The beginning of May is a special time for my family due to the abundance of birthdays and anniversaries. It also signals the return to the outdoors and the return of warmer weather with yard work. I don’t have a green thumb, but my grandfather absolutely loved his beautiful garden where he spent hours nurturing…
With all this unscheduled time available right now due to sheltering at home, like many others we have been busy catching up on the long-neglected chores. David has been busy with outside yard work, and together we have been decluttering inside the house. Obviously we have devoted more than ONE HOUR to these projects, so…
My Circle is small and our members are spread out over Southern Ontario so it is our tradition to meet 4 or 5 times per year in the good weather months. When the challenge to reach out in a deliberate way to check on our members was issued, Heather Whitehouse, our Circle President, created a…
One of the things I like to do is bowl. I got hooked on the game of bowling while in high school…probably because I bowled my highest game ever…a 247 (out of a possible 300 game score). Anyway, since retiring from the USAF, I’ve been bowling on a women’s league called Tuesday Night Strikettes. Currently,…
As we hunker down at home to help flatten the pandemic curve, our time and routines change in multiple ways. What are you discovering about yourself and others during this time? I am learning about how empathy unfolds creativity from homemade signs of encouragement taped in house windows to neighborhood donations via Venmo sending restaurant…
A short time ago, I was enjoying a wonderful vacation in Palm Springs, CA, savoring special times with friends, soaking up the mild temperatures and sunshine, and swimming (well floating mostly!) in a 92-degree pool! On one of our exploring sightseeing expeditions, we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum. What interesting and educational displays they…
Thirty-three degrees, but it is a relaxing morning at my lakeside home while getting my coffee fix and reading my devotional. Is it just me, or do you notice how timely the devotional messages are as we are sheltering at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Today’s Upper Room devotion cast a light on Galatians 5:…
A recent Pew Research poll found that four in ten millennials, ages 24-39 years, now say they are religiously unaffiliated which is nearly equivalent to the number of millennials who identify themselves as Christians. What does this mean for IOKDS? Because our long-term organizational future depends on attracting young members, the statistic tells us that…
Washing my hands, reminds me of the waters of Chautauqua Lake, Which reminds me of the majestic tolling of the Miller Bell Tower, Which reminds me of the many kinds of music that fills the air and our hearts, Which reminds me of the laughter of children and the beauty of our gardens, Which reminds…
I recall a poster from WWII in London’s Imperial War museum: Your courage, Your cheerfulness, Your resolution will bring us Victory! Every citizen of the world can learn from this 1939 pre-blitz motto from the past and apply it to our viral pandemic today. For…
This past Sunday was a day of calm in the storm as I felt God’s presence surrounding me and giving me rest and hope. Not that He doesn’t surround me every single day, because He does! But, this Sunday felt different because I couldn’t attend Sunday church service due to my self- quarantine after just…
We are in the midst of dealing with COVID-19 pandemic changing our daily lives for months to come. Looking back to excerpts from “Heart to Heart Talks” in The Ladies Home Journal, March 1902, we find a sermonette written by our founder, Margaret Bottome, with application for today. May I say to you, dear Daughters,…
We often are told that mind, body, and spirit are connected. But those of us with a hearing loss know that hearing is not just a part of communication, but rather hearing affects our whole body. And our whole body can affect our hearing. Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins Medicine, the National Institute of Health, and…
Staring at a blank page for hours that turned in to days, I struggled with content and getting a newsletter out in a timely fashion. Drifting from one idea to the next, I felt like I was wasting hours of time. On one day when I felt compelled to just get up and walk away…
I recently took my grandchildren to a fast-food chain restaurant. To my surprise, booths with electronic tablets for ordering and table-top gaming replaced the previous inside toddler playground. When I asked the manager about the change, she replied, “We are a franchise. Each restaurant is responsible for its own operation. We wanted to meet the…