Friday, May 1, 2009

Surprising News

We have had some surprising news today. It appears that our son and his ex-wife may reconcile. She contacted him yesterday and ran the idea by him. He called and was very excited although cautious about it. She was to call him back last evening and discuss the possibility. He called this morning to say she was coming. He is coming this weekend to tell us about their decision and should be here before noon.

My only concern is that they will need to put the past in the past and forget it. Everyone has some skeletons in their closet and the only way to deal with them is to put them behind you and never speak of them again. I hope they can do that.

If she decides she cannot stay after she has made this decision, she will break his heart all over again. I don't know if he could go through it all over again. Her leaving him nearly broke him two years ago, I think having the family here saved his life.

It will be interesting to talk to him this morning when he gets here.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Scrapbooking Day

Today I will scrapbook. I have the photos now to finish Leslie's "new home" scrapbook and will get them in the book and present the book to her Monday night when we go there for a hamburger cookout.

I have nothing else on the agenda today. The doctor yesterday said the eye weeping was caused from a contact that had a small tear in it and irritated the eye. I threw that one away on Sunday. I will have to order some more for that eye. That was the last one. Since then, the eye has not wept. At least now I know for sure what was wrong with it. It had been weeping for a couple of months...just every once in awhile. But it was a mystery.

I had encountered Bill Main at the Restoration Studies Symposium and he had lost an eye to cancer. I asked him what the symptoms were and he said the eye wept constantly. That's why I had mine checked out.

Bob and I had fish and chips at Garfield's last evening after my doctor's appointment. They were really good!

We went to bed about 9:30. We were both very tired. I had had a big day.

Slinky slept in the house last night. It was cold and wet and he wanted to come in. Missy went out at 11:30 and slept in the chair on the patio all night. Animals! They're like raising children again.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Bella Award

I just learned that Balisha has given me the Bella Award for a lovely blog. Thank you, Balisha, for thinking of me. Also, some time ago Judy gave me the other award and I recently figured out how to add these awards to my blog so thanks so much to both of you. I will spend some time soon passing them on.

Today, I get my hair done in Independence, go to breakfast with my friend, Juanita, pick up cleaning there at the cleaners, attend an 11:00 meeting, come home and pick up Bob and then go to the doctor in Bartlesville. I want to check out my left eye, which continually weeps.

After that, we will eat out at Garfield's. It will be a busy day.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tuesday Busyness

This will be a busy day. I am going to sit with my sister this morning so my brother-in-law can go to his breakfast. Their computer virus program is expiring on Thursday for some reason and I am going to check into that while I am there.

Then Bob and I are going to Chanute to meet Tony and Gay for lunch. It has been over a month since we have seen them. I have known Gay since I was 17 and she was 14. That's many years.

We were very tired last night and went to bed early. As usual, I did not sleep well. When I go to bed later, I sleep better. I let Slinky sleep in the kitchen last night since it got cold and damp. He's an old dog and cannot handle that kind of weather very well.

We got back from Chanute and I was entering a number in my checkbook and in checking out the date, realized this was our 55th wedding anniversary. Bob and I both forgot it. Luckily, we had had lunch with Gay and Tony and we called that our celebration.

Monday, April 27, 2009

More Musings

The real answer to poverty is education. Some other first world countries like Sweden and Norway make education available to all. Their taxes are high but there are no real rich and no poor because through taxation the wealth is redistributed more fairly. Health care is also provided through higher taxes.

We too have high taxes. If you count income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, personal taxes, luxury taxes, and various and sundry other taxes, ours are probably just as high. But the benefit we get from the taxes here is negligible, compared to other first world countries.

Our roads and highways and the infrastructure everywhere in America is falling apart. The tax money we do have is wasted on non essentials and roads to nowhere while the essentials are postponed indefinitely. Health care for every American should be a right

I have a friend from England who came to America for a month's vacation. He was appalled, not only with the poverty but with the squalor everywhere. The streets are strewn with trash. People put their old refrigerators on their porches and park their cars on their lawns. And this is allowed. He noted trash along the highways that people just toss out of their cars. It's a tragedy the way some people live here. They seem to have no pride in their property or themselves.

Our church, too, along with some other Christian churches, work to alleviate poverty and hunger in the world. We have missions in all the third world countries and we send agronomists to help the poor to know what crops to plant for the best return. We provide seed. Also we provide goats and cattle so that those folks can make a decent living in their culture. But first of all, we provide schools and education, knowing the road out of poverty is education. We're a tiny church but our oblation funds provide all this. Everywhere we go, our mission is to teach people about Jesus and his teachings about the kingdom of God on earth, where everyone is accepted and loved and all enjoy the benefits of whatever there is to share. The very early church shared the common meal. That is our way of sharing.

In God's kingdom, there are no rich or poor. Those who have, share with those who have not... and teach them how to make the very most of what skills they already have, sometimes even providing markets for what they produce.

If all churches worked together with these goals in mind...making life better for all in this world and not worrying so much about salvation in another world, it would be a far better world in the here and now for all.

Busy Sunday

Yesterday we had a guest minister from Grove, Oklahoma at church. Afterward we had a basket dinner. We always have pretty good attendance when we have a basket dinner. Yesterday was no exception. All but one person stayed for the dinner.

In the afternoon, I worked on my letters and then began to work on the new directory for our congregation. We have quite a few new people since 2007 when the last directory was printed.

I finally quit about 5:00 and went to watch TV with Bob. On Sunday evenings, if we are home, we like to watch Sixty Minutes. Next Sunday evening we have Living the Questions group.

We were planning a garage sale for next Saturday but the TV forecast says rain. So we'll have to wait and see.