Farewell April!

The month of April has come and the month of April has gone. I like April because it's better than March. Don't even get me started on January and February! I like April, but not nearly as much as May. HELLO, MAY! Tomorrow is May 1st and the smell of summer is already in the air. May means State Testing (the OAA) at school is complete. May means the official summer countdown has begun. May means lots of outdoor activities at school. Field Day and cookouts, anyone? May means Memorial Day and then it's time for a vacation! For those who think teachers get THREE MONTHS OFF in the summer... I would like to kindly and respectfully remind you of this. My last day of school is June 8th and starts again August 15th. I will go back to school August 1st to begin preparing my classroom and lesson plans. That's about 7 weeks. A far cry from three months. Most teachers take CE (continuing education) classes or workshops in the summer. This is required to keep a valid teaching license. Also, most teachers work at least a part time job in the summer. I will have one myself this year. Please understand I am not complaining. Not in the slightest. I've got a great job and a great schedule, but three months off is not exactly accurate. Anyway, May is here and then comes summer. It's a good time of year for me.

How do you spell elephant?

We got a surprise call from Jessi tonight and we got to meet the Mortons for dinner. What a great way to wind up the weekend! We had a good time talking with and playing with Sveta. Her English gets better each time we see her. While waiting for our food we were playing with a toy. You push a button, a wheel spins and then stops- displaying the name of an animal. Kind of like a mini slot machine. Each time Sveta would spell out the name of the animal. T-I-G-E-R. B-E-A-R. H-I-P-P-O. and so on... At one point, Sveta spelled L-I-O-N and the then said, "Lion!". We were amazed that she had actually read the word. We decided to try again. This time she read F-R-O-G and said, "Elephant!". We're still not sure if she actually matched the letters in the word lion to the corresponding sounds or if she just got plain lucky. There's only one thing I know for certain. F-R-O-G spells elephant because Sveta said so!

Supporting Mom and Pop

Tami and I like to support Mom and Pop establishments whenever possible. If we can avoid spending our money at the Wal-Marts, Targets and Home Depots of the world, we do. Today we visited the local garden center, Casey's Outdoor Solutions. Casey is a young guy (late 20's or early 30's maybe?). He attended the local high school and lives here in the neighborhood. He has a gorgeous place where he sells trees, shrubs, flowers, mulch, decorative rock and gravel, gardening supplies and anything else you may need in landscaping your yard. He also runs a landscaping business for those wealthy folks who can afford a professional landscaping job. We like to go and look around even if we're not in the market to buy anything. Today was customer appreciation day. He had selected items on sale, an inflatable moonwalk for the kids to bounce in and free food. And not just any free food... free pork barbecue with slaw, beans, dessert and drinks. The BBQ was provided by a another local guy. He runs a local BBQ joint called Hogwild. He has one of those smokers that can be towed behind a truck. He has been designated a pit master. I'm not really sure what that means other than this guy is really good at making smoked pork BBQ. If you know me, two of my favorite words are "Free Food". You would also know my love for all things BBQ. So today was a good day. We got to visit one of our favorite local stores and got a delicious free lunch. The only bummer was the weather. It rained cats and dogs and was downright cold. I'm really glad the free lunch was served inside :-)

Spring Spruce Up

Here's another reason I love spring and the subsequent summer season. In addition to more outdoor clean up (I just can't get enough of working in my yard and trying to make it look better and better), we are also doing some stuff indoors. You saw the newly (and boldly) painted living room. Tami is now doing some neat craft projects and updating the decor. It's going to look really cool when she's done. Instead of ordinary framed photos on the wall, she is mounting 11x14 photos on canvas for a different look. It won't be long before they're up on the wall. She's done some stenciling and is also looking into making new curtains (out of tablecloths, no less!). It's always fun to fix the house up a little bit. It's nothing too fancy or expensive, but it looks great anyway :-)

Who hit the fast forward button?

One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption". It's a prison movie set in the first half of the 20th century. One of the main characters, Brooks Hatlen, has been incarcerated his entire adult life and is finally paroled when he's in his 70's. Marveling at how much things have changed in 50 years, he sends a postcard to his buddies back in prison and it contains this line, "The world went and got itself in a big d*** hurry!". I'm starting to feel this way myself. I haven't been in jail and I haven't been out of touch with the world for five decades. However, I am witnessing a world that was already moving really fast, speeding up to near warp speed. When I was kid, you actually had to walk over to the TV and turn a dial to change the channel. There were 4 channels to choose from... ABC, CBS, NBC and a local UHF channel. Kids shows were limited to Saturday mornings. If you missed your show, you had to wait a whole week to see it again. Now there are literally hundreds of channels beamed to my home via satellite. If you miss your show, it can be digitally recorded and viewed at your convenience. When I was in high school computers started appearing. They didn't do much and what they did do was activated by inserting a disk into a drive. We certainly didn'y carry computers around in our pockets. Now we have laptops and smart phones that allow us to access the internet instantly from anywhere in the world. I read yesterday that 900 million people use FaceBook. I heard somebody say that's 15% of the entire planet. I refuse to use FaceBook for reasons that would not interest you. Suffice it to say I will not be adding to FaceBook's totals in my lifetime. Now we have Twitter, Instant Messaging, Texting, and tons of other social media that I don't even know exist! The world is moving at breakneck speed and I have abandoned any thoughts of trying to keep up. The world has passed me by and all I can do is stand back and watch. I suppose this is the same way generations past felt when the telegraph, telephone, radio and television came along. I am looking forward to the day when I can tell my grandchildren that I am older than cell phones, iPods and the internet. I will have fun telling them of the days when I listened to music on something called a radio and played vinyl records on a turntable. I will tell them of the long forgotten item called a telephone book. Tell them of the days when everybody's phone number was in a book the size of a Christmas ham! Tell how the book was so big, short people could sit on it to see over their car's dashboard. It will be at that point a small child will disengage from his/her digital music device and smart phone for a moment and say, "Grandpa tell us about the good old days back in the 80's". Just call me Brooks. The world went and got itself in a big d*** hurry!

The Windy City- Revisited

Here we go again! 40 MPH wind gusts. I'm tellin' ya folks, I can't remember having so many windy days! This is all related to the massive storm slamming the northeast. This nor'easter (as we seasoned sailors like to call these storms) is dumping 8"-16" of snow in parts of Pennsylvania and New York. Just when those folks thought they'd escaped the clutches of winter... WHAMMO! Blizzard! Imagine all that wet, heavy snow falling on trees that have their leaves. I predict massive power outages. Things could always be worse I guess.

A BOLD new look

This post may bore you to tears, but here's the redecorating project in photos: Here's the master at work-

Midway through the project- Lookin' good so far!

Almost finished-

Here's the finished project. The only thing missing are the pictures on the wall. Those will go up soon.

The painting has begun

The painting has begun! Two out of three horizontal stripes have their first coat. When they dry, the second coat will be applied. Tomorrow the third stripe will go on. It's a bold look and I LIKE IT! For an ultra-conservative guy, it's probably unusual to like something that's this far out of the box. I'm getting older... why not be bold and live a little? You can't have beige walls forever.

And they're off! (Way off!)

My beloved Cincinnati Reds were supposed to be big time contenders this year. So far all they've done is stumble out of the starting gate with a 5-8 record. A good friend of mine used to say, "That ain't gonna get it done". I know it's a long season and thirteen games is in no way an accurate measuring stick. But 5 wins in the first 13? YIKES! C'mon boys, give me a reason to drop a few bucks at the ball park this year. If something doesn't change, I'll be listening to the games on the radio.

Time is funny... and it's fleeting

Every adult reading this will know what I'm talking about. Time is a funny thing and it is fleeting. When I was a child it seemed like an anticipated event took forever to arrive. Christmas, birthday, summer vacation. It felt like adults had all the fun. They got to eat whatever they wanted, stay up as late as they wanted, drive cars and tell kids what to do. All I wanted to do was hurry up and grow up. It didn't quite work out that way. Time moved so slowly. Now that I'm an adult the opposite is true. I don't want my birthday to come (but it always comes faster than it used to). I can eat whatever I want, but it makes me fat. I can stay up as late as I want, but my recliner works against me and I always fall asleep sooner than I want to. I can drive, but traffic stresses me out. Things sure have changed! Now I'm pushing 50 and my eldest child, Jessi is married (and I have a new granddaughter to boot). Michael will be graduating from high school in about 6 weeks. He is growing into a very fine young man. Abby will be a sophomore next year and is growing up sooooooooo fast! My children have grown up before my very eyes and I have no idea how it happened. How can you witness something every day and have no clue what happened? Time is fleeting and I realize more and more how precious every moment with my children is. I don't see Jessi, Barry and Sveta nearly as much as I'd like. Therefore I cherish every minute with them. Michael will be in college soon and he is rarely home anymore. I miss him already and he's not even gone yet. I'm going to blink and Abby will be off to college. That's when you'll see me standing in the middle of my quiet house wondering where everybody went. I know this is not new. Everybody with children has experienced this or will at some point. If nothing else, I've learned one thing through all this. God's plan is perfect. I often joke about being an empty nester in training. But that's exactly what's happening. I see less and less of my children all the time. Jessi lives an hour away. Michael has blossomed into a social butterfly and is always going somewhere. Abby is a typical teenager and spends as little time with mom and dad as possible. God is preparing me for a time when they will be gone and out on their own. I don't like it, but I know this is how God intended life to be. Who am I to question the plan of my omniscient, omnipotent, gracious, perfect God? Nobody, that's who.

Redecorating- Can I have a do over?

Tami is going to paint the living room and dining room this week. She's a very good painter, so I'm not concerned about the end result. It will look great when she's done. She has decided to do something bold and asked if I trusted her judgment. I laughed and said, "Yes". It may seem odd that I laughed, but there is a story behind it. More on that in a minute. The bold decorating technique she is going to use is three broad, horizontal stripes. Three different shades of the same color. The darkest on the bottom and getting lighter as you go up. The differences in shade are very subtle. Apparently it draws the eyes up. Why that's important, I haven't a clue. I have zero talent for interior decorating, so I will bow to someone who knows more about it than me. Now for the reason I laughed when asked if I trusted her. One of our biggest fights in nearly 21 years of marriage came as a result of interior decorating and Tami painting a room. About 15 years ago when we lived in Finneytown, Tami declared she was going to paint the living room. She asked if I had a color preference. I said something to the effect of, "It doesn't really matter to me, I trust your judgement, Honey". You can probably guess where this is going. While I was at work Tami picked out some light blue paint and finished the job in short order. I arrived home eager to see the newly painted living room. In short... It was AWFUL! U-G-L-Y... Ugly! A smart husband would have kept his trap shut. Did I? Nooooooo way! My negative reaction was not received well (and rightly so). I said the color didn't matter, so what right did I have to criticize? Absolutely no right at all. We had one of our worst blow outs over that one and I was in the wrong. Thankfully I've gotten a lot smarter in the last 15 years :-) The funny part is... in the end, Tami decided she didn't like the color either. She chose a different color and it was gorgeous. It stayed that way until we moved out in 2005. To my knowledge, that paint is still on those walls today.

I now live in the Windy City

Yes, you read correctly. I now live in the Windy City. No, I didn't suddenly relocate my family to Chicago. I'm referring to the number of excessively windy days it seems we've experienced in the last 5 or 6 years. I'm not talking about high winds winds associated with thunderstorms that blow through the area quickly. I'm talking about days when the wind just howls! 30-40 mph gusts and sustained winds in excess of 25 mph. Maybe since I've lived in Hidden Valley I notice the winds more. However, I seriously doubt this is the case. I truly don't remember having so many windy days. Not just spring days with a stiff breeze, but windy, windy days! As I type this, the flags outside are whipping as they stand straight out. Has anyone else noticed all these windy days or is it just me? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Incidentally, do you know how Chicago got the nickname The Windy City? It actually has nothing to do with windy weather conditions. It originates from the idea that Chicagoans talk a lot. The people there are "windy". Just another fun fact that probably interests only me :-)

Titanic- 100 years

One of my favorite interests is maritime history. I am particularly captivated by Great Lakes shipwrecks (The Edmund Fitzgerald) and of course the queen mother of all, The Titanic. I have read countless books on the topic and watched every TV special ever made. I even purchased a small chunk of coal from the Titanic wreck site. It cost $35 and I'm sure the only value it has is sentimental. Ask me anything about the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic and its subsequent discovery on September 11, 1985 and I can probably give you a good answer to that question. By the way, did you know the day Titanic was discovered was also the day Pete Rose broke the all time hits record in baseball? There's a fun fact that will dazzle your friends! Today, April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic striking the iceberg. But wait, you say... I thought the Titanic sank on April 15th. That's correct. The ship struck the iceberg at 11:40 P.M. on the 14th and sank at 2:20 A.M. on the 15th. That's why you see the sinking sometimes listed as April 14th-15th, 1912. I could go on for hours about the Titanic, but you would most certainly tune out due to boredom. This is stuff that is only interesting to me.

Rush-Lish

Visiting with Sveta (and Jessi and Barry of course) has been a complete joy. I've already mentioned my heart turns to mush any time I'm with her. Watching her adapt in the 8 short weeks she's been here has been incredible. The most amazing aspect has been her language skills. In the short time she's been in the States, Sveta has learned a staggering amount of English. Right now her language seems to straddle Russian and English. I just call it Rush-Lish. When talking with her I pick out a lot of English words, some words that I recognize as Russian and yet other times I have no idea what she's saying and I think it may be gibberish or the aforementioned Rush-Lish.

Here are a few of my favorite language moments with Sveta:

When you do something for her, she says, "O Fanks" (Oh thanks!)

She was sitting on my lap and was curiously running her finger over my mustache. I asked her to say mustache, but she didn't. She said, "Mouth. Tickle!"

At a restaurant there was a 3 foot wooden fork decorating the wall. She said, "Fork, big! Heavy!"

Shortly before hunting Easter Eggs at our house she must have been telling me she was ready to begin the hunt. I heard a long string of what sounded like gibberish ending with the word eggs. It sounded a bit like this, "Tsmcn chjfh dmjdjdfjfdbn eydhdmjdmcdncnc mndnnmxnx EGGS!"

She's also very polite. After a trip to the restroom, Grandma told her to wash her hands. She said, "No fank you. Tizer" (rather than washing she prefers hand sanitizer). It's not ideal, but not a battle her Mama is willing to fight. I can't blame her.

We brought out a ball and asked if she wanted to play soccer. She replied, "Yeah, sucker! Candy!" Maybe we should join the rest of the world and call it football. Football doesn't sound anything like sucker.

And my most favorite of all... as we were interacting she suddenly lunged forward and hugged me and said, "God loves you!" A genius at 4. I sure am a proud Goppa :-)

I admit it

I admit it. Teachers are shameless (I can't speak for all teachers, but I know I am). It's only April and the countdown to summer vacation is already on! For me, it's the way I cope with a stressful job. I break my school year into chunks of time. X number of days until Christmas vacation. X number of days until spring break and so on... Recently I finished with spring break and now we're in the homestretch of the school year. In fact, I recently realized I have more off days than days at work until we leave for our summer trip. There are 83 days until we leave for our Western Caribbean cruise and 40 days of school remaining. That translates into 43 days off and 40 days at work until we leave. I know. I know. It's kind of pathetic, but it helps me to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Face Time

I've gotten to see Sveta twice in the last 4 days. Saturday we had a huge pre-Easter dinner at our house. It was Sveta's first visit to Goppa's and Grandma's house. Then last night we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants with the Mortons. Both times I had the chance to spend quality time with Sveta. She spent time on my lap and time talking to me. There was something special about her gazing into my eyes when she was mere inches from my face. You could just feel the connection happening. There are no words to describe the feeling I get when she and I have "Face Time". There were even times when we were interacting that she suddenly lunged forward, wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. That was the best part of all! Am I smitten? Yes. Does my heart melt? Definitely! Does she have me wrapped around her little finger? There's no denying it. Can she look at me with those dark little eyes and get anything she wants? Within reason... you bet! I am powerless against it. That's okay. I think this is what being a grandparent is supposed to be like.

Before she even got to the United States I knew I loved her. However, I had no idea the depth of that love until the last few days. She is an incredible, sweet, affectionate, amazingly smart little girl. I'm not saying that because she's my granddaughter. I'm saying it because it's true. Her intelligence, even at the age of four astounds me. I was certainly not prepared for that. I am so looking forward to this summer when Sveta can swim in Goppa's and Grandma's pool. I get the sneaking suspicion I'll be spending a lot more time in the water this year :-)

The end of a productive spring break

Spring break for teachers takes many forms. Some travel, some relax and try to rest up for the home stretch of the school year. Some get caught up on lesson planning and grading papers. For me, it was none of the above. Most of my spring break was spent cleaning up the exterior of the house (and yard), trying to reverse the damage Mother Nature inflicted during the winter and early spring. Leaves, sticks and other debris everywhere. Gutters a mess. Downspouts coming loose. The deck and pool really looked neglected. Weeds growing everywhere... including places I didn't know weeds could grow. Mulching flower beds that took a definite beating since last fall. After a week of hard work things outside are looking good. I have a good start on having everything in ship shape. A few things didn't get done, but will be completed as time allows. I need to paint my shed and some other exterior trim on the house. I need to do some digging in the side yard to level it out a bit. There's always something to do, but overall I'm happy with the progress I made.

Today, to finish up my productive week, I fixed Tami's garage door opener. The button was sticking and was giving her fits every time she wanted to open or close the garage door. That will no longer be an annoyance to her.

And speaking of garage door openers... Mine finally bit the dust. When I pushed the button the motor would hum, but nothing else would happen. An inspection revealed a plastic gear inside the housing of the opener that was chewed up beyond belief. I even had my father-in-law, Frank look at it (he's the guy who can fix anything and everything). He said, "You need a new opener". He never says that. He always seems to think something can be fixed. Not this time. When Frank says something is toast, it's toast!

I'm not going to buy a new opener immediately. I rigged my old one so it can be opened and closed manually. It's not the best case scenario, but it does beat parking outside in the driveway. And hey, people did fine back in the day with manual garage doors. I have gotten quite spoiled with my automatic garage door opener.

Resurrection Sunday

Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia!

Happy Easter and Resurrection Sunday!

Jesus was a carpenter. Me? Not so much..

One of my spring cleaning projects was to pressure wash the deck. Most of it looked pretty nice, but the railings were clearly beyond cleaning. They were splitting, splintering and obviously in need of replacement. Not a big deal you say? Well, for those who know me, being handy is not my strong suit. However, being up for a challenge, I borrowed a miter saw and headed off to Lowe's to purchase a load of 2x6's. With all materials in place it was time to begin. I measured carefully twice (the old saying goes, "Measure twice, cut once"), but for some reason the mitered joints did not fit together exactly right. They were close, but it was evident the job was done by an amateur and not a true professional carpenter. In the end, the deck rail looks decent enough, but I am no carpenter. I had a good time and feel like I learned a lot. I will not shy away from carpentry projects in the future, but nothing too difficult or complicated.

On a different note, my late father was very handy and a good carpenter. Always the comedian, Dad used to joke about his carpentry skills. He'd complain about his mistakes by saying, "I cut the board again, and it's STILL too short!" I wish Dad had lived longer (47 was just too young!). I'm sure he could have taught me a lot about being handy. Since that's not possible, I'll just have to do the best I can on my own.

And this one belongs to the Reds!

Marty Brennaman has been the Reds radio announcer since 1974. In other words, he's been calling Reds games since I was old enough to listen. His signature line when the Reds win is, "AND THIS ONE BELONGS TO THE REDS!". Today, I got to hear that famous phrase. The Reds won their opener 4-0.

As much as I love baseball, I rarely watch or listen to an entire game. I may tune in for a few innings, but after that, life beckons and I am off doing other things. Today was different. I sat and watched the entire game. I muted the TV and tuned into the Reds Radio Network (700 WLW) to hear Marty call the game. Lots of folks do this. Nothing personal against the Reds TV announcers, but there's something special about listening to Marty. Hearing his voice on a warm summer night has a very soothing affect on me. There are few things I love more than sitting on my deck at dusk, watching the sunset, listening to Marty call the Reds game as I sip iced tea mixed with lemonade. Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. I don't need an iPhone or video games. Just the Reds on radio.

OK... Now it's official

The photo above shows the cloud covered sunrise at Great American Ballpark this morning. There must be some symbolism here somewhere, but I'm not deep enough to put it into words. Maybe--- "Hope springs eternal as the the sun rises on a new Reds season". It's cheesy and cliche', but it's the best I've got.

************************************************************************************************

Yesterday I posted that Opening Day in Cincinnati is like an unofficial holiday. Today I stand corrected. Cincinnati City Council has made it official. Here's a snippet from today's Enquirer:

Now, it’s official.

Opening Day in Cincinnati is a holiday like no other. City Council says so. Nice of the city’s leaders to recognize what the rest of the world has known for a century.

Today’s Opening Day 2012 – signaling the start of another Cincinnati Reds season of eternal optimism – marks the first time the Queen City’s most sacred secular event takes place under its new status as an official ceremonial city holiday. (Whatever that is.)

So there. It really is a holiday.

On a different note, my brother Kerry is friends with one of the owners of the Reds. As a result he scored Diamond Seats for Opening Day. For those who don't know, Diamond Seats are the ones directly behind home plate. To begin with, the seats come with their own private parking area outside the Diamond Club. Once in the club, there is a pre-game dinner buffet. We're not talking hotdogs and nachos here. We're talking prime rib and lots of other fancy stuff. Then once you're in your seat, a waitress comes to your seat every inning and takes your order for any food or drink you want. It's really something else. How do I know this? Glad you asked. I got to sit in the Diamond Seats a few years ago. Compliments of Mr. Carl Lindner himself. If you're from Cincinnati, you know who that is.

Anyway, it's going to be quite a day. Go Reds!

Tomorrow is a HOLIDAY!

If you know me very well, you know I really love baseball. I especially love the Cincinnati Reds. I have followed them since I was a very small boy. I grew up watching Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and the rest of The Big Red Machine.

After a long, cold, dreary winter, baseball returns tomorrow. Opening Day in Cincinnati is like an unofficial holiday. There's a parade downtown. People sneak away from work early or take the day off completely. The atmosphere around the ball park is like a party and is downright electric. Everybody wears red and for a single day everybody in town is a Reds fan. Oh yeah, and there's a baseball game too.

The boys are back in town. Play ball! Go Reds!

More work outside...

The weather forecasters were wrong. Not a single drop of rain today. It was another gorgeous day for working outside. I finished the weeding (huge job on our lot). I was also able to get the tire on my lawn tractor repaired. It's been flat since last fall. It wasn't difficult, only time consuming. It was yet another productive day. Tomorrow is mulching and some carpentry work (board replacements) on the deck. There is a 40% chance of rain tomorrow, but I am really hoping the showers miss us completely.

The yard is really starting to shape up!

Spring Cleaning in Hyper Drive!

It was a beautiful day on my first day of Spring Break. Tami and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and worked outside ALL DAY! We cleaned the carpet on the pool deck, cleaned under all the tiles on the pool deck, pressure washed the wood on the upper deck. Tami scrubbed the patio furniture and I pressure washed the dock boxes and lounge chairs. I did some more weeding and made repairs to the gate on the deck and the fence around the pool. I also cleaned debris out of the flower beds. Needless to say we are tired, but it's a good tired.

Tomorrow I will have to dodge some raindrops, but I will do some more projects as weather allows.

Wednesday is mulch day. I will get a pickup truck full of mulch and mulch everything in sight!

I sure do love working in my yard :-)

Got the first one under my belt

I taught my first Sunday School lesson today. I had the PLEASURE of teaching Exodus 15-17 to six attentive and interested (I think) 5th and 6th graders. It was a strange feeling to speak and to actually have children listening and actively engaging in the material I was presenting. It was also a strange sensation to feel respected. Now I know what teachers in affluent schools must feel like. When teaching today, I didn't feel like I was swimming against the current and literally fighting to be heard. I felt like the lesson flowed and had a good rhythm to it. I am relatively certain it's because I wasn't interrupted every 10 seconds. I got a taste today of what real teaching is all about. I am truly not exaggerating when I describe my public school students.

Just in case you're wondering, Exodus 15-17 is when Moses and the Israelites left the bondage of Egypt and had just passed through the Red Sea... then wandered in the desert for 40 years. God tested the Israelites and each time they failed miserably. When hungry or thirsty, they would grumble to Moses and in turn God would perform miracles to provide for their needs. But the Israelites would quickly forget what God did and did not trust God even though he showed them His power over and over. This is not at all unlike most of us today.

I was encouraged today and I'm eager for my next lesson. I hope the kids are too.