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Yesterday I decided to drive around the west side of Maui. Driving to Lahaina and beyond was an easy road – wide, in good repair, and only gently curving.

As I continued on, The road was more twisty, but still in good repair. The coast was rocky and beautiful, and the land was lush and green.

This was next to Honolua Bay. I need to go snorkeling there some time.

Then I came to a sign that said: “End of State Highway”. After that, the road got considerably more narrow, and it some places, ridiculously narrow. The scenery was still amazing.

In some places, there were clusters of houses. At one of those places, a girl stood in the middle of the road so I had to stop. She asked me if I wanted to buy some banana bread. I didn’t get any. She said it was for her church, but she sounded dishonest. I didn’t want to reinforce her dishonesty.

As I neared Kahului, I saw a giant rock. I was sure it was something important. I was right. It was Pu’u Koa’e. Apparently, King Kahekili (who was king of Maui in the 1700’s) liked to cliff dive from this rock.

It was striking.

Not long after that, I hit familiar territory, since there are some hiking trails along this road. I was back in Kahului in no time.

I’m glad I drove this road, so I can say I’ve done it, but with the crazy narrow parts, I think I wouldn’t drive it again unless someone I was with was interested in seeing it.

A large part of working with students at the beginning of the year is establishing good habits.

One big challenge for this class is for them to stay in their seats during lunch. If they don’t, then food gets all over the floor instead of just dropping on their desktop, where they can easily clean it up.

Another big challenge is that they leave their stuff all around their desk area – papers, pencils, water bottles, erasers…

Yesterday after school, I swept all the food and stuff together into a pile… into a Pile of Shame. I will show it to them this morning and talk to them about being more mindful of their things and of their classroom. It will probably work for a couple of hours.

This pile contains some assignments that are due today.

Today is my half birthday! Woo hoo! I’m 48.5 years old!

I do the message in chapel today, and I’m using one I put together years ago for a chapel that was on my actual birthday. I will show pictures of each of my birthdays and talk about how we change and our faith changes, but Jesus never changes.

For your viewing enjoyment, and for the memory archive, here is each of my birthdays, from one to ten, book-ended by pictures of my baptism and confirmation.

I find something interesting or funny about each of them. My favorite is my sixth birthday, where Beth is banished to another table. Hahaha! It makes me laugh.