117 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-13-17”

  3. Little Graham Harris is four today.
    Graham is a little rounder.
    Chuck once said to Mary. “Mary, I hope you get one just like you some day.”
    She did.

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  4. Morning, Chas.
    I checked over my last pay stub because it seemed like I got too much money. I was right. They listed the amount for social security, but didn’t take it out. Made my check much larger.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. According to Matthew 13:55, Jesus had four brothers. I Knew about James and Jude, but never thought of Joseph and Simon. He had more than one sister also. Don’t know how many. I presume they were all Christians after the resurrection. We know James and Jude were. But none of the rest are ever mentioned.

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  9. Chas, four-year-olds are so much fun. It’s my favorite age: they’re talkative, curious, affectionate, with a growing personality and independence and ability, coupled with a generous spirit and the desire to share everything they know.

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  11. Kizzie, I think I get your comment yesterday about those memes about people who grew up in the 60s and 70s doing so without seat belts, helmets, etc. They don’t bug me, though. I’ve never taken them to deprecate today’s extra safety precautions. I take them to marvel that we survived without those things. Anyway I enjoy the nostalgia.

    And I should say that in the rear-facing back seat of our 1968 station wagon we always wore our seat belts! I don’t remember if our previous car, the 60 T-bird, had seat belts, though.

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  12. Some are more obstreperous than others, into, on top of, under whatever.
    Elvera once said to Mary, “Mary, someday when you are grown and live five hundred miles away from me, you can go bungee jumping. But not now. Forget about it.”

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  13. Good morning all. I’m getting more and more excited every time I see Donna’s bathroom. I’ll getting all the thrill of the remodel with none of the hassle. And now Chas is going for the walk-in shower? Be still my beating heart! I’ve been thinking about expanding a half-bath with a walk-in, so I’ll be very interested to know how that goes too. :–)

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  14. I once told BG when she asked me why she was an only child that, “God, in His infinite wisdom KNEW she was all I could handle”. I did desperately want more than one child. My mother was an only, I am an only, and now she is too.

    Yesterday when I was checking out all of those background sites and opting out of them it would pop up with my information and my age. I was a little offended they had added a year! It didn’t hit me until last night that I had a birthday a week ago and they were right!!!!! You may laugh at me now.

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  15. Good Morning…I’m off to work but before I head out this must be said….HAPPY bIRTHDAY KAREN!!!! We love you so much and consider it all JOY to celebrate our Lord’s beautiful creation of YOU!!!! ❤

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  18. I really like the blue level. It adds a certain touch. Plus, as it is in California with all of those earthquakes, you can always know where the deep end of your tub is. Good idea!

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  19. It seems unbelievable for January, but I slept with three bedroom Windows wide open all night. That is a first. I feel so blessed by the fresh air and birds singing. I could burst out singing, “Oh what a beautiful morning…oh what a beautiful day!”God is so good.

    I see He has been good to Donna, too. Very nice detailing on that bathroom. It is worth the suffering to get to there. I only wish the suffering did not involve having that horrible cold/flu. I hope your antibiotics are working.

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  20. Maybe the other names of Jesus’ brothers and sisters remained unnamed in the Bible because all His future brothers and sisters (including us) are too numerous to name in the pages. They were the beginning of the No Name Listed siblings. But our names are recorded on the tremendous hand of God.

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  22. A Bonne Anniversaire to Karen 🙂

    I’ve always thought the fact Jesus had siblings was special, yet another trait of humanity in which he shared. In Romans 8, it talks about how spiritually, he is the firstborn among many brothers, but he was also the firstborn of an earthly family of siblings. I’ve always thought the Catholic church was missing something when they try to show that the listed siblings of Jesus were just his cousins, because in their philosophy, Mary remained a perpetual virgin. Such a view sterilizes Jesus’ humanity and isolates him from the rest of us.

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  25. Kevin – Maybe I am reading into them what I have heard others say, when they have denigrated the need for those safety precautions by saying that they survived without them.

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  26. Roscuro, the idea of her perpetual virginity is weird/wrong on so many levels. It’s unbiblical (we hear of His brothers and sisters), it’s unnecessary (it wasn’t the womb that was holy . . . and marital sex is not unholy), and it would in fact make Mary not more pure but more of a sinner (virginity is not a “better state” for a wife, but it would have been a sinful choice, and Joseph would rightly have put her away after all).

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  27. Roscuro, Michelle, We have to reckon that Jesus had a normal childhood.
    I suspect he shot hoops, or whatever they did in those days, with Judas, and James. And the ball didn’t always go into the basket.
    There is no evidence of a miracle until his baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
    But he was probably handy around the house.
    You have to know he was special to Mary.

    The thing I have wondered about is that on the cross, he assigned Mary to John to care for.
    (Jn. 19:27) He had four brothers, two of whom wrote epistles.

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  28. My formerly Catholic husband says he was taught that Joseph was an older widower & had children from his first wife. (I think we’ve discussed that here before – about whether the Catholic church teaches that they were cousins or older half-siblings. Maybe both theories are taught by different groups within the RCC.)

    Hubby’s Uncle Bud was a priest who went to Notre Dame. The family (Bud’s sisters & mother) worked jobs to put him through a Catholic high school. I think he may have had a scholarship to Notre Dame, because even with those jobs (of course the father was working, too), the family was not well-off at all.

    Can you imagine teenage girls these days working a part-time job, not for their own wants, but to help pay for their brother’s private Catholic school education?

    Now that I think of it, Mary (my MIL, Bud’s younger sister) seemed to whitewash her childhood in her memory, so mabey she & Peggy (the older sister) were resentful, but taught not to verbalize it. Or maybe it really was that important to them that their brother become a priest.

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  30. Standard subway tiles are 3×6 (though they make them in other sizes, too — but that’s the generic size so that’s what I got). The grout is white (that goes on today) so we shouldn’t see those black lines in between the tiles when that’s done.

    The tub-shower walls are all done, today is grout & the floor tiles.

    I had a trying morning (mostly because I had to do all this because I am still sick) with hauling out extra trash and recycles and getting the Salvation Army bags onto the front porch. I’m done, but everything seems twice as hard when you’re sick. Wish I could take a shower!

    I’ve always thought 4-5 is about the cutest age for kids. Er, children.

    I’m really going to try to rest some more today, I need to get over this flu. But, of course, in the middle of the night I started wondering if I got the adhesive for the bead board delivered. The bead board came a few weeks ago now but I can’t somehow remember any cans of adhesive with that delivery … Argh.

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  32. Chas – I have wondered about that, too. Could it have been because He knew John would live a long life, but his brothers would be martyred? (I’m guessing here. They were martyred, right?)

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  33. One I actually used (unsuccessfully) on my mom once upon a time when I was in my blue jeans and sneaker phase: “But Jesus doesn’t care what I wear to Sunday School.”

    Her response: “I care.”

    Into the dress I went.

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  35. Years ago, a friend said that 5 is the perfect age for boys, that they are very sweet at that age. That’s what we found with Little Guy. He’s 6 now, but still pretty sweet. 🙂

    He’ll be starting a 5-week basketball program on Saturday, & starting with soccer on Sunday afternoon (not sure how long that lasts, but it is longer than 5 weeks).

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  38. Cheryl, there is something of Gnostic thought and Eastern religious philosophy in the Catholic idea that virginity is purer than marital intercourse and that the human body is naturally evil simply due to its physical nature. The hope in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism is that eventually the spiritual will swallow up the physical. The hope of the Resurrection is that the spiritual and the physical will be reunited in a perfect whole. There is in sinful human nature a tendency to loath our bodies. Some express that loathing by wasting their bodies in riotous excess, others tend to express it by punishing their bodies with hard living. Many, while caring for their own bodies, complain that too many humans exist and that out natural bodily needs are wasting the earth’s resources (the latest thing in environmentalism is disposing of your body by decomposition, rather than cremation or burial; its advocates are quite shrill on how it is the only sustainable way). Yet, the physical forms of humanity are so precious to God that the Son came in our form, died as we die, and rose again in his human form, so that the same might happen to our bodies. The human form was created by God for us, and he called it good, and he will glorify it.

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  39. DJ – That reminds me of something I hate to hear around here, which Hubby & daughters tend to say at times. When I will mention something that needs cleaning or straightening or fixing or whatnot (that I haven’t had time to do, or is a big project that needs attention), they may say that “Nobody cares” or “It’s not important”. Well, I care, & it is important to me.

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  40. Chas, If you’re up for some shower advice, here’s mine. Don’t have the controls installed under the shower head. Instead, have them installed along the wall towards the back and have the door open from back to front. That way, you don’t have to stand under a running shower to turn it on and off and adjust the temperature. It’s how we did it and I love it. I’m not sure why you always see it done the other way unless it’s due to lazy plumbers.

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  41. Oh no, hope it doesn’t last. Do you have a fever? This is really a pretty bad flu season, apparently, at least out here.

    Your comment: Can you imagine teenage girls these days working a part-time job, not for their own wants, but to help pay for their brother’s private Catholic school education?

    My friend did that when we were in college, she worked at a job specifically to help her parents send the last sibling, her younger brother, through Catholic school. It wound up interrupting her own college years, but she went back to get her BA later.

    “while” being sick my earlier post should have read.

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  42. Jesus’ brothers: My take is that the two did not become believers until after the resurrection and the others may never have. Showing us that even staring into the Face, one can be deceived. And perhaps Jesus wanted His mother cared for in the believing family, where John was. Telling us that our fellow believers are our family.

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  43. Haha! In going back to make sure I’ve seen all the comments, I noticed that in one of mine, “maybe” came out “mabey”. My eyes are watery, so I missed that.

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  44. Kizzie, my neighbor (who is just getting over the flu) was complaining to me the other day about how her husband won’t take care of things right away when she wants him to. Mañana is his attitude, hers is ‘now.’ I’ve never seen a more meticulously kept house (and yard) as hers, which I do admire.

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  46. Michelle, there is a photo with all of the tile done and the size evens out. There is a black line of tile about 2/3’s of the way up which will be the height of the beadboard once it is installed. Then the dry wall above the bead board will be painted a nice shade of blue. It is all coming together nicely and I am so excited seeing the progress. Surely she will send more photos. 😉
    Now, I have moved on to her kitchen, but am treading carefully. Although, I have almost convinced her that eating out will be easier than not having a shower!!!!!

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  47. I think in my case (re bathroom plumbing), it was a matter of working with the existing plumbing in the house which is all along the one wall. Switching that around can be a major (and expensive) project. But it does make sense to separate the controls that way if it’s doable and affordable.

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  48. I think what Chas is referring to is the fact that Christ, while God, did not do any of his miracles by his own inherent power but rather through the work of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit did not visibly descend on him until his baptism, until that point in his life, he would not have performed miracles. There are apocryphal tales of Jesus’ childhood that have him performing little miracles among his playmates. Like Mary’s perpetual virginity, such tales miss the point of Jesus’ life on earth. He limited himself to working through the Holy Spirit because we can only work through the Holy Spirit. He lived like we do, so that we would be encouraged when we are discouraged. I know, as I came home from class where a certain awful subject was being discussed earlier this week and was fighting back tears, the verse “for consider him who endured such a contradiction of sinners, lest you be weary and faint in your minds” kept crossing my thoughts. The thought that Jesus faced the same bewildering self contradiction and moral hypocrisy from people and remained concerned about them was so encouraging to me.

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  49. I also believe in getting to things “now” (or at least having a concrete plan on when to get to it). I can put things off, but I know I really will get to them, whereas Hubby & Nightingale think they’ll get to something “later”, but then it goes out of their minds.

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  52. Loving my new glasses, DJ! It is so nice to be able to see clearly again. 🙂 I can see pretty clearly without my glasses on, too, except for close things. That’s funny to me, because I was near-sighted until the cataract operations.

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  54. On siblings working to educate other siblings, Second and Youngest siblings were both working part-time jobs when I went to college. They couldn’t pay for my education, but they both helped out with buying textbooks and Youngest even bought me one of those iPod shuffles (the little iPod) which were all the rage, so that I could listen to music at school. Then, when I went to the city for more courses, she gave me her iPhone so I could call home and paid the monthly bill. Now that both have families, they cannot do as much, but they still slip little gifts of money or food to me when they can. Eldest sibling has also been very generous, buying any really expensive items I have needed, like Birkenstock sandals when I went to West Africa and a computer for school. I have been given the best siblings in the world.

    As for why Jesus gave Mary into John’s care rather than his brothers, I think Mumsee is on the right track. John was standing with Mary at the cross. The other disciples weren’t there (if I remember correctly, they were some distance away) and it would seem neither was Jesus’ brothers. It would make sense for Jesus to ask the one man who had remained loyal – if you notice, in John’s account, he also went to witness Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin; he was the one who spoke to the high priest’s servants to let Peter in and must have personally witnessed Peter’s denial.

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  55. Those personality differences can be a challenge, Kizzie. Have you heard you are a neat freak? I used to hear that. Of course, (like Chas’ family) I have lived long enough to hear the exasperation in my daughters’ voices over their families dealing with them in the same manner.

    I also believe Jesus’ brothers came to salvation after the resurrection. I think they was quite an estrangement in the family during Jesus’ three years of teaching and preaching. His family was first quite horrified. Mary, of course, remembered the prophecies, so had a different perspective. The others were probably more doubtful and perhaps embarrassed for their brother. They were also probably impacted in some negative ways, since Jesus’ was the eldest. It is difficult to know all the ins and outs, but I find it comforting that Jesus’ family was not all perfectly loving one another. It should give us all hope.

    Love the bathroom renovation.

    And a happy, happy birthday to you know who.

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  56. Linda- The idea of faucets opposite the shower is an extra expense some people don’t want. It’s not so much lazy plumbers as it is economics. I just close the shower curtain and turn on the hot water while I get a towel. Then I can adjust the temp from outside the shower before getting in.

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  57. I had a good friend. He was the eldest in a traditionally Greek Family. He got most of his college and graduate school on scholarship, but one he went to work he contributed to his middle sister’s college, and when she graduated they both contributed to the youngest (sister) college.

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  58. All of the discussion of Jesus and his siblings reminds me that January 11th is celebrated in the Liturgical church as the date of the Baptism of Jesus. 19 years ago it fell on a Sunday and that is the day that BG was Christened. The priest made a point to tell her god-parents to celebrate that date with her as more important than her actual birthday. The date of her birth is when God gave her to me. Her Christening/Baptism is when her parents gave her back to God.
    What reminded me of that is that my above mentioned Greek friend, never would tell the date of his birth…he always told the date of his Christening.

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  62. There is no indication Jesus’ brothers believed in Him until after the resurrection. Jesus, as the firstborn and the one with family responsibilities, put her in the care of one who was a believer. It would be interesting to know if the brothers ever came to John and reclaimed their mother. I never thought about that possibility.

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  63. My husband turns on the shower but closes the curtains and lets it run before he gets in. I get in but hold a washcloth in front of the showerhead as I switch the water to come out the showerhead. But yes, the idea of the controls being somewhere else sounds nice.

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  64. I wait until the door steams up (catching all that water in a bucket, btw, since I live in former drought land). When we had a tub, I ran the bathtub until the temperature was right, then switched it to shower mode.

    To each his/her own. Lovely to have a shower.

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  65. What is really funny is if you are married to an OCD neat freak and told on a daily basis what a slob you are…I had a maid and I cleaned, but it was never good enough.
    Then it is just you and your daughter and between the two of you, you manage to keep the house clean, dishes in the dishwasher, beds made, kitchen and bath clean. Not bad.
    THEN you remarry.
    I cannot, no matter how hard I try keep the kitchen as clean as I would like, there is paper clutter everywhere, and my bed is NEVER made…unless I am having some sort of get together later in the afternoon or evening and I go back to make it.

    Oh well, some people have feast or famine…I guess I am one. 😉

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  66. Lots of pounding today in the house (which is barely 60 degrees, I don’t want to have the heat blasting while he’s trying to work).

    I managed to lie down for a little while and have a blanket I’m wrapping up in on the sofa. Remodeling and the flu don’t mix well, just kind of awkward all the way around.

    But the bathroom is coming along.

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  67. Karen @ 10:34 We don’t know if they were martyred.
    Linda @ 10:43. I should have been more specific. No miracles’ until AFTER his baptism. It was the water to wine event. Jn. 2:11
    I never thought it was a sin to fight my siblings unless our parents found out about it.
    😆

    Phos @ 10:54 has it correct. The Holy Spirit enabled Jesus to perform the miracles. He never performed one for his own benefit. The first was closest to that..

    The shower head and controls are already in place. It would cost more than I’m willing to pay to change it.

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  68. Glad to hear other siblings still help each other out.

    In thinking about Mary & Peggy’s going to work to put Bud through Catholic high school, I have often thought of what today’s modern feminists would say. They would put up a fuss about the girls sacrificing for their brother, insisting that the girls’ education is as important as his.

    (Okay, there might be a point to that, but still.)

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  69. Kim – I am a “neat freak”, & have fairly high standards for cleaning up. BUT I have learned not to hold others to my standards. I know that if Hubby or Nightingale clean up the kitchen after cooking, it is not going to be clean enough for me. So I am thankful that they started the clean-up, then I finish off the details. 🙂

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  71. No neat freaks around this household. 😉

    Older siblings helping younger sibs: 2nd Arrow (oldest daughter) often takes her younger siblings shopping for clothes when she comes back home for visits. We have a very small clothing budget, so that is a great help that she voluntarily does that for them.

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  72. On the politics thread, one of the recent subjects was hard workers & lazy workers. I was proud of Nightingale this past week. While getting ready to go in for 2nd shift one day, she could feel herself getting sick with a cold. She was scheduled for that 2nd shift, & then 1st shift the next day, eight hours after getting off, which meant there was no way she would get eight – or even seven – hours of sleep. (I realize this is just the way it is with some jobs, & she’s done that plenty of times.)

    When she awoke the next morning, after only five hours of sleep, she felt miserable, & had a fever, but she dragged herself into work anyway. (The staff wear masks if they are sick, & of course, there is frequent hand-washing & wearing of gloves.) She had the next day off, & was supposed to have the one after that off, too, but accepted a request to cover for another nurse that second day.

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  73. I’ve gone in wearing a mask too, but I’ve often heard managers tell their workers not to come in if sick because of the danger of spreading the sickness (especially flu). I guess it depends on the job and the sickness. Hope Nightingale is better soon. :–)

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  76. Have you had some tea with lemon and honey? That always works for me …and if you have a mini of some whiskey that would help…you know for medicinal purposes. 😉

    I have taken to drinking Mr. & Mrs. T’s spicy bloody mary mix. I always get it on airplanes and they only recently started selling it in the stores. Last night I poured a glass. Mr. P wanted to know if I had vodka in it. NO!!!! 😉
    It was a big glass

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  77. I like the level there, as well. That way you can make certain your walls are still upright. Here in Idaho, we just look at them if we want to know if they are still there. I am thinking of getting a level, though. Seems so trendy.

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  84. Floor almost done, white w/ black flowers. So funny because when he leaves to go to the patio (the work staging area) both Cowboy and Tess wandered into the hall to give it all a look

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  88. Are any of you familiar with or willing to comment (particularly theologically) on any of these subjects:

    Lettie B. Cowman
    Streams in the Desert
    The Oriental Missionary Society
    One Missionary Society
    Missionaries in Japan

    And, does anyone live relatively near Greenwood, Indiana?

    Research . . . .

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  89. Happy birthday, Karen.

    I would think brothers helping sisters would be good–it’s harder for a girl to work her way through college than for a boy, or at least that was my experience going to school. Some of my male fellow students got jobs as night watchmen sitting at a desk in a condo (they could get paid to study) or parking cars (they got paid wages plus tips, I think–they made decent money, anyway, and it was a job that wasn’t all that safe for a girl).

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  92. Hey, Donna, love the new picture. I just copied it and sent it to my friends who are living in our church missions house right now. He is working on the house and has been a contractor. The shower is terrible in that they never did anything with the back wall so you have to have shower curtains on both sides. The home is from the 1930’s with the beautiful arches between rooms. I wanted to inspire him and let him know what I would love to see done. Of course there is only one bathroom, but it is huge, ten or twelve feet from the back wall to the door.

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  97. I just live here.

    Posey floor is finished … tomorrow is grout for the walls and floor. Then? Maybe bead board and paint, then putting in the sink and toilet & fixtures.

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  98. I had to barricade the bathroom tonight as the duct vent register was taken off for the tiling around it and the cat, as you may remember, has a strong curiosity about sliding down those open tunnels.

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  104. Thanks AJ. I think I’ll like it, especially once the pedestal sink goes in along with a shower curtain, rug & decorative antique floor grate for the heater duct.

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  107. I think we have the book, Streams in the Desert but haven’t read it. It belonged to my husband before we married. I have glanced at it, but it was years ago. I am sure I was not mature enough to appreciate it all those years ago. May have to check it out sometime.

    It occurs to me that Jesus’ brothers may have been afraid, too. After all, whatever trouble a family member got into with the powers that be, could also come down on the rest of the family. That was the reason the parents of the man who was healed told the teachers of the law to ask the man himself about it. They did not want to be the ones in trouble. Punishment could be very severe.

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  108. Michelle – I read Streams in the Desert several years ago, & found it both challenging & comforting. But I should probably read it again now, as I am older & more mature, & would probably get more out of it than I did then. Have you read it?

    Liked by 1 person

  110. Hey folks. Dunno why the name isn’t showing up. This is Make it Man, AKA Jim. Fix this later I guess… Gotta go. Please check my prayer request. Later.

    Liked by 5 people

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