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Our Daily Thread 3-8-14

Good Morning!

And Happy Saturday!

We finally have a 4 days stretch of warm weather on the way. 🙂

Today’s header photo is the Amazing Spider Cat, aka Bosley.

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On this day in 1855 a train passed over the first railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, NY.

In 1887 the telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton. 🙂

In 1894 a dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S.

In 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional.

And in 1965 the U.S. landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land in Vietnam. 

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Quote of the Day

“A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humour will stimulate a like humour in the listener.”

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

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Today we start with a request, for his 300 birthday. From Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

It’s also Mickey Dolenz’s birthday.

And it’s Lew DeWitt’s too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

73 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-8-14”

  3. Hi Ann. Just got home from our high school performance of “The Importance of Being Earnest” The cast did a great job. Enjoy your Saturday.

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  6. Hey Jo & Aj! We’re headed to our ranchette in Centerville today for a few days. The girls are on Spring Break this week. I’m looking forward to the time off, too!

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  7. Chas has been up.
    Chas has to change clocks today. Surprising how long that takes, including cars.
    When I was a kid, we had one clock in the house.
    So did Elvera.
    I told you before, Elvera knew a family that didn’t have a clock.

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  8. Good morning! It’s a bright sunny day here.

    Now there’s a surprisd, NOT! Bosley climbing and looking out the window. So you see the view from my front window to the street. Not so impressive from a human point of view, but Bosley finds it fascinating. Trees and creatures is all it takes to capture her interest. And from my point of view, she makes the view at the window pretty entertaining.

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  10. I guessed the picture this morning!

    I survived day one of the Ladies’ Retreat. Of course it went overtime, so I got home quite late and now and not going to make it in for the breakfast. Oh well. Sat with the young lady (who was the reason for my going) and, hopefully, got her connected with another young mom.
    Now for day two…

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  11. Oh what a cute little stinker in that window…bet she sees a birdie up in one of those trees!!
    We’re looking at a half foot of snow on the ground this morning….the sky is bluer than blue and it is beautiful here in the forest….we should have a bumper crop of wildflowers on the forest floor if Spring is ever allowed to make an appearance!
    Praying for your second day at the retreat Kare…so thankful to hear of answered prayers on this young woman’s behalf…thank you for being faithful to His call 🙂
    Hope your family finds rest and relaxation this week Ann…sounds lovely!
    Good Morning AJ…loving all these fun photos you are so graciously posting for us!
    Good night Jo……..and thanks for the reminder Chas…..we have sooo many clocks around here!

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  13. Mumsee, looks like you scared everyone away, coming around coughing and sneezing like that.
    Rst some chicken soup, drink some hot lemonade and go back to bed.

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  15. Love the photo. The Statler Brothers…my dad was the class of ’57 and I heard that song over and over and over and over. My personal favorite was Counting Flowers on the Wall.
    Off to play with BG.
    Anyone here have experience or knowledge of JH Ranch in California or the Outback Weekend Retreats?

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  19. Have fun, ANNMS! For those of you from outside of Texas, Centerville is halfway between Dallas and Houston. Similarly, Midland is halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso (300 miles from each).

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  23. I was not sure if I would give up something for Lent. We did a Bible study in WMU which was a comparison of the rich young ruler who couldn’t part with his things and the poor widow who gave all.

    That along with another question on a blog made me realize I am having trouble parting with my excess number of clothes. So I made the decision to go through closet and drawers and find 40 items to part with. I did 20 this morning from the closet. Having less will mean less time daily in deciding what to wear and more time for God thoughts.

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  26. DUKE!!!
    South Carolina men never were in it.
    SC women won the SEC Championship but lost to the KENTUCKY Wildcats in the semifinals.
    I’ve lost interest in basketball.
    I haven’t heard from the Boilermakers in a long time.

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  27. Good morning. Like the Bosley picture – I, like Mumsee, could never have cats in the house due to asthma; however, if I am going to be around cats, I prefer them to be as mischievous and trouble-making as possible. The only good cat is a bad cat, so to speak 😉

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  28. So, I read the links Cheryl and Michelle posted yesterday. I really enjoyed the one about the autistic son. I love that they were able to reach the real human soul behind the physical defect. One of the greatest proofs that humans are more than chemical combinations is the capacity of the disabled to overcome their limitations. I’ll never forget the day I saw a man who had been paralyzed for years due to advanced Alzheimer’s come back to himself and ask for help, when he had only ever yelled inarticulately before. The body may be broken, seemingly beyond repair, but the human soul is still the same.

    I was very concerned about some things in the Prager links. While on the surface, what he said seemed good, there were some big errors. His insinuation that husbands might be tempted to look elsewhere due to the wife’s off-putting behaviour was really nasty. I know wives who have been told it is their fault, when in fact the husbands had serious problems with perversion. Also, his statement that men are animals and that is nothing to be ashamed of was very un-Biblical. Humans are not animals and can exercise self-control. Lastly, while is the wife’s part to submit to her husband, the husband has an even heavier responsibility to his wife – to love her and lay down his life for her. That fact puts Prager’s reasons in a proper light, as an argument from the world that has no place in Christian marriages. I think the commenter at the end of the second link said it all – ‘If Prager knows this, why is he on his third marriage?’

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  29. Interesting thoughts, as usual, Roscuro.

    Mumsee, thank you for letting me in on your family’s experienve with the Lawhead books. Think I will keep it for now.

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  30. For moms who work at home (or dads for that matter, who homeschool), Tricia Goyer has a new book, Balanced, on sale for 2.99 for the ebook. I decided to get it cause I need all the help I can get in organizational skills.

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  31. Roscuro, I didn’t think he was a Christian (and others have verified he is not), and obviously anything needs to be read carefully.

    I think the caution, “If you don’t love him well, he may be tempted to look elsewhere” is a good one. Temptation itself isn’t a sin. When you say, “You can keep him from straying (and by the way, it’s your fault if he does stray),” that’s a whole different issue. In other words, a wife can truly help her husband to lessen his temptation. If one were writing to a man and not a woman, the emphasis needs to be “No matter how ‘tempted’ you may be, you must resist the temptation and walk away from lust.” But when writing to the wife, it’s fair enough to say, “You can love your husband enough to help make it easier for him to avoid lust.” I think the balance in that is this: She doesn’t see it as her “responsibility” to keep him from lusting (that is between him and God), but knowing that she can help him do something that he wants to do, avoid lust. She actually has the power to help him. And she can do so in a way that is sweet to both of them. She can give him the image of herself as a loving, willing wife to help him counter the images he encounters of other women who seem to be wiling. If other women in his life are sexy and appear to be available and she is not, that is a problem. Sin is still on him, either way, but some of the sin might well be on her. (Here’s another example from Scripture, not of sexual sin. Children are told to obey their parents, and fathers are told not to provoke their children to wrath. I read that as saying that at a certain level, a father can be so unjust that he will provoke his child to anger–and any sin that results will be the father’s fault, not the child’s.)

    The apostle Paul says that if you burn, get married (1 Cor. 7:8-9). But what if you marry someone who won’t help quench the burning? You will still burn . . . only more so, because what was righteously “off limits” when you were single is now tantalizingly within arm’s reach, but unavailable because of another person’s selfishness. (That other person is sometimes a husband, not just a wife. I know two women in such a situation.) In fact, in the verse someone (I think it was 6 Arrows) quoted yesterday, Paul said the same thing: Don’t withhold from your mate, lest you put him in the path of sin. (That’s obviously a paraphrase. But see 1 Cor. 7:5.)

    BTW, one of my wedding gifts was the book His Needs, Her Needs, and I found it a hideous book. The book went through and identified a number of human “needs.” I don’t have the book in front of me, so let’s just say some of them are for significance, affection, nurture, and honor. Then he shows that men tend to choose a few of those needs (let’s say significance and honor) and women tend to have a different list of top needs (affection and nurture). I think he dealt with four or five for each sex. But the tricky thing is that his list is a “typical” man and woman, and your own mate might be different, so you need to know your own mate’s top “needs.” And you really must do your very best to meet those needs, even if it kills you . . . and he shows why, because in every single chapter, he tells a story of someone who was pushed to commit adultery because of that need being unmet. I’m sorry, but that is garbage. It’s a horrid way to give a person an excuse to cheat. (Let’s see, what are my own top needs, and is she meeting them adequately/perfectly?) It also puts a huge burden on any spouse, since none of us is perfect. And also, the law doesn’t motivate. I am motivated to love my husband because he’s a good man and it’s an honor to love him, and yes, because I promised to. But if my biggest reason to love him was “He might cheat if I don’t,” I’d be looking at him with eyes of suspicion and not love, and loving him would be a burden.

    That said, loving and respecting one’s husband truly is an obligation, even when we aren’t in the mood. But it’s a privilege too, and “keeping him from straying” isn’t anywhere near the top reason to love him. But Scripture backs up that it is legitimate to consider that part of the reason to have sex with one’s husband. If that’s the only reason, then a woman is going to have a hard time with desire. But it is legitimately part of it. Part of being faithful is refusing to go outside the marriage bed. But another part (often overlooked) is not refusing the marriage bed; faithfulness also has a positive side, not just a negative. (But it really is positive: it’s an obligation to have sex with one’s husband, but a privileged obligation. I’m “obligated” to talk with my husband, and hug him, too, but no way would I call any of those onerous obligations.)

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  32. Cheryl, the I Corinthians 7:2-5 passage places equal responsibility on husband and wife, not only to fulfill the marriage duties, but also to exercise mutual self-control. A demanding spouse is just as destructive as an unresponsive one.

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  33. It does seem marriage is a balancing act. Sorta like being on a teeter-totter with God being in the middle helping make adjustments that are beyond what the couple could make on their own.
    Tomorrow is our 29th anniversary.

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  36. Roscuro, I really don’t want to argue with you. But I just looked at the passage again, and I don’t see “self-control” in the passage in terms of the marriage bed. The self-control is in terms of being unable to resist someone outside the marriage. Satan is “tempting” the person; that is sexual sin that is in view, not too much sex with one’s spouse.

    Obviously that doesn’t mean it’s OK to be a “demanding” spouse. It isn’t. And a spouse may well need to have self-control when the other spouse is sick, recovering from childbirth, etc. But I don’t believe the passage teaches that sexuality in marriage should be “within reason, showing self-control.” No part of life should take all of a person’s mental and physical energy; it’s even possible to read the Bible too much (if one is doing so and not doing one’s other responsibilities). So yes, it’s possible to expect so much of one’s spouse that she cannot meet the expectations, and in that way self-control might be necessary. But I think it would usually be better for the spouse with the desire to think, “He isn’t feeling good, and I can wait” than for the other spouse to think, “She just needs to show self-control here.” The foundational truth is generous love, not “well yes, within limits, and he needs to have self-control.”

    Does that make sense?

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  37. Janice- The ‘A’ is for the University of Arizona. They were smart enough to lose a game or two before the end of the season just to get it out of their system. Now they can win the rest of their games and be crowned National Champion. Hey, with a football program that never does much, we fans look forward to basketball.

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  38. Thanks for the CPE Bach, AJ. What a charming, cheerful piece!

    I loved the Quote of the Day, too. Moving others by feeling and expressing the emotion in the music I’m preparing to perform (is it only 3 weeks away already?) has been very much on my mind lately.

    And it looks like the solo cellist must have read that quote right before that recording. 😉

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  39. It is a beautiful “A.” Very striking.

    Thanks, for the link. Donna, for the book. I am on their email list so I already got it. 🙂 Just need to find time to read it.

    I notice the guys on the blog are wisely staying out of Cheryl and Roscuro’s discussion.

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  40. I just finished reading A Starfish at a Time about the rally big family who grew so large by adopting children who were damaged by such things as shaken baby syndrome.

    Today I was talking with someone at church and I asked if she knew anyone doing prison ministry. She knew one lady who had corresponded for yesrs with a woman prisoner who had shaken her baby to death. I did not expect to hear that. 😯

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  41. so if you all are now on daylight savings time, it should be time for Chas to be up and at em!
    It is only 9pm here and I am looking forward to finding you all on here earlier for me.

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  43. Good morning! It’s quiet around here today! It’s rainy here in Centerville–we’re watching movies from L.’s childhood–first it was Parent Trap and now it’s Balto.

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  47. Happy Anniversary, Janice and Mr. G!

    I’ve been outside enjoying the sunshine and mild temperature. It’s 40 degrees! Yay! 🙂

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  48. I don’t like time changes. And as someone suggested, why don’t we change the clocks going forward say at 4 p.m. Friday?

    It’s over 80 here today, bright sunshine and a clear view of the mountains. I like spring but would appreciate it so much more if we’d had some kind of winter. When most of January is 75-80 degrees, (pre) spring feels muted.

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  49. Wow, what a silent blog today. Monday morning here. I had so much extra time since there were only two comments to read instead of 30 that I got frosting made for the cupcakes I made last night. Haven’t made frosting in a verrrrry long time. Here the powdered sugar is so lumpy that you have to put it in a ziplock and use a rolling pin to get the lumps out. This is the reward for all the reading my class did for Book Festival.

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  51. Donna- I think they chose 2AM Sunday because that is after the bars close in most places at 1AM, and most people don’t have to be anywhere at that time. Although I guess someone with a 9-5 job would enjoy getting off an hour early on a Friday!

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  52. I love our place. We were just sitting outside on the deck, husband was playing his guitar and our neighbour just drove past with his 2 beautiful black heavy horses pulling a sleigh full of people having a lovely Sunday afternoon.

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  53. Thanks for the Anniversary wishes. It has been a quiet Sunday. Husband went to the office early and I went to Sunday School and church. After lunch I napped because my shoulder and leg are not feeling very good. I will fix something for dinner in case husband does not get home in time to go out.

    As AJcalled her, Spider Cat or Miss Bosley decided to climb the over-the-door shoe rack. She got half way up and tangled in the maze and gave me such a funny look like, “What have I gotten myself into?” mixed with,”Can’t you just get me outa here?”

    “You got yourself into it. Now get yourself out!” No sympathy from Cat Mama.

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  55. Miss Bosley is not the typical lady who loves shoes. She prefers going barefoot. Truly a case of sour grapes since the truth is she can’t actually afford to buy custom made designer shoes for four feet. Maybe in another life!

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  56. Donna, @4:39
    Two a.m. Sunday morning affects fewer people who are working. At the Defense Mapping Agency, we had 24 hour guards, computer operators, etc. The policy was that when the time changed, they worked regular hours.
    That means that in March, they work a shorter shift and in the fall, they work a longer shift, without any compensation. It woriks out even if you work through the year. But if you work in the fall and quit before spring, you’ve shorted yourself an hour. I never heard a complaint.

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  57. OK, I feel better after a 90-minute nap. I needed that. These time changes, especially when we “lose” an hour, just mess with my natural sleep cycle. It’ll take me a few days to adjust.

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  58. Donna – I know what you mean. This time change is rough on moms with little babies or small children whose bodies don’t know they’re supposed to be on a different schedule.

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  59. You wouldn’t think 1 lousy hour would make such a difference, but it does. The Monday after the switch over is especially hard on people’s systems. According to statistics, there are more heart attacks, more traffic accidents and more workplace accidents. I saw this article from last year:

    http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/11/news/la-heb-daylight-saving-time-health-dangers-20130311

    “The transition hits hardest for night owls, and it can take up to three weeks for them to adjust to the new time, German researchers reported in a 2009 edition of Sleep Medicine.

    ” Perhaps the solution is to simply stay on daylight saving time all year. A 2004 report in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention calculated that doing so would provide enough extra daylight to avert hundreds of fatal car crashes. Specifically, it said, 195 fewer drivers and passengers and 171 fewer pedestrians would die each year.”

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  61. Sort of related, sort of not, but speaking of time changes, internal “body clocks” and the like, I’m curious about any of your opinions about something I’ve heard and don’t know whether to believe it or not.

    Have you heard that humans tend to have something of a 25-hour “body clock” or “rhythm” or something similarly-named?

    Apparently, observation of people who are not exposed to daylight for an extended period, and don’t know what time it is, seem to settle into a sleep-wake pattern that is approximately 25 hours in length. That is what is reported, anyway.

    I’ve always wondered about that. Wouldn’t we constantly be tired, or at least feel “off” most of the time, living in a 24-hour world with a 25-hour body rhythm?

    Doesn’t it seem funny to you that God would create the physical world and His people with seemingly conflicting rhythms like that? Of course His ways are higher than our ways.

    It’s just something I’ve questioned, that 25-hour day concept. What do you think?

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  63. We got up to 70 degrees here today…much of our snow has melted…but not to worry…we are getting more on Tuesday 🙂
    This losing an hour does a number on my brain…I don’t think I’m one of those humans with a normal rhythm 🙂
    Kare it sounds like a Norman Rockwell type of day for you…was it warm as you were sitting on the deck?
    Happy Anniversary Janice!

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  64. 6 Arrows – Supposing that that did happen…Could it be because the participants were cut off from daylight? Maybe the reaction was an unnatural one brought on by an unnatural situation. I wonder how the people way up north are affected, who have six months of sun & six months of darkness.

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  66. There have been stories recently about how maybe we’re meant to sleep in 4-hour shifts which is why it’s so common for us to “come awake!” at around 2 a.m. and then go back to sleep after a couple hours.

    A friend posted a photo on FB today of her beautifully landscaped backyard — overlooking the crystal blue ocean. Her comment was “Love my backyard.” I thought, “well, Yeah. What’s not to love about that view??”

    I know people who live near there and it’s amazing to me when I’m over there, just to see the ocean vista from their patio. Amazing.

    Called an older woman from the dog park tonight who’d lost her dog last year and has sort of fallen out of touch with all of us. She was always a little unusual, one of those people who owns rental property (and probably has a lot of money) but who wears old house dresses and slippers, a little eccentric. She’s white but married the first black longshoreman many years ago (she’s since widowed), which must have caused some talk at the time.

    Anyway, good to catch up with her and I think she was very happy that I’d called. She’s headed out on a car trip to see her sister in Oregon, but when she gets back said she might come by the dog park to visit.

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  68. Happy Anniversary, Janice!

    We celebrated our fifteenth anniversary March 6. We’re attending a wedding for my cousin in May on a little island off Hilton Head. We’re going Thursday to Sunday, staying in a small house on the beach. It’s going to be a fairly expensive trip, so we’re counting that as our anniversary getaway (the kids aren’t coming!). I’m really looking forward to it.

    Played a bunch of games as a family tonight, which was a lot of fun!

    The time change has me discombobulated — I’m not sleepy at all and it’s almost midnight!!! Everyone else is sleeping soundly (even the dog)…

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  69. I’m not sleeping either, Ann. I went to bed when the clock said 11:00, but which still felt like 10:00 the old time, which is an hour too early for me to go to bed. I had been really tired tonight, though, so I didn’t think it would be a problem going to bed then.

    Wrong. I fell asleep pretty quickly, like I normally do, but woke up within 15 minutes or so, and now haven’t been able to sleep for almost two hours.

    I should have just gone to bed at midnight. 😦

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  73. Sorry I’m going to miss most of the visiting, Jo. It’s 2:22 here, and I think I’d better head to bed and see if I can sleep before daylight comes here. Good day to you!

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