Reminder of Warmth

To offset today's bitter cold, this photo is offered as a reminder of warmth past and future. The clouds resemble a big rosy dove, possibly. We're looking north, early one morning last fall.




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We remain in the deep freeze. When temperatures are this cold, the snow squeaks as you walk on it. If someone was idiotic enough to want to make a snowball, he would be unsuccessful, for the snow loses its stickiness in the bitter cold. There must be scientific explanations for this, but its beyond my ken.

Warmth being my only concern, I sinned and wore jeans to church this morning. Nice jeans, not faded ones. I should have toted a blanket along, too, because the church sanctuary was freezing! Non-LCMS-Lutherans will not know what I'm referring to, but we used Divine Service 4 from LSB this morning. Its an unfamiliar liturgy, meaning that those of us who read music and like to sing felt as if we were singing solos. It was rather pathetic, and made me wonder once again......."How did I get myself into this? Oh, yeah, it was because of that handsome farm boy I met back in high school." Way back then, a church was a church was a church, in my simple mind. Little did I know.

Well, anyway, I tried to sing out, not loud enough to be ridiculous, but enough to maybe help others along. The vacancy pastor once again rushed too fast through the Nicene Creed and the Lord's Prayer. What is the deal with that? Is that some new seminary teaching? I emailed my opinion to him when I got home. He probably won't like it, especially since its coming from a woman. Our deacons seem to be cowed by the authority of the pastor, and won't say anything about it. That's one thing I cannot comprehend about Lutheran laypeople. They are taught to just meekly go along with whatever the pastor does.

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This afternoon I tinkered with the header on this blog, and it turned out better than I expected. I finally figured out how to crop a photo to fit and change the color of the wording inside the photo. I'm very slow and ignorant about such things. The header photo shows the road where the dogs and I walk, alongside a freshly cut field of hay. Ah.....memories of summer.......and warmth!! I love those evening clouds in the sky......it was one of the first photos I took with my digital camera.

Today I am enjoying an afternoon alone at home because of a once-in-a-lifetime event.......Husband and his brothers have spent the weekend going through all the stuff at their dad's house and dividing it up. None of us wives are allowed to participate, which is a good thing. So I've been providing food and lodging for Husband's out-of-town brothers. Thankfully, it appears they'll remain on friendly terms with each other after this whole ordeal of settling their dad's estate is over. He would be very happy about that!

I'm curious, of course, to see what Husband's share of the household items will include. Already yesterday, they brought one of the things here, a bed to put in our basement room that is being remodeled. One of the brothers slept in the bed last night, along with two of our cellar-dweller cats. He said they snuggled right up to him, and one of them was giving his hand a bath when he woke up this morning!

Secretly, I'm hoping that Husband is able to get a couple antique items.......like maybe the advertising crock from a local general store, or the crockery rolling pin, also printed with advertising from that store. I like things like that. I'm not holding out much hope, though, because one of the out-of-state brothers is really into antiques. This was one time to just keep my mouth shut. The whole weekend has been one of listening, listening, listening, and nodding and smiling at whatever is said. The best thing is to stay on everyone's good side. Maybe I'm "cowed", too.........similar to the deacons at church........must be that Lutheran submissiveness rubbing off on me!!

Actually, I've been very proud of Husband and his commitment to keeping peace amongst his brothers. As co-executor he is in a position to do so, and it seems to be of the highest priority with him. Many times, we've heard of families who end up permanently split due to difficulties with estates. Materialism takes over. Husband doesn't want that to happen and keeps saying that the peace in the family is a blessing from God. He's a good husband.