“The RoseBouquet”

When I get home from the office I come in the back door, drop my backpack and purse off on the pink chair, and march right on to the front door, and out to my mailbox. Every day there are other mail treats than just flyers selling stuff I don’t want/need.

Some folks only send a card with a signature; I’m grateful that they still count me as a friend even if it is only once a year. Others include a newsy letter, and I love reading them. Some include photos.

My niece Jalise sent photos of her two children. I stared and stared at them. Oh how they have grown since I last saw them. Wow!

Last night it was quite a handful of mail. It took me about an hour to read through them all! That put me behind in getting another batch of my mail ready to send out. Especially I was distracted with excitement when one card had a wee bundle of cash in it. Not just the ordinary bills but of a kind I had never seen before. I wasn’t even sure that it was real money, so I went online to check it out. Apparently our Canadian government just issued this new kind of bill last month that is made of plastic, and has clear window panes in it, and several holographs for security. Beautiful, actually! Wow!

Of course, I made a phone call to say thank you.

I realize not everyone gets such mail treats, and my heart aches for them. It’s very lonely to feel so ignored and neglected. (And yes, I have family members who do not send me a blessed thing, not even a card with a signature).

That’s why this morning as I was praying I began to get ideas for where to share my bounty. I was just writing someone yesterday, who was begging for help for their family, that I would if I could, but I just didn’t have extra funds. Well, I wasn’t expecting this windfall, so maybe it is a test from God to see whether I really will give or hoard for myself. I may keep a tenth for myself, but already I have a list of those who are in need, and with whom I will share some of this ‘out of the blue’ gift.

This is a busy week, as some families have some gatherings before Christmas and some right on the 25th and some in the days that follow. Those that I ask all seem to have either plans to have others over for a holiday feast,or are invited to another home. That’s good.

I keep asking though, in case I come across some lonely soul that has no invitation at all. I’m planning to make a turkey meal on Sunday and take it over to my brother Tom’s apartment, but I think he’d let me invite someone else to join us - he has in the past.

My own printed Christmas mail (reading materials) is making progress. I finally had all the pieces designed and the first batch printed on Friday. By late Sunday evening I had added P.S. notes, and addressed 50, so yesterday I printed another 50 and got more addressed last night, but I’m not done yet.

I always save the digital version for last as I know they won’t have to deal with postal jams. But since this is my last issue of the RoseBouquet before Christmas - (and remember, my break/retreat week next week when there will be no issue) - so I have just taken time to get my digital mail up on my site, and a link ready for you to help yourself to as much of it as you want.

So please head over to this page, and read as much as you want of my CHRISTMAS MAIL.

There’s a Christmas card, two letters, and a short story/brochure, and some of them come in more than one format.

I trust you will have a very Blessed Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year.

And listen, if all those good things don’t drop into your hands or lap over this holiday period, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, or that nobody loves you. Some of it is up to you to create by taking the right attitude, and a lot of it is up to your relationship with God. He is the source of all good things. Zero in on obtaining His gifts, and everything else will change accordingly.

I would be doing you a bad turn if I didn’t tip you off that the annual 2 for one sale is on again at SiteSell. It’s that fantastic “Buy One and Get One Free” sale for the creme de la creme of web business suites! SiteBuildIt! (SBI)

Not only do you get all the excellent tools, but all the training too, and super helpful community of other users.

If you get a gift of money, treat yourself to one of these, or share with a family member or friend. If you get into it seriously, this will change your life, and be a profitable business for you! SiteBuildIt! (SBI)

I have two SBI sites now, and have not been sorry. I expect to be an independent business woman next year because of these sites!

Last Tuesday, walking home from the office, I had a hard fall on some ice.

I was only a little more than two blocks from the office, and I had just been praising God that the people on the second block had cleared their sidewalk so well, that it was totally dry and free of snow and ice. I could stride along freely. I crossed a street and on the next block that was not the case. In a split second or less, my feet went forward and up, and I landed on my backpack (which I think saved me from a broken back!)

Totally winded and taken by surprise I just lay there for a minute. Finally I rolled over and gingerly got on my knees. I was able to stand up, and then I realized that the muscles below my tailbone had got the brunt of the bang. No bones seemed to be broken. Every step forward for the remaining 11 blocks was painful!

Believe you me, I went slow and paused to consider every icy patch I came to along the way, looking for the best way around it.

Our weather the last few weeks has been mild enough so that the sun melted the loose snow, but has not been able to clean up the icy patches. At any rate, I’ve decided that I’ll drive to and from the office for a while. Although, those walks were my exercise plan. Now I wonder about growing weak and flabby.

Maybe that’s set in already. I’m discovering this winter that if I’m up on my feet for more than a couple of hours, even if I’m not doing hard labour, then my back begins to ache. Fortunately, the pain is gone when I wake up in the mornings. For years I’ve felt a younger age in my mind than my true chronological years, and now I’m having to shift my “mental age” up a notch or two.

Oh - and about that extra fur coat? Well, I got it on Sunday night when I arrived at church for our Potluck supper and then the Sunday School Christmas Program, but it was put in my car right away.

When I got home I tried it on, and found it too tight or small in my shoulders, but it does look very handsome and lovely. I know a friend who may accept it, so I plan to pass that one on.

Hey, I hope you don’t have any falls this winter or Christmas season. If you do, may the angels cushion you.

Are you one of those super-organized people who have all your Christmas mail sent out already? Now you are able to sit back and enjoy all that comes your way in mail or otherwise, right? Hmm! I admire you.

I managed to finish designing my Christmas card on Sunday night. Now I just need to print them, and stop trying to improve it more and more. There’s always room for improvement, but with time sensitive stuff you sometimes have to declare it good enough.

Then I realized that my Christmas letter is mostly about myself and my business, and my plans for 2012. I need to write another letter or page with more about my Christmas thoughts. I hope to squeeze that in somewhere today yet.

Next there is still a Christmas CD to polish off, and to make copies. After that I’m ready to start bundling up my parcels and addressing my snail mail.

You may recall that I usually save my digital edition for my online friends for after I get the snail mail out, because I know those emails will get to you immediately. So watch for my Christmas mail in another week or so.

On Saturday I baked a big batch of Mom’s favourite yeast Peppernuts to take some to the Potluck and some for the office party next week. These are like small buns or rolls, spiced with cinnamon and black pepper and sprinkled on top with coloured sugar. There’s still the hard peppernuts to finish baking… but I’ll get to them when I get to them.

(Oh dear, I should have prepared the recipes to share. Well, if you are interested you can ask. No point in bothering everyone with them. ;))

Say, maybe you are way ahead of me in that area too, and have completed all your Christmas baking?

I will really try to be all caught up by next week. That reminds me to announce that the RoseBouquet will take a holiday the week after that. So no issue on the 27th of December. You’ll be busy anyway with your family events or just recovering from all the celebrations.

P.S. Did you find my Christmas Trees page last week?
Table-Top-Christmas-Trees

If you are one who also loves Christmas music and revels in it at this time, you will identify with my joy in an internet radio station that plays Christmas music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week all through the month of December. This allows me to live in a Christmasy atmosphere all day long. I don’t have to wait for a certain date, or certain decorations and foods to be in place. I’m celebrating Christ’s birth and life and all His gifts as an undercurrent, or kitchen scents all the time.

I will cook a turkey meal and take it to my brother Tom’s apartment on Christmas Day, (first going to church in the morning), but that’s just a small climax to a whole month of Christmas in my heart.

If you would also like to have Christmas music and thoughts and dramas fill your mind and and the background of your place, let me recommend to you BBN. www.bbnradio.org/WCM4/Default.aspx?alias=www.bbnradio.org takes you to their English programs. They produce their excellent programs in 8 other languages as well. Go to www.bbnradio.org and pick the one you would prefer best below the world map.

As you must well know by now, I have a very full schedule throughout my week, and usually only manage to keep Saturday and Sunday for my own projects. Sometimes special events will preempt even that personal margin. That means that something like designing my Christmas letter and story (gift) and card drags out over many weekends. I tried to start in mid-November and did not get much further than having an idea or two.

This last weekend I began to make better progress. I put other things on hold, except for starting to bake my Peppernuts, and threw myself into designing the graphics for my Christmas mail. Ideas began to multiply! My graphics skills on the computer had grown this year quite a bit, and though I discovered some new tricks on the weekend, I could see that I still have a long way to go.

Well, usually I get a lot of good feedback from my Christmas mail, so I hope it will be worth it all.

Although I don’t make an effort to decorate my place much for Christmas, I did have an idea a few weeks ago for an easy to make table top Christmas tree with a piece of wallpaper from a sample book. My WTM helper and I had made a batch a couple of weeks ago, taking photos of each other doing the steps, so that I can create a how-to craft page. Last week I had another helper, and so we did some more.

Finally, last night, I got the photos ready, but it will be this afternoon before I get the instruction page done up with the illustrative photos. Meantime, I thought I might toss in a few photos here to show you what fun this can be, and they do look rather - pretty, eh?

If you want the how-to page you can check this sub-index page later or maybe tomorrow - if I get it done.
WesternTractMission.org/KK/crafts

I got some great feedback to last week’s issue of the RoseBouquet, particularly about the free fur coat. It feels a bit like bragging or breaking confidences to dwell on them too much here in this public way, but hey, sometimes I think it’s good to mention these things and share the fun.

Maria wrote: “Delightful piece and pic on gift fur coat - you are a riot!”

When I wrote to thank her for what I took as a compliment, Maria replied, “Absolutely!!! I am still laughing - and waiting to visit with my daughter to share. This is a ‘woman thing’ I think!!”

I told her that someone else in church had offered to give me a fur coat too, but that hasn’t happened. Yet.

Judy M. was kind enough to subscribe to one of the ezines I mentioned last week.

Carol O wrote too, but touched on many things, and we just began to get better acquainted. Maybe the central bit to quote is where she said, “I really admire your gifting, creativity; energy and tenacity to provide your readership with such informative information. How and when did you recognize that this was your destiny/calling in life? What kind of vitamins do you take?

Thanks for permitting me to share with you. I’m exhausted from hearing all that you do!”

Well, as I gave her my long, wordy answer (and I see now that I overlooked parts of her questions), I had a moment of Epiphany myself, seeing how God has brought me from where and who I was to where and who I am now. Perhaps I’ll have to turn that all into an article sometime.

Though, as you’ll recall, at the beginning of 2011 I decided to drop the weekly article because of my time crunchers. Hmm? So how will I get that done then? …I don’t really know right now.

I was explaining to someone on Sunday, that the best way to cope with an overwhelming schedule is to live in the present moment and only deal with the issues of this project at hand, not the ones further down, as that will just frustrate, discombobulate and waste time.

But I will have to review all my scheduling the last week of December when I believe I’ll take the week off to think and pray things through and tie off loose ends, and see if I can give myself more breathing room in my pace for 2012.

That reminds me to announce that the RoseBouquet will take a holiday that one week too. So no issue on the 27th of December. You’ll be busy anyway with your family events or just recovering from all the bustle.

Yesterday I solved the problem of the subscribe form on the aloe vera site, but I haven’t got that fixed on all the pages yet. However, I have announced on the site, which should be good news to those who have been asking if I sell aloe vera plants, that I have set aside 20 of my baby or very young aloe vera plants as rewards to those who sign up for the monthly ezine, “Aloe Vera Tips & Solutions” which is to start publication in January.

I need subscribers there, of course. I also need to find out what kind of problems I might run into with shipping aloe vera, and thought I might try doing it in padded envelopes by mail. But there’s no point in charging if that doesn’t work well enough. So by offering them to the first 20 people who subscribe to the coming ezine, and asking people to report to me in what condition the plant arrived, I get to do a small text or experiment in shipping. If it turns out to work smoothly, then I may consider offering them for sale in the new year.

If it turns out they have to be shipped by courier, I will have to factor that in when I set prices for my baby aloe vera plants.

The first ones to subscribe, naturally, will get the best looking, most healthy of the plants I have available. I hate to egg people on falsely, but that may be something to keep in mind while you are debating whether to sign up or not. Oh, and you are not obligated to stay subscribed - though hey, I sure would like that! To find out if this is up your alley, go see,
Aloe Vera Tips & Solutions