Wordnik says Yeti is a noun An unidentified humanoid animal said to live in the Himalayas and also “a large hairy humanoid creature said to live in the Himalayas.” Lately in America is has taken on the meaning of a tough, insulated container that is able to keep things cold for hours upon hours.
For my birthday last year my sister bought me a Yeti tumbler. I outfitted it with a lid that will accommodate the new silicone straws. It fits in my car cup holder. If I leave it on the counter overnight with some tea in it the next morning that tea is still ice cold.
Then she brought me an enormous yeti type tumbler that does fit in the car cup holder. It is so large it gets in Bob’s way when he is driving. I have not been using that one lately. It also very, very heavy when filled with ice and tea. Good for a long day away from home though!
I have friends who are working in the Himalayas. I would be willing to bet that no person living in that area has heard of an insulated container named Yeti. The ‘hairy humanoid’ is not an image I would associate with cold beverages! Now I do though, since I own one.
Whether you use a drinking glass, water bottle, Stanley mug or Yeti Rambler I hope you can quench your thirst without adding to the environmental impact from millions of plastic water bottles!
Besides, the Yeti is insulated and made from stainless steel. Will likely outlast me!!
My sister has some nifty small purple/lilac flowers that grow every spring in her garden from bubs. I asked her what they are called. She had no clue. I saw a package of bulbs at Walmart last autumn. They reminded me of her flowers. I bought them and stuck them in the ground near my front door. I waited with anticipation all winter to see their flowers. Guess what! They bloomed as crocuses. WHAT?!?
I kept the top of the package with the almost unpronounceable name on it, “Chionodoxa.” But no, I did not keep the receipt. Package does say Walmart, but it is unlikely they have more of the bulbs or will make the purchase refund. Spring disappointment, though I do really like crocuses! Photo at top of blog is Chionodoxa.
It rained hard and often for over a week. Not like the floods in other areas of the country, but yards remained drenched and soggy. Imagine my surprise when I walked the dog and this garage door showed one path of escape! How many people have opened their garage doors unaware of the hitchhikers?
Worms on white garage door
There were so many earthworms on the sidewalk I wondered why the Robins were not out cleaning up the free banquet! They would not even have to pull them out of the ground. Just slurp them up!
Walking the neighborhood other aspects of spring are popping!
We enjoy rising and tumbling temperatures in southwest Ohio. This time of year is no different. Keep your coat and hat and gloves handy. Oh right. Supposed to be 70 degrees later today.
Every place you go, treasures in plain sight!
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
In reviewing the Scripture, Philippians 4:4-9 I realized I was missing a step. I was basically reviewing, reciting the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, anything of excellence or praiseworthy. I was not actually taking the time to Slow Down and think of one thing for each attribute.
From my past experience with chronic illness and recovery from surgery I know that this relinquishing of independence and self-reliance also requires facing all of life with a slower pace. That is not always a bad thing. I was startled to realize before surgery that I was glossing over the importance of the admonishment of Philippians 4:8 by not actually pausing to think of something that is true, something that is noble, something that is right, etc. We are told to THINK on these things. Reciting the Scripture is checking off a to-do box. Actually thinking about such things takes us to a different place.
I have learned a couple of things this week. If you are going to the internist for a pre-op physical do not take the forms with you to fill out asking a drug company for financial assistance to afford their product. That can send your blood pressure really high! Leave the forms at home for later. My internist said to think happy, pleasant thoughts before that blood pressure cuff is pumped up! They took it again and I brought the top reading down about 25 points.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding,” even applies when you need financial help and your blood pressure is too high. Stop. Pause. Breath. Trust.
Several years ago I asked Bob for some tiny diamond earrings to wear all of the time. He delighted to purchase them for me. Not extremely expensive, but they did not have screw on backs. Sure enough I eventually caught one in my hair or in a winter scarf and flipped it off unnoticed. By the time I discovered it was missing, it was long gone. We took the remaining single tiny diamond and asked a jeweler to put in our engagement ring that Bob had made from a high grade stainless steel pipe. Eventually we bought another pair of earrings. Well, you guessed it, I lost one again. I was so disgusted with myself I just said, “Okay. No more.” I ordered cubic zirconia tiny earrings and paid for them myself. Done.
Wikipedia says: “Because of its low cost, durability, and close visual likeness to diamond, synthetic cubic zirconia has remained the most gemologically and economically important competitor for diamonds since commercial production began in 1976.” Most people cannot tell the difference and the synthetic has taken pressure off the diamond market.
Lost. Fine. Replaced with something else. Not quite! I opened the dryer a few weeks later and lying on the inside edge, near but not in the lint filter, was a tiny diamond earring. WHAT?!?! Surprised and stupefied with joy I went to check my ear lobes in the mirror. Sure enough the Zirconia ones were still there. The single diamond was still in the dish. The lost was found! Assuming the LORD did that, I was dumbfounded. The Holy One did not have to return that to me. Astonished with joy. Brain rattled trying to grip the reality. Even Bob was amazed.
At times I come across colloquial sayings I am totally unfamiliar with. I read the saying “Hell in spectacles” from No Country for Old Men by Cormack. I started the book when they announced he had died. I was unfamiliar with him as an author, so I got the book from the library. Shortly after starting it, I closed the book as it was too violent for me.
Were there sayings popular in your family?
Grandgirl Ellie said “Dojo” so much as a baby that her Dad began calling her DoJo.
“Falingos”, said Grandgirl Lizzie. She wanted to see flamingos.
Grandson Rowan asked if I wanted to play “Paarates.” Pirates.
I often say, “Earth to Molly, come in please. Ooh! No body home.” I can be such a space cadet.
“Little Molly make a mess!” No blame no shame, just clean it up.
My mother-in-law often said, “Fudge.” And at other times she reiterated, “Pussywillow.”
My best friend’s family would exclaim, “Crime in Itly!”
A New York City waiter told me, “Whaddaryagonnado?”
Another day same waiter said I should just “Fergedaboudit.”
How about at your house or among your friends?
To one friend I would exclaim, “Lord, have mercy!” His reply was “He already has.” His amused voice still rings in my ears 🙂
As a child Jeff asked me to buy “Woobea.” Finally figured out he meant Root Beer.
Emily liked to hear the “amblience” and watch the “ephelants.”
Beat around the bush, close but no cigar, shoot from the hip, a dime a dozen, that and a dime will get you a cup of coffee, in a nutshell, cain’t complain, yep, they go on and on!
One friend says, “Might oughta.” I always have to think about that as it was not a saying in my ‘neck of the woods.”
Enjoy the language and try not to fracture it too badly!/i
My Grandgirl had an iPhone into the sky moment over the Christmas holidays. She and her boyfriend were on the roller coaster at the Kings Island amusement park. Her parents had just purchased a new iPhone for her through their cellular plan. She had it in the pocket of her sweatpants. As the ride hit a turn, her iPhone became the iPhone in the sky and not having airborne abilities it went flying away in the dark. You probably guessed it. Her parents had not bought insurance for the phone as ‘she never loses anything.’ Ouch. An eighteen year old with a huge problem.
They tried to find the phone, to no avail. They used a tracking program and it was reported to be at a certain location near some trees. The staff could not find it. Meanwhile some of the family was praying for a miracle. In some way, my daughter was able to lock it. Still not found. “First world problem” indeed!
After a couple days of anguish my Grandgirl received a phone call. The park had found it. They had her state some identifying factors. She drove up to get it. It was not broken or cracked or anything. It had just taken a night flight and then was returned. (Sort of like that kid who was trying to travel from Tampa to Cleveland and wound up in Puerto Rico? Only the iPhone could not read.)
As Anita sang in the West Side Story song America, “Smoke on your pipe and put that in!” Just listen to the first minute!
Certainly you have heard Sylvester say it like the clip below.
My mom’s succotash was baby lima beans and corn.
If you look up the meaning most sites say it is a minced oath. A what? Minced oath for suffering savior?
In the mid-1800s, during the Victorian era, there was a rejection of all profanity and so the common people developed a wide variety of malapropisms to avoid swearing on Holy names. Soon, one could hear Cripes and Crikey replace “Christ” and Dangnabit replace “G*d damn it” and Cheese ‘n’ Rice replace “Jesus Christ.” The phrase Suffering Succotash replaced “Suffering Savior.”
Today the latter phrase is known only as an expression of annoyance and surprise by animated cartoon characters such as Sylvester the Cat and Daffy Duck. Was the expression still in vogue when the Looney Tunes cartoons were made, or did the cartoons resurrect an expression that had already lapsed from the American lexicon?
Did they really mean Sylvester was using that in terms of the Suffering Savior I love? I certainly hope NOT!
Suffering well after the manor of those with chronic illness. Me and some friends understand chronic suffering. If you do not have a chronic illness, you probably do not understand what others go through. Yes, you can be empathetic, but understanding usually only comes with the actual experience. I told one friend when she received a chronic diagnosis that we are fortunate if there are 3 or 4 people we can talk to about the details, people we can trust. No cliches, no quick fix Scriptures, no blunt judgement. I cherish those people.
How to embrace the chronic? Some things I have learned include, I am not going to feel better in the morning. Just go with the flow or stagnation. Whichever occurs is current reality. Suffering is said to be when we try to change the current reality, ‘kicking against the goads.’ An ox goad is a wooden tool, approximately eight feet long, fitted with an iron spike or point at one end, which was used to spur oxen as they pulled a plow or cart. Kick against it like an ox and you are likely to get a wound.
About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
Acts 26:13-14 NIV
I understand the need to push back against darkness that wants to distract me from writing about Jesus and talking about Him and living for Him. With a chronic illness diagnosis in 1989 Pentecostals and charismatics said I should resist illness. Yet Jesus told me He would be with me in it. Whom should I believe? I go with Jesus. I pray for healing, but I rest in His Presence and care.
He does not make chronic easy. He does not take it away, but He does make it bearable. He does comfort me. Pain is part of life. Chronic illness can bring pain but some believe that suffering is optional. We avoid suffering by acceptance of what is – in contrast to – wishing things were different.
Jesus suffered. His relationships were disappointing. He suffered unbelief from others. He suffered from being bruised, mocked, beaten, crucified. He died exposed on a cross, feeling separated from the Father. He was buried in a cave. He knows what we feel and what we go through. He walks with us through each occasion. He came to inhabit those very times with us. He knows our misery.
Kicking against reality can create misery. Acceptance does not make the reality go away but it can ease our suffering in the midst. Immanuel, God with us, Eternal gift from the Father. When exasperated by yet another symptom or medication requirement I might say, “Sufferin’Succotash!” I never mean it to degrade what my Savior went through. I just get as exasperated as Sylvester trying to catch the Tweety Bird!
Urban dictionary says of this Hebrew phrase: “A reduplicative diminutive of oy expressing frustration or exasperation.”
The best laid plans for a schedule get blown to pieces by doc and dentist this week. Yep, Monday and Tuesday mornings have been my inviolable times to write. Dentist could see me at 11:40. Dermatologist can see me at 11 AM (her only opening all week), so I called dentist to take his 2PM opening, so guess what? This is my few minutes. Yep, I really need a new schedule. Especially if I am to continue being a volunteer to help sort and stock food stuff at Inter Parish Ministry on Tuesdays when Bob goes to work in their parking lot directing traffic. Drawing from my reading this morning …
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen
A W Tozer The Pursuit of God
“Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.” To be drawn anew into His love by mercy. What an enormous gift! Oh yes, readers, yield to Him and ask for a new work of love within you.
He is never more delighted than when we yield to His work of love within us.
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
Tozer Pursuit of God
“The throbbing heart of New Testament religion,” I just love that! The church we currently attend places huge emphasis on how many are baptized each year. Tozer emphasizes “continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed person” as the HEART of the New Testament. Where is that taught? Once baptized what happens to those souls? Is their growth in knowing Him as celebrated as their decision for baptism?
This time of year we are many times seeking the perfect gift for another. Are we seeking the heart of the New Testament for ourselves? Continuous and unembarrassed interchange with the Holy One. Oh yes, Lord help me to make that our gift exchange this year!
What do you think God would want the most?
Nope, not something necessarily in a box. I think what He most desires is our unhindered yieldedness to Him. Our ears open to listen. Our wills yielded to obey. Giving Him our all because He gave all for us. Each one of us. Individually. Unreservedly.
I think God is amused by the following song written by Woody Guthrie and sung by Pete Seeger. If God has a mailbox this is what He wants in it the most!
Of course, you must find a box you fit in, someone to help you with the stamps on top of your head, etc. I hope the song plants the idea firmly in your mind that most of all God desires all of you as His gift.
Earlier this week my post about Kentucky Bison went out with two of the same video. You see, my weeks have sort of become a mishmash and I have lost track of writing and posting. Maybe this is the new me?
I hope to get a new schedule for writing and posting. Until then, I may or may not post five times a week. Try to keep up! Oh, that was note to self?!?! LOL
How many times do we actually get to see the tongue of other animals? His lovely tongue was after the catalpa bean pods. (Underside is more white than this gray/black.)
A few seconds of yum!
Sort of like when you need just one more piece of pumpkin pie!
When we traveled the Dakotas in 2018 one of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing the buffalo up close. Custer State Park has a herd of about 1300 to 1500. Not as large as Yosemite, but accessible to tourists. Here is a short film of the Buffalo round up that occurs there each year. Listening to the conversation of the commentators I am amazed at the coordination. When the cowboy conversation comes up I wanted the commentators to hush, which they eventually did.
Might not need to watch all of the video, but I found it interesting.
Recently PBS aired a special by Ken Burns on the American Buffalo. It was tremendous. I did not know the history of the military in trying to destroy the buffalo. They were hunted relentlessly and Americans in the eastern states wanted all sorts of things from the buffalo. The buffalo suffered and were butchered. The American Indians suffered tremendously. If you have not seen the special there is a link below. It is worth your time to watch.
After watching both episodes by Burns I wanted to see the buffalo in Kentucky. Were you aware there is a small herd in Kentucky? The park is only about one hour from our house!
Frankly I was amazed watching one trying to snag catalpa seed pods from under the fence (10 seconds of fast tongue) and drinking from a hole that filled with water .
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 