57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-25-18”

  6. I’m home and very thankful.

    Somewhere in here is my real life, but I’ll need to dig for awhile.

    I’ll be walking to the library at some point, laundry, grocery shopping and seeing Hill before she returns to Sicily tomorrow.

    Oh, and it’s the last day of birthday season–there’s a new colorful bike in the garage awaiting a happy new seven-year-old.

    I may need to hunt up handlebar streamers this morning.

    A spectacular trip. I’m so thankful Biddy gave me an excuse to go!

    Liked by 4 people

  7. When Chickadee first moved out of the house, and in with the McKs, the arrangement was that sometimes they would drop her off or pick her up, and other times, we would. As time went on, it fell more to Hubby or Nightingale. It was perfect when Hubby could pick her up on his way home one day, and drop her off on his way to work the next (around 1am).

    Recently, I have realized that now the McKs only drive her when it is convenient for them – if they are already going to be in this area, such as before or after Mrs. McK’s and Younger Daughter’s part-time evening job in our town, or if Young Daughter and friends have plans to go out with Chickadee (a couple of their friends live in town). That meant that last week, with Nightingale working four nights in a row, Chickadee could not get a ride for our weekly dinner and time together. 😦

    I miss my Chickadee, and feel so cut off from her life. She does not talk much at all about what is going on with her. And then there is that awful, ungodly influence that YF has on her.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. On a lighter note. . .Are any of you familiar with “The Great British Baking Show”? Nightingale and The Boy have been watching the older seasons on Netflix, and it has given her an idea.

    Nightingale is going to attempt each episode’s challenge herself – one each week, if she has the time. She is already a wonderful and talented baker, and is doing this to increase her skills, challenge herself, and also just for the fun of it. She has said that baking is her therapy.

    She started off with a Swiss Roll, making a traditional one (with jam filling) for practice, then making a “signature” one, an Almond Swiss Roll: vanilla sponge cake with almond Swiss buttercream and sliced almonds.. Delicious!

    When she was making the traditional one, I remarked that I thought Swiss Rolls had a chocolate filling. She laughed and said I shouldn’t get my ideas about Swiss Rolls from Little Debbie’s. (Okay, that sounds condescending, but it really wasn’t, it was said in good humor.)

    Liked by 2 people

  9. My son and his family have been baking, too, as a result of the show.

    Look into Uber or Lyft, Kizzie. If they have it in your town that may help–for both you and your daughter. It would give you a little more autonomy and perhaps you could get out to a Woman’s Bible study. If you could run a few errands with with the drive service, it would give Nightingale a little breakt, too.

    Liked by 5 people

  10. I’m so sorry Chickadee remains caught in that web, kizzie. Is YF any easier to tolerate in person than she is online? She sounds absolutely insufferable to me and I cannot imagine living with someone with an attitude like that. 🙂

    Well, here it is Monday again. I’ll head in to work (rather than working from home) since the other reporter will be back from his vacation today (though he muttered something about maybe not coming back when he left a week ago Friday). The ‘painters’ also are due back today.

    Liked by 4 people

  13. The blues are a beautiful contrast when paired with the warm, dark adobe browns I’m painting my house.

    The other question will be if I can live without a screen door. I’ll give it a try — my original door (mostly glass in a wood frame that matches all the casement windows) is so beautiful and I’d like to have that show from the street; it also would allow me to put up a better ceiling porch light (the swing of the screen door means I have to make do with the recessed light which doesn’t provide much lighting — without the screen door, I could put up something that hangs down but is flush to the ceiling and would provide a lot more light).

    There are some nice, wood screen doors that (painted blue!) would work well, though. For now, I’ll have the old one removed (it’s pretty beat up) and stored in the garage while we paint — that will give me a chance to see if I can live without without one. With animals, window & door screens are handy, of course, but the front of the house looks so much nicer without them.

    Like

  14. It looks like two turtles are using a log to get a ride downstream.

    I got my exercise this morning. I took the minivan in to get some work done on it, and since the mechanic didn’t know how long it would take, I walked home about 2 miles. Glad we are having “cooler” weather (low 80s, high humidity) and not the upper 90s we had a couple of weeks ago and are going to have later in the week.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. I come back from visiting so many friends and I’m full of ideas about improving life at our house.

    I’ll start with getting rid of more junk– is that a continuing issue for anyone besides me?

    Maybe I’ll paint a wall, now that I’ve loved here 5 years!

    Like

  17. Continuing issue for me, most definitely.

    DJ, my house is blue with dark brown trim. We’ve had it different colors over the years (but always with the same trim color), but the colors we have now are my favorite so far.

    The blue doors at the links look stunning!

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Daughter emailed and likes the dress and shoes I picked out for the wedding, so we’re good on that front!

    Now to figure out hair, jewelry, and wraps with her. I’m getting into the wedding mood now. 😉

    Liked by 4 people

  19. I watch that baking show. It is my favorite. It is so interesting to see them bake something I never heard of. They do such a nice job explaining what the best outcome is supposed to be and everyone is so respected.

    That sounds like a fun challenge—especially when she will need people to sample the goodies. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  20. YF sounds like a few others in my life. I try never to engage, since it is simply like talking to long, high solid rock wall. The comment that got to me is that she has been sexually assaulted by both sexes. I wanted to tell her to run to a therapist or she needs to change her activities, location, clothing, behavior or something. It is not unusual to be sexually assaulted, unfortunately, but if it happens over and over by different people, it is a red flag. Of course, she is a person that may say something to boost a point she wants to make.

    Like

  21. Hello! I am home again. My Second & In-law very kindly came and moved me home with all my things yesterday afternoon. In the morning, I played the organ for the church service, and received compliments from the two venerable church organists, so I consider that a success. There was a lunch after the service and I said goodbye to as many of my friends as I could.

    Michelle’s QoD is very a propos, as I am trying to fit two years worth of accumulated goods back into a room that is slightly smaller than my attic apartment. Furthermore, my home room already had an adequate amount of goods in it. I have no qualms about cleaning out clutter. In fact, I have a reputation for ruthlessness among a family that tends to keep everything. My problem is that many of these things are necessities, but only if I am living by myself, e.g. dishes, pots & pans, kettle, iron & board, clothes rack, etc. There is not really any room to store such things outside my room, as the Seconds are still trying to fit their goods in a house that was already quite full of my parents’ goods. I have a standing rule that nothing is to be stored under my bed. As an asthmatic with allergies to dust mites, the fewer places that dust can accumulate, the better for my health. But it seems that, at least temporarily, I will have to break that rule.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. This seems to fit into your discussion that took place over the weekend. This blogger specializes in early church writings, and here he quotes from an early critic of the church, Celsus, writing around A.D. 177:

    Holding nothing back, Celsus tells us what he really thinks about the Christian movement:

    “The following are the rules laid down by [the Christians]. ‘Let no one come to us who has been instructed, or who is wise or prudent (for such qualifications are deemed evil by us); but if there be any ignorant, or unintelligent, or uninstructed, or foolish persons, let them come with confidence.’ By which words, acknowledging that such individuals are worthy of their God, they manifestly show that they desire and are able to gain over only the silly, and the mean, and the stupid, with women and children.”

    Ouch.

    Let’s just list the adjectives: ignorant, unintelligent, uninstructed, foolish, silly, mean, stupid. Celsus is homing in on a common criticism (then and now), namely that Christians were uneducated.

    Simply put, only stupid people become Christians. Smart people know better.

    Of course, this stereotype hasn’t gone away. Indeed, Celsus’ words seem like they could’ve been written yesterday.

    Or, as the wisest man in the world once said, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun”(Ecclesiastes 1:9).

    Like

  24. My peeps (upstairs) just installed a screen door that is probably what Michele referred to as “invisible,” It is spring-loaded and rolls back into a small casing when not in use. The first time they used it, I and their cat both walked into it.

    Liked by 4 people

  25. Yeah, there is that problem. Maybe a red heart needs to be painted in the middle of the door! LOL

    I’d totally do it on my front door, except we’re a little too close to the street and all the neighbors would be peering in. OTOH, air flow would be improved in the summer since we don’t have air conditioning.

    Like

  26. Walked into but not through? Maybe something like that could work, I would love something that easily “pops” in and out when needed only. Same for those front windows. Something that holds critters in (or out), but is removable and easily/neatly store-able without a lot of fuss.

    Like

  28. Kathaleena – I actually did not believe her about those assaults, and I felt a bit guilty about that. She does indeed lie to make a point, and can say one thing to make one point one time, and then say the opposite another time to make a different point. For instance, along with that statement about having been assaulted by both men and women, she also once insisted to another Facebook friend that she’s been acquainted with either “a hundred” or “hundreds of” lesbians (I think it was the latter, but am not sure), and none of them had ever done anything untoward to her.

    Considering that there is a tiny percentage of the population that identify as lesbian, it seems almost impossible to know that many. Which reminds me that one of her tactics is to claim to know large numbers of people who fit one of her stereotypes (mean pro-lifers who don’t care about the moms, neglectful homeschoolers, nasty conservatives who “hate the poor”) or to prove a point, such as her assertion that she could name three dozen people who had tried to commit suicide due to conversion therapy.

    My suspicion is that she counts people she sees on social media as people she knows.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Retractable frame? Might be hard with my house and all the wood, not sure — and customizing would be expensive. …

    Like

  30. Good afternoon everyone. Hope your day is going well.
    My Sunday School class if studying Safe People. I told the teacher after this we will need a “palate cleanser” and suggested Overwhelmed. Someone 😉 sent it to me last year when I was overwhelmed. I am currently on my second reading of it.

    Like

  32. DJ – You mentioned YF’s attitude. I would guess that that attitude comes across mostly on social media. But I do remember before I ever got involved with Facebook, when her family lived upstairs, she often had a way of speaking that had a tone that sounded like she thought she obviously knew better about whatever was being discussed, like she was filling me in on facts I must not know (but did). I remember feeling a mixture of being amused and annoyed at that.

    Liked by 1 person

  33. 6 Arrows – I’m pretty sure that if Nightingale ever gets married, she will pick out my mother-of-the-bride dress. 😀 Of course, she won’t make me wear anything I don’t like.

    Like

  34. And it probably indicates a deep insecurity of some kind, of course, but it’s hard to get past when you’re on the receiving end. It’s interesting she’s not at least more self-aware of that behavior and those attitudes than she is at her age (30ish?)

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Michelle – Uber and Lyft cost money, so those would be saved for something urgent.

    Nightingale usually doubles up on errands when she goes out, so picking up Chickadee could include a stop at her bank, or at the store for a few things.

    Like

  37. DJ – I have thought the same thing. (She’s 30.) One time, after she had once again written of people disagreeing with her as indecent or some such, I asked her why she did that, why she felt she had to disparage and dismiss people who disagreed with her.

    Instead of looking at her own motivation, she replied that it is because those people are so wrong or bad or whatever. I was struck by how clueless her answer was.

    I think I’ve mentioned that the verses she has mentioned as “resonating” (her word) in her spirit are the one about not praying in public to show off, and the one about how hard it is for a rich man to enter Heaven. Those verses are aimed at other people, not something she takes as personal counsel. I found that very odd and telling.

    Like

  40. One thing I have learned from YF is to be very careful in my tone and choice of words, and more aware of my own motivations in writing. For instance, I am getting uncomfortable with how much I am writing about her on this thread, trying to address others’ comments with the truth without going too far.

    Liked by 1 person

  44. I really don’t like to get into political discussions online. It is hard to for me to listen to liberal dogma. I have some very liberal cousins as friends on facebook. I don’t even follow their pages, as they cause me irritation every time I read one of their posts. I really don’t have time or energy to be in contention with someone.

    Liked by 3 people

  46. Kizzie, 2:02, I can imagine Nightingale doing that. 🙂 I’ll bet she would choose with care, too.

    We have clutter in every room of the house, but I try hard to keep one room a haven from it. (Should be my bedroom, because it is so peaceful in there after I get it thoroughly tidied. It’s been a long time, though, since it’s been in that state, as the long wall without windows has several half-falling-apart boxes of old photos lining it. They were formerly in the basement, but that’s not a good place to store them, so my husband brought them upstairs to our room, which was about the only upstairs room to have storage space, albeit not hidden away like I would like them to be.)

    The room I work to keep tidy is the living room. The piano is in there, as well as a floor lamp, couch, loveseat, chair, end table, narrow bookcase for some sheet music etc., and an old, small dining room table covered with a tablecloth and holding the aquatic tank for our turtle.

    It’s a fairly small room, so I don’t want a lot of stuff on, under, and around those items. Everything is along the perimeters, so we have a nice open area in the middle that makes the room look more expansive than I’ve probably made it sound with this description.

    The big window to the east helps “enlarge” the room, I should add.

    Sometimes just sitting quietly in the living room for a bit can help get me in a clean-it-up mindset for another room. Otherwise it seems I’m too stressed from junk all over the rest of the place, including outside with all the vehicular clutter, that it stymies any energy I might have to tackle a disaster area.

    Liked by 1 person

  47. Hubby recently brought home an old wooden desk and chair he had used as a child. We cleaned out junk from the corner of 6th Arrow’s bedroom, and now that desk and chair are hers. It’s tucked away in a nice corner near her one window, and she has her dinosaur lamp (no, not an old lamp, but one with a green dinosaur base) 😉 sitting in the corner for extra lighting when she sits down to write. (She’s like her older sister 3rd Arrow, who enjoys writing, too, I mentioned the other day.)

    Her dresser sits next to that desk, and she was motivated to clear the clutter from the top of the dresser to extend the tidiness of her room just a few inches further… 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  48. As we speak, sixteen year old daughter is out cleaning the camp trailer which nineteen year old is coming home to in a week. He is doing farm work for the neighbors and plans to live in the trailer on their property. It is awkward moving home when you don’t like authority. Awkward on all sides so we prefer the trailer. It has seen a lot of miles and a lot of living but we rarely use it in the past fifteen years. Mostly as a guest room. It is easier for me to set up tents when camping though as I get older, it will come in handy, I suspect. Anyway, she likes to clean and wants a job doing that so I offered her the opportunity to practice. She is the one who put armourall on my windshield.

    Liked by 1 person

  49. That screen from Amazon, DJ? Yeah, no. Great idea, not so good on function. I bought one because the neighbors liked theirs and we were having a terrible problem with flies. Of course, I had many children but apparently many children cannot take the time to close it properly. The neighbors then complained that it was not keeping their chihuahua in the house.

    Like

  52. That looks handy — Just would want the frame to not be real obvious (since I’m doing away with the traditional screen door for aesthetics to begin with). Maybe a bronze frame or maybe it’s paintable to match the cream trim I’m using, or maybe blue.

    Well anyway, I’ll keep poking around, I need 4 *easy* pop-in screens for the windows in the front of the house that ideally could fit on the inside.

    Painter discovered a termite-damaged post on front porch that now has to be replaced. Sigh.

    Like

  53. Michelle, the writings of the prophets show the heart of God, what angers Him and grieves His Spirit. The Bible, in speaking of collective sin of nations and peoples, makes it plain that collective injustice to the weak and collective indulging in the lusts of the flesh are two sides of the same coin. The nation that commits one, commits the other, and both make God very angry. Sodom was destroyed not only for her sexual immorality, but also for her indifference to the sufferings of the weak when she lacked for nothing (Ezekiel 16:49-50). Ezekiel is speaking to Israel in chapter 22. Israel stood in a unique position towards God, as being the people of God. The surrounding nations were destroyed in punishment for their sins. When Israel committed the same sins as the surrounding nations, she was disciplined, albeit very severely, for God still had a purpose to accomplish with her.

    With the coming of Christ and the founding of His Church, the status of God’s people was extended to those whom He had chosen from every nation under earth. The Church bears a unique relationship to God, although not exactly the same as Israel’s, for the Church is not an earthly nation as Israel was. All the nations of the world are being and will be judged for their sins, and there is no nation that has, is, or will be in existence which is exempt from that doom. But it is a very serious matter when the Church indulges in the same sins as the world around them. Ezekiel’s words, as the rest of Scripture, should challenge the people of God to look at ourselves in order see if we are committing the same sins of injustice and sensuality as the world around us, for we are the ones who will be disciplined. The world will be judged and destroyed, but Christians who follow the world’s mindset, as the salt when it becomes become tasteless, will be cast out and trodden under foot (Matthew 5:13).

    Liked by 2 people

  54. So Michelle has been “loving” in the same house for 5 years. Nice typo that makes sense.

    I wore myself out today. After that two miles, I finally put up a wooden screen door. We had one of those nylon ones, but it was not good for a permanent fix. Then I tilled part of the yard to sow grass seed. Time for rest.

    Liked by 3 people

  55. Clutter makes me antsy. Currently in my bedroom I have a pack and play crib, a bouncy thing, a stack of diapers, and an activity blanket. I didn’t have that with my own child. Anyone need a double bed?

    Like

  56. Do I have any Elmer’s Glue? The painter texts me. Uh, no, and if I did it’s years old and I’d have no way of knowing where it was!

    Liked by 1 person

  57. Kizzie, one of the new pieces I assigned 6th Arrow in her piano lesson tonight was entitled “The Nightingale.” It had a picture of a bird on the page, but I still thought of your Nightingale and the reason for her name. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.