A Little Of Everything

Happy Thanksgiving Saturday everyone!  

I woke up to sunshine this morning and a cool breeze...well, a gale really...not sandal weather, but still by noon it was +13C, so off I went for a half hour walk, still only needing my little black shrug across my shoulders.  While it wasn't as grand as yesterday's venture, it was still wonderful to be able to walk outside.

At 1pm the sun disappeared behind a bank of dark grey clouds and has not been seen since. The wind is howling now and is much chillier than when I took my walk.  I feel sad....there are no day time highs forecast much above +10C for the next couple of weeks, most of them are not even that high.  It makes me even more grateful I was able to slip in a quick walk outdoors this morning.

In 24 hours we will be at our Egyptian friends' having dinner, chatting, laughing, gawking at their gecko and playing "How soon can my allergies take over my life" with their kitten.  I am so looking forward to it, but the list of things I am taking them for the celebration continues to grow....not at their instigation, but at my own.  I just keep finding little items and food products I know they enjoy, so.....

The jury is out on where or even IF we will be at church tomorrow morning to celebrate our grateful thanks for all that is good in our lives.  I am hoping and praying my husband will be up for attending a service. It doesn't have to be at MY church, it can be at any church. I would just like to give thanks together with others in our Christian community before spending the rest of the day with members of the Muslim community.

Today I got all excited when I found some lemon iced tea I hadn't tried before and I have been looking for something new to drink.  Unfortunately I accidentally grabbed the sweetened tea instead of the unsweetened.  REALLY hope my husband likes that kind of iced tea as it will be him drinking it not me. haha

I checked back on my medical records this morning and discovered what appears to be a direct connection between having to stop eating oats and the huge spike in my cholesterol over the next several months afterward. SO, tomorrow I am going to start eating oats again for breakfast and see what happens with my allergy or food sensitivity, or whatever was causing my kidneys to react so negatively.  Of course I am hoping it was actually some other food product that caused the reaction (dreaming and denying being my forte on this occasion).  If I have that reaction again, of course that will be the end of my oat intake forever and ever and it will be back to pysillium (blecch, pooey) and vitamin B12 pills (yuckko to the fiery face reaction) to try to get my cholesterol down while waiting for more thyroid tests etc.  

My sister-in-law's choir in another city is singing glorious sacred music and lyrics for their Christmas concert...music such asJohn Rutter's Gloria.  My choir here is singing inane winter based dittys with lyrics like "It's a yummy yummy world made for sweethearts. Take a walk with your favourite 1,2,3....."  Sigh.........  Don't get me wrong. I am very happy I returned to choir and am having fun, but occasionally I would so like to also be able to sing in a choir that sings, say, upper high school music class level sacred classical songs....or any kind of classical songs.  The closest our choir has to that sort of thing this term is based on a Bach Fugue....and the lyrics include, "We just want to sing this lovely fugue for you...but we keep on sneezing and sneezing....and I don't think Bach wrote sneezes in this fugue...achoo!"  Even bigger sigh.....  Next year I have to work harder to find another choir to sing in that is more what I am after...surely with all the choirs in this city there is one I missed that performs the kind of music I am interested in, one that isn't only for classically trained quasi-professional singers...somewhere...in this city....  I need to pad out my other choir activity with something more serious minded and with a higher quality of music.  I can't believe I am singing about sneezing and sinus infections...at Christmas....HUGE sigh......

My husband was very much looking forward to his day at work today.  Hopefully no one else is there at the office on Thanksgiving Saturday and he is getting a chance to get caught up on his emails and other projects that can't wait, but have had to wait anyway on even more pressing projects. On and on it goes.  

I realized as I was ironing this afternoon that my idea of an adrenalin rush is seeing that the item I am ironing is the last one in the pile.  Apparently I have no life....

Now I am waiting to hear if my husband wants me to come over to the office to help him put up the last of his university degree diplomas, award certificates and pictures, while he finishes filing the remaining stack of papers that has had to be ignored since the move into his new office.  I suspect the call will not come as he has so much else to do that there will likely be no time or energy left to work on it. Maybe we could slip over to the office on Monday and do it then while everyone else is doing their long weekend Monday thing.

Diocesan Synod happens in 2 weeks' time.  Once it is over there will be a huge push the following week to tie up other loose ends at work, interview for a position or two that need to be filled before the end of the year, work on setting up the canons in a more understandable, easy to use online format etc. etc. etc. etc.  Last night he told me he is taking a week off after that and we are going to either not answer ANY phones for the week, or maybe we will slip away for a couple of days to work on our own relationship.  Whatever we do, some signifcant rest time needs to be built into the time for my husband's sake.  The weekend after Synod weekend we are out of town to do another seminar for some parishes that really seem hungry for good biblical teaching and keep asking us to come back as soon as possible. They have been after us since the last time we were there several months ago and it is so good to have a chance to return.  They are so eager to learn and to share their own stories.  I love these people.

Wow....the clouds outside are looking like they could have some snow buried inside them somewhere. While none is forecast to hit the ground here, you never know at this time of year, plus the temperatures are going to start plunging tomorrow.  I think I will go and do some dinner preparation now while I still have some energy. Dark clouds, high winds and chilly temperatures zap my motivation very easily it seems.