Very Taxing, plus Painting

The Painters have been here all week tackling the communal areas, and our front door, which had to be open all day on Monday.   Jean and I had a lovely morning on the field service on Tuesday, including being asked in for coffee and biscuits.   Jackie came round Sunday night - for pie and veggies - which has confused us all as she usually comes on Saturday. 

The calendar of my week is pinned round the meetings at the Kingdom Hall on Thursday and Sunday, field service with Jean on Tuesday and Saturday, and the field service group on Thursday morning.  And Jacks coming for supper on Saturdays.

Any change, and I am lost in space.

The Captain spent yesterday doing our Tax Returns on line. An awful job - and - well. please re-arrange these words into a well known phrase or saying:  "Man...Old... Grumpy...".    And who can blame him? When I used to do them, on the old-fashioned horse-drawn form, my completed form used to be covered with "ifs" and "buts" and "what does this question mean" in my desperate and illegible handwriting. And it would be accompanied by a despairing letter saying that I don't understand the form but have done my best, and that surely, in the Big Brother world we live in, they know more about my tax situation than I do?

And I always had to add:  "Please don't send me your "Understanding how to fill in your Tax Return" leaflet, as I can't understand that either, and you will then have to send me your "Understanding your: "Understanding how to fill in your Tax Return Leaflet" leaflet"".  And I won't be able to understand that either, so you will then have to send your "Understanding your Understanding your "How to..."" etc etc etc, until there is not a tree left in the world.

It used to end in a depressed sounding guy from the Tax Office talking to me on the phone.  There was an air of  having drawn the short straw about him.

But now poor Captain B has to do it. Even he has to make a phone call today before he can press the Send button, as something on their site is either not working properly, or is not comprehensible.

What a complicated complicated world we have made for ourselves.  Think of the perfect freedom our first parents had in Eden - and of what they so tragically lost.

But, and this is promise from God who cannot and does not lie, if we listen to our Creator and do our imperfect best to obey him, what lies ahead for us is "the glorious freedom of the children of God".

I don't think we can imagine just how joyful the earth is going to be under the loving rulership of the Kingdom of God. But I hope we are all there to find out.