Sweet Sunday

[lucylee]

Well I am feeling better about one thing! Just talked to ds and he said the three day thing is three days IN A ROW. He said, "Noooo, nobody ever said three days, period. If she turns them down three times in a row, then they drop her! But she doesn't really care if they do, b/c she was ready to quit completely anyway. She just took this to be nice."
I certainly breathed a sigh of relief. I mean, I hope she keeps this up, b/c it will be good for her to have a little break from full-time mom/housewife, and it will help her keep her skills up in the lab -- but I'm also glad she's not under such tight pressure to keep us on call every minute ds is out of town.

She has started potty training again today. This time she is using the "potty watch." I had never heard of it before, until my dcousin said she used it with her now 5 year old. She said it worked great. The parent sets it for a certain time frame -- in dgs's case, 30 minutes -- and when it beeps, he (and dparents) are reminded to take him to the potty. We shall see...
And I wonder if ds is even aware of this new development. He has been gone all afternoon, and then he will be in charge of this potty watch thing tomorrow while she works until 1:00. AND he has to go get the dog from the boarders tomorrow too. * shaking my head * I would say, "oh well it is their problem..." but if he has to be at the boarders before she gets home, it may become OUR problem. * sigh *

Lilac, I wish I could say the same about our holly bushes and shrubs. Good gracious they are out of control. DH just drives me crazy with his aversion to all household projects. (I think his dmom was sooo much like my ddad, ALWAYS having something going, that it drove him to take the opposite approach.)
I do not envy you those cold temperatures.
You made me think about my dmom taking care of her deep freezer. I remember she would empty everything in the garage, in pans, with quilts over them to keep them cold. Seems like she did this in fairly warm weather though, which is strange, but she must have done it in early morning during the spring of the year. I think her freezer now is the self-defrosting kind.
I also remember my dgrandmother had a freezer in her refrigerator that would get a big build-up of ice. I was always trying to scrape the ice off and eat it.

I should also follow Nancy's example and have my quiet time and Bible reading, journaling.

FF, I think your dh is exactly right. One submission per week is probably a very good goal, especially during holiday time.

[FelineFriend]

Lucylee , I think you and my DH are both smart, too, by that suggestion. I can work on things by hand, but don't "need" to log, edit, proofread and submit once every 2 - 3 days! That's insane. If I work by hand, in my spare time, keeping the 1-time-a-week-submission-rule, it works out much better. DH says, like I do, "Quality- NOT quantity"! When you do way too many, way too fast, I think you can get sloppy and not get as many acceptances, if you slow down, put a lot of thought, more back-story, more mini-stories in the same story, making it even more interesting, for the reader AND the editor, both.

We have holly gone wild in the woods, without berries on them, but they're not out of control, because they're in the woods. I think it'd be fun to have a female and male holly tree, to breed nice trees with berries, but--- do you need BOTH sexes of holly, to be able to do that?

I've heard, from pen pals, etc... How they leave their Christmas wreathes up until Easter. At Easter they put out springtime-looking wreaths and keep them up until Autumn, add Autumn ones to the door, until the festive Christmas ones.

DMil used to have a pole, several holiday banners, she had us hang for her, on the front of her house. We got a flag pole, onto our house, when she passed away, to hang holiday banners, but kept forgetting to hang the proper ones, at the proper time. We "blessed" somebody else, gave them ALL of our banners, they were thrilled, so this is when we started hanging the American Flag on the pole. It's wonderful! We can see it blowing, out over our covered porch, through our glass front door, when it's windy. But sometimes, our Kitty gets kind of scared and seems to think it's somebody coming to get her, or something. The LOOKS on her face are priceless when this happens, too!

Our Dneighbors were put in a nursing home at the same time. They used to decorate their eaves and porch with holiday lights. It's so sad to see their empty home now, I miss seeing the DH in the yard working, and I KNOW I'll miss their holiday lights, too. DH visited the man once, I'll go with DH next time, and will see the wife, who has Alzheimer's, too. She's in a special wing, because of her wandering off to explore because she's confused as to where she is. The DH says his Dwife remembers people by their nick-names they have for different folks, but doesn't recognize their regular first names or who they are, etc... I keep "wondering", WHAT is my nick-name! What have they been calling me behind my back all these years, since 1975?

I have a beautiful tooled leather lavender cover New King James Version Holy Bible in large-print, but rarely read it. I got it out, put it into another room, because I haven't made room in the GR8 room, for it yet, beside my chair. I have 2 Bible Study booklets, a list of year-round-Bible readings, but never did it. I don't know if I should just begin with Genesis and go to Revelations or what. Does anyone have any good suggestions, to make it more "fun"? And less of a chore? I have a daily devotional with Bible Verses to refer to. I suppose if I got out my Bible and those Bible Study books, it would be a good start. I keep running into people who read ONLY the Bible and nothing else! Also, they say if you want to write good short stories, you need to know your Bible. Occasionally, I have a character go to their Bible, open it up, read verses, and I put them into the short stories. I think it shows the readers, how in the times of needs, people can do this, for comfort and answers to life's challenges.

[Norma]

Feline Friend - am passing through on this very slow day and read your post about reading the Bible. I went to Google and googled "Reading the Bible in a year" and lots of neat plans came up. Most of them have schedules you can download and follow. I did that once and looking at all the neat places you can go to do this makes me want to do it again. I just might do that !

I see our (yours and mine) Seahawks won today. Yay! Also our (DH and I) 49ers won in a very exciting game. Yay! Kap was a happy boy today

[FelineFriend]

Norma , Thanks for the Bible Study info.

Also, on the Seahawks: I've found out if I dress in their colors, cheer them on, they'll lose! But if I go about my daily routine, kind of ignore them, yet pay attention to them in the background, they WIN! They lose 2 times, because I felt I was rooting too hard! NOW I'm more relaxed and they've won 2 GAMES! Go, Hawks! I'm glad you're a fan, too, Norma!

My ankles feel swollen again, I did my ankle PT exercises, drank 8 ozs. of water, will go drink another glass, and elevate my feet, while I write letters.

I cleaned out a "special to save" folder at an email address! I have a "Flyaway Cardigan" arriving on Tues. or Wed.! It's garnet, so if it fits nicely, I'll be able to wear it during the holidays. The front on it, is like a large cascading ruffle-look pattern. It's one of those "in" things, you see women in commercials on TV ads and on TV shows wearing. I have a charcoal grey sparkle one, but the sleeves are too tight, in the lower 3/4-lenth part and it looked fine on my last holiday season, 2013, but this year, it's looking pretty dorky on me. I've lost weight, since winter 2013, my body's changed in shape, so maybe that's it?

I got my Holiday Journal Chores for this upcoming week penciled in. There are 6 lines per day. I have it on my desk, next to my laptop. Next, I want to add story titles and Wednesday deadline dates (set by myself), to the 2015 Helen Steiner Rice Day Planner. It also has a list of goals, for each month. I'll slowly work on those lists between now and 1/1/15. I won't fill up all the lines, for each month, because new goals come up, to try to attain, every month, too.

I looked through my pen pals things, for my 1st pen pal, like a recipe, a comic, etc... To add to her envelope from me, to make pen palling more fun. I call them "Envy Stuffers." Also, I have a pen pal who cuts up her old calendar quotes, she writes "Pass on," on it, sends them out, which is a nice idea. I often times put in a desk calendar kitty photo page, too. "Woman's World" magazine is a wonderful magazine, to find good comics, articles, embarrassing moments, recipes, etc... in to send to pen pals, too. Oh! I found an article, for my sister, I'd written her name on, it got lost in the basket of other pen pals things to send out, so now I need to send that to her. I'll surprise her, too.

My last #3 LOL is dry, so I'll put it away, close the blinds, elevate and go write more letters, before and after dinner.

Everybody have a GR8 evening! It's nice to "see" you again, Norma! I'll try to BBL, too, if I can. Oh, I just looked at my bare squares on my office wall calendar. I guess I could add things to it tonight, too, like DH's Monday Dr. appt. and his Thursday retiree's luncheon, etc.... It's nice to look up to see what's happening in our lives.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Well, all in all it was a wonderful weekend. Dh and I kept saying today how blessed we were and how we lead extraordinary lives.

Of course, we do so by working awfully hard, but still it was fun work this weekend since it was completely different from what we normally do.

Spending time with the musicians was special. All of them spent one on one time with us except the Diva, but then her bass player and drummers did spend time with dh. And the Diva gave us hugs. One day, when she's a mega recording star, we'll be able to say we used to work for her as roadies.

Dh woke up when the light came on this morning and I dragged myself from bed, had breakfast and then went back to bed for an hour. Then I dragged myself out again and went to the pool. Dh came too (first time and probably last time.) He lasted about 10 minutes but doing laps isn't for him. There's no men's sauna or steam room and the hot tub is still non-functioning so he went out for breakfast at the mall upstairs while I finished my workout in the pool and then s2s for the day.

I took my pill after swimming and so went back to bed for another 30 minutes after getting home. Got up and had lunch, dressed up, and we headed off to the Seaway to hear the Moderator speak once more. We had a chance to spend more time with him one-on-one as well. Ate church baking after and then headed off for fish and chips.

It was a lovely day for a drive so we had a good afternoon. I had to stay up until 8 (we were home at 7) to take my pill so got on the treadmill since I had only 4K steps for the day. Ended up on the phone with a friend and then got back on the treadmill so have 8600 steps now. That's enough to move me back up in the standings to around 48th (my goal for the month is to be at 50.)

My pill should have settled by now and I'll have something light to eat and then head to bed. Only one more pill (tomorrow morning) and then I'm done!

BTW: my ears still hurt from last night. Since we were fine without ear plugs the night before (as long as we weren't actually in the hall) I assumed we'd be fine last night but she cranked her music WAY up and the thin wooden doors were no protection for me. Sigh....

[Nancy]

Winds this afternoon left us w-out internet for a while this afternoon when I could not check in.
Glad I got on u-tube early to watch preaching.
Got the stuff on the patio moved cushions off the lawn furniture.
H got the rest if the hoses drained and put away.
I suspect the rain we saw during the seahawks game will be here tonight.
I was delighted to get 9 eggs yesterday after selling the six hens. Not as many eggs today they take a day off once a week it seems but we did get some.

[lucylee]

FF, I use the daily devotion magazine our church provides -- The Upper Room -- but it is available online, also. I think my dmom's church uses one called Our Daily Bread -- and I don't know if it's online or not, but I would suspect it is.
I also have a Read the Bible Through in One Year plan, and I have done that, but it was VERY rushed reading -- it calls for passages from the Old Testament in the morning and New Testament at night (I think) and some of the passages are pretty long, if you're getting through in a year. I was inspired by my late dgm, (the preacher said at her funeral that she had read the Bible through many times.) So I started then, and I did it, but as I said, I was rushed and I felt like I was just "calling words," you know? So then I decided I would make my goal to read the Old Testament one year and the New Testament the next, still following that plan. And I did that... and tried to continue doing that, but I've gotten waaay waaay waaay behind now, and it has been YEARS since I completed a full cycle. Now I just keep my book marker where I am and try to read a chapter a day -- in addition to the Upper Room devotional reading passage -- but I don't always do that.

I use the Life Application Study Bible, and it has really good footnotes as well, and that makes it more understandable, sometimes too.

A lot of scholars say you should start with the New Testament if you are just starting out, b/c it is so easy to get bogged down in the lengthy geneology of the Old Testament.

I will add that I am currently reading about David, just got through with his battle with Goliath, and it finally dawned on me: David committed all of HIS "big sins" after he was annointed as the next king, chosen by God, proclaimed as a "man after God's own heart"... and still he couldn't live a "perfect" life. Remember what I was talking about the other day? This "revelation" made me feel much better re: my shortcomings. I've got a lot of sins but so far I have not committed adultery OR murder.

DH wanted to go to Wmart tonight, so we have done that -- very short list tonight, and there's no telling what all we forgot -- but it's good to have that done.

No more word from the potty training adventure over there on Fantasy Island but ds called a little while ago and didn't mention any need for us to be babysitting tomorrow, so no news is good news.

[FelineFriend]

I use Our Daily Bread from RBC Ministries for a devotion. But tonight, I printed a 1-page PDF sheet, which has a 52-week Bible Reading Plan. It does days Sunday through Saturday. The concentrate on certain things, each day of the week:

Sunday = Epistles
Monday = The Law
Tuesday = History
Wednesday = Psalms
Thursday = Poetry
Friday = Prophecy
Saturday = Gospels.

The URL is:

http://www.Bible-Reading.com

Also, I signed up for a sermons daily emails to come into my Inbox. Then, at another site, for Episcopalians, I "tried" to order a religious book on praying and stress, but there was an error, they kept saying I didn't have enough numbers in my phone #, so I deleted all the info off, took them off my bookmarked favorites, because I was frustrated. I went to Barnes 'n' Noble, searched for the exact same book, but one other one listed with it was cheaper, and I get FREE shipping/handling because I'm a member there. The book's title is: "THE STRESS CURE: PRAYING YOUR WAY TO PERSONAL PEACE," by LInda Evans Shepherd. She was endorsed by a NY Times Best Selling Christian Author, I've read before, and Shepherd's a popular public speaker. Her book had 4.5 stars and the other book, I "almost" bought, didn't have any stars. My history with the Episcopal writers is how they're so technical, historical, and boring, to me. I think the book I ordered is more aimed towards any type of Christians, not specifically Episcopal ones. It sounded more down to Earth to me, too. I'm happy with my choice. I also signed up for a Bible-in-a-Year Bible Study, via email, to begin on 1-1-15. I guess I'm all set now! I'll fetch my Bible, get my Our Daily Bread out of its basket, with this Bible Reading Plan. I plan to start my days off on the right foot, during QT every morning now. I think the Bible reading will be very comforting, interesting, and educational for me, too.

When I was a kid, in a Missionary Church, we used to have "Sword Drills." They'd tell us a Bible Verse, we'd race to find it, read it aloud, and whoever got the most verses correct and the fastest, got a little prize. Honestly, I remember winning a lot. It was so much fun. We took Bibles to Church Camp, too. So I USED to read the Bible a lot, in my childhood and teen years, but when I married and became an Episcopalian, had babies, etc... I let that part of my life slide, except for Church, praying, etc.... Once, when we were confirmed, as adults, after our DD was born, the Priest said if his church membership knew HALF as much of the Bible that the Jehovah's Witnesses knew, they'd know a LOT! In fact, he said for us to invite them into our homes, get out our Bibles, and discuss what we knew with what they knew. It was a very interesting way to put how much our church members forget the Bible readings and study. I did a devotion, from our church, have the Book of Common Prayer and 3 Bibles. I have religious books, too. But I've simply, forgotten to read the Bible on a daily basis and it's sad, to me, how I've let that slide, unless I was in the 'mood' or wanted to be uplifted by Psalms, etc....

I got all 3 LOL put away, got out most of my clothes for tomorrow, wrote a letter, and need to write a PODA next. I have the Holiday Journal chores list done, so I'll follow that, too, and might put my PODA beside the list, on the facing side of the binder, so I'll see them together.

Kathryn , Your weekend sounded rewarding AND memory-making!

LucyLee , You made me chuckle when you said what you did about sins.

Nancy , Are you saying that your hens take Sundays off from laying, because it's a Day of Rest? If so, that's amazing!

[lucylee]

LOL, FelineFriend! Speaking of sins... Tonight dh came in while I was watching The Affair and accused me of watching X-rated movies. I told him it was a big mystery, too. He just LOL and said, "That's what they all say." He was very amused.
I won't give away anything but you'll learn a lot when you watch this episode!
And it is fascinating to me how Noah's side of the story and Allison's side will be so different. I'm sure that is true of the way we all remember different things.

Also, re: anxiety about my dbro/etc -- I realized tonight that by the time their move comes to pass, if it ever does -- by then dgs will be older and HE (maybe) will be traveling with us more. No room for extras, LOL. Anyway, it made me feel better!