Random Thoughts

Gas down in Rockford this morning was still over $2 when we went to church, but on our way home we saw a gas station in Wisconsin with $1.98. It's been a while since we saw that!

For years, I told myself that we needed to buy snow-fence and put it up in late fall. But year after year, I neglected to do it. Then we had to dig out the drifts. When I was little and my dad talked about "drifts," I didn't understand what he meant. Sure, I understood the concept in my mind, but I didn't understand the way that snow drifts make shoveling seem entirely futile. After a few years of drought, snow-fencing seemed pointless (even though there were several days per year of digging and re-digging out a sidewalk that had already been cleaned four times since the last snowfall). This year I'm wondering if the increased snowfall will motivate me to get snow-fencing in November. Probably not...

I had sixteen hours added to my week this past week. Didache was canceled because of Pastor's being in Fort Wayne for symposia. So was Thursday Bible class. I also skipped my weekly errand-day in the city because I'm trying to get back onto my Monday routine after having the errand-schedule goofed up by Christmas and New Years. Those three things alone put sixteen extra hours into my week. Did I cross a lot of projects off my to-do list? Did I catch up on chores? No. Granted, I spent a little more time on the computer than I should've, and I spent a few hours answering phone calls from desperate parents investigating the possibility of homeschooling. But most of those extra hours got used up in homeschooling. No wonder I always feel like I'm behind.

I was a good girl last week and did schoolwork with the kids instead of listening to symposium lectures live-streamed on the computer. Boy, that took some self-denial!

When we were driving into town the other day, Andrew saw a sign that I hadn't noticed. He asked, "What does evangelical mean?" I asked whether he meant the real meaning of the word, or the way it is commonly used today. He asked for the real meaning first. So I told him it means "gospel" or "gospel-ish." The sign he saw was for the Evangelical Free church in town. He wanted to know why any denomination would call itself something like "Gospel-Free Church."