Palm Sunday

Hmmm... this seems to have become an "every Sunday" kind of pastime for me. And I wish it were because I've spent less time on the computer lately, but really, it's because I spend all my time at the computer playing goofy games. Seriously, these games are so addictive. And all that is going on in our life lately is Bible Bowl, anyway, so I have nothing interesting to write about, even when I am online.

So we had our second road trip with the kids yesterday, this time to Denver City, which is only 1 1/2 hours away. Thank goodness. We're supposed to review on the bus on the way there, which generally turns out to be a good thing. I tried running the review on our bus yesterday and was answered mostly with silence from the children. One of them complained to me that "this is supposed to be fun." I'm afraid I'm a bit at a loss for words for children who look at the Bible as something even more boring than school. So I assured him that there was plenty of fun to be had if he would only participate. Chad then got into the act to counteract the boredom by singing Judges chapter 3. That amused and re-energised them for a little while, and when interest started to wane again, I started calling on people instead of waiting for them to answer. Which worked. So now I know what to do next time. We have one more road trip, this time to Monahans, which is a tiny town on the other side of the moon. The drive there is only about 3 hours long, but it seems twice that distance since there is nothing at all to look at between here and there. That is, unless you like dirt.

So we're half-way through our Bible Bowl season now (or the "circuit", as one of the children expressed it last week). The competition in Denver City yesterday was different than any we've had before; there were four rounds of 25 questions (instead of the usual five rounds of 20), and children answered on a Scantron. And that being the case, the correct answers weren't read out right away, which made for shorter rounds. (Hallelujah!) We had a lot of broken pencils, but no other problems, and the South Plains group took home first, third, and sixth place team awards. The only individual awards given out were for perfect rounds, and one of our kids had the only perfect round the entire day. So we did well, again.

Apparently some of the kids thought it was boring, but I'm afraid I've grown so accustomed to them being bored that I don't even care. I'm guessing this is the result of children having every gadget known to man, as well as having activities every spare second of their day. And I wish I had a great plan for counteracting our culture's need to be in overdrive for our own children (should we ever have any), but there again, I'm at a loss. However, I do still have some time to work on that. :)

I read an amusing article earlier about ways people waste money, and one of the things mentioned was gym memberships. Apparently, purchasing a gym membership is the best way to ensure that you will never work out again. I believe this to be true, since I owned my current membership for about four months without using it once. And I've not used it a lot while it's been cold, because I still have to get there, and however good a workout may be, battling freezing wind before and after is no fun. But I mention this to say that I've actually had a really good week in terms of working out. Since we have no car, I have no excuse for not having a high fitness level anyway, so I can't explain why I'm not in fantastic shape. However, we're working on that. :)

I had more things in mind to write about, but since this is getting ridiculously long, I'll put them on hold for now.