“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.

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.

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

Last night’s Board meeting was over by 10 pm instead of 11 or so. I got home and felt a bit at loss to know what to do. I didn’t think I was quite ready for bed, and there was this Christmas craft on the corner of my desk that needed more work, there was my usually Monday night work load that I should tackle, I could do a bit of mending from my overflowing box of sewing projects, I could get in some reading, or, how about some research on the item that I need to buy for a gift project? So many things all vying for this surprise bit of time.

As I weighed my options I lost half an hour and then 40 and 45 minutes went by. Finally I decided that the thing I was most inclined to do was sew on some buttons. My pajamas and two blouses each needed one button sewn on and then they could be removed from the to-do box of mending/sewing projects. I decided
that all I had time for any more was just three buttons.

But then I had to go on a hunt for the missing buttons. Have you ever played, Button – Button – Where’s the Button? It’s a children’s hide and seek game where someone hides a button in the room and all the others have to come in and find it. It’s been eons since I played that, but that’s what I was thinking of last night as I went on my hunt.

I remembered that I’d picked up the PJ button somewhere and put it in the pocket of my black skirt. Sure enough, it was still there.

I hunted through my plastic shoe box sewing kit and found an old film canister which had assorted missing buttons. One of those would work nicely for the one shirt. Ah, but then I discovered that the factory had sewn a spare button on an inside seam. Nice. Thank you!

But the third one was suppose to be small, flat and white with a gold rim. I couldn’t find the missing button. Finally I solved that by moving a correct button from the bottom of the blouse up to the gap, and sewing the
other white button I’d found in the film canister at the bottom, where it would not be so noticeable.

Do you know that feeling of accomplishment when you’ve slipped something into your schedule that didn’t have a place before, but that needed doing? That was my feeling as I got ready for bed.

Now I’m wondering… if I could close off my usual evening’s agenda by 11 pm, maybe I could plan to spend 15 minutes at a little mending or sewing job before going to bed.

(Sigh!) Ah, but I’m suppose to find a slot to research foundation grants for the mission, a new job the Board added at the meeting, and I was going to look for a spot or two each day to add maintaining my Facebook pages to a daily routine. – I think I need a Prayer and Planning retreat before year’s end!

Last week our weather got considerably colder. Here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan we can take the single digit temperatures below 0 Celsius (freezing point) in stride. Naturally, it’s winter! But when they get to -20 C and then colder when you add the windchill factor, some of us get more careful about decisions to go somewhere, and if we do, we bundle up in layers of warm winter clothing.

I resorted to driving and making some shopping expeditions to look for a better hat. Sometimes I’ve felt downright chilled at my office desk which is in front of a window (though there is a heat register in front of my feet). I keep an extra light parka jacket nearby and I also have a thick siwash sweater – but it is a pull-over and it is always a struggle to pull it back over my head when I want to take it off.

So I had hinted a few times that I should go to Value Village or the Sally Ann to find a second-hand fur coat to huddle in. I had not gone through with that yet, when on Thursday one of my elderly supporters phoned up to say that she had a fur coat to give me. She had no clue what I’d been thinking.

But I took the car on Friday and went to see Betty, this dear ol’ lady in her 80s after office hours. She gave me this luscious-looking deep pile mouton fur coat that she’s had since 1963. It is so heavy it is hard to carry.

I took it home and after a belated, quick supper I sat down for my evening’s work at the computer. A chilly draft from the window made me realize that I ought to try out my fur coat right away.

So I put it on, and guess what happened!

As I snuggled down inside it I fell asleep! It was the oddest sleep too. I
could hear myself snoring and I knew I wasn’t getting to my bookkeeping, but I couldn’t seem to wake up. I was zonked right out. It was after 10 when I managed to pull out of it, and get my most basic bookkeeping work done by midnight. But no time for the GA site I meant to work on.

Yesterday I brought it to the office, and almost the same thing happened. I don’t know, but I may have to be very careful about how often I use it.

Anyway, I thought you might want a peek….

[Notice that I don't show you the frayed sleeves or worn down buttons, etc. It's not for wear in public - just for my own warmth, just what I needed!]

Oddly enough, today our temperatures are back up in the single digit negatives again. Much easier to cope with.

After a long frustrating Remembrance Day at the office, trying to install the newest operating system on my computer three times, and each time booting into a screen full of messy gray lines, and then having to install the previous version again – the next day was full of blessing and a big surprise.

It was our annual Day of Prayer here at Western Tract Mission, where I work and have my office. We invite others to join us and then we go through each dept., having one of the staff report on answers to prayer in the past year and give us new ones to pray about. We send for pizza at lunch and then carry on until we have thoroughly prayed about everything.

What was different this time was that right after Arnold had made the opening welcome and prayer, Joe brought forward a big box wrapped in gold paper and bright orange ribbons. He presented it to me – from the mission. He didn’t say, but implied it was for giving more than 100% of myself.

Everyone watched and waited while I opened it. There was some teasing about which of my desires/prayers this would be an answer to. (We’d recently been talking over lunch about my need of a garage for my car – but all could see this would not be a garage). From the size and shape of the box I was thinking an LED flat screen monitor, and that was something I’d been thinking I would buy for myself if I get any Christmas gifts of money.

Everyone here knows that I usually take others castoff computers and fix them up and use them as long as I can make them – and my friends are often amazed at how much life I can squeeze out of oldies. Well! It was a Toshiba Notebook laptop. Brand new with a 3 year warranty!

I was floored. So I set it aside on the end of the table I sat at, and we went on with our meeting. I eyed it from time to time, and wondered if it wouldn’t fit into my backpack so that I could carry it back and forth with me. Which would mean I could keep all my emails in one place, for instance, instead of forwarding them back and forth between home and office and sometimes losing them.

When I got home at three I shoveled my walk (until Joe came over to finish for me – shoveling still wakes up the stitch in my side), then I cleaned house and did dishes, etc, until 6. Then, as I sat down to eat supper at my desk I opened the laptop, answered the basic questions, and then explored it for a few hours.

It had Windows 7 on it, and it didn’t take me long, even with a very open and curious mind, to decide that I like my openSUSE far better. And because it has 500 GB on the hard drive, I knew just what to do. First I followed Joe’s instructions for charging and discharging the battery fully, and then on Sunday just after 6 pm I started to install openSUSE 11.4 on it via a NET install. It took much longer than the efforts at the office on Friday, for it worked on and on through the night, and finally finished Monday morning at 9:45 am. I was waiting for it with my parka and boots on, so that I could unplug it and take
it to the office.

Yesterday I started setting up some of my email addresses. There’s still more to do, but if this works out I should be gradually changing more and more of my work to the laptop, and have my work machine with me where ever I go! Just give me another week or two to get things smoothed over.

I’m grateful for the friends who wrote last week after I mentioned that stitch/stab in my side. Your concern is touching. And I’m happy to report that it has decreased somewhat. If I sit very still I don’t even feel it.

I did go to the doctor last Monday and also for an x-ray, but since he didn’t call back I called the office again on Friday. The nurse said it was a lengthy report, and I could come read it, but if it had anything urgent in it the Dr. would have had them call me in. That is sort of reassuring. That told me that my hunch for a fractured rib was most likely correct. The fact that it only hurts when I move or get physically active confirms it in my mind.

Now I MUST toughen up.

We had our first snowfall on Sunday. Winter is now here. The sweeping/shoveling of snow makes that spot in my lower right ribs really hurt! Maybe I’ll have to hire someone to do my snow removal this winter. I have struggled through the pain ’cause that’s what you do when you live alone.

On Sunday morning the car would not start until I’d found my long orange cords, plugged it in and waited 15 minutes. On Monday morning I couldn’t get into the car right away. The moisture in the door frames had frozen them shut. So I had to bring out my hair dryer to blow on it, and a big screwdriver to wedge in the crack – and just deal with it. By the time I could drive away to go vote in our provincial election, and to the post office for a parcel (that wasn’t there), my whole ribcage was achy and sore.

But my faith in the Lord’s measure, and some long quiet hours in front of the computer revived me, and so this morning I bundled up in layers with long johns, lined wool pants, two pair socks in my leather (army style) boots, and my big bulky purple parka, with a fleece scarf over my old wool hat, and two pairs of gloves, I walked to the office. (I’m plotting to design myself a better hat).

Instead of pulling my summer backpack on wheels, I had loaded the larger one for my shoulders I forced myself to walk slow so as not to overwork my poor ribs, and it did seem much longer. But that’s because I’d been driving since my cold and my muscles need to become used to this exercise again. If I don’t I fear I will become a crooked, humped over, hobbling ol’ lady. (I was like that on Saturday!) So I’m determined to fight that role off with all my might! Yep, I MUST toughen up!

Are you tough and ready for winter?

On Friday night, before supper I went out to gather what I thought would be my last bag of leaves and then my yard and garden would be cleaned up for the winter. But I filled one in the back and started another one. Then I went to check my ‘handkerchief lawn’ in the front and – ended up raking more and more leaves, until I’d filled that bag, and yet another. By the time I was done I had trouble seeing the leaves. And I had three big clear bags full of crisp, brittle golden leaves.

That evening at the computer I felt a stitch of pain in my right side that sort’a lingered.

It was still there in the morning and grew worse as I tackled my reno job – papering the walls in my bedroom with Reflectix to keep the cold out. I’d found this at Home Depot and used it a few winters back to line the foundation parts above the basement walls. I put strips against the window frame between the inner and outer panes, and then all over the wallpaper on the north side and most of the west side.

However, every time I stooped to hammer in a tack, or stretched to reach up, my right side really began to hunt. I grunted and moaned as I struggled to finish my project. I had meant to sew a quilt curtain with some upholstery fabric to help winterize my bedroom still more, but decided that I could not. My ‘stitch’ was the size of my hand!

I’d planned and did pull off the making of a birthday supper for my brother Tom, and took it over to his apartment and ate together, but when I’d cleaned up the dishes, and gathered my laundry in the basement I was happy to sit down quietly at the computer and take care of those commitments in some peace.

By Sunday morning I was having visions of going to the doctor and being put in the hospital. But if I sat quietly the pain was not so obvious, though any small cough tore at that painful area. I attended church. After communion I asked the elders to pray for me too.

I had a restful afternoon, spent mostly snoozing in the recliner, sipping teas, etc. In the evening I was feeling much better, and did some email catchup.

Yesterday I thought I was somewhat better, but found myself calling my doctor, and got an appointment for 11:15 am. It took him only 3 minutes or so to decide that I needed to go for x-rays. I had those in the afternoon. Now I’m waiting for results.

I’m smart enough to make some guesses, but let’s see what the medical people think my stitch or stab in the side really is.

I think I have that cough about wrestled into submission now. It just gives me the occasional little whimper or bark. Mainly I’ve been wearing my new Pashima scarf with some flare to how I arrange it around my shoulders, and coughing into it when necessary. I wore the red one for a number of days last week and then threw it into a load of laundry on Saturday, and started wearing the blue one.

This has allowed me a clear conscience to attend two missions conferences this past weekend. I had a display table up for Western Tract Mission at the one in Neuanlage, my former home church. I was there on Friday and Saturday evenings.

My current city church, together with the sister Alliance churches was having a missions conference too. I managed to attend the Saturday morning and lunch sessions, and then again on Sunday morning, and in the evening we had a Latino supper served before the closing Rally.

Now, I’m not sure how much to go on and on about the missions conferences, (some subscriber always seems to unsubscribe from this list when I use too much spiritual talk), but I’ve got’a say, I’ve always loved to hear missionaries tell their stories, and I really REALLY enjoyed the ones I heard this past weekend.

How about if I just hint at some of them?

There was someone from a new ministry called Rock Solid Refuge, which is like Teen Challenge, but geared for young men ages 14-18 who are having addiction issues.

A young man from my home town talked of going to Rwanda again this November-December to run a kids’ camp for the 4th year, and this time training their own people to run it henceforth.

A young woman from Tennessee talked of coming to the west coast in Canada to work in a friendship center for Muslim immigrants, and loving it.

A couple, friends of mine for the last 20+ years, are also working in that area, and the man focused his messages on Bible stories of Abraham and the Arab hospitality seen there, as they have come to know it working in that same Friendship center – among other things.

In the city sessions I heard two missionaries twice. One young woman has worked in Mexico City for ten years, part of her time with university students who come to her English club and part of it with street kids. She struck me as a great woman of prayer. I asked to correspond with her.

The other was a veteran missionary to Japan, and he described how differently they must go about planting churches in Tokyo, and then at the closing Rally, how they had found ways to help with the disaster relief after the earthquake and Tsunami earlier this year. I was quite impressed!

Maybe the most profound statistic that lingers with me, is that 20,000 people lost their lives in that disaster, but 30,000 Japanese take their lives by suicide each year – for the past 10 years! That is an even greater spiritual disaster!

Did I mention last week that I was fighting off a head cold and serious cough at the same time as all the fall-out from Mousie’s work, and the events of Thanksgiving weekend were going on?

Well, it got worse, so that by Thursday of last week I was willing to go see my doctor. (It takes quite a bit to make me willing; I only go to the doctor when I’m at wit’s end). I told him that I thought it had become pneumonia, and he did not argue. He just gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, and assured me that I would feel better in three days. His parting shot was “don’t go shopping.” From that I assumed that I might be infectious.

I got the Rx filled right away, and went back to the office. Good thing I work alone, so it didn’t have to bother anyone else that I was slouching a lot, leaning on my elbows, and hanging my head, when I wasn’t coughing fit to snap it off. I got up and made myself one hot drink after another to relax my chest muscles – which were exhausted.

Gradually, day by day I did feel better. The coughing didn’t come from quite as deeply any more, and by Sunday I was feeling quite well, until I tried to speak. That triggered coughing fits. I did go to church but I wore a huge red pashima scarf around my shoulders, pinned with a dramatic broach, and I coughed into the scarf anytime one came on.

A restful afternoon in the recliner was good for me.

Today I dared to walk to the office again instead of driving, as I had the last two weeks; I feel myself again, except for those ‘out of the blue’ coughs that still come. My antibiotics are finished tomorrow night at midnight, and I trust my cough will be all gone by then. If not, I’ll just keep up with more of my supplements and home remedies.

Saturday night I learned on the net that Vicks Vapo Rub on the soles of my feet, then putting socks on can keep me from coughing all night! I’ve done that three nights nights now. What a great tip!

In fact, did you know that when you finish a spell of antibiotics you should really load up on acidophilus (like in Yogurt) and other probotics to put good bacteria into your gut again? Otherwise you’ll just be susceptible to another infection or virus and go through all that again. I know, as that was the chorus to my Mom’s life.