Category Archives: Day to Day

I just finished posting something and just lost it.

Well there I seem to have found it again!  Goodnight!

And again it has disappeared – oh well…

Looking out my window, it is grey with rain.  The seagulls lift off in one huge flock as someone jogs down the path through the park across the street by the river.  Fall is coming quickly.

Our summers pass by with such speed.  I prefer the temperatures and colours that autumn brings but it seems that summer changes into autumn too, too fast.  One forgets quickly the 30 plus degrees of the hot days and nights.  Now there are quilts to be snuggled under and a fire to be lit.  There is a certain cozy pleasure in this.

Living for a time in the tropics where the variation in seasons consisted of a few degrees and a few minutes change in the heat and length of the days created in me a longing for the seasons of the northern hemishere that I grew up with.  I am a person most at home with the changing of the seasons.  Each one brings its own pleasures but it is the period of change between them that I love most.  I am full of anticipation of the next seasons best days that will be mine to enjoy just ahead.

Quickly forgotten are the long hot days when I wished for air conditioning and still far away are the cold dark nights of winter with the bitter cold that numbs to the bone.

So come autumn!  I wait for the calls of  the geese as they gather on the river and fill the evening skies over my home.  I wait for those first crisp days after a nighttime frost when the clear blue sky seems to have a certain sharpness to it.  And I wait for the turning of the greens of summer to the bright golds, oranges and browns of the fall.

My reading has brought me to the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.  This morning I was reading the account of the last supper and of Judas’ betrayal.  These are just some thoughts I had:

Judas Betrayal

Why did Judas choose to betray with a kiss? 

Was it some arrogant pride

That  caused him to say,

See, I too am one

Of the inner circle”?

What did he think?

That his subtle approach

To Jesus

Appearing as a friend

Would keep God from running?

Did he want to preserve

His self image

As a nice guy?

As right?

Expecting the Kingdom to come his way?

How did he see God’s ways

With his treasurers mind?

Did he see Jesus’ ways

As too utterly foreign

To usher in the Kingdom?

Was he just a

Regular misguided guy?

Did his heart turn to stone

Before or after

His treacherous act?

Could he have chosen

To repent

Following such a heinous act

Of treachery?

Or, once done, did his act seal his fate forever?

Back to winter hours at church again.  We started the day off with Potluck breakfast and that was fun.  And my grandson made his first visit to church today too.  Annette came with us while my wicked son went golfing.

Randall    spoke about how God uses the difficult experiences of life to deepen our faith.  It was timely for me because I seem to have end to end difficult experiences some days.  And prayer – I learned a bit more about how much God cares in his answer to one of mine.

For most of the afternoon and evening my house was filled with kids. Dave, Annette and Kieran for lunch.  This afternoon, Sara had some of her friends over and they were playing Sims downstairs.  Then tonight Christian and friends were jamming down in his “room”  which looks more and more like a music studio.  I don’t know how many guitars are down there – about 5 plus his drums.  We were rocking.  Makes us appreciate the renovations to our office last winter which give us a moderate amount of sound insulation!

My other half is back home.  It’s funny how we call our spouses the “better” half.  But it is true in my case – at least that’s how I feel.  And I think he’s my better half because when he’s around, I’m better.

We compliment each other.  We’re not much alike at all.  Or maybe it would be more accurate to say we weren’t very much alike to start with. 

He’s extroverted – I’m not.  But I’m a whole lot more self confident now because he peeled off some of my introverted shell.  Losing part of that shell was painful at first.  He tells people everything.  He wears no masks, so what you see is what you get.  Me – I don’t always want people to know the intimate details, especially the embarassing ones.  He’s learned to be more sensitive – I’ve learned to be more open.   

He has a sense of humor that is earthy, (a nice way to say really bad sometimes) loud, and the way he tells a joke – well, everyone laughs.  Even if they’ve heard the same joke from him before. (which I can guarantee you I have!).  Me – well, you could say I am witty but I can’t tell jokes without killing the punch line.  

He is organized – likes administration.  He likes to run the show, make decisions quickly and get the job done.  Me – well if I can procrastinate a bit longer I will.  It helps to keep me on track just knowing that he will expect me to get some job done. 

He is so unmusical it hurts.  But his musical repetoire includes more than just country now – a whole range from classical to rock.  Just don’t ask him to sing – you will regret it!  Me – I love music – except for country – but I have even learned to listen to that.  And art – well don’t expect him to rave about something abstract.

But we are both suckers for little creatures that need a hand.  And for kids. And for Africa. And for the people who are down and out in this world and need a second chance.

Yeah, my best friend, my better half, my love, is home again.  And I am glad.

Not sure how many miles I put on tonight.  I was late leaving the office so straight to school to pick up Grace after Drivers Ed.  Spent a few extra minutes there while she tried to get back into the school to pick up the papers she forgot in the room – of course they had to be signed and taken back tomorrow.  So after wild gestures to someone in the upstairs stairwell, she got back in and retrieved the papers. 

Sara, meanwhile, was home making Taco salad –  we only had to stop and pick up the Nacho chips and Taco sauce for her on our way home from the school.  Arrived at the store and of course Grace thought of several things she had to get to make her lunch for tomorrow.  Spent a few more minutes getting all the stuff.

Finally got home and had supper.

Then the chauffering request.  “Please can I go up to S’s?”  Since S lives halfway across the city that can be translated as “Can you drive me to S’s”  Since I already knew I had some errands to run, that was OK by me – homework was done.  So off we went.  Didn’t get all my errands done and back home till 9:30.  Fifteen minutes later Sara called for a ride home.  Can’t really complain since she knew she had to be home by 10:00 and so she was making sure she was not overstepping her curfew.  It just would have been nice to spend more than 15 minutes at home just then.  I barely had time to return some phone calls between runs.

I’m afraid the school year has begun!  I already have my evening planned around places I have to drive tomorrow night.  And Saturday morning I won’t even get to sleep in – both girls have to be at school by 6:00 am to go play soccer in Munster.

I have been up for a long time today.  The dog woke me up at 4:30 am and it just seemed easier to stay up than to try and go back to sleep for an hour.  Now it seems I am staying up far too late as well. 

But I got a lot of stuff done today and that feels good.  I have learned a lot of stuff from Randall over the past couple of days about this web page.  And It is starting to make more sense and I think I am catching on a little bit.  Got some things working that I have been trying to get going for awhile without success and organized some other stuff.

Going to meet and pray with God and a few friends is also a good way to start the day.  I’m becoming hooked – probably already am – on Gate Crashers.

Today was one of those days when I got to do one of those little special tasks that I learned to do a few years ago.  Went up to the hospital to take an impression of a newborns mouth.  The baby was born with a cleft palate.  While I was there, I was asked to see a second baby as well – funny how these things seem to come in batches. 

I am usually called to do this – a sort of weird hobby I guess – a small interuption in the daily schedule.  Anyway it saves the mom and newborn a trip to Saskatoon to have this done and it gets these little ones off to a better start.  I get one of our labs to make the first little feeding plate so that the baby can suckle.  The plate helps to separate the mouth from the nasal cavity so that the baby can create some suction and nurse.  And it keeps some of the milk from going up into the nose.  Tube feeding doesn’t have to be done and the plate usually helps to cut down on ear infections in these little guys.  They need to gain weight so they can have their first lip repairs done as early as possible. 

Tomorrow I will get to go and show the mom how to put the little plate in and take it out.  Kind of a nice change from routine dentistry.

This evening I needed to attend a meeting of soccer parents too.  We have this big fundraiser coming up that was originally intended to help get the girls to National playoffs in Nova Scotia.  Now that they aren’t going, we have to decide what to do with the funds.  So we are planning a neat wind-up for the girls and will likely start a fund to help other teams get to playoffs, etc. Maybe even start a fund for a new soccer facility here.  The girls on the team have all become good friends and we parents have gotten to know each other pretty well and if the girls keep playing, we will have several years when we spend a lot of time together.  Kids do provide good opportunities for meeting others and developing friendships. 

I was just thinking that I didn’t have much to journal about tonight but then I started to think about all that has happened over the past few days. 

Soccer finals kind of dominated the weekend with the Premiere league wrapping up it’s outdoor season.  And it was a sad weekend in a sense.  The girls lost both their games – 1-0 and 2-0 – played very well but just didn’t have the offensive strength they needed with their best striker out with a broken leg.  Sara played exceptionally well – her big brothers even thought so – making a couple great slide tackles that saved the opposing teams best striker from scoring.  In the picture above the ball is just coming off her feet.  Check out my photo album for more scenes from the final two games.

We stayed down in Saskatoon overnight since today was a holiday and I didn’t have any pressing need to get back.  So I took Eric and Patrick down to the Black Duck to the Worship Freehouse meeting.  We sat around and had a good time and I learned some new things about mennonites.  You can find some pitures over at the Worship Freehouse FotoPage.

Then I got to see Mars.  I went over to Cathy J’s where her husband had his telescope set up.  I had never thought about how fast the planets are moving through the sky.  Saw the Andromeda galaxy too.  Amazing to think that the light from it has been on it’s way several million years – I can’t remember the exact figure.

Slept in this morning too – unusual for me.  Let the kids make me breakfast.

And once again – it is good to be back home.  Another four day week so I think it will be tolerable.

I am reading through several parts of the Bible right now – Genesis, Proverbs and Matthew.  Today I read the story of Hagar, Sarai’s servant girl.  Sarai gives her to Abram so he can have an heir – then regrets it when Hagar begins to flaunt her ability to become pregnant. She begins to treat Hagar badly.  So badly that Hagar runs away.  But God, who has made a promise to Abram,  doesn’t let her just disappear from the scene.  And Hagar meets the God who “sees” her. 

In the Old Testament, God is often portryed as a judging, fierce, unapproachable God, destroying enemies, winning battles, etc.  But here He is – watching over a woman.  And not an important woman – just a servant, caught in an unwinnable situation, now being abused by her mistress.  But God “sees” her and gives her a promise and knows all about her misery.  And God does not forget his promises. 

“I have seen the One who sees me!”  Genesis 16: 13

God sees us too.  He knows all about us – our misery and our joy; our feeble attempts to worship him; our attempts to love him back and our ignorance of what he really wants.  Today I go to worship Him along with the congregation.  I want to see the one who sees me.

Today and tomorrow are the two biggest matches of the year for Sara’s soccer team.  They ended up at the top of their league in spite of three very bad injuries to some of the best players.  At the early games down in Swift Current, two players sustained bad knee injuries.  One – Sara’s best friend, just had knee surgery two days ago.  The latest injury came three games ago to their top striker – broken ankle two places and the tibia broken too.  No they have some major obstacles to overcome if they are going to pull off wins today and tomorrow.  Today the game is at 11:00 (Kinsmen Park) and tomorrow we head down to Saskatoon for a game at 3:00 (Newsham Field). 

So this will be a busy long weekend for our family.  I will stay with my son and his wife Sunday and then maybe some wedding dress shopping on Monday. 

My older daughter also wants me to help her with a grant application.  That is going to require an extra measure of patience on my part.  Both because she and I usually clash when we have to do stuff like this together and also because neither of us is gifted when it comes to working with numbers.

This weekend another church family and I are trading childcare responsibilities – for our teenaged daughters.  Just not quite comfortable with leaving them all on their own overnight.  So I get her daughter tonight and she gets one of mine tomorrow.  I had offered to let mine stay with Grandma and Grandpa – somehow she didn’t go for the idea!