Saturday - phase one &two

There was a break in the weather Saturday so I started a project I had wanted to do most of all last year.
So here's phase one: pulling up the bricks bordering my flower garden. Half of them had sunk fairly deep into the ground.

And phase two, which I started Saturday and finished today, was digging up what was left of my old flower bulbs.

And because I never totally do things in order, I started moving stones from behind the shed and filling in the brick holes before I finished digging up the bulbs.

So phase 3, putting up the stones, was mostly completed today.

So now we're heading to Home Depot to get one bag of cement and several bags of gardening soil, which I can hopefully put out tomorrow and plant the bulbs before the cold weather hits tomorrow night.

so much happening

I'm simply making an extended list, as I sometimes look back at posts just to see what is/was happening in life at certain times:

- government shut down (federally) is now extending longer than anyone dreamed possible. A young man (husband and father) that we watched grow up is being impacted. His widowed Mom is sharing what limited resources she has in hopes they can get by without going under. It makes me mad.

- sat in on traffic court at Johnston county with a young friend. Thankful and grateful for an assistant DA who truly cares about people and is hopefully lighting a fire under some people to do what should have been done 5 years ago. I'm still flabbergasted at the number of people who were there with serious traffic citations.

- The people of New York have stooped to a low I never dreamed possible with their new law allowing late term abortion...so late that it can even happen on the baby's due date. May God have mercy.

- I feel as if insurance and medical tests are out of control in this country. Meds prescribed by doctors for patients are often outrageously expensive and unaffordable, and insurance companies are dictating what tests doctors can and cannot order, even though they are not doctors and have not examined the charts of the patient. Our health industry is one big mess.

- and while we're making progress with several on-going projects, at the moment I feel as if I'm simply hopping along the path, while the goal moves another step away with each amount of progress made. Bobby said as long as it's moving at the same pace I am it's all good. I hope he's right.

- and while I did not make it outside this past Sunday night to see the lunar eclipse, the full moon before we went to bed is was spectacular. I'm feeling better; Bobby has my cold; Mrs. Bryan has a kidney stone.

And that's this week in review...

opposite sides of the coin

This morning we listened to part of the Interfaith Prayer Breakfast in Raleigh that is held every year on Martin Luther King Jr Day. David Crabtree was one of the speakers that we heard, and I appreciated some of the personal recollections that he had to share that explained some of his views and motives in his journalistic reporting.  One of the King quotes he stated, and I've seen many times since on Facebook, is this:

Overall, it's a great quote. But when I started thinking about the daily things facing our society (Crabtree mentioned several, especially homelessness), I realized that the very terms justice and injustice are vague.  I mentioned some of my thoughts to Bobby, and he agreed that our very views of justice and injustice are largely determined by the framework with which we view society.

For example: immigration. If I showed this saying to different friends and asked them how it applied to immigration in America, I would get the some of the following responses:
- The lottery system that we have for people to get visas to come to America, especially for those seeking asylum, are so unfair and tedious that it is an injustice. It undermines the citizenship process and the principle of America being a beacon freedom and hope to those in need.
- Ignoring our current laws, whether or not we like them, is an injustice. Choosing which laws we will obey or ignore creates loopholes for people who want to break the law and undermines our justice system as a whole.
- I had to serve in the Cuban military for 2 years because I could not get a visa to America until my service was over. I followed the law and did what American required, no matter what it cost me both as a Cuban and as a Christian. People should not be able to break the very laws that I had to suffer and follow to come just to be treated as heroes. There is no justice in that.
- It is unjust to have border laws at all, and by creating and having such laws we are creating an injustice to humanity in general. We are a rich country with abundant resources, and to ignore the plights of thousands who simply want the a better opportunity and the chance to work and support their families is unjust. None of us got to choose where we were born. Why should we punish others for not being born here?

And I'm sure there would be other variations of the above responses if I asked more people. I think every one of my friends above would agree with King's statement. But every single one would disagree with what it actually means in real life.

I fear that is one of the reasons why we will always have different opinions and cries of injustice and immorality - we see things from different viewfinders. As Christians, we are commanded to seek justice and to show mercy. (Micah 6:8) Determining how that plays out in real life can have different actions and reactions - even for Christians.

head tilt...say What?

Today during a quilt sew-in I happened to overhear part of a conversation happening at a nearby table. It totally caught me off guard.

Both are very sweet and caring ladies. One of them is a widow who talks ALL.THE.TIME. Some of her stories are interesting. She was telling about a trip somewhere in England, and on the mantel in the countryside house was a cross-stitch hanging saying "God hears everything you say."  They were a bit shocked by that, saying how austere that was, and how it must have been an attempt to teach a child not to swear. Then one of the ladies (who is English) made the comment and said "Hmm. They must have been Baptists."

Are Baptists the only ones who believe that God is omniscient? Are we the only ones who believe that when God's word speaks about the tongue and our words, it actually means what it says? I just can't fathom the mindset of believing that your God or deity is not powerful enough to know what you speak or think. What is the point of serving or trusting in such a limited power?

And it also baffled me that they thought teaching anyone, especially a child, such a concept, was too overbearing for a child. For me, the omniscience of God was always a comforting thought. I liked thinking that God understood my mind and words, even if no one else did. And in a large family, the idea that someone could hear my every word, even more so that he cared enough to do so, was amazing and made me feel very special and very loved.

He hears me.

Updates

This morning some of Bobby's  great nieces and nephews stopped by for a few minutes. They immediately headed to the toy room and were quite  baffled when they encountered this:

 I find it funny that they went through the empty living room and didn't notice anything amiss.

 Two friends came over last night and put the bed back together. It took us over an hour to get it filled, but we we able to sleep in it last night. After 8 nights of getting up every 2 hrs, it was amazingly wonderful to sleep through most of the night.

Since everything was mostly packed and or in different locations, (and I was exhausted), it took forever to get Bobby ready Sunday morning. By the time he left for church, I sat down to just rest a few minutes before I started washing clothes and unpacking our suitcases. When I went out to the car for the last bag, I noticed this:

 Our birds weren't upright nor running around the pen. Sometime during the night we had a slaughter. 9 dead, three missing. So about the time Bobby got home from church I was halfway through hauling the carcasses to the woods.

We have a few eggs from this week that haven't been refrigerated yet, so the incubator is now heating up. Hope to have the eggs inside by tomorrow morning.

One very pleasant surprise Sunday morning was to look up and see my brother-in-law had repaired a very loose light hook in my bedroom ceiling. 

Since we couldn't get back in our house until 1pm on Saturday, I honestly thought we might not get the bedroom painted (which we were aiming for since everything was out). But they came over Saturday evening and knocked it out while I worked on trimwork in the study.

And the floors look great. We are 99% pleased with the job, especially with the flat and more accessible boards they used at the entry/exit of each room.

Meanwhile, I am putting small pieces of furniture back in place and doing laundry. Our friends are coming back tonight to finish moving the rest. I am so thankful (and so ready to get back into a routine!)

Finally happening!

After 2 weeks of slowly cleaning, sorting, and packing 3 rooms, we had 2 friends from church come and help us move furniture Saturday morning. And by the time it was done, I was reminded of why we're doing this. I spent Sunday afternoon packing and emptying the closet floors.
This morning we had to deal with a personal issue, and in the meantime we chose the stain colors and have evacuated until we return briefly to tend to animals and such.

Discoloration from my last stain in the study.

You can see where a certain set of wheels has traveled quite a bit the last 19 years.

They'll be replacing at least 2 boards in the bedroom. About 16 years ago I goofed when treating the batteries to Bobby's chair and we had an acid spill about the size of a quarter. A few years later someone wanted to be helpful while Bobby was in the hospital and had our house cleaned without  consulting us. They mopped the spot, and in the process spread the acid, burning 4 boards. Thankfully this was the worst.

And they're replacing the "lip" going in and out of the kitchen to something that is flatter and should make it easier for Bobby to enter and exit. Hooray!

And the wear and tear on our bedroom floor.

After 15 minutes of sanding...they had 2 rooms almost totally sanded when they stopped for lunch.

We were amazed at how much everything echoed in the house. And when they started running the sander...let's just say it was amplified. It's been an ordeal that is far from over, but so far I'm glad we've at least started the process!