Well, I have completely slacked off on this blog! I'm not sure anyone reads it anyway, but I figured I would try to revive it. Here's your (or my students') current events quiz for the week:
1) What happened to the 700 Billion dollar "bail out" deal on Monday?
2) What hurricane hit Canada early this week?
3) Where do some generals want to send more US troops?
4) What happend to the 700 Billion dollar "bail out" deal in the Senate?
5) Who debated each other on Thursday night?
One interview I saw online this week made me curious as to how people can sound so pompous while clearly showing their own lack of understanding. The man being interviewed confidently declared that believing in a specific God (apparently being agnostic is okay) is a sign of danger. God, according to this man, is not revealing Himself except for a few books used by different religions. The books disagree with each other, and the man being interviewed took special time to mock some stories in the Bible. He then went on to say that religion was okay for people in the past because they didn't know any better. For example, they "didn't know where babies came from." Ironically, it is the Bible (even from a purely secular reading) that shows how stupid this statement is. In the first book, God shows that Sarah understood that if Abram was to have a son, and it wasn't happening through her, then he needed to sleep with another woman. Later on, Judah loses a son because he refuses to father a son for his dead older brother. How does he refuse? Read Genesis to find out. It proves he had a pretty good idea of what would produce a child. The pagan fertility festivals were focused around sex. It seems like they had a pretty good understanding that sex led to babies.
But anyway, I just couldn't stand the boundless arrogance of this man who has his own TV show! Why is it that people choose to listen to such nonsense? I think the unfortunate answer is that most people are not checking up on the facts, but simply trusting a man who sounds very confident in his incredible (literally 'without credit') statements.
Oh well. It's time to focus on the Fall Holy Days and God's coming Kingdom, not the distractions of this world.

So another school year is in the bag. Summer has been crazy since I've been working in the morning at summer school (which I hesitate to call 'teaching'). Then in the evening I've been working at Outback. All this is to make some extra cash in preparation for our first bambino which I have started to refer to as AJ (Abraham-or-Julia). At least working two jobs really makes you appreciate the Sabbath!
The headlines have gone crazy of the last few months. It's really time to draw close to God (as if there ever is a time not to). But speaking for myself, if I let anything get in between Christ and me, then I really need to be smacked in the head... with a shovel. Hebrews 12:1-2!

In an effort to cut down on expenses, my wife offered to cut my hair (raise your hand if you already know where this is going). After a minute or so of complaining about not getting enough hair off with the trimmer, I suddenly heard her say "Uh-Oh." Long story short, we had to do some improvising and no one has noticed. Still, I think the lesson here is very useful: Next time she wants a hair cut, I can save her some money by doing it myself.
In other news, we have chosen a midwife and are hoping to do a home delivery. Although we've gotten a fair number of looks that essentially say "why would you want to kill your baby" I'm sticking to this one because most people are only relying on a version of childbirth that is mostly based off of what they have seen in movies or TV.
Also, what do my kiddos need to know about the Romans? I find that I think they need to know everything, but I only have a few days left...

Does anyone have advice on how to convice 13 year old girls that just because they think they are the princess of middle school really doesn't mean a thing? Or perhaps the "thing" that is a problem is that they take that as a right to choose which rules to obey and which to break. It's not something I deal with well, and the problem has gotten worse over the last couple of weeks... maybe it's time to call in the parents (hopefully they don't think their daughters are princesses too!).

Thanks to all who have been praying for my brother. He hasn't had any more seizures, but we still don't know exactly why they happened in the first place. All of the medical tests have said he is normal, but they can't give him a clean bill of health until he's gone a certain period of time (either 6 months or a year) without any seizures. Until then, my parents have given us his car (techincally they've given us their car that they let him drive...) and he's been doing alright. I just always hope that this could be a wake up call to live a more healthy life style, but that has not been the result at this time.
In more light-hearted news, I decided to allow my students to add me as a friend on facebook. Previously I had denied them all, but I figured this will be one more way for me to get them in trouble, and that keeps life interesting. I was excited to see that they had posted a video they had taken at school (with a contraband cellphone I believe) but it turned out just to be one of my more vocal students eating cake and beans at the same time ("eewwww" was squealed by about a half dozen other students). So tomorrow I will get on to them about that... or maybe I'll just make them all eat cake and beans at the same time. Or they can get out of it if they buy me ice cream. Bribery goes a long way in my class.

If you all could pray for my brother, I would greatly appreciate it.
He had two seizures on Tuesday of this week, which, needless to say, really threw a wrench in a lot of plans. It's amazing how quickly you can drop so many things that seemed vitally important a few minutes before. I took the afternoon and next day off of school, and my parents drove down that evening. While he has been fine since, the most disturbing thing is that we have no idea why he had them in the first place. The first one happened in the morning, and while we were in the hospital that afternoon, they took a blood test and a CT Scan but both came back normal. We left and I figured the best thing to do was get him a good meal in his system, but when we sat down at the restaurant, the second one hit him. I've never seen a person have a seizure, so it was pretty disturbing. We got him back to the hospital and were promptly told we were the problem since we didn't immediately go and get him the prescribed medicine. I thought this was a little harsh since we had just got there, and probably would have needed the same amount of time to get the drug in the first place (plus I was just annoyed that they let him out with a, "It all looks okay" and had no explanation for any of it). By the time we got out late that night, we found a 24hour Walgreens and ordered the pills. I got to bed around 1am and had already requested a sub. Anyway, the week has gone okay since then. It has been good to see my parents and more of my brother, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. 1) Why? 2) Can he still drive? 3) Can he still work at his present job? etc. We just have to wait and see.
At least now it's the Sabbath and we can rest.
Please pray that God's will be done for my brother. I hope he can start to learn to lead a life more pleasing in God's sight (something you could pray for me too while you're at it!).
Hope you all are getting ready for the Spring Holy Days!

Do you know what the capital of Assyria is?