Tuesday 4~ December Smiles

 December Smiles

Welcome, welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we sometimes like to be very silly. December is a fun month filled with expectation and hope. We should be light hearted and thankful as the month progresses. What do you think?

Let's be light hearted today and ask some not so serious questions shall we?

1. What is the dumbest rule you've ever had to follow?
You have to drink all your milk before you can go out to the playground. I never liked milk, and especially way back then it came in little tiny glass bottles (yes, I'm THAT OLD!) and it would get warm quickly. There was another 4th grade teacher on lunchroom duty that day (not my favorite 4th grade teacher), and she said I could not leave the lunch table until I drank every drop of that warm souring milk. I cried, I gagged, I begged and pleaded not to have to drink that milk. I was humiliated and horrified in front of everyone else in the lunchroom. But she was adamant, and I was literally sick to my stomach. I'm not sure how I ever got to leave the lunchroom that day, but when I got back to my classroom with my own favorite 4th grade teacher, that dear lady called me up to her desk and told me very kindly that she had heard what happened to me in the lunchroom, and she said to me, "That will never happen to you again, I promise." Oh, how I loved that dear teacher! Sadly she moved away mid-semester, but thankfully God provided a new teacher in her place who was just as kind and who actually liked me and gave me special assignments, like drawing the horses on our class mural we were doing about the pioneers moving westward.  She saw that I had a special talent for drawing horses (oh, where has that gone? I don't know!), and she restored my sense of self-esteem. I will always have a warm place in my heart for her and the former teacher, but NEVER for that other teacher in the lunchroom, who thankfully was never my teacher!!!! (I suppose I should forgive her. She never had children of her own, and she really didn't understand freckled faced red headed little girls who disliked milk so much. Okay, Lord, I forgive her, but I'll never forget that day!)

2. What is the weirdest or funniest thing a guest ever did/said in your home?

I will have to think about that one for a while and come back to this...we've had a lot of funny,weird guests in our lifetime. Being in the ministry, we used to do a LOT of entertaining, and we played a lot of silly games with our guests at our annual Christmas parties. Things could get pretty funny and we would all be splitting our sides with laughter, but I honestly can't think of any one particular thing that any one person said or did. But they all loved the parties and couldn't wait for the next year. 

3. If you had a warning label what would it say?

Watch out! I was born a redhead, and under this faded mop I am STILL a redhead, so beware!!What they say about redheads having a temper just might be true...and you don't wan't to poke the bear to find out! LOL.

4. What is the first thing you must do in case of a Snoopy/Charlie Brown Apocalypse? Who is the first person you call for advice when that happens? (Imagine that The characters of Charlie Brown series take over the world! What do you do as your first move? Who would you call for advice on how to live in that world?)

Well, I'd call Lucy, of course.  Wasn't she the one alway giving out advice?  But maybe Snoopy would be the best choice. He seems to have the best life in the series. LOL.

This was fun. Thank you, Annie, for bringing us together each week.  Click HERE to join in the fun

On a different note, I am home sort of in quarantine, but not really. I don't have Covid, but I do have Walking Pneumonia!  I went to the Dr. yesterday because I was experiencing a deep pain in my chest/lungs when I'd cough, which wasn't really often, but often enough to know something was wrong, plus the fact that I was so exhausted and had been sick over the weekend with some chills and general worn out from last week's festivities (or so I thought).  Anyway, this is the 2nd time I've had walking pneumonia in the past 4 months.  He put me on some strong antibiotics, a steroid, and cough medicine and told me to stay home and rest and stay away from people for a while because it is contagious! So here I am, thankfully you can't get my germs through the computer!  Frankly, I'm thankful to be told to stay home and rest...but then again, I've got so much to do getting ready for Christmas...but one day at a time. God knows what I need, and I will try to listen this time.

I did buy one special Christmas gift...for Blackie! What you see here is a pet warming mat, that warms itself as the cat's body heat reflects back to him. No electricity...just insulation... My niece Debbie told me about this when she was here on Thanksgiving, so I ordered one on Amazon, and it arrived already. I put it in Blackie's favorite chair on the porch and waited to see what would happen...

It has become his favorite place to sit and sleep!  Hooray!! This was in the daytime...

and this was at night (hence the reflections on the glass door)

After our sad loss of Sunshine last week, Blackie has been lonely and rather clingy, and well, frankly, so have I.  So I was happy to find something special for him that he seems to be very pleased with!!! And it really works! I sat this mat on my lap for a few minutes, and it was very warm indeed! What a great idea!

However yesterday morning he was busily watching the action out on Still Waters Pond.  There were two dogs over on the shore to the left, looking for water. They live in the neighborhood and keep breaking loose from their fenced pen, and they love to come to the pond and play in the mud over there, because there really isn't much water (however we are supposed to get some rain today and later this week, praise God!)   Anyway, the Sand Hill Cranes were out there, and they did not like those dogs in their territory!  So I watched the drama as they marched across the pond to shoo the dogs away...

Blackie also was watching, but he soon took off for parts unknown, because he was afraid those dogs were going to come around here and come up on the porch. He disappeared for the better part of the day until supper time.

Meanwhile, the Cranes started flappping their wings and hollering in their loud raucus calls at those dogs...

And soon the dogs took off and apparently headed back home...

But the Cranes kept up their tirade and dance until they were sure they were good and gone. I wish you could've heard them...

Here's a brief little video of them jumping, but you can't really hear them because I was inside and the tv is going on in the background. But it's still fun to see them jumping about. I think they are also starting their annual mating rituals, and hopefully they will still build a nest on Still Waters (dry) pond as usual.

 

Okay, I have to go. Thank you for being here friends... Oh, and here's the words of wisdom from God's Word for today...I guess I needed to be reminded of this today...

Colossians 3:12-13 NKJV

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

Amen!