Weekending- on football and phones and Amazon Prime

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

Friday was a good day- I subbed for an intervention specialist at the junior high. Most intervention specialist teachers don't have their own classroom with students; rather, they help out in classrooms where students who are identified as needing additional assistance are placed. They are an additional "teacher" in the classroom, but they aren't the head teacher. (I think of the position as a glorified aid though I know the position entails paperwork and meetings that I don't have to deal with as a sub.) IS are in a variety of different types of classrooms. The IS whom I was subbing for was in math classes all day. Helping out in math is my very least favorite subject to help out in. Not because I can't do the math (though I do often need refreshers- eg plotting points on a graph- it just isn't something you do post junior high or high school if you study the humanities in college!) but I don't always know the best or current way to describe how to do it. Methods seem to have changed! Point being, I was initially worried, but it turned out to be all good... One of the math teachers gave me a detailed answer key that included all the steps to solve the equations so (potential!) crisis averted!! The one math teacher I worked with, the guy who gave me the answer key, was super kind and thanked me repeatedly for my help. It's nice to feel appreciated... and for the refresher on plotting points on a graph :).

The day got better once home- Donnie texted me that he could bring home dinner if I wanted him to. Yes, I did want dinner brought to me! I had just made pizza dough for the pizza I was planning to make but I put that dough in the freezer for use for another time so fast it wasn't even funny... Donnie had a salad and sandwich for us from Potbelly ("Potbelly" being a sandwich restaurant chain...not an adjective to describe someone who gave him the food or the name of somebody). They were left over from a catered event at his office; they hadn't been touched and would have been thrown away if he hadn't brought them home. The salad was really good though the chicken looked a little sus!

Saturday, we had no plans and the only place that I went was to pick up pizza for dinner later. But being at home didn't mean that nothing happened or got done. Donnie and I spent some time outside in our project area to try to make some decisions about outdoor furniture. On Friday, electrical inspections were done so more of the finishing work will start soon. Yes, it appears that just in time for cold weather to set in, our covered patio will be complete!!

This is the view from inside the house looking out.

We now have stairs so we went down them; however, the landing at the top was not complete so we had to step gingerly until we got to the stairs!

I took down all of our fall/ Halloween decor. I could have kept up the fall decor but I plan to start decorating for Christmas soon so... fall decor had its run with the Halloween decorations and now they're all gone! I considered starting to decorate for Christmas, but I think I will wait a week or two. I do like to have to have it up for a long time since I like it so much and I have a lot of it; it takes a long time to put up all the trees and decorate everything.

My brother John drove down from northern Ohio mid afternoon to watch the Indiana University (IU) football game with us. IU was ranked 13th in the nation going into the game. They were undefeated though they hadn't played anyone really good. On Saturday, they were playing Michigan State who was 4-4. We figured it would be an easy win. It did turn out to be a whoopin' but... IU went down 0-10 in the beginning of the game. MSU scored on its first two possessions. It was the first time in the season that IU had trailed their opponent in any game.. They went on to score 47 points and kept MSU from scoring again so the score was 47-10.

Indiana’s coach is known for barely cracking smiles- even when something really good happens for the team like a win!

IU still has to face Ohio State (they have a loss but only to number 1 ranked Oregon and are currently ranked 4th in the nation), University of Michigan (they aren't ranked but aren't bad at all), Purdue (also not ranked but the two teams are rivals and PU will definitely do what they can to win) so it isn't a given at all that they will make the play offs this year unless they somehow remain undefeated.  But hopefully... I truly don't care that much. But my brother John, an IU alumni like me, is really into it. And for the first time since I started college, we live less than three hours from each other so we can get together fairly easily. 

I bought this IU pan at least ten years ago at a Cracker Barrel outside of Indianapolis yet had never used it. Decided to bust it out for the game...

Jacob came home briefly yesterday as well during the game. He didn't come over to watch the game- he was in the area, so he stopped by briefly before heading back down to Cincinnati. He watched part of the game with us, went with me to pick up the pizza, ate and then went home. It was nice to see him though it was brief.

Face... and wings of an angel!! Jacob tried on the wings that Donnie used for Halloween.

At some point on Saturday, Alyssa texted me from her roommate's phone. Her (Alyssa's) phone wasn't holding a charge and by Saturday morning, her battery was completely drained and so she couldn't use her phone.  Oh dear! Students have no landlines in the dorms- a student's cell phone is the only way to communicate via voice. And of course, a cell phone is how the young interact with their various social media apps and text messaging. Thankfully, Alyssa and her roommate Avery spend a lot of time together and Avery didn't mind Alyssa communicating with us with her phone. We texted a variety of possible solutions to the problem (not even knowing exactly what the problem was but the over arching problem of not having a working phone!). Alyssa was coming home on Sunday for football so we decided to wait until then to do anything.

On Sunday morning, Alyssa came home briefly to change into my Bengals (McPherson!!) jersey. Avery's dad Brian had picked the girls up from OSU earlier, brought them home briefly for them to change and for Brian to pick up his younger daughter at home, and then the four of them- Brian, his two daughters and Alyssa, headed down to Cincinnati for a Bengals game. Brian was given four tickets to the Bengals game and he invited Alyssa and his girls to go with him to the game. So fun! The weather was perfect for a football game.

Meanwhile, Donnie and I ran an errand to try to fix Alyssa's phone. She had heard that sometimes phones could take a charge with a mag charger so we went to Best Buy to get one (the nearest store on campus that sells electronics did not have any mag chargers to purchase or else Alyssa would have bought one and tried it herself in Columbus). We went to Best Buy to purchase a mag charger to see if that would work. The good news is that... it worked! I was so happy to text Avery (at the Bengal's game to tell her/Alyssa(!) that Alyssa's phone was taking a charge. 

Donnie and I watched the Bengals game and when Alyssa got home, she reported loving being at the game- their seats were really good. They were seven rows back behind the Bengals sideline. She said she could see Joe Burrow and many of the Bengals from super close. She had no phone so no pics...😧

I bought just two items from Amazon in October-

1. The book Toxic Empathy by Allie Beth Stuckey

Allie Beth Stuckey is one of my favorite podcasters. She is a Christian and a conservative and she talks about both of them- often the intersection of both of them on her podcast. From the book's inside cover:

"Just have some empathy," conservatives are often chided. If we did, the thinking goes, we would see that the progressive position on any issue- like immigration or abortion- is moral and correct. But is that true? Or has "empathy," like so many other words of our day- "tolerance," "justice," "acceptance" - been hijacked by bad actors who exploit compassion for their own ideological ends?

In Toxic Empathy, Allie Beth Stuckey demonstrates how empathy is being used by left-wing activists to bully Christians into believing they most adopt progressive positions to be loving. Employing catchy, circular mantras to present their perspective as empathetic ("love is love," "social justice is justice" "abortion is health care"), they shut down opposing arguments and obscure the other side of the moral equation. For example, abortion is presented as merciful for the woman, but what about the baby the procedure kills?

When empathy is used to affirm sin and promote chaos, Stuckey argues, it becomes toxic, harming the most vulnerable among us. This book isn't about doing away with empathy altogether; it's about submitting our empathy to factual data, rational arguments, and biblical truth. Stuckey exposes the logical pitfalls and more consequences of toxic empathy, equipping Christians with the tools to dismantle the progressive lies that have permeated our culture- and our churches. 

Allie Beth is definitely preaching to the choir vis a vis me. I am pretty "up" on politically conservative discourse and the reasoning behind conservatives' positions on issues. (Of course I am "up" on the non-conservative positions because academia, legacy media both news and entertainment, as well as big tech overwhelmingly support and proclaim the progressive position on issues. To engage in the culture is to be exposed to the progressive position on issues.) Despite my familiarity with the positions, I liked how the book was organized into six different topics and the clear, concise, and Biblical rational in support of the conservative position on the six topics. The topics are abortion, illegal immigration, the rights of biological men to compete against women, be incarcerated with them, and share restrooms and locker rooms with women, same sex marriage, and social justice. 

Here is a link to purchase the book: Toxic Empathy

If anyone would like to read the book but doesn’t want to buy it, I would be happy to send my copy. Like I said, it is preaching to the choir for me. I bought the book mainly to support Allie Beth Stuckey. 

So that was purchase number one from Amazon. Purchase number two was a decent bit more superficial. 

Red eyelashes for my Tootsie Roll Halloween costume

I got the idea last year to add red eyelashes to my Halloween outfit. My Tootsie Roll costume is brown and red. I usually add brown eye shadow to my lips for my Halloween make up- it sort of looks like I have consumed a large number of Tootsie Rolls! Adding some red to my make up would continue the red/ brown combo. However, last year, I never got around to buying any red eyelashes. This year I thought about it one day before I needed them so it was Prime, one day delivery, to the rescue (and then hoping they'd come in before we left for the Halloween party, which they did). I don't have an up close picture of me with the red eyelashes on because, fifty one years old (el-oh-el) but you can sort of see them if you're looking for them in this picture.