lyn's lyrics & lifenotes

Emulating Mr Bean

2012-01-15T14:39:00.000-05:00

Our Pastor spoke this morning on new beginnings....of course this is often uppermost in people's minds in January. More than the typical New Years Resolutions though, it's important to set spiritual priorities and goals.

The cool thing that he emphasized was that God is the Creator. 'In the beginning God...' and God is quite capable of creating a new start from nothing in our lives. (Do you know what God said to the scientists who were attempting to create life in their laboratories? 'Get your own dirt!').

At the end of the sermon we were asked to do something very Mr.Bean-like. We were given a page, an envelope, and some time to write a letter to ourselves. We wrote it, sealed it in an envelope with our name and address on it, and handed it back in. It will be mailed to us without warning sometime in about 6 months. When we receive the letter from ourselves we can evaluate how far we have progressed from today.

Normally I don't advocate people emulating Mr Bean....but in this case, maybe Mr. Bean has a good thing going here....

Mr Bean - Birthday at a restaurant by mrbean

Gotta love old ladies!

2012-01-08T15:27:00.001-05:00

The closer I get to becoming an old lady (definition of old lady unknown...my kids think I'm already there), the more respect I have for them. They've already lived a lot of life and could teach me a thing or two, negative or otherwise.

I will not forget driving in busy Toronto and stopping at a busy intersection, waiting to turn right on a red light. All was clear, i pulled up and could have made my turn, but I noticed an old lady nearing the intersection on my right, cane in hand. With the best of intentions, rather than make my turn before she reached me, I chose to wait for her. I motioned for her to go ahead and expected a congenial, thankful response from a grateful old lady. Instead, she made her way through the intersection, obviously muttering in disgust at me, thrusting her cane in my direction because I was over the line from having pulled ahead earlier. (I really wasn't blocking her way). I'm glad I couldn't hear what she was saying. I felt profoundly sad for her in that moment and wondered what she has lived through in her life that she would be so miserable and miss the kind gesture.

There are miserable old ladies who complain at anything and everything.....and then there are the ones I love to sit near at church.

I want their faith, grace, and humility to rub off on me.

I have watched a couple of them in particular. In many ways life has not always been kind to them and over the years their bodies have started to hunch over, and walking and standing has become painful and difficult. Their faces do not reflect misery, but a peaceful disposition. I've watched hands that can't reach far, but none the less turned upwards in their best response to worship they can give. They don't care that the music is not their style of hymns from their generation...they respond with eyes closed, basking in the presence of the One who has been faithful...and will be to the end. He's never changed and they know He won't. They will just never get over His love for them.

Each generation has its own set of stressors, each quite different than the next, and yet stress just the same.

And each generation needs to know God for themselves...being encouraged by the old ladies and old men who have found His love unchangeable....to all generations.

Your vacation destination!

2012-01-07T00:21:00.001-05:00

If you've never considered North Korea as your vacation destination, perhaps you should plan a trip there soon, what with all the international attention this country has been getting recently.

Be sure to visit their high tech official website of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for all the information you need. I've provided a link to it at the bottom of this post. You really MUST check it out!

Expand your understanding of the nation and it's leaders from the wealth of knowledge provided on the site. We have all seen the beauty of South Korea, but this website provides seldom seen glimpses of realistic-like photos of their northern neighbour. Read about their leaders. Here's a sample from the website:

"Leader Kim Jong Il of Korea is possessed of an unusual ideological and theoretical wisdom that is originated from his innate gifts.

Kim Jong Il is a man of keen observation and clairvoyance.

The ability to observe and see through is essential to a political leader who has assumed the mission to gain a scientific insight into the trends and demands of the times and laws governing historical development, and light the way the masses of the people should follow.

Kim Jong Il has attained great ideo-theoretical achievements, always gaining insight before anybody else into the pressing issues of the times by dint of his keen observance and clairvoyance and giving scientific solutions to them. For instance, he expounded original ideas and theories such as the theory of ideology that ideological consciousness decides everything and the theory of the motive force of the revolution that the masses of the people are the driving force of history and the leader, the Party and the masses comprise a socio-political organism.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, when socialism collapsed in succession in the former Soviet Union and other East European countries, he saw through the fact that maintain the Juche character and national identity in accomplishing the cause of independence of the masses is essential to the rise or fall of a nation, and clarified that this is a fundamental principle to be adhered to in carrying out the cause of socialism. In the mid-1990s Korea held aloft the banner of Songun-it was also attributable to his keen observation and clairvoyant power by which he quickly grasped the features of the development of the times and situation, which demanded strengthening of the military might ahead of others for defending sovereignty and dignity of the nation amidst the imperialists’ high-handedness and arbitrariness.

Accurate analysis and excellent judgment are also innate gifts of Kim Jong Il.
It is fundamental question decisive of success in an undertaking to compare, analyze, reason and colligate things and phenomena to make a correct judgment.

Kim Jong Il, who had acquired sharp judgment, irrefutable logic and deep theory from his childhood, gives a definite conclusion to whatever ideological and theoretical questions on the basis of scientific analysis, colligation and systematization of them.
In his days at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from 1960 to 1964, he made an in-depth analysis of the scientific and importance of regional base in socialist construction, and presented a paper, The Position and Role of County in Socialist Construction. He scientifically proved in the paper that the country, a regional base in socialist rural construction, becomes a comprehensive unit that links town with village, imparts policies of the Party and the state to the countryside and directs and develops the political, economic, cultural and all other realms in rural areas, and that enhancing the role of country is of great significance in developing the socialist rural economy and pushing forward overall socialist construction.

There are many other examples for his brilliant analyzing ability and judgment. He reviewed way, and formulated the revolutionary ideas of President Kim Il Sung into an integrated system of ideology, theory and method of Juche, thus successfully fulfilling the task of the era, and published a series of works that indicate the road ahead of socialism on the basis of analysis and review of the historical lessons drawn in socialist construction.
Leader Kim Jong Il is endowed with scientific foresight.

Scientific foresight is an attribute due to a political leader who should provided people with ideology, strategy and tactics.

All his ideological and theoretical activities have been based on such a scientific foresight. He gave a definite scientific and theoretical solution to the historical necessity of socialism and the ways to build it up in his work Socialism Is a Science, in November 1994, proving that socialism as a science is sure to be victorious. In the end of the previous century, when Korea was undergoing the bitterest trials, he unfolded a grand blueprint for building a great, prosperous and powerful socialist country with his far-sighted unusual acumen, and clarified in detail the theoretical and practical problems arising in its implementation, inspiring the entire army and all the people to the great drive of building a thriving nation.
Eye-opening successes that are being made in Korea today in the efforts of breaking through the cutting edge, improving the people’s standard of living and building monumental structures showcase the scientific foresight intrinsic to leader Kim Jong Il."

Leaves you speechless eh?

Book your travel plans with them now to avoid disappointment as I'm sure the prearranged dates on which you are allowed to visit will be readily snatched up. A large group of 20 maximum is allowed for these planned tours. I'm sure there is much preparation required ahead of time on their part to accommodate 20 people for the scenic trip, so again, book early. They will of course accept credit card payment, however don't bother bringing your credit card with you as you will not be allowed to use it within their borders. Your cell phone will have to be left at your 'locker' before leaving for the tour. You of course can bring your camera. Your passport will remain with authorities for a while. For other tips for a more enjoyable trip, check out (very carefully) this wiki travel advice.

Now, if you are feeling badly that you are not able to take this trip of a lifetime, don't worry. You can bring North Korea right into the comfort of your own home. Click on 'Shop' on their Home Page and you will be electronically whisked to Cafe Press where souvenirs can be yours in abundance ordered online or from the toll free phone number. You REALLY need to see these. Who could resist a Tshirt, ball cap, water bottle, or mug with North Korean propaganda images on them, such as army soldiers with guns. I was particularly drawn to the iPhone and iPad covers with tasteful North Korean propaganda inscribed on them. They must be particularly popular with 'the masses of the people'.

So plan your getaway now.

Just imagine if you were able to bring one or two North Korean citizens back home with you to your own country to live with you for a while.....so they could step outside all that they know, and learn about your culture.

What a getaway THAT would be for a North Korean.

Here's your link to interesting reading about North Korea!

Making life easier

2012-01-04T23:23:00.001-05:00

Have you seen this article on the Internet yet called "35 tips to make your life easier"?

It is a feature on the website www.thedailybuzz.com. A cool website with some super cool ideas for your household! Check it out!

This is my favorite idea...

Live in the moment

2012-01-01T00:21:00.000-05:00

I was somewhat taken back by this picture when I saw it.

When Jack Layton passed away this year, I perused many pictures of him reviewing the influence his life has had. I found this one taken in 2005. I was struck again by the realization that nothing is certain in this world and things are always in a state of flux.

These men look rather bored - who knows what they were thinking. Imagine if you were the photographer in 2005, and immediately spoke to these gentlemen about what their future held in 2011. They would probably each call you crazy.

You would tell the man on the right...the Prime Minister of Canada, Paul Martin, that his strong ruling Liberal party would not only fall, but would sink to incredible lows by 2011 that the party would need to be reborn again from the bottom up.

You would have to break similar news to the very popular and influential man, leader of the Bloc party, Gilles Duceppe (second from the left), that he and his party would also go down to a crushing defeat in 2011.

The best news would be for Stephen Harper, Conservative leader and the official opposition, (second from the right), that even though the Conservative party knew that same defeat in the past, Mr. Harper would not only soon be the Prime Minister of the country, but in 2011 would secure a majority. He might scarcely believe you, nor would most of the country.

But most tragic of all would be to speak with Jack Layton, leader of the NDP party (far left). He had perhaps fought the hardest of all, yet his party had never managed to come anywhere near official opposition status. 2011 would be that year for the NDP to surge in the polls under Jack's leadership and finally his dream would be realized...only to lose the ability to enjoy it with his sudden sad and untimely death.

So much can change in the course of a year and none of us can be certain of anything but change. Perhaps this Christmas season you have perused old photos for which the landscape has now changed. People in your life then, are now missing. Things just aren't the same. Though we sorrow for a season, we should have cause for hope, not gloom.

You are breathing. Every day is an opportunity. Anything is possible.

Let's seize each day while we can and live each day we are granted in 2012 with renewed purpose and hope. We don't know what tomorrow will bring.....but there are things we can change for the better today.

Live in the moment.... but live in wisdom....and peace.

Cornflakes

2011-10-23T23:06:00.000-04:00

Interesting that the sermon I heard today started out with a reference to Cornflakes.

The speaker pointed out the effective marketing ploy by the creator of Cornflakes....they urge us to 'try them again for the first time'.

Cornflakes had become such a familiar cereal that people had left them long ago and gone on to other more attractive flakes. But many have returned and enjoy them with strange things.....like strawberry milk.

So why was Cornflakes interesting to me? Because for the last several weeks I have been replaying a song over and over, as is my custom with new songs I love, about 'trying' Someone again for the first time. The comparison is of course, ridiculous........the cereal can be boring no matter what you add to make it more palatable.

Jesus has been around for a long time as was pointed out today....like....from the beginning. Those of us who have heard about Him for most of our lives may shelve Him as 'old' and move on to what we think is more interesting. I'm suggesting that it can't get more interesting than being connected to the One who knows you inside and out. There's no boring for the true follower of Christ.

What I know of Him is still so small compared to the vastness of who He is. I never want to stop rediscovering Him.....even over my bowl of Cornflakes in the morning.

Please God, turn this around

2011-10-01T00:19:00.000-04:00

I am rediscovering a band I listened to years ago called Downhere. Their latest album is called On the Altar Of Love - with straight to the heart, back to basics lyrics.

(I'll admit I took another listen because one of their members, Marc Martel is making headlines around the world right now).

Have you ever reached a point in your life where you just give up....no one knows what you struggle with inside but you feel helpless to ever change? Ever prayed 'I don't want to stay the same.... Save me from me'?

Exposed!

2011-09-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

Mice! Who would have thought I'm okay with a mouse in my house now? After all the money we spent ensuring no more mice would get in our house, one was spotted last night in our kitchen. I think he's the same one that I freaked out over in the bathroom, (which you can read about here). I think he just hasn't travelled up to the attic to use the exit doors which are still there - after all, there must be enough crumbs and water in the kitchen to keep him happy.

Why am I okay with him being in the house?

Because he made me aware we have a problem.

If any mice we may have had in our attic had quietly stayed there....quietly multiplying......and never travelled to where we could see one.....we would never have dealt with the problem. Not until it was a HUGE problem.

So last night's mouse lets us know the problem's not over yet. There's more work to be done.

And now I actually am so very grateful for that mouse....that brown furry 'problem' that freaked me out. In spite of the anguish I went through just knowing he was 'somewhere'.....he's now been exposed. And now we can deal with the problem head on.

That mouse is a reminder that I needed right here....right now.....today. I consider him a direct answer to prayer in an odd way that I needed....today. He's a picture - kinda like the elephant in the room thing - except we're talking mice.

So often we anguish over the pain and heartache and problems that arise in our lives. Our natural reaction is to freak out. God....why meeeeee? I didn't ask for this and I don't want it. I hate pain and I want life to go away. Other people seem to have life so easy.....why do I have to go through this? Why?????

I'm learning....very......very........very........slowly, it is not as much the 'problem' that is the primary issue, but rather what God sees as 'what could be' if I'd let Him. He sees the future with my confidence and peace restored...encouraging others who are in the midst of their pain. He has a much more peaceful place for me if only I'd hand everything over to Him.

The exposure of a deep-seated problem is a blessing. Oh, it doesn't feel like it....but it is a strange way that God lovingly reveals a much deeper issue 'hidden in the attic' that needs addressing for us to find the peace we so desperately need in our lives. Yes, it's painful. But if I went to a doctor over a mysterious painful illness and he exposed it, named it, and helped me through the painful process to healing, would it not have been worth having the illness exposed?

God, help me abandon everything that I am to You....every second of every day that I live. I'm weak... I fail.... I hate pain....but please continue to expose that 'furry brown something' in my life that I need to see is still hanging around and needs to go for good. I don't know yet all the steps I must take....but I'll do whatever You ask of me to clean house so I can know Your incredible presence and love in my life.

(Thanks Rodney...or whatever your name is. There's some peanut butter waiting for you behind the water cooler. I appreciate your sacrifice more than you know...you were right there when I needed you....and I will always, always remember you).

Just waiting....

2011-08-17T23:45:00.000-04:00

This has been an incredibly hot summer in these parts.....very little rain through most of the summer....dry as a bone.Being a gardener who planted a lot of new shrubs at the start of the season, I was longing for rain. I stood for hours with the garden hose watering thirsty plants in dry parched ground as I waited....and waited....and waited, along with many farmers....for rain.

On the hottest of days and evenings you could scarcely breathe from the humidity. I looked to the skies for rain clouds and imagined the scent and the glorious feel of a downpour.... a steady rain to cool, replenish, and refresh.

And being an introspective soul....I asked myself if I longed for God that much. I pondered and rehearsed in my heart the verse in the Psalms....."As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God."

We all go through very dry, parched times in our life spiritually. Our faith can all but dry up when we get battered by life, pulled and pushed from all directions, and discouraged by events that leave us barely breathing from pain. Some walk away from God, hoping they find refreshment and satisfaction elsewhere, assuming He just doesn't care that much....or that maybe He's not even there.

Perhaps it's my fascination with birds, flowers, animals, nature, and the galaxies, but I only have to study those things briefly before I am drawn with respect and humility to the Creator of inexplicable beauty and design. If He took that much care designing a meaningful, incredible matrix teaming with living, interdependent creatures and the universe to sustain them in every way imaginable, how much more thought does He give to me - enough to have lived among us here and laid down all that He had to win my love and devotion.

It's a paradox. He satisfies the longing heart, but you can never get enough of Him. Like a refreshing rain shower or a glass of cool water to parch that which so easily becomes distracted, dry, and detached from Him.

It's a paradox. He pursues us...but wants us to pursue Him....to long for Him and wait for Him as a bride for her groom, the farmer for the rain, and the deer for the stream of life-giving water.

"Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me. He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
   He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
   And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
   gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
   young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
   They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
   they walk and don't lag behind."       [Isaiah 40:27-31]

Critter Cottage Bed & Breakfast

2011-07-23T00:07:00.001-04:00

Do you love nature, flowers, birds, butterflies, and wildlife?
Need a getaway vacation?
I am considering opening a Bed and Breakfast at our home called 'Critter Cottage' or perhaps, 'Rodent Retreat'. If you love wildlife it'll be just the place for you!

My husband and I spent a week away on vacation last week and although we live in the city, I swear the wildlife moved in while we were gone. When we returned home late in the evening the sidewalk leading up to the front porch was covered with a pile of dirt, obviously dug up from under the rose bush. After entering the house and looking back outside, we spotted a raccoon whom we had obviously caught in the act.

He ambled off down the sidewalk leaving his mess for us to clean up. Up to this point, raccoons have always lived across the street. I am hoping that extended family has not taken up residence on our property. That remains to be seen.

We spent one day errand running, and then we were off again for a one-night-away excursion to start our second week of vacation. Our return drive was a long one and we arrived home around midnight - tired, weary, and ready for bed. I was about to step out of the car when I caught a glimpse in the darkness of a white stripe and bushy tail - pretty kitty! He was busily digging in the lawn but approaching the car. Sigh. We felt trapped. My husband finally started the car again and angled it to shine headlights at the skunk (and probably into neighbours' bedroom windows). It began to head away from us...only to reverse and work it's way into the garden next to the car. Finally, because this kitty didn't really seem interested in our presence, we decided to take a round about walk to the front porch. As I was carefully slinking towards the porch... my eye on the white stripe and the location of its tail......I heard my husband say, "There's two of them!".

A bird feeder lay collapsed on the ground (likely knocked down by the afore-mentioned raccoon) and the second skunk was oblivious to everything but the seed he was devouring. Meanwhile, Kitty #1 seemed confused whether to run from us or continue to scrounge. I slunk into the house while poor hubby made several trips carrying in stuff from the car. I wisely thought it best that only one person be sprayed than two.... We made it in safely without incident.

The next day we took a day trip which again landed us home late, close to midnight. The front yard appeared empty of wildlife - yes! We wearily settled into the house to get ready for sleep. I flipped on the bathroom light and immediately SHRIEKED! as --something--scooted across the floor. I knew it was a mouse. I half closed the door and watched the furry brown critter try to exit via the floor vent, but it was closed so he scooted back out and paused on the floor for a minute. I got a good look at him before closing the door and.....freaking. We have ONE bathroom. I needed that bathroom. I needed it WITHOUT a mouse in it.

We had long known we've had mice at times in the attic, but it was recently insulated and the tradesmen assured us that mice hate that insulation and we would have no more problems. The possibility of mice now moving into the walls and the rest of the house was too much for me. Since it was now midnight, my dutiful husband said he would hit the 24-hour grocery store for mouse traps. He knew I wasn't going to rest until something was done with that mouse. But he stood motionless, staring out the front door. "The skunks are back..." He waited until he could safely manoeuvre past the outdoor kitties and then he was gone.....for a very long time....without a cell phone. I sat on the stairs and watched the bottom of the bathroom door where I had stuffed a rug to prevent any exit of a furry creature that only needs a hole the size of a dime to collapse its body through. Every once in a while I adjusted the rug....just to be sure. And I wondered how we could possibly use the bathroom tonight even with a mousetrap. What if the critter raced out into the rest of the house? How could I sleep?

After an eternity, my husband returned empty handed - grocery stores don't stock mice-traps anymore. He assured me I'd be fine to just use the bathroom and the mouse wouldn't bother me. I looked at him like he had two heads. "It's just a little mouse!!!", he insisted, obviously tired and wanting to sleep....but his eyes defied him. He put on his shoes and bravely entered the bathroom. And the mouse remained....somewhere.....out of sight. I braved it too with slippers on, but removed everything from the bathroom that I'd be needing in the morning, and I prayed that I would not have to pee in the night!!!! We left the light on and shut the door of the loo, stuffing the rug back in place beneath the door. At least the mouse would not enter the rest of the house and I could rest.

The next day we contacted a pest control company who promised us that they are going to eliminate our mouse problems forever (and no one would be hurt in this exercise) - or at least they provide a 5 year guarantee. The young part owner of the company said he would grab his gloves and check the bathroom for us. He went in, shut the door behind him, and proceeded to bang around in there. When he exited he stated that there was no mouse anywhere in the bathroom. He did show us a tiny hole in the bathroom closet that the mouse must have used to both enter and exit. As the fellow inspected outside our house I told him that we have seen rabbits, skunks, raccoons, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, possums and a recently spotted groundhog, to which he seemed genuinely amused. He promised they would never be a problem in relation to our house when they are finished their work....and he said I could feed the birds all I want when they are done. I liked him instantly.

And so, on the hottest day of the year so far, men came and 'sealed' in our house of any entrance point that a mouse (or bat...shudder....lets not go there) could get in. However, they installed two exit points - little cages from which the mice can exit but cannot get back in. They allow 6 weeks for everyone to leave the building, and then they remove the cages and seal it up. They assure us the mice will leave because they need water...and of course I provide all the food they....and all the other wildlife....could want via the bird feeders. I do NOT want to know how many mice leave our home.

So although the little hole in the bathroom closet is sealed up, I tread lightly in the house. We see no other evidence of mice inside, so I'm trusting they are just packing their bags and leaving.

One problem though. We just might be welcoming another influx of animals to the neighbourhood who prey on mice if their numbers suddenly increase outside. Wiki says the following animals eat mice:

Dogs, wolves, ferrets, badgers, bears, opossums, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, herons, otters, bobcats, lynx, mountain lions, alligators, crocodiles, minks, and skunks.

The day I see a mountain lion or crocodile in our yard will be the day I move out. Someone else can run the Bed and Breakfast!!

Wish the world would end

2011-05-21T00:01:00.001-04:00

At the time of this writing, a gentleman is getting world wide press about his pronouncement that the world will end today....at 5:59 pm (not 6:00 pm??). I'll be interested to see his statements later this evening.

Speaking of being out of touch with reality.....

There's a woman in my life who always brings me back to the real world....the one where people struggle with poverty, sickness, disease, and at times despair. This week Sharon (not her real name) was at the lowest point I have seen her. This week, I think she'd be glad if the world ended.

I've known Sharon for many years now - she just turned 60 - and every time I have visited with her, I have gained more insight into the struggles she has had since her childhood, stories that would break your heart if you heard them. And yet these life experiences have fortified her, toughened her, and made her a feisty advocate for the downtrodden, a voice for social justice and against injustice. It was not unheard of for her to be seen standing somewhere alone outside of a government office holding a picket sign for a cause...in fact rumour has it she did it topless once because it was the only way to draw attention to her issue! She has always lived well below the poverty line, but raised two sons alone, both of which to this day have serious medical disabilities that continue to require expensive surgeries. She has fought many battles which I will not go into here....but you name it....she's been through it.

She managed to go back to school, purchase a house, add a business to it and pay down what she owed by working hard. On top of her job she would cater, clean houses, and bake cookies to literally sell on the street - anything she could do for a few more dollars - not for herself - but to faithfully pay all of her bills. Yet she is always the first to give her last dime to help someone out who is worse off than her. Her stories amaze me.....and shame me.... as to how little I give out of what I have. I have offered at times to take her out for dinner only to have her insist on paying (this woman does not accept 'no' for an answer). I can't tell you how humbling it is to watch her count the money out of her wallet....knowing full well she can't afford it....to pay for my meal when I have a job and good health. But everyone needs their dignity and I have learned that I must allow someone to be blessed by giving, even if it is out of their poverty. It's a fine line giving food and necessities to her and her family lest it be mistaken as 'charity', when she views others as much more needy than herself. Yet I know that for her, groceries are purchased only after the bills are paid....and there have been lean months when the bills were not paid.

Sharon battles a terrible cancer now. About 5 years ago she was given 2 years to live. Now her physical condition leaves her with nothing she can do to earn money. Having to go onto a Disability pension has been very humiliating for her and even if she could earn anything extra beyond the pension cheque, it is always clawed back by the government. Unfortunately, that means she has stopped taking her medications....partly because she has to choose at times between having food and bills paid, or paying for medical expenses....but I think she has given up the meds because they are just prolonging the inevitable and she's just too tired to fight anymore.She can't eat typical food provided by the city's food bank because her body can't handle processed foods. So I ensure she gets fresh vegetables and fruit and believe me, she knows how to stretch a few vegetables into many, many meals. She's done it all her life.

This week she told me she is selling her house - the one thing she has worked so hard to keep over the years - and has been a lovely place for her and one of her sons to enjoy. I asked her where she will go. She said she doesn't know and doesn't care anymore. She'll find a room....as long as she can just pay off all her debts from the sale and be done with the financial stress that she can't handle anymore....and as she waits on a court case that she has fought for over a decade and just can't wait any longer.

So if the world doesn't end today, I plan on bringing her some more fresh vegetables. I'm sad that one day a part of my world will end when Sharon is no longer with us. Perhaps what I have written here will be a eulogy....or perhaps I will write another when the time comes. All I know is....the world needs more Sharons.....and we all need to truly know a Sharon in order to bring us back in touch with reality.

Little heartbeats

2011-05-07T22:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a message for women...but men are welcome too.

Kids are so sweet....mostly when they are sleeping. Sometimes they leave you with memorable moments like these.....

Mother's Day can be a difficult day for many for various reasons. Some have lost their mother and miss them especially on this day. Many others have deeply painful memories of a mother who hurt them badly and scars remain to this day. To the latter, I would say....the dysfunctional stuff stops here, with you. You are a fresh beginning. Every day is a new clean page. You are not the reason your mother acted as she did, nor are you destined to repeat the same mistakes as she did. As long as you are alive and there is a God who loves you (and there is!), you have fresh hope each day to make a difference in the life of a child - whether your own, or a child within your influence. The world needs changing....it starts with us.....and little heartbeats.

Who could write and sing a song about it more beautifully than Steven Curtis Chapman?

All Lovey Dovey

2011-04-27T22:56:00.000-04:00

Spring is in the air...

What are YOU looking at?? A little privacy please !!!!

How to identify a birdbrain

2011-04-03T22:00:00.006-04:00

I met a woman at the hairdresser recently who was so excited to meet me she could hardly contain herself.

Now I don't believe it was due to my magnetic personality....but rather because we shared bird stories while being coiffured. In a whisper she would tell me things about herself and I would nod and confirm that I am the same. She`d confide, 'I have a heater in my bird bath'...(me too...two of them!). Excited, she would add, 'I have a little pond for the birds'...(me too). Her eyes would widen...'I have bird feeders all over the place'....(me too)...and on and on it went as we both share a love of birds, butterflies, flowers, and wildlife. By the time I was leaving, she had learned my name from the hairdresser and called goodbye to me, saying wistfully that she hoped we could meet again soon. Because we are of 'the same kind' I believe we could be the best of friends.

I'm not saying it takes one to know one....but there are ways to tell when one is obsessed with birds to the point that others think they need therapy. Here are some of the signs....

1) People who come and go from the birdbrain's house will be advised of the appropriate time to come in the house or leave. If there is, in particular, a cardinal feeding at a feeder outside the door, no one will be allowed to either leave their vehicle to come into the house, or allowed to exit until the cardinal has finished eating and has flown off. Other birds may also be allowed to remain undisturbed, depending on the decision of the birdbrain.

2) Supper may not be ready when the family arrives home, but the birds will have been fed and watered.

3) If a family member calls to chat with the birdbrain, they will usually first ask....'Are you watching birds right now?'

4) Birdbrains will keep an eye on the feeders because if they are empty, the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks will peer in the windows as if to say, 'We're all outta grub here! We're waiting!'. Birds will even land on the feeder while still in the birdbrain's hand if the bird feels the birdbrain has not responded quick enough.

5) Those birdbrains with severe therapy needs have even been known to drop everything and run outside to shoo hawks away from 'her/his' birds. Hawks need to eat, but the disillusioned birdbrain may actually believe the hawk should dine at some other establishment other than her/his own, almost believing the birds to belong to her/him. The same reaction applies to neighbourhood cats, who contrary to hawks, do not need to eat birds.

6) The front hall floor of the foyer of a birdbrain`s home will inevitably have plenty of birdseed scattered across it as people track it in on their shoes while walking past the feeders on their way into the home. Hopefully that is all they have tracked in. I have heard that some visitors to birdbrains' homes often live for weeks with nightmares of The Birds scattering in all directions and coming to attack them. Strangely sad.

7) Birdbrains will invest in 1-2 birdbath heaters for the winter months to ensure there is plenty of unfrozen water for drinks and baths for the birds (and squirrels).

8) When the birdbrain brings in the outdoor Christmas bows and lights to be stored away, many of them need to be discarded or cleaned due to.....white stuff..... (not snow) on them.

9) When everyone else has put away their snow shovels in spring, the birdbrain is diligently shovelling 6-12 inches of niger seed out from below the birdfeeders lest it suffocate everything beneath it that is trying to grow.

10) In springtime, when others are cleaning up their yards of sticks and brush and cutting down last year's perennials (if they left them standing through the winter for the birds to eat), the birdbrain sees much of this stuff as great nesting material and rather than discarding it, spreads it out for the birds to scrounge through. Of course, that might not be enough choice for the birds, so the birdbrain will also supply yarn and/or dog hair for the birds to gather for use in their nests.

11) Most people remove nests immediately if a bird sets up living quarters in close proximity to a house. The birdbrain, however excitedly sets up tripods and cameras to film the action. Of course bird identification books, camera, and binoculars are always at the ready near the windows.

12) No one pays particular attention to the robins who are hopping about when there is still snow on the ground, nor thinks about the fact that they are not locating any worms on the still frozen ground. The birdbrain however, will daily slice up grapes and spread them on the ground along with raisins to ensure the robins have some food to gobble up until the ground thaws.

13) It should be noted that a birdbrain would ~~never~~ hardly ever be late for work simply because they were replenishing birdbaths, feeders, and slicing grapes for robins before leaving for work.

14) The birdbrain is attracted to events that feature birds.... such as special parades that other birdbrains attend (see sample below shot in Biebertown).

15) Finally, while there are many more oddities in the life of the birdbrain....I leave you with this heartwarming story on video. It's interesting that a birdbrain sees a Youtube video such as this one below, and feels a kinship to those who `walk with birds`......and worries about what will become of Maria.....and would build a pond for her in a heartbeat. It's sad, but the birdbrain often does not recognize his/her 'illness'. Do you know anyone like this?? Me neither. Now while you watch this video, please excuse me while I go and cut up some grapes....to eat...along with some ~~worms~~ raisins.

Evening musings

2011-03-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

I went for a walk early this evening to enjoy the longer light hours and the warm spring breezes. Kids had shed their coats and were playing ball hockey. Others were walking dogs and biking. One young-man-wannabe was shining up his motorcycle. I could hear squawking and singing robins in abundance all around me. I think we're back to where we were last year - that is, 2-4 robins per household. I couldn't help wondering if among all this noise might some of those voices belong to any of 6 robins born and nurtured last year on my front porch?

Those little ones who turned so quickly from this

and this

into this?

I'll be watching the leftover nest to see if Momma returns, rebuilds, and rebirths!

Towards the end of my journey, I greeted a Japanese couple as they smiled while walking their dog. My thoughts turned abruptly to a country where thousands of people who only weeks ago were affluent, now wait....

shivering in bone-chilling cold and darkness,
frightened of an invisible killer,
starving for the basics of food and water,
longing for peace from the ache of loss of life,
weary from incessant trembling ground beneath them,
pining for a return to some semblance of normal.

I pray that not one word of complaint has fallen from my lips today, nor any spirit of ungratefulness gripped my heart. I am blessed beyond words. And of those who have much ...much is required to be given. What am I doing about that?

Amazing art in motion in the skies

2011-03-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

This is absolutely amazing art in motion in the skies of England.

My neighbours have commented on the proliferation of birds in my yard......but if it ever begins to look like this, I will definitely stop feeding the birds!

Blotchy is good

2011-02-27T16:39:00.002-05:00

The goldfinches are getting blotchy. That's a sure sign of spring. If you know nothing about male goldfinches, they turn a dull kind of olive green/brown for the winter months, and then when spring is approaching they begin to gradually turn to a very brilliant beautiful yellow until the fall when they will once again 'blotchify' and change into their winter garb.

I noticed some other promising signs of spring last week. Several mornings my ear was suddenly tuned to hear that melodic male cardinal song that is silent throughout the winter. Normally through the winter, groups of cardinals have gathered at my feeders - a mixture of males and females - and though they chased each other a little, they were still tolerant of one another while feeding. Last week, while still in the thick of cold, snowy weather, I caught a glimpse of 4 male cardinals chasing each other around the trees, with one dominant male returning, paired with a female and the two of them ate together at one of the feeders. Lucky them to have exclusive rights to this lady's feeders. They will never go hungry!! For Richard's stunning pictures of cardinals in his At the Water blog, click here and here.

Are you as fascinated at 'Instinct' as I am??

Instinct: "an inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species"

Inborn. Tendency.

So, you mean birds don't have calendars back at their roosting spots where they settle in for the night? They don't pull out their Audubon Calendar and say, 'Oh my gosh! It's almost March and I don't have a mate yet!' But really....if it's still cold and wintry and they were just born in the summertime, how the heck would they know that this cold stuff is all going to end in the next couple of months - it's all they've known for half their life - and they have responsibilities to find mates, drop eggs, and raise babies? And when it's nest building time, and they've never built one, nor (obviously) seen their mother build the one they were raised in for all of two weeks, how do they know which materials are 'only' used for the type of nest their kind makes? Nests are all uniquely different for each type of bird. What if a cardinal starts building the way a wren would - with all the wrong materials and in the wrong place. Everyone knows it's all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

It's why spring fascinates me every year. It happens.....faithfully.

The cold...the dark...the brown....the damp....and the dead......

all becomes the warmth....the vibrant....the colours.....the scents.....the life!

And it's why birds fascinate me. They are atune to it all, even before it begins. Their songs begin in earnest before life bursts forth and the melody of the earth begins.

You may think things are pretty quiet.....but tune your ear to the melody. Don't miss the show! Grab a front seat and get ready to watch the fascination of creation in action.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19 : 1-4 (The Bible)

Clean 'N Green - #4 The Hookless Shower Curtain

2011-02-26T21:43:00.001-05:00

Last year when I stayed in a lovely hotel for a couple of nights on work-related training I absolutely loved the bright and spacious shower in the bathroom. They had installed one of those curved shower curtain rods and it was amazing how much more space this actually created. I took special note of the shower curtain and determined that if I ever saw one like it, I would buy it. What's to get excited about a shower curtain??

I've been accustomed to buying vinyl shower curtains because they are relatively cheap, but they are not easy to keep clean and once they became mildewy I would toss them....or use them as drop sheets when painting....although they are not the best for that either. So, is opting for cheap really the most economical if you have to keep pitching them when they won't stay clean? And is vinyl a 'green' product anyways?

I was excited when I randomly found the shower curtain in a Bed Bath and Beyond store and now that I own it I am even more impressed with it.

It is called a Hookless Shower Curtain - there are many types of hookless curtains now, but the one I love is all fabric and is antimicrobial treated. The 'hookless' part is just a bonus. The 'split rings' along the top of the curtain simply open and snap shut onto the curtain rod so no hooks are required. So it's a breeze to put up or take down. The curtain is made of fabric and has a 'window' along the top portion so it almost feels like you've installed a light inside the shower because it's so much brighter.

But my favorite part is that although it is a single curtain, there is a second layer of fabric which falls inside the tub and is attached inside and below the window with snaps. So once a month I unsnap this inner lining that has been exposed to all the water in the shower, throw it in the wash with my sheets, and snap it back in place after laundering. The rest of the curtain can also be easily washed when required and is a breeze to pop back in place.

No more mildew or throwing away shower curtains. Always fresh and clean. And easy.

What a great product. And if you could combine it with a curved curtain rod you'll enjoy bright and spacious every morning.

Unless of course, you're REALLY green and conserve water by not showering. In which case you might not only be green....but also mildewy and grungy....like my old shower curtains!

Clean 'N Green - #3 Why are you cleaning with chemicals?

2011-02-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

For the last several months I have been primarily cleaning my house with water - no chemical cleaners, and I'm loving it....as much as you can love cleaning your home.

I had read about a couple of miracle cleaning cloths but my search to find and order them left me frustrated.

One such product is ENJO, whose website makes this statement,

"We believe you need to see ENJO products work in your own home, on your own dirt. By showing you the products in the comfort of your own home, you can truly understand their benefits and learn more about what ENJO can do for YOU."

Sooooooo. Even though I can watch a complete demo video on their website, they must believe I cannot make an informed decision on my own to decide I just want to buy it, nor do they give me the tools to buy it online or on the telephone! No, I need to find someone who is hosting a party that I must attend and we all know how obliged you feel - even with 'no pressure' when you attend these little parties - with no offense intended to those who are involved with ENJO. But ....there are no prices that I could find on the website and really......can we just not admit that this is more about building the ENJO business by recruiting consultants? I have no doubt it's a great company and a great product - but likely well overpriced. I wanted the cloth NOW, so I left ENJO to search elsewhere.

I also checked out Norwex, which has a similar anti bacterial product called the Enviro cloth. Again, it's all about the process, and finding a representative in my area took forever on the internet so I gave up.

Frankly, all of these cloths are microfibre cloths which are sweeping stores like a storm....and can be readily found in dollar stores. I'm sure that Norwex and ENJO would argue fiercely that their products are higher quality and more importantly, anti-bacterial. I don't doubt that, but I couldn't believe that they would have the exclusive patent on that, and that I couldn't find something comparable for cheaper and easier to simply pick up and buy.

In the meantime, I picked up several microfibre cloths from the dollar store, and when we took apart our FILTHY windows last fall, I used one wet cloth to wipe all of the dirt, cobwebs, etc off, then wiped the windows well again with the rinsed out wet cloth, and then shined them with a dry cloth. The windows gleamed! I did the same with mirrors and household surfaces and every thing shone beautifully - no chemicals required.

I was still on the lookout though for that 'antibacterial' edge to a microfibre cloth. While shopping in Home Sense a while back, I found my answer.

Enter the E-cloth, antibacterial cloth.

Reasonably priced, and there for the buying - no party required! Since then, I have seen them in Winners as well - although they do seem to get snatched up quickly and are often out of stock! (I have also seen them in a natural health store, but twice the price!).

And so I leave you to do your own research. I know we have made several trips to our city's hazardous waste disposal services to do away with most of the chemicals in our home and I have proven to myself that I don't need them - for both the sake of our health, our environment, and our pocketbook!

Better than chocolate

2011-02-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

I'm amazed by my husband at times.

He knows that healthy food has been my pursuit for quite some time now and to that end he gave me a very thoughtful Valentine's gift - a beautiful bouquet made out of fruit. With just a touch of chocolate on the strawberries!

Incredible Edibles

This gift is a close second to the toilet I got for Valentine's Day ....which is also a great gift if you eat a lot of fruit!

If we have a thoughtful someone in our lives, we are reminded of our appreciation of them at Valentine's Day. I'm reminded that almost one year ago, my husband rode an ambulance to the hospital with some very scary symptoms and remained there for several very long days while every test in the book was run on him. We are so grateful he is fine with no residual affects. In those moments of not knowing, I wrote here about the starry sky I looked up into and pondered our mortality.

We dare not 'cling' to our loved ones but instead, love and cherish them each day we have.

Even if we think we are 'alone', all of us have a Special Someone in our lives whether we are aware of Him or not. I am grateful beyond words and amazed by a love that is so deep......so wide.......and so great.

If I had $150.00

2011-02-08T22:52:00.000-05:00

If I had $150.00 (plus tax and shipping and handling...) to blow and nothing more important to spend it on....

if only for the entertainment value.....

I'd buy this.....

but I don't....

so I won't.

What's your tatoo?

2011-01-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

Don't you feel bad for those people who are in a lasting relationship who get a tatoo with their lover's name on it?

And then it doesn't work out?

Painful enough getting the tatoo....much more painful for the breakup.....and now to get the tatoo removed....ouch!

The girl to whom my son is engaged to marry has a tatoo on her wrist with the name of her first love on it - and it's not my son's name. Will she have it removed? I pray she never...never....never does, and that she keeps her devotion to her first love all the days of her life.

There is no one who is as committed to or loves us more than this Jesus - God the Father became one of us to get our attention - to let us know that His thoughts are continually on us and His love for us is unending. Really......why would we NOT want Him? Why would we 'break up' with the most profound love there is?

"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul."

I think the last part of that verse which I underlined is where too many of us miss out. Rather than being relentless in pursuing Him for a lifetime (because though we find Him, there is so much more of His love to discover), we either search in all the wrong places, aren't willing to give up anything in the process, or we almost want Him to do all the work - strike us with some divine bolt of lightning to 'prove' Himself to us and give us what we think we need. That is at the very least, arrogant of us. When Jesus walked here and raised people from the dead before their very eyes, some people still wouldn't believe the undeniable evidence because at the root of it, for whatever reasons, they didn't want HIM. He gave everything He could laying down His life - even to the ones who didn't want Him. Do we cherish that and want to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind - 'tatooing' Him to us for all time, so to speak? It's that longing for Him with everything within us that will carry us through the wilderness times in our life - the hard times when things don't go as we planned, or we lose a loved one, feel abandoned, or depressed. He is the Rock we can depend on. He doesn't change in spite of our ups and downs.

I recently watched a video clip featured at Big Ear Creations and haven't been able to stop thinking about what was said towards the end of the clip. I share it at the end of this post. It is of Charles Stanley, a pastor explaining a moment, even after years of being in ministry, that he finally 'got' that he was profoundly loved by God. We can hear it all our lives and still not get it.

I will tell you that in my own life, I only remember one time that my parents hugged me and told me that they loved me - and that was because leaving my teenage years I finally couldn't stand another moment of living in a home where love was never expressed in any manner. I just typed that last sentence easily, but I can tell you that the years of turmoil, emotion, and the impact of a somewhat dysfunctional family (as well meaning and wonderful as my parents still were) is something I can't begin to tell. I don't blame them - I know they loved me but had difficulty ever expressing it. I'm sure they had their own stories, but they never told them. I'm glad that they are now experiencing being perfectly loved in the presence of their Creator. I wouldn't give up for anything the struggles I fought in that stage of my life and still battle at times, because it has caused me to cling to my Heavenly Father with everything within me. We all need to 'get' that we really are loved. But even imperfect human love is not enough.

We were lovingly and thoughtfully created in hopes that we would respond and love the One who knows us completely.

He first loved us before we loved Him. It's a healing love.And once seen through a heart that truly wants Him, it changes everything. He comes to live where He's welcomed.

That's a love I'd be a fool to ever break up with.

Don't count on it

2011-01-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

Speaking of wasting time.....the other day I was perusing Facebook :-)

I was 'encouraged' to 'reconnect' with an old friend. Curious, I clicked on that friend's name......curious, because sadly......that friend is no longer with us on this earth. Her Facebook page is frozen in time from the last day she was on it two years ago. Her 'wall' is filled with recent postings from friends and family who miss her terribly as time marches on. She left too early, suddenly and without warning, in her early twenties.

Reviewing the year 2010 in the newspapers is another poignant reminder that too many left early from this journey called life - many at a young age.

I don't say all this to be morbid. Quite the opposite.

I encourage you to give every day your utmost attention to live it to the fullest - every day you've been given.

For me personally, that means letting God be first and foremost in my life.....and focusing on what gives lasting results and makes a difference both during and after this life. Even though people will say, 'follow your heart - do what feels right to you', that statement always brings me back to the Bible's wisdom that says you can't trust your heart!!! Trusting our heart is what more often gets us in trouble!

Instead, we are directed to lay up what is most important to us - our treasures - in heaven where it lasts forever. If that which is most important to us is not eternal, it's time to evaluate why we consider it our 'treasure'. It leaves me needing to determine daily what is most important in my life in each decision I make, word I speak, and action I take. And those decisions, words, and actions impact many, many people - like ripples or waves across the water when a ship passes by.

Eternity is a whole lot longer than the 2 - 25 - 50 - 70 - 90 years we might be allotted. So start your savings account now, depositing daily where it matters, and you will be richer than you can ever imagine.

To remind me, this picture hangs in our bathroom:

This additional reminder now graces our corner kitchen nook:

I leave you with a song by Chris Rice, which the first time I heard it on his CD which I had purchased, I played it over continuously at least 25-30 times - and now at least a couple of times on my birthday or New Years Day. I'm weird like that when I want to infuse lyrics into my soul. Enjoy......and play it as many times as you like!

Don't throw the baby (Jesus) out with the bath water

2010-12-23T00:14:00.000-05:00

There are Christians who are upset because they believe there is a 'war' on Christmas. Yes, Canada is perhaps the worst for swinging the pendulum of political correctness so far that it is laughable....laughable because those who might be 'offended' at Christmas aren't offended at all. Those of us who are civil and loving, wish each other a Happy Hanukkah, Ramadan, Christmas - whatever applies to the one celebrating,... while politicians treat 'Christmas' like a swear word - not to be uttered in our schools or government places. But each year, regardless of mandates for 'holiday trees' and 'winter parties', I still hear plenty of songs at the mall about Jesus and 'Merry Christmas' falls from the lips of most, whether they are of faith or not. I frankly wish we'd let the whole 'war' perception drop and let the politically correct rules just look as ridiculous as they are. I even heard recently that Santa Claus is being replaced with Frosty the Snowman....until we find something wrong with him I guess. Let's just carry on enjoying Christmas regardless!

I don't believe Christmas is in any more danger of disappearing than Christianity is.

That being said....I do see a trend in North America of many being 'done' with church and no longer holding to a particular religion, though many will still say they believe in God. This isn't true in countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Those numbers of Christians are growing in leaps and bounds, spreading like wildfire while meeting under threat of their lives. They don't have cool modern churches, awesome worship leaders, amazing music, the latest technological equipment, and stirring 7-step sermons to health and happiness. While we won't get out of bed for church one day a week.... they lay down their lives for their faith in God. What do they know that we don't?????

I think they have responded with abandon and love to a Saviour whom they know they desperately need. We're not so desperate here.

I 'get' why people leave church and never come back. I 'get' why they may never go in the first place. They are imperfect places and quite frankly, we can worship God wherever we are without church attendance. At the same time, I am baffled at people who leave their faith in God behind in the pew, because there were hypocrites there and they were 'hurt' by them. What did you expect? And how intact was your trust in God if a person could shake it from you? The best of us are hypocrites at times because we are human. People frustrate each other whether it be home, work, school, or church. That's life. But God hasn't changed.... so we are left without excuse for walking away from His presence in our lives when that has nothing to do with another person - it's between us and God and what WE do with Him.

Perhaps in all of this, we've forgotten about the baby that prompted angels to amass the sky with brilliance and melody never seen or heard on earth. God made a grand announcement about His Son and had been telling us about Him for ages beforehand that He was coming. Why was He coming? To bring life and light and eternity and meaning to our lives. To point us to His Father who desperately loves us and wants us to know it. But we're distracted. We've shifted our focus to people and things. We live unaware of just how close He is to us and how much He wants to be a part of our lives. We're not desperate for Him. We can manage just fine without Him. In the midst of His birthday celebrations, He is forgotten.

And so we throw the baby out with the bath water of religion - as if He had anything to DO with religion! Funny thing is....no one abhored hypocrites and 'religion' more than Jesus. He was all about relationship with His Father that He wanted us to know we could embrace.

Throw out religion - gladly. Throw out hypocrisy - who needs it! But don't throw out the baby whose birth we now should celebrate with joy. If you've lost any passion you may have had about Jesus.....dig in and find out all you can about Him for yourself and read what He had to say about Himself, His Father, and you.

Pride, self absorption, and the distractions of life will eclipse Him from your view.

But desperation for Him, humility, and trust in Him opens the door to His Spirit to actually begin to show you amazing mysteries of His love for you and a whole beautiful eternity that awaits us.

If we thought the hosts of angels filling a sky with heavenly melody to some guys tending sheep was thrilling....especially when his announcement was all about His love for us.....I think that sky was only a very tiny taste of the awesomeness of his power and majesty - we haven't even begun to fathom what we will see in future! He is, after all, the Creator. I'm overwhelmed at the thought of the day when I see Him face to face and dissolve in worship. Until then, I always want to be desperate for Him.

"As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God." (Psalm 42:1)

Listen to this song....play it loud.... and picture yourself beneath those skies...or even above them!

Clean 'N Green - #2 Never use laundry soap again?

2010-11-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

I was intrigued with the idea that I could use a truly green product - one that did not require the use of laundry soap but claimed to get my clothes clean in the washing machine. So I purchased a SmartKlean laundry ball for $45.00.

The lady who sold it to me was very sincere and said that she will never use laundry soap or fabric softener again. She just puts this laundry ball in with her clothes in cold water and sets her machine for only the rinse cycle - as the wash cycle is not needed. So she saves on both soap and electricity.

Here's how it works as found on the website for SmartKlean:

SmartKlean_med from SmartKlean on Vimeo.

So now that I've used the laundry ball since the summer, what is my opinion?

Not totally convinced. The instructions with the ball state that you will still need to pre-treat stains on clothes as you normally would. My kids are grown so maybe that's why I rarely per-treat anything anymore - although I can slop stuff pretty good on my clothes. Perhaps I've been irresponsible to the environment...but I know that if I throw really dirty clothes in with some Tide (and I use very little Tide), they come out clean without pre-treating. SmartKlean suggests that with your whites, you can throw in some sea salt and vinegar to help them come out white. I purposely tried that with some dingy looking white towels and they were still dingy after washing with the SmartKlean ball, but came out white with Tide. What I felt like I was doing was wasting water because my clothes weren't as clean as I'd like and isn't that the purpose of washing them?

I think the laundry ball is just fine with loads that are not terribly dirty and it's good for your clothes to get a break from time to time without detergent. Many people would love this product especially with electricity bills that are predicted to go sky high. If it works for you even part of the time, go for it! But I'll admit I miss the fresher smell of detergent washed clothes.

I'm afraid I'm a failure at staying green with my laundry. Although I am quite willing to try a few more green laundry detergents. I've tried a few, but always seem to wander back to Tide. I will continue to do my part by using very little detergent, washing only with full loads in cold water (most of the time), running the washer for shorter cycles and less often, and hanging the laundry outside when the weather co-operates.

Incidentally, the internet tells me that "Tide Coldwater is the first detergent ever to be awarded the new Green Good Housekeeping Seal. Good Housekeeping also noted that Tide stood out in terms of corporate responsibility due to the measures they are taking to become transparent in their practices."

I'm still not sure what Tide is made of - that's a little hard to find on the internet - but for now I will stick with what works with the electricity and water I am using!

Random

2010-11-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who is a 'senior' though she doesn't look it. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

Most will never know that she carries Tim Horton coupons in her purse, and when someone she encounters, such as a cashier, looks kind of down or discouraged, she slips a coupon into their hand with a warm smile and a wish for things to get better.

She visits folks in hospitals and nursing homes on a regular basis. Makes meals for those who are grieving. Listens to people who just need a friend. And on and on and on. Every day.

Her life is random acts of kindness at every possible opportunity. She loves people the way their Creator loves them.

I wish we had more people like her in this world. But I must ask myself....what's my excuse if I'm not like that?

"Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting."

Author Unknown

Clean 'N Green - #1 Drinking water

2010-10-15T23:06:00.002-04:00

Several posts back I pledged to start a-blogging on some green topics.

Let's start with the basics - the water we drink.

Our family has used reverse-osmosis water for years from a water cooler. We visit our local water depot-type place, sanitize the jugs and fill them up at a cost of less than $3 for an 19 litre bottle. It saves on using individual water bottles which of course are now the scourge of the eco-friendly masses.

Why not drink city-tested and approved water?

I don't doubt the safety of our water and I'm very grateful that we have clean water for bathing and washing and don't fear getting ill from drinking the water. But years ago we went for a tour of the local water treatment plant because my daughter chose to do a school project on the subject. We had a friend who worked there, and he gave us the grand tour. I saw and heard where the water comes from and of all the interesting things that get filtered and removed from the water. I saw the processes that remove all the contaminants, and subsequently the ~~chemicals~~ additives that are poured back in to make it drinkable. As we were leaving, I asked our gentleman friend whether he drinks the city water and he was quick to say, 'Oh no. I get my water from a natural spring near here.' Mmmmhmm.

That was years ago and now even the springs have been shut down as unsafe. That visit to the plant left a bad taste in my mouth and since the water depot-type places advertise that reverse osmosis removes any pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine that the city didn't (when used with a carbon filter), I concluded that it must be better to drink. However, according to HistoryofWaterCoolers.com, the downside of reverse osmosis is that it also removes the healthy, natural, beneficial minerals that should be in the water we drink. That website suggests that both reverse osmosis and distillation are extremely wasteful methods of water filtration, discarding 75-80% of the water with the contaminants and both remove the healthy minerals we should be drinking with our water. It suggests that carbon water filters are cheaper and the least wasteful.

Again, I am not implying that you are killing yourself slowly by drinking municipal water or doing yourself any harm. But if it is something that you're interested in and would prefer an alternative, do your research.

Here's an alternative that our family has recently purchased that caught my interest. It's called the Santevia Water System. Everyone who walks by this unit in our kitchen for the first time, does a double-take. Because the 'tank' contains a layer of gravel-like stones, it looks like it should have fish swimming around in it! To summarize in a sentence, this system uses your ordinary tap water (no need to buy and lug bottles), filters it further through 8 stages, and then re-mineralizes the water to make it as close to natural spring water as you can get while adjusting the Ph level, according to their statements. They challenge you to get your Santevia water tested to prove their claims. You can read all about it here. They also have Youtube videos with 'wordless' demonstrations of assembly, maintenance, etc.

We purchased ours at a natural healthfood store, but they can be purchased easily on-line from their website. No, I am not getting a commission, nor am I endorsing it. I am informing you so you can make your own choice! Here's their introductory video....and you be the judge!

Proud

2010-10-14T23:52:00.001-04:00

I get so tired of negativity.

I'm not talking about people who have legitimate needs and express disappointments and difficulties.

It's the daily onslaught of negative opinions about politics and people and situations.....and sometimes it's just more than tiring to listen to it. It doesn't solve anything. It drags us all down....makes us grumpy and ungrateful. (Did we just celebrate Thanksgiving??)

Enter, memories of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

If you're Canadian and you're proud of your country, your heart will swell as you watch the video clip below and remember. I don't recall a time when so many Canadians were united together in excitement and pride in their fellow countrymen. It wasn't simply the medal winning. It was the stories behind those who were giving their all to win. They were ordinary people often dealing with extremely difficult situations, working hard, staying positive, and doing everything in their power to win for their country. Who can forget the face of Alex Bilodeau's brother Frederic - his biggest fan? (Google him - he's famous now!), or the perseverance of Joannie Rochette who tragically lost her mother suddenly in the midst of the games, but kept on going to win a medal for her Mom.

We could learn a thing or two from these Olympians. Hard work. Staying positive. Committed to the team. Pride in their country. Pulling for the next guy.

Our country is made up of people....of which I am one. If I could capture and keep the spirit of the Olympics alive in my daily life....along with you....the landscape of our culture could be vastly different.....so much better. Pulling for our neighbours...instead of criticizing them. Praying for our politicians in spite of their shortcomings. Cheering each other on. Watching out for and lifting up those who fall down.

Be inspired to spread some Olympian-like fever where ever you go. Let's hope it spreads across the country again!

Sweet Nikki

2010-10-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

Rest in Peace Sweet Nikki

23 October 1997 - 6 October 2010

We love you!

Have you ever met someone like this?

2010-09-01T22:51:00.001-04:00

This was too priceless not to share.

Mr Bean: Ya missed him

2010-08-23T22:34:00.002-04:00

Mr Bean makes me laugh most times. That's probably an indication of my intelligence level.

Have you seen the one where he's in the church service trying to stay awake and attempting to fit in with what the others are doing and singing? Ya gotta laugh....particularly if you've been in some of those kinds of services.

Unfortunately, the hymn used in that clip is a beautiful one. I refuse to let the memory of Mr Bean ruin it for me when I hear it!

Now, we don't sing hymns much in our church any more. They have gone by the wayside with the organ. But this past Sunday we sang that hymn that Mr Bean tried to sing. I'm happy to say, I blocked Mr Bean out of my conscience entirely and drank in the words of that hymn. They speak everything that I live and breathe about my Creator. I wonder at times if too many of us are as self-absorbed and oblivious to God as Mr Bean was in that clip (and likely most of that audience with him!).

God is referred to as the 'Father'. To some of us, He either doesn't exist....we don't care or aren't sure He exists.....or we think of Him as a distant entity out there somewhere that might respond to desperate pleas, and we hope that if there's a heaven, one day we'll make it there.

Jesus is the 'Son'. Most understand that he was an actual historical figure that lived and breathed, had a lot of influence, and died. Whether we believe he was actually God and is our Saviour....that is our choice.

But what about that '3rd' part of the Trinity that we read about in the Bible? The Holy Spirit. We often forget about Him. He's the one that Jesus said would be with us when he left the earth. He would be our Counsellor, would teach us all the things Jesus had said. Jesus was exiting the scene, but he wasn't going to leave us on our own. He was leaving his Spirit with us to be close to us and mediate to the Father for us. That's a pretty cool deal.

Most of us are looking for someone who is completely trustworthy, is there for us when we need them, loves us unconditionally, and understands the deepest parts of us. Hello? That one we need is here with us - closer than our breath - and offers much more than a human being ever could. He speaks into the deepest part of us...confirming the mysteries of a Creator's love on a personal level. He may not be visible...like the wind.....but I can see his affects in my life and in those around me. I don't want to become indifferent to his presence or unresponsive to him - ever. Really, why would I not want someone who loves me that completely?

Here's that hymn for your listening pleasure - All Creatures of Our God and King - as sung by the David Crowder band. And....because Mr Crowder doesn't 'let loose' in it as he is capable of ....I have added a second link with another of his tunes. If you are a person who is getting to know your Creator, your heart can soar while you listen. The third link is the funkier version - definitely no organ.

Making scents of it all

2010-08-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

Can I see a show of hands? How many of you are allergic to, or extremely sensitive to strong scents?

Ahhhh. I see....quite a percentage of you.

Perhaps you're like me. Not allergic, but starting to be bothered when you have just walked through a fog of someone's perfume, cologne, deodorant, or lotion. The office I work in has tried to become 'scent free', but I always know when a certain few are in the office that day because I can smell their trail even if they have walked through ten minutes earlier. (Picture a wolf....nose to the air). I kid you not. This could be amusing if it wasn't for others in the office who....if they catch that trail of scent....may end up leaving work and spending the rest of the day in their bed, lights out, blinds drawn, and dizzy with a migraine. Those same migraine-prone people have to sit out of meetings and listen in on their phone at their desks if the 'scented' ones will be attending the meeting. Several months ago, the smell of the perfume of a very sweet co-worker whom I love reminded me....seriously....of cedar chips. Every time that dear woman got near me, I was reminded of our dearly departed guinea pig.

A friend at my church can often be seen moving about to another part of the congregation because she is affected by scents as well. It makes it very difficult to be seated when you're not sure if you are going to react to the person next to you!

Since I have observed what these people go through, I've become more aware of strong smells. We've all walked by someone while shopping who takes your breath away and leaves you choking in a cloud. I've been served by a waiter whose very strong, sickening cologne overwhelmed me every time he attended to the table - at a place where you should be free to savour the aroma of the food.

When I was home from work with my first child I did some volunteer work in the evening tutoring adults who wanted to improve their literacy. One dear, kind man in his 50's (somehow that seemed old back then....sigh), came to our home some evenings and we sat down at the kitchen table to work on improving his reading skills. Unfortunately, he would wear strong cologne every single week and I would literally have to keep leaving the room wanting to be sick. Today, I would have no problem respectfully requesting that he not wear any cologne, however back then I was too timid to say anything.

I'm glad the government in this neck of the woods has banned the use of pesticides on our lawns. I've known people who had to lock themselves literally in their homes when their neighbour got their lawn sprayed because they would be ill until the residue had dissipated.

I love the scent of lovely candles and flavoured coffees, but there are those who can't enter lovely candle/gift shops due to those smells either.

I guess I say all this to make us all more aware of the affects we can unknowingly have on others or on our own health. And don't forget....what you may think smells wonderful and you douse yourself in it, might smell horrible to someone else (cedar chips or incense, anyone?). The next time you walk by a young guy and you think.....why does he smell like my grandfather?....you'll remember...... what's Old (Spice) and was shunned, is new again, thanks strictly to clever advertising and, dare I say, the gullible. (I have actually always liked the smell of Old Spice....my dad used to wear it!).

I have personally been on a mission within our home to eliminate products with chemicals. It's been an education! There has been an incredible amount of stuff gathered from our cupboards and taken to our city's hazardous waste disposal depot. It's been a challenge to find replacement products without harmful ingredients and it's still a work in progress. I will try any product once that someone has personally recommended to me or that I have read up on, and if satisfied, I love to share what I have found with others.

So, over the next many posts, I hope for your reading pleasure and education, to feature a different 'green' product each post that you might like to try in place of something potentially harmful you might currently be using on a regular basis. We all have to use cleaning and hygiene products (pleeeeeeease), so we might as well be supporting great companies who produce products that nourish and don't harm.

Makes scents.....don't you think?

Not enough

2010-08-10T21:50:00.002-04:00

A friend sent this link to a little video in an e-mail (thanks Paul). While I watched it, I thought the images shown are but a tiny drop in an ocean of the wonders to be found on this planet alone.

Though creation is vast, it works together in symmetry - interconnected and dependent on the laws of nature to provide in so many ways.

If one planet is so amazing
(....just the birds and flowers alone in my yard are amazing!!) .....
the balance so delicate and stunning.....what must God be preparing in heavenly places?

I can't begin to imagine.

There's not enough.......
words.....
images.....
time.....
books.....
space.....
room, in my tiny finite mind......
to comprehend enough....
of how big God is.

Click here and let your imagination soar.

If Earwigs Could Fly

2010-08-02T21:32:00.000-04:00

I thought seagulls only ate fish and chips.

I also thought they were only nuisance birds.

I formed my opinion of them long ago when, at the beach, a seagull had the nerve to dive at my two-year old son to try to grab the soother out of his mouth. I was not impressed. I've been at the zoo and had them swoop down at my lunch. Of course, there are always flocks of them in town at burger joints, peering in car windows, waiting for a french fry to drop and then.... look out.... as six of them dive for it at once. "MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!" (Just ask Nemo when you find him)

But tonight my image of them softened. As I sat sipping my tea on the front porch this evening, I watched a couple dozen seagulls circling our neighbourhood. I immediately wondered who had put french fries out in their trash, but then noticed these birds continue to glide and then pause midair as they gulped bugs that were flying about. They continued for a good hour until they moved on. Far above them, were swallows swooping and diving after bugs as well.

Last night, our resident bats (no, they don't live IN our house) started the night shift early before dark, performing their acrobatic feats and plunging from high in the air to then skim the surface of the back lawn. (That would be the yard that when you walk through the grass or garden, swarms of mosquitoes emerge). It must be a buggy season...what with our hot, muggy, rainy summer.

So imagine if earwigs could fly?!!!! Between swallows, seagulls and bats, we'd be rid of them in no time!

Mmmmmmm. Maybe not. My imagination is conjuring up images of walking into a flying swarm of earwigs and it's a despicable sight.

We'll be thankful things are just the way they are. Someone must have been thinking when this whole interactive chain of nature was conceived.

In honour of the G8 and G20 summits....

2010-06-25T23:26:00.002-04:00

My son is working behind the scenes at the G8 summit as I am typing this. My daughter will be working tomorrow near the G20 summit as it switches locations. Close to home this time around, but important events for sure as world leaders meet to discuss crucial matters that affect many countries.

More important in my world is the event on my front porch (yes...I do jest). Momma Robin, whom I have observed returning to the old nest the last few days, rearranging the furniture....has laid an egg today. And so it all begins again. One egg on the first day of the G8, another will surely be laid when the G20 begins, and perhaps a final one on the last day of the summit meetings....maybe even just one more to be sure when the leaders are dispersing to go home. And so these will be special Summit Babies.
I caught a few minutes of an interview with John Manley on the radio this morning. He is a former Canadian Liberal finance and foreign affairs minister and he was asked why all these world leaders don't just meet, in this technological age, by video conference and save all these dollars spent on getting together. It's a fair question that's been asked frequently lately. His answer gave pause to think and I hadn't looked at it before the way he painted the picture. He cited examples of times when specific Presidents and Prime

Ministers had crucial decisions to make and in those moments, a leader from another country came to them, just as a close friend would, to talk one on one. Some leaders have been very influential to others in helping with decision making, simply because they had become fast friends and confidantes, beginning with these events. Mr. Manley said that these times that leaders get together are very important face-to-face to forge friendships that are needed in their jobs. When you think about it, how close can leaders in high positions get to others with whom they can share in confidence.... who will understand the circumstances and have wisdom for the task?

I have also listened to John Tory, former leader of the PC Party describe what it was like in the public eye and it wasn't pretty. You take the most foul abuse thrown at you where ever you go - people think they have the right to lambaste you. They might not do that to the average person....but somehow they feel politicians are not human beings and can be treated with disdain and have insults hurled at them from every side, even threats on their lives and those of their family. I know what some of you are thinking. There's lots to criticize. Politicians are dishonest, money hungry, power seeking, blah, blah, blah. Yes, some are. But I wonder if we knew some of their spouses and their children and families, we might find that many are actually hard working, honest people who entered politics because they wanted to make a difference. But still, they will take criticism for every move they make.

Yes, there are lots of crucial mistakes made in the political world.... waste, dishonesty, wrong priorities....the list goes on. We can criticize and drone on about it for hours and nothing will change.

Criticism is useless.

Protests? Maybe they've accomplished some good if done wisely....but most seem to be just noise and simply invoke a negative response in return. Honest dialogue, tackling noble, worthwhile issues with practical and thoughtful insight would accomplish more. But as long as we're not willing to work that hard.....criticism is easier...... it puffs ourselves up to feel that we know best.

And nothing changes.

Next time you hear a robin sing that lovely, evening summer melody that signals the setting of the sun and the close of another day......pray for your world leaders. As wrong as they might be about much.....they are fallible human beings (like us!) who are in a position in which they must make crucial decisions and affect change. Pray.... not that they will do YOUR will....but that God will be in the midst of the decision making.

If it's all we can do.....let's pray. Because that truly does change things.....with a side benefit of changing our attitude.

You think YOUR kids grow fast...!

2010-06-07T22:03:00.000-04:00

I was compiling videos of the robin babies, but before I could get the movies up, the darn things grew up so fast they flew the coop in two weeks! It's all ancient history now, but I wanted to share some pictures.

They went from this.....

to this......

and so on....

Then, things were just getting too crowded and one flew out of the cuckoo's nest to a nearby tree.

The next day, the other two worked up courage to follow.

And now I can spot them and hear them in the trees as they call to Mom and Dad who still faithfully deliver worms and bugs to their little ones.

I miss all the action outside the front door. Even my family (who mocks me for my bird watching) clambored from the dinner table to watch when someone shouted that a baby was about to fly from the nest! The robin parents were actually quite respectful of us and we never had to use another door because of them. Mom even came back to clean the nest after all the babies were gone! Now there's a great Mom!!

I am beginning to see the babies on the ground accompanying their parents as they begin to search for worms all by themselves....without those little mouths always looking for a handout!

So what will I do without baby birds to watch? Well, here's a couple of pictures I took outside of my bedroom window the same day the robin babies left. I received this lovely birdhouse for Christmas and there are definitely chickadee babies in there! Harder to view but we'll see......

The videos are below for your viewing pleasure. I have many more which I may share at a later date.

Warning! Contains graphic scenes which may disturb! If you're queasy about worms, get over it. But if you really can't stand dirty diapers, you'll shudder at 'clean up'.

The first video is of Mom and Dad when the babies were 6 days old....

One happy family from Beebalm on Vimeo.
The babies in the next video are now 10 days old. It's hard not to fall asleep while waiting for Mom or Dad to come...but when they do arrive....it's a fast awakening! Thanks for the worms Mom...now here's our gift to you - help yourself....

Any time Mom....we're waiting.... from Beebalm on Vimeo.
Things are getting crowded in the nest. It's okay when they're sleeping. But when one moves....everyone else has to shift! Can't you just picture what these siblings are muttering to each other? Notice the change in 10 days from a mass of flesh to flapping feathered wings! Somebody's gotta leave soon!

Tight Quarters from Beebalm on Vimeo.

Ducks Unlimited

2010-05-22T22:57:00.003-04:00

Early this evening I was filming the robin activity on the front porch. I am planning on updating and sharing the pictures and videos I've been taking of them, but haven't had too much time to compile anything.......although here is one picture from today as an update of how the babies look now. They are rapidly growing, eyes are open, and fuzz is appearing.

During a camera session, I was not prepared for what I turned my head and saw out the front door.

There, waddling right down the middle of this bird-lover's road was a mother duck and 8 baby ducklings following her in a row. I froze and thought I was seeing things as they disappeared behind our parked car. Sure enough, they appeared on the other side and continued their trek down the cul-de-sac. I wrestled my camera off the tripod, threw on my shoes, and scurried after them down the street.
Now you need to understand I live in a city. Yes, we have a river, but I live no where near it. This is the first time I've seen a duck in a place where there are no bodies of water, other than backyard ponds and pools. Where on earth does this Mother plan to raise her babies in our neighbourhood....which is shared with plenty of dogs and cats? Apparently a neighbour had caught sight of Mom and babies on the cover of their swimming pool.

I truly hope they will be okay. You know me by now. I'm thinking up ways to make my property attractive to ducks so I can have plenty of photo shots of them growing up in the neighbourhood. Can't keep them in the back yard with the dog. Could set something up in the front side yard, away from the protective robins. I've asked my husband if we can flood the front yard and make it into a marsh. He said okay..........but I don't think he meant it.

Here's some more pictures. I hope to see them again for more shots!

A face only a mother could love

2010-05-18T22:20:00.001-04:00

I'm sure some of you bird lovers are wondering about those 3 robin's eggs. Sure enough, I received text messages of congratulations in my hotel room from family back home informing me I was a proud Gramma of two. Two so far had hatched on Thursday. When I arrived home Friday, all three were alive and well.

Here's a series of daily pictures of the babies starting with Friday.

And finally, today (Tuesday)

Now it's hard to imagine in that (dare I say) ugly mass of flesh that there is anything alive or responsive. But when Mom or Dad arrive with a worm dangling overhead.....

Like stepping on the garbage can lever....up come those lifeless looking little heads!

And why not with such delicious offerings!! Yum!

I'm amazed at the dedication of Mom and Dad. I mean, I remember being a new Mom and the exhaustion I felt from no sleep and always tending to the baby (singular)....letting your own needs take a back seat to the baby's needs. But honestly.....I didn't have to do nearly as much as this young couple! They spend the entire day from dawn until dusk searching earnestly for food and bringing it back to the nest, while watching at all times for danger and fending it off. Poor innocent sparrows or finches who might want a drink nearby - they get dived at and told in no uncertain terms to get lost. Thankfully, so far these parents are leaving the humans alone to come and go as we please!

I hope to post some videos of the feedings before too long. It should get interesting as these babies rapidly grow and become more visible and vocal. I've read that often the weakest of three is left to fend for itself while the two strongest are nurtured and taught to survive. I'll have a hard time watching that if it happens, but I've promised myself I will not rescue an abandoned robin baby - let nature take its course. A robin who doesn't learn to survive in the wild, but lives out its days in a cage in a house with worm feedings would not be a good thing!

Here today, gone tomorrow

2010-05-06T22:53:00.001-04:00

I've been steeped in "Robin 101" this past week. I remarked to a neighbour that a robin built a nest by our front door and she said that the sooner we get rid of it the better. I didn't have the nerve to tell her that not only would I not get rid of it...I have excitedly set up a tripod permanently by the front door to capture the moments. I consider it a privilege to watch nature up close in action, even if it becomes a bit of a nuisance. How often except by webcam do you get to view this kind of activity up close? (See the robin building her nest in the previous post here)

I've had to rely on the internet to try to figure out this bird. I had no idea about the nesting habits of robins and I was perplexed by this new porch guest. Why would this bird spend a full day and a half - I'm talking no breaks or lunches - to build a nest, and then leave it? We kept watching and she wasn't coming back. My husband said maybe it was a 'decoy' to throw off the enemies, and the real nest was elsewhere. I couldn't believe she'd work that hard on a decoy.

Finally, she was spotted for a short time around noon on the nest....but gone again, not to return until the next day at noon for an hour or so. ??????

I began to read some wonderful stories on the internet from others who have watched robin nesting - oddly enough from ridiculous vantage points. One was built on top of a front porch light...another in the drip pan of a barbecue (barbecued omelette anyone?)...and yet another just under an open deck umbrella...(that woman had to put the umbrella down because of high winds, so she put the nest in their basement until the next day....and you think I'M crazy!)

But the most curious thing I learned was that the robin will lay one egg per day and then leave. She will return the next day to drop another egg, and so on, until she is finished and then she finally stays to sit on them so they will hatch around the same time. I also learned that the easiest way to check out what's in the nest is to place a mirror over it to clearly see the eggs when Momma is off for a worm and a drink. Of course I had to drag out a chair and stand on it to get a camera shot.

Sure enough.....day one.....one egg.

Day two...another.

Day three....a third.

And finally four eggs.

Yesterday, however, I noticed Momma eating something in the nest. The fourth egg had been fragile and must have broken, so she cleaned up the nest, and now there are three. And so we wait.

Apparently, the eggs are kept warm for about two weeks before they hatch, and then the fledglings take about two weeks to grow before they leave the nest. I am scheduled to be away for a couple of nights next week for work related training and I'm hoping I don't miss any of the hatching process.

The final points of interest I learned was that the robin will return to the same nest again for a second brood in the same season....and that they will return to the same location the next year and fix up the old dwelling if it's still there, or else rebuild. I don't recall any requests from Momma for a permit.

Momma is very patient with all the people activity at the front door. Just when you think she is going to stay there while you enter or leave, she quickly exits the nest and returns shortly after. I'm sure she appreciates the stretch of the wings and a quick worm from the garden, drink from the concrete bird bath, and back to settle down on the eggs. Dad is trying to ward off the pesky blue jays who are making their presence known trying to raid nests in the neighbourhood.

This morning when I peeked out the door first thing, I caught Dad putting some food into Momma's mouth. That was the first I'd seen him at the nest and it was so cool to see the support between the two to get these babies hatched and ready to face the world.

Most of us live busy lives....coming and going and not even noticing what's happening all around us in nature. Yes, we sit up and notice when a volcano erupts and disrupts our flight plans, or get disturbed at the ecological crisis as a result of a serious oil spill in an ocean. Birds, insects, butterflies are all indicators of the health of our environment. When we can learn a little of what their world is like, it helps us appreciate the balance, beauty, and necessity of the creatures with whom we share this earth.

Take some time from the rush and check out what you can see outside your front door. It might surprise you what you've been missing.

If you come visit, use the back door

2010-04-28T21:19:00.003-04:00

I made you all a couple of little amateur video clips for your viewing pleasure one of which is accompanied by music that will lull you to sleep and make you think you're watching a nature show. Don't worry, I didn't narrate. Check them out at the end of the blog post.

We have a new porch guest that I assume will be taking up residence soon. This lovely lady literally spent more than 12 hours Monday working on her nest right outside our front door, and was back at it finishing up the next morning. She went shopping for materials in my gardens all day long, and brought mud along to hold it all together. I always leave some prime nesting materials around when I clean up in spring, instead of throwing it all out. ("Ooooh, that would be great for lining a nest - I need to leave some of that out! The chickadees can gather up our dog's fur, so I'll spread that around"....etc).

It was so cool last year to watch the cardinals' nest outside the bedroom and to hold hours-old baby cardinals in my hand. It was phenomenal to watch baby blue jays learning to fly in the backyard last summer and enjoy a brief moment of a baby sitting next to me on the swing. I am sure it is those same two blue jay siblings that still stick together and come around to the same tree even now. So this year will be a new experience with a momma robin right beside the door we always use and by the porch lights that are always on. Unfortunately, knowing what I've heard about robins, our lives might be in danger!

I exaggerate....but I don't relish me, my family, or guests being dive-bombed when we're coming and going. So I'll warn everyone I know about momma robin if you value your head...steer clear!....mmmmm.....except for those pesky sales people that come a-knocking. No....I've got my tripod set up inside the door to film the baby robins....but I just might get some great comedic shots of sales people running from our house. This could be all good.

Here's what Dad was doing while Mom was working her little heart out. Why DO Dads seem to have more fun?
(The Picasa 'embed' feature does not seem to be working for the videos. You will be linked to my albums instead of viewing directly here - sorry)

Here's Momma. Stay tuned for the eggs and babies!

Not to be sneezed at

2010-04-11T22:21:00.001-04:00

Have you been sneezing a lot these last few weeks? Itchy, watery eyes? Miserable?

Welcome to the world of the allergy sufferer. These past few weeks in this part of Canada, spring has sprung very early and even some who have not had allergies before are suddenly reacting to the pollen in the air.

I've had springtime allergies for years but the symptoms have lessened over time so that I don't suffer for long anymore. But I learned something on Facebook about relief from nasal congestion in general.

Yes, Facebook. It can be inciteful sometimes to read responses to people's status postings - when they are telling their world that they don't feel well - an advice column, you might say. It was there that I learned about the neti pot (Thank you Robin!).
I had never heard of a neti pot and Robin even provided a web link. I will always try something once if someone recommends something they have found to work. I was intrigued because I am a tea lover, and Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) illustrates with a picture of a lovely ceramic 'teapot'.

So I decided I needed to get a neti pot to try for myself.

Now I knew that I couldn't expect too much in the way of style, being as I was purchasing the neti pot at Shoppers Drug Mart in the pharmacy department. Fine bone china was unlikely to be found within the cardboard box, nor did I expect to find ceramic. I guess I just thought it would at least be pretty.....maybe even elegant.

Mmmmmm. No. Not elegant.

Not even close to elegant.

But if you think that's not pretty, wait until you try it! The instructions really should state to use it in private where no one can watch. This device is, after all, a nasal irrigation system.

Now I have always hated the feeling of sucking in water through the nose when swimming, so when I was all ready to pour the solution from the neti pot through my nasal passage, I was gripped with a fear of drowning. The instructions said not to be alarmed if the solution also came out of the mouth (sound tasty?), so I was pretty sure if you have one nostril taking in fluid, the second one draining the fluid, and your mouth also exuding fluid (let snot call this fluid anything but fluid).....I'm pretty sure you can't breathe. I was pleasantly surprised I did not require any emergency assistance, and very stunned that there is actually an opening between both nostril passages to allow fluid to flow in one and out the other. Who knew?

Amazing the connection between nose, mouth and throat. It reminds me of an event that happened many years ago that I still laugh about....sort of. We went on a holiday to Florida with relatives and while there, visited with some aunts (unrelated to me). One of these aunts was very pretty and proper - lovely hair, obviously wore the finest of makeup, jewellery, clothing........but she was wearing pantyhose under her shorts - did I say we were in the hot, humid state of Florida? [I was somewhat fixated with the pantyhose -never seen that done. Perhaps because it was prior to spray-on tan products.]

Anyways, my husband decided it would be absolutely hilarious to take the cellophane wrapper from the candy he just ate....roll it up into a long 'stick'...and........ quickly.insert it up my nostril. (Isn't that just hilarious?????) I was impressed. Please kids, do not try this at home. Let me tell you, the nostril is a very sensitive piece of apparatus. When it itches in your sinus cavities, you can't scratch there. And when something scratchy hits the sinus cavities, your eye waters uncontrollably. Then everyone thinks that you're crying as you are bent over, clasping your face and dabbing your eyes.

Problem was, in addition to this incessant, horrible irritation in the sinus cavity, the 'pantyhose aunt' was trying to figure out what was wrong and how to help me. The more she spoke, the more I keeled over in laughter while 'crying', clutching my face and desperately wanting to sneeze away the irritation. She believed from what she had gathered from the others, that the wrapper had gone up my nose and come out my eye. She wouldn't drop it. The more she was concerned about the wrapper having come out my eye, the closer I came to collapsing in exhaustion from laughing. The others egged her on by assuring her that yes, it had come out my eye. Poor woman. She mustn't have passed biology in school. I could never be that stupid.

Although....I guess I just confessed that I thought a neti pot could drown me.

I wonder if pantyhose under shorts could be stylish?

I wouldn't have written it like that

2010-03-28T14:04:00.004-04:00

If I had been Zechariah, I wouldn't have written it like that.

Zechariah was a prophet guy who wrote what we now call...ironically....the book of Zechariah in the Bible. Five hundred years before Jesus appeared on the scene in Bethlehem, Zechariah wrote....

"Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey - even on a donkey's colt."

A donkey's colt?? A king?? Come on now. Let's have a king ride in on a white stallion. He's the hero. The king that saves the day!

Fast forward 500 years. Jesus is travelling towards Jerusalem and he sends two on ahead into a little village and tells them that they will find a donkey's colt there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. And no...he hadn't text messaged ahead to see if the beast of burden might be there waiting. In fact the owners of the colt were a little unnerved at these two untying their donkey.....but they let them have their animal when these two repeated what Jesus had told them to say.

Crowds were always following Jesus. Who would have known that the entire city of Jerusalem would be stirred on this one particular day that he visited....riding on a donkey's colt. The reaction to him was amazing. Treated him like a king.

How very different the next days ahead would be. Sitting on the colt and approaching the city of Jerusalem, Jesus wept.

Many more prophecies were yet to be fulfilled, written long before Zechariah. It was an incredibly difficult road ahead for Jesus.

I wouldn't have written it this way.

Turns out though....the whole Book's a best seller...and the ending is priceless!

Let's not leave Haiti on their own .....ever

2010-03-13T19:23:00.001-05:00

I love my country of Canada.

I'm proud of our immediate and continued response to Haiti and their needs.

Our response has brought Canadian people together for a common goal....a very worthy one.

Good can come in the midst of tragedy.... cities and countries can rise from ashes when people care enough.

Let's not stop here. Let's keep giving.....to Haiti....and to other impoverished countries who need us.

If you think you're not rich, think again....and give what you have. It will come back to you as surely as the waves come crashing in to the shore...and then you can give again.

Starry eyed

2010-02-20T23:30:00.000-05:00

I stood in my backyard tonight and looked up into the clear night sky. The crescent moon was shining brilliantly - illuminating what little snow remains. The stars seemed motionless, forever in the same sky I had watched in my childhood. Constellations I have long since forgotten the names of - learned at a much younger age. As a child, I wondered how gravity could hold us all together without falling off the surface of the earth....and why the stars wouldn't just randomly float anywhere instead of in predictable constellations that we could search and find the same pictures over ions of time.

As a lover looks with fondness into the eyes of the one they love, so when I gaze at stars I see the One whom I love more with each passing day.

There are times in our lives when we are faced head on with the reality of our own mortality. Our time here is brief. But far more real to me is that the One who holds the stars in place..... holds me. That's far more amazing than gravity.

What are you waiting for?

2010-01-01T23:51:00.012-05:00

What are you waiting for and wanting to happen this year? I hope you want to start the New Year empty handed.

"We're waiting here

Waiting for you, God

With our hopes and fears

We come empty hands held out......"

Box of Chocolates

2009-12-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

My annual Christmastime post....recalling a story that stays fresh in my memories.

He lived across the street from us, sometimes peering out from behind the curtain of his window, sometimes observing the neighbourhood activity from the front porch. Stan kept to himself – not unfriendly, but nevertheless aloof. He was elderly and He lived alone. No cars ever seemed to enter his driveway.

As Christmas was nearing, my husband and I took some Christmas goodies to Stan’s next-door neighbour – an elderly lady whom we hadn’t seen since the weather turned cold. She was overjoyed at our visit. We learned she was nursing her brother who was sick, “dying of cancer”, she whispered, as if to not let him hear from the next room where he lay in a bed. She spoke of deep faith in God and how He gives strength to the weary.

She also spoke of Stan and how she prayed for him. I felt uplifted and thankful she knew the Christ whose birth we celebrated. We could not know as we left her home that in a few short years I would stand by her hospital bed as she would die of the same disease as her brother.

The week grew busier as Christmas approached, but I could not glance at Stan’s house without feeling we must visit him as well. Christmas Eve arrived, and as this was a year b.k. (before kids), we did not have the same bustling activity that we have known since then. Though the fire was cozy, and home was comfortable, we bundled up and made the trek across the street.

There was a dim light in the window and the sound of the television from behind the door. The shuffle of slippered feet followed the doorbell. Stan opened the door and his face lit up as he looked at his young neighbours standing with goodies in hand, wanting to visit him on Christmas Eve. He welcomed us almost with disbelief.

I do not remember if his home had any Christmas decorations or gifts, but I do recall how sad I felt that Stan wore a shirt and tie, dressed up as if expecting company but no one had come. He told us he had a grown son, but the two of them had not spoken in years. The bitterness was evident in Stan’s voice as he abruptly stated his son 'does not come home for Christmas'. He talked and we listened as time slipped by. He thanked us with tears in his eyes as we left, and how thankful we were that we had crossed the street to see him, and perhaps given him the only gift he would receive for Christmas. A short time out of our life had meant the world to him. Stan did not live to see another Christmas.......

Years later, I still think of Stan especially on Christmas Eve. Travelling with our children to Grandma and Grandpa's house that’s always filled with laughter, food, and gifts, Stan has become my reminder. As we drive down city streets, my eyes wander to windows which are darkened, lit only by the flickering light of a television. I wonder what heartaches lie in that household, and if someone sits alone at Christmas and throughout the year, wishing someone would bring some light, some hope, into their world.
Stan reminds me that I’m as busy as the town of Bethlehem was, when a Saviour quietly arrived on the scene… too busy doing nothing of importance to notice the only thing that matters. Christ was so willing to step into our world in spite of an unfathomable sacrifice on his part. Yet shamefully, I am often too busy to step outside my world into someone else’s, even though the sacrifice is miniscule and the reward so rich.

.........We heard a faint knock on our door the Christmas morning after we visited Stan. There stood Stan shivering in the cold, almost breathless, cheeks red, and eyes glistening. He stretched out his withered, trembling hands to offer us a box of chocolates which he had obviously bought that morning at the variety store down the block. “Merry Christmas”, he said, clasping our hands. “God bless you. Thank you so much!”.

A simple box of chocolates….but Stan could not know that years later his gift to us has been of more infinite worth than any others we have received!

Broken gifts

2009-12-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Do you remember looking for the gifts under the tree that had your name on them...wondering what lay beneath the wrapping paper? What an awful Christmas that was when I opened all my gifts beforehand and carefully retaped them shut. Christmas morning held no excitement or anticipation - total letdown. I never did it again.

I have a vivid memory of a gift I received for Christmas as a child. This one gift, even as I describe it, sounds archaic compared to the electronic gadgets kids get these days. You have to understand.....I grew up in the dark ages.

I guess you would call it a calculator or an adding device - not electronic, but not an abacus either. It was red, with white knobs along the top representing the 'ones, tens, hundreds, etc. You would push down on the knobs to make the numbers change up or down. Really exciting stuff. Actually.....I have no idea why you would want to do that?! Well...I thought it was cool at the time. I've googled it and found nothing so it must be extinct now....buried with the dinosaurs.

One of my dear brothers picked up my precious gift on that Christmas day to inspect it. Then he decided that playing with it wasn't good enough. He had to KNOW how it worked. I don't recall whether he asked me if he could, but before I knew it, he had my wonderful calculator pried open, inspecting the guts of it and trying to figure out the mechanics of it. Problem is......he couldn't get it back together properly. I remember being very sad that the gift I had received was now hopelessly broken - on purpose! My brother went on at a later age to design airplane wings (real ones), so I guess he got better at understanding the mechanics of stuff. (Explains why he's somewhat anxious on planes, especially when he sits by the window with a clear view of the wing).

There'll be lots of broken gifts on Christmas day....and disappointed kids and adults whose toys have shattered or quit either the day they are opened or shortly thereafter. Obviously, the giver of the gift doesn't plan for it to be broken.......

Well....except for one gift that was given once.

As far as I'm aware, it was the only invaluable gift carefully planned and thought out ridiculously far in advance and knowingly given in order to be broken....shattered to pieces.....wrecked beyond recognition.

Strange, that while lovingly giving and receiving temporary stuff....so many of us pay little attention to that priceless Gift.....even though the Gift has our name on it......and the holiday we are celebrating has His name in it.

Night blindness

2009-12-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

While I was doing some Christmas shopping I noticed something little I had wanted for a long time. So I bought it for my husband to put in my Christmas stocking - just in case he was at a loss of what to put in there.

But then, as a woman is entitled to do, I changed my mind and decided to use this thing right away.

It's an eye mask to wear while sleeping, (contrary to appliances, such as hairblowers that come with the caution - "do not use while sleeping").

Apparently, you get a much more restful sleep if you are in complete darkness. Well, I need to see my alarm clock at times so I can't do away with that....and we have an old dog whose eyes are getting cloudy who has to have some light in order to move about at night or else she whimpers and whines in fear of taking a step. And the bedroom door needs to stay open for her....but we have a night-hawk of a son so there is always some light shining up the stairs. Yah, I've been in search of a good night's sleep.

This mask is quite amazing. It is soft, and providing you don't tighten the strap to the point of a migraine, it's very comfortable. It doesn't let even the slightest ray of light in. I'd like to know why these things weren't around back in the day when we'd play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey as kids. We would always have to use a winter scarf, tied tight enough to pull your hair. The adult would ask, "Can you see anything?", and you would fib (gasp!) and say you couldn't see a thing. Meanwhile, you could clearly see your feet below, and if you were sly you could point your chin to the ceiling and find that donkey's behind, even after having been spun around until you were dizzy.

This has been a great purchase - and I'm sure I'm quite the sight on the nights I remember to wear my bucktooth nightguard (which is seldom), and my face all shined up with coconut oil.

My only fear is that I am going to be deeply dreaming and suddenly awakened by the alarm or other noise, and I am going to forget I am wearing a mask. I may go through a few moments of terror of being in complete darkness, unable to find the clock or the light switch and believe I've gone completely blind. I'm fully expecting to have a dream about that soon.

Nonetheless, I love my eye mask. It's a keeper. Only wish I could wear it at work as a shield from the florescent lights.....but that would never work. I'd need earplugs there too if I was going to catch any sleep at all.

I didn't mean to - honest!

2009-12-09T21:06:00.000-05:00

I killed the ~~ugly~~ fish - the one in my last post. And I really didn't mean to.

I mean I would never have gotten the aquarium going again and added 5 new little fish to keep him company and pond plants to make him feel at home if I hadn't cared. He stayed to himself and didn't seem to like the fish food so I bought some gucky frozen larvae stuff and plants for him to try. Hunger must have kicked in and in a day or two he was eating at the top with the rest of the fish and getting along swimmingly with them all.

I knew that you musn't overfeed goldfish. But they are deceptive little creatures. When you sprinkle that food in, they act like they are practically dying of hunger and they keep ravenously eating. Unfortunately, they eat themselves to death.

The smallest fish died first. Then another pretty orange and black one went belly up. By then it was too late. ~~Ugly~~ fish wasn't looking too well.

So I killed the three of them with kindness.....flushed away. And now there are three who are fed precious little. But I will ignore their pleas of starvation.

I figure ~~ugly~~ fish survived the pond for just one purpose. To remind me during the approaching holiday season when tempting food will abound everywhere.....that I mustn't over indulge and eat everything around me....or I too will be flush with regret.

RIP ~~ugly~~ Fish

Tragedy at Lake. Two killed, one missing and presumed drowned. But...who the heck are YOU??

2009-11-15T22:09:00.003-05:00

Can a fish drown?

I dunno. But our fishies met tragedy this summer while they were on vacation.

About three years ago we bought a mixture of five little 40 cent feeder fish of various colourings and put them in our tiny little pond which is too shallow to overwinter fish. There's not enough room below the ice to support any water or oxygen for them.

Only two of these little creatures managed to survive and grew quite large. When the cold weather approached, I didn't have the heart to just let them freeze to death so I bought a 50 dollar aquarium for the 80 cent fishies and we kept them indoors for two winters. If you want to see what life was like for them in the aquarium, click here to watch a video of their activities (Note - I didn't choose the music in the video - my son happened to be 'jamming' in the background when I was filming). It will also explain why I called them "Chase" and "Chasee", both females. Each year they would wait expectantly all winter for the warm weather when they could finally go on vacation to the lake (we never let them know it was just a pond).

This past summer was a tragic one. My husband went to step outside on the morning of our anniversary, and there was an icky orangey mess on the porch right in front of the door. The only way we knew it was a fish was by the tail that was distinguishable. Raccoon? Cat? Not sure. But it was sad after all our efforts to keep the fish alive. It was Chasee. Tragic.

Chase looked so very lonely in the pond and would simply stay out of sight without swimming much. So off I went to the store to ~~spend more money~~ buy another fish about the same size so that Chase would not be alone. Bigger fish are $3.99....not 40 cents ~~but price was no object~~.

What a beauty I picked. I thought it best to get another female. This fish had some white markings on the orange body and reminded me of a Creamsicle.

Chase began to chase Creamsicle right away and soon they were inseparable.

Well, as fate would have it, there was another upset to the pond in spite of our best efforts to secure it from wildlife, and Creamsicle was found on the front sidewalk one morning. The prospects weren't good to revive her. Obviously whatever animal did this did not really want fish for breakfast. Poor Chase. Alone again...naturally. But tragically, not long after that, Chase just simply vanished without a trace. Drowned? Did she jump? This was a vacation gone completely wrong.

Now I will admit I was a little ~~giddy~~ sad as I cleaned up the aquarium and put it away, knowing I wouldn't be maintaining it this winter.

Yesterday, my husband did his ritual clean-out of the pond which tends to be the recipient of leaves and debris. He usually sucks all the water out each year with a shop vac and covers the pond to keep out snow and ice. I was in the backyard sunning myself and listening to a robin on a most unusual warm weather day in mid November. He called me over with a little flower pot in his hand and said, "Look at this!!".

I looked. Dirty black sludge and slime. Mmhmm.

"No LOOK!", he insisted.

I peered into the pot again. Dirty black sludge and slime.

"It's a fish!"

Uh huh.

I continued to stare at the mess. Then the slime moved. Freaky.

I couldn't see how this moving, slimy thing was a fish, but when it was taken and put into a nearby birdbath....sure enough....it was a small black fish. Sooooo. Either this thing had survived in that pond for several years, avoiding ice and freezing and shop vac sucking....or it was a product of the conception of two female fish....or perhaps Creamsicle laid some eggs before leaving this earth?

Isn't she just so....so.....~~ugly~~ worth keeping?

~~Alas~~ Hooray! I get to dig out the aquarium again for Mystery or Lucky or whatever we shall call this blackish/grey fish who eluded us in the dark waters of the lake. We will need to be rearranging the house a little to accomodate this tiny guest and I guess I'll be paying a visit to the pet store to ~~spend more money~~ get a few more fish rather than have one solitary ~~sole~~ soul in the tank.

You know, I never really liked fish. But it's amazing when you watch them swim for a few years you actually ~~get attached to them~~ think of more than just Omega 3's or the health benefits of eating them. More than just slime. More than just a lot of work to provide a morsel for a cat, raccoon, or heron. So much more.

Stay tuned for more exciting videos of the lives of fish...coming soon to a blog near you. ~~Bet you can hardly wait.~~

Is there a better country?

2009-11-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

I hate war. Who doesn't?

We could argue the politics...the morality....the horrors of war. My heart nearly stopped as I watched the 'shock and awe' of the Iraq war - knowing behind each blast were families of innocent people being wiped out in a moment of time and the infrastructure of their country destroyed. Was anything worth that cost?

War is so much different now than it was in the days of the First and Second World Wars. We do not always know where the enemy is - there is not necessarily an obvious battlefield.

All of the politics aside, on this November 11th Remembrance Day, I have paused to reflect on our Canadian soldiers and the sacrifices they have given, and continue to give. I may pause for a moment on this day, but those who have lost family military members must vividly remember every day...every hour.

Canada now has a thoughtful way to help us remember on more than just Remembrance Day. If a Canadian soldier falls, rather than being buried overseas as in the past, they are escorted home to travel along the Highway of Heroes in Ontario. Traffic on the busy highway is slowed as motorists consumed in their own busy lives are suddenly faced with a stark reminder that their freedom was bought by one such as this who is now carried past them - whose voice has now been silenced, yet their lives speak volumes. Crowds of Canadians with Canadian flags stand for hours in all kinds of weather on overpasses along that highway to silently salute the soldier as he or she passes beneath each bridge....each one honoured for their ultimate sacrifice. I wish that we have seen the last of those motorcades.

Our country of Canada is not one that has faced invasion or needed to defend itself. Rather, it chooses to go to places of unrest in the world.....fighting if necessary....but trying to rebuild, befriend and assist people in need whose countries have been ravaged by war and ruthless oppression. We have lost too many in the quest to do so.

We are a country of peace and freedom. And we go with the mission of restoring peace and freedom in other nations.

Whether our troops should be away from home or not.....

they are.....

and today we salute these heroes and support them in their efforts.

New song

2009-11-04T01:00:00.020-05:00

One evening about a month or so ago, I came into my living room and sat down to read. I could hear my son's guitar-playing emanating from the basement. It was quite loud, but not the rock music he reserves for the band he plays in.

(Too often his best music is reserved for the wee hours of the morning when I'm often asleep, though sometimes I have the good fortune to hear it.)

I can't even describe what I was hearing. He had blended various strains of his creation together using his computer, and I felt suspended in time as I sat mesmerized....listening. I felt tears welling in my eyes because there was something intensely moving and inspirational in what I was hearing. It was like it lifted me into worship though there were not even any words being sung. I breathed a prayer of gratitude for the gift and a hope for it to bless others.

Just then my son's girlfriend arrived, said hello, and was about to make her way downstairs to see Jordan. I motioned to her instead to sit down for a moment and just listen. She sat down for only a moment before tears began to well in her eyes as well. She voiced exactly what I had just been thinking - that there was something inspirational in the music that Jordan was creating, and it moves her to worship as well. For a few minutes we sat silently teary-eyed and in awe of what we were hearing.

Today our son is 21 years old. I cried throughout his entire baby dedication ceremony on a Sunday Christmas Day in 1988. And now he's got me misty-eyed again....

Love you Jordan. Happy Birthday.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth....and He'll keep giving you a beautiful NEW song.

Sorry to disappoint you

2009-10-28T22:59:00.006-04:00

I'll give you 3 chances to guess what these pictures are...

Anyone who does laundry has it figured out. Yes, that's the inside of my dryer.

Now I'm sorry to disappoint you if you are still raising young children and think that one day you will no longer have to deal with crayon marks on the walls and marker stains on clothes and furniture, etc.

No, even if your children have left home, you will still deal with some heavy duty messes. Especially if they bring their laundry home.

Someone in my family, who will remain nameless, used to have better laundry facilities than I do in HER first apartment away from home, free of charge. In fact, I wanted to cart my laundry to HER place to do it. This past year however, in her new place she has to pay for laundry, so yah....the trips home always involve laundry these days. Normally, I'd let her do it, but it makes no sense not to also throw our laundry in the same load to save money. So last weekend, I did the laundry.

Thought I checked all the pockets! But to my horror, I saw these marks in the dryer as I pulled the clothes out.

Although I have been involved in money laundering, washed and dried a wallet, blasted some kleenex to bits, and am forever producing some sparkling clean guitar picks, this was my first ever BLACK PERMANENT marker - top OFF. Who cares that there was also a pen and a lip balm in the same pocket....Would this be a good time to mention that the afore-mentioned unnamed member of the family once washed her cellphone??

Remarkably, the clothes seemed to be unaffected which was a huge blessing.

So now...how to get the dryer clean? I tried a few things....even the Magic Eraser that always works for everything else, didn't work. I thought of asking my husband to use some stronger elbow grease and scrub away at it, but he's been too busy mopping up the mess the washing machine made a few days later when it bounced around and knocked the hose out of the wash tub! (It's a wonder we have any clean clothes). The water spread considerably from the laundry room into the adjoining games room, so he had to take a morning off work to move a two-ton (I exaggerate) pool table, heavy sewing machine cabinet, and a thousand other things (I exaggerate), and then use a wet vaccuum over the whole area.

So I googled.

I found out that toothpaste with baking soda works like a charm, as does rubbing alcohol, although both still require a lot of scrubbing at an awkward angle....so I'm doing a little at a time each time I'm throwing something in the washing machine............................

after checking the pockets.................

all of them..........

twice.

Fortunately, I had stocked up on Arm & Hammer toothpaste on sale this week, though I thought it would be used on teeth. I may even have to return for more before the job's done........but hey, I'm all for polishing enamel wherever it is....and bonus.....the dryer has 'a hint of minty freshness' (to quote my favourite Donkey).

Happy Birthday to my 12 year old

2009-10-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

Twelve years ago....our Christmas present was born.

And our vacuum cleaner has never been the same.

Happy Birthday Nikki!!

I cried today

2009-10-22T22:28:00.003-04:00

I enjoy my job because it involves solving problems and helping people. While I was on the phone today, the person who was giving me the next batch of problems to solve, referred to me as the 'Problem Resolution Officer'. I laughed and said I hadn't known that was my official title and queried whether a raise was in order.

I delved into the next problem and called a client to provide a resolution. Now I have been trained to be professional and dignified on the job, with a balance of compassion and empathy for clients in an arms-length kind of way because we have to. But for the first time in 35 years on the job, I cried on the phone with a client today.

I had reviewed her situation before calling her and knew she had while on her job, observed a murder of someone she knew. She was still struggling with that for a very long time after, and has just never had the ability to heal from it. Through a series of events, her world had caved in and she now found herself without any hope of a job, when she had gone through school and thought her career was all set. When I spoke with her, I mentioned something about trying to call her yesterday.

Without any emotion, she quietly made the statement, "I tried to kill myself yesterday."

Her tone of voice told me that there was no pretense of a lie or an attempt to influence or evoke anything from me. It was just a true statement.

In that moment, my chest became heavy, I could scarcely breathe and all I could manage to say was, "Oh Lisa! You're serious aren't you?" And I felt the tears involuntarily starting to spill. I was struck with the fragility of life. How different this call could have been yesterday....a telephone ringing on unanswered....and me starkly unaware of someone in desperation.

We both managed a laugh as I said, "you've got me crying now..." I managed to choke out some encouraging words of hope, and she assured me that she was okay for now. We talked about hope and where to go from here. I took a deep breath and tried to go on with the 'professional' business of our conversation, but it took a little time to suck it up and regain my composure. (I will still probably cry it all out tonight in bed!)

Lisa represents only one of so many. Despondent people. Feeling hopeless. Can't see any bigger picture than beyond their world that has caved in around them. Hanging on by a thread and fragile. I am NOT the Problem Resolution Officer. I can't solve these kinds of problems. People can counsel and advise and encourage, but they can't bring peace to a despondent heart through these things alone. We can only trust in One who can.

Know why I love Christmas so much? It's the hope. It's the remedy. It's the mystery that God cared. He planned. And he sent......hope. And He'll never let go - even if we do.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine....

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

The Bible, Isaiah 9:2, 6,7 (planned....and written long before the son was given)

Second spring

2009-10-20T22:50:00.005-04:00

"Autumn -

a second spring when every leaf's a flower."

- - Albert Camus

Let's go! Blue Jays!

2009-10-05T23:10:00.000-04:00

I know it's all over this year for the Toronto Blue Jays. It was a disappointing year...again.

Not so in my back yard though. It was a great summer for the Blue Jays.

I had the delight of watching two baby blue jays awkwardly learning to find their way in the world. They lived for a time in the tall pine tree that spills over onto our deck, so I spent many a time sitting on the swing and watching their antics for the few weeks they were tiny. Blue jays can be very agressive, nasty birds to other songbirds...but somehow my heart attached itself to these two siblings in spite of what I knew they would become. I mean how can you not love faces like these?

Here they are on the little bird bath next to the pine tree:

I got a kick out of watching them flit from branch to branch. They were very tipsy. Landings on branches were executed with heads too far forward, little tails pointing skyward until they could get their balance and right themselves.

One sibling was unafraid of water - just jumped right in to get cooled off.

The other was timid, and was simply content to lap up the water below the bird bath that was being splashed down from above.

One late afternoon I brought my camera out for a few shots. I had been waiting to get a pic of Mama placing food in baby's mouth, but Mama would always hop way up into the heights of the tree for baby to follow....far away from the prying eyes of that lady on the swing.

Tonight was different. Mama and baby were perfectly within range.

Freeze for shot...press shutter.

Right on cue, my camera's batteries died. (I had ignored it's earlier warnings). Worse than that for a photographer though, was what happened next.

The 'timid' baby decided it was going to try to fly over the swing to the maple tree behind me to join its sibling who had accomplished that feat.

He didn't make it.

He swerved to avoid the cover above me, and he landed right beside me on the swing! (So cute! And my batteries were dead!) It was one of those 'slo-mo' moments. I sat in frozen silence. Mama and Papa were going crazy in the pine tree because their baby was sitting right beside 'that lady', but they could only watch and 'quack' because they wouldn't come near me. The baby although not seeming afraid of me, hopped around, managed to get underneath the swing, into another small tree by the deck, and then back to the pine tree. Mama scooted him back up into the heights of the tree. And I went to get fresh batteries.

Throughout the summer, these little ones, and their parents would wait for me to refresh the water and put the peanuts out each day, and in return they blessed me and gave me pictures. Mama and Papa have planted peanut trees for us.

The little ones are now large, loud, and cocky like their parents.

I think I can still distinguish them from the other Jays in the neighbourhood. They have spunk...very high energy and continually return to the same pine tree and bird bath. When I'm outside, they will begin to 'scream' and I can't resist. I put out the peanuts which they happily snatch up and go and 'plant' as their parents have shown them.

I hope these beautiful birds stick around much longer than their baseball namesakes.Who knows. Maybe one of these days, or even next year, one of them just might join me on the swing for old times sake.

Flicker....not to be confused with Flickr

2009-10-02T21:58:00.014-04:00

I've become a bit of a woodpecker lover this year. I hung suet feeders out back when I realized the woodpeckers were still looking for it in the summertime - I thought it was just winter energy for them. But as I sat on the deck this summer I was able to observe and photograph a downy woodpecker feeding suet to her baby - so I made sure there was plenty available. They are so unafraid of people. In fact, they come near as I fill their feeders and they get right to eating as soon as I move a short distance away.

Here's a baby...

(Gap between pics courtesy of Blogger)

Here's mom and baby.....

Baby is below, waiting to be served (kids are all alike aren't they??)

Notice the awkward stretch backwards to get the suet into the youngster's mouth.

And not to be forgotten...........here's dad.

The other day I had a little birding treat when I pulled into the driveway after work. I saw a bird the size of a robin moving down a tree trunk like a woodpecker. Knowing it wasn't the usual downy woodpeckers around here, I peered to see what it was.

It flew onto the gate at the end of the driveway as I continued to sit in the car. I could see glimpses of beautiful yellow feathers on its underside and I began to wonder if it was someone's pet that had gotten loose. It flew back to the tree, then back to the gate. To my delight he flew directly into the pine tree right next to me where I had an up close look at him and he was joined within seconds by his mate. The two of them conversed for a few minutes while I studied them, and then they flew off and I haven't seen them since. They were northern flickers, of which I have not seen any for years...but then again, they can be hard to spot unless you're looking for them because they like to forage on the ground in search of bugs.

Here are some Wikipedia pictures of flickers.

Finally, take a look at a YouTube video of a mother flicker tending her babies. I am envious of the owner of the camera who shot the close up video, complete with a baby flicker and his looooooooong tongue and the surprise ending. Excellent quality! Now I will wonder what really goes on high up in the upper recesses of our maple trees. Maybe I should get my husband to do some climbing and install a webcam trained on any nice round holes in the trunk.

Somehow, I don't think that's going to be happening....

Fresh Face Day

2009-09-13T19:34:00.040-04:00

This past weekend has been picture-perfect weather. Warm, sunny, yet still with a fresh breeze....beautiful for drying clothes on the line.

There is no smell I relish more than sun and wind-dried sheets, pillow cases, and clothes.

Days like these, I pull dried sheets off the line and bury my nose in them to inhale the fresh scent.

Intoxicating.

On laundry days, I almost can't wait until bedtime to lay my face on a fresh pillowcase, nestled under fresh sheets.

So when I awoke on Saturday morning it felt great to know it was such a beautiful day.

Ladies, you know how great it feels to have a morning shower, freshly washed hair and face, and if the barn needs paintin'...a little fresh touch of makeup to feel alive and invigorated.

That's how I felt with my freshly brewed coffee and fresh face - ('Fresh' is the word of the day, if you hadn't figured it out).

I went downstairs to begin the laundry. We have a laundry chute, and I noticed a sock suddenly fall behind the dryer. So I got in beside the dryer and peered behind it. Not seeing the sock very well, I leaned in farther. I submerged my fresh face squarely and completely into large dusty cobwebs. BLEEECH! So much for fresh. More like itchy (I'm allergic to dust). I couldn't shake the thoughts of tiny spiders and dust mites on my scalp.

Did you know that it is a fact that spiders build their webs at the height of just under 5 feet? It's true. I have several years worth of documented proof....on my face. Whenever my face is fresh - particularly early morning on the way to work - I will walk somewhere where there is a web, just under 5 feet in height, that will hit my face square on. Another little known fact is that oranges or grapefruits when cut will always, without fail, squirt directly into a fresh face...and most often, stingingly into an eyeball.

But I digress.

I carried on with the day, got the laundry out on the line and things were great until I started to prepare an early supper. I peeled the potatoes and prepared some green beans and cauliflower.

Then I got out my trusty compost bucket that I keep under the kitchen sink. It's a beauty from Lee Valley, made of stainless steel so it does not hold odours and washes up beautifully, so smelly compost in your kitchen is never an issue.

I had noticed that the lid had been slightly off on the compost pail a week ago - nothing to do with my son cooking and putting his scraps in there, of course. I had closed it tightly as soon as I noticed it.

I put the pail on the counter in front of me to dispose of the vegetable peels.

Removed the lid.

HUNDREDS of fruit flies flew right up into my ~~fresh~~ face! I slammed the lid back on immediately, but the damage was done. I had released a cloud of these tiny annoyances into my kitchen. Worse than Grade 9 Biology - fruit fly reproduction 101. My face got itchier.

I took the compost pail promptly outside to the composter and I had to open the lid and release some flies to the backyard as well - keeping my face well away from the pail. Too bad I didn't know about those flies in there beforehand or I would have donated them to some Grade 9 biology lab.

I set traps...and will continue for many more days...of baggies with decaying fruit. Every morning I will dispose of the baggy full of fruit flies and wonder if they are reproducing faster than I can catch them.

My face was safe for the rest of the day, although I had doubts when I was sloshing and splashing around cleaning a dirty birdbath.

'Twas nice to wash my face before bed and lay it down on the intoxicatingly fresh pillow case.

I even managed to wipe the thoughts out of my brain that there might be tiny spiders, dust mites, or fruit flies crawling around in my hair.

That would be a problem to tackle in the morning..... after putting on my fresh face.

Do your kids send you texts in the middle of the night?

2009-08-24T20:33:00.009-04:00

1:39 am
Roll over because I hear my phone vibrating.
There is a text message from my son.
It says,
"Do you know how old the house is?"
I reply with as accurate an answer as one can give while in a fog. I ask why he wants to know. He replies that they (his roommates and he) were just having a discussion about it. I reply with a correction to my answer now that I've had a few moments to process. Then I ask, "Are the guys also texting their mothers at 1:45 am?" I didn't receive a response.

LOL.

I know that some mothers would respond that they would be so angry to be awakened from sleep for something so trivial. Me? I say, "I love this kid!! Spontaneous!"

Now...in Jordan's defence....he had just spoken to me at 1:00 am, only 40 minutes earlier about another matter, so I'm sure he assumed I was still wide awake. After the text I was!...and lay awake another half hour blogging in my head about it! I found it rather amusing and was still laughing about it later in the day.

Perhaps it's my fault, but I've always stressed to my kids that they can disturb me at any time of the day or night if they need me. I cherish the "Mom? Are you still awake?" moments to talk out the stuff they are thinking through, needing some advice, or just a listening ear. I didn't feel like I had that with my parents and just don't want that repeated with my own kids.

Those late night talks just might be more frequent in the near future.

Back in February I wrote about the empty nest as my son was leaving home. This weekend, through circumstances, he has to return home for a bit until the job situation is resolved. I am thankful that it is not a long term plan for him to stay here - not because I don't want him here - but I want him to mature and learn life lessons on his own, and he recognizes that he needs that.

Funny, living around several large trees, I've been following the lives of baby birds and their attachments to their parents. It's one thing to leave the nest, but the babies still make their presence known and need help for quite a while after they venture out of their home. In the case of cardinal youngsters, I've been hearing their cheeping for weeks as their parents spend all of their time providing food and guarding them from all dangers.

So our nest will again be a little crowded, a little more costly, and a lot more messy. But it's a short window of time in our lives and I will just cherish the chats and the texts - no matter the hour.

Oh, and in case you're dying to know ....the house is 48 years old.

100 blog posts

2009-08-16T20:44:00.012-04:00

I've got lots to tell you!

I have written approximately 100 blog posts this summer. Trouble is...they are all in my head and have not been transposed via the keyboard. There are musings on faith, flowers, fish, friendship, funny stuff, and of course, stories of my feathered friends and all their babies I've been following. Good bloggers post daily. I admit I am not in that league.

Fresh blog posts are of course far more superior on current topics relevant to the moment. They have an important place in many people's lives and I read many of them when I can. But life is meant to be lived and God bless you if you do, but I am just not one to carry technology with me to record my posts within moments....or inform followers of my every movement... or to continually read what equates to text messages from others. I get enough text messages from my kids asking for the car and money. The thought of my head buried in a Blackberry or laptop throughout an entire day for purposes other than work exhausts me. No, the only tweets coming from my house are those coming from the trees. Good grief I sound so old and crotchety! Maybe I'll be hip when I'm retired and I'll twitter from my rocking chair. I feel a blog post coming on about what would be contained in those tweets......

Anyways.......it's summer. I spend as much of it outdoors as I can (while my housework is abandoned) and while I am gardening and birding and photographing and reading and visiting, I am blogging away in my head. When I should be sleeping, I am composing a post and hoping I can remember my thoughts when I get to actually write it out. If my thoughts don't all get recorded until weeks later....so be it. Besides, I spend hours at my workplace on the computer (because I have to) and can feel the tennis elbow becoming more pronounced... so I try to rest it when at home. (That's a lie. I do gardening and end up making it worse).

Soon enough the days will shorten and more time will be spent indoors and I will catch up on my postings. Come the first snow day, watch for 2-3 posts per day for weeks on end. And they will all remind you of the summer.

Since I'm finally posting something here, I might as well throw in my thoughts for today which are on a more serious note. We heard a message from a guest speaker at church today who reminded us that God works strangely, sovereignly, and sloooowly. Example: the life of Joseph. His life was a maze from the time he received his technicolour coat from his dad, and each event made no sense on it's own. Where was God when everything was going wrong?? Yet everything was being beautifully orchestrated from an Israelite, to a slave, to a prisoner, to a Prime Minister. Kind of like right now during this heat wave we're experiencing during summer, the autumn is actually slowly working behind the scenes, preparing itself to burst upon us - you just can't see it. It is apparent that it's God's nature to work sovereignly....slowly, often unseen... and not understood by us. We live our lives by clocks and calendars - they don't seem to be a factor to God.

Life is like a big page of that connect-the-dots game. You don't see the big picture until you're just about through. The speaker mentioned that her daughter is bad for leaving phone messages that she has something really exciting to relate, but...."I'll tell you later!". God leaves us waiting...hanging....and we have to trust Him....when we don't think we are getting answers...and when everything seems to be going against us.

He'll tell us later.

There IS a big plan.....but I want to look for God in the little things....to learn about His nature and His ways.....and intentionally love and worship Him.

I was musing on these thoughts this evening when I went back into the recesses of my garden to prune a few rosebush branches (pruning is a whole other blog post of spiritual thoughts...). Suddenly my dog started frantically barking on the back deck. She gets disturbed if we go in the house without her - she needs to be with us all the time.

She had lost sight of me and obviously thought I had gone in the house.

I peered around the pear tree that I was in behind and called her name. Nikki! NIKKI! The poor dog ran from one end of the deck to the other looking for me and couldn't see me. She scurried to the gate to look down the driveway as I continued to call her name....but she couldn't see me. Back up on the deck she tried to listen to where my voice was coming from but she just couldn't see me and was becoming a little frantic to find me.

Finally, I stepped farther out of the garden and called her name once more. That did it. Recognition. The arthritic dog came bounding down the stairs, tail wagging and excitedly ran up to me for reassurance that I was indeed there. I had been there all along. As Nikki ran towards me I saw the very real picture of what I had just been musing on. I love my dog and I savoured her reaction as she lovingly ran to me.

Just because she couldn't see me didn't mean I had left her. I was there all along...my love for her still intact and unwavering. I hadn't left her. I never will.

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8,9 - The Bible

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 - The Bible

MJ wasn't the first moonwalker

2009-07-17T21:14:00.017-04:00

When I was a child, space travel was still a mystical, uncommon thing. All eyes were on the news if any rockets were launched into space, but never more so than when man first stepped on the surface of the moon - 40 years ago on July 20, 1969.

I was 12 years old when three brave astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. departed on their Apollo 11 mission to the moon. I remember being with my parents in front of our black and white television watching the Apollo 11 launch, and then the lunar landing.

We watched grainy images of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the surface of the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. We listened carefully to their historic statements and watched with awe as they bounced along for a no-gravity experience.

We saw images of our own earth as they were seeing them from the moon.

I remember staring at the moon for many nights after that, with an eerie feeling, trying to imagine that there were men up there as I gazed at it.

Later we followed their descent to earth, wondering if they would survive...watching their capsule land in the ocean and the boats travelling out to get them. I was awestruck with it all.

Fast-track 40 years and we learn that Buzz Aldrin's post-Apollo life had spiraled out of control with depression and alcoholism. Fortunately, that is behind him and he has chronicled his life in his memoirs, "Magnificent Desolation".

Many in the current generation seem to have lost that awe of space travel and other amazing feats that we take so for granted. Another shuttle launch? That's nice. It seems almost as commonplace as an airplane taking off in flight.

Well maybe these videos will engage younger generations....or at least make them laugh. Good old very cool 79 year old Buzz Aldrin aka Doc Rendezvous is very much into the new hip-hop, twitter culture and wants to send a message to this generation. He enlists Snoop Dogg to help him. I could never have imagined this video when I was 12....nor could Buzz I'm sure. Take a look. The second video below is just to insult your intelligence.
(You can also view another version of the making of the video at this link ).

Creeeeepy Crawlies

2009-07-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

This blog post is not for those with queasy stomachs. If you are squirmy about bugs, stop reading now. Go to some other nice, peaceful blog that makes you feel good. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Back in the early days of our marriage, my husband and I visited his parents when they lived on the Georgian Bay. I remarked on an unusual insect there that I had never seen in my life. It intrigued me. It was called an earwig. Strange name....I mean, doesn't it paint a picture in your head?

We must have brought two of them back with us unawares to infest our neck of the woods.

They are now everywhere at our house, starting in about July until frost. If you have them at your house you know what I mean. Pick up anything outside.....a pot....a garbage can....a garden hose....a chair...a rock. Doesn't matter what. If you lift up something outside, there will be earwigs beneath it that scatter when the light hits them. Bring some cut flowers into the house and earwigs will fall out from beneath the petals. They chew stuff. And they like it dark and moist. We've had two rainy summers in a row. Not good.

I'm not sure what eats them. I've invested in all these birds around us. If the birds are eating them, they aren't eating enough of them. If toads or snakes eat them, I'll take about a hundred of each please.

Oh, I know all the ways to knock down their numbers. Like, put out rolled up newspapers or a portion of a garden hose to capture them, and then drown them in soapy water in the morning. Sorry, no time for that - not till I'm retired.

But there's this other nagging problem with them. They're not content to stay outside. We seem to have a 'leaky' house because each summer they begin to pay us a visit...in the kitchen, the bathroom, the basement, and the odd one in the bedrooms.

Back when my daughter was much younger, we had an infestation of earwigs in her bedroom. I'll spare you the details of how they got in - we did figure it out and resolve it. But imagine this little girl feeling things crawling on her....turning on the light, and literally seeing the room alive and moving. Every night after dark....earwigs on the walls, ceilings, floor. Behind the posters and pictures on the walls....under the chair rail....coming out from beneath the baseboards. Everywhere. It's a wonder she didn't have nightmares. Obviously, we didn't let her sleep in there anymore (as if she could) until we tackled where they were getting in the house.

We are no longer infested with them. But if I get up in the night and turn on a light in the bathroom or kitchen, there will always be one or two....or three...that were in transit until the light came on. They freeze and look at you and wait. When they see you move, they try to scurry under something. Their little bodies crunch in the kleenex but you're still not sure they're dead until they go down the toilet...and even then....who knows if they come back? You've heard of gathering at the water cooler? These creatures gather under ours in the kitchen where there's a little moisture. The absolute worst place I have found the odd one is on the flexible trim lining the door of our fridge!

Okay, now that you're never going to visit our house in the summer (in the winter we have flying moths from the bird seed)....perhaps you will implore RAID to bring back the earwig traps they used to produce and have now done away with. They used to work really well. I have some Lee Valley reuseable traps in which you put oil and other stuff, but the earwigs just never go inside them.

Now, I know I'm just whining. I've experienced tropical climates living with everything from tarantulas to chamelions to snakes inside. But I live in suburbia and don't expect to feel like I'm at the cottage or camping.

Even so, I would still rather have earwigs then large ants in my house. Ants are just too intelligent for me. I lived with them at my parents' house when they had an ant nest below the rafters of the house. Every time I entered a room, my eyes would scan the ceilings, walls, and floors. What a feeling to run your hand through your hair and have a large, squishy, wriggling ant between your fingers, or pouring syrup on your pancakes only to find ants swimming in the syrup (I kid you not). But those ants would never die. No matter how hard you whacked them or squished them or drowned them. If only I'd known back then that some of them are allergic to nuts - I would have left out peanut butter traps - because you will notice on the RAID ant traps, they are clearly marked, "may contain nuts". I told you ants were intelligent - they can read. (And how intelligent of us to make the ants aware that the poison that can kill them, may contain nuts that could kill them).

Had enough of this talk? I will leave you then and get some cotton balls for my ears before I go to bed. Whaaaat? EAR wigs. Crawl into dark and moist places. Not sure what they like chewing, but I know I need to keep all of the brains I have, little though they may be (as evidenced by this blog post).

That's astounding!

2009-07-09T22:58:00.006-04:00

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

Thomas Edison

Celebrate!

2009-07-01T19:45:00.004-04:00

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

I love my country - best place on the planet!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

2009-06-29T21:00:00.001-04:00

One in my mouth.....

two in the bowl.....

two in my mouth......

one in the bowl......

29 years

2009-06-28T09:00:00.004-04:00

Yes....that's right. I've been married all my life.

Happy Anniversary Dave. You're the best and I love you!

Spring Things

2009-06-17T22:38:00.005-04:00

Summer is right around the corner (whether it feels like it or not), so I am providing you with some pics of spring things from around our home, before they are out of season. If you think I enjoy birds and flowers, you are very observant.

I'm not sure how I feel about chipmunks now that they've chewed a hole in the roof vent, chewed the window frames, and many of them can be seen tearing around the outside of the house (not inside....yet), and running along the brick walls. My heart softens when I look at their pictures....but when I see four or more at once in the garden, sending birds scattering in all directions, and scampering back and forth to the neighbours with their loot....I'm reminded they are rodents...rodents with pockets that desperately must be filled. And to think only a few years ago, I had never seen a chipmunk in our neighbourhood and longed to catch a glimpse of one....

Enjoy the show.

Storms 'n rainbows

2009-05-29T22:15:00.009-04:00

This evening was one of those weird weather nights. It had gotten dark before sunset and started raining steadily. I saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder so I went to have a look out the window. The sky had turned a strange orangey/yellowy colour and the air had become very still after having been quite windy. I always think 'tornado' when I see such things.

But as I looked out my east facing window I realized a rainbow was appearing. I went outside, camera in hand, and stood on the front porch.

In the midst of the lightning... the thunder.....and the rain....

the sun was shining in the west......

while a rainbow shone in the eastern sky.

It's confusing to see lightning, rain, sunshine, and rainbow all at once!

It brought my mind back to a weird feeling last summer when I was pulling some weeds in the garden. It was very hot in the blazing sun, but it suddenly started raining in the midst of the sunshine beating down on me. I stood up and looked for the cloud that was raining on me, and there wasn't one anywhere to be seen! The sun was still brightly shining. I was very puzzled, but welcomed the cooling spray....wherever it was coming from! (No, my husband was not spraying me with the hose....it really was rain!).

If you've flown in a plane, you will also love that exhilarating feeling of leaving the ground on a dreary, rainy day and suddenly bursting through the clouds to see that the sun was there all along. You leave the dreariness below and rise above to be warmed and heartened by the sun's rays.

It's a gentle reminder to me that even when the winds are swirling, the rain beats down as the storm rages, and that's all I can seem to see..... the sun really is still there....I just can't always see it at that moment.

Sometimes waiting for the breakthrough from the dark clouds can seem like forever. But don't ever let go of hope. A rainbow doesn't follow every storm...but like the sun, hope is always there. One day you will rise above it all and be warmed and heartened.

(Here's an account of the most frightening storm I've experienced.)

Moment of Awe

2009-05-13T20:26:00.014-04:00

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm an obsessed bird lover. Today when I came home from work, I had a near-perfect moment for a bird lover. Let me backtrack a bit before I tell you about it.

I've always wanted to be able to watch the activity of a bird's nest up close, but the placement of denser trees and windows at our place have never seemed to allow it. But just over a week ago we realized with all the commotion and chasing of blue jays and such, that Momma Cardinal was nesting in a tall bush just beneath our bedroom window. If we strain, we can catch a glimpse of the nest below us, but the camera can't capture it from inside. My husband sensed my eagerness for a picture from above, so when Momma flew to the bird feeder (which I eagerly keep topped up for her and her mate), he removed a window pane - no easy feat with our big old need-to-be-replaced-but-can't-afford-it heavy sliding windows. I popped my head out into the fresh air and snapped several pictures of the eggs in the nest directly below. Within moments, Mom and Dad were flapping and squawking at this intruder hanging out the window.

Five beautiful eggs! We had noticed this week however, that Momma seemed to sit on only four, as the fifth egg was always visible. Maybe she knew she could only manage four mouths to feed or perhaps birds know when one isn't going to hatch?? It's been kind of cool to know that as I settle down in my 'nest', there's another momma just on the other side of the wall.

I have enjoyed watching the interaction between Mom and Dad. He's always guarding...flitting around nearby and diving at anything that gets near, making sure Mom has moments to stretch, get food and water - he'll even pass some food to her. Both Mom and Dad fly furiously at blue jays, hitting them until they fly off. That's one disadvantage of keeping the feeders topped up - it attracts all the 'enemies' too. Blue jays and crows are particular culprits for robbing nests of eggs and baby birds.

So I have developed an affinity for this couple and a hope for their little family.

Tonight when I came home from work, had fed the dog, filled the bird feeders and had dinner on the BBQ, I decided to take my camera out for another shot of Momma and the nest from a safe distance.

As I took the picture, I suddenly realized the nest was on an extreme angle pointed downward, and the nest appeared empty except for that one egg that Momma had not been sitting on. She was out of the nest. I quickly moved and looked below the nest and my heart sank. There on the ground lay the tiniest little fleshly bodies. Something must have suddenly attacked and upset the nest to cause these new born babies to be flung to the earth. I put my camera in the house and went in behind the bush to take a closer look. Momma was in the bush flitting around and watching me. Such a pathetic little motionless heap that lay there. I felt profoundly sad.

As I knelt down to examine more closely, suddenly there was movement in the heap! The heaving of a tiny chest, the beating of a heart. At least one was alive! I shook off the thought that this was going to feel like picking up a worm, and cautiously picked up this tiny piece of flesh in disbelief. It opened its tiny beak. I allowed a fleeting thought to leave my mind - a thought to grab my camera for an amazing picture of fragile life in my hand. But I couldn't delay. Momma was becoming very distressed at my presence and I didn't have the heart to watch her be so alarmed. I paused long enough to savour the moment of holding a day old baby cardinal, less than two inches long in my hand. Then I moved over to the nest as Mom hopped around and loudly squawked at me. I righted the nest as best I could, though the cedar branches were not too sturdy, and I placed the baby inside. Then I picked up the next tiny mass of flesh. Still moving! The third - also alive! I tried to remove the pieces of mulch off of their bodies and placed them in the nest. Then I made a hasty retreat into the house so Momma could calm down. I peeked out the bedroom window to see her back in the nest sheltering her little ones.

It was not until a little later that I realized there was one baby unaccounted for. I carefully looked around again outside but alas, it is gone...unless...examine that picture of the nest above and see if you think that might be another bird next to the egg??

Time will tell whether these little rescued ones will make it. It must have been a hard landing for them. I read tonight that adult cardinals are on to building a second nest for another brood soon after the first batch are pushed off onto their own. If these little ones survive, Mom and Dad will feed them, teach them how to fend for themselves ("here's where the feeders are and this lady will keep them full for you"), and then they'll be busy starting all over again.

The cycle of human life is much different than this 'automatic' instinct we observe in nature. It requires our interaction, love, sacrifice, caring and action in the meeting of each other's needs.

The cycle of life in the bird world.

Normal.....but not without wonder.

It will always be a marvel to me.

It does not require my intervention....but it was an awesome experience to hold a moment of it in my hand!

Congrats!

2009-04-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

Graduation day! Today we congratulate you Bethany, our daughter, for four years of very hard work, as you receive your Bachelor of Theology degree.

It's not the piece of paper that you receive today that is of the most value, nor even all the reams of knowledge that have been crammed into your brain in four years.

You have had four years out of the shelter of your parents' home to make decisions about every area of life, from food, money, travel, home, and time management; to coping with pressures of a job; deadlines for school assignments and projects; tests and exams; organizing school council functions; church involvement; interaction with people of a broad range of cultures; building a network of peers, profs, pastors, and mentors; job interviews; and having a social life in the midst of it all. But even all of that, as important as it has all been to your maturity and success in a job, it is not the most important thing you've received in graduating.

Rather, you have told us how your soul and passion have been impacted by the life you've seen lived out by your profs, pastors, and mentors, the challenges presented by them and the valuable tools, support and prayers by them for you to be more like Christ and impact the world.

I remember you e-mailing me a few months ago after you had a particularly awesome day at school. Some individuals who are impacting their community were brought in to speak to your class. One was a woman who runs a centre that provides practical, emotional, and spiritual help to people suffering from AIDS, cancer and life-threatening diseases. She asked the students in your class point blank how they are going to help people like these who need them. She brought with her a man who shared that he had been abused as a child, lived in the gay community and on the street, and has suffered greatly with AIDS and rejection. His life has been turned around and he is now helping out at this organization. Both challenged you and your classmates, asking how you are going to help a hurting world, and reminded all of you that it's all about loving people and building relationship with individuals. You mentioned also that you heard from a youth, individual and family therapist. At the conclusion of the day, you poured out your passion for youth in your e-mail and asked me to promise to remind you of this day at any time in the future when you might get tired or doubt your calling.

Recently amid all the decision making about your future, you said, " If I can just build close relationships with the young people that will be within my influence...I want to do all I can to impact their lives."

We could not be more proud of you Bethany. You have persevered when the going was rough and have not been distracted from the goal or deterred by the obstacles. But more importantly.....MUCH more importantly......you GET it. There are some hurting, growing, awesome young people out there who are waiting for you, and you are anxious to meet them. Knowledge and learning is good and useful - never wasted and spurs you on to keep learning. Earning a degree helps open doors that might not otherwise have opened. But it's God who will always equip you...He's more than enough for what you need. It's His love for people that will remain as your inspiration. Keep His passion for people alive within you and He'll direct your path into theirs.

Congratulations Bethany! We love you!!!

Underdog

2009-04-20T14:29:00.006-04:00

So much talk of the underdog these days. I must admit I had not followed the fame of other 'underdogs' from the infamous 'Britain's Got Talent' show, and only became interested in it as I poked around on the internet after viewing Ms Boyle's performance. I was moved when I watched the first audition of Paul Potts who won it two years ago (where was I? I've never heard of him! Mind you, I hardly ever watch TV!). I was a little misty-eyed when I watched Susan Boyle though everyone else seemed to be sobbing. But....Paul Potts....he made me cry. Must be the mother in me or something. It's his face.....the puppy dog eyes...so shy....no confidence....but loves to sing opera. I hate opera. But Paul Potts mesmerized me in his first audition. Something makes me wish that these ordinary people who are suddenly pushed into the limelight, would just say no to all the money and the fame and the promises, and simply say, "Thanks. But all I wanted was to prove I could win it", and then just go on to use their talent wherever and however they would like....no agents required. To become rich and famous and 'Hollywood' instead of just ordinary kinda ruins it, don't ya think? It is the ordinary that makes them attractive. We don't need more celebrities. We need more real people.

Here's Paul Pott's initial audition....and I've thrown in one other audition by Andrew Johnston below that. Here's to ordinary people. Like you and me...maybe not with exceptional musical talent....but we are all unique and valued and extraordinary in who we are. Most of us just don't know it yet.

Simon Cowell got it right.... "You're better than you think you are...you are good!"

(Please turn off My Playlist at right before viewing!)

Are you one of the 7 million??

2009-04-15T19:01:00.005-04:00

Over seven million people have now watched this YouTube video of Susan Boyle. Susan who?? If you're one who hasn't seen this yet, I dare you to watch it and not have a tear or two in your eye. Many weep and watch it over and over. Why? Perhaps we're reminded not to judge a book by it's cover. Perhaps we are reminded of how quickly we jump to conclusions when we have no right to. And perhaps most of us relate to the underdog with a dream. Don't ever stop dreaming.

Enjoy....and keep the kleenex handy.

The video is not able to be embedded, so I provide a link for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Irreducible

2009-04-10T00:01:00.006-04:00

The Irreducible Minimum.

Somewhere in the recesses of my school memories I remember struggling with math questions - factoring until you reached the minimum - couldn't go any farther - the finale - the finish. Irreducible: impossible to reduce to a simpler form of expression.

That's kind of how I view Christ willingly laying himself down on the cross.

God.... the Creator... brings His love down as far as He can go. Agonizing.... but choosing to become 'one of us' to give everything.....everything. Impossible to go any farther than giving all He had. It's finished.

Did you catch the significance of that curtain in the temple that ripped from the top to the bottom at the moment of His death? That curtain used to separate the ordinary person from the presence of a holy God. It's finished. We now have direct access. We have direct access.... to a holy God!... who loved us enough to follow through right to the end!

Does that astound you?

After all the working and searching and calculating we do...

It all comes down to this. He's the final answer.

At the cross we're all equal

He knows us..... but there's no condemnation

Forgiveness....paid in full

There's no great significance to the tree....the pieces of wood on which Christ died. But if I ever lose the wonder of what happened there....I'll be struggling with questions - toiling and factoring until I come back to the irreducible minimum.

"...May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.
May I see it
like the first time
Standing as a sinner lost,
Undone by mercy and left
speechless,
Watching wide eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross...."

Written by Vicky Beeching 2007

Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.
(II Corinthians 5:21 - The Bible)

96 Parts = 96 Hours

2009-04-05T21:25:00.013-04:00

I like to feel that I'm not useless when it comes to putting things together - you know like building bookcases or a stereo stand. Especially from Ikea. Ikea instructions often have no words....just user friendly pictures with little Pacman-like faces with smiles or frowns to show how-to or how not-to-do it.

My dear, patient husband succombed to my pleas to purchase a heavy duty 200 pound exercise home gym, because I'm all trained in weight training but hate going to the gym to use only a few specialized machines. As soon as my son moved out....well.... I waited a day....I began to set up his old bedroom as an exercise room. Rather than being resigned to the basement, I can now exercise in a bright room designed for comfort....um, I mean sweat and hard work. I have piled up old classic CDs that I haven't listened to in forever, and this room becomes a place where great music meets physical exertion. Of course a great kickstart was my doctor giving me 3 months to get my cholesterol down through diet and exercise. Weight bearing exercise helps considerably....thus we struggled to bring home the aforementioned 200 pound box.

I'll spare you the details of how it went getting the thing home....although it was rather humorous hearing the paging system in the department store as we took the item through the jewellery section to speed up the process. "Carryout to Jewellery please! Carryout to Jewellery!" (Customers had visions of huge diamonds). They sent a tiny young teenage girl to help with carryout....who summoned additional help from a male.

So there's 96 pieces to this sucker. No Pacman-like faces here. No simplistic pictures. Lots of words. And numbers. My husband perused the 'book' of directions with a wild look in his eye. But soon he was up for the challenge and said, "Some people are challenged by crossword puzzles..... (that would be me, sometimes)....others...." His voice trailed off as he spread out the 96 pieces over the table and floor.

Check out Diagram 1.

Now Diagram 2.

Now 3 and 4.

.....aaaaaaand there's more.....number 5....

And finally Diagram 6.

I concede this is too much for me. My husband got a start on it, but only had a few hours before he had to leave for Montreal for the week, so it will definitely sit until he returns.

The great thing is, that once I'm in shape, if we buy anything else this heavy, I can lift it into the trunk while my husband returns the trolley cart. That's a fair exchange since he'll have to put it together...and really....a man's got to learn how to follow directions SOMEtime.

Support Epilepsy Awareness Day - Wear Purple!

2009-03-26T00:01:00.001-04:00

Visit The Rocky Mountain Retreat here to learn more about epilepsy (and see some absolutely stunning photography!!!) God bless you Michele!!

Seeing red

2009-03-25T20:16:00.018-04:00

This past winter I saw red.

Mixed in among all the finches and pine siskins on the nyger feeders throughout the winter, I noticed birds with little red caps.

No, they weren't toques for warmth but these little guys are built for winter weather.

Apparently, if they can eat constantly they will withstand bitter cold and can endure colder temperatures than any other songbird.

If they run out of fuel though, they can die of hypothermia.

So you know me.

I kept them well fed all through the long cold winter.

These little guys are called Redpolls and if they've been here other winters I can't say I noticed them. Apparently, they are temperamental and will show up when they feel like it, obviously if there's a good food supply.

This past week, they disappeared.

Unlike robins, they've gone to a colder climate which they prefer.

And that, my friends, is why I could never be a Redpoll.

(My apologies for the 'gaps' - Blogger can be frustrating for photo placement!!)

Bill and Myrtle sittin' in a tree....

2009-03-19T20:03:00.010-04:00

Tell me again how much you love me??