I'm Puzzled!

Today I decided to go thrifting.  So I googled thrift stores in some towns near here and came up with a list of 11.  I made it to 7 of the 11 addresses, but 2 of those were either not open today or no longer there.  So, I was able to hit 5 different thrifts.  I think I bought something at every single one of them!  Mainly puzzles!

New for $0.99

New for $0.99

New for $0.99

New for $0.99

New in metal storage box for $2.99

Opened for $0.49.  I was willing to take a chance since it was so cheap!

Opened for $0.49

Opened for $0.49

Opened for $0.49

Opened for $0.49

 

This is the other items I found today.  I believe everything was $0.99 or less except for the file container and the bag.  My kind of thrifting!  I bought the Rosary book for curiosity's sake.  The first line I read is not the truth!  I love my Catholic friends, but the doctrine they are being taught is not the truth!

For less than $20 I had a nice day.  It was really chilly when I left, but the sun was out and it warmed up to 55 degrees before it was time for me to head home because Jessica was going to pick me up to go to a parent/teacher conference for Thad.  Then we went to the daycare to pick the 3 kids up and take them to the dollar store to get some things for their Operation Christmas Child boxes.  On the way home, Jessica stopped for Little Caesar's Pizza to take home.

A picture showing how cold it was at 11:30 this morning.

Chilly but beautiful skies and beautiful colors in the trees!

I intend to make a canvas like this one of these days!  This was in one of the thrifts.

I took this picture to show Jessica how close I got to downtown Columbus today during my thrifting!

Jessica and I did the 200 piece puzzle in about 30 minutes.  This is a puzzle of 

Zaharakos (Zuh-HARE-uh-koes) ice cream parlor in Columbus, Indiana.  HERE is the history behind it.

Jessica asked me if I was going to straighten my hair tomorrow.  She wants to curl it a bit.  So, I decided I would straighten it to see what the layering looked like.  Here is a view of the back.

Another view.

And a view of the layering in the front.  I think there are only 2 layers, best I can tell.  One a little lower than my chin and then the longer one below that.  It will take some getting used to working with it.  But I'll probably wear it curly most of the time.

So, my first dispute from "The Rosary, Roses of Prayer for The Queen of Heaven" comes from the first line of the page entitled, "Flowers for the Queen," which reads, "Mary is the lovely Mother of the world."  My first thought was, no!  Eve is the "mother of all living."  That is what her name means!  But, I decided to do a google search to find out what this phrase means to the Catholic.  Here is what I found at catholic.org:  Grace D. MacKinnon writes, "When Catholics say, "Mary is our Mother," these are not just empty words. They mean rather that we recognize Mary for who she is and also for her role in the plan of God."  Later on the article reads, "Looking first at Scripture, the principal basis for the doctrine of Mary as Spiritual Mother of all humanity is found in the Gospel of John. In this scene, Mary is at Calvary at the foot of the Cross with John, the beloved disciple. John tells us, "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother'" (John 19: 26-27). Throughout the Church's history, numerous popes, theologians, and writers have confirmed their belief that here John is symbolic of all humanity (NONE of the commentators I read believed this). In other words, that Jesus from the Cross gave His Mother to every human person for all time."

Jesus was making sure Mary was going to be taken care of!  He didn't say, "OK, John, I want you to take Mary as your mother and she will also become the mother of all humanity now!"  No, he was being sure that his widowed mother was going to be taken care of.  This is "pure religion" (James 1:27).

Jesus was saying, and I quote C.H.Spurgeon, “John, take her home and treat her as a mother should be treated.”  He was the disciple whom Jesus specially loved, so as a token of Christ’s great love to him, he left his mother to his charge. Have you any poor folk dependent upon you? Do you know any of God’s very poor people? Take care of them, and do not think the charge a burden; but do it for the sake of him who loves you so much that he entrusts his poor ones to you. Oh, that everybody would look at this matter of caring for God’s poor in that light!"

There was a lot in this article that I did not agree with, but I will stick with commenting on the one phrase.  Mary is NOT our "Spiritual Mother."  God is our spiritual Father!  Mary needed to be saved from her sinfulness the same as you and I do.  She was not conceived in virginity!  She had a sinful mother and father the same as you and I.