Bird-brained behavior

I just finished repairing and reinstalling one of my bird feeders, and this morning I stopped in my tracks when I saw a bright red cardinal enjoying his breakfast with a smaller white-striped bird I didn’t recognize. 

Then I saw him feeding the little guy—ah, what a good parent!  Daddy even aggressively chased off a sparrow from the breakfast table so his growing kiddo could eat privately. (Poor sparrow.  He was just trying to quietly go about his morning also…)

It was fascinating to watch, this avian culture!  But I just wanted to be sure I was identifying it all accurately.  Thus, I turned to that incontestable resource—the internet—and guess what?  It wasn’t a juvenile cardinal Daddy was feeding; it was a juvenile cow bird!

Let’s Hear It for Southpaws!

Let’s face it, folks, left-handed people bear a burden, although I think it’s gotten better over the decades. According to that impeccable repository of information, (i.e., Wikipedia), approximately 10-percent of our society worldwide are southpaws.  Machines ranging from scissors to power saws were generally produced with right-handed people in mind, and in the past, even in education if a child showed a preference to his left hand, he would be “encouraged” to use his right instead. 

Office hours 24/7

My husband, Bob, is a biology prof at a small college in a small Midwestern town.  His classes have been very unique, sometimes only comprised of, say, five or so students learning genetics or molecular biology.  I mention this by way of context, since despite the small size, he also has plenty of office hours, and even with those, is quite flexible and available, and has even had an occasion of a personal phone call or two about an upcoming test. 

In other words, he makes his knowledge very accessible to his students. 

Unfortunately, in the 25+ years that he has prof’d at this college, I have heard plenty about the genre of students who don’t bother to utilized what he so generously offers, don’t even show up for lecture or lab…and thus the “down notices” go out needlessly.  He hates that, because he does everything he can to help his students succeed.

So, I get a little confused when the greatest Teacher

Investments, and other secrets

I’m not a financier.  I generally pray before I attempt to balance my checkbook.  Bob isn’t much of a high-tier money guy either, except that D-E-B-T is probably the foulest 4-letter word in his vocabulary, (and growing up an athlete, he knows a few.)

It was an amazing act of Providential grace and Sovereign foresight that all three of our girls got through with their college bachelor degrees without school debt.  Sure, we worked and saved, and they worked and saved, but there were some other pretty amazing things that happened.  It is also a testimony to the hand of God that we paid off our house, (such as it is…), around the time of the housing fiasco/market recession of 07/08.  How did that happen? 

Puzzled

Disclaimer: this is not a political statement.  I really am not concern with anyone else’s partisan persuasion, it’s just that America’s recent history (translated: in my memory, which is longer than some of my current contemporaries, I realize…) lends itself to a good comparison.

Anyone old enough to read this has an opinion of some kind about the Trump/Clinton election and the media’s reaction.  Sparks are still flying over that one, and will continue to do so.  It’s the American way.

What many of the younger generation may not remember, to no fault of their own since many of them were in diapers or not even born yet, was the Reagan/Mondale landslide of 1984. 

Casting call: princesses and mermaids

The most-darling-three-year-old-in-the-Universe, (my oldest granddaughter) is R-E-A-L-L-Y into princess stuff.  Like, it’s a struggle for her mom to get her to change out of one of her (many) princess outfits if they need to go public somewhere, like to the grocery store.

Of course, then she got a mermaid bathing suit, and it’s been rough getting her out of that one, as in this recent chat with her mom:

“Don’t ever make proclamations about how you’ll parent or what your child/ren will do.  That’s how you end up in a suburban bank with a 3-year-old mermaid perched on your hip.”

Ah, parenting…

But, along with Pooh Bear, mermaids, and tea parties, the princess things still rank pretty high on her radar for now.  And as with all things (grand)parenting, it give us great pleasure to follow those interests with her.  What will develop next?

And the beat goes on…

I get all kinds of requests for money, you know, you make one donation and the scent of blood is sensed for miles.  Some of the requests are causes with which I would agree, some not so much.  But even the ones I would tend to support, well, let’s face it, there’s only so much to go around.

Which really isn’t the point.  The real issue is the fact that it’s not “my” money anyway.  Sure, it’s in my name, my account with my beneficiaries and all that.  It goes to pay my bills, my taxes, and my retirement (such as it is).  It puts food on my table and gas in my car.  It’s not that I haven’t worked hard for it all; sure I have.  And yes, some of that hard work has taken a toll I’d care not to admit, but there it is. 

Still, the truth is, it’s not mine.

Not any more.  Because I actually belong to a larger government than any on this planet—the kingdom of God, (which is, I might add, far more just than the IRS…just saying.)

Yes, it’s easy to get to a point in life

Never waste a good compost

It’s an uncharacteristically warm day in winter, so I’ll need to go out and turn the compost.  Now, that might not sound too exciting, unless you see it with a little vision (or a lot, depending on your perspective, I suppose…)  My heavy-duty fork and I have an interesting relationship—I supply the muscle but it touches the biologicals.  It’s work, but I’m hoping a good harvest this coming summer. 

Which is nothing compared to the work in this account…

Backstory: What little was left of the

Not about me?

I’m gifted.  At least, that’s what my folks were told back when I was in 5^th grade.  So they put me in different school for a couple of years, which was really nice of them, since it meant mom had to carpool a few of us “gifted” kids to and fro.  (Never mind that fact that my older brother, who was not recognized as “gifted”, went on to be the Purdue engineer, celebrated in his field as international keynote and author, widely traveled, as well as musician/artist on the side.  Yeah, don’t overestimate manmade “tests” for gifted-ness….just saying.)

Right, so here I am, gifted.  Of course, a gift is something that is innately given, something for which the receiver has no claim to credit, nothing they can legitimately boast about, because it’s, well…a gift.

Which, clearly, can come in all forms, some of which are recognized and valued, some of which are undisclosed and certainly undervalued.  And, just as obviously (at least, to me, maybe that’s part of my “gifted-ness”), what

Clouds without rain

“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”

 

1 Corinthians 4:20  Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT (One Year Bible: Nlt Book 2) (Kindle Locations 25713-25714). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition