Okay, my lovely readers, I have run out of time. This is my last post on WordPress, as far as I know. Tonight’s “real” blog entry is over on Substack, and you can read it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/lmburklin/p/in-praise-of-epsom-salts?r=2zpx5h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true My understanding is that the posts I’ve written here in the last nine years will continue to be visible. I hope so. You can subscribe to my Substack blog and have it sent to your email every day if you like. There’s a subscribe button at the bottom of the post. Soon there will ..read more

Well, this is kind of embarrassing. Jasper got the rest of the tents set up today. I couldn’t quite get them all into one photo, but there are eight tents in our yard at the moment. It looks like we’re hosting a music festival. This one is really cool: It has three wings and a big middle section. We could fit a cot bunkbed into each wing, and then Walter and I slept in the middle with baby Jasper. I didn’t get much work done on my curriculum today. I worked on packing and organizing and actually got my full amount of exercise in. Walter is doing a lot better and was able to help Jasper put u ..read more

Thankfully, Walter was feeling a lot better today, but not to the point of being able to go to work. He took things very easy and rested when necessary. I mostly avoided him because I really don’t want to get sick, especially with our trip coming up on Saturday. I waited for a call to come in about my Medicare situation, but eventually lost patience and went to Aldi to do some grocery shopping. My main focus for shopping was making sure Jasper will have plenty of food while we are gone. Early this afternoon, Robin came over for a visit and to bring me a lovely birthday gift, in addition to fun ..read more

I had a long list of stuff I wanted to do today. Do you know how many of those things got done? One. Which I’ll tell you about later. I adulted very hard today. Yesterday was Father’s Day. We went to church and Sunday School as usual, and then Walter had to go do the floors at the business where he burnishes once a month. I was hoping we’d have a good turnout on the Zoom, but Lina was otherwise occupied and Flynn’s family was still under the weather. Still, we had a great visit with Mercy and Jade and Spencer. Most of the kids sent Walter a Father’s Day greeting by text, and Flynn called and t ..read more

On this Father’s Day, I would like to express my love and appreciation for my father, Rev. Richard Moran, my husband Walter, and my son Flynn, who is an exceptional girl dad. Rise Up, O Men of God William P. Merrill Rise up, O men of God! Have done with less­er things. Give heart and mind and soul and strength To serve the King of kings. Rise up, O men of God! The king­dom tar­ries long. Bring in the day of bro­ther­hood And end the night of wrong. Rise up, O men of God! The church for you doth wait, Her strength un­equ­al to her task; Rise up and make her great! Lift high the cross of Christ ..read more

I woke up before my alarm this morning—a rare occurrence for me. So it was not difficult to get up and start packing and loading and of course making a travel mug of tea. I had almost everything loaded by the time my dad made an appearance. We had a last little visit and then I left right at 7:00 for my 700-mile drive. I stopped to fill the tank on my way out of town and still made it to the usual Cracker Barrel to have breakfast with my beloved aunt: We always try to limit it to one hour, but it always goes closer to two. Which is just fine with me! After I left I kept remembering things I m ..read more

My dad was up very early this morning to go grocery shopping, so I had plenty of time to get up and shower and have tea before he returned. Then we had a brunch date with our friends Stretch and Eunice at my dad’s favorite diner. I always look forward to seeing them when I come to visit my dad. We stopped at an office supply store on the way back so I could pick up some dry erase board cleaner. Dad needs it for his Sunday School class.  Because he had gotten up so early, he was tired and needed a nap, which gave me time to read a little and work some more on my curriculum. During this tim ..read more

So, I’ve been having a problem here with my cell phone reception. It’s been very intermittent. I’ll have reception for maybe ten minutes out of six hours. This has made it very hard to have conversations with people and answer questions. It wasn’t till this afternoon that I remembered I’ve had this problem here before, and the only solution is to restart my phone every few hours. I don’t know what it is about this location, but my phone hates it. This morning I alternated between working on my curriculum and sewing on more buttons. I also examined a couple of beautiful wool garments my mom had ..read more

Well, obviously this will be a catchup post. Sunday was pretty typical, with church and Sunday School followed by a Zoom with our offspring. Sunday evening I finally got around to packing. Monday morning I got up earlier than I wanted to, because I had promised to take Jasper to a yard job. However, he decided he was too tired to go, so I had the whole morning to pack and prepare. I was finally ready to leave shortly after Walter came home for lunch. It was a pretty uneventful drive to Memphis, which is exactly what one hopes for. That hated stretch from Little Rock to Memphis is certainly mor ..read more

We sang this in church this morning, and as always I was hearing the Lunda words in my head even as I sang in English. Revive Us Again by William P. Mackay We praise Thee, O God! For the Son of Thy love, For Jesus Who died, And is now gone above. Refrain Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again. We praise Thee, O God! For Thy Spirit of light, Who hath shown us our Savior, And scattered our night. Refrain All glory and praise To the Lamb that was slain, Who hath borne all our sins, And hath cleansed every stain. Refrain All glory and praise To ..read more