FAR FAR AWAY

It does feel like I've been to the ends of the earth and back lately. With the trip to Alberta to visit my brothers and one sister, getting the darn crud going around, then preparations for an open house - well I'll tell you I have been a bit played out. You would think that with getting the latest and greatest flu needle, I would not have gotten the "love flu" from my two little grandsons, but no. Obviously, they had the one flu that was not included in the shot this year. Oh well, now it is Auntie's turn to be down with the "love flu". If you are wondering why I call it the love flu, well it just makes sense tgo call it that after the littles have been hugging me while coughing in my face, touching me with nasal drippings on their tiny hands and of course in the case of the three year old - well maybe you don't need to hear that he ran his booger encrusted hands all over my clothes while telling me that he loves me. Now you see!

This week has been the start of Christmas around the place. First I did up my pots in the front of my garage with some greenery. Then I bought a big pot of poinsettia and put them in the living room. Next I got two wintery baskets. One for the coffee table and one for the entry way, and that is as far as I have gotten. No worries, lots of time till Christmas. The kids are going to help me put up a few lights outside once it warms up - maybe next July hahaha. We are sitting at -20C right now and that does not include the wind chill factor. We are going down to -25C tonight. Tomorrow and Tuesday will not be much better, but slowly the temperature will get warmer toward next weekend. Because of all the Christmas that is happening, we will have to do it on Sunday. When I was growing up, the only thing we had to look forward to in our community was the school Christmas concert and for the old folks the News Years do. As our kids grew up and over time it has gotten busier and busier. I often wonder why and have come to the conclusion that I think people don't want to spend time by themselves. I find that so sad. How can you get in touch with yourself and with God if you are always busy.

 Somewhere around December 16th, the grandkids and some wanna be grandkids will be coming over to decorate their trees. I have a small tree for each of them and they get to decorate it with the ornaments (one for each year) and whatever else I have on hand. Then the fun part comes. They get to pick what prominent spot their tree will have this year. So funny, once grandson puts all his decorations on only one half of the tree. His brother gives all his decorations to Dakota and tells her to do it. Meanwhile Dakota and Zack decorate to the nines. 

Yesterday, my granddaughter had a play date with 15 of her closest friends i.e. all the girls and a couple of boys in her class as well as some neighbourhood girls. They made cake pops. Nicole hasn't posted any pictures yet and no one has heard hide nor tail from them today. I am going to assume that it was a success and all are sleeping off the after effects of the sugar and all those kiddies. My daughter-in-law Nicole is a trooper. She will go to the ends of the earth for her husband and kids. She is great at planning and doing family things.

We got a "family" pop-up trailer this past summer to tide us over until we either find a cottage or I lunge head first into a motor home. I really do not think that trailer will sit for any length of time. She, the kids, aunty and uncle Gregg will be on the road all summer. I can hardly wait so see where all they go. We live in a province that has BIG lakes, as well as lots of forest with many, many, many campsites available. Oh, it is not all honey and roses here -- we are after all the mosquito capital of the world.

Today, I took time to work on an Angel for the top of someones tree. I am doing it in hardanger and when I am a bit further on into the cutting and stitching I will post pics. On my needles, I have a dress going for Dakota. I haven't worked in the round for so long I seem to have forgotten the rules etc., so said dress will not be ready for the Yule Tide season. Such is the life of a needleworker - we are never on time for anything!

Take care, stay warm and enjoy the week that leads up to the start of advent. Is anyone doing any special bible study for Advent. I am going to try. I am not sure though which one I will pull out to do.

Blessings

Jean

An Ode to Nike

My son and his family had to put their beloved dog to sleep today. Nike was 11 and had gone blind, had bladder and kidney troubles, arthritis and was at times becoming disoriented. We all loved Nike, but probably not to the extent that my daughter and youngest grandson did. There were tears today and I am sure there will be tears for a while.

Nike

When Nike came into our lives, my son and daughter-in-law lived in "the little house on the prairie". Within a few short months of living there, they obtained two dogs. Cassie, the first acquisition was a rescue dog from way up north. Cassie occupation would be to chase the ball for hours on end. Cassie was a bit territorial and if she didn't hear you coming, the situation could get a bit dicey. When she was probably 9 or 10, they decided it wasn't safe and had her put down. Nike had come from another pet rescue place. Both dogs were a little big for a 900 sq. ft. house so hours everyday would be spent outside.

Nike was a bit challenged when it came to learning to play with toys but my how she could run and run she did. You did not let her out of your site for a second or we would be running down the road often for miles to catch her and bring her back home. When she got home she would be smiling like she'd just won the dogie marathon! Her second occupation was digging. They put in a beautiful dog run which lasted all of about two weeks. No, the dogs didn't destroy it, Nike dug her way out so many times that there was no use in keeping the two of them in it any longer. So, what was the alternative - the horse barn. The dogs loved it in there. It was cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It had a dutch door and weather permitting, Nike could hang her head over the bottom part and watch the world go by. Thankfully, she never did get the notion that if she jumped, she could get out. From there they moved into a town and Nike's days changed. They had a yard that was fenced and Nike never did figure out how to get out. Her next occupation became goose chaser. My son runs a golf course and the players do not take kindly to having goose droppings all over the course. A few times a week my son would take Nike to the course. She loved her new job and took it seriously. Those poor geese never knew what hit them when Nike was on patrol.

When the two kids were born, they each had a favourite dog. Granddaughter's was Cassie and Grandson's was Nike, though he would never let on that he even liked Nike. However, if you took a glimpse around the corner more than likely grandson would be curled up next to Nike having a snooze. Already grandson is asking when Nike is coming home to cuddle with him - he's almost 3 and is having a hard time understanding. We have suggested to him that Nike is with granddad and that granddad is taking Nike to do a job with him. You see, grandson's favourite thing was to "do a job" with granddad. They would fix things and Glenn always had the patience and took the time to teach little grandson, so if he has the visual in his head of Granddad taking Nike to do a job with him, it might help him feel better about loosing his best friend.

As for my daughter, she took very good care of Nike when she was visiting with them and yes, she too will have many tears for Nike today. Even though she is in her 30s, I believe she hopes God has a special place for all the pets in heaven!

And so ends another day. I am thankful how this dog has made us all stop and pnder life today. My hope is that through the process of losing a pet, we will become softer hearted people. Not just towards animals, but towards people and relationships, as everything that happens in life is an opportunity for us to grow and become more Christ like.

Blessings

Jean

A Lost Summer

As it is now almost the end of August, I have officially lost all of this summer. If you were to ask what I did, I can't remember. I certainly didn't go anywhere. It took me till the end of July just to clean up from winter. I do remember the blistering hot days with humidty that did more than curl my hair. I will really be glad when it cools down and stays that way! This week we are to get back up to +35 with humidex of +40 so hot again.

Mostly, I've been thinking about changing my life and what that entails. I know that I want to move by the end of October. Will it happen? I sure hope so because usually halloween night winter starts. It is so weird. During the day of halloween it is usually a very mild day with temps. up in the 18 to 20 range (around 68 F) and then once the kids hit the streets, the wind comes up and by the end of the night it is snowing. Yes there have been a few years where that did not happen, but they are few and far between. Anyway, back to moving! I really would like to move before the snow falls. I have my eye on a couple of places and hope to have it all sorted out this week. Then I can get my house up for sale. I am told it will take a week at most to sell. Before I can list though there are a couple of things that need doing. The people who renovated my house did not know to tape the drywall (or maybe just skipped a step) - hence in my sewing room (a.k.a. the spare bedroom), the ceiling looks like it could fall at any time. You can also see where they put up the metal on the corners, but again did not tape. In the living room, my dear departed darling decided to see how they made the bay window, so out came a bit of drywall and boy I don't know what planet he was on when he fixed it - what a mess. His dad was a carpenter and painter and the apple really fell far from the tree in this case. I also need to put some new carpet in the basement and paint down there. You would think that I would know a drywaller but no, no, no, not a one to be had. I need to find one this week. Hopefully will be able to find a painter too. In my dream world they would be one and the same. The carpeting, I am hoping both sons and my daughter will do that, but that too may be only a fading dream. If only some other relatives lived closer, but they are all at least 900 miles away.

I am wading through my life and finding it very interesting to see the things I wasted good money on and know within my heart, I will never get to creating or using them. I know at some time Glenn must have warned my about this, but did I listen? Never, and now I am really sorry I didn't. I really had to have a good confession and prayer time with that. In fact, God has been dealing with a lot of things big and little that I probably wouldn't have let him in to deal with if Glenn was alive. I know it sounds bad that Glenn had to die so I would smarten up, but it really isn't like that at all. God's timing is perfect and so his time to take Glenn was then and now it is time to deal with things and move on.
Moving on is hard too. Some days I miss Glenn so much, I too want to go home, but in my heart I know now isn't the time. As I go through all our things deciding what goes and what stays, it really shows me how unimportant things here on earth are and how important prayer, obedience, trust and relationships are. I am praying now very differently than in the past and God has given me different burdens than before. What a wonderful God we have. As for the things, I also realize how little I need on a day to day basis. After I get through them mess in my sewing room, (why oh why did I keep all those scraps and patterns from the internet) I will just have a few things to get rid of in the basement and a whole lot of old paperwork. Glenn believed with all his heart that if he threw out one scrap of paper it would come back to bite him. So we will be having a few fires once it gets a bit cooler. I have so much furniture to get rid of also. Though I am only in a 1180 sq. ft. place, there were areas that needed larger furniture i.e. who wants three sofas? I am really hoping to get this condo that is a little way out of town. It is an apartment type with 1320 sq.ft. and has just been totally remodelled. It is gorgeous I tell you. If I get it I will post pics. Two bedrooms, one is set up for an office and has a murphy bed. That one will make a great sewing room. It has a large laundry room where I plan to keep all my fabric and stitching gear. It has a great kitchen, dining room, living room that is open concept. The bedrooms are not side by side and have their own bathrooms. It has a very nice balcony that has an attached terrace. I swear the terrace is so big I could fit my current house on it. I am really looking forward to being able to entertain out there. It overlooks the river and the lock. I would be on the second story and underneath my terrace is the indoor parking. I like this one so much but if it gets sold before I am ready, then I know God has something even better, so am not worried at all. All I can say is that if this falls through, I will be very excited to see what God does provide. My daughter would like me to move to a town closer to her. I am hesitant though winter driving here is really bad sometimes. The vehicles are good for the weather, it usually is the blowing snow that makes the drive so bad.

Roscoe went to a new groomer last week. She did an awesome job. She did a short show cut and he knew it! As we strolled around the block you could see him smile and hold his head up high and oh my when he saw the "missus" well she really hurried her walk to keep up to Roscoe. Usually the missus is very slow and stops to have three or four good rolls in the grass or snow. Her "dad" could hardly keep up to the pace that day. By the way he is a Bichon and she is a large golden retriever. The neighbours have such a laugh over the two of them. Just a few days ago, the neighbours across were walking their little shitzu cross. A few of us were standing there talking when they came up, so I introduced their little lady as the "mistress". We all had a good laugh over that. Roscoe will miss the girls, but hey I'm sure there are more out there for the little gigolo.

Got a new camera so maybe one day soon there will be pics. Have been working still on my stash with a couple of quilts. Got a new Phaff so am slowly getting use to it. In the needlework area I am working on one Hardanger piece and one cross stitch. I normally don't do much cross stitch, but in this case I will make an exception.

Have a blessed week all!
Jean