Christmas is a coming.....

And I don't know about fat geese, but I have finished shopping. Every year I say I will only gift the young grands and the 1 great grand, but somehow I wind up not doing this. I have found the easy way,though. I can't walk or stand for long, so I get dozens and dozens of catalogs and there is plenty in there for everyone. Oops! Take it back - I still have to go to bookstore, but that is a vacation for me- they have chairs and I can sit and browse. I am buying books for the grandsons who are still in public school and they are books I have loved, so getting them is great fun.

Ana is here hanging up clothes and helping me put a better light in the closet. I can't tell you how many mornings I have started off to church with either navy or black pants on, only to discover that they are not the color I thought they were, when I get into the outside light. DH thinks this is hysterically funny and keeps whispering to me that everyone is pointing at me for having on the wrong pants. I may have to kick a shin or two,here.

I am taking antibiotics and they are helping, finally. Of course if I had done this a couple of weeks ago, I could have saved myself misery, but I keep thinking I can beat this one on my own. Found out I couldn't, though. My shoulder replacement is scheduled for Jan 3. I hope this is an easy one. Also hope it is the last one.

I wonder why everyone is so hysterical about being patted and wanded at the airport. I have had to do this for years, having three pieces of titanium in me. I wear moccasins or sandals and socks and make the officials help me get them back on, since I can't reach my own feet. I read somehwere that muslims in burkhas are exempt from this, but I really doubt this is true. Really, what's the point?

Maybe tomorrow we can get to the stock show. The kids are showing goats and pig (singular) and maybe rabbits? I do enjoy it, but the dust and I are sworn enemies. We'll see how it goes.

Blessings to all of you, especially at this blessed time of year.

Friday Five again

l. What is your favorite movie for watching when you are curled up under a wooly blanket?

The Odd Couple - just breaks me up. Also like Amadeus and Swan Lake.

2. Describe what book you would read in the same situation.

Depends on how I feel. Right now I am curled up with Dr. Doolittle, which I haven't read for 60 years. Then, there's always Harry Potter.

3. What foods do you tend to eat/cook when it's cold? mmmmm - Chicken and rice, stews and soups, scrambled eggs, and bacon - when the doctor lets me eat bacon.

4. What would you do on a snow day, or a pretend snow day? Read, of course, knit, eat. Maybe take out all my yarns and play with them - but then I'd have to put them back.

5.Do you like winter sports or outdoor activities, (ed comment - NO!)or are you more likely to be indoors playing board games.

I'd play board and card games gladly, but for the games I like - scrabble, aggravation, 5 crowns, Up words, etc., DH won't play with me. He says I always win. I don't, but if he doesn't win 4 our of 5 times, he won't play. I used to import grandchildren forthis, but they have grown too big,now. Sob.

Not so good here..............

This morning I woke to find my right forefinger knuckle and the joint just above it huge and red and really, really tender. You'd think I'd be used to things not fitting my plans here, but I have
three commissions for scarves sitting right in front of my face. Little by little my body is letting me down and it seems to be speeding up. Sorry to whine, but I'm not too good at accepting the inevitable if it interferes with my plans. Looks as if there's not going to be much knitting for awhile. Hope my customers aren't totally antsy to get their scarves. I do know a way to knit and not use that finger much - I may try that but is very frustrating for me to do. Getting older is fun sometimes, but when you see your facilities going, one by one, sometimes you think the only thing left is the brain. And sometimes I wonder about that.

Miracles abound.......

This morning when I unplugged my cell phone to go to church, it flashed a message to me. Something about having already updated and changed the time on my phone. Now, how on earth did it know how to do that? I never told it anything. I'm beginning to feel almost like living in Harry Potter Land.

You willhave guessed by now that I am only semi literate about these things. I started touching my first computer at the age of 64 - I've come a long way and can usually make the computer do what I please, but the idea of a phone actually doing something that changed this year to a new weekend -- I'll never get how it knew to do that - how the people who built it knew to make it do that. I am in awe at the technical evolutions going on in the world. My grandchildren can take a computer and make it do anything but take out the garbage. Such a brave,new world.

Short sermon

Tonight's gospel lesson was from St. Luke, 11:37:52

The sermon was 9 words long-----

'Don't compare other people's outsides with your insides.'

Feedback???

Worth a mention

I have just finished a book, as you will see if you read my list, called Mornings in Jenin, by Susan Abulhawa. Where has my head been all these years? I bought the line that the Palestinians lived in tents and were all illiterate, and the Jews needed a homeland. I also bought that it was fairly done and the losers were given houses and education. How could I have bought that line? I do remember being in Jerusalem and seeing many Arab children, eyes and noses covered with flies, begging on the streets. I rounded on our guide and demanded do know why these children weren't in school. His answer was that it was their parents choice - that they wanted the money begging brought in, and didn't care about school. I realize that many, if not most, books about controversial subjects are highly biased, and this one probably is also. But there is too great a divide between what the book portrays and what we have been told. Instead of being given places to make homes, the Palestinians went into camps, and may be still there. There are right and wrong ways to do things, and if this is an accurate portrayal, the founding of Israel in our time has been bloody and horrible. Perhaps we have judged the Palestinans by the PLO. I only know that it is time I read more of both sides of this exchange, and tried to arrive at a fair and accurate story of what actually is. I think I know what it should be.

Sorry about the rant. Every once in awhile I go on one, but I think this one is justified. Maybe everyone else knows more than I do about the subject, but I expect to know more soon. Anyone want to suggest material to read or other ways to educate myself on this subject?

Blessings to all..

New Friday five....

2010
Friday Five: Cruise Ship Ministry
Thanks to our Kathrynzj for today's Friday Five. She says: ...for today's Friday 5 I thought we'd hit on the things that give us energy in ministry and the things that take it away:
(Please note that I am not in paid ministry but a layperson...!)

1) What are a few of the tasks that you find tedious/energy sucking in your ministry position? Please note I said 'tasks' not people :) Meetings where people just gab when we are supposed to be studying the Word. For a while I did the Daughters meeting lesson and nobody gabbed (do you suppose that is because I am a professional teacher and I give the evil eye to everybody who doesn't behave?)and I think they took ideas away from what was said. I just want to get the job done and go home.

2) Is there anything you could do to make one of them better? Maybe bring knitting, breathing deeply and loudly, (no,no , not that), no wine - too many members of AA. , enlist others indivually to see what we need and let them spread the word. Yes!


3) What are a few of the tasks that you find energizing in ministry? Worship leadership, talking informally with people, teaching Bible classes, but most of all, singing!!!


4) If given a quarterly spiritual day, how would you want to spend it? Reading my books on spirituality andlistening to appropriate music. (well,MB, we are much alike.)


5) If given a quarterly spiritual day, how would you actually spend it? Reading, probably. :)
Same here. And Singing. Loudly.

BONUS: What would your Dream Ministry job include? Listening to people over the long term. And the physical ability to direct a children's choir and do children's musicals. Let's face it, children are more fun than adults and they ask honest questions and get honest answers from me. I looooove children. But my body won't do this anymore, so I teach adults. Less fun, but needed.