God Gives The Song

 The holidays can be a bit melancholy for me at times. 3 years ago my mother died 2 days before Thanksgiving. Though it has been over two decades, my father died on the 5th of December. My husband's brother also died in 2018 in December. 

A piece of music I heard today on one of the blogs I read touched my heart. It reminded me that despite feeling down, God does reach out to us, He hears our sighs. He gives us strength to keep going.

Listen to God Gives The Song. See if it draws you closer to the Father as it did me.

Has All The Pieces

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with 5 family members at the dining room of our retirement community. Afterwards they came to our condo to converse, watch football games, and work on a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, and eat some evening snacks.

The puzzle is one that I bought at a Goodwill store in Illinois when we went to Starved Rock. You take a chance that it will be complete. This one was!

 We went to bed last night with snow on our rooftops. This puzzle set the tone for Christmas. My husband and I had to finish it this morning by ourselves. Next week I will get out my Christmas decorations and tree and transition to the next holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving

Finished Mandalas

I did meet my goal of coloring 5 mandalas. I have them taped to my patio door. They brighten the view up since I now have a bare tree out the window. I will take them down the week after Thanksgiving in order to put up Christmas decorations.

Today I attended Winona Literary Club. Part of the centerpieces were "cookies" made to look like turkeys. We each were given a small plastic bag so we could bring a turkey home. 

Almost too cute to eat. 

Our speaker was from Ryan's Case for Smiles. These are volunteers who make colorful pillow cases for hospitalized children trying to cheer them and their parents/families. Ryan's mother did this for him and others on his ward. The group has mushroomed so now it is in several states and in Canada. After 5 years of battling cancer (including an amputation of his right leg), Ryan died. To honor him, his parents continued making the cases and word spread.

A chapter of this group meets once a month at Grace Village as well as other places in nearby South Bend. The pillow cases go to many hospitals in the northern Indiana area. The nurses love having them to put on the pillows as they do elicit smiles. 

Early Taste of Winter

We had a pretty steady snow yesterday (Sunday) morning. Because the temperature has stayed at 30 today, very little has melted. In fact, we are having some light snow this afternoon as I type. 

It should start melting tomorrow and be gone for sure on Wednesday when we are in the 50's with rain. However, after Wednesday the thermometer drops into the 30's and 40's for the forecasted future highs. 

My housecleaner took a job in a cabinet factory. I believe she will be doing what her daughter who works there does. She gathers the hardware for the pertinent items onto a cart and delivers them to the assembly line. Her shift starts at 5 a.m. which I never could work. She will be earning twice what she earned cleaning. Her goal is to buy a used RV so she and her husband can retire and travel. I wish her well, but it means I am trying a new housecleaner.

 The former housecleaner recommended this business. There are 2 people working at a time which speeds things up, but also costs more. Today was the first time. They did a good job, but they arrived an hour later than what was scheduled. There were extenuating circumstances. We will see how it goes the next time. They do not clean during winter school break. After my December 13th cleaning I will be on my own for almost a month. Plenty of time to check out others if I am not satisfied with the current arrangement. 

More change in 20 months of change. I should be getting good at flexing, right? Not so much. 

 

Operation Christmas Child

 The church where we currently attend does not participate in Operation Christmas Child. Last year I did the Build-a-Box online. It wasn't very satisfying. This year I decided to at least help fill boxes with other Grace Village residents. They had already collected items through the year. We gathered in the chapel Monday afternoon.

We folded and assembled 150 boxes. Then we went down the tables (those on one side of the room designated boys, the other side girls) putting in the accumulated items. For me it was interesting to see the type of things they had collected as in the past I had filled a box for the oldest age bracket of girls. Their chosen bracket was younger children.

The "wow" toy was a Beanie Baby; other items included a coloring book, crayons, washcloth, soap, toothbrush, pencil sharpener, tablet of paper or index cards, pens and pencils, a small doll, socks, hair accessories (brush, comb, headband, clip), and from a miscellaneous box things like harmonicas, yo-yos, smaller stuffed animals, calculators. There were some items left over which were packed up to use next year. This is an annual endeavor by the residents.

Grace Village does not track the boxes, but we know God will use our efforts where He sees best.

Hope you have found a way to be a part of Operation Christmas Child or some other charitable efforts this holiday season.

Ladybugs

 We are having a nice warmup this weekend. As we exited the front door late this afternoon to take a walk, we had to dodge ladybugs. Dozens of them on the porch cement, the gliders, the outside walls, and a few on the front door. When we returned there were fewer of them and fortunately none on the door so we kept them from coming inside.

Our fall foliage has peaked. There are still some pretty trees, but lots of fallen leaves. The town of Winona Lake has a collection truck that "sucks up" the leaves that have been raked to the road edge. We saw several residences where the leaves were waiting. I don't know what the city does with them. At least we seldom see smoke from leaf burning these days. That does tend to aggravate my asthma.

We should have several nice days early in the week, then about a 20 degree plunge by next weekend.

The Grace Village choir is slated to sing in chapel Wednesday morning. Our director has COVID. Supposedly the pianist is to direct us. Since when we face the congregation we can't even see the pianist, I don't know how this is going to work out. We will find out at practice Tuesday.

My husband and I got our Moderna boosters last Friday. Because of high transmission in our county, the CDC recommends wearing a mask in public gatherings. I mostly do online grocery shopping with pickup. Friday I went into the store to pick out some produce and buy a get-well card. All of the Kroger employees are required to wear masks; about half a dozen customers wore them including me. I wear a KN95 at church, too, but it is rare for me to see anybody else with a mask. I am thinking of doing internet streaming of the worship service at home once Thanksgiving rolls around. We already have an increase in COVID cases; after people travel and mingle with relatives it is likely going to be worse.

I am enjoying my cozy home. The last few days we have been working on a jigsaw puzzle my husband made from a poster he bought at the Old North Church gift shop in Boston. There are about a dozen figurals (see the little duck). It was fun to reminisce about our visit to Boston decades ago, part of a sabbatical.

What's Left

 While taking my walk yesterday to photograph the fall foliage, I noticed passing the side of my house that there were still a few hydrangea blooms unaffected by the frost. I snipped them and brought them inside this afternoon.

I pulled up my moss roses last week on a warmer day seeing that pretty cold days were on tap this week. It is nice to have these last blooms from my yard to enjoy in my home.

Grace Village announced that Christmas cards had been donated for the residents to use. Today I browsed through those set out on a table in the lobby. I have discontinued sending batches of cards, but I have a handful of people to whom I like to send greetings.

Since I have so few cards needed, it was nice to have these free ones to use. Jehovah Jireh. God provides.

Color At Last

 I read a statement once that said: "There are two seasons; fall and waiting for fall." A few cold nights and autumn has arrived in all of its glory. I think this week will be peak color for the foliage.

Unfortunately, I was busy this morning when the sun was shining. I didn't want to go out mid-day as usually photos taken at that time are flat. But I waited too long this afternoon. I was wearing my bone stimulator "collar" which is to be worn for a minimum of 60 minutes at a time. I guess I should have gone outside wearing it. I could see the sun getting dimmer. Now it is completely covered by a thin layer of clouds. It is really chilly. I had my jacket fully zipped up around my neck; when I got home my nose was very cold.

That is my house in the background. I can see this tree out my bedroom window.

This morning we made our annual pilgrimage to our public library for "free magazines". Once a year they put out the previous year's issues for patrons to take permanently. My husband wants to be there on day one at opening time so he can get the 6 annual issues of Fine Woodworking. I ended up with a dozen magazines: a few Good Housekeeping, one Country Woman, the rest Garden Gate or Country Living. I quickly skimmed through what was available in the library looking for issues I might want for recipes or mainly for pictures for my folders. I could have taken the whole lot of a title as there is no limit, but I really only wanted ones where I saw potential. 

I am super busy tomorrow and Wednesday, but Thursday and the rest of the week I will have lots of time to happily peruse my loot.