44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-8-17”

  1. Good evening Jo.
    Good morning everyone else.
    Time to get the week started.

    😦 I woke up this morning with the tune of “Blue Skirt Waltz” in my head. I don’t know why, it’s been weeks since I heard it.

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  3. Morning all. Time for some sleep. I am joining Dj’s club. They are renovating the Missions House that I will be in this summer. Some things came up and it is taking longer. so now they say I won’t be able to move in until August 1. Sigh… No home for that long is discombobulating. I heard that the plans for turning one bathroom into two, the architect somehow had an extra foot of space in the plans that wasn’t actually there.

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  6. Good morning from the office.

    Jo, you lead such a fascinating life! Maybe I will somehow get to see you when you are in the States.

    Cheryl, that flower header is sweet and beautiful. I met a woman who does cards similar to what you might do, and she has a website, Redemption Photography. You might like to see what she offers.

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  9. Our local library has some lovely dogwood trees, both white and pink (I sent AJ some photos of those, too), and I drove over there to get some photos. The violets were in the lawn of a house across the street from the library, so I played with the focus until I got a shot of them I liked.

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  10. She has some very pretty work, Janice. Do you know what she charges for cards? My cost for the card blanks is high enough I’m not sure I can really make a profit with cards, and I’m looking more at matted prints, but I’ve considered cards too. But people are so used to paying a couple of dollars for a card, and I’ve wondered what other people charge.

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  11. I have not found out what she charges. She is a PCA person I met when we worked registration together for an event recently. She told me about a photography group she attends which meets near where I live that is a distance from her. Since I only use my tablet or phone, I don’t think I am ready to join a more pro group.

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  12. Morning all…that header photo does put a smile on this old face…thankful for Cheryl’s creative gifts shared with us!
    How ’bout them Yankees…hmmm…need more baseballs??!! 🙂
    It is a beautiful morning in the forest and we are in for a week of thunderstorms accompanied with rain, not snow! Thankful for Spring and the flowers to come….

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  13. Pastor Paul is on a role today!

    Color some matters black and white, others gray. What is commanded or prohibited is non-negotiable. Where the Church makes absolutes relative by bringing them up for discussion, such as gay marriage, it loses its prophetic voice, as the ELCA leadership did.

    But neither should it take relatives and make them absolute, forcing its application on all people in all situations.

    Paul had come out of the “taste not, touch not” tradition. It had its judgy bunch of critics, who had the gift of taking the joy out of life with endless lists of don’ts. Paul had a better idea, and he gives us three principles that operate in the realm of grace.

    The law had functioned before God’s grace was revealed through Jesus Christ. It operated like a baby-sitter, keeping its subjects in line (well, sort of) with restrictions and standards.

    When the Gospel came, it helped the children to grow up to a new family relationship with the Father. Mount Sinai could tell us what not to do; Calvary told us what Jesus had done and would do.

    So armed with the Spirit of grace, we can look at gray areas and make reasoned and righteous decisions.

    https://pastorpaulanderson.com/2017/05/08/what-about-doubtful-things-part-1

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  14. A standard run-of-the-mill Happy Birthday card at my grocery store wanted $4.75 the other day. It wasn’t special enough for me to pay that, even with a 50vent off coupon.

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  15. I had an extremely busy weekend where all I gobbled down was stupid food. Paying for it today and have returned to a healthy diet.

    (Honestly. What was I thinking?!)

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  16. OK, blog friends, looking for suggestions. Once again this year, I’m tasked with providing dinner on Saturday night to honor this year’s confirmands. Pastor told the congregation that attendance is “mandatory” but, of course, there are no sign-ups or RSVPs. The maximum number that might attend would be 75; the minimum . . . who knows. I asked if the confirmands had any requests and all I got was “no pasta with sauce.”
    Any suggestions on what to serve? Of course I could go “routine” with sliced ham, turkey, roast beef, and the standards sides, but would love to do something more special.

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  20. Cards have increased in price to the point that they are almost not worth it. There are some lesser cost ones and I go for those for the children most of the time. They really could not care less. There are occasions that demand a card, though. I like to find unique cards and will pay more for local scenery etc.

    On a lighter (related) note: We attended a small wedding on Saturday. One of the gifts had no card or name on the package. This wedding was immediate family only and the bride and groom knew very well who gave the gift. The couple who gave it were off helping in the kitchen, while we were all waiting for the gift opening. Someone got the idea to have everyone else sign the wrap. The bride wrote a salutation about the gift being given by all those who signed and we all signed. When the couple were called to watch the gift giving, the bride proceeded to read the salutation and all the names. There was a lot of laughter from everyone.

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  21. Janice, I like the German idea – except I have no clue. Any specific ideas? My husband loves sour beef but I doubt everyone would. Although I guess it could be one choice. What else?

    And where is Kim when I need her? 🙂

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  22. Grilled London Broil sliced thinly. I use the one with the most stars on AllRecipes. You score the meat make a marinade with ketchup and oregano with some other things. Grill and slice. The great thing is that is can be served room temp. Serve with a horseradish/mayo sauce
    Mixed green salad. with a vinagrette dressing and a ranch
    oven roasted potatoes. Perhaps with rosemary on them.
    and a dessert.
    This is my go to meal when I need something that can be prepared ahead of time and is pretty easy to set up.

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  23. Quick Search
    Image result for german meal ideas
    Bratwurst Stewed with Sauerkraut. …
    Caramelized Onion Pretzel Rolls with Caraway Salt. …
    Wiener Schnitzel. …
    Beer Braised Brisket. …
    Fried Potato Dumplings with Orange-Vanilla Sugar. …
    Jaeger Schnitzel. …
    Duck Meatballs with Cherry Sauce. …
    Fried Potatoes with Poached Eggs.
    More items…

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  24. Kim is walking around a loop of some kind. ?

    Beautiful flower header. And I also enjoyed the photos on the Redemption site — the one of the horses was special.

    So one of the workers texted me at around 9 last night to see if he’d left his cell phone in my garage. I looked and looked, didn’t see it. He’s frantic because he has to participate in almost daily conference calls for the big job he has coming up in NM. Hopefully he found it.

    They’re supposed to be back sometime this morning to finish the garage opener project which wound into a day-long effort yesterday. Nothing at my house is simple, they should know that by now. 😦 It’s jinxed or something.

    I’m back to work this week, but feel (almost) ready. We had some more rain with some thunder late yesterday but it’s supposed to be clear today and headed up to 68 degrees. The house this morning is awfully cold, though. I’ll have to find a sweatshirt to put on, I refuse to use the heater in May.

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  26. Weiner Schnitzel is too complicated for that many but Beer Braised Brisket may be good and easy for a crowd, although with me it is an unproven recipe and I would be hesitant to try it our on that many people and I am not sure what to serve with it. Maybe German potato salad and red cabbage? Or maybe just plain old green beans so there would be something every one would like. I recently had a cabbage casserole that was delicious with cheese and bread crumb topping.
    https://germanfoods.org/recipes/recipes-authentic-german-side-dishes/

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  27. The apple blossoms are in my neighbor’s yard. Last year I went out to get photos of the bees on the blossoms, but it was cool and gloomy and the bees chose not to go to work last year. But this year the blossoms were much more profuse, and the bees came out. Now, it is hard to get photos of them, anyway, since you have to be focused on the right blossom when a bee goes to it. (Focusing on the blossom takes a while, and if you wait till a bee lands to try to focus on the blossom, you probably won’t have the shot in time.) And there seems to be no pattern to where a bee will land next. But I managed to end up with a few shots eventually. I liked this one since it looks like the bee is stretching before she starts her work.

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  30. My apple tree just barely has a hint of green – maybe by tonight there will be leaves.

    AJ, did you get the pictures I sent to this email? Just wondering – no hurry on posting them 🙂

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  32. Several years ago my SIL helped tag octopi for a study being done on them. It was between his fishing jobs. He gave us some sweatshirts from the study and then a beautiful book, “Sea Life of the Aleutians.” It has beautiful pictures of the sea life.

    We have a great picture of him with a squid they came upon when fishing.

    I had shared the link earlier in the day, Michelle, and said he better watch out for those octopi. He did say it was a big challenge to find how to keep a tag on these wily creatures. God’s creation is so amazing.

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  34. The picture up there now: this may be common with redbud trees, but this is the only one I have seen to do this. I think this is unusual, to have flowers straight from the trunk, but this tree seems to do this every year. You can see more “typical” flowering in the background at the top of the shot.

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  40. Sorry, AJ. I lost your contact info when our computer died, so I went back to an older contact list we had on an external drive. I just resent them.

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