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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Bicyclist in Training

On Wednesday May 22nd, 2013 Maxine and I rode our bikes to her school in the morning, then back home in the evening.  The distance for our route is about 4.5 km (2.8 miles), keeping to bike paths, wide sidewalks, and very occasionally riding on roads when there is no other choice.  It took us a bit over 40 minutes to get there.  Thursday we cut it down to 35 minutes.

Maxine's teacher told me that Maxine was not as active as usual in the morning, but seemed fine in the afternoon.  I'm guessing that if we do this regularly, she will become a monster, with just as much energy as before after taking 20 minutes to ride to school.  Now I have to slow myself down to keep down with her (is that a proper expression?).  She maxes out at about 20 kph (12 mph).

This makes me unbelievably happy.  I want her to enjoy biking like I do, so that we can bike together, and so far we are on target.

But Thursday night Maxine was wiped out.  She is normally somewhat moody, but that night she was just a mess.  In hindsight, we should have aimed to put her in bed by 8 or so, to give her body a chance to recover from all that bike-muscle building, but we didn't.  I had to go teach a class and didn't get home until 9, Horyon came home at her usual time, around 7, so the kids had dinner late and didn't get into bed until after 10.  Horyon was frustrated with Maxine's moodiness, and her own moodiness kicked in, and she handed down a ruling:  No biking to school two days in a row.  Probably a good idea, at least until she builds up some endurance.

I'm a bit sore, after two days in a row.  After dropping Maxine off, I did some riding of my own on both days.  Wednesday I rode Igi-dae, my old warm-up ground.  I consider it a baseline of sorts: if I can make it all the way around the car road without having to stop and push .  I did it.  Minor woop.  So on Thursday when I got up to the walking trail (that is mostly paved, and has some seriously steep slopes), I decided to give it a go.

I had to get off the bike three times to push it up hills that were calling me a sissy boy and stealing my lunch money.

So now I've got two goals to work towards:

1)  I will get back my hill-climbing biking body, legs, lungs and head.
2)  I will get Maxine on her bike as much as she can take, and give her the life-long love of it that I had forgotten for so long.

And my other goal, of putting random pictures with every blog post, is coming along nicely, thank you.

Maxine and her posse be workin' the wild strawberries, yo.

Horyon takes the best pictures of the kids.
They just look extra cute for her.

Maxine is quick to lead the way up the trees.

And Quinten is following in Maxine's footsteps
as far as climbing goes.

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Memorizing the book of James

 I'm not sure how much time I spent on this, but this is just James 1 verses 1-3, over and over again.
I think I've got it down, but it's not tight yet.  I've since moved on to include v. 4, and plan to add v. 5 today or tomorrow.  Ideally, I will be adding one verse per day until I have the entire book memorized.

My good friend Elaine (over there at the Bear) started this process a few months ago, I believe with the same book of the Bible.  She has claimed that it has rocked her spiritual world like nothing else, and challenged our small group to try it.  One verse per day was her recommendation.  I'm falling a little short, but I'm a beginner at this, so I'm not discouraged.

In fact, I've already had cause to quote this bit of the Bible that has been bound to my forehead, so to speak.  This morning Horyon told me that when the kids get sick she tries to think that at least we aren't fighting the sinus infections that we suffered through in 2011.  I started in on James 1:2-3  "My brothers and sisters, count it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

Now maybe I am the guy with the hammer who sees every problem as a nail, but I don't think so.  I think that God is sending me a message:  that God's Word is worth the investment of time and effort.  It bears fruit, and helps to make sense of the world.

That said, I don't expect to start memorizing big chunks of Numbers any time soon, but I want to make memorizing big chunks of scripture a regular part of my time with God.  And I think that God approves.  Has anyone else out there tried this?  I'd love to hear how it has gone for you.

A Brief Introduction

Roblog is my writing lab. It is my goal to not let seven days pass without a new post. I welcome your criticism, as I cannot improve on my own.

Here is a link to my cung post, which remains the only word which I have ever invented, and which has not, as far as I know, caught on. Yet.