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Our Daily Thread 10-17-14

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!!!

On this day in 1777 American troops defeated British forces in Saratoga, NY.

In 1933 Dr. Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, NJ, after leaving Germany. 

In 1979 Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And in 1989 an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit the San Francisco Bay area in California. The quake caused about 67 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $7 billion. 

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Quote of the Day

“What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small.”

Richard Mentor Johnson

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 And today is the imposter’s birthday. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD?

40 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-17-14”

  1. Good Morning All.

    Just as a heads up for all of you, my family and I will be on vacation starting next Wed. until the following Wed.. I will still post a daily, prayer, and open news thread as always, but it might show up in the middle of the night instead of 7AM. 🙂

    I will check in from time to time, and maybe post some pics from Florida too. 🙂

    I’m excited, but I really wish I wasn’t flying. 😦 I hate flying.

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  4. Sorry Aj, about the flying. At least it is by choice. Have you considered the train?
    I love to fly. I would even love to get my pilot’s license, but can’t see it happening. Of course, 14 hour flights are not my favorite.

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  5. I’m headed to our ranchette in Centerville today for a weekend with an old friend. We were junior high and high school cheereleaders together back in the ’80’s. I have so many fond memories with her, and we continue to make new ones. She still lives in my hometown, so we usually see each other whenever I visit my parents. But, then I have kids in tow, so our conversation is limited. I’m really looking forward to our long talks. She makes me laugh harder than almost anyone else (except one girlfriend from St. Mary’s Hall, where I spent my last two years if high school). We grew up in very different circumstances–she was the first in her family to go to college–but we’re probably the most similar of my close friends. I asked her to raise my children should Hubby and I both die. So, it should be a really fun weekend for me. I’m sure my tummy will hurt by Sunday from all the laughter!

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  7. It’s Friday!
    You know what that means?
    Lions.
    My grass is almost too tall to cut. It has been too wet all week.
    Yes, all week.
    Gas is selling for $299.9 down in Rutherfordton..

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  13. Something that is often forgotten: http://www.challies.com/reading-classics-together/dont-expect-unbelievers-to-act-like-believers.

    So often I see Christians acting surprised that their non-Christian friends or family members are acting like non-Christians. John Owen addresses this in his great work Overcoming Sin and Temptation. The book deals with the subject of mortification, of putting sin to death, and Owen dedicates one chapter to explaining why only Christians can behave like Christians.
    He begins by insisting that only Christians have the ability to put sin to death. Unbelievers may suppress sin, but they cannot kill it. “Unless a man be a believer—that is, one that is truly ingrafted into Christ—he can never mortify any one sin; I do not say, unless he know himself to be so, but unless indeed he be so. … There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.”…

    In reality, unbelievers who attempt to put sin to death actually go deeper into their sin. “This is the usual issue with persons attempting the mortification of sin without an interest in Christ first obtained. It deludes them, hardens them—destroys them.” And again, “To kill sin is the work of living men; where mean are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live.”

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  15. I did not stay at the hospital last night. I had to be downtown late getting son from conference and had to take him back early this morning. Since that was along the way to the office, my husband wanted me to go to the office and pick up some work to take to him at the hospital. I was going to try to get some done on my assignment, but instead I have been involved with finding out about problems that have not been shared with husband since he was too sick to hear about them. So now I get to be the bearer of bad news when I see him.

    Husband seems to be having a good result from his antibiotic. He is in good spirits at least until I go see him with news from the office. I am thankful that he is getting the nicotine patch and still think that is the sliver lining in all we have gone through. It looks like if the oral antibiotic version of what he has been taking continues to work that he can be discharged in a day or two. Maybe he’ll even have a chance to see our son before he leaves..

    Son’s conference is at a swanky downtown hotel which, as a native Atlantan, I have never been to. I told son that he, being born and raised in Atlanta, had to go to Texas to get to go to such a fine establishment in Atlanta, LOL.

    Bosley really enjoyed having me back home for an evening. I was so thankful that anything cat related was ruled out as a cause for my husband’s infection. My brother was really looking to make Bosley be the culprit.

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  16. Morning all…praying for a most blessed time away in Florida for you and the family AJ!
    Flying isn’t my favorite thing to do, but it certainly gets me there quicker…most of the time. One time I figured with all the lay overs and delays and the waiting, it would have been quicker for me to have just gotten in the car and made the trip cross country!
    I filled up the truck yesterday…3.09 a gallon…that’s the cheapest I’ve seen it around here in a long while.
    Sounds like Ann is going to have a fun time this weekend…dear friends are such a blessing…

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  17. I saw both ducks right away. They weren’t trying to be puppies or kittens, of fall foliage, or whatever.
    I didn’t show the bug to Elvera. The only time she comes to the computer is when I have an e-mail for her. Sometimes I just print them.

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  18. Thank you, Kim. My brother works in pharma as a sales person, and he told me there is a new med out for MRSA. So you are right about what you said. Thank you for the reminder of the best sources for up-to-date info. There is the complication with my husband that he is allergic to many meds. (Our son is also.) We were on edge each time they changed his IV to a new drug because we did not know if his body would tolerate it. I had recently heard of an awful experience someone went through with a drug reaction so that had me extra on edge. God has been good in allowing us to not suffer that additional burden through this ordeal.

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  19. I’ve found pharmacists to be very good sources of information about drugs & interactions — or even with minor questions like what to use on a particular skin injury.

    Ann, sounds like such a fun weekend. I have a girlfriend like that. I can still remember one holiday season when she was supposed to come over for a daylong visit (we live about 50 miles apart, literally on opposite edges of LA, her north & me south).

    I’d had a horrible week after a rat had gotten in the house (I killed it, but still…ewww) & I was trying unsuccessfully to get rid of a ruined sofa which had become wedged in the front entry way because I could not maneuver it out of the front doorway.

    Oh, and I’d just lost my new iPhone the day before and was I was frantic trying to find it (I never did, I believe I dropped it at the sanitation yard office the day before & someone found it and just kept it).

    In other words, life just seemed to be tipped upside down for me that week and I was feeling so defeated, definitely not up for any company.

    I got up early and called my friend to cancel our visit only to find out that she had anxious news of her own — her daughter had just up and secretly married a Muslim. “What?!” I said. So typical of us, we wound up both laughing so hard on the phone that we were in tears (the funny kind) over life’s crazy twists and turns.

    I finally said, Oh, come on over, you’ll just have to squeeze by the upended sofa in the doorway but we’ll manage.

    Friends like that are such a treasure.

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  20. Husband was just on the other line here at the office with office mate and while he was on hold while she looked for something I picked up and asked if he had heard anything about being discharged. He surprised me by saying it would be later today!!!!!!! I gotta get out of this office, but it is like quicksand. Once in it, it is a challenge to get away,.And have you ever heard of quicksand full of biting alligators? An ouch here and an ouch there and an ouch everywhere!

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  22. Janice, that’s great news. And, yes, I’d much rather laugh than cry over the messes we find ourselves in (crying comes first and is often needed, but having friends who can then transport us into that place where we can laugh at it all, too, are just so special).

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  24. Phos, John Owen can be hard to read, but he is so good. I’m working my way (extremely slowly) through his Death of Death in the Death of Christ. I forget about the book for weeks or months at a time, but then I pick it up and read several more pages, and I’m always glad I did. It’s meaty.

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  27. Donna @11:43. I’m not laughing at all.
    Tell your friend to tell her daughter not to go to an Islamic country under any circumstances.
    She could become a slave. Women have no rights under Islamic law. She may never get out.
    And her husband becomes a master.
    This is drastic.

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  28. Chas, I told her about “Not Without My Daughter.” Believe me, she knows the dangers & wasn’t particularly happy about it. But what are you going to do. They both work for the city of LA & have a son now which my friend dotes on (her first grandchild). Family is family.

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  29. Happy Birthday to the imposter. 😉 He does have a nice voice, and I love both of those hymns, Blessed Assurance and I Love to Tell the Story. Good selections, The Real AJ. 🙂

    1989 San Francisco earthquake. My sister moved out there three days before it hit. She lives on the East Coast now, having moved there a few weeks before Hurricane Sandy hit. Maybe her new community should be alerted anytime she moves. 🙂

    So today I walk through the basement and out to our attached garage…and there see a snake. Little and skinny, only about six inches long, more worm-like than anything, but sticking its head up at me, which is just a little disconcerting even though it’s harmless. Yuck. But I’m glad it was out there and not in the house. I’m hoping it finds its way back out the way it came in, as I went back in the house to find some things to use to dispose of it, but I couldn’t find the snake when I went back out to the garage.

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  30. Great. Just what we need to solve the Ebola problem…..

    A bureaucrat with no medical experience, Biden’s former chief of staff, and a taxpayer dollar sucking, green scamming Solyndra type to boot. 🙄

    I’m sure his qualifications include Obama donor and bundler as well. 🙄

    Unbelievable.

    http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/10/17/obamas-new-ebola-czar-does-not-have-medical-health-care-background/

    “Facing renewed criticism of his handling of the Ebola risk, Obama will make Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, his point man on fighting Ebola at home and in West Africa. Klain will report to national security adviser Susan Rice and to homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, the White House said.

    Klain does not have a medical or a health care background.

    Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., slammed the decision on Twitter.

    “Worst ebola epidemic in world history and Pres. Obama puts a government bureaucrat with no healthcare experience in charge. Is he serious?” Harris tweeted.”

    Sadly, he is, because clowns run the circus now.

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  31. Sheesh. Can I rant the day before Rants & Raves?

    I took 4th Arrow to our church, where the children, chaperones and drivers were meeting in the parking lot before heading to the retreat I mentioned on the prayer thread. What a zoo, trying to get something like 35 kids assigned to seven different vehicles, NONE of this figured out ahead of time which children were going with which drivers, even though it was clear before this day who all was going on the trip.

    The kids were busy picking out which friends they wanted to ride with, then it had to be determined which vehicle they would be in, then all their stuff had to be packed into said vehicles, etc. etc.

    They didn’t leave until almost 45 minutes after we were told to have the children there (some of that time was used to talk about proper conduct in the vehicles and at the camp once they arrive, which was time well-spent, but that was a very small part of the 45 minutes).

    My daughter rode with five other girls, and the driver was a woman I did not know. She must be new at our church; I see she has a Tennessee license plate on her vehicle. She was quite friendly, so I feel good about my daughter riding with her. The lady also was very proactive, which I was glad to see, because it was obvious that she was not given specific directions about where exactly the camp was, and so she asked for them so she wouldn’t have to rely on just following whoever was in front of her in the caravan. I saw that she was then given a copy of the directions to get there.

    After all the children and their things were loaded into the vehicles, I watched as they left the parking lot. Unfortunately, it was nearly 5:30 pm, and the traffic on the street they were turning onto was bad, so the drivers could not all stay in one group. After the last one in the bunch left, I then turned onto the street they did, several cars behind the last car of the caravan, following the same path for several blocks. When I got to the highway I would next take (to get home), I got in the left-turn lane, to enter the northbound ramp, and the vehicles in the caravan were most likely to need to turn onto the southbound ramp, which I had already gone past.

    So I’m waiting to turn left, sitting behind a few cars, when I see the lead car in the lane turn left, but instead of entering the northbound ramp, the driver did a U-turn around the median and headed back in the direction of the church.

    It was one of the drivers in the caravan, who had been trying to go north instead of south! Then the car following him did the same, and so did the next, the one in front of me

    My daughter was not in any of those three vehicles, but I could kind of understand why at least the first of those last three cars thought they were supposed to head north. The camp is two hours away, mostly to the east, but slightly north. However, the best route to take is to go east first, and to get onto the eastbound highway from the church, one first needs to go south!

    One driver, maybe more, had GPS, although that’s not always reliable, my daughter’s driver had a printed copy from Mapquest, I think, but who knows about anyone else. And it’s a two-hour drive, with the last hour of it being dark or near dark.

    Why they couldn’t have sat down with all those drivers ahead of time, and given them clear, consistent directions, is beyond me. Or take a bus!

    Alright, I’m done ranting, but, I tell you, it didn’t do a whole lot for my confidence levels, seeing the whole thing get off to a start like that.

    If you saw my request on the prayer thread and prayed, thank you, and please continue. And thank God that the return trip on Sunday is scheduled for the midday — in daylight!!

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  34. All right, we have no consensus on the cookie taste test, but close to one. Each daughter liked a different one better, my husband is waiting to give his opinion until he sees which stays softer over time (softness being his main criterion) . . . but my mother-in-law and I agree on which one is best, so I guess that makes three out of four of the ones who have voted, though I was basically waiting for my husband to break the tie of our daughters.

    We all agree these are super rich and you won’t want more than a couple of them. But they’re more flavorful than the others we tried and a nice difference from standard chocolate chip cookies. I suspect that if I had to eat these or regular chocolate chip cookies every day, I’d take the regular ones. But we agree these are restaurant-cookie rich and very tasty.

    Since the recipe is quite complicated (compared to standard c c cookies), I’m going to put the “how to brown butter” instructions here, and then the recipe itself in the next post:

    To Make Brown Butter:
    1. You need two sticks of butter.
    2. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat; stirring constantly. Watch carefully; the butter will foam and the solids under the foam will start to brown after 6-8 minutes. [I wasn’t sure if this meant 6 or 8 minutes total, but it looks like it’s after the butter has all melted and there’s quite a bit of foam on top, then several minutes more.]
    3. Remove from heat immediately when the butter begins to turn brown.
    4. Pour the butter into a shallow dish and chill until it’s room temperature.

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  35. Brown Butter and Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies
    Cook Time: 10 minutes
    Yield: 4 dozen

    Ingredients
    • 2 sticks unsalted butter
    • 2 cups bread flour [I just used unbleached flour]
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt [I used sea salt]
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
    • 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon dark molasses, not blackstrap
    • 1 egg
    • 1 egg yolk
    • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
    • 2 cups dark chocolate chips or chunks
    Preparation
    1. Make your brown butter and put it in the refrigerator.
    2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
    3. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
    4. In mixing bowl, mix the granulated sugar and molasses until thoroughly combined.
    5. Once the butter has cooled to room temperature, add it to the mixing bowl with sugar and cream all together on medium speed for about 3 minutes.
    6. Add one egg and mix well. Add the yolk and vanilla and mix until well combined.
    7. Spoon the flour mixture in gradually until thoroughly combined.
    8. Stir in the chocolate chips.
    9. Chill the dough for about 20 minutes, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets. (To freeze, scoop dough onto baking sheets and freeze. Store in ziploc bags).
    10. NOTE: If topping with Maldon sea salt, sprinkle top with a few crystals now, before baking) [I didn’t do this.]
    11. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until set; longer if using frozen dough (I add about 3 minutes to my baking time).
    12. Pay close attention! These cookies are already brown from the browned butter and molasses so visual appearance and scent is more important than color.
    13. Cool completely.

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  38. I’m having a fabulous time with my friend, Shawna. We arrived about five and forgot to eat until almost ten (we’d picked up barbecue in Centerville) because we were so engrossed in conversation! She just went to bed, but I’m wide awake… Anyone else unable to sleep?

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  40. I went to school to get ready for next week. Then walked from school to the back gate, well over a mile, to pray. There are some folks that have set up little shacks there to sell things that they shouldn’t be selling. So, I went to claim the land for God and ask His Spirit to move them out.

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