“The RoseBouquet”

Our bitterly cold temperatures did turn milder over the weekend. Today we have some softly drifting snow flurries, but nothing compared to what we hear has dumped in the eastern USA.

My neighbours, Joe and Penny have been watching the weather reports from there with intense interest. They left this morning to fly down to Maryland to be with their three sons. The eldest is married and they have two young children.

There are many times Joe has helped me out in practical ways. This morning I considered it a small effort to return the favours when they asked me to drive them to the airport. It meant waking up at 4 am to go start the car and bring it around to the front of their house so they could load it. The plan was to leave for the airport at 4:40.

Well, this is how it went…. My alarm went off at 4 am and I thought that rooster sounded very tinny and mechanical. (Maybe that’s why I didn’t hear it on Sunday morning and slept it). Being worried that I might do it again I had asked Penny to phone me when they got up to make sure I was not sleeping in. I sat hanging my head for a while, and suddenly remembered that I’d promised to start the car and bring it around to the front by 4:30. I jumped up and got dressed very fast, and dashed off to do just that. Then I came back into my house to wait until I saw them loading the car.

Minutes ticked by, and it got to be 5 am. I kept checking my windows for light in their windows next door. Hmm.. finally I decided that it could happen that they had slept in. So I phoned. Joe answered and said a sheepish “Yes.” and hung up. A bit later he was carrying luggage out. In the car they admitted that they had been awake part of almost every hour, and then had fallen asleep when they should be getting up.

It’s only a ten minute trip to the airport and so I was back home in no time at all, for I only needed to drop them off at one door. I was undressing for my morning bath, when the phone rang. It was Joe asking if I’d seen his cell phone on my car.

I hadn’t, but I quickly dressed and went out to check. It was under the cushion he had sat on. I started dressing in earnest to drive back to the airport, and deliver it to him before their flight took off. It only took seconds as he was waiting outside the door.

About 6:30, the time I normally aim to be in the tub, I was stepping into it. Now I’m off to a normal day, except that we three “office gals” who are left behind are going out for lunch, and I’m invited out for a birthday supper too. I will probably be listing to one side later this evening though.

Oh Christmas Day I will go back to the airport to pick up a surprise guest for the turkey meal I’ll take to my brother Tom’s apartment.

Did you download and read my Christmas letter and booklet/card for you yet since last week? Go to this page to pick them up if you haven’t yet - Christmas Letter and booklet/card

You know, getting this Christmas mail out has really eaten into my schedule. I have given up a number of “business hours” to produce and then to address a huge batch to put in the mails, and then yesterday I finally assembled my email mailing list of 100 friends and relatives, and sent them the links so they could see it without waiting for the postal carrier. I know I’ll still remember the odd person or two that I missed, but I’ll take those in stride. Mostly I’m quite relieved.

I’ve also printed and bound a big batch of cookbooks, and been sending and giving them away left and right. Only a few are left. I had hoped to print some lovely Scripture Signs too and to frame them, but that may not happen. Today and tomorrow are fairly full, and I’m going to stay home on Christmas Eve to clean house and get ready for the holidays.

On Sunday I got to thinking about the different kinds of “Christmas Problems” various people have. Sometimes we think we have the very worst ones, but could we cope with the ones another person has? I think that would make a good topic for an article today.

By the way, Barbara from Australia pointed out something after last week’s issue;

……………………….
Thank you for sharing your everyday life with us this year. I much appreciate the letters from Canada. You are pushing 40 under and we are pushing 40 over for Christmas. 80 degrees difference - I wouldn’t like to make a sudden visit! Thank God I have air conditioning in my car!

With much love and warmth at Christmas and praying for your trials to be turned to praise. (Not that you don’t already) Barbara
……………………..

Can you imagine the sharp contrast from -40 to +40 Celsius! Wow! I wilt at +30!

As I said last week, I will be taking a break from publishing the RoseBouquet next week. You may be too busy to read it, and I’ll be busy with my catch up projects at home, if I don’t get a car full of surprise visitors from BC. In a certain phone call, it was hinted at and then she said, “Oops! You weren’t suppose to know that.”

You’ll want to watch for the RoseBouquet on Jan. 5th to see what adventures I had.

I hope you’ll write to tell me how your Christmas adventures go too.

I wish you and each one at your house, a wonderful Christmas - not necessarily in astonishing and stupendous gifts, but in the joy of knowing you are loved by God so much that He sent His BEST gift ever. Accept that gift and the glories of Heaven await you in the future too, besides the extra special things that will happen to you in this life-time.

Oh yes, some of you are wondering about my right thumb and wrist and my neck knots. The latter is cleared up, and I’m finding that wearing a brace around my wrist, or sometimes a tensor bandage, helps to make it feel more secure and cosy. It’s not in constant pain, but I do winch when I try to pick up something heavy or shift gears in the car. My wrist still wants me to say “ye,” and “thee” or “thou” to it.

If the people you would like to give some gift recognition already have all they need, how about giving a gift to the needy in their name and then just tell these individuals that you have honoured them by giving a gift to someone else. There are many missions and ministries, or charities, that provide a place on their website for you to give such gifts.

This year I have become aware of a number of struggling missionaries and small ministries in third world countries. They plead for funds and I cannot divide my gifts enough to help but a few of them. There is always so much more need. If you are looking for such places to send gifts to, and you need some suggestions, feel free to write me and I can name several. If you have a preference for certain situations or places, I can narrow now the list for you. I know some in Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, and other places.

It would take too much time or space here to describe them all, but I hope to do more of that in the new year on the generosity-alive.org site.

If you had to choose which Christmas problem to have, which one would you take?

I got to thinking on Sunday that there are a number of different kinds of Christmas problems, and maybe the one I’ve had is not nearly so bad compared to what others go through.

On Saturday evening I dropped off a basket of goodies for a a single woman connected to our mission. She is so shy we seldom see her, but when I saw her living condition, her health condition and learned that she would spend Christmas all alone, I realized that loneliness is one Christmas problem I don’t really have to deal with.

Are you going to be alone this Christmas?

Sunday morning I sat beside a woman whose house was filling up with people, and she was almost overwhelmed at all the meals she was going to be preparing for the rest of this week. More were flying in that day. There’s another Christmas problem I don’t have - though I’ve had a house full of guests too in Christmases past.

Are you a harried hostess or innkeeper?

In the aisle I met another woman who had been in and out of the hospital all the previous week, and expected that much the same would happen this week. Her health is extremely poor! It’s hard to plan anything even for later in the same day, so she didn’t know when she would spend Christmas with her children and grandchildren. (She appears to be a couple of decades younger than me). My Mom’s health was up and down like that too. But that is not a Christmas problem I have this year.

Are you struggling with strong attacks on your body?

There are others who have family members that will not come join the family gathering because they DO NOT want to come home. This causes a very unique ache and pain in the hearts of those waiting at home around the big cold gap.

Are you waiting for a prodigal to come home?

Thinking about people flying far away like my neighbours I realize that weather can trap people in an airport for long hours or days. This can be a very frustrating problem for Christmas travellers.

Are you storm-stayed, or held up in your travels?

Or, there is my little problem of not having enough time to finish all the gifts I’d like to make, or running out of time to accomplish all I’d like to do. Perhaps your shortage of time is much more severe. I don’t want to belittle that. But suddenly my problem sees quite minor compared to what others are going through this lovely, colourful Christmas season. I can always change my to-do list and fix my problem in an instant.

Are you hampered by time constraints for your to-do list?

If everyone is bound to have at least one Christmas problem, which one would you choose? Maybe the one you have is not as terrible as you has first thought. May you be able to concentrate on the true meaning and value of the message of Christmas despite - and perhaps even because of the Christmas problem you have to cope with this year.

p

Oh my! I hope you don’t have any mis-adventures like I’ve had since last week Wednesday.

We are having the kind of DEEP Freeze weather that we Saskatchewanians tend to brag about after the fact. For me they are opportunities to cry out to God for help like a damsel in distress.

You may remember that I wrote last week’s RoseBouquet from home instead of going to the office. My car had not started Monday or Tuesday. After 5 pm on Tuesday, my good neighbour, Joe, came over with a battery charger to see what he could do about my car. It turned out that the electrical outlet on the outside of my house into which I had plugged the cord to heat up my car was dead. We had to go downstairs to throw a breaker switch on the main electrical panel. Then we had power. He set up his charger to charge my battery all night long.

Sure enough, on Wednesday morning the car started! So I drove to work and had a fairly productive day. I was the last to leave at 5 pm and lo, my car would not start.

I had requested prayer at the staff meeting for my right thumb and wrist as they felt weak and achy and … well, I thought I might have to take time for a chiropractor to check them. Now, the more I tried to turn the key and start my car, the more my thumb and wrist began to hurt. Suddenly the pain leaped up my right arm and seized up my neck and soon my whole head hurt like it has never hurt before. I’ve had some headaches over the years, but I can’t recall I’ve ever had one so severe I had to cry out aloud for pain.

After a few minutes I gave up, went back into the office, and could only think to phone Joe again. He and his wife had already got home, but he came right away, and he was able to start the car fairly easily. He offered to follow me home, so I got behind the wheel despite my headache and involuntary tears.

First thing I needed to do was turn around, I decided to drive into the approach for the car wash where I had parked on the street. I guess I wasn’t able to see clearly or what, but my right front tire jumped over a cement baricade (only about 6 inches high). Then it hung there! I couldn’t drive forward or back off.

Joe came to my rescue again and pushed and lifted on the front of the car to get off and back away. I managed to turn around in the street, and drove home. It only takes about 5 minutes.

It took about an hour with Advil and cold packs to bring down the terrible cramps in my neck. Poor Snowflake must have sensed something was wrong and hovered nearby meowing, so I picked him up and held him while I waited for the pain to abate.

The next morning I decided that I must get the car looked at, and I must go to a chiropractor. I couldn’t get the car into the auto service place until Friday morning, but I had my chiropractor appointments, one on Thursday, one on Friday and one yesterday. Turns out my thumb was out of joint, my wrist has arthritis and all my muscles up my arm and shoulders and neck were seriously knotted up. I’m suppose to have my thumb and wrist in a splint, which I plan to buy after I’ve cashed a check after 5 pm today.

The auto service place said my battery was loosing charge fast, and I should get a new battery soon. However, the car has been starting nicely over the weekend. Mind you, I’ve been plugging it in, and going out to start it 15 minutes before I want to go somewhere, to give it a chance to warm up properly.

The weather forecasters keep reassuring us that the temperatures will leave this -40 C zone soon. Maybe this week yet?

This is definitely an argument in favour of running a small business from home. I was glad to be able to do that last week Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. In the midst of all this I’ve managed to get most of my cookbooks printed, and nearly all bound. I stayed at the office later on Friday and managed to get my Christmas letter and my little gift booklet printed.

My goal this week is to use whatever snatches of time are not soundly committed to others, to addressing my outgoing Christmas mail and getting that posted. I carried a bag full to the post office yesterday, and hope to have another bag full at the end of today.

You, dear Reader, are one of my roses in my Big Bouquet of Friends. So I want you to have a copy too, of my letter, and my story booklet. This has been my tradition for over 12 years now I believe, where instead of making a card which will be tossed shortly, I write an original short story and make it into a booklet. This is my gift to my friends.

This year that booklet is not so much an inspirational story that I’ve made up, but a true to life, photo story of my lovely white cat, Snowflake. Some of my subscribers write to hint sometimes that they wish I would include more photos of Snowflake in my blog and ezine. Well, that seems a bit narscistic to focus on my cat so much, and I know some subscribers don’t care for cats and would as soon I stuck to more serious topics. So I’ve been trying to be discrete and spread out the mentions of Snowflake. However, I’ve promised several people that sooner or later I would give them a good dose of cat pictures. This Christmas I am fullfilling that promise.

My little photo story is called “Beggin’ for Hugs” and it has 24 pictures with a bit of descriptive text on each page. A real story with a plot may not be noticed by all.

I’ve prepared it in two formats to give you a choice, and will let you download the one(s) you want. If you just want to see and read or skim through it, you will want to click on this link; Beggin’ for Hugs

If you’d like to download it, and print out the pages on your own printer and turn it into a booklet, then you’ll need this second link;
Beggin’ for Hugs (to print)

To produce the booklet you’ll need to print sheet 2 on the back of sheet 1 and sheet 4 on the back of sheet 3 and sheet 6 on the back of sheet 5. Then you will cut the pages across half-way down the length of each letter-sized sheet. Fold the half sheets you get and place them in the right sequence with the cover on the outside and pages 12 and 13 as the centerfold, as the top or inner sheetlet. When you fold the stack of 12 half-sheets, you’ll end up with a 24 page booklet.

If you get confused with those long links, just head to the index page of the Cards Section on my site. That page repeats the above information and provides the links to click on.

Incidentally, I hope to produce another issue next week, but I believe I’ll take a holiday the week after Christmas so I can wrap up a lot of other smaller projects that I didn’t get finished this year. Maybe I’ll even spend a few hours with my feet up in my recliner. Aside from the one weekend in May at a Friesen Cousins reunion in Alberta I have not taken any holidays this year. Relaxing my grip on my schedules the last week of the year might be a good alternative.

That’s exactly what you were planning to do, right?

I don’t wish it upon you at all, but it happens sometimes that someone in the family gets sick right at the most important events of your life. Here’s a little video for you to watch that shows what to do.

In casting about for another gift-making project to suggest to you, I came across this article I wrote a few years ago;
Gift of Your Time. It’s all about how you can evaluate what your time is worth and consider that sometimes the best gift is a gift of your time.

Amen! That may seem especially true if you are a very busy person, and have some valuable skill that is much in demand, but do you know that in God’s sight your time is valuable too, even if you consider yourself a nobody with hardly any skill at all? You need to get a new grasp of the value of your time and how you spend it. It may well be the most precious possession you have.

My cat Snowflake has been showing me that we all need - really need human touch. Not only cats, but people all around us are starved for some real human -someone with skin on, not an invisible spirit, to come spent some time with them.

Sure, there will be people who need someone with great medical skills or training, or a great way with words or with numbers to come help them solve some problem or move forward in their career. But for every one of those people there will be at least 100 others who care not a whit what you know or can do. They merely need someone to spend some time listening and talking with them, and treating them as if they are a worthy human being too.

“Like what?” you may be asking suspicious of where I’m going with this.

Okay, let’s look at some examples.-

Do you know a handicapped person, or elderly person, who lives alone and finds it hard to do some simple things? Maybe trimming their finger or toe nails? Raking their grass? Stopping to pick up a few groceries when you go for your own? You could offer them a ride if you drive, or if you don’t, to travel with them on the bus.

But better still, they would like like for you to come by for coffee and cookies, and to visit and laugh and tell stories. Or when they phone, to just take the time to hear them out and speak encouraging words.

Perhaps you know a child who seems to be often at cross-purposes with everyone else. Such a child needs the quiet companionship of someone with lots of time to invest. You could help them get their bearings and learn to get along with others by practicing good behaviour with someone as patient as you.

If you think time is all you have to offer, I want you to see that it is a priceless stash of gifts you have to give every day.

Now, if you need motivation to remember to give your gift of time to someone, and if you want to give someone else the joy of anticipating your gift, then all you need to do to have a tangible gift to give at Christmas is to prepare some original certificates.

You can make them as plain or fancy as you like. If you can draw, decorate each certificate with fancy borders. If you can use a computer, you can design them there and print them out, or you can even buy them at the stationery store with about three or four certificates to a sheet. Think through what you would be willing to give in the way of time this next year, and write it out as a promise on the certificate.

If you want to look really generous you can make batches of them, and call them coupons. You might offer three for babysitting, or two trips to go shopping, or six coffee visits. It is really up to you to think over the person’s needs, and what you are willing to do.

If your time is worth $20 an hour, you can even add such a monetary value as a fun factor, but it might be more discrete in most situations not to flaunt such a value on your gift of your time.

How is winter your way?

You’ve heard of schools closing when there is a winter storm in progress? Or super cold temperatures? That happens several times a winter here in this prairie part of Canada. Today it’s happening to me.

Yesterday I was going to drive the car to work because I had extra bags that would be too heavy to carry if I walked. The car would not start. It was bitterly, bitingly cold! I took time however, to find the electrical cords and plug my car in. Then I went inside to decide what to do next.

I had been printing a gift cookbook at the office all day Saturday. I wasn’t finished, but I did have a box full of pages that needed to be cut apart and collated for binding. The cutting was all done in about 45 minutes. I decided to stay home until noon and answer email so I could try again in the afternoon and catch up on the printing, for which I had planned to give up my morning.

The car wouldn’t start after lunch either, so I put on an extra large pair of blue jeans over my slacks and bundled up with layers of socks, and tops and my old down-filled coat with the jumbo hood. I put my backpack on my back, and carried a lightweight bag on my hand (with a box for bringing back the extra pages I wanted to print), then I headed out to the office - walking.

Whoa, if that half hour walk isn’t exercise, I don’t know what is! The last two blocks my nose was smarting against the cool flow of air from the north, but the rest of me was sweating from all my layers. It took a few minutes to get undone in my office, but then I plunged to work with the printing. I finished the big project and started a smaller one. At 5 pm Priscilla from the mission office offered to give me a ride home. How nice.

This morning the temperatures are about -34 Celsius. (That’s -29.2 Fahrenheit). About mid-afternoon it will warm up to -23C (or -9.4F)

So I’ve decided that I could just as easily work from home today! Besides, there’s an inspector coming at 4:30 to check my furnace and water heater, so I’d have to hurry home at 4 if I tried walking. I’ll make the effort tomorrow.

The general forecast is for the temperatures to climb a bit the rest of this week, and next week go to the -8 to -9 C range. That should be a great improvement!

My main focus has been on getting my gift cookbooks printed, and I do have a shot of how my desk looks right now, waiting until I’m done here so I can start collating - that is, gathering the pages for each book into one handful so I can punch the holes and insert the cerlox comb. Since I am missing one sheet (4 pages) I won’t get the cerlox in today, but all this collating could take some hours yet.

(incidentally, the light green/yellowed one is the OLD one from which I copied to run this new Memorial Gift edition).

How many copies am I printing and publishing with this venture? 70 is the number I settled on. Not all will be for my own gift-giving though. I’ve promised my niece, Jalise, a batch for her giving this year.

I had sort of hoped that things would go so smoothly on Saturday that I’d have the whole batch done in one day. But you know that things don’t always run that smoothly, do they?

I had a couple drop in to discuss their ministry website, which is already part of my stable of clients. They stayed nearly two hours. Then I caught myself making some mistakes in the turning over of my batches of 70 pages and getting the other side upside down or ouch, getting the same page on the reverse!

That’s why I always push myself hard on my gift-making early in the season, because I know there will be unforeseen delays. That there will be is a given.

I’ve made progress on my annual Christmas story and letter, but they need more polish before I print them and start addressing that mail.

My business agenda still gets some time, but it is being preempted at times. It can’t be helped, right?

As you read on, you’ll discover that I have gift baskets on my mind today. You’re right, I came up with another gift-making project.