Valentine Messages

My Valentine's preparations started early this year. I made valentines for the younger grandchildren in January, to make sure my cards would reach them before February 14. It takes about two weeks for snail mail to reach Canada from the US. I forgot to document them with my iPhone before I mailed them, though. They were cute, with super hero figures cut from some Christmas wrapping paper I'd salvaged from a tidy-up job at our January project. No one saves used wrapping paper these days except those of us who see a future use for it!

Then I sent texts to the teenagers, with photos of heart shaped rocks with a message inscribed on top.
I was pleased that my January work buddy showed me how to add text to photos. What a useful skill!
Thanks, Betsy! I love it when someone explains another feature of modern technology to me.

At our latest project at Phoenix Christian Preparatory School, the five couples who are working together went out to dinner on February 13, to beat the anticipated rush on Valentine's Day. While we were waiting for our food, I passed out tiny candy hearts with messages on them. The instructions were: "Make a sentence out of at least two of your hearts, and say it to your Sweetie." Some of us got real kisses or hugs, as per the hearts that said 'Kiss Me', or 'Hug Me.'
Some had acronyms which none of us understood, like 'GOAT'.
I thought I knew what this meant. My mum used to call me 'koza' in Czech, which is what you say to someone who is being silly. The word means 'goat', and is a term of endearment mixed with a mild rebuke. So I began my sentence to Terry:  "My dear goat..."  Everyone laughed. Strangely enough, two days later I was looking through my old notes of sermons, and one young pastor had used this expression: GOAT, and explained that it meant "Greatest Of All Time."  OK, now I know!
Did you know that YAAAS! accompanied by a fist pump is an expression of extreme excitement?
Well, now I know!
There were more, but I didn't research them before we began our game.

Some read-Be mine, Let's Hang, Laugh, Love...

Christians are to be "letters from Jesus", "written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." II Corinthians 3:3

Meanders and Undulations

Remember the saying,"going around the mountain one more time"?  That's what today's hike felt like. We had worked our first week at Father's Heart Ranch and were hiking with the McClinticks, our partners for this project. (We had worked at Cherry Valley with them four years ago.) The morning looked promising weather wise, with a lovely sunrise.

It wasn't far to the trail head in their jeep, kind of in our neighbourhood. We looked for the start of the Kim Nicol Trail, using the map that the guys had downloaded on the apps on their phones.

The guys march on ahead

Soon a fork appeared in the road, and Bill and Betsy wanted to take the short way. Only, the short way went straight up a hill.

Bill and Betsy zoom up the hill.










"Let's take this road to the right," I said to Terry, thinking we would meet our friends on the other side of the hill.





So Terry and I take the circuitous route, and meander back and forth, carefully following the trail markers. There was always one more curve to go around, and always those undulating hills, up and down, although not as steep as the first one.
No sign of our friends, though.
Finally they call, and with relief, we meet, kind of in the middle.

Terry walks slightly behind me, to make sure I stay on the trail. The sand is hard to walk in, and I concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.
There was not much to see anyway, only scruffy low creosote bushes.
I think that's the same mountain in the background that we see from our campsite!

I like going downhill much better. At times Terry held my hand, and I felt more secure. Like holding the hand of my heavenly Father, I thought, so I can stay on the "straight and narrow." It was warm enough to shed my hoodie, and a breeze made the sun bearable.

Three hours later, we were back at the jeep, and congratulated ourselves on having made it. I wouldn't say I actually enjoyed the hike, but I was glad to have walked 8.6 km (5.3 miles).

Benedictus- Blessings for 2020

I'm starting the new year with declaring my blessings as I blog again, from Desert Hot Springs this time, our January 2020 destination. The Father's Heart Ranch is a home for abused and neglected boys. Here is a view of our back yard, with the low hills defined by morning shadows. The creosote bush in the foreground eventually held Terry's hummingbird feeder, and we have been blessed with regular visits from one male Costa's Hummingbird.

It has been pleasantly warm, with temperatures in the low twenties, Celsius, or low seventies, Fahrenheit

 We had left Las Vegas the day before, about six hours away. When Terry pushed in the rear slide,                                                                   and was dismantling the support arm for it, he noticed that the

clip that held the arm in place was completely broken in half. We could have fallen on our heads, in bed!

The clip on the right is the broken one, while the left one was cracked, heading for a potential break.
From Desert Hot Springs Terry phoned an RV place, but it was too late in the day to make it there before it closed.
John, the maintenance man introduced himself to us, and mentioned a place about a mile down the road. I vaguely remembered this place from the last time we visited the Coachella Valley four years ago. It looked like the kind of store along a country road that would stock a wide variety of interesting parts, but surely not what we needed.
We just about went by it, so nondescript was its appearance.
"That was it!"  I called out.
"Oh, I thought it was just advertising for it."  says Terry.
I stayed in the car, thinking it was just another junky parts store.
A few minutes later Terry came out with two brand new clips in his hand!

Here are the new clips, installed in a jiffy.
The slide rolls out, manually, on two tracks, Terry pulling on it from the outside, while I push from inside for good measure.
We were so relieved that we didn't have to spend another night with the slide in, effectively denying us the use of our  seating and table space.
Isn't God good?






Isaiah 65:24 says
I will answer them before they even call to me.
While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! [NLT]

What I didn't know was that Terry had already prayed about this problem. Then he said, "Thank you, Lord!"

Grandchildren 2019

#2 granddaughter, Livi, 4

#4 grandson, Elliston, 6

#3 granddaughter, Nellwyn, 2, and Livi, 4

Grandma reading to Elliston, Livi, and Nellwyn

#3 grandson, Matteo, 8

Elliston is an original

Nellwyn-stretching after the boys' concert

Stepping Stones-8,6,4, and 2

#2 grandson, Zachary, 16

Coach Stephen plays against son Zachary

#1 granddaughter, Emma, 15

#1 grandson, Caleb, likes to read

Today's Assignment

It was an hour and fifteen minutes each way to visit our 92-year-old friend. We'd made the trip a couple of times already in the last week. Every year during our Gleaners stint in this beautiful part of British Columbia we like to visit as many of our old friends as possible. It's the only time we ever see them.

We had met T 48 years ago when we all taught in northern BC. He had taken a fancy to us young teachers, and had invited us to their log house up the Alaska Highway. We've been friends with him and his wife, (who is gone now), off and on, ever since.

We called T from the parking lot of his assisted living home, and waited for him to make his way down to the front door. It took so long, I spoke to the receptionist at the desk. She promised to call him if he didn't appear. Finally, there he was, framed in the doorway of the elevator, leaning on his cane, walking shakily towards us. Hugs and greetings.

First a trip all the way up to his room again for a few minutes. He showed us how short his special eraser was, and said, “Could we go to Staples to buy a refill? I like this soft white eraser, just the size of the squares of my Sudoku.” T loves to exercise his mind, if he can't really exercise his body.

The eraser successfully purchased, we looked around the mall parking lot for a place to have a “cup of coffee”. Turns out, this really meant tea, and a snack. After rejecting a couple of restaurants that had counters too high, or that were closed, we settled on Boston Pizza.

“I don't think they have sweet snacks in that place,” said Terry. He was pleasantly surprised, however, after perusing the dessert menu. We all settled for a delicious sounding pastry called Apple Blossom, with ice cream and a caramel drizzle as well. I ordered it against my better judgment, brushing aside the probable results of so much sugar -- possible headache, insomnia, skin rash or foggy/negative thinking. I couldn't wiggle out of this occasion, however. Every year we wonder if this visit would be the last. The Apple Blossom was as delicious as it sounded. Sorry, I don't have a picture of it!

eraser refill safely in his pocket

T thoroughly enjoyed himself on his outing. “My adventure was getting the eraser refill,” he stated contentedly. “Thank you so much for coming to see me.”

“See how little it takes to make someone happy?” I said to Terry as we drove all the way back to the town where we were camped.

“It's worth it for sure,” he agreed.

We felt as if we had done what God wanted of us that day.

Girls are Different

Terry and I volunteered to child mind for the day a few days before going to our annual Gleaners stint in the Okanagan. Daddy was glad because he could go to his construction job that day. Mum went back to school to teach part time after being home for two years. And now both boys were in school all day.

What a difference in just looking after the two little girls, instead of their two brothers and the girls! Their focus was completely different as well. For one thing , it was much quieter. No running around and screeching and jumping. No pulling into different directions as each each called, “Grandma, will you play this?”

The doll stroller had been at our house for several weeks before I finally got a chance to re-do the seat, so when it came back, it was like a new toy. The youngest happily wheeled it around and around the couch, until her sister demanded her turn. 

A few shrieks of dismay as each tried to grab the stroller. Problem temporarily solved as I took Big Sister's scarf out of its winter box, and tied Little Sister's doll to her chest in a baby sling.

Then Big Sister had five minutes on the timer for her turn with the stroller. I don't think Little Sister watched the sand run through the timer, but it helped to some degree before their interest shifted to something else.

“Grandma, can you play Play Dough with us?”

“OK. I'll show you how to make waffles. Do you want round ones or square ones?”

I wasn't sure the real fork and knife were allowed to be used for this purpose, but I sneaked them out of the drawer because the the knife made a more satisfying edge than the blunt plastic one, and how can you make waffles without a fork? I showed Big Sister how to make a crisscross pattern with the fork, while Little Sister happily put dried bits of Play Dough in and out of containers. Funny, her sister did exactly the same thing two years ago.

“Oh! It's time to get dressed so we can go to the Museum!”

Big Sister ran to dress herself, even meticulously making her bed all by herself. She didn't want my help. I was impressed.

At the Museum we by-passed the toy room because it was full of little boys on this rainy day, and went to the Cafe. The Cafe has real sized booths with games on them featuring Red Deer's pioneer settlers, and a real jukebox. The best part, though, is the child-height shelf with toy food of all kinds and pots pans, and dishes. Big Sister spied the cash register and set about scanning a bunch of food items with a device that beeped, just like the real thing. There was a slot for the credit card, too, not like the toy cash registers of my childhood. (Not that I ever had such a toy).

The morning passed with selecting and eating various plates of toy food.

"Oh, look, it's Uncle Chris!"  Closer look. "No it's not." Just a picture of one of the famous Red Deerians.

An hour and a half later Grandpa showed up, and Little Sister happened to look up. High on the wall hung a stuffed and mounted moose head! None of us had noticed it before. She made a beeline for my lap, and refused to move, all the while looking fearfully at the moose. I's a good thing it was time to go anyway.

At the mini theatre we stopped to watch the three-minute National Film Board cartoon, Hen Hop. This always makes the children laugh as the stick figure of a chicken performs various dance-like antics.

Later in the day Big Brother was fascinated with the waffle concept and created a beautiful plateful of fancy waffles. A great way to unwind after a busy day in Grade Three.

Number Two Grandson kept begging Grandpa to take him to the park next door to play tennis, and didn't seem to understand you don't play tennis in the rain. He's excited to be taking lessons for two months at the Tennis Bubble.

Grandpa's job on days like this is to make supper, following a prearranged menu. He prefers this rather than trying to hear tiny voices.

Soon it was time to go. I had explained to Big Sister earlier that we were going to be away for two weeks.

“Are you going to heaven?” she asked.

“No, I'll see you when I get back.”

It's hard for Big Sister to understand that her other grandma is not coming back, the one we were hiking with as described in my last blog. Our friend, and the children's other grandmother, passed away suddenly only a month after the hike. We all miss her.

July Hike

Today Terry and I hiked in the J.J. Collett Natural Area near Lacombe, AB.  Our hiking partners, Grant and Marg Sharp, Suzanne's parents, introduced us to the 635 acres set aside for hiking and outdoor education.   The area is classified as Aspen Parkland, a mixture of shrubs, aspen trees, white spruce, on moist, shady hillsides, and open meadows. 
Marg and Terry stride along in front of me as we set off.  We had to keep moving because the mosquitoes wanted to share our blood.  My Young Living citronella oil kept them away from me, as I wore shorts instead of covering my legs.

Bluebells, or Harebells

 Here are some of the flowers I snapped.

Alberta's provincial flower, the Wild Rose

 

Brown-Eyed Susan- Gaillardia

Mountain Daisy?

Northern Bedstraw

Twin-flower

Bunchberry- Dwarf Dogwood

Best of all, was the enormous moose I heard crashing through the underbrush!  Fortunately we didn't meet him on the path, but we stared at each other through the trees.  What looks like sticks above his head is really a huge rack of antlers.

We got our exercise today with 6.6 km, over 11,000 steps, and climbed the equivalent of 25 flights of stairs.  I think the day's high was 23 degrees C.  A satisfying hike!