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Sunday Gratitude – 18.X.2026
Hi everyone! Glad to be back here. I’m still struggling with a lot, and there’s a lot that’s really overwhelming. However, I’m going to give it a shot as far as gratitude here.
Most importantly, probably, is that my son had a surgery on his ear a couple of weeks back, and everything went really, really well. Yes, he had the same surgery back in February on the other ear, and it went really well, but there’s still a good bit of nervousness attached to all these things.
Secondly, I recently took part in the Serbian Orthodox Choral Association’s annual choir festival. Because it was only a week after the surgery, I wasn’t going to go, but then there were people who had signed up who either couldn’t go or couldn’t sing, and I was asked if there might be some way that I could go. I managed to get things arranged, and I went. It was an amazing trip, and I hope to write about it separately. Most of us who went ended up driving, including the people I rode with, but everything went off without a hitch, there were no accidents or incidents with the driving, and the event was a lot of fun. I am very grateful for that, and for getting to see the city and experience the city a little.
If any of you are interested, our choir’s performance can be found here (our group starts at 45:15):
The weather has gotten cooler, and I’m grateful for that (St. Louis at over 90F was quite a shock to the system). This just seems to be one of those patches that is especially rough, so I’d appreciate your prayers for me and my kids.
Thank you ever so much for following; you are amazing!
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Wordle #582
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: Oh, it is not surprising that “blurb” didn’t give me anything.
Line 2: The problem children! Yay!
Line 3: The problem children were quickly put to their places! Now – for the rest of the letters!
Line 4: Finally – a “T”… What can we do with a “T” here?
Line 5: Ahoy, “matey”! As the “T” doesn’t go to the end, it’s got to go in spot 1 or 3, and as improbable as it was, it was the only word that I could think of with the letters left that fit.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #581
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: An “L” in the right place! Nifty! And an “R” somewhere else… Hmm ..
Line 2: Moving the “R” one over was good, but what else would fit here with no “Y” and only “U” and “I” left as vowels?
Line 3: “Blurb”, of course! 😁
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Sunday Gratitude – 22.I.2023
I’m not here to complain, but things continue to be difficult.
I am grateful that the very late birthday party that I had stress over went off without a hitch. We booked the “meeting room” at a McDonalds with a climbing set, and the RSVP response was more than I ever would have expected. Me being me, I then became concerned about having too many people there, especially during a time period where McDonald’s usually has a lot of people. Well, we ended up in the meeting room and the (many) tables in the room with the play place. For nearly the entire time we were there, the restaurant was absolutely dead apart from us. We had both spaces pretty much to ourselves until about 20 minutes before we left, when people were starting to get ready to go anyway. In the meantime, there were 16 kindergarten-aged kids having a blast bouncing around and climbing with their friends. A couple of the moms seemed to be quite impressed with the idea, and a couple of them didn’t even know that this McDonald’s had a play place at all.
On top of everything else, there ended up being some weirdness between me and one of my closest friends. It’s not like things like that don’t happen, but the timing is awful. I was doing dishes and just about in tears, and I started saying the Jesus Prayer (Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) and I could feel the burden lift a little, which convinces me more than ever that there’s spiritual warfare going on here. This is a friendship that has lasted decades, and I truly believe that God has had a hand in it, and once the first wave of emotion had washed over, I had to logically just step back and reason that I need to trust God again on this, because things happen in His time, not mine.
I am grateful that when that was all going on, every signal I seemed to bump into was “Don’t give up, stay strong” (Lisa over here: Do You Hear It, to Abbot Tryphon’s videos -a couple which I shared earlier in the week- to Barbara at Blisswood’s post about Patient Endurance to things that came up in my Vimatarissa app.)
I am grateful for the people who keep smiling everyday and make the day that much better because of it.
I am grateful that we made it to church this morning (well, me and four of the kids). I am thankful that a couple of people said that they were happy to see me, and I am thankful for friends there, in particular those who are actually interested in hearing the real answer to “How are you?” (And I am incredibly grateful to be able to talk to friends from a long distance as well.)
I am also very grateful that we seem to be doing much better health-wise. There have been sniffles and coughs (and my ear still doesn’t feel “right”) but we’re doing much better.
I am grateful for all your prayers.
Interminable January grey
Featured posts this week:
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Wordle #580
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: Not really a surprise that “mucky” didn’t give me anything to work with
Line 2: On to a “base word” – “beast” – and it does quite well!
Line 3: The problem with having misplaced letters like “E”, “A”, and “T” is that there are so many possibilities as to how they can be arranged. Some shuffling here, and they’re still in the wrong places, but I got the “R” to add to it.
Line 4: I decided to guess that the word ended in “TER” and I did well with that. Now I have all five letters, but the “L” and the “A” are reversed meaning…
Line 5: … the word has to be “alter”.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #579
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: Hmm… a “C” that doesn’t begin the word
Line 2: Moving it over one doesn’t do much
Line 3: “Juice” is kind of a weird word to play, but it does play the remaining three vowels, and of them, only “U” is in this puzzle, but it’s in the right place.
Line 4: As for vowels, there’s still the possibility of using a “Y”, which is probably more common than a word with two “U”s here. If I want to put a “Y” at the end, that forces the “C” to the middle, which makes me think it’s a word that ends “UCKY”. “Lucky” is ruled out, and “mucky” was the thing that came to mind and which I played, even though “yucky” is probably trickier and more common.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Weird News and a Quick Lilla Rose Sale
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The author of this blog is a “Flexi Rep/Affiliate” with Lilla Rose, and is not employed by Lilla Rose. Purchases made through this link <https://www.lillarose.com/katja> will earn the author a commission.
Via Not the Bee: Veterinarians removed 38 hair ties from this cat’s stomach. Oh, man. I can’t even imagine. I guess it’s proof that the hair elastics are dangerous to more than just the wearer’s hair! As an aside, it’s been about ten months now since I stopped using them, and I do think it’s made a difference. My ends seem to taper off less, and for the first time in years, it seems like my hair is getting longer. I suppose I’ll be able to tell if it gets to a point where I can actually sit on it, but that’s going to take awhile.
I don’t know if it’s technically a “flash sale” but Lilla Rose is running a sale now through tomorrow with a 35% discount on all hair sticks. Also, the monthly special of the Wintry Bobby with purchase of $40 or more is still in effect.
https://www.lillarose.com/katja
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Wordle #578
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: Not bad, “adopt” gives me an “A” and a “D”, but incorrectly placed.
Line 2: Switching the “A” and the “D” around don’t seem to help much.
Line 3: “Braid” gives me the correct places for the “A” and the “D”, and as a bonus, the “R” in the wrong place. I think it’s more likely now that the “R” goes between the “A” and “D” rather than begins the word.
Line 4: So… Words with 5 letters ending in “ARD”. First thing that came to mind was “chard”, and it worked! Nifty!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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The Hidden Life Amongst Us
Over the course of my time living in Wisconsin, I have at least seen the outsides of most of the Orthodox Churches in the state (even the one in Cornucopia!).
One of the churches that I had not visited was the Monastery of St. John Chrysosotom in Pleasant Prairie. What makes this completely ridiculous is that we have friends whom we visit in Kenosha who live less than a mile away.
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of very positive things about the monastery, and have even partaken of some of the delicious food that they make and sell there. (Pastitsio! Baklava!)
I was driving in the area recently and decided just to swing by. I didn’t go in the church, but the entire complex is beautiful and peaceful, even on a barren January day.
front gate
A building near the entrance
driving down the main road
The main church (I assume)
beautiful and peaceful
A mosaic icon of the Archangel Gabriel
In Germany, there are still a good number of convents and monasteries around. Pretty much all of them are Roman Catholic, and very few of them have the number of monks or nuns to keep them going. I actually stayed at one of these for a very short time in 2002. The convent and its grounds were in the heart of Munich, but the nuns who ran the place were mostly advanced in age, and there weren’t many left. As a result, they had converted part of the premises to private student housing for women. At that time, it was still an incredible peaceful place. It just seems so different to find that sort of place not just in the United States, but in a place so “hidden in plain sight” in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
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Wordless Wednesday #16 – Poorly Orchestrated Signage
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Wordle #577
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: “Frock” gives me an “O”, smack dab in the center.
Line 2: Some new letters, and a “T” correctly at the end an a “P” not correctly placed.
Line 3: As the “P” didn’t go in spot #2, I decided to see if there were any words that would put it in spot #4, since the blend “PR” had already been eliminated. The first word that I could think of with five letters that ends in “OPT” is “adopt” and it worked out well!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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