You shouldn’t be about this time of night Michelle. Hit the sack for about eight hours.
Good morning everyone else but Jo.
Good night to you too Jo.
I was up half the night coughing and hacking. I’ve had this thing in my throat for about two weeks now. I get coughing spells. I have already used all the medicine I got little over a week ago.
Off to face the day now.
Sounds like you need to get some sleep, too, Chas. Hot tea helps with the coughing, especially throat coat tea.
Praying for a quiet, restful day for you.
The MAP test went well today. It was again just a practice for the real test. Now they are all used to listening on the headphones and clicking on answers. I gave them a recess break between the tests.
And at least he seems to be a good choice. His birthday is the same as hers, but he just turned 19. He comes approved by both our pastors, they really like him, and he’ll finish his college degree later this summer. Yes, smart too, started college while still in high school. And he”s joining the Army upon graduation. He’s a greeter at church, attends with his Mom, and is very nice and well mannered.
I’m thinking she could have chosen worse. 🙂
But I’m still gonna give him the stink eye, let him know I’m watching…….
Morning! It is still dark in this forest but time with the Lord has been oh so sweet.
AJ make certain along with that stink eye you give him a wink and an ever so slight smile 😉
I was just catching up on yesterday’s posts. I just hope Michelle is fast asleep now.
AJ, sounds good. Chuck had the same situation, only he had three girls.
It worked out well for him, he has seven grandchildren now.
Three already baptized. All are being raised in Christian homes.
I/he couldn’t be more blessed.
It’s hard to get a good picture of a fish in an aquarium. We had some from our trip to Florida a few years ago, but lost them when our computer died. I forgot to back them up. Bummer. I guess we’ll have to go back.
AJ, now is the time to bring out your gun, clean it, and mention, “I ain’t afraid to go back to prison”.
Of course, this didn’t work for me, so there is that. My father was pretty intimidating. The first date I had with ex-husband, he says that when my dad opened the door he thought Lurch had answered.
About the situation at work with the receptionist. Yesterday I got angry about it. She is a 33-year-old woman. It is time to stop acting childish and start acting professionally. She had this week before I go to the person she reports directly to. She doesn’t have to like me or be my friend but she can’t act like she is acting.
Kim, I tend to think someone who responds in that manner has some type of mental issue going on. It is very immature and reflects poorly on her and not you. If Anon, this is Janice.
KIm. I advise you leave it alone.
Unless she isn’t doing her job.
You don’t want to be friends, not even “Hello”.
She is just the person who answers the phone and passes a piece of paper to you.
Unless she is obstruction something, leave it alone. She may be some boss’ favorite.
People joke about fathers acting like they’re tough, and the boyfriend should be afraid of him, but that kind of joking backfired on us. Hubby would joke like that, so Nightingale didn’t tell us when she started seeing X. We found out accidentally.
Speaking of X. . .Nightingale feels like he is trying to sabotage her, and yet the victim would ultimately be Boy. She has explained, through X’s mom, that Boy needs to lose weight before weigh-in for the official start of football season, and asked that he be careful about what Boy eats. If he is over the weight limit, then he will still play, but those kids are restricted to certain positions. Boy really, really wants to play other positions, maybe even quarterback.
Boy will come home from one of his twice-weekly visits (one of those visits is overnight, for over 24 hours, so more meals involved), and when asked what he had to eat, will mention a lot of fatty fast food. His weight always goes up after a visit with his dad.
So Nightingale is in the position of not being able to let him have any treats at all, only the very rare ice cream cone. She has to be the tough meanie. (And so do I, actually.) If it weren’t for X’s feeding him so much fast food and junk, he would have lost enough weight to be “safe”, but as it is, he is only a little below the weight limit. 😦
Kim – I’ve previously mentioned having a very similar situation with the receptionist where I worked before I had Nightingale. In that case, by not taking messages for me, she wasn’t doing her job. Unfortunately, our supervisor did not like conflict, so she ignored the situation, which led to me quitting two months earlier than I had planned.
But while I was there, I would still give her a pleasant greeting every morning when I came in. At Christmas time I had left her a card on her desk, which she made a show of throwing away without even opening. But I decided to not let that stop me from being pleasant, especially since everyone knew I was a Christian.
Moody receptionists out there. Aren’t they partly paid to be extra friendly and easy to get along with, to be the “cheerful face” of the company, whether they’re dealing with either the public or employees?
Kizzie, the boy is actually old enough to take some responsibility. Have you both pointed out to him that if he wants to play, he needs to be more careful about what he eats? If he is serious about football, he needs to take on the training aspect which includes nutrition. If he is not, he must enjoy eating with his dad. Yes, dad is sabotaging but now is a good time for the boy to start learning and implementing tools for his own wellbeing.
One of the verses that may be tattooed on my forehead is “His strength is made perfect in my weakness,” which is not the exact wording. I have a lot going on and why bother sleeping?
Grrrrr.
I’ve just written a lengthy scree to Janice about the craziness of the next month for me. She needed to know because she’s been so incredibly helpful about my trip to Atlanta! I’ll spend a couple of days with her and I’m looking forward to it.
She’s arranged for me not only to speak at a Baptist Retirement Home but to stay there in a small apartment they have (maybe I should just move in . . . . ), will loan me a laptop for my Powerpoint presentation at that retirement home and is also letting me drive her car.
So very generous. I’m really grateful.
The rest I’ll post on the prayer line.
Just another acknowledgment of how many of you have enriched my life since I first opened up WorldMag’s blog. The morning just wouldn’t be the same without you! 🙂
I tried to go for a walk yesterday morning, but it was raining a bit and gray–if I had been just walking, I’d have gone anyway, but it wasn’t going to be good light for photos and my camera might get wet. Disappointed a bit since I finally finished a string of editing jobs and was feeling “free” and I wanted to get out for a bit, I returned home.
I went out in the evening instead. Light around noon is not good for photography; the best times are early morning and evening–though animals are active different times of the day, and sometimes you just have to go when they’re active and do the best you can for photography! But if I can’t go in the morning, I often go after 4:00 and figure I’ll get the evening light toward the end of my walk, and I’ll also be out when insects are active (dragonflies and butterflies in particular). Well, it ended up being a really super good nature walk. I did get a few butterflies, but they were secondary. I got several good dragonfly shots, including an egg-laying pair that wasn’t in very good light and was in the pond it’s hard to photograph, but I got some decent shots in spite of all that. (This pond is on the trail, and the back of it is behind people’s yards–so sometimes it’s hard to get photos without getting houses. It’s also set rather low, so I have to take photos DOWN to get shots, and there’s a lot of weeds and stuff at the edge. So I have to be really careful of my footing, avoid getting weeds in the way, etc.) Anyway, decently good dragonfly shots.
Then on the other pond on the trail, something else special: a whole family of muskrats! A mother was out with her babies, at least three babies but two of them were shy and mostly stayed under the plants, so for all I know there might have been more under there or in the den. But one was brave and kept going out with Mama, so I got some sweet shots. There was another adult feeding just a little ways away, so it might have been the father (I know little about muskrats), but anyway I saw at least six muskrats today including three young ones (one on the creek near our house). A few months ago someone told me about seeing a family of muskrats on the other pond on the trail, and I went there two or three times hoping to see them and never did, so it was a sweet surprise to see them today.
Then I went back by the pond that isn’t on the trail. Two great blue herons were on it when I started on the walk, and I got a few shots and then walked on. When I came back by, there was a great blue heron on the water, hunting. Now, in my (limited) experience, great blue herons wade in the water only in the morning. Later in the day they might be on a log not very far above the water, and I’m guessing if a frog or something came close enough they could stretch out their necks and grab it, they would. But they don’t wade (actively hunting). These have been hunting later into the morning, and one was in the water this evening. My hunch is they are young, inexperienced hunters, so it takes them longer to find food. (Indeed, I’m pretty sure this one caught a frog and then it got away.) But with the bounty of summer, they may take longer to hunt, but they won’t starve, and God gave them these few months in which they can practice and learn the skills they need. Anyway, it was in the water during the nice light of evening, so I got some good hunting shots, probably the best I’ve gotten. And a really big monarch caterpillar was crawling around, looking for a place to make a chrysalis, so I made note of where it was and went back this morning to see if I can find where it ended up. (I figured it will be easier to find its chrysalis later if I find its chosen spot while it is still looking like a caterpillar–it will be easier to find the yellow-and-black caterpillar than to find the green chrysalis!) If it settles in the spot where it was resting this morning, it will be pretty easy to watch the chrysalis, so hopefully it will.
Anyway, it was a really sweet day out with a lot of good sightings, and I’m glad I was providentially hindered from going out yesterday morning! (I also ended up talking to two Mormon missionaries while I was watching the heron.) But now the dilemma is that I got photos of way too many different things to post them all on Flickr at the same time, so I’m doing on “subject” at a time. 🙂 Last night I posted some miscellaneous insects, this morning I posted the egg-laying dragonflies, later today I’ll post the baby muskrats, and eventually I’ll post the hunting great blue heron. I have a surplus of riches!
Her boss will not be back in the office until next Monday. I am choosing to work from home as much as I can this week. It is blatantly obvious what she is doing. All I want is for her to be professional and not petty. It has been going on for a month now. Who can hold a grudge that long????
Kim, Did something happen between you or is it all a mystery?
Just got off the phone with a researcher from USC who gave me much of the info I’ve been trying to get on how a more in-depth follow-up survey process is done for each year’s LA County homeless count. Some people are just so easy to interview — they are comfortable talking at length which is what I really needed for this story.
Work personalities … Our direct supervising editor just returned this week from being out for a few months recovering from carpal tunnel surgery; let’s just say she’s not one of the favorites among reporters who are under her.
Former pastor and evangelical author Joshua Harris demonstrated his support for the LGBT community by marching in Vancouver’s annual Pride Parade less than a month after announcing he no longer considers himself a Christian.
On August 4, Harris, former pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, shared several Instagram photos of himself participating in the British Columbia parade, engaging in Pride festivities, and “swapping stories” with LGBT activists.
“An American in Canada marching with the British Consulate in the Pride Parade,” he captioned one photo. …
… Heath Lambert, who leads First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, announced the foreword written by Harris would be removed from his book, Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace.
“In Finally Free I am trying to be clear about a Christian approach to sexuality. Joshua’s recent actions and statements only confuse that attempt at clarity and will lead others astray,” the Jacksonville pastor stated.
“The Lord knows Joshua’s heart,” he added. “Was Joshua a Christianized unbeliever who never knew Christ? We do not know, but God does. Is he a Christian who has fallen into grievous sin, and is in need of restoration? We do not know, but God does.
“What we do know is that Joshua Harris is in absolute spiritual peril. He needs our love, and he needs our prayers. He has mine, and I trust he will have yours as well.” …
________________________________
The Real’s post is one I understand, though I am not a parent. No dates yet for Eldest Niece, but lots of questions about how to deal with a serious interest. Oddly enough, sometimes a spinster aunt is the best person to answer those questions, as the prospect of prolonged singleness (not just referring to lack of marriage and sex in that term, but also the lack of a reciprocal emotional relationship or bond that should precede the other two), if the interest is not reciprocated, is sometimes more intimidating to a young person than the prospect of a relationship. It helps, I think, to have someone who has lived a single life encourage the young person to realize that not having one’s interest reciprocated is not the end of the world. My mother had a lifelong single friend who did as much for me in my younger years.
I just got my beginning work schedule. Feeling excited and scared about it all. It will be very busy in the first weeks as they orient me, and then I will begin my part-time hours.
We grew up with close family friends–a trio of single sisters.
Knowing those women gave me a great expectation that whether I married or not, I could have a fun, exciting life.
We still love visiting the remaining two–both in their late-eighties. The oldest one–the only person I know who has been to Turkmenistan and she went three times in the last decade–died a few years ago while visiting London at 93.
Marriage can be terrific, but it’s not everything.
DJ, you asked for comment on the Op-Ed from the LA Times that you shared on yesterday’s news thread, on whether countries that had a higher rate of belief in God were more violent. I would observe that the Op-Ed, incidentally, only deals with faith in God in general, irrespective of religion.
First, the Op-Ed was inaccurate in at least one point. It named Canada as a peaceful country where the majority of people did not believe in God – in the article’s words, “where faith in God is very low”. That is an inaccurate portrayal. About 67 percent of the Canadian population claims to believe in God or some kind of higher power: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadians-may-be-vacating-the-pews-but-they-are-keeping-the-faith-poll. While only 21 percent are regular religious practitioners in attending religious services, an additional 30 percent are ‘quiet’ believers, who believe in God and an afterlife, but do not attend religious services. 30 percent are spiritually uncertain and only 19 percent are complete un-believers. Canadians tend to be very complacent about religious practice and open displays of belief are generally considered in poor taste, but it cannot be called a majority atheistic country.
Second, religion is frequently used and has been used throughout history to justify evil, so it is no surprise that the presence of religion might correlate to violence. You quoted the example from the Op Ed of the high rate of violent crime in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country. It reminded me of the christening scene in ‘The Godfather’ where the rising Mafia Godfather, Michael Corleone, is standing as godfather to his nephew. As Corleone renounces the devil and all his works before the priest, his goons are elsewhere shooting down his Mafia rivals. If one can commit crimes and then go to the inviolably sacred confession afterward to receive penance with no fear of having one’s crimes reported to the secular authorities, crime is not going to clash with religious observance. And, if one can claim God not only forgives, but actually sanctions one’s violence, then it is even less likely that belief in God acts as a restraint to violence.
There is a third aspect to the apparent correlation between violence and religious belief (a correlation that the writer of the Op Ed rightly recognizes as being complicated by numerous others factors so as to call into question any causal effect). That is that the presence of Christians in the secular world does breed unrest. That unrest should never be due to the actions of Christians (though it must be admitted that, historically, at time Christians have been directly responsible for the violence). But it is a fact, that as Christ warned (Matthew 10:34), those who become Christians often unsettle those who live comfortably in their spiritual darkness and the response of the latter to the former may be violent.
Finally, the Op-Ed is flawed, as any piece written by a skeptic on faith would be. Nevertheless, the statement that the Op Ed is criticizing, that mass shootings happen because of a lack of faith in God, is also very flawed. The response of Jesus to disaster, whether because of accident or by deliberate violence, was to say that those who died were no greater sinners than anyone else, but rather, all humanity was doomed to destruction, unless they repented and believed in him (Luke 13:1-5). Turning disaster into a stick to beat unbelievers with is not a work of the Holy Spirit. Then again, the man who said the shootings were due to a lack of belief is a firm proponent of the national prosperity gospel – that if a nation is predominantly Christian, it will become great*.
*Someone forgot to tell that to Egypt and Syria, which were, for several centuries after the resurrection of Christ, predominantly Christian, but which never again became the world powers that they had been as pagan nations in the Old Testament era.
File this one under Scripture passages you have to read twice and then research. I have been reading through the minor prophets, and finding little gems. I was reading Zechariah 9, which is predominantly one pronouncing destruction to Israel’s enemies. In the midst of the declarations of coming destruction to the cities of the Philistines, there was one verse I had to read twice, and then look up in other translations to see if it retained that meaning. It did, and here is the passage in the HCSB version, with the verse I noticed in bold (verses 5 to 7):
“Ashkelon will see it and be afraid;
Gaza too, and will writhe in great pain,
as will Ekron, for her hope will fail.
There will cease to be a king in Gaza,
and Ashkelon will become uninhabited.
A mongrel people will live in Ashdod,
and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.
I will remove the blood from their mouths
and the detestable things
from between their teeth. Then they too will become a remnant for our God;
they will become like a clan in Judah
and Ekron like the Jebusites.
The Jebusites are a reference to the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, whose first named king in the Biblical account is the mysterious Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God (Genesis 14:18) – a belief that the Jebusites retained in some degree, since their last king, Araunah, was supportive of David making an offering on his land, on the site that the Temple would later be built (II Samuel 24:18-24). Much has been made, often unkindly, in Western Christian circles, of the modern day Palestinians living in Gaza, the former territory of the Philistines. But here, we find a promise from God that the mixed people in the former country of the Philistines would become part of His people. There are Palestinian Christians today, a fulfillment of that promise.
Thanks Roscuro, good points and a few I’d also thought of, but without “The Godfather” example. 🙂
Cheryl, Michelle, or anyone else who writes & works from home — how do you manage printer ink??? Yikes, I tend to work better from hard-copy notes and I’m going through printer ink like gangbusters. As you all know, it’s not cheap. …
Mumsee – Boy is not mature for his age. I think he tries somewhat, as he will mention that he had salad when he was with his dad, seeming to think that that somehow mitigates eating the other foods. (Nightingale has explained that it does not.) Since we are being strict with him, the temptation to eat what his dad is offering is great.
We remind him of what his goal is, that weigh-in is now three weeks away. But he does not have the inner strength yet to deny himself something he wants badly now for something that is weeks off. Let’s face it, many (most?) adults don’t either, at least in regards to food, which is why diets ultimately fail.
(One of my prayers for him, for this matter and others, is that God would help him to grow in maturity.)
It has been going on for a month now. Who can hold a grudge that long????
Someone I know held a grudge against me for more than a year. She briefly popped out of it when I did something to help her out recently, but it appears that she is back to not speaking to me again, now that the favor is no longer continuing.
People like that don’t understand how they’re hurting themselves.
I’d have to agree with Mumsee when she says Boy is old enough to take some responsibility. His chronological age is more important than his present maturity. IMO, he’ll gain in maturity when he’s given more responsibility (and perhaps has to suffer the natural consequences of his poor self-control).
About Kizzie’s grandson, why are we expecting a six year old child to be able to act more mature than his father? To stand up to his father and say no, daddy, I won’t eat what you give me to eat? To demand that his father feed him more healthily?
Since we have to be strict with him, the temptation to indulge is even greater when his dad gives him those foods. And we have to be strict with him because his dad gives him those foods.
But even for us mature adults, if we are on a diet that feels restrictive, and then we have a chance to have something we really love, it takes an awful lot of willpower to say no, thank you.
Time flies, Kizzie 🙂 , but my point remains. At that age, children are expected to eat what their parents give them – I certainly was and so were my niece and my nephews at that age (Third is that age now). To ask a child to basically be more in charge than his father is to place the child in an untenable position. That is the way to permanently psychologically damage a child’s view of authority by making them take authority before they are ready and create oppositional defiant patterns of behaviour. If he was pubescent, that might be something to consider, but he still has the mind of a child.
When we cannot stop an evil person, we should not then place pressure on the victims of that evil person to solve the problem.
Long day, a back-and-forth between sculptor and editors on a story about a new statue being planned … Artists tend not to respond to texts, voicemails or emails very quickly. 🙂
Kizzie, you said, “And we have to be strict with him because his dad gives him those foods.”
How about just give him the foods you and Nightingale want him to have — both regular, healthy foods and treats — in the quantities and with the frequency you want, instead of being stricter than you want to be because of X?
I hope I don’t sound flippant asking that question, because I know the situation with X is troublesome on multiple levels.
(I wrote a bunch more, but just erased it. What I want to say isn’t coming out right, and my previous comment didn’t, either. I was in a hurry typing it, as a piano student was due to arrive shortly after I posted.)
[Just deleted more. Sigh. Time to give up. Excuse my talking to myself.]
DJ and everyone else. About Printers, check out the Epson line They have a printer that you add bottles of ink to the printers instead of buying cartridges. The printer is more expensive but the ink is MUCH cheaper.
Actually, many children are more mature than their parents and need to be in order to survive. Right now, the boy is headed toward a life time of obesity and related issues as well as a disdain for women. I was suggesting the boy, who is eight, who really wants to participate in a particular sport, may have the inner strength to say no thank you dad, how about you join me in this so I can be on the team and play the position I am tryin g for. Then it becomes a team effort with dad, building that bond toward a healthier goal than, mom makes me eat healthy, let’s pig out on junk. Just listening to how bad dad is for making him eat that stuff (not what is being said but quite possibly what is being heard) and sitting around with dad, laughing at mom and grandmom, is not a healthy situation.
In an ideal situation, both parents would be on board to feeding the child healthier food. That is rarely the case.
Kizzie, I understand the boy has some challenges, but a lot of children, with the right motivation, can make a significant improvement. I have seen it in a number of my children who were challenged in various ways. Not all children can, but with his mom’s temperament as part of his makeup, it makes sense that he has what it takes.
6 Arrows – Your suggestion would be good at another time, but right now he needs to lose (and keep lost) some weight before the weigh-in for the football team, in three weeks. Nightingale would be a little looser, allowing more treats (but not too many), if his dad were not filling him with junk.
Mumsee – We make it a practice to not talk about X if Boy is anywhere around where he might hear.
Why did you say he may develop a disdain for women? Because his mom is strict and his dad is not?
We are working on helping him learn how to make better choices. Nightingale is really good about that with him. They usually work together to pack up what foods he will eat for the next day the night before (when I will be childsitting him the next day). She encourages him to eat healthy when he is with his dad, as much as is possible.
The current problem, as I wrote above, is because he needs to be under a certain weight in three weeks. We will continue to work with him and encourage him to make better choices, and I’m sure he will learn to do that on his own, but for now, we could really use some cooperation from X.
Cheryl, from the weekend thread: Thanks for answering my question about business email etiquette. I did decide to send the information as an email, and my website dashboard showed that the email got multiple clicks — more than the number of addresses to which I’d sent it.
I didn’t realize I’d have access to that kind of information, so that was kind of cool.
Kizzie, continuing the conversation on Boy’s football playing…
I have a question on this part that you wrote at 11:02 am:
Nightingale . . . has explained, through X’s mom, that Boy needs to lose weight before weigh-in for the official start of football season, and asked that he be careful about what Boy eats. If he is over the weight limit, then he will still play, but those kids are restricted to certain positions. Boy really, really wants to play other positions, maybe even quarterback.
Why is it so important to Nightingale that Boy not only be on the football team, but that he also get to play the positions he really wants to play?
Wandering Views 
Can I fall asleep now?
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You shouldn’t be about this time of night Michelle. Hit the sack for about eight hours.
Good morning everyone else but Jo.
Good night to you too Jo.
I was up half the night coughing and hacking. I’ve had this thing in my throat for about two weeks now. I get coughing spells. I have already used all the medicine I got little over a week ago.
Off to face the day now.
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Sounds like you need to get some sleep, too, Chas. Hot tea helps with the coughing, especially throat coat tea.
Praying for a quiet, restful day for you.
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The MAP test went well today. It was again just a practice for the real test. Now they are all used to listening on the headphones and clicking on answers. I gave them a recess break between the tests.
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Well it’s come. That day fathers dread.
My little girl’s first date. 😲
She is 17 now, so it was bound to happen…. 😦
And at least he seems to be a good choice. His birthday is the same as hers, but he just turned 19. He comes approved by both our pastors, they really like him, and he’ll finish his college degree later this summer. Yes, smart too, started college while still in high school. And he”s joining the Army upon graduation. He’s a greeter at church, attends with his Mom, and is very nice and well mannered.
I’m thinking she could have chosen worse. 🙂
But I’m still gonna give him the stink eye, let him know I’m watching…….
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Morning! It is still dark in this forest but time with the Lord has been oh so sweet.
AJ make certain along with that stink eye you give him a wink and an ever so slight smile 😉
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I was just catching up on yesterday’s posts. I just hope Michelle is fast asleep now.
AJ, sounds good. Chuck had the same situation, only he had three girls.
It worked out well for him, he has seven grandchildren now.
Three already baptized. All are being raised in Christian homes.
I/he couldn’t be more blessed.
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It’s hard to get a good picture of a fish in an aquarium. We had some from our trip to Florida a few years ago, but lost them when our computer died. I forgot to back them up. Bummer. I guess we’ll have to go back.
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AJ, now is the time to bring out your gun, clean it, and mention, “I ain’t afraid to go back to prison”.
Of course, this didn’t work for me, so there is that. My father was pretty intimidating. The first date I had with ex-husband, he says that when my dad opened the door he thought Lurch had answered.
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OK, my writer and editor peeps. Have you ever heard of or used the word morningly?
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About the situation at work with the receptionist. Yesterday I got angry about it. She is a 33-year-old woman. It is time to stop acting childish and start acting professionally. She had this week before I go to the person she reports directly to. She doesn’t have to like me or be my friend but she can’t act like she is acting.
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Sad for her, Kim.
Hope and pray that cough quits, Chas.
That is another challenging time of life, AJ. Another reminder of the gift of prayer. Now we are facing it with grandchildren and praying for them.
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Kim – Did you tell her that? Or is that just the plan you have in mind?
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Kim, I tend to think someone who responds in that manner has some type of mental issue going on. It is very immature and reflects poorly on her and not you. If Anon, this is Janice.
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KIm. I advise you leave it alone.
Unless she isn’t doing her job.
You don’t want to be friends, not even “Hello”.
She is just the person who answers the phone and passes a piece of paper to you.
Unless she is obstruction something, leave it alone. She may be some boss’ favorite.
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Kizzie, I only had that epiphany late yesterday. Haven’t had a chance yet. Trying to decide,
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People joke about fathers acting like they’re tough, and the boyfriend should be afraid of him, but that kind of joking backfired on us. Hubby would joke like that, so Nightingale didn’t tell us when she started seeing X. We found out accidentally.
Speaking of X. . .Nightingale feels like he is trying to sabotage her, and yet the victim would ultimately be Boy. She has explained, through X’s mom, that Boy needs to lose weight before weigh-in for the official start of football season, and asked that he be careful about what Boy eats. If he is over the weight limit, then he will still play, but those kids are restricted to certain positions. Boy really, really wants to play other positions, maybe even quarterback.
Boy will come home from one of his twice-weekly visits (one of those visits is overnight, for over 24 hours, so more meals involved), and when asked what he had to eat, will mention a lot of fatty fast food. His weight always goes up after a visit with his dad.
So Nightingale is in the position of not being able to let him have any treats at all, only the very rare ice cream cone. She has to be the tough meanie. (And so do I, actually.) If it weren’t for X’s feeding him so much fast food and junk, he would have lost enough weight to be “safe”, but as it is, he is only a little below the weight limit. 😦
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Kim – I’ve previously mentioned having a very similar situation with the receptionist where I worked before I had Nightingale. In that case, by not taking messages for me, she wasn’t doing her job. Unfortunately, our supervisor did not like conflict, so she ignored the situation, which led to me quitting two months earlier than I had planned.
But while I was there, I would still give her a pleasant greeting every morning when I came in. At Christmas time I had left her a card on her desk, which she made a show of throwing away without even opening. But I decided to not let that stop me from being pleasant, especially since everyone knew I was a Christian.
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Moody receptionists out there. Aren’t they partly paid to be extra friendly and easy to get along with, to be the “cheerful face” of the company, whether they’re dealing with either the public or employees?
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Kizzie, the boy is actually old enough to take some responsibility. Have you both pointed out to him that if he wants to play, he needs to be more careful about what he eats? If he is serious about football, he needs to take on the training aspect which includes nutrition. If he is not, he must enjoy eating with his dad. Yes, dad is sabotaging but now is a good time for the boy to start learning and implementing tools for his own wellbeing.
Kim, listen to Chas.
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I got a little less than three hours of sleep.
One of the verses that may be tattooed on my forehead is “His strength is made perfect in my weakness,” which is not the exact wording. I have a lot going on and why bother sleeping?
Grrrrr.
I’ve just written a lengthy scree to Janice about the craziness of the next month for me. She needed to know because she’s been so incredibly helpful about my trip to Atlanta! I’ll spend a couple of days with her and I’m looking forward to it.
She’s arranged for me not only to speak at a Baptist Retirement Home but to stay there in a small apartment they have (maybe I should just move in . . . . ), will loan me a laptop for my Powerpoint presentation at that retirement home and is also letting me drive her car.
So very generous. I’m really grateful.
The rest I’ll post on the prayer line.
Just another acknowledgment of how many of you have enriched my life since I first opened up WorldMag’s blog. The morning just wouldn’t be the same without you! 🙂
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What a brave girl Liz is. My kids waited until they went to college so as to keep Mom out of the whole thing.
Perhaps I shouldn’t mention I married the first guy who really asked me out? I met him when I was 15 and he was 16. 🙂
He joined the military, too, but that didn’t stop us–it actually speeded up the date!
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Michelle, I’m sorry about the sleeplessness. Been there too many times myself!
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I tried to go for a walk yesterday morning, but it was raining a bit and gray–if I had been just walking, I’d have gone anyway, but it wasn’t going to be good light for photos and my camera might get wet. Disappointed a bit since I finally finished a string of editing jobs and was feeling “free” and I wanted to get out for a bit, I returned home.
I went out in the evening instead. Light around noon is not good for photography; the best times are early morning and evening–though animals are active different times of the day, and sometimes you just have to go when they’re active and do the best you can for photography! But if I can’t go in the morning, I often go after 4:00 and figure I’ll get the evening light toward the end of my walk, and I’ll also be out when insects are active (dragonflies and butterflies in particular). Well, it ended up being a really super good nature walk. I did get a few butterflies, but they were secondary. I got several good dragonfly shots, including an egg-laying pair that wasn’t in very good light and was in the pond it’s hard to photograph, but I got some decent shots in spite of all that. (This pond is on the trail, and the back of it is behind people’s yards–so sometimes it’s hard to get photos without getting houses. It’s also set rather low, so I have to take photos DOWN to get shots, and there’s a lot of weeds and stuff at the edge. So I have to be really careful of my footing, avoid getting weeds in the way, etc.) Anyway, decently good dragonfly shots.
Then on the other pond on the trail, something else special: a whole family of muskrats! A mother was out with her babies, at least three babies but two of them were shy and mostly stayed under the plants, so for all I know there might have been more under there or in the den. But one was brave and kept going out with Mama, so I got some sweet shots. There was another adult feeding just a little ways away, so it might have been the father (I know little about muskrats), but anyway I saw at least six muskrats today including three young ones (one on the creek near our house). A few months ago someone told me about seeing a family of muskrats on the other pond on the trail, and I went there two or three times hoping to see them and never did, so it was a sweet surprise to see them today.
Then I went back by the pond that isn’t on the trail. Two great blue herons were on it when I started on the walk, and I got a few shots and then walked on. When I came back by, there was a great blue heron on the water, hunting. Now, in my (limited) experience, great blue herons wade in the water only in the morning. Later in the day they might be on a log not very far above the water, and I’m guessing if a frog or something came close enough they could stretch out their necks and grab it, they would. But they don’t wade (actively hunting). These have been hunting later into the morning, and one was in the water this evening. My hunch is they are young, inexperienced hunters, so it takes them longer to find food. (Indeed, I’m pretty sure this one caught a frog and then it got away.) But with the bounty of summer, they may take longer to hunt, but they won’t starve, and God gave them these few months in which they can practice and learn the skills they need. Anyway, it was in the water during the nice light of evening, so I got some good hunting shots, probably the best I’ve gotten. And a really big monarch caterpillar was crawling around, looking for a place to make a chrysalis, so I made note of where it was and went back this morning to see if I can find where it ended up. (I figured it will be easier to find its chrysalis later if I find its chosen spot while it is still looking like a caterpillar–it will be easier to find the yellow-and-black caterpillar than to find the green chrysalis!) If it settles in the spot where it was resting this morning, it will be pretty easy to watch the chrysalis, so hopefully it will.
Anyway, it was a really sweet day out with a lot of good sightings, and I’m glad I was providentially hindered from going out yesterday morning! (I also ended up talking to two Mormon missionaries while I was watching the heron.) But now the dilemma is that I got photos of way too many different things to post them all on Flickr at the same time, so I’m doing on “subject” at a time. 🙂 Last night I posted some miscellaneous insects, this morning I posted the egg-laying dragonflies, later today I’ll post the baby muskrats, and eventually I’ll post the hunting great blue heron. I have a surplus of riches!
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Her boss will not be back in the office until next Monday. I am choosing to work from home as much as I can this week. It is blatantly obvious what she is doing. All I want is for her to be professional and not petty. It has been going on for a month now. Who can hold a grudge that long????
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Kim, Did something happen between you or is it all a mystery?
Just got off the phone with a researcher from USC who gave me much of the info I’ve been trying to get on how a more in-depth follow-up survey process is done for each year’s LA County homeless count. Some people are just so easy to interview — they are comfortable talking at length which is what I really needed for this story.
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Work personalities … Our direct supervising editor just returned this week from being out for a few months recovering from carpal tunnel surgery; let’s just say she’s not one of the favorites among reporters who are under her.
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I have no idea what is wrong. If I did I would fix it or apologize.
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Sometimes it has nothing to do with us, it is in the mind of the other person.
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More on Joshua Harris:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/joshua-harris-marches-in-pride-parade-after-apologizing-to-lgbt-community.html
__________________________
Former pastor and evangelical author Joshua Harris demonstrated his support for the LGBT community by marching in Vancouver’s annual Pride Parade less than a month after announcing he no longer considers himself a Christian.
On August 4, Harris, former pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, shared several Instagram photos of himself participating in the British Columbia parade, engaging in Pride festivities, and “swapping stories” with LGBT activists.
“An American in Canada marching with the British Consulate in the Pride Parade,” he captioned one photo. …
… Heath Lambert, who leads First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, announced the foreword written by Harris would be removed from his book, Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace.
“In Finally Free I am trying to be clear about a Christian approach to sexuality. Joshua’s recent actions and statements only confuse that attempt at clarity and will lead others astray,” the Jacksonville pastor stated.
“The Lord knows Joshua’s heart,” he added. “Was Joshua a Christianized unbeliever who never knew Christ? We do not know, but God does. Is he a Christian who has fallen into grievous sin, and is in need of restoration? We do not know, but God does.
“What we do know is that Joshua Harris is in absolute spiritual peril. He needs our love, and he needs our prayers. He has mine, and I trust he will have yours as well.” …
________________________________
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Kim, have you asked her?
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The Real’s post is one I understand, though I am not a parent. No dates yet for Eldest Niece, but lots of questions about how to deal with a serious interest. Oddly enough, sometimes a spinster aunt is the best person to answer those questions, as the prospect of prolonged singleness (not just referring to lack of marriage and sex in that term, but also the lack of a reciprocal emotional relationship or bond that should precede the other two), if the interest is not reciprocated, is sometimes more intimidating to a young person than the prospect of a relationship. It helps, I think, to have someone who has lived a single life encourage the young person to realize that not having one’s interest reciprocated is not the end of the world. My mother had a lifelong single friend who did as much for me in my younger years.
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I just got my beginning work schedule. Feeling excited and scared about it all. It will be very busy in the first weeks as they orient me, and then I will begin my part-time hours.
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We grew up with close family friends–a trio of single sisters.
Knowing those women gave me a great expectation that whether I married or not, I could have a fun, exciting life.
We still love visiting the remaining two–both in their late-eighties. The oldest one–the only person I know who has been to Turkmenistan and she went three times in the last decade–died a few years ago while visiting London at 93.
Marriage can be terrific, but it’s not everything.
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DJ, you asked for comment on the Op-Ed from the LA Times that you shared on yesterday’s news thread, on whether countries that had a higher rate of belief in God were more violent. I would observe that the Op-Ed, incidentally, only deals with faith in God in general, irrespective of religion.
First, the Op-Ed was inaccurate in at least one point. It named Canada as a peaceful country where the majority of people did not believe in God – in the article’s words, “where faith in God is very low”. That is an inaccurate portrayal. About 67 percent of the Canadian population claims to believe in God or some kind of higher power: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadians-may-be-vacating-the-pews-but-they-are-keeping-the-faith-poll. While only 21 percent are regular religious practitioners in attending religious services, an additional 30 percent are ‘quiet’ believers, who believe in God and an afterlife, but do not attend religious services. 30 percent are spiritually uncertain and only 19 percent are complete un-believers. Canadians tend to be very complacent about religious practice and open displays of belief are generally considered in poor taste, but it cannot be called a majority atheistic country.
Second, religion is frequently used and has been used throughout history to justify evil, so it is no surprise that the presence of religion might correlate to violence. You quoted the example from the Op Ed of the high rate of violent crime in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country. It reminded me of the christening scene in ‘The Godfather’ where the rising Mafia Godfather, Michael Corleone, is standing as godfather to his nephew. As Corleone renounces the devil and all his works before the priest, his goons are elsewhere shooting down his Mafia rivals. If one can commit crimes and then go to the inviolably sacred confession afterward to receive penance with no fear of having one’s crimes reported to the secular authorities, crime is not going to clash with religious observance. And, if one can claim God not only forgives, but actually sanctions one’s violence, then it is even less likely that belief in God acts as a restraint to violence.
There is a third aspect to the apparent correlation between violence and religious belief (a correlation that the writer of the Op Ed rightly recognizes as being complicated by numerous others factors so as to call into question any causal effect). That is that the presence of Christians in the secular world does breed unrest. That unrest should never be due to the actions of Christians (though it must be admitted that, historically, at time Christians have been directly responsible for the violence). But it is a fact, that as Christ warned (Matthew 10:34), those who become Christians often unsettle those who live comfortably in their spiritual darkness and the response of the latter to the former may be violent.
Finally, the Op-Ed is flawed, as any piece written by a skeptic on faith would be. Nevertheless, the statement that the Op Ed is criticizing, that mass shootings happen because of a lack of faith in God, is also very flawed. The response of Jesus to disaster, whether because of accident or by deliberate violence, was to say that those who died were no greater sinners than anyone else, but rather, all humanity was doomed to destruction, unless they repented and believed in him (Luke 13:1-5). Turning disaster into a stick to beat unbelievers with is not a work of the Holy Spirit. Then again, the man who said the shootings were due to a lack of belief is a firm proponent of the national prosperity gospel – that if a nation is predominantly Christian, it will become great*.
*Someone forgot to tell that to Egypt and Syria, which were, for several centuries after the resurrection of Christ, predominantly Christian, but which never again became the world powers that they had been as pagan nations in the Old Testament era.
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File this one under Scripture passages you have to read twice and then research. I have been reading through the minor prophets, and finding little gems. I was reading Zechariah 9, which is predominantly one pronouncing destruction to Israel’s enemies. In the midst of the declarations of coming destruction to the cities of the Philistines, there was one verse I had to read twice, and then look up in other translations to see if it retained that meaning. It did, and here is the passage in the HCSB version, with the verse I noticed in bold (verses 5 to 7):
“Ashkelon will see it and be afraid;
Gaza too, and will writhe in great pain,
as will Ekron, for her hope will fail.
There will cease to be a king in Gaza,
and Ashkelon will become uninhabited.
A mongrel people will live in Ashdod,
and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.
I will remove the blood from their mouths
and the detestable things
from between their teeth.
Then they too will become a remnant for our God;
they will become like a clan in Judah
and Ekron like the Jebusites.
The Jebusites are a reference to the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, whose first named king in the Biblical account is the mysterious Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God (Genesis 14:18) – a belief that the Jebusites retained in some degree, since their last king, Araunah, was supportive of David making an offering on his land, on the site that the Temple would later be built (II Samuel 24:18-24). Much has been made, often unkindly, in Western Christian circles, of the modern day Palestinians living in Gaza, the former territory of the Philistines. But here, we find a promise from God that the mixed people in the former country of the Philistines would become part of His people. There are Palestinian Christians today, a fulfillment of that promise.
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Thanks Roscuro, good points and a few I’d also thought of, but without “The Godfather” example. 🙂
Cheryl, Michelle, or anyone else who writes & works from home — how do you manage printer ink??? Yikes, I tend to work better from hard-copy notes and I’m going through printer ink like gangbusters. As you all know, it’s not cheap. …
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I don’t print out much.
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I’m going to have to move in that direction 🙂
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Mumsee – Boy is not mature for his age. I think he tries somewhat, as he will mention that he had salad when he was with his dad, seeming to think that that somehow mitigates eating the other foods. (Nightingale has explained that it does not.) Since we are being strict with him, the temptation to eat what his dad is offering is great.
We remind him of what his goal is, that weigh-in is now three weeks away. But he does not have the inner strength yet to deny himself something he wants badly now for something that is weeks off. Let’s face it, many (most?) adults don’t either, at least in regards to food, which is why diets ultimately fail.
(One of my prayers for him, for this matter and others, is that God would help him to grow in maturity.)
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misty, moisty morning here.
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Kim, 12:37 —
It has been going on for a month now. Who can hold a grudge that long????
Someone I know held a grudge against me for more than a year. She briefly popped out of it when I did something to help her out recently, but it appears that she is back to not speaking to me again, now that the favor is no longer continuing.
People like that don’t understand how they’re hurting themselves.
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Kizzie, 5:26 —
Boy is not mature for his age.
I’d have to agree with Mumsee when she says Boy is old enough to take some responsibility. His chronological age is more important than his present maturity. IMO, he’ll gain in maturity when he’s given more responsibility (and perhaps has to suffer the natural consequences of his poor self-control).
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About Kizzie’s grandson, why are we expecting a six year old child to be able to act more mature than his father? To stand up to his father and say no, daddy, I won’t eat what you give me to eat? To demand that his father feed him more healthily?
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Roscuro – Boy is eight now. Even so, you have a great point.
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Since we have to be strict with him, the temptation to indulge is even greater when his dad gives him those foods. And we have to be strict with him because his dad gives him those foods.
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But even for us mature adults, if we are on a diet that feels restrictive, and then we have a chance to have something we really love, it takes an awful lot of willpower to say no, thank you.
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Time flies, Kizzie 🙂 , but my point remains. At that age, children are expected to eat what their parents give them – I certainly was and so were my niece and my nephews at that age (Third is that age now). To ask a child to basically be more in charge than his father is to place the child in an untenable position. That is the way to permanently psychologically damage a child’s view of authority by making them take authority before they are ready and create oppositional defiant patterns of behaviour. If he was pubescent, that might be something to consider, but he still has the mind of a child.
When we cannot stop an evil person, we should not then place pressure on the victims of that evil person to solve the problem.
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Long day, a back-and-forth between sculptor and editors on a story about a new statue being planned … Artists tend not to respond to texts, voicemails or emails very quickly. 🙂
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Kizzie, you said, “And we have to be strict with him because his dad gives him those foods.”
How about just give him the foods you and Nightingale want him to have — both regular, healthy foods and treats — in the quantities and with the frequency you want, instead of being stricter than you want to be because of X?
I hope I don’t sound flippant asking that question, because I know the situation with X is troublesome on multiple levels.
(I wrote a bunch more, but just erased it. What I want to say isn’t coming out right, and my previous comment didn’t, either. I was in a hurry typing it, as a piano student was due to arrive shortly after I posted.)
[Just deleted more. Sigh. Time to give up. Excuse my talking to myself.]
Praying for you.
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DJ and everyone else. About Printers, check out the Epson line They have a printer that you add bottles of ink to the printers instead of buying cartridges. The printer is more expensive but the ink is MUCH cheaper.
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Actually, many children are more mature than their parents and need to be in order to survive. Right now, the boy is headed toward a life time of obesity and related issues as well as a disdain for women. I was suggesting the boy, who is eight, who really wants to participate in a particular sport, may have the inner strength to say no thank you dad, how about you join me in this so I can be on the team and play the position I am tryin g for. Then it becomes a team effort with dad, building that bond toward a healthier goal than, mom makes me eat healthy, let’s pig out on junk. Just listening to how bad dad is for making him eat that stuff (not what is being said but quite possibly what is being heard) and sitting around with dad, laughing at mom and grandmom, is not a healthy situation.
In an ideal situation, both parents would be on board to feeding the child healthier food. That is rarely the case.
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Kizzie, I understand the boy has some challenges, but a lot of children, with the right motivation, can make a significant improvement. I have seen it in a number of my children who were challenged in various ways. Not all children can, but with his mom’s temperament as part of his makeup, it makes sense that he has what it takes.
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6 Arrows – Your suggestion would be good at another time, but right now he needs to lose (and keep lost) some weight before the weigh-in for the football team, in three weeks. Nightingale would be a little looser, allowing more treats (but not too many), if his dad were not filling him with junk.
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Mumsee – We make it a practice to not talk about X if Boy is anywhere around where he might hear.
Why did you say he may develop a disdain for women? Because his mom is strict and his dad is not?
We are working on helping him learn how to make better choices. Nightingale is really good about that with him. They usually work together to pack up what foods he will eat for the next day the night before (when I will be childsitting him the next day). She encourages him to eat healthy when he is with his dad, as much as is possible.
The current problem, as I wrote above, is because he needs to be under a certain weight in three weeks. We will continue to work with him and encourage him to make better choices, and I’m sure he will learn to do that on his own, but for now, we could really use some cooperation from X.
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Well, I am off to bed now, so if the conversation continues, I’ll catch up tomorrow. Goodnight, Fellow Wanderers.
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Good night, Kizzie.
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Cheryl, from the weekend thread: Thanks for answering my question about business email etiquette. I did decide to send the information as an email, and my website dashboard showed that the email got multiple clicks — more than the number of addresses to which I’d sent it.
I didn’t realize I’d have access to that kind of information, so that was kind of cool.
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Kizzie, because of his dad’s evident attitude.
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Kizzie, continuing the conversation on Boy’s football playing…
I have a question on this part that you wrote at 11:02 am:
Nightingale . . . has explained, through X’s mom, that Boy needs to lose weight before weigh-in for the official start of football season, and asked that he be careful about what Boy eats. If he is over the weight limit, then he will still play, but those kids are restricted to certain positions. Boy really, really wants to play other positions, maybe even quarterback.
Why is it so important to Nightingale that Boy not only be on the football team, but that he also get to play the positions he really wants to play?
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