Morning all. This photo almost looks like a still life. and you can hear the bird thinking about those berries.
i am tired. It was a tiring day. I did find a few things and got more bilums, or handmade knit bags. This is a town in PNG, and it does not look too good. The people are nice, but it is not a place you would want to visit. We were blessed to go by plane instead of several hours of deeply rutted roads.
Oh, I was paying for my breakfast and the gal I was paying looked familiar. I asked if she was related to someone I knew. She was, so I knew she had paid the bill I couldn’t pay for my pizza six months ago. So I paid her back. I told her this was my first time to return. Who knows how God will use this, since He is the one who nudged me to pay her, something I hadn’t even been thinking of moments before.
Morning! This forest is wet this morning and how thankful we are to have had an overnight rain shower!
That photo up there is so beautiful. The color and tones are picture perfect….wondering what type of bird that is?
The guys were still here when we left for Bible study last night. Daughter said they didn’t leave until 7:30. They will return this morning to hopefully finish this up. We have much to do to get this house back in order! Bible study will be at our house in a couple weeks…no pressure! 😳
It’s surprising how many varieties of doves there are worldwide, but that has the head and overall shape of a dove.
You can generally tell a bird’s diet and lifestyle by its beak and legs/ feet. (Wings, too, but you don’t even need to get that far for a general idea.) A thick beak for cracking nuts (finches have one type of thick beak, parrots another), a long thin one for nectar, a large curved one for tearing flesh, etc.
So in my twenties one day I dreamed I was in the backyard of my childhood home. (I grew up in Phoenix, and though we didn’t feed hummingbirds or have a flower garden, we did have an ornamental orange tree that produced blossoms and a palo verde that blossomed luxuriously, and also a passion vine and one flower bush. And Dad planted a vegetable garden most years, with squash and tomatoes and various other veggies.) In my dream, I saw a little bird flying around and probably hovering, and it had the size and body shape of a hummingbird. But I could see that its beak was that of a vulture, and I was excited to watch the bird, believing it to be new to science, and decided to name it the hummingbird vulture.
Obviously that is a bird that wouldn’t operate very well. But that’s how evolution would really do things, if it ever became law–it would mutate them so that they wouldn’t work anymore, giving a vulture a body too lightweight and fine bodied to carry much meat so that it would end up grounded and subject to predation. 🙂 We have these dandy little myths that evolution gives a non-lethal insect protective covering so that it can “mimic” a wasp or even a poisonous snake. Really? Knowing all we know about genetics now, we really still have people going around saying, “Hmm, I wonder what colors this insect’s ancestors were originally. But it is so cool that one day it looked at bees and wasps and said, ‘OOh, other animals tend to leave them alone. I wanna be yellow and black too!’ And eventually it happened.” I mean, seriously, how does a viceroy know (genetically) what a monarch looks like, or how to get there? It’s unscientific speculation and, biblically speaking, foolishness.
Good morning, dear brothers and sister in Christ. Although I have read the earlier comments on this thread, I am behind on reading the comments from the past couple days. But I’m gonna jump in with what I wanted to share with you today, and eventually catch up on the previous couple days’ comments.
This is what I wrote earlier this morning, which I had mentioned on the prayer thread. I may or may not share a slightly edited version of this on Facebook later.
As you may or may not know, today marks the second anniversary of Hubby’s death. Yesterday I shared a video on Facebook that made the point that in grief we move forward, but we don’t move on. But honestly, in the beginning, and for a while, I didn’t really feel like I was moving forward, either. There were pressing matters I needed to take care of – and I did – but instead of feeling like I was moving forward, I felt like I was in a state of limbo.
But life kept moving forward whether I liked it or not (and I didn’t like it). It was as if life was dragging me forward against my will. The people around me went on with their lives, bills came in the mail, chores needed attending to, and so I did what needed to be done each day. Sometimes only the bare minimum. (And that was okay.)
One day, I realized that I was indeed moving forward. That thought came with both a sense of relief and a sense of sorrow, even guilt. However, there are still days when I slip backwards into feeling like I am not moving forward after all. This grief process is not a linear process, but jumps around, often leaving me off-balance. There are occasional moments (fewer and further between as time goes on, thankfully) when my heart is gripped with the pain of missing Hubby so deeply, and I cry out to God, “I don’t want to do this anymore!”
Through all of the grief and pain and confusion I have had over the past two years, I can still say that God is good and faithful, and that my life is a good one. I am still grateful for all my blessings, especially the blessing of my family. I may still cry some every day, but I usually laugh more than I cry in a given day.
It’s another brisk, chilly morning here today. After I started sealing the patio furniture late yesterday, I woke up today thinking, “I know. I’ll stain the back fence and gates next!”
Ha. Aren’t I ambitious?
I suppose I was motivated by seeing my friend’s beautiful new redwood fence (which they wisely sealed immediately, but then their fence is way shorter than mine and very easy to reach in all areas, unlike mine).
But today I just have to write a story and not stain a fence.
Catching up myself on here. Kizzie, my heart goes out to you. It wouldn’t have hurt to message your grandson’s teacher about the anniversary, in case anything comes up. He is learning some important and sad life lessons at a very young age.
We once donated to a cause after being asked by some fellow parishioners. Later when my husband was laid off from work, these parishioners gave us a very generous gift. I am sure (other than the Holy Spirit) the donation we gave was the reason they gave.
Re grief: loss of a mom does not compare with loss of a spouse or a child, in most cases, and in my case it doesn’t. (I was in my thirties and living in a different state when Mom died. It was a profound loss, but not the way it would have been if I had been a child.) But it wasn’t till I went to bed last night that I realized it was the anniversary of the date we buried Mom. (We don’t know for sure the date she actually died, and since we buried her on her wedding anniversary to Dad and the date of my brother’s birthday, and since October 1 is a nice, round number, her burial date is always the relevant one for me.) I’d called my brother to wish him a happy birthday, so I knew the date. But it has been 16 years, and that particular aspect of the date didn’t even register. And my husband is a guy, but he’s good with dates overall, and he has to really stop and think about it to think of the date his late wife died. (He actually looked it up in paperwork when our daughter was getting married the same month, trying to make sure she wasn’t accidentally choosing the same date her mom died.) Anyway, I don’t know if any of that is helpful because for me it was a mom and for him he’s a guy and he’s happily remarried . . . but it does get less potent over time.
There was an interview on our local news yesterday featuring a woman who was kidnapped with her daughter many years ago. They were held captive over 50 days. The story will be recreated for the Lifetime station on Saturday night. She said she told them to give the glory to God for it was He who got her through that horrible event. Some of you may want to tune in or DVR it.
Forgot to mention that yesterday Nightingale, Chickadee, and I went out to lunch at Chili’s, a couple or so towns over. (Do your areas have Chili’s restaurants?) I had my first-ever Margarita – a Blood Orange one, to be specific (their Margarita of the Month). It was delicious.
We talked and laughed a lot, and had a very enjoyable time together. This was our get-together to commemorate Hubby’s death, but we only talked a little bit about him. For my part, I didn’t want to dampen the effervescent mood. It was so pleasant to have my daughters both having a good time together. Hubby would be pleased to see his girls (that includes me 🙂 ) enjoying each others’ company so well.
Have I mentioned how much my Nightingale is like her daddy? Here’s another way I have noticed: When we would go out to eat, either as a couple or as a family, he would want to get appetizers for us to share. At least a couple times, I made the point that restaurant meals are filling enough that we didn’t need appetizers. But since we rarely went out to eat, he would like to get them as a fun treat.
Well, Nightingale is the same when it comes to appetizers. I need to point that out to her when I see her later.
Anon has disappeared. I do not understand. It seems when I am on the prayer thread I am me, buy on the daily, I am Anon until I go to the prayer thread and then come back to the daily. I do not understand, but it probably means I should start with prayer each time.♡
Your alter-ego, Janice. Your weather sounds awful, hopefully it’ll break soon. We’re warming up in the next week but only to about 80, which is tolerable enough (though I prefer temperatures much lower than that).
Yes, we have Chili’s also. Sounds like a good time, Kizzie.
So nice and quiet here today. The gal in the next door flat, where we share a wall, moved out yesterday. Everytime she opened a drawer in her dresser it sounded like it was being opened in my room as there is really not a wall between. And I heard every footstep. I am appreciating the quiet.
Michelle – Some other people have also said that Nightingale and I look alike. We don’t get it! We don’t see a resemblance at all. She is very pretty (although she thinks she’s merely average), and I am not. (No, I am not fishing for compliments, where people feel obligated to say, “Oh, I think you’re pretty, Kizzie!” Just stating a fact. 🙂 )
Hubby used to say, when my face was thinner, that when we were asleep we looked a lot alike.
I do think that if I didn’t have Moebius Syndrome, I might have looked much like she does. I find it fascinating that she has my dad’s nose, but mine is the “Moebius nose” that many of us with Moebius have a version of. So it’s kind of neat to know that if I didn’t have this, my nose would have been similar to my dad’s.
A couple times when we were younger, Hubby said that if I didn’t have Moebius, I would be so pretty that I wouldn’t have been interested in him. That was sweet, but I would still like to think that I would have been mostly the same “me” and would have given him a chance. (Btw, Hubby did think I was pretty, even with Moebius, so I was not offended at all by what he said, although I jokingly pretended to be.)
My profile picture on Facebook is kinda nice, but that is because Nightingale had done my make-up nicely for the photo. Right afterwards, though, I had to wash off the eye make-up. I used to be able to wear eye make-up, but since my eyes have gotten drier and had more problems in the last few years, make-up irritates them too much.
The Chili’s near us at Toco Hills, is the one my friend, Karen, told me is a training site used for employees for this metro area. My family has not dined there, but we went many times in Chattanooga when Wesley was at Covenant (for four years).
Forty seven here, expecting fifty six maybe, tomorrow. I see there is a Chilis up north of Coeur d’alene. But I have never been there and do not anticipate every doing so.
I don’t know if I have ever eaten at Chili’s. If I did, I think I liked it–but I’m not positive I did.
Flickr has a group where each day they take 500 photos from their members’ uploads and display them in a group they call “Explore.” I think the stated point is having someone who’s interested in Flickr see the kinds of photos they have, all in one place. With presumably millions of uploads a day onto Flickr, or at least many thousand, your chance of having one of yours be one of the 15,000 photos “Explored” in a given month would seem to be quite slim. (It isn’t necessarily the best photos that make it onto there, and often there is a discernible pattern. A lot of buses make it onto Explore, for instance, and Lego people. In terms of animals, red foxes, a variety of kingfisher that isn’t found in the USA, bee eaters, and a couple of other ones make it onto Explore a lot.) Sometimes people say that for a year they made it on there weekly and it has now been four years since they have made it at all, so it’s unpredictable.
Anyway, in the six months or so I have been on Flickr, I have now made Explore seven times–twice this week. Three of those seven have been small mammals, two shots of rabbits and one chipmunk. Tonight a butterfly made it. It’s a butterfly photo I like, so I’m happy about that. It’s high enough in the list that it’s likely to make it to 10,000 views–if it does, it will be only my second photo to do so, though one got pretty close this week and will probably eventually make it up there . . .
Wandering Views 
Morning all. This photo almost looks like a still life. and you can hear the bird thinking about those berries.
i am tired. It was a tiring day. I did find a few things and got more bilums, or handmade knit bags. This is a town in PNG, and it does not look too good. The people are nice, but it is not a place you would want to visit. We were blessed to go by plane instead of several hours of deeply rutted roads.
Oh, I was paying for my breakfast and the gal I was paying looked familiar. I asked if she was related to someone I knew. She was, so I knew she had paid the bill I couldn’t pay for my pizza six months ago. So I paid her back. I told her this was my first time to return. Who knows how God will use this, since He is the one who nudged me to pay her, something I hadn’t even been thinking of moments before.
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Good Morning Jo and everyone else. Isn’t it amazing when you can reap at a kindness
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Nice story Jo. Now, take the rest of the day off.
Good morning everyone else.
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Morning! This forest is wet this morning and how thankful we are to have had an overnight rain shower!
That photo up there is so beautiful. The color and tones are picture perfect….wondering what type of bird that is?
The guys were still here when we left for Bible study last night. Daughter said they didn’t leave until 7:30. They will return this morning to hopefully finish this up. We have much to do to get this house back in order! Bible study will be at our house in a couple weeks…no pressure! 😳
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That is a rather unusual looking dove. It has tail rings like a pheasant. 🙂
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Good morning! I thought the bird had the shape of a dove but those long tail feathers? Not sure. Beautiful♡
I have a full day at church. I am trying to get use to being so active in church again.
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It’s surprising how many varieties of doves there are worldwide, but that has the head and overall shape of a dove.
You can generally tell a bird’s diet and lifestyle by its beak and legs/ feet. (Wings, too, but you don’t even need to get that far for a general idea.) A thick beak for cracking nuts (finches have one type of thick beak, parrots another), a long thin one for nectar, a large curved one for tearing flesh, etc.
So in my twenties one day I dreamed I was in the backyard of my childhood home. (I grew up in Phoenix, and though we didn’t feed hummingbirds or have a flower garden, we did have an ornamental orange tree that produced blossoms and a palo verde that blossomed luxuriously, and also a passion vine and one flower bush. And Dad planted a vegetable garden most years, with squash and tomatoes and various other veggies.) In my dream, I saw a little bird flying around and probably hovering, and it had the size and body shape of a hummingbird. But I could see that its beak was that of a vulture, and I was excited to watch the bird, believing it to be new to science, and decided to name it the hummingbird vulture.
Obviously that is a bird that wouldn’t operate very well. But that’s how evolution would really do things, if it ever became law–it would mutate them so that they wouldn’t work anymore, giving a vulture a body too lightweight and fine bodied to carry much meat so that it would end up grounded and subject to predation. 🙂 We have these dandy little myths that evolution gives a non-lethal insect protective covering so that it can “mimic” a wasp or even a poisonous snake. Really? Knowing all we know about genetics now, we really still have people going around saying, “Hmm, I wonder what colors this insect’s ancestors were originally. But it is so cool that one day it looked at bees and wasps and said, ‘OOh, other animals tend to leave them alone. I wanna be yellow and black too!’ And eventually it happened.” I mean, seriously, how does a viceroy know (genetically) what a monarch looks like, or how to get there? It’s unscientific speculation and, biblically speaking, foolishness.
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It is a gorgeous shot. Jo, thank your friend from us, please.
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Good morning, dear brothers and sister in Christ. Although I have read the earlier comments on this thread, I am behind on reading the comments from the past couple days. But I’m gonna jump in with what I wanted to share with you today, and eventually catch up on the previous couple days’ comments.
This is what I wrote earlier this morning, which I had mentioned on the prayer thread. I may or may not share a slightly edited version of this on Facebook later.
As you may or may not know, today marks the second anniversary of Hubby’s death. Yesterday I shared a video on Facebook that made the point that in grief we move forward, but we don’t move on. But honestly, in the beginning, and for a while, I didn’t really feel like I was moving forward, either. There were pressing matters I needed to take care of – and I did – but instead of feeling like I was moving forward, I felt like I was in a state of limbo.
But life kept moving forward whether I liked it or not (and I didn’t like it). It was as if life was dragging me forward against my will. The people around me went on with their lives, bills came in the mail, chores needed attending to, and so I did what needed to be done each day. Sometimes only the bare minimum. (And that was okay.)
One day, I realized that I was indeed moving forward. That thought came with both a sense of relief and a sense of sorrow, even guilt. However, there are still days when I slip backwards into feeling like I am not moving forward after all. This grief process is not a linear process, but jumps around, often leaving me off-balance. There are occasional moments (fewer and further between as time goes on, thankfully) when my heart is gripped with the pain of missing Hubby so deeply, and I cry out to God, “I don’t want to do this anymore!”
Through all of the grief and pain and confusion I have had over the past two years, I can still say that God is good and faithful, and that my life is a good one. I am still grateful for all my blessings, especially the blessing of my family. I may still cry some every day, but I usually laugh more than I cry in a given day.
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That bird looks like it’s posing for the photo.
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Thinking of you today, Kizzie.
It’s another brisk, chilly morning here today. After I started sealing the patio furniture late yesterday, I woke up today thinking, “I know. I’ll stain the back fence and gates next!”
Ha. Aren’t I ambitious?
I suppose I was motivated by seeing my friend’s beautiful new redwood fence (which they wisely sealed immediately, but then their fence is way shorter than mine and very easy to reach in all areas, unlike mine).
But today I just have to write a story and not stain a fence.
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Beautiful photo.
Catching up myself on here. Kizzie, my heart goes out to you. It wouldn’t have hurt to message your grandson’s teacher about the anniversary, in case anything comes up. He is learning some important and sad life lessons at a very young age.
We once donated to a cause after being asked by some fellow parishioners. Later when my husband was laid off from work, these parishioners gave us a very generous gift. I am sure (other than the Holy Spirit) the donation we gave was the reason they gave.
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Kevin: You still need to choose a tie breaker for the Pigskin Picks.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/schedule
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Kizzie, I cried reading that.
Re grief: loss of a mom does not compare with loss of a spouse or a child, in most cases, and in my case it doesn’t. (I was in my thirties and living in a different state when Mom died. It was a profound loss, but not the way it would have been if I had been a child.) But it wasn’t till I went to bed last night that I realized it was the anniversary of the date we buried Mom. (We don’t know for sure the date she actually died, and since we buried her on her wedding anniversary to Dad and the date of my brother’s birthday, and since October 1 is a nice, round number, her burial date is always the relevant one for me.) I’d called my brother to wish him a happy birthday, so I knew the date. But it has been 16 years, and that particular aspect of the date didn’t even register. And my husband is a guy, but he’s good with dates overall, and he has to really stop and think about it to think of the date his late wife died. (He actually looked it up in paperwork when our daughter was getting married the same month, trying to make sure she wasn’t accidentally choosing the same date her mom died.) Anyway, I don’t know if any of that is helpful because for me it was a mom and for him he’s a guy and he’s happily remarried . . . but it does get less potent over time.
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There was an interview on our local news yesterday featuring a woman who was kidnapped with her daughter many years ago. They were held captive over 50 days. The story will be recreated for the Lifetime station on Saturday night. She said she told them to give the glory to God for it was He who got her through that horrible event. Some of you may want to tune in or DVR it.
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Sure is tranquil around here, somebody was just commenting. Yep.
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Kizzie, please see the prayer thread.
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Forgot to mention that yesterday Nightingale, Chickadee, and I went out to lunch at Chili’s, a couple or so towns over. (Do your areas have Chili’s restaurants?) I had my first-ever Margarita – a Blood Orange one, to be specific (their Margarita of the Month). It was delicious.
We talked and laughed a lot, and had a very enjoyable time together. This was our get-together to commemorate Hubby’s death, but we only talked a little bit about him. For my part, I didn’t want to dampen the effervescent mood. It was so pleasant to have my daughters both having a good time together. Hubby would be pleased to see his girls (that includes me 🙂 ) enjoying each others’ company so well.
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Have I mentioned how much my Nightingale is like her daddy? Here’s another way I have noticed: When we would go out to eat, either as a couple or as a family, he would want to get appetizers for us to share. At least a couple times, I made the point that restaurant meals are filling enough that we didn’t need appetizers. But since we rarely went out to eat, he would like to get them as a fun treat.
Well, Nightingale is the same when it comes to appetizers. I need to point that out to her when I see her later.
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Broke another record in Atlanta today. 97 degrees.
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Anon has disappeared. I do not understand. It seems when I am on the prayer thread I am me, buy on the daily, I am Anon until I go to the prayer thread and then come back to the daily. I do not understand, but it probably means I should start with prayer each time.♡
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Your alter-ego, Janice. Your weather sounds awful, hopefully it’ll break soon. We’re warming up in the next week but only to about 80, which is tolerable enough (though I prefer temperatures much lower than that).
Yes, we have Chili’s also. Sounds like a good time, Kizzie.
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Peter: So I do. How about #14 Iowa @ #19 Michigan?
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Nightingale, we do have Chili’s here in Southeast Michigan, although not one convenient for us so I don’t think we’ve been in quite a few years.
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Did I just address Kizzie as Nightingale? I think I need sleep!
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It’s okay, Kevin, they look alike. 🙂
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I agree that that bird does have elements of a pheasant.
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So nice and quiet here today. The gal in the next door flat, where we share a wall, moved out yesterday. Everytime she opened a drawer in her dresser it sounded like it was being opened in my room as there is really not a wall between. And I heard every footstep. I am appreciating the quiet.
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Got it Kevin.
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Michelle – Some other people have also said that Nightingale and I look alike. We don’t get it! We don’t see a resemblance at all. She is very pretty (although she thinks she’s merely average), and I am not. (No, I am not fishing for compliments, where people feel obligated to say, “Oh, I think you’re pretty, Kizzie!” Just stating a fact. 🙂 )
Hubby used to say, when my face was thinner, that when we were asleep we looked a lot alike.
I do think that if I didn’t have Moebius Syndrome, I might have looked much like she does. I find it fascinating that she has my dad’s nose, but mine is the “Moebius nose” that many of us with Moebius have a version of. So it’s kind of neat to know that if I didn’t have this, my nose would have been similar to my dad’s.
A couple times when we were younger, Hubby said that if I didn’t have Moebius, I would be so pretty that I wouldn’t have been interested in him. That was sweet, but I would still like to think that I would have been mostly the same “me” and would have given him a chance. (Btw, Hubby did think I was pretty, even with Moebius, so I was not offended at all by what he said, although I jokingly pretended to be.)
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My profile picture on Facebook is kinda nice, but that is because Nightingale had done my make-up nicely for the photo. Right afterwards, though, I had to wash off the eye make-up. I used to be able to wear eye make-up, but since my eyes have gotten drier and had more problems in the last few years, make-up irritates them too much.
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10 p.m. and it’s 87 degrees in Atlanta. Revision: 96 was our high today and 97 is predicted for tomorrow. Thankful for air conditioning!
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The Chili’s near us at Toco Hills, is the one my friend, Karen, told me is a training site used for employees for this metro area. My family has not dined there, but we went many times in Chattanooga when Wesley was at Covenant (for four years).
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Forty seven here, expecting fifty six maybe, tomorrow. I see there is a Chilis up north of Coeur d’alene. But I have never been there and do not anticipate every doing so.
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I don’t know if I have ever eaten at Chili’s. If I did, I think I liked it–but I’m not positive I did.
Flickr has a group where each day they take 500 photos from their members’ uploads and display them in a group they call “Explore.” I think the stated point is having someone who’s interested in Flickr see the kinds of photos they have, all in one place. With presumably millions of uploads a day onto Flickr, or at least many thousand, your chance of having one of yours be one of the 15,000 photos “Explored” in a given month would seem to be quite slim. (It isn’t necessarily the best photos that make it onto there, and often there is a discernible pattern. A lot of buses make it onto Explore, for instance, and Lego people. In terms of animals, red foxes, a variety of kingfisher that isn’t found in the USA, bee eaters, and a couple of other ones make it onto Explore a lot.) Sometimes people say that for a year they made it on there weekly and it has now been four years since they have made it at all, so it’s unpredictable.
Anyway, in the six months or so I have been on Flickr, I have now made Explore seven times–twice this week. Three of those seven have been small mammals, two shots of rabbits and one chipmunk. Tonight a butterfly made it. It’s a butterfly photo I like, so I’m happy about that. It’s high enough in the list that it’s likely to make it to 10,000 views–if it does, it will be only my second photo to do so, though one got pretty close this week and will probably eventually make it up there . . .
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I remember Coeur d’alene from when my aunt lived in Sandpoint. We attended a little church there for an evening Christmas service.
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Good morning everyone but Jo.
Today is AJ’s day to sleep in, but I can’t wate.
Up and about.
No. I don’t know why.
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Morning, Chas. Tomorrow morning is the early morning to go to market and take some friends so we all don’t have to walk up the hill.
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