“The RoseBouquet”

The extreme cold of early last week gave way, and so although we have winter still, at least I find the temperatures more bearable when they are in the low -teens. However, there is another winter problem I must wrestle with my frozen car doors.

Really, my car would prefer to rest overnight in a garage. It has made that quite clear.

I’ve had trouble with this problem over the last three winters, so I think I may have told you about it already. It’s now about a month ago, that I first had trouble when the rains turned to sleet and ice, and the next morning I could NOT get my car doors open, so my neighbour, Joe, offered me a ride to the office. that was okay for that morning, but that evening when I got home I spent half an hour struggling to solve the problem.

It not the keyhole that freezes, but the rubber insulation around the frame of the doors. I sprayed around them with WD40, which is basically a fish oil that is suppose to lubricate everything. Still no go.

So I strung together three electrical cords so I could plug in my hair dryer and blow around and around the drivers’ door and then the passenger door. Finally - that one gave way. I was able to crawl in, backing over the console hump, and then elbowing the driver’s door open.

I had an appointment at my service station for an oil change, but that morning I had to go through all this again, and on top of that, the padlock on my gate behind the car was also frozen tight! I tackled it with a hammer and steel goose-neck tool, and sprayed several times with the DW40 before the distressed padlock gave way.

When I got to the service station I told the men, “I don’t care so much about the oil change any more; just do something about my doors!”

When I got there at 5 pm they told me that they had not run into this problem before, so they were not charging me for something unproven they had tried. They sprayed food-grade silicone around the door frames and wanted me to let them know if it works.

Well, I need to call them yet, but my answer is that the problem has not gone away - it is just not quite as severe. It only takes about 10-15 minutes of wrestling and it is still often only the passenger door that will give way for me. Then I have to crawl in and elbow the driver’s door open.

Usually, if I once get the doors open in the morning, then the rest of the day it’s okay. I can get in easier.

Something else I’ve tried is tarps. I bought one that is really way too big, and it covered the car completely. I think I got it over in time to protect it, but it is a fussy job to cover the car. So I bought a smaller tarp, and I used bungee cords last week to attach it to the car. That did not prevent the moisture from getting into the doors and freezing. I may turn it the other way next time. However, this is not part of my routines - yet.

My Corisca and I are sighing for a garage.

It has taken me about two months to prepare some new pages for my website, http://www.online-shopping-guides.com. I started out wanting to do one page on how to do grocery shopping online, and as I researched it I found so much information and so many sites to review that it turned into four pages. Yesterday I finally was able to upload them to the site. I still want to add C2 forms this week, but I feel like I reached a milestone!

Now I want to focus on more Christmas-y pages and new graphics.

Speaking of Christmas-y things, my dear subscriber Helen, sent a craft idea last week, and I recognized it as a variation of one that I have reported here in the RoseBouquet with photos. (Had to hunt, but found it at
Hot/Cold Paks make Handy Gifts)

Helen wrote;
“Wanted to share what I am making this Christmas. I call them cozies. They are made with wheat kernels.

You mentioned your windows and the cold you have out there, these pillows do wonders and certainly help me fall asleep when my feet are cold.”

I am very cozy at night, sleeping under fleece sheets and my homemade duvet, but I appreciate the idea Helen sent.

Thinking now about a series of Christmas articles, I considered doing a series on gift ideas, but researching it over the last morning or two, I have decided to focus this year on hand-made Christmas cards. I saw there is a huge demand online for business Christmas cards. So I’ll start with that in today’s article. I mean, they need all the lead-time they can get!

I have been making my own cards for more than 26-27 years, so I think I’ll have some practical suggestions. But I need time to go through my stashes of stuff in the basement to take pictures of some examples. There will only be three issues of the RoseBouquet before Christmas, so that’s what I’ll round up for you.

Thanks too, to Barbara from Perth, Australia, who noted that while we are freezing here, they are having a super hot summer down under.

Another thanks to my cousin Wayne who phoned last night to make sure I had their email change. He likes to read only the “At My Place” section. Many others tell me the same thing. So if you ever think you have missed one, here’s what to do. Go directly to, and bookmark this category on the blog;
At My Place That lines up just those entries with the most recent at the top.

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I’ve just discovered there are a lot of companies and CEOs, or those delegated by them, looking for business Christmas cards to send to their mailing lists. How interesting. I’ve been making my own big batches of Christmas cards (other occasions too) for about 26-27 years, and have tried out a number of ideas for making mass-produced cards with a personal touch. Just now I’m sorting through many thoughts to zero in on the ones most applicable to business Christmas cards.

There are certain groundwork facts to get clear first. They appear as you answer questions like;
1. Who are the intended recipients?
2. What message and attitude do we want to convey?
3. What resources do we have for the designing and printing of the cards?
4. What is the deadline for getting the Christmas cards into the mail?
Or are they to be sent by email?
5. What results do you hope to gain, and how will you measure those results?

Personally, I would also like to know how much of the true Christian Christmas message might be incorporated into the card idea.

There is so much for the creative idea person to choose from, but a narrowing of purpose like this helps to decide from a smaller smorgasbord of ideas for preparing the template card.

It seems very likely that the business owner does not want to go through all the creative stages him or herself. It is one of those things you would like to delegate to someone, have them do the legwork and bring back some sample business Christmas cards to consider and choose from. That gives me the brilliant idea that is called for in this situation.

Provide the answers to the above questions, and make the following announcement to all your employees;

[to read full article go to Business Christmas Cards

Watch for more creative Christmas card ideas over the next three weeks.]

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Winter has come to our “neck of the woods” - yours too? We’ve had several days this past week with fresh snow fall. This time I believe it will stay until spring, and be added to all winter. Our temperatures have ranged from -13 to -30 Celsius - which is what we have right now. (For those in Fahrenheit land, that’s equal to your -22F).

Yes, that does create some challenges to carrying on with our daily living.

Normally, unless I have shopping or other errands after my work-day, I walk to the office for my health. I really do bundle myself up in many layers, and manage to cover all but my nose and my glasses. Coming against the wind yesterday morning I found that I was sure glad it only took me 30 minutes to do the walk.

There was less wind after 5 when I walked home, so I even shoveled my walk and the sidewalk in front of my house. Especially since I’d just read a notice from the city that business owners were required to clear their walks within 24-48 hours after a snowfall, or be fined anywhere from $150 to $200. Especially in certain zones.

As I sat down by my computer for my evening’s work I noticed that there seemed to be a chill emanating from the front window. I could turn up the thermostat some more, but it was already doing it’s thing. I decided to take a page from my dear Gr’ma and winterize my windows. I hung a pink wool blanket over the curtain rod of the window in the bedroom. I scrounged around until I found a blue hooked rug and rolled it up for the window sill of the window in front of my desk. I shoved a large chunk of foam (from an old cushion) between the wall and desk under the window. Then I found a large bath sheet and hung it over the top of the curtain rod. I wanted to let some light in during the daytime for my plants, but cut down on the cold air wafting in.

I noticed a bit of improvement after that.

I’ve been telling myself, in fact, for all 3 1/2 years I’ve lived in this house that someday I want new vinyl siding all around the house. That includes, what is known as a “house wrap” underneath. But they also tell me that I will need new windows before I have that done. New windows can cost $300 each. Somehow that all seems so expensive that it feels like it may be years before I can have it done.

Then I was listening to a radio drama about George Mueller, the man in Bristol, England, who fed and housed over 1000 orphans simply by praying very specifically about his needs. It occurred to me that maybe I need to start praying very specifically, that this next spring, summer or fall, I will get the new windows and the house wrap and vinyl siding all done around my little house. Then I will be snug as a bug in a rug!!

I know for I helped Dad put the vinyl siding around my parents’ house back in 1984 in Hague, and I recall how air-tight the house was. There was no problem keeping it warm in winter. It kept cooler in summer too.

Are you safe and snug as a bug right now? I sure hope so!

Now I have my ideas for what to do about my Christmas mail and gift projects. Last week I was getting a bit worried. My brainwave had not rolled in yet. Mainly because I was too intent on the work projects at hand.

Wednesday afternoon my computer at the office suddenly crashed, and I couldn’t log in. I tried a number of ways, and finally realized that I’d have to go through a re-install to fix the bootloader. By then there wasn’t enough time left before closing time.

Our Director had asked me for an idea for a Christmas activity at our Volunteer’s Christmas party this week Wednesday over lunch. I had not come up with that idea yet either, though I thought it should be easy. So I sat down with less than an hour left of my day at the office and tried to think - to come up with simple, easy to prepare Christmas activity ideas.

I looked through some scrapbooks by our mission’s founder and came up with several ideas for our 70th anniversary or beyond, but what about — Christmas, this week?

Then, as I was walking home, all bundled up, like a crisp breeze from the north, it hit me. Yes! That would do nicely! What’s more, I could adapt that idea for my Christmas mail too.

In the midst of a number of domestic projects on Saturday I managed to get the quiz and an origami craft ready for this week - tomorrow. I was all gungho to start drafting my own Christmas story and letter on Sunday afternoon, but I put my head down on the desk for - just a few minutes, and woke up after 3 pm. What with picking up some people for the evening service, I just got started. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have my ideas now. But I’ll really have to push myself over the next couple of weekends so I can get all these things into the mail.

But then there are our American friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving this week , on Thursday. I wonder how many have been thinking of Christmas already too, or do you really put it off until Friday?

I hear it is called “Black Friday” because of all the crush of people starting their Christmas shopping that day. Wouldn’t you be smarter to stay home and make something? Want some ideas?

(Hint: wait until next week).

When I first read about the Kindle (sold at Amazon) and the iPod (from Apple Computers), which are devices for reading books electronically, I thought, “Well, that’s still a long way off in my future. I can’t afford that, so I’ll just ignore such news items.”

This week I read the blog of a missionary who was describing how many books that would cost up to $50 in print, are available free to read on these electronic devices. Or, with the right apps, you can even download them to your desktop computer and read them there. Ken mentioned some good books he had been meaning to read anyway, and I began to get more interested.

We can’t imagine printed and bound books disappearing so fast, but wait — what if the people who wrote on clay tablets thought that way too? We cannot imagine the difficulty of building a library of engraved tablets, and how few you could carry around.

Suppose that in another generation or two people laugh and say, “How ever did our ancestors manage to lug all those printed books around? Think of the expense and detailed work of creating them!” All the while they have 250 books in their kindle which is no larger than just one of our printed books today.

Would you like to take a closer look at a Kindle?

You would think it should be hard to secularize a holiday set aside to thank God for His bountiful blessings. The Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower had a lot of deprivations and hardships coming over to the new land of America, and then some more as they settled down to tame the land and grow crops to support themselves. Some of them died in the struggle to survive. But they felt they owed God an official time of thanks giving. Later on, it was declared an annual national holiday.

But of course, not everyone in the nation felt they owed God such a vote of gratitude and confidence. I’m sure that has been true over many many American Thanksgiving days.

People have come up with many other activities with which to entertain themselves on that holiday, which – even with a stretch of the imagination, have little or nothing to do with showing God gratitude.

I may not be such an objective outsider, since I live in Canada and we have a national Thanksgiving Day too, (in October), and I observe the same problem here. However, as I hear American friends and neighbours talk about their holiday I find myself shaking my head.

What does a major football game have to do with Thanksgiving?

Nothing. But because a vast number of people will have they day off they maybe be at home watching the game on TV.

What does a “Black Friday” or a “Cyber Friday” in the shopping world have to do with Thanksgiving?

Nothing. Some major stores picked it as the day they will try to draw in the most shoppers with huge deals as the start of the Christmas shopping season.

What does a huge family meal have to do with thanksgiving?

Since it is a holiday most of them will have the day off and they can all gather to do their thanksgiving as a family. For families that worship God, they likely do spend a few minutes in recounting blessings and actually offering prayers of gratitude to God. For many other families, it is nothing but a huge feast day. The recipes and dishes are the focal point.

What about going hunting on Thanksgiving Day? My good American neighbour tells me that is a tradition in many families.

It’s possible, while sitting in a blind, waiting for a deer to come by, that the hunter spends time in grateful prayer to God. But that is not guaranteed, is it?.

Does it really matter what you do on Thanksgiving Day? Are you to be stuck with your head bowed, praying all day?

Not at all! As long as you are grateful and make time to express your thankfulness in a real and tangible way.

For that matter, I believe that if you have an attitude of gratitude every day, you really don’t need a special Thanksgiving Day. The holiday was intended for corporate, official thanksgiving, and to jog the memories of those who often forget to say “Thank You, God.”

Just form a habit of identifying things all day long that you have received from God, and pause immediately to thank Him for it. I can guarantee that your joy and peace and love will increase.

Do you ever get this growing sense that it is HIGH time to clean up your living space? That’s where I’m at. However, it is also HIGH time to get started on preparing my Christmas gifts and letters with the story/card idea I usually send.

This past Saturday I enjoyed our Day of Prayer at the mission, but I was also glad to see it was my last Saturday spent away from home for quite a while. I should be able to tackle that cleaning up period and hopefully also my Christmas projects.

Usually I reserve Sunday afternoons and some evenings for letter-writing or things like getting out a big batch of letters. Those projects usually take several Sundays to complete.

I started a Friesen Cousins’ Reunion letter in August - when it was scheduled to go out, but I’ve been waiting on some relatives for some photos so that is still in an unfinished state. Anyway, I decided that this past Sunday I would just ignore that for the time being and get going on my Christmas letter, and ideas. Normally, ideas fall from me like some people have dandruff, but so far - no firm “this is what I’ll do!” ideas yet.

To top it off, I made the mistake of eating some leftovers on Saturday evening for supper that were the wrong combination of foods. I know better. When I do that my digestive system gets upset, and puts pressure on a nerve to my sinuses, giving me a cross-eyed sinus headache. That’s not enough to make me deathly sick, but just miserable enough so that I prefer to lean back in my recliner with a hot compress over my eyes.

This past Sunday, I spent the whole afternoon trying various remedies. I took it as a good sign that it had been so long since my last bout that I’d sort’a forgotten what worked best. - The upshot is that I snoozed away the afternoon between fitful efforts with hot lemon and honey drinks, medications, and both hot and cold compresses. Finally I remembered, in time to go to the evening service, that Dad used to take tums or Rolaids. I took two and got some relief, so I went off to church to hear some amazing testimonies from men in the Teen Challenge program.

After the service, for the refreshments time, I checked my purse and found two more Rolaids, and popped them in my mouth. Wow, in a few minutes my more vague headache just evaporated away!

Now, I’m resolved to pay attention to what I eat together, and I’m hoping and praying for those really great ideas as to what I’ll do about my Christmas mailing and gifts. I want to know by the weekend!