Have read through yesterday. Today will be a treat when I can.
Lynlee, why are you pushing fluids? Are you not feeling well? Maybe it was just a long hot walk.
Harmony, I hope you learn a lot about eyes and feel more confident having the info.
Kathryn, your post yesterday about the church was interesting to me. Today we were to bring in the coin collecting we've been doing at home for a few months for a local charity - I was just thinking how that would be an interesting inclusion to puzzle out, in a "budget" of the type you're doing. I hated to hear the "dying of the plague" analogy, of course, but yes, that feeling would keep away even those who want to come and help, be an encouragement. Good intentions over-ridden by worry (fear?) of encountering the downer/negativity that one simply may not be equipped to encounter.
Btw, I have never experienced (or seen at a workplace) the concept of a contract with a minister, in which they are expected to give any certain amount of time to any certain area(s) of their work. In our church right now, I believe we are feeling the after-effects of years of our minister's aversion to visiting - something that didn't seem so bad at first. Now hindsight reveals that unmet relational needs for shut-ins eventually means pews are forgotten by the whole family. Just having church-friends who would visit or call wasn't enough to feel connected to worship, so Junior and Junior's kids didn't get the "our church" feeling. Greater proportion of time given to sermon prep has not been the positive it first seemed, since sermons grew to become more academic lecture than message, making the worship time into an endurance test.