59 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-18-19”

  4. Re: The “Mexican Hat Dance” that DJ showed yesterday. Yes it’s cute to see 6 year olds spinning and jumping, but the real thing is called “El jarabe tapatío” and is a much more complicated dance. Here is one version of it.

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  5. I realized tonight that the van I have been driving this week is a 15 or 20 passenger van. No wonder it bounces so much over the speed bumps with only me in it. Friday is finished here, time for some sleep.

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  7. Donna, FYI, To change uppercase and lowercase text in Microsoft Word highlight all the text you want to change. Hold down the Shift key and press F3. When you hold Shift and press F3, the text toggles from proper case (first-letter uppercase and the rest lowercased), to all uppercase (all capital letters), and then all lowercase.

    Kids now have many things to occupy themselves with.during the great depression back in 1929-1940 what did the kids do for entertainment? We listened to spooky ghost stories on the radio at night. Programs like inner sanctum, the witches tales and the squeaking door as well as the shadow knows. In san pedro we had the harbor and ocean to do things like pier fishing, surf fishing at cabrillo beach. Swimming at cabrillo beach, brighton beach in terminal island, the b.a.b. Beach and the west basin. We had seasons for kites, yoyos. Spinning tops and sliding down grassy hills on card board boxes when the grass was tall and green. We made coasters from 2×4 boards and wooden boxes with skates for wheels. We played bottled milk top games. We played right hand left hand game….we played monopoly, checkers, chinese checkers, playing card games like casino, crazy 8, war, solitary and old maid.for halloween we all made our own costumes. We walked on wooden stilts and made pea shooters from tube vegetation and used pepper tree pellets. We had wars with rubber guns and sling shots and used garbage pail covers for shields. Played on sand piles on vacant lots. It was the time of penny candies and we would run the alleys in search of empty beer and soda bottles and redeem them for cash. We also turned in dead auto batteries for 25 cents each. Canned soda and beer was non-existence then. We played kick the can and other street games as well as baseball and foot ball on empty lots. We went to the pollywog pond across from the los angeles ship yard which later was re-named todd shipyard. We played on rafts and made believe we were prate and tom sawyer.the school gave us vegetable seeds to grow in a garden.seeds for tomatoes, green beans, egg plant, green peppers and radishes as well as corn. Every satuaurday and sunday we went to the movies which was 5 cents for kids. Other games that i can’t recall at the moment. Now kids have many things to keep them occupied, things we never had or could afford.

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  9. In those days, there was a two cent deposit on soft drink battles. I used to collect them and turn them for the deposit money. I have known guys to steal some bottles. Not me.

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  12. Good morning from Atlanta. With warmerair, we got fog.

    Two days ago Karen and I were discussing The Secret Garden and I told her I had never read it. Yesterday I received it from her via Amazon Prime. It is a newer edition with beautiful illustrations and even some pop up illustrations. I am so impressed by the quality of the book. It was quite the surprise because I thought it was someone dropping off tax info by the door.

    I am suppose to get measurements taken today for cataract surgery. The measurements are good for a year.

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  13. We have enjoyed The Secret Garden many times. Good book.

    I used to play with paper dolls, Never could get any of my girls interested. Other than bio daughter, none of them played with dolls. I bought two of them dolls but their older sister told them they were too old for that so they threw them out. She was fourteen, they were eight and three. Kind of sad, actually.

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  14. Morning! We had plenty of activities to occupy ourselves with when I was a kid. My first grade teacher instilled in me the love of books. How I loved those Saturdays when the Bookmobile drove down our street and parked at the corner. I was in heaven!
    I played with paper dolls, baby dolls, blocks that my Dad handmade, we rode our bikes, played “army” with the neighborhood kids, used our roller skates, jump ropes, jacks, chalk for making hopscotch…we never got bored. We were always sad when the streetlights came on for that meant we had to go home. The Secret Garden was a favorite book of mine as was Little Women 😊
    Gotta run before the snow flies…I am certain there will be lines at the grocery but I need chicken noodle soup for my coughing husband! 🤧

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  15. If you want to believe spring is right around the corner: an eagle cam from Florida with chicks in the nest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUCekz5k9E4

    As to the header photo, Phoenix isn’t known for its rain, but I grew up seeing rainbows regularly, even full rainbows and double rainbows. When my family lived in northern Arizona for two years when I was a teen (the time period in which my father died and we moved back down to the Phoenix area, this time the suburbs) one day one of us saw a rainbow way off on the horizon, must have been many miles away, tiny at that distance . . . and for the entire afternoon, one of us would look out periodically and say, “Yep, it’s still there.” It moved right (not sure which direction on the compass) over the course of those hours, but never disappeared. I have even seen the end of a rainbow within grass, shining on every blade.

    Then I moved to Chicago, lived there for 14 years–and never saw a rainbow. I moved to Nashville and realized it had been many years since I saw a rainbow, so whenever conditions were right to see one, I went outside looking for one–and if I recall correctly, I managed to see one once.

    In northern Indiana, with my husband 51 or 52, we were driving back from taking our older daughter back to college and we drove through a storm–he remembers the violence of the storm (he was driving!) but I mostly remember the rainbows. We saw full bright rainbows, some on the right side, some on the left, some spanning the road. And at one point we saw a nearly full, double rainbow and he said it was the first double rainbow he had ever seen. That shocked me–I’d seen many. But then I realized that I’d only ever seen them in Arizona, and maybe they weren’t really all that common. (I didn’t have my camera with me, since I don’t take it on rainy days that might hurt the camera, but one can’t get good photos out of a car window on rainy days anyway.)

    Then this fall on one rainy day I looked out my back door and this full double rainbow spread across my view. I detest taking photos that include power lines, but I wasn’t going to take my camera out in the rain to walk across the street and get beyond the power lines, and I knew the rainbow would be fleeting. So I grabbed my camera and took some shots from the doorway–to send it to you, my friends, since it is quite possible some of you have not seen a double rainbow, either. It was beginning to fade just a little by the time I got this photo, but you can see a full bright rainbow and a dimmer double echo (in which the colors are backward). I also took some shots zooming in on parts of the trees with parts of the rainbow and no power lines, but the full double rainbow needed to be what I sent, a doubled reminder of God’s unconditional covenant with mankind.

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  16. I like the Secret Garden, but not the spiritual aspect of it.

    I played with paper dolls. I also have material for a paper doll quilt. It was bought for my oldest granddaughter, who is now too old for it. However, it will be perfect for my youngest two granddaughters. Not quite yet, however. Hopefully, I will get to it by the time they are ready for it.

    I pray the surgery and recovery goes well, kare.

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  17. I did not read any of those books as a child, but when I read them as an adult to children, I was able to discuss with them some of the weird stuff going on. Hopefully, it was helpful.

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  18. At the bottom of that photo you can see the west street (I cropped out everything I could and still include the whole rainbow, but you can see some of the street) and just the other side of it, a sidewalk. Sidewalk lines most streets around us, usually on both sides of the street, a really wonderful feature. If I walk down that sidewalk for just half a mile (I clocked it) I come to my little pond. On our side of the street, we have a sidewalk too, and between it and the road a creek / drainage ditch. (Drain pipes send rainwater into it, but it burbles and flows and drops in small waterfalls like any creek. I’m guessing the creek was there in some fashion all along, but that they chose to send rainwater into it by pipes under roads rather than by natural flow over them.) I didn’t know about the creek or the pond until after we bought this place. I backed up to the road to take photos of our condo, and there was a little creek. (And it was a couple months before I found the pond.) Having a creek in my backyard has always been part of my “dream,” and this one was a free bonus. It’s not really the same as a stream flowing naturally through a hilly, grassy backyard, but it IS a stream, and it draws ducks (a family of mallards hung out in it last summer), last summer I often saw a muskrat in it, and just this week I photographed a flock of ten or twelve robins that were flying between the trees and the water, going down to drink.

    And one day my husband was looking out the window in his studio and he called to me to come and hurry, and in I went to see what he saw. Walking down the sidewalk on our side of the street was a small herd of four deer. They crossed the street just about where the black pickup is in that photo, and cars waited for them in both directions.

    At the right edge of the photo you can just see a few branches of a maple tree peeking out. Beyond the left edge of the frame is another tree, and it was in that second tree I saw the red-shouldered hawk the other day. (I did see it in this one briefly later.) As this scene shows, I’m definitely not in the country anymore, but I have plenty of chances for nature sightings.

    Oh, and the apartments at the top of that little hill? When it snowed Saturday, that hill ended up with many streaks in the snow from children sledding (and biking) down it. By the end of the day it was striped, snow/grass/snow all the way across. (We had about four inches.)

    Peter, I enjoyed the hat dance.

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  20. I two QOD, I’m looking for some answers. No grade on your answer.

    1. What is the longest time period (minutes/hours) you have personally spent praying? Go ahead and estimate/guess.

    2. What is the longest prayer meeting you have ever attended (minutes/hours).

    I have follow-up questions–either late today or tomorrow. Busy day here.

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  22. Michelle, I don’t know. But I know that it had to do with interaction with a brother in Christ.

    There used to be a quartet called “The Ink Spots”. They sang a song called “Paper Doll” “I’d rather have a paper doll I can call my own than a fickle minded real live girl.’ I don’t believe it, but I like the song.

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  23. Nice hat dance video — I had wondered where the hat on the floor was in the first-grade version, we always had that when I was growing up. 🙂

    I had a paper doll book in Iowa, I remember playing with that and doing all the cutouts. Mostly my friends and I preferred the outside activities — bikes, skates, playing cowboys and ‘Army,’ baseball, football, basketball, tetherball … Hopscotch was big with us for a couple years at school recess, we all had our special chain markers we’d take to school everyday (but we learned quickly that a long chain defeated the purpose!).

    It’s foggy today but the rain is gone. Loved it in so many ways but after 4 days we need some time to dry out. The land is over-saturated. My little Charlie Brown tree enjoyed it, I think, it seemed to me he was swaying and bouncing in the downpour at one point.

    Today I need to chase the “Donut Girl” story as the editors have taken to calling it in shorthand — about a local teen who says the principal of her school told her to leave campus when it was learned she’d brought donuts to the picketing teachers outside.

    Not to dismiss this, but no one’s been able to get the “other side,” as it were — was there some miscommunication, a misunderstanding, is it even true? — so all we have is the story from Donut Girl and her parents. I need to call the district today to see if they can get me something, I doubt the principal will talk directly.

    I haven’t checked the latest reports yet, but word yesterday was that the 2 sides had made significant progress in the negotiations. I’m hoping there will be an announcement today or sometime over the weekend and this will all be behind us by the time school opens again.

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  24. Perfect photo, by the way, for us today as we emerge from our 4-day deluge.

    Our pastor often says that prayer is hard work, it can leave him exhausted.

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  26. Michelle,

    I am not a good long pray er, though I do find myself praying always. As to dedicated personal prayer, probably not more than a few minutes. I either fall asleep or a child interrupts or my mind wanders. To address that, I have tried writing out prayers but have not been terribly successful with it.

    As far as prayer meetings, I used to attend the Wednesday night prayer time. That was talking and then prayer for probably a total of one hour.

    Reading about serious pray ers, I do wonder what it would be like.

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  27. My daughters got paper doll books, then made some of their own. They also made some clothing for their home-made dolls, and some for the book dolls.

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  28. I too am a “pray always” pray-er. Throughout my day I stop and converse/listen to the Lord. At times I sense an urging to pray for someone or a situation. Many times I have no idea why I am praying for someone but He knows.
    I have been to an “all night” prayer time with a group of ladies at a former church. We met at 10 that evening and left the next morning. Throughout the night we stayed in an upstairs room of the church and we many times were “still” before Him. I do not remember the specifics of prayer spoken by us but I do recall that it was a very sweet time of gathering together before our Lord.
    In my season of caring for newborns, I spent hours rocking newborn babes in my arms praying over them…the specific count of hours I do not know but it was always in the middle of the night feeding/changing and snuggling with them. I tear up at the remembrance of those sweet moments in the still of the night spent with our Lord and His little ones.

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  30. Oh, Cheryl’s mention a stream reminded me that I forgot to do something — there’s a deep ravine on the other side of my neighbors’ house, it’s one of many that run through town, and neighbors have told me it literally rushes with water when it rains like it has. I have been meaning to get a photo of that but forgot this morning.

    My dog walk route takes me on a couple blocks where there are no sidewalks so we walk in the street as there also are many trees next to the curb with huge protruding root systems. We walk at night and there isn’t much traffic, it’s a residential area, but I’m careful to keep looking as we walk. Some of those hybrid cars are too quiet and can really suddenly just be on you.

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  31. Well the snow came in fast and furious. There is a now a 20 car pileup on Monument Hill and they are closing roads left and right. My Mr will get pumpkin/tomato soup today….it does have chicken broth in it so that counts 😊 so far we have gotten about 4 inches of the less than one inch predicted snow 🙃

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  34. Son left this morning, without a word, as he normally does. We have a standard rule that if you are down with a fever, you take a down day the next day just to give a bit of recovery. He of course, marches to a different drummer so, though he was brought home from school midday yesterday, with a one hundred three plus fever, he headed out this morning about six thirty to build fence for somebody. He just came home. Did not say a word, went straight to his bed. I suspect he needed another day or two. Good thing husband finished his laundry before he got home, and made his bed. I am husband’s stand in while he is off on the cruise.

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  36. Husband started the plan of doing the boy’s laundry for him since, after nearly eight years, he is unable to figure it out. So, when husband is gone, I do the laundry on Friday for him.

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  37. On the Google app for e-mail, there is a story about a pilot landing a plane an a runway he couldn’t see. Technology has advanced that much.
    In the AF, we used to use GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) in coming down in the fog. I have used a sermon I call GCA. About the faith a pilot has in the approach Sgt.
    But this reminded me of an incident much later. I was flying commercial on a business trip.
    As the plane was coming in for a landing, I noticed that it was flying higher than usual.
    As we approached the runway, he applied full power and we climbed up.
    The lady in the seat next to me asked what happened.
    I said, “We’re going around again”
    She asked, “Is that bad?”
    I said, “Going around again is always the right decision.”
    That applies to many situations in life.

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  39. Fun Mexican Hat Dance videos, yesterday and today.

    Kare, how did your hubby’s surgery go?

    My sisters and I used to play with paper dolls a lot. We had one we named Sketchy, I remember. We didn’t limit the dolls to the clothes that came with them, but drew, colored, and cut out additional clothing for them. We played with them so much, sometimes the tabs would wear out and tear away from the clothes because of folding and unfolding them so often, changing the dolls’ clothes.

    My girls didn’t do much with paper dolls. Some homeschool supplies companies sold paper dolls with various historical dress. Second Arrow played a little with those, but more with baby dolls. Third and Fourth Arrows played some with baby dolls, too, but not as much as Second. They were more into playing with animal figures (mostly horses), and Sixth is especially into dinosaurs. I don’t think she’s ever played with a doll.

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  40. Qs of the D:

    1. Maybe 10 minutes, but that’s rare for me. Like others have said, I’m a pray-through-the-day type of pray-er. When the Lord impresses on my mind to pray for someone, that’s when I do it, and it might be anywhere from a 5-second to a 2-minute prayer, maybe.

    2. I’ve never been to a prayer meeting. Our church held one after the 9-11 attacks, and I wish now I would have gone to that one.

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  42. Chas, his dad is ninety two. He sees to it that I see my dad regularly by driving me up to Moscow. I let him see his dad regularly by letting his sister fly him to the cruise and pay for it. It gives him time with his dad and step mom, his sis and this time, his brother and sis in law. His sis thinks it worth it because she would have to share a room and would prefer to share with her brother than a stranger. And it gives her a traveling companion. And he gets away from our rather irregular life once in a while. Last year it was Alaska. This year, the Caribbean. I am glad for him, but it is actually rather hard on him as his family likes arguing.

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  43. We played with paper dolls, both ready made ones and ones we made, and we made clothing for both. We learned to sew by making clothing for our ‘real’ dolls, and our father made us doll houses and a playhouse. We also played at being pirates, soldiers, cowboys, knights, etc. We didn’t have a raft for our sea battles, but we had a canoe. We climbed trees and went for long hikes in the forest. Our favorite Lego set was of a Medieval Castle, and we took turns at being defender and besieger. Being girls was never a limitation to our imaginative play. I mentioned the other day that Eldest Niece rarely played with her dolls, preferring robots, wiring circuit boards, and writing computer programs. It hasn’t interfered with her identity as a young woman in the least.

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  44. Chas, the pilots of the far north fly in blind a lot. When I landed in Iqaluit the first time, the clouds were thick right up until the point the plane, which was flown by a female pilot, landed.

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  45. Michelle’s QoD:
    1. I never timed it, but it was hours. That wasn’t a good thing by the way – that was how I would be praying when I had an episode of what I think was likely Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and the prayers would be the Compulsion part, mostly asking for forgiveness for the unwanted thoughts – the Obsession part – that would cross my mind.
    In a healthy state of mind, my prayers have probably never gone beyond 15 minutes. I am like others here, I pray throughout the day. A set time does not work for me, as my schedule constantly shifts and in any case, I cannot concentrate for very long. If I pray when someone/something comes to mind, my prayers are much more engaged.

    2. Longest prayer meeting? The prayer meetings I used to attend at the tiny family church seemed to go on forever, and that was with the women and men praying in separate groups. There was one or two women that would go on and on, and as a result, my mother often admitted to us, she didn’t feel like she could say much, as they had already prayed for everything. I just fought to keep my mind from wandering.

    In reality, the longest prayer meeting I would probably have been one of the prayer days in West Africa. But it didn’t seem long. We had the most organic prayer meetings I have ever experienced. Most prayer meetings, we sat in a circle and prayed one continuous prayer, each person adding something in turn. I actually participated in those prayer meetings, which is something I rarely feel comfortable doing.

    I have endured a few session of contemplative prayer in my time. I don’t recommend the experience. All I want to do is stand up and scream with irritation for being told what to pray and how to pray it. Generally you are given a phrase to repeat to yourself until you ‘feel the meaning’. I have never participated, because it seems utterly meaningless to me, and I am not the kind looking for new ‘spiritual’ experiences to bring me to a closer sense of God.

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  47. I was never much drawn to dolls or tea sets, though I’d dabble with them here and there.

    My uncle did make us a “raft” that sat in the backyard. Guess there were some spare wooden planks around and he cobbled them together. We were thrilled. It worked for our Tom Sawyer play times but also served as a prop for our winter Olympics games — we’d prop the back of the raft up against the small picket fence that divided my backyard and — voila! — a bobsled. We’d line up sitting on it and pretend, in the middle of LA, that we were flying through an ice tunnel track at break-neck speeds.

    Best prayer times in a group I experienced were with BSF leadership, it was similar to what roscuro described from West Africa. Generally, I’m also not a fan of group prayer but those were structured in a way that were very freeing.

    I also pray throughout the day and often. I could/should probably spend more time than I do in regular, concentrated prayer.

    Roscuro, today I am buying a little frame for your raven photo to put on a table or desk somewhere 🙂

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  48. Yes, DJ. Your storm is the one that gave Nancy Jill her snow and is the one that will hit us tonight, lasting until tomorrow. We’ll not get as much snow as last week, but the wind will be the problem.

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  49. Thanks for the prayers we just got home – it was a long day and a cold one (-35C). Surgery went well. He walked out of the hospital once the spinal block was gone. He’s doing well, but will likely be more sore in the next few days. They removed some cartilage pieces and burned the nerves where bone now meets bone (he has basically no cartilage left).

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  51. I’ve attended prayer meeting all my life, from the time I was a little girl (even when AWANA or some other program took place at the same time), and while I have sometimes found groups where one or two people “hog” the time with long prayers, that has been rare. I have found it a blessed time, though I have found it is rare to find people my age or younger there (I think because they grew up in AWANA and youth group while the adults went to prayer meeting, and simply never got in the habit). When I married my husband, and joined a little church that hardly had a prayer meeting and it was one I couldn’t realistically get to (since I don’t drive at night unless it’s local and has street lights), I wasn’t able to attend anymore. And I haven’t yet started attending the one at our new church, though I would like to get back into the habit once the days get longer again. (I prefer not to drive in the dark both ways, though it is close and I may very well drive in the dark both ways next winter, once I’m back in the habit. Last summer we were moving in and I was attending a Wednesday-morning Bible study, and that was “enough” for then.)

    I have had long times of prayer occasionally, but quite rarely. As others have said, it’s more commonly praying here and there throughout the day. One reason I like prayer meeting is that it is easier to focus with other people involved.

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  52. It’s also easier to focus when praying aloud, for me. When I lived in Nashville, I was in a neighborhood in the city, but even in neighborhoods of moderately priced homes, nearly all houses were on large lots, so houses were often set a decent distance back from the road. I had a route I sometimes walked, a circle around my neighborhood, and sometimes when I walked it I would pray most of the way, out loud, and sometimes intersperse prayer with singing praise. If I “timed it right,” around sunset I would end up at the bottom of the hill near a low stone wall between two businesses (both of them shut up for the night), and I would sit on the wall and watch the sunset–a better view than from my house. When I walk alone, with no one else around, praising and praying out loud is often a natural response, even if it is just a short “Thank You, God!” after some beautiful sight, like a bird flying right in front of me as it crosses the path. But often it is far more extensive than that praising God for specific things and then praying for specific needs.

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  55. We have a full staff meeting every Sunday in the summer. There are often quite a few prayer requests and sometimes we break into small groups to pray. This summer one of my group suggested a ‘popcorn’ prayer. Everybody just prayed out loud all at the same time in our group until we had covered everything. It was very different, but I liked it. You could hear the others praying for specific things, but you prayed for the requests that you thought of and all the requests were covered and more ( time was short). It was a good reminder that God can hear all our prayers no matter when and where. I don’t think it would be good to pray like that in a group all the time though.

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  56. I am blessed to be able to have a prayer by myself time most mornings. I also read some scripture. It is usually about an hour. I do believe in praying always and often stopping to pray for anyone who asks.

    I cannot remember some of those I attended in churches. I did attend Moms in Touch prayer meetings, which lasted exactly an hour. They are designed that way to make it easier for busy moms to be able to attend.

    My husband and I have just started to attend a bible study and I am a bit dismayed that it is never started with prayer. It is ended with a short prayer by the pastor. It is odd to me, since those I have attended seemed to always have started with prayer (and I did that when I led) and often ended with everyone being given a chance to pray. Not that I think there is a set formula. However, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and the bible is revelation. I believe we need the Spirit to teach us and that we should not assume it is all just using our own efforts.

    I forgot to mention when we had the souvenir question that I often buy fabric when I travel, if I can get to a local quilt shop. I always check out the bargains and also buy local themed fabric.

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  58. I get up a couple hours before the children in the morning, so I can have some dedicated time in the Word and prayer. I would like to be better at it, but have not trained my mind well enough. I think it is important to pray. Daniel is a good example. As is Jesus….

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  59. Kare, the ‘popcorn’ prayer technique is how the West African Christians that I had the privilege of visiting in another village prayed in prayer meeting. The pastor would say what they were going to pray for, and then everyone would pray, out loud, simultaneously. They pray with their eyes open and their hands open, palms upward.

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