67 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-5-16”

  1. Good morning! It’s Saturday….you know what that means….we’re all going to get to sleep an extra hour when our time “falls back”!! I’m going to need that extra hour…I’ve been up since three!! 🙂

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  3. Good morning Nancy and Aj.
    Good evening Jo. It’s 9:15 there, I think you will be farther away because it will already be 9:15 at 6:15 tomorrow morning.
    Got it?

    🙂

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  4. Good morning. Good evening, Jo.
    Becca went to a sleepover at a hotel last night. It was for all the girls in her class (there are only five). The host mom had rented a two room suite, bought used prom dresses from Goodwill for a fashion show, brought a karaoke machine, and the hotel has an indoor swimming pool. Becca FaceTimed me last night and was having an absolute ball! She’ll be a bear today and need a nap–but I’m glad she got to go.

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  5. So? When we roust out here, Jo will already be racked out because it will be 10 p.m. when it’s 7:000 a.m. here. but she will likely show up earlier in the evening.

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  6. Good morning all. I was just listening to my most favorite ever version of Agnus Dei and thought I would share.

    PS Thanks for posting the reminder about the time… I was going to forget. :–)

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  7. Forgetting is easier when you change this way than the other. This way, you get out of bed, stare at the clock then plop back in for another hour. But I have heard people in church say,
    “We’ve been sitting here for an hour.”
    When I was traveling in the AF, I always kept my watch on “Zebra time”. That is. GMT in London.

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  9. Chas- It’s now called “Zulu”. I guess the military didn’t like black and white striped animals for the time. And GMT is often called UTC: Coordinated Universal Time (the letters are in order of the French words Temps universel coordonné.)

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  10. Wait, that doesn’t make sense either. The French word order would make it TUC, the English CUT. So why go with UTC? Did the one who rename it come form the University of Tennessee Chattanooga?

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  11. Eeeee, what a cute kitten! And welcome to our new photographer 🙂 I remember my first photography class in college, the photo editor from the student newspaper took me out to some rural park after I got a new 35mm Canon (which I still have) where he showed me how to frame a shot for the best composition. The class had us working only in black and white and we had to develop our own film (those were in the dark ages in the dark room) and do our own prints with the trays of solution. Fun, but I found the dark room part of it frustrating — taking the pictures was a lot more fun. 🙂

    So we’ll be falling away from Jo a little bit 😦 … but I love getting that *extra* hour of sleep every year. 🙂 The days are now already very short. It’s usually dark by the time I get home from work (typically around 7 p.m.). I guess now it’ll be dark well before I leave the office. Coyote time.

    I’m doing my laundry this morning (I usually don’t get to it until Sunday afternoon or evening). so that’ll be done early in the weekend. I have some things to drop off at the e-waste site (an old vacuum cleaner, old telephones, why did I keep all of that?), some old batteries, etc.

    Then I need to decide if I’m up to dealing with a start on clearing out the garage. I will take a peek at it and either start — or flee in horror back into the house to find some other clean-out chore to do. I still have a closet that I need to hit. The local Salvation Army stores will feature a virtual memory lane of my life this holiday season. 🙂

    Bathroom project is moving along, but we’re still in the “pre-” stage until I hear otherwise.

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  12. I also had always heard it called Zulu time.
    We went to First Friday Art Walk last night. Some of you had seen photos of the beautiful ornaments my friend Deb makes. I bought the “crown” one last night. I also picked up a couple of stocking stuffers for BG. Bath bombs–those two words were uttered in Oakland Airport’s security line after I had already been pulled out of line because I only had two of my names on my ticket and all four on my driver’s license. When the security woman asked what was in BG’s backpack and I started rattling off the contents…well you get the picture….
    Usually I work at the Art Center handling the food and drinks on First Friday. I think this was the first time in about a year and a half that I went just for fun. Musicians were playing all through the downtown area. One woman who owns a shop was set up outside her store singing herself. I have known her for years but never knew she had such a voice. Beautiful. (Imagine Emmy Lou Harris with no make-up).
    It is nice and cool out so I have the windows and doors open. It’s a Saturday with all those possibilities.

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  15. No! Not a kitten! Turn my eyes away! Must not be tempted.

    You know, Donna, I think you need a vacation. Bring the dogs and come up here– you can clean out my closets!

    Hurry, though, Hillary from Sicily arrives Tuesday!

    Wild time with Acorable, book and PCC dinner. I won’t be able to recover until tonight, I guess. Must pick up for the house cleaner.

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  16. Kim, I got a big kick out of the video you posted. I do not lump all people of anyone generation together and believe that is as big a mistake as to assume all black people, women, Hispanics etc. think alike.

    I think we all know some people (of whatever generation) who do have an attitude of being entitled and demanding. The thought of eating mac and cheese and stretching their meals is something they simply cannot consider, for example. There those who are ‘totally broke’ but have money to have their nails done or go to a major league ball game. I could go on. These people make it clear others should give to them when they have an appliance or a car break down. The idea of putting money away for emergencies or making meals from scratch etc. is not for them. We who do so, though, should contribute to their lifestyle.

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  17. Art and I went to Waffle House for breakfast. I thought we’d have a wait, but Art said he thought 9:30 was the lull between the early and late crowd so we got right in to a booth.

    When I talked to Karen this a.m
    she had gone back out of A Fib. They are still getting retained fluid out from her heart failure. She has lost over thirty pounds in the past week. I think they believe once she is totally cried out then that new med will stabilize her. Yesterday in the a.m. they had another terrible time with her so that all her family members got called to the hospital with the thought that she might not make it. I think they have been called like that at least three times in the past two months. I have no words to express how tired I am. It was a pleasure to get outside a bit yesterday and get the leaves raked and swept up from the carport and driveway.

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  20. That video of Kim’s yesterday was hysterical. I have seen it true and seen it not true. Like Peter L said, husband and I raised our four to be honorable citizens. The next eleven we were trying to correct mind sets but, like they say, once character is formed, it is difficult to change. Some of the new adults are making their own way, some are stumbling and then making it, others are digging deeper and deeper holes. My dad has always said, wait until they are thirty five and then decide how they turned out.

    As to children, two of ours have children and two do not. One may soon, deliberately, and the other probably won’t ever. Sad to us as we always thought he would be a wonderful dad but his wife says she is too spoiled in her life and unwilling to change that for another ten years. Of course, God can change that.

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  24. Kim, I don’t want you to think I’m upset with you or offended that you posted that video. I’m not, not with you. I am upset with those who made the video because it viciously stereotyped and wildly exaggerated. Sometimes satire can work, but if it is overdone, it is simply hurtful. The video was overdone. I’ve encountered entitled millennials – the entitled middle class millennials who eat paleo diets and practice yoga are more accurately referred to as hipsters – but the vast majority of my peers that I know are hard working and just cannot move forward. When success is judged by whether one can afford a house by a certain age or has a steady job by a certain age, but there are few steady jobs available and most houses are extremely expensive, one begins to despair of ever being successful and reconsiders the definition of success. I will never be successful as regards a house or career (I entered nursing in order to do mission work), and sometimes, as I read the opinions about young people these days on this blog, I wonder when you will all decide that I’m not trying hard enough and give up on me.

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  25. K, a meal of mac and cheese is sorely lacking in essential nutrients and a steady diet of it would lead to malnutrition. Nor is it so easy to cook from scratch. I, for instance, have to carry my cooking utensils and food from the tiny fridge (which I share with the other border) on the landing down two flights of stairs in order to cook supper. I try to eat healthy, but food is really expensive. Just the meat alone takes nearly half my weekly budget. Getting groceries is also a real challenge since the nearest store does not have a direct bus route, so I have to walk fifteen minutes, which is fine with just a purse but less easy with bags of groceries. My parents helped me by getting a wheeled cart, but even that is quite heavy when full. Yes, there are entitled people in the world, but there are more who try and still cannot make ends meet. I think conservatives spend far too much time worrying about the few people who game the system and end up ignoring the majority who are really struggling.

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  26. Roscuro, I have the impression that you are following God’s call on your life, and He is the only One you need to please. It is very easy to feel judged in our American society. It has been interesting to see how Karen is handling discussing her former work in the hospital unit where she is being treated since she left that unit to stay at home with her baby. Both she and her daughter have had serious health issues and one or both probably would not be alive today if Karen had not been at home. Other homeschool moms judged Karen as not doing enough and being a hypochondriac (sp?). I never judged her like that so she trusted my friendship. It seems to be the human condition that many people compare and judge anyone who does life differently. I am thankful God made us all so different for His good purposes.

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  27. Roscuro, I’m a few years below the baby boomers, an entitled generation if there ever was one. I once worked on a book (it had already been published, so I wasn’t really editing it) for a statistician who is a baby boomer, written about my generation. Virtually nothing in the book described me. He referred to my generation as lazy, lacksadaisacal workers (all my co-workers were baby boomers, and as the youngest and least experienced employee I was also soon considered the best); he pointed out that my generation didn’t have the cohesiveness of the baby boomers as though that was a bad thing (as though the “define ourselves by our age” baby boomer stuff was somehow the norm); and he even pointed out that the baby boomers created rock and roll and my generation didn’t have any defining music (um . . . no generation will ever be defined by music the way the rock-n-roll generation was; it just isn’t possible; but my generation actually had more styles of music than just one). By making the baby boomers the standards, naturally any other generation would come up short, because ta-da, we weren’t baby boomers!

    Most of us have, however, had years of our life when we struggle in some of the ways you have. I had years of eating just ramen noodles and other cheap foods, living in cheap apartments, using laundromats. I grew up poor, and I struggled to make ends meet my first two years out of my mom’s house, my years of putting myself through college, my first year out of college (when I was taking public transportation through a bitterly cold winter in Chicago, including finding a way to get food home when I had to stand up on a swaying bus and somehow hold onto two or three bags of groceries, and then walk a few blocks with them), and in Nashville I had quite a few months with no income at all once I went freelance. I can’t say “I had it worse” than you did, but I’ve been “there” in several different periods of my life. I once watched a former roommate (who was on food stamps because she got pregnant out of wedlock) choose packages of steak and pork while I found the very smallest package of the cheapest hamburger so my sister and I could at least have some meat, and it bugged me that my tax dollars were rewarding her for irresponsible, immoral choices while I lived without a safety net.

    Anyway, when I heard people say my generation was lazy or imply a woman isn’t an adult until she marries, or that single people are clueless about human relationships or children, or any number of stereotypical judgments, I figured they were limited in their awareness of the variety among people and my life and my experience were richer than theirs. Their loss.

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  28. Cheryl, I used examples from my own life, not to complain, but to demonstrate that all the talk of enablement and laziness and irresponsibility of the younger generation is very shallow analysis. Generalizations are easy to make, but by their very name, they do not present the actual reality of individual cases.

    One thing I do not do, and that is envy those who seem to have it easier than I. I realize that behind apparent prosperity or comfort may lie darkness and heartbreak. When you mentioned your former roommate, it occurred to me that being an unwed mother is far from being the greatest evil out there, and there are enough young women who become pregnant from rape – I know of at least two cases in my own extended family that both occurred many decades ago – that I do not immediately assume immorality on the part of an unwed mother. For those who do become pregnant through consensual sex outside of marriage, we have the example of Tamar and Judah in Scripture of how such a woman needs protection more than judgement; even in the law, the man who seduced a virgin was to marry her and never divorce her, or, if her father would not consent, at least pay the bride price. Surely part of being pro-life is supporting the birth and growth of any child, however they were conceived. I know that if I were a single mother, more financial support might be available to me, yet I do not begrudge it to them. Their lot is far more difficult than mine. They have two mouths to feed, never mind all the other expenses that come with children.

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  29. So grateful that we have store delivery here. Sometimes I carry things to my car, but other times I let them deliver to my door, especially if I am stocking up on milk, or going back to work.

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  30. Roscuro, in this case the young woman was engaged to marry and got pregnant, and instantly became available for government help. She was making two-and-a-half times what I was earning (hourly wage) and she was engaged to marry. I think in the short run it may help an individual family to get government help in a pregnancy, but I’m not sure how helpful it is to tell a father that the government can give her more than you can. For me personally, working a full-time job but barely making ends meet, it was a bit discouraging to have her pull out food stamps to pay for big slabs of meat while my cash paid for a much smaller portion.

    I tend to think government-subsidized help is more wasteful than other forms, and in cases where the young woman has family support, it’s better for them to be the ones to support her. It’s more honoring of a father’s role, for one thing, to let him support his unborn child than to usurp his role. And I don’t think it’s culturally helpful to sponsor unwed pregnancy to the extent we do. I’d say the same thing about government choosing to pay for daycare when parents who are struggling to make ends meet have their taxes going to pay for others’ daycare, birth control pills they don’t believe in, etc. Far better to let private charities form relationships and help people in ways they believe in.

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  31. Cheryl, I’m all for the father being involved where appropriate, but God provided a way of escape for a seduced young woman from marrying a man who would be an awful husband. Simply saying that the father should take more responsibility ignores the fact that a man who seduces a women could be a terrible character to be joined to for the rest of one’s life, and even the mere contact required for support payments could prove detrimental – we have read of such a case on this blog. On the larger aspect of private versus public support for the needy, including single mothers, looking back on history, there has never been a time, under any form of government, where private charity has been adequate to help the poor. It wasn’t adequate in the Victorian era, it wasn’t adequate in the Medieval period, it wasn’t adequate in the Roman empire. In Moses’ law, God said that his prescribed form of support for the poor could only stop when there were no more poor in the land. Jesus said there would always be poor people. The impression one gets from putting such passages together is that poverty is an ever present effect of the fall, and we can never sit back and say, let someone else take care of it. As was discussed in the private versus public healthcare question, whether one pays private premiums or public taxes, the money goes to help those who need medical care. So, whether I pay for the support of a single mother by donating to a private charity or whether a portion of my taxes goes to welfare payments to single mothers, the result is the same. As for the idea that private charities are more efficient that public programs, I think the recent scandal about the American Red Cross and donations to Haiti, which is only the most recent case of misappropriated funds by private charity, should put that notion to rest. Where there is money, there will be corruption, public or private. The private sector is not any more moral or resistant to corruption than the public. The same human nature operates in both.

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  35. Oh, here are a couple things, both for . . .

    Roscuro – A friend of a friend on Facebook has your same (real) name, & is in the medical field, too. (But she was born in 1960.) Thought that was kinda interesting.

    I cringe at things some people say about Baby Boomers. I was born right at or near (depending on what you read) the end of that time, in 1961, & my husband was born in 1955. But neither of us had the kind of spoiled upbringing that seems to be the stereotype, & I don’t think we fit the other stereotypes of the generation, either.

    Funny, though, my older brother (by eight years) & his wife do seem to fit it in some ways, although he also wasn’t spoiled. (Although my parents didn’t spoil him, either, he did have some independent ways when he was a teen & picked up some “values” from friends & their families that were not appreciated by our parents.)

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  36. Roscuro, the common mentality is that we care for women and children, not men and not intact families. So, for example, I’ve long wondered how things might have been different if Kizzie’s daughter had gone ahead with her original plan to marry her fiance. Instead, she found government financing of her pregnancy and birth more tempting. Now, I’m not saying her fiance would have miraculously become an amazing husband and father. But my former roommate who married when she was pregnant? She married a jerk–my sister and I counseled her not to marry him. But somehow the responsibility of being a husband and father caused him to grow up, take responsibility, and become the man he could be. But stepping in and saying, “This woman and your baby don’t need you; the government can take better care of them” is absolutely emasculating. It isn’t a call to manhood or responsibility. We haven’t done well in our society in encouraging men to be men; we’ve encouraged women to shake them off and manage on their own. It’s tragic for men, hard on women, and devastating to little boys and girls who need fathers.

    What if we were to find a young couple that wanted to marry, but had some financial limitations, offer them the money for a marriage license and $500 toward a wedding, and for some work on their part we’d also pay for the first month’s rent in an apartment and help him get a better job if necessary? Wouldn’t that be a better way to establish the woman and child than putting something between her and the father of her baby and discouraging her from marrying him? Obviously not every such situation can lead to marriage, but wouldn’t it be a healthier “default” than what we have now? (And cheaper, too!)

    I once knew an elderly couple who did not marry because each of them got social security, and if they married they would only get one payment. It was still wrong to live in sin, but government payments so often end up in such a way–we’ll pay for families to be divided, but not for them to come together. It’s one thing to help a person in a desperate situation–but an awfully fine line between that and rewarding sin. And the rewarding-dysfunction choice? It has the secondary negative result that it’s slowly bankrupting us. There isn’t really a perfect way; we live in a fallen world. But I’ve lived in inner-city Chicago, and seen what happens when fathers become irrelevant to a culture. They end up becoming a danger to it. We’re heading that way far too fast.

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  37. My class reunion is going on about six miles from my home tonight. I can see parts of it on Facebook Live. I get to be thankful that I saved my $75.00. Mostly they are showing the dark room with some party like lighting with a few people dancing to things like “Ride Sally Ride.” I am sure there are some there I would like to see, but it is not my choice of atmosphere for having an enjoyable conversation. It appeared to be mimicking the old sock hops we had in the gym only they are in an upscale Buckhead hotel.

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  38. Yeah, Janice, I agree. I would like to see 1 or 2 classmates, but the reunions are always drinking parties, it seems. I’ve never attended one, mainly because of the cost, and the fact that I live 1500 miles away.

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  39. We’re just sitting around waiting for time to go to church. We slept in this morning but still got ready half an hour early.
    Everyone have a nice day.

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  41. Cheryl – Nightingale & Mr X were still planning on getting married, until he started showing his true colors more fully. She did not apply for welfare, but did move home. She has been working hard to provide for herself & her son, along with going to school for a career that will help her do that better. (She will begin pursuing her RN degree next spring, still working at the nursing home.)

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  42. My cousin came to visit yesterday, and we talked so late, she ended up spending the night after fixing us a nice supper. You may recall she was here cooking for us for several months, years ago.

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  43. Oh, I see you were referring to the health insurance she had through the state. But that was not a purposeful choice to not getting married to have that insurance.

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  44. How sweet to have an extra hour this morning. I got up at around 7 (but it was really only 6). I’m using the extra time to clean up in the kitchen, the dishwasher is running early. No Sabbath for the appliances around here.

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  45. Cheryl – I’m sorry. I may have been mistaken about them not marrying so she could be on state insurance. After I dashed off my comment, I turned off the laptop to leave for church. Then I started to have a vague feeling that maybe they did indeed do what you said. I really don’t remember. If they did it that way, it is highly probably that Mr X pushed for it. At that time, she was still much under his control, even though she didn’t recognize it.

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  47. When people are young and especially if they are not Christian and have not been brought up in a Christian atmosphere they should not be judged as a mature Christian would be judged by Christians. A lot of people in our nation fall into that category whether they are Boomers or younger. They do not make choices based on Christian ethics. If something is legal and available then they take that route and typically think well of themselves for living by the laws of the land.

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  48. When Chickadee first moved out, we would have family dinners every Saturday, after Nightingale got home from her Saturday classes. After a while, that went by the wayside, although not intentionally. Hubby & I would still have dinners with Chickadee & Little Guy when we were babysitting during that time, or with Nightingale & Little Guy at other times, so we kind of didn’t realize that we weren’t having dinner with both daughters except for some holidays or birthdays.

    Well, I recently realized that we were neglecting to get all of us together more often, & have re-instituted family dinners on the alternating Sundays that Nightingale works & we babysit. Part of my desire to do this is to nurture the relationship we all have as a family, but also the relationship between my daughters, who are not close at all.

    (I know this isn’t the prayer thread, but please pray that they will grow closer, but especially that they will soon be sisters-in-Christ. Thanks.)

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  49. Finally the temperature has dropped down into the fall range in Atlanta. Our house is chilly again and my warm blanket, Miss Bosley, is enjoying double duty in that job. I told Art that she is a turtleneck and a cowl in one as she tries to act as a huge scarf around my neck.

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  50. Sunday was so rainy here, and this is supposed to be the dry season. So glad not to have to walk these muddy roads. Went to prayer for the Highlands translation teams and almost forgot my umbrella, but I went back to get it. Good thing as it was just pouring when I had to walk home. I drove to evening church. We had a favorite hymn sing. When the leader/pianist couldn’t quite figure out how to play “BeThou my Vision” I spoke up and said let’s do it acapella. It was lovely.

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  51. So, I was one who forgot to change the clock. Of course, the computer and phone switch the time automatically, but my alarm clock has to be changed manually. So, I started out for church an hour ahead of time. I realized my mistake at the bus stop and decided to just take a leisurely stroll to church. I had my camera and I tried to get some pictures, but it is much harder to get photographs in the city, a pedestrian or car is always getting in the way. This city has its own microclimate and the autumn colours stick around a lot longer (back home, the leaves are all fallen by this time). That, combined with all the old buildings and the lovely landscape just begs for pictures to be taken.

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  52. Jo, some of the favorite moments I remember of being in West Africa are of the team sitting together and singing hymns and choruses acapella (or almost, since I often accompanied with my violin). We sang a chorus this morning in church that I had not sung since I was in West Africa and it brought back memories.

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  55. Peter, yes, we do here – I think there is one time zone which doesn’t switch – and find it just as inconvenient. My father thinks we should just always have Daylight Savings Time, but I personally find the Standard Time fits better with my internal clock, so I’m always glad for the Fall back (even when I forget it). The amount of daylight gets considerably shorter in the winter anyway, so it makes little difference when it rises and sets, you still won’t get to see the sun before or after work for a couple of months, and that gets more true the further north you get.

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  59. Karen is still doing much better. I will be with her tonight. It would be great if she could go home tomorrow. Maybe I am just duskdreaming. I hope she gets home before the election.

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  61. Yes, Roscuro, there are lots of challenges to eating correctly and the mac and cheese was just an example of ways to stretch a meal budget. I would never think it should be an exclusive diet. I am sorry you felt I was judging you or suggesting that everyone should be able to make ends meet. I assure you that I know better from experience.

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  62. BTW, Kizzie, I was not saying that your daughter “should have” married him, but just using that as an example of how government policy changes the dynamics, sometimes for the better (giving a woman options) and sometimes for the worse (letting a young man be irresponsible rather than expecting him to take responsibility). In the real world, life is complicated, and as Aslan tells the Pevensie children, we are never told “what might have been” if we’d made different choices.

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  63. Cheryl – I agree with you that so much government assistance discourages, even penalizes, marriage & responsibility. It is also too bad that there isn’t more of a gradual decrease, rather than an abrupt drop, of assistance while a person is trying to get back on their feet.

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