67 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-19-19”

  3. I had all of my sewing stuff out and about trying to decide what to do with it. I threw some scraps away and took a large bag full of things to school A few things I have packed as I know I want them. Finally, last night, I realized that I had other things to do, especially at school, and I did not need to make decisions about every bit of this stuff right now. So I switched the trunks last week and what was left I put in a drawer. Now my place is much neater. Switching trunks means that I got everything out of the trunk of sewing stuff. I put things in there that I will give as gifts when i leave. And I have begun packing a trunk of things to take in December.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. TSWITW is 88 years old today.

    Good morning everyone but Jo.
    Good evening Jo.
    We had a lot of discussion last night about whose house this is. She thinks some other man owns it.
    But there was no problem getting her to bed. She is still racked out while I fix breakfast.

    Liked by 5 people

  5. Re the header: I have always thought red-winged blackbirds to be really gorgeous birds; black and red are so lovely together. They are particularly stunning in flight, when the red-and-yellow epaulets flash with each wingstroke. But capturing a bird in flight is easier said than done. You have to get just the right moment (the bird has to be in the frame, not blocked by anything, and with its wings in a good position) and the bird has to be in focus. I have certain species that are particularly lovely in flight, and that I have tried hard to photograph that way. The red-winged blackbird is one, the mockingbird another, and the blue jay a third.

    But good flight shots either happen by “luck” (you are trying to photograph the bird on the branch, and it happens to take off just then and it’s in focus) or with many, many shots of the bird as it looks like it might take off and you hope that you get the right moment. Many times I have put the camera on action mode to increase my chances (action mode limits the zoom and the depth of field tremendously, but it gives several shots in a row and a higher chance of getting a good one), and with it on action mode I keep taking bursts of four or five shots while the bird just sits there. And then often I pause for a moment, or take a photo of something else, and that’s when the bird decides to take off. Or it flies directly away from me or with a branch between it and the camera. Or my camera goes out of focus the moment it flies. One thing or another, and the successful flight shot hides many, many unsuccessful attempts. But I am quite happy this one turned out.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Chas, happy birthday to your Elvera! I know I have said on here before that I have loved the number 88 since I was little, and my mom often reported with amusement (though I myself do not remember this) that at one point I gave all my dolls’ ages as 88. She thought that made her, the dolls’ “grandmother,” really old!

    But 88 is a really cool number. It is the same backward or forward, right-side-up or upside-down. Or you can divide it in half, then again, then again, and end up with two straight lines (which are also the same backward or forward, upside-down or right-side up).

    Liked by 3 people

  11. Lovely shot, Cheryl!
    It’s a rainy day here. My knees feel a bit of an ache, but with Miss Bosley in my lap, her warmth makes for relief equal to what an aspirin could do.

    I have been reading a book, Discipleship that Fits, by Harrington/Absalom, and find it quite interesting as it talks about the different types of groups and their dynamics that church members engage with and what can reasonably be expected of relationships within each type group. I got the book quite awhile back to review for Netgalley and never got to read it until now. This is the right time for me to read it because of trying to better understand all the ways that my church is engaging people.

    Like

  15. Cheryl’s fascination with numbers is interesting, since most people who deal with words don’t deal with numbers. But I like numbers as well. I watch my odometer for palindromes. Once, I notice it at 55022 that the LED numbers 5 and 2 were mirrored versions of each other. I stopped and took a picture and sent it to D2, who also likes palindromic odometer readings.

    Liked by 3 people

  16. Good morning. I hear the sounds of the young homeless woman, walking about out on the deck. We will get a tent out for her today. She had two hay barns and the hunting mansion but said she refused to sleep in the hunting mansion, on a bed with a mattress. We have thought of removing our guardianship for her, forcing the State to find a place for her, but realize, when her time is up there, they will just release her to the street. This has been a very eye opening time into the world of mental illness.

    Not light enough to do chores yet.

    Liked by 3 people

  19. Wonderful fun photo 🙂 !

    Happy Birthday to Elvera, are there any special plans?

    I remember telling my roommate years ago that there seemed to be “word” people and “number” people. I was word, she was number. It even carried out in the way we referred to our local freeways — I would call them by their names (San Diego, Long Beach, Harbor), she’d call them by their numbers (the 405, 710, 110).

    And of course she did very well in math; me, not so much (which was putting it mildly).

    It’s another chilly morning here. And it’s SATURDAY!

    Like

  21. I majored in accounting as a practical way to make a living, but as I studied literature and writing in high school I found I had a love for that. When we studied Thr Odyssey in my high school senior English class, I was the one who made 100 on the exam. In high school I loved my elective creative writing course and enjoyed doing a term paper on Robert Frost. My SAT score was higher in math than verbal, and that was probably related to not doing so well with vocabulary and grammar. When I consider our son Wesley, for his ACT scoring, he scored so highly in math after high school that he did not have to take a single math class at Covenant. Later when he took a test to determine what field he would do well in it came out engineering. But he loved literature. When he took the GRE, he scored a perfect score on verbal, but not as highly on math since he had neglected it for four years. So, in our family we are a mixed bag!

    Liked by 2 people

  23. The widespread, across-the-board cultural acceptance of the LGBT movement, I think, is partly what’s causing some (much?) of bleed from orthodox churches.

    Like

  24. The new homeless encampment is beaming with smiles. She is having a wonderful time. Set up in her little tent with her blankets, rain coming down, wind blowing. Good to see her happy for a change.

    Liked by 2 people

  25. The Prairie Encampment

    I have so many things on my want-to-do list I don’t know which to pick.

    Patio painting project? Gate staining? Weathervane rehabilitation? Re-pot the plumbago plants I bought last week?

    Like

  26. Dump the plumbago in the yard. It will run wild.

    Thanks for filling us in on the on-going saga. As we watch our town fill up with homeless people, we wonder, “where are their families?” You’re helping us understand. 😦

    Like

  27. Exactly. Families may have tried and tried to help and to get help. We see possibility with our plan but the paper work is so challenging. And the time to get things approved. And the availability of inpatient treatment. A lot of families give up or the person refuses help. Meanwhile the person and family go through serious turmoil.

    When I came in last night and saw how scared twelve year old was, in addition to the day before of listening to her sister yell in the car for the whole trip. She was in tears the first time but last night was just terrified.

    Liked by 2 people

  28. We thought of quitting the guardianship, forcing the State to take care of her. But if she is hospitalized and the hospital decides they are done, she could be released to the wilds or could check herself out at any time.

    Liked by 2 people

  29. But will I regret plumbago running wild? Like bougainvillea, I love it — but I know it can become unwieldy — I’d definitely plant it far away from fencing.

    Like

  30. The yard is barren, it needs something beyond my few potted plants … I have impatiens that have outgrown their terra cotta pot and am thinking of trying also to stick this in the ground in a very shaded spot.

    Like

  32. my bougainvillea here was dug up as I was done with it. It has been a few years. Then, this year it appeared again. This time I had it transplanted away from my house. We will see if it appears again.

    Like

  33. Re Donna’s 11:19. No special plans. But Chuck, Linda, and the Mueller family (Chuck’s oldest daughter) family came over wit lots of goodies. We will be eating on them a long time.

    Liked by 2 people

  35. We had such a beautiful day that we put up more than 200 feet of multi-coloured “Winter Lights” along our driveway. We won’t plug them in until after Halloween though. I’m looking forward to seeing them with some snow 🙂

    The 4 piece shower unit we ordered has arrived – we’ll look at the instructions tonight and make a plan for our next steps on installation.

    Liked by 2 people

  37. I watched the movie Yesterday, again today, on my computer while I CLEANED MY OFFICE! I was so inspired I moved on to the bathroom drawers and threw stuff away–along with setting aside a box of soap and unopened dental items for the food pantry at church.

    Liked by 1 person

  38. X picked up Boy on Friday afternoon for the weekly overnight visit, and Nightingale had included in Boy’s bag some medicines he has been taking for a minor cold. He is prone to ear infections, so – per his pediatricians recommendation – whenever he has any cold symptoms, he takes a mucous relief med and ibuprofen, and a cough med if needed. He also has illness-induced asthma, so he has a nebulizer. She had packed all of that with specific instructions.

    Right before being picked up, Boy had a nebulizer treatment, and was fine. About an hour and a half later, X was texting me that he needed Boy’s insurance info, because he was taking him to an urgent care clinic, because supposedly Boy was having trouble breathing. (Instead of giving the info to him, she called the clinic and gave it straight to them.)

    We knew that Boy was fine, that this was merely an attempt by X to try to find some proof of negligence on her part (because she hadn’t taken him to the doctor yet). He has done this before – whenever Boy has any kind of cold, X claims he needs to see a doctor, and has accused her a couple times of not taking him when she should have. (Believe me, she is on top of anything that comes up with Boy’s health, but she is not one to panic or think the worst.)

    Well, it turned out that there would be a $50 co-pay that X would have to pay. So they left, which proves that he wasn’t really concerned about a real problem with Boy’s health.

    As for paying co-pays, Nightingale has to pay a $45 co-pay every other week when she takes Boy to his therapy appointments, which stem from what his dad did to her. 😦 It hurts, but she does it because it is needed.

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Guy was/is analysis and legalities. He has a degree in engineering.

    I,on the other hand, decided in my first business class in college that the demon that lives inside of Excel despises me. I function inside of legality better. It’s what I do all day. I also love the networking aspect although I don’t always do it to my advantage.
    Yesterday I helped my friend M in the Gumbo Cookoff. I/We were disappointed. Everyone told us we had the best gumbo but we didn’t even place. Our tent was next to the gentlemen from
    The Point Clear Rotary. They came to have fun. I had to stop them from adding sherry to their gumbo. They used freeze dried coffee to darken their roux. I scored M a cooking class at Christmas and had several people give me their contact info so they can go on her mailing list.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Lately, I spend a lot of time sitting here ruminating about things. Mostly of no consequence, and I seldom post them. But I can’t log onto my word processor now. So bare with me while I think a bit.
    I sit here with nothing to do. Nothing I can do. The only reason i have for being is because, for example, Elvera said last night “I don’t know what I would do without you”. That is the only reason I’m here. But that’s reason enough.

    That to bring this up. I was thinking of the apostle Paul. He spent at least two years in prison in Judaea. (Acts 24:27). There is no indication that he did anything. Just time wasted. But Dr. Luke was in Jerusalem picking up information for a gospel he would later write. That’s how he got so much information about the women in the ministry.) Subjectively, I consider: God keeps us here, for no reason at all.
    So it seems.

    Liked by 2 people

  43. Chas – I am still here because Nightingale and Boy need me. Pretty much all they need is for me to be here. I am here to take care of Boy when Nightingale is working or out for some other reason, and also to deal with their dog. But God has shown me that that is enough, and important in itself.

    You are important to Elvera, and to us! And I’m sure you are important to Chuck and Linda, and the granddaughters and great-grandchildren. What a wonderful legacy you and Elvera will leave behind someday. (But not yet.)

    Liked by 2 people

  44. Forgot to include that I am also important to Chickadee, even though we don’t see much of each other these days. I know that she loves me very much, and she usually tells me she misses me when we exchange texts or emails.

    And let’s not forget Heidi! I am her only person. (Well, Chickadee is one of her people when she’s here, but doesn’t live with her anymore.)

    Since we got Heidi when Nightingale was living with X, they never quite bonded, and Nightingale is not fond of Heidi because of her barking. But she has developed more of an appreciation for Heidi since she’s had Janie, because she sees how sweet Heidi is, and because playing with Heidi helps Janie burn off some excess energy.

    Even so, I have requested of Nightingale that if I should die before Heidi, she will give her affection and attention. She said that she would do so.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Perhaps our Lord is blessing Elvera’s days with you as her one and only, having been bonded together for over 60 years. I do believe I would desire to have Paul tending to my needs if I should ever find myself in Elvera’s place. He knows me like no other…in that I would find great comfort. We pray you will be strengthened in His strength as you tend to her needs Chas.
    You always encourage us here as a living testimony to His work in us, bringing glory unto Himself. You are a treasured child of the Lord God Most High…and treasured by us ❤️ (now get to writing that book won’t you?!) 😊 📖

    Liked by 3 people

  46. Ah, but prayer is the greater work and having someone with time to pray is so important to our truly sick world.

    So, on behalf of all, I say thank you for your prayers, Chas.

    (We were in Hosea 4 today. What a nightmare! And that’s before you see how it describes our nation and society.)

    Liked by 4 people

  47. Out pastor is taking us through Judges – which he calls the darkest book in the Bible. I’m really enjoying learning more about this book and how it shows us the salvation in the New Testament.

    Liked by 2 people

  48. I ran across something about Halloween that I posted on Facebook with my request for people to give their opinion. Kizzie thought I might want to post it here. I am trying to copy and paste it.
    “There is a lot to think about in this article. Do any of my Facebook friends wish to respectfully add any thought, either positive or negative on this subject? I’ve had mixed feelings about this for a long time. I know God wants us to honor and glorify Him in all we do ♡ He also sets divine appointments for believers to share with those He selects. Please, Lord, may all who read this think deeply and rightly according to Your will on this controversial subject. ♡ “They will know us by our love.”♡”
    That is what I wrote so now on the next post I will try to link the actual article.

    Liked by 2 people

  50. Hi all.

    If you’ve had a comment go to spam the last couple of days, I regret to inform you it has been deleted. We have a very aggressive spammer (a bot I suspect) who has been plastering the blog with as many as 300 comments a day for the last week. I’ve already put 30 or so of their URLs into the banned box and that has slowed it some. WP was made aware too. You probably won’t have noticed as the filter has been working overtime. I however have grown tired of scrolling thru each of them and at this point am just deleting the folder in mass. My apologies if you’ve been deleted too.

    This has happened once or twice, and we;ll sort it out. But if you see any obvious spam (long winded medical sounding stuff that’s an ad for foreign drugs is their fav right now) send me an email and let me know so I can remove it.

    If you’ve written some long tome that we simply all must read and it disappears, you could try that too, and maybe I can fish it out.

    But it better be worth it. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  51. Haha. Wouldn’t dare to ask, AJ 🙂 🙂

    Home from Lowe’s with cans of redwood (after Kim slapped me into sensibility) fence stain (for driveway gate), clear fence stain (for other, newer gate); and some primer and little cans of paint in such colors as terra cotta trail and Spanish tile and spacewalk blue for the small wooden storage cubicles and wooden crates on the patio which should further brighten it up.

    Liked by 4 people

  52. Janice I do believe there is a great difference in the dictate to not celebrate Halloween and having some fun on that day. We did not have our children dress up in demonic or grotesque costumes nor have we ever celebrated the enemy. We have allowed them to dress up in a fun costume and take a paper bag to some known trusted neighbors to get some candy. And we have turned on our porch light and handed out candies to the neighborhood kiddos. The neighbor kids loved our treats and our interactions with them and their parents. The day was never celebrated as a dark day but one of fun and community. I have so many fond memories of trick or treat night as a kid…none of them dark nor foreboding.

    Liked by 2 people

  53. I don’t get too excited or dictatorial about Halloween. For most it is harmless fun. We did it regularly with our older two and not at all (for the most part) with the youngest. The community had a party and we went to the few folks we knew for trick or treating. We never did disgusting or evil costumes. We did a lot of different things on the day when we didn’t ‘celebrate.’ We had gatherings at our home, attended church doings or movies. We have always handed out candy, although we only have one family that continues to come here. I see no reason to hand the day over to the devil. For some it is a dark holiday, but why ruin the whole thing for those people?

    I agree with Michelle that being older and not able to go out as much can give us much more time to pray for others. Why God leaves some people while He takes others is beyond me, but if we are still around their is a purpose, IMO.

    Liked by 2 people

  54. Nancyjill, that is how I processed it, too, as a child, and later as a mom, although now we do not have trick-or-treater’s in our neighborhood so I turn lights off because we have no candy to give out. My church is having a big outreach called a Fall Festival on Halloween night. I have mixed feelings about it. I have been praying over the event. It is a really big community event, not just for church members, so I expect costumes of great variety.

    Liked by 2 people

  56. Well, I have to admit that in the 90s, when my girls were young (born in 1989 and 1992), many in our church tended to take the “Halloween is evil” stance, so we went along with that. We would take the girls to the party that our church would put on, always with some kind of biblical theme. (The children would wear costumes to go along with the theme in some way.) Our girls did not go trick-or-treating until they were older.

    In the years since then, I have come to think of it differently, similar to NancyJill and Kathaleena.

    We had also gotten into the “Pokemon is evil” and maybe a couple other “Christian legends”. I am embarrassed now about those particular stances that we took. Nightingale sometimes teases me about it, but she doesn’t feel like she had a deprived childhood.

    Looking back, though, I have to say that the matter of Christians getting caught up in those kinds of “Christian legends” (borrowing that term from “urban legends”) was part of something that was happening in the larger culture of the 90s. In particular, I think of the belief, among even secular people, that there was a rash of Satanic ritual sexual abuse of children going on.

    Liked by 1 person

  57. I like Spam, just not the email/internet type. We used to fry spam for supper. It also makes a good sandwich with cheese and mayonnaise.

    And this is #57 for those who want to know. But it’s not SPAM.

    Liked by 3 people

  59. Janice, I think it interesting that the woman writing that is a “pastor.” She ignores what Scripture says about elders, but makes up stuff it doesn’t say about Halloween.

    As a child, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. We dressed up, went out after dark (which was always fun in itself), and we got free candy. What’s not to like? I don’t like the tombstones and vampires and all of that, but I don’t like everything associated with Easter or Christmas, either. Let it be an innocent holiday for kids.

    Our church does a Reformation party, and does it very well. (It isn’t just a wimpy pseudo-Halloween.) That works, too.

    When I was in college, I had a brand-new professor who wasn’t very good, and remember very little from her class. But I do remember this: she was single, but she often talked about her sister’s children. And one day she told us that her sister’s kids’ school invited children to come to school in costume for Halloween. The mother gave their children a choice: they could go to school (without costumes) or they could stay home that day. Of course, being kids, they chose to stay home. A kid who is offered a free “holiday” from school will probably take it. But more than that, even a kid who likes school will probably choose to stay home if the only option is to go and be consciously different from peers. On a much less serious non-conformity issue, Mom never allowed us to wear green on St Patrick’s Day (since in Ireland green is for Catholics and orange for Protestants . . . which has nothing whatsoever to do with the American celebration of St Patrick’s Day!). She told me if kids pinched me, just pinch them back. But I knew that wasn’t how it worked. So all day long I got pinched, with some children looking for chances to walk by my repeatedly during the day to pinch me again. My arm got sore, and I hated it. I wasn’t taking a stand for Christ; I was just being different for no good reason. (And my favorite color is green, so I actually had to go out of my way to avoid wearing it!) I’d say tell the kids they can go to school dressed up, go to school not dressed up, or stay home. If you simply can’t afford costumes, allow them to make something or go without. But to keep kids from culturally neutral traditions is not useful.

    Liked by 3 people

  60. The new header photo, butterflies, is three pearl crescents. I suspect the one in the middle is a female and the others are males. The one in the middle responded as a female butterfly does if it has already mated (lifting up its abdomen to say no, which doesn’t show in this photo but does show in some others).

    They are feeding among wild asters, possibly frost asters, that grew in a large cluster, maybe 15 feet long and five to eight feet deep, and attracted large numbers of small butterflies. Large butterflies don’t feed on these, but they attract pearl crescents, skippers, sulphurs, and a medium-sized species, common buckeyes. (I sent AJ some lovely buckeye photos, too.) They also attract a lot of bees. They’re a great place to go in early fall looking for insect photos, though three butterflies in one frame isn’t all that common!

    Liked by 1 person

  61. Long tome for the day:

    My local homeless person appears to have become bored. But then she started building an annex on her house. But then it failed to stand….. Her worker came by today. Worker suggested to her that she should be nice for twenty four hours so she can come back in because worker is not into camping that much and would prefer to not visit her in the encampment. We got rid of all of her weaponry so we are about as safe inside as we can get as far as normal weapons and what we think she might think are good weapons.

    Liked by 3 people

  62. Janice, the author of that article has taken what is personal conviction (“As I grew closer to the Lord and gained more knowledge of His Word, I began to feel convicted about Halloween”) and implied it’s binding on all Christians (“A committed follower of Jesus Christ should not celebrate Halloween”). If she’s under conviction that she shouldn’t celebrate Halloween, then she shouldn’t celebrate Halloween. But she’s not authorized to dictate to other Christians that they aren’t permitted to follow what the Bible doesn’t condemn. She pulled several verses out of their contexts and tried to make them say what she wanted them to say to her readers.

    Liked by 2 people

  64. Our local association of music teachers hosts a Halloween Showcase each year. Kids dress in costume (optional) and play a donated-for-the-occasion piano in the center court of a local mall on the weekend before Halloween.

    This is the first year in the four years I’ve been a member that I have a student participating in the event. My student who started last spring has been enjoying a piece called Rain Forest Mystery. It’s in d minor, and goes to many areas of the keyboard, starting on the lowest D of the piano, and ending, one minute later, on the highest D, using pedal for the last two measures, making the D melodic minor scale tones at the end all swim together.

    She loves the piece! She told me a couple of weeks ago that she wants to play it on the piano when trick-or-treaters come to her house. So then I told her about the Halloween Showcase, and her eyes lit up when I asked her if she’d like to play her piece at the mall, too, for the event.

    A definite yes to that! And Mom verified that the date works for them. So it’s a go, and I’m excited for her and how she’s so looking forward to her first public performance.

    Liked by 4 people

  65. Church was such a blessing today. When I got to rehearsal before the first service, the singers were already there (the worship leader asked them to arrive by 7:00, but the string players, of which I was one, didn’t have to be there until 7:30). When we all got done practicing around 7:40, one of the singers, who had sung once before in a mixed chorus/string group, came up to me, greeted me warmly and gave me a big hug. She is such a joyful lady, and so full of love and warmth.

    Being with the Body of Christ is such a beautiful, welcoming thing, I can scarcely describe the blessing. We have so many wonderful people in our church. God has richly blessed our congregation with lovely, lovely people.

    Liked by 5 people

  66. I see Halloween as a matter of individual Christian conscience for the most part. I do think when adults seemed to take it over it took on a darker mood, but it is, in my mind, still essentially a time for kids to dress up and have a lot of fun.

    Our church also has Reformation Day parties.

    Here’s an article I thought was pretty well balanced:

    https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-christians-should-know-about-halloween/

    ____________________________

    … 2. Can Christians participate in Halloween wisely?

    An informed understanding of the history of Halloween and the biblical freedom Christians have to engage cultural practices ( 1 Cor. 10:23-33 ) leads to the conclusion that we can follow our conscience in choosing how to approach this holiday.

    Even so, how Christians ought to go about relating to or participating in Halloween is still a tricky subject. In order to navigate the waters successfully, one must always distinguish between the merely cultural aspects of Halloween and the religious aspects of the holiday. In the past the church has tried with varied results to subsume the religious aspects of Halloween by adding a church holiday. If we engage, care must be taken. There’s a big difference between kids dressing up in cute costumes for candy and Mardi Gras-like Halloween parties, offensive costumes, and uninhibited excess. It’s too simple, then, to make a blanket judgment to reject or accept Halloween as a whole. There certainly should be no pressure to participate.

    For those still bothered by Halloween’s historical association with evil spirits, Martin Luther has some advice on how to respond to the Devil: “The best way to drive out the Devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” Perhaps instead of fleeing the darkness in fear, we should view Halloween as an opportunity to mock the enemy whose power over us has been broken.

    Liked by 2 people

  67. Cheryl, I did see and consider that she is a woman pastor which made me realize she disregards instruction in that matter.

    I have mixed feelings about having a Fall Festival outreach on Halloween which will be a mixer for believers and all others. It is an opportunity to build relationships with seekers and adversaries, but the children of believers who participate may be fascinated and drawn to the occult costumes seen at such an event. I know Christian parents will have a teachable moment, but I would not choose that way to teach about such things myself. I know our community is a major mission field. I suppose this is similar to foreign missionaries who take their families with them to venture into dangerous areas.

    Liked by 2 people

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.