68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-7-15”

  5. How’s this for a QOD: What noteworthy events and changes have taken place on Wandering Views since this time last year?

    I came back a few weeks ago after being absent for about a year. I’m delighted to see most folks I remember still here. What have I missed? Marriages, births, graduations…?

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  6. Kevin, my older (step)daughter graduated from college a bit over a year ago, and now she is engaged to be married to a boy she knew in high school, who started attending our church a year ago.

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  7. Welcome back Kevin.
    I hate to start listing things that happened on the blog.
    Kim can tell about he rjob and moving.
    Most of the other things have been bad. Sickness for many.
    My wife, Elvera has been diagnosed with memory problems.
    The only good I can report is that oldest GD’s husband got a PhD in June.

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  9. Thanks all for bearing with me yesterday in my ranting. I was such a mess my husband took me out to dinner and two adorable granddaughters came over so I could read to them.

    I got 9 hours of sleep last night and feel like a real person again.

    I’ve boiled down the “sin” to recognizing I was getting angry–for justifiable reasons–but choosing to get angry rather than calmly dealing with the situation. That’s why that verse “be angry but sin not” can be a challenge for me and I failed it yesterday.

    I’ll be better today and may actually be able to get some work done now that I have some rest behind me. 🙂

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  10. And because I just sort of move across the top of my favorites bar in the morning, here was OC up next:

    Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.

    The Christian religion bases everything on the positive*, radical nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting and its blasting power.

    You can read the rest, dotted by my tears I’m sure, at http://www.utmost.org

    🙂

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  11. “You simply must not underestimate sin and you simply cannot overestimate grace” — Paul David Tripp (from my morning’s readings, Oct. 2 but I’m behind 🙂 )

    I have a 9 a.m. meeting to cover today but it’s in town — still, having to get moving a bit earlier than usual. But I got to sleep by 10:30 last night so feel refreshed. And I also woke up to a *cool* house — 68 degrees. Ahhhh.

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  13. At the hospital outpatient clinic, and the weather is lovely outside after all the rainy days. I am hopeful for a routine procedure for husband.

    Our son began the teaching portion of getting his PhD in English this fall semester.Things seem to be going well for him. Go Bears!

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  17. Good afternoon. And welcome back, Kevin. There were some more blog meet-ups — a few I recall were Michelle & AnnMS; Michelle & Jo; AnnMS & Kim (that may have been more than a year ago); and Kim & Peter L, along with Mrs. L, and maybe Mr. P?

    My 1st Arrow (older son) graduated from college, and 3rd Arrow (second daughter) graduated high school. And last November I reopened my piano teaching studio after an 11 1/2-year hiatus. That’s about it for big family news for us.

    Cheryl, I didn’t know your older daughter was engaged. Did I miss a previous announcement, or is today the first mention of it? I knew she was seeing someone, but didn’t realize she’s engaged. In any case, congratulations!

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  18. I think we need more guys on this site, right AJ/Chas/Peter & Co.? Men bring a different perspective.

    Yeah, you women need someone to disagree with you once in a while. To paraphrase an old rhetorical question: “If a man is alone in the forest and says something, is what he says still wrong?”

    ~Runs and hides.

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  20. 6 Arrows, I didn’t say it overtly, but I did mention having supper with a couple who would soon be important in my daughter’s life, and someday maybe co-grandparenting with us.

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  21. QOD, Well, little brother, where to begin? It is all good. Today, the ninth of the fifteen turns eighteen and is well on his way to making it. One seventeen is off to work and college, so that just leaves five at home under eighteen. Not that we are counting down or anything….

    Mike was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and had two knee replacements and is doing very well, other than the potential congestive heart failure thing.

    Nine year old was baptized this past Sunday, and gives every indication of growing in the Lord and he can read. Eight year old is a big help with chores and the two fourteens are off to public school to continue their lives as teenagers. They do nothing to help at home. All good.

    We did not plant a garden this year but learned to make sauerkraut in a crock and it is delicious. I had never eaten sauerkraut before, so it may all be that way and I never knew it.

    Life is good. It has its complications, but God is always there, whether I feel it so or not.

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  22. Cheryl, ah, yes, I do remember you saying that, but I didn’t think beyond that. 😉

    Peter, I saw you mention a possible blog meet-up in the Midwest. (I was on a media fast when you first brought it up, and read it sometime later after I’d returned.) That would be neat if it could ever be worked out. And now we have another Midwesterner here again, with Kevin’s return.

    We have relatives in Missouri, so if we ever get there, maybe we could arrange something then.

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  23. Hey, Kevin, you might not know about the “secret room” on this blog. There is a post from last year that is still on the Top Posts & Pages list in the sidebar, the Our Daily Thread post from 12-20-14. We have kept the thread going, with at least one post nearly every day since then, and it currently stands at 2, 250 posts!

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  27. I am finally off today…my “part time” job of only working four Fridays and two Saturdays a month has turned out to be quite different…and I am burning out. This week I am putting in 43 hours…..that is 43 hours of standing on my feet, no breaks, no sitting….my legs hurt!
    I went to my ENT doc this morning….he removed a large alien thing from my right ear…and Monday I get fitted for….hearing aids 😎 I have genetic hearing loss and it is time….

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  29. Husband is in recouperation and ate a sub sandwich and vanilla yogurt. He never eats yogurt so maybe fasting since last night caused a minor miracle.Nothing of significance was found. We get to go home. He basically has a weak heart. Will find out at followup what else can be done, and if ablation is still in the works. He will have a cytoscopy and MRI to rule out a tumor causing blood in his urine, probably caused by blood thinner. Thanks for prayers that helped get us through another day.

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  33. I’m glad you both liked it, RKessler. And it’s wonderful to hear of young people enjoying classical music! Good for you, providing exposure to it.

    I had a minor on cello in college, and, though I never played the cello part of The Swan, I did play the piano part once. My cello instructor’s grandmother died sometime during my college years, and my teacher asked me to be her accompanist for playing the piece at her grandmother’s funeral.

    A very moving experience, watching my instructor for musical cues and seeing the tears running down her face as she threw herself into the piece with great emotion.

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  35. Met with the gardeners, a father-son team (Jose & Oscar) and we did the tour of all my monster trees that need massive trimming.

    Oscar (his dad doesn’t really speak English) said he’d call me with an estimate and timeline for doing the work — they’ll have to hire some guys to help crew, but they seem to be linked in to those folks. Really like them both, they’ve been good to me through the years and I doubt I’d get better prices. Oscar said he’d also check out my roof & we will probably have to take down the patio heavy wood overhang,it’s collapsing and he said it could be a safety hazard.

    They also do drought resistant landscaping so I said I was interested in that as well, but first the trees & the overhang. The rest may have to wait.

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  37. NancyJill – I’ve had hearing aids for a few years now. They may take some getting used to, but they will be helpful. I didn’t realize how bad my hearing really was until I started wearing these. I still need the TV turned up louder than the others think I should, but not as loud as I used to need it.

    I explained to my husband that their effect is not exactly the same as natural hearing, so some things still are hard to hear well (like the dialogue on TV), & some things even sound louder than they should. But you get used to it.

    Are yours in the ear canal, or the kind that goes over the ear? Mine are in the ear canal, so my voice sounds louder to me with them in. I got used to that eventually.

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  38. People are so easily – TOO easily – offended these days.

    A friend shared something on Facebook that showed a man’s post mentioning that he thinks women look better without make-up, & that it is a shame they don’t “embrace their natural beauty as it often outshines the false looks promoted in the media.” Sounded nice to me.

    The rest of the post is comments by others (looks like it may have been on Tumblr) mocking him. The “kicker” at the end mentions “The male entitlement of the natural beauty trend.”

    Seriously? I guess they ran out of things to be offended by that day, & had to come up with something.

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  40. Wow, thanks for all the updates, everyone. I’m happy to hear the good news, surprised and sad at how many challenges folks have faced. I gather from recent posts that something is up with AJ’s Cheryl, too. I don’t think I remember that from a year ago.

    6 Arrows, thanks much for letting me in on the secret room. That was during my hiatus, so I didn’t know about it. I’ll check it out. I expect there’s a good story behind how it got started.

    My year has been extra challenging too, but right now things are looking better. I started writing the details and found it was getting very long, so I’ll cut it and paste it to a separate post.

    One more thing I wanted to say: I’m so glad to see my big brother and big sister are still here, and look forward to being connected again with you and everyone else.

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  41. Karen, the funny thing about that is some men prefer makeup and some don’t . . . and some women prefer makeup and some don’t.

    When my husband and I were dating, he asked me to dye my hair, and I considered it and even bought the dye, but simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. A part of moving out of Chicago was to avoid dyeing my hair. Not a major part, mind you; I had several other reasons to move. But my unwillingness to dye my hair in a culture where nobody but slobs let their hair go gray meant I really had no choice. I wasn’t willing to dye it, wasn’t willing to be considered a slob as my hair grayed further, and it was kinda “the nail in the coffin” in making the decision it was time to go. If I’d left Chicago before my hair had grayed enough for such serious consideration, it might not have felt like as big a deal when he asked me to dye it. Intellectually, I had nothing wrong with doing it. It just “wasn’t me” in the same sort of way it isn’t me to get a tattoo or become Amish. Anyway, I finally went back to him and told him how much I was struggling with the thought, and asked how important it was to him that I dye it. I told him if it was super important, I’d do it, and attempt to do so cheerfully. I mean, I’d rather be married to him with dyed hair than stay single; it wasn’t a deal-breaker. But when he heard how important it was to me, he told me absolutely not, do not dye it. It would bother him if I dyed it when he knew I felt so strongly about it. (Oddly, my best friend later suggested I could surprise him by dyeing it for our wedding. Excuse me? Did you not catch the part that it would bother him if I dyed it, knowing what he knows now about how much I detest the very idea? And did you not realize that part of what bothered me about the idea of dyeing it was that it saddened me to think about having dyed hair on my wedding day, the day I most wanted to look pretty?! If he had suggested as a compromise that I wait until after our wedding and then try it to see if I liked it, I could have lived with that. But dyed hair on my wedding day? The thought made me sad every time I considered it. It was like being told I had to marry in blue jeans.)

    Anyway, I’d casually mentioned to one of my brothers that my husband had expressed an interest in me dyeing my hair, but had withdrawn the request when I told him how much I didn’t want to do it. I was mentioning it as an example of how well my (then-fiance, now-husband) was loving me. But my brother was horrified that I was marrying a man who’d even consider something as horrible as dyed hair. Obviously only very shallow men are interested in such a thing, so I must be wrong that I was marrying a good man.

    The irony? I knew that one of my sisters-in-law dyed her hair . . . because her husband (a different one of my brothers) wanted her to.

    Tastes differ. And that’s OK!

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  42. So here’s my year, for anyone interested in details.

    In September and October last year I had recurrences of a heart rhythm that made my heart race, around 150. It did not respond to drugs, and the only way to get it back in rhythm was with shock. An ablation last October seems to have stopped the recurrences. The docs don’t think it will happen again.

    That experience led me to have my heart health reviewed at Cleveland Clinic. I had a congenital defect and several surgeries as a child. Since those surgeries the heart functions well, but still is prone to problems in later life. I’ve had good care with a local cardiologist, but I was encouraged by several people to get a review from the renowned team at Cleveland.

    To my dismay they recommended valve replacement surgery, saying it’s not urgent but shouldn’t be put off too long. Because of the way my heart is structured from the defect and the surgeries, it can’t be done through a catheter. It has to be open chest, open heart.

    My local cardiologist was surprised. He believes that Cleveland saw a snapshot of my condition that looks marginal and assumed it’s deteriorating. He says it’s been unchanged for the 15 years he’s been watching me. Without clear signs of going downhill he thinks surgery would be an unnecessary risk.

    The two doctores agreed that it can wait if we watch it carefully. So the surgery I thought in February was imminent will not happen this year, and maybe never.

    Meanwhile we had been trying for several years to untangle a knot of different medical issues for my college-age daughter that have kept her from college or anything more than occasional baby-sitting since she finished high school. Many days it was an accomplishment for her to get out of bed. It was discouraging for her and heartbreaking for my wife and me.

    We had a couple of breakthroughs this year in understanding what’s going on and finding appropriate treatments. She’s more energetic than we’ve seen in five years, works 30 hours a week as a cashier, and plays piano sometimes at church, even after a tiring shift on her feet the day before. We marvel at this small miracles.

    My boy is a senior in high school and doing great. Maybe more about him another time.

    My MIL turned 90 this year. She is alert and in good spirits, still living alone, but getting frail. We (mostly my wife) have to help her a lot now.

    All this has kept my wonderful wife very busy holding everything together.

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  43. Speaking of my wonderful wife, it was 25 years ago today that I first set eyes on Jane when she visited my church. I’m a little bit shy about meeting new people, but she was so approachable and beautiful I couldn’t resist. I was so happy she ended up joining our church, and happier still when she accepted my marriage proposal six months later. (My grandmother wondered what took me so long.)

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  44. Cheryl – I didn’t share the comments & the mockery, but the gist of it wasn’t his particular opinion itself, but that he shared an opinion at all about women & their looks. Kind of like, how dare he (an entitled male) have an opinion, much less express it, about women.

    Ridiculous.

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  46. Kevin, so sorry to hear about your heart issues, and your daughter’s health. I’m glad to hear of her strengthening, though. I’ll be praying for you and your family.

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  47. Kevin – It’s good to see you back. Lee & I have had a stressful year ourselves. We are hoping for some kind of a break when his bread route finally sells.

    A few months ago, or so, we learned that Lee’s prostate cancer (he was first diagnosed 10 years ago) is advancing, & needs to be treated more seriously. The outrageous hours & stress of owning this bread route have exhausted him, which isn’t good for his health in general, let alone for fighting cancer.

    Our grandson Forrest, who will be five on the 25th, started kindergarten this year. But he is having such a hard time with being away from his mommy, that we think it would have been better to wait a year (which is often recommended for boys anyway). We have all-day kindergarten here, which I think it a bad idea.

    The biggest positive that has happened in our lives is that Lee has drawn much closer to God, & has grown so much in his faith. (So have I, but the difference in him is more dramatic.)

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  48. Karen, your talking about people being too easily offended reminded me of a blog post I’d seen earlier on a different site that started with a quote by Epictetus: If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

    The writer of the post went on with her thoughts, which are pretty spot on, I would say.

    No, it’s not okay if that’s ‘just the way you are.’ Being quick to take offense is not an acceptable way to be. None of us are okay just the way we are, pop culture phrases and hit songs notwithstanding.

    http://thecommonroomblog.com/2015/10/epicetus-on-our-precious-feelings.html#comments

    I have a feeling your friend wouldn’t much care for that. 😉

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  51. Oh Karen thanks for the heads up on what to expect….my fitting and evaluation happens Monday….they will be in the ear canal. My doc said that the way I hear is like someone with normal hearing having earplugs in all the time. I mishear words much of the time….my boss wanted me to find the laminated paper on the desk…I thought she said she had lemonade behind the desk! While in NC, Paul asked me what restaurant I wanted to go to for dinner….I thought he asked me if I wanted to watch wrestling!! 😛

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  53. Hmmm…I mishear things like that fairly often, NancyJill, and have ringing in my ears a lot, especially after playing my very bright-sounding, loud piano. Which I do a lot as a teacher and performer. I hate to think about hearing aids, though…

    Karen, full disclosure with that link: I was having myself a pity party at the time I came across that post, so I needed to read it as much as anybody.

    Definite ouch. 😉

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  65. You’re welcome, Kevin.

    What’s all that shouting at 62? It should have started at 61 so I could hear the ruckus and get here in time for my number. 🙂

    Good night, all.

    P.S. Donna — I got a large-print Bible years ago, so I’m way ahead of you. 😉

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  67. Wow, what a noisy blog.
    Kevin, I was able to spend 7 months in the states this year and am now back in PNG. Lots of stress here right now. Where should I go for Christmas?? I can get standby flights and everything closes here.

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