Category Archives: Day to Day

April 22, 2010 · 9:46 am

The coming weekend

This weekend I am going to the lake for a bit of a quiet retreat. I will have one whole day of solitude, something I haven’t had in a long while. I think studying has taken its toll on my life. I guess it is bound to do that and although I am learning a lot, it is hard to just take time to be.

This weekend, I want to spend some time just walking and being quiet. I want to sit with God and let him bring some poetry and some natural beauty back into my life.

Of course I will cart along my books and keep on reading for my course which ends in a few more weeks but I don’t think it will totally occupy my mind. I hope.

A lot of my free time has been spent these days in booking accommodation for our Europe trip. The internet makes this simpler – at least the choices of where to stay can be checked out on line- but it also takes a lot of time and trust that what I see is what we’ll get. I am beginning to get excited about this vacation coming up.

So, I likely won’t be back to this space till Sunday or Monday. May your weekend be as nice as I anticipate mine to be.

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April 9, 2010 · 7:02 pm

What kind of weather?

I will not put up any pictures of snow.  I will pretend this is not happening and maybe it will go away?

The roads around Saskatoon are just about impassable from what we heard from an employee on her way to Moose Jaw for a night at the spa.  Last we talked to her she was on the side of the road somewhere south of Dundurn.  And yet the roads are clear at Davidson.  And the roads here are not that bad either. 

Leo was scheduled to go star gazing with the mother-in-law this evening.  The Astronomical Society puts on a weekend but not tonight I guess.  The stars did not show up. 

But I will still curl up in a cozy corner and read or see what is on TV.  My head does not really feel like reading OT tonight.  I am hoping that by the end of this weekend I will have fought off this cold.

Oh, yeah, I got my final mark in Greek back today.  I did well and I am glad that it is done for now.

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Filed under Day to Day, Family, Studying

April 3, 2010 · 5:33 pm

Holy Saturday

Today has been a busy day, full of good things and sad things and not much studying.

Since the midterm is done and I have almost caught up on my reading for the Old Testament class it feels as if I have gotten some of my life back this weekend. So today was filled instead with grandkids, some yard work, a memorial service, the never ending grocery shopping and a visit to my Aunt up at Mt. St. Joes.

Sara is home for the weekend too and I hear her down in the kitchen mixing up some carrot cake cupcakes. I will need to get the house organized for tomorrow’s Sunrise service on the river bank tonight too. The sun is up early – 6:30 am. I will get out of bed and make coffee and then the service will begin.

So, I suppose I should get a move on. Watched Julie and Julia last night. Better not let blogging take over although there is not much risk of this becoming a book.

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Filed under Day to Day, Easter, Family

April 1, 2010 · 10:15 am

Spring

Since it is so beautiful out today I am convinced that Spring is here for real.  Therefore it was time to get rid of the snow on the header.

And truthfully, the pussy willows are filling out and getting fuzzy.

Linea spring coming 001

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Filed under Day to Day, Photos

March 21, 2010 · 5:25 pm

I suppose I should write again

 

But to tell the truth, I don’t know if I have anything interesting to say. Or anything profound.  Or half inspired.

I think the last couple of months have been hard on my bloging skills.  I’ve done lots of writing, mind you, but it has all been for class.  Or in Greek and I don’t suppose you want to see much of that.  (Or me either for awhile)

I understand a bit why people who write for a living – not necessarily authors, but people who have to write briefs and reports on a regular basis, would find blogging tedious and too much like work.

But here I am, down to one on-line class and I feel suddenly free again. 

Now to get some inspiration back and I will return to this space more frequently.

See you around then.

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Filed under Day to Day, Studying

March 3, 2010 · 7:48 am

Still here

Just tired and swamped by demands of study and normal family stuff.  Keeping my head above water – just. Becoming more and more appreciative of the effects of caffeine.

Still haven’t loaded any pictures from the weekend.

But here I am at work, sedating another grandson today. Last one for a long while I hope.

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February 19, 2010 · 10:04 pm

My head feels fuzzy but I keep plugging away at all this course work.

Maybe the long title is an indication that I can’t think well enough to come up with a catchy title.

But…

Tonight I faxed off my final quiz in Greek.  Yeah!  That feels good.  Of course I still have a few pages of a review section in my workbook to complete and then all those pages need to be packaged up and sent off for marking. 

It feels as if the end is in sight.  In that class at least.

Meanwhile, I am getting geared up for the term paper; reading like crazy. 

The Old Testament class is heavy on reading too and there are constant assignments it seems.  We need to interact on-line at least twice a week and have a Skype connection with a smaller group once a week.  I’m not sure it takes any less time than attending a class full time – just that all the other stuff of life is also going on – and that is where things get complicated.

Of course it would not be bad if I wasn’t working about 45 hours a week on top of studying.

My head feels a bit fuzzy tonight.  I think I’ll go have a glass of wine to clear it.  Then to bed.  Tomorrow promises to be a repeat as far as studying goes.

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Filed under Day to Day, Studying

February 13, 2010 · 10:34 pm

Another week is just about done

Today has been quite a day.  I’ve done pretty much nothing but studying. 

It seems as if this is what my weekends are going to be like for awhile.  But I got two of my readings done for my Old Testament class, pretty much completed my next to last chapter of Greek and finished one of the books that was required reading for the Missional class. 

Good thing it was rather cold outside because I didn’t miss much by not going out. 

And since I am covering call for R who is off to a romantic getaway I am also glad it has bee a quiet day as for emergencies.  Not a one to disturb my working brain.

Just thinking that this is really a pretty lame excuse for a post.  But I am still here.  Just not too much of interest to share with anyone.

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Filed under Day to Day, Studying

February 7, 2010 · 10:43 pm

My Saturday Blessing

As a congregation we go to make and serve soup about every 6 weeks or so at the Salvation Army Outpost down on Central Avenue. Yesterday this was our responsibility again. MJ was there early making the soup. I got there at about 10 am. There are things to do ahead of time – buns to cut, butter and prepare. Tables to set up, coffee and juice to make. There were about nine of us – all ages pretty much – getting ready.

We served 150 or so bowls of soup. It was great soup too. I had a bowl myself sometime in the course of the day.

At some point in the process of serving bowls of soup, I sat down to chat with an older woman who had brought her own package of what looked like chicken strips and fries. Maybe she was just there for the coffee, who knows. But she was there and not a real part of the usual street people crowd. I made some small comments about the weather asking how she was doing, etc. Just small talk to say how are you.

She began to chat, telling me about her husband who was now up in a nursing home. Perhaps her own memory not so sharp any more since she couldn’t remember the name of it, just that it was by the hospital. She had children who “followed the Lord” going on some mission trip to someplace that she couldn’t remember either. She sort of rambled on for awhile and I found myself having to make a deliberate effort to give her my attention.

I wondered a bit if I should take my leave from her and get back to my business of serving soup but she seemed lonely and needing to talk. So I figured that talking to some lonely woman was at least as important at that moment as serving someone food. So we talked and as I finally got up to go back to work, she thanked me for the visit saying, “I don’t get to talk to someone very often. I’m just an old woman and most people don’t bother to be nice.”

That was my blessing for the day.

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Filed under church, Day to Day, Reflections

February 2, 2010 · 5:39 pm

A lost boy or just a loser?

Thank God that my children are not total idiots like the young guy I saw today. He was squeezed into my full schedule as an emergency. Got in a fight Saturday in Edmonton. Says proudly that, yeah, he threw the first punch and the taxi driver is charging him. But he won – so he says.

Except he has a front tooth pushed back a few millimetres so that now he can’t really close his teeth together. And that tooth is (surprise, surprise) dead and needs a root canal and braces to realign it – or it will need to come out. Oh, yeah and a black eye.

His idea of winning is totally lost on me.

Sounds to me as if he is one big loser – or at least horribly lost.

Can’t help reflecting that this guy is so far from the kind of human being that I believe God intended any person to be. Evil comes in different forms but causing such human waste is part of how I see evil at work.

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Filed under Day to Day, Dental, Reflections