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Our Daily Thread 12-20-14

Good Morning!

5 Days!!!! 🙂

Today’s header photo is from Kare.

*It’s now Sunday the 21st, so I believe someone has a birthday today.

Happy Birthday Linda. 🙂

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On this day in 1790 the first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.

In 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union. 

In 1879 Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ. 

And in 1968 author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.

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Quote of the Day

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”

Dale Evans

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 This one is a request.

And this one is because I like it. From King’s College Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0aL9rKJPr4&feature=player_detailpage ______________________________________________

Anyone have a QoD?

7,368 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-20-14”

  1. so six in the morning here would be four in the afternoon there. I have to call the east coast about my accounts. I figure on using Skype, we will see if it works. They want me to use security codes, but admit that you can’t do that from overseas. Life is complex.

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  3. Kizzie, the same thing is happening in South Africa as the whites are being pushed out. When people complain about racism here, I don’t think they are fully grasping what racism looks like. But then any time you treat somebody differently due to race there is a problem. People are people.

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  4. Our letter this week is a, so it is our first vowel. So, the exciting news is, we read some words today using just the five letters that we have had so far. Usually I use white boards and have them write the words. As I thought about it, I realized that is harder, so we began with reading rat, and sat. Of course we did at and am first. I am becoming a better teacher each year!

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  5. The fat cat sat at the mat. The fat rat sat on the cat. The bat sat on the fat rat on the cat on the mat. We have done variations of those a time or two.

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  7. Mumsee, were you doing my homework for me?? Except we haven’t done the letter f so no fat cats. Actually we haven’t had c yet either so only rats on that mat.

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  10. I try to read the news thread periodically but it does tend to have some baffling stuff on it. And discouraging. But it is where we are in this nation and world And yet, as believers, we have great hope.

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  12. funny day today. I did my homework and was all ready to work with my tutoring student after lunch. But the work is done with colored tiles and they weren’t there. I had no memory of taking them anywhere. My student and I went to the storage room. Lots and lots of tiles, but none for book one. We tried the office and my classroom. Finally back to the office to cut some out of paper. I mentioned the problem to the principal and she said that she had given them to the new gal, just arrived and planning on doing some tutoring. She didn’t know those were the only ones and that I was using them. But, at least I learned that I wasn’t losing my mind. I went by the other gals place after work and asked for them back.

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  13. Husband stopped by the school yesterday. The superintendent was a bit down. He had spent over three hours after school was out last year, working with our son on the online course he was taking. He told son he would be there all week to work with him. Son thanked him and smiled and went off and was never seen again. The boys that finished that leg each got five hundred dollars plus from the program They so wanted son to finish but he just could not bring himself to do it. Funny that just last year the guy was telling me we can only do what we can do and son will have to do his part. Yep.

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  17. I was thinking about my internet life. I really, other than financial institutions, only go to this site and facebook. rarely anywhere else. Does anyone else do that. Then I thought that perhaps that was what Kizzie did???

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  18. Pretty much. The only social media I participate on is Facebook and this blog (if we are considered social media). There are a lot of articles I read online, on various topics, that I find either through people sharing them (here or on Facebook) or through some email updates I get each day from Smithsonian.com, Atlas Obscura, or Christianity Today. There are also historical subjects I look up and read about.

    And I also do my banking and bill-paying online. That makes me laugh at myself sometimes, because before I finally learned to do it, I thought it sounded complicated, and wished Hubby hadn’t gotten into it. I thought that taking over paying the bills was going to be difficult. I figured that I would pay bills through mailing checks, like I used to do.

    Well, while Hubby was in the hospital, just a couple or so weeks before his death, he was able to introduce me to just enough of the online banking to get my feet wet. And now I am continuing to pay the bills online, from my very own new account. 🙂

    With now having a smart phone, and doing online banking (on my laptop, though, not the phone), I am slowly but surely being dragged into the 21st century.

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  19. This is my social media. I also look at Fox, BBC, Newsmax, and a couple other news sites. Sometimes I look up gardening info. But that is about it. I tried FB but my girls were just awful on there and the boys were not far behind. The oldest ones actually tried to talk to the new adults and get them to tone it down a bit but it did not make any difference Now one of the new adults is informing me, aghast on the seventeen year old’s horrid posting. If we had our way, he would not be on it or we would have gradually introduced it, with parental controls in place. But it is too easy for them to set up fake accounts and multiple accounts and hide devices or borrow their “friends” so we are just letting God handle that in His time.
    Twenty one year old sent me a pic of one of his snapchats, saying something quite vulgar about how the world messes us up. I wrote him a note asking about his relationship with God, which he claims to have. I added some verses from Matthew on how our words matter. Then addressed his quote I tried to show him how that view point discounted God as God is very clear that He made the world good and we messed it up. He will read it. I leave the pondering about it to God. We don’t see the boy so can’t talk to him. Though we may go to his football game on Friday.

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  20. I had to learn the hard way about banking. The friend who was handling my bills ended up in the hospital and was not expected to live. She did and the doctors were calling her Lazarus. In the meantime how was I to get my bills paid? I was able to look back at my checks and found that my mortgage had been switched to another bank and there was a number on one of the memo lines. My other friend went to the bank and was able to pay it for me. I sent her a check from here. When I went home I went into the bank and asked if someone could show me how to pay my bills online. Now I do it each month. Though there is usually only one bill as my mortgage is paid off now.

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  21. Mumsee, I enjoy facebook. Several of my kids post things just for me. Pictures and stories. Now more of it is coming by text to my ipad, but one family still does facebook. It is a treasure to me and how I keep in touch with some folks.

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  22. Kizzie, you do more online than I do. I don’t want to pay bills online, so in deference to me (not wanting to leave it to me someday), my husband chose to have the utility bills be mailed. My credit card gets paid by check, his online.

    I do a lot of reading online, but I’m not on any social media. I was on Facebook for a year or two and loved seeing photos of my adult nieces and nephews, who were beginning to marry and have children. But I didn’t like the sense of having no privacy (Facebook’s insistence they “own” photos you post there, mostly, but also the fact that friends would carelessly post things like “Enjoy your time in California!”) and I got off before we got married lest my wedding photos and honeymoon well wishes be posted online by others and make it obvious to anyone looking that my house was now empty.

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  23. We don’t do online bill-pay, by my husband’s preference. There are three monthly insurance bills in which our checking account is automatically debited, but all other bills have paper statements / mail-in checks.

    This year our bank started charging to send out paper statements (unless you maintain some high balance about a gazillion dollars more than we have), so before that went into effect, I set up online banking to receive statement notifications by email, and I can log in to see a PDF of our statements, and balance our accounts that way. Pretty nifty, and now I don’t have as much paper clutter to deal with (though I did start printing out those statements at first). I don’t anymore.

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  24. I do none of those Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat/whatever else is considered social media. Well, except I set up Pinterest a few months ago when I was collecting ideas for wedding hairstyles and other things. I still don’t really understand how it works, though, and I’ve not been on there in many weeks. I think I have one follower, and how that ever happened (well, I had told a friend that I’d signed up, and then she somehow took it from there), I couldn’t explain. 🙂

    As far as reading other sites, I read the blog of that particular friend — her site was the first place I ever commented on the internet — and this blog, of course, but those are the main places where I read and comment.

    One other blog I read on occasion, and comment on rare occasion.

    I don’t read any news sites (except for occasional links that others post here).

    When I resumed piano teaching in 2014, after having been out of the business since 2003, back in my pre-internet days, I started reading some of the archives of threads in a piano teacher’s forum, and joined there last December. A lot had changed in the piano teaching world during those years I only taught my children piano, not others’ children, so reading about trends in the business, and now occasionally collaborating with other piano teachers online, has been helpful to me as I’ve sought to build up my business in a way that can help clients with changing needs and so on.

    I enjoy chatting with local teachers at our independent music teacher’s meetings, but we only meet nine times a year for an hour or two, so there isn’t as much opportunity for bouncing ideas off others as there are through the online piano teacher’s forum.

    Only about 1/4 of our local membership attend meetings, too, so it’s really limited that way, as well.

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  26. I don’t have a smart phone. In fact, with the move I officially have an old person’s phone. We went with Cricket, and the only flip phone they offer now has really large keys. Really, people? I have a desktop computer with a large screen (better for editing and working with photos). My husband has a GPS, an i-pad, and i-pod, and a tablet. The tablet is the only one of those that is particularly intriguing to me, and I can’t justify the money since it isn’t a one-time investment. I’d rather have a decent camera than all that stuff.

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  27. The worship leader at my church is moving after ten years. They had a farewell for her and posted pictures. So precious to see those pictures of the choir and each of the pastors. one gal was in the choir who had been seriously ill and I didn’t know that she had returned.

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  28. I have a smart phone, as Nightingale was able to get a good deal putting me on her account (after Hubby died). But I usually only use it for texting or the occasional phone call I need to make (or answer 🙂 ). Every now and then I use it to post photos on Facebook, but I don’t do that too often, and I don’t keep myself logged in to Facebook on the phone.

    Also, before he died, Hubby taught me how to deposit a check through the online banking app on the phone. That has come in handy a few times.

    Everything else is done on my laptop. For that, I have a “tablemate”, which is like a tray table, but the legs are designed to slip under the couch, so I can sit back and it can reach me. Throughout each day, I go back and forth between that and my standing laptop desk.

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  29. My other news source is The World and Everything In It five days a week.

    Facebook: I had thought that would be what it would be like, family sharing thoughts and pics. But my older four don’t really use Facebook. One does not use it at all, one uses it about once a month, one posts pics about once a week, and one does not but his wife does and she posts like my next group of children. They either post bizarre photos of themselves in alluring poses or forward posts usually somewhat profane or obscene. So, I don’t.

    On the other hand, with the smart phone, my first four and I are all on a group text and we contact quite a bit, probably at least four times a week we have a conversation,

    An adopted sibling group of three also had a group text with me and we requested none of the junk stuff from fb, That went quite well until one moved overseas and no longer has a smartphone and another decided she was way too addicted to social media, and stopped using it. Son and I remain in contact though he is living at the neighbor’s. But he is busy in farmwork so he only has time to text when he is sitting in the grain truck waiting for a load

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  30. I have a fantasy that someday I will have read this entire secret room history. So far I’m up to page 6 out of 29, and it’s still January 2015, only a month after it started.

    It’s funny to get a slice of our history. Today I read speculation about how long the thread might last. Will we keep it going for a year? Will we make it to 5000?

    Today’s reading also included conversation about not having smart phones. Some of you have progressed since then. Others remain happy not to.

    And it remained cold in the dog park.

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  32. Well, my young student looked happy to go up to grade one yesterday. No one came to pick him up, so I helped him call home and then stayed with him until someone came. The secretary dialed the number and then handed him the phone. He looked like he did not know how to hold it.
    I am just so glad that he is where he belongs. He was a year older than the others as he will turn seven in November. Took me several weeks of sharing info and patiently waiting because it wasn’t my decision.

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  33. Mumsee, someone I know from my church from long ago sent me a gift. I clicked on their address and then looked them up. She lives in Grangeville or whatever that town is just south of you. You may even know her as she said that she knew Nez Perce well.

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  34. It would be interesting to find out but I don’t know many people. We do have some people who attend our church who are from Grangeville. It is a small world!

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  37. I won’t say anymore about my friend on here, but you may know her.
    I am learning more about the tutoring. One student had some trouble with rhyming and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. I looked online for tutor help, but there were no answers. So I clicked on the link and emailed them with the problem. With 24 hours I had a detailed reply back telling me exactly what to do. So helpful.

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  40. Mumsee, I mentioned entertaining only because you feared I’d be bored to death. But you are absolutely right, it is also very educational. For example, this is where I learned all about weather patterns in LA dog parks.

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  41. In today’s re-run of The Secret Room, it’s February, 2015. Jo’s been to China. So far the sequence of days with at least one post remains unbroken.

    Kizzie and 6 Arrows nearly knocked each other down racing to unlock the next room at 1200. Kizzie had a huge lead and got the door unlocked but 6 appeared out of nowhere to be first in the new room.

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  42. Did I say Jo’s been to China? That’s not a typo, I guess it’s a thinko. I meant to say Jo’s been to Hawaii. Which is in the same general direction as China.

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  47. We went to Marc’s football game last night. We were late because just as we were preparing, a guy called to say he was on the way with two cords of firewood. So we stayed for him to offload that. And we left early because we could. When we left the score was something like fifty to twelve, us Did not seem like much point in staying as it was only about four minutes left in the game and we had chores to do.

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  48. When we got home, after she fed the rabbits, I had Tina start splitting the wood. She needs to use a wedge and a sledge hammer as her coordination is not the best. Slow but sure, she will get it done with help from younger brother and me. Marc could, of course, get it done in one afternoon but he does not do any family assistance at all.

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  49. Speaking of Marc, Husband has begun doing his laundry for him. I assist but we won’t mention that to Marc It had been a couple of months again since he did his and we decided it was beyond his abilities so we would just do it. Only eleven more months and a few days.

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  53. Thanks, 6. All kidding aside, it has been good to go through the first year of this room’s history because I was on leave from WV at the time and didn’t know about some of the important things that happened.

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  54. Mumsee, not sure if I ever mentioned, but the planes that we fly over here are all from Idaho. We have four or five Kodiaks which are made by Quest aircraft in Sandpoint Idaho.

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  55. Yes, we hear a bit about the Kodiaks I seem to recall when they first started the project up there. Son, the cropduster even talks about them.

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  57. That is my understanding. I have had a couple of boys tell me they want to fly Kodiaks for missions, but I have not seen a lot of work in that direction. One found out that he gets seriously air sick but is still flying in the Air Force The other, still working at college and aviation mechanics with the plan to eventually get his commercial license so he can be a cropduster but no longer attends church at all. I don’t think he believes it fits his lifestyle. But in reality….

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  58. We did a lot of praying as the planes were flown over here. With one of them, the night before they left someone gave them the 10,000 dollar part that empowered all of the extra electronics, like the radar. On that flight they flew through a storm and could not have landed on Guam without the radar.
    Another flight we prayed and when he arrived the pilot said that they whole way he never touched a cloud.

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  61. This morning, eleven year old is bringing in grapes for making grape juice. Twelve and seventeen are splitting rounds of firwood so I can split the halves into halves later in the day. And so we continue, trying to stay ahead of each season by a bit.

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  62. Hubby always prepared for winter at the beginning of fall, before the weather ever turned chilly. He said he’d rather look silly but be prepared than wait and be caught unawares by an early storm. Smart man. (Nightingale is much like him in many ways. He’d be very proud of her. And of me, too, I think.)

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  63. had a lovely time at dinner at the Teen Centre tonight. I almost didn’t go, but it is so nice and the only way to have an evening out and a meal that I didn’t have to cook. Two other couples were there from my Bible study. We just sat around sharing. so nice. I haven’t had anyone to eat with and this felt like a gift.

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  64. Eating together is a good thing. I suspect that is part of seventeen year old’s problem. He refuses to eat at home. We have elected to just let it go. Last night he got home around seven fifteen and we all were working at building a horse shelter. I left it up to nineteen year old to invite him to help if he wanted (he is the nicest of us) but he didn’t. He tried to get seventeen year old to help him last week but then he realized that he got the same amount of work done the next day as the day the boy helped him so he did not invite him. I told him he was welcome to go play. He asked to sit on the porch and do his homework. Sure. He had made no advances to indicate any interest in helping, he had just wanted to be on site, telling people how to get the job done.

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  65. Today we are cleaning, into the deep areas, in preparation for winter. The people have not been very involved in the deep cleaning as the older children did it all, but they are learning.

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  77. I asked for prayer last night at our prayer time about a trip to Goroka over the break, by plane. I emailed aviation weeks ago. So, of course, I heard back today. The option they gave me I only needed to fill four seats on the plane. That will be nice as several others have their breaks all filled up so I only need to find three others and one gal already told me that she was interested.

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  78. So Kevin comes along and gets a welcome, but when I showed up a few times there was near scorn that a man dared to enter the the room. And it was the man that had a major part in getting this thing going by racing to the first 100.

    Glad you made it Kevin. I hope you get to this post by 2020.

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  79. How forgetful I am. I started the race to 200 and opened the new room. So was it I who discovered the “secret”? Or was it I who let another 57er discover it?

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  80. Actually, as I recall, Kevin filled our eyes with flattering words about how interesting we were, You on the other hand, were shocked to see us carrying on with our less than stimulating conversations. But you are welcome to stop by in your spare time. No red pens allowed.

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  83. Goroka is a day away. Fly out in the morning and back in the afternoon. Just a 15 minute flight rather than a couple of hours dangerous driving. That is where I purchased all of my bilums. We will go out to eat and stroll through some shops. I am hoping to find some more of my crackers that I eat daily. I brought them back from Australia, but our store has been out since May.

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  84. I checked out where Roscuro is on the map. She may as well be in Greenland. Not at all where I thought she would be. praying that the climate will be good for her.

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  89. I couldn’t sleep so got up to post, etc.
    actually the internet wouldn’t work earlier and I had some banking to do as this is our payday, so thought I would try again.
    It worked!

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  92. Husband is going down to Boise today, perhaps the brother of the owner will be at the house and they can talk. The owner had said that the brother lived nearby and could show husband the house, so we will see.

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  95. You talk about keeping the thread from falling off the list. What does that mean?

    I had to take some time off from history. It’s been hard enough keeping up with the present.

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  100. Well, Marc got himself removed from Chrome book use at school. Apparently, when he plugged in his illegal to us ipod to recharge it, it downloaded all of his pics to the school chrome book and they don’t appreciate porn on their school computers. But he left his backpack at home this morning and I found a school chrome book in it, along with the power cord. He is not allowed, by school rules and ours, to bring a chrome book out of school property. And so it goes. I continue to pray that the eyes of his heart will be opened.

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  102. Kevin, in the side bar of each WV page there is a column listing top posts, as Kizzie said, clicking on the date for this page is the easiest way to get here. If we don’t post close to daily, we no longer show up on that list. We call it falling off the list. Then we have to hunt for this page.

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  104. I rested this weekend so should be ready for school today. However my back is hurting as I did go to the weight room. My friend from my church came in, she is a week older than I am,, since they had to go home on a medevac they had six weeks with a trainer daily in the gym. She worked on balance. I was in awe of what she was doing. Stepping up on one of the benches and lifting the other leg in the air with her arms out to the side with small weights. I have one of those small folding stools here and had trouble just stepping up. Something new to practice.

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  106. As mentioned, we rarely see Marc anymore. Generally just for a few seconds at church, in passing. Yesterday, after spending ten minutes in the wifi room, er, bathroom….he sat for the sermon and then gave me a big hug and wanted to stand and chat with me for five minutes. Me thinks he suspects I have his chrome book. He did not ask though.

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  107. Husband will return the computer to the school today, reminding them that we authorized son permission to use the computer at school with the understanding that they would lock it up at the end of school. With the courses he is taking, he does not need it for school, He only uses it for music and his own amusement. Like he said, he is not doing schoolwork seriously until he turns eighteen.

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  109. Praying for God to get a hold of that young man, Mumsee. And do a miracle in your daughter who so often goes over the edge. (You mentioned she went over the edge the other day. How is she doing? Any improvement?)

    My problem with balance makes Nightingale nervous, as it made Hubby nervous. I often teeter a bit, as if I’m about to fall over, but then catch myself. I joke that I’m a Weeble. (Remember the commercial for them? “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.”) Of course, I’m not really a Weeble, so I do need to be careful. A tall piece of furniture kept me from going over the other day.

    But because I am “unstable”, I really am very careful. As I’ve told Nightingale, and told Hubby before her, “As much as you don’t want me to fall and hurt myself, I don’t want that even more.”

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  110. Tina is doing okay. She is currently not doing school work again as she was not doing what I was assigning her to do. Kind of difficult to say you are doing school when you aren’t. But she is being otherwise cooperative and not getting in my face telling me how perfect she is going to be. And she accepted the removal of her Catholic items of worship from her room without argument though she did let me know she had noticed.

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  112. Studied February 11-25, 2015 in Secret Room History today. There was a kerfuffle to open the new room at 1200. Mumsee was going for 1313, but Cheryl appeared out of nowhere. I saw two stunning comments about the dog park. One was that it was warm there. The other was Mumsee saying she never wants to talk about cold dog parks.

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  116. Jo, I liked your comment by mistake. It’s at February 15, 2015 at 1:58 am. Something about someone learning to ride a bike in a church parking lot.

    There’s nothing wrong with the comment, I just don’t usually “like” comments from previous days, much less previous years. 🙂

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  117. Long, long ago, I must have clicked something on this page so now I receive all of the comments in my inbox. It makes me feel like I have been here even when I have not. Does that make sense?

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  120. No word from son about the Chrome. Husband took it back to the superintendant, not until after I had done a few modifications to let him know I had been there. Nothing not easily fixed, just messing with the boy. Really, in the big scheme of things, he is doing fairly well.

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  121. Daughter continues to tell people I won’t let her do schoolwork. I keep reminding her that in fact, she won’t do the schoolwork she is given, Big difference.

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  122. Melody and Tony helped today by harvesting the grapes. Well, until Melody got stung. I had told them to work quickly so they could get done before the yellow jackets got active. Too slow. But we did get more blackberries and some elderberries. in and processing.

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  124. it was better today, but then I went and talked too much. I also did my Barton tutoring for the first time this week. So I am sore. I have more tea brewing , but there will be eight parent conferences tomorrow. I hope that no one wears perfume. One time a gal came in in such a cloud of perfume that I kept rolling my chair further and further away from her.

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  126. It is starting to cool down at night around here. Well, it always does, but now getting down closer to freezing. Maybe even into the thirties. Fall is in the air! I love fall.

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  132. My morning crossword is not loading. Maybe they don’t do that on Saturday. Maybe Florence rearranged things. Florence is all over the news, not so much the typhoon that hit the Phillipines.

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  133. 6 Arrows said she would be away from the blog for a while due to extra busyness. One of the things causing that extra busyness is her daughter’s wedding.

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  134. My throat was very sore at the end of conferences. Now I have had a day with no talking so am feeling better. Tomorrow is PNG’s 43 independence day. other than going to market, I can stay quietly at home.

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  135. a friend’s daughter is visiting from where she teaches in Jakarta. She works in a building and also lives in the same building and on the lower level is a mall where she does all of her shopping and it is not safe to leave the building in a city of eleven million. I would not be able to live there or work there.

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  136. It is amazing how evil seeps in. People live in cities for safety from the wilds, for one reason, though that is far overrated. But then there is the wilds of the city they need to be safe from.

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  137. such a day of rain. We usually get a one hour torrential downpour so for it to continue for most of the day is unusual. Looks like it may be clearing. Do I dare walk to the weight room?

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  141. My plan is to go home! so looking forward to meeting Lucy. I am not sure where I should be for Christmas, it is such a hard time. I finally decided to see who invites me. Last year my daughter invited me at 5pm on Christmas eve. I had already crashed emotionally.

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  142. I have a shopping list started, mostly my pills for the next year. The exciting part for me is that once I go home for Christmas I will only be coming back for one year at a time. Next year to finish off this two year term and then one more year once I come back.

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  144. Jo – I have heard people say, and have read it, too, that many times our disappointments are because we are expecting something from other people that they don’t know we are expecting from them. Each of your children may assume you have plans with another of your children, or with someone else.

    I know that it would be ideal if they would all reach out and invite you, but maybe you need to let them know your need. Maybe a group email or text? I don’t know your family dynamics, so please take this as just a little suggestion, and ignore it if it doesn’t fit.

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  145. Thanks, Mumsee. Yes, it’s as Kizzie said: a lot of busyness this month, related to music activities and the wedding, which is still to come. I’m exhausted, and haven’t been feeling the greatest the last week. But I backed out of one of the music things I said I would do, and felt a little bit of relief after that decision.

    There are some personal and familial issues that are weighing on my heart that I don’t want to delve into here, but prayers would be appreciated, if you’d like to pray in a general way.

    I will mention one thing, though, that I’ve been wrestling with this weekend that I’m not sure how well I’m processing.

    Our local independent music teachers group resumed meeting this past Friday (we meet once a month from September to May), and it was there that I learned that one of our members, who no longer attended meetings, had died this summer.

    I had met Dorinda before, but didn’t know her well, though based on the occasions we spoke, I could tell she was a gentle and friendly lady. We attended a workshop once at our state teacher’s convention, and I had opportunity to be her partner for some activity. She was in a wheelchair, recovering from the stroke she’d had some time before that, but she had the most positive and hopeful outlook of anyone I’ve met who is in difficult circumstances.

    Unfortunately, from the sounds of her obituary, she was tangled up in some very unorthodox teachings, biblically speaking. A musical celebration of her life was held this past Saturday, nearly three months after her death, at an area Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

    It sounds like Unitarians don’t believe Jesus is God. Some might believe He’s the Son of God, but is not Himself a deity; only a figure with moral authority.

    Those beliefs, combined with other things mentioned in Dorinda’s obit, particulary that she was a founding member of the area Zen meditation group, having at one time held meditation sittings in her home, overseen by one of the “Reverends” of that Unitarian group, give me a sick feeling.

    https://lacrossetribune.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/dorinda-hawk/article_75f2a6df-efa6-5a28-8279-dd2bd82bb740.html

    I hope that somehow, in the quiet moments at the end of her life (she was 81), she came to know her Savior. Two Christian families I know had Dorinda as their piano teacher at some point. How did God use those families, or other Christians, during her lifetime?

    I don’t know the Lord’s working in her heart, but reading her obituary brought profound sadness.

    Maybe this a deception of the enemy, though, to give me a feeling of hopelessness about something I don’t know?

    God knows, but I’m still having a hard time with thinking that this woman, who seemed so peaceful and kind, may not be at eternal peace and rest with her Savior.

    Thanks for letting me share.

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  146. Another possibility, Jo. In my own family, family is always willing to host one another, for overnight if room is available but definitely for meals and a visit and so on. But we don’t tend to say, “Would you like to come here for Christmas this year?” It is assumed that family members will call and tell you if they will be in the area, and thus the door is always open, but rarely mentioned. (I did have one brother who mentioned it had been several years since I had seen him for Christmas, but for the most part we just call each other to say, “Hey, I think I can be with you for Christmas this year” and then the other person feels honored. I’m pretty sure it worked that way with Mom, too. I myself was not in a place to host her (all of my life, until the year she died, I either lived in the same city with her or I lived in Chicago and didn’t have a guest room; and she would not have traveled from Phoenix into Chicago at Christmas), but she visited various of my siblings for Christmas, and sometimes she stayed home. I think we all assumed that she would do what she wanted to do and could afford to do. Could it be that’s what your kids are thinking, too? They assume that you go where you want to be, and if you don’t call them, that means there is somewhere else you’d rather be?

    Maybe you can plan out a couple of years in advance where you will be for Christmas?

    Many, many years in Chicago I had to either travel (which was expensive and also subject to annoyance and delays, flying through O’Hare at Christmas when we were likely to have snow delays and full-flight delays) or have Christmas alone, and I personally didn’t like either option. Once a friend who didn’t travel started having me over annually, it freed me to travel to see family in nicer months instead. But that was traveling to see my mom or a sibling, not traveling to see my own child, so that would be different.

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  147. Come to my house, Jo! I think the mice are under control…My children don’t generally come here for Christmas, though the occasional stray might. So it is just us. And I may be able to convince cousin to come cook for us.

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  154. Regarding my 9:27 last night, I left my thought unfinished (despite how long my post was). I still don’t really know how to put into words everything I’m mulling, and it probably won’t make sense if I even try to say more.

    But, if anything, Dorinda’s passing reminded me of the importance of not just trying to be an effective witness for Christ in my demeanor, but that I must also speak of Christ.

    Being a beautiful example of gentleness, or kindness, or whatever one may feel is important to exhibit, is not enough if you never mention Christ. The most lost people, spiritually speaking, can also exhibit those traits — compassion, encouragement, sweetness, you name it.

    I’ve heard it said about Christians, “Sometimes you are the only Bible an unbeliever will ever read.”

    Or something similar to that. Meaning, think about the example you’re setting.

    But it has to go deeper than that. If we don’t speak of Jesus our Savior, the Source of our peace will not be revealed.

    I’m preaching to the choir here, but feeling like I need to write this, perhaps to strengthen my own resolve to actually speak of my Savior to those in my local world who may need to hear.

    Rather a daunting thought — I’m often afraid I’m going to “do it wrong.” I have spoken of Christ before to probably less than a handful of people in my lifetime whom I suspected were not Christian, but it still is hard to think of doing it again.

    I don’t know if you clicked on the obituary above, but my friend Rita was mentioned in it. I know she was quite close to Dorinda, and it really touched me the time a few years ago, before I knew either of them very well, to see Rita helping Dorinda shop at a local food coop shortly after Dorinda had suffered a stroke. I knew Dorinda lived alone, and I thought, what a beautiful gesture, one respected member of our music community helping another of our members in her time of need.

    If you knew Rita, which I do now, as she is our out-going District Auditions chairwoman and is so diligently helping our new in-coming DA team, which I’m a part of, in this transition year, you would be introduced to a thoughtful, encouraging, helpful individual who is very much like what I believe those who knew Dorinda well would say about her, too.

    I don’t know Rita’s religious background, but that is something I’d like to pray about — for God to open up an opportunity for me to get a feel for Rita’s beliefs, and perhaps witness Christ to her, if and how the Spirit leads.

    Would you care to join me in my prayers to that end?

    Thank you.

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  155. By the way, while I’m hanging around here, catching up (easier in the secret room than elsewhere on the blog), I’ll say that if you clicked on the link and read Dorinda’s obit, you probably noticed some specific geographical information in it. I know I’ve been pretty secretive about where I live, though some of you know through other means than through the blog. I debated putting up the link because, while Dorinda’s city of residence at the time of her death is not where I am, it is in my region.

    Not to sound morbid, but the newspaper website where her obit appeared will likely be where my obituary will be someday. (I don’t see us ever moving out of this general area.)

    Not that I think my end is coming soon, but there’s where you might get some information if I ever seem to “disappear” and don’t respond to emails…

    Don’t ask me why I wrote that just now. Just spilling random (and strange) thoughts, probably.

    Wedding and other stresses doing weird things to me lately, maybe?

    As always, prayers are welcome.

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  156. Oh, wow, I just took the afternoon and evening off (except to teach one piano lesson) to get caught up on the blog (I’ve been exhausted and needed a break in routine), and I’m amazed that some of the things I wrote above, today and yesterday, relate to recent discussions on other pages of the blog.

    Like I see Unitarian Universalists got mentioned, i think on the weekend thread.

    And various beliefs of different churches (not that I’d call UU a church), and what they believe about Jesus.

    I had no idea y’all had been discussing that before I wrote my September 17th post.

    And I read today’s daily thread tonight, and saw Kizzie’s reference to the guests coming for Thanksgiving, where she said, “I do hope that somehow Jesus will be seen through me to them.”

    Kizzie, I hope my comment above, where I spoke of example not being enough, doesn’t sound like a criticism of your statement on the daily thread. I hadn’t seen that when I wrote mine, and want to make clear that I understand that example is important (IOW, we certainly don’t want to behave in an unChristlike manner that would reflect badly on His name when/if others learn we profess Christ).

    But one thing I was thinking, when I wrote my 1:52 pm comment above, but didn’t say, was that neither do I believe that one should necessarily speak of Christ the very first time a Christian meets a person or people with unknown beliefs.

    Relationship and timing are considerations, too. I don’t see anything in Scripture that mandates our speaking directly of Jesus at the first opportunity.

    So, to sum up… I just want to clarify that I believe that speaking of Christ and providing a good example as a witness go hand in hand, and don’t by necessity have to be in that order.

    Not sure if I’m making sense, but thought I’d bring it up, since the timing of these various conversations (the writing, and the subsequent reading) was so interesting. 🙂

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  157. And we have heard the comment: tell the world about Christ through our actions and if all else fails, use words.

    But in reality, we need to be in the Word and in prayer, always, so when He desires our mouths to open and His words to flow out, we will be ready. Only He knows the heart and what it is ready to hear. Being ready requires our effort, He does the rest.

    And part of being ready, is the fellowship we have here, encouraging one another in Him, May God be glorified.

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  158. Busy day today. Waiting for haus meri to come. Then at 10 my car is due for its semiannual safety inspection. Then at 2:30 I have a dental appointment and am hoping to go to the weight room after all that. The question is: when will the car be available to pick up. Lots of walking involved as I will spend the in between time at school which is in the far corner of this centre.

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  160. I need to get back up to the weight room but we had a significant behavioral setback when I discovered the two youngest were taking tools from the garage and from the storage shed and hiding them under the wood shop. Grounded to the house for a month, except for chores and with me outside. But they read so I think I am the only one who noticed.

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  161. As far as whole 30 goes, I have lost about twenty five pounds, but not a clothing size. But that is okay as my blood pressure is in a much nicer area. But after whole 30 ends in about a week, I plan to get serious again with the weights upstairs.

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  164. What a day. Had to be up and ready for the haus meri to come. Then left for school for an hour and then delivered the car to the auto shop to get the safety inspection and walked back to school. Did lots of copying and cutting to get materials ready for next term. Then walked over for my dental appointment the back to school and then to the weight room, back to school and then to the autoshop, but my vehicle wasn’t ready, but they let me sit in their break room. Nice.

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  165. The dentist was Korean, who also loves to sing opera.
    Anyway he inspected where I had lost most of a filling and said he would fill it. I guess he took out the rest of the old filling. He told me I did not need an injection as it wouldn’t hurt. I had heard from someone else that he didn’t like to give pain killers. So I said that I am old and I would like the injection. Then, as he was getting ready to begin, he said let me know if it hurts and we will give an injection. In other words, no injection, even tho I said I wanted one. That seems very strange to me. It actually only hurt a very little bit so I was fine. I had been worried that he would look and tell me that I needed a root canal, so a simple filling was fine with me.

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  166. That is much better than a root canal. But really, dentistry has changed a lot in the past fifty years. Apparently it is just us older folk who are fearful of it. Probably lots more laser stuff so not so much cutting and gouging. But still…I avoid all of those people (dentists, doctors, etc) as much as possible.

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  169. Push ups?? I haven’t even tried a push up. I was thinking of trying the plank now that I am working on my arm and shoulder muscles.
    I was almost overcome by the cleaning fumes last night. Went around opening all of the windows and then taking the cleaning rags to the entryway. I washed them this morning..

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  171. Cleaning fumes, You mentioned to me that too much was used in my guest bathroom. Well, you did not say that, but you said you could smell the bleach, so obviously too much was used. I try to water it down quite a bit as I don’t want my children inhaling that and I do think that sort of thing is what triggered my first cases of exzema or however it is spelled. I don’t know how to turn on spell check here and that is one word I never seem to get right. exczema excema ecszema I give up.

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  172. I won’t even try to spell that. I used bleach on my bathroom this week and the shower curtain. With this climate, we tend to get lots of mold.
    Best thing I did yesterday was take a walk to someone’s house to greet her as she had just returned. I didn’t go to aviation as there are so many people around with this camp. But God reminded me that she needed to be greeted. That makes such a difference when you return. He husband died and she has been dealing with anxiety. so sweet to give her a hug.

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  175. Well, Marc left yesterday morning and has not been back since. No word. Frustrating. Same stuff he was doing two years ago. Now to decide what to do. Ignore it? Disenroll him from school? Move him into another family?

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  180. Marc got home at about 10:35 last night. I won’t see him to talk with him until church. I will probably tell him to be home everyday by a certain time if he does not want drastic change in his life. This is Fair week so he won’t be happy to do that, he will want to stay out late. If he listens and comes home, things might go easier, if not, I suspect he will be either disenrolled or moved out into the home of whoever has been harboring him.

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  182. Okay, I talked with husband and we have a plan. Children and I go to church, if Marc is there, I talk to him, if there is any truth and any revelation of where he stayed the last couple of nights, I won’t report him as a runaway. Otherwise I do, try to figure out who is harboring him and let them know they are messing with the law.

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  183. He was there, we had a good talk, I did not report him. I did let him know the people harboring him were risking serious trouble if they continued. And already could be charged. He says he will be home every night at eight thirty with his device on my desk. If that happens, I will encourage he not be withdrawn from school. God is amazing. I sit here and fret and worry asking Him to take every thought captive and He is right there all the time with things under control.

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  193. This is school break and that is when I do newsletters, but I don’t have any ideas. Then, last night we had dinner, our entire fellowship/prayer group along with four visitors from Cleveland. We have been praying for the New Testament dedication this last weekend done by a couple in the group. When folks started sharing, I realized, oh, there is my newsletter.

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  194. Then I woke up this morning with God writing the newsletter in my brain. I had to get up quickly and write the words that He was giving me. It is only a beginning, but I know that He will give me the rest.

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  195. hmmm…. wondering if this silly post might open up a new room???
    I picture us as being in a building that gets higher and higher, the view is amazing as we look from the Midwest, to Connecticut, to Idaho, and off to PNG.

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  196. I do not normally, and did not this morning. But when I looked over and saw the moon, I raced in and grabbed my phone. Sadly, I don’ know how to send anything except by text.

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  198. My phone is not connected to the internet, so that limits it a bit. I have to send the pics to one of my adult children who then send it to me in my email, so I can then send it on to emails. My large computer is broken so I no longer use it at all, just this little chrome so I can’t put my game camera pics on here and send them. I suspect my husband has some sort of reader that can plug in here and add the pics but he is off truck driving. He should be back in a few days and will solve all my problems.

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  199. Isn’t it nice to have someone come home and fix all your problems?!
    I have a haus meri coming today. I have basically washed all my clothes and they are hanging for her to iron. So nice. I will be ready for next term.

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