Category Archives: grandchildren

December 29, 2009 · 4:31 pm

A Christmas Review

In past years I was on here posting stuff almost daily.  Not sure what has happened.  Maybe it is a sense of disconnect from you real people out there and less of a need to write stuff out to myself.  I’m not sure.

Christmas has come and gone and we had a good time here in our home.  All the kids and grandkids were home, all but Rachelle, Ronin and Asen from Toronto.  The house was full and noisy and the kids had fun.  It was fun to watch them interact with Ronin on Skype.  Seeing Rachelle and family helped ease the pain of separation – more than just a phone call.  Seeing has great value in communication I guess.

Dave, Annette and kids stayed for most of the week.  I love having them around even if the house gets to be a mess. They are just easy to be with and sit around and watch TV and play games with. 

Today Leo was back at work and I joined him, Eric and Michelle and Kimia for lunch at Shenanigans.  Leo got me a new phone image

that was Bluetooth compatible so that I could set up a hands free connection for the car.  We stopped and got one problem with it sorted out on the way to lunch.  Now I have to learn to use this new phone.  I don’t know if I really like it.  It does too much and although it will be nice to download ringtones and maybe take a picture or two, it does more than I really need or want.  The keyboard is nice for texting – which I do occasionally – so that feature is nice.  But I spent hours trying to figure out stuff and if the learning curve is too steep for my purposes, I wonder if I will just hate the thing and hardly use it.  It also is very square and does not feel nice in my hand – kind of clunky – so I don’t know.  Functional things should have some aesthetic value besides functioning.  Shouldn’t it feel like it fits my hand?  Maybe I ask too much.

The rest from work should allow my thumb to heal up. It is still very sore when I do certain things.  Holding a pen is still quite painful.  and holding a pen is very similar to how I hold a handpiece unfortunately.  I guess I must have torn the ligaments around the Metacarpophalangeal joint.  It will have a few more days to heal before I have to get back to work and I suspect I won’t let it slow me down too much. 

Other than eating too much and being generally quite lazy, a lot of my free time has been spent studying.  In two weeks I travel down to Chicago for an intensive seminary class on the missional church.  I will enjoy the class but there is quite a lot of reading and a few book reviews that I must get ready.  I plan a stopover in Toronto to visit Rachelle.  I sure hope the extra security becomes more efficient so that I can take a carry on and not have to spend 6 hours in line.  Maybe it would be faster to rent a car and drive from Toronto.  I guess I will just need an extra measure of patience. 

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Filed under Christmas, Family, grandchildren, Studying

December 14, 2009 · 6:56 am

This waiting time

Waiting for an exam at Christmas time is not a good way to prepare for the coming of Christmas.

Or is it?

It means that every moment of my day has to be thought out. Can I get some good studying done? Should I take a break now and put up some decorations? How much of my time should I give to my kids who need babysitting so they can get some important things done?

What are my priorities when it really comes down to how I use my time? I guess this has been the question foremost in my mind these days. What are the most important priorities when I am living out my life stressed by too many demands on my time and at the same time trying to walk through life as a follower of Jesus?

Just trying to live out my relationship with God as I take care of my family, myself and my work. Trying to maintain some sort of balance and sanity. Besides studying and passing a midterm. Thus not much blogging or deep thoughts.

I will be so glad when I have a short break from work between Christmas and New Years.

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Filed under Day to Day, Family, grandchildren, Studying

December 9, 2009 · 12:37 pm

Things a Grandmother should not have to do

Among other things – sedate and do dental work on a grandchild.  He  did not like it at all.  He drank the juice fine but from the time we got him to the dental chair and started the work it was downhill.  We had to hold him down and then the cavity was deep enough to need a nerve treatment.  So much for a small and easy job.

One more of those sessions to go.

When he came to the office this morning he asked his mom why he couldn’t visit Grandma at her house rather than her office.

I guess I will survive.  As long as he forgets the fight to get the work done and as long as he still likes coming to my house.

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December 6, 2009 · 2:56 pm

Zaka’s Party

This Friday I got a call at noon just as I was sitting down to dinner out with the School Dental Program staff, I got a call to tell me that Zaka was having a daycare Christmas programme at 3.  Luckily for me, we had finished up at both schools early and I was free for the afternoon. 

So, I got to attend my first school programme for one of my grandchildren.  The kids were ready when I got there and they had to wait for the parents to arrive to sing their songs.  They were getting restless and Zaka ended up having to sit off to the side away from the friend he was pushing off the chair.  And then he kept peeking in through the door of the room behind him where I suspect a bag of toys was being assembled. 

There were a few tears – par for the course at a preschool programme and then some very enthusiastic singing as they got into things.

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And the highlight was a visit from Santa of course.

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Filed under Christmas, Family, grandchildren

November 29, 2009 · 7:59 am

Caging the Beasts Otherwise known as Babysitting

Last night we were babysitting for Kimia so her parents could go to the law society’s Christmas event.  We enjoy this and thought we’d share some babysitting wisdom with you.

How to keep the kids out of trouble –

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keep them in the pet kennel.  And send in a friend to play with.

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(actually, keeping them out once they discovered it was impossible.)

And then you wear them out so they insist on getting their coat and shoes on and stand by the door until they are too tired to stand and just pass out on the rug.

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What a girl Kimia is.  She is going to give her parents a few challenges I think.

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November 21, 2009 · 5:12 pm

Wonder-full.

I spent part of this weekend doing dental things – a trade show where I succumbed to the temptation to purchase a air/electric highspeed handpiece that has the ability to maintain an even torque.  Now that might not mean much to most of you but it means my drill won’t stall out when the going gets tough.  Also picked up some stuff to help motivate young people with braces to brush better through self assessment of their oral health status – in other words are their teeth covered with yuck or not. 

Then we interviewed a person since we need a second hygienist and ate lunch at Earls.  The salad I had was delicious.

But the best part of the weekend so far was eating pancakes and bacon prepared by my son and eaten with his family and shopping with David, Annette and kids.  It is hard to find truly meaningful gifts for the kids and grandkids.  They do not need more junk.  Neither do I.

But then we stopped at the World Vision Kiosk and my son’s family signed up to support a child from the Congo, finding a boy about the same age as Kieran so they would be able to write to each other.  Kieran thought he would like to give some of his chore money towards supporting him.  That is one of the best gifts they have given me and they are probably not even aware that it blessed me so much to be there as they chose to do that. And one little boy and his village will be blessed and perhaps will understand some of the wonder of love offered across the huge span of distance that separates them; the wonder of what Christ really came to set in motion at Christmas.

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November 2, 2009 · 7:53 pm

I still have so much to figure out.

I am thinking through – or trying to – my personal theology of work and daily life (my understanding of God’s relationship to my world).  Trying to figure out and appreciate the activity of God in the daily parts of living; you know, my relationship with Leo, the family, visitors, the grandkids, study and work and how my faith mixes with all these things; where God is in this ordinary daily stuff and what he wants from me.

I do not have it all sorted out.  So this might just sound confused or extremely boring and I really do not want to bore you.  So skip this if you want to read someone who has it all put together.

Sixty years and I still have so much to figure out. Continue reading →

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Filed under Day to Day, Family, grandchildren, Reflections, Studying, Writings

October 31, 2009 · 7:20 pm

Halloween

The activity of Halloween has been going on for about three hours so far.  The count for trick or treaters is standing at less than 30.  I should know that this is the number I should plan for by now but I always over anticipate the numbers of kids that will show up.  I think I would like it if more came – little kids anyway.  They are cute and creative and having fun.

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This is Kieran.  A scarecrow.  However by the crow perched on his shoulder I’m not sure how effective he has been at scaring away the birds.  But the costume won him the first prize for costumes in Grade one at his school.  He was pretty proud of that.  The missing teeth are very authentic – three gone so far.

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And Nea is a pretty cute flower too, don’t you think?

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And the other grandkids should be by sometime tonight.  So there may be more pictures later. 

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September 26, 2009 · 2:34 pm

So this is Saturday

I have just returned from a shopping trip to the mall with my daughter-in-law and my three grandchildren. 

Ahhh… the joys of shopping with children.   They were pretty good actually but I have gotten used to hunting around in shops at my leisure.  We spent time in the play area.  That’s not an area I usually visit. 

But  I did find a pair of dressy shoes that fit my wide, wide feet.  Now I’m set for the gala event I am attending this evening with the purpose of meeting up with a dental student I wll be mentoring over this coming year.  And I’ll get to visit with our past summer student and his wife as well as visit with Sara and her dental student boyfriend. 

Then I turn around and drive home – I think.  Unless it is just too late and I’m too tired.  My kids always seem to allow me to sleep over if I need to.

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Filed under Day to Day, Dental, Family, grandchildren

September 11, 2009 · 3:57 pm

Grandmother stuff

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Last week, as I spent time with Kieran and Nea, my understanding of a most wonderful truth about being a grandmother grew. It is OK to play. It is more than OK actually – it is almost a requirement and in fact it is fun.

This kind of playing belongs mostly to grandparents I think. I suppose a really silly parent can get by doing the same things but most parents take the importance of their high role too seriously. A grandparent can get away with being really silly or simple and no one is likely to judge you for being a poor grandparent because of it. They will probably watch you down on the ground picking up stones, examining them carefully with a five year old and marvel at the joy you still find in life.

This summer, as I drove out to Vancouver, I gathered a few treasures along the way. Rocks.

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My excuse was that they were for Kieran. But maybe it is the repressed child in me. I always gathered rocks on my summer vacations as a child. Why not do it again now? This will perhaps be the last period of my life when I will be able to gather them. And a grandmother needs no better reason than that I will be able to sit with my grandson and admire their shapes and colour.

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Filed under Family, grandchildren, Photos, Travels