48 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-29-18”

  6. Oh, in our push toward spring, we have a dozen or so purple tulips up, but not open yet, as of a day or two ago. I’ll have to see if they are open today. We don’t usually get that many all at once! In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many in a cluster all ready to open. The crocuses came up last week, and the week before, but not in their usual areas. Rather than having six or eight or a dozen in the area where they are planted, we had one in that area and one in a totally new area around the corner (where we planted grass last fall after tearing out bushes)–I’m guessing a squirrel buried a bulb there), and then we had a couple more in the original area, but really a scraggly sort of showing and not like previous years. If we were staying here I would replant this fall, but we hope to be long gone by then.

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  9. I don’t know who saw the update on my friend Lee last night, but she was awake and talking some. That is a far cry from calling her family in to say good-bye and take her off the ventilator.
    She is still terminal. The doctor’s all say she is a miracle. Please remember her in your ongoing prayers.

    I am off to what many tell me is a life changing program. I am a little scared. I hear some break down and cry. I am somewhat afraid to scratch too far below the surface. I have myself convinced right now that things are pretty good.

    Still no Miss Maddy Dee.

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  10. The apricot trees are blooming in our area. I see my peach trees have buds, but have not yet bloomed. I see daffodils and forsythia blooming in the area. And, of course, the wind is ever present in varying intensities.

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  12. I am wondering what a “life changing program” might be.
    I have had some of those, but I didn’t realize at the time. I was just doing the “next right thing”.

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  13. I have a few extra moments at home this a.m. Where to begin? I have sorted some laundry. With my wrist still damaged everything is harder to do. But I don’t have time enough to actually do laundry. Just trying to figure what must be washed so we can have wearable and not too oddly matched clothes for a few more weeks.

    Miss Bosley is engaged with bird watching at the window. Spring is good for that. It’s delightful to hear what is blooming in each of your yards.

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  15. My washer has a timer on it, so you can load it in the morning and set it to run just before you get home and then all you need to do is throw the cleaned clothes into the dryer. We don’t use that option very often, but when needed, it sure comes in handy.

    I see snow, snow, snow, snow. And the temperature is ridiculous for this time of year -13F with a windchill of -26F Ugh, ugh, ugh.

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  16. Just in from the morning walk about. Saw a doe out on the hillside. Was met by the quail this morning. The chicks are feathering out so they can move on before the poults hatch out. Daffodils are ready to bloom. Nectarines and cherries are covered in buds but I hope they don’t open yet.

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  18. Cold here, but the robins have returned so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    We have our own little quail; northern bobwhites. They either escaped from someone’s place or came from the retriever club where they are used for training dogs. They have been here since the fall. They are cute, but sure have made a mess of the place in a garden by the house where they often sit.

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  19. Nancyjill- My friend in the Denver area keeps posting pictures on Facebook about the snow you’re getting. I told him the pictures look good for January or February, but not March. Today he says you’re getting snow and lightning. I thought thunder snows were only in the Midwest.

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  20. I’m off tomorrow so this is my last day to work for the week — and I’m all set with a story to write, so it should be easy. The new tires escapade yesterday was complicated when I mentioned to the guy that all my tire pressure sensors are out. No surprise, he said they last about 5 years on average as they run on a battery that needs to be replaced (batteries plural, one for each of the 5 tires, counting the spare). Oy. So more waiting while they did that.

    Meanwhile, I’m learning window (which is a language, didn’t you know?). Casings vs. sashes. I call it all “trim.” This is wrong. And it will be confusing when it comes time to provide directions to a painter. In my case (with my chosen color scheme), my casings will be Interactive Cream and the sashes all will be Tiki Hut. Nothing’s simple.

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  21. Something I posted a few years ago on FB:

    C.S. Lewis on his conversion to Christianity: “… what I heard was God saying, ‘Put down your gun and we’ll talk.’ I chose, yet it really did not seem possible to do the opposite.”

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  22. And an article I shared yesterday (which quotes ‘ken,’ the old house blog guy I used for paint color consultations and who is teaching me to speak window):

    http://www.pulse.ng/the-new-york-times/world/this-old-house-is-a-chore-id8000340.html

    _____________________________

    How hard could it be to replace a 90-year-old toilet? It seemed like something a plumber could handle, maybe even the one standing in my bathroom in 2013, telling me a crack in my tank meant that mine was toast.

    This is when I learned Rule No. 1 for owners of old houses: Never utter the phrase “just swap it out.”

    I will not belabor the details of early 20th-century plumbing, but trust me when I say that if I had simply replaced my commode, a new model would have been perched roughly half a foot from the wall. To get to the shower, I would have had to climb over the new fixture.

    The solution? Rip up the original tile floor and move the plumbing. Other problems would have followed: The mint-colored wall tiles would have likely been damaged and needed replacement, too. I might have had to open the kitchen ceiling to access the pipes above. In other words, to replace the toilet, I would have had to gut my vintage 1924 bathroom to the tune of $25,000.

    And this, my friends, is how I found myself on a website called This Old Toilet, which sells, as you might have gathered, old toilets. …

    … Old houses woo you with character. Step into a center-hall colonial, and you swoon over crown molding and carved woodwork. But it is the antique kitchen or bathroom that is the real conversation piece. (You think my toilet is funky; I haven’t even told you about my shimmery bathroom wallpaper, a rather bold update made by the previous owners. As I have no idea what lurks behind that sturdy paper, I have resisted removing it and bringing the bathroom back to its original state. Besides, the bling has kind of grown on me.)

    “Houses with authentic parlors are a dime a dozen,” said Ken Roginski, who writes Old House Guy, a blog that laments the prevalence of vinyl siding and other ill-advised updates. “But if you could have an authentic kitchen or bathroom, it’s a museum piece.”

    Roginski also works as a consultant to homeowners, chastising the ones who have succumbed to the lure of newness and replaced their rattling wood windows with silently sliding, but charmless, double-paned ones, and advising others on how to avoid such a fate.

    Wondering what to do about your shabby shutters? Read the Old House Guy’s exhaustive treatise on the subject, prefaced with an ominous warning: “What one thinks is a simple mistake will destroy a home’s curb appeal. Don’t let this happen to you!”

    When you’re done, you’ll either roll up your sleeves and get to work, or need a Xanax.

    Which brings us to Rule No. 3: Do-it-yourself is harder than it looks. …
    _______________________________________

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  23. Donna, I posted months ago how I replaced the tub in our bath with a walk in shower.
    It cost over $6000 and required renovating the entire bath, including sink, commode and tile..
    But I like the grab bars. I think I mentioned it before.
    Since you’re doing it, prepare to get old. It requires grab bars you may not think you need now.

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  25. I’ll add those later, Chas, the bathroom is long-since done.

    I did have an old toilet in the spare, mini, 1/2 bath in the spare bedroom (someone retrofitted the old clothes closet space years ago, still has the original wood floors and ‘hopper’ window). The toilet was probably from the 1940s and plumbers would virtually gasp whenever they saw it. Ultimately, it couldn’t be fixed, however, so it had to go. Luckily, in my case, it was an easy swap with a new toilet from Home Depot.

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  26. Peter, it’s interesting how weather/seasonal preferences vary. You have your snow people and your (hotter the better) summer people.

    I remember Kim telling me how she spotted our mountains turning from white to more green as she came into LA a few weeks ago. She thought the green would encourage me, spring is coming — but I was more thrilled that there was still snow on our mountains to the east. 🙂

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  27. Peter – We occasionally get thunder snow out here in New England, too.

    DJ – To many of us, your winter is spring. 🙂

    I think I’ve mentioned that a little over a year after my dad died, my mom took a trip out to California, staying with my cousins in Napa. She often remarked on her surprise at seeing such lovely greenery and flowers in the midst of January. One cousin, as they would be out walking, would bring her attention to something pretty by announcing, “Hark! Bloomage!” 🙂

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  29. Nightingale is in her element these days as she plans for the “Easter Brunch” we’re having the Saturday after Easter. She and I have been rethinking and rearranging the decorations in the dining room, and getting rid of some stuff that’s been hanging around in there for a while. She’s planning on how to best use the spaces available in the dining room for the various brunch items. For instance, the bay window will be the coffee, tea, and muffins and scones area, and the hutch will be cleared off to be the orange juice and mimosa area.

    She has simple-and-understated-but-lovely decorations for each area. (Typing that, I thought it can sound overdone, but it’s really not. Nightingale has very good taste, on the simple-but-elegant side.) She absolutely loves doing this stuff, and it pleases my heart to see her happy, and to watch her process.

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  31. We have had thunder snow but I didn’t hear any thunder yesterday….we had a full blown white out situation and it was fantastic!! This has been a strange winter around here and today I look out the window and see snow on the ground and on the pines…happy and thankful indeed!! ⛄️

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  32. Our winter has been colder and longer than I’ve ever experienced. And it is continuing. Thankfully my peppers, celery, and parsley have sprouted in the basement and will be more than ready for when the ground is warm enough to plant out.

    We, very rarely, get thunder snows up here, too.

    Oh, how I am longing for the green to start showing. Right now the sunlight is intense both in the sky and in the reflection off the snow.

    Kizzie, I love those little touches and decorating for a special meal/time, too!

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  33. We saw a female rodent on hooves at the park today and heard wild turkeys. I just posted this on FB, for those interested in life with a 4.5 year old–who is currently doing a puzzle while I sneak into my office to clean up some stuff!

    Modern life with a 4.5 year old.

    I’ve been hanging out with a 4.5 Adorable this week. (Note: 4.5 years old, NOT 4 years old, Grammy).

    I’ve noticed several things:

    1. The Moms at storytime are a lot younger than they used to be.

    2. I wondered if they thought I was this Adorable’s mother. Sigh. Probably not–even though I DID know all the words and music.

    3. There aren’t a lot of small children wandering around in the daytime–like the bank, grocery store or library.

    4. Indeed, I saw more dogs in those places than children.

    5. Children don’t always like the same food I do–or at least that I should eat. (Can’t we have pasta at every meal? Hey, we’re Italian, why not?)

    6. Modern strollers are really difficult to open and shut, even if you have a college degree. Strangers are helpful at the park. (where we did see a few small children but more dogs).

    7. I walk too fast.

    8. I clean too much. (Ha! If only).

    9. It’s hard to fold all those smaller clothes efficiently.

    10. I have no clue how to brush hair.

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  35. My mom got upset (talking about in retrospect) at being often taken for our grandparents. It all went over my head, I guess, because I never noticed it. But considering there were three of us close in age, born in Mom’s forties and Dad’s fifties, it makes sense that people would think they were out with the grandkids (especially if Dad was with the family, since Dad was eight years older than Mom and Mom probably looked a bit younger than she was). Now it isn’t uncommon for women in their forties to bear children; when we were growing up, it was.

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  36. Mrs B was 44 when Flyboy were born. I don’t recall anyone mistaking her for his grandmother though. I’ll have to ask her about that.

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  39. I survived. Exhausted. Our office is closed tomorrow but all that really does is give me time to catch up.
    Mr. P sent a text to me today that we were having a yard and garden party this weekend. I was really proud of him for planning a party and started planning the food. What he meant was something totally different! He and I will be working in the yard tomorrow and Saturday!
    We will be having Easter with friends this year as I have planned nothing.

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  40. We had a yard and garden party today! Lots getting done and lots of ready help. Very enjoyable.

    By the way, I happened to be on an adoption photolisting and happened to notice a couple of groups of children that would fit in really nicely here. One group was seven and the other was six. The youngest fit into our age scheme so I would not be seventy yet when she turned eighteen.

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  44. We could, if God works it out, have new children in the home by this summer. That would be a good time to start getting to know each other. Without school getting in the way.

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  47. I just realized that Bible study/prayer group was at my house this week for the first time since I don’t really have room, but we were a small group this week so I hosted. I was tired from the trip to Goroka and being sick, but it went well. Anyway, my prayer request was for the safe delivery of my new grandchild. Looking back, I think the timing was that my daughter got up and labor began right about when we prayed.
    God is good. I would not have thought to pray then, as the baby was not due for another ten days.

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