Spend, Spend, Spend....I LOVE IT!!

This font is called Happy Monkey.  I am using it today because I feel very happy....as if I have gotten away with some unexpected shopping fun of my own! hahaha

I had a great visit with my coffee buddy this morning. Our husbands are also becoming better and better friends, so it is ideal when all 4 people can relate and enjoy each other's company.

After lunch my husband decided we needed to complete the shopping list of outstanding items that we started purchasing yesterday.  Off we went again across the city. Most of the purchases were practical items for our household and my husband's workshop, BUT eventually we ended up at Victoria Square where I got a chance to get out of the car and walk up and down the mall....or what remains of the mall.  Oh my goodness, so many places I used to shop at there are gone.  They have been replaced by a couple of video game parlours, and a large community centre that was filled with teens making good use of the space.  I am glad I went up there to see the place, but I have little reason to ever go there again now as my usual haunts have vanished.  Victims of online shopping and rental increases?  

It was good to get out and walk after doing my physio between 7am and 8am today so I could get it done before my company arrived.  Lots more walking is going to help restore the muscles that have atrophied so badly.  

Our last stop was at a sports store where my husband purchased a new waist pack.  For some reason, in the ten years we have lived here we have never been into The Prairie Summit sports shop.  They have an amazingly large selection of athletic outerwear, backpack repair parts, etc. etc.  From now on when my husband needs such gear he will shop there first.  It is a very cool place and looks deceptively small from the outside of the building.  It carries many things that Fresh Air Experience doesn't carry and vice versa.   

While my husband was in Prairie Summit, I realized there was a Rhoda's consignment shop just down the block so away I went for a bit more walking.  In there I found, FINALLY, the perfect black purse for myself....brand new, hard sided, lots of separate spaces inside for the sorting I like to do of my carry-belongings.  I bought it and the cutest little mint green knee length pullover sweater vest that will look great over either black or white pencil pants and skinny tops.  The sweater vest has all kinds of holes in it and it is the cutest thing I have seen in a long time.  What fun I ended up having at our last pit stop!

It is hot again today of course, but we were able to open one upstairs and one downstairs window a few minutes ago, so there is a bit of fresh air exchange going on that is much appreciated.  Having an air conditioned car certainly has made our last couple of days of errand running pleasant!  

Along our route this week we came across the Domo gasoline station on the northern part of the city Reserve land and as usual the price of gasoline there was lower due to not having to pay most of the government taxes. Gasoline jumped up as much as 15 cents a litre yesterday to an average of one dollar and forty two cents a litre.  We got ours at the Rez station for one dollar and twenty two cents a litre. It was certainly worth the short line up we were in to take advantage of the price.  

Time to go and look in the fridge and cupboards to see if there is something creative I can prepare later for dinner tonight.  

It Seems I Can Walk Farther When I Have A Specific Task To Accomplish!

Today has given me a good revelation of what I am capable of now in terms of distances for walking.  I am encouraged that this will cause my weight bearing to improve soon!

I do enjoy doing my lying down exercises before I even get out of bed in the mornings.  That makes my second round of physio after breakfast easier to do. My leg becomes far less exhausted and I can do more reps of that second set of exercises now.  Still hanging on, but there has been a bit of  improvement with the weight bearing. For the standing hip abductions I can stand on my operated leg and manage to push the other leg out sideways and hold it for about 3 to 4 seconds now instead of a split second to one second....I know that doesn't sound like a huge improvement after over a week of attempting full weight bearing physio, but for me it is a true breakthrough that is encouraging me greatly.

My husband returned home from his morning medical appointment absolutely ravenous and eager to get going on our shopping before the afternoon traffic began, so off we went.  As we were driving he remembered he hadn't had any breakfast yet and the time was approaching 11:30am.  I know what that kind of "fasting" can mean for his very sensitive digestive system, so we dropped into The Cottage for his brunch.  I enjoyed another chicken Caesar salad while he scarfed down a bowl of avgolemono soup, followed by a burger and fries and the remains of MY meal. hahaha  He was so hungry.  hahaha

 

Then we went grocery shopping in a very large grocery store.  We were in there for nearly 45 minutes and I was on my feet the entire time, trucking up and down the aisles, putting minimal weight onto the grocery cart as I raced about. Compared to how slowly I have been walking lately, "racing about" it certainly was.  We parked a long way from the store in the huge parking lot, so I also had to navigate that walk both directions.  As soon as we got home I had to remain standing on my feet to rinse off and put away all the groceries. So, I was on my feet for over an hour total, apart from the five minute drive home from the store.  AND I didn't collapse in a chair the second I was done putting away the groceries!  I had some small chores to do upstairs first, so continued moving about.  I am greatly encouraged.  The problem with going for walks outside, I am realizing, is that I am kind of bored, so I am concentrating too much on how my leg is feeling. There is so little to distract me that I am giving up on the outdoor walks too quickly. 

Tomorrow afternoon my husband and I are going to go over to the large park near our house and do one of the shorter trails so we have interesting things to look at and talk about. As he is having some serious circulation issues in his legs right now as a result of spending too long each day sitting at the computer, we are going to try to walk most afternoons. When I have had enough I can turn around and go home and he can continue walking for awhile at his own, much faster pace.  Hopefully this will turn into a routine we can enjoy three or four days a week at least.

We are losing another wonderful family from our complex. She and I have been sharing prayers together for our various health conditions and surgeries...at age 39 she is YOUNG to be experiencing a deteriorating spine and is awaiting a serious surgery soon.  Yesterday we saw a U-Haul pull up to their place and they started loading up their household.  Today we had the opportunity to connect and say goodbye.  Sad for us, BUT we are very happy for them. They have been saving money to purchase their first house and that is why they are leaving here.  So excited for them and their children are thrilled as well.  Thanking the Lord we were able to see them to say goodbye.  Life as we have known it here is changing rapidly with the sudden departure of several long term neighbours in the past month.  Still praying our current neighbours on the other side of the wall decide to put in the six months of winter here before they also leave, but I suspect God's answer just may be "no".  Well, we shall see what happens next........

Encouraging News From Our Cardiac Patient!

Hello again prayer warriors! Better news this time about our dear friend! As of a couple of days ago he began feeding himself, pulling himself out of bed and being strong enough to sit in his chair for several consecutive hours. He still has a long way to go, but thankfully the outlook is looking much less bleak than it was a week ago. God bless you all for continuing to pray for him and for his worried family. There is good reason once again to expect a proper recovery.

Temperatures Here: Up And Down, Back And Forth....Aiiii Yiiiiiii....

 It is another relatively quiet night here music-wise, thankfully!  If we step out on our back deck we can hear the Shake the Lake concert going on, but the noise isn't overwhelming.  In the front of our place we hear it even less. Presently I have all the windows closed and can't hear the concert at all....yippee!

So why do I have all the windows closed of an evening on a warm summer evening in August?  It is because we are going to have another one of our odd temperature fluctuations tonight:  from overnight lows of +15C down to a chilly +9C over the past week, one night only dropping to +20C, tonight it is forecast to be +2C and we have a frost warning!!  By the middle of next week we will have overnight lows in the mid teens again and daytime highs close to +30C.  Honestly, I feel like I can't keep up with the weather changes around here.  A few minutes ago I discovered the frost warning online and had to awaken my husband to go and find blanket and towel covers, along with wrap straps to cover up the tomatoes and herbs growing on our back deck. Unbelievable!  Hopefully there won't be any frost, as there are to be wind gusts overnight of 40km, BUT right now the air is completely still so if we don't get those wind gusts there will indeed be at least a light dusting of frost by morning.  Crazy town!!!

We are sad because some wonderful longer term tenants across the parking lot arrived this morning with a U-Haul and began loading up their belongings for a move out.  Sigh....we were just getting to know them a bit in recent months....lovely people with well behaved children. They hadn't mentioned they were going to be moving so we were unprepared.  That is the third set of longer term good tenants that have left us in the dust recently. Sigh....O Lord, when will it be our turn to go?  When will a new accommodation adventure finally begin?  My recovery rate from my surgery is going so slowly that it will likely delay my second operation and that will keep us in place even longer...NOOOO!  hahaha  It's okay really...I know from past experience that when the move finally comes it could arrive and happen VERY quickly indeed.  Well, we shall see what happens next with neighbours. If the wonderful folk on the other side of our adjoining wall do move out in a couple of months when their current lease expires, do we dare to hope the Lord will provide great neighbours yet again????  Guess we have to start asking now, just in case....

Had the most lovely visit with a friend this afternoon. Two hours of wonderful conversation, sharing memories of growing up years and extended family members, exchanging stories of things God has done in our lives.  We have been friends now for 8 years and are still finding new topics to discuss.  God bless my husband for taking me to her house and picking me up afterward.  

Church tomorrow....hopefully we both sleep well enough to be able to have the energy to attend!   

Wha' Happened To The Music??

 So, after a couple of weeks of dreading this weekend of our annual outdoor rock concert, S hake The Lake, I am wondering what is going on.  It was to start at 3pm today and rock on until after 11pm, but it is nearly 11pm right now and thus far we have not heard so much as a single raspy, quavering vocal or slammin' drum beat.  What the heck?  I mean, it is lovely to not have that noise booming at us for hours, but it is SO unusual that a few minutes ago I actually went online to see if the event had been cancelled at the last minute for some reason....apparently not.....wow, would that every year this event would go so unnoticed by the tenants in our complex!!  NOW, if there was a way to make the same "magic" work to make the disruption of this year's upcoming Queen City Marathon disappear! haha

Despite having one of the best sleeps I have ever had last night, I woke up feeling kind of discombobulated and less than happy about life in general. Crazy....I should have been jumping for joy to have had a sleep like that!  Well, whatever the cause of my depressed feelings, they lifted mid morning when we got a call from out of town friends who were in town unexpectedly and briefly and hoped we would be home for a spontaneous drop in visit and would put the kettle on for tea.  YES!!! COMPANY!!!!!  It was a marvellous time for all of us. My husband raced around and found some old photos of a canoe trip he took thirteen years ago with one of our guests.  Oh my, didn't we have some good laughs over some of the changes that have happened in appearances from all those years ago! hahaha  The memories were sweet for these guys. The upshot of today's visit is that in a few weeks my husband and his friend are planning to go for a three day out trip with the canoe once again. It will be only the two of them, plus thirteen years have passed, so the trip will be MUCH less ambitious than the one we reviewed today, but I am thrilled they are going to get out again on the water together.  His wife and I are going to spend that time together at her place, so I will get a break out of here for three days...YAY!  Something else to look forward to for us both here.  Any sense of depression I had when I awakened was long gone by the time they left.  

It was a very nice day today after all. Thank you God!! I feel much better now.

Guess I will have to close all the windows tonight despite not being blasted out by rock music!  There is a parking lot party going on in the court beside ours, there are a number of young, stoned or drunk, young men out in front of our place cussing each other out and making threats of violence, (no guns or knives in evidence as of yet, thankfully), cars whose drivers are deliberately backfiring their vehicles as they race down the street outside the bedroom window, there are young kids running back and forth through the parking lot screaming and shrieking....with joy....I think...., there is a fellow climbing out of the large garbage bin in the parking lot cussing loudly at the contents of the bin because he apparently intended to sleep in there tonight but couldn't get comfortable enough to stay....wow, it hasn't been this scary around here in weeks and weeks.  Guess it is time to go and pray to God for protection for one and all out there, in their various states of drug and alcohol fuelled angry outbursts, and pray the kids will be safe until they finally haul themselves inside to bed.

Tomorrow is fresh peach fundraiser delivery day from my friend's church, so I am really looking forward to getting those delightful fresh fruits to enjoy. 

Little Glitches Are The Most Annoying, Aren't They?

 Happy "Almost The End Of The Work Week"!

First of all I want to pass on our cardiac patient's family's gratefulness for your prayers for him.  A procedure that was used to stop extreme bleeding was successful and that is a wonderful mercy, but he is not out of the woods yet.  This man must be made of strong stuff because despite ongoing delusions, pain and immobility, he is fighting on.  When he first arrived back at home after his cardiac and lung surgeries, he was at a point where he could walk around the block and at the moment it is taking him nearly a half hour to sit up in his hospital bed, get his feet over the edge and onto the floor, stand up, sit down and get back into bed. Thankfully some of the medical staff were able to get him up for a short walk in the ward yesterday.  I remember my own father going through similar disasters post heart attack surgery and how recovery seemed to drag on for such a horrifically long time, so I am praying our friend does not have to further endure this series of setbacks and can get back into full recovery mode.  Thank you all SO MUCH for your prayers for him.

Around our house there has been one disappointing little glitch that is actually a disappointment for our whole family.  Our son and daughter in law were so excited to be able to hear my husband's sermon from last Sunday and have been waiting all week for the recorded version to appear online.  It hasn't appeared day after day and tonight on the church website there is a notice that the service was not recorded due to a technical glitch. Sigh....we were so excited that our "kids" have been so enthusiastic about listening to a sermon together and now their and our chance of that spiritual input happening is kaput. God has his reasons and really I suppose it is not a big deal, it isn't like they won't have other chances in the future, but the topic was a special one that my husband put a lot of work into and presented so well.  We thought it would speak to their hearts in a good way. Well, apparently not actually meant to be.  hahaha  Yup, it is the little glitches that rub!

Went to Anglican evening prayer and healing again last evening at my friend's church.  Once again it was incredibly helpful and calming.  It is my friend's father who is struggling with the cardiac issues and it seemed that every prayer, every Taize song and even the homily were aimed directly at her to help give her peace and assurance that God is with her and her family. So, it was one of those special times with the Lord in the presence of others in the Christian community.  Thank you Jesus. 

Physiotherapy is still very slow for me, yet I do see some small progress that I am intensely grateful for.  I have honed in on the three exercises that remain the most difficult for me and they all involve the same set of muscles that have been so slow to respond.  However, there has been at least a bit of response. When I am tempted to be discouraged I remember back to when I shattered my ankle in 2011 and required nearly 18 months of physio therapy.  In that case I couldn't fully weight bear on that ankle until less than 2 weeks prior to being discharged from physio and my thigh and calf muscles atrophied to the point where they never fully returned to the same size as those on the other leg.  They have atrophied once again substantially, but I know they will rebuild sufficiently to hold me up when I stand and walk!!  Eventually!!! 

I am realizing how much I look forward to my weekly Thursday morning visitor.  The time together calms me, encourages me and gives me a purpose to get up and moving at least one morning every week.  I have an "embarrassment of riches" when it comes to people I know where the friendship is mutual, and I am well aware that not everyone is as blessed as I am. 

One of those friends is swinging by here on the weekend with a crate of peaches we ordered through her church fundraiser and our two families are sharing it. FRESH BC PEACHES!  I can't wait!!!  Peach pfannkuchen....my husband's specialty!  YUMMY!

Got myself a haircut this afternoon and for once had the presence of mind to book the next appointment 5 weeks in advance.  I usually forget to do that and as my hair grows longer and more unmanageable over the weeks, I am constantly flipping back through the calendar to discover when the last haircut took place.  Yay me for remembering this time!

After being stuck at home for a couple of days it was wonderful to get out for that haircut. My husband decided he was going to prolong my time away from the house by taking me to London Belle for my favourite of their dinner menu items: Cottage Pie and a Caesar Salad.  In our house when I was growing up it was called Shepherd's Pie and I once again enjoyed the tasty "stew" with just the right amount of potatoes to keep my carb count in line.  It is a very small portion all around, but so tasty and just right for me.  I appreciated his thoughtfulness as he has had several fun commitments away from home this week while I only had the short Wednesday evening church service. 

Waiting for some phone callbacks tomorrow from lawyers and doctors so we can get some appointments made over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, since we are home all day tomorrow as far as we know, those calls will all come in.  

This weekend is the annual "Shake the Lake" outdoor music extravaganza taking place only a few blocks from our place.  I am mentally prepared this year for getting no sleep whatsoever prior to about 1am on both Friday and Saturday nights and having a constant Boom Boom Boom Oooooohhhhhh Yeaaaaaahhhhh, going on from noon onward as the rock musicians crank it out.  The actual level of decibels reaching us will depend on wind speed and direction, but the screeching vocals and incessant drum beats will still be  constants no matter how softly or loudly they arrive through our windows. Then we get one weekend of freedom before the annual Queen City Marathon run the weekend after the September long weekend.  The circuitous route we will need to get to church, the incredibly difficult parking situation around the church with so many streets in that area closed for the marathon is a puzzle that becomes more difficult to solve with every passing year and the route changes year to year.  At least this year our complex residents are not completely trapped. There is one street that will take us out of the area if we are prepared to head in the opposite direction of the church, circle way north of it and attempt to find parking within two blocks so that I can manage to walk the rest of the way to the service.  Always a "fun" time for residents in our area who are not involved in the marathon and just want to be able to get out of their homes to fulfill other plans.  This year the route for the annual Pride Parade was more easy to skirt than usual and we all appreciated those changes very much indeed.  

After three hot days the temperatures are cooling down for a bit. I think the weather is going to be bearable again until next Tuesday and Wednesday. My husband had to cancel his canoe trip on Wednesday due to the heat and now it appears that their plan to go next Wednesday MAY be scuttled for the same reason. My poor husband. All he wants is to get out in the canoe for a short couple of hours of paddling with his friend. Is that really too much to ask for?  

Time for bed.  I have just finished a somewhat disappointing novel by a Canadian author. I had higher expectations than I should have had about the story, so I won't bother naming the book and author. I am sure there are many people who will enjoy the book, it just wasn't what I expected after reading some reviews before I read it.  So, I will sort now through the rest of the pile of unread books I collected from my husband's taking me on that surprise visit to all the local library pop up book sale tables.  So far I have only struck out on two of the six books I have read thus far.  Pretty good I think. 

 

Prayers Needed Right Away For Our Cardiac Patient Friend!

 Some of you have been emailing me and phoning to ask if there have been any updates on our dear friend who recently underwent extreme heart surgery with stents, blood clot removals etc., and had a terrible few weeks in ICU getting sorted out.  At last report I was able to tell you he had arrived back safely in his home city and has been doing well.....until a couple of days ago when he developed a nose bleed that would not stop!  All the blood thinners cardiac patients have to take do that sometimes.

Short version is that he ended up in hospital again in his home city and "died" there temporarily. A long series of chest compressions brought him back to this earth, but his condition is somewhat tentative and he will be in hospital in his home city for at least two weeks. Scary, scary times for his wife and family.

This person is the father of a dear friend and she too needs prayer. Of course her family would like her to be with them and she wants to go as well, BUT she has a child about to go through a major life transition next week and she absolutely needs to be at home for that.  So, she is torn, worried about making the correct decision for everyone involved.  Thank you for including her in her prayers.  If she is not at home for her child's event there could be long term negative effects for her whole family.  What a conundrum!!  Anyway, if you could remember her as well, that would be so kind.  I will be seeing her in a couple of days and hope to find her at peace.

Thanks again all you prayer warriors who have the gift of caring about people you don't even know.  Bless you all and let's see what God is going to do this time around.

I Think I Am Going To Enjoy My New Exercise Plan!

I am happy. I just completed my first day of the new physio plan and it is going to be very good, I think.  By the time I work up to 30 reps per each of the sixteen exercises the routine will take about one hour to complete, but for now it is taking just 45 minutes. Only having to do it once a day now means that I can take time to also walk a bit farther in stores and out of doors at other times of the day without worrying that I will miss a physio session and set myself back again on my recovery.  It means I am free to practise walking with even weight on both feet even when using the cane; to  get going on my  regular daily household chores without worrying that I will hurt my hip as I continue to improve and get stronger muscles.

 It has been a good day. My Thursday morning visitor is becoming even more of a prayer partner and we are having many spiritual conversations that I find edifying. I hope she feels the same way.  

Just before lunch another friend called to see if my husband could take a break from his preparation for this coming Sunday service long enough for us to go to her house for a visit.  We went and had a delightful time with her and her husband.  We all have so many interesting life stories to share. It seems that after being friends for the past 6 years or so we still have not run out of memories to share together.  It has been quite a lovely day.  

 Being so busy today meant my exercising didn't get done until late this afternoon, but my plan is, for most days when possible, to do the physio right after breakfast and then deliberately plan housework and short walks outside for after lunch.  Looks like we have a few days in the coming week when it will be cool enough to get outside for a few minutes without getting heat stroke, before a couple of uber hot days next week.  It is all good.  

I am exhausted from the first day of this new physio plan, so I am most grateful that my husband took it upon himself to make a chick pea curry tonight for dinner.  He grew some curry plant this summer so his chana masala tastes much more authentic now.  The smells emanating from our kitchen are most enticing.  Can't wait for dinner time to arrive!!

Glorious Rain, Cool Temperature, Lunch Out, Kitchen Cleaned, New Exercises Begun....A Perfect Saturday!

 I am still paying the price for having my foot jammed into too small a space yesterday for 2 hours during lunch with our visiting friends, but decided this morning that aching hip muscles were not going to interfere with my plans for today. AMEN!!

I took my time getting showered and cleaned up after allowing myself a tad extra sleep overnight and off I went with my friend for lunch.  We decided to have a REALLY good meal so we headed out to Emerald Park to Fancy Fork. It has been months since my husband and I were last out there.  My friend was delighted to discover they are still serving the now considered to be "old fashioned" Cobb Salad and also have on hand the equally "old fashioned" blue cheese dressing.  I noticed that their crunchy chicken burger was coated in corn flakes for a deep crisp, so I super enjoyed it.  I had them leave off the bun and I paired it with a caesar salad. It was delicious!  What fun we had visiting and laughing.  Once again my operated leg was forced into a less than comfortable position, but I have been home for nearly 90 minutes now and spent that time doing dishes, dusting cabinets and washing the kitchen floor, so the exercise, extending those hip muscles, has been beneficial to reducing the aching discomfort.  It has been a productive and fun day. 

The weather has been a delightful treat after a few days of rather too much warmth...at least for my husband and I.  Sometime overnight we had some rain and all day long we have had intermittent showers. There is a cool breeze and our high today is only going to be around +19C or so.  Perfect for "us guys".

In a few minutes I am going to attempt to try all but one of the exercises in the final phase of my physio programme.  I tentatively attempted one this morning before breakfast and was amazed that it was a relatively successful attempt.  So, time to try the other two  as well of the remaining four.  I will have to retain the full weight balance exercise from phase 2 and will have to use that one to work my way up to the other exercise I can't do yet in phase 3.  Getting my leg muscles on the operated leg to hold me up is taking forever, but I have moved up from 1 second to three seconds of full body weight over the past few days....three seconds....good grief, will I ever be able to hold full weight on my leg properly ever again???  Hopefully my appointment with the physiotherapist in the coming week will net me some sort of suggestion of how to move this problem forward just a tad faster.  My subconscious fear I suspect is that I will never regain full strength in those thigh muscles, but I know better.  I continue to try and am not cheating. I do my physio ever day, twice a day, with an exemption on Sundays to just do it once so I don't feel so caged into a seemingly never ending routine.

Church tomorrow morning, so I am pleased to be able to get out once again for some more spiritual "food" and fellowship. 

Great To See Old Friends And New!

 We had a wonderful visit over lunch today with one of my former teaching colleagues who became a friend as well, back when my son was still in elementary school.  Her husband was there and another couple she had been to Bible school with many decades ago, so it was a lot of fun to meet some new folk as well.  Our poor waiter seemed a bit confused as to when to deliver the meals to our table, but once all the food finally arrived it was tasty enough.  We had fun sharing old stories of meeting celebrities of various kinds over the course of our lives....one of the men went with his Cub Scout troupe to meet Queen Elizabeth ll when he was 8 years old.  He was one of the flag pole carriers and the poor fellow got heat stroke and fainted right about the time the Queen arrived and he missed her.  Poor kid!  My friend's husband recounted a meeting he had to attend a few years ago...a fundraiser in his city that his boss had to pull out of attending at the last minute so he told our friend to go in his stead.  Our friend went to the fundraiser not even being certain what it was raising funds for and had no idea what was going on. As he was finishing up a drink and deciding he had done his duty representing his boss, a fellow he didn't know came up and started chatting about the wonderful cause being supported and carried on with all manner of general chit chat, while our friend was uncomfortably attempting to leave.  Finally he was able to excuse himself.  As he was leaving he was swarmed by other attendees asking him, "WOW, what did he talk to you about. He was really chatting you up. What did he say to you?".  Our friend couldn't figure out why they were so excited. He just wanted to go home. Finally he asked them who it was he had been talking to and it turned out it was Bono from U2. hahahahaha  I laughed and laughed because I could see myself being just as culturally clued out at such an event.  I don't know who any of these famous people are either....I am still stuck culturally in the 1970's and early 1980's. hahahaha  I thought it was a great story.  Our poor friend was so embarrassed. hahaha

Our son called tonight.  He was so excited because he paid off his student loan today.  He is working on his final painting for the show in Vancouver the end of October.  If you feel so led, a prayer or two regarding the possibility of his green card application with a big fee to be paid showing up just a few weeks too late to avoid him paying ten thousand dollars to renew his current visa status as well during the interim, would be very much appreciated...by the whole family.   His wife is in a similar position.  We are trusting God together for the timing of all of this paperwork and the payout of thousands of dollars so a few more prayers would be encouraging for us all.  Bless you.  If he/she pays for a visa renewal and then the other application shows up soon afterward there will be no refund of any of that initial ten thousand dollars and all that money will be lost.

Tomorrow I am going for lunch with a friend from our care group.  It will be lots of fun. She and her roommate have been on holidays to a lake in Manitoba and always has good stories to share when she gets home. I am vacationing vicariously through friends and family this year since we won't be able to get away anywhere until later in the autumn, if at all this year.  

Have managed to clean all of our place except the kitchen, so that is my duty for tomorrow afternoon.  I was tired enough from housework the past two nights to sleep really well and after being out with friends plus grocery shopping this afternoon I am hoping for similar results tonight. 

Maybe some badly needed rain will be arriving tonight and into tomorrow. I certainly hope so. Today was comfortably cooler, so we really enjoyed that.  Dark clouds are building to the east of us, so perhaps there is a chance for the moisture...just hope there aren't any serious thunder and lightning storms as well.

The exterminator did a great job on getting rid of the wasps yesterday. When my husband checked the location of the nest today, only one wasp came flying out to greet him.  The exterminator will return near the end of next week to check and see if he had sufficient success on ridding us of the little blighters.

Off to church on Sunday morning. It is our pastor's first sermon since he returned from holidays and my husband is preaching there next Sunday, so it is always nice for him to be able to reference a few things from the two or three sermons previously for continuity.   I think it will be a good weekend.  For us it started off well since we saw friends and heard from our son today. YAY!

When The Pastor Is “Giddy As A School Boy”….

This past Sunday our pastor returned from his annual summer holiday and was the jolliest I have ever seen him to be. He smiled the entire time, led the singing with great verve, had a case of the giggles serving Communion and was using facial expressions and hand gestures to convey unspoken jokes to my husband during the final hymn…although my poor husband had no idea what the jokes were actually about, haha. What the heck? 

I have to be very careful not to view everything a pastor does that is a bit out of character for Sunday service demeanour through my lens of a pastor’s wife, but it is difficult not to wonder if the man has found another position somewhere else and will be leaving us in the near future. He was not acting like a pastor whose vacation has ended. He is usually much more solemn on Sunday mornings.

His obvious joy could have been for many reasons I would know nothing about, but my pastor’s wife antennae are on high alert. Our kickoff Sunday, when the fall and winter schedule and programmes begin is on September 7, so we shall see if any announcements are forthcoming. Hopefully I am way off base in my thoughts. 

My strained rib cage ligament is healing slowly but surely so that is encouraging. Now I have managed to “activate” the giant bone spur on the bottom of the heel on my unoperated leg. For Heaven’s sake, what next???? I can hardly walk even with my orthotics in place in my shoes. The past two days have been torture and doing my physiotherapy has been excruciating.  The spur has not bothered me for several years and the orthotic inserts usually relieve the pain almost instantly. So is the pain caused by something else? Have I overworked some other tendon or ligament? Good grief! I am so fed up with this apparently unending series of setbacks! I have to laugh because this recovery process has been ludicrous right from the start, but it has also been frustrating. Well, I will carry on and see how it goes today, hahaha…..

Tomorrow evening I am going over to one of the Anglican churches for the congregation’s inaugural mid week prayer service. My walking partner is picking me up so we can give it a try together. We’ll see if either or both of us feel any sense of call or connection in regard to making it a weekly event. 

Thankfully my Thursday morning coffee buddy is set to come over this week as well. Despite my aching foot, I am very grateful to have an opportunity to see more friends this week. Hearing about their lives is my lifeline to the rest of the world that is not contained within the walls of this suite where I live, as those walls continue to feel like they are closing in on me. 

I am very excited about Friday this week. Last night I got a text from a former teaching colleague from when my son was in elementary and junior high school. She lives on the west coast now and we see each other once every four or five years. She and her husband are arriving here on Friday and we are meeting them for lunch. That will be a ton of fun! Occasionally we exchange family news at Christmas but it has been more than five years this time since our last meeting, so I am really looking forward to the visit. Yay! 😃 

A friend in another province sent me a bunch of research she has been doing regarding affordable housing there, as she knows we are hoping to move out of this suite next year sometime, (try, try again, haha). She knows how much we would like to be able to move to her province so she is trying to help us with some initial research. How wonderful of a friend is she, right? There are reasons other than affordable housing that would likely prevent such a move, but we are following up on her research “just in case”. It is a fun project. It keeps my hopes for the future active  if nothing else and provides my mind with a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to eventually moving.

My husband and I need to start cleaning house today. As long as I can hobble about enough to wield the duster the project should be a GO! 

Supposedly we will get rain today and a slightly cooler high temperature. Please oh please may it be….l

An Encouraging Report On Our Cardiac Patient!

 My friend visited me this morning and gave a wonderful report on her father’s post op recovery! ❤️‍🩹  In the week since she last saw him in person, he has improved by leaps and bounds. In fact it is possible he will be discharged back to his home city by the end of this week. What amazing news! The family is so grateful for your prayers and hopes that if God brings our patient to mind you will say another prayer on their relative’s behalf. Bless you all.

Update On Our Senior Heart Patient

 I just received another update from my friend in regard to her father's heart surgery.  He is still in cardiac ICU due to the after the fact surgeries he also had to survive, but has been up in a chair, so that is a good sign.  He is struggling with the very common anaesthetic induced delirium, (particularly for seniors, although my father had a bad case of delirium after his first heart attack at 42), that many struggle with after such surgeries, so my prayer request is that soon he will pass through that stage of recovery.  It is a most difficult one for the family....at least it was for my mom and I.  His recovery is slower than usual, but no wonder after having to deal with surgical repairs and a clot within hours after the actual cardiac surgery.  Please also say a prayer for my friend who is flying home later today.  It will not be easy I am guessing for her to leave her dad in a hospital far away.  Thank you all so much.

Prayer Request Update

I received an email from my friend whose father some of you have been upholding in prayer since his cardiac surgery a couple of days ago. Thankfully he has survived not only the initial surgery, but additional surgeries to repair a surgical wire and remove a blood clot from his lung. He is very weak and highly sedated of course, but he is a survivor and his family is very supportive. My prayer is that his recovery will now progress more quickly and have no more glitches and that his family will be able to be at peace as he recovers.

Thank you all…..it is tough for the family watching the patriarch suffering with severe health issues.

So Now Our Kids Are Stranded In Toronto....Thanks.....Again.....Air Canada....Aiiii Yiiiii....

 We have had a marvellous visit with our family over the past week. They outdid themselves cooking and washing dishes, helping me change beds and generally expending a lot of their vacation time caring for us, me in particular.  It has been incredibly lovely and encouraging.  Our daughter in law has written a new play and she gave us a copy to read.  We look forward to doing that very thing this weekend.  What a treat to be included in reading the play she is most hoping to have produced sometime in the next couple of years.  Our son was the most laid back and happy we have seen him in many years.  Marriage seems to suit him well.  We are so grateful to God for the chance to be together once again....in Regina in the SUMMER for a change....one of the first times our son has not been here either in the dead of winter or during the arrival of our icky, brown, still icy spring season.  Thank you family and friends for your prayers that surrounded this visit.

The kids had a good flight from here to Toronto late this morning, they got through customs and immigration with no problems and their flight on to NYC was scheduled to leave on time....until it wasn't. Sigh....NYC is having a heat wave and today that intense heat resulted in severe thunderstorm activity so none of the planes out of Pearson in Toronto were able to fly on time.  I knew our family was sitting on the plane on time and in anticipation of a fairly long delay were watching some "in flight" movies.  Three hours after they got on their aircraft I checked the departing flights and most of the other airlines were able to start flying again into NYC as the heavy rain and storms had finally ceased.  But is OUR kids' flight on its way with the rest of the NYC departures? Nope!  After over 3 and a half hours of sitting on the plane waiting to take off, the flight was suddenly cancelled and our son texted us to say they were deplaning with no information yet as to what was going to happen next.  Grrrrrrr......I am so fed up with both of the Canadian airlines and their issues of not being able to get crew and the shortage of air traffic controllers in general in this country....what's with that anyway?  Our son and his wife now have to find a way to get in touch with their employers at this time of night to let them know they will NOT be returning to work tomorrow after all....it is 11:30pm in NYC right now.  

So, that is my rant for the evening.   Thank you for indulging me.  There are just too many incidences of this kind of thing going on in Canada.  Flying in this country is not fun any more. It is scary and worry inducing and frustrating and sometimes creates huge problems for passengers left in the lurch.  Okay, I am done now, I promise.

Other than tonight's frustrating airplane glitch, the rest of the past week has been marvellous!  We are so fortunate to have a wonderful family. They spent time with some of our friends and enjoyed themselves, they cooked amazing meals for us...bbq and veggie curries and and and....so tasty. My husband knocked himself out when it was his turn to cook, as well as drove us all over the place. He was the taxi driver for all of us and he was so cheerful doing it. God bless that man.

We are now talking about when we can return to NYC for another visit.  Later this fall our son has an art exhibition in Vancouver and we are thinking of flying out there for a few days so we can attend the opening and have a little pre-Christmas holiday.  Just in the chatting stage right now and until I see the surgeon again in early October we can't really count on any travel plan possibilities, but we shall see how things go.  You never know.....  Once I find out when or even IF my surgeon is going to schedule the second hip sometime in the new year, the kids will begin formalizing their plans for the wedding reception and party they weren't able to have when they got married.  As far as I am concerned those plans take precedence over another hip surgery for moi, so we'll see how that all works out as well.  Oooh, it is so exhilarating to be even thinking and chatting about possible travel plans, even if they can't be executed after all....even if they are going to have to involve the use of one or both of the Canadian airlines!

Tomorrow morning my weekly coffee time with my friend from church is scheduled and in the afternoon I am getting a haircut AT LONG LAST.  The last time it was cut was the last week of April, so it is in dire need of a "trim".  I am not sure my stylist will recognize me at this point, hahaha.;  

Physio is coming along well, but my thigh muscles are still very weak.  The exercises are certainly helping to strengthen them, but oh my....they do not like to be over used, that's for sure and they let me know it several times a day.  I am still putting far more weight on my cane than I was hoping to by now.  In 10 days I am supposed to be starting the next set of exercises, but I know I am not going to be ready. They involve putting full weight on my bad leg and there is no way I will be ready for that.  Moving too quickly is also still causing muscle pain.  Drat that there had to be muscle abrading done during the surgery.  The other sore spot is where one of the tendons had to be cut to put in the new hardware and so it is weak too with so little muscle support.  Ah well, this too shall pass....is passing...all will be well. 

Just got another text from our son.  The airline didn't even offer them a hotel room to stay in until the rebooking tomorrow, but fortunately his wife has a good friend in Toronto who they are staying overnight with.  God bless that dear friend. 

So, I am going to go to bed early tonight in hopes that I can sleep a few more consecutive hours than I have been the past two nights.  Don't get me wrong: it is amazing to sleep for 5 consecutive hours overnight, but usually that is the end of any sleeping, no matter how early in the morning that 5 hours ends.  

Have a great rest of the week everyone.

PS my friend's father who is suffering from heart issues as mentioned in my previous post, has had his open heart surgery moved up to TOMORROW!  My friend can't get out there that soon to see him, so please pray for peace of mind for her and for the rest of the family.  Thanks SO MUCH! 

For The Prayer Warriors Among You….

 ….my friend’s father is in need of prayer over the next couple of weeks. He has been diagnosed with severe heart issues and has been flown to a large city hospital for upcoming open heart surgery. My friend is flying to see him in a few days. His artery blockages are too severe for stents, so it is kind of scary.

Thanks for remembering him to God when you read this. Bless you.

Fresh Air And Sunshine...The Perfect Tonic For All Ills!

 Yesterday afternoon was a perfect time of visiting with friends.  We were able to sit outside on their back deck with huge trees shading us from the hot sun, with just a bit of breeze blowing to keep us cool enough to enjoy the outdoors and with minimal insects, despite the gorgeous hanging pots of flowers all around the deck.  We stayed for nearly 3 hours....okay, we did try to leave after 2 hours, but our hosts then decided it was time for tea and homemade blueberry scones.  Were we going to say, "NO!"? My friend told me her secret ingredient that makes the scones more moist than those from other recipes and adds a depth of flavour: lemon yogourt!  Who'd a thunk it?  Not I, says the woman who knows less than zip about baking much of anything.  My goodness we had a wonderful time. I came home completely played out from the soothing breeze and the fragrant air....oooh, it was so lovely.  How grateful am I for an afternoon like that?  So, so grateful!  One result of the visit for my husband is an invitation to join a men's breakfast meeting twice a month! He already knows the other men who attend and he is very happy to be involved in the group.  A happy result for me was that I was so worn out I actually slept well last night, even fell asleep in my own bed for 3 whole hours before waking up uncomfortable and dragging myself back down to the recliner chair in the living room.  YAY!!

Today I began my new physio exercises and am already encouraged. Are they difficult and somewhat uncomfortable?  Yes.  Am I going to be able to start out doing more than 10 reps a couple of times a day?  No, not at all.  BUT am I encouraged by how well the first session actually went?  Absolutely.  My hope of recovering well continues to grow.  YES! 

Our daughter in law emailed us from the airport at Laguardia this morning. As she hoped, since today is in the middle of the Independence Day weekend, the airport was nearly deserted.  Her flight was on time and she arrived happily for a few days in Toronto.  Now we pray that our son's flight on Tuesday here to our place and her flight here the following day, will go as smoothly as today's flight for her.  Gosh, the days are counting down to their visit.  Today I managed to iron 4 items of clothing and hope to do the other 4 later on so that I can be free tomorrow afternoon to start on the dusting while my husband begins to vacuum all the floors.  While our kids are happy to do that work for us, we know how exhausted they both are from work and worries, so would like to give them the unexpected treat of not having to do any cleaning for us. They need to sleep in, read books, go swimming and/or canoeing with my husband for a day, see a couple of local friends and just enjoy themselves. They can cook some meals for us, as that is something they both love to do and find very relaxing.

Good times to come, Lord willing. 

Today it is much cooler and that is partly because the brightness of the sun is completely dimmed by heavy, very smelly, forest fire smoke.  The odor is so rank that we were forced to close all our windows and cut off the wonderfully cool wind that was blowing through.  I hadn't realized this morning how bad the smoke was getting, but as I was starting to prepare lunch I realized my throat was becoming dry and sore, so upstairs I went to close windows.  The closer I got to the top of the stairs, the more rank the odor became.  No wonder I had a sore throat.  Now, a few hours later, my throat is fine again, but it is getting slightly too warm in here. I certainly hope this smoke dissipates by the time it is bedtime tonight or we are in for a miserable sleep once again.  

A Little More Activity At Home!

This has been a wonderful day of small accomplishments! While my husband was out at a meeting this morning I was able to get my breakfast and wash dishes, toss out the remains of what were once two beautiful bouquets of flowers and wash out the jars we used as vases, wash my hair and do my physiotherapy.  I made my own lunch, did more physiotherapy, then had a relaxing sponge bath after my husband removed the remains of the bandages over the incisions on my hip and leg.   Soon I will be steady enough and able to put enough weight onto my operated leg to stand in the shower.  Oh how I am looking forward to that!  Here's hoping for next week!! After my shower I dressed and changed all the sheets on the bed without any help. YAY!!  The full impact of what the surgeon told me in regard to a longer than hoped for recovery is hitting me more now, but I am not discouraged.  I am encouraged by seeing what can be accomplished as my brain fog dissipates and my energy level rises and my current physio exercises become much easier to master.  I am up to 25 out of 30 reps so will aim to start the full 30 either tomorrow or the next day. NOW, if I could just convince my body that it is comfortable sleeping on the bed instead of the narrow recliner chair.  In both places I am lying flat out, so what the heck is the difference?  Crazy, but this too shall be worked out in time.

After two days of rain the clouds have parted somewhat today and there have been some times of sunshine. Oh my how that lightens my mood.  It has been very cold overnight, but in a couple of more days the temperatures will be more seasonal, AND not too hot for awhile yet.

Friends of mine have taken time off from going to "The Lake" for their main summer holiday time this year.  They  are having a very exciting and different kind of trip.  Months and months ago they decided to follow up on an invitation from an American gospel composer and arranger they know to come to Nashville as part of a mass choir, with singers coming from all over North America, and record a Christmas album.   For a pair who rarely get to go anywhere farther than a few hours away during the summers, this is a rare and wonderful treat.  I am so very excited and thrilled for them.  One of them is the daughter of a barbershop singer and there is an amazing barbershop singers museum in Nashville. You can bet she will be visiting that while they are there. Her father, who died recently, will have his name engraved on a plaque honouring their singers who have passed.  They will also be meeting one of the "head honchos" of barbershop singing and that will be quite a thrill.  I can't wait until they arrive home in a couple of weeks and share their experiences. I am familiar with the music of the composer they are going to be directed by and I am certain it will be a marvellous, though  hard working, experience making this recording.

In two weeks' time our son will be arriving for a visit.  It has been a distant dream for what seems like months and now suddenly the time is telescoping and soon the visit will happen.  What more motivation do I need to continue working hard on my recovery?  His wife will arrive the following day and then we have a whole week together.  Just hoping to be mobile enough to enjoy a few fun activities while they are here. My husband will try to take them canoeing for a day so I can rest and they can do more than just hang around with the "invalid".  

So, life is improving. I am finding other things to think about and do apart from recovery.  Friends have been very faithful to keep in touch and check on my progress and God is continuing to relieve my husband and I of the burden of trying to "fit in" with certain folk who have reached out to us under some kind of obligatory duress over the past while.  We feel poised on the cusp of God being free to move in our lives with fewer self and church society imposed restrictions, so what that looks like we don't know, but a cloud we didn't know we were carrying is lifting off our shoulders.  We feel free once again to become enthusiastic about what God is doing in our lives, free to share more of that with certain groups of people we have had to pussyfoot around for quite a while and if it bounces us out of their social orbit, that is okay.  We have been lonely since we moved to this city so gave into some of that "gotta fit in to belong" pressure and now feel free to focus only on those who are willing to know the real us, not on those who kind of want to get to know us but get frightened off once they find out what our lives have been like in the past.  God bless them.  Not everyone is able to understand and appreciate everyone else's journey and that is quite fine.  We all have our place in the wonderful world of church and God's Kingdom here on earth!  Life may not change that much, but then again, it could change dramatically. The blessing is to be able to accept what DOES or DOES NOT happen in the future.

 

A Teeming Deluge Of Water!!

 Despite our city supposedly being outside the heavy rainfall area, we have just experienced over an hour of teeming downpour that has my husband running to the basement every half hour to check his wall and floor patching and ensure the hose he has attached to the one place in the wall where it is impossible to completely seal it, is firmly in place to drain water from that spot into the floor drain.  God bless him.  I can't even go downstairs yet, let alone sop up water and/or repair that hose and basin system he set up a couple of years ago that has saved us countless inches of water building up on our basement floor.  I am SO GRATEFUL for my husband's inventive skills that were honed from his childhood while growing up on a subsistence farm.

Today we have dear friends travelling from here to Calgary, the possible epicentre of flooding from rain storms to the west of us.  I have been praying they are not stuck on flooded highways, or had a breakdown with their vehicle and that they will arrive safely there tonight so they can catch their plane tomorrow for their holiday destination.   I have been watching the highways in Alberta on the cameras there, but some of them are now so rain spattered that the road is not visible through the murk.  So, I am trusting God will help them to get there safely. I do hope the northern fires are getting at least some of this water, but it seems to be contained from the central to the northern part of the prairie provinces.

We just received a notice that our church picnic scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled due to rain and cold weather.  Smart decision and I pray that the kids who were looking forward to it, as well as the people who already purchased their salad and dessert fixings for the BBQ potluck, will not be too disappointed.  Crazy weather abounds everywhere this year. 

There Truly Are Appropriate Birthday Cards For Every Circumstance!

I had company this afternoon. They brought me a birthday card after discovering I was in hospital on that auspicious day of celebration. Apparently it was purchased some months ago for no other reason than they found it funny, but it was more appropriate for me this year than the card creator had likely originally planned the card to be. 

On the front cover: Happy Birthday! Hip hip…..

Inside: Replacement! 

Hahahaha….how much more perfect could a card be for my birthday this year, right?? Hahaha……