JETT UPDATE -
Wow, that sedative from the Vet really worked. Jett slept all afternoon and evening. Course, he was exhausted anyway from being overstressed. Today, he finally had some morsels of cooked ground turkey. He ate some. More to come later and slowly work in the dog kibble. He hasn't eaten in three days and I was getting worried. It's not like greyhounds have a lot extra on them plus they have such a high metabolism.
Now he can walk and actually go outside without help from us.
Looks like he's on the mend.
Just have to wait for the pathology report this week.
Thanks for your prayers.

JETT UPDATE -
Jett came through his surgery well. He was still wobbly and with the leg bandaged around his chest, he was thrown by it. He barely laid down on the ride home and subsequently, overstressed his back leg muscles and could hardly support himself to walk.
He bleed through his bandage that we took him to our regular vet when we got home thinking he had pulled his stiches getting in and out of the van.
But no, just drainage from the surgery site. Rebandaged and sent home.
I spent the night on the sofa, helped him get water and then, had to lift him by a sling around his hindquarters to help him go outside at least twice during the wee hours. I got two interrupted hours of sleep and eventually three hours after he settled down.
He had one accident on the front door mat sometime in the 3 hours I was out.
Had a vet appointment today and she gave him a shot to help him settle
down and he slept this afternoon as did I.
Won't know any pathology results until next week sometime.
We are all hoping for a better night's sleep tonight and that he will have a bit of an appetite. Hasn't eaten in a day and a half.
Prayers for his recovery are much appreciated.

RGBP'S FRIDAY FIVE - COMFORT MEDIA


Today's Friday Five is an opportunity for you to list five of your favorite 'go-to' movies/tv shows/books. You can use images, links, explanations or netflix.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
Always a favorite and one to watch over again and again.

2. Father Goose
A fun, humorous movie set in the South Pacific of WW II

3. Gone With the Wind
Who doesn't like the costumes and melodrama? I keep hoping that
Rhett and Scarlet do get together again

4. Fiddler On the Roof
Love the characters, the story, the faith amid the hardship

5. My Cousin Vinny
Fun, and Pesci and Tomei are great in this movie

PRAYERS -
Jett is in surgery this morning to clean up his elbow which hasn't healed in 4 months. The vet will do another biopsy and dental while she's at it.
Please pray that this surgery will help him to heal once and for all. He's been miserable and our carpeting has taken a beating with blood drops and cleaning more times than ever we could count in these past 4 months.
Jett is tired of the antibiotics he's been on for most of these months, the air donuts around his neck and not being able to stretch out on the couch.
This is costing an arm and a leg, of course. But we've already spent so much and we want him to heal and be well. Poor fellow!

OMINIOUS -

The winds are beginning to pick up and the sky is overcast. We are in for some major wind gusts and heavy rain as a cold front moves in on our warm front. It has been gusting through IL, IN and now, us.
I think my umbrella will be mostly useless. Will plan to be in car or building during the worst of the rain?!!? Is that possible?
Batten down the hatches, thar she blows.....

PICTURE THIS -
if you can, the slow downward slide of fewer picture books being published. Apparently, 4 year olds are now being pushed to read chapter books with little or no pictures. What is up with that?
I used to lose myself in the pictures of books, to notice the actions, the colors, the dipictions, and the wonder of it all. Whatever are doing to our children - that at 4,5, 6 and beyond, that they no longer are allowed by the parents to savor and linger over picture books? What are you doing to the creativity, imagination, and being able to see and observe and to notice? Please, you are robbing your children of play and wonderment all in the name of getting them into the right preschool, and eventually into Harvard or so you think. Let them read both. Let them just be saturated by the illustrations, the artistry, the beauty, the movement. They need that as much as content and information in their life. Let your children be children, well-rounded, with active imaginations, creative, and able to notice and appreciate beauty.
I am over 50 and I still can lose myself in a picture book. It is good for the soul, which ought not to be neglected in the hurry and flurry of getting your child into the right and proper schools and ahead of the "game". Foster the goodness and the beauty of your child's soul as well their intellect. You will never regret it ever.

Friday Five: The Perfect Blendship



If you're ever in a jam, here I am.
If you're ever in a mess, S.O.S.
If you're so happy, you land in jail. I'm your bail.
It's friendship, friendship, just a perfect blendship.
When other friendships are soon forgot, ours will still be hot.

For today's Friday Five, some questions about friendship.

1) Who is the first friend you remember from childhood?
Denise, she lived on the same block and we were friends until I moved
2 blocks north on the same steet when I was 7. We also were split in
school into three classes - fast, medium and slow. I was in the fast
class and she ended up in the slow. We drifted apart.
2) Have you ever received an unexpected gift from a friend?
Many little gifts too numerous to count or remember.
3) Is there an old friend you wish you could find again? Or have you found one via social media or the Internet?
Yes, my best friend in HS. I blogged about her this fall. I used
facebook and found her obituary and lamented not being able to connect
with her again in this earthly life. I did, however, become facebook
friends with a gal who we hung around with in grade school, which
was kinda neat.
4) Do you like to get your good friends together in a group, or do you prefer your friends one on one?
My best friend lives in MA and we stay in touch with email and phone.
Just not possible to get together very often, alas.
My sister is my bff and we get together at least once a year and talk
weekly on the phone. We grew up sisters and ended up best friends as
well as sisters.
5) Does the idea of Jesus as a friend resonate with you?
Can't imagine where I'd be without my friend Jesus. He's always there
for me even when I feel him not and always welcomes me to him.

QUICK CHECK-IN

It is another full week with yet another Memorial Service. Had one last week with the service one day followed by a luncheon and the commital the next morning.
I also had a Presbytery meeting 2 Saturdays ago and will be taking my second half day off to compensate this week on Thursday. With the Memorial service this Saturday, that will be another 2 half days off the next two Thursdays, except for Oct. 28th when I won't be able to leave until after 2:30 pm because of the Women's Assoc. meeting. I won't get home til after 3:30 pm, so not much of an afternoon off. It just goes with the territory but I am trying to hold to the 3/4 time. Plus, I really miss being home and am usually anxious to get home on Thursdays.
The herb garden has been mostly put to rest. I yanked out the giant tomato vines which are now in the garage where the beautiful green tomatoes will hopefully ripen yet on the vine. One year, I had a red homegrown tomato in January!!
I plucked the dried basil leaves and put them in a jar.
I still have to pluck the tarragon.
The marjoram remains in the ground and I hope to pull it out next weekend. The curly parsley bush is still in as is the rosemary. I also need to put the dried sage leaves in storage containers.
I replanted my garlic, put down Sweet Peet and crumbled egg shells on top. (The calcium leeches back into the soil and prevents blossom end rot).
Still need to cut down the front perenial flower beds and sprinkle some good old-fashioned cow manure down.
My hamstrings are still complaining today!!!
It's always saddens me some to lay the garden to rest. It was a bountiful year of tomatoes and herbs and I will miss them. However, I know the ground needs to rest and that the plants have given their best and also deserve rest. Don't know that we will still be where we are next spring. I pray that God will open up a position for LH soon and then, we will have to sell the house. Wherever we end up, I hope that I can plant another herb garden and grow some perenials.
For now, the growing year is over and I thank God for the fullness of the threshing floor and the overflowing vats of wine and oil. And there will still be parsley aplenty!!!

A sliver of hope
is all it takes to live.
A sliver of hope
can bring me to my knees in grateful thanksgiving.
A sliver of hope
makes me feel not forgotten by God.
A sliver of hope
reminds me to keep faith, to trust.
A sliver of hope
not much, but enough for today.
A sliver of hope
offers encouragement to go on.
A sliver of hope
is a gift of grace in this dark night.

What is God up to?
In this dark night of my soul, where self-esteem, humor, and hope have been smaller than a mustard seed, why would I get a phone call from one well acquainted with humor who heads an organization related to humor, full of names of well-known and extremely gifted folks?
How did my name ever appear as anything but an infintesimal blip on their radar screen? Just one of hundreds.
How can I who am grasping for humor and hope, be a catalyst for others?
Dear God, what on earth are you up to? Having a good laugh at the irony of it all!!! I will walk down this ironic twisted path hoping against all hope that you will be there providing the light. Maybe, we can share a laugh together?!!?

A Fall Word Association Friday Five
Hello everyone! The Canadian geese are excited, forming up and practicing, encouraging each other with honking, the Wisconsin fall color is at peak where I am, and in Kohl's Dept. Store the Christmas decorations are up. Yep, Fall is here. It's my turn to do the Rev Gal Blog Pals Friday Five. It has been a while since we did one of these word association Friday FIves, so here goes, with an autumnal theme. I know, fall is one way on this side of the world and different in other places, but please bear with me as I post words that say FALL--at least where I am.

Give us the the first word that comes to mind (you know how that works, right?) and then add a little something about why, or how or what.

1. Pumpkins - all orange decorating the front porch

2. Campfire - the wonderful wood fire aroma that wisps through the air

3. Apples - caramel & nut apples and the warm apple crisp fresh from the
oven

4. Color - the beautiful hues of red, orange, rust, yellow, brown, burnt
sienna, beige, taupe and green that delight the eyes

5. Halloween - kids in costumes coming to the door looking for treats, who
doesn't like to dress up once in awhile?

And since it is REV Gals and their Pals, here is the bonus question, sort of a serious one:

What does the following passage from Daniel 2 make you think about?

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
Wisdom and power are his...
He changes times and seasons."

Thanks be to God for the glory of God's wisdom and power for our lives and the seasons of life through which we live and God brings us.

The Sky Is Blue -
Yes, for the first time in 5 days, we actually have a blue sky today!!!!
For the past 5 days it has been cold, dreary, rainy, rainy, rainy.
Yesterday, shortly around 5 pm, the rain and grey sky moved east and the sun broke out in the west and there was a beautiful rainbow that appeared in all its colorful promise. I love rainbows and whenever it looks like there will be a possibility for one, I look for it. All too soon they fade in muted shades of washed out colors.
And it astounds me, how so many miss it. They don't stop, take notice, or even see. Too busy doing whatever it is they are doing or involved with, to notice the beauty, the hope-filled promise before them, the grace among them. I noticed. I was touched. I gave thanks to God. And my spirit felt lighter and brighter just to be touched by God's beauty and grace.
If we don't stop to notice, to look, to see what is before us and around us, we miss so much. We miss God. We miss out on grace. We miss the healing of our souls. We miss the joy that is scattered around us waiting to be drawn into us.
Today, I give thanks for blue skies and sunshine and a rainbow full of grace.

"Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world,
the forms may change yet the essence remains the same.
Every wondrous sight will vanish and every sweet word will fade,
but do not be disheartened.
The source they come from is eternal....
growing, branching out, giving new life, new joy.
Why do you weep?
That source is within you as well..."
Rumi

Simply contemplating this Rumi quote today.