Whatnot, What have you, and the Like

  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated,  'God with us'             Isaiah 7:14           🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 It's that time of year!!  And the older I get, the faster the years go by... like toilet paper at the end of a roll!  Last Christmas seemed like just a few months ago!   Most of us know that December 25 is not the date Jesus (Yeshua) was born in a stable in Bethlehem.  It came to be "Christmas" because of traditions such as the winter solstice and Roman festivals. But have you ever wondered when the Savior of the world was actually born?  Some say it doesn't really matter, but God has appointed times for everything He does!  I've always been curious, so I did a little digging... Almost everyone agrees that winter would not have been the time, because angels announced His birth to shepherds who were out in the fields watching over the flocks

I haven't been blogging in a while, have I? My last post was July of 2022... and here it is November 2023.  Well, a lot has happened in our world lately, some of it very unsettling.  The last two years especially, with the war in Ukraine and now the war in Israel.   It's easy to focus on what's wrong with our supposedly civilized world... but I find that redirecting my attention to what's right with the world helps take the edge off the upsetting news we hear day after day.   So, with Thanksgiving at the end of the month, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you one of my favorite songs ever.  When I first heard it, I had no idea who sang it.  I just heard an angel's voice and felt my eyes well up with tears from the mellifluous beauty of it.  When I learned that it was a song from an old movie (Godspell) I quickly scoured the Internet to find out who the singer was. I discovered the man behind the voice, Merrell Jackson.  And the song he sings is  All Go

 A world without Sophia in it.  My heart is heavy with grief.  I've just relived 2 decades in 2 weeks. Doesn't seem possible.  Sophia Snowflake Puffin Paws, her Highness, was our beloved kitty cat since June of 2002.  Born March 16, we adopted her at 3 months old.   But she time traveled into the future.  Where I aged 20 years between 2002 and 2022, Sophia aged 97.  She began almost like a toddler who grew older than me, and finally became my great grandmother.  Seen Interstellar?  Feels something like that.  But here's the reality in the chart below: Sophie was still in good health for her age when I made a video about her in early 2021 ---->   Ode to Sophia .  She was able to memorize all her lines and act on cue. 😺  But the last year and a half has been the hardest on our family, seeing her health deteriorate so rapidly, seeing her listless, seeing her in discomfort, and not really knowing how bad it was, since animals are very good at hiding their pain.   Our belove

I've been in a bit of a funk lately... how about you?  It's been a surreal and insane past few years.  We're all trying to recover and carry on, despite all we've lost, and all that's changed for the worse. I saw this meme, and wanted to share it.  Do you remember what you were doing 2 years ago this week?  I remember I had a plane ticket to Atlanta to visit my son on March 12, 2020, and had to cancel due to a mysterious virus that was spreading everywhere.  I lost my Airbnb; the hosts never responded or reimbursed me.  I lost time visiting with my son, and thus began the weirdest year any of us had ever known up till then.   T hese last 10 days or so has been really difficult for me because of the unprovoked war escalating in Ukraine.  I expected things to get better after the vaccine rolled out, but it just feels like a slow downward spiral now.  I'm not one to be negative; I'm usually optimistic and hopeful.  But I feel a collective sorrow over their now

  Back in March/April, I made a video about the vaccine called, "A Whole New World."  I borrowed the iconic song from Disney's Aladdin, rewrote the lyrics and made a parody of it.  (Yes, that's the star of the show above, giving a thumbs up.) Basically, it was a positive message, filled with gratitude for scientists who used the latest mRNA technology to develop the best remedy possible to fight that devil, Covid-19.  It starts out with me dressed as a nurse, giving the masked up me  the jab.  Then the animated vaccine starts singing to me about how 'he' is going to make me a Covid fighting beast once he gets into my veins.  And a duet ensues... LoL... Here it is if you haven't seen it:    A Whole New World on You Tube And then... because of a few close friends and family, and some information I was given... I started to become vaccine hesitant.   I felt like a hypocrite... how could I have made this video, and then be among those who declined to receive

It's March 2021, about 12 months since the reality of a pandemic punched the world in the face and threw us all for a loop. And we're a couple months out from the end of Trump's turbulent 4 years in office, which included an unthinkable attack on our capital.  Covid and Trump.  The two defining moments of 2020 are (for the most part) behind us, though I still feel a bit lost in the woods.  It's been 8 months since my last blog entry because there's been so much to process!  Is it too soon to put it all into perspective, and ask if any clarity has come from 2020?  (See what I did there?) 20/20 vision ha Anyway, I kinda like being lost in the woods, especially when I find a treehouse with a laptop, so let's get started. (I'm actually typing away in "Trasea's Tranquil Treehouse" room at my Mom's house in Delaware, aptly named, "Penny's Peaceful Paradise.")   So I  think I'll focus on what I'm grateful for, and see where I