47 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-9-21”

  1. Good morning! I hope everyone rested well.

    I had a crazy dream. I know it was based on trying to work through my church issues. I was at a church meeting and several of my lady friends were there. The facility was totally unlike our building. It was much bigger and had aisles that went downward to the ‘stage.’ A vote was being taken for people to serve as new missionaries. Somehow for some reason I had a 9×13 pan full of maple syrup which I accidentally spilled and it was running down toward the stage. And Miss Bosley was running around in there but she transformed into a small tiger looking cat. I can see where each of the parts of my dream came ftom in my recent reality, but putting them together like this jumble in my brain was like a Picasso painting. The maple syrup was from making raspberry bars last night and spilling it and the mess it made was thr eggs spilled on the floor. The mess oozing on the floor under the seats represented the behind thrd scenes mess at church. The part about voting for missionaries is from a state conference we are praying over this week that is for state denominational missions folks to attend.

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  3. Psychologists say that everyone dreams every night.
    I seldom recall a dream.
    Same as saying that I don'[‘t dream much.

    Every morning when I wake up, it'[‘s the same as I left it.

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  4. The photo (and the others I sent AJ) came from a long walk Mrs L and I took with D2 and her small family on Sunday in Columbia, MO. We have not been able to see them since they preferred to isolate themselves during the pandemic.

    It’s been hard (especially on Mrs L) not to have that contact. Their daughter is almost 2, and this is only the fifth time we’ve seen her, other than during computer meet ups. And we’ve not held or hugged any of them since February 2020. We were glad the Lord softened their hearts enough to let us spend that 1½ hours with them. And that he provided a beautiful, warm day (upper 60s) for being outside, as they haven’t wanted to see us indoors since the lock down.

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  5. Good morning.

    Chas, Your body may be staying home but your mind can go anywhere. Always good to ask the Lord to guide those thoughts.

    Big brother, beautiful picture!

    Janice, when we have bizarre dreams, I usually set it at the feet of “must have touched daughter’s meds again”.

    Cell phones, charger is on a small table next to husband’s computer desk. And sometimes I forget I put the phone on there but I usually only charge it at night so it is fine most of the time.

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  6. Morning! What a lovely setting for a hike! So thankful you got to see your daughter and family Peter! This past couple years have taken a toll on so many. My dear neighbor/friend was not allowed to get her hair cut nor see her sons for over a year at the insistence of her husband. She is now in a downward spiral with dementia and my heart breaks at the loss of connection for her this past year 😞
    We have had lovely weather around here but we are yearning for moisture even in the form of snow…evidently we are in a dry weather pattern for the winter but I am hopeful the Lord will see it differently…. (At this rate I don’t those fat bears are ever going to hibernate!)
    Off to have my Cherrios and then Bible study…

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  8. Oh, beautiful header. I still mostly read the blog from my app since I can get there more quickly that way. I don’t see the header that way. And I am so thankful y’all had that visit, Peter. It does mean a lot and lifts our heavy hearts.

    I keep making a bigger pile of things to carry to Wesley when we see him next. We may finally get everything to him by the time he has to move on again.

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  9. Sadly all that Covid distancing has had a negative affect on so many. It is difficult to get out and about for some. Some will never recover from the isolation. Some have not yet been able to get out in crowds or back to church. Families get used to not connecting as much, which is not a good thing. I see it all around me. Glad you could connect again, Peter. Such thinking is changing our Thanksgiving. The challenge is not to let it lead to bad thinking ourselves, but to take it all before the Lord and let him direct our thoughts–like mumsee said.

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  10. Some have not yet been able to get out in crowds

    That is a problem for the granddaughter (GD3). She has been isolated her whole life and does not do well in the car or in crowds. Hopefully she can outgrow that.

    What difference in children. My older daughter and family have been open to visits and hugs this whole time, so their youngest (GD4) lets us hold her and play with her. We’ve seen them almost every month this year. Both families live ~90 miles from us (different directions), so it’s not a long trip to see them.

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  11. What a beautiful, inviting path.

    Yes, this pandemic is going to leave a lot of scars beyond the political, cultural and overall social fallout.

    I’ve mentioned this before, but a friend/former co-worker of mine, who went to Arizona right before this all hit to help out her mom after a fall, has been there ever since, virtually locked in that house (friend has a couple comorbidities that could really be dangerous and also no longer drives). Her main contact with the “outside” world? Waving at the grocery delivery people through the window when the drop things off. She also worries about bringing anything in that would spread to her mom, who’s in a more weakened state with more advanced age concerns and hasn’t been vaccinated (friend has been, but she’s still extremely, over-the-top cautious). Her boyfriend drives out from LA for occasional visits, but not very often or for very long.

    She almost obsessively checks the covid numbers each day (her county in Ariz. has been a hot spot and has very low vaccine rates which disturbs her). She is also bothered by the number of people she notices not wearing masks.

    I’m wondering if she’ll ever feel “safe” again? She left her job as a paralegal in downtown LA to help her mom, thinking it would be a temporary absence; they were holding her job for her. But after a few months, her boss said they couldn’t hold it any longer, so she’s not worked in all of this time (she’s mid-50s) and I’m not sure how she re-starts from this long, full “stop” in life.

    I try to share whatever positive trends in the covid fight I see — and just remind her, too, that pandemics don’t last forever (though this one surely seems to be doing just that; numbers a rising again across Europe, along with hospitals filling up once again, leading some to worry there might yet be another — a fourth — surge heading our way for winter and in time for the holidays).

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  12. I think it’s best to remember that everyone is doing the best they can given their own individual circumstances, concerns and view of things. Some are (and must be) more cautious than others. Some are so carefree (and careless) that they take virtually no precautions either for themselves or those around them.

    Most of us fall in between those extremes.

    One of the new women I met at the outdoor service at church is more on the cautious side. She comes alone and said she wants to pull a chair back and sit behind the back row. I’ve decided to sit with her even though I don’t share that extra social distancing concern particularly, but figured two of us sitting back there would be nicer than just one all alone.

    I’ve shared a bit with our pastor via email on all of this — he’s of view closer to some of you, that this is much ado about nothing (or about something not as serious as it’s been made out to be). He said I had a very “measured” view of it all — and that he appreciated that about me.

    I mostly fall in the middle, I suppose — that this pandemic is, indeed, a very real concern that has already devastated many lives. I’m hardly locked away in fear, but have embraced the vaccines as a sign of mercy and grace from God; and I have no real problem wearing masks (but yes, they are entirely annoying) in indoor settings as is currently required by our county health department.

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  13. Covid really has not affected us all that much here or in the family. Husband still travels, children still travel, I still stay home. But I have increased my Moscow visits from every two weeks to once a week as my folks have aged and become less mobile. My brother is careful with his travels but tries to visit them several times a week unless somebody in his family is ill. Other brother gets up every few months, again cautious about where he has been.

    My grown children are, of course, invincible and some think it is all silliness. Others, who are in health care, take precautions but still get out quite a bit.

    The reason we don’t see much of most of them is a)I get car sick and don’t travel or b) they think because we live on a farmlette and have dogs, we want their dogs chasing our rabbits and chickens and turkeys and tearing holes in our screens and defecating on our floors. We don’t. And we have told them so, so they don’t come by as often.

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  15. Half of our ladies for Bible study were in person and half were by Zoom this morning. What a blessed time it has been with this group seemingly strengthened going through the pandemic together edifying each other in God’s word and sheltering under the wings of God and His protection. ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus . . .

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  16. Janice, your dream sounds like some of mine. The other night I dreamed there was a cougar in the backyard that appeared to be dead. Then I saw what must have been her two little orphaned kittens huddling off to the side. I tried to keep Annie away but couldn’t — but when she got close to them she started mothering them, so sweet. And I figured we’d have to keep the cougar kits.

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  17. I do believe that it is a big thing and has hit a lot of people hard. And I think the vaccines are a help though I do not believe they are also harmless. Not that anybody is out to get us but that we do not have a clear view of how they affect people in the long run. Or the short one.

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  18. okay, I’m up. Today is going to be long. Market down the hill in a few minutes. Then school and today we will again plant seeds as the last batch were so old that they never sprouted.
    Then they have library while I go to the eye doctor. She is going to dilate my eyes so I am taking my sunglasses that totally fit over my glasses. I will probably wear those for the rest of the day.
    Then I tutor, then we have a staff meeting, and finally we have an outdoor fellowship time. Not sure if I will really make it to all of that.

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  21. I gave pills to both dogs — Cowboy refuses to swallow the capsule, no matter how cleverly or tastily disguised — and am trying to do a story on what’s going on w/some Navy property in town.

    Also trying to figure out my electrical issue, Carlos appears to be a no-show and I assume he’s too busy so I have a recommendation for the hometown electrical guys who charge $160 an hour.

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  22. I tend to have vivid, interesting dreams, too. Sometimes I’m not even in my dream, which seems kinda strange.

    A few nights ago, I dreamed that I was sitting at my desk in my room, trying to fix something, and drifted off to sleep. The next part of my dream had me awakening suddenly, and realizing that it was late in the afternoon, past time for Boy to be home from school, but I hadn’t yet unlocked the front door, and he hadn’t knocked, so I knew that he hadn’t made it home for some reason. I also realized that I had not gotten dressed yet, so quickly did so.

    As these realizations were coming to me in the dream, I was feeling quite disconcerted. Then as I looked out the window, I saw that the sky had turned very dark, like twilight-dark, but from very heavy storm clouds, not from it being actually dark yet. And I was wondering where Boy was and when or if he would be coming home.

    There was a deep sense of foreboding in it all that had me feeling uncomfortable and nervous (in the dream).

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  23. DJ – Once on Facebook I mentioned how I put Heidi’s pill (which she is no longer on) in a dab of peanut butter, and she would lick it all right up and swallow it down. Kare had commented that for Keva, she would put the pill in a piece of cheese, but also have another piece waiting to go so that he would swallow the pill-cheese down quickly to get to the next piece.

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  24. Most recently I’ve had some luck with a hot dog — the kind that has cheese in it. But now he seems to have grown wise about that, too. I’ve been through cheese, cheese whiz, pill pockets; I think I’ve tried peanut butter but maybe not recently (I seem to have to change it up for him). So I’ll try that (again?) next.

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  25. He’ll fall for these things a few times but then it doesn’t work for him anymore.

    Tess is easy, she swallows anything wrapped in any kind of food, even pill pockets.

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  27. Kizzie, unfortunately that no longer works for Keva – he’s too smart! I used the softer cheese slices and now he’s so suspicious he won’t even eat the cheese slices without any pills anywhere near.

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  29. Yes, you can get things to work for a while but then smart dogs catch on. Usually I just recycle back through the options again, hoping that something I haven’t used in a while will seem new and unsuspicious again.

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  30. Random thought as Christmas approaches —

    A few years back I bought a used ceramic pueblo piece from Ebay, a one-of-a-kind, but so charming with just a few touches of Christmas (a wreath here or there) on it and it lit up from the inside.

    I only used it that first year and then packed it way, looking forward to getting it out again the next year.

    Well, sometime in there the house workers shifted a bunch of things around in the garage, completely split up all the Christmas stuff, and I’ve never been able to find it since. I suspect it’s way up high on a shelf at the back of the garage, probably in the back.

    Anyway, now it’s become an annual mission to re-find my pueblo village; it’s become, in my mind, the best Christmas decoration I’ve ever-ever had (probably because it’s so inaccessible now). I think it’s grown bigger and more charming in the years since I’ve “lost” it.

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  34. Janice, I think it was a one of a kind used item; but I have done some looking this year on Ebay for something similar, but not finding anything. I think an etsy page had something kind of similar with some chips (but that’s not a huge deal and those can be hidden). Maybe I’ll take a second look at that.

    Meanwhile, I’m waiting for responses to a story I’ve been working on but to little avail. So I got up to check the mail. When I came back to the work room, I sat down and felt an odd buzz under my rear.

    Then a familiar “Ding!”

    I was sitting on my phone.

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  39. I need new glasses.

    So I found what I think was a similar pueblo village on Ebay and marked it for my “watch list.” I immediately got an email from the seller offering 20% off (to $25) so I bought it. We’ll see. I think it looks kind of the same, but then again, I only saw the other one for one Christmas and that was a few years ago.

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  42. When you find that missing item, will you mail me back all the senior high photos of my children I packed away when I “put up” Christmas several years ago. They must have drifted to your house because I can’t find them in mine.

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  44. I’ll keep an eye out for the photos.

    So should I call the “real” electricians for the garage? I guess I can call them and talk to them first. $160 an hour seems like a lot, unless they can fix it really, really fast. lol (Lighthouse Electric, do you remember them, M?)

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  45. “Real” electricians are often a good idea but they often find other things that are amiss, especially in older homes that have had previous creative owners. But that can be a good thing.

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