LineaLanoie's Weblog

The kids are all getting ready studying for final exams.  They start tomorrow at the school our kids go to.  So of course everyone is busy craming.  Sara is the only one who has made the statement that she is “excited ” about her exam – not sure what class that is but at least one of the kids is “looking forward to” this week.  And she is trying to talk the other two sho she shares a ride with to get her to school early so she can be there ahead and look at her subjects and calm herslf down.  That sounds like me when I was in high school.  The other two are not such students and this will not be a fun week.

Tonight I just reconnected by phone with one of my cousins.  He lives in Ottawa andleo has had a chance to visit him and his wife while down east on business.  Now Patrick is down in Ottawa for the Francophone Youth Parliment and Leo goes back to Ottawa for a very short visit on business again at the end of next week.  We have had more contact with them in the past 6 months than we have had over the past 5 years I am sure.  One of these days I will actually get to go along with Leo and visit them too.  I have never been to Ottawa and it would be nice to see the nations capital.  But somehow the cost of the trip didn’t seem to make a one or two day trip very practical for me this time.  Leo was hoping to do some sightseeing last trip he made but they had an ice storm and thought better of trying to drive in to Ottawa from Nepean.

Today was a pretty ordinary day – work – cold(but not as bad as yesterday) – stuff that happens everyday pretty much.

This morning I had a big procedure scheduled.  And then following the bridge preparation, I was anticipating having a grouchy patient come with a crown that had fallen off.  I didn’t really blame her for being grouchy about what happened.  I would have been grouchy too if it had happened to me – having a crown come off while I was in BC on vacation.  But the extremely rude phone call we received from the patients daughter made me look forward to helping this patient about as much as I looked forward to – well maybe parent/teacher interviews.  Or maybe going to court or getting some other justifiable but hard to take scolding.  I was NOT looking forward to her visit.

This one I knew I had to pray through.  I knew I had to help her – it was my responsibility.  And I knew that I wanted the treatment I did for her to be the best I could do.  But I also knew that I did not want to see her very much.  So I guess I sort of  got to the point where I knew I had to turn this one over to God and let him use me to help her the best I could without resenting her. 

And today when she came in things went smoothly.  She was not at all grouchy – not like her daughter had been on the phone – #1 thing I was very thankful for.  And we ended up being able to get her crown back on and she was happy.  I was happy about being able to get her work done and to give her an explanation of what probably went wrong the first time we put the crown on.

Worship practice tonight – that was fun.  Kind of nice to be past the Christmas season.  Randall’s getting us to try a new song and that was fun. 

Then Dave and Annette wanted me to drop by their house after practice.  Got to visit my grandson who was in a great mood.  Tomorrow Annette starts a term position at my office filling in as reception staff as our staff all do a shuffle to accomodate the assistant who is beginning a maternity leave next week.

When I got there they handed me the last part of my Christmas present which didn’t arrive in time for Christmas – it is my Ukranian Christmas present.  They had ordered for  me the book by Erin Noteboom Ghost Maps Poems for Carl Hruska.  A signed copy no less!  Wow!  Another very special gift that I will treasure – and enjoy reading. 

  Now – to look forward to tomorrow – beginning to implement this new privacy legislation.  What a big hassle this is going to be.  We called the Privacy Commission today with some questions like –  what is the age of consent at which a child can sign this document.  They had no idea.  They couldn’t even seem to grasp why we would want to know.  Obviously this is a well thought through piece of government work!

One of the neatest things happened tonight – actually more than one neat thing.  I was out with the group of women that are studying Yancy’s book The Jesus I Never Knew.  We had been sitting around discussing the chapter on Revolution of Grace.  There were a lot of things we discussed as we wove around what the chapter was saying. 

First of all we had to go over what our most special gifts had been at Christmas.  All of our best gifts had to do with some very special relationships.  I liked V’s story the best.  Her mom ended up in hospital with a broken hip and they took her home to Melville on Christmas Day.  Since they were all busy with getting her home no arrangements were made for a real Christmas dinner.  V just though they would make something a lot simpler to eat since they didn’t feel that they could go through cooking a turkey ahead and taking it with them.  And then down came the upstairs neighbor.  She told them to come up she had prepared a dinner for all of them.  What a gift.  Totally unexpected.  Sometimes it is a blessing to be in a situation where love is expressed so freely and to be on the receiving end. 

So we shared our stories and were getting around to talking about what was in the chapter.  We exchanged thoughts on how we had experienced God’s grace and on how we had come to see that we are called on to love the people God puts in our paths – with an unconditional sort of love as shown by Jesus.  I think this is what made Jesus so attractive – no judging, no criticizing, just acceptance and love.  That kind of love is what drew people to him.  They already knew how bad they were – no one had to tell them that. 

And then our waiter(the waitress who had started serving us had finished her shift) came over and began to chat.  Wondered what book we were reading.  Said he had heard of Yancy but had never read any of his books.  He told us he had been to Bible School but that now – well he had kind of left the Christian faith and was exploring other things.  So we stayed longer and he came by a few times to chat.  Told us how he was exploring Buddaism.  Told us a little about a bad experience he had at Bible School that turned him off Christianity.  I think he was surprised that these women the age of his parents didn’t get all shocked when he told us about his searching in other religions.  It was cool talking to him.  A searcher.  What he doesn’t know is that God works in strange ways and that prayer is a powerful tool.  I think we may try to stay in touch.  We know some guys his age that he may just relate to. 

So two days of fairly intensive labor and we have gone from this

to this.

Those of us who live with hair that is straight and relatively thin have no idea the amount of work it takes to keep naturally curly hair manageble.  Going from A to B in Sara’s case involved cutting off her extensions, unbraiding (in reality untangling) the natural hair, washing, conditioning and combing it all out.  Tonight we did relaxer and voila!  Now she will be able to keep it combed out on her own but even relaxed, it is a lot of work to keep it all manageable.

Extensions are a nice alternative to having to do something every day.  Actually braids of any kind would do the same but my girls have a mother who is not a gifted braider and to date they have not had the patience with each other to learn to do each others braids.

Oh, have I been busy today!  It has been a day of undoing hair.  Believe me – that is a job.  We have gone from long extensions to just the real thing again.  Here she is with her hands full of hair!

Taking out the extensions has been a two day job.  Last night Sara, her sister and a friend worked at it.  Today it has been Grace and I.  What a tedious job! 

A lot of TV gets watched while it is being done.  Mostly bad stuff that teenage girls like but tonight we are watching Seabiscuit. 

Exodus 20: 24b Build altars in the places where I remind you who I am, and I will come and bless you there.”  NLT

Build Me an Altar… 

And God said;

There will be places

Where you see me

With your eyes opened,

Where you will see

Who I Am.

And in those places

Build me an altar.

I will return there.

It will be a meeting place

And I will remind you

That I Am.

The place will be

Sacred to you from then,

From then until now.

And when you return,

Seeking me there,

You will be blessed.

This passage from Exodus stuck out from my morning readings.  It reminded me of the places where I have met God that from then on have become sacred spaces to me.  Most of the time for me, these are places in nature where God has been really near.  No physical altar but the presence of God made an impact on my life in that spot and returning to it brings me back into God’s presence. 

The Israelites could erect altars.  And we have our church buildings that can be sacred spaces.  But in nature, we usually are restricted because the spaces are not ours.  It would be something if we could physically erect an altar and set the place aside to come back to returning to be blessed again by God.   I guess this is one reason I like to go into the sanctuary when it is quiet and spend time in prayer there.  God has met me there before and I return to the place seeking a blessing.

This is most likely the last post I will make this year.  My kids are all off doing their thing and Leo and I are having a few friends drop by for awhile this evening.  I am not sure if we will be up at midnight – I guess that will depend on how wide awake our guests are.

I think the year has ended well.  Today was an especially good day.  Got some issues resolved with the child I was having difficulties with – and that was good.  I am not good at having unresolved conflict hanging around.  It makes me too uncomfortable as I guess it should.  Hard to ask for God’s blessing when I am mad at someone!

And at our house we end the year with one car needing a new radiator and my son’s car needing a new alternator.  Cars!!!  What money pits.  Just can’t seem to do without them in the vast white north where public transportation is not a viable option – hard to haul a baby around on a bus and taxi’s are expensive!  Sometimes the cost of running a car does make one wonder if taxis are maybe expensive but cheaper in the long run??? Who knows.

And so I wonder what new adventures this year of 2004 will bring?  A new start, a new clean slate to put funny marks on.  The one thing I wish for most in the new year is to walk closer to God – I guess mostly I want the fire of his spirit to keep my heart warm, my ears open to God’s voice, my eyes able to see where he’s leading, my feet willing to follow and my hands able to work at whatever he gives me to do.

This morning early prayer time was sooooo good.  God blessed me and a friend and was there with us.  I think God certainly knew we both needed that. 

Now it is easier to go and face today – whatever it will bring.

Thank – you God for your goodness to me.

Now – Do you think God would give my dear husband a jolt so he would move faster!!  I am late for work again!  I do not like to depend on another person to get me to work.  It will be good to get my car back.  It has been on a little trip to Edmonton. 

I think I need to make some changes to my blogroll.  Some of the blogs I read seem to be going out of business and others I find I will transfer back to my favorites list since I read them less than others that are now on my favorites list.  Anyways – time for a few changes I guess.