64 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-17-17”

  2. Yesterday I met one of the people that will be on the team I will be managing. He and his wife moved to the area because she was originally from Pcola. For twenty-three years he was the music director of a large church in Texas. I immediately felt comfortable with him and I like him.

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  3. Who posts six in a row just so he can get a number?

    By the way, not that this is related in any way to the question above, how are you doing little brother? Finding improvement yet?

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  4. Husband and smallest two, daughter and her husband and my grandbaby, sister in law, are all off to watch seventh son play in the State All Star football game, whatever that means. Then son heads off to Pocatello to check out his future accomodations. He will be looking for an apartment/house that allows dogs as his sister is giving him hers. We did warn them not to get pets until they were settled. That leaves me with the two fifteen year olds. Life is an adventure which brings us often to prayer.

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  5. Yep, it is, and it does, Mumsee.

    Good morning, all. Maybe it’s even morning for Jo now, too? Not for Tychicus, though, as far as I know.

    I didn’t get to the musical last night, as you know if you saw the last few comments on yesterday’s prayer thread. Might try again tonight, the only other performance. We’ve got our niece’s graduation party that we’re going to, though, but I might leave early (it’s from 5:00 to 10:00 pm, and the musical is at 7:30 in a town about 40-45 minutes from my niece’s). I hope the weather is OK tonight. They had golf-ball sized hail and I don’t know what else in the 6:00 pm hour in the county where the performance was last night.

    Sunshine right now. I am glad, and wish I could be out in it some. Have lots to do inside, though. Trying to pare down so we don’t have so much stuff inside to manage.

    Have yourselves a nice day, everybody.

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  6. Is that a king bird with a brown headed cow bird? Did the king bird raise the cow bird? What is this world coming to?

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  9. Yep, that’s a kingbird (probably an eastern one) and a cowbird, but since it’s an adult male cowbird, it probably wasn’t raised by the kingbird. It probably wasn’t, anyway, since cowbirds cheat and look for smaller birds to victimize, so that their young will be the biggest in the nest.

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  10. We got a couple of free “birds of Indiana” pamphlets a while back, since my husband contacted the ones who make it and pointed out that the brochure has the western kingbird and it should have the eastern. They thanked him and told him they were soon coming out with a new version, and they would send him two to replace the two we have (it’s nice to keep one in the car). So now we have four, because of course the old one is still usable even if it does have one wrong bird on it.

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  11. I followed Chas’ advice and slept in today, much to the cat’s consternation.

    MeowMeowMeowMeow. MEOW.

    Then the claws (lightly, if that’s possible, but I do think she tries) come out, in case I still didn’t get the message that it’s time to feed her.

    I’m hoping to get a lot accomplished inside today, too.

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  12. Funny how, when the small people are not around to do them, their chores get done so much more quickly.

    I had them working on a fence project the other day, Husband saw it and commented to me that when he got back from a quick trip to town, he would get it done in about thirty minutes. I told him that was not the point. The point was for the children to do it, gaining experience and confidence. It would take them five hours, the goats would get out, nothing would be damaged and they would learn some more important stuff. He agreed. But I think he also is getting tired. Only about eight more years, unless of course, God leads us into adoption again.

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  13. I decided since God gave us the gift of beautiful weather this morning — sunny and mid-70s — I would take advantage of that instead of launching into all the inside-the-house business right away. So I sat out on the porch and read ahead several days on my Bible-reading plan. Finished the book of Nehemiah, and read all of the book of Esther.

    Lovely to feel the gentle breeze, hear the singing birds, and read the Word. Heading back out there now to pray for all you fine folks.

    Then it will be time for the house projects.

    God gives such marvelous gifts.

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  14. Mumsee, the yellow-bellied kingbirds are the ones our guide accidentally used. Noticing our birds didn’t have yellow bellies, my husband looked at another resource and found their error.

    6 Arrows, I am the one who does weeding now. And sometimes I am using it partly as an excuse to get outside, though I personally prefer going out with a camera.

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  15. We are supposed to get more rain today. I have prepared for Monday’s lesson this morning. I have done some research. I have a chicken cooking for chicken and dumplings for us and for my friend L and her husband. (Please remember her in your prayers).

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  16. My lavender and the replacement city tree are doing well, I’ve been out watering every night this week — especially the tree. The lavender is drought-resistant and tends to hang in there no matter what, but it also seems to be liking the nightly water.

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  19. We could use some rains out here…things dry up mighty fast in this forest!
    I cannot grow lavender here…just does not like my soil, altitude, climate whatever…it just will not cooperate!
    The squirrels around here are making me nuts! They chewed up my geranium on my porch bench last night and they had a nice snack of the back of my patio chair on the deck! My grandmother’s voice ran through my head this morning when she would say “I’m a gonna kill ’em “!!!!!
    Mumsee your comment about your yellow bellied birds brought back a sweet memory of our son…when he was just but two years old, every bird he saw was a “yellow bellied sapsucker”…He would spot a bird way off as we were driving down the road and would announce he saw a bird…”what kind of bird was it Jacob?”…”a yellow bellied sapsucker”!! I’m thankful for those sweet memories of raising kiddos…because sometime the bad likes to creep in and steal the joy…

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  20. Poor Jo — I see on the prayer thread she has a noon flight. If there’s something I can do to help, let me know!

    Loaded up some old broken/mystery electronics, batteries, etc. to take up to the e-waste drop-off.

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  21. We typically don’t get summer rain — I remember the Midwest summer downpours in Iowa, followed by all that horrible, steamy humidity though — so there’s little hope for that here. We’re warming up currently, but thankfully the coastal area remains much cooler than only a few miles inland. I think our hottest day will be sometime next week, at 80-ish. We’re at least staying in the high 70s until then. But in the valleys it’s hitting into triple digits already.

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  23. Big sister, thanks for asking. I think I get a little less winded than before, but it’s subtle and I might be imagining it. Nothing dramatic yet for sure. All the doctors have said it will probably be six months before we know how much recovery there will be.

    I don’t remember if I mentioned having seen my local cardiologist a couple weeks ago. He was glad I’d had the procedure done, and thought I looked and sounded a bit better than when he saw me in December. He said that even if never felt much improvement, we should consider it a win to have stopped the deterioration.

    We’re heading to Cleveland tomorrow for one-month follow-up on Monday with the doctor who did the procedure. She’ll have a brand-new echocardiogram to compare with the day after the procedure, so she might see some difference.

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  24. Working up a sweat in the spare bedroom today, got all the Christmas wrap in a water-proof, zipper holder so that actually could go to the garage — thinking it doesn’t need to be in the house 12 months if I only use it for 1 month. The other misc. wrapping paper that I may use throughout the year fits in a small hanging pouch for the closet.

    Filled and organized one of the 2 empty dressers in the spare room, doing some laundry, threw some old tattered clothes away … (I love my new Maytags, but I suppose I’ve mentioned that).

    More clothes to sort through and hang, fold-and-store, or toss later today. I have my grandmother’s old wooden sewing box (it’s free standing on the floor) — one of the two pull open lids has fallen off and long ago my mom had painted it yellow … Now I’m thinking it would be nice to get it fixed and taken down to its natural wood grain.

    Earlier I dropped off the items at the e-collection site and went to Home Depot.

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  27. I spent hours in Oakland waiting for my pick up, with four small children in the middle of the night. I called my cousin and called my cousin. I was sooo tired. They had gone to the ballet and picked us up after ward. Space A.

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  28. Oh Jo…who was to pick you up??? Can you get ahold of them somehow…or perhaps just take a taxi if that is not too cost prohibitive…praying for you dear one ❤

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  29. I am a lousy mom. In between weed eating, I am trying to watch the live stream ( I have never watched a live stream anything before) on IdahoSports dot com. The eight man all star football game. On one side or the other is son. Sounds like he might be on the west team. But I don’t see him and don’t know which is the west team.

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  31. I am having trouble with doing “likes” on comments. I do not know what the issue is. Everyone, please consider your comments liked.

    I have been doing housework all day. Well, except for when I talked to Karen and my brother. I have gotten a few things better organized. It takes so much time to get things rearranged into a better working situation.

    I hope all you guys have a good Father’s Day.

    I did read the article, Roscuro, about that horrible dad. Unusual timing to post that with Father’s Day tomorrow. Perhaps it was meant to make people think though their dad might be quirky, at least he is not all that bad.

    I posted a picture of my dad at my wedding in 1985 on Facebook (if anyone wants to check it out). Michelle has a similar photo with her dad on her Facebook page.

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  32. Good night Jo. You’ll sleep awhile tonight and it’ll be a couple two or three days before you’re acclimated. See you when you’re up. 🙂

    It was NOT cold at the dog park today, but it was at least cool (-ish) in the shade — it was 82 today where I am, not awful, but kind of a big change from the cool June Gloom we’ve been more used to — and hints of things to come.

    I got a lot done today, never as much as I’d hoped, naturally, but it was a productive day, house-wise.

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  34. I got a surprise birthday party this afternoon. Since it’s 10 days before my birthday, it was “sort of” a surprise. (We were invited to lunch, and I figured it was likely it would be a party.) It was nice, and my first birthday party in 20 years.

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  35. Sweet. 🙂

    Cheryl, I do some weeding, too, as do the kids. We have a tiny little flower garden to one side of the three-squares sidewalk to our porch, and have to pull up weeds that come up in the rock bed on the other side, next to the basement window.

    Weeding, for us, doesn’t take up a huge portion of any day. 😉

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  36. I was glad to be able to attend the musical tonight that my piano students played in. They each had one half of the show at the piano, then played their band instruments in the other half. They both did well. I was really proud of them. It required a different style of playing than they were used to, having a lot of experience playing classical piano, but not so much of the thinking-on-your-feet kind of playing by chord patterns, adjusting on the fly to what the band was doing, rather than simply reading every note as is. More improvisatory, with note-reading as is when the piano would play alone at the beginning of some songs. They just did so great.

    They go to high school in the same school district where I taught elementary music. That was long before they were born, but it’s always fun to see familiar faces from back in my teaching days. I saw a number of teachers and parents of students I knew from back then. Always fun to catch up with what people are doing these days.

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  39. Janice, I had forgotten it was Father’s Day coming up. I was only thinking of similar cases which I know where the man isn’t overtly physically abusive, but yet his self-centeredness slowly sucked or is sucking the life out of his family and wondering what could have or could happen if the family left. I recently posted about my father’s love on here, and I when I read stories like that, I realize how much of a blessing it is to have a father who puts his wife and church before his own interests.

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  40. My wedding dress and baptism dress (my mom made that for me) get lots of use these days. Fifteen year old wears them to church and to town at every opportunity. She wore the baptism one to VBS and loved that people called her Lady Tina. It finally occurred to me that the best use for both would be to be given to her. Hard to believe I was once that slender. She is the first of all the children to be slender enough and tall enough to wear them.

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  41. Very hot here. We spent the afternoon in the pool trying to convince the nearly six year-old to put her head in the water. We’re all nervous until the last two learn to swim.

    More of the same today. Worship in an hour, beating through the bushes for Sunday school teacher volunteers for one Sunday this summer (oops, standing around with a smile plastered on my face, a large colorful hat on my head calling “Summer Sunday School Sign-ups” and holding a calendar on a clip board).

    After that, I may attend my final Sunday School class of the summer so I can help with the volunteer situation. Then to REI to buy boots for the EMT, back to my son’s for spaghetti (the sauce is in the crock pot) and another round in the pool and returning the EMT to the airport–our last glimpse before her adventures.

    Oh, Father’s Day, too, how could I forget?

    Happy father’s day to all the wonderful fathers on this blog.

    VBS starts tomorrow. I’ve got to find my (PE teacher) mom’s whistle!

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  42. Happy Father’s Day everyone. I miss mine, too. 😦

    More laundry going this morning and more spare bedroom work slated for this afternoon after church. Never ending, never ending. Sigh.

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  43. Oh, the cat. She’s hungry and is meowing and purring and crawling all over me. Better get her fed.

    Dogs are much more polite and accepting of their plight.

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  44. I must have had church on my mind, that last post of mine should read *wife and children. I’m not going to church today. Still too many cold symptoms and I have no wish to pass it along.

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  45. Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers!

    So very grateful for the love of Father God,
    for the father He gave me,
    and for giving me the wonderful father of my children (& Papa to our grandson).

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  46. Same here, Roscuro. And feeling very tired, although I think I’ve managed to sleep pretty well the last couple nights.

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  47. I have an midterm exam in my fourth course, Global Health, tomorrow. Last night, I was going over the course material with my mother – we spent over 3 hours talking (good thing my plan has unlimited minutes). She had so many wise thoughts to offer. My father is the one who taught me to be interested in the rest of the world, pointing out the different countries on our world map as we listened to reports about them on the evening news, and telling what he knew about the country’s background. My mother is the one who taught me how to view those in the rest of the world. Just to play devil’s advocate, I gave her all the arguments against giving aid to other countries that I have heard over the years. She would have none of it, and this is coming from a woman living on a fixed income who struggles to make ends meet – she views herself as prosperous in comparison to many in the world. In one of the sections we were studying, it was talking about the term capacity building, which refers to how aid should help a community build on their own resources, rather than making them dependent on outside resources. There was a question in class to the students to make us think about who were the capacity builders in our own lives. When it was asked in class, I replied, “My parents.”. She says she learns so much from me when we cover such material, but I think she and my father taught it to me first.

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  48. Happy Father’s Day to the Dads and GrandDads here…your example of integrity and walking rightly before Him shall pass down to the generations…a blessing indeed ❤
    We didn't sleep well last night and have opted to stay home and study in quiet….will head out for a bit of a walk around the neighborhood in a few minutes. Daughter #1 will stop by with her family this afternoon before they head out to rock climb…it is a gorgeous day here in CO!

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  49. The kids are in the kitchen cooking. I mostly did my part ahead of time and have finished up what I left to do after church (except for actually cooking the corn). It’s nice to have all five of us gathered here, and it occurred to me: I am hosting my first family holiday! (This is the first Father’s Day that my husband is the patriarch.) Our married daughter and her husband brought burgers, which he is preparing; our younger daughter brought berries, and thoughtfully put the strawberries into a different bowl since I am allergic. I am doing salad and corn, and providing the beverages (the last of the apple cider from our neighbors’ orchard) and ice cream.

    We have done birthdays through the years, of course, but for Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Mother’s and Father’s Day, we simply do not have enough room to host the extended family. (Our table seats five at the most–that’s a bit snug–though we can seat a few more if the weather is good and we eat on the deck. But it can’t be windy or rainy or even too hot, since the pull-out awning can’t handle just anything.) I’ve looked forward to the opportunity to be the matriarch myself, though, and I guess this is it.

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  50. Cleveland Clinic is doing a great job scheduling our appointments. We spent my wife’s birthday driving to Cleveland last month, and now we’re about to spend the rest of Father’s Day driving there too. Blessed Sunday, all, I’ll be back tomorrow.

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  51. Excellent message from a guest minister in our denomination who until recently pastored the church in NYC — the presbytery covered all of southern NY and Ct. He now has a position in the denomination but also has a radio program. With his enthusiasm and engaging personality, I’m sure it’s worth listening to — called “A Visit to the Pastor’s Study” WLIE radio, 540 AM, noon Saturdays and I presume one not living in that area could find it online. I think it’s also offered on sermon audio.

    During our SS Q&A hour he made the point that when approaching nonbelievers we do it always on the basis that they are people made in the image of God — not on their sexual identity or other issues. Makes all the difference. Amen. (This was during a discussion about hospitality specifically offered to non believing friends, family, neighbors.)

    He did mention that LA seems to be outpacing NY when it comes to the numbers of homeless on the streets 😦

    I sat near a couple who have decided to attend our church and after talking to them I realized the husband was on the evangelism ministry staff at one of our mega churches nearby for a number of years, I believe I interviewed him once for a story, but I can’t remember the subject.

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  52. Another point he made in his sermon (which was on Acts 8:1-4 and evangelism) was that the church has an amazing opportunity in our time. “A culture can violate God’s law of gravity only for so long” before catastrophe and despair will set in.

    “And don’t you dare say ‘well they had it coming to them,'” he warned us. Just as a doctor treating someone who is in poor health due to an unhealthy lifestyle, the response rather is “Let’s see what we can do to help.”

    I have to say, his optimism and love for the lost as he preached was contagious.

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  53. We also sang a hymn I wasn’t familiar with, though we may have sung it years ago in my former Presbyterian church. “All Authority and Power”:

    All authority and power, every status and domain,
    Now belongs to Him who suffered our redemption to obtain;
    Angels, demons, kings and rulers, over all shall Jesus reign!

    All the nations owe Him worship; Every tongue shall call Him Lord;
    How are men to call upon Him if His name they have not heard?
    Therefore go and make disciples, preach His gospel, spread His word.

    All the clear commands of Jesus must be heeded and obeyed;
    Full provision for our weakness in His teaching He has made!
    In the Gospel words and symbols, saving truth to us conveyed.

    All the time He will be with us, always, to the end of days,
    With His own believing people, who keep steadfast in his ways;
    God the Father, Son and Spirit, bless us, and to Him the praise.

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  54. website (re the above radio program and minister) is http://www.visitthepastorsstudy.org

    So more family photos were dragged down from top cabinet over guest room closet this afternoon. Whew. Carted to the garage. I also cleaned out a couple of the drawers below the closet space, not much in those, thankfully. But they’re completely cleared out now.

    Slowly, slowly …

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  55. Donna @ 4:55
    I’ve never heard that either.
    We attend the 8:15 “Traditional” service. we have been there almost a year. But every Sunday they manage a song I’ve never heard before.

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  56. Happy Father’s day to AJ, Chas, Peter L, Kevin, Art, Mike, Mr P, Paul x2, and all the other dad’s of the blog. I miss mine. Was kind of sad not to see a special header for Father’s day, like AJ did for the moms. Daddys are so important and I hope they know how much they are loved.

    Liked by 4 people

  62. I’ve been loving all the photos on FB today of folks with their fathers. Couldn’t the dads on this blog send AJ pictures of themselves with their kids? It always melts my heart to a father and children–probably because I spent so many years with dads gone to sea.

    I’m not going to complain about the weather, but I am melting . . . even with the dad in the house.

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  64. Hope all the fathers on here had a nice day. I got to see my dad yesterday at my niece’s graduation party, but didn’t have a lot of time to talk to him, so I called him tonight and we talked on the phone for a half hour, a lot of it about when he started to drive back in the day. No instruction — he just walked into some office, paid for a license, walked out, and that was it. He is 87 years old and has never had a car accident.

    I also learned he played the piano for a while in his youth. I did not know that until today. He didn’t like playing, or even listening to, music in those days, though. He likes listening to it now, however.

    All of the kids (and future son-in-law) were here today to celebrate Father’s Day, as they were to celebrate Mother’s Day last month. (Which had also been the day of two of our daughters’ birthdays, in May.) Nice day today to head to a local park, enjoy mild temperatures, shoot some hoops…

    Another blessing of a day. Thank you, Lord.

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