Bfth's Boring Blog

I don't live here.   I don't live here either. Not here.     Or even here. I don't live in ANY of these places.  (You know if I did, maybe I could make a killing in the real estate market!)  The numbers are not even CLOSE to the number on my house.  The streets that these were supposed to go to are not too far from me; one is a block over and the other is several blocks away.  I mean, at least the town is right, but... All of these postcards ended up in my mailbox yesterday...along with some other "junk" (sorry advertisers) that DID have my correct address on them. I'm angry.  Really angry. As I sit here typing this post, I can see Hardbodyz Fitness from my window.  (They are the business that spent the money to create these postcards and have them mailed.)  I don't go to Hardbodyz Fitness.  I don't know the owners or the people who work there, but I am angry on their behalf.  They are a small business and they are

Christmas is behind us and the New Year is just around the corner.  I am happy to report that I survived Whamaggedeon (more on that in a moment) and the rest of the holiday craziness.  I am PRAYING for a quiet end to the year.  This mom has had enough of the crazy and chaos that inevitably surrounds me from Thanksgiving on.  (I fully admit that the majority of this is of my own choosing.) Let's start off with  Whamaggedeon .  What is it?  You can follow the link I provided, but in a nutshell from December 1 through December 24 you do everything in your power to avoid hearing Wham's "Last Christmas."  If the rules pushed it back to right after Thanksgiving, I would have been a dead woman, but since the rules have a start date of December 1st, I was good.  (I heard the song on the evening of November 30!)  Although the rules say that you only have to avoid Wham's version of the song (because it's been covered and covered and covered again!), I tried to av

Lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday in Advent: Micah 5:2-5a   •   Luke 1:46b-55  or  Psalm 80:1-7   •   Hebrews 10:5-10   •  Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) The final Sunday in advent is when the candle of love is lit and I am reminded of one of my favorite Christmas anthems, "One Small Child" By Nancy Price and Donald Besig.  The anthem is simple and beautiful and ends with the phrase:  "Share the joy that comes this night in the love of one small child."  It captures in  my mind the image of a tiny babe swaddled and blissfully sleeping in a manger; surrounded by his radiant parents and peaceful barn animals. But how honest is that?  Traveling a long distance on a donkey and giving birth in a stable...it's messy; it's smelly.  It's not perfect.  But it IS love.  Throw out the idealized "love" of the season and realize that love is complicated and not like a beautifully wrapped present all tied up with a perfect red bow.  Lo

The shortest day of the year is here.  To be fair it’s the day where daylight is at its nadir.  It's not like this day is not 24 hours long...it is.  But the dark outweighs the light. (Especially when there will be heavy rain for most, if not ALL of the day.) Tomorrow that changes...the light begins to have the upper hand.  And it will continue until June 21st when it starts the downward climb again. Though I am a big fan of dark nights (I need more darkness especially when I want to sleep at night, but that's a whole other blog post), I NEED light in my life. One of my great joys is sitting next to a giant window as I work.  It makes me feel better to look out and see the world and the light.  I know that I feel more tired during the winter months when it is dark.  In the summer when the sun is still on the horizon at 7 or 8 at night, I'm fine, but when I drive home in the dark at 5 pm in the winter, I feel like I just want to go home and go to bed.  It is more

Lectionary readings for the third Sunday in Advent:  Zephaniah 3:14-20   •    Isaiah 12:2-6   •    Philippians 4:4-7   •    Luke 3:7-18 While Zephaniah (how many people know that book?) and Isaiah speak of joy,  it is Philippians which spreads the joy of the season to me: 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 4:6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I particularly like verses 6-7.  DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING!  Easier said than done, right?  But if we hold tight to worry, how can we experience joy?  As the classic (?) song says:  "Let it go...Let it go!"  Even if just for a day or an hour.  Let go of the worry and allow the peace of God and joy find you. Joy is e

Last week I talked about the sappy holiday movies:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/those-sappy-holiday-movies.html  and focused on the silly.  But then there are some that are so sappy that you can go through a box of tissues before the thing is over. Now while I'm mostly thinking of the Hallmark/Lifetime "films" this heart-wrenching trend goes WAY back... 1.      The House Without a Christmas Tree first aired in 1972 and I can remember watching it on CBS.  It didn't become a perennial like Charlie Brown, Frosty, etc., but it did run for several years.  Taking place in 1940s Nebraska, Addie wants a Christmas tree, but angry and grieving dad (Jason Robards) says no.  Addie plans to win the classroom tree, but will doing so melt her dad's heart?  This story is truly a classic and despite obviously being done on a tight budget it worth looking for.  (It also spawned several other made for tv specials.) 2.      The Man in The Santa Claus Sui

Way back in early November (how does the time get away from me?), we did long weekend family getaway.  (Seems to be a trend in our family).  As I said here  we planned to head back to Skytop for Veteran's Day weekend (which also happens to be NJ Teacher Convention).  We couldn't do Thursday-Sunday as I hoped, but we did manage Friday-Sunday. All of us were excited to get away.  We were less excited with the forecast of rain on Friday and the predicted temperatures for the weekend.  It seems as if our area never experienced a real autumn.  It was warm (and rainy) and then it plummeted to winter like temperatures and (thus far) has never really gotten back to seasonable.  Winter coats were dug out and sweaters packed. The resort  is only 90 minutes (give or take) from our home and we like to get up there midday, even though check in is not until 4 pm.   Usually this is not a problem; unfortunately (for us) this time the resort was booked to capacity and our room was not ready