Monthly Archives: December 2003

This is most likely the last post I will make this year.  My kids are all off doing their thing and Leo and I are having a few friends drop by for awhile this evening.  I am not sure if we will be up at midnight – I guess that will depend on how wide awake our guests are.

I think the year has ended well.  Today was an especially good day.  Got some issues resolved with the child I was having difficulties with – and that was good.  I am not good at having unresolved conflict hanging around.  It makes me too uncomfortable as I guess it should.  Hard to ask for God’s blessing when I am mad at someone!

And at our house we end the year with one car needing a new radiator and my son’s car needing a new alternator.  Cars!!!  What money pits.  Just can’t seem to do without them in the vast white north where public transportation is not a viable option – hard to haul a baby around on a bus and taxi’s are expensive!  Sometimes the cost of running a car does make one wonder if taxis are maybe expensive but cheaper in the long run??? Who knows.

And so I wonder what new adventures this year of 2004 will bring?  A new start, a new clean slate to put funny marks on.  The one thing I wish for most in the new year is to walk closer to God – I guess mostly I want the fire of his spirit to keep my heart warm, my ears open to God’s voice, my eyes able to see where he’s leading, my feet willing to follow and my hands able to work at whatever he gives me to do.

This morning early prayer time was sooooo good.  God blessed me and a friend and was there with us.  I think God certainly knew we both needed that. 

Now it is easier to go and face today – whatever it will bring.

Thank – you God for your goodness to me.

Now – Do you think God would give my dear husband a jolt so he would move faster!!  I am late for work again!  I do not like to depend on another person to get me to work.  It will be good to get my car back.  It has been on a little trip to Edmonton. 

I think I need to make some changes to my blogroll.  Some of the blogs I read seem to be going out of business and others I find I will transfer back to my favorites list since I read them less than others that are now on my favorites list.  Anyways – time for a few changes I guess.

Today God gave me a huge blessing.  It’s the kind of thing that if I told someone unused to God working out details of our lives, I think they would look at me in total unbelief and chalk it up to coincidence.  But this morning in my devotions, I felt God was whispering something quite specific in my ear.  So this is no happenstance,  just God giving another one of his incredible gifts of love which I do not deserve.

God

You didn’t need to do that!

That was pure love

And yes,

We needed it.

But people in our circumstances

Are not supposed to

Get into predicaments

Of need

Requiring your help.

So God,

Your gift is amazing to me.

I almost would say

No! to it,

But God you knew our well

Had run dry.

And that obligation for one of our kids

Was there today.

Your timing was perfect.

Thank you.

Today I was working on making a book of my poetry.  One of the gifts my son gave me was a book in whcih to keep my poems.  The book itself is quite beautiful.

So, much of the day I have been cutting and pasting most of my poems to go into this book.  It has been kind of fun, handpublishing a book.  I had to get it done since there is no way  I’ll have this kind of time to do it later once I get back to work.

Our kids, Eric and wife Michelle, decided to stay out at the farm with her mom last night.  The reason – so they could all get up early and go to the sale at Future Shop at 6 am.  Now in my opinion that is pure craziness!  There is almost nothing that I would go shopping for at that hour of the day!  They said the line-up stretched all the way from Future Shop to McDonalds.  There sure are a lot of crazy people out there.  They got one really good deal and then pretty much gave up.  Came over here for breakfast and we were barely up.

I had been up early in the morning myself and it just happens that the boys were up too – CK at our computer playing a game and PK down stairs reading.  I joined them for some reading but got sleepy again and went back to bed.

Tonight friends are coming over.  We will eat some more good things and have a good time visiting.  I love having the holidays to do some of the entertaining that our busy normal schedules makes diffficult.  As long as my guests aren’t too particular about my housecleaning, they are welcome.  I do not like to waste good holiday time doing that – or at least I refuse to stress out over it and will do the minimum needed to make the house presentable.

On this Christmas morning I wish for you the blessings that only Christ himself can bring to your homes.  If he is there, you will then have a very good Christmas whether it is particularly merry or not. 

Following our Scandinavian traditions (my mother was of Swedish descent), we held our gift opening last evening.  First, we had a much too large supper, turkey, ham, potato sausage, tourtière, rice pudding, etc.(I guess you can tell we are not vegetarians!)  Then we had one gift that needed to be opened before heading off to church – Christian was given his Njembe a little early since we wanted him to play it at the Christmas Eve service.  Then we all headed over to the church for the candlelight service. 

Returning from the service, we settled in the living room to hear Leo read the familiar passage from Luke 2 – the true Christmas story.    Then we began giving and receiving gifts. 

Sometimes the gifts we give are purely a store bought item that is nice to get but is not terribly significant.  Other gifts are priceless and with them comes so much love and thoughtfullness that they are almost too much to receive.  I will let you in on my most treasured gift from this year.     Painted by my daughter-in-law Annette with a poem written by my son, David.  This is my grandson, Kieran, and it is his first Christmas.  This is what my son wrote:

Grandparents

 

With love like no others

You touch my life everyday

Always there to lend a hand

Making time for me to play

 

You’ll be there while I grow up

Teaching, guiding, always loving

Even when I get it wrong

You both are so caring

You’ve been there all along

 

From time to time, every nerve I’ll test

Your frown, yell or scornful voice

Will let me know I’ve been a pest

But you will still love me

 

Grandparents greater there never was

I see in you what I want to be

And I will love you both for eternity

 

By David Lanoie

This was not the only gift from my children that made me sit back and take a deep breath.  I thank God for each one of them – he has really blessed me.  (And I am saying that in honesty even if you might wonder about my sanity if you are a regular reader of my blog!)

I am just about finished the second batch of rice pudding for tonight.  We picked up the rice pudding tradition while living in the Congo.  Seems logical – rice – which we had lots of, but actually it seems the tradition comes from my Scandinavian heritage.  It’s just that there were a lot more Scandinavians around in the Congo among the missionaries than there ever had been around me as I was growing up.  My mom made rice pudding but it had never been part of our Christmas tradition.  We tended to incorporate the traditional Christmas pudding into our festivities – after all my dad is English.

I promised my family that they could have rice pudding for breakfast so it must get done!  And I am sure making a rice pudding for breakfast wasn’t part of the deal in the Congo.  My family is coercing me to break tradition!

Leo and I sat and had a few glasses of wine together this evening.  We have a son home who agreed to do the usual child driving for us.  That is maybe one of our nicest gifts!  So we sat, read and drank wine and talked about the spiritual journey I seen to be embarked upon.  I am always amazed at how God can move to make our paths converge as a couple even though we are so different in our personalities.  Sometimes I wonder if Leo will understand at all  before we get into a discussion only to find out that he already has a lot of what I am going through figured out already.  I really shouldn’t be so surprised since this isn’t the first time God has worked this way.

And I really had about one glass of wine more than I normally have.  Hope this second rice pudding bears some resemblance to the first!

I know that tomorrow is going to be full from morning to night so I doubt I will blog. I think my day will be blessed.  I wish the same for yours. Merry Christmas to all of you!