Category Archives: Day to Day

This time last year I wrote a bit on thankfulness.  It still stands.  So I will republish it here.  Maybe that is laziness but I meant it then and still do.  And I have guests to take care of today.

I don’t gush thankfulness.  Oh, there are times when I am full of thanks and it bubbles out but they are the times when some big event has just turned out as I would like it to.  Most of the time my thanks is for smaller more ordinary things.  The things that go on and make life what it is.  The things that give my life direction and meaning.

Today was the first day I have had off in a long time.  Well, not exactly all off but mostly.  I did go in to the office to see one patient first thing this am.  But it was one of my patients I also count as friend and so it was a little bit more like a visit than work.  Course she couldn’t say much with my hands in her mouth, but anyway…

After that, I came home to my daughter asleep on my couch.  She had left Saskatoon very early to bring kitty up to the vet.  He needed to lose some parts and it is enough cheaper here that it easily paid for her to spend the money on gas to come up here.  She was studying and fell asleep, so I let her till it came time to meet Leo for lunch. 

Then to the bank to talk about a student line of credit.  That went well I think.  Spent over an hour working over the figures with our banker. 

Then shopping for a few things before coffee with Randall.  And we just happened to run into Marc and he joined us later.  Almost had a mini blogfest.  One of the best things about blogging is the people one actually gets to meet in person.

Then I decided to join Leo and Rachelle for an evening at the movies.  Went to Ladder 49.  That is a great movie – well worth watching.  Even at the price a movie costs nowadays.

And today was Prince Albert’s 100th birthday as a city.  We are older than the province.  I guess it paid to be on a fur trade route back then – as far as development went.  So in honor of the big day there were fireworks up in the park.  I decided to drive by and see how they were.  By PA’s standards they were awesome.  A little short of the fireworks at La Ronde in Montreal – but hey – this is just little old PA.

Just getting off the phone with my oldest daughter.  Cool. 

We were talking about her studies. She is really working hard and I am becoming more and more proud of her.  She is upgrading her high school subjects – her high school performance was abysmal – she dropped out – then went back a couple of years ago as a “mature student” .  She is paying for these courses now and working her butt off.  She did pretty well in her Chemistry test and called me about that. 

Getting a phone call like this is worth rejoicing over – compared to last weeks hysterical call over the falling air conditioner.  I don’t think I’d better divulge that story yet.  Later on – maybe much later on – it will be laughed about.  But not yet.

She is actually exploring the idea of going into medicine.  That is almost a frightening thought since guess who gets to help foot the bill???

As we were talking though, it was crazy how much like me and Leo she sounded as she told how excited she was about getting to dissect a fetal pig soon.  One of the girls in her class who is going into nursing has “issues” with this I guess.  Rachelle is a lot more pragmatic – get over it she said to the other girl – we’re doing it to learn – and you are wanting to go into nursing. 

Sounds like she has a good advisor too.  She is going to help Rachelle plan out her courses carefully for the next few years.

But the real  little gem for me in the whole conversation?  She was afraid she was going to end up with a parking ticket and said “Mom, I was praying so hard that I wouldn’t get a ticket.”  And she didn’t.  Now that is a tiny little weeny miniscule thing – but to me it is a spark worth fanning.

This was the first in what may become a regular discussion group with coffee after church.  Looking at some of the hard questions we are asked or have about our faith.   

This morning we attempted to explore the question “Why do we believe there is a God?”.  I was a bit disappointed that some of the people who may actually be seeking the answers to the questions were not part of the discussion.  But I guess we who were there need to ask these kinds of questions too so we can know where and how to deal with the question when we get asked.  Thought it would be most interesting to have a real atheist there to ask us the question.  It’s pretty easy to discuss the answer when we are all looking at it from the same side of the fence!

Then home to entertain my sister-in-law and her fiancée.  He seems to be such a nice guy.  Easy to be around.  (If you read this Rob – we like you and think Terry’s going to be happy.  So welcome to the family.)  Hope there will be many similar afternoons like this to come.

Then in the evening – went to spend time with friends.  There were only four of us women around the table tonight – drinking tea and talking.  We had a good time.  We are reading the Ragamuffin Gospel and talking.  It was good tonight to share some of the ways we have experienced God in our lives.  It seems we’ve had pretty similar experiences.  The experiences have involved letting go of pretty hurtful stuff, being desperate enough to let God take all of that stuff and then really experiencing the love and acceptance of God.  We decided that having kids makes a mother really desperate at times.

We also have experienced the same desire to really know God.  That sort of desire that has driven us to search deeper into the Bible as well as the need to spend a lot of time in prayer.  We have also been, and are still, frustrated by the dry spells we have when it is hard to return to that place of pure delight at being in God’s presence- of that almost insatiable appetite for God.  It was good to share these things.  It is more common but less healthy for us to struggle on our own.  I think that finding friends to help us on this journey is just what we should be doing as the church. 

A fun evening.  The end to a full and good day. 

This has been a very tiring week.  A lot of things at work seem to have added together to make it that way.  So blogging has been a bit sparse. 

Other things seem to add up to make the whole atmosphere of life just heavy for me right now.  Some of what is going on in the world like the stuff in Iraq makes me feel very tired and make any attempts on my part to live out the kind of life Christ would like seem really futile.  Life here just seems to go on uneventfully while on the other side of the world people are dying; children are being blown to bits.  Sometimes it just gets hard to take.  And governments are so immovable.  I hope somehow, somewhere, someone can respond to some of those hurting people in the way that Jesus would like us to – with love.  Maybe love that they could see, not just greed and love of power and arrogance.

I have a tendency to despair when the world news is so bleak, so full of pain and suffering.  I suspect that this is not the appropriate reaction either.

Today I spent the day with my grandson.  That little life is changing so quickly.  He spends more time upright than on all fours now.  And he is beginning to communicate with “words” or some semblance thereof.  We went out to the park, played some silly little games and just had fun together.  But I sure didn’t get much else done.  Tomorrow we have some of my in-laws for lunch so we are going to eat simply.  Hope the weather cooperates for barbecuing hamburgers.

Sara was in a soccer tournament for her high school today.  They ended up playing the final game against Carlton.  Lost 3 -1 

It was an interesting cheering game.  Can’t yell “kill them” when one of my best friends is sitting behind me on the bleachers – her daughter playing on the other team.  And most of the moms I know from Celtic soccer were there.  Last weekend we were all cheering our daughters on together as they played on the same team.  The pain of that loss was too fresh for us to wish a loss on anyone of the girls.  But one team had to win.

Sara and another of her friends were not happy that anyone who wants to play can just join the team from their school – even if they have never played before.  It showed when they changed players, pulling off two good defenders for two inexperienced ones.  Two goals scored in a few minutes.  A bit demoralizing for the girls who play competitively and would like to see their school win for a change. 

Sara’s quote of the day ” It’s a Catholic thing.  Can’t make any cuts just because they can’t play.  Got to let them play cause God loves them all.”

This week has gone too quickly.  Maybe that is just because I had too much to do. 

Tuesday – Worship practice  Wednesday – Bible study  Thursday – Spoke at a Lutheran Women’s supper  Friday – and here we are!

Thursday was an interesting experience.  I was asked to be the guest speaker at one of the few meetings this women’s group has during the year.  The potluck supper was great as these suppers on the prairies tend to be.  Most of the women present were well past me in age – good to feel so young!  It seems their women’s group is on the brink of extinction and they don’t understand why none of the younger women want to join them.  Same problem the older women’s group in our church is having.  We need a major shift in paradigm there and I sure don’t know what the change needs to be.  I just know that it has not been a very relevant group for me either.  Anyway that is another topic in itself.    The thing that would have really gotten to me if I had been a member of their group was the business meeting.  Why do there have to be these crazy boring business meetings.  And this one was about as formal a meeting as you can get – minutes, regular rules of order motions and very little honest discussion (who wants to stick their neck out after all?) etc. 

Then there was me. I felt a bit strange being referred to as the “guest of honor” and the “special speaker”  but I really tried to listen to what God wanted me to say.  It was pretty similar to what I had previously shared in my own church this summer, but I shared a bit more of my background and my own struggles over the past thirteen years since moving back to Canada.  And I shared how real God is to me now and how he called me back to the Congo this summer.  It was a good evening for me.  I am not really a public speaker.  I work better with my hands than I do with my mouth.  But this was another of those times when I think God was helping me out.  Not that I am afraid to get up in front of people but usually more afraid of not knowing how to say what I want to say.  Thursday the words seemed to come – in some semblance of order.

Since when did “Whoa, Mama” become an acceptable term of address for a most esteemed female parent?

At least she is ticklish enough for me to attack in retaliation!

Today seemed to get off to a crazy start – so busy that we ran a little behind all morning and then really fizzled at the end with our last two patients not showing up.  That was OK since I got an emergency call to stop on the way home and buy a cake mix and icing so my daughter could bake cupcakes for her friends birthday.  So I had time to do that then head up to the hospital to visit my newest little patient – a girl with a cleft lip and palate – born yesterday I guess.  She is a good sized little girl.  I had to use the largest of my baby trays to take the impression. 

Just had time to eat and head up to meet one of my buisness partners for coffee so we could go over our financial statements.  We make a good buisness pair.  Two total morons when it comes to understanding the financial reports.  So my office manager who acts as our accountant came along so she could explain stuff to us in plain language. 

He is heading out to St Petersburg this week for a few weeks.  Now that would be a fascinating vacation.  The history has got to be rich in a place like that. 

And it has been quite a weekend.

Soccer – the girls lost 2 to 1.  First game was a tie.  They played hard and well.  Some bad calls of course and felt really wiped at the end.  Lots of raw emotions.  Other than that the weekend was good.  We ate out so much – including Sara’s favourite Vietnamese food – that I don’t care if I just have soup at home for a few days. 

Got home to find out that certain people had a few uninvited guests around on Friday night.  I guess it was one of those parties where someone spreads the news that the parents are away and everyone shows up.  So did the police.  Actually after the police sent them all home and issued a warning they decided to come back.  The police were called by my child and came but now he has to show up in court to explain what happened. 

And I hear that both my home kids showed up in church pretty tired this morning.

Came back to the study of  The Ragamuffin Gospel.  The women were my church for this day and it was good.  Sometimes we end up doing more sharing than reading.  That’s OK too.

Now I just got a call – our youth pastor’s house has just been broken into.  Just saw them since they were at my other son’s house for the evening and I had dessert with them a few minutes ago.  Will have to see what I can do to help.