Made the Connection!

Well, I connected with her for over an hour yesterday afternoon. We had two whole lifetimes and 62 years to catch up on! What fun that was, and I know it will be into the future. Since we're both on the "over-the-hill" side of things, we know it won't be another 62 years, but we'll enjoy every one that the Lord gives us.

I'm teaching my new Bible study at the assisted living center this morning, and I would appreciate any and all prayers. I've chosen to study Old Testament characters, starting with Abraham, and this morning we'll be talking about Sarai and Hagar and the second major covenant that God made with Abram when he changed their names to Abraham and Sarah. 

May God bless your day!

Lost Friend FOUND!

I just found a friend I've been looking for for years—unfortunately, we haven't connected yet because her phone line is busy this evening. We were teenagers in boarding school together in Florida in the early 1950s. I was an MK from Africa, and she was one from Alaska—strange combination perhaps, but it never mattered to us.

It turns out she wrote me several Facebook messages in spring and summer of 2015—but I never saw them and am not sure why they are just now showing up for me. A strange situation for sure. When I finally connect with her, I'll write some more about it here.

They Did It!

The question around our scattered family this morning was "Did you stay up to watch until the end?" 

When I wrote the blog about our family and the Cubs last week, the question was whether they could do it. I'm not going to recap the series here—the media has more than done that. I just want to talk about last night. I know family members were watching in at least five states—and that they were messaging each other through the whole thing!

With the Cubs' good start that went on for several innings, and knowing that baseball games go on for hours, I began wondering early on whether I would be willing to sacrifice my bedtime to see the end. Of course if they won, I would be thrilled to watch it happen— but if they lost, it would be simply too sad to watch. At the same time, I was sure I had family members who, if the Cubs won, wouldn’t forgive me for not sticking with it.

So I decided I would brave the late hour, especially since the Cubs had a good lead—but then…. Cleveland tied it up in the bottom of the 8th—argh! My husband stayed up through the top of the ninth when it started to sprinkle, but when Cubs did not score then, he too came to bed. So much for a dream…

I ended up not able to sleep. I kept turning my mind to other things, like favorite Christian music, but it kept drifting back to Chicago, where I was imagined them trying to deal with the devastating disappointment they were going to have to live with all winter long. 

Finally at 11:40 I got up to take a pill. I figured by then everything was over. Imagine my amazement when my sister’s first Skype to me this morning was “So they did it up big!” Say what? Turns out that if I had turned the TV on while I was up getting the pill, I would have likely have caught the end of it!

Am I crushed? Definitely not! The only important thing is that they won, and as always the media has shown plenty of what I missed. Yay, Cubs! 

Thought about you a lot, Grandpa and Daddy!

Afternoon Musings

Today our Tennessee city is breaking an all-time November temperature record. We will hit 88 or 89 this afternoon. Do you suppose Fall heard my complaints about the pending loss of summer and managed to slip me a little extra? Truth is, I am enjoying a couple of little extras. One is a gorgeous sunflower that has grown up under our bird feeders. So bright and cheery in the sun, both afternoon and early morning.

Another is a poinsettia that hasn't figured out that it isn't in the tropics. Whereas poinsettias are famous for their bright red foliage, I've never had one in the US that turned red again after the initial flowers are gone. This little guy is trying to. He was a gift plant back at Christmas last year. I kept him in through the winter but put him outside in a larger pot come warm weather. Now his leaves are trying to turn red! Today I moved him to a spot where he will get more hours of sun during the day. Too bad I didn't do that a week ago. I wonder how far those leaves will get before the inevitable freezing temperatures descend on us.

This Sunday our church is celebrating its forty-fourth anniversary. We still have a handful of charter members, though we lost at least one other one to Glory recently. We found this church when we first moved here a decade and a half ago, and we haven't gone anywhere else. It's a good church, but we haven't been growing. Hopefully that is going to change as we're on the verge of adding a minister of education and programs to our staff.

I mentioned in my returning post a couple of weeks ago a long-term "project" that might be coming to fruition. I've spent a good bit of time on it since then, as has a family member, and it is now in the hands of someone for final (hopefully) finishing touches. Confusing? Here's a hint: The cover is close to being finished, and the next thing I need to focus on is getting an ISBN number for it. Again, stay tuned.