Foiled Again! Gaaaaak!!!

My plans for today have come crashing down around my ears due to the freezing fog that settled in last evening and is still present outside this morning.  

My husband took about three steps across the back lawn on his way to work this morning before returning to tell me that he did not under any circumstances want me going grocery shopping and banking today.  It is simply too slippery outside and he is understandably VERY nervous about me falling and both of us experiencing the consequences of me breaking more bones.  After taking a close look outside myself, from the safety of an ice melt covered back deck, I had to agree with him! Sigh.....

Bless him, he is going to go with me, to do all of what were to be today's errands tomorrow, morning instead.  Hallelujah for that wonderful blessing!  Since Saturday morning is a terrible time to go grocery shopping due to crowds, we will try to arrive at the stores shortly after opening, timing our departure from the store with the opening of the banks I need to go to. Then we will both go into my husband's office to complete a filing project that got rather confused in the midst of all the furniture/office moving that happened over the past week as the Bishop rearranges everything and everyone in that building.

Oh well, all was not lost at that point.  I spent a relaxing hour looking at the tv guide for the next 10 days and searching out a few programmes (THREE boxing shows, yay!!) to set up for recording.  Then I decided I would get dressed and wash down the walls in this suite.  They are in need of a  good wiping down!

Thwarted once again:  due to weather related water main breaks in our complex, I have no water flowing into this suite.  I will not have any water for most of the day!!  No wall washing pour moi!  Sigh......  My ironing is caught up, my daily housework and even weekly housework are all caught up and any little extra task I can think of includes the need for water, so guess I will be resting a LOT today.  While my heart mumur is happy about this turn of events, the rest of me is a bit frustrated!

Well, I will spend what remains of my morning reading online news reports, emailing and blogging.  After lunch I will take advantage of all this down time to catch up on the reading assignments for next week's OT discussion group and book club meeting.  I can read standing up for a long time without tiring, so better to do that than spend all the afternoon hours sitting on my well padded rear end!!

I am grateful that my husband insists we always have at least 10 gallons of water in jugs in our suite just for days like today when the water to the building is unexpectedly cut off.  Washing up and brushing teeth are no issue when there is water to be had.  Tea can be brewed and drinking water chilled in the refrigerator.  We have no shortage of water, that is for certain!

Had a good telephone chat late last evening with my parents.  Dad has recovered very well from his angina attack at the beginning of this week.  Mom has had a rapid decline in the vision in her one eye from her macular degeneration and is at the eye specialist this morning to have that and her other degenerative eye disease checked.  I am so grateful that both my parents made it into their 80's before macular degeneration, glaucoma and other diseases began to appear.  I  have all ready been diagnosed with two eye diseases prior to my middle 60's and can only hope they progress as slowly as my parents' eye problems have, but..........whatever.....

So, okay....guess I will go and catch up on some world news and be grateful I am not outside sliding dangerously about on an icy parking lot somewhere far from home! Even one day of sunshine with a bit of heat still in it, combined with some gusty winds, would take away much of the frosty, thin layer of ice, even if the day time temperatures remain a few degrees below zero.  Here's hoping...........

First Foray Out on the Ice! Yikes!!

Yup, I did it!  I ventured out to choir practise this evening under the watchful supervision of my dear husband.  He held my arm from the back door, down the steps and across the frozen field that is our back yard, put down sand around our parking spot so I wouldn't fall getting into the car and took me right to the door of the church!  He came back and escorted me home again.  Thanking God for his love and consideration.  It is absolutely treacherous out there!!  However, scary as it still was to be hobbling around on the ice, I am grateful for the chance to get the heck out of this suite for a couple of hours of singing and visiting!

My husband spent a couple of hours working on my computer last night and thus far it appears he has solved the issue.  I have been running this machine all day in the usual fashion and there have been no problems. Hopefully that is the end of the hassle.  HOWEVER, all ready, friends in B.C. have offered to send me one from their office that is being replaced.  Talk about a fast answer to prayers for assistance with this crazy technological monster that sits haughtily on my desk!  My friends are so incredibly loving and generous. Thus far I have been able to avoid putting them to the hassle, but it is good to know that if anything else crashes and burns with my computer here over the next couple of days, they are so willing to be of such help. Bless you friends...what a lovely surprise you gave us with your offer!

I admitted to my son today that the Christmas tree is all ready up in honour of his coming visit.  His response was very polite, but I could "see" the smirk on his face!! hahaha

My husband is putting in some extra time at work to ensure that everything is in place for the others in the office who are taking over some of his duties.  I don't mind.  He needs to do this to feel like he is leaving, having completed everything humanly possible to complete before he is gone.

I am going to attempt a short shopping trip tomorrow if we don't get any more freezing rain!

Sentimental But Pretty Much True

”When God pushes you to the edge, trust him fully, because only two things can happen. Either He will catch you when you fall or He will teach you how to fly.”
—Unknown

Actually, I think there are a lot of other things that can happen while we are waiting to be caught or taught to fly, but in the end one or the other seems to complete each apparently dire experience in a Christian’s life.

And Now....

.....my iPad is freezing up every hour or two! Hahaha! 😜

Last night my husband spent several hours testing my PC and can find no reason for the Blue Screen of Death to have appeared yesterday afternoon. Today, so far, it is working....aiii yiiii....

Technology: the joy and bane of modern life!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....

So this afternoon my computer died. I am so disappointed. However, I am not surprised. As my husband faces unemployment again, the usual pattern of events hath begun. My husband’s good hair cutting razor died last week and needs replacing, the car has an expensive burnt out tail light, the tooth I still need to have capped appears to have a cavity and may not be able to be left until our bit of dental coverage goes into effect again in January and now my computer has crashed. As bizarre as it may sound, seeing the usual patterns develop, unexpected but necessary expenses piling up just as we need to be saving rather than spending, is giving me a feeling of security as the end of my husband’s job looms. Been here before, survived well and seen the hand of the Lord moving to take care of us.

Crazy, yes. The usual circumstance occurring once again? So it would appear. Sometimes I suspect this sort of situation continues to happen because there are other people looking on who need to see what God is capable of doing to help his children.  Here we go again.....haha.

And Then, When I Get Bored.........Sigh.....

....I do dumb things like putting up and decorating the Christmas tree on November 27th!

Yup, I finally did it. I caved in to that Saskatchewan "thing" that says that if Remembrance Day is November 11th, then once it is properly honoured, the household Christmas trees go up on November 12th.  Okay, I lasted another couple of weeks, but I suppose that I have now lived in this province long enough to start falling into its "Early Christmas Tree Putting Up Syndrome"!!

I still can't believe I did it!  On November 27th.....

I went downstairs this morning for breakfast and there it was in all its shiny, gleaming, decorated, if somewhat tattered glory.  My husband beat me downstairs and had plugged in the tree lights, so it was glowing prettily as I arrived at the bottom of the living room stairs. 

I decided to blame my actions on the fact that our son will be here celebrating Christmas with us a week prior to the actual Christmas Day.  Yesterday afternoon when I realized we would be sitting down to eat our Christmas dinner together in exactly three weeks time, I got a bit nostalgic and, lacking any other truly important house chores that needed to be done, found myself in the basement hauling out the now raggedy artifical tree and the remaining box of elderly decorations. 

Sigh....boredom plus nostalgia...not the best combination of feelings for me apparently. This time the combination has resulted in irrational actions! My husband, the old "Let's wait and put the tree up on Christmas Eve; you do remember Christmas Eve, the night that Advent ends and the Christmas season actually starts?" guy, has been extremely careful thus far not to tease me about my inappropriate behaviour...SO careful in fact that I know when the actual Christmas season is over, he is never going to let me live this down.  "Hey, remember the time you got so excited about Christmas you had the tree up before Advent even had a chance to start? hahahahahahahahaha"!  Yup, I can hear it all now........

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated...all ready....in November...I can't believe it......aiiiii yiiiiii.....blush...

The Ice Palace....Or Ghetto...Whatever......

After a most wonderful, dry, non-icy start to winter early in November, the freezing rain finally arrived overnight last night.  O wow....it is not a thick layer, but it is like a curling rink out there....EVERYWHERE out there!  There is not a surface that is not coated with the stuff.  I am so grateful that I got almost an entire extra month this winter of being able to walk outdoors before this happened.  Thank you Jesus!!!

The ice cover is so complete out there that my brave, ice climbing fanatic husband didn't even risk walking to work with his crampons on his boots.  He skated slowly down our back steps, walking stick in hand, across the frozen back lawn to the car and eventually, after spending over fifteen minutes melting and scraping ice from the windows, he drove slowly out of the parking lot.  I assume he made it safely into the office as I haven't had any phone calls from co-workers asking where he is! On the advice of one of his co-workers who had all ready arrived at work, he took a pail of ice melt with him to treat the parking lot there so that other workers coming in wouldn't fall on the ice rink the lot has turned into. 

The seven year old next door came out of his suite this morning to go to school and immediately fell, landed on his back, skidded across the little deck and down the four stairs to the iced over grass at the bottom.  O my, he was crying. It scared him and he hurt himself on the steps.  His mom made it down the steps unscathed, managed to stand him upright and hang onto him tightly while she skated gingerly to their car. She herself nearly fell trying to get into the car, but managed to grab onto the seat inside and haul herself in.  

SO, I will likely not be going to my book club meeting this evening.  The crescent in front of the house where we meet is always treacherous as the City snow clearing and sanding equipment doesn't go in there and so far this winter it appears that the citizens who live in that crescent do not shovel their sidewalks.  I have had some "interesting" short walks from wherever I have found to park my car in there all ready this club term and I don't dare risk it tonight.  Perhaps it is a good thing.  I have been so busy that I missed only a little bit not going to our Old Testament group last night. My husband needed the car for a work project last evening and I didn't feel strong enough to take the bus because of being so tired.  (my blasted heart murmur is acting up again so I am taking life pretty easy for a while)

My husband said he will drive me to choir rehearsal tomorrow evening as I don't dare miss it.  We have only three rehearsals until the performance and there are a couple of pieces I don't feel secure with just yet.  They are so easy, but just a couple of spots where the altos make an odd transition have left me feeling like I am not quite certain where that first transition note is.  I am just getting too old to remember the transitions I think!  Well...I need to blame it on something, so......haha

The sidewalks outside are completely devoid of pedestrians! The sidewalks are completely coated with ice as well.  I noticed the usual groups of folk at the stop outside my front door attempting to get to their buses to go to work earlier this morning, but they were slinking along the ice like they were hoping if they walked tentatively enough, the ice below their feet would not realize they were attempting to cross it and pull them down in some sort of nasty fall. Oh, the body contortions when one or two of them felt their feet starting to slip out from under them.  Definitely fodder for some sort of "disaster video" tv programme!

My son is enjoying the big rain in Vancouver that has been going on the past day or two.  He LOVES rain, has since he was a small boy, so to see the moisture glistening on the trees fills him with joy.  As much as he loves New York, his neighbourhood like so much of Brooklyn, is completely devoid of residential trees.  The parks are all lovely there, but the residential streets are barren of foliage for the most part.  He loves the greenery and the ocean smells of the west coast, so this week is a treat despite all the work he has to do. 

Today seems like a perfect day to do the laundry!  I can stay indoors and still get plenty of exercise.  Hopefully my husband will remember to go to the grocery store after work and buy a carton of milk as there is no way I will be heading out to shop today! 

I knew we couldn't avoid the freezing rain forever, but how wonderful to have had the entire months of October and November sufficiently free of the stuff to have been able to walk outside nearly every single day. YAY!

How do I spell "grateful"?  
G-O-O-D-W-A-L-K-I-N-G-O-UT-D-O-O-R-S-W-E-A-T-H-E-R!

Update: the Amazing Cee

Last evening I received an update from Cee’s wife. The power of prayer combined with the power of chemotherapy produced some amazing results for Cee yesterday afternoon! He put in some time on a casual job he has, he went grocery shopping, he got out the snowblower and tidied up the property, he made dinner for them both....this same Cee who only hours previously had been a shivering, aching, nauseated mess! Thank you Lord for giving him a break from the negative chemo reactions. A person never knows how the reactions are going to fluctuate from one hour to the next, but after yesterday’s incredible recovery, I am hoping it is a good sign that he will be well enough for next week’s chemo treatment. He so appreciates your prayers.

Poor Daddy O' Mine

My parents phoned me just before lunch today.  Dad was rushed to hospital late yesterday afternoon with severe angina pain.  Two doses of his inhalent over a half hour period at home didn't remotely solve the pain problem, so Mom called the ambulance and away to the Rockyview Hospital they went.  (Cute side note: Mom didn't realize she was welcome to go along in the ambulance so was returning to their facility to call for a taxi, when one of the EMTs told her she could ride with them.  Mom turned around and RAN to the ambulance at the end of the walkway and the EMT was shocked to see a woman her age who could run at that speed! hahaha He had started up the driveway to assist her and she tore right past him!)

After quite a few hours in hospital, Dad was released at about 10:30pm to come home.  I wonder how many of these episodes he will have to experience before the "final" one....it certainly is possible that one of these episodes will be an actual heart attack again and at his age, will likely be the end of him.  

My parents have nothing but praise for the emergency medical staff at the Rockyview on this trip. The doctor was so solicitous and told Dad to stop feeling guilty for coming to emergency with "only" an angina attack.  At his age and after his many heart attacks, he is to come to emergency if he feels so much as a twinge, as far as this particular doctor is concerned.  Huge thanks to nurse Carly as well: she treated my parents as if they were her own grandparents.  She took excellent care of both of them. Around 7pm she even asked when they had last eaten, and when she found out they had not had food or drink since noon, she cleared Dad's food intake with the doctor and brought both my parents a meal from the cafeteria: they each received a bowl of soup, a sandwich and a drink from her.  When it was time for them to go home, she was not impressed that they were going to take a taxi until Dad assured her that they travel by taxi all the time. Then she was concerned if they had enough money to pay the fare.  Then she realized Dad had arrived with no coat, so she sent one of the orderlies to the free clothing bank of new clothes run by hospital volunteers and he returned with a jacket that fit my father perfectly for the trip home.  Dad is going to donate it to someone else who actually needs a new coat, so it won't sit moldering in his closet and not being worn.  Carly had the orderly who took my parents to the exit door wait until their taxi arrived.  I was also impressed with the taxi driver who took my unsteady father in hand and walked him from the taxi all the way up the walkway and right into the home facility.  What wonderful treatment both my parents received on this latest visit to emergency.  What a blessing and relief as not all of their experiences have been so fantastic!

Dad has a copy of his ECG to take to his doctor later this week when he goes in for a follow up....after he has a couple of days to rest and recover.  He won't get much rest this afternoon because the facility maintenance is testing the smoke detectors in each suite. There will be bells and sirens going off all afternoon!  HOWEVER, I know how my parents are when they are both this tired. Dad will sleep through the noise with little problem and if Mom removes her hearing aids she won't hear a thing!

Lord, grant them rest today.  I also pray that if Dad's time is nearly up he won't have to waste a lot of it going back and forth to emergency!  I pray that Mom will be able to remain calm during the next few weeks or months as Dad continues to have issues with his health again.  He finally has his back pain under control, but now his heart is acting up after being stable for a long time.  I don't know how his M-Gus blood condition effects his heart, but the poor man is in a rather bad way most of the time.  I thank God for his positive attitude through it all.  I pray Mom can survive the stress of constant care giving. She is also 91 years old and has her own health issues.

Aaaah....here we go again......

In other health related news:  Cee is experiencing some strange and frightening symptoms in this week leading up to his next chemo treatment.  Please pray that they are simply the result of the treatments and how his body is responding to them, and that nothing new and serious is going on.  Chemo reactions are so unpredictable and so specific to each person.  Please pray that Cee's hemoglobin tests show that he is physically ready to have his next treatment on time.  Thank you so much!

The Painting I Always Wanted

My son has created a number of works that are far too large for hanging on the walls anywhere I have ever lived, but the double canvas painting below is one I always wished I had space for.  My son's sense of humour is well depicted in this playful art piece:

 He has made a number of smaller wooden sculptures, rather dark in colour palette, the wooden balls being the only attempt to inject some playfulness:

 Recently he has lightened up a little!  I love all the quirkiness of today's abstract artists.  Bless you Eli for enjoying your gift of art so much and sharing the results with others.

Scary Deer

A few years ago we had a temporary church posting in Sundre Alberta.  The rectory was right on the river bank where there were many trees concealing...or not....quite a number of deer and moose.  One of our neighbours across the street had a large male cat that was terrified of the deer when they would wander out from the trees and onto our street.  We often looked out our window to see the cat huddling, terrified, on the roof of one of the cars parked on the street, too frightened to even spit or hiss at the deer who found him incredibly fascinating, much to his horror.  haha

 

A Day When It Seemed Like the Universe Was Unfolding Just For My Own Personal Needs!!

Today has been the most wonderful day!  If my world view was a bit different than it is,  it would be easy for me to believe that God arranged everything today, from the weather to the outcome of the Grey Cup Game out of his love for me and me alone!

My day began with the most wonderful church service, tailored exactly to my own practise of the Advent season.  What a surprise blessing.  Since I am presently attending a Baptist church, I was aware that the 4 Sundays of Advent would not be practised the same way as they are in the Anglican church.  I know that the Baptists usually roll Advent and Christmas together as if they are one joyful season and I have been dreading the singing of Christmas carols starting next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent in the Anglican calendar year.  I admit I have not been looking forward to the joy and fun that will be happening each Sunday, when in my own life I particularly enjoy the reflection, penitential attitudes and the sense of waiting for the forgiving Christ-child's arrival. The joy that overwhelms me at church each Christmas Eve as the first of the Christmas carols are sung in the Anglican church will be missing for me this year.  It is the one sadness I have about the change in congregations.

However, this morning the service was based upon the sorts of attitudes and Scripture readings and music that I usually get to enjoy during the Advent season.  Although today is still pre-Advent in the church calendar year, my minister decided to combine all the aspects I most love about Advent into a very intense service this morning.  The readings were all selected from Lamentations and there was an excellent homily interspersed with the readings...all about repentence, about understanding that we are indeed guilty of imperfections and sin before a sinless Creator.  It was all about waiting for Jesus to redeem us and heal us.  It was just right for me!  As I told the pastor later, now I will be able to sing the Christmas carols prior to Christmas Eve without wincing!!  I am SO grateful for the way the minister incorporated a true Advent service into the Baptist way of doing things this year.  Thank you Lord!!

My husband had the car with him this morning at a different church, so I had the choice after my service to either take the bus, or walk, or accept a ride home from other church friends.  I opted for walking and it was glorious!  With my warm mittens, coat and wool lined boots, I was dressed just right.  Thanked God all the way home for the many Reginans who had shovelled or de-iced their sidewalks and sloping driveway connectors, as I marched along very happily in the chilly wind.  The only ice I encountered was on a quarter block section beside a vacant lot.  Everywhere else was clear and dry....on November 25th....on the prairies...AMAZING!  Thank you God that I could get such marvellous exercise today, particularly after the huge dinners I have eaten the last two nights!!  All the walking I have been able to do this month despite the frequent snowfall events makes me feel very much as if God is sitting up there in heaven doing nothing beyond answering my prayers that there would not be the usual giant ice buildup on every surface this winter...thus far, my prayers have been answered beyond my wildest dreams. There must have been an awful lot of other Reginans sending up the same prayers, because the sidewalks are amazingly clear and dry!

My husband arrived home from his very difficult meeting still full of emotion about everything that went down and he was ready to PARTAAAAYYY!!  He needed to get out somewhere different than the inside of this suite and debrief.  So, he persuaded me to get my boots and coat back on and accompany him to Wild Sage.  The poor man had not been fed any lunch at his noon hour meeting and was ravenous on top of being emotionally upset.  What a perfect choice of place he took me to.  We were seated in the lounge as it was mid-afternoon and the dining room was closed.  It was calm, peaceful, there were no tv's blaring at us, the mood music was tasteful and the lighting just dim enough to make the place feel cozy and inviting.  Although it was a bit early for me to be eating anything after my late lunch at home, I did order a small bowl of butternut soup....SO DANGED DELICIOUS!  I also ordered 60z. of my favourite Melipal Cab Sav.  It cost me a ridiculous amount of money, but it is one of the only truly sophisticated wines offered in any of our downtown restaurants, plus I wanted to support my friend the supplier. hahaha  I was counting on the alcohol to lower my blood sugar back to within range since I was cheating by ingesting that unnecessary, but SO delicious, soup!  My husband was delighted with his thin crust pizza and his pint of Original 16.  For me it was such a normalizing experience in the midst of the last of my husband's time consuming job.  We so rarely get to hang out together doing spontaneous things of any kind.  I feel envious when I see other couples grocery shopping, paying bills and running other typical errands together as a matter of course.  My husband and I have had very little opportunity to do that simple sort of "couples' stuff".  

During the evening some emails came in with possibilities for getting together with more friends over the next couple of weeks.  This coming week is very happily busy and all ready plans are coming together for next week as well.  I am delighted that for tomorrow evening's company I will have sufficient chili left over from my husband's last cooking binge that all I will have to do is make some rice and some sort of fancy salad to go with it.  hahaha  I think I will make the same banana and granola dessert that I made for our last two sets of dinner guests as it seems to be quite a hit, plus it will be light after the heavy chili meal.

I have been tracking our son's flight from NYC to Vancouver that left a few hours ago. The flight left on time and is scheduled to arrive on time a couple of hours from now.  Hmmmm....his flight is on time....obviously he is not flying Air Canada!!!

The icing on the cake after this "tailor made just for moi" kind of day was  my favourite football team winning this year's Grey Cup match!  Go Stamps!!  The team has experienced so many GC game disappointments over the past few years that I was very happy to see them in the winner's circle at last.  

Yup, today was MY day, that is for sure.  I hope all of you had such a day to enjoy. Small pleasures, admittedly, but ones that made me feel very happy.  My husband also got another possible job offer today...still likely not the best situation for us, but its very appearance has encouraged us to continue to look over the next month or so and see what else pops up.  The continuing stream of possibilities being brought to his attention is giving us great hope that when the time comes that he is ready to step back into the pulpit or do more teaching, the right position will come along. 

Thank you Lord for a day that made me feel cared for and special.  These are the days I hold in the forefront of my memory during other days when the universe seems like it is out to get me, and me alone! hohoho!!  

One Happy Family

It has been a full Saturday evening on the telephone with various family members....all kinds of little bits of good news to share with each other.

My parents have made the momentous decision not to return to their church.  Dad has a terribly heavy, awkward walker that he must now use at all times and neither of the people who have been driving them to church for years can manage to lift it. Getting it into anyone's car is a struggle. So, the other day they made the decision to remain at home on Sunday mornings.  I thought they would be very disppointed to have to miss the Sunday fellowship with their friends, but then they admitted to me that the main driver who has taken them so faithfully for so many years, has rarely stayed for the fellowship hour following the service.  Mom and Dad haven't been able to partake of real fellowship with their friends there in a very long time.  It has been a source of real frustration for them both. I didn't know that and I feel badly that trying to see their church friends on Sundays has been more of a frustration than a joy.  They seem more relieved than disappointed about leaving church. They had a visit with their pastor and his good concern and care for them made them feel so much better about being the next two people to lower the attendance at services.

Dad had the last of his four back treatments this past week.  There should be more pain relief happening over the next two weeks, but he has all ready seen a vast improvement and is able to be much more mobile than he has been since the early summer.  Mom finally has her schedule of what time of day to take what pills and eye drops all figured out and is coping better than she was when we saw her in October. All things considered, both of them are managing fairly well for the time being.

Our son caught us on SKPE tonight as well.  He has been working like a mad fool at both his jobs for the past couple of weeks.  Tomorrow night he leaves for about ten days in Vancouver.  He is thrilled that so many of his friends there have all ready arranged to have dinner parties. In fact he is busy nearly every night with friends there.  The art gallery where the artist he is curating is showing works has put our son up in a lovely air b'n'b in his old neighbourhood, so he is quite delighted about that. It is close to all the friends he is going to be visiting.  While he is there he is going to be interviewed on one of the Vancouver radio stations, will be doing a joint seminar with his fellow curator on the present art movement on the west coast and giving a lecture about his own works at his former gallery of employment.   As soon as he arrives home he has two articles to write for a couple of arts magazines. One of them is very interesting to his dad and I. The editor has asked him to do a piece on theosophy in Canadian art, after hearing his lecture on Lawren Harris and the theosophy apparent in the works of some of the Group of Seven.  Our son is very excited to be having the chance to present more lectures and do more writing.

He is rather tired out this evening. One of the artists he is working for right now has him preparing 49 canvases, about 30 inches square for new paintings.  The surface is linen and must be primed with 3 coats of primer paint, then wet sanded, then primed again with another 3 coats of primer.  Our son's shoulders are rather achy this evening after a week of using the sander.  Once again though, the hated carpentry his father forced him to learn when he was a teenager is coming in handy in his arts work.  hahaha

My husband spent the day moving the rest of the office furniture, with the assistance of a young and more able bodied assistant.  One night next week a group of four or five volunteers will help my husband remove all the still useable furnishings that have been stored in the basement of the Synod office. They will load it on trucks and it is going to the retail second hand store for Habitat for Humanity. There are some lovely tables and chairs, kitchen food prep tables and what have you.  If I just had the room myself.....  For the past hour my husband has been asleep on the living room sofa, tv blaring, but I am not going to turn it off in case that wakes him up.  He has a tough trouble shooting situation to sort out at a church in the morning, likely his last such difficult meeting before his job ends. 
(11 more working days, teehee...yup, he is still counting! haha) 

I am feeling a bit miserable after eating too much dinner...sigh...but it was SO delicious.  O well, pride doth indeed go before a fall!  24 hours ago I was congratulating myself on being so disciplined with my prime rib dinner, so it serves me right that tonight I overate and nearly made myself ill! hahaha

Happy weekend everyone!

Selective Memories

Recently someone asked me a question about my childhood...something to do with summer holidays when I was in elementary school.  I forget how I answered the question, but this morning when I woke up I found myself thinking about how I spent my summers in between school terms.  I was kind of shocked to discover that, other than a couple of family holidays that were significant to me, I have only three summer memories that include either of my parents.  I have some very happy memories of events that took place with friends during my junior and senior highschool years,  particularly of teen dances at the community centre, but my parents are absent from all but those three.

I remember my father sending me on a long walk to a neighbourhood grocery to purchase some cigars for him on a very hot summer day.  I remember the sweat was pouring off me by the time I arrived home with the cigars; cigars that turned out to be the wrong brand.  So, I had to make the walk all over again in order to exchange them.  Dad told me it was good for me to get some exercise, not realizing that I was actually getting heat stroke. O wow, was I ever ill by that evening.  He felt really badly about making me go to the store twice.  That must have been the summer between grades 5 and 6 because we were in our new house but I didn't have my bicycle yet.  

The second memory I have is also of my talking to my dad as we were sitting in lawn chairs in the back yard of the first house I lived in until I was 9 years old.  I remember we were talking about the house on the corner of our block that had become a run down rental unit and Dad was warning me to be very careful of one of the kids who had just moved into that house.  I forget now what the problem was. I think I was seven years old.

The last memory is of both my parents calling for me to come inside to go to bed on a warm, still sunshiny summer evening.  I was devastated because the other kids from the block were allowed to stay out late to play in honour of it being the first night of summer holidays with no school the next morning. I remember sobbing piteously to both my parents that even our cat was allowed to stay out later than I was that night! hahaha  Ooh, I was feeling incredibly sorry for myself.  What I was not cognizant of was the fact that my mother was the only working mother in the neighbourhood and although I was on school holidays, she still had to be up at the usual time in the morning and that I too would still be arising early so that I could ride with her and Dad when he drove her to work.  I was only in second grade, so was deemed not old enough to stay home alone for the fifteen minutes Dad would be gone, despite my grandparents living in the house next door to us and despite the fact that starting in grade one, I came home after school to an empty house five days a week and spent nearly two hours on my own.  My father drove my mother to work almost every day of her working life...only an illness sufficiently severe enough to confine him to bed would prevent him from making that drive.  He also picked her up every night after work for her entire working life.  I only remember a very few times that my mother was able to take the bus to and from work.  She would have liked to, but Dad felt that he must protect her from whatever dire tragedy he seemed to think was going to befall her while riding public transportation.

So, there now, you have as many ideas about how I spent my summers with my parents as I do!  In the 12 summers between kindergarten and graduation, that is all I can come up with.  I do remember the summer after graduation when my parents were freaking out over my food poisoning that could have resulted in them cancelling a summer trip to Europe had my aunt not been able to talk some sense into them.  

The memory certainly seems to be a selective brain function at times.  Most of my summer memories are non-existent, beyond those few family holidays I mentioned and a handful of good ones of times spent with friends.   Apart from the ones mentioned here, my memories of those growing up summers are zero, zilch, nada, nil, nothing!!  I must have set those memories aside a very long time ago, so long ago in fact, that they have completely disappeared.

 

Fellowship Sweet

It has been another good day.  I didn't take advantage of the final warmer day today by going out and walking, but that is because I spent the day indoors cleaning house instead; still plenty of exercise!

This evening we enjoyed a most delicious meal at the Lakeshore Restaurant with new/old friends! hahaha  He and I grew up in the same church as kids and we have had sporadic contact with him and/or his dear wife over the past 50 years or so, but have not sat down to share repast and a visit for several decades.  What a great time of fellowship and fun we had.  The Lakeshore was not particularly busy this evening, so we sat in a very comfy booth from 6pm until the restaurant closed at 9:30pm, eating, talking, more eating, more talking.  It was lovely all around.

The New York steaks and prime rib were both cooked just as ordered....so tender!  The garlic bread was plentiful and cut into quarter pieces, so I was able to have three tiny slices without violating my diabetic carb intake or eating all my allowed carbs in bread.  Instead I was able to enjoy the small helping of Greek roasted potatoes that accompanied my prime rib, as well as the delicious medley of peapods, red peppers and carrot strips.  There was also a generous portion of mixed greens salad to begin our meal, served with a strawberry vinaigrette that was made of pounded fresh strawberries with just a few beads of sugar and drops of vinegar. (And no, I didn't eat any of that, but my friends found it to be delicious!)  

The staff was so kind to us. There was NO pressure to leave to make room for others since the number of clients was not that great for a Friday evening.  Yes, we did give an extra large tip to our patient waiter as he could likely have had at least one more set of clients seated there during our three and a half hour visit.  Yup, a super good day and even better evening.

Tomorrow I will begin assisting my husband clean all his personal effects out of his office space at work.  I have boxes and old blankets set out for wrapping all his certificates that presently adorn the wall above his desk and another box for the various odds and ends and knicknacks he has aquired over the past nearly four years.  There will be books and binders too.  O my....where on earth are we going to store all these things when they return to our townhouse????  Hopefully we can simply restack the the boxes in the same space they are currently stored in the basement!  haha Every time I think we are getting somewhere with this whole downsizing thing, it turns out that half the things I thought were permanently gone, have actually been at my husband's place of work and have all come back again at the end of each job. hahahaha

In between our evening committments tomorrow, we have to figure out a time frame in which to SKYPE with our son. He leaves for Vancouver the following evening and we will not be home long enough in the afternoon after church to connect then.  Not sure how this juggling will work but I suspect our son's call will end up being the priority of the evening. hahaha  Please pray for him for safe and hassle free border crossings as he travels each way. Thank you.  He returns a week later to NYC. 

I am too full of prime rib and excitement about our evening visit to get to sleep right away, but I have an incredibly boring novel "on the go", so will go now and start reading it.  I should be asleep a couple of pages in, if the last couple of night's attempts to read it are any indication.......zzzzzzz..........

Dribs and Drabs, But Sufficient Encouragement To Keep On Truckin'!

It is 9:30pm and I have just had the most wonderful surprise opportunity to go for a walk outdoors!!!  It is +2C outside after a daytime high of +4C and the pavement, even where it is damp, is still not much frozen nor covered with a layer of icy frost.  While the sidewalks will be a living nightmare come morning, after all this moisture from melting snow has re-frozen overnight, tonight the walking conditions couldn't have been better!  

The reason I was out walkingin the dark...in downtown Regina of all places....eek.... is that after driving to our marvellous choir practise this evening, I was supposed to stop by my husband's office and pick him up to come home after he spent the evening moving furniture with a group of helpers.  However, when I got there at 8:45pm the project was still underway. Not knowing how long he would be, and being very tired myself, I had the brilliant idea to leave the car for him to bring home a bunch of heavy boxes, and walk home.  

BRILLIANT INDEED!  

It was a fantastic little walk!  The moon was beaming down to help the street lights shine on what few little strips of ice were starting to form in a few spots, so I was able to locate them and avoid them. I had my walking cane with me, ice pick firmly attached....oh, it was marvellous, striding along in the warm evening air.  The only unfortunate part about all this warm air and melting snow is that we didn't get strong winds along with it to dry up the moisture, so I am pleased I don't have to risk going out tomorrow.  I will stay home and clean house. The thin layer of ice is going to be dangerous for pedestrians.  The weather is to start cooling off again in a couple of days, so I am thrilled I was able to slip in another walk on this still nice evening, so near to the end of November.

We have had some of our special prayer warriors praying about an outstanding cheque that we have been waiting for, one that is likely still tied up in Toronto due to the mail strike....if it has been sent at all....LONG story and I won't bore you with the details.  It is a reinbursement cheque for expenses from my husband's last study leave and you can imagine we are rather in need of it as we have paid all the expenses now from our own coffers.  It isn't leaving us dire need, it has just kind of messed up my banking plans this month and that is most irritating.  BUT, today my husband received a "farewell, I will miss you" financial gift from a colleague.  It was so unexpected and will cover more than 10% of the reimbursement we are still waiting for.  I was so thrilled to be able to put it into the bank today and start the payback process.  What a lovely thing for this person to do for my husband, AND what incredible timing.

I find such things happen so often: while we are waiting for a BIG answer from God, he sends us all kinds of little answers and helps and aids so that we don't get discouraged during the waiting process.  It never ceases to amaze us.  We are so very grateful. 

It has been a very good day today!  Thank you Lord!

 

Sigh......

Lovely day, lovely lunch, lovely visit with friends in person and via phone, lovely warmth outside....husband comes home and lays one truly teensy bit of  not that bad news on me during dinner and I end up leaving home for the harrowing drive through intense fog to choir practise...the choir that actually practises tomorrow evening, not tonight.  It was the pitch black interior of the building with the securely locked door that clued me in that something was wrong. Even then it took me a full minute of standing on the church steps to figure out why no one else from the choir was there.   Sigh........I think there is still some stress lurking about in the recesses of my apparently befuddled mind.......

My Favourite Sort of Week

We are having another above 0 day today outside.  The sky is foggy and grey but the air temperature is warm and the streets are covered in muddy slop that is turning all the vehicles a dark brown colour as their wheels spray it in all directions.  The heavy frost on the trees is beautiful to see, as the opposing high and low weather systems battle it out for supremacy in the Regina region.

I will be going out for lunch today with a church friend.  We are going to Breakfast Bistro. She has never been there before so I am hoping my good reviews will be relevant to her meal today and she will not be disappointed.  I all ready know I will be having the caesar salad...so different than the other caesar salads in town and it is always fresh lettuce, no wilted brown bits to worry about as a rule, apple slices, pumpkin seeds....a fabulous new take on a caesar salad in my opinion.

Yesterday my husband put on a suit, told me to dress up as well and took me out to the Keg for lunch.  hahahaha He was just so funny, so proud of himself for taking me on a "real" date for the first time in a few years.  We both hate going out for restaurant meals in the evenings during the winter months if going out for lunch instead is an option.  haha  OLD PEOPLE!!!

The full impact of the economic downturn is certainly being felt here in Regina, particularly in the restaurant business. More restaurants are starting to close on Mondays and it is a rare occurrence now to need reservations at noon hour.  Yesterday at the Keg between noon and 1:30pm there were exactly four tables of customers and one fellow that sat up to the bar in the lounge.  Very sad.....

The food was quite good and not badly priced.  It seems their prices have not changed that much in recent years, more that other restaurants' prices have risen to match the Keg's.  My Santa Fe chicken salad was quite delicious for $17 and my husband's 6oz sirloin for $25 looked like a small roast on his plate.  It was a perfectly cooked medium rare and was accompanied by a nice side of peppers and green beans, with his choice of baked potato or fries or salad.  He opted for the fries and there was just the right amount on the plate, although they could have been crispier.  The oil wasn't hot enough for deep frying obviously, or they had not been left long enough in the fryer.  A small complaint.....  The only other complaint is the dismal wine list, although my husband's glass of Alamo cab sav was fairly decent.  My malbec was quite horrible, but now I know to go for the cab sav if we return for another meal.  Apart from the horrible and never ending screeching of a small child at a booth near us, (twas ever thus it seems when I am trying to enjoy a romantic date), it was a lovely date and a good meal for far less money than we expected to pay.  We rehearsed our memories of our times at the Keg in Calgary, decades ago now, and shared a lot of laughter! 

After that was an afternoon of running all manner of errands.  It was good to have the exercise after a big meal.  We stopped in at our favourite oriental grocery store for some tofu and the owner was telling us that over the past six months his over ten thousand dollar a month restaurant business order has dropped to between three and four thousand dollars.  More evidence of difficult times  here in the city.  We came home feeling quite fulfilled and spent the latter part of the afternoon prepping for the O.T. discussion group after dinner.  It also went well. There was very good discussion this time. Our leader, a retired professor in her either 70's or early 80's is learning Hebrew so she had some questions for my husband about what she is learning.  It is forcing him to brush up on his own Hebrew language training.  

This afternoon I am phoning a friend who lives in Ontario.  We haven't chatted for awhile so am looking forward to her "news, views and tattoos!", another obscure expression my mother used to use. 

Tomorrow will be a day to pick up a few groceries and do my husband's laundry.  An almost "stay at home" day that I will be ready for after a couple of days of racing about. I am glad now that we did so little on Monday while my husband was off work.  I had the energy to get a move on yesterday and today.   My husband has the weekend off (at least so far) so we have some plans of our own. Next Monday some new friends are coming over for dinner....yes, this week is working out well with a good combination of activity and rest and spiritual encouragement. 

Good Evening from the SLUG!

So, it would appear that my weeks are going this way lately: one day of intense running about for errands and/or fun and then a day of being so lazy it is embarrassing!!  

Today was a lazy day....a SLUG day! I had a very quiet and lazy morning reading a book until I was sick to death of it, because my husband was having one of his very rare sleep in mornings and I didn't want to make any noise that would awaken him.  He woke up finally at 11:10am!!!  He isn't even ill, just very tired. His body finally took advantage of a non-alarm clock morning and let him rest.  He slept for 12 full hours.  I am thrilled for him because he felt quite good all day after such a good sleep.

We both looked out the window after my lunch and his breakfast, haha, saw a bit of fresh snow and ice cover on the car windshield, looked at each other and decided in our unspoken but mutually understood fashion that going out today was not going to be one of our options. hahaha  The mere thought that we would have to take a couple of minutes to warm the vehicle and scrape the windows was enough to cancel out any thoughts previously held about how we were going to spend the rest of the day. hohoho!!

I wandered upstairs after lunch and had a brief moment of panic when I realized my Mark's Comfy Robe was in the laundry basket awaiting washing, but recovered nicely when I spotted my "lumpy bumpy" thick pile sweater hanging on the back of the bedroom door.  It served me just as well in my quest to remain for the day in my pj's.  My husband didn't bother to get dressed either.

Not sure what we actually did all afternoon, other than watching one tv show while I did my post-prandial exercises.  I have a vague memory of doing some emails and dozing in my office chair.  However, after dinner tonight my energy came back.  I wanted to spend at least the first hour after my meal on my feet, so opted to wash the day's dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher, took out the garbage, swept the snow off the back porch and steps, ran up and down the basement and hallway stairs a few times carting toilet paper to the bathroom closet, hauling a bag of cans of carbohydrated water from the storage to the kitchen and filling my weekly pill popper carton with vitamins.  I deliberately carried only one item at a time up or down the stairs so that I could make as many trips as possible.  It felt good to be moving again....perhaps instead of calling myself SLUG, I should re-moniker myself to SUPER SLUG!!!  Sluggish, but not completely inert, that was me tonight. hahaha

Tomorrow will be a far busier day.  My husband has to be at a prayer meeting at 7:30am and it is a group of men he enjoys spending time with. Then we have to make a trip to the bank for some mid-month bill paying and get in line at the SaskTel office to have some channels removed from our monthly viewing lineup as the cost is more than quadruple what we were told they would cost each month and we don't watch them enough to keep them.  It angers me when the communications company announces by letter that some unasked for channels are going to be added to their regular line up for a cost of five dollars per month, but then my first month's bill for those channels is over twenty-two dollars!  My husband's upcoming EI is not going to be going to pay for that junk!! We have far better junk than that upon which to spend money we shouldn't be spending!!  hohoho!!  After that battle, and it is always a battle with SaskTel in our experience, we will then satisfy my husband's urge to go to the Keg for lunch!!  And lastly, we will wash the muck off the car that covered it from top to bottom from my husband's trip on the gravel road between Lumsden and Pense on Sunday. Only two more trips out there and we will start saving a bundle on car washes! haha 

A friend is taking me out for lunch on Wednesday to the Breakfast Bistro, one of my favourite spots and then on Friday night we will have a steak dinner with my choir director and his wife.  There is lots to look forward to this week!  However, I am behind on my OT readings for tomorrow night's meeting, so I had better go right now and get started!

Radical, Amazing Treatment

An old acquaintance of ours is suffering from an aggressive and somewhat rare form of bone cancer. She was diagnosed a few weeks ago and her days appeared to be coming to a quick end. There has been a large portion of bone missing in one forearm that the cancer ate away, leaving it completely useless. She hasn’t even been able to lift it or pick up a pen. Her oncologist and medical team got her into a treatment program that is as aggressive as the cancer itself. As of yesterday’s check up the bone in that arm, over the course of the last month, has almost completely regrown. Yesterday she was able to start flexing her arm safely. Last evening she was able to pick up a pen and write a few words. Soon she will be tested to see if the treatment is also restoring some missing bone in her spine. I stand amazed at the science that has been discovered to allow for such treatments. I stand amazed that the drugs she must take to counter the chemo nausea and other side effects are working so well. I stand amazed that her faith and trust in God has been so unwavering. She has a large and impressive team of prayer warriors standing with her. The one negative side effect for her has been a dental issue arising from the bone growth treatments, but she has been led to a dentist who specializes in odd dental issues and will soon remove the effected teeth. We are very excited to see these improvements to her body. She was able on the weekend to travel with her husband several hours away from their home to visit a new grandchild.

No one really knows the prognosis of her case. It is still very serious. She may not live a long time despite these improvements. However, we are so happy for her that in the midst of all this medical misery she has been able to receive such benefits from her treatments. Her joy is contagious. Thank you Lord for helping her.

It Is So Nice To Be Enjoying Sundays Again

This morning it hit me just how much I am enjoying church and socializing again of late.  It seems like it has been a long time since I could just relax, be myself and enjoy helping out with a few things.

It was a lot of fun today working with the others assigned to prepare the lunch set up and the food for the congregational meeting.  There is always lots to do in a situation like that, and what a cheery bunch to work with.  The lunch went well, the meeting went very well, our choir anthem was fun to sing and we didn't botch it up, plans were made for next weekend for some socializing at the nearest steak house with some new friends, a lunch "date" was confirmed for mid-week....it was all very good indeed.

After I was done at church I walked a few blocks over to the church where my husband was busy participating in a "town hall" meeting to further discuss the possible closures and amalgamations that will have to happen here in Regina over the next 6-8 months in his church.  The Bishop has extended the period of time for discussion and decision making over what he originally hoped, but he is wise enough to know the people do need some more time and some more direction from the leaders within their own parishes.  I continue to pray that the amalgamations will be as painless as possible....and they will be painful for many people of course...and I also pray that the end result will be a closer walk with God together in unity as the people join together in fewer but larger groups.

We were both rather tired when we got home. I slept badly again last night because my mind wouldn't stop racing about future possibilities and questions I have for the Lord about what is going on in our lives.  It wasn't upsetting and fear based, it was a big dose of wonderment that we are going to have yet another adventure from the Lord at our age!! So glad to be seeing things that way. I wasn't sure at first about this whole situation.

I am hooked on my husband's homemade chili and thawed another carton for us to eat for dinner, haha. It really is fabulous stuff!  As he did his usual thing and made enough for a small army, we have many cartons left.  I need to get them out of the freezer within the next couple of weeks so I have room for the small turkey I want to cook when our son is here in December.

Now it is time to crawl under the covers and do some reading before I go to sleep.  I think I am sufficiently tired to sleep for a longer time than last night.  There is no reason to have to set the alarm as it is my husband's day off tomorrow.  There was some fresh snow tonight and it won't be all that warm tomorrow, so not a lot of incentive to go out, although my husband wants to take me to The Keg for lunch.  We have not been to a Keg restaurant since two years after the downtown Keg opened in Calgary....back in the 1980's!!  Not sure why he wants to go so badly, but I think he wants to do something nice for me while he still has an income.  That is very sweet. He feels badly that we are once again on the path to another unemployment/re-employment adventure, but he hasn't quite caught the same spirit of excitement that is starting to hit me.  I am not looking forward to the rest of the paperwork details that will have to be taken care of over the next six weeks, but once those are looked after it is all good.

What a nice day....people, ministry, another excellent sermon, some laughs with my husband while we watched some tv together this evening (how about those Stampeders, eh??)....a nice day!  I am thankful for it.

Good Grief...Could I Be Any More Relaxed?????

I think my new nickname is going to have to be "Slug"!  Here I sit at 11:20am on a Saturday morning and all I have accomplished today is making breakfast, then having a shower and enjoying a long chat on the phone with an out of province friend!  Once again I am not dressed, but sitting here in my Mark's Comfy Robe staring at the computer screen while I wait until it is time to eat my lunch!  Yikes...I could SO get used to this sort of namby pamby, useless lifestyle.  Sigh.....frightening!!!!

I have a slew of items sitting on the ironing board waiting to be dealt with.  My plan was to do them this morning while my husband was at a church men's breakfast, but obviously I haven't gotten around to that task just yet.  I will do it directly upon finishing my lunch, when I need to be on my feet to keep my blood sugar on an even keel.  At least I think I will....that was supposed to be the after breakfast plan, but......sigh.....lazy, lazy, lazy and slow as molasses is what I am today!  Aaaaargh!!  Winter blues, perhaps?

This is not a good way to prepare to have to kick into overdrive tomorrow morning when I will be out of bed very early indeed, preparing sandwiches for the church meal prior to the autumn annual meeting.  My ride is picking me up at 9:15am and our little food group will be setting the tables, cutting sandwiches and squares, putting food on plates and trays, making tea and coffee, getting table centerpieces in place and on and on. I have to step out of the kitchen long enough to sing with the choir during the service. Hopefully I can sneak out of the choir loft right after our second choir piece so that I can get back to the kitchen in time to complete my assigned tasks before the service ends and people come pouring into the dining room to eat.  After the meeting ends, and it is likely to be a long one with so many decisions to be made and voted on, I have to stay on for the clean up and then try to hoof it over to the Anglican Cathedral a few blocks away to meet up with my husband at the end of HIS big town hall meeting and ride home with him.  The sidewalks are pretty clear of ice, but crossing the intersections where the cars have packed the snow down into curling rink quality ice is incredibly dangerous for me. Hence the need of the ride.  We are both going to be exhausted by late tomorrow afternoon, so I suppose a more restful day like this first is good, necessary even.  

Although it is quite cold outside, the sky is blue and the sun is shining weakly.  Any sun is better than the gloomy and nearly constant winter cloud cover that we have in December and January.  We plugged our vehicle in last night to test out the new cord and plug in my husband installed under the hood.  All works well apparently so we will be able to get the car started even in the coldest weather once again. YAY!

My husband enjoyed the men's breakfast very much and met some more of the men from my church.  They are a great crew.  Now he is working on tidying up his sermon for tomorrow's services out of town.  

We called my mom a few minutes ago. She is celebrating her 91st birthday. Praying her grandson remembers to give her a call.   He is like his father when he is tired: can't keep too many details in his head at one time without getting them mixed up.  Mom is excited because for her special birthday dinner she is ordering a large number of items from her favourite Chinese food delivery service. hahaha  She LOVES Chinese food!

Dad had his third of four back treatments this past week.  It went very well and was pretty painless this time.  It was all over in a couple of minutes, quite a treat after his two hour session last time.  One more session, in hopes that he will be numb enough now in his lower back to be able to sit up comfortably and not have to be lying flat in bed all the time.  Here's hoping.....loads of prayer going up for Dad and all his pain once again.

Well, only a half hour until I can make lunch. Maybe I will go and read a book or something....something that requires very little energy.  I hate to admit that my lazy self is rather happy that my stack of ironing this weekend is only about half the size of my usual load.  Sigh.....SLUG! SLUG! SLUG! SLUG!!!!  hahaha

Black Friday? Not Around Our House!! It is Relaxed Friday Here!

Apparently either today or next Friday is the crazy shopping spree extravaganza known as Black Friday.  As we presently have no shopping apart from the odd grocery item to worry about, I haven't even bothered to check out which Friday all the "sales" (and I use the term loosely after seeing the teensy price drops on retail items during the past two Black Fridays) are happening!!  

For me today is only possibly "Black" Friday because we reached our daytime high temperature of -8C at 9am! Now it is on the way to 2pm and we are down around -13C.  Today, with the chilly breeze making our windchill another nearly 10 degrees colder, it truly does feel like winter and I am not the least bit disappointed not to be out walking today.

My husband was working until after 9:30pm yesterday, along with the Bishop and a volunteer, moving huge pieces of furnture up and down three flights of stairs in the office in order to accommodate the upcoming staff changes.  Once my husband departs the Bishop will be able now to move his office off the main floor, where he is entirely too accessible to folk who wander into the office for the sake of visiting with the staff....the same staff who are so overworked these days that any sort of visiting is nearly impossible to enjoy when there is so much work to be done.  It is nice to have a policy and attitude of hospitality, but things have gone off the rails with that in the past year or two.  The staff never complains about their visitors, but it is amazing to me how many people assume that the office staff have nothing better to do that to drop everything they are responsible for in the course of a morning or afternoon and sit around chatting over a pot of tea. I cannot imagine interrupting someone's work during office hours for no reason other than the fact that I myself have nothing better to do.  Sigh....okay, I admit I would not do as well as my husband's office colleagues at welcoming unwelcome interruptions to my day.  They are gifted at dealing with it. The office manager will also be making a move as she transitions into a shared position of Executive Archdeacon.  After being the office manager for so many years, it will be next to impossible to convince droppers-in that she no longer has the time or privilege of visiting with them.  Getting her off the main floor will give her more of the privacy for confidential work that her new position requires. There will be two more "moving and construction" evenings next week and then all the office spaces and furniture should be stable again for a long time.  Tomorrow afternoon I am going into the office with my husband and we will begin stripping the walls of his office of his various degree certificates, photos and paintings, his shelves of knicknacks and family photos, as he prepares to leave his position permanently.  This transition will become VERY real to us both as it seems not that long ago that we were up in that same office deciding how best to frame and display all these same items.  Wow...how quickly time passes.  We figure if we start the clean out of the personal items from the office now, it will mean less of a rush closer to the actual end date of this position.

After his late and exhausting evening, my husband opted to work from home today.  It is nice for him to have the luxury of being able to answer emails without being interrupted by other emergencies and issues that arise on a daily basis.  He has been able to call some of his office colleagues and they have been able to accomplish mutual work related projects together much more easily over the phone than in the office surrounded by others needing assistance with their projects.  He hasn't bothered to get dressed today and is sitting in front of his computer looking very relaxed and happy.  I WAS dressed until after lunch, when I decided it would be better and more relaxing to put on my Mark's Comfy Robe and do some laundry for the rest of the day.  YAY!

What a wonderfully relaxed Friday.  Work is being accomplished without the usual office stress and within time frames of our own setting.  

Tomorrow morning my husband is joining some new friends at the First Baptist men's breakfast.  He is excited about that.  It will give him a chance to deepen a couple of relationships and to meet some of the men he doesn't yet know from the group, as well as get to fellowship in a relaxed manner with their minister. 

"Relaxed" is the operative word around here for the next couple of days.

I like it!


 

Her: Give 'im Some Chicken Soup....

Him:  
But Madam, there is no point in giving him chicken soup. He is quite dead Madam.  It wouldn't help!

Her:  
It wouldn't hurt!  


Aaaah, I love the old Yiddish comedy routines from long ago! hahaha

I do have a chicken carcass I need to deal with in a few minutes.  It is time to peel the rest of the meat off the bones and make some kind of rice and veggie casserole for dinner. Then I have to decide if I have enough room left in the refrigerator freezer to store a few cartons of soup....since I feel kind of lazy today I can't help hoping the freezer will be too full for any more cartons, what with all the chili I froze a couple of days ago and the loaves of half price bread I bought today.   

It is another glorious November day.  There was a hint of a snow shower very early this morning, but it was all over before 8am and there hasn't been so much as a flake since.  It has been another wonderful day to take a short walk outside.  Although the sun is well hidden behind light grey clouds, there is barely a breeze and it is +1C out there right now.  Just glorious for November!  When the real snow finally comes to stay and temperatures hover around the -20C point and lower, I will have to remember the wonderful outdoor activities still able to be enjoyed in October and early November.  Just fantastic!!

Tonight is choir practise: an opportunity to discover how much music I have forgotten in the past two weeks since our last rehearsal.  Yikes!  The songs are embarrassingly easy and yet I still have a few moments here and there of not quite being able to hear the upcoming transitions in my head.  Sigh....old age....

Our book club was very good last night, very capably led by a former school teacher with an excellent page of questions about the material for us to discuss.  My husband was enjoying his Cursillo meeting at that same time and was able to get a ride home so I didn't have to go driving too far in the dark to pick him up after book club. YAY!

Making plans for a lunch out with a good friend next week.  I have been too tired the past couple of weeks to make any plans with anyone socially.  

Yesterday my husband came home with quite a few news items in regard to how things are going to work out for us financially and for medical coverage should he take or should he not take official retirement from the ACOC in the new year.  Neither scenario was what either of us expected....yikes....not happy news to be quite honest.  It made me feel kind of sad and a bit stressed, but this morning I thought about why I had that reaction.  For a few hours I could feel my joy slipping away.  Then as I thought about it I realized that of course I would have that reaction because I allowed myself to instantly start worrying about two equally disappointing scenarios, neither of which has happened yet.  Of course the details have not been worked out and the problems solved.  It is too early to be able to nail down whether or not this is a retirement or a short period of unemployment prior to a new position.  All the possibilities have not been discovered yet, have not been discussed with the "powers that be".  When the time comes to have to deal with these particular details, we will not only have the rest of the information required, but we will have the emotional and mental energy to do what needs to be done.

How and why do I so easily forget this every time we are faced with these times of limbo about our future plans and possibilities.  LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME!  Of course things have to be thought about and planned for in advance as much as possible, but to waste time worrying over circumstances before all the necessary information is available is an exercise in frustration and upset.  Once we have all the info, THEN we can make the more detailed plans for the future.  In the meantime, LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME!  That is how I have survived every stressful time in our lives for the past thirty years.  LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME. 

Even Jesus said that: Matthew 6:25-34 King James Version (KJV)

²⁵ Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
²⁶ Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
²⁷ Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
²⁸ And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
²⁹ And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
³⁰ Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
³¹ Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
³² (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
³⁴ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Public Domain

  
And Jesus was right, ya' know that?  He was absolutely correct!  When I forget that, THEN I suffer worry and lose joy.  It is time to just QUIT THAT!  I must once again take care to be certain that I only LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME! Following his leading is first and foremost and then the rest of the earthly details fall into place as necessary.  I know this all ready.  I need to be living it.  Amen!!