Swap Shop, Ebay, Shots, More

 

About 2 weeks ago Grace Village had its autumn Swap Shop. I picked up two items: an adult coloring book and a box of 3 Salonpas pain relief patches. The coloring pictures are of bugs, birds, butterflies. I am getting in the mood to color again, but with Bible study, choir, and Winona Literary Club, it will probably be December before I have time to do that. I tried the Salonpas. It did give my lower back some relief and more importantly the adhesive did not give me little sores like the previous lidocaine patches I had used. 

I currently have a listing on eBay. It has been a few years since I sold anything on that platform. Things have changed quite a bit. There is no listing fee as long as you don't exceed 250 per month. Payment now goes through eBay which means a buyer can use most credit cards and Paypal. In the olden days, most of my buyers sent a money order direct to me or used Paypal. Ebay sends your profits to your bank account so I had to register my credit union account with them.

 You can add lots of photos to your listing without paying extra. For all of these added "benefits", the commission fee is higher, about twice what I paid before. You have to give eBay your SS number as the government will tax profits of $600 or more in most cases. How to define profit is fuzzy; since I am selling two childhood dolls, I have no realistic base for determining profit. My dolls won't sell for that much anyway. I listed my 2 1950's Vogue Ginny dolls plus clothes.

About 2 1/2 weeks ago my husband and I got the latest COVID vaccine. He went ahead and got his flu shot at the same time. I didn't want two shots at the same time so I will probably get my flu shot next week. 

A frost is predicted for Sunday night into Monday morning. My little mums are pretty much done, but I may take my geraniums into the garage to protect them. I may try to keep them a few more weeks since they have new blooms coming. We put our bird feeder up a few weeks ago. Since this week we have juncos. They are nice little birds, but we are their winter home so that reminds me that colder weather is not that far off. 

Yesterday we had our carpeting cleaned by Cook's out of North Manchester. The technicians Brian and Allan we have had before. They are Amish and super polite and respectful. I think it has been two years since our last cleaning. They both have much longer beards than I remember. It is always a bit of a hassle because we move some of the smaller lighter furniture and floor lamps into the garage or sunroom. We also move the dining table and chairs into the sunroom so the area rug can be cleaned. This time my husband waited on moving the dining table until the men arrived. It is getting too much to move such a heavy item on our own. We waited until this morning to put everything back in place (except the dining table which Brian helped move back yesterday) and to remove the blocks and pads that had been put under the loveseat and the chairs. We wanted to make sure the carpet was dry. We had fans running most of yesterday. It is good to have the cleaning done. 

Odd Combination

 This was homecoming weekend for Grace College. As part of the program, they incorporated a concert by Symphony of the Lakes.

It was in the Winona Heritage Room (formerly known as Rodeheaver Auditorium). We learned about it through the Grace promotional email for homecoming. It was open to the public, however, and advertised in the local newspaper. You had to buy tickets from Wagon Wheel which oversees the orchestra. 

The program was titled Goin' Home. I really enjoyed Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95. The second movement is known as Going Home.

 After intermission, the 2023 winner of the Young Artists Competition played with the orchestra the 3rd movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Minor, Op. 21. Chloe Park's age was not given, but she must be in high school as the competition is open to middle school and high school students. She played a difficult piece very well. 

The Symphony decided to end with the No Name Quartet, a gospel quartet from the area. Several of its members were graduates of Grace College. Before they sang, they mentioned this was the first time in 20 years of singing that they had sung with an orchestra. I would say that they should have stuck with their recorded backgrounds. It was a very odd combination of gospel quartet and symphonic orchestra. Several of the songs the quartet did were with recorded background. That sounded normal. The orchestra background seemed very strange, especially the last song Packin' Up. It was a cacophony of hurried mushy sound and you could not make out the words of the song. 

Still, it was a nice evening out.

Peach Pie and Other Treats

 Today was Winona Lake Farmers Market's last day of the season. I noticed at least 4 vendors "missing"; I haven't been for a few weeks so perhaps these vendors left earlier in the month. I bought some peppers to use in a stir fry. They were small and round; I had hoped they would have less seeds to clear out. Alas, they had more seeds. 

We ate the 4 small round pumpkin cookies with icing at lunch before I thought to get a photo. The marbled brownies I have put in an airtight container. We probably won't eat them for a few days because we have peach pie to eat. 

I baked the frozen Crane's peach pie from Michigan. It is tasty. 

I also bought a zinnia bouquet, most likely my last one of the season.

I could visit the Warsaw Farmers Market. It will be open thru October 28th. Next weekend is to turn cold, high in the 50's. Today we were high 70's. 

Community Bible Study

 According to the materials I was given September 11th, Community Bible Study began in 1975 in the Washington, D.C. area. It is an interdenominational now-international group that provides instruction through local leaders along with self-study with Scripture reading and working through questions. Small groups discuss the questions after the completion by the members done throughout the week. 

I belonged to a local group of CBS the first few years of our return to Indiana. It has been over a decade since my first participation. Last year the area group spun off a satellite to Grace Village. I thought about signing up, but I was expecting to have spine surgery and would thus miss sessions.

 I am a member of the current group at Grace Village (limited to 15). We started September 11th and will run through April 22nd of 2024. 

We follow the school district schedule so when they break so will we. My previous exposure to CBS at a large church included child care. Our group does not have that. Not everybody is a Grace Village resident in our group; we have a few "outsiders", but except for one lady, we are retired. 

This coming Monday we will discuss the book of Ruth. The rest of the lessons will be I and II Samuel. The end of February we will get a new study book, and we will explore Colossians. 

Our teacher likes "gimmicks". I guess last year she handed out squares of flypaper to remind the ladies to grab hold of the truths they were studying. This year she gave us bookmarks made of or including twine. Bind the Twine is the motif. Proverbs 6:20-22: "My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you." NAS

I am looking forward to this new study even though it requires more work than the study I attended in 2019-2020 (which shut down in March 2020 because of COVID though it started again with audio recordings in September 2020). That group had 150-200 ladies with no smaller group discussion. I already am acquainted with 5 ladies in this group. It should be a nice time of fellowship along with the exposure to the Word.