Good Morning. I trust everyone is well. Hard to believe that another month is finishing. Today is Halloween & I am not a big, if at all, celebrator of Halloween. IMO it has become far too gory. I have for the first time in 2 years, bought candy to hand out. I will fill a bowl & leave a note for the little darlings to help themselves, but only to take one - I am hopeful that the kids are not greedy. If Mr Man had his way, the lights would be out. Once again I give out candy I do not like, so I'm not tempted to keep & eat myself.
Currently Reading: just about finished the third Max Tudor mystery, Pagan Spring. I must say, there's really not much of a mystery (so far) in these books. I have waiting for me at the library The Measure (again) I really don't recall requesting a 2nd time, but I think The Universe wants to message me, so I'll read again so soon after the initial reading.
Currently Wrapping Up: with my 31 Days of Grateful. I did not create a mini scrapbook album, but just a single page insert for my day to day album. There were lots of grateful moments.
Currently Harvest: the farmer brought in the corn crop this past week. The cobs were small & the yield much less than he had hoped for.
Current Use Of Our Freedoms: last Monday it was municipal elections in Ontario. This year in our region our mayor & ward councilor were both acclaimed as no one ran against them. The only person choice we had was for school trustee.
Currently Watching: House of the Dragon has ended for season one. Rumour is that it will be 2024 before season two is ready to roll out. Still liking Magpie Murders. Mr Man is finding Annika tough going - he says it is the thick Scottish brogue that defeats him. We are also watching the 3rd season of Stanley Tucci's Searching Italy. I may be a little saturated, but this season isn't as good as the first season, IMO.
Currently Sitting Through: several church meetings about what do we do well, what can we improve upon & what's next. Most of the time was spent back patting. IMO, that is a big problem, the elders of my church are too busy celebrating themselves to look to see what is happening. The membership has dropped significantly & there's only about 6-7 live bodies in the church; count the minister, organist & 3 person choir, it totals maybe a dozen people any given Sunday. We haven't had a need for a Sunday School or nursery in years.
We, the church, were "gifted" a mobile sign from a business that was behind the church, when they moved out of the region. It was in rough shape, but several of the handy repair folks at church, cleaned it up, straighten it up & now we have a really excellent source of engaging with the community. Right now it is just being used to indicated service times. I suggested we use the sign as a way of engaging with the community, with some tasteful banter on the signs; things like "avoid the Christmas rush, join us this Sunday" or " God's gifts are like butter ... spread them" or "exercise daily, walk with God". I think I may have volunteered for something!!
Currently Health Matters: we got our annual Flu jab last Friday. Thankfully we were able to schedule the time for later in the day, which meant we could grab a nap should the need arise & it did. 😃
And my thought for the day is "the best way to have the last word in an argument, is to apologize".
Your comments on your church meeting sound a bit like what goes on in schools! We used to do WWW (what went well) and EBI (even better if) to analysis things. That way you don't spend too long on the WWW! But yes, it does sound as if you have talked yourself into a new responsibility!
ReplyDeleteI don't do Halloween any more. Not that we are grinches, but the hordes of kids, like hundreds, that I don’t know, turned me off.
ReplyDeleteI like Annika, but I always close-caption for British tv.
Flu jab tomorrow.
Sorry to butt in on your comment, but your remarks about using subtitles for British drama made me laugh. Most Brits struggle with a broad Scottish accent!
DeleteFrom Ruth in London ... not the one in Ontario!
Your church meeting does indeed sound like school staff meetings and school fundraiser committees!
DeleteAnd yes, you have talked yourself into a new job.
Don't get me started on church committees!! I think you may have landed yourself a job in that regard, but it sounds like you are up for it. Not only can I believe that October is over, there are only two months left in 2022. Where did this year go? I need to decide today if I am doing some kind of gratitude journal for November.
ReplyDeleteYes, 2022 is marching on rather quickly it seems. My church elders hold on to their control & while one can volunteer for anything, they still wait until it seems more like you are being invited into the inner circle. I miss Cathy Z's 31/30 Days of Gratitude online workshop, so I follow that previous outline.
DeleteI do feel for the farmers, for the poor crops this year after all their hard work. (And of course, the knock-on effects will be felt widely throughout society.) I hope your neighbours don't fare too badly and are able to make the most of what they reap.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read about our local farmers, all grain crops had lower yields. What I find unusual is that about 100kms away, they had ample rainfall. But overall I think grain based foods will rise dramatically - again! The corn crop behind us is intended for livestock no food consumption. My squirrels & chipmunks feasted well on the smaller cobs.
DeleteI agree with the others, it does sound like you've got yourself a job with the church sign! I like the statements you've suggested for the sign!
ReplyDeleteI used to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters before Covid; I don't, any more. I haven't heard any kids going out in the neighborhood, either.
At my church you can volunteer but it still requires the "committee elders" to ask you to join them (lol). I'll not try to push my way in for now :) I put candy out in a tinfoil bowl at the front steps with a note to be fair & take only one. It worked out well by 8pm all the candy was gone. I put out 100 pre-packaged candies. It was a rainy night.
DeleteWhoa! So much here that resonates with me. First off, your Gratitude month reminded me that I wanted to enroll in a photography prompt class for the month of November. I have a new camera and would love to have a reason to put it to use on a daily basis. I have photos on a memory card from Saturday's Horse Show that I need to upload. I voted early yesterday, with little hope that the far right conservatives will be beaten. The political climate here is dismal. And to church . . . Luckily, our church seems to be holding its own. Although actual physical attendance is down, if you count those who now do church online, it looks pretty good. I'm one of those ruling elders, and we recently approved a bold new vision for the church with requires hiring some new staff. I hope it materializes. Money is required! I hope we aren't perceived as sitting around patting ourselves on the back.
ReplyDeleteOh hopefully you'll post photos from the horse show. I think this is such a wonderful thing for the granddaughters to be involved with. Outside of a horse is good for the inside of people. I think our church elders could use your ideas & attitude ... I don't see you being anything like our ruling 5. I don't mean to sound harsh with mine but they aren't looking to do anything different to encourage fellowship growing. On some level I think of the saying, doing the same thing & expecting different results is madness.
DeleteEnjoy your new responsibility at your church. I'm sure you'll do a brilliant job!
ReplyDeleteI don't do Halloween. There's an arrangement that local children only ring the bell if you're showing an external light and they are really good about sticking to that, so I didn't get bothered at all.
I think for the most part no front light on, means you aren't participating. I didn't see many of the kids' costumes as I wasn't at either the door or window. I liked this year's plan of having the candy on a table at the front door. We were able to eat dinner in peace :)
DeleteWe've never gotten trick or treaters here, but I buy the candy anyway and eat it myself. I haven't voted yet but will do in the next coupla days. It's a shame about the church meetings. They do tend to either be self-congratulatory or fractious. I'm not sure the church sign will bring people in no matter what words are on them. In my experience having church attenders invite folks personally works better.
ReplyDeleteOur neighbour kept count of the number of trick'n treators there werre, he counted 75. No decision about the sign being used for anything other than service times. My hope would be to at least engage the community - soften the idea of a personal invitation. We have done that in the past, but desperate times call for desperate measures (col).
DeleteI support your idea about using the sign to engage the community. I don't attend church any more, but I do heed the sign. It's inspiring and I think everyone that drives by reads it actually. Quite a bit of traffic.
ReplyDelete