37 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-1-19”

  3. Morning! It is a New Year and I slept through the “changing of the guard”!! Now I just need to get in the swing of things and remember to write 2019 when a date is required! 😊
    It is very cold and snowy here still….and it is beautiful! I do hope everyone has a most lovely day, this first day of the year! 🎉

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  4. It’s sunny and warm here at Hilton Head for the moment! That’s great for all the Polar Bear Dip folks.

    I like to make plans and goals but since they seem to get scrapped for one reason or another, each time it becomes more difficult to make the effort. I look back and see that I was successful in homeschooling one child through first grade up to college. But even with that, it was a yearly goal with never knowing if it would work out for the next year. It was twelve yearly goals, but not a true long range goal because I never knew what might come up to change things.

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  5. Happy New Year! We had the usual flurry of fireworks and other noises at midnight and I’m up early to make cop calls — I had a text from my night owl friend in the valley saying she actually banged a few pans together at midnight. 🙂

    I also changed my wifi ID and password first thing this morning (to make sure neighbor can’t tap into my wifi signal).

    I initially told them yes when the one boy came to my door and asked last night if he could use my wifi for better coverage in his bedroom — I wanted to be helpful and accommodating — but then I realized, well, that was stupid, because who knows who will be coming and going in their household and using their devices (and possibly my wifi); so now I’ve changed my WiFi router ID & password, just for extra security. The wifi extender I gave him was generous enough and it should work to expand their wifi coverage on their own paid-for signal and equipment.

    It also occurred to me later that they’ve sometimes struggled paying bills, including for the wifi tv service (I sometimes accidentally get their ‘last notice’ bills in my mail box) and I thought it would be too convenient for the kid to just use my signal if they wound up getting shut off. I really like them and they’ve had a hard, hard time in the past few years, but sometimes I am just too accommodating. I trust the mom wouldn’t do that, but I should not be automatically trusting of the kids, even the one who’s doing well and whom I like.

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  6. I came up with a word last night. Clarity. If I have a jumble of other words and things to focus on, then I need clarity to figure out which ones are worthwhile and which must wait.
    This morning will be focused on real estate and setting the foundation for what 2019 looks like. Today is the biggest expired listings day of the year and I have plenty of people to call.

    I also must confess that I woke up ANGRY this morning. I now have 3 people in my life who have lost children to drug overdoses. My heart hurts for my friend. This afternoon I will put together my wonderful white lasagna. It freezes easily so someone can cook it later this week. I am sure it will taste like sawdust to my friend.

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  7. Do you stay with family at Hilton Head or have a favorite place to stay. Do you have a favorite beach, Janice? I wish we had had more time in SC and hope to return.

    Happy New Year to everyone.

    We are in frigid cold, which is normal. It is beautiful with all the trees loaded with the last wet snow fall. The deer venture out to the crabapple tree as evidenced by the trails and trampling of snow under that tree.

    I think it is the day to undecorate. There will also be some decorating as I put back the items I needed to put somewhere else during the holidays.

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  8. We are on Sea Pines at our timeshare with a stretch of beach that goes by this and another resort and private beach homes. It is a fairly quiet stretch of beach except when the weather is good it can be quite crowded right in front of the resorts. We are not too far from Harbour Town and the light house, but that would be too far for me to walk.

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  9. Sorry to hear of your friend’s loss. I also know some who have died from drug overdoses and some who are still struggling.

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  10. I was watching the New Year parade in London.
    I didn’t know London had so many pretty girls.

    I don’t see how people can start taking drugs when they see what happens to people.
    Look at the people sleeping on the sidewalk in any large city.
    Know how they got there?
    “Just once, I can handle it.”

    To me, nothing is worse than being worthless.
    But some people don’t see it that way.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Drugs are very strong and are often started when the person is still young and stupid and think of themselves as invincible. Or when they are in constant pain and want relief. Most of us could not imagine giving up our children, but there are many who have “chosen” drugs over their children. Once captivated by drugs, it is difficult to get out.
    How do they start? Some intentionally. Some hear the DARE message of “drugs will make you feel good for an hour or two but then you lose that” but to them, feeling good for an hour or two sounds good because their life is so sad. Some are given their initial drugs through family or “friends” just trying to share a good time, or get you to join in so they don’t feel so bad about their habit. Others are persuaded by dealers, being told this will be good and is nothing like those addictive drugs…
    But the power of drugs is very strong as attested to by all the children in foster care or adoption because their bio parents cannot give it up to keep the family together.

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  12. I haven’t known the loss of young people to drugs (well, not a loss to death; I know several parents of drug-addicted young people), but I’ve known quite a few losses to suicide. My college roommate (first 2 1/2 years) had four children with her husband, and then he left her for another woman several years ago, and this summer he killed himself. His own father abandoned the family, so his mother stood with his rejected wife. They have three daughters and one (the youngest) boy. Humanly speaking, what chance does that boy have? He’s the baby in a female-dominant family, and at least two generations of men have now abandoned the family, including the ultimate abandonment. I think he is 14 now (he was born on election day during a presidential election year), and he saw his father every couple of weeks or so, and suddenly his father just takes himself out of the picture.

    I sometimes wonder what Adam and Eve would say if they were to see the world of devastation that sin unleashed on us. People get hurt by other people in such hugely destructive ways.

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  13. Kim, for the first several years I wrote a Christmas letter I thought of a word or a phrase that summarized that year. I believe that in 2011, when I married and moved, and married someone I hadn’t even met at the beginning of the year, it was “What a difference a year makes!”

    But there are only so many themes that can summarize a year before they begin to sound cliched. Two thousand eighteen was a year with lots of change, too. At the beginning of last year we were living in the country, my husband was an elder at our church, and we had just found out our older daughter was expecting a baby. We now have a granddaughter, we are in town and not the country (and a brand new town in a new region of the state), we have a new and quite different church, we have an all-new community, and rather than caring for an acre of land we have a condo. The move was stressful and hard, and my husband and I have both had some health challenges. An obvious theme could have been “Moving!” except that would have suggested it was bigger news than the grandbaby (for us personally, it actually is, but for the family, looking forward into the future, it is not).

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  19. This has been just an odd, off-beat holiday season for me for a lot of reasons.

    This morning I’m trying to keep tabs on some horrible traffic accidents all over Southern California (holiday shift for all 11 newspapers). I’m “early” so I’m thinking the “mid” day shift should start maybe by 1 p.m.?

    I have the Rose Parade on TV but it’s muted — I usually don’t watch it but was up super early to work so decided to flip it on

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Happy New Year, Dear Fellow Wanderers.

    I am licking my wounds from a brief conversation with Nightingale in which she said something somewhat hurtful.

    I realize this is not the prayer thread, but please pray for our relationship. When things were so sweet between us in the beginning of our new life without Hubby, I knew that it was like a honeymoon phase, and that those phases don’t last. Although she and I have much in common, and are in agreement about many things, we are two very different women temperamentally.

    Liked by 3 people

  24. What am I doing on New Year’s Day? Why I am doing my 14 hours of continuing education for the State of Florida so that I can renew my license by the end of March. I know what the coming months are going to be like so an early start is the only way to make sure it’s done.

    Kizzie, no one can wound a mother’s heart like a daughter.

    Liked by 3 people

  25. Keeping you in prayer Kizzie….living with our children is one thing but living with our adult children is quite another. And like Kim mentioned…it is so true. 😞
    I have cleaned this house and now am kickin’ my feet up for a bit. Hannah not feeling well, congested and low grade fever….I am keeping this place as disinfected as I possibly can…I do not want to get sick! Husband left at 6:30am to hike Pike’s Peak with his buddy….in subzero temps and snow….at the top they will get donuts and hot chocolate…. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

  26. I try to explain, but she still doesn’t understand:’
    You don’t have to do everything they tell you on TV.
    e.g. Do not call that telephone number just because they told you to.
    You may think that’s trivial, even funny.
    But when I’m doing something, and she calls “Charlie, come here!”
    I have to go, even if I suspect it’s nothing but the TV telling her to do something..

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Blessings on your new year.
    Just helped to take down the tree here in Portland.
    I read to the children a Mem Fox book: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
    a little boy helps an old lady find her memory.
    Then I took them in to the livingroom where their daddy’s hymnal was on the coffee table. I told them of my memory of giving their dad that hymnal. I gave it to him when he was ten or twelve. We sang whatever hymns he wanted to. Then it was time for him to go to bed, but he said that first he wanted to pray to ask Christ into his heart. A very precious memory indeed.

    Liked by 9 people

  29. This was a rather stubborn boy who had not wanted to pray at vbs or at a neighborhood Bible club or in Sunday school. He wanted to wait. But those sweet hymns softened his heart and he was ready.

    Liked by 4 people

  31. I think my very, very long holiday shift is finally almost over, I’ve worked 8 hours straight, from 7 a.m. on, and am ready for a nap. I was still waiting for info about the first 2019 baby in one of our cities, but since it wasn’t forthcoming (should have had it at least 1-2 hours ago from what the hospital PR person first told me), I suggested to the editor that our 2nd-shift, afternoon relief team handle it.

    What a busy morning.

    Argh, the baby info has just finally arrived. I’m still forwarding it to the next shift.

    Liked by 2 people

  32. I am home, with 2 days off.

    Donna’s mention of fireworks brought to mind a tragedy we had last night. We had a 5 year old who was lighting Roman candles with other children, no adult supervision as they were celebrating. The firework did not go off so he turned it around to see what was wrong, and it went off right in his eye. Not sure if he will keep his vision or not.

    Liked by 3 people

  36. In Chicago I watched a group of little boys with firecrackers. One little boy about four years old “froze,” and the other boys kept saying (more and more frantically) “Throw it!” but he never did. I wasn’t close enough to say anything (and it all happened quickly), but I kept thinking it was going to go off in his hand, but mercifully it didn’t.

    Liked by 2 people

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