G's kazoo skills

Swimming in the "bubble"

It's pretty ironic that the most mentions I have to any one thing in my blog is something I don't care much for-swimteam. Now most people stop their swimming regimens at the YMCA at the end of September or so, but never us. We the homeschool swimteam(now with cool t-shirts!) never stop. We swim our best in the cold of winter when other "swimmers" stop for a winter break. We swim our best when the pool is covered in a self induced fog because of the mind boggling difference between the temperatures of the pool water and the air. Then, after a few weeks, we get to swim in the bubble. The "bubble" is some kinda big, thick, and old tarp thing that they put over the pool before we morning swim team kids die in a block of ice, or sue because of frost bite caused by early morning swimming in the fall. The bubble ( or big diaper as my ingenious little brother used to call it) used to be white. Now it is a very putrid yellow color. Probably from being stored for most of the year in someplace far far away and most likely damp and moldy. The bubble is constantly pumped full of hot, thick, and humid air from a 30+ year old air conditioner located in the back. This makes it rather hard to breathe; even if you aren't allergic to mold like my poor brother is. G dutifully swims his backstroke, freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke as he coughs, hacks, and gags in the humid air. I have an easier time of it. In fact, during our backstroke swim today I swam for twenty straight minutes without stopping. However, neither A or I counted how many laps we did. I'll say I swam about 1500. (based on that it takes me about 15 strokes to cross the pool at a second a piece.) I have to go do math now and get ready for biology. Don't try to do the math in the nice formula I wrote it'll probably come out a lot differently than my calculations.

My mom made me post this

Christ vs Society

A Sonlight Writing Assignment

By: Branson Horn

The older I get, the more and more I see of the differences between secular society and the Bible’s idea of a Christian society. However, the older I get, the more I start to see a muddling of Christian and secular societies. This saddens me. Many of the people that came to the new world, especially the pilgrims, came to escape the mixing of their Christian morals and secular morals. I find it ironic, then, that a country that was founded as a haven for religion has become so perverted by secularism.

Throughout history, Christians have struggled in the society they belong to. Even during Jesus’ time, Christians struggled to maintain their morals in a society that didn’t always support or reflect them. In the ancient church, when Christianity became somewhat of a fad, those who genuinely sought to live a true Christian life struggled against the waves of false teachers and prophets, as well as influences from other religions seeping ever so slowly into the moral fibers of the churches. Of course, little needs to be said about the suffering of the early church under the merciless Roman Empire, whose social, political, and moral corruption was in sharp contrast to that of Christianity’s.

The struggle continued in the Reformation, when those who sought to form another church, apart from the corrupt and bloated Roman Catholic church, were persecuted for their ideas and different theologies. This didn’t stop them however, the Protests fought with words and the sword and finally gained the freedom that they desired. However, the corruption didn’t end for the church when the Protestants rose. Because humans are innately sinful and corrupted from birth, the church can never be devoid of sin. Humans, who make up the church, constantly gravitate towards the world as if pulled by a magnet. Until Christ returns again there will never be a church completely set apart from the world. However, we, as Christians can do our best to stay apart from the sin of the world and not let it penetrate our values. Although we shouldn’t cloister ourselves away, we should separate our hearts from the things of this world, and look forward to those things that will come.