Scraps and Such 04: The Weekly Hodgepodge

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From This Side of the Pond 

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From Volume #611

Do you have a favorite mug? Let's see it. Why is this one your favorite?   

My favorite mug changes with situations and seasons, but the mug pictured here is my current favorite.  I bought it from Amazon a few months ago.  I thought it would be fun to use in Zoom team meetings.  My co-workers think it's a hoot.

From Volume #616

What's worth standing in line for? 

Friendly customer service.  I will wait in a long line of families with buggies full to bursting if I know the cashier is polite and attentive.  I will avoid a much shorter line if the cashier looks like--as my mother would say--"Dammit, I'll eat you!" That's why I enjoy an establishment that doesn't have high turnover and I can recognize a familiar face.

Now, don't get me wrong, "polite and attentive" doesn't mean they have to be sugary sweet and hold a long conversation with me.  It means that the employee looks me in the eye and treats me like a person.  I don't think that's too much to ask. 

What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming? 

• Classical music
• The sound of a box fan (or in my case, an oscillating fan)
• The laughter of children (especially babies who will laugh at anything)
• A mug of coffee or tea and a good book
• Hugs
• The whir of the sewing machine, the scratch of a pencil, or the swish of a paintbrush as I create 
• The sound of rainfall
• Bird calls (yes, even the crows) 

Insert your own random thought here. 

My niece (right), and her daughter, my grandniece (left) just recently ran their first 5k.
I'm so proud of them both.  They have been working on their health for a while.

In case you missed it:  

• My previous Hodgepodge post "Where No Couch Has Gone Before" is here.
• My latest Weekly Digest "Almost Autumn" is here.
  
• My latest First Line Friday post: #38:  The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
• My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

Almost Autumn: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window.... 

Saw all these beauties in the flower beds outside my doctor's office.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Souls indifferent to the achievement of human things cannot be expected to exert themselves in divine things.- Robert Miner, quoted in Karen Swallow Prior's On Reading Well, p. 133. 

 

When people are treated as objects for long enough, they see themselves as someone else’s property. They don’t value self-stewardship because they relate to themselves the same way that significant others have related to them. Many people are told over and over again that nurturing and maintaining their souls is selfish and wrong. After a while, they develop a deep conviction that this is true. And at that point, they place little value on taking care of the feelings, talents, thoughts, attitudes, behavior, body, and resources God entrusted to them.. - Cloud and Townsend, Boundaries, p. 306.

 

We need our God. He is to be had for the seeking, and He will not deny Himself to any of us if we personally seek His face. It is not if you deserve Him, or if you earn His approval, but simply if you seek Him. - Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 242.

 

I'm thinking about...

Fall.  Most of my friends are in back to school mode right now.  Most--if not all--of the K-12 schools have resumed classes and both online and in-seat classes at CCU begin tomorrow (08/25).  Since my teaching schedule for the year started more than a month ago, I've been in school mode since late July (my own version of it anyway).  Football season starts for JSU on Thursday, Alabama on Saturday, and the Broncos on September 7th.  I'm just not sure how to get into the swing of Autumn.  Maybe I'll think of something by the time the first day of fall rolls around on the 22nd.

 

What I've read since the last digest...

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy ✮✮✮1/2  
• The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy ✮✮✮1/2   

I'm currently reading...

• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Mind Meld'" is here.
  
• Where No Couch Has Gone Before:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here.  
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

I am thankful for...

• Being able to work from the couch in my bedclothes when I don't feel well (and don't have Zoom meetings).
• YouTuber creators who curate TikTok videos so I don't have to swim in this cesspool of brain rot. 
• Modern medicine.
• The much-needed rain we've gotten the past couple of days.
• Cooler temperatures.
• My old faithful Singer sewing machine (I call her "Big Mama.")  

 

Mind Meld: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window....

The Feather Reed Grass in the church parking lot is interesting.

I know that this is a terrible shot, but I've been passing (and ogling over) these plantings all summer and there's no way for me to safely get out of the car to get a shot.  They are along 1st Avenue in Denver from the intersection of University Blvd up a few blocks.  They are full of gorgeous blooms and greenery.  I hope they fill them with seasonal plants as the weather changes.  BTW--I did take the picture while I was stopped at the light, not while I was driving.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Prayer is all the more sure to succeed because it is for the Father’s glory through the Son. It glorifies His truth, His faithfulness, His power, and His grace. The granting of prayer, when offered in the name of Jesus, reveals the Father’s love to Him and the honor that He has put upon Him.- Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 239. 

 

Some people feel so hopeless because they have no memory of being helped in the past. - Cloud and Townsend, Boundaries, p. 291. 

 

Egotism is pathological self-obsession, a reaction to anxiety about whether one really does count. It is a form of acute self-consciousness and can be prevented and healed only by the experience of being adequately loved.  It is, indeed, a desperate response to frustration of the need we all have to count for something and be held to be irreplaceable, without price. - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.  15.

 

I'm thinking about...

Yes, I know I shouldn't be thinking of it, but I am.
This too shall pass.

 

  What I've read since the last digest...

• Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread)
• Silence by Shusaku Endo ✮✮✮1/2   
• Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster ✮✮✮✮ ( a glorious reread)
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread) 
• Letters to a Young Pastor by Eric Peterson & Eugene Peterson ✮ (an impulse read)  
• Freckle Juice by Judy Blume  ✮✮✮1/2 (Kiddie Lit) 

I'm currently reading...

• The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Big Nasty'" is here.
  
• Where No Couch Has Gone Before:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here.  
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

Miss Betsy and I had a painting party this past weekend.
She painted this adorable frog for her grandson's birthday present.

"Jeremiah Was a Tree Frog" Acrylic on 11x14-inch canvas.

  

I am thankful for...

• My new living room furniture.  
• A friend to help assemble said furniture.
• Coffee.
• Naps.
• I am thankful to not use TikTok.  The more content I see curated from that app from YouTube creators, the less interest I have in this brain rot.
• G-U-M toothpicks. 
• Funny and encouraging memes. 
• Rubber bands.