by jphilo | Nov 1, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
Thanks to some strange current events, I’m scratching my head and wondering if the calendar is right. Can this really be November 1?
- This year’s later-than-usual end to Daylight Savings Time led to confusion each of the past three Sundays. On each one, I figured the night before was the end of daylight savings time, and I missed the extra hour of sleep. But no. This year, DST doesn’t end until this coming weekend.
- The appearance of Hurricane Sandy so far north this late in the year left east coasters and weather forecasters confused. My theory is that the media’s to blame for referring to Sandy as Frankenstorm. Give an innocent storm surge a name like that, and it’s bound to show up for Halloween and cause plenty of damage.
- Thanks to last spring’s early warm spell and late frost, the apple crop tanked and our favorite orchard can’t make cider. The season feels empty without my favorite fall treat–hot, spiced Deal’s apple cider.
What makes fall feel like fall to you? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Oct 11, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
This week’s nippy weather may be inconvenient for humans, but it takes a noticable toll on animals. Worry about outdoor critters led to these three thoughts for Thursday:
- Can global warming be blamed for the behavior of the directionally-challenged flock of Canadian geese I saw flying north this morning?
- The image of a doe spied earlier this week is stuck in my brain. She stood in the frosty grass and shivered, perhaps too cold to get out of camera range. How hard would it be to knit wool booties to slip over her cold hooves? Hmmm. Probably not as hard as it would be to catch Bambi’s mother and slip the booties over those chilly tootsies.
- If soccer players had the same kind of jaw action as squirrels, they would mouth the ball down the field and spit it past the goalie into the net. Do you know why squirrels can get their mouths around the nuts they’re gathering and carrying from hither to yon? If you know why, leave a comment. If you don’t know why, make up a theory and share it in the comment box. Fall’s a good time of year to get squirrelly, don’t you think?
by jphilo | Sep 27, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Fifty years ago yesterday, The Beverly Hillbillies made its debut on network television. Whoo-ee, that moves a body to set a possum stewing on the cook stove, grab a favorite critter, and head to the cee-ment pond for a party, don’t it?
- Box elder bugs have invaded our house. The obnoxious little things forced me into some outside-the-box thinking. In a fit of desperation, I grabbed the fly swatter and took aim. And guess what? It worked!
- Operation Baby Watch continues. Tomorrow, Baby Philo will be one week overdue. The house is clean, the laundry’s done, I’ve finished the required ten devos for my friend’s new specialty Bible project, my cold’s pretty much run its course, the cold sore under my nose has dried up, the monthly column for the church newsletter is in the can, and today is anniversary of my Grandma Josie’s birthday. This would be a very good day for you to be born, little one!
by jphilo | Sep 20, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Waiting for the grandbaby to arrive lacks the physical discomfort of the last months of pregnancy with our kids, but the waiting is just as hard. Any time now, Baby Philo, any time.
- Thanks to the networks’ policy of randomly scheduling series premiers whenever the spirit moves them, I missed the first episode of Parenthood and am waiting impatiently until September 27 for an update on The Big Bang Theory gang. Sometimes, I wish the networks still premiered all their new shows in the same week, like in the olden days…but with the option of online viewing to miss the political ads, of course.
- A tinge of soup weather’s been in the air the last few days. My three favorite homemade varieties are potato, turkey tortilla, and ham and bean. Yours?
by jphilo | Sep 13, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- On September 11, 2001, one of students came to in early to talk about the birthday party his mom had planned for after school. The party never happened. So this past Tuesday I prayed, as I do every September 11, that someone threw him a party. Happy birthday, Michael!
- No one ever told me how hard Baby Watch is for the grandparents-in-waiting. My blood pressure still hasn’t recovered from our son’s call at not-his-usual-call-time last Friday.
- BLTs are my favorite summer sandwich. I like ’em with whole wheat bread, lightly buttered, crispy bacon, romaine lettuce, and thinly sliced, fresh tomato. How about you?
by jphilo | Sep 6, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
For the past few weeks, I’ve been cooking for family events. The amount of food prepared and consumed led to these three thoughts for Thursday:
- At our Labor Day reunion, 17 people ate 3 watermelons, 2 quarts of salsa, and 2 bags of chips in 7 hours. (And those were just the side dishes.) I keep forgetting how much a gathering of Hesses can eat when 8 family members are in their twenties.
- However, 1 1/2 bags of marshmallows, 2 boxes of graham crackers, and 12 chocolate bars are more than enough for 2 nights of s’mores around the campfire.
- In the past three weeks, I’ve prepared and frozen 11 meals for the parents-to-be. Which makes me wonder if the mother-to-be nesting tendency extends to grandmothers-to-be, also. Have any grandparents out there experienced the same phenomenon? What kind of nesting did you do?
