Yet another week has come to a close. Like most Fridays, I spent the majority of it in sermon preparation. I have learned that each type-written page (10-point font) is about 5 to 6 minutes in duration, so I target 5 to 6 pages total for each week.
There are many pastors who can speak from just brief notes. I am not one of them. I've tried, and what I have found is that I can't think and speak at the same time. When I've used brief notes instead of fully composed sermons, I found that I forget and omit a considerable amount of what I wanted to or should have said. So I've decided not to fight nature and just write out all my sermons, pretty much word for word so that everything said is what I mean to say and in good logic.
Monday, when I was putting together the first outline for the sermon, I was afraid that this would be the week things would come up short. But when I started writing this afternoon, there was no problem filling up the target number of pages. This will be the conclusion to the series on the epistle to the Philippians. Next Sabbath will be a Thanksgiving related sermon.
On Wednesday, we went to the DMV office (one-woman part-time operation, open four days a week) to get our vehicle registration moved to Alaska, because we're reaching the deadline for doing that. Well, it turns out she doesn't have the necessary computer because the previous one had been hit by a virus from the main office in Anchorage, the clean-up didn't take, and so it was sent back to Anchorage with a replacement coming soon. So I guess we'll have to wait a little while longer. (We probably shouldn't have waited so long in the first place, but what's past is past.)
The snow has tapered off mostly, though there were a few squalls through the morning. The temps warmed up to about 36F this afternoon. We might get a bit more snow over the next few days, but the days appear to be warming up above freezing.
The city library was giving away books to children today. So both Shelley and Amy got two books to add to their collections.
Shelley has been learning quilting and is now working on her first project.
We've all been making a concerted effort to get to bed at a reasonable time. For some reason, our bedtimes, particularly the children's, have been creeping later and later ever since we arrived here. So when the kids were forced to wake up in the morning (even if it was 9 or 10 a.m.) they would end up cranky and it seemed to affect the rest of the day. The last couple of days have seemed better -- particularly with Amy, the not-morning person, being much happier in the mornings. And the rest of the day also seems to go much better when the morning starts out well.
Our dehumidifier continues to work hard. I think the humidity levels have stabilized so that it only runs about a third of the day and is able to keep the RH at about 40%. I dump out between 1 to 2 gallons of water each day. I think we got a rather good deal on the unit -- perhaps even close to cost -- because the same hardware store now stocks a lesser model for about $40 more.
Our house in Tigard continues to languish. Almost every day, I read headlines about the housing market slowdown which is now apparently bad enough to be termed "collapse" by the media. With the added incentive, the property is apparently getting showings and good comments. We just need/want one of them to turn into a buyer.
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