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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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Songs of the Season – Carrie Underwood/Nightcore – Do You Hear What I Hear?
I used to love this song when I was about 7 or 8. I will throw in the caveat that at that point in my life, I loved that the song had a lot of lyrics to memorize (which I did, like I memorized all the words to “We Three Kings”) and I loved that it had these huge jumps up. I remember belting this out in my grandma’s yard (in April) “Do you HEAR what I HEAR?” Hey, I had sheet music to read! (I told you I was a weird kid, but you knew that by now.)
I can’t say that this song is one of my favorites now, but this is an interesting “Nightcore” treatment to Carrie Underwood’s version. Nightcore is a weird phenomenon – it has the tendency to “chipmunk” music, but oddly enough, sometimes it sounds better that way. I’m not saying that this is the case in this particular instance, but I do think that most of the time singers take this song far too seriously, so it’s kind of neat to hear it in a more “fun” mode.
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
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Wordle #564 – FAIL
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: “A” in the wrong position. Lots of possibilities.
Line 2: More letters – yay! “R” correct off the back, and the problem children are back together again!
Line 3: 4 out of 5! This is going to be easy, right?
Line 4: So we know that it’s got to be “LA”-something-“ER” but not lager. Strange that the NYT passed up on an alcohol-related word!
Line 5: I find it strange if the answer is just a comparative version of an adjective, but I don’t see anything that jumps out as an “independent” word
Line 6: “Laxer” or “laker”? Oje… “layer”. FAIL. Not only did I not get this one, but my percentage won dropped to 98%. How can I live with myself now?! (I kid, I kid!)
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #563
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: Two letters, but both in incorrect spots… A start, it is.
Line 2: Moving “I” and “T” around… Still looking for the right places
Line 3: Another letter – but also in the wrong place!
Line 4: I guessed that the word probably didn’t end in “I”, which would make it spot 4. For that to be the case, it would make the “T” go to spot 3. “C” could go in 1, 2, or 5, but since “TIC” is a not-super-uncommon ending, I decided to try to find a word with 5 letters that would end in “TIC”. The only one I could think of that I could play was “antic”, and that’s what the word ended up being.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordless Wednesday #14 – Smoke on the Water
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Songs of the Season – Great Big Sea – The Seven Joys of Mary
Traditionally, not necessarily a Christmas song, but I remember hearing it with the Christmas carols when I was little, so here we go. 🙂 The band here seems to be from Newfoundland.
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
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Wordle #562
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: Oooo… an “I” in the right place right off the bat.
Line 2: I figured it wouldn’t be “boils”, being as it’s a simple conjugation/plural, but I liked the letters, so I played it anyway. The “S” is somewhere, just not at the end.
Line 3: The last shall be first? Found where the “S” goes! The “T” doesn’t surprise me, but the “K” kind of does.
Line 4: I figured that if the “K” didn’t end the word, it was in a blend with the “S”. From there, and knowing that there was a “T” in the word got me to “skirt”. 🙂 Nice
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Songs of the Season – Monks of Svetogorskaya Lavra – In the Dark Night
I was wondering what I should post today, and this song got posted over at the Byzantine, Texas blog, so I’ll count it as Providence. 🙂 This is a Ukrainian carol for which I can’t find an English version, but it’s beautiful, and even a little Middle-Eastern in style.
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider:
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Thank you very much!
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Songs of the Season – Muriel Anderson – Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Harp guitars are very beautiful instruments, and they’re also quite rare – as far as I know, those who play them have to custom-order the instruments. As a result, there is actually fairly wide variation with the instruments. In the picture above, Muriel Anderson has a 13-string harp guitar with half-step tuners on the bass strings, but there’s an interesting YouTube video of her talking about her 20-string instrument where her top priority in design was being able to fit it in an airplane overhead bin!
I hope the year has been peaceful so far!
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider:
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Thank you very much!
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Wordle #561
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: The “N” in the wrong place is different
Line 2: This is good – not only did I find the place for the “N”, I got an “I” correct as well.
Line 3: One more letter, the “E”. 🙂
Line 4: Apparently, I’m getting one more letter each turn!
Line 5: “Whine” – oh boy, don’t I get enough of that in a day! 🙂
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
If you enjoy my posts, please consider:
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Thank you very much!
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Gratitude in 2023
We’re still sick, but I think we are firmly on the way to being done with whatever this horrible bug has been. I have never seen something which produces so much gunk around the eyes! My one ear is still somewhat swollen and a little bit sore, but even that has gotten better over the last two days or so.
For the most part, we’ve just been quietly at home. I feel a little guilty that the kids’ school break was eaten up quite a bit by everyone being sick, but not having school to worry about was good too – this way, I didn’t have to wake up and pack in the sick kids to bring anyone feeling well enough to school. I’m grateful for that.
I’m grateful for the roof over our heads, and that we’ve kept warm in a cold winter.
I’m grateful that there was this week “pause” in all the business.
I’m grateful for the outlet of writing, and to all of you for reading.
I’m grateful for kids who still like to snuggle.
I’m grateful for friends who haven’t given up on me.
I’m grateful for the overwhelming amount of cuteness around me sometimes.
2022 was hard. Excruciatingly hard. I don’t know if I can say yet that I’m thankful for it, but I certainly don’t want to write it off – there were good things, the kids keep growing, and there’s plenty to be learned from it. God’s grace was certainly not lacking – it’s just that to everything there is a season, and this seems to be a season of enduring trials. We know that there’s also a time for rejoicing… so we keep going.
Holy Myrrhbearers Antiochian Orthodox Church, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, December 2012 Happy New Year 2023!
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