Stuff

Woke up this morning early enough to see the frost all over the ground. It is still -2C at 8:45am.  The sun is shining brightly though and we are to see a high of +14C.  NICE!!  It is going to be a pretty good day out there in the out of doors! YAY!  I think I will walk to the grocery store today and make two trips if I can't carry everything in the first load.

My husband was home in time for a reasonably early dinner last evening, but he was in bed asleep for the night at 8:30pm, so I am keeping a close watch on how exhausted he is getting.  I know the others in the office are working just as hard, putting in just as many extra hours in the lead up to Diocesan Synod and I don't know what kind of health issues some of them may be battling during such times of stress, but I know that my husband is heading straight for a chronic fatigue episode once Synod is over.  I doubt the rest of the office has any real comprehension of what that is going to mean to all of them.  So, my prayer is that sometime in the two weeks immediately following Synod, he will be able to take a full week off to do nothing but sleep and veg and have no real committments.  From my viewpoint as his wife who has gone down this road more times than I want to remember, his work is reaching a crisis point for his health that means either things will have to calm down in terms of work load or he is going to have to resign and trust God for some other ministry or work that will pay our bills for the next 5 years.  Sorry Lord, but I am not impressed in the least by what is going on here.  Where are you leading this merry band of your servants from our diocese and how long are we going to have to wait and how ill is everyone going to have to become before they figure out what you are trying to accomplish?  Just askin'..........  I mean, I think you are trying to get their attention and let them know, but I feel perhaps no one is listening, or doesn't like what they are hearing, or are scared to let go and just trust you to work things out, or something.......something totally human and understandable....just wondering why it has to take this long to clue in.  So glad I have had enough experience with the Christian life to know that sometimes it does take a long time to figure things out and that the Lord is always there with us to ease the upset even in the worst times of confusion that accompany times of trial. Eventually the answer appears and we have all learned new things about listening to and obeying God through the long and difficult process....certainly a pattern in Christian life.

We have a very dear friend who is in desperate need of your prayers for his health.  Cees has been losing weight for over a year now...a few pounds here,  a few pounds there, from a heavier, larger frame and at this point looks like a gaunt rake, has no energy, little motivation, no appetite and is getting light headed and nauseous, achy and generally miserable.  He has seen every kind of specialist there is to see and every test result he has received has been well within normal range.  He is not taking any meds that could be responsible for this happening.  Yesterday was the low point when the tests everyone was sure would show up the problem came up with results well withing normal range.  He is completely discouraged, his family are beside themselves with worry.  Now he begins the process of re-testing on some of his internal organs....round two in the search to locate the source of this problem.  He is afraid it is all "in his head", but that seems rather unlikely.  Please pray for Cees and for his family, that a diagnosis can be stumbled upon and that everyone can cope as the wait continues. Thank you SO much!!  I remember the 13 or more years of hell my husband and I went through in the process of getting his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosed.  There are days you feel like you can't go on any more and my friends are at that point.  It is horrible, horrible, horrible and people who haven't gone through something like that just can't imagine the depth of the emotional pain that accompanies the physical symptoms.  I don't know where my husband and I would have ended up without the prayer of family and friends who admitted, as his illness continued with nebulous symptoms and no medical answers, that they didn't "get it", but prayed seriously and fervently for us. 

Had a great chat with my sister in law yesterday.  It is so nice for all four of us to have a reason to be excited about Christmas holidays this year.  I can't wait for them to come to visit!!  

Looking forward to our Thanksgiving dinner with our Egyptian friends on the weekend.  I have coupons for the kids for free time at their favourite trampoline venue so that should make them very happy indeed.  Thank you little African boy for the coupons an aging white lady can share with her Egyptian "surrogate" nephews. I love Canada! What a great blend of people from all over the world.

My mother called in a panic yesterday.  She thought she lost her keys and neither she  nor dad could remember the number for directory assistance, even though they were looking at it right in the front of their telephone directory. Sigh....it took poor dad an inordinate amount of time to write down the numbers 4-1-1, even though he didn't need to because he was looking right at in in the directory, but eventually they got it straight.  Mom originally asked me for the long distance directory assistance number before telling me why she needed it and I assumed they were looking for a number somewhere other than their own city, so first we went through the stress of dad having to write down that 8 digit number.  Had I been bright enough to ask where and who they were wanting to call and found out immediately it was for a local business where mom thought she left her keys, I could have looked up the number on my iPad in far less time than it took them to write the two directory assistance numbers down.   Sigh......  I decided though that it was good for them to get a copy of both numbers for future reference and for them to have to go through their own process of getting the number.....not that they will remember if there is a next time, but I thought it might be worth a try.  As it turned out Mom left her keys in a coat pocket where she normally doesn't leave them and she found them soon after calling the businesses where she thought she may have lost them.  I wonder how long it took poor Dad to peel her off the ceiling once she realized her keys were not actually gone. My mother is the master (mistress?) of the instant freakout.....and you wonder why I struggle with that same thing on occasion....Sigh......  But, all is well. The keys have been located.  They now know where to look for directory assistance numbers in their phone book, Mom has calmed down, Dad has calmed down after getting mad at Mom for being so upset.....aaaaahhhhh....once again I think it is probably a good thing I live here instead of there, even though it would be a relief in some ways not to be so far removed geographically.  If I was living there I know I would have been driving all over the city looking for Mom's keys because they would refuse to call any of the businesses themselves, knowing I could drive to them and physically pick up the keys had they been left at any of the places they called looking for them.  Aiiiii yiiiiiii........such a panic over nothing, and to think, this is MY legacy. Please Lord, preserve me from getting that far over the top emotionally as I get older.  AMEN!

No word lately from The Son.  So, all must be well and that is a happy thing.  Next week is the interview, hopefully, for a full time job.  The temporary part time one will be ending soon and he is eager to get moving and make more money and have something more interesting to do all day than he has at present.

Time to go shower and get dressed and make the day's tough decisions: should I go grocery shopping before or after I start cleaning house?  hahahahaha  Looking forward to my day.