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Our Daily Thread 12-26-14

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!!!

Today’s header photo is from Peter.

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On this day in 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

In 1776 the British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1898 Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium. 

And in 1941 Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. 

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Quote of the Day

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”

Thomas Gray

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 Today is Bob Hartman’s birthday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_mJp0eYto&feature=player_detailpage

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Anyone have a QoD?

68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-26-14”

  1. Off to Va. later this morning. Prayers for traveling mercies would be appreciated. 🙂

    Everyone have fun, and play nice while I’m gone. If y’all are good, I’ll have a surprise for y’all when I return. 🙂

    I’ll still be posting as usual, and I’ll check in from time to time.

    Enjoy your weekend, I’m pretty sure I will. 🙂

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  5. Good morning. Yesterday was really good. Last night when three miles from home I managed to run up on a curb as a road divider started from a point. Two flat tires resulted. Not many tow trucks are available on Christmas evening. All ‘s well for the moment .

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  7. Ahem, Cheryl. Sorry to burst your bubble, but your comment at the end of yesterday’s thread about being first since no one posted after midnight…?

    I posted AT midnight in the secret room, so technically, I was the first one on December 26.

    First! And last!

    🙂

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  9. Good morning all. The picture was last winter down on the river. There were several gulls flying around, so I zoomed in on one and got him in flight. That is an island in the background that is a national wildlife refuge.

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  10. Well, it seems that R wants to play the I-buy-you-more-presents game. Although unemployed for months, & I don’t think he’s collecting unemployment, he bought Forrest a big pile of presents. We’re wondering if he pointed out to Forrest that he got him more than Mommy/Mimi/Papa did, because Forrest more than once mentioned he got a lot more presents at Daddy’s house. We are not going to try to compete in that game, but eventually Forrest will realize that a lot of presents doesn’t equal a lot of love & attention.

    As I mentioned the other night, R’s family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, except for buying presents for Forrest. So although Forrest was at his grandparents’ house (where R now lives), they weren’t around. (Gramma was working, but I don’t know where his Grampa was.)

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  11. A late Merry Christmas to everyone. Our Christmas dinner will happen tomorrow. Daughter, her husband and four children will be here tonight.

    I am happy we have snow for them. Very unusual for them not to have snow for Christmas. We have very little–only a few inches–but, at least, we have some. It is snowing, so we will have some fresh on the ground. It is unusual to have four wheelers buzzing by, instead of snowmobiles. Tis the time of year for snow. 😉

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  12. Good idea not to get into a competition of any kind with Forrest’s relatives. Children know how to exploit that. I’ve also seen them become quite jaded by it. It is best to just share in his joy and remind him that we all do things differently.

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  13. Good snowy morning to you all….four fresh inches of snow on the land and a big buck was looking at us this morning when we opened the bedroom curtains….he was all snow covered and looking quite regal! It’s so quiet in the Forest as the snow continues to fall…but it is too cold to venture out for me…9 degrees….brrrrr

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  14. No snow on the coast, but I had a very hard time pushing my way out of about 10 layers of blankets this morning. 53 degrees … brrrr

    Glad everyone had a merry day yesterday — friends & I went out for Mexican food and then I took the dogs to the dog park and for a ride through the marina after dark to see the lights. Fun to see the kids throughout the day enjoying their new “stuff” out in the neighborhood.

    Janice, good job on 2 flat tires, that takes some skill. 😉 Glad you’re OK.

    Like Kim, it’s back to work for me today, too. We’re doing our roundup of the year’s 10 top local stories & I have 3 of them to contribute. But they’re just short blurbs, pretty easy to do.

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  22. Just a little venting here…

    I think I may have mentioned that one of the dysfunctional habits the McKs have is that their sense of time or timing is way off. They do things very late at night that could have been done earlier in the day, if they’d gotten around to it. Lee often heard laundry going when he left for work close to 1 in the morning. They all (except maybe the dad, who needs to get up for work in the morning) go to bed in the wee hours & sleep very late, even sometimes (often?) into the afternoon.

    After weeks of planning a cruise the mom & dad were going on (paid for by friends), at midnight the night before they were supposed to leave at 6am, they still had not started packing.

    One time, when Chrissy & I would be babysitting at 7am, she wasn’t dropped off until 2am, because YF, who would be driving her, waited until late in the evening to bake a birthday cake she was supposed to bake during the day. For all the years I’ve known them, they are chronically late (a half hour or more very often).

    A few nights ago, they had to go to a 24-hour grocery store late at night because they didn’t get around to going to the store earlier.

    Yesterday, they had told Chrissy that 4pm was the latest they would want to pick her up for their trip to the aunt’s home, & it was decided 3:00 was a good time. Later it was amended to 3:30.

    They ended up picking her up at 4:30, because they were busy decorating cookies at the last minute.

    I usually take a “to each his own” attitude about these kinds of things, but I have seen this habit of theirs affect others. Chrissy is on their time now, & is often tired when she is babysitting with me, or gets dropped off after midnight when we have to babysit in the morning. And I’m sure their chronic lateness must inconvenience or annoy many other people in their lives as well.

    I hate seeing Chrissy adapting to their habits, which will not be helpful for “real life”.

    On the surface, they are such a nice, friendly, even generous, family, but there is some dysfunction in them that bothers me.

    (Remember, in addition to the time/timing matter I just wrote about, they also are very messy, & have kind of spendthrift ways while complaining about how poor they are. YF, at age 27, still doesn’t have a job 4 & a half years out of college. And the daughters seem to rule the roost in many ways. It’s all really none of my business, but it bugs me, because of their influence on Chrissy.)

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  23. We had a nice Christmas. We stopped by a large mall in Charlotte on th way home, but it wasn’t lone. I have some Rants & raves for tomorrow.
    It seems that everyone had a nice Christmas.
    I’m glad.
    🙂

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  25. Chas got to sit outside some stores again. 🙂

    Fellow reporter (MO native) after coming in from outside a little while ago: “It’s like the Midwest out there. I’m chilled to the bone. I can’t get warm.”

    I tell you, it’s all relative once you’re a transplant …

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  26. Stopped at Barnes and Nobel on my way back from the airport since I had a gift card and I thought of a book for my husband and I: 95 Sonoma County Hikes. Completely forgot Christmas cards would be on sale, so I bought next years!

    Arrived home to Slovenian Sausage cooking on the stove and the announcement we’ll be together for another meal. Kids are outside playing now–though someone has to hold up Elsa’s 8 foot long train–and the adult girls are going to the movies in 90 minutes–The Theory of Everything.

    I think four of us are going to another movie tonight–I’m on total holiday routine now!

    Laughing.

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  28. It’s in the 50 here, very cold by LA dog park standards where I would need Thinsulate. Here in Atlanta I can get by with a windbreaker over a short sleeve t-shirt. Just wondering if the dog park has any igloo for the dogs to huddle inside to take a bit of the chill off?

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  29. It’s 15° colder in my part of the Midwest than in Peter’s.

    BTW, very nice header photo, Peter. The blueness of the river and sky and the white of the gull, the snow and the birch trees makes for a pretty contrast.

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  30. Two flat tires on Christmas night are not enough to wither the spirits of those fortified by Kim ‘ s Cranberry Love that Stuff. I have just been refried for today and may need a second dose later this evening. Thanks, Kim, for your recipe.

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  32. Son had an idea of how we could get home last night as stowaway in the car trunk as it was being towed by the wrecker. At first it was going to be towed home, but then husband thought of a church member we could call to help us. We did not have the Tele # but I found it online. Hubby doubted the number but I tried and immediately got them at home and willing.
    Funny thing is that I drove about a quarter of a mile on the two flats and parked at a Q T gas station store right beside a car marked Roadside assistance. The guy tried to help only to discover we would have to get a tow. We ended up with two tow services because the first appeared to be a no-show which did show. He did tow to our house and had to be redirected to tow to the dealership as had been arranged with the second tow service.

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  34. Church member took husband home to get his car and before husband got back the tow truck arrived. Son and I thought we would be frantically getting all our gifts and food items out of the car and waiting with our belongings out in the parking lot, but husband arrived just as we started removing things from the car being towed. So we did not get stranded like sitting ducks in the Q T parking lot.

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  37. My timing belt broke once when I had 3 dogs in the car. I had taken all of them in for their shots at the same time that day and was stopped at a stop light on the way home in the main drag of one of the towns we pass through.

    When the AAA tow truck showed up, he hooked up the car and left the dogs inside the car while I rode with him in the truck.

    At one point he looked in the rear view mirror and started laughing, telling me to turn around. There was my tall Australian shepherd mix Mercy sitting in the driver’s seat right behind the wheel, with my big shaggy-dog Ellie sitting primly in the passenger seat and little Fritz, a terrier, in the back seat.

    They looked like a little dog family out for a drive.

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  38. It must be very cold there. I will be going back outside again to do my chores. it is up into the high twenties so I won’t need much for my walks. Probably just add the chore coat and a hat and maybe some mittens and snow boots. Nothing like if it was Los Angeles.

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  39. Karen O, regarding your 2:25 “venting”:

    I hope this doesn’t come out wrong (I want to write with a gentle spirit, but I’m clumsy sometimes)…

    Without going into a lot of detail, I want to say that some of what you wrote about the McK’s sounds very much like things my husband and I struggle with.

    Really struggle.

    Let me say right from the start that I am not AT ALL offended by anything you said, Karen — just want to make that abundantly clear. 🙂

    I think this sentence really gets to the heart of things: “On the surface, they are such a nice, friendly, even generous, family, but there is some dysfunction in them that bothers me.”

    Most people who know our family would also probably characterize us as “nice, friendly [and] generous” too. But we are far from perfect, and some who know us quite well might recognize some level of dysfunction in our family.

    Not that I’m trying to minimize our family’s shortcomings — they are real, and need further addressing — or trying to put the spotlight on others to take attention away from our own problems, but, in this imperfect world filled with imperfect people, I think it’s reasonable to say there is some level of dysfunction in every family.

    I suppose that depends on how one defines dysfunction, though.

    My point in bringing this up is to offer you some reassurance, Karen. The grace of God is resting on my children. My husband’s and my imperfections and struggles do not remove God’s grace from the lives of our children. And none of the imperfections of the other adults in my children’s world change God’s mercy and grace, either.

    Your Chrissy is watched over by our loving Lord, no matter where she is, no matter who is speaking into her life. I know you know that, Karen, and I’m not going to pretend to know what it’s like walking in your shoes, but, IMHO, I think you are causing yourself much anxiety worrying about the kind of people the McK’s are and their influence on your daughter.

    Our Lord’s strength far surpasses the weaknesses of that family, or any other. Take heart, and release your fears about the family’s habits to the Lord. He is faithful to bring about His good, pleasing and perfect will in the lives of all of us.

    {{{Hugs}}} and prayers, sweet friend.

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  40. Paul and I just returned from taking a ride on our country roads…it is so beautifully wintry out there! Of course I needed to buy some carrots to go with the roast I am preparing for company tomorrow night…so we stopped at the grocery in the sweet small town we drove through…such a relaxing blessed day…..
    I wish I had the presence of mind to take a photo of that buck this morning…but I was in such awe of his stance and regal ness I just stood there and smiled 🙂

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  41. You are welcome Janice.
    Wise words 6Arrows

    Karen, most of my life I have worried about things that I cannot control. I am currently worried that I am going to lose my job. At this point there isn’t anything I can do to change the outcome. I pray that it won’t happen, but if it does at least I won’t be sideswiped. I tend to magnify my imperfections and minimize what some say are good qualities. You worrying about the McK’s isn’t going to change anything and in the words of a very wise woman who once told me “the one that puts the most pressure on them is the one they will turn against”.
    Trust me, you know the struggles I have had with BG, but the therapist told me to let her go. It almost killed me when she left me to live with her dad. (Not another family though). Now we manage to have good days together. It is strained but at least I have her some of the time. Chrissy may feel like she spends plenty of time with you when she helps you with Forrest. You can’t change anything. I wish you and I both could, but we can’t. Love you.

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  42. Karen O, what Six Arrows said. And Kim confirmed. And what my husband was telling me last night when I was complaining about what failures we are as parents to these children.

    When we set out for our walk, about twenty deer were just past the drive. They moved along to the hillside when we got near but they just kept eating.

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  43. Okay, experts. D3 asked at supper what ghost stories have to do with Christmas, based on a line in the song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”:

    “There’ll be parties for hosting
    Marshmallows for toasting
    And caroling out in the snow
    There’ll be scary ghost stories
    And tales of the glories of
    Christmases long, long ago.”

    http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/x-filesepisodes/itsthemostwonderfultimeoftheyear.htm

    My thought was Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but have no other answer for her. Thoughts?

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  47. I feel my family is dysfunction..al, too. Stress really brings it out. Last night was a prime example.. All three of us , huband, son. and I were together when I drove over the curb. Husband thought of walking 3 miles home to get his car. Son said call a cab and I wanted to see if we might find a church member to call. In my experience men don’t want to ask for help. That is dysfunctional IMHO. I think people have blind spots to their own areas of dysfunction. I thought it was crazy for husband to talk of walking. It was his way of trying to feel in control

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  51. Thank you, 6 Arrows & you other ladies, for reminding me to stop fretting, & release Chrissy (once again) into God’s hands.

    Yes, I know every family, being made up of us fallible humans, is dysfunctional in some way or another. But I still think there is some underlying serious dysfunction in that family that I can’t put my finger on except to describe the “symptoms”. I pray for them, especially the young ladies who are so deluded by the lies of the enemy.

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  52. We had some unseasonably warm weather this past week, with temps in the 50s some days. Christmas Eve & Day were overcast & rainy. The temps are now going back down to more normal range.

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  53. More trouble posting, so sorry if these are replies to things way up the thread by the time they post. . . .

    Nancy, I missed a good photo opportunity yesterday. Not as good as your buck, but . . . at least one groundhog has moved in under our deck, and he was out behind the deck holding a dead leaf in his mouth. I told my husband it must be housecleaning, since it wouldn’t be eating the leaf. Minutes later it popped up above the deck, looking toward the house, a whole mouthful of dead leaves. It was the classic wildlife photo, and very cute . . . but my camera was in the other room. (Why I didn’t get it when it first popped up in case I got another chance, I don’t know.)

    Janice, none of those suggestions sounds dysfunctional or even unreasonable to me. I don’t know the circumstances of walking home (for example the weather or your husband’s health), but in Chicago I regularly walked three miles to get somewhere. When I locked my keys in my car at a gas station, I tried to call my landlady, but she couldn’t leave the house (she was babysitting), so I walked home, and that was perhaps two miles. Once there, I had access to more phone numbers and could call someone to drive me back to the car. But I definitely don’t think that men’s tendency to look for ways to fix a problem is dysfunctional.

    We do all have oddities and even dysfunctions, though. I’d be more concerned about the spiritual and moral state of those in contact with my children than their social weaknesses. And an adult child who is not living in the house is free to make her own choices; I think the ties with family are going to be stronger if her other relationships are accepted. (If she’s living with a man outside of marriage or otherwise sinning in her life choices, then that’s a major issue. Choosing to live with a friend rather than living with her parents isn’t a moral issue. Well, I guess for those in the patriarchal system it is, but I don’t think any of us on here subscribes to that.)

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  55. My husband has health issues and hardly walks anywhere. He does not even walk on the beach when we go there. Getting a cab on Christmas night might take longer than getting the tow truck and I don’t know which cab companies are good.The only possibility I felt comfortable with was a church member, but that meant interrupting precious family time which was not a comfortable thought either.

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  58. Cheryl – I agree that an adult child is free to make their own choices, but you must understand that Chrissy is “special needs”, & still needs a lot of guidance for becoming a functioning adult. She has not made any progress while living with the other family.

    You mentioned the spiritual state of the family. They all claim to be devout Christians, but don’t attend church (though the parents were for a while, until they moved). YF, the older daughter, claims to love Jesus, but she is strongly pro-abortion (to the point of writing terrible things against pro-lifers), & pro-homosexuality, & seems to seize on anything that goes against what we would consider traditional or orthodox Christianity. A, the younger daughter, who is Chrissy’s best friend of many years, is a lesbian.

    And those issues really are the more important, of course. I include those two sisters in my prayers for my own girls every night.

    Well, I need to be off to bed now, so I’ll catch up with you nightowls & West Coasters tomorrow. Goodnight & God bless!

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  59. More Christmas tonight. Second Arrow is just arriving now, and her boyfriend, and they have presents for the little kids!

    Extended-family gathering for my side tomorrow, with…wait for it…

    more gifts again!

    Then Christmas is done for the year. 😉

    I hear happy dancing on the wood floor above. 🙂

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  60. Donna- if it’s cold than you say “Brr”, otherwise, when you say “Burr” you have a thorn in you causing discomfort. By the way- 50° is “Ah, such wonderful weather we’re having.” 50° below zero is “Brr!” (Of course, when I first moved here, 50 did seem cold. But I went out in a t-shirt today.)

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  66. I am very certain it was, Donna. Must have been very cold. Unlike here where it is not quite very chilly as it is where Michelle lives. Right now it is about twenty eight with the wind blowing and snow coming down and is expected to drop below zero. But we will be warm and comfortable because it still won’t be very cold like in the dog park at night in Los Angeles where the ocean breezes really make a difference.

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  67. I decided to start a fire in the stove even though it is still sixty four in the house from the fire yesterday. We don’t want it to get cold in the house and kill the lime tree.

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