Please pray

Hi all,

My boss, John, has been going through a terrible time lately. Since the beginning of December he has gone, literally, from one crisis to the next. John is a Christian (in fact, we all are where I work) and but for his faith I don't know how he would be able to stand up under it all. The list of stresses he has endured is long:

• his oldest daughter seriously injured her leg and is in a great deal of pain, so much so that she has had to drop out of university
• his father had a heart attack while vacationing in Florida
• his basement flooded and requires a complete restoration
• his younger daughter suffered a concussion
• he was involved in a serious car accident, requiring thousands of dollars in repairs
• his younger daughter was involved in a minor car accident; more repairs
• his wife was in yet another car accident; the damage is serious and the kids that hit her weren't insured
• and finally, his oldest daughter (in addition to her leg injury) has been suffering from a mysterious ailment and is undergoing tests; lupus is suspected and she is also being tested for Crohn's

Please consider lifting up these concerns to the Lord on behalf of John and his family. Bless you all.

Mmm Mondays

Well, I don't know if this qualifies as a "diet" recipe, but when I'm in the mood for ice cream, this sweet & creamy treat makes a good substitute.

Mandarin Parfait

Layer fat free vanilla yogurt, mandarin orange segments and granola in a little dish. That's it! You can use what ever yogurt and fruit you have on hand. Easy and very tasty.

The sermon today

Our vicar is a really, really good preacher. He preached today on the Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. This is a familiar Scripture about the unity of the body. One of the things that he said that really struck me was that we don't have our place in the body because of our giftedness, we have our place in the body because of our faith.

I got to thinking about this. Not one of us would say that we are saved and made Christians by any sort of merit of our own. That is solely God's work, imputed to us by grace through faith. But I think that in the church, there can be an attitude of hierarchy, of viewing others according to their gifts and their willingness to use them.

So often I hear members who are highly involved in the work of the church complain about those who don't seem to be "pitching in". I'm not talking about those members who are clearly gifted but are refusing to exercise their gift. I mean the women in the ladies group who gripe that they ALWAYS have to make sandwiches for a funeral and why can't so and so help, they don't do anything anyways. Or the couple who complains that they aaaalllways have to greet and if everybody took their turn... And underneath it there seems to be an attitude that they are more important/more useful than a "mere" worshipper. In truth, I too am guilty of this kind of judging, Lord forgive me. But Paul says those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are actually indispensible. Gulp.

If I am gifted, then I should use my gift joyfully in service to the Lord, always remembering where I got my gift from in the first place. All should use exercise their gifts, yes, as God composed the body just so. If there are those who refuse to exercise their gifts, I should encourage them and be patient with them. If there are those whose gifts are not readily apparent to me, I must give thanks to God for them, because he has given them honour as well.

I guess I'll paint too

We've been in this house for a little over 2 years now. The folks who used to live here painted all the walls white when they put the house up for sale, so when we moved I didn't have to worry about any clashing colours - we just moved our stuff in. We switched out a few lights and I took down the hideous red velvet window coverings in the living room and dining room, but other than that we haven't done any redecorating. Part of the reason is I find the prospect of having to choose colours for every room a tad overwhelming. But Debbie's "pumpkin butter" dining room has inspired me to go for it!

Today I moved out all the furniture from the living room into the dining room. I'll start in there and work my way through the main floor. I imagine it will take me all winter if I work on it on weekends (but hey, I've waited this long to get started, what's a few more months?). This weekend we are patching and preparing the walls in there. Next weekend we'll prime. I'll let you know how it goes.

Christmas present

For Christmas, I gave my hubby gift cards for "The Keg" which is a nice (for a chain) steak restaurant. There is a really nice Keg in Niagara Falls - the dining room overlooks the falls!! -that we have talked about visiting, but who drives 2 hours away for dinner? Anyways, for Christmas I couldn't think of anything good to give my husband - we are already so blessed, you know? I decided that a little "romance time" would probably be appreciated most. (I'm the practical one; he's hopelessly romantic!) So I got the gift cards with a note that they were to be used for a Keg location of his choice - either the one here in town or an out of town one if he preferred. He knew right away I was referring to Niagara Falls. He was pretty pleased and thought it might be nice if we went around Valentine's Day. (Told ya, hopeless...)

Last night he came home from work with a surprise. He won $200 in Amex gift cards and one of the things you can use them for is hotel stays at Marriott hotels. So now, instead of just going to Niagara Falls for dinner, we are going for a weekend!!! Hotel stays are quite reasonable in Niagara Falls during the winter and I found a nice package deal that includes breakfast on both days and dinner for one evening. Since we already have the other evening's dinner covered, our weekend will end up being "free". (Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.)

You know what my husband said to me? "This turned out to be a REALLY good Christmas gift." I think so too!

Luther on Prayer

"Let this be for you an encouragement, that with all diligence and earnestness it may become your habit to pray. For next to the preaching of the Gospel, in which God speaks with us and gives us all His grace and blessings, the highest and foremost work we can do is to speak with Him through prayer and receive from Him what He gives us. We have this great need of prayer, for by it we are truly able to keep what we have and to defend it against our enemies - the devil and the world. By our prayer we seek and find what we are to receive. Therefore prayer becomes our comfort, strength, and consolation, as well as our protection against all enemies and our victory over them."

-Martin Luther
Exposition of John 16:23, 1537

Swimming was a bust

So, we get to the swimming pool on Friday and there is a fire truck and an ambulance outside. We gather up our stuff and head inside anyways. Just as we get to the front door, someone is being taken out on a stretcher. Inside, things look normal. We line up and pay to get in. Change into our swimsuits and head to the showers. As I am about to shower, a lady tells me to wait a bit. "There's something in the pool," she says knowingly, "and they're not letting anyone in the pool yet."

I head out to the pool area with my daughter and we meet my husband and the boys on the pool deck. No one is in the pool and the lifeguards are keeping everyone back from the sides. What happened, we wonder?

Eventually, the answer filters down to the would-be swimmers. Someone vomitted in the pool. They have to wait for the maintenance guy to clean it up. OH. We decide we don't want to swim after all...

After changing and getting a refund on our admission, we head over to "Sportsworld" where we blow $20 worth of tokens on air hockey and electronic bowling. Returning home, we decide we will try swimming again next week. I will be patient.

Alive, if not exactly kicking

Thanks be to God, I'm feeling human again!


It sounds so pathetic, admitting that I was lay low by a cold. Not pneumonia, not bronchitis, not even the flu. The common cold. It was very weird, how severe my symptoms were. I literally didn't get out of bed for three solid days. Well, ok, I did go to the bathroom, and I did get up on Sunday night to email into work that I wouldn't be coming in. Oh yes, and to give you all the FYI. And also to phone my Sunday School back up to ask her to teach for me last Sunday. Ok, so maybe I wasn't in bed the whole time.


I went back to work on Wednesday, but after 3 hours realized it was a mistake and came back home. Then, Thursday I felt fine. Just like that. I am a teeny little bit stuffed up, and I have the occasional cough, but that's it. It is equally weird how quickly the symptoms have disappeared. So thank you ALL for your faithfulness and praying for me!


It's a good thing I am feeling so much better, because as you can imagine, there is a mountain of laundry waiting for me, lol!


But first, things first: I have showered and brushed my teeth. (Sara and Denise, you crack me up!)


Usually when I'm not able to blog, I at least keep up with reading your blogs. Tomorrow, I'll be catching up on a week of posts in between loads of laundry. Tonight, though, we are goin' swimming!


Here's a picture of the swimplex. You can see about one third of the complex. It's huge, with a 3-story waterslide (pictured), diving platform, splash area for little kids with a water spout and for the adults, a "swirlpool" - a huge hot tub that accommodates something like 35 people at a time. (It's not as hot and bubbly as a genuine hot tub, but warm and soothing and lots of room to stretch out. Ah, just what I need...) Admission for a family is $11.25, so easy on the budget too!

I'be all 'duffed ub

Hey all, I've dragged (drug?) myself out of bed long enough to let you all know that I have been sick with a rotten crummy cold. Really. I haven't been this sick since I was a kid. DH is taking good care of me. I'm going to stay home again tomorrow, but I hope to be able to, you know, shower, brush my teeth, all that good stuff. Hey, at this point simply being able to breathe through my nose is looking good...

Talk to you all soon!

The reason I haven't been blogging or commenting lately

Ben and Sam!

My little brother (that's him in the background) and his family came down from Ottawa for a visit between Christmas and New Years. These are his boys, Ben (holding his ears) and Sam. It was a really nice visit. My mom and dad, my brother Jeff, his wife Rachel and the boys came over for dinner on Friday night. Everybody was tired of ham and turkey so we had a delicious steak and shrimp dinner instead. My husband barbequed the steaks while my dad prepared the shrimp scampi. Mom and I took care of the baked potatoes and vegetables. It was a joint effort, and every bit as good as if we had gone to a restaurant! It was a really nice, relaxing time. The boys had a ball playing with a big box that I brought home from work. We cut some windows into it and turned it into a "fort", outfitted with pillows and blankets and a flashlight.

Yesterday we had a New Years Eve "party". We had a few of the neighbours in as well. Played darts (I have a sore arm today!) and ate too much. We did some dancing, too! (My kids, typically, think we are embarrassing beyond belief.)

We had a last brief visit this morning before they left to drive back to Ottawa. The picture of the boys was taken this morning just before they left, but after I had loaded them up with cookies and chocolate milk. Oh, I am an evil sister!