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Our Daily Thread 6-29-15

Good Morning!

This weekend was water fowl and their babies day at the park. I shot 4 different types with their little ones. 🙂

This mom had 16 ducklings with her! 

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On this day in 1652 Massachusetts declared itself an independent commonwealth.

In 1776 the Virginia constitution was adopted and Patrick Henry was made governor.

In 1860 the first iron-pile lighthouse was completed at Minot’s Ledge, MA.

And in 1953 The Federal Highway Act authorized the construction of 42,500 miles of freeway from coast to coast.

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Quote of the Day

“Lord, deliver me from the man who never makes a mistake, and also from the man who makes the same mistake twice.”

William J. Mayo

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Today is composer Bernard Herrmann’s birthday. You’ll recognize his work. 

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Anyone have a QoD?

31 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-29-15”

  4. I have a busy day today and probably can’t play with all of you much today. Guy was on vacation last week. I have about 20 emails in my inbox of things that he wants done TODAY!
    May as well go Eat the Frog.
    Have fun!

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  5. From an e-mail
    A quote from Jay Leno:
    “With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist
    attacks, are we sure this is a god time to take God out of the pledge of allegiance?

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  6. Good mowning! Now mind you I typed good morning but auto correct is misbehavin’ and I am forced to go back and correct him today!
    Great shots of momma duck and her babes! We drove the country dirt roads yesterday afternoon and came upon a pond with three pelicans swimming in it! Who knew pelicans vacationed in Colorado!? We stopped to get a photo and they didn’t like having their picture taken so they all three flew away….what a beautiful sight as we watched them glide in the air with a bluff in the background! We then watched them spy another pond and swoop gently onto the surface….just incredible beauty to behold ….”

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  9. Here is an email a friend sent concerning last week’s SCOTUS decision:

    I just read in the news that the Supreme Court has effectively redefined marriage to included homosexual partnerships, in what is probably the least surprising verdict in whole history of the Supreme Court. What is probably also not very surprising is that Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite works of fiction…and this is actually very relevant to the recent verdict. Some time ago, I was greatly helped by a certain chapter in The Two Towers. Maybe it will be fitting now for the rest of you.

    Those of you who have watched the movie might remember the scene where Gandalf “exorcises” Sauruman from King Theoden, allowing him to regain his strength and will. Well, the movie had to abbreviate things tremendously. In the book, the true problem with Theoden is that he does nothing but sit in his hall, listening to all the terrible news reports brought to him by Grima Wormtongue (the pale, conniving weirdo who works for Sauruman). Theoden hears all these reports of death, betrayals, and growing armies, and he becomes completely weighed down with despair. When Gandalf and company arrive, the contest is actually to convince Theoden to stop listening to Wormtongue and to start listening to the other side of the story, the favorable news:

    ‘Now Théoden son of Thengel, will you hearken to me?’ said Gandalf. ‘Do you ask for help?’ He lifted his staff and pointed to a high window. There the darkness seemed to clear, and through the opening could be seen, high and far, a patch of shining sky. ‘Not all is dark. Take courage, Lord of the Mark; for better help you will not find. No counsel have I to give to those that despair. Yet counsel I could give, and words I could speak to you. Will you hear them? They are not for all ears. I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad. Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings.’

    Slowly Théoden left his chair. A faint light grew in the hall again. [Eowyn] hastened to the king’s side, taking his arm, and with faltering steps the old man came down from the dais and paced softly through the hall. Wormtongue remained lying on the floor. They came to the doors and Gandalf knocked.

    ‘Open!’ he cried. ‘The Lord of the Mark comes forth!’ The doors rolled back and a keen air came whistling in….’Now, lord,’ said Gandalf, ‘look out upon your land! Breathe the free air again!’

    …’It is not so dark here,’ said Théoden.

    It’s very easy to listen to all the bad news and let oneself get warped by it. Finding the good news is more difficult but extremely necessary.

    In our case, the ultimate good news is that no wickedness of mankind could ever overcome the kingdom of Jesus Christ. If a hundred centuries go by, and each year our society became more and more wicked, that still could do nothing to prevent or even stall the return of Christ, or His reward for the faithful, or His renewing of all things.

    We can also amass arguments against despair in the here and now. Verdicts like the most recent one cause us to fear the repeal of our freedom to evangelize, to speak our minds in general, or even to be Christians. But even at present, it is not so dark here. Over the past year alone, in every part of the nation, at every level of society, there have been victories, acts which ensure (for the present) our freedom to keep being Christians and to declare truth. We face opposition of many different sorts, but we have already won against much of it. To name a few:

    6/30/14: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in the Hobby Lobby case) that closely held corporations can be exempt from laws which the owners find objectionable on religious grounds.

    12/15/14: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided that substitute teacher Walt Tutka was discriminated against by Philipsburg School District in Warren County, New Jersey, when he was fired for talking to a student about a Bible verse and handing him a Bible, at the student’s request.

    4/27/15: The City of Auburn, New York withdrew its cease-and-desist order against First Presbyterian Church, an order which demanded that the church stop using its own property for its summer Glee Camp program, alleging that the admission fee “violated zoning.”

    5/29/15: Somerset Academy (Las Vegas, NV) officials issued a written apology for denying 12-year-old Mackenzie Fraiser the right to include a Bible verse in a homework assignment.

    6/11/15: Michigan passes a law to protect the rights of faith-based adoption and foster care agencies in the state to operate according to their religious beliefs (i.e., to allow them to refuse same-sex couples as adoptive parents).

    Our greatest help is not from legal proceedings. But if Paul was willing to utilize his right as a Roman citizen to a fair trial, then we can celebrate these instances when the authorities uphold our liberty to be Christians. Much of my information comes from the Liberty Institute, which is a group of lawyers who defend people against attacks on their religious liberty (most of them Christians). They report a 90%+ success rate in their litigation. Can you imagine that happening in Iran and China, or even France and Britain? Does any other nation have such a high level of protection for Christianity? God has still blessed us with much leeway to preach Christ and live for him.

    And even if it all fell through tomorrow, other nations in many times and places have proven that God can spread His gospel under the noses of oppressive governments. That is the advantage of not having the government as your chief ally. “That Word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth.”

    So, keep looking up. God is in control.

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  11. Thanx Peter. Good points.
    Yet it is sobering to think that, for instance, Auburn, NY thought that it could sue FPC for it’s Glee Club program assessment.

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  13. AJ, I like the mergansers. I have gotten a couple of photos that “might be” mergansers but are too distant (or unclear) to really tell. Between the photos of the male and female, and this photo of a family, you must have quite a few around you!

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  15. I have been upstairs, clearing out books. As husband has taken up the hobby of decluttering. Why, then, you may be asking, am I upstairs decluttering books? Because I am the book person and educator of young people, and he took all seven children with him to town! Back to work…..

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  16. From the weekend thread – Someone, I believe it was Janice, enquired what the flowers in the pictures were. The red one was a poppy and the pink one was a peony.

    Lots of relatives and little people over the weekend, some of whom are still here. My strength isn’t great, but so far I have lasted. I can’t go for walks, but I can read stories or play a board/card game with them.

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  17. Roscuro, I was the one asking about the flowers. They were beautiful. I was at the office after church yesterday so I saw them on a big screen.

    The duckie are cuties, too! What a lot of them!

    I am trying to rev up my energy level to go mow. It seems cooler today and I try to mow with the flow of the favorable temps.

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  18. I guess the temps are all dependent on what you get use to. I checked my phone and it says 86°. Not as cool as I thought. But late in the day much of the yard is shaded so that helps a lot.

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  19. I assume my friend’s daughter went through with the big event today. I did get an email invite but told friend thanks, but I knew she knew why I could not attend. She said she definitely understood. I finally concluded, as a friend, it is okay for me to listen as she shares some and make comments about how she felt without commenting on my feelings. I have clearly stated my views and that I won’t be changing them. That is enough. This has been similar to the divide we went through when we started homeschooling and they did not Back in first grade. They later homeschooled, too.

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  20. I was going to mow after taking the minivan for tire rotation. Then I discovered I needed gas for the mower. I got back from getting gas and it started raining. It rained too much and now the grass is wet again. So I changed the oil in one car and was going to do the minivan, but found out I had the wrong oil filter. I also tried to burn fallen branches and some trimming I had done last week, but the pile was so wet it wouldn’t burn. Oh, well. At least one car has fresh oil and the tires are rotated on the other.

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  21. We would have to have our permit in with the reservation and check with them prior to burning anything here.

    Looks like we are nearly set with school books through high school, now. Considering seven year old, that is a lot of books. But they are situated and ready. I kept three copies of everything for the last three and will have to buy a few consumables but not much.

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  22. Well, we had a 90% chance of rain today. My parents-in-law were supposed to take us out for my birthday, but my hubby really didn’t want to be getting my father-in-law in and out of the car during the predicted thunderstorm. So we got some groceries and came home, and then he decided that since it hadn’t rained yet, he might as well mow while he still could. He mowed and it never did rain!

    That’s just as well, though. Our road is still closed to anyone but pickups at one end (the UPS guy backed up and turned around rather than go through it, and so did one SUV I watched). And besides, he got the mowing done and I still have a meal “out” to look forward to! (We’re going to go Friday, since it’s the next day that works for everybody.)

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  23. AJ, that’s a pretty impressive record for that mother to keep all of hers alive. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, they lay 6-17 eggs. Also: “Young Common Mergansers leave their nest hole within a day or so of hatching. [They nest in tree holes.] The flightless chicks leap from the nest entrance and tumble to the forest floor. The mother protects the chicks, but they catch all of their own food. They start by diving for aquatic insects and switch over to fish at about 12 days old.”

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  25. I just finished mowing The phone says the temp is now 83°. I don’t know about that. Seems since I stopped mowing the temp went down at least 20°. 😉

    As usual Miss Bosley wants to cuddle when I am all sweaty from mowing. Keeps me from cooling down too fast. Maybe I smell like salt…the ocean…fish.

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  26. We had a fun surprise in our rhubarb patch a couple of days ago. A very young fawn managed to get in, even with the five acre deer fence. Probably because we had the gate open so the goats could get into the willows to eat down the thistles. Anyway, thirteen year old daughter saw it as she was under the apple tree making pinatas. At first she thought she was hallucinating (she does that) but was happy that we all saw it also. We took pics but they don’t seem to work on here so I won’t be sending them. Fun. It left by going through the deer fence. I don’t think its mom can do that.

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  28. We wouldn’t be able to burn at all – fire ban is on everywhere around here. It is so very dry. And the smoke – I’ve never seen it this thick.

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  30. Home from the early evening meeting I had to cover.

    Earlier, someone sent me (by mistake) their resume for a journalism job. He said he wanted $72,000 a year — or more.

    LOL

    Sent it on to my editor who also got a kick out of that. 🙂

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