Almost The New Year!

 In approximately five hours we will transition from the year 2022 to the year 2023!  I can't believe how quickly the past year seems to have passed by.  It was mostly a blurball of stress for me.

My husband and I had our annual New Years Eve Day discussion and prayer time.  We reviewed the past year, its joys and intense sorrows, then talked a good deal about what directions we feel God may leading us as the new year begins.  Then we had our time of prayer, expressing our trust in his ability to lead us and our hope in our ability to hear and follow!

A couple of things stand out to me from our discussion:  I have been thinking that we should try to avoid moving for another year because in my mind, my husband needs that extra time to both relax more fully into his retirement, therefore to not be under stress to get things cleaned out and packed up for a move.  However, what came out of our discussion is that I too need a year to "just breathe", as the grief of losing both my parents begins to subside and the problems surrounding the estate process continue to be solved and put to rest.  I am still doing estate things for another four months or so and trying to find a place to live that is any better than this one, plus all the packing up, address changes, trying to work in a trip to NYC to see our son, etc. etc. etc. is just more than I am ready for, I discovered today.

We both felt like we could finally exhale, once we made the tentative decision to remain here for one more year. We have put up with the place and its many foibles and problems for coming up to eight years now, so what is one more, right?  We are realizing that taking time to breathe and rest and not be pressured about anything like a big move, is more important than anything else for now.  If God wants us out of here this spring after all, he will no doubt make that plain to us, give us a place to go and the energy to make the move. Otherwise we will stay here and treat this rapidly decaying old place like a retreat centre for two tired old people.  YES! I am looking forward to that actually!

My husband made baking powder biscuits today...his best ever!  He used a new technique with grated hard butter and baked them for a couple of minutes less than he usually does. They were just perfect!  I have now eaten 5 of them in one day...time to quit...but wow, with some strong white cheddar sliced paper thin and a couple of small rounds of hot turkey sausage on top of each half of the biscuit....superb!  Happy New Year to US!

My husband's cooking and baking efforts are often his gifts to me.  He sees me struggling to prepare something interesting to eat, or how tired I am, or how discouraged I feel and suddenly he is in the kitchen cooking up my favourite things.  I LOVE his "gift giving language"!  

Tomorrow morning we will attend church on ZOOM rather than trying to fight the icy streets and sidewalks.  My husband has several duties to attend to at church next Sunday, so this week we will take the easy way out.  In the afternoon we are meeting up with good friends for our annual bonfire burning of all the old papers from the year before.  Goodbye 2022  no longer needed papers and newspaper articles and pictures and such.  It is a quick and fun way to rid our houses of excess old paper work!  It is a fun way to connect with our friends too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

More Fun Than Originally Planned For Today! YAY!

 I am using a font called "Satisfy" for this post because this day has been so unexpectedly satisfying!

We both slept in again this morning...so once again I enjoyed a late breakfast.  I started watching a limited TV series, four two hour episodes of "Flowers in the Attic", which is very dark, but most interesting.  Not sure if the tv show is as well done as the original manuscript by VC Andrews, but it is still a gripping story.

Just as I finished watching the first episode the phone rang.  It was the couple we made Christmas dinner with. They were entertaining a young missionary gal they give financial support to regularly.  She is back in the city to spend the Christmas holidays with her family and as she was visiting with our friends it came out that she also knows us through a former Anglican church connection.  So, they wanted us to come over to join them.

At this point my husband and I were still lying around in our pj's, sporting bed head and a spectacular need to complete our morning hygienic practises!  Our car hadn't been moved since we drove home at the beginning of the ice storm 3 days ago, so it was far from roadworthy.  We hemmed and hawed for a few seconds about whether we wanted to bother entering the Land of the Living today, decided we probably should, then started racing about getting ready to go.  

We managed to get the car started and rocked the tires out of the thick ice they were embedded in, but it took nearly 15 minutes of warming the vehicle for the ice it was encased in to start melting sufficiently to be even partially scraped off!  The windshield wipers were mired in at least 3cm of very thick, hard ice and we couldn't get them free. So, my husband took the risk of driving a few blocks to our friends' home while peering through the centre of the windshield, the only space he could get the ice off.  Fortunately there wasn't any ice on the side mirrors, so he could still drive more or less safely, as long as he had no need to use the windshield wipers.  We drove along praying no large sheet of ice would detach itself from the roof of the car or top of the windshield and cascade down low enough to block his vision.  He had the de-icer turned on for the back window and in the 25 minutes the car was running by the time we arrived at our friends' house, it had melted exactly NONE of the ice plastered on back there.  So, for the first hour we were at our friends' he left the car running in their driveway to get rid of the rest of it.  Aiiiii yiiiiii....so grateful the car didn't burn up as much gasoline as I thought it might after running for nearly 90 minutes.  The ice was completely melted by then and we both breathed a sigh of relief as we drove away after the visit.

The streets are unbelievable slippery, three full days post ice rain. Incredible!  My husband is the most careful, slow, winter driver on the planet, but we still found ourselves sliding to a stop at red lights, just like everyone else. Thanks to the incredible amount of distance he puts between himself and the car immediately ahead of him, we avoided sliding into two different cars as we crept to a stop on the icy surface of the streets.  On the way home we slid mostly through a red light into the middle of a busy intersection, but had the space to back up again before any of the cross traffic got close to us. Thank you Jesus!

My husband decided he needed a treat after all the stress of driving to that point, so he suddenly turned a corner and headed off to the Knotted Thistle, where we enjoyed a nice lunch.  Because it was so totally unexpected, just like our visit with friends today, I think we enjoyed lunch out more than ever. The price of the meal was most reasonable and it was delicious.  The batter on my husband's fish was very crispy all the way through to the fish....no mucky half cooked batter at all.  Our request to have unsalted fries was heeded and we got extra cole slaw when we said we didn't want tartar sauce.  The spontaneity of the day turned us both a bit  hyper, so we laughed and laughed as we ate our lunch and recalled past Christmases.

The sun is shining brightly at the moment. That is enough to cheer anyone up!  Yesterday our neighbour took a tumble on the ice just at the end of our front sidewalk, but we were relieved to find out today that she suffered no serious consequences....oh to be younger and not dealing with osteoporosis! ( I had to use my cane and icepick tip just to get across our narrow porch and down 4 steps today!)  Very thankful she is okay.

We are praying for safe driving for all our friends and family currently in this ice covered city of ours.

Snow On Snow

 I have always enjoyed the imagery of "snow on snow", lyrics from the old hymn "In the Bleak Midwinter".  Today we definitely have snow on snow going on outside.  We received a bit of snow yesterday that coated the ice on the ground and stuck firmly to it, but then overnight we received another layer of snow that is puffy and light and able to be swept off the first layer quite easily.  It is quite beautiful to behold all the winter whiteness outside our windows.  Not sure when it will be less treacherous for myself to be outside, but at least I will have my zip lock bag of ice melt crammed into my purse when the time comes, just as a bit of extra protection to keep me from falling and breaking more bones.  Lord, is it AT ALL possible there is a place we could move to next year or the next year after that doesn't experience winter like this? No?  Oh well, it was just a thought. Thanks anyway.

Our suite is all cleaned and tidy now.  My painful back muscles forced me to spread the cleaning tasks over two days, but it surely feels wonderful to be all done for another week or so. 

I may just take a bit of time to actually sit down and read a book this afternoon...maybe perhaps. This morning I stayed in bed until nearly 9am before getting out from under my cozy winter duvet and preparing my breakfast. So I can't eat lunch now until 1:30pm?  So what?  On days like this I have no one else to consider, no meetings or medical appointments or scheduled visits. Feels kind of good to be able to eat when I actually feel like it, instead of constantly juggling meal times for the sake of doctors and bankers and others who have to see me according to their own busy schedules.

Knowing I can't get outside to walk and race madly about shopping for exercise is restoring my discipline to be doing active house chores, plus daily walking figure eights and marching up and down on the spot here at home. I have kind of fallen into a slump this winter of not bothering, all the while complaining to anyone who will listen that, despite getting back on my proper amounts of food at meals and cutting out all snacks in between, I am not losing as much weight as I need to.  Get off your butt girl and get moving!!  That is what I am telling myself these days and myself is finally obeying the command!

Hmmmm....must go and ferret out something decent to eat for lunch.  I have a couple of tilapia filets thawing for dinner tonight and my husband is going to roast some potato slices in the toaster oven to go with.  He will likely want peas and I will have corn niblets.  In the meantime....lunch soon beckons. What to have.....

Day One of Icy Rain Enforced Home Stay!

 When we woke up this morning the ice was already melted from our windows and we could see outside once again.  It was only -11C with a windchill of -24C.  There was no more icy rain after about 3am, so that was good to note.  Now it is late afternoon and there are snowflakes blowing past our windows and covering the icy patches on the roads and sidewalks.  It is supposed to snow for the next several hours...more thickly packed snow clogging up the little street that connects us to our parking lot...oh joy! 

I thought I would spend my day relaxing like a lady of leisure, but apart from wearing my daytime pj's since I got up at 8:30am, I have mostly been very busy doing housework.  Only half the suite today, then half tomorrow, since holding that infant for so long yesterday afternoon wreaked havoc on my back muscles.  Who knew a 10 week old premie, as light as a feather, could make such a mess of my back muscles!  He barely weighs 15 pounds and I have been in agony since last evening.  Well, now I have the perfect excuse not to hold other peoples' children!  teehee.....

It feels good to be ahead of the game on the housework.  Now I just have to discipline myself not to do any more work today, even though I feel like I want to.  It wouldn't be sensible for my back.   To be honest it is kind of nice to have some direction for my week of "leisure" time.  I don't do "sitting around reading a book all day" very well.  So opposite to when I was a child and my parents had to practically rip the books out of my hands and lock me out of the house to get fresh air and play with the other kids in the neighbourhood.  I was a voracious reader, but these days it seems like too much self indulgence. I also feel better if I keep moving and not spend too much time sitting.  My back is feeling a lot better since it got all stretched out bending over to clean the bathtub and contorting it around the tiny space that houses the toilet and sink.  YAY!

Family Health Update

We had a good talk with Ray today.  He is very happy that one of his siblings was able to get a flight from BC to go to spend Christmas with him.  We were concerned that with all the problems at the airports during this time of extreme weather, he would end up alone, so we were thrilled to find out he wasn't alone for Christmas.  He was able to haul up his Christmas tree and decorations from the basement so that the house would look nice for the weekend.  They even made a proper turkey dinner to enjoy.

Ray decided after his last immunotherapy treatment that he wanted a break from the related oral medication until his next course of immunotherapy.  Just to have his senses of taste and smell back for the Christmas holidays would be such a treat. The oncologist reluctuantly granted his wish and we are glad for that. He has enjoyed his meals for three whole weeks!  

A new area of concern is the constant, piercing pain in his back that has reduced his mobility for the past several weeks.  He will be going to his doctor to check that out the first week of January.  Since the immunotherapy is continuing to shrink the tumours in his lungs, kidney and liver, he will still be taking the treatments for as long as they continue to shrink the tumours.  He is already several treatments past the usual stoppage point, so there is no data available to his medical team as to what can be expected after this many treatments.  He is, right now, "kind of an experiment".  We are grateful that the experiment has continued to work.  Our concern is that the back pain will turn out to be more than a pulled muscle.  The immunotherapy is shrinking the tumours, but of course it is not ridding his body of the cancer.  At some point "the cancer will win".  Every time he has a new ache or pain now, there is worry.

So that is the latest for all you prayer warriors out there who have been asking me what is up.  Ray only answers the phone when he feels up to it, so it is often a long time between conversations.  He did not answer our calls over Christmas, so we were very grateful he picked up the phone today and we had such a good chat together.

Thank you all for your prayers for him. 

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I have just come inside from standing just outside the back door, experiencing the freezing rain first hand.  My husband was able to force the back door open and broom away some of the build up of ice from the bottom of the door.  We noticed that instead of rain coming down and freezing on the surface of the porch, the drops were freezing on the way down from the sky.  Standing outside, it was like standing in a downpour of teeny, tiny glass shards, except that they didn't hurt when they hit me, they just felt kind of tingly.  It was fascinating!  I have never seen frozen rain before, falling down in thin icy bits 'n' pieces.  Incredible, this weather of ours. Isn't weather just the most fascinating thing???!!??

Encased In Ice At The Moment!

 We have had another wonderful day, despite this afternoon's and evening's weather!

I awakened this morning at 5:30am to the forecast of a Freezing Rain warning.  Hmmmm....maybe not a good idea to wait until later to pick up a few groceries we will need over the next week.  Off I went for an early morning shop.  It went well until I got home and realized I had driven off without unplugging car from the heating post. There was the cord stretching out across the parking lot like a sickly yellow snake. So thankful that because it was so early in the morning, none of the neighbours had left for work yet and driven over it!  Sigh....oh well, somehow I managed not to detach the cord from the block heater under the hood. Whew!  

I was quite proud of myself for being able to get out and about and be home so quickly with my bag of supplies....that is until I unpacked the bag here at home and discovered I had somehow missed putting a very expensive organic avocado into said bag when I was packing at the 'til.  Sigh....  I got my boots and heavy coat back on and drove back to the store.  The cashier remembered me and said she had not seen my avocado on the converyor belt after I left, BUT that she had stepped away from her 'til for awhile. Her idea was that either another customer had found it and taken it, or a co-worker had discovered it and returned it to the produce display. She told me to just go and pick out another one.  How incredibly kind of her.  There are perks to shopping at the same small grocery store for over seven years.  I am trusted to be telling the truth about missing grocery items that I paid for but didn't bring home after all.  Back home I went for a second time, cradling my avocado in my purse to avoid dropping it in the snow, as I left home the second time in such a hurry that I neglected to bring my tote bag with me.

My husband didn't wake up until 10am, so he had no idea I had been out anywhere at all, let alone that I had driven twice to the grocery store, AND nearly destroyed his in car heating cord. hahahaha.  

After lunch we drove over to the home of one of my husband's cousins.  All the rest of her family: siblings, parents, brand new nephew, are visiting her from Calgary, so we had a wonderful, marvellous, grand time all afternoon with them.  I spent a pleasant afternoon cuddling the baby, a rare occurrence for me, so I enjoyed that.

What we didn't pay close enough attention to was the onset of the predicted freezing rain!  When it was time to leave and we stepped outside the house, we both nearly took a tumble on the icy build up coating stairs and porch and driveway and CAR!!  The car was totally covered in ice.  Fortunately it hadn't been sitting on the windshield long enough to be more than a thin coating that scraped off easily after a fairly short time of sitting in the vehicle with the heater pouring warm air onto it. YAY!  We didn't even have much trouble prying the doors open so we could get inside the car!  I didn't have to use my cigarette lighter this time to thaw the crack around the door!  YIPPEE!!  There is a reason I have continued to carry a lighter for the past 40 years since I quit smoking! In winter, you never know when your car doors are going to freeze shut!

Also fortunately, in my usual state of over-preparedness, right before we left to go over there  I poured a fair number of ice-melt pellets from home into a plastic bag that I had in my purse!  Scattering them across the porch and steps of cousin's house and along the drive way next to our car kept us from falling down before we could get into the vehicle. I did the same thing here at home so that I could get up our icy wooden back steps and across our little wooden porch that was covered in a thin layer of invisible ice.  Yikes!  We both felt an overwhelming sense of relief when we were able to get back inside unscathed.  We are grateful that much earlier in the day the city road crews had put down a thick layer of sand on the main road of our route home.  We got back with minimal slipping and sliding.  Looking at some of the other vehicles around us on the road, I am guessing that some parts of the city hadn't had as much freezing rain at that point as our area had and I hope that continues for them!  The rain is not scheduled to stop until sometime between midnight and 4am, so if that is the case I doubt we will be going anywhere for several days!  Yuckko!! I pray we will have no power outages as a result of heavy ice buildup.

I am looking at our calendar and we have NOT ONE THING scheduled for the rest of this week!  HOW WONDERFUL! There will be no stress regarding possible rescheduling of anything due to the freezing rain issues. Hallelujah!  We can stay home happily. My husband can do some writing. I can get this house cleaned up again.  We can wear our house pj's for the rest of the week!  YAY!  It is all good!!

Confession IS Good For the Soul And Apparently Also For The Tummy????

 I am so glad I made my confessional post yesterday about my struggles with Christmas practices.  Getting that out into the open emptied out my mind and heart in preparation for the joyous Christmas Day service we attended at church this morning!

What a wonderful time of praise and worship.  Several of the teens were involved playing piano and violin. There were also guitars and the organ and even a penny whistle!  We sang songs I love, that I haven't sung at a church in a long, long time:  He is Born and Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella.  Our minister was strumming his guitar with such joy and enthusiasm....oh it was wonderful!  The kids were hilarious during their time at the front of the church, first for their own children's story and subsequently as they sat at the minister's feet with their "busy boxes" that replaced a Sunday School class today.  There was a baby dedication too, of the teeniest, tiniest, wee baby I think I have ever seen.  Mom and Dad were dressed in Christmas red suits and Mom sported a white Santa hat.  The baby also had a teensy red santa hat and was wrapped in a most colourful Christmas blanket.  Such joy to welcome a new child into the fold. The minister's entire family, including all the visiting relatives, were dressed in red and black checked pajamas and santa hats....SO CUTE!  (No, the minister wasn't dressed that way, just the rest of his family.) 

People were extremely "huggy" this morning and we didn't mind at all.  After the huge snowfall last night and the difficulty of driving around the city to get to church, it was like we were congratulating each other for making it to the service as much as we were expressing gratitude for making it to the end of another globally crazy year.

The icing on this glorious cake of joy is that one of the younger gals in our church presented us with a large Christmas gift bag to take home.  We were quite surprised. There has been neither Christmas gift giving nor receiving in our house this year...apart from some rather spectacular baking from my walking partner that has been long since eaten in full.  When we got home and opened the bag we discovered a lovely little loaf of home made sourdough bread, a home made cheese ball filled with chives and covered with minced almonds, a bag of home made rosemary crackers and a large jar of home made red pepper jelly!!  We LOVE all of these foods, but the friend who gave us the gift had no way of knowing that.  It made for a most special Christmas Day lunch for the two of us.  WOW!!  I confessed my Christmas despair yesterday and this entire morning has been a series of one blessing after another; so many expessions of joy to lift my spirits!! Thank you GOD!!!  Thank you friends who have expressed their own struggles with Christmas this year....I pray all of us have had some joy injected into our lives today.

Another joy this morning was an hour or more long ZOOM visit with our son and his girlfriend.  We connected just after 8:30am our time and we all talked and talked and talked.  They told us about their combined Hanukkah and Christmas feast last night and told us about a similar kind of dinner they are going to this afternoon at the home of friends who also have a similar melding of Judaism and Christianity in their household.  Let's hear it for "Christmukkah"!!! 

To add to the day's delights, the temperature is starting to slowly warm up a bit.  The sun is actually shining and there are strips of blue sky between the strips of thin cloud.  I was out shovelling us a path to the car before we went to church and discovered that there were knee high drifts between each of the vehicles in the parking lot. I don't remember the last time I shovelled that much snow all at once, but it was most energizing!

So, once again confession has been good for the soul...it has lifted a lot of the gloom and unhappiness and disappointment of my husband and I being Christmas orphans this year. Thank you Lord....... 

 Yesterday afternoon we knew last night's storm was coming because of the sun dogs in the sky. Here is a photo of one of them:

Photo Cc Kat

 

If I Can Just Hang On for Two More Days......

 ....the dreaded Christmas Fol-de-rol will all be over! Hallelujah!  

I dread Christmas in Canada more than any other time of the year.  If all I had to do or face was attendance at a lovely Christmas Morn church service to celebrate the anniversary of Christ's birth, I would love Christmas!!

Do other countries go crazy with gift giving, family gatherings in bad weather, the stresses these things produce and frantic preparation while attempting to make this holiday an extravaganza like no other, or is it just in North America that we have to go through this year after year?  

If I made a list of all the friends and extended family members who have shared their Christmas related stresses with me this year alone, the list would extend from my desk, across the room, along the hallway and right down to the bottom of the stairs into the living room!!  Christmas is crazy making time in this country for an awful lot of people!  

While I realize it is not this way for many other people, from my own experiences and the ones other have shared with me this year, I feel I can legitimately say "bah Humbug" on much of the season as it is practised around here.

Don't get me wrong: I am genuinely happy for all the families who do not get torn apart by stress every year at this time.  It is a wonderful thing!  I love hearing those stories.

For me though this Christmas is particularly tough.  It is our first christmas with no family whatsoever.  Other than our son, who is not with us this year for Christmas, everyone else in our teeny tiny family has died.   My husband and I are all alone for the first time in our lives. It feels weird!!

We decided we are going to just Zoom in to tonight's Christmas eve service.  There are a number of reasons: cold weather and my husband's exhaustion from a bad sleep last night among them.  Despite it always being a good service of preparation for Christmas day, my husband and I felt very isolated when we attended the past couple of years. All around us were happy, (mostly) families gathered together with all their members from near and far, clustered in little groups throughout the sanctuary, faces beaming with joy, grandparents dandling wee grandbabies on their knees, many of the parents having grown up in that church before moving away for jobs and marriages.  It is a magical time for many families and we like observing their obvious joy, but for ourselves we are very much on the outside of the celebrating.   It was like that the entire time my husband was a parish priest.  We never lived anywhere near our aging parents and so we  had the annual observance of other families reuniting in our own churches year after year while we had usually had no one to see due to bad weather often cancelling our own plans to travel to see family once the christmas services came to an end.  Even worse this year is that we have no family to battle the elements for.  So thankful for our son's visit in November when we had our bit of family christmas reunion and celebrating.  It does take the edge of our feelings of being so alone this christmas.

since we enjoy the christmas eve service itself we will zoom in, so we can participate virutally, without having other peoples' family reunions staring us in the face.  Tomorrow morning's Christmas Day service is one we will enjoy even more and we will attend in person!  It will be day time. The sun will be shining and neither of us will be tempted to feel as maudlin as we tend to feel on Christmas eve.  Finally we are attending a church that actually has a service on Christmas morning!  YES!!  It is always a service about hope being restored.

I think this is a particularly sad christmas for us this year because all the parents and siblings are gone.  We have lost one per year for the past three years.  There is no one left to lose from our immediate extended families.  We are both expecting to feel much more cheerful next christmas as we will be more adjusted by then to being on our own all year round. 

For this year, we think it is wiser to skip all the visuals of other families enjoying their holiday reunions and spend our time enjoying happier memories of christmases past. 

our joy for Christmas dinner is that the people sharing it with us are the kind of people who make everyone they meet feel like part of their family....a very special gift of hospitality indeed!  We never feel like we are invited there as some sort of duty they must perform. We feel welcomed in. It is quite lovely.

De-Pilling!!

 My husband has truly gotten a good start on cleaning out our overly crowded basement full of "stuff", all of which has been following along with us for many a move in the past 23 years!  I am very proud of him. Even though we have pretty much come to the conclusion that we will likely end up staying in this townhouse for one more year, barring that miracle we would dearly LOVE to have happen at the end of THIS lease, he is still plugging away a bit each week getting things sorted and removed, bit by bit.

Today he discovered an old razor and hair trimming set down in the depths and decided to see if it still worked....I have no idea how many decades old this equipment is but I know I have not seen it in a very long time.  The blades are too dull for use on hair and beards, so he was preparing to toss the whole set into the garbage, but then he had a second thought:  he and I both have some sweaters that we love, but are becoming too pilled to be worn in public any more.  He got the sweaters together and decided to try using the razor to remove all the pilling.  IT WORKED WELL!!  We now have several sweaters we can wear once again without looking like we found them in someone else's garbage bin!!  I am thrilled to be able to wear my warmest coat sweater again when I am going out.  YES!!!  So glad he came up with the idea. Now that all our sweaters are fit to be worn again, the old razor kit can be put out of its misery, but it was a very nice thing for my "almost, but not quite a hoarder" husband to get one more unexpected use from it before letting it go.  YIPPEE!!

 

I texted our son this evening to find out if the flooding in parts of NYC, after their huge rainfall yesterday and last night, were creeping into his neighbourhood.  He responded with a thankful NO.  In his area of the city the rain stopped last night and had a chance to be dried up by the cold winds, so at this point, although the windchill is -20C, he has been able to navigate about his day very well.  Tonight he and his girlfriend were able to go out for dinner with friends and have a delightful evening. We pray now that the water pipes don't freeze in their ancient art deco apartment building and that the heat stays on!  They are in for several more days of unseasonably cold weather.  I am so very grateful he lives in such a good neighbourhood that also seems to be able to avoid many of the bad weather related issues that occur in other parts of the city; very grateful indeed!

A Good Ol' Prairie Farmer Lunch

 In my household growing up we ate three meals a day: breakfast, luncheon and dinner.

In my husband's household growing up they also ate three meals a day: breakfast, dinner and supper.

In both cases "dinner" was the main meal of the day, the largest amounts, the "heaviest" foods.

I am assuming that my farming inlaws and other farming relatives ate their dinner at noon to provide the energy required for the afternoon's hard work and that my own family ate dinner in the evenings because both my parents worked in offices all day, with no need nor time for a huge meal at noon.

According to my husband who was raised on a farm, and my mother's family who were also raised on farms, this main meal consisted almost daily of boiled potatoes and steamed carrots/turnips/cabbage/peas/corn (take your pick), some kind of roasted meat and a plate of sliced bread slathered in butter.

In my childhood household we did have a few dinners like that, but rarely was there something quite so simple.  Roast beef and potatoes for example would have been cooked in separate pans and served with brussels sprouts and Yorkshire pudding with thick gravy. That was as close to a prairie farmer style dinner as we ever got, and that only once a week at most.  

Thusly, I have never been enamoured of simple old fashioned prairie style meals.

However, today while we were out at 8am shopping for Christmas Day dinner groceries, my husband found a package in the meat department with two smaller turkey legs and decided he would roast those to make the base for his turkey broth for the stuffing he is making for Christmas dinner.  He told me he was going to roast them for lunch.

When he told me at noon that lunch was ready, he pulled the roaster out of the oven to reveal not only the turkey legs, but also  halved potatoes with the skins on, sliced onions, thick rounds of carrot and a yellow yam.  We each put a turkey leg on our plates and surrounded it with the vegetables covered in thick pats of butter.  The herbs on the turkey legs flavoured everything else in the roaster so very nicely.  Thankfully he did spare us the plate of bread and butter, but the rest of the meal was just what I remember eating at my various farming aunties' houses when I would visit them as a child.   For a one off, it was a lot of fun eating his prairie dinner today.  Not something I want all the time, but it was truly delicious because he knew how to roast all those things together just perfectly.

Thank you dear for making lunch today...a most tasty treat and a big change from our usual.  Yummy!!

Two More Days Of Deep Freeze!

 We are so grateful that a break in the bitter weather is forcast to begin very soon.  By Christmas Day we should start to see a large rise in the temperature.  YES!  Daytime highs of -5C to -7C will make it feel like a day at the beach outside after all the -40C to -53C windchills that have been going on for the past ten days or so.  Although we do not get the wonderful chinooks that I used to enjoy in Alberta in my younger years, we still get the edge of them, called Alberta Clippers here in SK, and I am ever so grateful when they arrive.  

My husband had a meeting this morning and had to go out in near blizzard conditions.  He told me the wind was atrocious. It was blowing the snow horizontally in front of our living room windows for a good part of the day. Although there was no more fresh snow, the wind was picking up what loose snow is out there and creating zero visibility on most of our southern provincial highways.  We are not sure yet if some of the travelling cousins were able to get here today or if they were forced to take an overnight accommodation part of the way, then attempt to complete the trip tomorrow.  Again, other than the airport overcrowding and flight delays that are being experienced all over Canada, due in part to these horrendously cold weather conditions nationwide, people along the BC west coast and lower mainland are in far worse condition for coping than we are, plus they have another 10-15 cm of snowfall predicted over this Christmas weekend! Most of the central and eastern, even southern USA are predicted to have the worst winter weather in many years over this coming weekend.  Temperatures of -55C are predicted for some states such as Wyoming. YIKES!  O Lord, protect all the citizens in Canada and the USA. Thank you, Amen!

Happily, contact has been made now with the cousins who have arrived in Regina already.  We will have a phone chat sometime this weekend to pick a day next week when we can all get together, as long as everyone stays healthy.  We are afraid to get too excited about seeing them in case someone comes down with a respiratory infection, but we are trying to remain positive for now. They have all had COVID in the past few months, so hopefully their immune systems have recovered and they will not pick up RSV here, or any of the crazy influenzas going around.  Praying no one becomes ill during or after this family vacation they have looked forward to for many months.

I wonder if there is ANY chance my husband will be awake and able to go to the 7am grocery store opening tomorrow.  That is really our best chance to avoid the last minute Christmas shopping crowds and still be able to find what we need for last minute groceries for our contribution to the Christmas dinner we are helping with.  I am praying for the miracle of an early rising for him...an actual miracle it just MAY take!!! hahaha  We are happy that we have no day time committments on Christmas Eve, so can relax and do our cooking.  

Today I decided I need more exercise!  So, I did a few loads of laundry to get some good stair climbing exercise.  I feel so much more energized than I have felt after three days of sitting around in doctors' offices and testing labs. YAY!

Stay warm everybody...winter is about 1/3 over already!! In less than three months April will be upon us!  Take heart!!! 

Too Happy To Fall Asleep!

 I shut my computer off at 8:30pm today, with every intention of catching up on the sleep I missed last night, but it hasn't worked out that way. hahaha

Today I had my final set of eye tests done and had my annual meeting in person with the ophthalmologist.  Just like my meeting last month with my GP after having a hug also quite normal!!  Apart from my constant small battles with Dry eye issues, all is well.  I do have a couple of "baby cataracts" forming, but according to the ophthalmologist it could be anywhere from a year to ten years before they grow sufficiently to need removal and he gave me a list of the signs to watch for that will indicate when I will need that to happen.  

The JOY is that I have zero signs of macular degeneration, no signs of glaucoma, no signs of diabetic retinopathy....all of which I have in my family medical history.  So far all is well and I couldn't be more grateful.  I had a bit of stress about my test results I suspect as there was no way I was going to be able to sleep last night.  At 1:30am I shut my bedside light out , but tossed and turned until nearly 3am before finally falling asleep....until 5:30am and I have been awake ever since.  

I was so hoping that going to bed at 8:30pm tonight would solve the sleeplessness issue, but if I was too concerned to sleep last night, I am too hyper and happy to sleep tonight!  Now it is 10:30pm and my eyelids feel like they have been glued open! hahaha

Thankfully my only plan for tomorrow is to do the laundry...maybe....if my husband is in need of clean clothes.  Other than that I don't have to go anywhere or do anything specific until we go grocery shopping the following morning.  I am sure I will come up with all manner of other house chores, but not having a deadline for any of them means it will be no big deal if I have another sleepless night.

It is so good to feel happy and at peace about my present medical situation....don't know how long it will last this time, but I plan to enjoy every wonderful day and not think ahead too far.  

Merry Christmas to me!  and my other christmas "gift" is the news that the weather for next week is forecast to be significantly warmer than this week has been....no more -45C windchills for a few days at least here on the prairies. YAY!!

Save Those Receipts!!

Yesterday I got a shock when I checked my online account with our property management company! A charge of several hundred dollars was shown in the Money Owing column. What on earth for, I wondered. I called the leasing office and the nice young fellow there checked it out for me. 

The charge was for a TV set top box we were supposed to return either to the leasing office or directly to our communications provider back in the early spring when the provider changed its entire system.  The leasing agent at the time advised us to return it directly to the provider ourselves as she was concerned about how long it might take the property management company to return it for us. So, that is what we did. 

Fortunately we had our wits sufficiently together that day to request a receipt from the communications company. The young man we were dealing with there didn’t seem to know “twice around a broom handle”, as my mother used to say. He didn’t seem to understand what it was we were returning or why. He didn’t want to issue us a “Returned Equipment” receipt. My husband had to demand the receipt in a very loud tone of voice before the young man shuffled off into a back room for a very long time before eventually returning with the receipt. He dithered around filling in the serial number on the set top box. We had to remind him to fill in the date, our address, allow us to affix our signatures etc. So much pain we apparently caused him! 

Fortunately I still had the receipt yesterday to take over to the leasing office to prove the box had indeed been returned. So why did the communications provider not have a record of the return? Because the dear young man we thought we had eventually successfully dealt with.....silly us.....neglected to file his copy of the receipt. How do I know that for sure? I know that because his copy of the receipt was still attached to our copy of the receipt. I discovered it when I took our copy from our files. We asked him at the time if he needed the bottom copy to put on the company files and his mumbled answer sounded like, “Nooo, I mumble mutter my copy mumble mutter snort on file flibbertygibbet anything else snort for you today sniff mumble?” I distinctly remember my husband the wrenching the receipt out of the young fellow’s hand before making our escape. It was just weird!!!

Yesterday our current leasing agent assured me he would file my receipt and remove the large charge from our accounts owing. This morning I checked our online account again and sure enough, our balance is back to zero. 

Lesson: oh be careful little hands what you shred! Hang onto those receipts forever, ‘cause you never know when you may need them after all! In this case it was eight months later. Aiiii yiiiii......

Wonderful Answer to Prayers!

 A few weeks ago I asked for prayer for my cousin who was having surgery for cancer and needed a special cardiac team during the procedure due to him having severe atrial fibrillation.  He survived the surgery and today he received his results from the tissue that was removed.  Hallelujah!  Long story as to the why's and wherefore's from the pre-surgery testing, but as it turns out there is NO cancer after all.  The damaged tissue was a papilloma, pre-cancerous and there is no evidence of any actual cancer at all.  We are all rejoicing with him and praising God.  This is our family Christmas miracle!  Thank you prayer warriors for bringing your prayers for his healing before the Lord.

Cinnamon Buns For Dinner Tonight! YES!!!!

 Wow, is it ever cold today!  I am finding it far easier to adjust to the small warm spells this winter than to the more expected plunges into the deep freeze!  I am feeling for friends on Vancouver Island and in the City of Vancouver with their somewhat extreme weather issues of deep snow, below 0 temperatures, strong winds and black ice on the highways!  At least here in Regina we are used to winters like they are getting this year!  

My husband is making cinnamon buns today!  YUMMY!!  They will be our dinner tonight.  I am so excited that my blood sugar has dropped two tenths as of my latest A1C test that I am going to just go right ahead and cheat tonight.  I haven't had much of a blow out in the month since my last test, so this will be it! AND I will exercise for a good hour or more after eating them to help keep my sugar from climbing too high too quickly.  Oh, excitement!! CINNAMON BUNS!!!!

This morning I had my first of two eye examinations at the ophthalmologist's office.  I have this double whammy every six months or so, ever since having the retinal issue a few years ago.  Today was kind of fun.  I have learned to approach the peripheral vision test, with all its flashing little lights, like I would a video game.  My little clicker device was busy today, as there seemed to be more flashing lights than ever to record, so I hope and pray I passed the test....with both eyes!  One of these days I won't get the greatest news about my peripheral vision, but as long as I can, I will enjoy being able to see well enough to be able to drive and read and watch tv and blog!  

I was so happy when the tech asked me if it would be at all possible for me to give up the 8am January 9th follow up exams and meeting with the ophthalmologist and move them to the day after tomorrow instead. Would it?? It would indeed!!!  AND the 2:30pm change of time is even better for my husband as he has to drive me to this long appointment requiring dilation of my pupils.  Going home after those sessions is always a bit fuzzy, so I am grateful he is able to drive me home. One year I took the bus, as he was unavailable, but I nearly got on the wrong bus because I couldn't read the bus banner properly. hahahahaha Thankfully I realized my mistake just in time or I would have ended up out in the boonies way to the north east in the industrial park. hahaha

I stopped in at a grocery store on the way home to pick up the groceries we need for making Christmas dinner that can either be put in the freezer or cupboard until the weekend. I am making a salad, but the produce in this city rarely lasts more than 3 or 4 days before turning brown and mushy, so I will have to brave the last minute shoppers on Friday or Saturday to be able to have fresh enough salad veggies.  I think I will make a spinach salad if at all possible. There are so many fun things a person can do with them.  I have some excellent dressings to make as well, so later this week I will decide what direction I am going to go with it all.

This week's plans, completely non-existent a few days ago, are coming together nicely!  The addition of two eye appointments to my week has worked out well.  My walking partner is coming for a visit one morning.  My husband has his pre-Christmas holiday wrap up meetings with his mens' groups, is meeting a new friend for coffee one morning and we are likely going to be able to have a visit with Kat and Val at some point during the week.  I love it when a week's plans come together!!

My husband has started watching the new season of "His Dark Materials".  He is watching it right now in fact, but when he is done we are going to watch the newest episodes of a programme about an Orangutan rescue centre in Borneo.  They stopped filming when COVID began and I am so excited that a new incarnation of the programme is being shown this year.  The title of the show has changed, as has the format, but the stars of the show are the same adorable orphaned orangutans, much more grown up and closer to being released to the safety of some reserve forest lands than they were a couple of years ago.  

Hope you are surviving winter, wherever you are and that life is treating you well.

A Most Satisfying Weekend!

Despite some bitter winds and dropping temperatures, the constant sunshine has contributed to this being quite a fine weekend!

Yesterday I was awake and dressed, got car heater plugged in, breakfasted and was out the door by 9:15am to head over to the church.  We were having a ladies' breakfast and although I didn't intend to eat anything or stay very long, I did stay for a quarter of a cup of coffee and some very happy visits with a number of women I haven't had a lot of opportunity to chatter with over this past year.  It was such fun.

The reason I didn't stay long is because I was taking a good friend out to lunch.  We had the best time munching on Indian buffet and blabbing about everything we could think of. My friend is very accomplished in her life and work and it was a pleasure to hear about some of the things she has done in her work position of 35 years!!!  35 years in the same job!  I can't imagine living 35 years in the same town, let alone working at the same job.  How admirable is that????  She is not an ancient woman, not a member of my or the next older generation who had a habit of working for life in the same job.  No, she is younger by far than myself, yet she found herself a job that requires constant creativity, so she has been able to enjoy it all this time.....35 years!  AMAZING!!  Our food at the India Palace buffet was fairly decent too. As much as I miss my other restaurant it is good to know there is better than passable Indian food elsewhere in the city.  

I was full of food and completely zonked by the time I got home, so didn't do much for the rest of the day. I tinkered about on the piano, did some reading, had a very short nap, microwaved dinner and went to bed early!  My husband has been busy writing an article for the diocesan newpaper, so that has kept him happily busy all weekend.  He is at it again this afternoon!

This morning we had no trouble getting up in time to go to adult Sunday school class at church and enjoyed staying for the service.  People are getting chatty again, aquaintanceships and friendships are slowly being re-established as more folk find their way back to the services post COVID restrictions.  After the service we never did make it downstairs to the church hall for coffee and snacks because there was so much visiting going on upstairs in the sanctuary.  By the time we chatted with everyone there, it was time for me to get home and eat my lunch!  (there are now only two small helpings of casserole left and we will eat them for dinner tonight)

I love our pastor's wife.  She is a huge soccer fan and skipped church this morning to watch the world cup final on tv.  hahaha  She is brave and honest and always just herself.  Love, love, love her!

I am sitting at my desk now basking in the bright sunlight that is persisting despite the beginning of a thin band of clouds in the sky.  We are looking at a bone freezing week for temperatures and quite a bit more snow.  I am kind of grateful my eye appointment tomorrow isn't until the late morning when it will be at least a couple of degrees warmer than in the early morning.

My husband and I had a great laugh this morning at church:  all the very elderly couples whose mobility issues make it impossible for them to come to our home are being flown to the homes of their children for Christmas...some to Calgary, some to Ontario and some to Amsterdam!!!  They can't make it up the steps at our place, or across the snow field covering our back lawn, but they are able, with much assistance, to fly around the world!  Isn't that awesome?????  I am so happy for them.  Today there were a lot of beaming, dear old faces as they told us of their plans.  YAY!! 

It has been a wonderful weekend!  

Weeeeeeellll, Partly A PJ Day!

 My husband and I woke up with the intention of spending the entire day relaxing in our house pyjamas, reading, catching up on a tv series we get on Crave, emailing, napping....the perfect day of relaxing!

It hasn't quite gone down that way, but quite happily.  After breakfast I started thinking about the new plates I purchased earlier this week and decided I had been a bit shortsighted buying only 6 of them.  If I had 8 of them it would allow for breakage. That has become a necessity as my arthritis worsens in my fingers and my ability to grip requires stopping to think first before I pick up anything breakable, which I don't always remember to do.  Surely there would be a couple of plates left from the stack I saw in there only four days ago....surely.  I got dressed and headed off to  look for those plates.  The sun was shining brilliantly, taking some of the sting out of the cold wind, so I felt more energized than I expected to.  BUT, oh my....when I got to the store I discovered there was only one left from the stack that had been there originally. Sigh....  I checked every single other stack of plates, just in case one had been misplaced on the long shelf of selections, but nope, nary another was there.  Shoot!  So, I did find two of a very similar plate that had a pretty floral design and decided that I would get those....at a clearance price of $2 each, it wasn't a big heavy decision!!!  My idea is that if we have at least six people around the table, I can, for a change of pace,  place the floral plates at the end of the table and the plain plates at each of the two place settings along the sides.  Sometimes variety is kind of fun, particularly for a luncheon. For dinners I would prefer all the plates to match, but that 's just me. After my attempt to find more of my plates, I went over to Home Sense just in case they had place mats similar to what I am looking for, but the only style that was remotely appropriate had sold well, leaving only one set of four and I need at least six.  So, I will leave things alone now on that front until the new year. Then I will head into the more expensive specialty stores to look for better placemats.  The ones I got the other day will do for every day use and occasionally for company....if we actually find any company available to come over for a meal.  It was too hilarious this week how lunch guests never did materialize despite our best attempts.   We sat alone for lunch and dinner yesterday among the place settings we had put on the table for what turned out to be our non-existent guests and quite enjoyed ourselves. The meal I had prepared was delicious and we will have more of it for dinner tonight.

I went to the post office at London Drugs as well this morning.  While there I wondered if there was any chance a few more jars of Robertson's Ginger Marmalade may have appeared since last I was there. Sure enough, there was a jar left and I snatched it up for my husband so he can have a second jar for a treat and not have to use the first jar so stingily. He is going to open one of the jars on Boxing Day morning when he makes baking powder biscuits.  Yum, yum!

When I got home I was barely in the door when my husband appeared, no longer in his pj's either.  He said that since the car was already warmed up we might as well go to the Knotted Thistle for lunch, since he realized his library books are due today and he would have to go out to take them back.  hahahahaha  He has turned into quite a "lunch out" afficionado in his retirement!  I agreed to go because he was obviously so delighted with himself for thinking of the idea. hahahaha  I am justifying all these meals out by reminding myself that we are not travelling this winter. Trips to Edmonton and Calgary to see family are no longer happening, so why not use that money to enjoy ourselves right here at home?  hahaha  Nothing like justifying one's own behaviour when it isn't necessary to do so, is there? hahaha No, I don't feel guilty for spending the money, just a tad bamboozled that restaurant meals have mostly been at the instigation of my never before spendthrift husband!  Anyway, we had a wonderful time, a great visit and there was time for my husband to run into the library long enough to not only return his books, but check out a few more from his list of "books I want to read".   

Suddenly it is already on the way to 4pm!!!  Oh my!  We ate lunch at 2pm, so it will be a late dinner tonight. It doesn't matter. To the best of my knowledge we are finished with our unexpected running around today.  We are both back in our house pyjamas and quite happily doing a whole lot of nothing but relaxing. YAY for today!

Amen To This Meme!!!

”My favourite winter activity is going back inside and putting my pyjamas on!”

Yup......

Tomorrow is going to be a pj day for us. The snow is blowing, the temperature is dropping, we have enough groceries, we have no prior commitments, house chores are done for the week, so it is the perfect day to lie around reading and taking time to exhale. Yay!!! We are staying up late tonight, sleeping in tomorrow....a perfect retirement scenario!! Now I have myself so excited by contemplating tomorrow, I won’t be able to sleep tonight!!! hahaha 

We attended the Blue Christmas service at the church tonight. It was certainly different from any Blue Christmas I have ever attended, but two of the three pastors are new to the whole idea so I have hope they will figure things out over time as to what things are appropriate for such a service and what things are not. It was a good first attempt. It felt good to be able to light a candle in memory of our loved ones now gone and have a little cry in the safety of my husband’s supportive arms as we sat on the pews, both thinking about our families and how we have no one left but our son who lives so very far away. Odd as some of the service components seemed to me, there were also some powerful statements and prayers. I am happy we attended. 

Well, if I don’t get to sleep in the next 20 minutes I won’t be in a fit state to be able to enjoy my delightful pj day tomorrow.....the tomorrow that is nearly upon me already!! Yikes! 

Rising Costs Of Living!

I am staring in horror at our natural gas bill for November:  the rising cost of natural gas has resulted in a huge increase in this latest bill to the tune of $80 more than last month!  I am scrambling to create ways to do less laundry, as it is mostly hot water that is putting up the bill. I stopped using the dishwasher two years ago and that made an immediate difference to both the Natural Gas and electric bills, but I guess more creativity is warranted for the natural gas!  I don't even want to think about how high this bill is going to be for December through February!  HOWEVer, to be fair, we are still paying far less to keep warm and clean here in SK than in some other parts of Canada and definitely far less than places like the UK whose heating costs are so horrendous that some people are no longer able to stay in their residences because they can't afford the utilities any more.  I am most grateful for "small" mercies here.

Our last hope for luncheon company just texted us to let us know they are on their way out of town due to a family situation they must attend to.  So, unless some miracle happens in the next hour, my husband and I have decided to leave the table set up, use one set of place settings for lunch for ourselves and the other place settings for dinner. hahahaha  It is quite a lovely feeling to know that I have to do NO cooking today, only a touch of warming up of the casserole and dessert.  Rather a treat after all the work we both did around this house over the past couple of days.  Whew! Now we can relax today until the Blue Christmas service at church tonight.

My husband has been asked to write an article for our diocesan newspaper in response to an article that appeared in the latest national denomination newsletter about their decision in regard to their public response, or lack thereof, to the Canada's M.A.I.D. accessibility. Since he is now officially retired, he feels more free to be completely honest about his opiions on the issue.  It will be interesting to read the similarities and differences between his thoughts and the thoughts of the national church leaders.  There will be some differences, fer shur!! 

It is time to start warming up the casserole for lunch!  We can eat more of it for dinner. In fact, if I play my cards right, we could manage to stretch it into lunch tomorrow as well....I could avoid having to cook again until tomorrow night's dinner!!  YES!!!  Oooh, I am liking this scenario.....a LOT!!!

I am grateful that although we do have a few inches of fresh snow and the flakes are continuing to fall, our eventual total snowfall is going to be far less than the originally predicted two to three feet. The system bringing the snow and falling temperatures veered off its originally predicted course sufficiently to keep us out of the worst of it.  I am very sad though for our neighbours to the south who are experiencing the worst of the system that is spawning tornadoes as far south as Louisiana and creating massive snowfall amounts all across the north central USA. Several people have died already as a result of storm related issues.  It is tragic.  North AMerica is experiencing winter in all its awesome, frightening glory!!  

Tooooooo Funnnnnny!!!

 A couple of days ago I chronicled my frantic search for two very simple household items:  water glasses and place mats.  Yesterday and this morning I frantically cleaned house.  Also this morning I prepared the casserole and dessert for tomorrow's expected luncheon guests and got the dining table all set up with the appropriate tableware so that tomorrow morning would be a very easy and relaxed time of heating the casserole and making a salad, before our guests would arrive.

Weeeeeeeellll, guess what people?  There are no guests!!  hahahahahahahaha  I completed my tasks at about 11:00am.  At 11:10am our guests phoned to let us know they are ill and cannot come after all.  Oy!  After all that work I kind of felt like the wind had gone right out of my sails, like a punctured balloon, like the asthma sufferer that I actually am!  We have arranged though to get together in the new year, so that is good news.

Once we discovered our guests would not be able to visit, we started calling everyone we could think of to see if any of them were available for a rather spontaeous get together tomorrow.  The answer was "no" on every count, although all the "can we take a raincheck and still come over another day" responses certainly made us feel good.

We discounted inviting any of our more senior friends over because there is so much snow falling that will continue overnight and into the late evening tomorrow.  Between the long, icy sidewalk up to our front door, the uneven, deep snow drifts and icy plateaus on the back lawn that would bring people to our back door, along with the walkers and canes and severe balance issues our more senior friends are struggling with, as well as an issue with the bathroom being inaccessible to any of them who cannot climb the 13 steps to get to it, inviting any of them over would be downright cruel!  There is one younger couple who have a scheduled trip out of town tomorrow, but know the weather report could mean dreadful driving conditions, so if their trip is cancelled they will come over here instead.  hahahaha 

Tomorrow is now wide open.  The food is made. The table is still set. The house is clean.  All we need are lunch guests.  We didn't touch the casserole or the dessert and did not make up the salad for ourselves for dinner tonight.  We are asking God if HE has some plans for us to have lunch guests tomorrow in case the travelling friends are able to travel after all.  Since my husband and I have had much stranger things happen in the past than people we weren't expecting showing up in need of a lunch time meal, we decided to remain prepared, just in case.  You never know with God!  

Realizing the inaccessibility of our present abode for all our more senior friends is stoking the fires about trying to move out of here next spring.  It is a horrible feeling to know we cannot invite half our local friends to come over for a visit in the winter.  We have so many friends who are quite a bit older than we are, so that is definitely a consideration to add into the "should we move or not" mix. 

Tomorrow evening I think we will both attend our church's Blue Christmas service for those who are grieving their way through the Christmas season.  I don't remember why we didn't go last Christmas after my husband lost his sister. Perhaps he wasn't ready for that kind of expression of his grief.  This year he definitely is and I certainly am now that I am officially an orphan.  I don't know how our church handles this kind of service, so it will be interesting to see their version of it.  I am used to the Anglican Blue Christmas services and found them meaningful and helpful.  

Here is my favourite Meme of late:

Due to cutbacks, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned out.

It surely feels that way many a day, doesn't it? hahaha

Praying For A Friend This Week

Wednesday seems to be a popular surgery day for several friends of mine.  Reeree is having cancer surgery and Terrence is having heart surgery.  Both surgeries, despite their seriousness, are expected to go well and I am praying that will be the case.  If you should awaken on Wednesday morning and feel so led, perhaps you could say a short prayer for my two friends.  Thank you so much. 

Brief update: Cee is currently investigating the possiblity of a procedure that MAY help him some with the neuropathy after all.  It MAY be available in our province.  His specialist MAY go for the idea.  So much that continues to be unknown for him.  The limbo causes almost as much stress sometimes as the illness does for him and Nan.  They surely do appreciate your continued prayers. 

I WILL Get To The Ironing....Eventually....Really I Will!

Having company in for a meal later this week has thrown me into a tizzy and thrown my entire day's plans off the mark!! hahahaha  What a day!

I woke up this morning and checked the weather report for the week....impressive in terms of daytime highs and nighttime lows for most of the week....not impressive that there are at least two days of snowfall on the way.  The forecast for today was already somewhat incorrect in that I awoke to a vehicle, streets and sidewalks covered in frosted mist from fog that rolled in overnight.  I decided to wait to go shopping for kitchen drinking glasses until mid morning when hopefully the frost mist adhering to the windshield of my car would melt off.  However by 9:30am not only was the frozen mist not melting, there were teensy pellets of snow starting to fall.  I quickly got my coat and boots and headed out to defrost the car, so I could get the shopping done and get myself home again quickly.

That idea. the "home again quickly" idea didn't quite work out actually.  I started my search for drinking glasses at Canadian Tire and it was a dismal one.  Other than a few somewhat battered boxes of old stock beer and wine glasses, there were no glasses at all in matching sets.  I hemmed and hawed about what to do and decided that if my old stand by Canadian Tire was out of water glasses it was likely that the other two stores in the area that usually carry such things would be as well. After some digging around in the mishmash of glass bar sets on the shelves, I did find a lovely box of 12 "stemless wine glasses".  Their shape and smooth sides do make them somewhat difficult to grip, but the rims are properly thin as befits wine glasses.  The price was right at 75% off, so I decided to just go ahead and get them.  Into the cart went the heavy box.  Our lunch company will have decent, matching water glasses after all.

I also realized after issuing the lunch invitation to our friends that apart from our large ceramic dinner plates, I no longer have a set of kitchen plates that match or that I would serve food on to anyone but my husband and I as they are THAT old!!  I think we may actually have purchased them at a second hand store a number of years ago. Dang you COVID!  Thanks to over two years of lockdowns and distancing and what have you, where company was not allowed into the house for the purpose of eating together until relatively recently, I have not kept up with the accoutrements required to feed guests!  So, I looked at the dishes at Canadian Tire, but discovered they only sell complete sets of kitchenware. I only needed dinner plates.

As I headed down the aisle toward the bank of cashiers to pay for the glasses, I saw some shelves covered in place mats and remembered I really don't have any decent ones any more.  Of course Canadian Tire didn't have any fabric placemats as everyone is into wipeable plastics these days unless they can afford to go somewhere wonderful like Crocus and Ivy or somesuch that do tend to carry very nice things like that, but for prices I don't wish to pay. So, I located one of the nicest sets of plastic placemats I have ever seen at Canadian Tire, but ended up returning them to the shelves as I wanted to try at least one or two more stores in my search for affordable fabric ones. I paid for the glasses and headed off to WalMart despite the worsening of the street conditions.

I don't enjoy shopping at WalMart. It is large, confused, not overly clean and always filled with people staggering about in all directions wielding carts laden with bargains that take forever to process at the tills.  However, I was on a mission today and with the worsening road conditions I didn't want to have to drive downtown to the Bay....which likely doesn't have what I want any more either with their huge stock reductions nearly wiping out their entire houseware department as their store close around the country.

There was even less of a selection of kitchen water glasses at WalMart than I found at Canadian Tire, so I am guessing these generally easy to find sets of glasses are victims of the supply chain fiascos around the globe.  They had even fewer placemats than Canadian Tire, although the ones they did have featured cartoon penguins skating on a pond that were very cute; not remotely appropriate for my purposes, but cute nonetheless. Somehow I resisted the temptation to purchase......

What WalMart DID have was a wonderful selection of kitchen plates sold separately!!  YES!  Just what I was looking for.  I am the delighted owner now of 6 square  stoneware plates that are black and grey speckled affairs and that I truly like. My husband likes them as well. They are even decent quality!  They will be used for our company with great relief on my part!

So, what to do about placemats? Sigh....  I didn't feel like driving any farther distance on streets quickly becoming very slippery in sections where the snow pellets were melting and partially refreezing, particularly after seeing a car slide out of its turning lane and crash into a low median, wrenching its one tire completely out of place and requiring a tow truck to haul it away!!  What to do?  I decided that my search for fabric placemats will have to wait for another time, another (warmer) season, when shopping is once again a joyous time of fun and not a tooth gritting stressful experience taking place on snow and ice.  Back I went to Canadian Tire, picked up the first set of plastics I saw earlier in the morning, but also picked up the same number of rather lovely Paderno tea towels that I can cover the placemats with when we have company, thereby creating my own fabric mats when I need something a tad classier than plastic.  By spring I may be more in the mood to drive to the lovely specialty shops we have here and be prepared to pay more for what I REALLY want!! If I wasn't starting to have company in again this winter, I would have waited to buy placemats in the spring, but with company coming this week already and me wanting to protect my wooden dining room table top, I really did have to get something to use.

By the time I got all the placemats unwrapped, washed and tucked away in the cupboards and drawers, it was past lunch time.  Finally we got our lunch made but I decided to take a break before doing the ironing I originally scheduled for today.  Now it is after 3:30pm and the sky is iron snow grey....not the best light conditions, but if I get started right away now, I will complete the task before it gets dark outside.

Didn’t Make It To Concert #4 And Had To Zoom Concert #5!!

After three concerts in as many weeks we received an invitation to another concert this past Saturday evening. As much as we wanted to go to support our friend who was singing in it, we sadly had to turn her down. About the time her concert would have been half way through we were both asleep for the night. After two years of very little socializing, getting back into life and friendships and public events to any pre-pandemic degree is exhausting. 

We managed to drag our sorry selves out of bed Sunday morning and hobble off to church. We had to as we were participating in the service. Otherwise we might have wimped out of going at all. It was a wonderful service with choir and handbells and organ and trumpet music, so we were glad we were there. 

I roused myself in the afternoon long enough to do laundry while my husband visited a friend. They got into a big theological discussion that turned into an evangelistic opportunity, so my husband was too late getting home for us to be able to eat dinner and get to our church Christmas concert on time. Fortunately it was also presented on Zoom, so while my husband created pita pizzas for us to eat, I got my old PC fired up so we could watch the concert on the large monitor. Just as the concert was starting, my husband arrived at my desk bearing fabulous little pizzas so we could enjoy our dinner while we watched the annual December church musical extravaganza. It was lovely. 

Today is ironing day, but first I have to hie away to the Bay, or Canadian Tire or, if I am desperate enough, even WalMart, to find a set of at least 4 drinking glasses that match and some new cloth placemats enough for having 4 friends over for a meal at the same time. My set of six matching glasses has slowly been whittled down to three due to my clumsy way of dropping them, smashing them into other, heavier glasses when washing dishes and perhaps the age of the glasses. For placemats I am down to three ugly plastic ones that my husband and I use for our own meals. Our fabric placemats are ancient, pulled out of shape and shrunken after so many years of use. With the pandemic heading into its third year, along with this winter’s outbreak of serious influenzas and non-Covid respiratory illnesses, we have been slow to start inviting friends into our home again, but a new couple to our church is coming over for lunch later this week. So now I am under pressure to replace these items before they arrive. Today is the day: decent temperatures and the threat of snow again possibly as early as tomorrow from a large stormy weather system in the central and northern USA that will reach out and touch the south east portion of our province mid week. Yup, today is shopping day and then I can hunker down and iron, clean the house and figure out what on earth to serve our guests!!! A meal.....for actual newly met guests....in our home....yikes, I am stymied as to what to serve!! Hahahaha, you would think I have never had new friends over for lunch before!! 

Zonked!!

 My husband and I are like two zombies today...we are SO TIRED!!  We enjoyed the Steve Bell concert very much last evening and especially enjoyed attending with our friends.  It wasn't so much a "mere" concert as it was a time of worship and preaching and story telling and poetry.  He is currently putting to music some of our favourite poems written by Malcolm Guite, so that was quite a treat.  Afterward we met our friends at a Tim Hortons and had drinks and snacks, so that was also fun!  However, these two old geezers have not been so much in the habit of staying out until nearly 11:30pm as we were pre-pandemic. hahaha We were so wired up from the hot chocolate we drank at Timmie's, (Have you ever read the ingredients list of chemicals in that cocoa mix??? Yikes!),  that we didn't fall asleep until nearly 1am! HOHOHO!  Today we have been lazing around ALL day. I had a shower at 10:30am and am still in my house pajamas, while my husband has not gotten out of his warm fuzzy sweat pants all day. We both had afternoon naps, something I rarely do. He is writing his prayers for tomorrow's church service.  I am going to make dinner now and then finish printing off the Scripture passages I am slated to read tomorrow.  We suspect we will be asleep much earlier this evening and therefore, HOPEFULLY, recharged and ready to go in the morning.

Silly old geezers......

On The 13th Day Of Advent My True Love Said To Me......

 ....."Let's go and spend all our moneeeee!!!"

 

No, he didn't actually say that but by the time we were done our shopping today it kind of felt that way!!! Good grief!  We haven't spent this much money on groceries since the autumn of 2020 when we wanted to stock up on all manner of canned and dried foods for the rest of the winter to avoid too much contact with people in the grocery stores, as COVID-19's original virus infections were running rampant around the world. (Guess the variants still are here in SK, apparently with the highest death rate from Covid variants of any province in the country, but that is okay because our provincial premier has decided the problem doesn't exist so we are all supposed to ignore the whole terrifying situation. As long as money is flowing into the province he seems to care about nothing else, including the health of his "subjects" or the stress on the health care system and medical staff.  Isn't he a wonderful "leader"?)

Well, once again we have enough food stored in our mini-suite to be eating soups and baked beans for the rest of the winter and possibly on into next autumn! hahaha

We ran several other errands as well.  I knew my husband was in a shopping kind of mood when he was up and dressed and ready to depart well before 10am!  Unbelievable! hahaha

Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm to get going he neglected to eat breakfast, so right about the time we were arriving at the grocery store for our main shopping extravaganza he announced that he was getting very hungry and concerned he might be on the verge of a "tummy episode". Sigh....  However, he was determined to push through and help me get the groceries purchased before eating.  That was great but he was pretty pale by the time we left the store.  Birmingham's was the closest restaurant to us, so we raced over there and got him some fish and chips. That certainly perked him up!  He enjoys the side dish of cucumber and red onion salad that comes with the meal. I had my usual taco salad with chicken and it was delicious.  The meal kept my husband going for the rest of our shopping day. 

Amado's has recently opened a new location on north Albert Street. They have not had their official grand opening yet as they are still getting set up. They will have a new restaurant, some fresh middle eastern deli items, a butcher for halal meats, frozen and fresh complete meals and a section of fresh fruits and vegetables.  They are still getting set up and the sign outside still announces that the building is an auto parts dealership, but soon the new sign will be up and the restaurant will open early in the new year for a gala opening party.  It will then be our one stop grocery store for our favourite middle eastern foods and spices.

Time to go and prepare dinner.  We want to arrive early at the Steve Bell concert tonight as we need 5 seats together and our friends are likely to be late apparently, so we have to save their seats. They are paying for our tickets, so we surely don't mind finding them decent seating!!

So grateful for a somewhat warmer day today with only minor wind gusts. It was pleasant for shopping.

Happy weekend everyone.