My Son Is definitely Livin' La Vida Loca These Days! Etc.....

My husband and I are living life vicariously these days through our son's wonderful experiences of late.  For however long it lasts, he is experiencing some of the very best things that living south of the border has to offer!

Next month our son turns 43 years of age....good grief....are his parents REALLY old enough to have a son that age??  Unfortunately, yes we are.  Oh well.....

For his birthday his girlfriend is taking him to Washington DC to look through the Smithsonian Museum and to take in artist Phillip Guston's retrospective exhibition, something our son has been very excited about seeing and can hardly believe he is going to get his chance!  They have a relative's car they can borrow to make the trip, so it will be relaxed and a great deal of fun.  Happy birthday son!!  We can't wait to hear his report about the exhibition and also about the Smithsonian.

This week his "second family" as we call them, who he became very attached to during his Vancouver days, are in New York.  Their son is like a little brother or a nephew to our son and it has been a precious relationship over many years now.  Last night they had a blast at the old and famous Katz's Deli and tonight they are all having dinner together in our son's and his girlfriend's beautiful old art deco style apartment.  Their presence is an early birthday treat for him.  Like his girlfriend they are also secular Jews who do still enjoy participating in various Jewish holiday rites and rituals, so the five of them will  have lots to talk about.  What a great evening they will have together.  It is the first time his other family has been to see him in New York, although they did go to Italy together a few years ago and he has been to Vancouver to visit them a number of times.  Again, we eagerly await a report on all the fun!  hahaha  We are wonderful armchair travellers and adventurers.

Various phone calls over the past few hours have cancelled my spagehtti sauce making project, just like yesterday, but there is no big time limit on when I get it cooked up.  Talking to friends and family is far more important this week.  I will get to it tonight or tomorrow morning...whatever.....I have some older friends who would enjoy some home made sauce and spaghetti noodles that are pre-cooked and just need to be reheated for their dinner.

We have a fellowship group meeting this afternoon I am looking forward to.  We watched two short N.T. Wright videos in preparation for it, both of which I found very encouraging!  Here are the links to both videos. They are each only about 5 minutes in length:

1. Does Our Present Work Matter To God?

2. Will We See Jesus When We Die?

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5KsI8dNk-o

More Of God's Nearly Miraculous Provision!

We have lost many people in the past year or two who were near and dear to us. Today we found out we were near and dear to one of them in particular as we received a gift from the estate...a total shock to us both.  We never know what we are going to find in our mailbox these days, that's for sure!

In an earlier post today I mentioned us soon starting to plan a trip to AB in a few weeks' time.  As much as we do need to go there and did plan to spend a few days just doing "our own thing" with no other time or people commitments, we were looking at our financial resources and assuming we were going to have to spend less time there than we originally hoped.  Today's surprise provision means we can take the extra time now in AB that we need to take to make the trip into what we intended it to be when we first found out we had to go there to see Mom's estate accountant....the only commitment we have for the trip and the first thing to be done upon arrival.

Wow....we cannot believe we were considered for this small estate gift.  What an amazing blessing to receive, but even dearer is finding out why we were chosen to be part of the group of recipients: our long standing commitment to ministry in the church and overseas.  God is good.  We cannot thank our donor in person of course, but our hearts are grateful beyond measure. 

Ghostbusters Had "....cats and dogs living together!" And We Have.....

 .....ducks and geese living together on our snowy front lawn.

For the past few days we have had a very sweet foursome grazing on the few tufts of grass peeping out from beneath the piles of snow on the lawns in front of our place.  A pair of HUGE geese have apparently adopted or been adopted by a pair of very tiny adult ducks, one of which has a pronounced limp unfortunately.  These four feed together, follow each other both on the ground and in the air, lie down under the trees together....absolutely adorable.  It is hardly a foreign concept that ducks and geese share habitat, but we have not seen a pair of each so apparently bonded as this feathered quartet.  haha  It is a lot of fun standing at the window watching them.  Despite the mess they leave in their wake, we have decided that cuteness trumps poop piles any day of the week.

Hit By A Truck, At Least It Feels That Way!

 Wow, I am SO tired this week.  It seems that all the stresses and losses and surprises and extra "suddenly became necessary at the last minute" activities of the past couple of months have all caught up with me.  I am ZONKED!!!  

However, I have felt this way before, more than once in my life, that is for sure.  This too shall pass.  In the meantime I just have to keep plodding along "gittin' 'er done" at my own pace.  Slowing down to a crawl today as I do  laundry and make a batch of spaghetti sauce will allow me to be able to complete both tasks plus whatever else comes along unexpectedly.  If I know I am going to deliberately relax my mind and do my work without feeling rushed, it makes for a happy day of accomplishment.  

I enjoyed a couple of hours to myself here at home last night while my husband was at a friend's place running lines with the other people involved in the Palm Sunday church presentation.  I am so rarely alone in my own home, but this morning I have another couple of hours alone and again this afternoon while my husband attends to committments of his own.  I will do him the same favour in a couple of days when I meet one of my friends for coffee.  We are learning to balance out our schedules so that each of us gets some alone at home time every week.  It is starting to work quite well for us.

The weather is still kind of irritating too, which doesn't help my ambition any.  While it isn't that unusual for Regina to still have this much snow on the ground at the end of March, we have become rather spoiled after several years of having the snow mostly gone by now.  A bit more discouraging than the ongoing snow and ice is the temperature. My goodness it is cold!  We have been going down lower than -20C at night recently and the daytime highs are still chilly as well.  We are supposed to go to -2C by mid afternoon today, but the breeze is still very cold.  Due to parking issues in the area where our fellowship group is meeting tomorrow, we may find it easier to walk to the meeting IF the wind isn't too strong and cold.  It is only about a twenty minute walk, but we are SO OUT OF SHAPE after the long, cold, dangerous for walking winter!! Yikes!!

We are starting to think more seriously about our trip to Alberta at the end of April.  It is time to start pinning down the exact date of departure, get some accommodation booked, make our specific plans etc.  We are excited to have this to look forward to. There are places we want to go with no time restrictions imposed by "having" to race off to see parents or siblings.  Part of this little journey is to enjoy ourselves doing what we want to do when we want to do it.  We will book ourselves into each place we are going for as long as WE want to book in and while we plan to visit good friends along the way, we are not having to cram a bunch of people all into one day the way we used to have to when dealing with family issues had to be our priority.  There is no family left and I think part of the process of assuaging our grief is going to be travelling back to AB now that they are all gone, to do all the things we always wanted to do there, but never had the chance.  Having the old stresses lifted will, I suspect, help us to focus on the good memories of our times with family. Just thinking about the trip right now is causing a slight lift in my present stupor.

Done and In the Mail Within Hours! YIPPEE!!

 What a wonderful day it has been!  Cold temperatures despite the sunshine, BUT who cares today?  We don't!!

Why don't we care?  We don't care bcause we remembered only last evening that we had set today aside for doing our income taxes and didn't have time to get all freaked out about it.  We didn't get started until after 10:30am, but it only took us a little over four hours to complete the calculations and get forms into the mailing envelopes.  I raced off to the post office immediately thereafter and the forms are gone, gone, gone back to the government!  YAY!  

We have decided we will always do our taxes in future the way we did today.  Instead of me racing on ahead and getting 3/4 of my work finished before my husband even starts, we worked together for the first time since our days of self-employment with our carpentry company.  Page by page we went...together!  It was fabulous because it was more fun, less stressful and that way we were each able to catch a couple of small mistakes the other person made along the way.  Neither of us can believe we are finished already and still have our evening to enjoy without the taxes dragging on until close to bedtime as they have in times past, partially due to the lousy attitude and dread we both experienced over getting them done.

I will say one very positive thing about having to deal with Mom's estate legalities: after dealing with that for over a year...and it isn't finished yet....doing personal income taxes for ourselves was a breeze!  Hallelujah!

The other good thing that happened today: the estate tax assessment and refund are already here.  My husband is setting up the scanner so we can scan and email the assessment to the tax accountant. As soon as the accountant has a few minutes in the next month or so...it is the peak of his tax time of course....he will send off the necessary paperwork to get me started on applying for the Clearance Certificate. It is POSSIBLE that I could be completely done with this whole executor "thing" by the end of this year, or early next year.  EITHER would be FABULOUS!!!  

So it has been a great day that followed a great day yesterday as well!  YIPPEE!!!

It is looking to be a decent week all around I think.  I am waiting for my ground bison meat to be delivered so I can attack the creation of a great big batch of chili.  My husband is going with a colleague to a scotch tasting mid week, he is also getting some quarterly lab testing done and we expect positive results, we have one of our study groups this week, it is pay day in a few days,  I am having another laser treatment, and my husband is looking forward to his rehearsal as one of the participants in our church's Palm Sunday dramatic production.  Yup, it will be a good week. Somewhere in there I may get some housework and laundry done, but no promises! hohoho!!

Jacob, Leah And......Uncle Harry!

 Today is my husband's 71st birthday.  Tomorrow is our 46th wedding anniversary.  As seems to be our usual fashion, I celebrated his birthday today by going out with a friend, leaving my husband at home,  and tomorrow on our anniversary he is likely going out with one of his friends for dinner and leaving me at home. hahahahaha  What a pair we are! hahaha  We WILL go out together but likely not until next week sometime.  In the meantime we enjoyed our pizza dinner last night eating the premade three cheese pizza we bought at Italian Star Deli. 

My friend and I went to the Flats for lunch today....it is simple but very tasty fare, not gourmet but their brisket is out of this world for flavour.  It was fun getting caught up with someone I haven't had a chance to have a deeply engaging conversation with lately.  Good times.

The air temperature is still far too cold for the last week of March, but with the bright warm sunshine, it almost feels like spring is coming soon.  We know it isn't going to arrive for another three to four weeks at least because the geese had not begun arriving until yesterday on their northern spring migration.

This afternoon our favourite trio of crazy geese showed up on the front lawn:  Jacob, Leah and Uncle Harry.  I went out to the front of the house and they quite happily walked up close enough that I could see their leg band numbers....sure enough....this is the fifth year in a row they have survived the rigors of goosely life and migration to attach themselves to our grassy complex for the spring and summer season.  Each year we wonder if any or all of the three will make it back and once again....here they are!  Ya' gotta love them, goose poop and all. They are a tenatious trio apparently.  It will likely be at least two weeks before the greater body of geese arrive to take over our lawns, sidewalks and parking lot, if the usual cycle occurs.  Then a week after that we will finally see the true beginning of spring.  At least that has been the way of things for the past five years. We'll see if that is now things play out this year.  My husband and I both have a feeling we are going to be seeing far more geese this year gracing the property than we have seen for the past two years....not sure why, but perhaps we are trying to prepare ourselves "just in case".  We will once again confine ourselves to only scooping up the poop each day that covers our pathway to our car.  Praising God that if we move next May we only have this year's and next year's "crop" of feces to worry about removing.  Please dear God, lead us to a goose free zone at that point....Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen!

MAYBE (??) A Trip This Autumn?

We just spent an hour on the phone with our son. We talked again about us coming to NYC this year. We have too much going on here to make plans to go in the next couple of months, but mid September to mid October may be a good possibility for all of us. Our son’s work will be a determining factor for the optimum time. 

It is SO nice to have a possibility that is  happy and positive to pray about!! Here’s hoping a trip is on our horizon! 

Milton (with his blindness) And Keats Have Much To Say To Christians Today

 

When I consider how my light is spent, 

   Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 

   And that one Talent which is death to hide 

   Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent 

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 

   My true account, lest he returning chide; 

   “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” 

   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need 

   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best 

   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed 

   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: 

   They also serve who only stand and wait.”  (Milton)

 

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

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain

Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,

Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain; 

When I behold, upon the night’s starred face, 

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, 

And think that I may never live to trace 

Their shadows with the magic hand of chance; 

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, 

That I shall never look upon thee more, 

Never have relish in the faery power 

Of unreflecting love—then on the shore 

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think 

Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.   (Keats)

The Big Return, Honk, Honk!

It is about 5pm. A minute ago a goose and its mate landed on one of the piles of snow in the back yard....the first to arrive since the southern migration last autumn. So, based on previous years’ goose arrivals, I am guessing we likely won’t be experiencing the warmth of true spring weather here for at least another month. 

Good to know.....

Taking Advantage Of A Pretty Winter Day!

It is gorgeous outside today.  Although the air is still chilly enough to require gloves on my hands and my parka zipped up, anywhere that has sidewalks clear of ice and snow piles makes for a loverly place to walk!

After lunch my husband and I had some business to take care of downtown, so we drove to a parking spot a few blocks away from where we each had to go, parked and set out on our short walks.  We only had to walk a round trip of about six or eight blocks each, but it was so wonderful to be OUTSIDE!!! OUTSIDE!!! OUTSIDE!!!!  YIPPEEEEE!!

One of my errands involved a bank, I was in the middle of my transaction when a man loomed up RIGHT beside me and asked me if I had two or three dollars he could have.  Now that is brazen, isn't it? Not only pan handling inside a bank, but approaching the customers mid transaction!  After telling him politely and honestly that I don't carry cash, he moved on to the customer beside me.  Fortunately about that time one of the employees realized what was happening and called security to come and remove him from the premises.  Wow, this guy is GOOD!!!!  Not only does the physical proximity to the customer frighten and intimidate them into possibly handing him some change to get rid of him, but it also gives him full visual access to sensitive personal information like credit card numbers, bank account numbers/balances and personal info, etc.  Yikes!!  There were several other customers standing at the teller windows on each side of me, none of who were speaking English to the tellers...isn't it great now how many banks have tellers who speak the languages of our many new immigrants, very cool.....so I resisted the urge to just open my mouth and scream my loudest right in the fellow's face.  He was obviously high on something or other and I didn't want to scare the other people in the bank, but in times past I have found that to be the best way to send aggressive panhandlers on their way.  I detest being accosted like that and in a bank, no less.  Not living in a large metropolis, some of the more recent tactics of local panhandlers are still new to me.  I feel terrible that so many people are living such a life and I always wonder what each person's story is.  There are ways that my husband and I regularly help the homeless in our city, but giving them money in the bank is not one of them. 

So, it was a small incident, and it certainly didn't mar my joy as I wandered around downtown doing my half of the errands.

Next on the list was our first foray into the new venue for the Italian Star Deli.  Oh my it was fun wandering around their brand new store.  We picked up some cheese and chocolate, a huge loaf of herbed sourdough bread, some tinned lima beans in tomato sauce, maldon salt, and a good sized three cheese pizza for tonight's dinner. I have some ground turkey, green and red pepper and black and green olives we can add to it before cooking it in the oven tonight.  What fun!  Next week one day I think we will return and join the lineup for pannini sandwiches to bring home for a lunch meal. Good food, great customer service!  Love it there and the new space is three times or more the size of their former location. YAY!

Italian Star Deli deserves huge kudos for providing all the meat for the Saturday downtown lunches for the homeless that are served out of our church each weekend.  All the downtown churches come together and trade off on whose group makes and serves the lunches, but the location is always at our church.  It is a wonderful help to many as we are the only group serving lunches in the downtown on Saturdays. So glad we can do something useful like that.  God bless the proprietors of Italian Star Deli for their willingness to help us week after week.

And now to the back porch with a comfy chair to further enjoy the sunshine! OUTSIDE!!

To Everything There Is A Season....A Time To Lose.....

I have reached “that” time of life: a time that seems to involve more losses than gains.

I am wrapping my head around the loss of an increasing number of family and friends. I am not having as much trouble as some people do downsizing and getting rid of excess knickknacks, dishes, clothes etc. We have moved so often that gaining and losing “stuff” to accommodate housing of various types and sizes is not that difficult now. 

Right now though I admit I am struggling with the distinct possibility, teetering on the edge is being a probability, that it is time to give up my piano and all my music books. Over the time of the pandemic lockdowns I began playing it again much more than I had been in several years. Despite the arthritis and eye issues, I have truly been enjoying sitting at the keyboard and retraining my eyes for sight reading. I have had some good success learning a couple of decently difficult selections that I would even feel comfortable playing in public. Hurrah! Working up to one hour of practise four times a week has been paying off!  Until it hasn’t.....

This past week I began experiencing a return of carpel tunnel symptoms that I have not had since my wrist surgeries well over thirty years ago. Sigh..... I haven’t touched the piano since. I could wait for three or four months and then try playing for a few minutes at a time once or twice a week. After a break that long I will have lost everything I gained with the music I was doing well at and it likely wouldn’t take long for my wrist to be aggravated again. It could take a year or more to get to the specialist for an assessment, then the usual waste of time wearing a wrist cuff in an attempt to avoid or at least delay surgery. During this time I would still not be able to play my piano. 

I am realizing it is time to give up my piano and find a new hobby interest I won’t hurt myself doing. 

Using the computer is not so hard to deal with because I can take my time tapping out blog posts and emails with one finger, switching hands every few minutes; a somewhat laborious task, but hey, I’ve got time! 

The piano has to go. Compared to my computer it is the most expendable of the two. 

Lord, give me the courage to do what I know needs to be done. Help me not to be resentful that my age is catching up with me. Thank you, amen!

Oh How Beautiful!!

 After a wretched sleep overnight, we woke up to the most lovely sight early this morning: outside snow was falling in flakes so fluffy that they sat in layers on the back porch, the cars, the sidewalks. There was no breeze and the temperature was not warm enough for them to melt on untrod surfaces.  They were so fluffy that they looked like the faux snow blown onto Hollywood movie sets.  It was a magical sight....even grubby old pre-spring Regina looked like a fairyland at 7am today. 

I am laughing this morning at the ludicrous new potential problem with wrapping up Mom's estate. Apparently the employees of the CRA are in talks with their union to plan a major strike beginning in mid April.  I assume their hope is that the "powers that be" will meet their demands in order to avoid chaos during annual tax time.  Sigh....if this happens it will definitely delay either the estate tax assessment, or the Clearance Certificate application or both.  So, I might as well just shake my head in resignation and laugh at the possibility of yet another blow to the process that I, as usual, have no control over.  It is not a good idea to ask, "What else could go wrong?", because I fear it will not turn out to be a rhetorical question.  Aiiiii yiiiiii......

My husband is having a rough morning with a psychosomatic reaction to yesterday's loss of his broher in law.  He had a poor sleep and had to force himself to meet his prior commitment to making breakfast for his Wednesday morning group, but decided the best way to deal with the stress would be to keep busy and do something useful for other people.  Hopefully he will be feeling better by the time he gets home and we can still keep our mutual commitment to our traveller friends this afternoon. Poor guy.

So Difficult To Relax Tonight!

My husband finally got to sleep a little while ago after spending over two hours working at shutting his mind and emotions off, but he is deeply asleep at last.  I am not having that much success.  I am still overly wired despite being so tired I feel like I could fall down.  

I had a chance to "download" at the home of a friend for several hours this afternoon and my husband had a chance as well when our son called him to share his grief.  My son, the ultimate "stuffer of emotions", a life long habit that has nearly ruined his life, finally cratered today on the phone. He was able to release his emtions over the loss of his grandparents and auntie, like he hasn't been able to since these family deaths began in 2020. Our family has shrunk to just the three of us.  It is difficult for our son to take that in. We are so grateful he was finally able to express the sorrow and pain.  It is a big breakthrough for him. Thank you Lord....Ray's death was a ministry to our son today and that would have made Ray very happy.

My husband came to me as I was about to cook dinner and confessed he had a strong need to "get out of the house for awhile" so we went out for an inexpensive dinner and a long chat together.  It was therapeutic.  We both felt better when we got home.

Tomorrow my husband has his Lenten commitment to help lead Morning Prayer and prepare a simple breakfast for his Wednesday morning men's group and then we are going for lunch at the home of friends who recently returned from a wonderful trip to Antarctica!  Soup, Salad and Slides are the order of the day.  That will be something completely different and interesting for us to think about.  What a blessing!  Thank you Lord, thank you friends for the invitation.

So many friends contacted us today when the found out about Ray's death.  What a wonderful emotional support system we are blessed with. Thank you friends, thank you.....

Oh, I really must try to get some sleep now, so I can enjoy our friends tomorrow....here's hoping......

A Terrible Shock!

This morning I woke up early and prepared to go for an early morning grocery shopping extravaganza in hopes of avoiding any more top up trips for a few weeks.  Before I left home I realized my cell phone was nearly out of charge so I put it on the charger and told my husband I had no phone with me.  He told me to take his as he would be in an online meeting while I was gone. I hemmed and hawed....the grocery store is only three blocks away, but then I decided maybe I should take it "just in case".

I am so grateful to God that I took that phone with me!!!!  Barely 15 minutes into my shopping trip, as I was standing in the produce department, I heard my husband's phone ringing from the depths of my purse where I had tossed it, thinking I wouldn't need to find it anyway.  

How wrong I was!!!  Turned out the incoming call was from Ray, my husband's brother in law.  He was calling to give us shocking news....as shocking to him as it was to me at the time!  Two weeks ago Ray signed the paperwork to receive Medical Assistance in Dying, in case he reached a point in future where he couldn't face any more suffering. Even in Ray's mind, that would be some time into the foggy somewhat distant future.  However, very early this morning his doctor called with apparently "terrifying and shocking results" from a scan Ray had done a few days ago.  Ray refused to say what the results are, but in order to still be lucid enough to make a decision to actually have the MAID procedure, it had to be done quickly.  (We are assuming the brain tumours have returned.)  Anyway, by 8am the decision was made to have the procedure this afternoon at 1pm Alberta time.  In an hour it will all be underway and we will have lost another family member.  As far as our immediate family members, our son is the only one left.  We have lost our four other closest family in less than three years.  It feels like a lot and we are sad.

I will be forever grateful to God that I had my husband's phone when Ray called, otherwise I would have been unable to say goodbye to him.  I was able to reach my husband right after I talked to Ray, so my husband was able to leave his meeting and also contact Ray to say good-bye.

When I got home from the store, my husband and I prayed the Prayers for the dying from the Anglican prayer book and also prayed for Ray's siblings, children and grandchildren.  We are so grateful Ray's son and daughter in law, as well as his priest will be with him.  He is the only Christian in his family so we are not sure how his siblings and daughter and grandchildren are handling the news.  It will be a tough time for them all.

We are very grateful, as is Ray, for the prayers said for him over the past few years as he has struggled with cancer.  He has been aware of how many of you have been praying regularly for his health, for his grieving after he lost his wife two summers ago.  He and we praise God for you all.

God, be with Ray as he enters his eternal rest.

May he rest in peace and rise in Glory,

Amen!

The Notorious Hack

 Our church online directory was hacked yesterday afternoon. Right about dinnertime I received a spam email supposedly from our minister and fortunately my security programme picked it up and I was able to delete it. It was a fairly well written scam with only one letter difference on the return email addie than the one our minister actually uses. About an hour later a distraught sounding email arrived from our minister warning us about the hack job. Another hour after that one of the associate pastors, also understandably upset, phoned to let us know about the hack. Aaaah, the joy of breached security in the wonderful world of technology. 

So, family and friends, check the email address closely should you receive any emails from me in the next few weeks. I will not be sending out any emergency distress emails, making no requests for pre-paid gift cards, requesting personal or password information, informing you that a member of your family is in trouble with the police and requires your help, etc. etc. etc. Hopefully you won’t receive any spam from my email address or any address resembling it.

Meanwhile our pastoral team is scrambling to contact 150 or so congregants and whoever else they send emails to from the church computers, to warn people about the security breach. What a pain!!

Cabin Fever...I've Got A Bad Case Of It This Weekend....Aaaaaarrrrrrgh!

 I have been over the moon antsy this weekend, wanting to get out and go places, do things, wander around outside, see friends I haven't seen all winter, go to Alberta, or anywhere else on the planet but here......gadzooks, this cabin fever is driving me nuts!!  All it takes every year at about this time is for the sun to shine more than two days in a row and for the return of even a bit of radiant heat after the frosty, ineffective sun of winter and I want to go crazy with activity and people!

I will get over it.

Yesterday was really bad! hahaha  I did seven loads of laundry, hoping that all the trips up and down two flights of stairs would tire me out enough to not want to get out and go, but they didn't help one bit.  I wrote a number of long outstanding email replies in between loads to keep my mind occupied but that didn't help either.  I got so desperate for distraction that I even played a video game for a whole hour!  Me 'n' video games are not really a match as a rule. 

My husband walked over to the neighbourhood grocery store for some milk in the afternoon, but he wouldn't let me come with him.....still too much ice and still too cold for me to go walking, even with a bit of sunshine almost warming things up.  He was totally right, it would have been a miserable walk for me, trying to keep my hands warm and stay upright on the icy sidewalks and intersections.  

I assumed the long morning at church would take care of it for the day today, but it hasn't.  Church was a lot of fun for us, first with amost enjoyable class on the Gospel of Luke, and then with our participating in providing Scripture readings and Prayers of the People for the congregation.  Participating makes the service so much more fun for us; it keeps us on our toes and causes us to sit up and pay attention to every moment of the service so we don't miss our cues. .  

Our old friend from AB who came to visit three weeks ago was back at the campground last night apparently, showed up at church and surprised us, so that was nice. He walked from the campground outside of the city limits...about a 90 minute trek. He stayed with us for the church lunch, then my huband returned him to the campground while I stayed at church for the Annual Meeting...that went well, in part because the chairman kept such a tight lid on superfluous discussion.  It was a very positive meeting and the attitude of the congregants was very good, no obvious dissension in the ranks.  Lots of good ideas for us as a church moving forward this year.

By the time I got home it was about 2::30pm.

And that is when the antsy feelings returned! Boy, have they ever returned.  I hope I can keep the lid on the cabin fever for awhile yet.  Just walking less than half a block to and from my car at the church was a frighteningly icy journey that could have ended in total disaster for me had I fallen. Thanking God I didn't fall or even slip, but it does clip my wings for quite some time. It isn't safe yet for me to go out walking.  The time will come, the time will come, I just have to be patient.

Tomorrow afternoon a friend is coming over to talk about Japan.  He is making his first trip there in a few weeks' time and wants to get some information from us.  Should be a lot of fun as it is always nice to have a chance to talk about that most magical of times in our lives.

One morning this week I am going to go to a couple of grocery stores I like and not take a list with me. I am going to do a huge shop as I am finally starting to run out of things like paper products and cleaning solutions that I purchased back in 2020 when no one was sure when it would be safe to start weekly shopping trips again due to the scary onset of the pandemic.  I am just going to get a huge cart and walk up and down every aisle, perusing every available product and buy not only what we need in the immediate, but what I could stock up on again....not to the extent I did three years ago, but I learned it is nice to have a bit of excess on our storage shelves.

Hopefully we will not have to plug our car in again overnight this winter.  Hopefully the -20C and colder temperatures ended for the season with our -25C overnight low at the start of this weekend.

Spring's coming, spring's coming...I must be patient.......I must be patient!  I WILL be patient!

Loving The Pre-Spring Evening Sky!

The last two evenings I have become aware that it is not completely dark until after 7:30pm. After the past three months of late afternoon sunsets dimming quickly to dinnertime full darkness, the daylight now lasting until well after dinner is causing my hope to rise that spring is on the way.  The realization is dawning that winter once again is not going to last all year round! Thank the dear Lord!!!!

Pew-Pew-Pa-Doo!

 We have officially completed our church pew washing task! Yippee!!  As much as we enjoyed doing it, we have to admit it was a tad tiring and we are sort of relieved to be finished.  We both became somewhat giddy as we wiped the last pew in  the balcony and had a chance to look down on our previous handiwork in the sanctuary below. 

My husband had a good idea about lunch today.  Originally we planned to take our lunch break at a restaurant near the church, but then we remembered what the Friday luncheon crowds are like and changed our minds.  Instead my husband suggested we stop by the Naked Bean along our route to the church and pick up some lunch there to eat on our break.  Yum!  Great idea!  We shared an egg salad sandwich, a chicken/cheese/salad wrap, a blueberry scone and a maple lemon cookie.  It was perfect to be able to sit alone in the church boardroom and really relax over our meal before heading back to the job.  There were a number of other people in the church today doing various tasks, so in between pews we had some enjoyable visits. That was a lot of  fun.  Our minister's son had his organ lesson while we were there, so we had wonderful accompaniments while we worked.

The weather today is of the very odd spring weather variety.  The sun is shining brightly and its heat is starting to reach us here once again, but the air temperature has been close to -20C and won't get much higher than -13C today.  It was the wierdest feeling standing on our back porch with the warm sun beaming down on us along with the bitter chill of the air and breeze.  There is quite a lot of snow and ice melt happening from the sun's radiant heat despite the coldness of the air temperature.  MELTING! YAY!!  We are to get more snow next week, but perhaps there won't be too much of it.  I assume that since winter is hanging onto us so tightly the spring storms will be delayed until April this year....sure do hope not though.

Tomorrow is laundry day....if I can get my body to move again after today's push to get the pews finished, hohohoho!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!

It is an odd feeling today, no longer having my Irish father to send greetings to, nor my non-Irish mother to exchange greetings with in honour of Dad’s heritage.  Last year I didn’t feel it quite so keenly as Mom had died less than three weeks prior to St. Patrick’s Day and I was too busy juggling grief and legalities to pay much attention to St. Paddy! This year, I am more aware.

At least my husband and I will be spending the rest of today washing pews inside a church....with an Irish caretaker. Close enough. 

Family Health Update

 We were able to speak to Ray tonight after not hearing any news for the past couple of weeks.  He is slowly recovering from the heart attacks and although he is still not very ambulatory, spending most of his time in bed, he is now able to use the walker to get to the bathroom.  His voice is sounding stronger and he has been given some hope by his medical team that he isn't finished recovering yet....it could take another couple of months before he will be able to walk safely downstairs to the living room and kitchen.  In the meantime he has a wonderful woman doing homecare every day for several hours. She makes him one or two hot meals every day and if she is not able to be there to feed him one of his meals, there is an arrangement with a willing neighbour to assist Ray with getting the meal to his room.  All his doctors agree that he is getting far better and more personalized care at home than he would get any any facility and they know how happy he is to be there.  All his paperwork for Medical Assistance in Dying has been completed and accepted by his doctors, so if he gets to a point where he is truly suffering without any hope, he will be able to have M.A.I.D. performed in his own home.  Unfortunately he is no longer able to have immunotherapy as it is likely the cause of the heart attacks in the first place.  So....we have no idea what is going to happen next, but for now he is content to continue working slowly on his recovery, he has excellent home help and he was able to relieve a tremendous amount of anxiety now that he knows he can implement M.A.I.D. if he so chooses in the future.  His wife died an horrendous, ugly, painful, terrifying death and we completely understand why Ray has no wish to experience that kind of distress at the end of his earthly life.  I suspect that the ugliness of his sister's death is part of the reason my husband is still having such a hard time  dealing with the loss and now he is watching her husband facing death as well in the not so far distant future.  Our opinion about the M.A.I D. procedure doesn't matter. Whatever he chooses to do we will support him.  

His care giver is wonderful. Although she was not scheduled to go to his house so early, she arrived there at 6am today because she knew he would be stressed beyond all belief after the overnight shooting of two policement in his city. His son is a police officer and Ray was terrified he could be one of the victims as he was on shift at the time.  There is no way to find out from the police department, so Ray knew it would be a waiting game. How wonderful that his care giver realized he could be in deep emotional distress over the shootings and went to his house first thing in the morning to help Ray calm down until he received news from his son that all was well with him.

Now that we have more details about Ray's living situation and his wonderful care giver, the support he is getting from his medical team....we are at peace.

A Warm Heart On A Chilly Day!

 Brrrrzzzzeeee Brrrrr.....the sunshine today was kind of deceptive, leading us to believe it was much warmer outside this afternoon than it actually was!  Yikes!  We went to our study group this afternoon and had to park a block away from the home of our hosts; nearly froze on that short walk to their place.  Wow, cold wind and descending air temperature as the day progressed!  The overnight low is to be about -20C, so we will have to put the block heater on for a couple of hours tomorrow morning before we head over to the church to wash the last of the pews in the balcony.  Tomorrow night our low will be closer to -25C, BUT that MAY be the end of the need to plug the car in again until next winter...hopefully. There is ray of happy expectation looking at next week's forecast temperatures even though they will remain somewhat below seasonal.

Group meeting was excellent today.  Any meeting that begins with orange herb tea and a cinnamon laced date square is bound to be a good one, right?  Yum yum!  Oh, and the study and discussion was a good time too. hahaha One of the group members is heading to Japan for the first time later this spring, so he is coming over to see my husband next week and talk about some of the sights and cultural interests in the areas he will be visiting.  My husband will love doing that. Although it has been over 20 years since he was last there, there are cultural nuances that never change and are most delightful as long as you are prepared for them.  They will have a great time talking togehter. As much as I would love to be part of that discussion, I think I will find a way to make myself scarce that afternoon so they can have a guys' chat.

After our meeting we walked back to our car through some unforecast snow flurries...not any big deal and kind of pretty as the flakes blew past in the ever strengthening winds.  Now it is dinnertime and the snow has stopped again.  I don't think much of the snow stuck on the ground.  It just blew right on through the city from one side to the next and onward to the south east.

My husband is SO HAPPY that we will be done washing pews sometime tomorrow. He has found it more strenuous than anticipated, but that is because he goes at it far too quickly in an attempt to get the job over with. When he agreed with me that we could do this, I had no idea he was going to be so short on mental motivation.  On the first day we worked out a great system for him: we wash three pews and then he sits down while I do the fourth one...rest, rinse repeat!  hahaha  He shovels snow the same way....far too quickly and with more energy than necessary, so he can get the job over with.  When he gave up carpentry and building maintenance completely in 2010, he left it all completely behind!  So although he is still physically capable of doing jobs like pew washing, his heart isn't in it the way mine still is.  I admire him for agreeing to do this job mostly just because I wanted so badly to do it.  One more day and he will be free of it.  One thing he has enjoyed has been repairing many of the pews as we go along.  Lots of old nails sticking out of the backs of the seats that he can pound back in; screws that keep the pews bolted to the floor are letting go and so he has been able to replace them quite happily. So, it hasn't been all a mental drudge for him.  

I am looking forward to seeing where we end up for a meal after tomorrow's pew washing extravaganza! hahahahaha

Pews, Pews, Pews and Other Good News!

Today was another excellent day with some accomplishments that made my husband and I very happy!

I enjoyed my morning puttering away frying chicken in order to have some protein precooked and ready for quick meal preparation for a couple of days, while my husband was leading Morning prayer at one of the Anglican churches  and cooking a spartan lenten breakfast for the men who attended it.

The tax accountant for Mom's estate filed her tax forms this morning and they have been accepted.  He thinks I should have the assessment in a couple of weeks...which I will believe if and when it happens, but whenever I get them in the mail, I will be able to scan and email them back to the accountant, who will then make the application for the clearance certificate. I am grateful for his honesty when he told me that he won't be filing that for me until sometime in May after his busy season of tax clients.  He and Mom's lawyer have both been wonderful by warning me of time frames and holdups on their end of things for filing paperwork for the estate.  Neither of them has left me hanging, wondering why on earth they are taking so long to file certain papers etc.  The wait never bothers me if I know ahead of time that it is going to happen.  As of this afternoon the accountant has been paid and all is well.  Now I will wait for the assessment from the CRA and proceed from there. At this rate I may be able to close the estate account by the end of this year.  Wouldn't that be amazing???

After eating some of the delicious freshly cooked chicken in our luncheon sandwiches, we put on our work clothes and headed over to the church for our second day of pew washing.  My husband was feeling far more energetic today than he was when we started the project a couple of days ago, so we managed to wash a few more pews today than before but within the same amount of time.  He took a few short breaks along the way, but managed quite well.....Despite having the stress of meeting a previously agreed upon deadline for cleaning pews during a week when he is still recovering from last week's viral illness.   It was a good afternoon.  There were some college aged people from Alberta at the church today sharing their Christian College experiences with our leadership and having a lunch the church pastors prepared for them.  It was fun meeting them and hearing where they are from and how they are enjoying their year at college.  Taking a couple of short breaks from the work to talk to them lightened our spirits and gave us energy to complete our goal for today.  In a couple of days we will return and finish off the pew cleaning project. 

Although I cooked chicken this morning in anticipation of being too tired to cook it for dinner tonight, my husband admitted he preferred to go to Bonzzini's for dinner and so that is what we did.  He had a delicious steak sandwich, surprisingly free of fat and gristle and he so enjoyed it.  We both had salads at lunchtime so I splurged and had a veggie free plate of thai chicken tenders. hohoho!  I will have some hot corn or root veggies for my late evening snack tonight to make up for it.  Yum!  I like veggies!

Last evening was also a very encouraging time for us. We so enjoyed having our monthly bible study with our little group of younger adults who are so keen to learn and to share their experiences in life and with the lord.  It is turning into a very special time of getting to know four people even better and building new bonds of friendship.  What a blessing they gave us by inviting us to help them get the group started.  Tomorrow we are meeting with our other church study and fellowship group and as we are the newcomers to the group it is also a good chance for us to get to know better this fairly large group of people after a couple of pandemic years left us feeling quite isolated from our newly budding church friendships.  This group's welcoming attitude is also a blessing for us.

Once we complete our cleaning project I have to get the laundry caught up!  There will be no time to relax and rest this weekend as the washing machine and dryer will be going full tilt all day Saturday. I am SO FAR behind....

Sunday after church is the AGM.  Although we are not members we are welcome to attend so we know what is going on, plus we get to partake of the lovely lunch that is always served at these types of meetings.  We appreciate the invitation to attend. Often non-members are not allowed to attend member meetings and that is completely understandable, so we do feel privileged to be attending a church where all are welcome at any meetings involving the congregation as a whole.  

The weather was pretty good today and that is such a bonus during the wild weather month of march!  The high was in the negative mid single digits and the snow began to melt just a bit. We noticed there was a bit of a height difference with the snow piles in our parking lot between when we went over to the church and when we got home a few hours later.  That is encouraging! Perhaps we will have spring eventually this year!  We have a couple of -20C-ish overnights later this week, but then it will be a bit warmer once again.  YAY!!

We are preparing to take a friend to his cataract surgeries next month. His wife cannot drive any more and he is nervous about depending on  very early morning taxis.  He and his wife are dear friends and have been so kind to us since we met them five years ago.  It is the least we can do.  I can do the early, early morning drives and my husband can do the later in the morning or afternoon drives.  If I was going for day surgeries the last extra stress I would want to deal with would be last minute transportation issues!  We are looking forward to the whole thing and are praying our friend's surgeries are very successful indeed! If Lenny should spring to your mind in the next few weeks, please send up a prayer for successful surgery for him. Thanks!

Thanks again for praying for Cee and Nan.  No new updates, but I was reminded by the Spirit several times today to pray for them, as was my husband.  His morning prayer group spent time in prayer for them today.  I am asking that the God of all comfort will ease their fears, their pain and whatever discouragement they are dealing with. How can a person not be discouraged by chronic suffering, right?  Sometimes Life is very very difficult and hard to bear.

My Bit Of Good News For Today =)

 Mom's tax accountant contacted me today to let me know her final estate taxes are complete and ready to be filed along with the last of the other death related forms required by the CRA to finalize things.  YAY and YAY!!  The estate is getting a small refund, which is a huge blessing and even "huger" is that it will pretty much cover the final bill from the accountant.  Thank you Lord that we are only one step away now from being done with all these legalities.  Once I receive the refund and pay the accountant I will only have the estate account to close out and that will finally be the actual end of this drawnout, frustrating, stress inducing process of probate and executorship.  What the accountant will contact me about later today will be to ask me if I am absolutely certain I want to apply for a Clearance Certificate as that will take another 6 or more months to complete before I can close out the estate account.  As the executor AND sole heir....doesn't "sole heir" sound exciting, as if I am going to inherit a fortune....I am also solely responsible to the CRA for any outstanding payments.  However, with a rebate coming that should not be a problem.  Legally I do not need the Clearance Certificate and have the right once that refund cheque is deposited and cleared to close the account at the bank where it is being held (hostage).  There are no other heirs that could create issues for me over disbursement of funds.

I will listen carefully to the advice of the accountant about what to do, but I do know from the lawyer that I don't legally require a Clearance Certificate in this case. The question for me is what degree of confrontation and nastiness I want to get into in order to get the bank employees to obey the law. My husband's sister's executor had to get her estate lawyer on the phone at the bank when he went to distribute time sensitive bequests and have the lawyer threaten the bank with legal action for refusing to allow an executor to perform his legal duties for the estate.  It got really ugly, but then the bank capitulated after admitting the lawyer was right.  Do I want to go through that and pay lawyer's fees again? Do I want to face more of the ugliness I have already faced just from trying to complete my legal due diligence?  Or would I rather just fill out some more paperwork for the CRA and wait another 6 months to close out the account?  Not sure what to do, so am looking forward to talking to the accountant again today or tomorrow.  He has already acknowledged the difficulty with the banks, I have other friends going through the same kind of hell over closing estate accounts and I think I am leaning toward the extra wait to close the account with less hassle.  Does that sound wimpy?

Oh COME ON! Are You Kidding Me??

 Today the temperature is going to a balmy +1C! 

Yay, right?

Nope, NOT yay! 

In what seems to be typical Saskatchewan pre-spring weather, that rise is being accompanied by freezing rain: 6-12 mm of the stuff. Are you serious, Mr. Weather???? More ice? In mid March???? Noooooooo...

The pathway we have been clearing to get to our car is already a six inch deep “highway” of ice that is becoming harder to safely navigate with the occasional bit of melt and refreeze. By tonight I will not be able to leave the house for several days because after our high of +1C today, the overnight forecast is for -19C, assuring that the ice will stand thick and strong,  and the cold nights will continue for several more days. I have been courting disaster for the past ten days just by leaving the house to get to the car and having to traverse icy sidewalks and parking lots at grocery stores and shopping malls in order to pick up necessities. When will it end? 

Oh Mr. Weather, please send the spring SOON!! 

(And just so you know, it is Mr. Weather to me because I would like to think that Mrs. Weather would be more practical about my personal needs for safety and send the spring sooner! It’s all about me of course. Teehee.....)

Update On Cee

 I just received an email from Nan to update me on what is happening with Cee and it isn't very encouraging news. Sigh....  He needs prayer right away for pain relief.  The neuropathic episodes have been coming much more frequently lately with only about three days between serious episodes, but today's has been out of this world for pain.  He can''t move, every part of his body is in pain and he is unable to get relief from any of the meds now that he takes for intense pain.  Please pray that tomorrow he will be well enough again to call the pain clinic. He has to have more help, he just has to.  The pain for Cee is becoming unbearable and the emotional pain for Nan is as well.  To add to their misery their house this week has been inundated with mice!!!!  They have been catching them everywhere for the past several days.  Mice are a misery no one can understand if they have not had to deal with them....it is incredibly stressful and with the Hantha virus they carry, it is also dangerous to have mice in a person's home.  Please pray that they can get help right away from pest control.

My friends'  lives are becoming unbearable, just horrible and awful and dreadful.  Prayer is the only substantial assistance any of us can offer them, so it is deeply appreciated by them both.  Thank you prayer warriors. They need to be delivered somehow from what has become a daily trial of pain. Thank you, thank you from them and from me for caring about them. May God have mercy upon them both.

....Has Howled Itself Out!

I am most grateful that although we had steady 70km winds through most of the weekend that wreaked havoc on the highways with the fresh falling snow and closed a large section of the road, here in the city we only had about 3 cm.  The wind blew that bit of fresh snow into large, rock hard drifts that were incredibly difficult to shovel, so I thanked God again and again that our back porch is so teensy and our front porch nearly nonexistent!  Fortunately we didn't have to do much driving this weekend.

On Saturday we had the most fun lunch at Bonzzini's with my husband's cousin and her husband who is my husband's priestly colleague.  None of us have had much time lately to get together so it was a real treat. The food at that restaurant seems to have improved greatly since the last time I was there pre-COVID, but the huge portion sizes are still the same. WOW!  We sat around at home for the rest of the day watching old movies and dozing as the wind continued to howl outside.

Sunday my husband was very tired indeed, so he stayed home and watched church services on Zoom, while I went to church in person.  I had a lovely time, was able to stay afterward for the coffee and fellowship hour for much longer than I usually can when my husband is there as he is often most anxious to go home. We spent another afternoon with old movie friends like "Romancing the Stone" and then caught up on some recorded home renovation programmes.  It was another very relaxing day.

Today was not nearly as relaxing, but it was fulfilling.  In the morning we went to Canadian Tire to purchase a couple of bottles of Murphy's Oil Soap and then to Safeway so I could buy a pack of fresh meat for dinner this evening.  I purchased a pack of chicken as that is always quick to cook after a busy afternoon like this afternoon: we went together to my church and started washing down the pews.  It will take us three sessions, but fortunately they are not that dirty!!  We got half the downstairs pews cleaned, will do the other half in a couple of days and the balcony pews a couple of days after that.  Pacing ourselves is a good idea at this stage of life.  We had a good visit with each other and also with the pastor who was there today...bonus!

Tomorrow will be a good day to take off from that particular job as there is supposed to be some freezing rain coming in the afternoon....followed by very cold temperatures overnight, and the following couple of nights, so all the sidwalks and parking lots are going to be treacherous for weeks to come I expect.  Oooh, I will be so happy when the BIG SPRING MELT comes and goes and I will be safer to be outside walking around.  Looks like it won't happen this year until sometime closer to mid April, but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised!

My husband's morning meeting tomorrow is on Zoom, but the following morning's meeting is in person and he has to go because he is responsible to make breakfast for all the participants.  He LOVES doing that, so it is no hardship no matter the weather.  That evening we have Bible study here with some younger friends and on Thursday we have our church fellowship small group to attend.  

Friday we will return to the church to complete the pew washing project and then prepare Scriptures and Prayers of the People to deliver at this coming Sunday's church service.  After church will be the AGM and we are ever so glad not to be members. It means we can't speak to or vote on any of the issues, but we are allowed to be there to hear what is going on.  We also get to enjoy the post church lunch prior to the meeting and it is always an excellent one.

Tonight my husband decided that I was too tired to cook dinner, even the easy chicken dinner I had planned, so we stopped in at Thai Garden on Albert on the way home.  The decor is typical "1990's Italian restaurant taken over in the 2010's by a Chinese diner but keeps the former decor".  In other words rather incongruous and not very updated. BUT the food is very good and there is a TON of it on the serving plates!  Even Bonzzini's has nothing on this place for sheer amount of food per order!!  My husband ordered the Special Lo Mein" and wow....he ate a massive amount of it, but he has just as massive an amount in a take out box in our refrigerator now.  I ordered a typical Western Chinese food combo" and, I kid you not, even though I overate badly tonight, I have enough in my own takeout box for TWO more complete meals almost the same size as what I ate while in the restaurant!  My combo included a small bowl of Thai wonton soup with two large pork filled wontons, a crunchy spring roll that was long enough to be two springrolls in any other restaurant, a massive amount of chicken fried rice....actually nearly 6 single carb servings all on its own....and a giant "mound" on the other side of the plate of ginger chicken with red and green peppers, onions and carrots, AND there were two large chicken balls crammed along the edge of the plate.  There was so much food on my plate that I asked for the takeout box before I even started eating or I would have had food spilled all over the table.  No wonder I ended up with two complete lunches stuffed into the takeout box. There was SO MUCH FOOD!!!!  Urp!!

I should now be up exercising all those sugary sauce carbs away, but I am too full to even stand up at the moment.  I am going to have to keep writing this post for another hour before I will feel able to regain my feet underneath me....hahaha....just kidding....about writing for another hour, but not about needing that long to feel stable enough to stand up!  WOW....all this food and a pot of tea for $36 (includes the taxes).   WOW AGAIN!  The food is not gourmet, but it is very very tasty and it was all piping hot, which is something that always impresses me.

Welllllll.....I had better force myself to get up off of this chair and get a move on to wear off all that yummy food!

The Howling Wind.....

 ....really gets to me when a blizzard is getting started.  It is nearly 11pm and we don't have much snow here in the city yet, but we do have the 70 mph wind gusts. They have been going on since before 5pm and were so bad a couple of hours ago that I actually opened up the back door and checked the porch just to be certain there was not a freezing, lost cat out there howling to be let inside.  I mean, I was pretty certain it wasn't a cat, but the howling wind sounded so much like that, well, I had to be sure it truly was not an animal in distress.  Yikes....that is really "howly"!!  Who knows if we will get any sleep tonight as the loudness of the wind itself, combined with the wind induced cracking and buckling noises of the siding on our building, is such an intense experience.  I surely do hope this is the last of the winter blizzards where the snow will stay with us for several weeks, making the ice underneath impossible to see.  March and April are very dangerous times for osteoporosis patients like myself as walking anywhere is treacherous.  Well, only another month and we may see signs of spring creeping up on us...or maybe two months is more realistic on the prairies this year. 

Aaaaand Now It's My Husband's Turn! Poor Guy.....

My husband woke up this morning with symptoms similar to mine yesterday and I feel so badly for him.  In his case the vertigo is minimal and he has more of a corn allergy tupe headache, but his tummy is irritating him in similar fashion to my own.  However, being the strong guy he is, despite all the health issues he struggles with, he was determined to only rest over his tiny breakfast and then clean his little library.  Yup, he did it.  Now he is flaked out and resting, but I know he will feel happy that he still accomplished somehthing on a down day health wise.

I had a fairly decent sleep last night despite sleeping most of yesterday, with only a 2 hour period of awakeness starting about 3:30am.  I was asleep again a couple of hours later, only to be awakened three hours after that from a very sound sleep by a scam phone caller. Sigh....it is okay. Although I am very weak still today, I decided if my husband could do some cleaning despite being ill, so could I.  When I was cleaning earlier this week I planned to complete it yesterday by washing the bathroom fixtures and vaccuming and dusting the living room.  I just completed the bathroom cleaning, so am now going to rest for a couple of hours before tackling the living room.  I am completely exhausted and if I don't get the living room done there is always tomorrow.  

Yesterday's post was completed by holding my iPad right up to my face as I was too dizzy and nauseous to lift my head off the pillow and my face was so swollen I couldn't get my glasses on, but posting did relieve the boredom of lying around useless for the entire day. Managed to get a couple of emails sent as well before bed time last night.  Wow, I REALLY detest being forced to lie around doing nothing due to dizziness and nausea.  That is because I get these viruses only once every few years and it has been at least four since the last time I think. I am not used to being bed ridden by a tummy bug!  Anyway, I am so happy to be well enough to stand up today, to eat a proper meal and get some outstanding housework done.

Regina and area are apparently going to get slammed by another short term blizzard this weekend.  Later this afternoon the snow will move into the area, along with high winds.  By tomorrow afternoon or evening we may have up to 25cm of new snow wreaking highway havoc with whiteouts and large drifts.  So glad we were able to find out about this a couple of days in advance as so many people have been travelling on the highways again the past few warmer weekends.  I hope people are able to change their plans and stay safely at home this weekend.  The storm is blowing up from along the southern border with the USA...there have been many such storms this winter.  The southern half of our province has been beaten up pretty badly with storms this year.  I am praying for a friend of a friend who is trying to fly into Regina tomorrow evening for several days of visiting.  WestJet is now our only Canadian airline serving Regina and they are such a screwed up mess right now that I am very concerned about this friend being able to arrive safely from another province anywhere near the scheduled time and day.  If things don't change with our airport over the next year that alone will force us to move out of this little city to have any hope of seeing our son at least once or twice a year.  At the moment it isn't worth either of our whiles to try to get to each other's cities by plane, there are no buses and driving takes a long and expensive time.  Not sure what the future holds for travelling for any of us.

Well, time for a nap!  I may not get that living room cleaned until tomorrow after all, but at least one of the two rooms is done and my existence feels justified for the day, hahahaha.

Not The Kind Of Day I Had Planned Today!

Yesterday was so much fun. I met up with a friend to tour the art exhibition her art guild currently has on display. We spent a most pleasant afternoon looking at paintings and discussing the various techniques used by the artists. I so enjoyed doing something different than usual and getting to know my friend and her own art better. 

In around my fun afternoon I did some housework in preparation for our lunch guests tomorrow, figuring I would finish off the last of it this morning before heading out to my weekly ladies’ fellowship group this afternoon.

Unfortunately I awoke fighting vertigo, but I assumed it was from clogged sinuses, forced myself to get up and eat breakfast, before realizing how nauseous and miserable I was actually feeling. Back to bed I went. After a couple of hours of fighting the severe nausea, aching muscles and chills, I finally accepted the fact that I am unwell with influenza or some other similar illness. Although I am now feeling slightly less dizzy and nauseated, it is difficult to stay awake and I am not certain how long my lunch of three buttered crackers is going to stay with me. Drat!! Life has been cruising along at light speed, compared to the past two or three years of pandemic induced slowdown, so I have been very, very happy with the number of events and visits going on lately. 

Sigh.....my husband has now contacted my fellowship group to let them know I won’t be there today and he has cancelled our luncheon tomorrow. I expect I will be just fine by tomorrow, but what if I have something contagious that I could pass on to our guests? If I am contagious my husband could have this by tomorrow as well. So, the calendar for the rest of this week has been cleared. Waaaaaaahhhh.....

Stupid illness! 

Oh well, it could be much worse. Two hours ago I wasn’t even well enough to open my eyes, let alone write this post! I am glad that simple bed rest is apparently helping me.

Update on Ray: he is slowly regaining his strength and is able to use a walker to get around now as he is still a bit tottery on his feet. So happy to learn he has a private care giver coming in during the day each day to help him take his meds, make his meals and keep order around the house. He isn’t sure what will happen next, but is managing much better these days. So grateful he is at least somewhat better!

The Mark On Cain

 I just finished listening to Bible teacher Tim Keller on YouTube talking about the presentation of the Gospel in every book of the Bible.  This particular video in the series was about seeing the Gospel message in the book of Genesis.  It was a succinct ten minute overview of the patterns in Genesis that show us Jesus who was to come later. 

One of the wonderful things he reminded me of is the mark that God put on Cain after he murdered his brother Abel.  For much of my early Christian life I was taught that it was a mark of punishment, to display his guilt as a murderer to the rest of the community.  I remember when I finally read "the rest of the story" on my own and realized the mark was put on Cain to protect him from the wrath and punishment of others in his community. The mark identified him as one to whom the protection of God had been given and no one else was to dare to take his life as a punishment.  The mark was a protection, not a curse.  That struck me today, I think, because not long ago I heard someone else talking about that same mark as if it was a punishment and was using that idea to justify some less than godly behaviour of their own toward a minority community.  It upset me badly, so today it was good to hear again the true reason and consequence of that Mark of God upon Cain and reinforce my notion that the person I overheard talking so ignorantly about his justifcation for ungodly behaviour is on the wrong track.

If you want to enjoy the teaching I just heard, the link is below.

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

Trying To Be Useful

Yesterday as we read the annual report in preparation for the church’s annual meeting that is coming up soon, we noticed that on the list of property maintenance items needing attending to was “cleaning the pews”. It struck us that we have done that before at other churches, so we contacted the property manager and arranged to start next week. I will have the easier job of washing each pew with a solution of Murphy’s Oil Soap and my husband will tackle the more difficult job of sliding under each pew to scrape off the wads of gum and then apply bleach to those undersides. 

It will take us several sessions to accomplish this task, so the property manager is giving us a key to use for the entire week. Yay! We are excited to do something practical for our church.

My husband accomplished a couple of practical tasks today specifically for me! He set up his sewing machine and did a couple of projects. He repaired the cuff on a sweater that I snagged with the corner of my MedicAlert bracelet the other day. It pulled the thread out of the seam so it was wonderful to have that fixed before the whole seam had a chance to unravel. He also noticed that the embroidered appliqué around the neck of a sundress he bought for me in Tanzania seven years ago was also starting to unravel right at the top of the neckline. Since he had similarly coloured bias tape, he sewed that on using one of the fancy patterned stitches his machine does so well. God bless you chris.e for your fabulous gift to him! I am delighted! 

This morning I went looking for a single flat bedsheet. What a hassle! I went from bedding department to bedding department around the city with almost no success! Apparently single sheets are no longer sold in any of my local stores, apart from a couple of bedding boutiques who still sell single fitted bottom sheets.....but nary a flat sheet. How very disappointing! All that was available were complete sets and I don’t need a complete set of sheets and pillowcases. There is no point in spending upward of ninety dollars for extra bedding I do not need. So, my last possible stop was WalMart where I found a good selection of single flat sheets. Sadly, only 180 and 300 thread counts were available, so I chose the lesser of the two evils and headed for the checkout. If my new 300 thread count sheet lasts through more than a half dozen washings I will consider it a near miracle. Sigh.... Well, I needed a flat sheet and I finally found one, so I am grateful for that. 

A very chilly day today....hopefully the rest of this week will be a bit warmer! 

"Heavenly Sunshine, Heavenly Sunshine.....

....flooding my soul with glory divine!

Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine,

Hallelujah, Jesus is mine! "

(Henry J. Zeller)

Are you old enough to remember singing this little ditty in Sunday School when you were still just a tiny human??  I do.  hahaha  The shiny, bright blue sky of this past week reminds me every day of that chorus from my Sunday School days. 

It has been a very fulfilling weekend and I am most appreciative!  Sometimes weekends are kind of deadly, but this is the second good one in a row! YAY!

Friday morning I found an old recipe I got from the back of a candle holder for a Holly Hobbie brand apple'n'spice scented candle I was gifted with back in about 1975!  I never could burn the candle due to my asthma, so I re-gifted it to another friend, but I remember I did try making the apple'n'cinnamon cake from that recipe and thought I remembered it as being quite tasty....and SUPER EASY to make! Since I needed to take dessert to a potluck our study group was having that evening, and I am the world's worst baker, I decided to try making that recipe for the first time since then!  (about 48 years ago)  What could go wrong?

For once nothing did go wrong!  As I made the batter I remembered it didn't resemble any cake batter I have seen before or since, so the odd consistency didn't throw me off.  I baked it and it came out of the oven just as it should.  Since there was more than enough sugar in the actual cake, I didn't ice it, but instead diced some candied ginger and sprinkled that over the top.  It gave it a nice extra punch of flavour.  For once I served other people a dessert that DID turn out and was not only edible, but delicious. YAY for Holly Hobbie!!

The dinner was a lot of fun.  As newbies to the group it gave us a chance to get to know some of the people a bit better and I look forward to our next study time mid month. 

While I was playing the part of a baker, my husband was having a great time over at the French Press drinking expresso and enjoying a great conversation with a friend who thinks that Jesus was a great teacher, but rather mistaken about his own divinity....just the kind of intellectual, conversational challenge my husband enjoys.  He also had the opportunity to meet with the parish priest for who he was missioner last weekend and they had a chance to debrief about the seminar and what it could mean for that parish going forward into more neighbourhood evangelism.

On Saturday at noon we picked up an old friend from AB who was passing through on his way south to the US border.  We took him for a simple lunch at Houstons, not too far from the campground where he was staying in his 35 foot motor home.  It is an old beast of a thing, but he has done repairs and it is running well for him. We haven't seen him for a few years and my husband and he are like brothers since my husband used to live with the fellow's family back in the 1970's.  It was fun catching up on each other's  lives.

In the afternoon I met with a really close friend of my own. We spent three delightful hours chattering away as if it had been months since our last visit instead of less than two weeks!! hahaha  Oh how grateful I am to have a friend like that right here in town!  

Another out of town friend sent me a neat little book on Prayer this week. The way it is arranged, I will be able to split up the chapters into  nearly a month's worth of daily devotionals and I can start it as soon as my Lenten daily devotionals come to an end. YAY! 

This morning the church services went very well.  It was a Communion service this morning, which is always very nice.  Slowly but surely the pews are starting to fill up again with returning congregants now that the restrictions for COVID are pretty much over, apart from the food handling for the coffee hour afterward.  The food groups are still using tongs and napkins to dole out the food and only their own assigned members are allowed to pick up and fill our coffee, tea and juice cups before handing them directly to us.  I am glad we have not yet returned to the old free-for-all-touch-poke-grab-and-go approach with everyone breathing all over the food and  the kids touching things willy nilly, with who knows who fingering the cookies before someone else picks them up to eat.  Eek!  I never ever liked that even before COVID!

My husband and I picked a small and inexpensive restaurant to sneak off to afterward so we could have a bite of lunch on our own today and download our thoughts and feeling over the events of the past week.  It was very nice to be in a restaurant no one else we know ever goes to.  As much as we love having lunch after church with friends, there is the occasional Sunday where the lunch hour is just for the two of us. Today was one of those days and it was good. Now, late in the afternoon, my husband is dozing in front of the tv and I am doing laundry in between paragraphs of this blog.  

This coming week is slowly filling up with events.  One of my events is meeting up with a local artist from church and attending her art club's present exhibition together.  That will be a lot of fun.  Later this week a new couple at the church is coming over for lunch.  My ladies' prayer group is meeting this week and next weekend we are being taken out for lunch by my husband's cousin and her clergy colleague husband, to a rollicking restaurant known for giant portions of menu items ala the 1990's or earlier.  Should be a blast!  I am looking forward to this coming week very much.  Tomorrow I hope to do a produce and dairy product top up at the grocery store and go find a new top sheet for my bed...today when I started the laundry I noticed just how badly the edges on one of those sheets is fraying.  I will wash it and keep it to wrap around items we will be moving out of here next year.  Here's hoping the forecast snow this week isn't bad enough to scuttle any of our good plans! AMEN!