Category Archives: Day to Day

This morning early we gathered at the church to pray – our regular Wednesday a.m. Gatecrashers.  I look forward to this time with anticipation most weeks and I did today as well but this morning it was hard to get moving.  Everything about me seemed stiff and slow moving. 

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord I am coming.”  (Psalm 27:8)

The events of this week have accumulated, in a way.  They weigh me down and the week is just half over:  problems with a woman who, claiming to be a friend, is actually taking advantage of my elderly aunt, being one of my fathers health care providers was, this time around, stressful, a daughter phoning to hear a cheerful word in the middle of the night when I was tired.  All these people looking to me for help; for some kind of solution when I am feeling right out of answers and right out of energy.

Teach me how to live, O Lord. (Psalm 27:11)

David expresses so well what I am feeling some days.  This macho, warrior, king with multiple responsibilities expresses his need for God’s presence in ways that I connect with.  I thank God for the Psalms that so many years later express feelings I feel now and convey God’s love to me still.

The one thing I ask of the Lord –
The thing I seek most –
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
delighting in the Lord’s perfections
and meditating in his Temple.
For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
he will hide me in his sanctuary.
He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
Then I will hold my head high,
above my enemies who surround me.
At his tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
Singing and praising the Lord with music.
(Psalm 27:4 to 6)

I think I forgot to mention some important news – Yesterday Grace found out something she has for some reason been dying to know for months.  It is always hard to wait I guess. 

“It” as in the baby coming soon, appears to be a boy. 

You can probably tell what era I’m from – we waited till the bitter end to discover these facts.  In fact if I remember right the job had to be pretty much finished before that part of the anatomy was visible.

Now we are seriously into the naming game.

Yesterday, well I guess the whole weekend, was spent connecting with people and with working on the basement renovations.  It was hard work physically so I was really wiped out from all of the physical work by last night.  And this week promises to have a lot of work to come – cleaning, finishing up on painting and sealing tile, etc.  Then the moving.  Just from the loft to the basement but that means lots of stairs.  It will be good to finish things up, and we have to.  The baby is due in a bit over one month and there is lots to do.  Time always goes faster than we think.

The time spent this weekend connecting with friends was good.  I value this time spent sharing where I am at on my spiritual journey and encouraging others in theirs.  So I guess maybe the hard physical work and the restful spiritual work should have balanced each other off.  Probably means more about my poor physical condition but by last night I was so tired that I think my brain kind of shut down.  I went to bed early and had a much needed sleep.

Yesterday afternoon some of us spent some time praying for a friend who is in the process of chemotherapy.  We prayed for her months ago before she started these treatments.  She is looking so much better both physically and her face reflected the hope and even happiness that she has now.  It was good to pray with her again. 

Praying for healing is a relatively new experience for me.  Up until a few years ago, I think I would simply have prayed something to the effect of “God heal her if this is your will.”  This was different.  I guess I have learned a few things about prayer – things I am glad for.  Yesterday I mostly felt inadequate to know how to pray.  I could imagine where the tumor was, sort of, knowing the anatomy at least well enough to do that.  So that was kind of in my mind as I prayed for her.  And then I could picture her just sort of running up and sitting on God’s lap, being secure in his care.  Afterwards we went for tea.  One of the things that struck me as we talked afterwards was that she said that she felt so relaxed after being prayed for.  There is so much more I need to learn about this kind of prayer.

Then afterwards I went up to the hospital to take impressions for a new baby with a cleft lip and palate.  Such a tiny little thing – a girl – clefts are less common than in boys.  So today that is added to my list of things to do in the evening.  I’ll go up after work and put it in and show the mother how to use it.

I dutifully stayed away from home most of the day.  Spent the day having coffee talking with a couple friends and doing my grocery shopping.  I was allowed back home at about 4:30.

The kids had been working all day on the bathroom.  And of course it has taken them a  lot longer than planned.  But we are going to have a beautiful bathroom down there.  I hope little sister realizes what a gift she is getting from her big brother and sister-in-law.  What they have done is place slate tile around the tub instead of a plastic tub surround.  A big job but we have had this slate around for about a year thinking that we would use it on the entry way.  So they were able to use something we already had on hand and make a bathroom that is nothing short of elegant. 

I have such handy kids.  They must get it from my side of the family 🙂

Tonight Grace discovered what interior hiccups feel like.  It isn’t the first time she’s felt them but it is the first time she asked me if I knew what was happening.  We were standing in the kitchen clearing away the supper dishes. 

“Mom,” she said, “What do you suppose is wrong?  Can you feel this?”

There was no doubt on my part.  She was much relieved.  She was a bit scared.  And scared is more of how she is feeling as the time for the birth gets closer.   

It is so exciting to see God working.  It makes worshipping together watching God bring things together an amazing experience.

This morning we heard from three people.  Greg just back from a missions trip to Guatemala – sharing his faith in concrete ways (note the pun – they were building a house).  Logan who got changes to talk about his faith out on the oil rigs.  Johanna who heard God in a different way as he provided enough funds to begin her year at CBC. 

And then we set out into a week of prayer for the hurricane wrecked areas of the US.  It will be interesting to see where God takes us with that.  There will be lots of opportunities to hear God as to how to respond to needs there. 

And for me – a treat.  There was a guy in the back new to our group.  He comes from the Sudan via Winnipeg.  He enrolled four days ago in the Dental Therapy school.  He is there because he listened to God giving him direction for his life.  We’ve had several of these students go through our church – here while they are students, then off to serve God in farther places – Nepal, Northern BC and now who knows where.  For me it is exciting since we have a common love for dentistry and a common sense of God’s calling to do this. 

Now off I go to Saskatoon.  I will see my kids and tonight see some blogging friends at the launch party for Resonate – The Journal.  7:00pm O’Sheas Irish Pub  See you there.

Tonight I came home and my first job was to assist with some chemistry homework.  As we looked at why glycine was an amino acid we heard an expletive – loud enough to hear from the basement.  Started with F it did!  Then there was relative silence so, hoping no one was too seriously injured, I went down to check out the progress on the basement bathroom.  Michelle had run headlong into a 2×4.  But the bathroom has come a long way.

The kids left.  They are staying with Michelle’s mom at the farm.  I loaded and turned on the dishwasher.  All was going well till a horrible banging began as if someone was bashing the contents of the dishwasher against the wall.  I opened the door of the dishwasher expecting it to shut itself off.  The water kept running – pouring into the dishwasher.  The banging continued.  So off went the water under the sink.  But I could not find a shut off valve to the dishwasher.  So I ran down and checked where the noise in the floor beneath me was actually coming from.  I ended up shutting off the water to the whole house.  It stopped the noise but from the small copper pipe in the ceiling of the bathroom came a steady but sure stream of water – down into the wall somewhere.  Not good, I said to myself.  The water will just have to stay off till we get a plumber tomorrow.  I do not want a flood in the night.  I cycled the dishwasher till the water drained but I think something may be wrong with the dishwasher and the violent vibrations have loosened a fitting somewhere. 

The end of another day.  Work was crazy – busy with no time for lunch till around 1:30.  I’d forgotten to bring some instruments back to work and needed them for the afternoon so I quickly ran home to get them.  Grabbed a sandwich too.  This is normally the day my housekeeper comes in.  There didn’t seem to be anyone around at 1:30 but at the same time stuff wasn’t put away – like the cleaning stuff.  So I figured she was just out of earshot, like up in the upstairs bathroom.  Turned out that she left in a hurry.  She got a call to go to a school for a full time job as a resource person and since that is what she is really trained to do, how can I not be happy for her.  But she is such a wonderful cleaner and my house loves her.  So I am sad too.

Worship practice tonight was a workout.  You can tell holidays are over – back to some good practice workouts.  I think I need to bring a water bottle.  ( But you are right, Randall, we want to bring our offering of music to God as a thing of beauty that we create for his pleasure.  I hope those worshipping with us experience some of  his beauty through our efforts – or at least our enjoyment of making music for him.)

Then home for an hour or so of painting.  We are trying to transform big brother’s room into a sanctuary for the mom to be and for her babe when it arrives.  So dark blue in a basement room is being changed to a couple tones of green.  Really big brother is redoing the bathroom, putting in a small tub where there was only a small shower and getting rid of some moldy walls.  And Mom – me – gets to do most of the painting.  It is a big room with rough textured walls so there is a lot of hand work with a brush.  About one more hour to go on this.  Then the roller will finish it off.

Good thing the long weekend is coming up.  I haven’t even had time to get my vacation pictures downloaded yet.

Last night I spent time with some very good friends.  It was fun hearing how the summer went for each of us. 

Then talk shifted from vacation adventures to things we have been hearing from God.  Sometimes we hear through our speakers on Sunday – as we did this week.  Meg talked to us about how God delights in us.  She shared how she learned this lesson from God.  It was a delightful lesson.  It is a lesson we need to learn, I think, if we are going to experience joy and the security that comes from being loved.  One of the important reasons we need to experience God’s love is so that we can be used by God to bring his love into the world we exist in.

So now we women are thinking about this new season coming up – sort of the beginning of the new church year.  Where is God taking us as a group?  How does he want us to be active in our community?  How can we become a safe place for new friends just beginning to check out what it means to follow Christ?  It is exciting to look forward to the year ahead. 

I guess the big challenge is taking our dreams to make a difference in our community – with those hurting and really needing help – and putting those dreams into some kind of practice.  There may be places in our community where we can plug into things already in place.  I don’t think that we have to form a “Christian” organization to do these things.  In fact that would likely just be a lot of work and we don’t need to spend all our energy and time on organizing some program.  I think we need to sort of infiltrate the organizations that already exist and, because we have been changed by God, bring his blessing to the people around us by genuinely loving and caring for them.  I guess in some cases we don’t have to look too far – we all have neighbors and colleagues at work that have needs. 

Our city seems to have some deep needs that are permeating it making it a troubled place.  We seem to be more aware right now of our need to pray for our city as well as to become active outside of our church walls to work for change.  

Well, I guess we will see what God will do.  We are just a few women.

It is hard to think about going back to work on Monday.  One day left. 

I have enjoyed my vacation – for the most part.  The theft incident in Vancouver was no fun but life seems to be continuing in spite of it.  I still have to download and organise my photos.  When that is done I will post the best on Flikr and share them with you. 

Now getting ready for the routines of the work and school schedules is beginning to look like a good thing.  I think I need the kind of order that these kind of routines give me.  I probably get more accomplished when I am too busy and have no time than when have all the time I need but no motivation.  And I think I sleep better when I get back into my routines and I can sure use better sleep than I have been getting over the last few days.

And aside from my frustration with my kids for their domestic failures (very little grocery shopping or laundry or cleaning happens when I am away) I think we have accomplished a lot in the last two days.  We have one kid almost packed up to leave for University.  He has a definate place to live and a roomate and plans for moving stuff down to Saskatoon.  His room is now navigable so we can paint.  Today I painted a dresser and spackled all the holes in the wall.  Definate progress!

And tomorrow?  It will be my fisrt Sunday worship with my church family in a month.  I have really missed it.  Church has happened along the way in different ways – sharing with old and new friends, praying together, renewing and starting relationships, meeting fellow bloggers for the first time.  But the people in this church know me and love me in ways that are tangible and I have missed them.  I want to know how God has been working in them over the summer too.  I want to worship God with them and get back to playing my recorder as part of that worship. 

Fall is in many ways as much a time of new beginnings as spring.  I am anxious to see what God will do with us this year at Gateway.  I’m wondering what God has in store for me this year too – where and how does he want me to spend my time and energy.  Our family has new beginnings going on too and soon that little grandchild will be here – October.  That will bring some huge changes for all of us.