🙂 I saw some robins yesterday.
I don’t know why they show up so early in the mountains. We don’t have many bugs out yet and the ground is frozen.
But they are fat.
Chas, when the first robins got to us last year, one female robin spent two or three days stripping all the berries off a little tree we have by our deck. Most birds eat different foods in different seasons, and robins actually don’t all fly down South at all. (Most of them do, so people are unlikely to see them over winter.)
One winter in Chicago, I was a student and having a hard time putting myself through. (I had to work a lot of hours in addition to a full course load.) I was really struggling with how was I going to do it; the financial burden seemed overwhelming and I was tired.
Then one day I walked across the snowy plaza on campus. Several trees had no leaves because it was winter, but lots of bright red berries, and six or eight robins were stripping the berries. I stopped and watched. It was such a beautiful sight but also I was amazed to watch robins in snow in mid-winter. And I think I spoke aloud, but I definitely prayed: “God, if You can care for robins in the snow, I know You can take care of me too!”
(BTW, fat birds are usually birds with all their feathers fluffed up because they’re cold.)
We have a lot of robins in our yard, too, even though most of the birds are still perturbed with us for taking down the overarching dying tree last fall.
Trees are budding here, and no rain is in the forecast. Snow depth in the Sierras is 7 inches containing only 2% moisture. We’re in for another, 4th straight, year of drought in CA.
We got 20 inches of rain in about three days in December, which has made our reservoirs full enough to support us in 2015, but this is really bad, folks. The San Joquin Valley where vegetables and fruit have been grown for the US for the last 70 years, is a dust bowl. And it’s still winter.
So put in your vegetable gardens. The produce will be reduced in quantity from CA yet again.
I think AJ is playing with plug ins for the site. A long row of notifications just appeared on the right and then disappeared. Thanks for keeping up with the housekeeping, AJ! 🙂
But there is a plugin when I’m logged in on the right with a comment/notification drop down on the top right. I don’t know if you guys have that or not. Michelle I assume you have it when logged in as administrator on yours. 🙂
😦 Children in the region wish the snow would come on Monday instead.
🙂 We’re already stocked up on milk and bread and don’t need to go shopping.
🙂 My husband is finally healthy after several weeks of being sick. (At the end he got a bad antibiotic that wiped out all his energy for more than a week after the first antibiotic didn’t work.)
😦 He has already missed church for either two or three weeks straight.
🙂 Tomorrow we get to start February, and February is always better than January. It’s short and goes quickly, the days are visibly getting longer, and by the time we’re through it you can imagine the end of winter. (Then March is dreadful, and really drags without giving much of anything good, but oh well.)
TSWITW went to have her hair cut today. I set my smart phone to tell me when she left the beauty parlor.
So?
When I saw that she stopped at McDonalds, I went in and fixed my own lunch.
When she returned, she didn’t know that I was following her like that.
I told her about a conversation I had with my barber last Thursday. I was telling him that we got a smart phone for Christmas and that I could be followed. He said, “You can’t get away with anything now.” I said, “Yes, would you mind holding my phone while I run off with my girl friend?”
😦 Day 5 of the worst case of the flu I’ve had since the 1980s. Miserable.
🙂 Long-ago memory: looking out the window of my nature-loving grandfather’s house in Iowa late one winter when I was little — we were watching for robins. And whenever he’d visit us through the years, he loved going to see the swallows returning to Capistrano Mission. That story was magical to him.
🙂 The cute things little kids say. Here are some Forrest stories to make you smile, from Emily’s Facebook page…
“Forrest wanted to look up how to do the foxtrot, but he was very disappointed that real foxes were not doing it.”
“Forrest has two babies [dolls] which he named Cliffjumper and Ironhide [from Transformers]. They both ate a penny and needed to go to the ‘hostibal’. So of course, he, as their dad, needed to transform into an ambulance to take them. But then a Decepticon {Transformer bad-guy] shot the babies and now they’re dead.”
“Forrest was asking if we can go outside to play in the snow and asked if it was okay, if the ‘thunderstorm’ was over. I explained that its a snowstorm, and how a thunderstorm is usually in the summer. So he asks, ‘Oh so its not like we’re going to DIE???’ lmbo! He was concerned about lightning.”
Karen, reminds me of the time when Elvera had Chuck dressed nicely for SS. She commented to him about how nice it was.
He said, “They’ll have to wrestle me carefully today, won’t they?”
Elvera said that she turned on her smart phone this morning and it said, “What do you want to know?”
I wish mine would ask that, I have lots of questions.
🙂 Attended a great regional Christian you workers’ conference this weekend – lots of fun and great learning (stuff I could have used 25 years ago as a youth leader)
🙂 Now I just work with those who work with youth, but still very practical information for me at the conference
😦 Very cold here although we did get about a foot of snow earlier this week
🙂 Chas, my pastor once asked his phone some theological question and it answered “that’s a question for another time” 🙂
🙂 My stepmom’s 80th birthday this week – I need to send some flowers as I will miss the party!
As part of his sermon today about Jesus preaching in the synagogue and a man with a demon shouting at him, the pastor asked, “Well, demons aren’t in our church are they?”
🙂 I love listening to and watching little ones during church – today during communion we had silence (we usually have quiet music or a hymn) and the little guy behind us is so good all the time, but today during the silent time, he just needed to talk about his truck – so cute.
Wandering Views 
🙂 I saw some robins yesterday.
I don’t know why they show up so early in the mountains. We don’t have many bugs out yet and the ground is frozen.
But they are fat.
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Chas, when the first robins got to us last year, one female robin spent two or three days stripping all the berries off a little tree we have by our deck. Most birds eat different foods in different seasons, and robins actually don’t all fly down South at all. (Most of them do, so people are unlikely to see them over winter.)
One winter in Chicago, I was a student and having a hard time putting myself through. (I had to work a lot of hours in addition to a full course load.) I was really struggling with how was I going to do it; the financial burden seemed overwhelming and I was tired.
Then one day I walked across the snowy plaza on campus. Several trees had no leaves because it was winter, but lots of bright red berries, and six or eight robins were stripping the berries. I stopped and watched. It was such a beautiful sight but also I was amazed to watch robins in snow in mid-winter. And I think I spoke aloud, but I definitely prayed: “God, if You can care for robins in the snow, I know You can take care of me too!”
(BTW, fat birds are usually birds with all their feathers fluffed up because they’re cold.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have a lot of robins in our yard, too, even though most of the birds are still perturbed with us for taking down the overarching dying tree last fall.
Trees are budding here, and no rain is in the forecast. Snow depth in the Sierras is 7 inches containing only 2% moisture. We’re in for another, 4th straight, year of drought in CA.
We got 20 inches of rain in about three days in December, which has made our reservoirs full enough to support us in 2015, but this is really bad, folks. The San Joquin Valley where vegetables and fruit have been grown for the US for the last 70 years, is a dust bowl. And it’s still winter.
So put in your vegetable gardens. The produce will be reduced in quantity from CA yet again.
Or, better yet, join us in praying for rain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reservoirs are full here in Sonoma County, not anywhere else.
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I think AJ is playing with plug ins for the site. A long row of notifications just appeared on the right and then disappeared. Thanks for keeping up with the housekeeping, AJ! 🙂
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I think WordPress is. I didn’t touch nothin’. 🙂
But there is a plugin when I’m logged in on the right with a comment/notification drop down on the top right. I don’t know if you guys have that or not. Michelle I assume you have it when logged in as administrator on yours. 🙂
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I just checked your site and I don’t have that tool bar on yours, even when logged in. I don’t know…. 🙄
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Next thing you know, Cheryl will be telling us that the swallows never left Capistrano.
😆
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😦 We’re likely to get a church snow day.
😦 Children in the region wish the snow would come on Monday instead.
🙂 We’re already stocked up on milk and bread and don’t need to go shopping.
🙂 My husband is finally healthy after several weeks of being sick. (At the end he got a bad antibiotic that wiped out all his energy for more than a week after the first antibiotic didn’t work.)
😦 He has already missed church for either two or three weeks straight.
🙂 Tomorrow we get to start February, and February is always better than January. It’s short and goes quickly, the days are visibly getting longer, and by the time we’re through it you can imagine the end of winter. (Then March is dreadful, and really drags without giving much of anything good, but oh well.)
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They claim that March is the most cruel month because it gives promises it doesn’t keep.
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TSWITW went to have her hair cut today. I set my smart phone to tell me when she left the beauty parlor.
So?
When I saw that she stopped at McDonalds, I went in and fixed my own lunch.
When she returned, she didn’t know that I was following her like that.
I told her about a conversation I had with my barber last Thursday. I was telling him that we got a smart phone for Christmas and that I could be followed. He said, “You can’t get away with anything now.” I said, “Yes, would you mind holding my phone while I run off with my girl friend?”
😆
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Hawaii is beautiful
Grand kids are sweet and noisy
Where is my quiet place?
LikeLiked by 3 people
😦 Day 5 of the worst case of the flu I’ve had since the 1980s. Miserable.
🙂 Long-ago memory: looking out the window of my nature-loving grandfather’s house in Iowa late one winter when I was little — we were watching for robins. And whenever he’d visit us through the years, he loved going to see the swallows returning to Capistrano Mission. That story was magical to him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😦 Been working on income tax this afternoon.
😦 I hate TurboTax.
How many years have I been here?
That’s the number of times you’ve heard me say “I hate TurboTax”.
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😦 No, I’m not finished.
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😦 Just got the car registration notice, I need a smog test this year. i kind of thought I’d be due this time, just such a hassle.
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Donna, I’m pretty sure they don’t have smog tests in Idaho. Once you move there, you’ll be OK. (Tess asked me to suggest that.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 The cute things little kids say. Here are some Forrest stories to make you smile, from Emily’s Facebook page…
“Forrest wanted to look up how to do the foxtrot, but he was very disappointed that real foxes were not doing it.”
“Forrest has two babies [dolls] which he named Cliffjumper and Ironhide [from Transformers]. They both ate a penny and needed to go to the ‘hostibal’. So of course, he, as their dad, needed to transform into an ambulance to take them. But then a Decepticon {Transformer bad-guy] shot the babies and now they’re dead.”
“Forrest was asking if we can go outside to play in the snow and asked if it was okay, if the ‘thunderstorm’ was over. I explained that its a snowstorm, and how a thunderstorm is usually in the summer. So he asks, ‘Oh so its not like we’re going to DIE???’ lmbo! He was concerned about lightning.”
LikeLike
Karen, reminds me of the time when Elvera had Chuck dressed nicely for SS. She commented to him about how nice it was.
He said, “They’ll have to wrestle me carefully today, won’t they?”
LikeLiked by 2 people
The time when Chuck was in a karate class in high school. He came home early and I asked why.. “this lady came and ran us off.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Elvera said that she turned on her smart phone this morning and it said, “What do you want to know?”
I wish mine would ask that, I have lots of questions.
😆
LikeLiked by 4 people
🙂 Attended a great regional Christian you workers’ conference this weekend – lots of fun and great learning (stuff I could have used 25 years ago as a youth leader)
🙂 Now I just work with those who work with youth, but still very practical information for me at the conference
😦 Very cold here although we did get about a foot of snow earlier this week
🙂 Chas, my pastor once asked his phone some theological question and it answered “that’s a question for another time” 🙂
🙂 My stepmom’s 80th birthday this week – I need to send some flowers as I will miss the party!
LikeLike
Kare, at lease it didn’t ask “Are you pre, post or non?”
😉
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As part of his sermon today about Jesus preaching in the synagogue and a man with a demon shouting at him, the pastor asked, “Well, demons aren’t in our church are they?”
Nervous titter, and a little girl shouted, “no!”
🙂
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🙂 Enjoying the humor on this thread!
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🙂 I love listening to and watching little ones during church – today during communion we had silence (we usually have quiet music or a hymn) and the little guy behind us is so good all the time, but today during the silent time, he just needed to talk about his truck – so cute.
LikeLiked by 1 person
3 year old grandson came quietly in to see me smiling as he brought his toothbrush for me to brush his teeth
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Trying to remember if I did this with my kids
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