The Happy Deed Is Done!

The kids sent us a raft of photos this afternoon of their marriage late this morning and we had a wonderful Zoom visit this evening.  They are deliriously happy, we are deliriously happy, her family is deliriously happy.....what a marvellous day for us all.  

We gladly learned they each had severe cold feet for a couple of days earlier this week and had to work through those feelings and discuss the impending nuptials once again before standing before the Commissioner of Oaths.  It is a good thing to get any last questions, fears and worries out of the way before the ceremony occurs!

So our little family has grown by one new daughter-in-law and once again we have a bit of an extended family to learn more about and enjoy.  

What a wonderful day of rejoicing!

Tomorrow We A' Gonna Be INLAWS!!!!

 We just received the message that our New York "kids" are being married at City Hall tomorrow!!!  YIPPEE!  We are thrilled for them despite the disappointment of not being able to be there for the after party, but we are so grateful that one of our new daughter-in-law's dearest aunts who helped to raise her is going to be there as the witness.

Wow, I am over the moon....I never dreamed I would one day be a mother-in-law and I want to be the best, most gracious MIL ever in the history of the world!!  Yeah, yeah, fat chance, that position has likely been taken a few thousand times over, but I will do my best.  My husband is absolutely glowing with happiness.

In this past Sunday's sermon the preacher asked us to think back and remember some moments of pure joy we have experienced in life and today that moment happened when we read the email from our son a few minutes ago.

They have asked us to stay at home later tomorrow afternoon and into the evening so we can have a Zoom call and they can tell us all about it.  WOW....a wedding in our family.  We truly believed it would never happen.  What a blessing for all of us.  Our families both get on very well together and it is an honour to be connected through the kids.  Thank you Lord that you have "brought them safe thus far".

Forward Progress!

 I was champing at the bit yesterday to get outside for some fresh air despite that annual April wind gusts! Not being able to get out for a good long walk for the past ten months has been exceedingly difficult to cope with.

In the afternoon my wish was granted when the need for three grocery items dovetailed with the need for our mechanic to start some work on our vehicle in the morning and discovering he would need to keep our car overnight to complete the work today. Thus I had no transportation to the grocery store.  My husband was not available to walk out for groceries, so mid afternoon I grabbed my cane and snail paced myself over to the store and back….only about six or seven blocks max, since I took two shortcuts….and oooooh, it was wonderful, gale force winds and all. It took me an age, but it was a great feeling to be outside and on my own again even for one limited grocery run. 

Today I have only mild pain in my deteriorating hip joint so I am glad I took the risk. I also graduated to three pound ankle weights for doing my pre-op physiotherapy, so I was tired enough to be in bed and asleep before 9:30pm!!!!! So, I woke up at 5am, but that was just in time for a brief email exchange with a friend awaiting her flight back to Canada from Dresden Germany….bonus! 

Along with getting our car back. I wonder what new adventures today will bring?

Please Remember To Vote On Monday….

 …..if you haven’t already voted in the advance polls. Whatever your political preferences may be, get out there and make them heard! Previous federal elections may have turned out differently if a greater number of registered voters had actually utilized their freedom to do so. 

Use it or lose it…..the number of democracies in this world seems to be on the verge of shrinking so let’s enjoy the freedom to vote while we still have the incredible opportunity.

End of  my own personal “public” announcement! Thank you for your time.

Baked Beans Bane!!

 My husband makes fantastic baked beans!  They are delicious as he has such a great balance of tomato sauce and molasses, plus he soaks the beans for hours and hours before he cooks them so they are tender but not mushy after baking them in the yummy sauce in the oven for hours and hours.

Unfortunately those delicious baked beans are the bane of my existence! The darned beans have it out for me for some reason!!  Every time I go anywhere near them they and their staining sauce end up on my clothes, the floor, the inside of the refrigerator, the carpet, the dining room chairs...but only on the upholstered seats of course....because for some reason I cannot seem to refrain from spilling them!!

Yesterday was a case in point:  the large cast iron Le Creuset  casserole he bakes the beans in was still in the refrigerator two days after he finished preparing them.  So, I thought I would be a good wife and take them out of the fridge to put them into smaller containers in order to clear more fridge space.  I had visions of putting a couple of containers into the freezer for some later time and keeping two containers in the refrigerator for immediate consumption.  I had already given away three containers to various friends....when my husband cooks anything he can't seem to refrain from preparing enough of the dish for a small army....

 I hauled out my best freezer containers with the air tight lids and started scooping out the beans. Just as I was starting I realized it would be wisdom to put on my largest kitchen apron to protect my clothes.  It is one that I pull on over my head as it covers my front and back and hangs almost to my  knees.  For someone with a frustrating history with baked beans mess it is very practical indeed.  As I finished emptying the baking casserole and prepared to put the lids on the smaller containers I looked down at my apron and was thrilled to discover that for the first time ever I'd made contact with baked beans and not spilled them on myself or anywhere else...not even on the counter top I was using for the project.  YEE HAW!!! FOR ONCE I WIN,  YOU STUPID BAKED BEANS!

 However.....I spoke too soon.  

I had no problem putting the lids on the containers, no problem getting the ones for the freezer into the freezer and putting the first of the two containers labelled for the refrigerator onto the nice cool fridge shelf.  THEN I tried to put the second container into the refrigerator and that is when all my careful planning to stay clean went to hell in a hand basket:   I lost my grip on the second container just as it was about to land on the shelf.  It fell out of my hand and in a split second was on its side on the floor in front of the fridge.  The lid popped off from the impact and suddenly there were baked beans all over the floor, splashed up inside the refrigerator door, under the fridge AND all over one of my feet and its accompanying open toe leather house sandal.  OH NO!!!!  Do you know how many baked beans fit into a 907gram sized container....too danged many when they fall out of it all over the place!  The apron had been useless to protect me from the baked beans as there wasn't so much as a drop of sauce on the clothes above my knees where the apron actually covered me anyway.  From the knees down I could see sauce splashed on both pant legs AND how does one manage to ease several baked bean covered toes out of a step in sandal and hop on the other foot across the kitchen to the sink while carrying the ruined sandal?  Well, what choice did I have?  I couldn't leave the sandal on and try to carefully walk to the sink. There were mashed beans and sauce all over the bottom of it from me already stepping in it when the carton fell and shocked me into the wrong kind of action.  As I kept my tomato toes rigid during the hopping process with the other foot, I managed to keep most of the beans and sauce from landing on the rug in front of the sink, but of course some of the mess landed on it anyway, the part of the mess that didn't go flying across to the other side of the kitchen as far from where the spill occurred as it was possible to get. Sigh.....  my husband heard my initial yelp and came running to help, God bless him.  He helped wipe up the beany mess from the floor and fridge door while I attended to bean removal from my toes and sandal and pant legs.  What a ruddy mess...all over the kitchen by the time I was done flinging beans off my foot as I hopped about stupidly.  Aiii yiiii.....  It took us twenty minutes to locate and clean every place the beans and/or sauce had landed. 

Those blasted baked beans....they got me AGAIN!!!!!

Perfect Weather For Tax Completion Day!!

We woke up to about 3cm of fresh snow this morning and it has continued to fall ever since, with a current buildup of closer to 5cm and counting!  Friends from AB sent us a photo of their back deck and acreage grounds this morning and they have twice as much snow today as we do thus far.  This weather is no surprise as spring weather from the BC mountains through to the eastern edge of the prairies in Manitoba is always unstable and unpredictable and crazy and frustrating and interesting.  For myself it means putting on a light parka and winter boots when I take our tax forms to the mail later this afternoon, hahaha.  

I had the most odd "deja Vu" experience at church on Sunday morning.  My husband is always amazed by how lacking in nostalgic recall I am, how I so rarely think of experiences in the past....to the point that when friends from other places we have lived get in touch with me I have to dredge my memory sometimes to its depth to recall what it was like living in that particular town or city.  Looking forward makes me much happier than looking backward for whatever reason.

Anyway, before church began on Sunday morning one of the more senior members of the church asked me if I could go to the choir room and request a piece of music for her so that she could participate in the "flash mob" Hallelujah Chorus event that closes out the Easter service each year.  Away I went, up a long flight of stairs to the choir loft, through the doors into the choir rehearsal halls and rooms to locate the choir and the requested music.  As I stepped into the rehearsal room to ask for the music a flood of happy memories and emotions, from my own years of being able to accompany, direct and sing in choirs, assailed me. As I returned down that same long flight of steps to give the music to my friend, I could envision myself heading to the sanctuary piano instead and starting to play the prelude music.  It was so odd, so overwhelming, so deeply meaningful in a way that is difficult to explain.  The best I can do is that the experience served to remind and encourage me that I actually did have a professional life at one point, was able to make some sort of contribution to the musical education of my students and enjoyed the camaraderie particular to musical groups....it was a happy experience to have that flashback to some of the old and positive events in my past.  The feeling has remained with me, although of course it is far less intense now, a couple of days later.  I am glad it happened for whatever reason.

We had some spectacular Easter dinners this past weekend!  We enjoyed a giant chicken and all the stuffing, potatoes, veggies and salad we could manage to eat on Sunday evening.  My husband loaded his plate with cranberry sauce and I enjoyed my dietary cheat with a slice of lemon Easter cake covered in frosting and coconut sprinkles and teensy candy coated chocolate eggs.  (I admit I had two of the eggs AND one that was the same size my husband snagged for me during the children's Easter egg hunt after church in the morning! Bless him!) We met our friend's son and his wife and delightful 16 month old daughter. That is one bright little girl and I had a blast after dinner teaching her how to say "watch" after she spotted the one I wear on my wrist. It is shiny and she was fascinated by it. Once she had the "W" sound down, she sat and ran and played and kept saying the word "watch" over and over so she would remember it.  Cutie pie!  Her parents of course do not wear watches because they are young Digital Age'ers with smartphones. haha

After church earlier that morning, assuming we were going home because one of the reasons my husband insisted the previous evening that we go out for burgers was because he didn't want to have to go out for lunch after church, I was shocked when my husband drove us directly to Darbar for Indian food! hahahaha  What the heck??  Well, although I reminded him that it had been his own idea for us NOT to go out for lunch after church, he was not to be dissuaded, so we enjoyed yet another wonderful meal there. What can I say??  Other than YUMMY! HAPPY SURPRISE!!

Later that same evening we received an invitation from other friends to go to their house for dinner last night!  Wow...another great visit and wonderful, wonderful food...more chicken, which we love, a different type of stuffing and veggies and salad, more cranberry sauce for my husband and a home made blueberry pie for dessert....HOW BLESSED WERE WE THIS EASTER WEEKEND????  Amazing. We feel completely spoiled and can't wait to have all these people back over to our house in the next few weeks before my surgery! So, how can we not be foodies when we continue to be presented with these amazing meals prepared by our friends?? Right??

Well, my husband is ready now for us to complete the government copies of our income tax forms and then I will get them mailed away.  SO thrilled they are finally completed for another year!

 

(Cue Music) It’s Easter, It’s Easter, The Stone’s Rolled Away…….

The Lord is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!

May every blessing of this Resurrection Day be yours in abundance! Time to celebrate!

Help, There Is Something Wrong With My New Computer Mouse!!!

Before I tell you this embarrassing little tale, please keep in mind that not only am I getting elderly on top of never being able to be accused of being overly technologically intelligent, I have never owned a wireless keyboard or mouse before...all my computer components have been of the wired in variety ever since I purchased my first computer in the early 1990's.   

Bearing those things in mind, try not to laugh yourself right off your chair when I tell you that this evening I had a complete freak out over my computer mouse seemingly getting itself completely confused. Earlier today my husband removed my old computer from my desk to take it to recycling and when I went to use my new computer for the first time today since he removed that old computer, I discovered that the new mouse had lost its mind and was working "backward", working in the opposite direction to what it was supposed to.....when I moved the mouse forward instead of it moving the cursor upward on my screen, the cursor moved downward and when I moved the mouse to the right the cursor headed off to the left.  WTH?????  I couldn't believe it!  Such a ridiculous occurrence had never happened to me ever before.  I screeched at my husband that my mouse had a problem and asked if he could come and check it out.  He entered my office and looked at me with a most unreadable expression on his face, walked over to my desk and turned the mouse around top to bottom  so that it was pointing in the opposite direction than it had been when I tried to use it.  I looked at him with wide eyes, a bit shocked and said, "You mean the problem is that I had the mouse upside down on the desk???"  God bless my husband because he was able to tell me that was indeed the problem without a so much as a smirk on his face, although as I thanked him most shame facedly as he walked out of my office I could see his shoulders heaving with barely contained laughter at my ignorance. hahahahaha  I know I will never hear the end of this little mistake I made, hahahaha. 

Can you believe anyone in this day and age could be so out of touch as I obviously am about these things? hahahaha   

And it had been such a good day up until that point......hahahahaha

News Of A Somewhat Personal Loss….

…..was just brought to our attention; the passing of our first Jesus People Pastor, one of our first spiritual shepherds back in the 1970’s, John Lucas, who guided our beliefs at Immanuel Pentecostal Church in Calgary. Wow! Those were the days….surrounded by a burgeoning number of new pseudo-Christian cults, a growing addictions scene and an ever expanding number of folk suffering from serious mental health issues, Pastor Lucas went out of his way to minister to all of us lost souls in the downtown Calgary area. He and the other pastoral staff and congregation members opened their church doors and their arms and hearts to our shaggy, scruffy, unkempt selves as the Jesus People movement made its way up from California to the western foothills. It was an incredible time of learning and both spiritual and personal growth for us. Pastor Lucas had strict rules of conduct for us that he enforced without favouritism and we learned how to conduct ourselves properly in a church setting. So much assistance on so many levels. He also started up the Maranatha Evangelistic Association that eventually promoted the gospel around the world. 

Pastor John Lucas, beloved and committed disciple of his Lord Jesus Christ, we thank God for his faithfulness to Jesus and to His people. 

May he rest in peace and rise in glory! Amen!

A Weather-Appropriate Day!

Good Friday….a day of remembrance of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross for our sake and salvation. Today the weather has been appropriately gloomy and miserable with below zero temperatures, freezing gales of wind and periods of scattered snow flurries. Brrrrr and yuck! The weather certainly matches the feelings associated with today’s spiritual significance for Christians! Dark, dark, dark….although we do also know that the celebration of the resurrection will happen in a couple of days! Back to rejoicing!

We attended a more traditional Anglican Church service this morning and it was very well done. At last night’s Maundy Thursday service the altar guild and clergy performed the stripping of the altar, the wrapping of the large wooden cross standing at the front of the room in black fabric and also wrapping the cross at the top of the crucifer in black fabric before the deacon carried it in during the clerical processional. Traditional prayers of the day were said and sung, the story of the crucifixion from John’s gospel was read in scripture form by various clergy and congregation members. It was a moving service and as much as I don’t like to admit it, I am grateful we did not attend a joint service our own church was participating on this morning….not because there would have been anything wrong with it, but because in the past we have discovered a lack of the meditative solemnity we have come to associate with and enjoy about the Anglican Good Friday services. For me personally I found in previous experiences with the joint service that it seems like a well intended dog’s breakfast of worship styles and I find having a choir at what I view as a solemn, quiet, reflective service, kind of off putting. 

Don’t be offended if there are differing opinions between me and thee. I am stating a personal preference rather than a criticism of the people participating in the joint service. They are handling Good Friday in the way that works best for and appeals most to them. God bless them! I just have a different type of worship need on Good Friday, that’s all. 

We were able to sit at the service with my walking partner and to greet many of my husband’s former parishioners there. Some of them we have not seen in a number of years. It was great to exchange quiet greetings and big hugs before entering into the solemn service. My husband received an invitation to preach there one Sunday this summer during the priest’s vacation time, so that is exciting for him. Bonus! 

Tomorrow I will make some kind of veggie dish for the Sunday Easter dinner we are invited to and if my husband is feeling well enough he will make some Easter bread for some of our neighbours. He is exhausted and still recovering from over three months of having too many commitments.

Since receiving my surgery date I have found it mentally much easier to do my pre-op physiotherapy with joy! One more set of reps tonight before taking the weekend off for my muscles and hip joint to recover so I can get back into it again next week. It is all good.

New Neighbours Moving In Next Door, Aaaaaand.....

 ....thus far it looks hopeful!  It is a family, mom and dad and little girl who appears to be about 4 years of age.  I greeted the mom and told her we will happily move our vehicle if they need room when their moving truck arrives this weekend. It was a great way to way hello and try to make them feel welcome. Hopefully this will be a happy and good neighbourly relationship!  Thanks everyone who has been praying for good neighbours for us....again....aiii yiii....it is always the neighbours who are moving on and we end up staying...again....and again.....and again, hahaha.

Speaking of next door neighbours, I received a call from the most recent neighbour who moved out a few weeks ago and she has invited us to come and see the apartment where she is living now.  She loves it and thinks it would be a great fit for us...hmmm....not completely sure about that, BUT it is in a different part of the city entirely, even closer to various sorts of shopping than we are now, so after Easter we will go and visit her for the "Grand Tour".  There are some drawbacks, such as possibly having to share a laundry with other tenants and the parking of course is still outside, BUT it turns out it is a +55 building so no students and a very strict no pet rule, not so much as a bird or a fish, so no worries about my having residual allergies from previous tenants. The woman who called me is meticulous and very picky....hahaha, no wonder she didn't even last as long as the end of her lease here, hahaha....so if she says it is clean and well maintained and with rules that actually are applied, well, perhaps it would be a good place for us.  There is a storage space right in the suite and the 2 bedroom places do come open now and then, so maybe.....well, it is at least a chance to go and view a possibility for the nearer future, perhaps between hip surgeries, or at least a place to keep our names on the list for after the second surgery....we are praying and just waiting to see how this goes, but it is the most hopeful possibility we have had in the past over a year if we are staying in Regina.

So, that is the news of the day around here.  Have a wonderful Easter celebration this weekend everyone.  The Lord is risen indeed. Hallelujah!

I Have A Surgery Date!

The morning of June 6th AND at my preferred hospital! I am relieved and excited and nervous and happy and grateful to all of you who have been praying or otherwise wishing me well the past few months. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Will keep you posted….

After Three Days On The Run....

 ...it is very nice to have a day where I can catch up with myself!  Church events, home group, various types of shopping trips, other errands....on and on and on it has gone until this morning when, after a solid 7.5 hours of consecutive sleep, I woke up and realized I don't need to do anything away from home, don't need to see anybody, don't need to talk to anybody, I am even caught up on my emails.  It is on the way to noon and I haven't even had my shower yet.  Oh, perfect, sunny and warm, laid back day!  LOVE IT!  

Tomorrow I will be "up and at 'em" once again for another couple of days as Holy Week services ramp up at various churches we will be visiting, as well as Easter morning service at our own church, etc. etc.  THEN, we will take the phone off the hook and ignore our computers for a couple of days so we can finish our income taxes and get them sent away on time.  With all that is happening over the next week, I am very happy to have today to just take my sweet time.  I have already been taking care of bills owing and other small chores that don't have today as a deadline.

I  had the most lovely afternoon yesterday at our church's seniors' group.  One of our members is an art museum curator and an artist so he presented a talk and paintings related to Christ's crucifixion.  Oh my, he is wonderful to listen to.  He is well able to explain the intention of various artists, both from here in Saskatchewan and around the world, as well as some of the old masters.  I learned a great deal more than I already knew about the more subtle meanings behind some of the paintings and I learned about some Saskatchewan painters I didn't really know a lot about before.  My most favourite painting was done by Alberta Ukrainian artist William Kereluk and it is titled "Dinnertime on the Prairies".  In it the crucifixion is portrayed in the midst of two prairie wheat fields.  The cross is built from farm fencing posts and Christ's arms are attached to it with barbed wire.   I am assuming, since the artist was a Roman Catholic who would celebrate the Eucharistic mass, Kereluk was portraying Christ as being the meal.  What I particularly appreciate about the work is that the crucifixion location has been moved into a setting that is modern day and recognizable to any farmer in most any grain growing country, giving Christ's suffering an immediacy that is easy to ignore if the only context in which we see it portrayed is in the Middle East from over 2,000 years ago.   The photo of the painting below is not as clear as it should be, but it gives the idea anyway:

Dinnertime On The Prairies by William Kereluk, 1963

I had a great little bus ride to and from the church for the seniors' event.  With road construction happening downtown my bus has been rerouted for the summer.  Fantastically, it lets me off now right across the street from the church and for going home all I have to do is exit the front door of the church and the bus stop is RIGHT there! 

My husband and I are watching the first season of an older British tv series called The Outlaws and it is an amazing mix of humour, pathos and confused fun, so I expect we will begin watching the next episode over lunch.

Time to get moving and get that shower underway so I can get dressed and then get lunch put together. After a Zoom meeting this morning my husband is now free for a whole day and a half before any more committments.  Today is a good day for us both!  The ongoing good weather, as we head more fully toward spring, is very energizing for us both so I expect we will also go for a bit of a walk this afternoon. YAY!

Getting Over The Winter Induced Agoraphobia

 For most of my adult life I have struggled with mild agoraphobia.  It was horrendous after our nearly 18 consecutive months of lock down in 2020-2021 during the Covid disaster and ever since then I have struggled with it a bit at the beginning of each spring as the ice melts away and it is possible to get outside for more than a short walk around the block.  If driving and shopping are involved I have to give myself a stern talking to in order to convince myself I should get out and get moving.  Today has been one of those days.

There are several personal items I have been putting off going shopping for, putting off the trip for several weeks now, so I decided last evening that this morning was the morning to GET OUT AND GET BACK TO LIFE!!!!  I was out the door just before 10am and spent a long time going to various stores.  It is wonderful to report that I was able to find all but two of the things on my list and I have come up with a few other stores to check out later this week to continue looking for them.  YES!!  I had such a great time wandering about on my own that I was actually reluctant to return home, so as soon as I parked the car in our lot and opened the door to our suite I hollered at my husband to ask if he wanted to go out for lunch!  His answer was affirmative and less than thirty seconds later we were both in the car and on our way to The Cottage for their lasagna lunch special!  I LOVE that special because the hot dish of lasagna is not only lunch sized, it is senior citizen lunch sized!  I can eat it all AND it comes with a green salad, garlic toast and a bowl of soup!  It is worth every penny and the price is quite reasonable for the variety of food I received. Yum, yum!  After lunch my husband thought of two errands he should probably undertake for himself, so we had a nice drive around the city.  The drop in gasoline prices since the axing of the carbon tax is quite amazing.  We went to our favourite discount station and paid only a dollar and twenty-nine cents a litre and the main stations were only a dollar and thirty-nine cents a litre...about a forty-five to fifty cent a litre drop.  I suspect that between my going alone for a big grocery shopping trip last week and today's shopping and lunch extravaganza it will be less of a chore mentally to convince myself to get in the car and head off once again next time I need to. 

Tomorrow is the day for the annual Blessing of the Oils for my husband and his colleagues over at the Cathedral, so he will be busy all day. I will head off to our church around lunch time for the monthly seniors' fellowship.  One of our church artists and newly retired museum curator will be talking about  art related to Christ and his Passion, which is particularly appropriate for this season of the church calendar.  I am looking forward to it very much.  

Since it is Holy Week we have Monday, Thursday and Good Friday services to attend, the Easter Sunday sunrise service at the lake we will probably skip as it is at 6:30am, but we do look forward to the Easter Sunday morning church service.  We will share Holy Week services between the Anglican and Baptist churches this year as the Anglicans have other types of Holy Week services that the Baptists don't. It is always a super busy and spiritually encouraging week. Somewhere in there we need desperately to get our income taxes done, but no doubt we will manage as it is also a necessity to get them filed on time.  

Looks like it is shaping up to be a happy and busy week around here and I am beyond grateful to have enough energy to do these things.

 

 

The Wandering Waif

Last night my husband had his office window open for the first time since last autumn and about 8pm he realized there was a tiny tot standing on our back lawn crying her heart out. She wasn't more than 18 to 24 months in age and she was not a happy girl.  As he looked out the window he remembered seeing her toddling out of one of the suites in our court, a couple of buildings away from ours.  He tried to ask her if she was lost, and called me to come to talk to her as well, but it soon became obvious that this wee tyke only speaks her family's African language at this point and even at that, she is too young to speak very many words.  We looked all around the back area and could see no adults or her siblings, so I decided I would try to return her to what we thought was her home.  Aiii yiiiii....talk about nerve wracking. If my husband was wrong about where she lives or if we got to where he thought that was and no one was home, THEN WHAT would we do? I couldn't take her into my own home to call either the property management company or the police because in this day and age we could be accused of kidnapping by her family, my husband couldn't be the one walking her around trying to find her home without me....and I was in too much pain last night to walk very far....because in this day and age you can imagine what HE could be accused of being alone with a little girl....sigh....

Anyway, long story short I finally discovered that she understood the word "Mama", so I went with that.  I asked her if she could take me to see her mama and off we went toward the very suite my husband thought she belonged in. Oh yay....until we got to her back porch and I tried to get her to go up the back steps with me to the door. She flatly refused despite repeated attempts.  Oh dear....so I asked her again if she could take me to Mama and she pointed into the space between the building we were at and the next building which was somewhat far away and I wasn't sure if that particular building was where she actually was pointing.  Away we went between the buildings and suddenly she smiled and pointed around the corner of the building I thought she lived in.  Sure enough...there on the front lawn on two big chairs sat Mama and another woman.  I asked if the girl belonged to them and Mama gave me a big smile when she said "YES!"  She thanked me for returning her daughter but didn't seem to have much English vocabulary beyond that.  I was disappointed that we couldn't talk more because I was curious as to why these two beautiful African women had all their freshly laundered socks and underwear and tee shirts spread all over the damp front lawn in the midst of all the snow mould.  Apparently they were trying to dry them under the last of the sun's evening rays. On the ground in front of her chair, was a huge pile of freshly cut black kinky hair from the cut Mama was receiving from the younger woman.  Oh how badly I wanted to connect to find out which country they are from, to ask them if they  knew how to use the dryer in their suite.  It is possible they are finding using the dryer too expensive, but at least if they didn't know how to use it I could have helped with that.  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to have more encounters with them when the weather is warmer and we can all be outside over the summer.  I want to know their stories of Canada and why they are here....at least as much as they would feel comfortable sharing with a complete stranger in their new land.  The laundry spread out all over the front lawns to dry gives them away as being newcomers to Canada and I am fascinated to learn more. Perhaps it will never happen, but I do hope we can connect further. Maybe if they need assistance with a few "things Canadian" my husband and I can be of service.  We made such good connections with both the Egyptian and Ukrainian immigrants here at the complex that it would be a joy to make some more new acquaintances from other countries.  

Anyway, the funny part was that the little girl was not happy that I was leaving to go home again. She wanted me to stay and play with some toys that were also out on the lawn, but it was getting cold and I didn't have my coat, or my cane, with me so I had to get back. She cried when I left so Mama had to comfort her.  Mama and I shared a chuckle over that at least.  There are quite a few folk living in the small suite so I hope they are going to be able to manage here and be happy.  There are many other Africans from an assortment of countries newly living in here and I hope that this family can find someone from their own home country to connect with.  I hope they won't be afraid to reach out to the rest of us as well.  Despite its many issues, this complex is one of the most interesting places we have ever lived in.

My Newest Favourite Meal!

I decided on a new favourite meal as of a few days ago. Tonight I consumed it once again:

1-2 carb units (1/2 to 1 cup) of Brussels Sprouts with grated cheese!  I heat the Sprouts, then toss them into a warmed single serving bowl with a teaspoon of butter and 1/3 cup of my favourite shredded cheese blend and mix them up together…so simple, so easy, so yummy! After such a filling feast I don’t need much else to feel sated. With the smaller portion of sprouts I just add in a couple of more carb units of something, like two thin slices of my favourite bread with a teaspoon of no sugar added jam shared between them and my meal is done and delightful. I am trying to experiment more with easy food prep and simple meals. Tomorrow the eggplant in my fridge crisper will become my newest treat, hopefully.

Our Aging Son!

 Our son is having a birthday today.  I won't tattle on him as far as telling his age, but he is standing on the threshold of what would be considered the middle aged bracket, I think.  Only a few more years to go before he is firmly entrenched as a middle ager!  

Since we can't be together this year to celebrate we celebrated from afar through texts and emails and sharing pancakes together for breakfast at the same time of day. hahaha  Well, whatever works, right? hahaha 

We are still waiting to hear when he and his fiancee have made their appointment for their city hall marriage, but it won't be more than a few more weeks....something good in the midst of uncertain times.

From the first year......

 

....to the present year!

 

Have a Very Happy Birthday son!!😁💕😉👏

Enjoying An Artistic Gift From My Son

Some time ago my son sent me a gift of one of his hand painted scarves.  I am really enjoying having it. This past Sunday I wore it to church for the first time and it was fun having something colourful and spring-like to wear instead of my usual Black or Brown Only wardrobe items.  Kinda cool what can be done with a stiff cheesecloth type of fabric!

 

The older I get the more colour I need!!

Windows 11 Up And Running!

After an enjoyable morning of running errands with my husband, including the purchase of a new laser printer because the ancient ink printer we already had is such old technology that my new system can't even find drivers for it any more, I have had a lovely time learning to use Windows 11. It hasn't been nearly as difficult as I feared. The most difficult thing to get used to is actually my new keyboard, with it being somewhat more compact than my old one.  I am not sure I like my keyboard and mouse being completely wireless, but I will pick up batteries for them tomorrow so I don't end up stuck, unable to use my computer when the present ones die.  The new printer was very reasonably priced and we got the last one in stock, so we aren't waiting around for an order to come in.  YAY!

Lunch out, all errands of the day completed, my husband is having a bit of a rest before he starts on his next project and I will soon be making steak and potatoes for dinner.  The wind has been very strong all day....a cold wind that is, fortunately, drying up some of the water sitting in our backyard "lake", while the chilliness of it maintains the remaining ice bridge my husband built earlier in the winter.  I managed not to step into the water on either side of the bridge when we returned home.  Gratitude!!!  The warm up is coming by week's end.

I  think we are going to have a good week!  My husband has plenty of other commitments to get him away from the computer now that he has nearly completed his final class to teach on Sunday.  He is doing some woodworking tomorrow on the new fire pit benches for our church camp, having his usual weekly retired ministers' meeting, meeting with the committee at church that is planning the rest of the adult education classes for this year, getting together for a trip down Memory Lane with a group of fellows he went on a disastrous canoe trip several years ago....getting lost twice, misunderstandings about how hard they were going to have to paddle to complete the trip and the results were several broken relationships that are now healed, fortunately.... This meeting will involve wine and tapas, so a good time will definitely be had by all!!  hahaha  Everyone involved in the ill fated trip is planning to attend and for some of them it will be the first time to see the rest of the group since the whole debacle unfolded.  I would love to be a fly on the wall.....  He is leading a discussion group later this week on a paper he wrote a few years ago on the Holy Spirit and then he will have a couple of days to tweak his final Sunday presentation.  I am living for that class to be over as it is the last of his regular teaching commitments for hopefully quite some time to come. Having said that, it has been an excellent class, full every week with folk who ask intelligent questions and have marvellously informative discussions.  

For myself, I am planning on my usual visit with my coffee buddy later in the week and one group study, filling in the time around my husband's absences with some thorough house cleaning.  I find as the weather improves and I am getting used to doing my physio with the weights, my energy is returning and despite the ongoing hip discomfort, I can still get quite a bit done during a day if I set my mind to it.  As the months fly past the surgery is coming up now within the next 2-4 months, so that is really encouraging.

A fellow we prayed for at church yesterday who sustained brain damage after a shocking car accident earlier in the weekend, passed away this morning from his injuries.  Sigh....his family is devastated, wife, kids, parents and other extended family members.  I had a feeling things were going very wrong as I was unable to sleep most of last night.  I was wide awake and praying for him between 11pm and 2am, then dozed fitfully until 6am, waking up every twenty to thirty minutes to pray again, then finally sleeping for 90 minutes straight before becoming wide awake for the rest of the day.  I was not surprised when I got the news of his passing as it was a most intense night of intercessory prayer. I can't remember the last time I had a prayer session that intense or for that many hours overnight.  The family has been on my mind all day, so as we have been racing about the city I have been silently praying....in a few days I will have a report on how they are doing, but oh my, they are just a mess right now, understandably. My hurts for them.

Well, I should stop playing with my new computer I suppose and go to prepare the steaks and peel the potatoes and find some yummy veggies for the meal.  It has been a very busy day. 

Researching Yesterday’s Gift

 I was curious as to why we were treated to a free lunch yesterday at DarBar, and in the process discovered that yesterday was a Hindu celebration of the birth of Lord Rama, the popular seventh avatar of Vishnu. Giving gifts is a traditional part of the celebration. Apparently there is a new Hindu temple here in town and my husband was asking one of DarBar’s owners about it. It is located near a city charitable organization we support, which explains why we have seen a tiny Indian grocery and religious supply store right there in a very out of the way location, far from any other retail stores and looking incongruous in the midst of an area of the city that is actually indigenous reserve land. We are learning quite a bit from our restaurant friends. So many cultures are living in our fair city. We love getting to know more about them. Yesterday was a chance to learn more about how Hindu culture and religion is practiced here. 

A Simply Gorgeous Day In The Neighbourhood!!

Warming temperatures, brilliant sunshine, a bit more warmth to the breeze than we have had; it is adding up to a wonderful weather day as spring appears to be budding at last!!  YIPPEE!  My husband's class on Forgiveness went well this morning, the choir sang a wonderfully simple anthem that touched my heart deeply, the prayer I led was well received, we had lunch at DarBar and were gifted by the owners with two delicious platter meals at no cost....WOW!!!  We are blessed indeed today and we are both incredibly grateful for all of these things. As spring weather draws even closer I feel my spirit lifting after a dark and depressing winter season.  It seems the past few years winter has become progressively more difficult for me to deal with joyfully.  Not sure why but I hope that next winter will not be even worse than this past one has been.  Hopefully the lake that is forming across the back yard, as the deep snow piles melt, will be gone by next weekend. It is time to start parking the car out on the street so we don't have to put on swim suits and flippers to access it!!

Today's prayer time was difficult as I had to pray for a young father who was in a serious car accident yesterday and finds himself in a coma, on a ventilator, after his heart stopped at the accident site and the man may have permanent brain damage....I cannot begin to imagine what his wife and two small children are going through.  Another congregant has passed away, so we are left with more grief for our church folk to share together and hopefully we can be a good support to his wife.  Another friend tripped over her dog and broke her hip and is struggling with pain and depression.  Another friend has been in a physio rehab facility for months and with a dearth of physiotherapists to work with her has fallen behind in her recovery to the point where we are all wondering if she will ever get out of there.  The middle aged son of another friend has been in hospital for several months after a bout with cancer and other issues. Now the cancer has returned and he has only a few months left to live out his life within the walls of the hospital....I can only be grateful that his mother passed away herself some time ago so she will not have to witness his sufferng.  Oh my gosh....and I know there are many other requests among our congregation that have not been shared.  It has been a difficult season among our church friends and family.

Our son called us last evening and of course that cheered me considerably as well.  He has been very busy, has some wickedly difficult decisions to make in regard to a cross border art exhibition he is participating in closer to year end....or now maybe not for another year after that depending on border crossing changes, visa requirements and a host of other ever changing rules and regulation about these things.  He is very happy his fiancee is returning today from her recent work on the west coast and that she has opted not to go overseas with the rest of her theatre company this week just in case of issues upon her return.  While it may be unlikely she would have an issue and none of us want to live in fear of what "might" happen, the risk to reward ratio is presently too big.  It was such a difficult decision for her and we applaud her maturity in giving up something wonderful in order to maintain her status in her country of choice.  Our son has a birthday this week and he is tickled that his fiancee will be able to celebrate with him after all.  Tonight they are attending a public performance of a play that she wrote and our prayer for her is that some good contacts from the wonderful world of performance companies will see it and be impressed enough to produce it somewhere else as well.  Aaaah, life is very topsy turvy these days, but we pray that out of the chaos some good things can still happen.

Tomorrow is MY NEW COMPUTER DAY!  My husband has everything installed and tested for me, so I will begin learning the wonders of Windows 11 at last tomorrow.  Hopefully I won't remain frustrated by the changes from my elderly Windows 7 for too many days.  If I just stay calm, not panic, and not be afraid to try various things while I am learning its particular quirks and processes all will be well.  As he has been getting my computer ready for use, my husband has decided that perhaps it is time to replace his own aging computer with a new one just like mine! Hopefully he can do that in the next couple of weeks.

My husband has only one more class for the Forgiveness course and then hopefully he can have a bit of a break from teaching and preaching. The extended break from downsizing has been very good for him as he is feeling motivated to tackle it more seriously and a bit more quickly once his course is completed. YAY!!  From his mouth to God's ear???  hahaha

Enjoy your upcoming week everyone!

Gosh, Darn It, Wrong AGAIN!!!

So, the people I heard in the suite next door this morning have turned out to be the last of the maintenance deparment cleaning crew! Drat!  From what I could hear coming through the walls they sounded like very interesting folk.

This afternoon there were several groups of people who came to view the suite....hoo haaa....tried not to stand and stare out of the window, tried to be subtle about watching the parade, BUT oh dear....now I really am concerned about who is going to be leasing that suite.  I hope and pray if any of today's viewings result in a signed lease tenant that appearances are greatly deceiving and that it is very much a  case of not being able to judge a book by its cover....sigh....

Thanks friends and family for your prayers.....

New Neighbours To Share A Wall With……

This morning we heard the first of the banging about as new neighbours took occupancy next door. Thus far all we have seen is a medium sized vehicle in their parking space ferrying goods from wherever their previous accommodation was and heard several voices through the wall where the sound proofing has failed. We are not certain how many of them will be living in the small suite or what part of the world they are originally from, but we don’t think English is their first language. Wow….maybe we will have an opportunity eventually to learn about a culture we are unfamiliar with, or maybe we will all mind our own business, but however it goes I pray we can  be good neighbours to each other. The stress of wondering how long we would be waiting for new neighbours is over, now comes the stress of adjusting once again to new noises coming from the other side of the wall and the hope that we too can be quiet, excellent neighbours to them.

Another Big Loss Of A Friend

 We have lost another friend to The big C....metasticized stomach cancer in this case.  Sigh....

When we went to Japan in 2000 we became very good friends with our Japanese interpreter and his family.  Since 2002 his wife has been battling stomach cancer with times of remission few and far between.  It has been quite a battle and a few weeks ago she finally lost that battle, leaving her family grieving and at a bit of a loss.  Rei was an amazing prayer warrior, sharer of the good news and had the most positive attitude and warrior spirit right to the end of her life. Apparently she passed peacefully and had no pain or struggle. For that we are grateful.  Her husband nao and two adult children have convenanted together to continue her legacy of christian spirituality as they commit to more times of prayer and involvement with their churches.  We are so grateful to all of them for their continued friendship over the past over twenty years and we pray we can continue to support them in their grief.   Knowing for the past year that rei would soon leave us didn't really prepare us for her passing, of course, but at least it wasn't a complete shock to anyone.  Now we pray for her husband and family as they recover from this horrible loss. They are grateful she is no longer suffering of course, but it still leaves them without her in this life.

I have had many prayer requests to deal with this week and now it is time to start writing some prayers for sunday's church service.  "Prayers of the people"....so nice that this has replaced the old "Pastorl Prayer" where the ministers had to do all the praying on top of everything else they are responsible for in a service.  We have a good roster of willing prayer folk and each brings their own style to those prayers on Sunday mornings.  I love the variety and the different perspectives from each one. our church's pastoral prayer is now a short prayer to open the service.  

Since I started using the ankle weights to do my physio exercises, I am more tired and more able to sleep well at night.  the lack of exercise all winter has been horrible for my body. Yesterday I had a long phone chat with a friend and as we were talking I began doing my indoor walking around the main floor as we chatted.  I walked for nearly a half hour before I knew it was time to sit down again.  when I finally have the surgery I am sure all this physio will greatly assist my recovery.  our afternoon high temperature today will be around the 0 degree mark so I think I will take a short walk outside and see how our overnight skiff of snow has effected the sidewalk surfaces, particularly on the north side of the property that has little sunlight each day.  Inspector of the sidewalks...that's me!

Gaining In Weights! YAY!

 I am very  happy that today I finally graduated from wearing a one pound of weight on each ankle when doing my physiotherapy to having two pounds of weight on each ankle.  It has been a slow process, to say the least!!  It took me two months of physio to even start wearing a one pound weight on each ankle! Finally, nearly a month later, I have been able to increase the resistance!  No one can accuse me of speeding too quickly through my exercise programme!! Hohoho!! Perhaps by the time I have my surgery I will be up to three pounds?  I can certainly hope for that!

I was able to accomplish a few house chores this morning while my husband was on Zoom for his meeting, so that made me feel useful and less lazy than I have felt lately.  After a light lunch we made the rounds for three errands and now my husband is taking a short break to watch a bit of tv before he continues working on his PowerPoint presentation for Sunday's class.  We took off immediately after we ate, so I have some dishes waiting beside the kitchen sink that need washing. They will be washed as soon as I complete this post.  

Although it is overcast outside and still a mite chilly, the air feels less like a big snowfall will occur imminently.  Even if we get a few flurries by the time I am to go for coffee in the morning, there won't be enough snowfall to deter me...I hope...knock on wood....from my mouth to God's ear and other hope-confessing cliches. 

This week I have also started a much more diligent observance of the diet I should be on all the time and pretty much was until 2020 when Covid drove me indoors for the better part of two years.  Although my blood sugar has remained, surprisingly, within normal range, the fact that it has been creeping slowly upward along with the weight gain, has had me kind of freaked out.  I haven't gained any weight for many months now, but I haven't lost any weight either and that has me concerned enough to get my head back on my shoulders and get going with proper eating habits once again.  Throughout Covid I was aware that my previous dietary discipline was slipping, then slipping badly, then nearly non-existent for the past few months, but I couldn't seem to convince myself that I should care.  Something, I don't know exactly what, changed over the weekend....perhaps my overindulgence at the Japanese restaurant after church on Sunday got my full attention....but I woke up on MOnday morning with the determination I USED to have every day for 7 years in a row!!  Shaming myself for losing touch with dietary reality will not help me, so I am adopting the AA mentality that I did fall off the wagon, so I will admit it, take ownership of my erroneous ways and start again at Step 1!!  And what did I eat when I went out for dinner the past two evenings?  SALADS, with a bit of soup and a thin slice of garlic toast at the first restaurant and a handful of corn chips at the second one in order to have sufficient carbs, but without going nuts and messing myself up.  Low fat dressings or no dressing at all on a salad was a way of life for me for seven years and I am finding it incredibly easy to revert to that style of salad eating.  I already feel lighter mentally and over the next few months I hope and pray that lightness begins to translate to actual weight loss.  If I can make use of the sunnier, warmer days ahead to have at least a short walk each day, moving as quickly as my present physical condition allows, that too will help.  I am excited because I am feeling so encouraged about my eating habits returning to what they should be and seeing evidence over the past three days that it is possible to reinstate my old disciplines.  YAY!

Comfort Food

We had so much fun last night at Agave with my walking partner and her husband. She and I found yummy meals to suit our picky tummies, my husband was thrilled with his giant beef barbacoa burrito because it was so packed with beef and beans that he was able to bring half of it home and my friend’s husband was able to take advantage of the Taco Tuesday special. What an amazing array of taco fillings and sauces! 

I was particularly interested in hearing our friends talk about amazing travel options they are putting together to celebrate an upcoming special anniversary. Being one of the world’s most content armchair travellers, I will be thrilled to enjoy their plans vicariously and pretend it is me going on these world tours without having to actually go anywhere. Yes, yes, I am lazy about making my own travel plans, I confess it! 

My plans for today are up on the air, having scheduled myself for some serious housekeeping only to discover my husband’s weekly retired pastors’ meeting has been rescheduled from in person to Zoom. Shucky darn, I won’t be able to run the vacuum as it is too noisy and will just have to find something more quiet and fun to do…poor me….teehee. 

Tomorrow, Lord willing, my weekly coffee buddy and I will finally get to resume our weekly conflabs after a series of weather related cancellations extending back into last November. It has been most frustrating. Since discovering a new place we really like it will be wonderful to get back into our weekly routine as the weather continues to improve.

Sometime before this Sunday we are supposed to be heading back out of town to the church where my husband preached last Sunday. About 15 years ago he built an adjustable height preaching pulpit for them and now the adjusting mechanism is wearing out so he wants to replace it. Since he invented the mechanism himself he should have no trouble doing the job. ROAD TRIP!! Yay!!!!

It is a happily busy week for us. 

While I am still living with trepidation about who will soon be moving in next door, I am feeling less sad today over the loss of our good neighbours. Spending time with our friends last night and the night before, plus visiting my hospitalized friend really helped me. So grateful and just placing my hope in God for being able to cope once again with new neighbors. Amen! 

And Just Like That (SNAP) Life Is Good Once Again!

 I am grateful that I was able to get over to the hospital to see my "incarcerated" friend this afternoon.  She is feeling better, is awaiting a conference among the medical staff there next week when a decision will be made as to when she can return home and was generally a ray of sunshine for me on this otherwise gloomy day!  Today I was needing more encouragement than she was!!  hahaha  

The last few months I have been feeling so useless in terms of being any help to anyone.  So, a few days ago I prayed and asked for some small ways I could at least occasionally help SOMEONE, with something, anything at all that is spur of the moment....and there has been a slew of little answers each day since.  None of the things are the sorts of events that would be worthy of a blog post, not even worthy of a mention in passing conversation because they are things most of us do for others every time we go somewhere away from home, but still, these few small incidents have spurred me on to pay attention to what is going on around me just in case I can help out.  From driving a very cold homeless person to a friend's place one day, to picking up a dropped shopping bag for someone in a grocery store parking lot and getting it returned to them, to holding open doors at a business for a fellow in a wheelchair, to stopping to listen to a stranger on the street who needed to download about her struggles in life, it has been good to do even such little things that have been missing for months over the winter when I have been stuck inside so much of the time.  These small things are done so quickly, barely noticeable and rarely worthy of remembering a few minutes after the happen, but when even such normal daily occurrences are completely missing from my life I feel like my only purpose is to waste the remainder of my winter induced housebound existence for no good reason.  To be able to get outside and pay attention to other people who might need a tiny service performed for them....that is living and purpose to me.  I am not currently capable of making large or ongoing committments to anyone while I wait for my surgeries, but even the wee, unremarkable encounters in daily life are sustenance.  So glad I prayed for these chances to happen.  It feels good to be able to access dry parking lots and sidewalks and get on with living properly! The end of winter is a wonderful time!!!

An "Out Of Sorts" Sorta Day!

 I am very grateful we are meeting good friends for dinner tonight at Agave!!  I can't seem to settle into any of my needed house chores, or anything entertaining or relaxing or exciting or anything at all.

There are a couple of reasons for my feelings today.  First of all I woke up to a steady snowfall and while it is melting on the streets and obviously not going to hang around very long, the sky is grey, my car is parked on a side street collecting snow while our neighbour has the moving van outside in our parking space while the movers pack up her belongings....which brings me to the second reason I feel rather morose today:  the last of my wonderful, quiet, friendly, "other side of the wall" neighbours is leaving for another accommodation. Sigh....Although we didn't spend a great deal of time together in person, her texts and phone calls kept us in touch about all manner of things; personal things, issues with this building complex, spiritual things.  Until I saw her drive away in her car, followed by the moving van, a few minutes ago it hadn't really hit me that she is not coming back to be my neighbour.  Guess  I am just feeling kind of sad about that.

Going out last night with some other dear friends to the Cottage for some very nice meals kept my mind off of today's impending loss. There was so much laughter and joy around the table as we celebrated quite a few events that have happened in all of our lives over the past year.  I am grateful for the fun and friendship that kept my spirit light last night.

Tonight will be a great time as well with another pair of wonderful friends.  The four of us have been taking a few journeys of discovery into the wonderful world of local restaurants over the past couple of years and that has been a ton of fun.  She and I are a kind of picky eaters with limited numbers of things we enjoy and our husbands are pretty open to enjoying large plates and bowls of almost anything at all, hahaha.  I think Agave will give us all plenty of choices, but I am certain I will order my usual taco salad with beef barbacoa because I like it so much.  We are familiar enough with the menu that I hope we can steer her toward less spicy items she will also enjoy.  Ooh, what a balm to my hurting heart that we get to celebrate life with fun friends tonight.

To get out of this funk I think I should go to visit a hospitalized friend after lunch. The best way to get my mind off my own self absorbed self is to try to encourage someone else....the "rub off" effect should be most helpful to me as well.

The weather is going to be improving daily, with single digit plus high temperatures toward the end of the week and by next  Monday it is possible we will have a day or two in the double digits plus daytime high range!  YAY!