Gosh, I Just LOVE "Normal" Days Like Today!

 Today was MY definition of "normal" for two aging, retired people.  The weather was quite lovely and added to the joy of accomplishing the many simple errands we had to run.  With my husband's big push to do so much teaching and preaching this past month now over, he was available again to just do what retired people do on an average day.

This morning my husband Zoom'd into his regular Tuesday men's prayer group, while I got all showered and "de-grub'd" after yesterday's total slugfest!!  I emerged energized and ready to get active!!  While my husband was in his meeting, I dragged all the bags of cans and bottles and milk cartons out to the car, along with the bags of items for the plastic, cardboard and glass jar recycling.  When he was finished with his meeting I was already to get going! YAY!

It took us exactly one hour to drop some paperwork off at the nearest medical lab, take the recycling items to their bin, return the cans, bottles and milk cartons to SarCan for our refund, drop off some clothes at the Salvation Army and locate the one vacuum shop in town that still sells the old style Electrolux bags for our aging vacuum, ending our trip around the city with a stop at our neighbourhood grocery for some produce before heading home.  Planning out the route ahead of time saved us a lot of excess driving around.  

When we got home I just had time to write up and deliver our rent cheque before it was time to go to the salon for a badly needed haircut.  When I got there the inside door was locked and I had to ring a buzzer for the stylist to come and open the door. Turns out there have been a couple of incidents of people very high on drugs entering the salon and proceeding to verbally abuse and threaten the stylists, as well as people sneaking in and stealing the customers' coats and products for sale on the shelves.  Our entire neighbourhood is becoming more frightening as the crime rate in the area continues to increase....mostly people on heavy drugs like fentanyl and other hallucinogens/mind altering illegal meds, who are completely out of their minds and have no idea what they are doing and saying or even where they actually are much of the time.  It is very, very sad what is happening as the crime spreads out of downtown and The Hood.  The criminals are not moving out of downtown and The Hood, no, they are not relocating.  They are expanding their territory and that is cause for some alarm for those of us who have always enjoyed going for walks around the neighbourhood. More of them are approaching kids from the school not far from our place and that is terrifying for the kids and their parents.  Yup, I think our decision to only remain here for one more year is a good one.

After my haircut my husband and I decided to try another Indian restaurant we had not been to before: Marhaba, a mostly take out place in the far north end of the city. The food was quite acceptable, but their prices are a bit too high compared with other Indian restaurants we have been to lately with comparable quality of food.  Anyway, we decided to try it out despite the prices anour meal was quite tasty. There was enough food for take home for us each to have a complete meal again tonight, so the prices had less of a sting.  Their rice is herbed and it is the best restaurant rice I have ever had.  We will probably try it a second time in the near future.   

After lunch we stopped at a warehouse distribution store so my husband could purchase the porridge and juice etc. that he needs for his Wednesday morning in person men's prayer group. Each year he makes breakfast for them every Wednesday in Lent. Usually they go out to a restaurant for brunch after the meeting, so it is a fun change for them to go into the church kitchen for more simple fare.

Our last stop was at the car wash.  Our car was SO filthy from all the splash up and muck on the streets this past few days' worth of melting has created, that we simply had to wash it off.  If we get more moisture or more melt over the next few days and it gets covered with dirt again right away, oh well.

These are the days I like.....lots of gadding about running errands, lunch out, lots of activity and accomplishing little things that, no matter how seemingly insignificant, need to be done,so why not enjoy the doing?

I mentioned the fact that we are planning to move next spring rather than this one and the way things are going I am starting to wonder if that move will be right out of Regina.  Things are changing rapidly here in our fair city:  the fabric of our neighbourhood, as I mentioned, is starting to fracture; Air Canada no longer flies here and WestJet is having many unacceptable issues with their flights, (yesterday a return flight from Calgary got cancelled so all the passengers who were unable to find other flights back to SK were bundled onto a bus for an 8 hour trip home....7 hours longer than the flight they had paid for....in other words it is becoming increasingly difficult for our son to come to visit us), more businesses that we utilize on a regular basis are permanently closing and there is nothing comparable coming in to replace them.

So, we shall see how the next year unfolds here, but if it is going to become as difficult to live here as it is everywhere else in Canada, then we might as well pack up and at least live in an area of the country that has more appeal than Regina does to us.  Hmmmm....not sure what is going to happen but I am not going to worry about it. For now, we are here and doing our best as we wait on the Lord for news about our future.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my mother's death.  It was a difficult day emotionally, but I got through it.  I was very relieved that her oldest friend wasn't able to call me to talk about it until today.  Yesterday I wasn't in the mood to even think about it, but of course it was in the back of my mind the entire day. I struggled with crabbiness throughout the day.  In June it will be three years since my dad died....unbelieveable!

Way Better Than We Dared To Hope!

Great Vibes is the font for this post!

Great vibes is what we feel today!  After finally completing the bank transaction properly at 2:30pm, (international stuff just takes all day), the next thing we had to face was a call to the leasing agent for this complex to set up our new lease for 90 days from now.  That is always a tummy twister for both my husband and I.  Renters truly are at the mercy of landlords, usually something we try to ignore, but come time for lease renewals there is always a big question about what will happen.

Today, we think we got the confirmation we require to act on our mental and emotional needs to stay put for one more year rather than race around for the next 3 months finding an affordable place...not possible these days...tossing, prepping, packing and making the move on June 1st of this year.  We simply couldn't face it but hoped that our lease renewal would affirm our decision and not leave us in a bind by the size of the raise of our monthly rent payment.  

We are both very grateful to God that our rent is only going up sixty dollars a month over what we are currently paying.  Thank you Lord!  That is the price of one decent restaurant lunch. I think we can manage just fine. One less restaurant meal per month...hardly a big loss...and all will remain as is for us. A tiny change in our monthly budget is all that will be needed. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord!!  That gives us a year to complete estate business, tend to other dying relatives, finish the job we started cleaning out our basement and give away as much of our (my??) excess "pretty stuff" that is all over the shelves of both china cabinets....and other flat surfaces. When I get my pottery out to display, no flat surface is safe!!

With all of today's wheeling and dealing on the phone it is now after 3pm!  There is no point in getting showered and dressed at this point in the day.  I will just grub around until tomorrow morning, then we will head out for my haircut and the errands we didn't get done today.  It is all good.

However, I don't want to miss out on the brilliant sunshine outside, so I think I will go and stand on the back porch for awhile to get some fresh air. 

Aaaaand We're Done!

 Only 2.5 hours later and the transaction is complete!  YAY!  AND most importantly, I didn't spend the waiting time freaking out.  See, there is hope for us all!  hohoho!

Waiting Once Again

 My possible plans for today are currently paralyzed as I await a call back from my bank about a transaction I need to complete.  Sigh....  Waiting on banks is not my strongsuit I am afraid.  I used to be able to go in to a teller at my convenience and go through this process, but now it is considered too time consuming...I suspect mostly because since COVID most banks are still severely understaffed in the branches and customers already have long waits in line.  Now I either have to make an appointment with my financial advisor, which will take longer to arrange than I have for time this week to complete the transaction, or else do what I am doing this morning: phoning in the request as soon as the phone lines open, submitting my request and waiting until who knows when today for a call back to actually complete the transaction over the phone.  Who knows how long or short a time I will be stuck waiting, unable to even have my shower in case I miss the call.

This is a bit unexpected.  The second last time I did this transaction was over a  year ago.  To avoid spending hours stranded at home waiting for a phone call, I made an appointment with a financial advisor several days in advance and was fortunate to get in that same week. The financial advisor asked me why I didn't just do it with a "working from home" advisor who does this transaction often.  I explained my issue and he made a note of it on my account.  The next and last time I had to do this transaction was a few weeks after that and when I called in I was transferred immediately to someone who could do that transaction and get it finished the same morning.  I was hopeful that would be the case once again today, but no....oh well....

Thankfully I don't really have anything else pressing that must be done today.  I can certainly relax and wait to have a shower later on.  If there is time after that I CAN run a few errands if I want to...I would like to so that the rest of the week isn't too crowded with "must do's", but itisn't the end of the world if I can't do anything else today but wait around.

I am consoling myself that at least I am waiting on my own bank, one that has all my records and account information; NOT one of Mom's banks.  This is a personal transaction, completely unrelated to probate and estate taxes and the like. Hallelujah! That in itself is cause for rejoicing, not frustration.

So Lord, remind me again of why today's wait really doesn't matter that much and give me patience during the process. Thank You and Amen!

Felt Like A Sacred Weekend!

 My husband's seminar went very well this weekend.  He had interesting material and spoke well.  Many people talked to him after each presentation and I think he came away feeling like he had done something useful.  YAY!

I don't remember the last time I went to a seminar organized that way....I don't think I ever have actually.  The first two evening sessions began with evening prayer services prior to my husband's presentation and then this morning there was a morning prayer service, followed by the regular morning service which incorporated my husband's presentation to replace the sermon.  So, I ended up at four church services in the past three days.  The church we were at uses the old Book of Common Prayer, so there was lots of chanting, lots of responsive reading, lots of Scripture, the singing of every verse of every hymn....it has been several decades since I have spent an entire weekend with the BCP and it was kind of fun as I realized how many of the prayers and responsive readings I still remember pretty much in their entirety.  Guess my mind isn't completely gone just yet! Hallelujah! Oh yes, then this afternoon when the seminar was over, I came home and watched my own church's morning sevice on YouTube, so that made for 5 services for me this weekend. Yikes! Unfortunately I doubt I am any holier as a result....sigh.....

I took my husband out to Rock Tavern after the seminar to give him a chance to debrief and to celebrate his surving the amount of work he put into this venture over the past month.  He ate his fish and chips with gusto and particularly enjoyed the cole slaw....of which he was given twice as much as usual to replace the tartar sauce he didn't want.  I had the twelve dollar  breakfast and it was very tasty:  two slices of toast, two large over easy eggs, three giant stips of bacon and a decent portion of "smashed potatoes" that were crispy fried on the grill. Our food, with just large glasses of water to drink, cost only $31!  The wonderful weather that we walked out of the restaurant into after our lunch lightened our mood even more.  What a happy day!

We had a chat with our son tonight. He got a bit of an unpleasant shock this week at work:  the US government has made some changes in policy that will now require my son's boss to take him on as an actual employee rather than as an independent contractor.  It means my son's take home pay is now reduced by $600 a month with the extra income tax and social security deductions as well as a hefty unemployment insurance deduction he will never get the benefit of, as it would be visa and green card suicide if he wants to make further applications for either or both of those in the future.  However, we wonder if in the long run these deductions will be of benefit to him.  His intention for the long run is to apply for his green card and spend the rest of his life south of the border if it turns out to be possible.  So, in that case starting to pay into Social Security benefits will be a great thing in the long run.  If most of his income tax is finally coming off his pay cheque, then he won't have to worry about setting so much aside each year on his own and wondering if he has saved enough.  The only real disappointment is the employment insurance payment, but if he eventually becomes a US citizen, then that won't have been a bad thing either.  

Another immediate benefit of the issue is that it is lighting a fire under him to get going on getting more studio visits set up, contacting more of his gallery owner aquaintances and getting going on setting up more of his own art exhibitions!  A professional art photographer is taking photos tomorrow of his most recent works, as he is getting serious about promoting himself again. So, it is possible this seeming near disaster is actually working out for good in the long run!  He is reworking his monthly budget starting in March and also making lists of short term part time positions to supplement his income, just like he did when he first moved to New York.  

One very happy and exciting piece of news from him is that his girlfriend's theater company is producing one of their more popular plays from 2022 over in France this summer.  It is an entrant in a well known French play festival, so there will be lots of buzz generated for the company stateside now.  Our son is taking his bit of inheritance from his grandmother and flying over to France toward the end of the play's run, then he and his girlfriend are going to take their first European vacation together in Berlin. It is an inexpensive place filled with old friends of our son's from his days in Vancouver, before so many artists were driven out of Vancouver by ever climbing accommodation and studio rents.  They are incredibly excited about their summer and we are excited for them!  What great news to end our chat today.

The week of relaxation we thought we had following the weekend seminar is not working out quite as planned.  Tomorrow we have errands that must be run and will take some time. My husband has some extra, but happy, responsibilities for both mens' groups this week, the natural gas inspector is coming in to test our furnace and hot water tank, we have a bank appointment, I am getting a hair cut, we are responsible to bring the dessert to a 13 person group dinner, we may end up attending a new afternoon group at the church to check it out and see if it is something we want to be involved in....maybe we can relax NEXT week?  If the good weather reports for this coming week hold true, we will have at least three wonderful days of sunshine and relative warmth.  Oooooh, that will be lovely and keep us encouraged about all these commitments.  Since both March and April are forecast to be well below average temperatures, we had better enjoy each warm day we are blessed with this spring! 

 

 

Giving Up For Lent Takes Different Forms

Apparently a few of you have taken umbrage to my Ash Wednesday post and my little rant about giving things up (or not) for Lent, in particular my own view of what I felt I had given up for the past few Lenten seasons. So, I would like to address that here and expand a bit on what I meant.

You who challenged me on that post are right that giving up my parents, sister in law, my sanity etc. were not acts of voluntary giving.  You are right that I had no control over having to give up those people and personal reactions to grief.  I didn't make my own decision to give those things up, the losses were forced upon an unwilling me. They were not given up as a voluntary act of obedience to God.

However, what I should have made more clear in the post is that what I did voluntarily give up was my right of entitlement, my right to hang onto my family members, my right to expect to be able to release those people and get over those grief reactions in my own time and way.  

What I did give up was my right to hang onto those feelings of anger over my loss of control over when people die and my right to choose how I reacted to the losses.  I gave up my "right" to be angry at God for taking away my family.  I gave up my "right" to having my family members alive for as long as I wanted them to be.  I gave up my "right" to having a stress free period of mourning after they died and I gave up my "right" to having all the subsequent required duties of an executor go smoothly and without problems.  

Until I gave up those perceived, unrealistic, idealisic rights I wasn't coping well with all the losses and disappointments and unhappy surprises.

Essentially I finally voluntarily gave up my right to have everything in life work out exactly the way I wanted and gave up voluntarily the times of anger and bitterness and fear. 

I hope that clarifies what I meant to say in my Ash Wednesday post and I thank you for the challenging questions that came my way as a result.

Feeling OK About My Own Incompetence!

This has been an interesting week for emails and phone calls because:  several of those communications have been to thank me for a posting from some time ago where i confessed to having been clueless for decades regarding hanging up my bathtub mat over the grab bar inside the tub to dry it after showers, leaving it rolled up and usually fallen over in the tub basin itself.

As it turns out I am apparently NOT ALONE!  Who'd a thunk it?  

I am very grateful that my second most embarrassing confession has resulted in another half dozen folk who have  admitted they also were not thinking clearly about hanging their tub mats on their own grab bars and have also been frustrated by tipped over rolled up mats.  Now they too have changed their ways!

Turns out that sometimes confession is not only good for my own soul, but for the souls of others!  teehee!!!! 

 AND for those of you who have now checked out the possibility of and also started your own laser hair removal process.....yer welcome!

A Cold But Comforting Day Today!

Despite the continued cold weather today, it was a good day, a happy day, a day of comfort and of relief!

We started our day relatively early with the knowledge that our first stop in the frosty morning would be to the dental clinic for a cleaning.  

My husband decided to trust in the Lord and the prayers said by the prayer team at the church where he is doing the seminar this weekend, kept his appointment and had probably the best experience he has ever had in that situation.  He told the new hygienist about his dizziness and hours long nausea after cleanings and she not only didn't tilt the examintation chair back so far, she gave him a little pillow to keep his neck tilted forward.  It was wonderful! He came out of the examination room absolutely beaming with delight. He felt completely fine for the first time ever after a cleaning! Thank you Prayer team and thank you lord! Once again we are grateful for the bit of coverage we get from my husband's dental plan.  It is not very comprehensive and doesn't give us as much coverage as many other company plans do, but wow...every bit helps!

My husband actually beat me in completing his appointment today for the first time. He has been taking much better care of his teeth over the past year and his attentiveness paid off.

My cleaning also went very well, but I asked for x-rays to check out the tooth that I was concerned I had fractured a few weeks ago with the pea gravel hard oat hull I bit down on one morning and nearly collapsed from the pain.  Fortunately, both the x-rays and the subsequent "hands on" exam by one of the dentists showed that the pain at the time and the consequent few uncomfortable bouts when biting and chewing certain foods is the result of a badly bruised ligament that supports that tooth.  It will continue to heal and all should be well.  YAY!  I am so relieved.  The ancient filling is starting to erode and break down a bit, so a new crown will be in the offing eventually, but not today and likely not in the very near future.  The filling may even be able to be replaced rather than the tooth having to be crowned.  Yay again!

We were both quite cheery on our way home.  Our appointments were at 9am and we walked back into our home at 10:05am. Perfect!  We then listened to the podcast with the link I posted in the previous post and felt highly encouraged this afternoon when we met with a group of friends from church to discuss the podcast and share some tea and delicious zucchini loaf provided by our hosts.  

My husband got a lot of seminar notes organized and finalized once we got home and even had time to make some beef and cabbage soup for tomorrow's meals.  I got to assist him and that was fun. We don't get to cook together a lot, so it was a treat to have time to do that today.

Tonight I kind of zoned out while My husband went back to work.  I read several newsfeeds online, watched a couple of home renovation programmes....so happy to see some newer episodes and a brand new episode of The Nate and Jeremiah home project.  Their show went missing from my tv channels for a couple of years, so I am glad to have it broadcast here once again.  

So it was a very nice day indeed with some answered prayers, some wonderful teaching and discussion with friends, home made pita pizzas for dinner tonight.....tomorrow I will try to get some work of my own accomplished until it is time for the first evening of the seminar. I never mind being the "dutiful pastor's wife" by attending these events because I love hearing my husband teach.  I miss hearing him preaching every sunday, so I am really looking forward to the seminar.

In two more days the weather will be considerbly warmer than it has been this week. Whoopee!!!  I can't wait.  Spring, wonderful spring will eventually be upon us...by April, I hope.

Some Comforting Thoughts For Times Of Trial!

 The link below is to a 2020 podcast containing an interview with John Lennox. He is a Math Professor at Oxford University and an international speaker on the interface of science, philosophy and religion.  His interview in the podcast below was recorded during the first intense COVID lockdowns in spring of 2020, but what he has to say about dealing with fear and pain and the questions we have when God seems to be absent or even cruel apply to pretty much any trial we have to deal with.  Give it a listen. It is worth the 39 minutes of your time.  Seriously......

 https://www.johnlennox.org/resources/172/where-is-god-in-a

Ash Wednesday....The Season Of Lent Begins Once Again

I can't believe it is Ash Wednesday/Lent again already!  Didn't we just celebrate Easter a few weeks ago? Right before Christmas?  Aiii yiii...this past year has alternately crawled by like a snail and flown by with the speed of an SST!

I have never been involved personally in the old church Lenten tradition of voluntarily "giving something up" as a symbol of my spiritual discipline, of repenting of my worldly ways and replacing them with heightened spiritual awareness.  I didn't grow up with that tradition and have always chosen to signify the Lenten season in other ways.  (Besides, in the past three years didn't I give up my entire life for Covid, my father and subsequenly my mother, along with my sanity after they died??)

This year I have chosen to do a short daily Lenten devotional study by Henri Nouwen in his book "From Fear To Love: Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son", edited by Mark Neilsen and by Random House's Doubleday Religion division.

To honor the first day of Lent I will include today's meditation:

 

" Enlightened by the Father

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

          and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

If there is no parent, we cannot be lost. If we have no parent to return to, there is no experience of being lost. We are only lost when we can be found. Only in the light of goodness and forgiveness do we discover that we are lost.

     The love of a parent makes the child aware of being lost. The older son in the Prodigal Son story, doesn't consider himself lost until he is confronted with the love expressed by the father on his prodigal brother's return. Only then does he touch his own lostness.  The younger son, still apologizing, touches his lostness too, when he sees his father's forgiveness. This younger son prepares a story of apology because he doesn't fully understand the nature of his father's love.  Only when he is received, welcomed, and loved within this deep parental embrace is the depth of his lostness revealed to him.

     To say it another way, 'We only know that we're in darkness when we come into the light of God's love. It is only in the light, in the fullness of the sun, that we know there is a shadow.'

Gracious God, open me to recognize your thirst to love me. Inspire me to love those you've given me." 

 

The second part of that short prayer is what has touched my spirit today. Often God sends people to me that I don't have any particular interest in loving.  It isn't always easy for me to truly love ANYONE if I am being completely honest!  Even people I like very much only rarely experience the kind of love from me that God wants me to give them.  How about that? On the very first day of Lent, God gives me a chance to repent of my own selfishness and confusion about how best to love other people and get on with the business of learning how to love others properly....with my interior heart and not just with my exterior acts of service! AMEN!

God Bless FedEx!!

God bless them for their overnight delivery service! The accountant in Calgary received the package for Mom’s taxes just under 24 hours from the time I turned it in at their office here yesterday. He will wait a couple of weeks before he prepares her final tax forms just in case I receive something else I didn’t foresee arriving. Once those forms are filed with the CRA and any taxes owing are paid, I can begin the final process for closing out the estate account. That could take another six months or more, but we shall see how things go. One more step is about to be completed and I am so grateful for that!! People are generally quite upset by the cost of overnighting mail though FedEx, but the fact that such mail has to be flown out in an airplane full of costly fuel, crewed by people who have to be paid a salary leaves me personally grateful the service still exists. The relief at having important, time sensitive documents delivered so quickly is worth twice as much to me as what I paid. Whew! Thank you FedEx!

Bing, Pop, Bang, BOOM!!!

It is 5am. Fortunately I got over five consecutive hours of sleep before the bitter outside temperatures started the siding panels on our building to contract and expand to accommodate the freezing moisture content around them. Wow! Some of the big booms sound like a cannon going off right beside my head.  Even my usually “dead to the world” husband has been startled awake a couple of times.  😱 

My husband is facing another day of psycho busyness, but I have today off. I have no errands that must be run. I can work away at home quite happily while I wait to hear from the accountant that he has received the tax package from FedEx. It is a day meant to be spent in my day jammies and Mark’s Comfy Robe! Bliss!! 

Cee Cee Cee...A Better Day!

 Hello folks:  got another update this evening from Nan. They had an okay sleep last night after all as Cee's pain became very mild and the episodes of pain were less frequent.  That level of pain has continued all day today and it subsided sufficiently since yesterday that he was able to take less hydromorphone today.  That is good news indeed.  Oh my, so many of you have contacted me for updates today and that is so appreciated. I am glad to have this update to share with you.  Thanks again SO MUCH from Cee and Nan.  I am praying that he could have some more days that are totally pain free. It would encourage his mind and heart I think and give him the strength to keep going while he continues to wait for information regarding a possible treatment that has at least a chance of preventing the neuropathy from progessing much farther.  Oh how I pray he could have it and that it could work for him as well as it has worked for some other neuropathy patients.  If he finds out it is going to happen, likely weeks if not months from now, I will update you with more information about it so we can all pray him through that as well.  One thing I have had impressed upon me so often over the past couple of years is that even when God doesn't answer prayers for physical healing with a "YES!", he is still there and he is still able to bring comfort and assurance that he will never leave us or forsake us. When we are chronically suffering that is easier to grasp on some days than on others, but throwing ourselves full force, completely onto God and trusting him to carry us along in spite of ongoing painful trials seems sometimes to be our only hope of being able to cope with the daily reality of life on this earth.  Spiritual community support is so important too.  It has helped me so many times in my life and it is helping my friends as well. Bless you all.

Gosh, The Sunshine and Blue Sky Are So Motivating......

 ....even on a chilly day such as this one.  I am loving the tiny bit of warmth that is returning to the sunshine as we get nearer to the spring season.  

This morning my husband told me that he didn't want me going to the grocery store alone and having to wrestle with packing up a gigantic load of items by myself.  I am so very grateful he came with me.  I delayed my initial plans by an hour so that he could attend his morning men's meeting and it all worked out very well.  First of all we went to the FedEx office and I overnighted all Mom's estate tax info to the tax accountant in Calgary.  He is so good at his job. What a blessing to have him recommended to me by Mom's lawyer...expensive? Yes.  But it is such a relief to be dealing with someone who knows exactly what he is doing!!  He has been an accountant for many years and specializes in estate taxes.  

After packing up our overflowing grocery cart's items we draped all the bags with blankets in the backseat of our car to keep the produce from freezing and wandered over to The Flats for an inexpensive lunch.  Nope, "it ain't gourmet", but they do a decent job with the ingredients they have and the prices are very good.  It is a step above diner fare but very tasty.  It was a relief just to be sitting down for awhile after battling the crowds at the grocery store and chasing down the prices of many unpriced items...why there were so few price cards on the shelves I don't know, and I let the manager know  it wasn't cool for the customers as I discovered I had missed out on several special prices for bulk buying on some of my items. Oh well, not the end of the world, but the manager did need to know about the many missing price cards as it is quite possible she was unaware of it.  Not sure if yesterday's Family Day holiday was to blame for the lack of price cards, but it seems that those types of things happen in a number of stores the day immediately following a long weekend.

My husband is taking a quick break from his seminar preparation to watch a mindless tv programme. Good for him.  I am so glad he is learning that he needs to get a few hours away from the computer and writing and the putting together of PowerPoint Presentations.

 36 hours or so from now we will both be at the dentist for our cleanings.  My husband always struggles with feeling light headed and miserable for several hours afterward, but hopefully he will feel well enough to enjoy our new study and fellowship group in the afternoon.   

One hilarious story we heard last evening at the Bible study group: one of the group members had a meeting with our minister in the morning and they decided they would go out for coffee to a restaurant near the church that they hoped would be open on the Family Day holiday. It appeared to be open, but they weren't paying much attention to what was going on inside until they entered, looked up and realized the entire place was packed out with women in absolutely gorgeous ball gowns and wigs.....turned out the restaurant was closed to the public for the Family Day holiday, but had been booked by a private party: a group of professional drag queens. hahahahahahahaha  I am trying to picture the look on our minister's face when one of them came up to him to tell him the restaurant was privately booked.  He would have taken it with aplomb, I am sure, but our friend that was with him thought an obviously Christian minister walking into a restaurant full of drag queens was an absolutely hilarious story. hahaha  Our friend is Irish and do believe his innate sense of humour is what made the story truly funny.  Next time our minister (who  loves wearing costumes when he does special presentations) has to dress up for a special presentation,  perhaps we should suggest that he actually DRESS up! hahahaha  Would love to see his reaction to that suggestion, teehee, wicked me! hohoho!

First Monthly Group Meeting!

Tonight we had the inaugural meeting of a small group of friends who asked us a few weeks ago to participate with them in starting a Bible Study. The other people are all between ten and twenty years younger than ourselves, so it was a privilege to be asked! Tonight was for planning future gatherings and to have our first session of study together. We chose to use Lectio Divina and it went well. We began with Deuteronomy 8:1-5 and after reading it together, then individually while writing notes about what stood out to us, we had a lively discussion. It never ceases to amaze me how each person has a different aspect of the passage that stands out to them and and how much we learn from each other. The group is fairly well educated theologically so there was a depth and richness in the discussion tonight. I look forward to our next meeting. Such busy, full time employed people, have little time available for yet another regular weekly commitment, so we are opting to meet once a month to start with and see how it goes from there. I am very excited to see how the group grows together and develops. Later this week we will enjoy our second meeting with a much larger group of friends where we listen to amazing podcasts and discuss afterward what we have learned. So, suddenly I find myself in three different discussion groups and my husband is now in five very different groups. It has been coming to me that “our last year here will be a busy and exciting one.”, but I don’t know what, if anything, that means. Anyway, lots of fun and fellowship on the horizon, yippee! 

Grateful thanks from Cee and Nan!

Good evening prayer warriors: as this day has gone on, Cee’s meds began to work and the prayers began to take effect. Gradually the pain has eased and the episodes have begun to occur farther apart. Cee got some sleep this afternoon and is sitting in his favourite chair watching tv tonight. Hopefully he will sleep well and pain free tonight. Nan is crediting God and your prayers with how quickly the recovery began after such an intense attack. 

God bless you all.

Urgent Pray Request For Cee!

 I just received an email from Nan. Cee is having the worst neuropathic shooting pains in his lower body that he has ever had. He has to wait another four hours before he can take another hydromorph med. He is in agony and needs prayer support desperately today. Thank you prayer warriors.

Human Weather Vane!

 Happy 4:05am! 

If I hadn’t already read the weather forecast I would still know for certain that a cold weather system is about to descend. My complete inability to fall asleep for more than three or four ten minute stretches  since I shut out the bedside light five hours ago is a guarantee the forecast isn’t incorrect! 

Thankfully I should have all day free to nap and get caught up before a meeting this evening. So happy I got the housecleaning done the other day, so no stress over the meeting being held here. Yay! 

After a relatively quiet weekend of laundry, reading and church attendance, I was hoping for a good sleep so I could spring into action this week and be filled with energy, but ‘tis not to be. Oh well. 

We are going to a large group dinner next week and I agreed to bring dessert. Fortunately I have a few days to search the Internet for recipes that will be safe for celiacs, vegans, diabetics (c’est moi), and the lactose intolerant....in hopes of finding SOMETHING to take that is NOT a fruit salad!! Fruit salad is the go to dessert around here these days and I am tired to death of seeing it everywhere we go, but it certainly is the answer for providing a dessert nearly everyone can eat....except for me the diabetic. It would be easier on my personal blood sugar levels to eat a small square of chocolate than to eat a nappee sized bowl of fruit. Anyway it will be fun sleuthing to discover what to make! 

In the midst of the general chit chat and children running around screaming at the top of their lungs thanks to indulgent visiting grandparents, my husband managed to deliver his final short presentation at church yesterday. It was absolute bedlam yesterday, the worst since these after service presentations began. However my husband’s presentation was well received by most of the people who could actually hear him over top of the shrieking. After hearing the volume one tiny toddler was able to achieve, I instantly became grateful that the same little girl had settled for only talking all through the church service and saved her screeching demonstration until afterward. Between the hollering by these two and another large group of adults and teens on the other side of the room clattering about, laughing and chatting at full volume, I was once again grateful for my husband’s never ending supply of patience as he struggled to make himself heard. Our own pastor suffered the same fate during several Sundays of his own presentations. I am not sure what he was thinking by having presentations during coffee hour, but he obviously had his reasons. Yesterday was the final one, thank goodness.

My only chore today is to get Mom’s Estate tax info over to FedEx....if they are even open on this provincial Family Day weekend. If not, the drive there and back before it gets too cold this afternoon will do me good. 

Despite the lack of sleep, and plummeting temperatures, I think it will be a good day today! 

Answered Prayers Re: Tax Forms! YAY!

 At the start of this week I began to wonder when the rest of the T-forms etc. for Mom's final estate tax filing would arrive. Did the CRA and banks and other businesses receive the change of address and get that into their files?  Address changes have been one of the most stessful parts of this whole executor gig.  Until mail actually arrives a person has no idea if the change of address went through or not at each and every place it was sent. Until mail arrives that is correctly addressed and has not been rerouted through Canada Post's change of address system, it is quite a guessing game as to who has the change and who has missed it completely despite a person's best attempts.

Monday and Tuesday I was wondering what I would do if the CRA still hadn't put through the change of address after my first attempt failed and a second was tried.  On Tuesday afternoon those estate T-4's arrived.  So then I began to wonder about some of the bank interest forms and on Wednesday afternoon those arrived.  Wednesday evening I wondered about a form from the government about the death benefit taxes. Thursday afternoon it arrived in my mailbox.  That night I began to wonder about the final business T-5 I have been waiting for since last fall...had the change of address information gone through, had it been sent and lost....I was wondering where it had gotten to and what I should do if it didn't arrive by the February 28th deadline.  In today's mail delivery, there it was!!!  So, I now have everything I need to send in to the tax accountant for Mom's estate.  He can do the taxes and file the final T-1 form and that SHOULD be the end of it. Then I just have to wait for the Clearance Certificate to close out the remains of the estate account and that will likely happen a few months after the final taxes are filed.  I am so grateful to God that everything is here for the accountant so we can begin the process.  Thank you Lord!!

Since our own tax booklets and T-4's etc. were badly delayed last year, like many other peoples', that has also been a bit of a concern, but today the tax booklets arrived. We still paper file, so it is always a bit of a breath holder until we actually receive them.  We don't want to get into the habit of filing online because of personal, age related reasons that I won't go into here. Suffice to say I am delighted that the booklets and forms did arrive before the end of February. Now we only have our pension T-4's and a couple of charitable receipts to wait for.  YES!!! 

There is so much more peace of mind for me since we got the probate settled and completed with the unwilling, unhelpful banks.  I have had so much more peace over the taxes than over the probate issues.  I think it is partly because the initial grief over losing Mom is finally subsiding so there is far less going on emotionally to stress me out.  I am grateful that peace is being restored over the whole  sad series of events.

In other news: the weather today is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!  I am loving a full day of sunshine and the temperature mid afteroon has reached 0 degrees!  YIPPEE!  I went for a nice drive this morning to London Drugs for some new hand soaps as they always have a decent selection there.  I picked up my two favourite series of crossword puzzle books and some small marizpan bars in dark choclate as a treat for my husband.  The ice on the sidewalks is most treacherous at the moment, so no walking even around the complex for awhile until it melts off again, but oh wow, it was so wonderful to have an errand to run that got me out of this place for an hour.  The weekend weather will be lovely as well, followed next week by 5 days of -32C overnight and daytime highs of only +23 or so.  HOWEVER, by next Friday it will be warming up again.  I am hoping that will be our last experience of the -30C degree temperatures until next winter arrives.  From my thoughts to God's ear!

My husband is hard at work finishing up his teachings for the seminar next weekend.  He let me know he is hoping I will come to it and hear him speak, so I most definitely will.  It is always a treat to hear him.  I think the other people there will get a lot out of it too.  The seminar keeps his hand in with the local Anglican church and his friends who attend it.  There are a few other friends going who don't attend Anglican churches, so that is an ecouragement to him.  So grateful for the friends we have in this little city on the flats. 

Hmmmmm....it is only 3:20pm. The sun is still shining outside the back door. I think I will go and stand out on the back porch for awhile and enjoy its bit of returning warmth.

When Canada Was Still Young......

CANADA

by Susanna Strickland Moodie (b 1803 - d 1885)

 

Canada, the blest--the free!

With prophetic glance, I see

Visions of thy future glory,

Giving to the world's great story

A page, with mighty meaning fraught,

That asks a wider range of thought.

Borne onward on the wings of Time,

I trace thy future course sublime;

And feel my anxious lot grow bright,

While musing on the glorious sight;-

Yea my heart leaps up with glee

To hail thy noble destiny!

 

Even now thy sons inherit

All thy British mother's spirit.

Ah! no child of bondage thou;

With her blessing on thy brow,

And her deathless, old renown

Circling thee with freedom's crown,

And her love within thy heart,

Well may'st thou perform thy part,

And to coming years proclaim

Thou art worthy of her name.

Home of the homeless!-friend to all

On thy bosom sickly care

Quite forgets her squalid lair;

Gaunt famine, ghastly poverty

Before thy gracious aspect fly,

And hope long crush'd, grow bright again.

And, smiling, point to hill and plain.

By thy winter's stainless snow,

Starry heavens of purer glow,

Glorious summers, fervid, bright,

Basking in one blaze of light;

By thy fair, salubrious clime;

By thy scenery sublime;

By thy mountains, streams, and woods;

By thy everlasting floods;

If greatness dwells beneath the skies,

Thou to greatness shall arise!

 

Nations old, and empires vast,

From the earth had darkly pass'd

Ere rose the fair auspicious morn

When thou, the last, not least, was born.

Through the desert solitude

Of trackless waters, forests rude,

Thy guardian angel sent a cry

All jubilant of victory!

"Joy," she cried, "to th'untilled earth,

Let her joy in a mighty nation's birth,-

Night from the land has pass'd away,

The desert basks in noon of day.

Joy to the sullen wilderness,

I come, her gloomy shades to bless,

To bid the bear and wild-cat yield

Their savage haunts to town and field.

Joy, to stout hearts and willing hands,

That win a right to these broad lands,

And reap the fruit of  honest toil,

Lord of the rich, abundant soil.

"Joy, to the sons of want, who groan

In lands that cannot feed their own;

And seek, in stern, determined mood,

Homes in the land of lake and wood,

And leave their hearts' young hopes behind,

Friends in this distant world to find;

Led by that God, who from His throne

Regards the poor man's stifled moan.

Like one awaken'd from the dead,

The peasant lifts his drooping head,

Nerves his strong heart and sund-burnt hand,

To win a portion of the land,

That glooms before him far and wide

In frowning woods and surging tide

No more oppress'd, no more a slave,

Here feedom dwells beyond the wave.

 

"Joy to those hardy sires who bore

The day's first heat-their toils are o'er;

Rude fathers of this rising land,

Theirs was a mission truly grand.

Brave peasants from the Father, God,

Sent to reclaim the the stubborn sod;

Well they perform'd their task, and won

Altar and hearth for the woodman's son.

Joy, to Canada's unborn heirs,

A deathless heritage is theirs;

For, sway'd by wise and holy law,

Its voice shall aid the world's great cause,

Shall plead the rights of man, and claim

For humble worth an honest name;

Shall show the peasant-born can be,

When called to action, great and free.

Like fire, within the flint conceal'd,

By stern necessity reveal'd,

Kindles to life the stupid sod,

Images of perfect man and God. 

"Joy, to thy unborn sons, for they

Shall hail a brighter, purer day;

When peace and Christian brotherhood

Shall form a stronger tie than blood-

And commerce, freed from tax and chain,

Shall build a bridge o'er earth and main;

And man shall prize the wealth of mind,

The greatest blessing to mankind;

True Christians, both in word and deed,

Ready in virtue's cause to bleed,

Against a world combined to stand,

And guard the honour of the land.

Joy, to the earth, when this shall be,

Time verges on eternity."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Oh my dear Mrs. Moodie....immigrant to Canada from England in the 1830's.  Your hopeful heart would be broken to see Canada in its present state.  Sigh....

I love this poem that expresses such hope for Canada at that time, in that century, nearly 200 years ago.  Unfortunately at this time.....things have most certainly changed.........but what a glorious hope Mrs. Moodie expressed for her adopted country. It gives ME hope that God is not finished with us yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men....And Us Guys!!

 Although neither of us got to sleep all that early last evening, we were both quite certain we would leap out of bed at a relatively early time this morning, primed for a major grocery shopping trip to carry us through for groceries until after next week's cold snap.

Yeah........not so much......

I forced myself to get up early enough to eat breakfast at the right time of morning for me, but my husband didn't wake up for another hour....and then with a dry air induced nose bleed, that knocked whatever starch he may have otherwise had in him to begin the day right out of him!  By 9:45am we made the decision that a major grocery shopping trip was not going to happen today.  I admit I was happy about the decision because I realized that I too am exhausted just from cleaning the suite the past couple of days and dealing with the onset of yet another winter cold spell.  Winter is doing us both in at this point in our lives.  Praying that next year by some miracle we will cope better with winter than we are this year.

We did force ourselves to warm the car and drive off long enough to do a few essential errands that truly cannot wait until next week.  Afterward we stopped at the nearest grocery store to home to pick up some milk and a couple of other items we have to have before next week....and that was that!  We were home in less than an hour! Cold weather at least makes us hustle when we are forced to go out in it. 

This afternoon I will attend my women's prayer group.  My husband and I have a chance to attend another study and fellowship group that meets on the same day and time, but only twice a month, so I will have to work out the juggling of schedule this will create for me, BUT the chance for my husband and I to do something together...to attend a group that HE doesn't have to lead, is just too tempting to say no. Plus, the other people in the group are very kind, gentle and wonderful people who have been meeting together for some time, so they have their act together.  We have only been once so far, but hopefully we turn out to be a good fit for the group.  It is a bonus to us that the group meets in the afternoons as most of the other members are retired like we are.  So much easier, particularly in the winter.

Four other people, considerably younger than ourselves, have approached us to start a Bible Study group, so we are going to have a planning meeting next week and see if this will be feasible.  In this case we may be doing some of the leading as we are the retired folk who have the extra time to prepare that these younger, still working like crazy, dear ones won't have.  We shall see if this is a viable idea for all of us.  Looking forward to discovering more about the people who approached us and learning more about their spiritual gifts and ideas.  Hopefully something good will come of it. 

Life is heating up again even if the weather isn't.  It is all good!

Apparently MY Man CAN Live By Bread Alone!

 My husband came steaming downstairs from his office just before lunchtime today.  He was obviously a man on a mission!  He announced to me that he was going to immediately make baking powder biscuits for our lunch!  I asked him why he suddenly had such an urge for biscuits and he told me that all morning he had been working on his teaching for next weekend's seminar and was working mostly on Matthew 4, where a fasting Jesus, in the wilderness, had been tempted by Satan with the promise of bread to eat if Jesus would just give up his mission from God and allow Satan to provide for him.  Jesus' response to the temptation was to tell Satan the famous quote, (and sometimes misquote), that "....man cannot live by bread alone....".  The passage got my husband thinking, nearly obsessing, about his favourite carbohydrate in the world: BREAD!  After a couple of hours of having BREAD hovering in the back of his thoughts, the word began morphing into BISCUIT, thus our lunch time treat today of his best baking powder biscuits to date.  Oh yummy!  He has taken to making them quite small in diameter so that I can have two or three right out of the oven with out too many carbs being a big worry. How sweet is he, right?  The last two batches he has made have been particularly tasty and I asked him what that extra punch of flavour stems from. Turns out his secret ingredient is Japanese yuzu.   Ooooh, how delightful!!  The biscuits were...still are as there are some left over despite our best attempts to gorge ourselves on them....absolutely delicious!

Yuzu* is a favourite citrus flavouring of ours.  We use it in salad dressings and fruit loaves and now, baking powder biscuits. What a versatile fruit extract.

*Yuzu: a citrus fruit originating in China, but now mostly grown in Japan. The flavour is a sharply tangy hybrid of lemon, lime and grapefruit.

Family Health Update....Somewhat More Encouraging.

My husband had a long talk with Ray tonight. He is doing much better than expected. We are delighted. He was released from hospital on the weekend as soon as his doctor knew Ray’s sister had arrived at his house so he would not have to be alone. A marvellous neighbour picked her up at the airport, brought Ray home....he has many supports in place at home: home care, friends and family who are all ready to be there for him as needed. Ray is very weak still and has lost a lot of weight, so he has been told he must eat as much as he can. We are praising God that he did not need to start dialysis after all. The day he was to start it in the hospital was the day his kidney began to function again without any help! It is not working 100%, but well enough not to need dialysis at this point. Ray is on a LOT of medication, but it is all contributing to him feeling and coping much better. His EMT training is how he knew both times he was having a heart attack and was able to get an ambulance so quickly. His knowledge of the present problematic issues within the medical system is helping him advocate for himself. He is doing far better than expected at the moment and we pray that continues to be the case for a long time to come! Thank you prayer warriors. God has helped Ray so much.

Brrrrrr Today....But The Weekend Was Very Pleasant On Every Front!

 HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!  

💓💕💖💗💘💙💙💛💜💝💞💟💃😀😁😃😄

Since my husband and I don't celebrate Valentines Day, my greeting above is for you who read this post and I wish you all a wonderful day of experiencing love and kindness! AMEN! 

 

The bitter wind of winter is upon us once again today.  There were a few snow flurries early this morning, but no snowfall of note has arrived, nor is it expected.  We are looking forward now to another (possibly) week to ten days of chillier, more seasonal temperatures and that is just fine.  We have been blessed with wonderful weather for more than a week! In February!  WOW!

 

My husband arrived home from his conference on Saturday evening, brimming over with joy that it had gone well, that he had spent the weekend learning a lot about how to discuss today's social and philosophical issues on a lesser plane than high academia.  It was really helpful and due to a surprisingly low attendance of participants he was able to spend time with some of the presenters for prayer and one on one conversation.  Sunday morning his short presentation at church also went very well, so he was very pleased.  Now he is preparing for next Sunday's short presentation on the church calendar year and working to complete his teachings for the following weekend's evangelism seminar at a local  Anglican colleague's church.  He has worked through the stresses involved and his tummy has behaved itself well the past few days. Thank you Lord and prayer warriors!

I really enjoyed our Sunday School session from the Gospel of Luke this past weekend.  We are working our way through that gospel book and are being led by a university professor who is a Greek language scholar.  It is a marvellous class. This week we talked about the story of Martha and Mary and I really appreciated what our professor brought to the interpretation of the story.  Instead of hearing, AGAIN for the thousandth time, the old ideas that Martha was angry at Mary for abandoning the kitchen work and meal preparation and leaving all the work to her while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to his teachings, there seems to be a better cultural understanding these days of a deeper meaning behind Martha's upset.  It is likely that, like most houses at that time in that culture, the place was divided into mens' and womens' quarters.  Mary was likely breaking the cultural taboos by being with the men, as well as by sitting at the feet of Jesus...a place usually reserved for those men who were planning to become rabbis and teachers themselves.  Mary crossed all the cultural norms and boundaries, so it is no wonder that Martha was incensed by her sister's behaviour.  It makes a lot of sense to me.  What is wonderful is that Jesus didn't send her back to the kitchen.  He encouraged the breaking of cultural boundaries for women, as usual, by telling Martha that Mary had done a good thing.  I will read that story now with a better understanding and with more depth than I have been able to read it before.  Our professor read us some of the interpretations of that story written by N.T. Wright and Peter Enns to flesh out her own understanding of the cultural norms and expectations of that time period and it was so interesting.   I am looking forward to next week's class!

We had so much fun at the Super Bowl party in the afternoon, which I consistently kept calling the Grey Cup party all day....what the heck????  hahahaha  The hostess and I watched not one minute of the game, but instead sat in her living room visiting and having the best time. The host and other guests were obviously having an uproariously good time watching the game and only emerged from the tv room long enough to load up on his fabulous home made chili, grain buns, second half snacks and drinks.  It was a very, very nice evening!  Everyone had a marvellous time of laughter and fun.

The following day my lack of sleep for two nights in a row hit me like a Mack Truck!!  I felt absolutely horrible...SO TIRED!!  However, my day went well despite that.  I relaxed a lot, made a giant batch of chili, dropped off a large carton of soup over at the home of some senior friends and enjoyed my day anyway. Last night I slept for 8 full hours and woke up feeling maaaaaaaahhhhvellous!

Today I had an appointment mid morning and was planning to go grocery shopping afterward, but the strong winds and freezing temperatures discouraged from wanting to face the large crowds that would populate the grocery stores by that time of the day.  So, I slipped into the nearest grocery store post appointment and picked up a half dozen items we need to make it through the next few days.  Perhaps I/we will feel more like going out for groceries later in the week once we adjust to the cold temperatures again.

Maybe I will do some housework for the next couple of days to keep busy and keep myself from getting depressed about the return of winter! Activity like that is always a good thing for me!

 

 

And Another.....

Happy to receive a photo of another painting.  This one is my favourite so far of this series.  The colours don't all hit at the first glance, the longer I look at it, the more colours I notice. To me it has a simple complexity to it.

Cc Eli

From The Son

 It was exciting to receive several emails from our son this morning.  He sent us a good update on his activities, as well as a photo of one of the new paintings he is working on as part of a collection for his next exhibition.  I am enjoying this one because I do enjoy the tessellation patterns, but also because he has overlaid that pattern with another pattern that shows some of his quirkiness that I haven't seen in his works for awhile.  I have missed seeing humour in his more recent works, but this one has it in spades:

 

Cc Eli 2023

 

We also had a good discussion about the kinds of brushes he uses to achieve the mottling in the colours and how he produces the tessellation patterns, so I feel like I learned new things today....always a treat!  My son....hater of all things math in his school years....producing mathematical equations in order to do his art.  Incredible! hahaha