“The RoseBouquet”

We had a change of temperatures over the weekend, and I’ve been thinking about the different types of snow and their characteristics. We don’t have to be scientists to make some interesting observations. Of course, if you don’t cope with snow in your corner of the globe you may have to take my word for it.

I hear that many parts of the United States are having snow this winter which they don’t normally see. If you are in those parts, perhaps you have made some observations of your own too.

In the fall, when snow first falls it is so light and fluffy it is almost like the bubbles in a bubble bath. They practically dissolve if you breath on them. When the sun comes out the snowflakes almost vanish before your eyes, and if you try to catch them with your bare hands the snowflakes dissolve from the warmth in your fingers.

Ah, but then the stormy and cold temperatures come, and now the snow is sharp as salt and stings as it strikes your face at a fierce slant. Or, you might have some snowfalls where the temperature is not so bad, and the snow will be sticky and moist. That’s the kind you need to make good snowmen! Or for a snowball fight.

By January, in our area, the super cold air masses from the far north have crept down, and although we may alternate snowy days with sunny ones, the cold temperatures make the snow we walk on sound crisp, and at the coldest, like walking on crystal glassware! There are these sharp, high-pitched cracks that sound like glass or china cracking when you walk. The air we breathe is sharp and stinging too.

When it’s that cold, (-20 C or more), I usually walk at a brisk trot so as to get to my destination as soon as possible. But I do hear the sound of my footsteps, and even the cars on the street sound like they are causing thin cracks in glass sheets. - If the sun is shining, the snow drifts will look like white velvets sprinkled with fine diamonds and jewels.

Then we get a week like this one, when the temperatures come up to nearly 0 or even a degree or two above our 0, freezing point, and all at once it sounds like we’re walking on just sock-clad feet. Even the cars sound as if they are driving over blankets laid out on the street, instead of fine china.

Mind you, the white, sparkly velvet of the snow disappears quickly then, and it looks rather grundgy and dirty. Our city spreads potash mixed with some sand on the streets, to help dissolve the snow and ice for easier travel. However, that stuff adds some real “yukiness’ to the snow as far as appearance goes. I accept it as necessary, but it’s like “…the beauty of snow is gone; isn’t it about time for spring soon?”

Especially if January is nearly over. We welcome each February thaw that blows our way from the Rocky Mountains to the west, and begin to pine for spring. The beauty of winter snow has faded away.

(Oh dear! I’m talking in the past perfect tense again. Sigh! We are not there yet).

As I mentioned last week, it seems this is a season or year of gathering more affiliate programs to put on my sites, which should help the income flow. However, I still take time to research most of them, and in some cases, like yesterday, all ready to sign up, and then spy something to check out first. I wish I had more to report on that right now, but there are several such items in the works.

I saw in interesting video yesterday which explained how there are times in our lives when there is an wave of something new coming into society and if you can step on that wave at the right moment - near the beginning - and ride it in, you will be quite successful. It went from the advent of radio, then TV, computers, internet, cell-phones, Google, Facebook, and the next one will involve the power of sending mobs of shoppers to one merchant at a time via social networking. Already, several companies are poised to make money from this!

Last week I finished another page on the shopping site about the Ultimate Life Company;
Need Shopping Money?

During these long cold January nights, many people turn to books, (okay some folks are still hooked on TV). I would not be so surprised that either - you are reading a good book right now, or you are trying to write one.

If you have some special favourites, wouldn’t you like to see that author get some awards?

Or, if you are writing a book, you KNOW that if you could win an award for that book, it would really help to boost your sales and the spread of your name, wouldn’t it?

Then you will do yourself a favour if you click on this banner or this link to check it out:
Readers Favorite Award Contest - Enter Today!

Maybe you don’t have this problem because you have different weather, but I’m wondering if you - perhaps from a more objective position - can advise me?

My problem is that I have to bundle up to keep warm in this bitterly cold January weather, and putting all those layers over my head gives me a “bad hair” day every day. What’s the point of styling it any more?

Here’s how I look when I start out most mornings;
(oops, looks one side got higher than the other this morning. I’m afraid the lighting was better in the bedroom behind me than in the living room).

But then I dress in layers upon layers to go outside, clean snow off the car and drive five minutes to the office. (Because the temperatures are in the -20s Celsius!) For my head I have a knit cap with a fake fur trim, then a tube scarf to make sure my ears and lower face get coverage. And I still wear an old down-filled coat with a big hood.

Finally, I’m ready, with 3 pairs of socks in my big leather boots, and a pair of knit gloves inside the fleece-lined leather ones, to go out to start the car, clean the snow off it, and then come back in for my bags, - all to make the 5-minute drive to the office.

When I peel off my layers my hair looks like this! My styled hair is flat, floppy, and electric!

I have an appointment at 11 this morning for a haircut across the street. That shows you how desperate I’m feeling about this. But I’ve been asking myself, isn’ts there some kind of headgear that would be warm enough and not do this to my hair every day?

One idea that came to me on Saturday was to sew a fur helmet like cap and line it with satin or something like that. Perhaps I could design a big brim or a tam style hat to go on top of that. Or would that be too heavy again?

The weather is suppose to be only -18 with a windchill factor making it feel like -27C tomorrow. I wonder if I could tolerate that for walking tomorrow again? Oh right, that doesn’t solve the bad hair problem. Then I just spend half an hour in my bundled up state as I walk or trot briskly.

It would just seem that someone else has had this problem before and has solved it. How?

P.S. Just got back from the haircut. Let’s hope this will help!

I see that this is going to be the year of monetizing the sites, and that is exciting. You know that the word ‘monetizing’ means, making it financially profitable, right?

I’ve spent two Monday mornings on one sales page, and noticed last night that it was already showing up in Google searches for the keyword phrase.

Last night, while working on Reflections, I listened in on a teleseminar call by Ginny Dye. She launched a new program called Ultimate Life Company. Because I have a similar passion to help charities and non-profits myself, I have to say her passionate dream speech resonated with me. The difference is that mine is more evangelical and her’s strikes me as having shades of new age idealism in it.

I take care about the decisions and actions I take personally, but I’m not in the habit of chopping someone’s hand off just because they don’t think exactly like me. In fact, Ginny is holding out an offer to help people give to their own favourite charities and foundations.

Furthermore, those who become members of her new Ultimate Life Company, can fill out an application to recommend a charity or non-profit that they think is deserving of financial help. She just warns that you be sure that organization will be able to handle the sudden influx of funds that they are likely to get.

I agree! Sometimes you have to be careful not to give someone more than they can wisely handle.

At any rate, I know I would want to go research this for myself, if I were you, so here are some links to get started; UltimateLifeCompany.com and since I don’t think this is for everyone, you should also read my review; UltimateLifeCompany - right for you?

You can. You should!

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How do you feel about eggs? I like them - a lot. On Saturday morning I made an egg run again. It’s been quite a while since the last one.

You see, when I still lived in Hague, with Dad, we discovered that there was an egg farmer some miles south on the grid road just east of our town. Although they supplied eggs by the truck full to the stores, they also sold “cracks” on the farm to individuals for just 50 cents a dozen. (In the stores they are almost $2/dozen!)

These eggs are not all cracks. some have small pin holes in them, some are too large, even double-yoked, and some are too small for the sorting machines which determine what eggs go to the stores. Since they cannot keep these eggs over to the next day, they have to be destroyed if no one buys them.

The thing to do is phone early in the morning when they are still working in that barn, and ask, “Have you got any cracks to spare today?” When they have just switched to a whole barn full of new young laying hens, the answer might be no. But at the right times, when the hens are mature and laying well, you can be in luck. I usually ask for about 6 dozen for myself, and I’m happy to use them for the next month or more before I run out and make time for another egg run.

However, I’ve taken to asking for some extra dozens to give away to another missionary at WTM. Yet another friend who does a lot of baking is glad to pay me if I can bring back another 6-10 dozen for her. I think I could make a weekly trip and keep a number of friends supplied. I just don’t have that kind of time though.

It takes me about 40 minutes to drive out there from the city, so I often try to time it for when I have some other reason to head that direction out of the city.

My dear prayer sister and I needed a chance to get together to exchange our Christmas gifts. It had not worked out before Christmas, so I decided to make time for an egg run on Saturday and continue to this friend’s house to enjoy a precious hour or so with her.

Guess what. When I made the early call to see if they had cracks to spare, the girl that answered, laughed and said, “Yes, we have 90 dozen to spare!”

Wow! I sputtered and did some quick mental math. I checked my wallet. Finally I said, “I don’t have the exact change but I think I could spread about 30 dozen among my friends and myself.” The girl replied that if I got there by 10:30 there would still be someone at the barn to make change for me.

It has happened in the past that when I arrived, they were all done with their egg chores, but I could open the door and find on a chair, my box of eggs with a slip of paper and my name on it. I would leave my envelope of cash on the chair and take away the box of eggs.

There was a snow storm brewing, and I had to drive carefully, so I was a few minutes late, but the girl was there, and I was able to buy the 30 dozen eggs.

I’m indulging these days in lots of omelets, egg salads, and I’m looking up recipes for souffles…! Is that making you hungry?

If you read my Christmas booklet you know that I profiled a number of needy ministries in various countries. I’ve been pondering how to raise funds for them, and last week made an effort to connect with a group I heard about in October, right here in Saskatoon, that does some unique fund raising for their projects over-seas. Two of that group have asked me out to lunch today.

I tell you, hope and anticipation and curiosity is perking inside me like a cheerful coffeepot.

Their website needs someone to develop it and I’m half suspecting they will ask me to take it on. Problem is, all my blocks of time are spoken for. I’m not quite sure what to say to that.

Yesterday I revived an old blog of mine, known as eAction? Anyone recall that one? It’s connected to my business site, BouquetofEnterprises.biz and the place where I tried to encourage others who were also trying to run small businesses online, but wanted God involved.

When my Dad died I got so busy with cleaning up his estate, and cleaning my wee little house so it was ready to move into, and then getting my business established here at the WTM offices, that I simply had to let some things go. The eAction went dormant in 2008. I didn’t close it down. I just asked to be excused (in case anyone came looking for it), and left it alone.

So now it is updated, has a new look (the pretty tulip template has disappeared, I fear), and I’m going to start making just one entry there every other Monday. Want a peek? eAction Blog

One of my RoseBouquet ezine subscribers came out of the woodwork to say “Hi” last week. I’m looking forward to getting to know you, Shimelis.

What a testimony! When I opened my computer the browser opened to a page I must have clicked on a link for yesterday and not got to seeing. I decided to skim it before closing it, and found myself focusing on every word. What a fascinating story. I don’t think I’d heard this before. I think you should check it out. Son of Hope

Did you have the kind of Christmas and New Years special days that you had hoped for - or planned?

Not quite, eh? Same here!

In fact, I did get the kind of quiet and prayerful Christmas I had hoped for and planned. I took a Christmas turkey meal to my brother’s apartment about 5 pm on Christmas Day and we enjoyed it and then some TV before I went home to do dishes, but I spent the better part of that day, and the Boxing Day that followed, in a delightful, inspiring Prayer and Planning Retreat. (You’ll see some of those results further down).

I’d also planned to take a break from my business hours at the computer in the week after, but still come to the office to paint and decorate the office washrooms down the hall. Since the mission has now rented out more office space I’m not always the only one using the Ladies’ washroom on this floor, and I thought it was time for some practical dressin’ up of those rooms.

By mixing some peach and yellow I had enough to do the Men’s washroom too. (Forgot my camera today!)

But Thursday morning I KNEW I wasn’t going anywhere. I’d come down with a cold and flu bug. If I had to have a sick day, I figured that was the most convenient day. I allowed myself a rest day in the recliner.

The next day I went back, but left by 2 pm when I got my last mission support check for the month/year. I got some groceries and headed home, exhausted.

Saturday was New Year’s Day and I’d hoped for another Prayer and Planning day, but I had to give it up as another sick day.

About noon my neighbour, Penny called and asked if I’d noticed the police tape all around our block keeping us from going anywhere? No, I hadn’t. But I went around to check my windows, and sure enough - both sides of the sidewalk in front, around the house on the corner, and around along our back alley was this yellow police tape. Well, I wasn’t going out, so I went back to my recliner to nurse myself with my specially brewed pots of selected herbs in a tea. And cold paks, and this and that.

About mid-afternoon my doorbell startled me awake. (I hear it so seldom). I untangled myself from my quilt cozy and went to see - a tall police officer was at the door. I let him in, and he politely asked for my name and personal data, and confirmed that I lived alone, and had not heard or seen anything in the neighbourhood.

He explained that there had been a suspicious death up the street and they were cleaning up and checking with the neighhours. The police tape was already removed.

I missed the news later, but Sunday evening I went online and found a mention of this suspicious death on CBC/Sask. A dead body found in an alley two blocks away, with a trail of blood. There was also a picture of a hoodie with “Mecca” on it, offered as a clue. Yesterday they started mentioning it on every newscast throughout the day, and this morning I heard that the young man’s family had identified him. An autopsy this morning is to indicate the cause of his death, but they now call it the first homicide of this year in Saskatoon.

No. I am not afraid to live in this neighbourhood. God has shown me repeatedly that this is where He has placed me. But it sure is a “happening” place! My mind slips gears when I think of how many needy people are around me.