by jphilo | Jan 20, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. The premiere of Downton Abbey, Season 5, is a good excuse to binge watch Seasons 1–4…just in case any crucial details were missed during previous viewings.
9. Binge watching Seasons 1–4 makes the dead of winter go by faster.
8. Seeing all the Downton Abbey windows is a reason to be grateful to not be in charge of washing them.
7. After a November, December, and January (so far) filled with family changes and challenges, watching someone else’s problems is good therapy.
6. Those creepy scenes where perfectly capable men and women are dressed by other men and women make me glad Mom insisted all her children could dress themselves and put away their own clothes.
5. Every episode makes me more grateful for modern amenities such as enclosed car cabs, running water, and gas and/or electric stoves.
4. Every episode makes me long to wear arm length gloves and to ask my lady’s maid to do my hair.
3. The subtle snobbery of Carson the butler always brings a smile.
2. Maggie Smith.
1. Binge watching Downton Abbey and reading a biography of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, in the same week leads to some interesting character parallels. Such as:
Lady Edith as Charlie Brown
Lady Mary as Lucy Van Pelt
Lady Sybil as Sally.
But Linus and Snoopy’s parallel characters are a bit harder to pin down. Your suggestions?
by jphilo | Jan 6, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. A white, unbroken blanket of snow is so lovely.
9. Life feels cozy when it’s snowing outside, the dishwasher and washing machine are running, and I’m sitting in a chair writing.
8. This year’s first big snowstorm didn’t hit until January, which means this winter won’t be as long as it could be.
7. A snowstorm means evening activities are cancelled, so there’s nothing to do but to download and watch the Downton Abbey Season 5 premiere.
6. After a month of Camp Dorothy, which just ended Sunday evening, it’s nice to have a guilt-free reason to stay home this Tuesday instead of going to visit Mom.
5. I can imagine trying to teach children, tired from Christmas break and excited about the snow, instead of teaching them.
4. This snowstorm affirms our decision to by an all-wheel drive Subaru in November instead of waiting until spring as originally planned.
3. This snowstorm granted the Man of Steel’s wish to test the Subaru on winter roads…and he was delighted with the way it handled.
2. Our daughter and son-in-law beat the storm and arrived at their home in Madison, Wisconsin safely.
1. On a day when our daughter-in-law was in labor, our daughter and her husband raced home ahead of the weather so they could pack and move, the sibs and I were going a little crazy attending to details related to Mom’s upcoming move, and the page proofs for Every Child Welcome arrived, a snowstorm seemed like a fitting metaphor for our family’s life. And when the storm ended, God used it to remind me that our stormy day would pass, too, replaced by beauty. In this case, the beauty of a brand new granddaughter, born just after midnight this morning.
by jphilo | Dec 30, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
2014 is almost over, so now’s the time to reflect on the year just past. Here are the top 10 events along the gravel road over the past 12 months.
10. The Man of Steel and I bought a new car with electric seat warmers. A little bit of heaven on earth.
9. In the process of residing the garage, the Man of Steel uncovered some local history that resonated with readers and makes us feel very connected to past owners of our old farmhouse and outbuildings.
8. Jolene completed 3 book manuscripts, sent them to the publishers early, and completed about 3/4 of the mystery novel she’s dreamed of writing for years.
7. To celebrate the 2nd anniversary of his back surgery, he Man of Steel ran in Dam to Dam, a half-marathon held in Des Moines each June.
6. As part of the November release of her book The Caregiver’s Notebook, Jolene met some amazing caregiving bloggers who are spreading news of the book far and wide. They are amazing, loving, and giving people!
5. Though she’s still not sure where the years went, Jolene had a wonderful time reconnecting with high school classmates at their 40th class reunion.
4. Along the same vein, the response to a tribute to her high school drama coach confirmed the magical nature of Jolene’s high school years.
3. The Man of Steel and Jolene enjoyed dancing at a family wedding. What greater earthly joy does God grant than to celebrate with relatives of all ages?
2. Jolene loved creating a book called My Papoo Makes Guitars for her grandson’s birthday. The Man of Steel loved crafting a ukulele for the same grandson’s Christmas. Even more, they loved watching him open those gifts.
1. The best news of 2014 was learning that 2 new grandchildren are on the way in 2015. The first will arrive sometime in January and the second in April. Papoo and Grammy Jo are ready and waiting to fulfill their grandparenting duties!
by jphilo | Dec 23, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. iPhones are smarter than people over the age of 50.
9. Using iCloud to keep a fleet of Apple devices in sync isn’t nearly as satisfying as eating apple crisp.
8. Scrolling through the list of iPhone ringtone options is similar to strolling through the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Both involve way too many choices.
7. Do not assume that apps available on your old iPad are also available for a new iPhone.
6. The pedometer feature can become addicting.
5. The earbuds that come with a new iPhone are excellent.
4. If you buy an iPhone around Thanksgiving, it’s wise to buy an iPhone case immediately instead of adding it to your Christmas list.
3. If you don’t buy a case immediately and if no one gives you one for Christmas, your iPhone might break when you drop it on the floor and cost much more to replace than a case does.
2. On the other hand, the retro rotary dial phone case you buy using the Etsy gift certificate you mom gave you for Christmas is really, really cool.
1. If you drop your iPhone on the floor and your very thoughtful spouse takes pity on you and calls the phone company to find the cheapest way to get a new phone and then goes to the store to buy it and tells you to quit being so hard on yourself because everybody does stupid things now and then and it’s okay, you can make that very thoughtful spouse’s day by giving him the excellent set of earbuds that come with the new phone.
by jphilo | Dec 16, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
A few weeks ago, I faced reality. My MacBook Pro, nearly 5 years old, needed to be replaced. So I bought a new MacBook Air with dread in my heart. Because in the world where I live, a weekend spent getting a laptop up and running usually mirrors the circular plot of the children’s book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin as this week’s top ten list shows.
10. If you buy a new computer, you will spend the weekend migrating files from the old MacBook Pro to the new MacBook Air.
9. If you spend the weekend migrating files from the old MacBook Pro to the new MacBook Air, you might have to transfer your iPhoto and iMovie files to an external hard drive before the computers can begin their migration magic.
8. If the computers finally start their magic once the iPhoto and iMovie files are safely on the external hard drive, it may take 11 hours of Saturday before the transfer is complete.
7. If it takes 11 hours before the transfer is complete and the “Transfer complete. Click here to get started” message finally appears, the rainbow spinning wheel of death may appear when you “click here to get started.”
6. If you “click here to get started” at 5 AM on a Sunday morning, the rainbow spinning wheel of death will spin for 2 hours until the Apple Phone Support Center opens.
5. If you call the Apple Phone Support Center at 7 AM on a Sunday morning, a friendly tech person answers the phone less than 5 minutes after you call and gets your new MacBook Air up and running in 15 minutes.
4. If a friendly Apple Support tech person gets your computer up and running in 15 minutes, you will still need to spend an hour on Sunday afternoon at the old computer retrieving the passwords needed to sign into everything on the new computer.
3. If you manage to find or create new passwords for all the applications that demand them, you will need to restart your computer to install all sorts of new updates.
2. If you restart the the MacBook Air and try to download photos to the iPhoto Library now located on an external hard drive, iPhoto will spend a half hour updating and repairing things you thought were updated in #3 and had no idea required repair.
1. If iPhoto completes the updates and repairs and everything is finally synced to the external drive, your iPhone, and iCloud, you are convinced Tim Cook’s next product announcement will be an iPadded cell for customers who spend a weekend getting a new computer up and running.
by jphilo | Dec 9, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday, Walking Down the Gravel Road
Two days ago, a dear high school friend sent a Facebook private message. “I ran across this tonight,” the message said.
“This” was an obituary for Roger Hallum, our high school speech and drama coach. According to the obituary Mr. Hallum–who will always be Mr. Hallum and never Roger to me–died on July 1, 2009.
He’s been gone five years and we, the students he touched in profound ways, never knew. We never had a chance to say thank you. We never had a chance to tell him how he shaped and bolstered the confidence of a bunch of squirrely teens as he tapped into our talents.
So five years late, this top ten list says thank you for the lessons he taught so well more than 4 decades ago.
10. Never judge a book by its cover. None of us believed a dumpy man who wore his sandy hair shaggy and unkempt, whose teeth that never saw braces, and who wore saggy plaid suit jackets and polyester pants could motivate high schoolers to spend months of each year rehearsing and performing in plays and speech contests.
9. When your director says, “Jump,” you say, “How high?”
8. Good writing isn’t enough to make a good speech. Neither is good delivery. But good writing + good delivery = magic.
7. Never, ever start smoking. Because trying to quit is hell and requires copious amounts of Live Savers candies.
6. Teenagers, given a vision of what they can do if they work far harder than they believe they can and tasked with far more responsibility than school administrators believe is wise, can accomplish tasks beyond what most adults think they can do.
5. Timing is everything.
4. An army jeep, a goat, and 30 tie-dyed bedsheets sewn into kimonos, make for an exciting, unexpected, and visually pleasing rendition of Tea House of the August Moon.
3. Character parts are much more fun to play than romantic leads.
2. A pregnant pause speaks louder than words.
1. One unassuming person…one dumpy, shaggy-haired man with crooked teeth, saggy plaid suit jackets and polyester trousers…who says “You can do this because you have talent,” can change the course of an insecure teenager’s life.
In memory of Mr. Roger Hallum, Feb. 8, 1939–July 1, 2009. Your former students are still jumping, higher than they ever thought they could.
