A Prayer For A Monday Morning!

I was looking online this morning for an appropriate prayer to start my day and discovered this one on bestdailyprayer.org

Enjoy:

Monday Morning Prayer

Father God,

I thank You for waking me up on this beautiful Monday morning. Even though there is much to be done, I pray that You would help me not to be anxious, but to be encouraged by the presence of Your Holy Spirit within me.

Lord, I pray that today will be a productive and fruitful day. Help me to work diligently and heartily, knowing that all that I do is ultimately in service to You. Help me to use the gifts and talents you’ve given me to serve those around me in love. Give me a positive, joyful attitude and the motivation and the energy I need to not only make it through the day but to cherish it.

Lord, whatever burdens are on my heart, I pray that You would help me cast them on You. Many things are out of my control, but God, I am trusting that You are sovereign over all. I am weak, but You are strong. Let me be an instrument for Your glory at all times, no matter the circumstances. I pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen..

Amen.

 

I am tired and "sinus-y" again this morning after another night nursing the humidifier, however I am feeling far better than I have been over the past week with the drop in temperature and another rise in the dryness of the air.  Mostly I am just tired.  

However, it is laundry day, so strength from God to "work diligently and heartily" is certainly my prayer today.

My dear husband carried both laundry baskets down to the basement for me this morning...I know that seems like an insignificant thing to bother mentioning, like most of the details in my blog posts....but just knowing he has the energy and desire to do that, to help me with something that by rights I should do myself, well, that is encouraging to me.  He seems to be over whatever was making him ill over the past week and is bustling about today, researching and writing.  Despite being tired, it is a good day and the discouragement of facing a windchill of -45C this morning is offset by the glorious, sunshiny bright blue sky and the fact that to the best of my knowledge I don't have to go out in the cold at all today!  YAY! 

Dough Heads Both!!!

 A few days ago we enjoyed a lovely morning of running errands and doing some shopping together...normal married couple stuff, but we have had so much fun doing plebian things since my husband retired.

Weeeeeeelllll....today we discovered that in our excitement of bringing our bags of other purchases into the house when we arrived home that afternoon, we forgot to bring in three 8 gallon jugs of reverse osmosis water that we use as our drinking water due to my intolerance for the chlorine and other chemicals in our tap water.

The steep drop in temperature that occurred two nights ago turned our 3 water jugs into plastic container stretching ice balls!!  As we were driving around this afternoon on deeply rutted, skating rink streets, we heard a loud clunking noise every time my husband stepped on the brake or accelerated.  I noticed the same thing yesterday when I was driving.  We wondered what on earth would be creating such a sound, when suddenly my husband removed one hand from the steering wheel, slapped his forehead with it and exclaimed, "DOH!!!!" He realized what had happened and told me he thought the noise was coming from frozen water jugs.  As we drove around looking for a place to park the car so he could check his theory, we went over our memories of what we brought out of the car upon our return from shopping the other day and neither of us could remember the water jugs at all.  Good grief!  We were finally able to pull into a parking place and look into the back of the vehicle, where we discovered the 3 ice "bombs" on the verge of splitting the jugs along their seams....sigh....  So, we immediately brought them home and my husband hauled all 3 jugs upstairs to put them into the bathrub in case any of them have melting ice bursting out of its confines. So far only one of the jugs appears to be leaking as the ice melts and that is around the top of the jug, just under the seal that hides a substantial seam.  If that is the only crack we have to deal with we won't lose much water as the crack appears to only be about 2cm long....thus far anyway.  

If we have to lay out some money to pay the water company for cracked, leaking jugs, we have only ourselves to blame. How thoughtless, careless and apparently somewhat senile are we these days anyway????  How can two people, whose main errand on our shopping day WAS to get three jugs of drinking water, forget to bring them into the house when they get home?????  Duh!!  And Duh again!!!  Sigh........

In happier news, my husband was able to sleep long hours last night so I ended up going to church by myself this morning....that is fine.  He finally got caught up on his sleep and felt better today than he has in a week and I got a chance to stay for the fellowship hour after the service for a change.  Both of us had just the kind of morning we needed.  

Then later this afternoon we went to visit our Egyptian friends, take them some baklava and have a wonderful visit over the desserts and cups of lemon/ginger tea.  We haven't seen them for a few weeks, so it was a great time of chattering and fun.

The bitterly cold weather of the past couple of days has been depressing us both a bit, so since it was dinner time when we left our friends' house, we stopped by the Knotted Thistle on the way home for a plate each of Irish pot pie.  Talk about comfort food!  Little pasties filled with chunks of tender beef and slices of fresh mushrooms, mashed taties and red wine beef gravy, mixed greens in balsamic vinegar....oooh, perfect meals for a cold winter evening.  Their prices have not risen at the rate of many of the other pubs and restaurants here...at least not yet....so that was a treat as well.

Tomorrow we have no committments, so my husband can spend the day on preparations for both his upcoming teaching committments in February and I can do the laundry, getting lots of good exercise on the stairs as I move the clothes down to the basement and back up to the top floor.  I LOVE laundry day!  All that running up and down stairs means I don't have to spend an hour doing boring figure 8 formation walking around the living room and dining room, or marching and jogging on the spot in front of the tv that day. YIPPEE! 

So far we have few plans for this week, so that alone is enough to make us feel relaxed.  We can take committments if and as they come up, but we aren't planning to personally create too many!  By next weekend the weather should be a tad warmer for a few days and that is something we can both look forward to.

Please Don't Sugar Coat Your Prayer Requests...I CAN Take Your Stress....

 It has recently come to my attention that a few family members and friends have not been completely honest lately about the depth of their various struggles when they contact me for prayer.  Knowing how much stress I have been under for the past year or more has given them (ya'll) the idea that I shouldn't be told everything I would be told about otherwise.  Hmmmmm.....this is not good!  

In your attempts to shield my nerves from the whole truth all you have done, and bless your dear misguided little selves for caring deeply about me in the midst of your own problems, is to make me feel like I am being either lied to, or considered incapable of handling the truth.  Please may I respectfully request that you NOT to that to me?  I am not completely without discernment you guys, I often know what prolonged email and phone silences indicate...that you have an issue you don't want to burden me with, even though you would if you didn't think I had enough on my plate already.

Please allow me to assure you that there is very little on my plate: your requests to me for prayer have been prayed for and subsequently handed off to God to deal with.  Since I care about you too and about your requests for yourselves, your other family and friends, I am not being selfish enough to hang onto your problems for too long. God is carrying the burdens and for me it is still a JOY to pray for you no matter what is happening in my own life that is less than rosy.  Seriously.....

Many of you, apart from some family members, have only known me a few years so you have no idea how much stress has crossed my path in former years...more than most of you will ever know.  I handled it in prayer.  I turned it over to God and the more overwhelming the stresses were, the faster God became the recipient of those prayers and worries.

So please, I am ALWAYS open to pray for you and whatever requests you have.  Don't hesitate to ask. There is a difference between not sharing all the details because they are none of my business and not sharing all the details because you are trying to protect my stress level.  Don't worry about my stress level, please.  I am happy to pray for you and yours any time about anything you feel free to share.

Love you all!!

Family Health Update And.....

 Although the outside temperature is in the mid -20's C and the windchill is closer to -35C, thus setting up a rather thick layer of ice on the bottom of our single pane upstairs windows, the sun is shining brightly through the thin cloud cover, so that keeps us cheery on this very chilly day.  YAY!  Tonight we are going to the home of dear friends for dinner, so that will also reduce the gloomy thoughts that tend to accompany our winter weather here.

My husband is having a rough weekend.  His tummy has been bothering him again, he has been fighting the nagging headaches that sometimes accompany that symptom, so assuming that stress plays into the issue and helps set it off occasionally, he is already realizing he has likely taken on too many teaching and preaching committments for next month.  Well, this is part of the reason he took them on. He wants to test himself and see what he is capable of....is it time to do a few more things that require prior preparation, or is it still too soon?  As February progresses he will get his answer.  I just continue to pray for him to be able to cope well with whatever life sends him and God has faithfully been there to help him all these years.

We had a short text from Ray last night to tell us he is completing his recovery from heart surgery back at home. We also had a long phone chat with his son who, along with his wife, have been doing a stellar job keeping an eye on his dad and helping him with meals, housework and medications for quite some time. Today they are having a consultation and an assessment for Ray with a home care company that isn't far from Ray's house.  This particular group, along with being able to dispense meds and help Ray with medical needs, also provides services such as house cleaning, so we are praying today that the meeting goes well and the home care company can be hired so that Ray isn't as alone trying to cope. Every trip his son and wife have to make to help him is a two hour round excursion. Ray was just blessed to be able to get to the hospital before the clot in his heart took his life. It was amazing how he was able to be rushed in with the EMT's having been able to contact the hospital so that the cardiac lab was ready and waiting for him.  Many prayers for him were answered simply in the way events unfolded after he called for assistance after the intial chest pains.  Now he has to maintain bed rest for at least a week before he even tries to bend over to pick something up off the floor.  The change of blood pressure and flow could start another clot forming, and his prognosis is guarded for the next month until the cardiologist is certain no more clots have formed. 

Thanks ever so much for praying for him.  

There are few things that have NOT happened to Ray medically since his original cancer diagnosis just over three years ago: a breakdown over losing his wife, appendicitis requiring surgery, debilitating pulled back muscles, tumour appearing in many organs and on several bones, brain surgery, now a heart attack....and I am leaving out so many other things.  Whoa....he is very determined to live!  He is a fighter and that has stood him in good stead as he has faced issue after issue.  The hospital medical team has assured him that his heart attack, the clot, had nothing to do with the cancer or cancer treatments, so we can only hope that is true and that this mess will not repeat itself in the future.

Last night we had a lovely visit with one of the Ukrainian refugees who moved into our complex just after Christmas.  She was returning a dinner plate to us that my husband had taken over last week filled with his home made cinnamon buns.  The returned plate was filled with home made chocolate chip cookies!  YUM!  My husband was just saying the other day that occasionally he craves a cookie, but of course with my diabetes and his general aversion to sweets, we never have any around.  After trying a couple the rest are now in the freezer to accommodate his next craving!  This family of 6 left Ukraine with little more than the clothes on their backs and arrived in Regina on one of the two plane loads of Ukrainian refugees assigned to our province last year.  It has been a struggle!  He speaks no English at all and is struggling to get to beginner ESL classes around his very busy, low paying job.  She is taking more advanced ESL classes already, 5 days a week, and hoping to improve her skills quickly enough to be able to secure a bit better job than he has. With 4 children and the cost of renting here, they are barely making it.  We gave them my Mom's small kitchen table that we brought back here after she died and then wondered why!  It has been sitting under a cover in the basement since last March!  Her boys have taken over their dining room table for doing massive amounts of homework as they attempt to improve their English skills while they get with the programmes at school. Now the boys will be able to use Mom's table for their studies and the dining room table will be available once again for the family to sit around while they eat their meals.  Mom and Dad would both be thrilled to know that table has been given to a refugee family.  So happy we had it to share with them. Thank you Lord that we brought it back here in the midst of our grief, not actually realizing at the time that we had no earthly use for it!

I slept in today a bit and stayed in bed until after 9:30am to read.  Knowing my dinner won't be served tonight until about 6:30pm meant I could be a "lady of leisure" this morning, delaying my 3 meals today in order to avoid having to have an afternoon snack to keep me going until dinner.

My husband's hoodie slipped off his head during the night and he got a bad chill with his head up against the outside wall....I think there may have been insulation in these walls a few decades ago, but nowdays....(or as a dear French Canadian friend says, "nowsaday"....so lovely...)....the insulation has either disintegrated or fallen down to the bottom of the walls.  So at about 7am my husband woke up to take a couple of aspirin for the headache, then slept until nearly 11am.  He is feeling much better for having done that, but I doubt he will get much accomplished today. Fortunately the headache is nearly gone.  It is time to go over his diet again and see if we can figure out what is bothering his system NOW....the poor guy. He really suffers when he goes through these experiences. Then one of these fine days all the symptoms will disappear as quickly as they came on and once again no one will know why.  He has had several levels of medical testing and nothing physical has ever shown up.

After a lovely hot shower this morning my hair is nearly dry. Time to go finish that process and fire up the flat iron so I can look at least somewhat human when we see our friends tonight!  

Sooooo....What Will Our Pension Plans Do To/For Us This Year?

It is THAT time of year once again: the first of the monthly pension payments for 2023....the day we discover the bad/good news regarding our monthly income! 

I approach the last week in January each year with slight trepidation, knowing that our financial fate for the year is dependent upon these pensions, knowing there are rising costs for administering these plans, knowing that even part way through the year the amounts could change for reasons we will never understand. 

This morning I checked our pension deposit amounts, preparing for the worst, but it wasn’t too bad! The drop in our mutual OAS/GIS payments seemed rather drastic until I noticed each of our CPP payments had risen sufficiently to give us a monthly total rise of about five dollars. The rise was offset by a fourteen dollar drop in take home pay from my husband’s work pension, resulting in a monthly net loss of nine dollars.....offset by the quarterly harmonized sales tax rebate each quarter and the twice annual provincial Climate Action rebates.  In other words, if we spread the six extra rebate payments across the twelve months, we are no worse off than last year or the year before that for monthly income.

Whew!  That is a relief!  Despite the rising cost of everything these days, raises that actually do demand a higher monthly income in order to at least maintain our present standard of living, we haven't received any huge blows this year....thus far at least.  At least we know that everyone, regardless of income, is having to make similar changes to our own in order to stay afloat at their present level of lifestyle.  We are not alone in that.

Off to a fairly decent start in 2023! Hallelujah!

Family Health Update....Sigh.......Etc......

 We just received a call from another relative to update us on Raymond's condition.  Yesterday he suffered a very serious heart attack and was rushed to surgery....stents, angioplasty, removing clots....just a mess.   He is in intensive care now, but was able to text the news somewhat coherently to this relative at 6am today. He isn't allowed visitors of course and his ability to communicate is hindered, so don't know when we will hear more. We don't know if this surgery will improve his heart function and therefore his quality of life for months to come, or if it is just one more bump on the way downhill for him.  When and if I hear more I will give another update as soon as possible.  Thank you for praying for him.

We are having wild weather today.  We woke up to at least 5cm of heavy, wet snow and a temperature of +1C with the wind out of the south.  Now, at mid afternoon, the strong wind has shifted to the northwest and it is pouring rain outside. By tomorrow evening it will be -24C.  If this is SK's idea of a chinook, I am not that stoked about it to be honest, hahahaha.  

Off to finish the housework after running the last of our pre cold snap errands this morning.  

Feeling Empowered This Morning!

 It has been a great morning thus far and it is only 10:30am!  YES!  

I got a call from my hair dresser this morning that my recent order of hair products  was there at the salon.  YAY! Since my husband had taken ourcar to a meeting and there has been no new snow or freezing rain in the past day or two, I decided to grab my cane and walk to the salon. It is only about four blocks away, but the footing can be treacherous in winter, crossing parking lots and unshovelled sidewalks along the route.  Fortunately our own property maintenance crew has taken wonderful care to clear the sidwalks that encompass 2/3 of my route, so away I went, being sure to send my husband a text to let him know what I was doing in case he beat me home from his meeting.

What a lovely walk I had!!  I took my time, enjoying the chance to be outside in the fresh air, kept my eyes peeled for icy spots and was quite thrilled to arrive at the salon without so much as a teensy slip up.  YIPPEE!  I paid for my products and was just walking out of the salon when I noticed a man walking toward me who looked vaguely familiar: it was my dear husband.  My text telling him I was going out for a walk spurred him on to leave the meeting the second it was done and he set out to find me before I had the chance to take a tumble on the ice. What a sweetie!  He gallantly drove me home.

I did feel a bit sad that I wasn't able to walk home....although had I told him I wanted to he would have agreed and likely followed me at about a half block distance behind to be sure I didn't fall....at the same time I was thrilled by his wanting to take good care of me.  Bless his heart.

I will enjoy the rest of my morning and then get going on some housecleaning.  The sky looks as though it COULD drop a few snowflakes, although none are currently predicted.  So glad I was able to get out for at least one more short walk before the cold weather hits us once again.  Today is what I call a HAPPY winter day!

Shopping Spree...."Tickles Me, Tee Hee Hee"!

Today was a good "errand day".  I was able to stop at the hair salon and order in some product that will be here tomorrow already, so that was great.  We picked up a couple of hard to find grocery items and some houseware items and we both came home unexpectedly with new "undies"! hahahaha  It is amazing what you can come home with sometimes that you weren't looking for in the first place!

I didn't pay close enough attention to my blood sugar this morning, got myself engrossed in our errands and forgot to check the time for my lunch.  I ate breakfast early today, so by 12:45pm I was feeling rather faint.  My husband took one look at my pale face, noted my crabby demeanor and knew before I realized it what was going on. The closest restaurant was a Mr. Mikes, so in we went.  Unfortunately the wait for our meal was ridiculously long, but I downed a diet cola with a quarter teaspoon of sugar in it to give my system something to work on while I waited.  Having a huge drink with a teensy bit of sugar will often trick my body into thinking temporarily that I have put something healthy into my tummy.  By the time it is catching on that it has been duped, there is usually some truly healthy food on its way!  Such was the case today:  I had a wonderful GIANT salad called Kickass Chicken.  What a crass name, but it was actually quite tasty and had so many ingredients in it:  endive, red lettuce, diced tomatoes, edamame, corn niblets, pecans, honey/lime crema, the cajun chicken slices, taco chip strips, feta, red onion....for a chain restaurant they did a fine job on my salad. It was a ridiculous price, like all restaurant meals are now, but it was huge and I could have brought half of it home for dinner tonight....except I didn't. I ate the WHOLE THING! YUMMY!!!!  Well, not a big surprise. I certainly needed the carbs.  After lunch I went for a walk and that was a good thing too!

So, that is going to be the end of eating in restaurants for the next few weeks due to another deep freeze arriving this coming weekend.  It is fun taking advantage of the warmer days to run errands and go on dates.  I am enjoying my husband's retirement  very much.  Later this week he and I are going to clean house again.  Life is so much nicer for me since he took on cleaning his office and his little library room.  They are both persnickety to clean with lots of little crannies and ledges and high shelves....trying to clean them properly has been an exercise in frustration all these years and now I don't have to!  He is quite content to do it and since he only cleans those two rooms, he is happy to take his time stretching up to high shelves, twisting his body around corners with the dust rag....oooh, how happy I am to be free of that.

Slowly I am downsizing my rather extensive pottery and Japanware collections. Instead of taking a bottle of wine as a "guest gift for the host/ess" when we are invited out for a meal, I am taking our friends small pieces of pottery instead.  Usually it is something useful rather than strictly ornamental, so they are not adding to their own "clutter" and it is fun to see how happy they are to receive something lovely and a bit different than the usual.  It makes me feel much happier to be letting go of some of these things.  Let's hear it for DOWNSIZING!  YAY!!  My husband is doing better getting rid of stuff than I thought he would be, but it takes him ten times longer than it takes me to make the decision and actually follow through. No matter, he is doing it and that is all it takes to make me happy about the situation.

Prayer For Aging

 Prayer For Aging.............by Sr. Moya Hanlen

 

All Gracious God, you have given me all I am and have,

and now I give it back to you to stand under your will alone. 

In a special way I give you these later years of my life.

 

I am one of those called by you into old age, a call not given to all, not given to Jesus, not given to most in our world today.

I humbly ask you, grace me deeply in each aspect of the struggle.

 

As my physical eyesight weakens,

may the eyes of my faith strengthen,

that I may see you and your love in everything.

As my hearing fails, may the ears of my heart

be more attentive to the whisper of your gentle voice.

As my legs weaken and walking becomes more difficult, may I walk more truly in your paths,

knowing all the while that I am held in the embrace of your love.

As my mind becomes less alert and memory fades may I remain peaceful in you,

aware that with you there is no need for thought or word.

You ask simply that I be there, with you.

 

And should sickness overtake me and I be confined in bed,

may I know myself as one with your Son as he offers his life for the salvation of the world.

 

Finally, as my heart slows a little after the work of the years, 

may it expand in love for you and all people.

May it rest secure and grateful in your loving heart

until I am lost in you, completely and forever.  

 

Amen. 

Getting Out And About On The Good Weather Days!

We  have had some lovely weather the past few days!  It was sunny and warm on Friday and even sunnier and warmer yesterday.  Friday we enjoyed our visit with new friends. Yesterday we went for a little walk in the afternoon in the beautiful -6C, just around the perimeter of our complex, about six to seven blocks in total, so just right for me.  The maintenance crew for our buildings did a good job clearing snow and ice off the sidewalks as soon as the weather warmed up sufficiently to melt the icy base, so the only slippery conditions were in a few places where the thick hoar frost had blown off the trees and onto the sidewalk.  I held onto my husband's arm and managed to get around just fine, not even a little slip! Hallelujah!

Today we started out with lovely sunshine, but now, mid afternoon at -1C, the sky is grey with cloud again and we are awaiting possible sleet and snow showers that will continue daily, apparently, for the entire week.  Oh how I hope that isn't correct forecasting!  There has been so much snow already to deal with this winter and there is little room to put it now when we bother to shovel.  By next Friday night we will be down to about -24C overnight once again and the high minus teens during the day...another week of more reasonable winter weather for the prairies than the gorgeous days we have enjoyed lately.

We went to the adult teaching class and the morning service at church today.  Both were excellent and we are glad we went.  The piano prelude music was a collection of choruses and modern hymns from the early Roman Catholic charismatic movement that my husband and I sang often in the 1970's and 1980's, mostly unknown to anyone else in this church, so we sang along quietly as the pianist played them.  We also sang a couple of modern Anglican songs in the service, so that was also fun for us. After church we stayed for the coffee hour, something we haven't done a lot of in recent months, so that was fun too and we had time to chat with a few folk.

After church we went to Lancaster's pub downtown.  We haven't been there a lot, but we did enjoy it today. The music wasn't overly loud. We could at least hear ourselves talk.  The prices seemed odd to us....either highly expensive or most reasonable with little indication as to why each price applied to each dish. That is only our opinion, but $14 for my eggs benedict, bacon and hash browns seemed quite fine while my husband's linguini dish seemed rather over priced at $23.50.  The sausage wasn't the most expensive available, there wasn't that many expensive red pepper slices or mushrooms in it and it was a small portion...BUT he said it tasted absolutely wonderful.  We are happy we went there and will definitely go again sometime.  We were there once some months ago, but the service was much better this time. 

I think we will cobble together a light dinner tonight after digesting our filling luncheon meals.  Maybe we will have tuna sandwiches on cheese bread or crackers with hummus and cheese or scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast.  Maybe tomorrow it will be time for me to cook a big batch of "something-or-other" as we have already consumed the entire Dutch Oven of chili I made last Wednesday! hahahaha  Well, if we like something we REALLY like it and eat it almost every meal until it is gone.  Maybe I should make something a bit more creative this time around.

Seeing the Sunshine and Blue Sky Is A Wonderful Mood Picker Upper!

 Although I didn't accomplish much today around here, I felt light as air all day!  I only slept from 3am to about 6am because, fool that I am, I allowed myself to drink about one quarter of a cup of coffee at my ladies' meeting yesterday afternoon!  Well DUH, I DO know better than that, but I gave in to temptation.  12 hours later I was finally able to go to sleep, only to be awakened by some kind of outside noise at 6am.  I read for about an hour, then fell back asleep until after 8:30am.  That was kind of nice.  By the time I got out of bed and stumbled downstairs to the kitchen for a very last breakfast the sun had risen and there was blue sky to enjoy...only a few strips of thin white cloud to mar the gorgeous blue colour.

That sunshine made me feel cheery and alive all day despite the lack of sleep.  We went to the home of some new friends for lunch today.  He is from Hong Kong and he made three wonderful Chinese dishes for us. Wow, what a tasty meal, followed by a very light angel food cake with whipped cream and fresh blueberries for dessert, followed by a wonderful visit with this lovely couple.  My husband and I came away feeling refreshed and recharged!  That lasted until we arrived home and crashed on the sofa for a short nap. He didn't sleep well either last night and went to get tonight at 8:30pm!

We both woke up still feeling cheerful.  Two phone calls came in, one from one of our pastors who wants to come over for a pastoral visit next week and one from some friends who have been travelling and who want us to come over for dinner next weekend so they can tell us about their trip.  We felt happy enough to just say an immediate  YES to both requests instead of hemming and hawing and trying to project, usually with great negativity, how we both are going to be feeling a week from now!  Thank you SUNSHINE and BLUE SKY!

My husband is going to be jolted out of his DO NOTHING retirement mode next month.  It will be a good test for his health, to find out if he is ready to take on an occasional committment again.  Of course, as usual, everything is coming up in the same month so there is not much "occasional" about it this time around. Sigh.  He is attending a weekend conference at his old seminary early in February, followed immediately by two short presentations on the Church Liturgical Calendar for our church, followed almost immediately by teaching a full weekend seminar on something or other at a local Anglican church.  Ziiiiiip....and February has come and gone. What kind of health issues and exhaustion will it leave in its wake for my husband (and me) to deal with? 

Our son's girlfriend had a birthday this week.  Tonight they are celebrating by attending the art exhibition opening of one of their friends, followed by attendance at a play written by my son's girlfriend's favourite NYC playwright, followed by dinner at a nice restaurant. Tomorrow there will be a dinner with the family of his girlfriend and then they will go to a dance party held by some of the more "elite" members of the NYC art community.  I am just hoping my son will mind his manners and keep his giggles over some of the pretentiousness to himself. hahaha  He is too much like me for noticing such things and having a tough time keeping quiet. hahaha  Glad my "kids" are having such a good time this weekend!

No plans here for tomorrow. I think we will likely spend a goodly part of the day watching this month's Sumo tournament.  We almost forgot about it with so much else going on this month, so I think it actually ends this coming Sunday, but good old NHK network has the highlights posted online and will leave the Basho on its site for a couple of weeks after it ends.  Talk about being able to get mentally lost in something that has NO connection whatsoever to our every day life.  It is wonderful to be elsewhere, somewhere completely different for a few hours of entertainment.

The Extra Couple of Dollars Was Worth It!

I have had a strong craving for home made chili for the past week, so yesterday when I went shopping I decided to try to find some decent extra lean ground beef without having to go to the butcher and pay the premium price, although I assumed I was wasting my time looking in the grocery stores for actual EXTRA lean ground beef.  

We eat very little beef, mostly because it is too fatty for us both but occasionally, when I run out of ground bison, I try a bit of ground beef. Roasts are not worth the money any more and steaks have never appealed to either of us...again due to the excess fat and the nausea I often get from the odor of  frying beef.

In my neighbourhood grocery, very small packages of extra lean ground beef were $8 each.  Hmmmm....a ridiculous price, as is all beef these days and I was darned if I was going to pay that much for such still fatty extra lean.  On the next shelf above these packs I noticed two packs of extra lean ground sirloin for $10 each, about the same amount in those packs as in the others.  Although it seemed like an exorbitant amount of money for these tiny packs, I decided to just get them anyway and see if my eyes were deceving me or not about the apparent lack of fat.

I made chili all afternoon and tried it out for a late dinner last night. Wow....it was actually delicious, mostly because the meat was so much less fatty than usual.  We have eaten chili for lunch and dinner today as well, given a large carton to some friends and still have enough left over for dinner tomorrow and lunch the following day.  I would eat it for lunch tomorrow too, but new friends have invited us over for home made Chinese food...can't wait!

I am very impressed with the meat I bought and am less resentful about paying $2 more for the good sirloin than I would have been paying $2 less for fattier beef cuts.  The flavour was excellent, there has been no gristle, there is not even a light film of congealed fat on the top of the chili after refrigeration....quite a wonder after some of the other batches I have made in the recent past.  

So, if you live in SK and cannot find proper extra lean ground beef, try to find some ground sirloin.  The packs I purchased were worth the price difference. 

I may have purchased ground bison instead if it was available, but right now my suppliers are selling sides and whole bison and I have no room for 25 to 50 pounds of ground, as well as the steaks, roasts, ribs and soup bones.  

The beef I got worked very well and I will continue to seek it out at my neighbourhood grocery store.

Family Health Update

We have been unable to reach Ray by phone this week, but a cousin managed to contact him last night. The report is that he has been suffering greatly after his radiation bombardment last week due to one of his pain meds being dropped when it should not have been. As a result, he ended up on so much morphine that he could not be left alone so his son had to take time off work to stay with him for several days. Eventually the medications were sorted out and the amount of morphine could be greatly reduced. The pain was due to inflammation of the soft tissue close to the tumour. In a few more days that inflammation should be nearly gone. By yesterday it seemed that perhaps the corner was being turned on the level of pain, so that is good news. There have been other complications from the intense radiation: severe abdominal pain and difficulty in speaking. Next week there will be an appointment for tests to discover whether or not the radiation was successful in destroying the spinal tumour. It is difficult knowing Ray is suffering so greatly. He was a wonderful husband to Ruth after she experienced a couple of difficult relationships and we will always love him for that. 

Everybody's Goin' Away....But They're NOT Goin' To L.A.!

 The annual mid January FOR HOLIDAYS exit from Saskatchewan is going full speed ahead this week, at least among OUR friends and family.  People are heading to Corsica, Montreal, Las Vegas, Argentina, Antarctica, Mexico, Toronto, Amsterdam and Victoria.

AAAAAND here we sit in Regina.  Believe me, my husband and I are A-OK with that!  Trust me!  The idea of having to fight with airlines over schedules and cancellations, delays and lost baggage makes us both quite content to stay right where we are!  We have experienced sufficient travel woes in our time, although not nearly as horrendous as the present day, to admit we no longer have any affinity for air travel.  Since there are limited passenger trains and no national transit buses any more in this country, we truly prefer to just hibernate here on the prairies and confine our travels to spring, summer and early autumn and only to places we can get to by driving our car!  A dear friend was trying for a whole day earlier this week just to get a flight to Regina from Surrey BC and he finally got here in the wee hours of the next morning.  Of course, that trauma paled when he did get home, took his vehicle for a drive later in the morning, hit a deer and totalled his car.  Sigh.....maybe my husband and I don't REALLY want to go driving anywhere either! hohoho!!!

We are enjoying some relief as far as daily temperatures this week.  We have been between -7C and -10C all week and that should continue until mid week next week when there is more bitter cold possibly on the way. By February we may be in a true deep freeze once again as air from the Arctic Circle that has recently been displaced by unexpected warm air coming up from the north and is now over Siberia, (with temperatures currently in the -62C range), heads our way. Yikes! Time to enjoy what we have now, even if the skies remain grey day after day. 

I pray for smooth travelling for all our friends and family. I pray that no baggage will be lost, no great hardships incurred by delayed and cancelled flights, no shocking airline bankruptcies that leave our loved ones stranded in foreign lands.  May they all bring back wonderful memories of their winter trips this year.

Thoroughly Zapped! (TMI? Maybe, But This Post May Encourage Some Of You To Consider.......)

 This afternoon I had the first of what will likely be a half dozen or so laser treatments for hair removal on my chin.  It went well. Thirteen years ago I had my upper lip done in another city and what a blessing it has been for all this time not to have terrible black, wiry "old lady" hairs sticking out in all directions.  My chin has recently started to sprout, so it is time to bite the financial bullet and have that area of my face done as well.  For about five hundred dollars, including taxes and hefty tips to the technician, I will feel better about my old lady looks minus the yucky excess hair.

You may be asking why I care about such a thing when my aging face is now "blessed" with obviously sagging skin and wrinkles. Since I look like an ancient hag anyway, isn't removing a few hairs a bit of an ego centered delusion that I will look better sans the strands?  

Nope!  To me, the appearance of these wiry hairs is like adding insult to injury.  I can't do much about the sagging skin and wrinkles as I abhor the whole facelift surgery thing, but I can do something about this most recent public advertisment of my encroaching old age.

The real background to my determination to rid my chin of these wiry invaders stems back to my childhood if I am being totally honest.  I learned to read fluently in Grade One and the first book I tackled on my own the summer before Grade Two was a book of Slavic folk tales featuring the character Baba Yaga.  Baba Yaga was one of a trio of  witch sisters who could be either kind or nasty depending on who was calling on her for help.  I remember almost nothing of any of the stories despite reading them numerous times, but what is stamped indelibly on my mind to this day is the illustration of Baba Yaga that was featured in my particular issue of the book:  a witch with a long narrow chin and from that chin there protruded numerous straggly, wiry black hairs!!!!  The drawing freaked my little self out so badly I was torn between covering it with a tissue so I wouldn't have to look at it as I read the stories and being unable to turn my horrified eyes away from it. The picture had the same allure to me as driving past a car accident, knowing, now that I am adult, it isn't polite to look, but being unable to tear my eyes away from the debacle. Every time I have looked in the mirror for the past few months I have seen the hair starting to march across and under my chin, but the image that supercedes it in my mind as I look at myself in the mirror is that illustration of Baba Yaga. NOOOO!! 

So, you may find my laser treatments to be a bit ridiculous, a waste of money when simply shaving the hairs off regularly is quite effective in hiding them, or perhaps you think I am vain beyond belief, but I refuse to spend my last years looking like my old literary companion Baba Yaga.  I can't do it, I just can't. What's a few hundred dollars to prevent it from happening, compared to the upset of looking into the mirror one day and seeing Baba Yaga come to life???  Right?? Of course right!!! 

Ladies out there, if you are looking at the possibility of laser hair removal because you are becoming uncomfortable with the idea of your face becoming hirsute as you age, find a properly certified technician who will explain to you what the process is and how to care for your skin post treatment and GO FOR IT!  I know from my experiences of the past that it is more than worth it for peace of mind at any age.  If you don't have funds immediately available then save up, work out a payment plan with the tech, find a way to make it happen. It is worth every sizzling zap of that laser wand, it truly is!

SK FOLK!

During the Children's Story at church on Sunday morning the children's minister told the kids that all of us, young and old, would be learning about Jesus' first miracle: turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.  She asked the kids what they would do if they were at a birthday party and ran out of pop half way through the event. One little girl waved her hand wildly and when called upon answered, "We would make do!"  

After I stopped heaving with laughter, I started reflecting on how that has been my experience with most of my friends who are Saskatchewan born and raised. As a couple of them have told me, "We are a make do people!"  The little girl on Sunday certainly has spent her short number of years here on the prairies and learned this tenet for living from her own parents.  

I have lived on the prairies, away from the foothills and mountains of Alberta and the lush green marine environment of the west coast for 20 years as of this coming August.  What a shocker!  On the one hand it seems like it couldn't possibly have been for that long, on the other hand I feel like I share true camaraderie with Moses and the Children of Israel in their 40 years wandering the wilderness of the middle east.  

Saskatchewan has indeed been my own personal wilderness experience.  Like those followers of Moses, God has provided my daily bread and for our every need, but also like those followers of Moses, I have been living in "tents" and been rather isolated from the comforts of our former life that had to be left behind when I was led away on my present journey.  I am quickly adding up another twenty years, should we too be subject to 40 years in the "wilderness" and realizing that in another twenty years my husband will be 90 and I will be 88.  I don't think either of us will last that long on this earth, nor do we really want to! 

There may yet be the possibility of entering more of a Promised Land before we get too old to enjoy it, but if not, it is an interesting journey that has led us in the opposite direction of those Israelites as they fled the Pharaoh's Egypt. For us it has seemed more like a journey FROM the Promised Land TO the Wilderness, despite the many good things and wonderful people we have met in this province! 

This morning as I was washing the breakfast dishes....a time when old songs and choruses I haven't thought of for many years come flooding back for some reason.....I remembered an old chorus we used to sing at Bible School chapel services back in 1976. Did you ever in your younger days sing this little ditty?

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness.

All I have to do is follow.

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness.

All I have to do is follow. 

Strength for today is mine all the way,

And all that I need for tomorrow.

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness.

All I have to do is follow! 

What do you think Lord, is there another Promised Land for me and mine on the horizon, or is there simply a better way we have not yet discovered to convert this present Wilderness experience into a different kind of Promised Land?

Maybe There Is Hope For Me YET!!

Despite some dietary cheating between Christmas and New Years.....and yesterday......and today, generally I have reduced my meal portion size significantly overall in the past three weeks. As of tonight I am feeling less discouraged about my aborted attempts at weight loss and feeling a restoration of at least an iota of hope. 

When I brought my winter clothes out of storage a couple of months ago I was tempted to take what was once, not long ago, one of my favourite pair of winter pants to the thrift store.  They were too tight around the tummy to wear for the past two winters, but I hung on to them because they are dark brown and finding a pair of brown pants, or any other article of clothing in a decent brown colour, has been well nigh unto impossible in recent years.  After trying them on again last autumn, I talked to myself sternly and convinced myself to relinquish them at last as, even though there was a modicum of loosening at the waistband since the previous winter, they were still too tight to wear comfortably. I still looked like a person who was deliberately wearing pants that are too small in an attempt to convince the world she is thinner than she actually is.  In other words, embarrassingly pathetic! Of course none of you have ever done that, have you? Teehee.... It didn't seem right to leave them hanging unused, AGAIN, when someone else could use them. I took them off the hanger, folded them and tucked them into the box of other clothes heading to the thrift store, but after a few minutes I panicked and hauled them out again, rehung them and tried not to feel guilty about keeping them, AGAIN!

Tonight when we received our invitation to go out for dinner I grabbed them out of the closet accidentally, thinking I was bringing out a different pair and I put them on. Wow....they fit just fine!  I can wear them again. They have gone from seam poppingly tight, to still obviously too tight, to slightly snug but comfy over the past less than three months.  Oh how wonderful to get confirmation that the portion reduction size and the better attention to in house exercise may just be bearing weight loss fruit after all.  I am now highly inspired to stop with the depression based dietary cheating and get with the programme again like an actual adult rather than a sulking child.

Thank you Lord for this encouragement to keep at the weight loss and show more respect for my body's condition and my health once again. Sometimes a person just needs these unexpected little encouragements along the way.  I am grateful for this one.

A Special Blessing This Evening!

 We resigned ourselves to our homebound state today after my husband walked five or six blocks to the pharmacy this morning and arrived home with discouraging news that although there was no rain happening, the warming trend was creating very slippery sections of sidewalk along his route.  He was glad to be safely home again.

However, things didn't turn out quite that way this evening and we are both grateful we got a surprise chance to get out of this suite for a couple of hours after all!

Just after 4:30pm, as I was waking up from an afternoon nap, the phone rang. It was two friends who had just had a planned restaurant dinner with other friends cancelled last minute.  Would WE be willing to meet them at the restaurant as spontaneous replacements?  WOULD WE???  Yah, you betcha'!!  Friends and food?  Together at the same time?  In a restaurant?  Spontaneously?  The freezing rain was already an hour late arriving, so we decided to take our chances, get ourselves properly dressed and head out for some fun.

We all had such a good time. We talked and laughed and shared and remembered....just a wonderful evening. The restaurant was more than half empty, so we were able to sit around for a couple of hours or more chatting and relaxing together.  What an unexpected and happy treat. Thank you friends, thank you Lord!!!  

The freezing drizzle started a few minutes before we left the restaurant and was just starting to harden onto the vehicle as we drove into our parking lot at home.  Perfect timing!!  At least it is not teeming down in vast amounts (yet) like it was the last time we were subject to this, my most terrifying winter weather debacle.  I am somewhat envious of friends who are just leaving for a trip to South America and Antarctica....at least they can see the ice from the relative safety of a large, ice breaker ship on the ocean!!!  They won't have to worry about trying to cross it and risking broken bones!!!  (Can't say Antarctica holds a lot of  fascination for me, but I will be interested to see any photos they may care to share when they return.)

We won't know until tomorrow morning if it will be safe enough for me to go to church, but my little bag of ice melt that is tucked into my purse may make it possible.  It will depend on how thick the ice is and if the surface is sufficiently pebbled or snowed upon to grant the bottom of my winter boots some grip.  If it is as smooth as glass there will be no leaving this suite until enough time has passed for peoples' boots and car tires to have scuffed up the ice surface enough for me to be a bit safer to be out there moving about.

Second New Year!

My husband didn't make his New Year trifle this year.  Our ornate glass trifle bowl sat on the top of our china cabinet (all by its lonesome, as my mother used to say) for the entire holiday season and I finally put it away the other day.  Last night my husband began talking about how disappointed he was to have missed eating trifle for New Years Day, but with only the two of us here it would hardly have been worth making a whole trifle.

Today when we were grocery shopping we made a rare stop in at Safeway and there, in the baking department, he found a package of six individual sized angel food cakes.  Those sparked his imagination, so he purchased the package.  Late this afternoon I heard him being most industrious in the kitchen:  he was making custard, opening a can of peaches, mixing the peach juice with a wee dram of brandy, whipping up cream and smiling broadly.  For the first time he made individual trifle portions.  I was able to have Birds Custard Powder for my portion and only a few spoons of the peach/brandy sauce so that my cake didn't get all soggy.  I was able to just put a dab of whipped cream on top.  My husband was able to use tapioca starch for his custard since he can't have the cornstarch in Birds, he was able to use as much of the remaining sauce as he wanted to soak his cake to turn it to near mush (Blecch!  Brandy soaked cake crumbs...eeeek!) before he ate it. He put a handful of frozen fresh raspberries on top....a particular favourite of his on any dessert, even on pancakes....add as many peach slices as he wanted and slather on the whipped cream.  Neither of us had to compromise on our individual trifle construction in order to suit the other person.  It was a lot of fun and O SO TASTY!!  There are sufficient "building blocks" left over for my husband to have seconds tomorrow...I am guessing it will be for breakfast, hahaha.  When it comes to trifle he finds it difficult to wait any longer than he has to between helpings. hahaha  He had such a great time making everything and I love him for doing it!  YUM!!

So, due to eating my trifle at 4:30pm and then working out to absorb the extra sugar carbs, I ended up eating my dinner at 9pm....a teaspoon of peanut butter on two slices of seed bread...only 24 grams of carbohyrdate. Couldn't eat the stew I made because of all the carrots in it, but my husband claims it is delicious.  YAY! Then I washed up a bunch of dishes from his trifle and my stew making events and now I am preparing to get to bed earlier than I did last night....actually it was 1am today when I turned out the lights!  Gotta stop that!

Preparing For The Next Round!

 If there was a font called "RATS" or "DANG IT" or "POOP!"  I would use it today as I am disappointed about the weather forecast for this weekend! hahahaha  Disappointed yes, surprised no!  After all, it be the prairies in winter so no true surprises as far as receiving less than wonderful weather in January, right?

All is beautiful today. The sun is peeping through a band of light cloud cover, there is barely a breeze and the temperature right now at mid afternoon is a balmy -6C.  The warmer temperature is creating a thin layer of mushy snow on top of the icy buildup on streets and parking lots, so it is relatively safe for me to be out and about today.  However, by this time tomorrow afternoon it will be about -1C, so with the rise in temperature so close to the plus side we are in for another round of freezing rain that is predicted to last for approximately 12 hours, changing to snow at about 3am Sunday.  Sigh....looks like I may not make it to church after all again this week.  The walk out to the car I can maybe manage if I carry my little bag of ice melt with me and toss it ahead of each step to give me some traction.  Getting from where we will have to park the car at the church will be the issue because I can't carry that much ice melt in my purse. Well, we shall see what actually happens. The forecasts lately have been alarmingly accurate!!  hohoho!!

This morning, in preparation for the freezing rain possiblity tomorrow, we decided to run all the errands we could think of that would likely have to be done by the middle of next week.  We took out all the garbage and recycling to the bins in our lot, then picked up a handful of grocery items, dropped off a load of clothes at the thrift store, did our banking and filled the car with gasoline at our favourite discount gasoline station.  (And where is that you ask? Nyaahaahaa that is up to me to know and you to discover! teehee)

Since we are likely to be home bound over the weekend and into next week, I decided this time that we should go out for lunch to keep me from feeling too housebound once the freezing rain arrives.  For once it wasn't my husband's idea!! Amazing!!

We decided that since we were very close to Rock Tavern on Albert we would give the place a try.  I am happy that we did.  We had the most lovely and attentive server.  She is from Ukraine, has been here for 8 months as she has a family member in our fair city.  She told us about her parents and grandparents still in western Ukraine and she told us about herself and her sister fleeing from Kiyv to Warsaw when the war started to encroach on their city.  We will be praying for her family who are still in Ukraine, that if they have to flee, they will be able to get out of the country and get visas elsewhere.  She was not shy about telling us her circumstance and how much she loves living in Regina. We have a large, strongly bonded Ukrainian community here and she is loving spending time at the Ukrainian Club making her national foods, speaking her home language and meeting others of her culture who have also been forced out of their own country.  Her English is wonderful. Both her mom and grandmother are English teachers and began teaching her English when she was 6 years old....every Saturday, but now she is much happier that they did that than she was at that young age, hahahaha.  

The food at Rock Tavern was quite good and not unreasonably priced.  My husband had the fish and chips: three medium sized pieces of thinly battered, crispy fish and a nice helping of French fries, not too many and not too salty!  I had the taco salad.  It had two large scoops of spicy guacamole and wow, what a treat to have something with actual heat instead of the usual bland prairie palate taco salad, dependent on a couple of tablespoons of mild to medium salsa to provide any spicy heat at all.  It had a bit more dressing than it needed, but otherwise was most tasty and enjoyable. I also loved that it was made with mixed greens, rather than iceberg lettuce! The portion size was rather large, so I REALLY enjoyed it, haha.  It wasn't terribly crowded in the tavern, despite it being a Friday and we were able to thoroughly enjoy ourselves, hear our own conversation without being overtaken by the loud voices of other patrons, the music was present but not loud....the place was very clean and we had a great time!  Now I feel much more ready to be housebound for a few days.

I have been telling myself for the past two days that I MUST get going on making a stew with the yummy looking cubes of stewing beef I picked up at the store the other day. Today is the day!  I am off to make it right now.  I will make it as usual, despite my current sensitivity to all things Apiaceae, just remove the carrots from my portion when I am ready to eat the stew and replace the carrots with corn niblets. Yes, that IS wierd, but it seems that corn is one of the few vegetables I can eat these days that doesn't bother me.  Corn and potatoes and onions...well, at least I can eat those while I wait for my system to recover from the reactions I had to all those other veggies this past week.  

It is all good!

 

Quick Family Health Update

Today Ray completed day three of five days of radiation treatments on his spinal mass.  The location of the tumour is quite close to a lot of soft tissue so he will be in quite a bit of discomfort due to the inflammation of that tissue.  He is on morphine and other painkillers that must be taken regularly at four hour intervals rather than waiting for the pain to attack. The wrenching pain of the back spasms is now under control.  As a result he is able to be mobile enough to get his own meals and get around the house. The rest of the time he is able to lie in bed with a series of electronic gadets with which to watch movies, read and write and enjoy music. The hope is that the intense radiation treatments will blast the tumour into oblivion the same way these treatments destroyed the mass on his hip a few months ago.  Thanks for praying for Ray.  He is managing to keep his spirits up admirably even when fighting extreme spasms of pain.  His daughter in law sneaked into his house while he was away having a treatment and she cleaned the house, did the laundry and dishes etc.  When his son brought him home from the hospital Ray was ecstatic. He feels very loved and cared for by his family even though they have at least an hour's drive to his house and they are very busy career people.  We are very happy that they take such wonderful care of him.  He is living alone with this pain and illness, so we are thrilled that his son and daughter in law moved into his area. Thank you Lord for them!  He has also had wonderful success using UBER to get to and from appointments and is delighted by the wonderful service he has had from their drivers.  We hear so many horror stories about some of these ride services, but Ray has had only good experiences thus far. Again, we are grateful!

Allergic To Celery? Moi? REALLY??????

The font I am currently using is called Henny Penny and I am using it because tonight I truly feel like the sky is falling!  Sigh....drat and blast!!  (If you are too young to "get" the reference, Google Henny Penny and find the story.)

Today I seem to have received the confirmation I have NOT been seeking that I am indeed allergic to celery!  Since I quit eating the turkey dressing leftovers after a couple of days last week because of my scratchy, phlegmy throat after each portion of it, I have been doing well....I thought....although there have been a few other less intense symptoms on subsequent days after various other meals.  

Today after lunch I had such a bad set of throat symptoms I was positive I was coming down with strep throat, but over the course of the afternoon the sypmptoms decreased dramatically until this evening, when they are almost gone.

Well, I thought....if my recent post prandial scratchy, phlegmy throat reactions were caused by celery, then today I have proof that celery has NOT been the culprit!  How could I be allergic to celery anyway?  It is made up of fibre and water and some very healthy antioxidents and not a lot else.  I had a new thought yesterday....MAYBE, just MAYBE the reactions after eating the turkey dressing were brought on by dried sage leaves that we received from a country where there are fewer laws about pesticide levels. YES, that must be it.  MUST be it and so today's after lunch reaction had to be because I ate a sausage at lunch and there must be sage in the sausage meat.  I raced for the refrigerator to get the list of ingredients off the package.  Sage....sage...hmmmm...where was the sage?  Well, guess what?  There was no sage listed in the ingredients but there, third ingredient, was CELERY EXTRACT!!  NOOOOOOOOO!!!!  Apparently our decision to purchase the occasional portion of processed meats with no nitrate preservatives is not working for me.  Celery salt and other celery extracts are most often used instead of nitrates.  Big, unhappy sigh.....

Celery and its extracts are difficult to eliminate completely because they are used in so many foods. The big problem for me is that other members of its Apiaceae plant family are also regularly found in many dishes, particularly in some of my favourite ethnic foods.  Some of those are parsnips, dill, fennel, anise, carrots, coriander, cumin, chervil....NOOOOOOO again!  So, I am going to have to make sure that I avoid all these veggie, herby things for the next three to four weeks to give my system a break for recovery.  Oh man......

After I stopped eating the dressing I had a big meal of Indian food, caraway bread at a friend's house, coriander in a pasta dish we made and our home grown dill in another couple of meals. In other words I haven't had more than a day's break in the past week and as I look back I realize I haven't always been completely free of symptoms after every meal.  No wonder I reacted so poorly to my innocent looking little organic sausage at lunch time today.

It does explain one reason why I am never drawn to choose parnips, celery or carrots if there are other things available to eat. My body is saying NO NO NO to them.  It also explains why I become quite ill occasionally if I ingest too much cumin in the Moroccan dishes I enjoy. 

Allergic to members of the Apiaceae plant family:  I am devastated!!  It has likely been building up for years and finally my food allergens bucket became full, hence the extremity of the reactions over this past week.  Shoot!!

Fortunately my food reaction didn't stop me from spending the afternoon getting the laundry all done!  

Tonight my husband and I watched the first episode of a new tv series we recorded on ShowTime last Sunday evening.  It is called "Irreverent" and we both admitted we had low expectations of this Australian production.  We didn't even set up our recording for the entire series in case the first episode proved to be a bomb.  However, we really enjoyed its pure silliness!!!  It has everything a good comedy should have....at least in this first episode.  It has criminals on the run, identity switching, mafia revenge killings, thievery, confusion, characters with small town quirks and a cutely witty script.  We shall see over the coming weeks if it degenerates into the now usual foul mouthed script disaster that is so prevalent any more, but we really hope the rest of the 10 episode series is as funny as the first one is.

Are the hours of daylight really increasing since they are supposed to since the equinox in December?  For a couple of weeks it seemed they were, but the past two days have been making me question reality!!  The last two mornings I have awakened to thick fog blocking the light, followed by all day cloudy skies that make it seem like the dead of night by 4:30pm, just like the week prior to Christmas.   This food allergy business is dragging me down, making me tired, so I am not feeling quite as positive about the possibility of spring being on the way in a couple of months as I would like to feel.  (I am guessing my aborted migraine headache on Sunday is likely also tied in to this same allergy issue.)

Well, spring IS on the way! It is it is it is!!  

IT IS SO!  

YAY!! Life will be good again very soon!!!

My Husband The Social Butterfly!

 My husband is absolutely giddy this evening!  He is dancing around, cracking silly jokes, teasing and giggling and guffawing.  hahaha  This is the husband I know best, but very few of our friends know at all.  When he is with people anywhere other than a pastoral visit setting, he tends to come across as somewhat antisocial because he is shy by nature and tends to stare off into space when people are talking to him in social settings....that doesn't actually indicate a lack of interest in the conversation, it means his mind has engaged with something the other person said five sentences ago and he is thinking deeply about it for some reason. He will want to get back to discussing whatever it is in the near future.

When he is happy and relaxed and content, the husband I know could be a stand up comedian!  He is hilarious!!  Oh how I have enjoyed seeing him that way this evening.  The amount of socializing he has been doing lately has been energizing him, pulling him away from hiding out in his favourite world of ideas and research.  Sunday he was with various groups of people at church the entire day what with church services and meetings, yesterday he stayed home, but was catching up on emails part of the day.  Today he had one of his mens' meetings followed by a 3 hour lunch with our minister.  Tomorrow he has a Morning Prayer meeting, followed by a doctor's appointment, followed by an afternoon of skiing with a new friend who is at about the same skill level....two newly senior guys who can swap stories of their younger days swooshing down the mountain slopes in AB and BC as they stumble along now on the groomed cross country trails in a local park. A coffee time usually follows their couple of laps (or their one lap?) around the trails.

After many MANY years he is finally catching on to the idea that socializing is good for him, improves his mental and physical health, eliminates stress etc., etc., etc.  He and I both need to be with our friends regularly to stave off issues of chronic depression and flirtations with occasional anxiety.

I am delighted he is discovering once again the joys of friendship as he leans into retirement.  It makes him cheery and fun here at home too.

I was able to get an appointment today for my twice yearly osteoporosis injection.  Unbelievably my doctor was not only on schedule today, she was a few minutes ahead of schedule!!  The clinic was so packed with walk in patients they ran out of chairs for people to sit on this afternoon.  Just crazy!  I thought I would be waiting for hours, despite having a pre-set appointment.  What a relief to spend no more than 15-20 minutes inside the clinic filled with coughing, wheezing, sneezing, miserably ill patients just trying to keep their heads up while they waited for the walk in doctor to see them.  What a blessing for ME to be in and out of there so quickly, but I do hope the walk ins were able to all be seen before the clinic closed tonight.  I hope none of us traded around and shared any of the illnesses in that waiting room!

Tomorrow while my husband is racing around with his friends, I am going to have a nice quiet day in my pj's doing laundry!  Although I am over the migraine that tried to take hold on Sunday, I have been running a fair number of errands the past couple of days, along with some medical appointments.  So I know I need to just be calm and remain at home tomorrow. I have errands the following morning and that afternoon my ladies' group is meeting for the first time since the last week of November. I want to be well enough to attend.  I miss those women.  

TaTa Little iPad

After 8 years of intensive daily use, my beloved iPad battery is finally showing signs of its coming demise. It is losing charge much more quickly and taking longer to re-charge, a few odd glitches have begun to occur with emails and search engines, so by next week I suspect I will be shopping for a new one. The little thing doesn’t do everything my big old hulking PC does, I haven’t invested in a bunch of apps or additional systems or an attachable keyboard for it, but it is handy to carry around the house and to take on holidays. It instantly opens PDF files that I have to “play with” to open on the PC. Sooooo, guess I will invest in another one. Aaaah, computer shopping...NOT my favourite play date! I will take my husband with me because he has at least a clue or two about computer technology. 

The charge has dropped 4% in the two minutes it took me to write this post so.....it is time to go shopping I suppose. I can’t believe my iPad has lasted this long with no maintenance, hallelujah!! It has been a great little helper. A huge thanks to the congregations of our first parish who purchased it for us. 

No Wonder I'm Exhausted All The Time

When my alarm rang at 7:30am today I jerked awake like a puppet on a string.  What a shock to the system.  Usually I have been awake for awhile by that time of the morning, but not today.  My nose was plugged on one side, my sinuses were aching, my throat was sore from sinus drainage and my head was starting to pound with that formerly familiar ache that tells me when a migraine is on the way.  

I forced myself to get up and get my breakfast, still assuming I would be accompanying my husband to church and going out for lunch with friends, but no....not so much.  After breakfast my husband headed off to church and I stretched out on the sofa in the living room to assess my aches and pains.  Owwwweeeee......

As I was lying there I started to pray and relax, letting myself give in to the pain and not freaking out....doing exactly what the priest who prayed for my healing thirty years ago told me to do when I felt migraines coming on.  I fell asleep for about 45 minutes and when I woke up the headache was gone, leaving me exhausted, but free of pain. Thank you Lord.  Thank you concerned priest who annointed me with oil and prayed for me many years ago.

I spent a few minutes then cutting and taping some pieces of sheet music together so I can play them properly without having to stop every so often to take some of the pages off the piano and put the next set up. hahaha Quite a performance.  Now I am blogging for awhile and then I am going back to bed for the rest of the morning. My husband will be in meetings at church until after 3pm, so no need to race around here pushing myself to do much of anything.

In the past week, since we made our turkey dinner, I have made a discovery:  I have a sensitivity to celery!!  The headache, irritated throat and other symptoms started the first evening we ate that dinner and have occurred and worsened after each meal of leftovers.  I finally figured out what the culprit is and I should have guessed right away. Whenever there is celery around in any form I don't ever choose to eat it.  It tastes fine, but I don't gravitate to it.  Sometimes when I eat a celery stick the end of my tongue gets slightly numb for awhile.  My husband loves celery chopped up in his poultry dressing so there is a fair amount of it in this last batch.  Bingo!  It is the celery that has been causing me grief for the past few days. Dang it...I love the dressing, but I can't eat any more of this particular batch.  Guess I will thaw some bread slices and make a turkey dip out of my half of the remaining meat and gravy. That will be good too.

Over the past couple of months I have become aware of a creeping exhaustion overtaking me.  It began when I realized that the worst (hopefully) part of being an executor for my mother's estate was coming to an end.  It became more pervasive when my husband actually retired and we could relax about the end of regular work committments that were taking all his good health and energy away from him. As my stress about these situations has come off, the exhaustion has taken over.

This morning I started to think back over my life and part of the reason for this intensity of tiredness began to make sense.  I have spent most of my adult life caring for other family members and worked for thirteen or so years in elder care.

My husband developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome when he was 33 and I was 31.  So, I have been caring for his medical/dietary needs every day for the past 37 years.  I have been his memory for many things he simply cannot remember as a result of the CFS.  I have sympathized, empathized, cajoled, and Rah-Rah Cis Boom Bah'd for him all this time.  While that was going on I was also working for very aged and infirm seniors in order to keep our heads above water financially when my husband was the most ill. I was raising our son by myself 2/3 of the time while my husband jockyed between being ill in bed and working out of town for a couple of decades.  I was in prayer many hours a week for God's help in providing for us when health issues for us both made life nearly unbearable for a couple of years.

My parents were a great source of concern as they aged and we continued moving farther and farther away from them geographically.  Long distance caring for elderly parents is always difficult.  While I didn't have the stress of caring daily for Dad as he became more infirm, the mental stress of knowing what he and my mother were going through the last three years of his life was intense.  The phone calls to the long term care facility where he spent his last six months were always discouraging as I heard him slipping farther and farther from life.  The day he died was the beginning of over a year and a half of daily phone calls to my mother, (never missed a day),  shopping for things here that she wasn't physically able to get out to shop for there and getting them sent away, worrying when I knew she needed to see doctors and wouldn't be able to hear much of what they were telling her at her appointments, knowing the reluctance of her doctor to phone me during or after her appointments so that I could help her understand how to take various medications, placating the  Emergency doctors when she began a series of unnecessary trips by ambulance to the hospital, staying in touch with her facility directors during the initial COVID lockdowns, getting her emotionally through Dad's death and subsequent legalities, all the driving back and forth to see my parents over the years in all manner of weather conditions, watching mom die and dealing with the aftermath.

Then there was our son and his issues: dealing with the constant absences and unavailablity of his father, the poverty during his secondary and post secondary education that I couldn't help him with because I had the same struggle at the time, the social issues he faced with his odd ball group of friends, the many moves from one bachelor dump to another in AB and BC, the first serious girlfriend who had bigtime emotional issues, the following girlfriend with serious mental health issues and who threatened his life more than once and sent him into hiding in a different country a couple of times, his move to NYC that left me reeling with grief that he had to move so far away in order to effectively pursue his craft and the emotional support I had to provide while he got his life there sorted out.  

I am not claiming that my life situation as a permanent care giver to one and all in my family, as well as in a longer term job for others, is any worse or even as challenging as what other people face.  I am only saying that my own life has left me exhausted at this point in time.  There is hope that is going to change to some degree now that the stress of parent care has ended and my son has a wonderful life at last and my husband has retired properly and is caring better for his own health issues as well as being rather solicitous of me too!  That is quite lovely. He is concerned about my heart murmur and my inability to sleep properly at night. God bless him.  He has taken on a couple more of the house chores now and I really appreciate that.

This past week it seems that stresses from the rest of my life have simply caught up with me. I need to spend today sleeping and relaxing, so that is what I am going to do.  

I am grateful to be the age I am.  Resting and getting over the earlier years of life stresses is not considered to be an odd thing for someone my age who is retired and  just plain tired.   I can spend all kinds of time praying for friends and other family members who are struggling with health issues, but at this point I am not directly involved in their daily care.  

My gratitude for praying friends and family knows no bounds these days.  There seem to be so many of them. I am overwhelmed with joy to have such amazing people in my life. Thank you Lord for this wonderful blessing.

So, I am taking my tired self back to bed until lunch time.  Time for another wee nap.