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Sunday Gratitude – 5.IV.2026
To those celebrating today – Christ is Risen! – Happy Easter!
And then there are the “weird” ones here who are still waiting another week, among which I count myself. There have been a lot of services already – yesterday, I think I was in church for nearly four hours. I’ve really struggled this Lent; from the beginning, I felt less ready for it than most years and this year… wow. For the greater part of Lent, I believed that the Orthodox were also going to be celebrating Pascha today, and it was only looking at the calendar more carefully a couple of weeks ago when I realized that no, there’s a one-week difference. I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting to spend so much time in church this weekend, but I was at vigil last night, and I certainly had the feeling of moving from the darkness into the light, and by the time the service was over, there was an air of hopefulness and joy there. For that I am grateful. (My brain did fight against this on the way home, though. *sigh*)
I am grateful for the more spring-like weather, and the opportunity to be outside. I’m also grateful for my neighbor who invites me to come walking with her.
I am grateful for friends who take the time to talk even in the rain.
I am grateful for making it home in a storm the other day; I wasn’t expecting it, then all of a sudden, I was driving down this country highway with lightning flashes all around. I don’t think that they were very close, as there was only a tiny bit of thunder, but what a show! The next day, driving down those same roads, I could actually see how high the water is, and I’m grateful that there were no issues with low-lying stretches of road or the bridges.
Time to take the Christmas wreath down! I am thankful to have had a little bit of time to be outside with my kids, and I’m thankful that they have places around that they can enjoy riding their bikes through, and that they’ve been fine with this “exploring”.
I am thankful for the joy of singing.
I am thankful for the things that are showing signs of life (and even blooming) even after a very cold winter and long periods of neglect.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have been in contact with a number of people on this day, in the joy of Easter.
I am grateful for yet another sign that I’m not alone through the hard stuff.
Thank you so much for being here! Christ is Risen!
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Sunday Gratitude – 29.III.2026
I really hate it when it seems like I blink and yet another week has passed. Somehow so much of this time ends up feeling like a blur, and it seems like all that is left is a growing list of things that should have been done long ago, but haven’t been done yet.
In the meantime, though, I’ve been trying not to lose a sense of gratitude, and to also try to make the most of the days at hand. We’ve had a couple of days that have hit 70F, which has been amazing, and especially as the days are getting longer, it would be terrible if we didn’t do something to take advantage of the warmer weather. My younger son had a day off of school a couple of weeks back, and the two of us went out on our bikes and rode ten miles together, and it was amazing. He also started taking pictures with my camera that afternoon, so I’ll be sharing a few of those in this post.
A couple of weeks after the real birthday, my youngest, in kindergarten, had her first real birthday party. It was a bowling alley affair, and, per the terms of the contract, was less than two hours long, but for a group of 5 and 6 year olds, it was fine. I was completely stressed out over this for at least a week for a number of reasons, but it turned out really, really good. Even the weather held out, kind of… It started raining about the time that the party started, and it was still raining as people left. Had we started a couple of hours later, everybody would have been going home in sleet, because we had a blizzard come through the next day. The kids were thrilled to get the day off of school, and despite the crazy wind, we never lost power. The next day, our dear neighbor made a path for our car using a snowblower.
I’m grateful that even though I managed to break a spoke on the one bike (a different one than before), this happened in a place where I could ride to a place where I could leave the bike for a couple of days, and which was very close to the bike shop. On the night that this happened, I was also able to get a ride back home with one of the ladies from church. I’d never talked to her before, and she’s incredibly sweet, and lives just a couple of streets over from where I live.
I’m grateful for the amazing time I had at St. Haralambos in Niles a couple of weeks back. Not only were some very dear “real life” friends there, I finally got to meet Fr. Andrew Damick in person. We have been online acquaintances (friends) for over 20 years, and it seemed like high time to meet him in person. He actually recognized me by sight as well, which is crazy because it’s been a looong time since I posted any photos of myself that he might come across. 🙂 That was a lot of fun, though.
Breezy days and kites! I am grateful, as well, for the opportunity to visit an old friend and just enjoy sitting on the front step, having a conversation in the sunshine.
In many ways, I feel pulled very, very, very thin. There have been a lot of good things, to be sure, but there have been a number of very, very frustrating things as well. I don’t know; at this point, I’m not sure that I’ll ever have things “figured out”, but there’s a path to go forward on, and that’s the way through this all. Forgive me again for the blog silence – I truly am grateful for you.
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Wordle #426
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: One of my typical start words. “S” is the only help I’m getting here, and it’s not even in the right place.
Line 2: Good news: “S” begins the word. Bad news: nothing else except eliminating letters.
Line 3: More letter elimination, though now it’s certain that “U” is the vowel.
Line 4: The “U” isn’t in the right place, but getting the “H” is finally a little progress. I probably should have gone with “sling” or “slung” as thee second choice (as it would fit in as an alternate to “fling”).
Line 5: If I move the “U” to the 4th place, I need to have three consonants together. With the letters left, “SHR” is the only thing I can think of. Since “B” was already played, so, “shrug” it is. Finally!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #425
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: One of my typical start words. “A” is correct, but “T” is is the wrong place.
Line 2: Got the “T” correct, and also the “N” as good measure to add to the “A”
Line 3: Do you think there’s any chance that it’ll be another “TW” word? Doubtful, but I’ll try “twang” anyway… and it worked!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #424
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: One of my typical start words. “E” and “T”, not in the right place, but we’ll take what we can get, won’t we?
Line 2: I guessed right for the placement of “T” and the “E” and got the “I” as a bonus!
Line 3: Now to eliminate what could go between the “T” and the “I” – and it’s not “R” either.
Line 4: “TW” – yes, indeed it is! 🙂
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Seasons of August
When I was a kid, August in Chicago was hot and muggy; the noticeably earlier sundowns the only small mitigation to the uncomfortable stickiness and the sweltering suns’ rays hitting, being absorbed by, and radiating back off the asphalt and concrete. It was always excellent time to escape the city for awhile and go visit where the corn grows high.
School never started before Labor Day; anything otherwise would be sacrilege. In a time where very few classrooms had air conditioning, starting earlier was plainly a stupid idea.
August then became generically part of the summer; another month to work through, though if one took the time to notice, a time of of the year’s harvest starting to mature and cascading petunias.
August then became generically part of the summer; another month to work through, though if one took the time to notice, a time of high corn and cascading petunias before the nights started to take some chill.
Augusts in Wisconsin don’t seem to have the same mugginess as those of my childhood, yet they still don’t have the nocturnal chill of September. The stillness of the humid days is intermittently interrupted by crazy storms that tend to knock the power out, but the blazing harshness of July is gone.
As a homeschooler, I probably should not be so happy that my kids will be starting the school year soon. I love having them home, I love the looseness and flexibility of the schedule, but at the same time, I’m ready to go back to the structure of the school year. Saying this in August is probably sacrilege – or at least sacrilege to my children – but it is where I am now in the seasons of August.
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Wordle #423
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: One of my typical start words. Only the “E”, but it’s in the wrong place. Could this be a repeat of yesterday?
Line 2: Sure kind of seems like it…
Line 3: I didn’t like using the double “E”, but with the “E” not being in the final spot, an awful lot of words are eliminated, and there don’t tend to be a lot of “OE” or “UE” words. I got the “R”, though.
Line 4: Could this be it? No. And no additional letters either. I’m kind of clueless here.
Line 5: Remember what I said about “UE” words being rare? Well… there are a few!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #422
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: One of my typical start words. Only the “E”, but it’s in the wrong place.
Line 2: Apparently, just eliminating letters and trying to figure out where the “E” belongs.
Line 3: Sometimes this just gets frustrating…
Line 4: Being as I still have the “R”, I think, “Well, maybe it’s a word that ends in “ER”. After all, that’s probably more common than words starting with “E” with the collection of letters left. I looked down at the letters, and saw “POK” together and thought “That’ll work”. I was absolutely shocked that it was actually the word!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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To Die for Harry Potter
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When speaking the truth is as terrible as uttering Voldemort’s name
The very first thing a reader learns about Harry Potter in the first book of the eponymous series (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone almost everywhere else) is that he is “the boy who lived.” This, in itself, not so terribly interesting; in fact, the suburban life of his aunt and uncle’s family is downright mundane. It is as the story starts building its form that we learn that not only did Harry survive something awful, but that he lived only because of the sacrifice of someone else.
As Harry reunites with the “wizarding world” to which he was born, and of which he had no memory, he really must come to terms with being a celebrity precisely for being “the boy who lived.” In this fictional world, as a baby, not only had survived an attack from one of the most powerful wizards in history, but something had happened that made many wonder if that wizard had perished in the attempt.
As it turns out, that evil wizard, Voldemort, had not died. This becomes apparent in the course of the story, to different people at different points in time. The lines between the “white hats” and the “black hats” start to form, and Harry finds himself in the company and companionship of a good number of people who are willing to die for what is true and good and right as well as for Harry himself. Not only does he represent the embodiment of the movement against evil, but it is believed that it is only Harry who can deal the final blow to the evil wizard.
The character Harry, struggles with this mightily. He never asked for this, never wanted it, but this is where he feels he must stand. At the very least, he must do so to honor his mother, who died so that he might live. Nevertheless, as the series wends its way on, the number of deaths on the side of the “good guys” steadily rises. To some degree, Harry feels responsible for each one, but particularly so with those who died in the service of protecting him.
The thing is, in the Harry Potter books, all of these deaths are of fictional characters. None of the countless discussion boards (or fanfic sites) make them any less so. Each character was dreamed up and put to paper by the books’ author, J.K. Rowling.
Love her or hate her, J.K. Rowling wrote a series of books that are unmatched in sales and influence globally of perhaps any other book series. What makes it all the more improbable is that she did so in an age where people generally don’t read books as a hobby. We have so many other pastimes and distractions that reading books hardly crosses the minds of most people as a way to have fun. At the same time, she was able to build on this being the internet age by being accessible to readers through the internet through her website and social media. Gone the days of having to send a letter (or a dispatch via owl) and if one were lucky enough, one might end up with a digital “tweet” or some such. Because of this, she’s become a celebrity herself.
This wasn’t all advantageous for Ms. Rowling – over the years, she has expressed a number of opinions that ruffled feathers. Like her boy-wizard-hero, she’s shown backbone, and has generally stood up to the mob. I personally don’t agree with her on every single topic, but I have great respect for the writing she’s done, for her philanthropic efforts, and for being a woman of her own mind who actually seems to have thought about things and made her own opinions. In an age where we are plagued by the “mockingbird media” and statements are constantly focus-grouped and weighed to be “non-offensive”, this is a breath of fresh air.
A few days ago, the author Salman Rushdie was stabbed at an event in Chautauqua, New York . Rushdie is also one of the most famous authors alive, in some part due to his books, but more so over the firestorm which occurred in the wake of his book “The Satanic Verses” being published in 1988. In 1989, an Iranian fatwa against Rushdie was announced, and it seemed like Rushdie’s assassination over the book was almost inevitable. However, that was over 30 years ago, and since then Rushdie has lived a pretty quiet life.
That is, until on August 12, when at an event in Chautauqua, he was rushed at and stabbed, causing permanent injury and disfiguration, but luckily not ending his life. Understandably, J.K. Rowling, world-famous author herself, would feel shaken about such a thing. She tweeted her dismay, and received a death threat from the same type of character as the man who attacked Rushdie. Now, death threats on Twitter are nothing new, and who the supposed threat seems to be against seems to determine a lot about what Twitter will do to police this. However, although there has been some public support of Rushdie from well-known writers, it seems like most of it only goes so far as to wish him well, but does nothing to condemn the action. Rowling’s tweet merely calls the news “horrifying” , but apparently this was too far in some extremist’s eyes – someone like Rowling should know where to stay silent!
It remains to be seen whether anything will come of the threat against Rowling; it’s been a decade now since the last Harry Potter was published, so it is unlikely she’ll have anything like an Iranian fatwa against her due to the series. So many people are hesitant to lay judgement against or even name evil that is out there, a principle demonstrated almost comically in the Harry Potter books in how most of the wizards in Harry Potter’s world avoided uttering the name “Voldemort”. In this type of environment, exposing evil and speaking the truth becomes a most radical and dangerous act. My sincerest hope is that nothing comes of this to Ms. Rowling, that she doesn’t become a real-life casualty of defending the same type of things Harry stands for in her books. Have we really come to a point where she’s in danger of dying “for Harry”? Counting the deaths in a fiction series is one thing; counting them in real life quite another.
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Wordle #421
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: One of my typical start words. Only the “A”, but it’s in the correct place.
Line 2: Another base word, got the “H” in the right place now as well.
Line 3: I totally forgot about the “H” in the second place because I was having such a hard time thinking of what it could go with. Was there something that starts “AHA” or “WH” or “GH”… “RH”? When I saw I hadn’t played the “R”, somehow my brain said – “yes, play that!”
Line 4: So this gets weirder.. the “I” has to be in the last place because I don’t think there’s a word that exists that starts “IHA”. So now I’m just plugging letters in and guessing. “Ghazi”?
Line 5: Khadi? Oh, but it is a “KH”.
Line 6: “Khaki”! Victory! (And to think I even mentioned the rare “KH” in my guide that I wrote a couple days ago!)
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #420
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: One of my typical start words. And… nothing
Line 2: Another base word, but only the “N” and not in the right place
Line 3: I don’t know why I picked a word with two “O”s, but I did, and the N is still not in the right place.
Line 4: After a little thought, I figured that there had to be a “U” and then the “U” and “N” would probably be together… but how to play a word with what seems to be one “U” when all these other letters aren’t used. I wasn’t even sure “punky” would be accepted; after all, I basically only know it in the context of the 1980s kids’ show Punky Brewster.
Line 5: So it’s got to be “junky”, right? Brilliant use of the “J”… What?!
Line 6: Seriously? Hunky? Are we all 14-year-old girls in 1988 or what?? At least the puzzle was solved.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #419
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: One of my typical start words. “B”, “E”, and “A” are all present, but in the wrong places.
Line 2: Let’s mix things up a bit. No progress except eliminating more spots.
Line 3: Same as last time. I accidentally played “B” in the first position again. It’s curious that the “E” isn’t in the 2nd, 3rd, or final positions, meaning that any word ending with “BE” is also eliminated.
Line 4: A lucky guess, in part, though it was the first thing that came to mind that had a “B” in the middle of the word.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Breath of Hallelujah 