edited by Sarah Franklin, Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst, MD and The Art of Conversation: A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure by Catherine Blyth . I don't have high hopes about completing these books, but so far I've enjoyed My Jesus Year and The Art of Conversation. I guess I'll be renewing some of these if I have half a chance at reading them.

I may have been a bit ambitious with my list; this may actually be my entire 2009 reading list as opposed to just summer. I'm not sure if I can stick to a list, but I'm certainly going to try. Wish me luck!

Do you have a reading list? Have I inspired you to do some planned reading for the summer? If so, please share! What's on your list??


*You'll notice I've marked some as "finish reading" since they're actually books I've started but for one reason or another never finished.