I need to hear some good news.

[todeen]

This falls under: it takes a village to raise a child.

My 10yo son just went through fundraising for hockey. The Association vomited multiple selling opportunities on us at once: Xmas wreaths, discount hockey tickets, and raffle tickets. We told our son that hockey is too expensive for us to cover all of the various costs, so if he wants to play hockey year after year he needs to take fundraising serious. This was his first experience fundraising, he has never done Boy Scouts, or Camp Fire, or anything like that.

He ended up raising about $1300. $200 were anonymous donations; some of the anonymous donations included a comment like, "He's doing a great job," or "I'm glad you're teaching him to do sales." Lots of positive vibes. Many people talked to him about their experiences with youth hockey.

Anyway, he has been attending goalie clinic; they have a gear closet, but that doesn't include masks or sticks. So he has been practicing with his regular helmet. I've been waiting for a puck to hit him in the Adam's apple. After fundraising, we went down to the hockey shop and, with the money he raised from his hard work, he bought a goalie mask and goalie stick. He was very proud!

I'm hoping that he has learned a lesson about the rewards of working hard.

[bnorth]

Tickests for pre-sale to the 2024 Strongest Man on Earth Strongman competition went on sale at 11am CST today. I got extremely lucky and got the first seat in the front row floor seating again this year.

[MichiganMan24]

My grandpa just had surgery to remove a "cancerous cluster" in his stomach.

The operation was a success, and he's back at home recovering already.

Filled with gratitude that he's okay and wishing health and happiness to all of you as well!

[DHogan]

Originally Posted by MichiganMan24

My grandpa just had surgery to remove a "cancerous cluster" in his stomach.

The operation was a success, and he's back at home recovering already.

Filled with gratitude that he's okay and wishing health and happiness to all of you as well!

That's great to hear. All the best to your grandfather.

[bnorth]

The first flower opened on my Jade plants yesterday and 6 are open now. In a couple weeks I will have several hundred of them open.

They are tiny flowers but the entire flowering process takes easily 3 months. It was 5 weeks from the start of the buds forming until the first flower opened.

Found a nice 4 pedal flower so I add another picture.

[BobbyStrawberry]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...missioner-2029

[Seven]

After a very long and difficult battle with his health over the course of the latter portion of 2023, my father successfully underwent a Triple Bypass surgery at the end of December. He has since made near a full recovery. Still in the process of getting back to 100% but overall, he's doing very well. He will be back to 100% by the time my parents are able to celebrate 40 years of being married, which is something my tight knit extended family, is looking forward to. We have a big party planned for them.

It's through this most recent situation where I've been able to realize how wonderful life is, and how blessed I am. As long as everyone is waking up in the morning, healthy and happy, the other issues and problems of life will sort itself out.