Category: Musings

Monday, January 26, 2026 TKR Day One

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Today the day finally arrived: my total knee replacement surgery. I had been getting rather nervous about it as the day got closer, but I now know what it’s like to be carried by the prayers of others. The Lord gave me some peace of mind on the day before and I actually got some sleep!

I will probably share my journey through this process here on the old blog. It helps me to work through things. Flannery O’Connor said something about how she doesn’t know how she feels about something until she writes about it. That’s something I can relate to quite well.

It’s getting late in the day, so let me just say that the surgery itself was just shy of two hours, I was home by 1:00 p.m, and my husband has been the perfect caregiver, looking to my every need and helping keep all those meds straight. Who needs a rehab facility when you have such great care at home?

I also got so many encouraging texts and emails, and even a FaceTime call from our 7-month old granddaughter (with a little help). So many blessings…thank you, Lord! And thank you all my good friends and loving family members for caring about me and praying for me.

The night is ahead and I am hoping and praying to get some sleep. Here’s what I’ve been doing most of the day, when I’m not taking little walks around the house.

I’ll probably need help deleting this in the morning.

Monday, January 19, 2026 More Heat, Please

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I am sitting in the cold room in front of a heater.

Yet my hands are still cold and the heat has been swallowed up in the distance between me and it.

This is January in Minnesota. Those of us who live here understand that “as the days lengthen, the cold strengthens.” The Lord God made it so. Rejoice…and fill up the hot water bottle.

I’ll probably need to thaw this one out in the morning.

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 The Commonplace Book: Sourdough Edition

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It’s a windy, gray day today. My tea has cooled and I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to get up and put it in the microwave. There’s a loaf of sourdough bread baking in the oven. I have high hopes it will turn out better than the last one. The clock that my mother embroidered says that it’s 4:00. I grew up looking at that clock and probably never really appreciated the artistry of it.

That’s all for the musings o’ day. It’s time to share some thoughts and quotes from my commonplace book.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few,
and let those few be well tried before
you give them your confidence.
George Washington

Good advice from George. Perhaps he got burned once giving someone his confidence and was betrayed. Oh wait…

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell
in such a way that they look forward to the trip.
Winston Churchill

Ha ha! I suppose a statesman needs to have that kind of tact at the ready. I’m not sure that WC was known for his tact, though, as much as for his razor sharp wit. I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of it.

Don’t ever take a fence down
until you know why it was put up.
Robert Frost

There’s a lot more to that saying than meets the eye. Think about it the next time you find yourself thinking about removing a boundary that is inconveniencing you. Perhaps the removal of it will bring consequences that are worse than inconvenience.

Live slowly enough
to be able to think deeply
about God.
J.I. Packer

Live s-l-o-w-l-y and think DEEPLY about God. You’re going to need to be reading your Bible to get on with that.

And now you can also think deeply about this beautifully embroidered clock.

When the sourdough bread gets crusty, this post will get dusty. And deleted.

Monday, January 5, 2026 I Firmly Resolve…

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We’ve taken that big leap into a new calendar year, hopping onto fresh pages that beckon us into the unknown, the “undiscovered country,” as good old Shakespeare said. (Full disclosure: I learned that phrase from the Star Trek movie “Undiscovered Country”, but it still counts as a Shakespeare quote.)

Of course every day is a day that stretches before us as a blank page, full of stories that only the Lord knows ahead of time. As Robert Frost said, “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” But in this new morning of the year 2026, we can still look ahead with hope and make plans for the afternoon. Back in the day, we used to call these plans “New Year’s Resolutions,” but the term has fallen out of favor. Everybody now knows that your firm resolve to exercise daily only lasts a week or two, after which the list of resolutions quietly disappears until the next January 1 comes around.

In our household, we make a list of goals for the coming year, some of them a mere continuance of good habits already established, some of them “one and done” projects, and some of them s-t-r-e-t-c-h goals, meant to move us further along than we’ve been before. I spent the last couple of days working on mine, a process I thoroughly enjoy. I ended up with 91 goals divided among 12 categories. (Full disclosure #2: I am disturbed by the uneven number 91 and feel the specter of Adrian Monk peering over my shoulder begging me to even it up.)

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected…but in this case, I rather suspect that some of these 91 goals will be going by the wayside, joining a vast number of unmet goals from my past. It matters not. I submit them to God and am confident that He who began a good work in me “will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” The only thing I want to firmly resolve this year is to be like the psalmist David who told the Lord: My soul follows close behind You.” If my soul follows Him so closely that I’m stepping on the train of His robe, that’ll do just fine, 91 goals notwithstanding.

(Full disclosure #3: great was my disappointment after making the above when I realized that I hadn’t remembered the quote correctly before writing it in permanent ink. The specter of Adrian Monk peers over my shoulder about that as well.)

The delete button follows closely behind this post. I think it will catch up to it in the morning.

Friday, December 19, 2025 They Keep Watch

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Two black cats perch atop the lintel that leads into the dining room. One sits upright with a calm and contemplative air. The other is bent over, looking down, paws out, tail up, ready to grab whate’er may pass by. Together, they keep watch.

Christmas is coming!

Those cats are going to catch this post and delete it in the morning.

Monday, December 15, 2025 Cold Feet, Purring Cat

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It’s after bedtime, which means a short post is in order:

Luna’s warm body is next to me on the chair. My feet are cold. I wonder what she’d do if I tried to drape her over my feet for warmth? I suspect it wouldn’t end well. The purring would stop, for sure. I guess I can endure cold feet for a purring cat.

This green-eyed post will have to quit purring in the morning.

Friday, December 12, 2025 Five Things

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I read about a writing prompt recently. The idea is to observe or notice one thing and then write a sentence or two (or more) about it. You can go back later and add more if inspired. Then you do that four more times. The examples in the essay I read were positively lyrical and amazingly deep. I decided to try it for a while and see what percolates. Nothing lyrical or deep emerged, but it’s early days. Here’s today’s batch:

1. I’m sorting through a bin of old clothes and it’s a bit like sorting through memories. I’ve kept some of these clothes under the delusion that I’ll be able to wear some of them again in that mystical future in which I’ve lost enough weight. Others have sentimental value. I see reminders of a mission trip with our two youngest, a family camp trip (those wonderful days!), a thinner version of myself, Christmases of yore…even an ancient shirt from my youth with my initials affixed to the back, a gift from a friend.

2. Binoculars sit on a stool by the window. We use these to see if our mail has been delivered. No sense getting all our winter gear on to get the mail if it hasn’t arrived yet.

3. I wear two rings: my wedding band on the left hand and my replacement engagement ring on the right (lost the diamond out of the first one some years ago). Promises made, promises kept. The Lord has been kind to us.

4. The large bluebird cross stitch piece on the wall was a labor of love from my sister, a project she gave herself a couple months to complete and which took over a year. How does one quantify that kind of love?

5. The clock on the wall says 12:00 noon. Time to put my contacts in and go to the pool to swim 18 laps. It’s cold out. Must I go? (Yes.)

1 The post needs to be written.
2 The post is written.
3 The post needs a photo, just because.
4 Post is published!
5 It must be deleted in the morning.

Monday, December 8, 2025 Olio

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The word “olio” comes up surprisingly often in crossword puzzles. It means “a miscellaneous collection of things,” or “hodgepodge.” Let that inform you as to the nature of what follows.

Sunsets, sunrises…I still run out in my slippers to capture them.

Pastels overlaid with the rough darkness of trees. Never gets old.

I thought this flower had a definite celebratory look to it. Or perhaps a head of disorganized hair. Don’t you love how it lights up the photo? I do!

I’ll tell you, old age is severe upon the plant world. These were beautiful in their prime. Still, they put on a very interesting farewell, unashamed of their desiccated state. The Lord giveth; the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the named of the Lord.

Obviously, these were all taken before the change of seasons, before frost, cold and snow scrubbed away the green and gold of autumn.

To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
A time to be born,
and a time to die,
A time to plant,
and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

And a time to delete this…in the morning.

Thursday, October 2, 2025 The Lost and Found Three of Hearts

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I picked up this card in a parking lot at one of our state parks after a hike a few years ago. Why do I still have it? I guess I’ve not completely given up my tendency to be a bit of a pack rat, especially intriguing little odds and ends.

When I was a child, I tucked things away in my room in little boxes or containers and thought of them as my treasures. One time I went to the Rose Gardens and created a little hole in the ground for some of these tiny treasures on a little hill just up from Dupont Avenue. I covered it over carefully and delighted to come back now and again to see if they were still there. The day inevitably came when the hole came up empty. I consoled myself with the thought that perhaps another pack rat had come upon my eclectic cache and felt like they’d struck the mother lode. I know it would have been a dream come true for me to come across something like that.

Anyway, the design on the back of the card appealed to me, the owls and other birds taking their places on the ornate circle of swirling leaves on vines. The other side shows what a beating the card had taken, being driven over at least once, I think. Someone lost just one card while they were at the park, the three of hearts. Did they go home to play a game and mourn to find out that their favorite deck was missing a card?

I actually lost one of my favorite barrettes on one of those hikes. It must have gotten caught on my hat and fallen to the ground when I took the hat off in the parking lot before getting into the car – I didn’t notice it until later. I went through the kind of mourning that you might do for a very trivial but valued thing. There was a short and meaningful memorial service that took place over only a few seconds in my mind. Did someone find that barrette and see it as a treasure? Or was it pitched unceremoniously in the nearest trash bin? Perhaps even now, someone is writing a blog post about the lost teal-colored barrette. Perhaps…

As for the card, I put it in the front zipper pocket of my Bible holder and there it resides to this day. Every once in a while I take it out, admire it, and put it back.

I’ll be burying this in a hole on blog hill in the morning.

Monday, August 25, 2025 Meanderin’ without a Plan

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Sometimes I start a blog post without much of a plan. Those of you who read this regularly are not surprised. I like the challenge of starting with nothing and hoping that something emerges. So here’s what I’ve got today: two photos that have been lurking in my smallified photos file for a few months.

The “little fisherman” is my dad, with his dad behind him. It’s a lovely photo, isn’t it? Toddler Dad looks adorable with his hat and his pudgy little face. Instead of a life jacket, he appears to have some sort of safety cord attached to his clothing, doesn’t he? What I’m really struck by though is the strength and focus of the man behind him. That’s the look of a father who knows how to keep his son safe out there in the boat. We should all remember this, that we have a Father who knows how to keep us afloat and safe.

And that little cutie is me, another little fisherman (fishergirl?) out in the boat. You can’t see him, but I am no doubt under the protection of my father, no longer a toddler, but now the one who kept me safe in the boat. Times have changed (I’m at least wearing a life jacket!), but the job of a father has not.

I’ll probably fish or cut bait on this in the morning.