A Good Day

We enjoyed going to my husband’s sister’s church this morning. Interesting to me though how there was a similar  congregational attitude to the other Anglican churches I have attended the last few years. I am missing my friendly little Baptist church congregation, I admit it.

As soon as church ended we headed over to the new Royal Alberta Museum and spent a delightful afternoon there. So much to see there...I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I suspect the others only agreed to go because I was so obviously disappointed we were unable to go yesterday. It was kind of them to take me and I had the best time! 🥳 If you are ever in Edmonton it is worth a visit if you like museums at all. Lots of Alberta history.

We are too tired to go out again for dinner, but there are delicious leftovers from our first night here! YUM!!!!!!!!

We almost made the decision to leave tomorrow, a day earlier than planned, as there are going to be snow showers, rain and bitterly cold temperatures along most of our route the day originally scheduled. However, unless the forecast is much worse in the morning, we will wait and take our chances. Whatever.....as long as our mailbox at home is not filling up with rain and snowmelt from the storm there today, I don’t think we have to rush home.

It is great to get away, but it is the most interesting feeling to me, one I have not had in decades, that I am actually feeling a pull to return “home” to Regina. Have I been subconsciously putting down roots for the first time in twenty or more years? Hmmmmm.....

Wet Snow and Curry!

We are fortunate in Edmonton today, despite freezing wind gusts like we have constantly in Regina.This morning we woke up to not more than three centimetres of snow on the ground and most of it melted off within a couple of hours despite chilly temperatures.  The city streets are dry.

Reports this afternoon from south of us have revealed massive blizzards in the area we planned originally to be on today. Yuck! So glad we got out of there when we did.

Today for lunch we drove to the Riverbend Mall on Rabbit Hill Road and Terwilliger. There is a fabulous East Indian restaurant there called “Curry Corner”. What fabulous food! The lunch special for $12.75 consisted of a small portion each of green salad, aloo gobi, butter chicken, pakoras in coriander seed curry, saffron rice, papadums and rice pudding dessert. We added in Indian beer and chai. It was delicious. The flavours were outstanding. We made a reservation because it is a tiny venue, but the weather kept customers away, so we had lots of peace and quiet while we ate.

Next we bucked the strong winds driving to Lee Valley Tools to get my indoor tomato growing pots, only to discover they no longer carry them! Ooooh, bitter disappointment! I will ask my friend in Regina what to try next😩. We found a few other small things we needed and it is always fun to look at things there.

Now we are relaxing. When we finally feel hungry again, later this evening, MUCH later I am guessing, we will each make our own omelette! Eventually...urp...big lunch.....burp....

Tomorrow is church followed by a small snack lunch and the a few hours at the Royal Alberta Museum in the afternoon. We hope to take my husband’s sister out for dinner afterward to celebrate her 70th birthday. The trip is going so well and we are grateful.

Outrunning the Storms

We are safely in Edmonton waiting for the sleet and snow to arrive beginning at midnight and carrying on for about twenty-four miserable windy hours. While Edmonton appears to be on the edge of the storm warning area, we may still have up to ten centimetres of snow by tomorrow evening.

We are very disappointed to have to miss the fun and fellowship that was planned both for tonight at the home of Didsbury friends, and also the surprise birthday party in Olds tomorrow afternoon. Sigh.... well, such is life in early spring on the prairies! It happens every year: at least one final huge snowy blowout before the door to winter is firmly closed until the end of October (if we’re lucky, haha). Everyone here understands we have no desire to find ourselves stuck in a raging blizzard because they have all experienced that horrendous sort of drive more than once themselves! I am so grateful for my husband’s wisdom that brought us here a day early instead. Thank you Lord.

The drive up from Calgary was wonderful! After a goodbye visit with my parents at breakfast, we met up with friends at their neighbourhood coffee shop and had a delightful hour of visiting. Then it was on to Didsbury where we dropped in on the friends who were supposed to be hosting us overnight tonight to exchange hugs and prayers before having lunch with the friends in Olds who were originally going to have dinner with us there tonight. So, at least we had the joy of seeing all those friends, just under changed circumstances. After a fabulous chicken dinner at my husband’s sister’s beautiful home, we are resting and relaxing this evening.

I am tired and a little nauseous from a medication I have been taking for the past couple of days. For some reason, nearly every visit to Calgary finds me making a visit to a walk-in clinic with some sudden onset medical issue or other and this visit was no different! Aiiiiii yiiiiii......

Apart from that the trip has gone well, my parents are doing better than I expected, the assistance we were able to give them was substantial and appreciated, we have enjoyed all manner of feasting and fellowship, good driving conditions and...thus far at least....good weather.

Blessings of all kinds have come our way, thank you Lord! The date we leave here will be decided by the weather forecast. At this point we may be heading home a day earlier than planned to avoid a second deluge of snow, but that is yet to be determined.

Life is always an adventure!

Learning Always Pays Off!

Years ago I learned to do the Heimlich Manoeuvre. I was a keener in the class but never since that course over twenty years ago have I needed to make use of my knowledge.

Until today.

When my father began coughing, then choking while sitting beside me in the waiting room of his doctor’s medical clinic this morning. I hollered, “CHOKING!”  and that sent the administrative staff racing down a couple of different hall ways seeking a doctor free to assist. Since it was obviously going to take awhile for anyone to come back, I grabbed dad, stood him up and did my Heimlich thing. Thanking God that it worked. The pill he tried to swallow earlier that morning had lodged itself into his esophagus and just as a doctor came racing toward us, the offending medication popped out of dad’s throat and flew across the room. Whew!

At dinner tonight it happened again when a corn niblet pulled the same stunt as the morning’s pill.

Dear Dad: DRINK THE WATER you are supposed to drink before you take your morning pills and also before, during and after your meals! Stop being so stubborn! What is it with your generation’s refusal to drink water???? I will not be here to save you for more than another day or two. DRINK THE WATER!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Hopefully there will be no more of these episodes....50 years of surviving rheumatic fever, heart attacks and heart disease, devastating bone breakage and dental disaster from osteoporosis and all manner of other things and now I have to worry he is going to leave this earth by choking on a pill the size of a cake sprinkle????

Sigh......

Great Trip Thus Far

Happy times to start this trip! Headed out after Easter Sunday church (will make for a happy blog post later on) for the lamb dinner with friends in Moose Jaw: 25 peoples’ worth of chaos, cooker smoked lamb, spicy sausage, salads, dips and crackers, roasted potatoes and root veggies, dreamy, creamy pavlova and chocolate caramel cake and muffins with smooth icing roses, wine, cider, limeade....it was amazing. We slept very soundly in the guest room that night. The next morning we took a long walk through greening Wakamow park before heading to Medicine Hat. Good roads, perfect driving weather, pub grub supreme at Mauro’s, another excellent night of sleep and back on the road in the sunshine. We stopped for lunch and groceries at Siksika Nation then on to my parent’s facility, where we unloaded everything into the guest suite only to discover the desk clerk could not find the key for the guests to use. My parents had to wait another hour to see us while the key was found and we got unpacked! We ate in the facility dining room with them for the first time since they got the new kitchen built and the onsite chef. It was delicious and I no longer have to feel terrible about horrible food being served to my folks.  There was a comedy of miscommunication between my husband and I over the location of our car in the guest parking lot, but that too is worth its own post once we have internet connection again and are not wearing down my husband’s phone battery using it as a hot spot to run out computer networks.

So, more interesting posts than this to come, but thus far all is well, my parents are doing better at the moment and we have lots of time free each evening to see friends. This break away from home has all ready been good to us! Thank you Lord.

LIght Blogging Ahead

Well...I am not so jealous now that my son got to see the fight I had to miss.  It ended in round 6 due to an inadvertent low blow and that was the end of the fight.  How ticked off I would be had I paid to see it on ppv.

Anyway, we are heading out on our road trip soon and will not have as much internet access as usual this time.  So, there will be very few blog posts I am guessing and not many chances to answer email.

The weather is not looking really great for the last half of the trip so I can only pray we do not end up in the middle of a giant spring snowstorm, hahaha.  We DO have that habit when we travel at this time of year!

The bag of footwear and jackets I have to take is larger than my suitcase, but I have learned it is wise to be prepared for any and all weather situations for April jaunts.

Here's hoping all is well with our families this visit.....

Ta ta for now........stay happy and patient and kind to one another!

Somewhat Jealous of My Own Son Tonight...Because.....

......he gets to meet up with friends and see the Crawford vs Kahn fight on pay per view!!!  

I could pay the eighty-five dollars or more to see it here on ppv in my own living room, but as jealous as I am, I'm not THAT jealous!!  hahahaha

I sure do hope my son and his friends get their money's worth tonight with a full twelve round match!  At least he will be able to tell us who won the fight and then if it ever does get shown on either Fox or TSN a few weeks or months from now, we will still be able to enjoy watching the actual fight and pay good attention to the round by round compubox stats.  If there is no KO we will be interested to see how the ringside judges score the fight in comparision to those statistics and in comparison to what we think we see for punches that count for points.  

Aaaaah son, you are so fortunate....my dream is to attend a fight in person at Madison Square Gardens some day and be able to afford to sit ringside and not up in the nose bleed section where I would still be watching the fight on a giant screen with the actual fighters reduced to tiny ant-like creatures down on the floor level.

So grateful my son is living his own NYC dream these days....although he does need another job of some sort in about one week's time.........for our son NYC equals dreams coming true!

Take Heart Clergy Persons During Holy Week Services!

Well, No Wonder We're Confused!!

"Courage is knowing it might hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that's why life is hard."
--Jeremy Goldberg

A Thirty-Five Hundred Dollar Hit....OUCH!!!

The past couple of days have gone by in a blur!  There has been a lot of driving around, there have been some unexpected stresses, there was a wonderful Tennebrae service, there has been the disappointment of other Holy Week services missed due to exhaustion....just a crazy couple of days added onto an all ready stressful week.

We arrived Wednesday evening in Moose Jaw with lots of time for my husband to get robed up and ready to be a server at the Tennebrae.  What a lovely service!  Our friend is an excellent leader and I wish she had more opportunities to lead services.  Tennebrae is a very meditative and contemplative service and she did a wonderful job.  The candlelight is so calming, the responsive readings so apt, the readings from teachings of St. Augustine and others in this particular version of the service are so encouraging.  It was like an oasis in the desert for us mentally and spiritually after the exhaustion of communicating with the pension and health plan officers earlier in the week.  The weather was lovely, perfect for driving, my eye behaved itself through the entire service.  What a perfect service for the two of us to attend this week.  My husband was so wrapped up in the scripture readings at a couple of points that he forgot to sit down when he was supposed to!  But he did okay apart from that.

The next morning, after a very good sleep, it was back to MJ to get the tires changed on the car and have some small maintenance items looked after.  Panda is really honest about what things DO NOT need to be done, or that can wait for another few thousand kilometers, so when they handed us a list of what needs to be done in the next 3 months, we were very unprepared for all the items.  We were prepared to spend the eleven hundred dollars we had to spend yesterday for the tires and other work, but another twenty-four hundred dollars of needed work should be completed in the next three months. Happy that my husband still has his EI during that time, but it was quite a shock to find out that the front shocks are nearly done in.  It shouldn't have been any surprise because the woman we purchased the car from told us when we bought it two years ago that she had been driving on some terrible rural roads quite regularly and the car could have strut issues.  We just hadn't been thinking much past this tire change, so weren't ready for the news.  There are some oil and transmission seals needing replacing and other things that go with having a vehicle that is a few years old and we are happy to have the work done after our trip away, but we have to do some new budgeting over the next few months, that is for sure!! hahaha O how thankful we are for EI!!!  It will help a lot if we can save even more carefully after our trip west.  

The time we spent wandering about in downtown Moose Jaw while the car was being repaired was really great!  We met up with a friend from our former church there and had a great visit over coffee.  We ran into my husband's former parish assistant, the daughter of other good friends and a former church friend as we walked through the area.  We visited the library, the new sari-sari store and ate a nice little vindaloo and korma lunch at the Royal Spices restaurant on Main.   The exercise we got from all the walking was good for us both!

Driving there and back in glorious sunshine was healing to our bruised feelings about the upcoming costs of vehicle repairs!  However, just as we were about to leave home again for the Maundy Thursday service at First Baptist, we stopped and took a good look at each other, then decided we were far too tired to go  out again.  It was disappointing to miss the service, but you know, we were both in bed before it would have ended and we slept many hours before waking up for breakfast this morning.  Apparently the Lord knew how badly we needed to sleep and feel rested.    

Today we are missing the combined Baptist Good Friday service, partly to stay rested for our upcoming trip, partly because we haven't yet adjusted back to the Baptist service that involves singing and choirs, when we are happily used to the more Anglican tradition of calm and quiet and the stripping of the altar just before we all leave in contemplative silence.  I never did appreciate the evangelical common practise of celebrating everything from the arrest to the resurrection on Good Friday and sometimes even before, like our choir concert did on Palm Sunday evening.  I find it jarring and while I don't begrudge anyone else their own way of practising Holy Week services, we couldn't face that today.  At least we SHOULD make it to the Resurrection service(s) on Sunday morning!!  This is the first time in many years my husband has not at least attended all the Holy Week services!  He feels so odd as a priest not getting to very many of them this year.

Instead of church services today, we spent our morning talking about some conclusions we seem to be drawing about the future.  In the spirit of the losses experienced on Good Friday, we gave up to death a particular vision we had been expecting, perhaps even hoping for originally, in regard to our future.  It all felt right as we discussed it and prayed this morning.  We will utilize our trip away to try to gain even more perspective, present our change of ideas to some spiritual elders along the way and see what they would offer for counsel and if we are still fairly certain about our change of plans once we return, then we will start taking the necessary steps to bring them to fruition and trust God for the outcome.  If we make a mistake we know it will become apparent in a big hurry!!  haha

We are seeing God beginning to move again in his own way in the area of providing for our extra needs, particuarly in regard to this trip.  All ready a donation was given to us from friends who wanted to assist with the costs associated with this journey.  Friends and family who want to see us while we are in Alberta have offered us meals and places to stay in their homes.  Recently a friend gave me a huge bag of beautiful, plump, juicy chicken breasts from a local farmer so I haven't purchased any meat in some time.  These unasked for little indicators of God looking after us if we are faithful to just do what comes to us each week to do, in the areas of ministry, are making us feel even more secure and more trusting of his care in the midst of the confusion, some of the stressful events surrounding health care benefits, car repairs and a host of other things I haven't blogged about.  He is keeping us on our toes and we hope we are seeing him at work and responding as we should.  We have walked this "path of provision from God's hand" before and it will be interesting to see how far down that same path we wil have to go once again after EI runs out before or until we find a regular source of at least part time income again.

Life is VERY EXCITING, stresses and all.  Seeing God at work never fails to make us aware of the greater spiritual world all around us.  

Although we are still very tired today, we are encouraged that even the stresses are causing things to work out as they should in our lives.   

The prayers and scriptures we read together this morning pertaining to the death of Christ on the cross was just what we needed to do as part of our contemplation of what his death means to us and to the world.

I DO Hope the Drowned Rat Look is in Vogue Today!

We woke up this morning to quite a downpour outside. Fortunately, thus far at least, that downpour has restricted itself to the outdoors and has not yet inundated our basement.  All the patching my husband has done over the past 3 summers seems to be working fairly well to date.

I had to run a bank errand downtown this morning, so decided to take the bus rather than arrive at the bank soaked to the skin.  That was disappointing as I had been anticipating a good long walk after breakfast, but no matter. The necessary arrangements at the bank were made and by the time I came back outside the rain had let up quite a bit, so I decided to enjoy the walk home.  About three blocks into the walk the clouds began to dump yet again, so I was thoroughly soaked by the time I arrived home, but o how glorious it was to be out there enjoying every ice-free, snow-free step!!  Despite the rain the air temperature was very comforable and I only wore my gloves to keep my hands dry.

I stopped in at Naked Bean for a small matcha latte along the route and that warmed me up as a chilly wind began and followed me for the rest of my walk.  How pleased I was to have the discipline to NOT order myself a cookie as well!  thank you Lord!!  The Earl Grey and the lavender cookies are superb, but despite a fresh batch of each being loaded into the glass display counters, I remained strong (for once!) and came away quite content with the low sugar content of my latte.  

I was only home a few minutes before my husband arrived home from his Lenten breakfast and service with the guys, so now I have the vehicle to take in a few moments for a second trip out to complete another banking transaction across the city.  So good to be getting these things done before our trip away.

The rain may just clean up some of the dust around here....at least it will once the street maintenance people are able to muck out the storm sewers in the downtown area.  I skirted many a huge a puddle down there on my walk home.  

Hopefully I can have a bit of a rest after more running around, lunch and some home chores, before we race through a light dinner to get to Moose Jaw on time.

For you prayer warriors: Kat's cancer clinic appointment was moved up to today from next week.  She is relieved not to have to wait the extra week.  Her appointment is early this afternoon if you find this post and have a few moments to remember her then.

Beebee is having deep brain surgery tomorrow in the hope that her seizures of many years running will stop and she can once again be a proper mom to her two toddlers.  It is dangerous surgery that can have terrible side effects, BUT she has no choice if she wants to retain what is left of her memory. Each seizure takes more of her memory to the point that although she is a young woman, not married too many years, she all ready has no memory of meeting her husband.  So many scary things have been happening to her and we pray for her deliverance from this horrible problem.

Praise report:  Our son was able to pay over half his tax bill immediately on tax day in the USA.  His job ends today, so he is still scrambling to find another at least part time job to pay off the rest of it. Part of the praise report is that he is cheery and expectant that God will lead him.

Thank you for praying.  Everyone asking for prayer or reporting praise items in response to your prayers is SO appreciative that people they don't even know care enough to think of them.

The Eyes Have It!

At least my right eye does!

And what does it have? It has the ability to see any number of things that do not exist! It sees notes on pages of music that are not there. It sees words spelled correctly in my blog posts that are not spelled correctly. It in fact sees entire words in my blog posts that should be there but are actually missing! It is a talented eye indeed and thus far my brain seems happy to cater to its new and unusual abilities!

If everyone could see what I see they would be very happy with my posts and not find it necessary to point out my blog post errors and be free to seek lives of their own. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Teehee..... 😉

Entering the Whirlwind of the Future!

What a crazy few days around here!  Mostly good times, but with some stresses starting up about what we should do in the future.  We seem to be entering that limbo time after a time of complete rest, that always comes before the making of final decisions. All things are going as expected in that sense.

Sunday evening was our Easter seasonal choir concert with the addition of a handbell group, a small singing group, guest musicians and soloists....it was fun and I enjoyed it, but mostly, to be honest because of my friend that came with me this year.  Between the eye issues and some personal and family stresses, I admit my mind and heart were not as with it as last year.  Our director has his own mind filled with some terrifying extended family situations and it kind of showed in his attitude and his distraction and his determination to drive himself forward with overwork.  I feel for him. The attitude among the choir members this year was the complete opposite of my experience with them a year ago.  Everyone it seems is troubled these days about some kind of larger issue and it effected the aura of the whole experience. There was little reaching out to the seasonal members, very unusual and uncomfortable.  On the happy side: we sounded better than usual as a choir and in total we had 120 more guests in the audience than we had for last year's Easter concert, despite another huge and popular concert going on across town.  I am happy for our stressed out director!  I pray it encourages him. I personally only sang 3 notes that were not actually on the page, but appeared thanks to the floating dots in my right eye as it tired over the course of the very busy day of dress rehearsal and final performance.  I think only one of them was heard by anyone else....as notes often are when only one person is singing them during a 1/4 rest in the bar of music that everyone else in the choir is obeying.  Sigh.....

Yesterday was a very stressful day indeed, exacerbated by how tired we both were from the day before.  My husband was preaching out of town Sunday morning and had not slept more than a couple of hours the previous night, so he didn't even make it to my concert in the evening.  hahaha  He didn't sleep much better that night, so the stresses of yesterday were particularly difficult to deal with.

The stresses revolved around pensions held in abeyance, resulting problems with continued extended health care coverage, running about the city checking out alternative medical plans, not being able to connect with the pension office in Toronto, a key person in the group of former office colleagues who is advocating for this benefit business on my husband's behalf being out of the office very ill and on and on and on it went all day, one frustration and closed door after another!  Just a crazy, wierd, mentally exhausting day as we attemped to at possibilities and make decisions without sufficient information available to be able to!  Aiiii yiiiii......

We were both so tired that we each had a wonderful sleep last night.  Unfortunately it ended at 6:45am so my husband could get to his early morning weekly prayer meeting, BUT we woke up feeling well, feeling rested and feeling more in charge of our own thoughts!  After the prayer meeting my husband made another attempt at going into the office to see if he could get any help with this pension/medical coverage issue and lo and behold the very ill person was back at work and more than ready to help him.  The head pension office person was also available to talk and the two of them are advocating for him to continue to receive the same medical benefits he has been getting until either he has another job with the denomination/he reaches the end of his EI and officially retires because he still has no work with them.  We won't have the answer immediately from the medical insurance company, BUT the diocese here has decided that requesting continued coverage while he has a few job applications outstanding that won't be hiring for a few months, plus the fact that he was laid off unexpectedly, equates to part of his severance package and the pension office can use that as leverage to get him some help for at least a few more months.  It is a long and complicated story, but that is the shortest version and as of today things are looking much brighter than they were yesterday.

This afternoon we toured a "reasonably priced accommdation for seniors" that several of our church friends live in.  Weeelllllll....it isn't bad as apartments go and the new manager has made some wonderful upgrades and changes there in the past two years....including a completely revamped energy system that saved them over fifteen thousand dollars last year in utility costs and gave them that much from the original budget to move over into the contingency fund for emergency building repairs. He and his wife live onsite and it is their main job to look after the place. They are doing well by the look of things. I suspect they "run a tight ship."  YAY!!

So, we came home armed with all kinds of facts and figures to think about.  The rents have gone up there since we first enquired a couple of months ago and even though the basic utilities are included in the rent, IF we can soon sign another lease here where we are for a year and have our previous rent credit restored, we won't be paying that much more to keep: our basement storage, 3 bedrooms instead of 2, the dishwasher, washer and dryer in our present suite that we don't have to share with other tenants and that we don't have to put coins into when we do laundry, the view of the park, the closeness to public transporation, and neighbours on only one one side of us. Our present suite is also farther from the downtown core and there is a fair amount of vehicle vandalism at the place we toured today.  Our friends who live there told us that.  I am glad we toured the place because it is the best of the possible options for moving and it seems rather inadequate for us at present. We are not quite ready to give up that many of our things that we still use and enjoy when they are all quite happy right here in this crazy building we present occupy.  As we check out other available places, we are seeing more and more the good reasons to stay put if possible.

I think what is starting to happen this week is that we are being prepared to make a decision fairly soon as to whether we are staying here or moving on.  There are so few pastoral jobs my husband can apply for at his age and in his situation, that he is becoming more attuned to the possibility of part time secular work to help pay the bills and give him something to think about, if it comes to that.  Slowly the direction seems to be coming and we are feeling more content about some of the particulars.

It is all good!  I think getting away next week for a few days will give us the necessary space and distance from here to take a look at the broader world again and become more comfortable about making a decision about where to go in the case of having to retire, or else how much harder and further afield for a ministry position my husband feels he needs be looking.

Right now we are very much looking forward to the Tennebrae service tomorrow evening in Moose Jaw, spending a bit of time in that fair town again the following day while our car is being serviced and repaired there, spending some quality prayer time together on Good Friday, getting packed up on Saturday, then heading off on Sunday to have a special Easter dinner with out of town friends as we make our way westward to see our families.

My husband has his final Lenten breakfast with his Anglican buddies tomorrow morning and is teaching the next lesson in Old Testament Overview for the Qu'Appelle School For Mission and Ministry in the afternoon, before we head out of town for the Tennebrae.  So, lots going on this week but it is "good stuff".  There is much to look forward to, as there is the following week.  The Easter services at church on Sunday should be really great: sunrise service at the Wascana marina followed by the regular service at the church where our choir will sing the Hallelujah Chorus along with any congregation members who want to leave their seats in the pews and come to the choir loft to join us.  I was sitting in the congregation last Easter when that happened and it was a powerful way to end the service of Resurrection joy.

I am grateful for our present journey despite uncertainties, roadblocks, confusion of all kinds.  There are also many peaceful, good, enjoyable and fun things happening in life and we are excited to see what is going to happen next!

 

It's Time To Start Researching The Future Possibilities

The complete peace we have had since the middle of last December when my husband's job came to an end has begun to morph into that somewhat disquieting feeling, that niggling suspicion, that it is now time to start researching a few more future possibilities.  Although in the financial arena it is still a few months until we HAVE to force ourselves to do anything at all and although my husband is still a bit leery of having too many daily committments when he knows he has been given a time of rest and recovery by the Lord, it IS time to begin some research here.

To that end we have an appointment on Monday morning with a medical insurance company and possibly a second appointment in the afternoon with another company, plus we have begun online research into lower cost housing and have an appointment on Tuesday to look at one of the possibilities brought to our attention.   The city and provincial residences for low cost housing are depressing in the extreme and in scary neighbourhoods.  If that is the best we can do here it may be a sign we will be leaving the city for somewhere that may be less appealing in the overall, but less frightening as far as accommodation and its surrounding area.

Until I know what my OAS monthly payout is going to be, come July, and until we know how long my husband's pension office is willing to keep his retirement income on hiatus, it will be difficult to apply for anything just yet, but we do need to know the possible options so that we are ready to get going when the time comes.

My husband has also decided he is not taking on any more Sunday preaching and presiding committments after his next two that take him into early May. He is reducing the number of volunteer weekly committments as well.  Whether or not we are soon moving, even if we aren't moving for a long time yet, there are many projects that must be completed here at home.  Once the rest of the unnecessary papers and personal belongings are gotten rid of, we still to consolidate the storage and use of what is left.  It is going to take a couple of months to do these things thoroughly and properly, so getting rid of the stressful and time consuming "other" committments outside the home is crucial if we are going to move into whatever the future holds with any joy or peace at all.  We and he in particular have never had time for self-care and the resulting build up of past due projects is daunting to say the least.  However, God has provided this extended time for us to get ourselves and our belongings prepared for the future and we cannot waste this gift any more.  We are completely on the same page about this.

Today is laundry day, a few other errands must be run this afternoon, there is a sermon my husband needs to have ready for the Palm Sunday service he is taking tomorrow and completion of his Old Testament overview lesson for the middle of next week.  Then there are precious few days left to be ready to leave for our short trip west.  

In the midst of that are several  Holy Week evening services we would like to attend.  As this is the first year in the past 15 my husband has not been in charge of any of the Holy Week services, we intend to enjoy them to the fullest, mostly as congregation members sitting in the pews taking in all that is offered.  We are going to attend the Tenebrae service in one of our former churches mid-week, (and may be privileged to help there if they are short of readers), as there isn't one at the Baptist church, but First Baptist is having a Maundy Thursday service we will attend.  We have decided to skip the joint Good Friday service shared together with the other Baptist churches in the city.  We are used to the dim lights, quiet meditation, deliberate lack of singing and the stripping of the altar at the Anglican services.  Having a joint Baptist choir and an air of celebration leading up to Easter Sunday still kind of grates on us, the way it has all our lives even before we were in the Anglican church.  The Anglican church portrays well the darkness that was the experience of the disciples of Christ prior to his execution.  If we can experience that again this year we will both feel more prepared for the wonderful service of celebration at First Baptist on Easter Sunday morning where the choir and any others who wish to participate will gather at the end of the service to sing The Hallelujah Chorus in celebration of the Resurrection.

Then it will be a day of packing for our trip the following week.  So excited to be able to share in an Easter Sunday dinner with friends out of town and then stay overnight with them to shorten our drive to Alberta the following day.  

Looking forward to so many good things coming along, in both the immediate and long term future.
 

It’s Nearly Over For Another Year...Another Openin’, Another Show

Choir rehearsal was fun last evening. My friend showed up with a gorgeous new hairstyle that has me considering a change of stylist myself. The resident seasonal choir diva finally arrived for her first rehearsal with us and was quick to inform us that her absence has been due to another weekly rehearsal for a concert that was much more important than ours, haha. Listening to her I felt like I was back in one of the small towns we once lived in as there has been a resident music diva in each of them....hilarious! Aaaah, I love the girl, just find her amusing. We sounded pretty good last night, so that was encouraging, since the concert is this weekend! haha

Thrill of the evening was the arrival of Kat! She was feeling  well enough and was sufficiently pain free to stay for the entire rehearsal. I could hardly believe it and I pray she isn’t suffering unduly today. She loves to sing and, as she said, the release of the happy endorphins is good for her.  

All in all a happy, productive evening! My eye was freaking out by the time I got home, but after some drops and a good night’s sleep, it is behaving itself this morning. 🥳

Time to get ready to go for my haircut. I love getting my hair done. I will have a nice walk up to the salon and back with perhaps a salad from Zam’s in between. Some window shopping will be in order. It isn’t exactly warm outside, but the sun is shining brilliantly, so it will be wonderful for a long walk!
My husband will appreciate the time alone to work on his sermon for Sunday morning.

Happy Friday everyone!

One Very Interesting Book!

I am reading a most enjoyable book at the moment: "A Scot's Quair" by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.  The approximately six hundred pages contain a trilogy of stories about the Scotland of the early 1900's, where the author, whose real name is James Leslie Mitchell, grew up.  "Sunset Song" was first published in 1932, "Cloud Howe" in 1933 and "Grey Granite" in 1934.  In his somewhat short life the man wrote 16 books and if the rest of the stories are as interesting as these three seem to be, I would love to read them as well.  His interpretation of life in his area of rural Scotland is written with much Scottish dialect and I have spent a good deal of time online discovering the actual meaning of some of the unfamiliar words.  There is also a great deal of wit and humour.

Here is a brief excerpt from "Sunset Song":

"...the wee hall...had fine glass windows, awful old, the wee hall with three bit creatures of queans, not very decent-like in a kirk, as window-pictures.  One of the queans was Faith, and faith she looked a daft-like keek for she was lifting up her hands and eyes like a heifer choked on a turnip and the bit blanket round her shoulders was falling off her but she didn't seem to heed, aand there was a swither of scrolls and fiddley-faddles all about her.  
     And the second quean was Hope and she was near as unco as Faith, but had right bonny  hair, red hair, though maybe  you'd call it auburn, and in the winter-time the light in the morning service would come splashing through the yews in the kirkyard and into the wee hall through the red hair of Hope.  And the third quean was Charity, with a lot of naked bairns at her feet and she looked a fine and decent-like owman, for all that whe was tied about with such daft-like clouts."

--page 8. (published by Hutchinson and Co.(Publishers Ltd); London, 1946.)
 

Crazy Happy Busy

The past couple of days have seen continued chilly temperatures, but at least the sun has been shining brilliantly!  So enjoyable even when walking in the wind.

Yesterday consisted of two remarkable visits with two very different women who are so encouraging and so needing to be encouraged.  It was a good day of walking long distances, drinking tea, sharing a small cinnamon bun treat, talking, talking, talking and more talking.  I had the company of one of the women on our walk home around the lake after the tea and cinnamon bun over at Sweetie Pies coffee bar on Albert Street, just north of the lake. (I had not been to Sweetie Pies before and found it to be bright, airy, staffed with very nice people and, with a seating capacity of only 30 customers, very comfortable to sit in.  Open 8am - 3:30pm, it has a small menu of breakfast items, lunchtime soups, sandwiches, sweets and various teas and coffees.  Definitely a place to return to for a relaxing small meal or snack time.)

All the walking and yapping certainly left me tired out, so I spent a quiet evening watching tv with my husband and dithering over cooking a rather late dinner.  Into bed early where I had a great sleep until 3am today!  THREE AM???  No idea why!  Eventually I went back to sleep just after 5am, but my poor husband, who awakened at the same time I did, was unable to get back to sleep until after 6:30am, only thirty minutes before the sweepers and leaf blowers arrived to clean out our court's parking lot of its winter accummulation of dirt, sand and assorted garbage.  The poor man was up again before 8am for the day!

This morning I cleaned the upstairs of this suite...at long last it is done and done well.  My husband made himself a small lunch and walked a few blocks to a noon hour ecumenical minister's symposium.  The presenter today is a local Presbyterian minister. She has just been appointed as national moderator of her denomination in Canada, so she had lots of interesting news to share. My husband met some ministers he hadn't talked to before so he enjoyed that as well. 

After he arrived home we ran a few errands and washed our filthy vehicle. It was in bad need of it, that is for sure.  The last couple of rain/snow mixes made a muddy covering over the entire body of the car, so it was wonderful to rediscover what colour it actually is once we got the mud off it again.

Tonight is choir rehearsal....the last one before Sunday's dress rehearsal and concert.  I am just tired enough still from a combination of the recent eye incident, the daily weather changes, last night's broken sleep, some new unemployment related niggling stresses and the re-introduction of long walks out of doors, that I confess I don't feel like singing tonight.  It will be good for me to be at the rehearsal, but I sure don't wanna go!  I will be glad when the concert is over on Sunday as I find the whole day dreadfully long.  I will only be home from the morning service for less than three hours before it will be time to go back to the church for the "big night". SO grateful a friend of mine has joined us for this seasonal choir extravaganza because having her there has kept me interested in it all.  

Well, it is time to start peering around the refrigerator shelves so I can decide what to have for dinner.  One of the women I visited yesterday gave me six gigantic farm fresh chicken breasts to bring home and we cooked two of them lat night.  One of them was more than sufficient for dinner, I ate part of the other one on a sandwich at noon today, and there is still enough left for both of us to slice up and fold into warm pita breads we picked up today at Amado's on 4th Ave. east....a new style with just a tiny bit of cheese and cracked black peppercorns that turn a simple pita into a taste treat!! 


Hmmmm....perhaps I won't have to do that much peering and could have a short nap instead!

Things So Rarely Turn Out As Planned Around Here, hahaha!

So, the entire downstairs has at least been cleaned and polished up, BUT, did I get to it when I completed my last posting here, like I said I was going to? OF COURSE NOT!! hahaha

I no sooner hit "Publish" on my blog page, than my husband came to me and asked me if I would please come with him to run a short errand, then come to lunch with him at the Vintage Tea Room!  Wha'????  Lunch out after just having had breakfast out?????  Again I say, "Wha????"????  However, he was bound and determined we were going to do that, (Don't ever argue with this man when he is determined to go on a date! So there!!), so I sighed to myself, grabbed my purse and away we went.   (Now if I could just figure out a way to have dinner out as well....a triple play would be awesome!  However, we used the last of our half price restaurant coupons at lunch time!  Maybe just as well.....???? hahaha)

So, I began my housework exactly 2 hours after I planned!  BUT IT IS DONE NONETHELESS!!  I am so happy.  Thank you Lord!

As I was dusting I fielded a call from a long time good friend from Vancouver Island. I love talking to her. Even though we only see each other about once or twice per decade, that woman knows how to talk to me on the phone: in short bites.  I think the longest we have ever spent at one time on the phone is 30 minutes and that only rarely. She can say so much and draw so much out of me in a very few words and phone minutes.  It was lovely and I accomplished a lot of dusting as we had our short chat of less than fifteen minutes. Bless you friend. You know who you are!

I also got a timely call from Kat, just as I was wanting a few minutes' break between the living room and dining room tasks.  She had good news that she has received her new patient package from the cancer clinic and has all ready been assigned an intake navigator she can call any time.  They are sorting out which doctor will be doing her surgery and they want to do it as soon as possible.  O wow....all great news!!!  She and her roomie are hoping to come to our place for our next visit together as Kat is more mobile now due to pain reduction than she has been.  I am thrilled that a few things are finally going RIGHT for my new friend.  She is finally experiencing normal post-op pain levels and mobility. Thank you Lord!

Hmmmm.....just realized it is time to go to the kitchen and begin scouting for a bit of dinner for the two of us here.  For lunch we both had a small bowl of the Vintage Tea Room's delicious potato soup...big chunks of soft potato in a creamy broth.  I had half a ham sandwich....real ham, not deli pressed disaster fat!  My husband had the egg salad sandwich and we shared a slice of the sticky gingerbread cake....it is the same size for five dollars that most restaurants are now charging eight to ten dollars for and it is truly delicious!!  So glad I ate the lightest possible breakfast this morning and was ready to eat a solid British lunch.  Hopefully I wore it off with all the vaccuming, dusting and floor washing this afternoon!

Tomorrow my husband and I will each be going in different directions across the city, both in the morning and afternoon for various pastoral sharing/friendship visits.  Despite rather cool temperatures being forecast we each plan to walk to at least one of our destinations...knowing my husband he will walk to both of his.  Looking forward to the day and also to the next day when SO FAR we have no plans away from home and hopefully I can complete the housecleaning upstairs!

Have a fabulous evening!

There MUST Be Another Spring Storm On the Way!

All the signs are there: the hares have not lost all of their brown fur yet; we have not yet experienced the spring stampede of spiders through our living room and kitchen as they leave the dark corners of their basement hibernation quarters and try to get themselves back outside to better hunting grounds; the geese and other migratory birds are still reduced in number during this time of return; the mid day temperatures are barely reaching their forecast highs; the periods of sunshine are short and the rest of the time the sky is a steel grey; the wind is gusting again and it is REALLY COLD!!!  

We nearly froze walking a short distance from the parked vehicle to the lovely warm interior of the Conexus Centre this morning for the Lieutenant Governor's breakfast.  We were both wearing dress suit jackets that would have been too warm without the intense wind, but that were barely adequate for even that short distance.  When we came out a couple of hours later, instead of it being sunny and warmer, the wind was stronger and colder!  YUCK!!  

I think I will confine my exercise today to the start of a thorough housecleaning this afternoon!  I have no committments until mid morning tomorrow and have been pining for a day with sufficient consecutive hours free to accomplish something that actually needs doing around here!

Tomorrow I have two coffee dates on the go and I want to walk to at least one of them, if not both, depending on how strongly the wind is gusting.  That will make up for the lack of walking exercise today I hope.  Mind you, the number of times I will be racing up and down the stairs today ferrying cleaning equipment and supplies about the place should be beneficial.

I still have nearly 2 hours until lunchtime so I will go and get started on the badly needed cleaning of this incredibly dusty suite!

The breakfast went well this morning.  The prayers and speeches were so lovely and timely, particularly that of our former Governor General, The Right Honourable David Johnston. We enjoyed the country gospel offering of the musical Daae Family and a participatory closing prayer delivered by high school student Ms. Nour Albaradan.  Unfortunately our Master of Ceremonies, His Honour the Honourable Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, W. Thomas Molloy was too ill to attend, but the programme went well despite his noticeable absence.  The Prayer for the Province was delivered beautifully by Mrs. Christina Haugan, widow of the Humboldt Bronco's hockey coach who was killed in the fatal team bus accident just over a year ago now.  It was a touching morning as many stories of love, faith and service to others were shared from the podium.

The food was good: well scrambled eggs, bacon, a variety of fresh fruit and bagels, jellies, tea, juice and coffee.  We so enjoyed sitting with our host couple and two of the pastors from the Baptist Church.  All around us were friends and colleagues of my husband's from a myriad of church denominations. It was like "old home week" for him. hahaha

Well, off to do that cleaning I continue to talk about but never seem to get to!  FINALLY!! hahaha

FINALLY Getting Back in Shape After a Slothful Winter!

I love spring days like today.  The weather was less than spectacular at +4C during my morning walk, rising to +17C by late afternoon, but with a freezing cold wind all day long and an early morning fog bank into which my walking buddy and I disappeared during our walk around the lake, BUT we walked for a full hour.  It was wonderful, zipped up winter parkas and all!  The lake is still partially frozen and the geese and gulls looked rather comical standing out on the ice taking tenative pecks at it with their beaks in hope of finding a drink or a meal under there.  There were several duck couples waddling along the pathway that gave us some laughs watching them.

Then after lunch I went to the post office and did some grocery shopping....another full hour mostly on my feet.  Tonight my hip hardware and surrounding muscles are not to happy with each other after all the walking I did today, but I am happily tired and will sleep well tonight. It feels wonderful to be out walking about at regular walking pace and not tympsing along tentatively over ice and packed snow!  

I am hoping that after the big breakfast tomorrow morning I will get a chance to get out and walk in the afternoon, OR that I will get a major housecleaning task completed that will keep me up on my feet after lunch.  Wednesday I will walk to my friend's house for afternoon coffee and then Friday morning I will walk down to Cornwall Centre and back for a haircut...and perhaps a quick lunch at Zam's?  haha  If I have time to complete the housework on Thursday that will be grand exercise on the day between good long walks.

My husband will have his own fair share of walking to various committments throughout this week as well. All this walking is SO good for us!

We had a nice SKYPE call with our son tonight to talk about his 39th birthday.  Often he celebrates all out, but this year he felt would be a good year for a bit of somewhat melancholy meditation and that is about all he was up for after an over 10 hour day at work. haha  He sent us a picture of his newest art work, the first done using his own homemade, medieval style egg tempura paint.  He has also used old style techniques for creating the pigments and used a piece of muslin over top of the wooden "canvas" so that the paint would not go into the cracks in the wood and split the painting open. The muslin is attached with rabbit glue, (literally the scrapings from the inside of rabbit skins that turns into a gel and must be heated in a double boiler before applying), and then he creates a white chalk-like substance over the fabric before painting.  He is REALLY enjoying this more medieval painting technique.  He has applied for a grant to take a course in iconography later this year at a town in Massacheusetts.  That is another ancient form of art he loves.  A fellow there has a the largest collection of Russian iconography outside of Russia apparently and our son is fascinated by what he has learned about the symbolism used in iconography.  I hope he gets the grant.  Here is his first tempura painting:

 My parents phoned us later this evening to say they too had connected with the grandson for his birthday and were quite delighted to have a good chat with him.

Dad had good news today: he has an appointment in August with a surgeon who specializes in laser treatment for the eye conditions my father suffers from.  As I recall what Mom told me his ophthamologist told him before he made the referral, the laser will likely accomplish very little for dad, even if the surgeon agrees to do it, but dad has determined this is "going to work", whatever that means to him and I didn't want to burst his bubble by reminding him of what he was told about it.  Sigh....dad cannot accept the reality of his medical situation, nor his age. However, if that is what keeps him going, all this misplaced hope of improvement, I am not going to quibble.  It seems to be how he copes with the misery his life has become.  O how I hope I do not live long enough to go through all that he suffers each day.  I can readily admit to that kind of selfishness!  Mom sounded good.  The new kitchen and chef at their facility means she is getting wonderful meals at last and just being able to finally look forward each day to the one meal they are provided in the cost of their rent, gives her a happier outlook on life.

My husband had a wonderful day today.  He has been too busy to get much done on his recording and scanning project lately,as so much has been going on every day, but today he had no committments at all.  He got lots done!  So, he is feeling happy and like the mess he has spread all over the place in here has actually been worth the hassle and depression of looking at it every day.  Now he is starting to put papers and old photos/records etc. into boxes for shredding and throwing away!  YAY!!  

We have to get up at 6:30am to be ready to go to the breakfast on time, so since it is after 10pm, I had better get some sleep.  G'night all!
 

Feelin’ Well Enough To Boogey OnLife is good for the most part.

I only had to wear my sunglasses for part of Sunday School and church today! Now it is 10:30pm and I haven’t had to wear them at all since then. I am so grateful for that. I think the eye drops are helping!

We had a lot of fun and also a fantastic meal with our South African missionary friends this afternoon. We certainly relate to their fundraising woes as they try to find enough donors to cover their next year in the field back in Johannesburg. Deputation is the bug bear of going into overseas missions and with the economy here being as poor right now as it is, they may be stuck here for months longer than anticipated. There will be many prayers from our house on behalf of theirs.

I am looking forward to this week after two lonely weeks of being stuck at home dealing with my eye problem. First thing in the morning my walking buddy is coming over so we can have our first spring walk around the lake. In the afternoon I am hoping like mad I will have the time free to start cleaning this suite properly to welcome the spring season.

Tuesday morning is the Lieutenant Governor’s Prayer breakfast, followed, hopefully, by a completion of the housework. Wednesday morning I am having coffee with a church friend in the morning and another church friend on the afternoon. Then I have three more sets of friends I need to arrange to see this week as well. Thankful I have my evenings free, other than Thursday choir, and some  daytime hours open on Thursday and Friday. Perhaps there will be time to see all these wonderful friends this week after all. My husband has even more people events scheduled than I do! What a great week this is set up to be. Dear Lord, please do not ask up to move from here...pretty please?  We have fallen into this group of diverse friends and we are so happy these days.

Life is good for the most part. I am very grateful.

Old Notes

In the process of going through boxes of old sermon and bible school notes of my husband's, we also came across a few of my old sermon notes....that is, my notes taken during other peoples' sermons on Sunday mornings.  What a hoot!

I found only two sets of notes that still have any use for me.  Here are some taken when listening to a sermon about the Pharisees one morning in a church long ago and far away; in fact I believe it was a sermon by Pastor Brent Reilly at the First Baptist Church in Olds Alberta, back in the summer of 1998:

Text: Luke 14: 1 - 14

Sometimes as Christians we want to watch each other carefully for possible "slip ups" in behaviour. We think we are pretty good instead of simply followers of Him  who IS good. Jesus had trouble with the self-righteousness of the Pharisees who separated themselves from "sinners". Their curiosity about Jesus and who He associated with changed to opposition and then downright hostility.  They were proud of their system of human regulations. We think we are serving God by following our own culturally imposed standards of behaviour when we are many times standing in direct opposition to His Spirit's direction.

James 3:2

How do we discover if we are guilty of having pharisaical attitudes? 

1. we are more interested in passing judgement on each other than in real fellowship.

2. We are more interested in religious observance than in real mercy.

3. We are more interested in religious prestige than humble servanthood.

4. We are more interested in getting returns on religious investment than in freely giving.  (eg giving to those who can neither repay you nor issue a tax receipt) (if God gives us "the increase" that is up to Him)

How to be rid of pharisaical attitudes: 

1. Apply God's mercy and not our own strength.

2. Intercede in prayer for others rather than judging/criticizing.

3. Choose to love people rather than just performing religious duties and acts. John 17:23, 26

4. Look for jobs in the church no one else wants to do and DO THEM instead of looking for a position of prestige.

5. Decide to give (sometimes secretly) to those who can't give back, instead of looking for thanks and tax receipts.

6.  Ask God to teach you about grace.
 - Galations 2:6
 - I Corinthians 15:9
 - Ephesians 3:8
 - I Timothy 1:15  
 -  these scriptures are from Paul's journey of discovering his real position before God.

Don't think less of yourself -- think less ABOUT yourself! 

 
 

There Is Even More Fog Outside This Evening Than There Is In My Brain!! Fancy THAT!!

Today has been an excellent "at home" kind of day.  Unfortunately my husband didn't accomplish much toward his own goals, due to a request for him to teach another adult Sunday morning class at church that required he spend a few hours locating notes about the requested topic and organizing about a dozen lessons into a manageable four or five!  Well, at least it is a project that needed doing anyway and now this evening he is able to get working again on some of the other things he actually hoped to do earlier on this afternoon.

The daytime high temperature today was forecast to be +9C, but we only got to about +4C.  The rain came down until mid afternoon and the skies never did lose the cover of grey clouds.  Tonight there is a thick band of fog forming outside, even thicker than the band of fog my brain has been battling since my little eye incident.  I do hope the fog indicates a weather change that leans to warmer spring temperatures and not another cold snap.

Actually today is the first day in the last twelve, the first since my eye issue appeared, that I have not had complete brain fog from morning until night.  Today I have been able to think more clearly than I have in all that time.  I did laundry, caught up on some banking I couldn't face previously, did a bit of reading, plus a lot of baking and subsequent dish washing.   I went through some music I am trying to decide about keeping or letting go, so had a grand time plinking away on my keyboard as I tried to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of for sheet music and old church chorus books.  It  was a great day for me!

Today is the first day in the last twelve that I have not felt like someone punched me lightly in both eyes. The heavy, somewhat sore feeling is gone. Tonight they are a bit tired, so I am looking through the usual mass of floaters in front of THAT eye, but for the past twelve hours I have not been at all conscious of the change in my vision!  YIPPEE!!  Perhaps the foggy old brain is finally beginning to make the necessary adjustment so that I won't see the floaters every minute of every waking moment any more.  That would be rather amazing and very much appreciated. C'mon brain!!!!  If it can adjust perhaps my stomach will too and lose the constant feeling of slight nausea.  Today is also the first day without that horrible sensation as well. Again with the YIPPEE!

Hopefully we will both sleep well so we can be bright and clear mentally again tomorrow for church.  I think we are still invited out for lunch to our South African missionary friends' place after the service.  That will be fun. They are considerably younger than we are, about our son's age actually and they are really fun to talk to. They are home trying to raise financial support to return to the field and with the economy here what it is at present, we are afraid they are not having a lot of success.  Yet another couple who have no clue where God is leading them in the near future....SO MANY people in the same limbo land that my husband and I are....incredible!  What is God up to NOW!?? hahahaha  O how interesting it will be to see what the future holds for us all!

Here's a fun idea:
Make up a language and ask people for directions! teehee teehee teehee 

Oh....Now I Get It!

I've been thinking this morning (thinking?? ME????) about my recent poor attitude toward music, toward book club, toward a number of weekly committments I currently participate in and wondering why I am again experiencing this now annual sudden lack of interest in most of them.   

Suddenly it hit me:  the schedule all my particular weekly committments are on is set up to include the worst weather months of late autumn, winter and early spring.  I think I am subconsiously assigning these events to these seasons and once the spring begins to arrive I start consigning all my committments to the "I am tired of this routine now" bin.  Spring and summer, even early fall, to me are months of amazing freedom of movement in comparison to the rest of the year and I think I just want the freedom to be spontaneous....every day....for about four months in a row.  After the summer freedom I am eager to return to a set routine, so September through December is a time I find all my committments quite delightful.  By January I am starting to flag a bit because of the cold weather, cold vehicles and chilly bus stop waits involved in getting to and from my weekly committments and by the end of March I am frantic to be away from every reminder of the worst winter weather months.  I am ready to stop feeling so tied down.  There, NOW I understand it!

Today is an incredibly dreary day.  The rain has been pouring down since the wee hours of the morning, the wind is gusting and the sky is cast iron grey!  Blecch! Pooey!!!  This day would depress a lot of people, BUT my husband and I are enjoying our full day at home...at least thus far we think we will be home all day. hahaha One never knows around here!  My husband has just completed the final copy of his income tax forms, we are all showered and dressed, I have a load of laundry in the washer, have changed the bedding, my husband is setting up some more recordings to put onto disks and photos to scan into our computer photo files and he is working on a sermon for Palm Sunday, his OT overview for next week and another sermon for an upcoming service he is taking out of town.  It is a grand day to get things done around home and we are enjoying doing just that.

A Happy Whirlwind of Activity Is Starting Up Once Again!

Wow, today has been awesome!  Tiring, but wonderful!

What a wonderful visit we had with our friends over the usual delicious breakfast at Breakfast Bistro this morning.  They are visiting from Manitoba and it was such fun to hear what they are doing in their lives since retiring from full time clergy positions in our province.  We had lots of laughs and shared all kinds of stories about life in the present.  It was such a good, encouraging morning.

When we got home we recalculated income tax and made some changes.  Tomorrow morning we will write out our good copies and photocopy some forms that need to accompany the tax forms and get them into the mail.  Hopefully  next year's taxes will be less complicated due to the ongoing unemployment this year!

I can hardly believe the change in my husband this year after watching him struggle last year with the taxes. He was so burnt out all ready that he could barely add two and two and come up with four.  I remember being terrified that he was going to have some kind of breakdown from work related exhaustion.  This year he spent the better part of a day and a half working and reworking the numbers, plus doing all the other things that came up both those days.  It is incredible to see him feeling so much better and not being stressed over filling out tax forms.  Last year was particularly startling because he had never before had any issues with doing taxes.  Thank you Lord that he is getting back to himself!

I went for a good walk outside this afternoon and despite a very chilly wind and overcast skies, it was a good feeling to be out there striding along.    My husband accompanied me part of the way before branching off onto another street to head to a coffee meeting with friends.  I had a bit of a rest when I arrived home and it felt good.  It felt like I had earned an hour of doing nothing.  

Tomorrow, post taxes, my husband will be able to spend some time on his Old Testament overview course for his next presentation the following week.

The job market has kind of dried up at the moment, so again we are waiting on the Lord as life unfolds in all its incredible and marvellous busyness.  Next week is crazy busy with people and events.  I am glad of that, but I have to find more time to clean the suite.  I had a couple of days this week when I could have done it, had planned to do it, but between the extra tax work and the tiredness caused by the hassle with my eye, nothing has been done.  I am hoping to get started tomorrow and finish up on Monday afternoon, but we will see.  The opthamologist was not kidding when he told me how tired I might feel over the next few weeks.  It apparently takes an incredible amount of brain power and physical energy to see, so when there is a disruption in the vision that isn't going to go away, then a person becomes rather tired until the body and brain get used to the change.  Wow!

So, a good day, a good week upcoming by the look of the calendar.  We are so grateful for all the friends we have these days, the people who also need our particular ministry gifts and for our family members who are so supportive of us as we go through yet another "interesting" time in our lives. 

Kat is going to be able to get into the cancer clinic in a couple of weeks' time and will be scheduled for her next surgery shortly thereafter so that the cancer can be staged. Then the treatment programme will be set up.  Please pray with me that it has been caught in the earliest stages, for her sake and for the sake of her kids who love and need her.  Please pray they can be supportive and that they will be healed from the emotions they likely felt today when they found out what is going on.  Thank you!  When we think about moving away from here, moving away from Kat is one of the saddest thoughts I have.  She and Val have become special, good friends very quickly and are a blessing to us both.

Aaaaah, at last the sun has broken through the heavy clouds and is shining brightly and warmly through my office window.  Heavenly.....

It Is Good To Have Honest and True Friends

Tonight I mentioned to my good friend that I am seriously considering giving up choir once the church choir goes on summer break.  She reminded me very honestly that I go through this struggle every year since she has known me, at this time of year, and always end up coming back to sing.  She is right!  So, she has then listened to my griping and indecision for 4 years in a row now.  Yikes!  How monotonous for her and everyone else who has listened to my indecision and griping for 4 years in a row.  I feel a strong need to apologize for not realizing I am turning into a broken record....aiiii yiiii.....  Bless you  my friend for just telling me the truth so I can stop doing this year after year!

Choir did go better this evening as we had a few more of the other seasonals who rehearse elsewhere for various reasons.  I made my usual number of mistakes....but at least they were different ones than I made last week!  Is this progress?  I decided that yes it is!

My husband spent hours and hours working and reworking the income tax today.  He wore himself right out but I think he is happy with how he has done it.  Tomorrow morning he says will check his calculations, I will check the calculations on my forms and then we can mail them away.

I am guessing though that it may not happen until the following day actually.  haha  We got a call from former colleagues of my husband's that they are in town tonight and could we meet them for breakfast in the morning?  As if we are going to say that we can't because we should stay home and complete our income taxes.  Would that sound at all like US???  Of course not!  We are picking them up at their hotel in the morning and heading over to Breakfast Bistro.  YIPPEE!!  I can all ready taste the delicious breakfast I am going to be ordering.

Then my husband has a coffee meeting in the afternoon!  This is really a hoot of a meeting.  There is a retreat centre in the area that has recently been purchased by a well meaning business man who now isn't sure what to do with the place....what it needs to attract good retreat clients.  My husband mentioned to another fellow who knows this business man, that he (my husband, that is) certainly has some ideas of how that retreat centre should be run and who it should cater to. hahaha  His big mouth has resulted in this mutual friend telling the business man that my husband could be a real help to him. hahahaha SO, they are having a meeting tomorrow about this whole thing. hahahaha  Praying the business man will not be disappointed to discover my husband is only an unemployed priest with no money to sink into the retreat property.  Oooooh, the interesting situations we get into when we share our opinions and someone takes them seriously!!  hahaha  I am giggling like mad because my husband so rarely gets himself into such pickles.  Usually I am the one with the big mouth!!  hahahaha   What an interesting meeting it will be. I would love to be a fly on the wall!

So, that is tomorrow all planned out and taken care of with very little effort on our part.  I love how God works!  I am hoping I can start cleaning house while my husband is gone for his coffee meeting. I will need to wear off the huge breakfast I am planning to have!  (There will be no lunch....no need for it!) 

Perhaps on Saturday I can finish the cleaning because we have an invite out for lunch after church on Sunday.  Again, unexpected and a great chance to hopefully encourage a young missionary family who find themselves unexpectedly back in Canada, trying to raise support to return to South Africa.  

Kat wants to see us again soon as well.  My husband left his last sermon with her and she seems to have enjoyed it.  She is telling her family soon about her medical situation and we pray they will be supportive and helpful to her once they get over the shock.  I am praying for the Lord to prepare their minds and hearts to hear it all.

Tonight my husband decided to do some pipe dreaming and began checking vacation packages.  He found a package trip to Ireland for ten days, air fare, hotels, car rental for four thousand Canadian dollars and wishes he could take me to Dublin for my birthday in a couple of months. Isn't that sweet?  He knows it is the only other country I have ever wanted to see.  I am impressed simply by the thought to be honest.  We had the best time sitting around after choir rehearsal chatting about what we would go to see if we were there.  For me it was almost as much fun as making the trip and a darned sight easier than having to juggle the mess that is airline travel to do it! hahaha  Then we really got crazy with the dreaming.  We would take a plane from here to Vancouver first and see friends there for a few days, then take the Korean airlines overnight flight to NYC and see our son for a few days, then on to Ireland for ten days.  What fun we had making plans.  "Take a trip and never leave the farm!"

Another church has asked my husband to do their Palm Sunday service, so he is delighted to help them out.  It keeps him "in the groove" if he can do a service occasionally.

My eye survived the choir rehearsal tonight and I was even able to remove my sunglasses after the first couple of songs.  That felt good!  I purchased two more packs of bison stewing meat from our resident bison owning choir member.  It is the last of the "winter cuts" before the huge BBQ style steaks are sold for the summer.  O how we love good bison meat.  So, it was a good night for me!

Better get to bed so I can be up early in the morning and ready to eat more breakfast than any one human being has the right to eat at Breakfast Bistro! Yum!