Spontaneous substitute.

Just got done teaching a class of fifth- and sixth-graders at our Christian school. Our regular teacher had to bow out for a family commitment, so I got asked about 25 minutes before class started! Not much time to prepare, but it still went well. We talked about 1 Peter 1:14-16, and what it means to live "holy" lives for God.

Funniest thing about that mixed class is that there are just 2 boys, so quite a bit of talking amongst friends. Would I want to teach them day in and day out? Let's just say my appreciation for our teachers increased significantly in the last hour!

An accomplished teen.

Just read about an 18-year-old from Southern California who climbed Mt Everest this week, becoming the youngest person to ever climb all the so-called "7 Summits," the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

It's quite impressive for anyone to accomplish, especially for someone fresh out of high school. There was a multi-episode show on the Discovery Channel some months ago about climbing Everest, and I recently read a book about the March 1996 disasters while climbing the mountain ("Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer).

Mountains are cool. No way I could ever climb anything like Everest or Denali or anything that huge, but they're amazing to see, admire and respect.