by

Our Daily Thread 10-1-12

Good Morning.

This is the Daily open thread.

Quote of the Day

“Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long  journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.”

James Madison

Hmmm…,

October sounds like the perfect time for a journey.

62 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-1-12”

  1. Good mornin’. It’s hard to believe that it’s already October!

    I’m going to commit to pray/fast one day a week (my day will be Thursday) until at least through Nov 6th for the election, and, especially, for our country. Is anybody else game?

    Like

    Reply

  3. Interesting that the first two posts should be on prayer. That was the sermon yesterday from James Chapter 5. What should we do when we or someone else is sick? Pray. In dispair? Pray. Happy? Pray. God says “yes” to us before we say “yes” to Him. Sometimes we pray and pray and feel their is no answer? Pray some more.
    Five minutes were given for us to partner or group together and pray.
    Robert told the story of his best friend who died at 33 from leukemia. Robert was still a young priest then and he prayed with and for his friend. He prayed with his friend’s wife. He said he regrets he didn’t pray with his friend’s parents or his sister and if he had it to do over he would pray more. He closed with telling what the friend had said to his father the night before he died…that if he had his life to live over and knew he would have a long happy life he would be his father’s son. What a wonderful thing for a parent to hear.

    My stepmother came over last night for dinner and finally met Mr. P. She told me she approved and said she thought my Daddy would too. I told her what I had told Mr. P and two of his sons…I have had an excellent example of how to be a stepmother.

    Like

    Reply

  4. Our church is doing Pray31. Each day we pray for two states and something else in our country. Yesterday the pastor’s message was: Are we Americans first or are we Christians first? Pray 31 has caused me to pray for people and states I would not have otherwise given a thought.

    Kim, I’m glad things went well with your stepmother.

    Madison was really a great man. His plantation (Montpelier) has been completely restored and is worth a visit. As he counseled, this is best done in the fall as part of a long tour of the Old Dominion.

    Like

    Reply

  5. Good Morning. I shall be praying without ceasing for our country and fellow countrymen…this is an important election as I have yet seen since we elected President Reagan….I know our Lord hears the cries of His children…in Him I trust.
    Yesterday in church, our Lord did a very wonderful thing for me and quite unexpectedly. Our Pastor presented a short video of a precious child who had been abused by her parents….(they are now serving 25 years in prison). This precious child was not expected to live…when it appeared she would indeed live, although she would be blind , never walk or talk and it was suspected she could be deaf, she was adopted by her foster family. The video revealed this child, now 3, is singing, taking steps, smiling, giggling and full of joy and love. This is the child I cared for in Hospice….I held her, prayed for her, cried over her…and now, our Lord has allowed me to know of His answer to my prayers…it was a 5 kleenex morning for me…

    Like

    Reply

  7. She cannot see with her eyes Chas…oh but how evident it is that she can see with her heart…her new family loves the Lord and they are so full of joy and deep love for her…at the end of the video, she was singing “if you’re happy and you know it”…with her Mom and giggling as she was singing….clapping her hands…oh for His mercies made new every morning!

    Like

    Reply

  8. Good morning everyone.

    It’s excellent that so many people are praying about this election, but I hope that people are praying for God’s will to be done and not just for their candidate to win. I also pray that Christians (God’s people) will act like Christians no matter what the outcome of the election and that they will trust in Christ to bring about great change in this country instead of giving that trust to the politicians that we so ardently support. Jesus is going to win in this election because He works everything that is happening to eventually bring about His will and as long as His church stays in His shadow, we will win too.

    Like

    Reply

  9. Photoguy, I have given much thought to that. It may be that God is going to bring in the harvest of the sins of the past several years. And, at the same time, sit up the situation for a culmination of events in the Middle East.
    I’ve mentioned the battle of Zechariah 12 a dozen times. Everything is ripe for that. Except for the Sixth Fleet. So far, the US is committed to Israel. And there is more firepower in that fleet than the rest of the Middle East combined.
    Already, “the leaders of Judah are like a blowtorch in a woodpile” (12:6) and the surrounding nations are looking for a solution.
    Israel is a bone in the throat of the mullah’s in Iran and other nations. They are determined to bring down the Great Satan and the Little Satan.

    Romney won’t let that happen. Obama will.
    We’ll see in November

    Like

    Reply

  10. Just to let you all know, our church prays regularily for “the nation to the south of us”. In fact, most churches I’ve been in do the same thing. We’ve got your back.

    Like

    Reply

  11. Thanks, Phos, we need it.

    I have just been watching five year old washing the kitchen floor and drying it. She loves her work and does a pretty good job.

    Like

    Reply

  12. I am off to visit my dentist. OPEN WIDE.

    AQOD: Do you use United States postal mail? Also sometimes called “snail mail?”

    It seems to be endangered. Should it be kept alive? If yes, how?

    PS. I am sending a snail mail letter today.

    Like

    Reply

  13. The announcer says, “Rush Limbaugh, the greatest radio personality of all ti;me”.
    I like Rush, but evidently he has never heard of Arthur Godfrey. That was before FM or such. But Godfrey owned the radio waves in the fifties.
    I expect, adjusted for population, Arthur Godfrey was the greatest.

    Like

    Reply

  14. I am not a Rush fan, or any of the talk radio that I have heard. They have some good info but I don’t like the trashing. Just give the facts, no need to stir the people into an uproar. Stir them to action.

    Mail: yes, I just sent a letter to my grandson. We exchange several letters a year. I use it but my world will not end if it does.

    Well, there was an article in World recently about the Simpson stamp. According to the very negatively slanted article, the USPS spent 1.2 million dollars to print the stamps, only selling a third of them. But the sale of the third brought them one hundred seventy six million dollars. That is a pretty good return. Perhaps they should do that a few more times.

    Like

    Reply

  15. I dont’t want to appear ugly about World Magazine. I spent a lot of time there but it seems they don’t have a lot of activity over there and even what Michelle shared over the weekend from Micky sounded like a “canned” response. Perhaps they are all doing the happy dance to no longer be bothered with us?

    Like

    Reply

  16. I use the USPS once a month, to send a mortgage payment – the only monthly bill I can’t pay online. Once in a while I send something else by mail, but it took me until this summer to use up the book of stamps I bought at Christmas. (I wondered if anyone thought it was strange to see Christmas stamps in June.)

    Like

    Reply

  17. A lot of seniors depend on the postal service to check up on them and to give them a place to gather and get the local news. But they are closing a lot of the little ones.

    Like

    Reply

  18. I was wondering if World misses us or if kicking us out has had any kind of impact. Will we ever know?

    USPS – almost never; I would love to see them take some cost-saving measures, such as going to M-W-F delivery.

    Like

    Reply

  19. I doubt if our leaving had much impact. Many of us posted on several different threads but that is not the direction they were interested in going and there are not that many of us. They are getting some comments, I tried to comment on something the other day but was unable to do so. Don’t know if it was their problem or mine. I probably won’t keep trying as I had waited some time to let the bugs get worked out. I have noticed several news places with a comment section that never sees action. I have seen some that get a lot of unpleasant action. So far, it appears World is getting some pleasant comments. That may be just what they wanted.

    USPS: I guess I would miss it as just this morning I had two young people make the trip to the mailbox to deliver that letter to the grandson. Later today, two will go up to retrieve the mail. It is part of my exercise program for them. It used to be part of the exercise program for me but I would have to coordinate to take eleven people with me each time and too many are doing too many different things.

    Like

    Reply

  20. Don’t miss world since I have y’all here. (Should I have said “all y’all? Kim? Kbells?)

    QoD: I rarely snail mail and think the private sector could probably do a better job. Maybe Hallmark should take this up as they have the most to lose. I have a Facebook friend who is a letter carrier and she is constantly posting about the wasteful inefficiency and whining that comes from this over-unionized government entity.

    Our mailman is ridiculous. He fumes if he has to get out of his truck, which he often has to do in front of our house as we live half a block from the high school that does not have enough parking. He leaves nasty notes suggesting we police the free parking spot in front of our house. Leaves the notes, forgets the junk mail. Yeah, I think there must be a better way.

    Like

    Reply

  22. I use the USPS myself, and we use it some for our business. We tend to see friendly postal workers here at work. The post offices generally seem to have nice workers although the lines can get quite long. I get a good bit of usage out of their Flat Rate boxes that often save money on mailing packages if you can make things fit into the given space.

    Like

    Reply

  24. I would be sorry to see the US Postal Service go. For one, not even a well-written email can replace the joy of a handwritten letter. We exchange mail with our stateside relatives and often order things online. A private mail service would be a lot more expensive. I had to send down to the States to get my visa for overseas. If I could have used the postal service registered mail, it would have cost about $50 (It was $25 one-way, but our postal service couldn’t issue registered US postage for the return envelope). FedEx priced it at $180 dollars, while UPS did it for $90 – and I used their saver service.
    Our postal service workers had to take a cut recently, as Canada Post is also on the rocks. However, our mail lady is wonderful, often delivering our packages to the door on her own time – of course, we always give her a Christmas card with a box of chocolates in it – but the mailman who used to go by my vegetable stand was also very friendly.

    Like

    Reply

  25. It’s lonesome when I post on World.

    I am thankful for this site that AJ cranked up. It has been a blessing.

    I began the 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting over the weekend. I am trying to give up meat which is something I have never done. I cooked my first pot of pinto beans on Saturday. I don’t think my husband will touch them! I will have them all to myself. He likes kidney beans. I may do some juice fast days, too. I have done one of those on a weekly basis in the past.

    Like

    Reply

  26. Kidding Adios.

    Are you logged in?

    Otherwise I have no idea. But sometimes WordPress does what it’s gonna do, and you get little glitches. The avatars often aren’t there, then show up later, stuff like that. WordPress can be very temperamental sometimes.

    Like

    Reply

  27. Janice, I’ll come over and help eat those pintos. Elvera says we’re having collards tonight. I like fresh collards but these are from a can.
    Don’t tell Elvera I said that.

    Like

    Reply

  32. I studied up on how to cook the pintos, or in memory of Dan Quayle (sp?) would that be pintoes? A friend gave me a cookbook, I think it is America’s Test Kitchens, and they test a lot of ways of cooking things. They had the best results with doing an overnight salty water soak. You dissolve two tablespoons of salt in four quarts of water for one lb. of beans. Let them soak for 8-24 hours. Then the beans are rinsed (or wrenched as some people I have known have called it 🙂 ) and then placed in a pot with water covering them and boiled for two minutes before cutting the heat to simmer. Then they cook for about two hours on the very low heat. I read in another book that they need that short boil to get rid of an enzyme that some people can get sick from without the boil. Cooking beans takes a lot more effort than I put into the kidney bean salad for my husband when I just open a can and wash the beans to remove all that bubbly bean juice they are in.

    Like

    Reply

  34. Ya’ll are making me hungry…I , like Kim, love lima beans!
    I did not have to go into court for jury duty…they said my obligation has been fulfilled!
    Does anyone know if the dog anti barking transmitters really work? I have heard from a couple of neighbors that they do, and that it does no harm to the dog….needing to know…our neighbor’s dogs have been left in their dog run everyday, all day, for the past two months….they bark continually…grrrrrr

    Like

    Reply

  35. Chas, I like them speckled butterbeans my own self with a little boiled okra for flavor (I don’t actually EAT the boiled okra–too slimy) It doesn’t hurt to put some field peas or purple hull peas in there either! That’s how I caught my “man”. Pork roast, turnip greens, peas, butterbeans& boiled okra, sweet potatos, and buttermilk cornbread. I haven’t been able to beat him off with a stick so I may as well go ahead and marry him. 😉

    Like

    Reply

  36. Kim and Nancy Jill, I think you are the first two people I know of who have said they like lima beans! We’re zero for eight at our house. 🙂

    Yesterday I joined the 21st century and sent and received my first text messages! Now I can keep in touch with my college daughter, who isn’t big on talking on the phone or checking email. 😉 My first text to her (my husband told me to write this) said, “Be prepared for random partial texts!” 😆

    Like

    Reply

  37. If you want to know more about Darby, there is a facebook page for her and a news video. Just search for Darby Lopp and it comes up.

    Like

    Reply

  38. I cook a lot of beans. Kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, black eyed peas, pinto beans and one or two other Indian varieties that I don’t even know the English names for and I only ever use the quickest most foolproof method I know. I just put them in the pressure cooker and bring them to full pressure, then I turn them off and let them sit for an hour. This does the same thing that soaking them overnight does. Then I cook them in the pressure cooker for anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes or so, depending on which kind of bean it is and they’re done. I usually make Indian dals out of my beans, but if you plan to use them in a salad or something, you need to be a little more careful not to overcook them because they can break down and fall apart if you do. But the whole process from dry hard bean to fully cooked one doesn’t need to take more than one and a half hours from start to finish.

    Like

    Reply

  40. I like lima beans, but sometimes they don’t cook as well in the microwave as the rest of the mixed vegetables (in frozen mixes). And the rest of the family isn’t keen on them, so I sometimes look for mixed vegetables that don’t include them. They were my very favorite vegetable as a girl, though.

    Like

    Reply

  41. I love lima beans, and split-pea soup . . . but my husband can’t stand the smell of either. So last summer I made split-pea soup several times (each batch giving me four or five meals) since I knew I wouldn’t have it for a while. And I have a bag of lima beans in the freezer for sometime when he goes to bed before I do and I’m hungry. I’ve only actually thought of them once in those circumstances, though, and that night I was gassy and realized lima beans weren’t a good choice. 😦 So I haven’t eaten lima beans or split-pea soup for a year now, but they are most definitely favorites. I’m pretty sure everyone in my family liked them, and I’ve never figured out why a lot of people don’t; they don’t seem to me to have the kind of flavor or texture people might not like. (I understand people not liking brussels sprouts or spinach, though I like both; and I understand people not liking rutabagas or onions, not liking them myself. But lima beans seem harmless, and really very good–mild but with a very nice flavor.)

    Like

    Reply

  42. I love red beans and rice with shredded chunks of ham and cornbread. I don’t have a pressure cooker, so they take a long time. But, they are delicious! I have a leftover ham bone –guess it’s time …

    Like

    Reply

  43. Oh, here’s a mini quiz. My husband wrote this note to himself and left it on the table. Two guesses as to what it means:

    TRASH
    ice cream
    pickles

    You get two because the first one is likely to be wrong.

    Like

    Reply

  45. Wow, all these lima bean lovers! Who’da thunk?

    Interesting mini quiz, Cheryl, especially the ice cream and pickles part. 🙂 I didn’t crave those when I was pregnant, though, and I don’t know anyone who did, so I’m not guessing THAT! 😉

    Like

    Reply

  47. My guess is that someone is being reminded to take out the trash and to pick up ice cream and pickles at the grocery because there is a pregnancy in the family (it’s not Misten is it? I can’t imagine a dog eating ice cream and pickles!).

    Like

    Reply

  48. I like baby limas and love split pea soup. My husband likes limas but not the soup. He also loves Brussel sprouts. I really like most beans. I don’t have a pressure cooker so for the time being I will be doing the time consuming thing with beans unless I use canned beans.

    It is nice to know about the pressure cooker option. One book said not to pressure cook them because they can easily explode so I thank you, Ree, for explaining how it is done and so easily. Just goes to show you can’t learn everything from a book!

    Like

    Reply

  50. OK, Cheryl, ‘fess up, what are you telling us? You said this on this weekend’s Our Daily Thread: “I have gained quite a few pounds in the 11+ months since my wedding…”, and now you tell us your husband has pickles and ice cream on his list?

    I tend toward thinness, as you do, Cheryl, and the only time I was able to “gain quite a few pounds” was when I was, ahem, expecting a little “bundle”. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  51. 6 Arrows (10:18) that’s funny. 🙂

    I like refried beans since I love Mexican food — and baked/pork & beans, but I haven’t had the latter in many years.

    Dogs barking — have you talked to the owners? Mine are pretty good but every once in a while Tess will go nuts when she hears some gardening equipment going in the neighborhood — or if she spots a squirrel on the fence or the power lines overhead.

    This morning she must have had a squirrel within sight because she kept barking nonstop so I got up, called the dogs inside, and locked up the doggie door so they could settle down a while. They’re good at night, though — and I definitely can recognize their barks as opposed to the barking of dogs next door or across the street.

    Like

    Reply

  52. My secular group is discussing whether to become a non profit organization.

    It’s a lot of paperwork and some expense. One person thought that churches don’t have to worry about paperwork and rules. As far as I can see, churches do have to follow some rules and fill out tax forms.

    If there is a struggle between the IRS and Jehovah, I am not sure I would bet on Yahwah. As far as I can tell, the IRS tends to interpret the rules in a more easygoing and lenient way when dealing with churches, but they are not willing to let anyone get away with anything. Both in regard to laws in general, and in regard to financial matters. In regard to violence, people tend to think first of Islamic terrorists, but consider the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, who claimed to be Protestants.

    Like

    Reply

  53. As far as the post office goes, it amuses me a bit to think about it because my father worked for that organization in the 1950s. He considered himself drastically underpaid, and blamed Eisenhower and Nixon for the situation. He rode trains in those pre-air-mail days and sorted mail from one end of California to another.

    I may just be sentimental, but I would hate to see the Post Office disappear. They have deep roots in US History (Ben Franklin) and the Pony Express. I suppose they are a “socialist” organization in that they would deliver anywhere, even to the most isolated and remote farms. People think that the Internet goes anywere as well as “smart phones,” but these means are quite vulnerable to breakdowns in technology.

    Like

    Reply

  54. Donna…we have been in contact with our neighbors about the dogs…they have two and they are very sweet and have never barked at us when they are on the electric fence. For some reason, our neighbors decided to put up a dog run…they leave at 7 in the morning and do not return until 6 or 7 at night…the dogs continually bark at us every time we go outside on our property….they bark at the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, porcupines,….and the owners aren’t home to hear it. Sadly, they feel as though they are being victimized by us just for pointing out the problem. They were served a warning and a summons, but they are adamant that is their right to leave their dogs outdoors and we should not have a problem because dogs bark. I told them I know dogs bark…but when they bark for 5 hours a day, continually…that’s too much! This has been going on since Aug 3rd. My dogs will bark…but, I am here to control them so they do not disturb the neighbors….when we leave the house, our dogs are indoors. I hate these situations…I don’t want a continuous relationship with my neighbors…they are making it very difficult….
    As for the question about the USPS…yes…I mail bills, cards, etc….I love walking to the mailbox to see what is awaiting me…especially when I am expecting some books from Amazon! I believe they could go to a three day a week delivery service though.

    Like

    Reply

  56. That sounds like a real dilemma with the neighbors’ dogs. Dogs often bark out of boredom when they’re shut outside.

    I will ask my neighbors from time to time if mine are barking too much (though they have access to the house all day through the doggie door). I’m especially worried when I have a newer dog and don’t know how they’ll behave when left alone.

    As I said, Tess sometimes will on a tangent with the squirrels or gardeners making noise in the neighborhood. But I’m told mostly they’re pretty quiet.

    I’ll be getting new neighbors to the south of me someday (the house was sold to a real estate investment firm, it’s been empty now for a couple months). And I’ll definitely let them know if the dogs are a problem to tell me. Not sure what I’d be able to do about it, though! Can’t afford to send them off to “doggie day care,” that’s for sure.

    Like

    Reply

  58. Today’s thread is sitting at 62 right now, so I missed my number, too, Peter. Maybe I could get The Real to delete someone’s post up there so I can grab 62. 😯

    Nah, that would be too unladylike.

    Maybe I’ll just talk to myself until I get to 62 on this thread…

    Nah, that would be too Mumsee-like. 😉

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment