Category Archives: Day to Day

I seem to be doing most of my posting to this space from my laptop.  That makes sense I guess.  The home computer is, however, where we have stored almost all of our photos and where we have programs installed to work with the photos.  It takes me awhile but I am gradually getting the programs I need to handle our digital images set up on the laptop.  These things take me time – more than it would for a real computer geek.  But I can do it(most of the time) with no outside help.  I can figure it out.

So, today, I have posted a couple of pictures from my retreat on my entry from Sunday.  Well, one so far – I will put the other up when I have gotten my next patient looked after.

This week is all about finals – till Thursday. 

Then we will switch into grad mode – party time!  It is a good time to celebrate the achievements Grace has made over the years.  Academics may not be her strong suit but she is going to make it. and if she can handle four subjects with a new born babe and do it with the strength she has shown, I think she can reach some of the goals she had in mind before Zaka came along. 

We seem to have had grads and weddings every summer for the past few years.  I think I have enough dresses and seem to wear them so rarely that they are still like new.  Unlike Lauralea, there are no new gowns in the plans for me.  And I am glad.  These big events eat up the cash in all the little and big things that are “needed.”

A day to honor fathers – I guess I am honoring the father of my children by letting him stay at home today and play golf in the afternoon.  My own dad – I will honor by trying to be a good parent for my kids.

I will be on my way shortly with Sara for Regina where she will be playing soccer.  Yesterday’s match was cancelled due to rain and poor field conditions in Saskatoon.  Last night when I got home from my retreat, I was surprised to find her here since she was expected to be in Saskatoon; I was to pick her up there and drive to Regina. 

My short retreat was good.  I will write more about that later.  The retreat center is up for sale.  There is only one sister there now and the congregation she is a part of is aging.  There are no new recruits to carry on this work.  That makes me sad as it is not likely gong to sell to a group that will use it as a spiritual retreat – perhaps it will be sold to a group wanting to have a native healing centre.  Oh for a few hundred thousand in extra cash!  I could live there quite happily. 

Today will be the last day I spend at the school dental clinics.  Just the morning too.  There are things to finish up, a root canal for a kid who has no insurance or means to go anywhere else, won’t be many new cases to examine since there is only one week left. 

This afternoon I will take care of as much business stuff as I can – checking on my auntie’s phone to see if I can tell if it is broken or if the ringer just got turned way down. 

And this evening I head a bit north of here to the Franciscan Forest Sanctuary for an overnight retreat.  It will be short but quiet.  I have to be back Saturday evening again.  Sunday I take the long road to Regina and back for Sara’s soccer game.  Eight hours on the road for two hours of soccer.  Crazy!  Parents are pretty crazy sometimes, but she really wanted me to go with her this time and it has been a long time since I did that for her.

Today the sun came out again.  Things are very waterlogged.  My plants look a bit as if they had too much to drink – sort of limp and hung over.  but now the sun has appeared again and I imagine they will be better off tomorrow.

Since the evening was beautiful, I went out for a bike ride.  I was reading some healthy type magazine that comes to our office free.  The article stated that a person should get 60 minutes of physical activity every day – not necessarily at once, it could be in 10 minute segments.  This amount of activity would help to keep blood pressures down and I imagine weight might go down as well.  Since I am just on the edge of the high range of blood pressure, I know that this is something I should do. 

I wonder if taking 10 minutes to get out of bed and go down stairs to make coffee, returning up the stairs again to bring a cup to my lazy husband(still in bed), counts as physical activity?

Today is the first time I have been able to make a blog entry from my laptop at the office.  Last night our tech support guy came by the office(finally) and hooked up and encrypted our wireless system.(We have to protect our patient info as best we can)  So now i can be online without bothering the rest of the office staff.  Since I pay them to be on the computers, I had better not interfere too much with their work, I guess.

This morning when I got to work, I learned that my partner’s mother had been in a terible accident yesterday in Winnepeg.  She is in serious condition so he will go to be there as soon as he can get away today.  We are trying to shuffle the days patients but he is in the OR this morning.  I hope things go well, whatever that means for them.  They have had their share of difficulties this year already.

This morning Leo and I sat with other parents in the St Mary Gym during the Awards Assembly, waiting proudly for our daughter, Sara, to be called up to the stage to receive an award.  A few days ago we received a letter from the school saying that she would be receiving a “special” award.  We suspected it might be a French award since she had applied for some thing a while back.  Instead she was called up to receive the Grade 11 General Proficiency award.  Overall outstanding academic achievement, excellence in sports and a life that demonstrated devotion to God.  Those were the qualifications.  We know she is a pretty special kid and are very proud of her.

Want to know the really funny part?  She shared the award with another student – a guy, Jory Longworth.  He just happens to be her boyfriend.  I guess one could say they are well matched!

Sara also had been asked to read the scripture in French for today’s ceremony, a job she also did well.

Tonight I went to a parent’s meeting concerning the PA youth Travel Club.  Sara has decided she wants to join this group for the trip to Thailand coming up in the Easter break.  She joined late so tonight was the first meeting we attended together. 

Wow, does she have some fundraising to do, but what an opportunity!  She seems to be our world traveller.

Last night I spent a little time up at the Relay For Life location.  I wanted to be there for the luminary lighting and also I wanted to say hello to some friends of mine that were participating.  The luminary ceremony started before I found my friends so I sat down on the hill surrounding the track and watched, and listened too.  The Pipe and drum band played while the HOPE luminaries were being lit

and then continued playing around the inside of the field where all the teams were encamped.  I went down to the track to walk around to where I would find one of my friends and found one of the others right there on the track beside me. 

It was an awesome experience for me.  I sat on the hill and thought about all the people near to me that have suffered from cancer.  Sometimes it is a hard fight that is continued right to the end.  Sometimes the fight is worth it and healing happens and a full and restored life is lived.  I guess that is what we hope for all our friends when we hear about their struggles with any disease but there is something about cancer that sets it apart in everyone’s minds.

It seems incredible that it is June already.  However today’s weather is definitely summerish and I like that.  In fact I am feeling well enough and it is such a beautiful evening that I should get out on my bike this evening.  And I had better.  I need the exercise!

Also, I am over whatever it was that I had.  Now the kids have it.  Sara was home today.  I may have to go and stock up on the Gravol.  We are down to the last two. 

It seems as if Sara is also feeling much better after sleeping most of the day.  She is off to soccer practice.  She says she may not play much but they have the first season games this weekend and she should be at the practice.

Here I sit in a quiet house.  Bliss.

Of course the reasons for the quiet are all good so that lends a good sort of shade to this season of quiet.  The kids are out doing their things – dance, soccer, Massa is on the bus to Saskatoon for the afternoon and Leo is out doing some golfing on this rather cold afternoon.  I am going to curl up on the couch with a good book in a few minutes.

We came home from church today to have Massa cook spinach for us, à la congolaise.   This is not your ordinary spinach with cheese sauce or whatever.  We made some special purchases in order to do it right. First of all you shred the spinach leaves into very small pieces by hand.  We used a large package of the prewashed baby spinach.  Then melt some coconut oil in a Dutch oven or other large pot.  We chose coconut oil since it was the closest we could get to unrefined palm oil.  This we bought at a specialty store in the section where you can buy corn popping oils.  The spinach was placed into the hot oil and cooked over low heat till it was cooked but not overdone.  While this was cooking, we chopped about 11/2 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts very finely.  The peanuts were added to the spinach as well as salt.  We forgot to add some finely chopped onion when we added the spinach to the oil but I guess we could have done that.  Then all that needs to cook slowly until the peanuts are softened.  That can take a while – about 20 minutes. 

While Massa was cooking the spinach, I was getting the rest of the dinner ready.  We were in a bit of a rush since he had to catch the bus.  It struck me that this kind of food preparation should not be rushed.  I liked working alongside Massa.  It was almost as if my soul was slowing down.  I was participating in a work of creation that could not be rushed without diminishing the results.  So the peanuts in our spinach were a bit on the crunchy side even though it was very good.  Perfection in our meals is not often a requirement in our fast food society.  Nor is sitting down and eating the meal in a leisurely fashion.  We miss out on so much with our rushing about.