58 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-28-19”

  5. I’ve read 3 pleasure books this week and started my 4th last night. It is really relaxing. I had a stressful afternoon yesterday. One of my agents is being sued, so that means my office and I am being sued. Then I had another agent in a closing and the agent on the other side lost her mind and accused me of promising her buyer $1,250. I can’t promise that. Only the seller can pay that. Then she demanded I take it out of the agents commission. I called her broker, he was out of the country. How convenient. Maybe next time I will be out of the country. The seller had already given the buyer about $7,000 in concessions and the mortgage company wouldn’t allow any more. The buyer was also getting $250 back at closing. That all shot my afternoon to pieces. I had planned to go get my toes done with BG but had to deal with crazy people.
    This job really doesn’t pay enough for the headache…it’s a good thing I enjoy it.

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  6. My friend & ex-roommate was coming over today for our belated Christmas/birthday visit — usually a very long but fun day for both of us. But she texted late last night that she was running a 101 fever and was completely wiped out with something so had to postpone.

    As much as I love our get-togethers, I was somewhat relieved after a really busy holiday week crammed on both sides with work (and yesterday was a particularly long day with several stories to track down and file). I was already planning to have to get up early and do some more picking up and cleaning in the house before she arrived mid-day. So I think I really needed this day “off” from both work and the ongoing Christmas festivities.

    I should probably dismantle Christmas today so I can get that behind me and enjoy the next “Wednesday” holiday without all of that to do. I usually leave everything up for a while and hate to see it all go, in some ways, but I’d like to get the work of it all behind me. Christmas this year has been fun, it’s been pretty and it certainly was full with several get-togethers with friends and cousins, lots of comings and goings. But it’s also been a somewhat strange holiday for me this year, it came on too fast and landed in the middle of a busy work week, which was very distracting and is always the worst-case scenario for people juggling work schedules. I also decorated late this year so I didn’t feel like I had the enjoyable, slow build-up that I usually have to anticipate and enjoy it all, it was all just such a rush this year.

    It’s still cold here and we’re getting another storm by Sunday night and it’s supposed to rain again through Monday.

    I finally caught up by phone with my more distant, older cousin in Missouri last night, he sounds very lonesome, spent Christmas alone, no celebrating, no gifts given or received (I did send him a card) and said he preferred it that way. But he told me he’s selling his house (he lost his wife a few years ago) and will move in with her daughter & son-in-law who live out in the country about 50 miles north of where he is now. Sounds like a good plan, he’s suffering from a rather serious case of neuropathy which has made it increasingly difficult for him to get around much at all, so taking care of a house now is difficult.

    Maybe they’ll finally set him up with email there 🙂 He has a computer and can use it to look up some things, but he has refused to “learn” how to send and receive emails. But aside from computer issues, I also know some people are not easy with written communication and that also may be his case, I really haven’t known him well at all and just reconnected (beyond annual Christmas cards) with him in the last couple years.

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  8. Good snowy morning! We have some dry tiny flakes coming down accompanied by hefty wind gusts…and it is cold! Hearing reports that conditions are much more treacherous in town. We plan on staying put in this lovely forest today and possibly tomorrow. The weather guy predicts perhaps 8 inches of this stuff this weekend.
    I am enjoying the white lights of the Christmas trees and the simple garlands on the staircase…I just may leave them up until the end of January! 😊

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  9. Boy was supposed to be brought home at 10:30 this morning. Texts from me to X, and from Nightingale to his mom and even the grandmother he lives with went unanswered. Finally, a little after noon, X texted me that he’d had his phone off and didn’t realize that today was the day Boy was supposed to be home early, and was just leaving.

    Nightingale said the 10:30 drop off time for today was actually his and his lawyer’s idea, a concession for the extra time he is having with Boy during this Christmas vacation.

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  10. So sad X seems to be chronically irresponsible and seems to lie to cover his irresponsibility. Hoping you have a good day with Boy today Kizzie….
    Dj is that ornament made of pottery? The surface appears to have a finish that is indicative of a Van Briggle…it is beautiful!

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  11. Not making the recovery I should from the bout of flu. I still feel very tired and coughing a lot. I have to go back for three days of work over New Year’s, so hoping that I will begin to bounce back in the next couple of days.

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  12. Keep resting, roscuro, it takes a while.

    Nancyjill, ornament is ‘copper’, it’s actually very (paper) thin and lightweight so it hangs easily and wasn’t expensive, I think I got it from a southwest Christmas Etsy site? I’ve been leaning more toward a southwest/Mexico look for my trees in the past few years but I still mix in my other ornaments from past years, too.

    I’m still sorry all our family Christmas ornaments disappeared like they did. 😦 I think my mom had some from her Iowa childhood but most were the colorful glass ornaments that also were produced in the “mid-century” years as I was growing up.

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  14. DJ, when my mom died, we looked through her possessions, and I looked through the Christmas ornaments to find some from my childhood. The only ones I could find that I remembered were colorful, cheap foil balls and fake strawberries, neither of which had ever been my favorites. But I found a couple that I liked, including one of a puppy with a slipper and one of a little girl that looked like my mom, and I claimed those as some that had belonged to her, even if I’d never seen them before.

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  15. Yeah, whatever happened to our Christmas “box” remains a mystery, but it was either given or thrown away in the chaos of cleaning out the house and garage. My favorite was the little birds nest my mom had found one year in one of our backyard trees when I was a kid. It made a regular appearance on our Christmas trees for every year after that, usually with a pretty bird ornament sitting in it.

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  17. Oh my Dj that brought back the memory of stenciling the front windows with spray snow when we were little. We had so much fun and it did turn out quite lovely!! ❄️…we currently have real snow sticking to our windows outside…some are describing it as living in a snow globe at the moment 😊

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  18. Like some of you, we have had above-normal temps lately, after having had way-below-normal temps before that. I was so glad to see the slippery ice on the lane gradually melting all away. Boy will be going back to school on Thursday, so it would be nice to be able to walk up and down the lane without worrying about slipping.

    Then this morning I read that we are going to be getting a wintry mix kind of storm coming in Sunday night into Tuesday, with snow and sleet, and . . . ice! 😦

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  19. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebration was very nice. I very much enjoyed spending the extended time with my beautiful daughters, and of course, my grandson.

    Nightingale picked up Chickadee, and they arrived home a little after 1:00 Christmas Eve Day. We had a fun lunch of a cheese platter with cheeses, olives, prosciutto, salami (smaller in diameter than usual), and crackers. I didn’t think it looked like it would be very filling to begin with, but we kept on munching as we talked, and were more than satisfied.

    We also made and decorated some gingerbread cookies, and then had a late dinner (for us) after 7:00. Nightingale had made a chuck roast and potatoes in the slow cooker, and her version of a green bean casserole in the oven. Since it was getting later than we had expected, we ate our dinner in the living room while we started watching this year’s Christmas Eve movie that Nightingale gave Boy, Deck the Halls.

    Before dinner, we had changed into our Christmas jammies that Nightingale had bought for each of us. Hers and Chickadee’s matched, with different colors but the same pattern and style. Boy’s buffalo plaid matched the doggie jammies for Janie, and my classic red Christmas plaid flannel nightgown matched Heidi’s Christmas bandanna. 🙂

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  21. Since Nightingale had been staying up late almost every night for quite a while to finish her work on Boy’s bedroom (she did a lot of great stuff in there), she was exhausted, and went to bed shortly after the movie was over. That meant that she was wrapping presents on Christmas morning. She put Boy to work wrapping the our stocking stuffers (all but his own).

    We got around to opening presents around 9:00, all still purposely in our Christmas jammies. Then Nightingale made a delicious egg dish for breakfast, after which we opened our stockings.

    Boy was picked up at 2:00 to go to his dad’s place, so the girls and I finally had the time to watch It’s a Wonderful Life together. I was happy we could do that. I very much associate that movie with Hubby, as I’d never seen it until he introduced me to it early in our marriage, and we had watched it many, many times throughout our marriage.

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  22. Looked around the outside of my home yesterday. Then today my friends got together tools and we all went over to do some clearing out. They are on their way to the dump now. I got to see the inside of the house and there are some things the property managers are not taking care of. Time to switch managers. They were even told that I did not want them talking to my friend. Not true.

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  25. My dogs did get new bandanas this year. I was prompted when the mobile groomer left Tess & Cowboy with obviously left-over last season’s bandanas featuring brown and yellow ears of corn.

    We couldn’t have that.

    So I found a package of buffalo plaid (must be popular again) dog bandanas on Amazon in red & black, green & black, blue & black and white & black.

    I put the red and black one on Tess, the green & white scarf on Cowboy for Christmas. Very cute and I haven’t bought them new collars or bandanas in ages. Actually, they both wear the same western-y leather collars they’ve had for many years now.

    But the new bandanas are a nice holiday touch we haven’t had in a while.

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  28. Buffalo plaid comes in different colors? I thought it was just red and black.

    Nightingale had made a Lumberjack Cake earlier this year in which the cake part is buffalo plaid, with a red cake and a black cake cut and arranged in ways to make the plaid look. The chocolate frosting was spread in a way to look like a tree trunk. She did a great job on it.

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  30. Hmmm, well, I found this:

    buffalo plaid is the casual name for a larger, square checkered plaid of two thread colors, one of which is black. plaid/tartan is a woven fabric where the dyed threads are different colors and used to make stripes.Jan 6, 2010 — Forum Topic – Gingham vs. Buffalo Check vs. Plaid – Etsy

    It probably is traditionally mostly red & black, but I’ve seen a lot of the white & black recently, too. The blue and black is especially nice, I think.

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  31. It’s time for bed and my first checkin for today! Maybe tomorrow I can read the thread. Wishing everyone a peaceful evening with good sleep Tomorrow we have only one service at 10:30. I hope to be there.

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  34. I awoke with pink eye-again. I have had it multiple times since this summer. I don’t know why I keep getting it. First sign is my eyeball hurting. Ugh. I have been visiting Dr Google this morning. Luckily I have drops from my actual doctor.

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  35. We’re down with a debilitating cold today. Husband coughed all night, I was in and out of consciousness, both of us drinking NyQuil.

    I took DayQuil this morning and went off to supervise the nursery— praying for no infants— and got four toddler boys who were no problem.

    Am now home, collapsed, for the day. Plenty of soup on hand.

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  36. Good Sunday to you! The roads were awful up here but once we headed south into town it was as though we were in a different world…no snow to speak of and their roads were dry.
    We were surprised to see a visiting family of 12 sitting in front of us at church today. Their 10 kids range in age from 21 down to 6 months. We have known the Dad of this family since he was in elementary school. His Mom and I worked at the pregnancy center 34 years ago and it was at her encouragement that we became a cradle care family with Bethany. What a sweet blessing to see them!

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  37. Good afternoon. I made it through my work nights and now my guys are back home. I got sick on Thursday, and didn’t know if I would make it through the shift Friday night. N/V/D. Chills and felt like fever, body aches, sore throat and hurting ears. I slept almost all day and night yesterday. Miguel brought home some elderberry juice, which has helped.

    Today we are working on projects. It would be nice to have a few things done before the end of the year.

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  38. Sorry to hear of the illnesses. I hope they pass soon!

    Church was nice and low key. Our part time pastor who is the manager of Casting Crowns did the sermon. We did have a visitor who was a bit disruptive, possibly a homeless man, maybe with mental issues or on drugs, legal or illegal. He managed to make his way near the front and sat for a bit before leaving. He had his Bible with him. I wonder if he will be back.

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  41. My friend who had to cancel our Saturday visit is still stick also, some really rough stuff going around right now. A friend from church also is down with what his doctor said was influenza (A). Ugh.

    How is Roscuro today?

    Excellent sermon from Ephesians 6 and our call to be “strong in the Lord” and what that means.

    I bought too many groceries but am set for the week.

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  44. All of our plans were canceled due to weather conditions. More snow on the way tomorrow. It is beautiful and the winter snow enthusiasts are happy. There was nothing we absolutely have to do. I was on clean up duty at church, but church was canceled so it didn’t matter anyway.

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  45. The pastor spoke on the loaves and fishes. He brought visual aids and the two raw fish really added atmosphere! I usually have a Ricola cough drop during the sermon, but this morning I really needed it more than usual because Wesley and I sat pretty close up to the front.

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  48. So nice to listen to good teaching. Our message was on Christ and the differences in his next coming. We looked at 2 Thessalonians 1:7 and then went to Isaiah, Matthew and to Revelation.

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  50. Church this morning included a presentation from a couple who just returned from a missionary journey to an area they go nearly every year. Interesting to hear how God is working.

    Next week will be another missionary just back from several years in Africa. Looking forward to her story.

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  51. The Christmas tree is bare, ornaments (most of them) and lights wrapped, bagged and ready to be taken to the garage. I guess I’ll drag the tree out the front door and then figure out how to get it down the steps to the front yard so it can be cute for disposal (relying on a neighbor or the gardener for that part of it, so it may sit in the front yard for a few days 🙂 ).

    I am glad I didn’t put it off until Jan. 1, my next orphan, mid-week day off. lol

    Our sermon was especially encouraging as it somewhat focused on how the new year is a good time to assess how things are going in our walk. Are some habits or practices not bringing good results? If we’re losing the same battles over and over again (he quoted Prov. 26:11), should we perhaps reassess our strategy? More than a ‘walk,’ we are in a fight, a spiritual fight, that we are called to win.

    Before communion, our pastor noted that one of the reasons we decided as a church to observe the Lord’s Supper weekly was that we all need to be “re-evangelized” regularly, reminded of who we are in Christ, what he has done for us (and continues to do for us) and how we are called to live as a result.

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  53. Today was Kathaleena’s birthday, BTW.

    I sent her a menorah on FB because I mistakenly chose what I thought was a birthday candle picture background. 🙂 Yeah, a little odd, but that’s me. lol

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  54. Art and I watched Dunkirk with Wesley this evening. The two of us had seen it earlier in the year, but Wesley had not seen it. Wow! The second viewing was just as powerful as the first. It is an excellent movie that so well shows the value of self sacrifice in order to save the lives of many.

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  58. Kim, my stepmom had chronic eye infections and they discovered that it seemed to happen when she used the jets on their Jacuzzi tub. She stopped using the jets and the infections stopped happening.

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