Thank you for praying....

 My friends who went to Disney World for Christmas arrived home safely today! Hallelujah!! 

Vancouver Is NOT Supposed To Look Like Regina!!! But It DOES, IT DOES!!

 

From CTV News: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Daryl Dyck December 30,2021

Cheerful Sunshine Or Blessed Warmth....My Choice.....

 I have a choice to make today.  I can choose to leave the blinds and drapes closed to retain what little bit of blessed warmth we still have in this building when we take such a measure to reduce the amount of heat loss in this old suite, OR I can instead choose to open the blinds and curtains fully to enjoy the fabulously cheerful sunshine on what is turning out to be the most bitterly cold day thus far in our ongoing cold snap.

After some careful consideration, I opted to throw open the blinds and pull the drapes back as far as they will open so that we can enjoy one of the few sunny days we have had in the past week!  It is glorious to see that sun shining so brightly out there in the sky.  We are quite capable of putting on extra sweaters and woolier stockings to keep the cold at bay.  Nothing can overtake the sunshine on this winter day as far as importance to healthy living and restored mental health!

We were delighted earlier today to enjoy an in person visit with a friend from out of town.  Oh how delightful to see someone face to face....or at least mask to mask, haha.  We haven't seen him in several months and it was a real joy to get caught up on his news.  Thank you Lord for this New Years Eve day treat!

This has been a great week for catching up on the phone with several people I only get to speak to once a year at best.  Just a grand week for chatting. My one ear is quite sore after a 90 minute conversation yesterday with my beloved email pal from Florida.  We are indeed fortunate if we are able to keep up by phone even once a year as her life has  level of busyness that is nearly impossible for someone like me to even comprehend. Wow!  This afternoon I will have another nice conversation, this time with an Alberta friend.  The two of us are pretty good at setting days and times to have a conflab on a fairly regular basis.  I am looking forward to that in an hour or so from now.  We also received warm greetings from Tokyo friends we haven't seen since we returned to Canada 20 years ago!

Here is a picture of another stole, an Advent stole, that our friend Jo also made for my husband after he was ordained to the priesthood.  He wanted to have some kind of symbolism about waiting for the light and to have some kind of skyline included. She chose to incorporate a symbolic representation of his beloved Three Sisters mountains in Alberta and he was thrilled to have that.  The dark blue starry sky is giving way to the lighter blue as the sun arises. Here it is:

Beautiful Advent Stole by Jo!

Canada Posties: Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Dark Of Night Will Keep The Posties From Their Route

 But a full day of -41C windchill sure as heck will!!!! It is an odd feeling to have had no mail since the middle of last week, but I am glad the mail carriers are not forced to walk their routes in this kind of deep freeze. I hope the weather will warm up before the end of this week as I am expecting a piece of mail and I would enjoy getting it before next week. 

I am very worried about my dear friend who left for Disney World the week before Christmas and was planning to fly home with her family this weekend. Between the high Covid numbers in Florida and some of the ridiculously confusing rules governing quarantining upon arrival at Canadian airports, I am very concerned about their health and their home coming travels. Please pray for this lovely family! Thank you so much.

My Turn!

 We forced ourselves to go outside in the awful cold yesterday to pick up a few groceries and go to the post office. I am grateful for a number of details about our little foray out of this suite! 

First of all I am grateful that despite the frigid temperature, my husband decided to come with me, grateful that he shovelled a path through seven inches of snow from our back porch to the car, grateful that he swept all the snow off the car because it was so covered that it looked like an igloo sitting out in the lot, but especially grateful that he decided to do the driving. Although the graders had cleared the main streets, so much snow fell after they had done their job that the gravel they put down had been complete covered again by more deep snow. By the time we went out mid morning all the streets were covered in shiny, slick, bumpy, rutted ice that sent cars wobbling and gave little traction to get moving through the intersections when red lights turned to green. It was a short but nerve frazzling trip! I am grateful we didn’t have an accident. I am grateful for lots of sunshine and very little wind!

I am grateful that we arrived at the grocery store to find very few other customers and shelves that had been fully stocked earlier that morning. I am grateful that we were able to find every item on our list. I was delighted to find a fresh turkey keel to have for dinner last night. 

I am grateful my husband enjoyed MY cooking last night: roasted turkey, stuffing and veggies. He had seconds, so it must have been a successful venture! I also made a banana loaf and put it into the freezer for a future dessert “emergency”. 

I am grateful I came up with a cold appetizer idea for this weekend’s dinner with friends. We are going to have skewers loaded with green and black olives, salami, cheese and marinated tortellini shells. I found a good marinade recipe to use up some of the fresh cilantro my husband purchased. Should be fun and easy to prepare. 

I am grateful today will be a good day to do the laundry. Getting outside yesterday has motivated me to stop acting like a hibernating bear: sated with food and dozy and slug-like! I am stiff and sore from too little physical activity. Sweeping off the steps and porch for five minutes once a day is somewhat insufficient exercise! 

I am grateful for my life, as “alternatingly” crazy and boring as it has been over the years.

And So Tonight.....

 ....he prepared fancied up leftovers from last night AND pound cakes AND tomorrow he plans to make banana and apple sauce loaves.  hahahahaha  I realize now that this is his most recent CFS inspired obsession to feel like he is accomplishing something, exacerbated by the stress of retiring and being tempted to feel useless as a result.  Yup, I give this cooking "thing" another 7 to 14 days to brew before it peters out and he gets going on some other project that takes his fancy. In the meantime I plan to enjoy every glorious mouthful of every meal I do not have to cook myself! 

I suspect sewing on his newly gifted amazing sewing machine will be the next thing he gets into doing. I am casting my mind through my wardrobe thinking of things he could mend until he gets more used to the machine and is ready to do a "from scratch" project of his own. 

I CAN'T EAT ANY MORE HOME COOKING!!!

 Slurp, burp, urp....my tummy hurts!!!  

My husband has become a cooking monster in his early quest to find meaning in his retirement, and he still has 5 days until it becomes official!!  

Oh my....on the one hand it is wonderful to be eating so well, but on the other hand I feel too full and fat and miserable from sating myself with samples of his food.  This morning I woke up very early and got up to get dressed, around 6:30am, thinking I could slip downstairs for an early breakfast and thus fend off whatever plans he had to cook too much of something first thing in the day. No such luck!  I came upon him already in the kitchen, fully dressed, feeling awake and sassy and preparing to cook yet again. This morning's breakfast consisted of a 2 egg omelet each, with sauteed onions and peppers and bits of diced ham shoulder, served on two slices of crispy whole wheat toast.  Delicious...urp, urp, but WAY TOO MUCH!  I know, I know, I didn't HAVE to eat the entire portion on my plate, but he was so proud of himself and it tasted so darned good.........how could I say "NO!" like I should have...right??  Of course right!  I gobbled it down as if I hadn't spent the past week gorging myself on baked beans and cinnamon buns and salmon and potatoes and asparagus and cheese sauce and cauliflower and chicken soup and chili and stew.....oh help!  I have gained 5 pounds in a week. MUST STOP caving into temptation immediately...MUST MUST MUST!!!  

(I think it is called "good luck with that"....sigh!)

Boxing Day Traditions At Our House

 

As we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on this Boxing Day, actually the Feast of Saint Stephen, my husband and I decided to participate once again this year in our usual tradition of "first footing" a few special senior, somewhat shut in friends here in the city, who have shown us extraordinary kindness over the past year.  Fortunately the dropping temperature outside had not fallen too far after lunch and the BIG SNOW we are being told to expect between today and tomorrow was only just starting up, so we were able to get our fun duties underway and completed before the weather outside became too difficult to deal with.  We dropped off cartons of my husband's weekend cooking and baking, handed out cards and shovelled stairs, porches and driveways.  The church service this morning was most encouraging to us and we felt newly invigorated, able to tackle some time spent out and about in the wintertime.  Hope your post Christmas Day is also as fun, restful, fulfilling and invigorating as it can possibly be.

Stole creatively imaged and beautifully sewn by dear friend JoAnne!

 Since my husband wasn't able to wear the above gorgeous stole to do a Christmas or St. Stephen's Feast service this year, he chose to include it in our home decorating for the season.  Thank you JoAnne for the stoles you created and sewed for him upon the occasion of his ordination to the priesthood and that have seen much use and received many compliments from his various parishioners over the years.  Bless you for your thoughtful kindness and incredible amount of creativity and fine sewing work. This and the other stoles you created for him will, now that my husband is retired, be found in our home, each decorating our space during its appropriate season of the Christian calendar year.  Thank you again!

 

Merry From Carrie 'N' Me!

 

Merry Christmas from me too!  Today's celebration follows on the heels of our own Christmas Eve dinner date night. Myhusband spent all day yesterday baking beans with ham, as well as mayonnaise potato rounds and cauliflower.  Our oven had a very busy day and we ate that eclectic collection of foods for our dinner last night.  Just before dinner my husband came down the stairs dressed in his finest raiment, all excited about having his Christmas Eve free to do as he pleases.  He was so enthused about dressing up that I put on my best dress suit with the pretty pencil skirt and we opened a bottle of wine to go with our dinner.  Yes Virginia, there IS a wine that pairs well with baked beans and it is: Selbach Detzemer Maximiner Klosterlay Riesling Spatlese!  A wine that pairs with baked beans! Surprise!  Surprise!

Today is Christmas Day.  Time for sleep ins, house pajamas, phone calls with the family, turkey sausage pitas for lunch, (just so we can say we ate turkey at Christmas), and oven baked salmon with asparagus for dinner.  It is going to be a good day watching the snowflakes tripping over each other as they tumble to the ground and also seeing the recording of our church's Christmas Eve service that we missed last evening because we had the wrong time fixed in our brains.  By Monday we will have several inches of fresh snow and temperatures in the mid -30's overnight....truly the winter is upon us.  A White Christmas awaits.

Our son's girlfriend tested postive for Omicron yesterday and he is awaiting his PCR test results, which we all expect to be positive. Thus far they are both a symptomatic, so we will see what happens next.  They are enjoying being at home cooking incredible meals, playing games, watching movies and making more incredible meals.  We pray they have a healthy new year!

For People With Medical Exemptions From COVID Vaccinations, Please Ignore This Post! TeeHee

God's Tech Support: YouTube

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwaQRTo1Efo

 

 

 

 

Our Ever Changing Christmas Dinner Plans!

 My husband is having the time of his life cooking and cooking and cooking some more. I fear for my tiny refrigerator freezer as it is jammed up and jelly tight in there with containers of wonderful meals the dear man has prepared.  Tonight we are having freshly baked beans and ham.

I was geared up for our Christmas dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and green olives, but my husband just arrived home with a bag of groceries after trudging through the new snow fall, biting wind and -20C temperature outside to get some exercise.  Apparently we are now having salmon filets and asparagus for Christmas dinner. Since he is determined to do the cooking, that will be just fine by me. Perhaps we can have our grilled cheese sandwiches on Boxing Day??  

Also, for those of you who have called to express dismay that we are not going to be eating turkey this Christmas, I just want to let you know that as of this grocery shopping trip of my husband's that too has changed.  We WILL be eating turkey for lunch on Christmas Day: organic turkey sausages that is. He spotted a 4 pack of them at the store and brought them home as a joke. We do like them though so will thaw some small pitas to wrap them in tomorrow at noon. hahaha

My husband hasn't even been retired for a full week yet (actually it isn't official until the end of the month) and is already having a wonderful time in the kitchen, reading cookbooks, scanning photos, putting our old record albums onto computer files and having the time of his life.  His first Bible Survey class is on January 4th and he has the lesson and PowerPoint completed already, so will be able to relax and enjoy the holidays for the next week or so.  

We are thinking our New Years Day dinner with our friends  may end up being cancelled completely if the Omicron numbers continue to climb here as they have everywhere else in recent weeks, but I think if that is the case we will take a little drive on the day and deliver gifts to the doors of the people who were to be there. Perhaps a bit of cheer will be in order for them all as we know how devastated they are going to be if we can't get together.  I am thinking of the 11 year old granddaughter who is still hurting over the pandemic cancellation of Christmas with her grandparents last year.  She needs a bit of encouragement.

We shall see what this next week holds for government restrictions and what we all deem is wisdom as far as getting together.

And Now....Even MORE Christmas...Good Grief!!

 My husband shocked me this afternoon by appearing in our living room with our old Christmas tree and boxes of decorations, lights etc. and invited me to help him set things up for the holidays. hahaha  What ho! The very thing I thought we could avoid this year!

He was so excited that I decided I would have fun with him and celebrate his first Christmas with no church commitments (in over 20 years) by sharing his joy.

Here are our efforts:

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's Beginning To Look TOO MUCH Like Christmas!!

 Yesterday afternoon the snow began.  I swept off the back deck three times between dinner and bedtime as the wind was creating drifts up against our back door.  Fortunately the wind changed direction overnight, so I was able to push the back door open this morning and get outside with the broom to sweep the rest of the new fallen snow off the deck.  For the front porch and sidewalk a shovel was required because over five centimeters of snow came down.  The ploughs were out on the main streets early this morning, so I knew there was a significant amount of the white stuff out there.  

All the snow, along with the swiftly dropping temperatures over the next 24 hours, is making for a very white Christmas this year. Personally I prefer a very BROWN Christmas, but we are so lacking in moisture here on the prairies, that I will be grateful for whatever bit of help we can get from the melting snow in the spring.

It is nearly 11am and my husband is still sleeping.  Just knowing he can do that has relaxed him a great deal in this first week of retirement.  He was up early a couple of mornings to make banana and blueberry pancakes. Last night he created a fabulous eggplant and ground turkey casserole and I am pleased there is enough left over to serve as today's lunch.  He is going to make pumpkin soup today if the stack of opened African cookbooks sitting on our dining room table is any indication.  Yum!  The new hand mixer from our kids will be put to a good first use.

Our son is awaiting confirmation from a florist that the bouquet he wants to send to his Grandma will be delivered tomorrow.  Tomorrow he is on his way for his first PCR test to see if the exposure he had to Omicron Variant at work has given him the virus.  He and his girlfriend have gone from "if" to "when" as they consider getting the virus themselves.  It is raging rampant in their city so....we pray for the best outcome for them both.

Yesterday brought more calls from old friends and colleagues and parishioners we have not seen in a number of years.  It was just lovely to hear from them all.

Good news from Cee for those of you who have been praying for him: this past week he had his final chemotherapy treatment and was able to ring the bell on his way out the door of the cancer clinic for the final time.  Nan was allowed to accompany him into the clinic to be with him for this significant milestone.  NOW LORD, could the ongoing neuropathy begin to recede as the treatments have ended at last? PLEASE???  He and Nan are very grateful for your prayers for him and for them both.  It is nice to have a positive update this time.

Once my husband wakes up I am going to have a shower and wash my hair and even GET DRESSED today!!  hahaha Yesterday I had my usual reaction to my Coronavirus vaccination: one day of extreme exhaustion.  Yesterday I couldn't stop yawning. I yawned and yawned and yawned all day long. By late evening I was feeling fine again. Today my arm is still just a tad sore, but nothing serious.  My husband had no reaction beyond his usual very sore arm, so I am grateful for that.

I am hoping for a continuing peace to pervade our day here today.  Yours too!!

Yawwwwwwnnnnnnn, OOOWWWW, Yawwwwwwnnnnn, OOOWWW....ad infinitum

 Today's reaction to my vaccination is just like the first one: an unbelievably sore arm at the injection site and the complete inability to stay awake without constantly yawning.  However, I don't want to have a nap or I won't sleep tonight.  My new warm and cozy duvet has given me a great sleep three nights in a row.  YAY!! tomorrow I will be feeling much more awake and engaged with life I am sure.

Today we received a wonderful phone call from two parishioners from our very first full time parish. What a treat. They were just thinking of us and wondering how we have been doing since we left that parish.  We got caught up on our lives and families. It was so great to talk to them after nearly seven years.  They were also very considerate: NOT phoning us on Christmas Day, hallelujah!  Christmas Day is not a talk on the phone day for us, apart from immediate family members, so the fact that these people are so considerate about such details in the lives of others was impressive to us. 

It is grey skies galore outside, but the temperature is quite decent. we have one more "warm" day before the big plunge in temperatures that appears to be forecast for at least a couple of weeks.  Tonight we will get some fresh snow...pretty!

Three Et Fini!

 Had our Covid boosters yesterday. Delighted that our only reaction seems to be soreness at the injection sites. This way, should we still contract Coronavirus, the vaccinations should mitigate our symptoms. Should Covid vaccinations become an annual recommendation like the ‘flu’ shots, we will gladly have them. It was very encouraging to see the huge number of people in the clinic, many receiving their very first inoculations. God bless them for finally seeing sense and responding to scientific and medical wisdom. 

So, now we are going to spend a few gloriously quiet days at home cooking and relaxing. With our Christmas dinner plans with friends being canceled, those grilled cheese sandwiches with a side of green olives right here at home are sounding good again! Yum!!

A Perfect Christmas Gift For Us!

 We just received a surprise gift from Elij and Hannah: a wonderful Kitchen Aid hand blender/mixer/purée-er! Our old one that we have had for at least ten years broke down for the last time just a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about it on FaceTime the other night. Trust our kids to pick up on it and get us a new one. Just lovely, very thoughtful.

Merry Christmas to us!

Covid Pretty Much A "Given" For Our Family At Some Point. Is That Point Now??

 Our son and his girlfriend in NYC are absolutely surrounded by cases of Omicron variant Coronavirus.  The city is plagued with it, everywhere they go. Slowly but surely their friends and co-workers are testing positive for the virus.

Hannah has already had two co-workers test positive and is back to holding staff meetings online while everyone tries to figure out what to do if all the upcoming performances of their play both locally and overseas end up being cancelled.  It could be a disastrous winter for her financially and in terms of her newly budding career as a producer.

Elij's boss tested positive yesterday for Covid19.  The two of them were in contact over lunch yesterday, so by Friday Eli will also have to start being tested. Hannah has been worried about transmitting the virus to Elij and he now has to worry that he will transmit it to her and around and around it goes like a vicious circle.  They both had their boosters over a month ago now, so we can only hope and pray that will translate into either complete protection or into very mild cases of Omicron.

My husband and I are wondering how badly cases here in our city will start to spike after the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over.  Our Christmas Dinner celebration has been moved from Christmas Day to New Years Day after the possible exposure to Omicron that the co-hosts have experienced, but it is quite possible by New Years Day they will decide that it isn't safe to have non-family members participating in the visit and meal.  If that is their decision we are just fine with it.  Better safe than sorry.  For us it will only be our second Christmas and New Year season completely on our own since the pandemic began. We have our big person panties on about it and will be just fine.  Will it be disappointing if our dinner with friends is cancelled? Yes, of course, but is it earth shattering? No, of course not.

We talked to Ray last night and that was a positive conversation.  He is following the suggestions of his grief counsellor and the counsel that Ruth gave him before she died, so he is reaching out to various neighbours, attending Zoom church occasionally, walking 2km every day no matter the weather and is now avoiding only the emotional triggers that leave him helpless with grief.  Other triggers he has been facing with some good success. He purchased a snow blower and has been clearing the sidewalks and driveways of all the neighbours in his cul de sac. In return they bring him gifts of home cooked meals and baking.....a great trade for him. He is flying to his sister's place in BC for the holidays so that neither of them will be alone this year and he is really looking forward to it.  We are feeling better about his state of mind as we listened to his cheery reports last evening.  He has a long way to go in coping with the loss of his wife, but he is making progress. Now we just pray that his own cancer will remain inactive for a long time to come.

It is a sunny day today. The temperature is slowly crawling upward.  We will have our Covid boosters this afternoon, then run two more short errands before isolating ourselves at home for most of the time until the new year.  We are looking forward to our cooking projects and watching some movies together, reading to each other and just relaxing with no commitments for some time to come.  Hallelujah!

Thus Endeth Parish Ministry!

 Yesterday was a somewhat bittersweet day.  My husband preached and presided for the last time at his present parish and by the end of this month his retirement will be completely official.  While he will retain his permission to preside for occasional services as needed around the diocese, weddings and funerals, it will be a rare occurrence and at his own leisure.  For now he is content to retain a couple of weekly/monthly mens' meetings and teach one class per month for the diocesan theology school.  It is starting to sink in for me today that he is finished with parish ministry, but I don't think it will really hit him until the new year when the first Sunday of January comes and goes without him having to prepare a sermon or set up a recording session to post the service or sermon online.

After exchanging farewells with the congregations yesterday and receiving the lovely gift of a photo of each of his church buildings, we headed back to town for lunch.  However, before we arrived at the restaurant of my husband's choice he took me to a bedding boutique and purchased a lovely surprise Christmas gift for me: a fantastic new duvet with matching cover and pillow sham.  He knows how cold my feet always are at night due to my bad heart and he knows that I am putting on woolly socks and taking them off and putting them back on and taking them back off all night long, most every night.  My inexpensive and somewhat elderly duvet is not that warm any more.  So, last night I had the joy of having warm feet, no socks at any time and I slept long and well for the first time this winter. What a thoughtful and much needed gift.  My husband did a lot of research about what the best duvet stuffings and outer materials and construction designs would be best for me.  He is a great gift giver!

 Lunch at the Lancaster Tap House was really, really delicious! They have a new menu since we were last there and every item on it looks to be pretty fantastic!  My husband had a marvellous bowl of spaetzle with sauerkraut and sausage.  He was quite enthused about it. I ordered the ale pretzel meat pie: pretzel dough stuffed with a great deal of beer soaked ground beef, onions, carrots and herbs and served with a side of shredded fresh carrots and beets.  It is a hearty meal without being overly filling due to the pretzel pastry.  I shared some of that with my husband so that I could also share a few mouthsful of his dessert: sticky toffee pudding!  It was prepared the Lancaster Tap House way and was just as delicious as the regular British sticky toffee pudding is....a nice amount, not too much and a scoop each of iced cream and whipped cream on the side.  My husband devoured the iced cream immediately and then we shared the rest.  Yum!

When we got home from lunch we realized that my old duvet cover, my beloved white cover with big black polka dots, wasn't quite wide enough to put my new duvet into, so we raced back to the store to pick up one that is the proper size. They only had two colours to choose from in the cotton covers, but I rather liked the light off beige colour, so now I have a wonderful new cover and pillow sham as well as the duvet.  It looks so much more elegant than the polka dots, hahaha. I will save the old duvet and cover and sham just in case my new set is too warm next summer.  I feel so spoiled and blessed.  Merry Christmas to me!

After my good chat with Mom last evening on the phone my husband and I Zoomed into the Baptist church Christmas Concert.  It was very well done. The choir sounded excellent, the hand bells have improved even since last year when they were completely shut down for nearly a year due to the pandemic.  They all sang and played beautiful musical arrangements of various Christmas songs and carols.  The minister's teenaged son is dazzled us with his organ performances at the concert, as well as earlier in the morning at the church service. There were some musical performances by a couple of our young church teens and some guest musicians that ranged from meh to ok....nice I guess to include some community folk that are on the brink of professional quality.  It was a very lovely evening.  We feel now like we have had our Christmas for 2021 and it feels good.  Later in the evening we had a video chat with our son and his dear lady. That was most wonderful. Unfortunately they had to cancel all their weekend plans because both sets of friends they were to see have come down with what appears to be Omicron variant. Sigh....my son's girlfriend was also exposed to Omicron a few days ago so yesterday she was going for a test herself. Our son will likely also have to have at least a Rapid Antigen Test before he will feel safe to accompany the rest of the family to Christmas Dinner at an aunt's home.  New York was averaging 21,000 new cases daily last week, so Covid19 is EVERYWHERE there once again. Our son looked old and tired on our video chat. He is very worried about his girlfriend and since the theatre district is shutting down again her employment is once again in jeopardy in the new year.  We are praying so hard for both of them to remain vigilant, stay healthy and to be able to continue with their jobs come January. 

After a good sleep last night and a lazy morning today, we lit out to accomplish MANY of our errands for this week.  We were able to complete more than originally intended, which cuts down on what we have to accomplish between now and Christmas Eve day.  My husband was feeling pretty spry and did all the driving around the city without exhausting himself.  He is flaked out in front of the tv right now, late afternoon, but had a very happy day running errands. There were no complaints today that he didn't have the strength to complete the tasks before we were anywhere near done. We grocery shopped, we pharmacied, we banked AND we went out for lunch again!!!  You will never guess where!!!  Actually you probably will guess: yup, back to the Lancaster Tap House where I once again enjoyed the ale pretzel meat pie and my husband had a really fantastic order of fish and chips.  hahahaha  Since I ate breakfast so late I couldn't eat lunch until after 1pm, so around about 2:30pm we were indulging our tastebuds with more scrumptiousness at the Lancaster.  hahaha  I doubt we will be in a restaurant again until sometime in the new year, so might as well celebrate the retirement two days in a row, right??? hahahaha

We came home to some welcome news:  our Christmas dinner party has been pushed back to New Years Day instead.  This will accommodate a number of members of our friends' family for various reasons. They asked if we would be okay with that and we discovered, upon reflection and conversation, that it actually feels better, safer, less stressful and happier than if we were having to face it this coming Saturday after a week of being exposed to who knows what CoronaVirus variant in the course of our many travels this week.  By the time New Years Day arrives we will have been home for at least a week, if not longer.  It will also mean the grandchild of our friends will have been out of school for over a week, so if she picked up the virus at school her family will know by then.  This all just feels so very right to us.

So, booster shots tomorrow afternoon.  We each got our appointment final confirmation today and are all prepared for the event. Doesn't matter how long we have to wait at the facility before we get our shots.  We have no other plans that must be executed until at least 48 hours afterward.  If we have reactions to the vaccination we will be safely here at home surrounded by the groceries we purchased today.  Over the next couple of weeks we are going to make granola, stew, chili, lentil soup, phann kuchen.....we are going to have a ton of fun right here at home! 

Today we received some amazing news from our friends who DID manage to make their trip to Disneyworld on the weekend. The first piece of amazing news is that they made it there safely and are preparing for two fun weeks away from all the stresses of home and the second piece of amazing news is that they are taking us to see Jeff Dunham and his puppets at the end of March when the man puts on his show here in our fair city. By then it may be possible to actually go and enjoy it without having to worry about him needing to cancel for covid19 infections here.  Assuming it does work out, we are humbled by their generosity to us and thrilled at the idea of seeing one of our favourite all time ventriloquists at work.

Here's hoping for a positive reaction and some good protection against Covid19 from our boosters tomorrow.  Have a happy week everybody! Hope it is warmer where you live than it is here on the prairies, where are about to descend into our usual Christmas time round of the temperature rarely getting any warmer than about -22C during the day and dipping down to nearly -30C overnight.  So grateful winter took so long to arrive this term!!       

My Annual Christmas Gift

 

The gift that keeps on giving, and that I keep receiving!

Two More Days!!

 I am very grateful to God that my husband only has two more days of actual work before his end of the year retirement.  The final clericus of the year this past week had so many clergy sending "regrets" that the meeting was cancelled and that was just fine with my husband.  He got to have a decent sleep in that morning instead.  Now he is working hard on his sermon and combined Fourth Sunday of Advent/Christmas Eve service for this Sunday's service....his last service in his parish....wow.....we never thought we would see this day and even though it is sad that his health has forced the issue, I am still glad he is able to look at the new year through a new lens.

He received a couple of retirement cards in the mail today from two groups of friends in Alberta and that made him smile.  Even though we haven't lived in that town for many years, it is good to still have a couple of sets of close friends there to visit when we get to Alberta in the summers.

 

Although we didn't send any Christmas cards to anyone living in Canada this year, we have received SO MANY cards once again that I responded by writing a brief family letter and emailed it to various friends and family who contacted us as usual this year. This morning I frantically raced to the post office to mail out a few of the letters to people who don't have email addresses in hopes they will receive them before the new year begins.  I have decided that next year I am simply going to purchase a few cards and go back to sending them out for Christmas. I have tried now for two Christmases in a row to abandon the Christmas card project, but it isn't working out for me. Such good friends are still sending us their cards and letters and I feel like an Uncle Scrooge for trying to end the tradition.  Receving so much love and interest in keeping in touch each December holiday...I don't want to lose that joy any time soon after all. Next year I think I will be up to enjoying it again after taking at least a partial break this last two years.

 

Today is certainly a typical winter day....a few snow flurries dusting everthing on the ground, a daytime high of -17C (maaaaybeee if we are fortunate), driving on the freshly fallen snow that turned to ice as soon as it hit the ground so I could get those family letters I mentioned mailed, snail driving through the traffic to get our Christmas funds out of the bank, filling the car with gasoline for Sunday's trip out of town and freezing my fingers on the hose handle, purchasing enough stamps at the post office to take me part way through the new year to be sure I get to use postage at this year's price before it rises again in January, making a personal list of what I want to spend my Christmas gift money on.  (turns out it is a short list: a small box of Callebaut chocolates and some new underwear....sigh....less than creative I know...sigh....merry Christmas to me....hohoho)  Hopefully I will come up with something for myself that is interesting, fun and a true treat, but so far nothing is coming to mind!  

 

I am praying for friends who are travelling Stateside this weekend for a couple of weeks of badly needed and richly deserved holidays.  The have been in a quandry, wondering what new restrictions they will encounter at the border now that the Omicron variant is ruling the world. At this point I think they are still going.  My friend had her entire family already pre-booked for COVID19 tests 3 days prior to their home bound departure date anyway because she is organized like that. I just pray that they go, they enjoy EVERY SECOND and that they come home refreshed and thrilled that they went ahead and vacationed as planned. When I think of all the Christmas trips we took to BC over the years to see my husband's family when our son was small, risking life and limb driving through mountain passes on crowded two lane highways, following the ploughs sometimes through the mountains and around twisty lakeside roads, driving on sheer ice on the Coquihalla highway, one memorable stop near Salmon Arm to help some people rescue a large, terrified deer who had fallen through the ice on the Shuswap lake.....my gratitude that we no longer have to take those December and January trips is HUGE, GIANT, HUMUMGOUS, GYNORMOUS!! So safe travel my friends.  May the Lord grant you a smooth transition between countries!!

Well, I got a late start on the laundry this afternoon, but it  is okay if I don't get finished. Tomorrow I don't have to go anywhere at all and I am looking forward to catching up on some reading. My husband just purchased The Complete Father Brown Stories by G. K. Chesterton....finally, a series of stories written with a high degree of intelligence!  Hallelujah. I have been drowning in poorly written novels that have turned out to be romances after all, thinly disguised as other genres.  Blecch! Pooey!  Bring on Chesteron!

  

Three More Days!!

 UNTIL RETIREMENT!! YAHOOOOO!!!!!

We are getting pretty excited about it all.  We don't have any grand plans even for Christmas, let alone for the rest of retired life, but just knowing the weekly commitments are at an end, apart from the ones we actually enjoy and want to take on, commitments that don't have to continue any longer than we can manage them, is a great stress relief.  Thank you Lord that we made it through life to the point of actually being able to experience retirement joy!!  We are blessed indeed.

Although I stressed my arm slightly last evening by playing the piano longer than I should have, it is not very sore today. I don't seem to have given myself a set back by doing so much housework yesterday, so I am grateful for that.  The house is clean, I feel like I accomplished something and this afternoon we will brave the cold to run some necessary errands. 

I am learning how many of my stress responses are directly connected to my mother's situation, so I am taking steps to lessen my stress over her meltdowns, giving up the guilt that I live so far away and that I cannot solve her every problem for her.  I have stopped short of strapping the house phone to my body so that she can reach me immediately every time she gets upset when she is having multiple days of crisis in a row over what is usually nothing.  I have recognized that I cannot solve her OCD issues and that she herself has refused all her life to practise the stress reduction exercises various doctors have given her to keep her stress reactions under control. Ergo, it isn't my fault she continues to melt down over nothing. Truth and reason mean nothing to her when she is melting down and I cannot force her to face reality or to be realistic in her reactions to things.  My admiration for my father and his ability to deal with her emotions for over 65 years has grown substantially.  It is REALLY nice to feel that kind of empathy for him after a lifetime of our relationship being strained and unhappy.

Time to get on with my day.  It is sunny, freezing cold and typical of winter in December! Three more months! Then the glory of spring shall return!

   

Booked In, YAY!

 Today we received the information we needed to book our Covid19 boosters through the government website.  We are both booked in for next week. YIPPEE!!  I have cancelled all the pre-booking registrations we have had with various pharmacies around the city and I will not have to make any more frantic phone calls to our own pharmacy trying to get an appointment.  That stress is won and done!!  Thank you Lord!!

While my husband was at a work related meeting this morning I got the upstairs of this suite cleaned and the knicknacks and photos dusted off in the stairwell.  I may start some of the downstairs cleaning now, but whatever I don't complete I can do in the morning while my husband is at a clericus.....his last clericus. WOW!

FOUR MORE DAYS....not that we are keeping track or anything....until retirement.

Am going to have to watch the budget between now and the end of January as pensions and bonuses have started to arrive....yikes....we need that money for next month, not before Christmas.  Oh well, thankfully there is money for us to receive.  

The sun is coming out so I am inspired to get going on a bit more housework now.  Praise the Lord for the energy and for a healing arm that makes housework possible.

My Old Buddy!

 I had some happy news this morning about an old friend I haven't seen for the better part of the past 40 years but have always wondered about.

I will call my old friend Bryce, for purposes of this post.  We were great friends in our early 20's and spent a LOT of time together over about a three to four year period.  We spent so much time together that our mutual friends assumed we were dating, but we never were, we were just incredibly close buddies.  Having our friends making such an assumption was quite wonderful because we could each date who we wanted, "secretly", without having any well meaning interference in those relationships at the hands of our well meaning but opinionated clique. They always assumed we were together when we each missed group activities, but often we were just happily dating someone from outside the group.  We provided broad shoulders and warm hugs for each other as our various romantic relationships crumbled.  He truly was a good friend.

In some ways the friendship was mutual using I suppose, but that didn't take the fun out of it. Bryce was broke as he was between careers due to some addiction issues, (that he thankfully conquered during our first year of friendship), and I had tons of money to spend on whatever I wanted. What I wanted was a fun friend to go to expensive restaurants and cultural events with, someone to dress up in the expensive designer fashions of the time, someone who didn't mind me paying all the tabs and wasn't the least bit embarrased by it, although when we went out to dinner with his family I slipped him cash ahead of time so it would appear that he was the one treating us all. hahaha

I had a fantastic job with lots and lots of money, he eventually began training for what would turn out to be a solid career in the finance industry. We were young, enjoying everything life had to offer and the situation created some of the happiest memories of my life.

When I got married and moved away from the city, I didn't see Bryce for about a year, until his new company transferred him to the same town where my husband and I were living.  He had a serious girlfriend and I was very happy for him.  Shortly after our first couple of visits in the new town, he was transferred on to another city and that was the end of our contact with each other.  I have often wondered what became of him.

So, this morning I was delighted to receive a great report about my former best buddy.  He married the girl I met when we got together for the last time. They had a couple of children and are now new grandparents.  His career was incredibly successful and he has made all the life dreams he shared with me come true: a beautiful family, an amazing career, a lovely home on the west coast, world travel....I could not be happier for him.  

It is wonderful to get positive reports about former friends and to discover they have had amazing lives.  Bryce was like a brother to me as much as a friend and I have always prayed his life would be blessed. It has been and I am grateful to God.

I have had two days of rest now, to give my ruptured tendon time to begin healing.  This afternoon I am conscious of that plan working well.  I can raise my arm almost a foot higher than I could yesterday.  So, I will do some dusting with my good arm tomorrow and get going on the rest of the past due cleaning in here.  I can use the vacuum with my left arm as well, so there is no need to delay the work any longer.  My knee has responded well to using my cane for three days and some heat treatments with a warm wheat bag and a half tube of anti-inflammatory cream.  I may not need that cane by tomorrow. Hallelujah!  No more lifting heavy water jugs for me....dang it! Another loss of strength and ability that I have to accept. Sigh....

 This morning I decided to go grocery shopping.  I didn't wake up in time to go to the 7am Seniors' Shop, but I did get to the grocery at about 9am.  There were very few customers in the store and it didn't take long to find the few items I needed....for over $170....yikes...the prices here are climbing every week.  Then I drove to the bank.  My right arm injury has not permitted driving for the past several days, so it was a treat to get out today.  The arm was a bit tender, but I don't seem to have stressed it further by gripping the steering wheel.  Thank the Lord.  Since the bank is close to a Safeway that I rarely shop at, I decided to go in and look around. hahaha I left to go home another $70 later.  I think we are pretty well fixed now for groceries to get us through to the New Year.  Only a handful of fresh produce and some milk are likely going to be needed between now and then.  YAY!!  

Tomorrow the weather is taking a very cold turn for a few days.  The car will have to be plugged in overnight tomorrow and the next night, so I am very happy I was able to do the shopping and banking today.  We have one afternoon appointment on one of the very cold days, but other than that we can hunker down until my husband's FINAL CHURCH SERVICE this coming Sunday. (YIPPEE!! FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL RETIREMENT!)

For those of you who have been asking, I am feeling much better emotionally and mentally since my little "revelation" last week about my sorry spiritual state.  Steps have been and are being taken to reduce the stress with a resulting lifting of the spirits and I feel once again that life is not only worth living, but has much joy to be experienced. Hallelujah and thanks for praying!   

Additional Nativity Character

 My friend's cat has joined the characters in her nativity scene....hmmmm....

The Holy Kitty in the Holy City???

The Second Half Of The Day Is Much Better, Hallelujah!

 So the first eight hours of this day didn't go so well, but once I got a few hours of sleep and arose from bed to have breakfast, things improved considerably and I am grateful for that!

My husband brought me my cane so I could help myself get out of bed and protect my sore, swollen knee, I had a good breakfast once I got myself downstairs to the kitchen and I had a nice visit with my husband before he left for his church service.  We decided it would be wisest for me not to go this morning because I could hardly walk or otherwise move.  

He left around 9am and I thought about all the housework I am so far behind on.  I just had to try to do something constructive, work through some of the pain, for the sake of my peace of mind.  Wow, things went really well!  I hauled the vacuum out and got the kitchen floor done using my left hand to manoevre the wand, I managed to get a wet rag onto the end of the yardstick and clean all the slats on the window blind. I dusted and swiffered and managed to haul a pail of water and a mop around the kitchen to wash the floor, plus managed to haul them upstairs to wash the bathroom floor as well.  I completed the work just as my own church service was about to begin on Zoom, so I was able to be present for that and have a bit of a rest for my sore muscles.  As I suspected, some of the aches and pains in my neck and shoulder disappeared with that bit of exercise.  My husband thinks I have either pulled or maybe even torn  ligament just below my right shoulder, so it is going to take a long time to heal in that case and I will need to learn to work around that problem without damaging it even more.  My knee is responding to the use of the cane and is not throbbing any more. The swelling has gone down somewhat.

My husband had a lovely service of his own today and on the way home he got thinking about our car issues.  A light went on in his brain as to what the problem could be and right now he is home, out in the parking lot working on repairing it himself.  It is POSSIBLE we will be able to cancel the repair appointment he has scheduled for Tuesday.  Even if not, he knows what the issue is now, can repair at least part of it himself and we will not have to spend nearly as much on repairs as we thought we would. Hallelujah!!

On top of all that good news, the sun has been shining. BONUS!!

Adding Injury To Insult! Hahaha!!

 Okay.....life has reached ludicrous speed, so usually that means better times are ahead. I pulled a muscle in my right upper arm the other day and by yesterday that arm became nearly immovable from muscle pain. Then in the afternoon I banged my right knee and reactivated an old injury....more pain. Then just before bed I tried massaging my sore arm and subsequently managed to spread the pain into the back of my head. Aiiii yiiiii....how crazy is that, right?? 

So here it is 2am and there is no way I can get comfortable enough to sleep. I just took an extra strength pain killer, after admitting defeat in conquering the pain without help, so am waiting for it to start working so I can catch a few winks sometime soon. First I couldn’t get out of bed because of the arm and neck pain, then I couldn’t get back into bed because my knee didn’t want to bend without experiencing excruciating pain. Finally I got the giggles because once I finally got the painkiller I had to scrabble around in my ironing closet to find a water bottle that had enough water in it after filling the steam iron the other day, so I could take the pill. That involved hobbling down the hall from the bathroom, pill clutched in my fist and praying I wouldn’t drop it on the floor as there is no way I would be able to reach down to pick it up, squeezing between my bed and my clothes rack to get to the closet, fighting through all the scarves hanging on the inside of the closet door that reached out with static electricity to wrap themselves around my face, reaching up onto the shelf with my good arm to grasp the water bottle while wincing from the neck pain that movement caused, then squeezing back past the clothes rack to get to the other side of the bed. I took the pill, then spent a few minutes trying to manoeuvre my knee into a position that would allow me to sit back down on the bed with minimal pain; not highly successful with the minimal pain part of the procedure, but I did manage to tip myself into the bed and land on my good arm. Whew! Yay! Only problem was that I was sitting too low on the bed for my head to be able to reach the pillow once I found a way to actually lie down! Hahahahaha!!! Yup, that’s when I got the giggles! I scooched my behind slowly up the bed until I judged my head would hit the pillow once I found a way to lie down. (God bless my husband for not waking up due to my antics!) With a lot of groaning I managed to get semi comfortable by partly sitting up after dragging my tv pillow across the floor and using my good arm and my teeth to haul it up onto the bed. 

So here I sit, trying not to move at all while waiting for that painkiller to do its job. Once it takes effect I will be able to sleep partially sitting up, head slumped forward to relieve the pain point in my neck, knee stretched straight out, sore arm cuddled into my side and teetering from one butt cheek to the other to keep my hip hardware from digging into the muscles on what is currently my “good” side. Since I currently cannot sit, stand or walk without crying out from stabbing pains, it is no wonder I can’t sleep!!!! 

The whole situation is so ridiculous that I am still giggling! What else can a person do but see the humour in the situation? Well, it is after 2:30am now, so will shut out the light and try to capture the so far elusive sleep!! Physical pain is a great way to get over emotional stress!! Yay! I am back to looking for the “silver lining”. Thank you Lord!

The Healing Power Of The Outdoors!

 Had a great time working at the church this afternoon arranging bibles and hymn books, cleaning out a closet and some general tidying up so the sanctuary is ready to hold the audience at this weekend's Christmas concerts.  Had a fun lady to work with too and that added to the joy of the afternoon.

When I was done I hemmed and hawed about calling my husband to come and get me as home and church are less than 3km apart. As I stepped outside I knew I was going to be able to walk home.  INCREDIBLE!!  The sun was still shining, the breeze was chilly, but that is what hooded winter coats are for, I had warm boots and mittens.  It was fabulous to be outside breathing in the cool air and striding along as if I own the city!  

Prayer and walking outside.....I am realizing I have to find a better way to exercise indoors on the winter days when I can't get outside to walk.  I am trying to remember what I did last winter....I think I at least did a half hour walk around the suite twice a day, once after breakfast and once after lunch, then a one hour walk after dinner.  Time to get back to that routine.  I think it kept me sane during the winter pandemic restrictions last winter.

Had A Little Talk With Jesus!! Very Encouraging!

I decided not to go to sleep last night until I spent a long time in prayer trying to get to the root of my recent stress issues. So glad I did! 

I got thinking about this past couple of years and the health issues and deaths in our family, the geographical distance between ourselves and our only child, living a full day's drive away from Mom, the uncertainty of what is going to happen next in our lives as my husband retires and we soon face having to deal with the "to move or not to move" situation, the social distancing that has isolated us so much since the pandemic started, the natural concerns and fears as we enter "old age"....I think my biggest problem that is causing the stress is my resentment about the path the Lord has us on these days.  

I don't WANT to have to face old age related health issues. I don't WANT to face the financial and accommodation uncertainties we are facing at the moment. I don't WANT to have to carry the guilt I am going to struggle with if my mom dies or has a serious health issue and I am not able to be by her side.  I don't WANT to have to worry about vehicles breaking down, the possiblity of contracting or passing along COVID to any of our friends and family, to have to be in such constant daily prayer again for God to provide for our needs once my husband retires.  I don't WANT to have to face the extra stresses in life right now. I don't WANT any of it!!

Notice that the two key words in each sentence above are "i" and "WANT".  My stress is stemming from these two words combined to describe that what I WANT or I don't WANT has taken over in my mind and heart from accepting and even welcoming what GOD WANTS or doesn't WANT happening in my life. Resentment breeds stress, stress breeds discouragement and discouragement breeds depression.  Ah hah!! By George, I think she's got it!!  The root of the present issues is indeed a desire to put my own will ahead of God's will and then wondering why that is not working for me! Well, DUH!!!

It is going to take some time to work through these issues and get the stress back down to a reasonable level, axe the depression and get back to being excited about life again, but last night's little chat with the Lord certainly gave me some insights into my own poor attitude.  

The trouble with being SO very human is that I don't always stop and remind myself of all that God has done up to now in my life: all the times he has gotten us through our own illnesses and the loss of various loved ones and friends, how many near miracles he has sent our way to provide for finances and housing and transportation, how each time we have had a change of circumstance looming God has provided all the answers at just the right times.  

I spent a long time remembering those things as the night changed into the wee hours of this morning.  It was soothing.  It was like being under a spiritual microscope and seeing the problem, but knowing that God is not judging me for being human, that he understands the human short term memory and that he is willing to keep assisting me in my transformation process as his child.

The other thing I remembered was the fear I experienced a year ago when my doctor was warning me about the possibility of my having cancer and how the Lord gave me a new perspective on death and dying I had not had before, a persepctive that gave me great peace.  I felt that same peace start to descend at about 4:30am.  It has remained with me throughout the morning.  It is putting the rest of the issues into perspective again.  Lots of work for me to do to get things back to how they should be in my daily walk with God.  Being honest about my formerly hidden resentment is a good first step.   

Already an encouragement came this morning when my walking partner volunteered to lend us her car to get out to my husband's church on Sunday morning if our car isn't able to safely make the trip.  We may have to take her up on that, (hard on my pride...another confession okay?), as much as we would rather not. Perhaps it will be good for us to have to humble ourselves and accept the help.

We were able to get our car in for a major checkup and overhaul this coming Tuesday morning.  The appointments are backed up for a couple of weeks, so we are very fortunate that the dealership does know the possible seriousness of this current problem and is able to squeeze us in so quickly.  I praise the Lord for that too.  

The sun is shining today. That always helps my mental state. Yay sunsine!!!  I will get out in it this afternoon for awhile.  My husband is going to drive me over to my church so he can check out the state of the malfunction light that is appearing on the car dashboard and then after a short time of doing some work there I will find my own way home.  If it is warm enough I just may walk and enjoy the outdoors.  The ice is pretty much melted off the main streets and intersections so I should be quite safe.  If not, there is always the bus I can catch only two blocks from the church and that stops right outside my door. 

See, I am aware today of the positives in life.  That is a good sign that I will be able to recover with minimal outside intervention. Thank you Lord for merciful help. 

Cis-Boom-Bah Humbug!!

 This has been a very good week indeed and today started off very well too.  My husband woke up at 5am and when he still wasn't sleeping by 5:30am he sneaked off downstairs and made baking powder biscuits and an apple pan dowdy!!  I was awakened just after 6am to the beautiful aromas emanating from the oven downstairs!  I LOVE baking powder biscuits when they are fluffy and tasty like the ones my husband makes.  Since I ate breakfast so early I had to have a bit of a pan dowdy snack around 10:30am ( I did SO!!!) so I could enjoy a very fun porch visit with my walking partner.  More biscuits with melted cheese made for a tasty, delicious, scrumptious lunch!!   

About that time I got an email from my church minister asking for some assistance in tidying up the church sanctuary tomorrow afternoon so it is ready for the weekend of Christmas musical events happening there and that will be fun as I am working with someone I enjoy.

After lunch things slowly fell apart for me.  Oh my....I think I have higher stress than I realized!  hahaha  I got my mother's Christmas card back in my mailbox because I had forgotten it would need extra postage due to a popup on the front of the card that means it has to be hand stamped.  No worries, I don't mind at all paying and extra dollar and two cents for my mom's card postage.  When I got to the post office this afternoon to correct the error I was a LOT more miffed at the clerk charging me one dollar and five cents, rounding it UP from one dollar and two cents instead of rounding it down to one dollar....a difference of a few cents is no big deal, obviously, but it was the principle of the thing.  For some reason that grated on my last nerve....I hadn't realized my last nerve is the only one I have left!!  I didn't get angry with the clerk when I mentioned it to her and received only a glazed stare in response, but inside I was miffed...VERY MIFFED!!  I was much more miffed than the incident warranted.

When I was driving home the indicator came on to tell I have a vehicle problem....it is an emergency emissions indicator lamp and if it comes on and stays on when driving it is time to go directly to the mechanic to have it checked out.  It flickered off and on a few times.  The anti-skid for my tires also has been acting strangely this past week and we had planned to call the dealership next week to see about that if there is time.  Now that darned lamp icon has come on AND the windshield washer fluid is refusing to squirt out.  In other words, we have a serious issue of some kind going on with our vehicle.  We phoned the dealership to leave a message about making an appointment and they have not called us back yet, nor reponded to the online website request.  Sigh....

My husband wore out later in the morning in the middle of his soup making project, a fact I discovered after I told him about the car issues, so instead of getting my own work done while waiting to hear about the car, I had to complete the soup project.  In the process of going to the basement to collect the vegetables I needed, I discovered that my husband had forgotten to shut off all 4 basement lights before he went to bed last evening, so they had been burning for over 24 hours in total, only 6 of those hours being necessary. Sigh....  He also had a nap this afternoon and instead of being refreshed, as he usually is after a nap, he woke up with a sore muscle in his neck, a tight sinus and various other CFS related aches and pains.  

His not having a good wake up from a nap, along with a frustrating post office experience and the knowledge that our car is going to cost us some big bucks soon, in all likelihood, plus the stress of wondering how on earth we are going to get out of town to my husband's parish on Sunday to do his second last service if we have no car available, as well as knowing my mom is going to be discussing some stresses of her own tonight when we talk on the phone, all combined to bring on a stress related dizzy spell.  So grateful it didn't last very long.  Some prayer and a good pep talk from me to myself got me over it in a matter of a few minutes. Thank you Lord.  Long term ongoing stress drives my blood pressure to be too high or too low at various times, so I need to get a better handle on things so I return to my usual rah-rah-cis-boom-bah mode of living.

I will be fine, but confession is indeed good for the soul, so this is my confession of my present weakness.  Prayer will help a lot.

In other news we received a very cute email from our son today.  He and his girlfriend had their COVID-19 booster shots yesterday and their combined reaction made for a rough night with little sleep.  I am praising God that my son's reaction was far less extreme than with his first two injections, but his friend is having a bad time still today.  He decided he would make her some chicken soup and did his best to follow her grandmother's Jewish recipe.  Apparently after the dear girl ate some of the soup she told him it was "pretty good for  goy!", then promptly got after him for leaving the ladle in the pot.  "What are you making?  SPOON soup???" hahahahaha  I can hear her gentle voice teasing him and giving him a hard time.  He has learned a great deal about better kitchen and table etiquette from this woman and it is pretty hilarious to see him finally doing the things we tried so hard to teach him to do when he was a child, but he didn't want to bother with. hahaha

So, I will relax once we hear from the mechanic and figure what we have to arrange to get my husband to church this weekend. There is one other couple from the city here that attend and MAYBE we could get a ride with them if they are not too paranoid about riding together in the same vehicle.  Praying the darned mechanic will get time to call us in the next 90 minutes before the business closes for the day.

 

Deep cleansing breaths....iiiiiiiin.....ooooouuut...

Everthing is going to be fine. 

Socializing Is So Wonderful During the Long, Cold Winter Months!

 I have had a wonderful time over the past couple of days!  Yesterday we had a good time at DarBar with one of my husband's bosses and what a hoot. We laughed and laughed over the craziest things.  The food was wonderful as always and we were able to each bring home half of the sumptuous portion for dinner last night.  YES!  Our friend treated us to the lunch, gave us a beautiful Christmas card and also two home made Jamaican beef pasties...incredible generosity "just because".  She is generous like that to one and all.

I got my laundry done, only a bit of ironing to do tomorrow afternoon and then I will be able to clean house on the weekend.

Today I had a long and lovely visit with a shut in friend from church.  How can we see each other so often and still have so many things to discuss, with so little repetition??  Amazing!

Tomorrow morning my walking partner is coming over for the first of our winter porch visits.  Since it is on the way to a high temperature of +3C tomorrow and she isn't coming over until later in the morning, I may be able to manage without my mid winter sleeping bag wrapped around me. My friend brings stadium blankets for us to wrap up in and tomorrow I think that will be sufficient for warmth.  The pandemic has been forcing me to get outside on the back porch to do some visiting in order to keep from becoming too isolated and hermit-like, so that is a positive change in my last two winters!  

The cleaning crew arrived next door this afternoon to assess what will need to be done to spruce up that suite in the aftermath of our most recent neighbours moving out.  If the crew is coming in this quickly, the suite must already be rented out for sometime between the middle and end of this month. O dear Lord, PLEASE let it be quiet, non-smoking, non-doggy people, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.....O Lord hear our prayer.......Amen.

My husband will be finished his parish ministry in eleven more days. YIPPEE!!!!  

Today I was reminded that our goddaughter is having her 18th birthday toward the end of this month.  We had not forgotten, but we needed the reminder from a mutual friend to get us up off our behinds and get her present purchased and mailed today!!  So glad for that reminder or we would still be hemming and hawing about what to get her and not getting the shopping done and the card mailed!  The same mutual friend gave me a fantastic idea for a high school graduation gift next spring.  YAY MUTUAL FRIEND!!

Time for my nightly phone call with my mother. Hopefully she had another good day today.  She has a pulled hip muscle that is going to take a very long time to heal, so that is kind of depressing for her as it is so very painful, but she is soldiering on, putting the heating pad on it and taking some strong painkillers to cope in the meantime. Bless her!