“The RoseBouquet”

You may be getting tired of hearing about the renovations at my house, so I’ll keep this progress report brief. Jake came last week Tuesday morning and finished up all the projects related to the RRAP program with the Saskatchewan and Canadian governments. Together they are paying for all this work; my part is to keep my promise to live in this house at least five years. Then it will be considered that I have paid off a forgivable loan of $16,000.

I’m now waiting for the last installment to pay Jake, and will get the last bit as a reinbursement for the water heater that I had to replace in May when the old one burst.

However, now I’m gearing up to do my own renovation projects. I spent this last Saturday preparing the floor in the basement to lay the ceramic tiles I got from Dad when he died. Because I have a lot of stuff stored down there it means moving things from one side of that large room to the other. Since the basement is only half the square footage of my house, it will only be approximately 300 sq. feet to cover. But it is likely to take me a couple of months of Saturdays to do this, as I only have the physical stamina to do small patches at one time.

The other news is that Snowflake seems to have really missed me the weekend I was away and has become downright affectionate and talkative. When I come home he hurries to the mats at the front door and throws himself down wanting to be tickled and scratched before I can take off my boots. Sometimes he follows me around and puts a paw on my leg. He loves to be cradled and patted and scratched. I try to avoid stroking him as then we make electricity and the sparks fly.

He often comes up to meow as if he is asking for something or wants to tell me something. Last night I was cooking a salmon in my crockpot so I would have sandwich fixings for a few days, and it seemed like he was reporting the progress on that salmon a number of times through the evening, yet when I gave him some (cooled down) he gave up on it in a minute or two.

I’m learning to understand him better, but I’m still weak on interpreting some of his meow-ese, and there is that problem with all that white hair everywhere! Though I use a lint-roller at the office, I’m never free of that ubiquitous stuff!

I’ve been thinking of a cat book or calendar for next Christmas but I need some time to work with the photos. Photo stories take time!

My mornings are committed to articles and web pages for my web businesses. I have prepared an agenda for revamping some of them and making them profitable. This takes a lot of self-discipline, but I’m making small increments of progress. Yesterday I re-did the Story Game section of my Sharing Library on this site. Do you recall my story game?

See Short Story index for the stories I put up in the past.

It must be at least four to five years ago that I set up a section with a way to trigger ideas for short stories using my Deal-a-Plot cards which I got many years ago when I signed up for a correspondence course in writing. This last week a man contacted me who had been looking for such cards but had never seen them. When I did a search online I found that no one else has them, although some had heard of them. Ah-ha! So I have something unique here!

I’ve decided to revive the game and if you would like to write a short story, I invite you to try. It’s not hard - and it might even make us prolific. I know I need to get more into practice with writing fiction. All my writings seem to be non-fiction these last number of years.

If you go to Story Game you will find the basic rules. 1. You need to subscribe first (if you haven’t already) to this blog/ezine, the RoseBouquet. (I need more subscribers).

2. Using the options from one card out of my deck, you choose one from each category and then write a short story of 150 - 500 words with those ingredients.

Yes, I know, you may have to think for a while! That’s the point!

3. Go back to that page and paste your story into the form, remembering to use your subscription email there as well.

Now, if there is a lot of keen interest and submissions I won’t have time to respond and chat with each writer about their story, so I’m not going to promise that. But when I do find a story I really like and admire I will be in touch to ask for permission to publish it there in my short story collection.

To set a good example, I’m going to try to write a story each month using the ingredients offered, and then I’ll change the ingredients to the things shown on another card.

As hinted on that page, if you can manage a short story with all the right elements and that is a great read with just 150 words I will give you some extra fanfare and rave about you

You will maintain copyright to your story and can publish it anywhere else. I can’t afford to pay at this point, but if I post it on the site, you can tell other editors that it has been published on Ruthes-SecretRoses.com It will look good on your Writing Credits sheet.

Besides all this, let’s have fun!

I’m off to try it right now, and hope I come up with something good enough to place in my Ruthes Roses below. By the way, the really excellent submissions could end up there too! That could be handy when I have an extra busy week.

I’ve been remiss in not telling you about one of the best online bookstores there is. I’m afraid I’ve been distracted with other things and just assumed that you would know about this site. My budget for buying books is limited, but if I’m looking for Christian books and music and DVDs I always go check out ChristianBook.com first.

If you ever check out the book reviews in my Sharing Library you will find that I’ve provided direct links for every book that can be found at my favourite bookstore site.

Want to enter by their front door? Christianbook.com Home

Here’s a few more links to some special pages on their site; Giveaways

Great Deals

Gifts

Devotionals

(my Story Game Entry)
Dripping, Trudy ran up out of the ocean and up the slope of the beach. Sol Sulliman, the Dutch nobleman who had invited her to spend the summer practicing for her world swim meet had turned out to be an ogre, always trying to make a pass.

She glanced over the quiet fishing village in the hazy afternoon sun. Where to hide? Sol was within earshot and calling out; she headed for the nearest building, an old stone church with a spire. The door swung loosely. Immediately she saw the stone stairs up to the belfry. She realized that Sol was puffing already. He probably wouldn’t be able to follow her to the top.

In a flash she was bounding up the circular stairs two at a time.

Sol did follow, but sat to catch his breath a number of times.

Trudy began to wish she hadn’t done this when she heard the echoes of his chortling to himself, for if she wanted to come down she would have to pass him.

Trudy found a window at one point and by it someone had dropped a small notepad with an attached pencil. She stopped to write some notes, begging for the police to come catch the man chasing her.

Just as she had tossed about eight of these notes out of the open window gap, Sol called up, “Trudy, honey! Come down! I’ll give you a loan. Make that a gift - 100,000 Euros.”

Trudy froze. Enough to hire that professional swimming coach she had met at the previous meet? It was just why she had followed this crazy, stingy nobleman out here to this lonely place. If no one would find those notes she had just cast out… maybe she should give into this benefactor. How much damage could one sex act do?

Then she shuddered. She’d have to live with that memory all her life! It would do a number on her mind and paralyze her when she was swimming for fame. For that matter, she could end up with Aids. Trudy’s chin sank as low as it would go as she realized that it might also keep her from ever returning back to God.

That 100,000 and the fame from being the world swimming champion grew into an ugly and selfish goal. It was not what she wanted to become.

Then she heard the slower pounding of Sol’s steps on the stairs again. She rose up and kept climbing.

If there were ropes up at the top, and if she could muster the courage, she could let herself down the outside of this spire. Her desire to avoid this man Sol grew. She had to find a way out of here!

Trudy thought she could hear the distinctive local police siren, but when she reached the belfry and could look out again, she saw nothing. She turned back inside and looked over the tangle of ropes and bells. There had to be a pattern.

Just as Sol started to call out his offer again, she grabbed the sturdiest rope and shimmied up it a ways. Wearing just a bathing suit the rough hemp scratched her skin, but then the bells above her began to swing and peel out. The metallic din was horrible, yet she began to grin and laugh aloud.

At least the town could not ignore this racket. It would be embarrassing but she would accuse him of chasing her up here with evil intentions.

A hymn with a beat that went with the clanging of the bells came to her mind, and Trudy began to sing lustily as she found loops to rest her feet in and swung back and forth, pumping a bit like on the swing at home.

Last Tuesday, just minutes after I had posted my RoseBouquet for the week, I was having lunch downstairs with the other WTM staff that were in, Priscilla, and Joe. Suddenly Joe said to me, “How would you like to go to Millar this weekend?”

I stopped chewing my food, for I knew what he was referring to. Joe and his wife Penny are our mission reps and about this time of year often go to spend a weekend at one of a number of Bible Schools when they have their missions conferences. It’s a chance to put up a display booth, and make the mission visible and to do some recruiting. I knew instinctively that I would love to go, but this was rather sudden. “Why?” I asked.

Joe explained that they had put on 10,000 miles with all the driving they did in the States over Christmas and New Years, and he knew there was another missions conference coming up in Regina next weekend, so he was offering that I could go to this one in their place. He assured me that I would enjoy it, for Millar does up the best, the most fun missions conferences. They do dramas, like enacting a third-world marketplace right in and among the various missions’ booths, and so on.

When I caught my breath I said that I’d love to go but I had to clear certain items off my agenda, and one of them could eat up my weekend.

I hardly had time to think about it, never mind pray seriously. The next day I was staffing the memorial donations table at the very big funeral of one of my best supporters, Victor Nickel. At 2 pm, or as soon as I got back to the office, I had an appointment with my biggest client for web design. He left just before 4 pm so I had just moments to get a phone call in to the government offices in Regina about some taxes I should have charged my clientele last year but didn’t. (Oops!)

Finally, after 4, I went down to the director’s office where both Arnold, our Director, and Joe, our Assistant Director were waiting for me. But they had already, in faith, called up a couple of other mission reps to ask if I could catch a ride with them so I wouldn’t have to drive. They were leaving at noon the next day. So Joe loaded our WTM/SLM display luggage in my car to take home, and I gathered up what I thought I’d need, and headed home. I got my packing done the next morning, just before Gary and Dave arrived to pick me up.

Penny, next door, agreed to come over and feed and pet Snowflake each day. My biggest concern was that I was not used to such weekend trips and was not in practice for packing neat and practically. For instance, I took along a laptop (which now works), thinking I could at least check emails maybe late at night. There was no convenient place to connect to the internet, and there wasn’t time either. However, I saw how others reps used their laptops at their displays to present inter-active videos or games about their ministry. I just wasn’t ready for that.

I learned a lot and want to sort through all my experiences to find ways to improve the next time I get such a golden opportunity.

Above all, I can report that I had a wonderful time. I was given a room in the girls’ dorm, and the students were all so kind and full of thoughtful questions. I did not meet a single rebel in the whole school. The atmosphere there is very missions minded and most of the students were planning such careers.

There’s much more to tell you, but I’ll save it for my Ruthe’s Roses article below, okay?

By the way, when we left on Thursday the temperatures were still quite chilled at -25 C. When we got home Sunday night, it was something like +5 C. Saskatoon is in the midst of a January Thaw! That’s something we don’t get to see every year, where the snow and ice melt in the daytime, and freeze again at night. Some younger people have never experienced a January Thaw in their lifetime. It will probably be over though, by the end of this week.

I thought last week I was telling you about interruptions to my business schedule, eh? This past weekend away sure topped all that!

Could you have passed up such an opportunity? I couldn’t. I decided that I would catch up somehow or other. I will focus on that this week.

On the other hand, I think I did advance my business ventures a bit too. Just because of the kind of woman I am, whenever I turned around and made a new friend, I was able to shift gears quickly and talk with them about whatever we appeared to have in common. Sometimes it was missions and eternal spiritual goals, but with some individuals it was about my years as a caregiver for my parents and grandma, for another it was about pro-life activities, for some it was about writing books, or self-publishing them. I gave out my business cards as liberally as my “prayer card.”

I discovered that I love this kind of networking. It’s exciting and so much fun! But, it is also physically exhausting! The first night, as I got into my bunk bed I wondered how I would ever fall asleep with those girls giggling and talking down the hall. That night it was no problem.

The next night I had a roommate in a late arrived mission rep, and was also interviewed by some of the girls for an assignment. Sharing stories from my life became so emotionally intense for me, that I was too hyper to fall asleep that night. Maybe I had a few short doze-offs but that is all. I woke up tired!

Fortunately, they had scheduled a nap-time into the Saturday afternoon agenda. I took advantage of it.

Back to this networking - meeting strangers and talking with them about many things in short conversations standing by the booth, or eating together in the dining room, or late night dorm talks - this is a whole new world to me. I’m wondering if more of this is on my horizon. What can I do to polish and prepare myself for it?

If you have had some experience, maybe you would have some practical tips and counsel for me?

There are a number of businesses that call for networking skills if you are to succeed at them. Not everyone is naturally a networker. But it is a skill you can learn. If you have ever signed up for some program where you were to recruit others and failed, consider that perhaps you didn’t get trained properly. Research such opportunities carefully and make sure there is good training available.

I know of one that offers excellent training, but you will need to make room in your life to learn and do it well. Once you have learned and practiced the basics, you will find you can apply those skills in other ways and places too. Besides giving you an income, networking can help you to share the gospel message and win others to go to Heaven with you.

The one I have in mind is MyPowerMall. I’ve learned quite a lot just from reading the helpful email lessons and information on the site, but they do offer special phone meetings, and mentoring for in depth lessons. If those do not work into your schedule you can download and listen to the lessons on your own schedule. Check it out carefully for yourself. MyPowerMall

1. Set up your display early and try to get a good traffic location if you have any choice, or choose one off in a corner if you need to talk to people one on one. This time ours were assigned, but I had a good corner location, and not far from a plugin so I could have the back-light on.

2. Set out a bowl of candy to break the ice with strangers, or offer some other freebie that will draw them to you. Joe had tipped me off on this one, and it did bring me traffic, but I was a bit slow in learning how to ask questions to draw them into our missions’ purpose. It’s one thing to draw in the visitors, but another to hold their interest and get your message across.

3. Be very familiar with your literature and products so you are not hunting for something in the midst of a key converstion. I caught myself hunting for a catalogue of our correspondence courses. I knew it was there somewhere, but I had not memorized my layout. With more practice I’m sure I could overcome that.

4. If you can, offer a mini-experience at your display so visitors find themselves involved before they know it - they will remember you then. Gary Williams, with whom I had caught my ride, had his Wycliffe display back-to-back with mine, and he had an interactive game on his laptop. He placed a student in the chair in front of it and had them play the game, then enter a draw for a prize which he presented on Sunday morning. I saw his success with that plan.

5. Have signup sheets or cards, and ask visitors if they would sign up for your regular newsletter or email mailing list. That will give you a chance to connect with them again in the future.

6. Follow the organizers’ agenda, but if at all possible try to get back to your display in free sessions in case people come back to seek you out. The best conversations happen when there is hardly anyone else around. I sat in on the workshops the college had organized for their students, but realized that I was smart to be found at my display when loner students came by. I could have skipped some of the workshops. However, I did enjoy the one on creative ways of ministry; it included a hands on lesson in making balloon animals and object lessons.

7. Don’t consider yourself off-duty when going for lunch or attending other workshops, or meeting others at your accommodations. Always be alert for an opportunity to introduce yourself, and chat with people and go as far as their interest will allow. This school may be unusual in that the students all seemed eager to introduce themselves and to ask us questions. Sitting with different ones at each meal gained me many new friends. Even in the hallways and walking to and from the Girls Dorm I got into friendly chats. It helps to be outgoing, but at this school, even the shy people were soon in conversations.

8. Have more than enough contact cards on hand. This might have been my weakest area. I had a card wallet in my purse with maybe 10 -12 prayer cards, and two kinds of business cards. The ones with the pink roses background, and listing my websites were gone in no time. I had just one prayer card left at the end. Some places that might have been enough, but at this school I could have handed out many more. I will stock up now. Some of the students were hesitant to give out their email addresses, but were quite willing to take my card. There is always the chance they may try to reach me later.

9. Watch for and recruit those who are ready to commit. I realized after the first day or so, that I could challenge the students to send me testimonies to put on our mission’s website, or if they were artistic, to submit some artwork as we need volunteer illustrators for our tracts.

10. Followup is important too. Be careful afterwards to organize your signups and try to get in touch with those who showed some real interest. One day they may be your co-workers or your faithful supporters.

Networking is basically making friends for a reason. If you like people just as they are, and are able to be a friend easily and quickly make conversation, you would enjoy networking and looking for recruits. I found it lots of fun, but also a bit draining. You may receive energy, but you’ll be giving some too.

I hardly know what to talk about this morning. There’s the deep snow I’ve just plodded through to get to the office, the weather, basically. Then there’s the complications last week in the reno work. Perhaps that is the bigger story. The weather is more incidental.

Last week Jake came to lay a new bathroom floor. When I moved into this house in 2007, there had been a continual leak under the sink for so long that the sub-floor had got soaked and was rotting. The inspector had insisted that it be replaced with a good plywood floor and then a strong vinyl flooring on top of that. Jake decided that the right thing to do was to remove the toilet first. It was, but things can easily go wrong when you do that. It came away without a problem, and it appeared he got it into place nicely too.

Furthermore, Jake also got the basement window job done, and had to remove both the bathroom door and the basement door to shorten them because they were sticking. Wednesday was a full day for him, but he got it all done by about 3 pm.

After he left I discovered that the toilet was not flushing properly. So I called him at home to report this.

Jake and his wife were out on other errands or social calls that evening, but they made a point of coming by, and he finally figured out that the toilet tank would only fill if he turned the lever underneath just half a turn. Okay, we assumed it was fixed.

About midnight when I was preparing for bed I discovered it was not. The toilet over-flowed! I managed to get rags around it in time. I decided to wait until morning. I decided not to flush until I’d had my bath, so I’d be dressed if there was a crisis. It overflowed even worse than at midnight! (I’d never had such a problem before in my life!)

I waited until 7:30 to call Jake. He was confounded but promised to come see what he could do. When he arrived I had already been bailing and taking the excess to the garden for compost for a while. He checked the large pipe in the basement but found nothing there to plug the system. Finally he decided to remove it and re-install it. That’s when he discovered the large inner rubber ring had shifted when he placed it the day before and in effect blocked the toilet drain. Jake had to go buy another one. He got it all done properly at noon, although I thought the caulking around the base did not look very nice and tidy.

I got busy and cleaned up in the basement and generally, for the inspector was coming at 3:30. All the RRAP projects were done. Well, he wasn’t quite happy with the way Jake had finished the caulking around the toilet and the doorway in the bathroom, and he wants him to re-do some work around the threshold of the back door. He will send an official letter demanding this before I pay Jake his last check.

In the meantime, I’m now preparing in the basement for laying of ceramic floor tiles that I had got from Dad. I worked at preparing things on Saturday until my back cried “Uncle!” This is going to take about three months of Saturdays!

P.S. Incidentally, our Mouse War score is 20 - Snowflake killed his third mouse on Sunday. I’ve re-set my traps. Boy, one can’t relax in this war at all!

Okay, so I gave up two days at home last week, and didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, but over-all I chalk that up as progress.

We’ve been getting more and more snow in the last few weeks, so shoveling is a more regular chore, and because I’ve taken to walking to the office again, I am getting plenty of fresh oxygen and exercise. This morning I arrived feeling positively hungry after all that work plodding through the snow.

However, I decided that it is not that I’m so tough, but that God’s grace and strength is shown in and through me.

I will be taking a break from my business schedule tomorrow to attend the funeral of Victor Nickel.(86). He was a retired minister and he and his dear wife Katie, have been my faithful supporters as a missionary. Although he was not allowed to drive any more after his accident year before last, he still walked up and down alleys and behind businesses to collect bottles and cans for recycling. These he sold at SarCan (a provincial agency that hires handicapped people to receive and pay for recyclable items). Then the Nickels used that money to support several missionaries. I was just one of them.

Victor also liked to go to MacDonald’s on Idyllwyld Drive early in the mornings, often before 6 am, and he would witness to truckers and often lead someone to the Lord. He had a gift of evangelism, and a passion to see souls saved. He was also very generous. Whenever I visited in their home he was eager to give me whatever I could use. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more about him tomorrow when I’ve heard more from the family. Maybe I’ll write up a profile on him yet.

I’ve been asked to staff a table in the foyer at the church where people can make memorial gifts to our mission in Victor’s name. I have never done this before, but I’m honoured to be asked.

There are some other business issues to tend to this week. But somehow it will all come together. I have every confidence in the loving provisions and good timings of my God.

This morning I even had an idea about inviting short story submissions… but I need to work out the details before I announce that. When I tried it once before it didn’t go over so well.