Saturday and Again, no Particular Plans

I slept poorly last night and finally just got up at 4:00AM. I must have woken up five times in the night.  I don't know what the problem is. That is just so aggravating!

I have made the bed and got myself ready for the day. 

I don't have a plan for today except to make some notes about the book I read yesterday. I will just play it by ear.

More later. I have fed Missy but have not had my breakfast yet and I should eat my oatmeal and juice.

So, more later....

O.K. I have had my breakfast, my coffee, and my Chai Latte. I have been watching CBS this morning but I am thinking of going to Bartlesville. I have asked Karan and she's game. I asked her to ask Gretchen, who is back here from Florida.  I haven't heard back from her yet. I am dressed (except for my shoes) and ready to go. I told her I would pick her up at 9:30. I haven't been out of town in ages.....except for Independence to deliver the cakes and balance Juanita's check book.  It's been awhile since I have been to Bartlesville. We will probably eat at McCalister's.

I need to clean out my car trunk while I am waiting to hear from Karan. I have the Ministerial Alliance stuff in there. We dissolved the Coffeyville Ministerial Alliance on Thursday. We just didn't have enough participation to make it worthwhile trying to deal with it. I had eight reservations for lunch and six showed up. That's the way it has been in months. We used to have 16 or 17 coming in the past. We donated our dues money to the Genesis program, which helps the poor and Midwest Pregnancy Center which helps poor mothers with their expenses. We also made a donation to the cook that has provided our lunches. It's a pity but there just wasn't any interest anymore.

Independence's Ministerial Association dissolved several years ago.

More later....

I took Karan and we went to Bartlesville and after she did some shopping, we stopped at McCalister's for lunch. It was very good. She went to Lowe's first and bought a new faucet for her bathroom. Then we went to Christopher and Banks and she bought some new clothes. I bought Scott's birthday gift across the aisle. I will box it up after I get back from Phoenix and send it to him. I think he will get a bang out of it! Later,  I may buy one for Leslie for Christmas.

I got home about 3:00PM and took in my mail. I let Missy out for awhile while I swept the leaves off the carport and  then I went around to the patio to look for her. She was nowhere to be found! I was alarmed! She is so old that if she wanders off, she might forget where we live now. I walked down to the back yard and looked and called but  she was no where in sight. Then I went over to Kenny's area next door to the east and looked and looked and called. No Missy! Then I came back home and there she was at the carport door wondering where on earth I was!

We came back in the house. It's now 3:45PM and I am so relieved to have found her....at our own carport door.

More later...

I began re-reading a book that Karan returned to me today and read until time to watch the news. A football game was on so I switched to Amazon Prime and watched some of that.  I turned the clocks back an hour before I went to bed and re-charged my phone.

We went to bed about 9:30.

Friday and No Plans

I slept very well last night and didn't wake up until 4:00AM. I got up and took my med and then went back to sleep until nearly 5:00AM...the best sleep I have had in ages. I didn't even take melatonin.

I don't have a plan for today. I will go to the library when it opens and try to check out our next book to read for the book club. Then I may read all day...who knows?

I have dressed and am ready to feed Missy and myself breakfast. I will get back to this later...

I have fed myself and Missy and texted Bob to make sure he is alright. He and Joanne just got home from Branson last evening.  They had a good time even though it rained on them.

I will go to the library as soon as the library opens. I want to get our new book to read for the book club. The name of the book for this month is "Little Fires Everywhere". I have never heard of it but I am game to read it.

While i was  waiting for the library to open I went on to Walmart and bought some groceries.  Then I came back home to wait for the library to open. I took my empty plastic bags to Genesis. They use them to bag up groceries for the poor.

More even later...

I did check out this best selling book. It was one I couldn't put down. I read right through the noon hour and until nearly 5:00PM. But I finished it. Tomorrow I will make some notes on it since our meeting will not be until the last week of the month.

Missy is in on my bed. She has wanted to go outside all day but it is just too cool out there for both her and me.

Thursday and Ministerial Alliance

I slept fairly well last night. I woke up at 3:00AM but managed to stay in bed and nap off and on until 4:00AM. Then I just got up.

I have fed Missy and myself and got myself ready for the day. I should pay my rent today  but don't have quite enough money to do that. Unfortunately, I don't get my social security this month until the 14th....halfway through the month. I may have to transfer some more money from my savings until then. I had several unexpected expenses this past month. I am going to try to repay my savings what I had to transfer out in October a hundred dollars at a time for six months. Who knows how long I may live and what other big expenses I may incur.

I am so glad I got my cleaning done yesterday. I am just not up to it today.

Missy is back in on my bed. She has managed to keep her food down this week. I grind up her Iams cat food and give her her treats as well as some of that soft cat food. She doesn't seem to have any problems choking on that. Poor thing doesn't have many teeth. She only has one fang now.

More later....

I have been watching the CBS news this morning. It is raining outside so I haven't taken Missy out. It's 48 degrees outside too. She does not like cold weather.

At noon I will go to the Ministerial Alliance meeting at Windsor Place.

I spent some time making up a new church congregational directory. Karan will sew down the center seam since she still has her sewing machine. We have a new member coming to church now and I wanted to get her listed in our 2019 directory.

So, more later.... 

I went to the alliance meeting and  because our attendance has been shrinking lately, they decided to disband. We donated our balance to two worthy charities. I delivered the checks to get that done.

One less meeting now.

Then I came home and my son, Keith, called  to check on me.

It's nearly 5:00PM now and Missy is ready for her treats. I will take care of that right away.

More even later....

About 7:00PM, Missy and I settled down on the sofa to watch TV until 9:30PM, when we went to bed.

Wednesday and Cleaning and Laundry Day

Amazingly, I slept until 6:00AM this morning. I got up and got myself ready for the day and fed Missy and myself. and got ready for the day  Missy wants to go outside but it's only 7:00AM so that isn't going to happen yet. It may be raining like was forecast.  I haven't looked out yet.

I have Ministerial Alliance meeting tomorrow at noon so I may do my cleaning today. I have nothing else planned.  I would like to go to Bartlesville but I am nearly out of money so I had better not.  What I have left will be kept toward the rent. I don't get my social security this month until the 14th and I will have a time trying to stretch my funds until then.

I leave with John and Leslie on the 13th for Phoenix.  We are going to visit Keith and Esther. Keith is paying for our trip. Then the next week, Keith and Esther are coming here because Keith wants to see his eldest daughter, Christina, and her family, at Thanksgiving.  It has been years since he has seen her.

More later....

Last Friday Leslie and Karan and I went to Springfield for our Saturday Mission Center Conference, and visited their expanded Bass Pro store. Here we are in a photo one of the people there took of the three of us.




Notice that tall Leslie had to stoop down to not overpower short Karan. What a group! We are standing in front of a bronze of a fisherman with a mermaid.  We all overpowered them!

I got my vacuuming finished and re-positioned my laptop computers. I put the one with my checkbook in the dining room and the notebook tray next to the sofa in the living room. I put the rolling tray with the old printer in the storage closet in the dining room.  I simply do not have enough room for both a laptop and a notebook. Really I don't have enough plug ins for all that. I moved the old Dell and printer out of my den because when Keith and Esther come for Thanksgiving, I want them to use my new mattress in the bedroom and Missy and I will sleep on the trundle. It's a good mattress. Missy likes that because she doesn't have to climb on a footstool to get up on the bed. The trundle is six or eight inches from the floor. I just vacuumed the daybed and now Missy wants up there so she can watch me on the desktop computer as I add to my blog. It will have cat hair on it again.

I took her outside awhile ago. She loves to go outside. But almost invariably she will want to wander off and at her age, I can't let her do that.

Tuesday and a Short Night

I went to bed at 9:00PM last night and woke up at 3:00AM. I managed to get back to sleep until 4:00AM when I just gave up and got up. I dressed and got myself ready for the day. I fed myself and gave Missy her treats and ground her dry cat food smaller in my pecan grinder. Then I gave her some of that soft food too. So far, she has managed to keep all that down.

She is back on my bed again now.

This morning at 9:00AM I have my hair appointment here and later a trip to Independence to deliver the cakes to the First Christian Church in Independence.  Then the rest of the day is up for grabs.

Karan brought her cake late last evening. She had been shoveling dirt away from the crawl space opening under her house and she had hurt her back.  I told her she needed to get someone to help her with that. She said "who would I get?"  She has a point. When we have lost our husbands and our boys live far away like hers do, we are the ones who have to do those things. Karan is very short and already has a bad back.  Before she tries to finish that job, I am going to offer to help her with that. I may be old but I am strong. I rake leaves and bag them and I can surely dig out that dirt.

Bob and his girl friend are going to drive to Branson today. They will be back tomorrow. She has some serious health problems so I hope they can manage. They intend to go to Silver Dollar City and also attend a music show this evening. I told him to be careful and not overdo it. They are 84.

I will need to go to the bank and get some more money before my hair appointment this morning.  It's only 6:00AM so I have some time on that.

More later....

I got some money from the bank and later got my hair done too. Then I went on to Independence to  deliver the cakes and go see Juanita. She is leaving the day after Thanksgiving for her son's home near Chicago. I will balance her checkbook one more time before she leaves Independence.  Then I came home and ate lunch and took Missy out for awhile.

I read this afternoon until the Schwan's man came. Then took my bath and lay down with Missy to watch TV for awhile.

More later...

About 8:00PM, we both went to bed. I was very tired.

Monday and a Good Night's Sleep

I slept well last night. I did wake up two times to go to the bathroom but got right back to sleep. I got up about 5:00AM, which is my regular time to get up. I fed Missy and myself and got myself ready for the day. Then  I texted Bob to make sure he was alright. He was!

I have been watching the channel 6 news but thought I would work on my blog until the CBS news comes on at 8:00AM. The past two days I have had a good TV picture for some strange reason.  The weather must affect it. At first I thought the antenna must have fallen off it's stand again but evidently that's not it.

Missy is back on my bed again. She sleeps an awful lot anymore. I will bake my cake this morning and get that out of the way. After it cools, I will ten ice it. I went to the Country Mart to get another mix. Theirs are pretty expensive but I didn't want to drive six and a half miles one way out to Walmart for just a cake mix.

I have just enough time to get my cake in the oven before the news so I will get back to this later.

I got the cake made and baked and later after it cooled, even iced it.

I finished watching the CBS Morning Show and them took Missy outside and combed her. This time she stayed close by me until I brought her back in thirty minutes later...

I wanted to work on my blog. I gave Missy some more of her new soft cat food in the little flat cat dish and she gobbled it right down.  I also ground up some of her Iams and put that in her food dish. Maybe she will eat it later...after she gets hungry again.

Leslie texted me that she had contacted the washateria and asked if my phone had been turned in. Of course, the answer was "no". I recall reading my kindle on it and when I began visited with the minister there, I put it in the side pocket of my purse...where I always keep it when I am finished with it. I then took the coverlet out of the washer and put it in the dryer and fed some quarters into the dryer. While I was doing that, my back was turned. The other man left shortly after that and later, after he had folded his laundry, the minister left with his. It must have been the first man that took it.

Oh well, that's over and done with! More later...I guess I will go up to the shopping center and fill my Samaritan Child shoe box....

Vic, the man who brought me Porter peaches and wonderful strawberries when they were in season, came to visit just about the same time Phyllis brought me her cake.  They are both gone now so I will get up to the shopping center and get my Samaritan Child box filled. Then I will have the rest of the soup Marilyn gave me last week. I ate the first half on the Thursday before I left with Leslie on Friday.

November 10^th 2018 Minister’s Message

Jesus is Calling You!

Scholars have found meaning in studying larger sections of Mark’s Gospel together. Even though Mark’s Gospel is shorter and generally more concise than the others are, Mark tells two stories about blind men being healed (Mark 8:22, 10:46). These two healings serve as markers of the beginning and ending of a lesson to the disciples. Between these demonstrations of Jesus’ merciful power, Jesus works at teaching his disciples through word and deed about the nature of discipleship and about the purpose of his ministry. 

This message is one of powerful love and mercy and self-sacrifice for others. But repeatedly Jesus’ disciples fail to understand. They turn people away who need help. Instead they argue about which one of them is the greatest.

By the time Jesus heals Blind Bartimaeus in Jericho, His disciples are almost at the end of the  journey, practically all the way to Jerusalem. One might think the disciples had plenty of time by then to understand, to see Jesus’ message. But even Blind Bartimaeus is told to be quiet when he asks for healing. It might be significant that Blind Bartimaeus is instantly healed by Jesus while the blind man from Bethesda found in Mark, chapter 8, who is not named, was harder to heal (see Mark 8:24– 25). Peter is also said to have been from Bethesda, so the first blind man may represent the disciples and how difficult it was to get the disciples “to see.”

Jesus’ disciples had an entirely different way of picturing his Kingdom. They saw it as a way to become one of the rich and powerful. He saw it as a way to be of service to others. 

Rather than trying to get God to do powerful favors for us, we should be aware of the value of coming to see that God wants us to serve others who are struggling, and serve them with   mercy as Jesus did and as he taught.  

We are all called to do whatever is in our power to be of service to others in our acquaintance. That was a great part of Jesus’s powerful message. As our theme emphasizes, God expects us to be the ones to establish his kingdom of peace.  We are reminded  “when you are in the service of your fellow man, you are in the service of your God.”

 

God is calling us and continues to call us to care for one another and to connect with one another.

 ______________________________________________________

Emmett came an hour ago and fixed my door.  The latch was broken. I imagine it was original equipment.  The apartment building was built in 1969.

I went up to the Dollar Tree and bought some things to put in my shoe box for the Samaritan Child project.  That's done now. We will pack our boxes on Sunday November 11th after the service that morning and after our basket dinner.

More later...

When I got back home, I fixed the rest of that wonderful soup Marilyn shared with me. It was very good. I had bought some real good cheese to have with it and that, with crackers, topped off the meal.

I had two of the computers on my Cox Service account tuned up. One was terribly slow. The other just needed a regular tuneup. That is such a great service. For $10.00 a month they will take care of any of four computers I have on the program.

More even later... 

Missy and I watched TV until I was just too tired to watch any longer.  I hate to go to bed at 8:30PM but I am very tired and I may just do that. I didn't eat any supper. I was out of yogurt and that's usually what I eat in the evening.

So goodnight all!....

 

Sunday and Back from Conference

Leslie picked me up about 9:30AM on Friday morning. She already had Karan. We drove over to Joplin first of all and had lunch at Olive Garden. Then we drove on to Springfield. We went to our hotel and checked in and hung up our clothes. We were to meet a group of twelve for supper at 6:30PM so we had a while to kill some time. We went to Bass Pro there and walked all over the place. Leslie bought some things. I took some photos. Later we watched the news at the hotel until time to go to supper.

We ate at a Japanese restaurant there. The Mission Center bought our supper. They served way too much food. None of us were able to eat it all. Karan and I took our leftovers back to the hotel and Leslie had a freezer bag and she put ice in that so we could take those containers home with us on Sunday afternoon. I was not impressed with Japanese food at all...but that's just me.

We went to bed at 10:00PM or so and had a bad time getting to sleep. Both Karan and I snored some after we finally did get to sleep. I don't know how Leslie slept at all. The room was too hot and finally Leslie got up and turned on the air conditioning or we likely would not have been able to sleep at all.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. It was provided. Then we went on to the church for the Conference. The worship service was very good. Barbara Carter spoke and had a very good sermon. The rest of the conference was long...very long. They had a catered lunch...something else I wasn't impressed with. The business meeting was in the afternoon. That drug on way too long.

However, we were both elected as delegates at the Spring International Conference. That one is held at Independence, Missouri, our church headquarters. It is in April. We have one every three years.

When we got home Missy had her supper and then she vomited it all up all on my clean living room carpet. I had just paid $60.00 to have it cleaned last week. This morning I gave her soft cat food. She doesn't have enough teeth to eat that hard stuff anymore and she then sometimes loses it. That place last night was about the size of a dinner plate. I cleaned it up and washed it with Resolve carpet cleaner. After that, we watched some Amazon Prime TV until bedtime. I went to bed at 10:00PM and she soon joined me. I woke up at midnight to the noise of my new neighbor banging on something. Then someone there took a shower. It was way after midnight when I finally got to sleep. And I am the speaker at church this morning.

I'd better get my breakfast.  Missy has had hers.

More later...

When I came in last night, I noticed the storm door latch was broken and would not open again after it was closed. I got my butcher knife out this morning and pried it open and then put a piece of shipping tape over it. Now it won't latch shut on me. I had texted my landlady, Betty, about it and she called me back this morning. I had tried my key in the back door but it would not work there. Finally, at her suggestion, I tried my front door in the living room. That one had begun to pop open on a windy day as far as the chain last winter and Emmett put a special emergency latch on it so that would not happen again. After Betty called I unlatched that special latch and tried the key in the doorknob and it did eventually turn. I will leave it unlatched but locked for an emergency door until after Emmett's surgery. Betty told me he accidentally shot himself in the leg with a nail gun and will have surgery to remove the nail on Wednesday. I told her there was no big rush now that I had another door I could use if I had to.That must have been very painful!

Marilyn saw me out messing with the door and suggested I grind Missy's good food with my pecan grinder and me it smaller so she could get it down. That was a good suggestion so I did that. I will see if she can eat it that way.

Phyllis is driving this morning and she will be here in about ten minutes. So...more later...

Phyllis came and we drove on to church.

After church she and I went to great China for lunch.

Then this afternoon I mailed a birthday card off to Leeann and did the newsletters and got them in the mail too. 

I took Missy outside a couple of times but she refused to mind me so I picked her up each time and brought her back in.  I took Marilyn's advice and crushed up her Iams cat food in my pecan grinder. I am hoping that will keep her from choking on it. I gave her some of the new soft cat food too. She really likes that.

I did the crossword puzzles in the newspapers and then took the newspapers over to Marilyn. Marilyn's computer needs a tune up so she will bring it over Monday afternoon and I will contact Cox Service to tune it up.

At 7:00PM I took my bath and Missy and I watched 60 Minutes and then turned to Amazon Prime and watched Crime Stories until 9:30PM when we went to bed.