“The RoseBouquet”

Last Thursday I had a surprise knock at the door, and a saleswoman made a fantastic offer. (And as Joe, my neighbour who’d just had a visit too, said the next day at the office – was she ever smooth! The most skilled sales person we’ve ever seen).

She said her company TitanAlarm, was doing a promotional blitz in our neighbourhood, and if I would accept a lawn sign advertising this security system, I could have the whole system installed for free. It is worth over $1500! I normally refuse to buy or donate at the door, but I do understand that many businesses will do such things to increase their “brand” and trigger better recognition and sales. So I let her tell me more.

Before I had time to think or pray over it, I was signing some documents, and a fellow, Andrew, showed up to start installing the equipment. I kept telling Tracy that I really wasn’t worried about security, as I had committed my property to God’s guardian angels and I was satisfied that I was safe in my home.

The advantages of this system are certainly attractive:

An electronic panel on the wall with a two-way communication with a central station.

Motion sensors that can tell if anyone breaks in either the front or back door.

Or when I have set it to be “armed when I’m away” if there is any movement at all, a central sensor notifies the central station and a voice accosts the intruder for my password – if not supplied the police are there in 3 minutes!

A medical alert, worn as a bracelet or neck pendant, can with the press of a button call an ambulance.

A smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector are included too.

And I get a keyring gizmo that has a certain button; if I press that the police are on their way in 3 minutes!

Oh, and one more, (if I’ve remembered them all), a certificate that gives me 20-25% off my house insurance.

Tracy left when she had her paperwork finished, but Andrew stayed until after 11, when he had it all installed and tested.

After Andrew left, I felt badly for not having insisted on time to think and pray it over. It all seemed almost too good to be true. But I had been told that I had ten days for buyer remorse, when I could still cancel it all.

There is one cost to me, $50.59/month for 30 months. (After that it goes down to $30/mon). So I prayed the next morning in my devotional time, and asked God to somehow make that money available if I was to keep this and to show me reassurances. If I could not feel easy and welcoming to this within the ten days, I would insist they take it all out.

Well, guess what. That afternoon I had an interview about renewing my mortgage. It turned out that the credit union was now prepared to offer me a new plan that was only 3.19% interest instead of the 6.39% they had been charging these last 5 years. That reduces my monthly payments by $39!

So I’ve been thinking and praying about this off and on all weekend while seeding my garden, etc., and feeling much more at ease. The extra $11 should not be so hard to come by, and that will all be covered in the discount on the house insurance when I go to renew that soon. And hey, when could I expect to have such a gift dropped into my lap again?

I am still reading the manual and learning how to use all these features. This morning I was actually able to “Arm my house” by pressing a button on my new keychain fob just before I went out the back door.

I had a Mother’s Day picnic supper with my brother in the park on Sunday. I told him about all this. Yesterday he called and asked, if I were now trusting in this system instead of the angels to protect me. So this morning I’ve been pondering that question.

No, I still have far more faith in God’s protection than this system. I’ve worked with computers long enough these 13+ years to know that electronics are not flawless. But I have often said that if I receive an unsolicited gift, I accept it as from the Lord. So, if He does not show me that I should refuse this gift by Sunday, the tenth day, I believe I’ll keep it.

Here’s the vacation announcement I promised last week. I am taking next week off for a vacation. Well, I was calling it that, but Joe says it’s not a vacation if I’m not at some beach with my feet in the water. He says I should call it a “Focus” week – what I’m planning to do.

Okay, then I’m taking a “Focus” vacation next week. So there!

Now you want to know the who, what, when, where, and how, right?

If you read me loud and clear each week, you may have picked up that one of my pet peeves is that I get to spend only a few hours a week on my own websites, the ones that I am expecting to bring in a good, regular and passive income. My SBI sites.

A few weeks ago, I was praying about this situation and it came to me that if I took a vacation, which I have not really had since 1998, the year after Mom died, when I took Dad to B.C., then I could devote all my 12 hours a day to just those websites. Instead of 2-5 hours a week on one site, I could give them many times that, and really get them monetized and profitable. Or at least be far ahead on my progress path.

If I were to travel somewhere, my sensitivity to everything new around me would be too distracting, but if I stayed home and focused intently on my work – just think what that would do!

I’ve decided to give it a try for one week. I’ve begged off from my commitments to the mission, WTM, and to my clients, explaining that I’ll be skipping just one session on their sites.

You may know how often I’ve said that if you can devote one small block of time on a consistent and regular basis to a project you WILL make progress. Now, oddly enough, I’m going to test the opposite theory; that if you devote yourself wholly to just one project for a more extended period, you can get a LOT more done.

How does this affect you? Well, there will be no RoseBouquet next Tuesday. You can expect me back the week after with some sort of report on my Focus vacation. Hopefully it will be enthusiastic and excited at great strides made forward.

Speaking of my SBI sites, reminds me to tell you of something big brewing in SBI land. Ken Evoy, the brains and owner of this system for web businesses that can replace your day job, has hinted that there is a big mystery event coming in May. (And you know there is only half a month left, right?) Ken says we should encourage people to go to the SBI facebook page; facebook.sitesell.com and make a guess at what the mystery event will be. Those who guess correctly will win prizes.

Do you know what kind of prizes Ken has given away before?!

Things like a year’s subscription to SBI – which means you have the whole oyster, pearl n’ all, to build yourself a web business and make yourself a good income. All you need to contribute is your ideas, and motivation.

So just skip over to SBI’s FB page, and browse among the interesting posts and photos. See if you can hazard a guess as to this upcoming Mystery Event. Make a comment about it, and see if you win something unique by the end of May!

Since friends, like birds, attract others of the same type, I suspect that you, just like me, appreciate your personal time, right? We can be ever so giving of ourselves and our time to others, but we all need to withdraw sometimes to be alone to unwind, check with our heart to see how we feel about ourselves and others, and just do something to improve our nest (home), and some satisfying activities to centre and who we really are deep inside.

My Saturday is my personal time like that, and although I give it up some weeks to attend a conference that I think is worthwhile, or to work on some project with/for someone else, I’m always glad to get a ‘free Saturday’ for just me again.

I don’t lie around vegetating, that’s for sure! I get up at the usual time, get my laundry started downstairs, and then settle in for a morning with the Lord, to talk all kinds of things over with Him, what I’ve been going through, and I often visualize, or daydream(!) things that seem important to do in the future. My best ideas come at times like that!

At noon I have my breakfast – or brunch, and then tackle whatever projects seem most important.

This last Saturday it included a variety of things like;
Raking some in the flowerbed out front, and the path beside the house
Tidying up and filing things on my desk
Calling someone back about my mortgage, asking questions
Breaking apart the branches of a Christmas cactus with sick soil and making 8 new plants
Checking through 4 ice cream pails of seeds & plotting my garden
Baking muffins to take to church Sunday night
My Saturday tidy and sweep of the house, then wet mopping floors.
Supper – (I had an apple earlier there somewhere)
Fold laundering, ironing a couple of blouses
Sitting down at computer for rest of evening to work on Joy Gems and the RTM site.

I went to bed about midnight, feeling satisfied that I’d got quite a bit done, and had not come to a point of utter exhaustion. I even did sit-down jobs between the more physically active ones, which means I paced myself well.

I might have spent more time outside on yard cleanup but it was windy, chilly and threatened to rain all day. On Sunday it did rain, sheets and sheets, cats and dogs – all the live-long day! I even had trouble starting the car in the morning because of the moisture. Ah, but yesterday and today the sun is shining gloriously and the temperature is rising – so now I’m full of hope that this coming weekend I’ll be sowing my garden!

After a Sunday afternoon nap I felt refreshed and tackled a project with the laptop. I’d read about and wanted to try out this idea where I can put an operating system, such as openSUSE 12.1 on a USB stick, and then use it to work on any computer that allows me to boot from a USB device/stick. I will probably have to put all my working files on a back up drive, and I have one about the size of a book. This would be much less trouble to carry around than a laptop in a case, etc.

Well, I tried it out and sure enough it worked on the laptop! Not only that, but I’d been stymied at trying to use the wireless built into the laptop to connect online without having a cable hooked up to the router. So far I had not been able to do that. But this new 12.1 operating system was more advanced than the 11.4 installed on the laptop’s hard drive, and it was quite intuitive about wanting to hook the laptop up by wireless.

Only problem, what’s my Key? And what’s my 2wire number? I tried the ones I thought it should be, but no go. Finally I called the Sasktel Help line, and got the answers. For some reason I couldn’t click the “okay” button, but after I hung up from that call, I came to another icon at the bottom right, upon clicking that a new window popped up very much like the one I had just been on, and there I could click “Okay.” Presto, I was online by wireless!

I know I still have to work at blending backups from the laptop’s hard drive and two desktops where I work, but if I can pull this off it means – I can carry all my work, client websites and all, in a small to medium sized purse, plug in to any computer, do my work, pull out the USB stick, and be on my way without affecting the host computer.

By the way, I’ll be making an announcement next week about a vacation plan.

Oh, I’m also planning to backup and upgrade my blog software after this issue is posted. Hopefully nothing will go wrong, so there shall not be a hitch in the upgrade. (Oh yes, I’ve seen it happen before).

My calendar says that today, May 8, and also Sunday, May 13, are both Mother’s Day for Americans. Hmm…? How did that happen?

You know that my Mom has gone on home to Heaven in 1997 after many years of suffering. I don’t wish her back for anything. I have in past years sometimes written up an article about some memory of her. (You’ll find them among the inspirational articles on this index of articles)

However, thinking now of those who do want to honour their living mothers with a gift, the first suggestion that comes to mind, is these necklaces from Uganda that I have been entrusted to sell. Time wise this is not so great, as mailing one to you will probably take longer than the rest of this week.

But I’m thinking that you might give your mother a card with this link in it to go see what these approx. 200 necklaces look like. Vibrant Paper Bead Necklaces from Uganda. She can describe the kind she’d like, and you promise to pay for it. Or if you do it together, you can make the payment online via PayPal and your credit card, and your Mom get’s to pick – and to anticipate the necklace over the next week until it arrives.

Naturally, if you live in or near Saskatoon, you can drop by the WTM office here on 401 33rd Street, and come pick out what you think your Mom would like. Then you can take it away right away. (In person sales are only $10, while the online ones are $12).

Let me remind you that these funds are sent to Uganda and they keep Joyce, whose mother is dying of Aids, in school so she can finish her business course, and will be able to support her siblings.

Here’s a video to show how those beads are made and how even the making of them supports a family in need; http://www.thomaswilliamsphotography.co.uk/2011/08/uganda-war-rocks-and-beads/.

This last weekend was interesting for the Music/Dessert Night on Friday, a fund-raiser for Western Tract Mission. Usually we bring in a family with musical children to put on a little concert for us, and we present our project, and take an offering. Then we serve desserts and coffee, etc. to all. This time we had invited the Fort Pitt Christian Community choir.

These 30 or so people live in ‘community’ or on a farm commune. A few years ago they were a Hutterite colony, (perhaps you know about them?), but these people all came to a personal faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. The Hutterites as a religious order rejected and excommunicated them, but this group kept their farm and continue to live together, but with much more joy in the Lord. They have such rich voices for singing in harmony. We enjoyed their program very much. We also raised over $4000 for our Impact Canada project.

By the way, Hutterites are suppose to do without worldly things like musical instruments. However, these choir members found a piano and some instruments in the room across the hall from the room where we had the program. So during desserts time many of us followed the sounds to listen to them “jamming” in German with instruments to accompany themselves.

A couple in Alberta who are part of our mission as Ethnic missionaries came to join us for this special event and stayed the weekend. The Loewens, who are both Board members, but live in a town about 45 minutes north of Saskatoon, invited all the Board and the staff, including Rick and Beryl over to their place on Sunday for a hot turkey supper with all the trimmings. That was a nice social time too.

I took photos, but remembering my pledge to protect my friends’ privacy I hesitate to share them. However, it might help the Fort Pitt Christian Community Choir to get more singing engagements, so I think it is okay to share some shots of them. You can learn more about them on their own website, www.FortPittcc.com

My little tax story has another installment. In Canada we have a national “Canada Pension Plan” (CPP). It started about the time I finished high school and got my first jobs, but then it was optional. Your employer was to pay half your fee, and you paid the rest out of your wages. But I recall being asked if I wanted to take part.

Of course, during my caregiver years with my parents I had no ‘job’ in the usual sense, so no CPP deductions. I considered myself self-employed, so it didn’t apply to me. But somewhere in the last number of years it has become mandatory, even for self-employed or small business owners.

So I mailed my 2011 return on Friday on the way home, and minutes later was looking at my mail – and found, not just one, but three re-assessment notices, indicating that I owed the government my CPP payments for 2008-2010, plus interest for the delays in payment. Over $2548!! Ouch!

After reviewing my returns for those years on Saturday afternoon, I conceded that I would have to pay up, but I simply didn’t have that much on hand. I did some earnest praying over this, and decided to call into their special 800 number for this on Monday, to make arrangements for grace to pay it in two installments. The second one due by June 15.

I had to scrounge together money I’d set aside for house and car insurance in a few months, and I included the $50 I’d set aside for groceries this week, figuring I could manage with what I had at home. I made the first payment at my credit union on the way to the office yesterday.

Then guess what. Before lunch Priscilla came up to hand me a month-end check from the mission and my supporters. (Lately, there has not always been a month-end check). My eyes popped! Over half of what I had just paid out had come in to me! God is so good! Before I’d known I would have this need some supporters had dropped of extra support funds for me, and the mission threw in a subsidy.

So this morning I mailed my final payment.

Why not wait until June 15th, you ask?

Because when you owe the gov’t they add interest to your debt on a daily basis! D’ sooner, d’ better!

I hope you don’t owe them anything, but good manners.

Do you ever feel that you ate foods that clash and don’t go together well? There is actually truth in that. Acidic and alkaline foods do not go together well at all. I have personally discovered this, and get crazy bowel gases that in turn give me a cross-eyed headache.

But the answer to prevent this is so simple and free. Just learn what foods are in which class, and remember how much time to allow between eating from clashing food groups. Some things like melons should always be eaten alone.

So where do you learn all this? Well, a nurse, Sherry Brescia, who struggled with this for years before she figured it all out, has written an e-book that explains all this. It’s called, Great Taste No Pain

This is called food-combining. It all makes great sense and works in my life, but eating out is a crazy time, because in the heat of fun conversations, it is easy to forget my own rules.

Spring is here! Lilac and caragana hedges are turning green and the ends of their branches and twigs, the grass is springing up green, and it is warm enough to no longer need jackets and long johns. But I spent the weekend inside, working on my income tax forms. (sigh!)

Here’s my little tax time story.

I deal with my bookkeeping and financial matters on Friday evenings, but there were a number preempted over the last month or two, so you know how it is. You keep telling yourself that there are still some weeks to go; you’ll get it done. At least I did – then I saw that there were no more Friday evenings in April, and the 30th is the deadline for tax returns. So I had to make the supreme push.

Problem was, I kept running into errors, particularly on the business sheets, and it was getting so that I was owing the government more taxes with every re-try of those pages.

I think I must have sounded rather discouraged when my friend Naomi called from B.C. to tell me about her back surgery. By that time I owed nearly $3000, and I do not have that ready at all!

But I think Naomi and Ed must have made it a matter of intercession for me, for on Sunday afternoon, I had a snooze in my recliner until 3 pm and then went back to my desk and spread of tax papers. Somewhere about 5 pm I saw where the crux of the problem was. Casting about as to where to go for advice, I decided to check the government website from where I had been printing out extra copies of my sheets as needed. Sure enough they had a bulletin that explained that portion better. With that reference point I changed how I entered some numbers, and – oops! at ten minutes to 6 pm I knew I needed to leave right away to make it to the evening service at church for 6:30 pm.

When I got back I made a chocolate peanut butter pudding and did the day’s dishes, and then sat down at my desk of paperwork. In a short while I had the final numbers. Now I owed NO federal or provincial taxes. Only my Canada Pension Plan (CPP) on my self-earnings. I cried out aloud, “Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord!”

I still need to find some blocks of time to copy each sheet out neatly, one set for them and one for my records.

Here’s hoping that your little tax time story has a similar ending!

P.S. And thank you, Naomi and Ed, for praying for me.