Category: Updates

Aug 07

Traveling in Kentucky

I find it somewhat strange that we’ve now visited all 48 contiguous states, but we haven’t seen all of Kentucky yet.  We’ve been many places in our state: Mammoth Cave, Cumberland Falls, Louisville, Bowling Green, Paducah, Red River Gorge, etc.  But there are still places we’ve missed.  

This past weekend, we went to one of those places.  We visited Kingdom Come State Park and The Big South Fork Railway.  Along the way, we stayed overnight at Benham Schoolhouse Inn.  Kingdom Come State Park is named after the popular Civil War novel, “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come,” by Kentucky author John Fox Jr.

The park is beautiful, the railway featured a coal mine tour that was very interesting and the Inn was comfortable and nicely furnished with friendly, helpful personnel.  

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Jun 21

On the Road Again….

We are in Seattle.  We got here yesterday.  It seems longer.  We went to the Chihuly Museum yesterday evening.  It’s gorgeous. We both took lots of pictures.  These two are just a small sample. 

This morning, Jim took the car to the Toyota dealership to check it out.  It suddenly lost power and started making a strange sound on Monday.  It had used 3.5 quarts of oil during the trip. Jim filled it back up and took it to a dealership in Hermiston, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.  They put a dye in and told him to get it checked again in Seattle.  They didn’t find anything wrong either.  It’s a mystery.  The mechanic told him to check the oil every thousand miles and take it to his regular mechanic when we get home.  Now we’ll have it in the back of our minds all the rest of the trip. Faith will see us through though. 

Since our planned venture for today was too long for the time left after the emergency trip to the dealership, I spent the morning doing laundry, then we went shopping afterwards.  This was our plan for Friday.  We just switched the days.  We’ll do our planned trip to Olympic Park and Rialto Beach tomorrow instead. 

Somehow, my hangup bag with my church clothes and jackets got left at the house (I hope).  So I went to Penney’s and bought an outfit for church Sunday. Jim planned on going to a camera store while we were here to get himself a bigger bag for all his photography equipment. While we were out, we had lunch at a small place called Patty’s Eggnest.  Their main focus is breakfast stuff, but they also have salads and sandwiches, etc.  The food was good.  I forgot to do a check in though, so no pictures this time.  Jim is out looking for trains now.  He said this would be his only opportunity since we will be driving to points of interest the rest of our time here.  Like he won’t chase trains along the way….

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May 08

Scheduling

I recently started writing out menus for the week instead of just fixing whatever comes to mind on the day.  When Chrystal was here to eat with us and use some of the leftovers for lunch, it was a daily thing.  With just the two of us and Jim not really inspired by leftovers, It’s become sort of 3 or 4 days a week with leftovers and salads in between.  I still search online for new recipes to keep inspired.

I’ve been trying to follow my scheduled routine for exercise and added new sessions.  The old schedule called for a few quick stretches and deep knee bends to strengthen my legs once a day.  I’m increasing that to three times a day and adding a Yoga session in the afternoons.  In a couple of weeks, school will be out and I won’t have a framework for activities until the fall.  I need to get into a regular routine to make up for that.  Last summer, I just sat around and I lost a lot of strength and stamina because of it.  I need to be getting that back and adding to it.  

I’ve also got to set up a house cleaning schedule.  Before, it was just a random thing whenever I was in the mood.  I’m going to try scheduling it so things get done before they grate on my nerves so much I just need to fix it.  I found a list in my prayer app for Household jobs that I wrote up a while back.  It says update blogs on Monday.  That’s what I’m doing today.  The rest of it may need to be rewritten and copied to my Notebook app.  The old schedule had one thing a day, sort of a different room each day.  I’m thinking that wasn’t very practical, obviously it didn’t really work since I’d forgotten all about it.  I need to come up with something better.

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May 06

Covid Update

No one in our immediate family has been sick.  We’ve all been very cautious.  We wear masks in public, we clean our hands frequently, and we maintain distance.  It’s worked well for us.

All our adults have been fully vaccinated.  Now Damion asks me weekly if there’s a vaccine for kids yet.  

Damion and Elaina have been doing the Hybrid version of school.  They had all online classes for several months.  Then they did two days in-person and 3 days online.  Finally they have done 4 days a week for the past couple of months.  School will be out for them on the 20th.  Hopefully, they will be back to normal by the time school starts again.  It’s been a stressful year.  They spend most days at my house while their mother works, so I was their instructor for much of it.  I don’t feel like they’ve fallen behind.  Their grades are good.  Damion is doing the state tests this week, so, I guess we’ll see how that goes.

Tracy’s kids (Jayden, Journey, Jordan, and Jeremiah) have all been doing online the whole time.  Jeremiah has asthma and she was afraid of the possibility of someone bringing the infection home to him.  They have mostly been housebound all year. 

Xavier has also done all online.  He skips between his mom’s house and his dad’s.  Chrystal came down from Chicago this spring, once she felt like it was relatively safe to travel, and stayed with Chris.  She handled most of Xavier’s school and seems to think he’s been doing ok.

I’m not very familiar with the circumstances of the kids who live in other states, but they are all virus free so I guess they are doing ok. 

We did online church only for most of the year.  We’re back to Hybrid services now.  Two in-person services to keep our numbers within state guidelines, plus we’re still online (we actually have online services all the time anyway) and on the radio.  On Easter Sunday, we had an outdoor service and we hope to be able to do that again soon.

I can’t wrap my mind around how many people have died or the attitude of so many people who won’t wear masks and try to act like nothing out of the ordinary is going on.  I hope and pray that things will go back to some kind of normal….I am tired of wearing a mask, but I will persevere.

 

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Mar 19

Struggling to Manage Time

So, since my last post, I have added 3 more toddlers to my daily activities.  My granddaughter, Tracy, and her husband have moved here from Richmond, Kentucky.  They both work and I take care of their three little ones, along with the two who live with me, when their schedules coincide.  The days and times vary greatly.  Damion and Elaina love having them here and, after a period of adjustment, they love being here.  I am glad to have the opportunity to build a closer relationship with them, but it does make managing time to write or exercise more of a challenge.  

One which I was already having trouble accomplishing.  So, once more, I am exploring ways to assure I make time to do both.  As when I eliminated gaming from my life, I think the only thing that will work is to design a plan and then go at it “cold turkey.”  I have tried since the first of the year to find a way to do it in steps or start small and gradually increase efforts, but those ways haven’t worked out.

I’ve recently bought several diet and exercise packages.  I’ve made a few small posts.  But, it always falls apart before long.  So, I am looking at the packages and making a workout schedule to begin with.  It cannot depend on time slots because my free time varies too much.  So, I am making a commitment to a certain kind of workout on certain days for, at least, 15 minutes.   The time of day will vary with my other responsibilities, but I will do it sometime even it it winds up being right before I go to bed at night.  The goal is not just to lose weight, but to be stronger and have more stamina.  The diet part will not be as difficult, once I make the key decisions, because I eat pretty healthy anyway.  

As to writing, I am simply making a promise to myself to find moments of quiet, like now, to put words together.  I’m not waiting for inspiration or scheduling a time slot because those things haven’t worked. I am doing religious research because I want to use this blog to explore the Bible and Christianity’s relationship to other religions.  However, there is so much information out there that the research could take a lifetime.  I need to begin the work while I search.  So, I’ll be starting, not as an expert, but as a student searching for answers.  

I’m not sure what timeframes will work, but I am making a promise to myself, to you, and to God that I will begin.  I feel His call to be a small voice crying for common ground in the wilderness of suspicion and conflict that is our current state of affairs.  As a Christian I must answer that call. At the moment, I think that answer will consist of an exploration of the Bible.  When and how it came to be.  A historical background of each book.  A look at what real “experts” say about the meaning of key passages and, sometimes, a personal interpretation of how it relates to my faith.  

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