37 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 9-24-18”

  1. Good evening Jo.
    Good morning everyone else.
    I turned the heat on o raise the temp from 74-76 degrees. Just two to get the chill off. It’s 63 outside.

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  4. Morning, Chas. So nice to be on school break. I cleaned an area of my classroom that has been a mess for quite a while. So nice to get rid of the clutter. I am also writing thank yous. Several folks came from the states for the dedication this weekend, so I will ask them to take some mail back. That is our system here. It takes so long and is very expensive to mail anything from here.

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  7. Morning! It is a tad bit chilly here this morning but the furnace didn’t kick on….I am ready to be in a “Frost on the pumpkins” season…then of course snow on the rooftops comes after that.. 😊 It has been an extraordinarily dry and hot September around here and people are getting cranky!

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  10. I slept well and also am ready for fall. Fall isn’t quite ready for us yet, we still have our hot Santa Ana season to go through (assuming this is a normal year), but it is cooler, in the low to mid 70s and into the 60s at night finally.

    My story about the old house standing in the way of a big development may have changed over the weekend (before I could write it), someone said it looked like demolition was beginning. So I’ll have to drive by there this morning. I’ll still write the story but it’ll be a different story now.

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  12. Michelle, I feel your pain.

    I actually did get enough last night, eventually. But I awoke before I was actually ready to get up and drank a glass of water and went to the bathroom, crawled into bed in time to need to blow my nose, crawled into bed and remembered I left my camera battery charging last night, then I was itchy and needed lotion. By the time I have popped back up four times in ten minutes, I decide it’s better to stay up for a bit, so I was up an hour and then slept quite a bit longer.

    But last weekend I lay awake almost all night Saturday night, finally dozing off near dawn. I might have slept half an hour, might have slept an hour and a half, but not more than that. I napped during the day and got another 90 minutes–then Sunday night lay awake till 4:30 or so, desperately needing sleep and getting crabbier and crabbier. (“Why does HE get to sleep if I can’t?!”) I finally went to sleep and I think I got four hours. But those are long, lonely, boring nights after a while, no matter what you do.

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  13. I’m in bed usually by nine most nights. I generally read until I’m sleepy. Often I turn out the light to sleep and my brain revvs into gear. After 45 minutes, I usually get up, take my book and shift into the guest room to read. Sometimes I fall asleep there, sometimes I return to our room. Sometimes I keep getting up. That was last night.

    If I’m not asleep by midnight, I get up and drink Yogi bedtime tea. That often helps, but needs to steep for 10-15 minutes, so I read while waiting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

    It did not work at 3:30 this morning.

    I pray, solve problems, dream up marketing schemes, mentally answer email, fret about not sleeping, toss, turn, beg to fall asleep, tell myself Cheryl’s alphabet sleep inducer, listen for the paper, shove the cat off the bed and so on.

    Last night I just gave up four different times and finished the book at 4:30. It was a good book, but morally problematic at the end, so disappointing.

    All the recommendations I read and hear about sleep just shame me. I will not take a drug, so I pray the Lord will use my weakness to demonstrate his strength. Obviously, I’m the ideal candidate. 😦

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  14. I have spent a lot of time asking God to help me learn to take every thought captive. But with this last weekend kerfluffal, I had to ask Him to do it for me as I could not at all. Kept going back to son. Guess what? He did. I heard footsteps at 10;30, the door opening, the coat room door opening, the hall door opening, and then I went to sleep thinking he was home. Slept very well whereas the night before was fitful. Nobody came in the house. Was it God? An angel? God manipulating my mind? I don’t know but thoughts went away.

    The core concept there was taking every thought captive. Too often, we tend to stay up nights trying to solve the world problems. A lack of trust? The need to feel important? I don’t know but I am choosing to go with “Take every thought captive” and it appears to be turning my thoughts more and more to God. I think that is good. I don’t have it down yet, just starting.

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  15. Yesterday, something was said about something being “trendy”. It is probably best to stay away from anything trendy unless you really like it and think you will not eventually grow tired of it. Today’s trendy often turns into tomorrow’s kitschy or tacky. (Not always, but pretty frequently.)

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  16. Re trendy: We went to our condo’s coffee hour a couple of weeks ago and I noticed nearly all the women were wearing capris. (Other than us, probably no one in the room was younger than 75.) I went to Bible study (three of us younger than 60, five or so of them 65 to 80) and had it confirmed: capris are now the shorts of the aged. A few years ago young women were wearing them too, but my hunch is that is no longer true.

    Thing is, fashion is something I rarely even think about. I can see what is or isn’t available in the store, and I’ll notice if every other person in church is wearing plaid or teal. But I realized with surprise one day that none of the other women were wearing hose and wondered “How long has that been the case?” Or I notice that skirts of all lengths are acceptable right now, and two years later I wonder (but don’t know) if that is still true.

    So, whether or not something is “in style,” I buy it if I like it, trying to avoid what is actually super trendy. (For instance, even if I wasn’t past 50 I wouldn’t buy any of those blouses with the cut-out shoulders. Next year or two years from now those will be “out.” They are too obviously a fad and not just a clothing style.) I like plaid, so I’ve taken advantage of them being in to buy several–but I will continue to wear them if they go “out.” Same with peasant-style skirts. They’re cute and they’re feminine, and they may come “in” but they won’t ever be really and truly “out,” and I probably won’t know it if they are, and I’ll keep wearing them.

    A few years ago I realized that young women may find it humorous that older women don’t wear stylish clothes–but older women do (often) match one another; we just don’t always match the young. So young women may look askance at older women continuing to wear capris, which are “out” (if they are in fact out), but when 75% of the women in a room of elderly women are wearing capris, you can’t really say that they’re out.

    I do feel like a fashion setter in one regard, though: Women past 50 are wearing their hair long and aren’t coloring it!! For the first time in my life, I’m actually ahead of a trend. 🙂 It’s lovely to see, though. I have grown so tired of seeing 70-year-old women in short cuts and hair with no hint of gray. Long and graying or gray, in multiple different shades, is so much prettier!

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  17. Frazzled mother-of-the-bride popping in with a quick last-minute question. Any advice appreciated.

    Does anyone have any ideas for a nice day-of-ceremony gift from mother to bride? Or whether you feel that’s necessary?

    I never thought, until today, of giving my daughter a gift just from me. (We already have a gift purchased for the couple.)

    My two daughters who are bridesmaids, my daughter who is getting married, and I (along with the other bridesmaids and my daughter’s future mother-in-law) are getting hair styling and makeup done the morning of the wedding. I had already planned to pay for those things for me and my two daughters who are in the wedding and live at home, but didn’t even think until now about also paying for my marrying-daughter’s style and makeup session too.

    Is that an appropriate gift to the bride, do you think? Or should I give her something tangible? Or do both?

    We’ve gone over-budget already (silly me, thinking $1000 would be enough for motel costs, wedding attire for six, and a nice gift for the couple — nowhere near; we’ve used an additional $500 of $1000 in another fund, and makeup and hair styling will use up an extra $100-$115 per person, almost depleting that extra fund).

    My frugal mind is rebelling at how much this all costs, but another part of me is trying to knock myself silly saying “This is your daughter’s wedding!” (The couple is paying for basically the whole thing, other than what I mentioned above — motel, clothing, makeup and hair.)

    I guess you could say I’m feeling a whole lot of guilt that we’ve helped them so little, and I feel like I should give my daughter something.

    Help me think this through rationally, please. Thanks.

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  18. In skimming what I’ve missed on the blog lately, I see Michelle has a new adorable. Congratulations! A big boy, and he must have been waiting so he could be born on my 6th Arrow’s birthday. 🙂

    Kare, very sorry to hear of your car accident. I hope you’re feeling less pain now, and I pray for a full recovery. Thanking God for His protective hand on you. I’m glad you could walk away from the crash, but, again, am sorry for the discomfort (maybe too mild a word) you have been experiencing.

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  19. “…wedding attire for six…” means wedding attire for six people, not wedding attire for me. (Forgot my “name” for a second, and didn’t realize it could sound like I was only talking about my outfit. 🙂 LOL.

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  20. 6 Arrows, do you happen to have an heirloom piece of jewelry or something along that line that she might inherit someday, but that you can give her on her wedding day instead? I didn’t do anything like that–but then, in addition to the money we had set aside for the wedding (they paid some additional money, but I think we paid for most of it), we paid for her dress and the invitations, and by the time we added my dress and a gift, it really did get expensive–but it sounds like a sweet thought and a good idea. (We all–including the bride–did our own makeup or hair, or had others in the room help us, though. And for my wedding, I had a consultation on makeup in a store, after asking for recommendations on here as to which store to go to, and then bought the recommended makeup and had someone who watched her apply the makeup do mine. Likewise, I had the lady who cut my hair show one of my bridesmaids an idea of what to do with styling it, so I had professional help without having to GO somewhere on my wedding day.)

    Actually, I think my gift to the bride was taking photos that day, making them up into a book, and then sending her a link to the book and letting her suggest edits before I got it printed. The book included courtship photos, some of which she didn’t know I’d taken, and I made a similar copy of it for ourselves. But I presented the “coupon” for the book at one of her showers, not on her wedding day.

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  21. Six, you don’t need to buy them anything. If you have the money and want to, you can.

    The three children’s weddings I have attended, they knew I was not going to a hair place and had no makeup so they had their bridesmaids do stuff to my hair and face if they wanted it done. You are contributing a lot there. This is their wedding and they are paying for it, don’t feel like you need to. I figured if my children wanted my help with the wedding, they would have it in the backyard with the grill fired up, they chose other things but on their budgets.

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  22. Six, I think it would be nice for you to pay for the make-up and hair for your bride daughter. I also think it would be nice to give her a gift from mother to daughter. Perhaps something you had as a bride. A piece of jewelry you already have. Something. Even a nice lace handkerchief she could wrap around the handle to her bouquet. From that you could take it back and make a baby bonnet for her first daughter and one day that daughter could carry it down the aisle with her.

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  24. How to make a handkerchief bonnet?
    Fold the opposite edge toward the first fold approximately 3 inches. Again, this length of this fold may depend on the size of your hankie. Make sure to leave some space between the two rows of lace. Open the hankie and hand stitch running stitches along the first fold.
    Making a Hankie Bonnet Out of Wedding Handkerchiefs
    https://bumblebeelinens.com/hankiebonnet.php
    Search for: How to make a handkerchief bonnet?

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  27. Hello, Wanderers. I am having bit of downtime. I need to check on Pigskin Picks.
    Blessings for a wonderful wedding, 6 Arrows. An unusual gift I received for my wedding was a figurine of an old man and woman together. Maybe something like that, but I really like what Kim said.

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  28. I have some low-dose malatonin on hand — for my dogs (vet-advised for Cowboy who was going through some night pacing a while back; that’s since stopped).

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  29. Six, another “gift” idea, which won’t cost anything and might (depending on your daughter) be just as meaningful: Write her a special letter, “to my daughter on her wedding day.” My mother didn’t live to see my wedding day, but I would have treasured a letter in her handwriting, giving me her blessing, telling me what a good man I was marrying and the reasons I’d be a good wife, and so on. Include a few memories from her childhood and young adult years and it might well be a family keepsake. Buy pretty paper or parchment paper to make it look like something special. Include a favorite snapshot of you and her together when she was tiny, if you like.

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  30. Chas, my Dad had a lamp attached to the bookshelf next to his chair. It was a magnifying lamp with a large magnifying lens surrounded by a light. I found one on amazon here:

    I think that this might help. He was able to continue to read books. Just put the viewer right where he wanted it.
    Perhaps it would help you

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  31. Good idea Jo. I have a magnifying glass at my desk and use it often. It is awkward when I’m trying to write and read at the same time. (as when I’m paying bills.)

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  32. Also, Bible gateway has the Bible in all translations, you just choose what you want and then enter the passage. This would give you whatever you are studying in a larger print.
    My eyes are also having problems so I may do this too.

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  35. ________________________________

    (from story above):

    It’s back-to-school shopping season, and American families will spend $82.8 billion this year, most of it on clothing, the National Retail Federation estimates. It’s second only to Christmas for many retailers.

    Families with children planned to spend an average of $237 on clothing per child, according to data from the federation. And most of that shopping is still done in department stores, said Ana Serafin Smith, a spokeswoman for the group.

    So what’s popular this year? Everyone agrees: It’s ’80s and ’90s nostalgia. Think neon, fanny packs and “dad sneakers.” Street-style activewear is also in demand, as is apparel with messages about inclusivity and peace.

    It’s a far cry from the plaid jumpers, skirtsuits and berets pictured above, from a 1952 article in The New York Times advertising dress patterns for sale. …

    …. Previous back-to-school fashion trends — like a turn away from revealing and tight clothing, which The Times reported on in 2011 — also appear to be going strong. Teen Vogue is featuring long, flowery “prairie dresses” paired with chunky sneakers, which it called “the coolest BTS style combo.”

    “One of the things that’s really exciting about all these trends is we’ve seen them on the runway and in street style,” said Jessica C. Andrews, the fashion features editor for Teen Vogue. “Now they’re trickling into more affordable, accessible brands.” …

    … In recent decades, children’s wear designs have increasingly overlapped with the general apparel market, as mentioned in a 1999 article. Many popular labels offer children’s wear lines, and options for “mommy and me” or “daddy and me” outfits abound.

    “More and more parents are looking for their kids to dress similar to their style,” said Tiziana Indelicato, a branding executive and co-founder of petitePARADE, a biannual runway show for children’s wear. …
    __________________________________________

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  36. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my questions above, all who did. I’ll sleep on it tonight, and pray about which route to go. I appreciate all your commentary.

    Speaking of prayer, yesterday in church I witnessed a touching moment. I was sitting next to 6th Arrow, my daughter who turned 11 last week, and I noticed just before the service that she had her hands folded in her lap, her head bowed and eyes closed. I’m not sure how long she’d been sitting like that, but she held the posture for maybe another 10-15 seconds before opening her eyes and lifting her head.

    Misty mom moment, let me tell you. I whispered a silent prayer in my heart, praising God for His workings in the life of this young lady He’s graciously gifted us and given us the pleasure to raise.

    She matured physically this year, I noted several months ago here, and now I see evidence of her spiritual maturing, as well.

    Beautiful and precious is our Lord, and worthy of all praise and thanksgiving for His many good gifts.

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