Weekend at Home

It was good to be back home for the weekend, back into my own home routine of yoga, walking, green smoothies, calling the kids... Plus a few special things: a birthday party, church, a walk and visit with friends, hosting my niece and her friend... I feel rested up and am almost re-packed, ready to head back to my parents' place for another week. I'm looking forward to a great family day on Saturday when everyone comes to help with the move! 

trout lily - on our Sunday walk

With this drought there's not much happening in our garden right now. The rhubarb, spinach, onions, radishes, swiss chard and peas are up, but hardly growing. This morning I put in some more peas, spinach, radishes, lettuce and swiss chard seeds in the hope that it really will rain in the next few days, as they have forecast.  Maybe the new seedlings will be coming up by the time I get back here next Monday.

we found two red trilliums on our walk

Time with My Parents

Hi! I'm back home in Toronto for the weekend, so I thought I'd use this opportunity to post some pictures taken of my visit with my parents this week.  My mom had surgery on Monday and my parents are preparing to move next Saturday, so there was lots of opportunity to help out and spend time with them. This put me in the caregiver role for a while - a welcome change for me!

on my walk to and from the hospital

My mom had a growth removed from her bladder. They unfortunately found "invasive bladder cancer", removing as much of it as they could.  We are awaiting the pathology reports for more information. 

We were happy she was able to come home the very next day

So happy to be home with my dad again - watching the news together

She has made an amazing recovery from the surgery!  The day after surgery she was sweeping the winter grit out of the garage! 

and receiving phone calls

my dad in his office preparing for the move

It was great spending time together!  Living there for a few days is way different and better than dropping by for a visit for a few hours every once in a while.  My dad and I made preparations for their move - notifying Meals on Wheels, the newspaper, Rogers cable, the post office to forward mail, organizing a carpenter to build shelving, etc.  My mom and I went for walks together, just sat around reading or making puzzles, I did laundry and my mom folded it and put it away, did dishes, ate, talked, had coffee, just sat together saying nothing.  It was wonderful!

making arrangements for their new assisted living apartment

Next week my parents are moving from their bungalow to an assisted living unit within the same retirement community.  So I'm going back for the week just to be there to share in what needs to be done.  Last summer when my mom wasn't well I couldn't do anything to help out; could hardly ever even go for a visit, so spending time together in this way now is such a huge blessing!

Using Toilet Paper Rolls for Peat Pots

Here's a fun and practical idea I found online - use free empty toilet paper rolls instead of buying peat pots for starting your seeds.

Just cut the rolls in half, set them on end, fill them with potting soil and add your seeds!

And here's another creative idea...

Where Have All the Tulips Gone?

We are mystified over what has happened to most of our tulips. Last year one flower bed was filled with tulips like this

but this spring there are only five! In another flower bed we must have had over forty and it looked like this last year.

But now there are only thirteen tulips left in that bed! I have no idea what happened. We started out with 12 yellow and 12 red bulbs about thirty years ago. Over the years they have multiplied. I've dug them up and re-grouped them twice over all these years and they have thrived. And now most of them are gone! Gerard's theory is that because we've had hardly any snow this winter and the ground hardly froze at all, the squirrels were able to dig into the ground and have possibly been feasting on our bulbs all winter! Sounds reasonable.

Flowers that Opened Today

Just a quick peek at the garden before I go to visit my parents for a few days.  These blossoms and other flowers all just opened today so with these pictures I can still enjoy them with the pictures, even though I'm not home. 

purple sandcherry blossoms

new tulips just opening today

pear blossoms

crab apple blossoms 

our first white trillium of the season

and one of my favourites - bleeding heart

Changes to Blogger - Grrrr!!!

Oh dear!  They've done it again!  Blogger has changed it's format and now I'm trying to figure out where everything is and how to put my post together.  Don't you just love "new and improved" revisions?  No whipping off a quick post this way.   So-o-o-o frustrating!

On top of that, I'm going to be staying with my parents for a few days, because my mom is having surgery on Monday.  I'm hoping to be of some help there by answering the phones, taking turns with my dad and brother at the hospital, etc.  BUT... my dad has a Mac computer! and I'm not familiar with those, so I don't know how much you'll be hearing from me over the next few days.  I had hoped to write up a few posts ahead of time, and have them automatically show up while I'm away, but with this new format I can't even find my drafts back!  Grrr!

I love the dandelions (at the hospital)!  They look so bright and cheerful!

Well, life is not all bad here.  We got some very good news yesterday after experiencing a somewhat emotionally stressful week.  Since last Saturday I had been feeling pressure and tension on the right side of my head - right where the tumors used to be.  As it got increasingly more intense, I got increasingly more anxious, thinking that maybe the tumors were growing back. 

Fortunately I was already scheduled for a scan (SPECT test) for Thursday morning and an appointment with our neurologist on Friday.  So everything was taken care of very quickly and yesterday afternoon we heard that the scan shows no new growth and that there is no cause for any concern!  The sensations I was feeling might be from healing nerves in the area of the biopsy and radiation.  Thank you, Lord!  What a relief, once again!

Today I started out in high gear, vacuuming the house and going out with a group from our church to pick up garbage in the community.

And since then it's been low-key, just hanging around the house and sleeping on the couch.  That's probably making up for the busyness and stress of the last few days. 

We finally got rain overnight!  Everything looks beautiful and revived outside.  The peas, onions, radishes, and spinach are coming up in the garden!   Hope Gerard remembers to water the seedlings while I'm away!  This is absolutely my most favourite time of the year so I'm going to miss watching everything grow, but I'm ever so grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with my parents and to support them through this time of surgery and getting ready for their move in a few weeks.  This is one of the things I wanted to do so badly last year, but couldn't, so now it seems like a double blessing that I'm able to do it after all.

First Tooth and Working on More

It's Thursday, and that means we had a visit with little Oscar again today (and Henry and Ken and Melanie, too of course). He has cut his first tooth and is working hard on more. Everything within his reach goes into his mouth; chewing on everything seems to feel good.  When he's on this rubber puzzle mat for "tummy time" he rips loose the edging and it goes into his mouth.  I pulled him back a few feet so I could see him "crawl" to the edge, but he spun right around to the nearest edge, pulled it loose and started chewing there again.

Everything goes into his mouth; his toys, our fingers,

He especially targets the tags on his toys and then tries to shove his hand in too,

And then if all else fails, there's always his thumb for backup.

Walk around the Garden

Whenever we drive or walk up to our house, the first thing I do is take a quick walk around the garden to see what's new. Here's some of what I saw today...

my favourite little johnny jump-ups

rhubarb is coming in nicely

our first trillium of the season

the spinach seedlings are coming along - 2nd set of leaves already

grape hyacinths

Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Our daughter Alida, has a new attraction at her apartment - a vacuum cleaning robot!  Her housemate's parents have loaned it to the girls for a month, to let them see how it works.  So this was our entertainment when we visited Alida for tea yesterday afternoon. 

She pressed a button and there went  Roomba - around the corner and down the hall, vacuuming the whole place!  It's kind of noisy, so it's better to program it to do its work while you're away from home.  It's smart too! It automatically adjust to different levels of flooring, from hardwood to carpet to ceramic tiles,  and it comes back to home base to be recharged when the job is finished or the battery is low.  Fascinating and entertaining!

So now at Henry and Melanie's we can watch Oscar, and at Alida's we'll be entertained by Roomba!  Life is interesting.

Roomba heading back to home base

In Honour of Mom's 100th Birthday

Today would have been my mother-in-law's 100th birthday! The Lord took her home just five weeks short of 100 years. We had originally planned a large family celebration for yesterday, but since most of the extended family already gathered at the funeral, we kept it low-key yesterday and got together with a small group of family in honour of Mom's birthday.

Behind the seniors village where Mom lived is a valley with a stream and pond.  One of the residents, who used to work for the city's parks department, spends all his time down there, building walking trails and benches, and planting perennials and bulbs among the trees.  When we met him there two years ago he urged us to come back in the spring to see the daffodils. 

Well, last year didn't work out for us, but yesterday was the perfect time to see the daffodils in bloom, so we took a stroll down there together. I can't believe a man in his eighties has done all this work! It's amazing! And he absolutely loves it down there!  I'm glad we got a chance to see it this year. 

An Adventurous Week

It's been an exciting week full of outings and adventures - rolling from one event into another and it's been fun and energizing!

Over the past few weeks I was starting to feel resentful that all my days seemed to be full of compromises. Every time I thought of something I'd really like to do, or places I'd really like to go, I threw up the barriers of, "I don't know if I'll have enough energy for that," or "but I can't drive yet."   And then one day I realized that there are lots of people who can't drive or don't have access to a car, and lots of people who wish they have more energy than they do, or are nowhere near as healthy as I am, and they don't all sit around at home wasting their life waiting to get more energy or to get healthier or to get access to a car. Last year I was in the hospital having chemo treatments, wondering whether I would live or die.  Why am I wasting my precious healthy time like this?!  Get out there and use and celebrate the extra time God has given you! 

And so that's what I've been doing this week. Another turning point in my recovery! It has felt wonderful to hop on the bus and subway and go places by myself.  So here are some of the things I've been up to:

- went downtown to deliver some books, and tacked on about three hours of wandering around exploring - in and out of some University of Toronto buildings, across Nathan Philips Square, through Metro Hall, and in and out of the CBC building, around Union Station and back home on the subway and bus. Wonderful! 
- went lane swimming twice
- on the spur of the moment we attended the graduation vocal recital of our nephew's new fiance!!! - Nina, at York University.  She's got an amazing voice! 

That's where we saw this huge (at least 10 feet high) dog sculpture completely made with all kinds of balls (soccer, basketball, football...).  Too bad I didn't include the ball it was chasing.

- enjoyed our weekly Thursday morning time with our grandson, Oscar, and then walked with Henry and Melanie to High Park to see the cherry blossoms. It was so sunny, that the pictures didn't turn out too well, but it was a beautiful sight!

Henry is home on paternity leave now for six months

and Melanie will reluctantly be going back to work next week.

- realized that I've hardly worn my snow boots at all this winter, maybe once or twice.

- spent an interesting afternoon wandering around at the Green Living Show yesterday -  electric bicycles and cars, organic food, natural health care products, solar power, presentation about Toronto's tree canopy, heirloom seeds, eucalyptus clothing, environmentally friendly baby products, sunflower seed sprouts, etc. etc.

- have been checking the seeds inside the house and out, watching for new seedlings to pop up. 

- watched the Titanic movie - to remember the sinking of this huge cruise ship 100 years ago - the very day my mother-in-law was born.

- rode the street car along the lake front.  I love this route!  It always feels like a mini vacation.

A wonderfully adventurous week! 

Easter Weekend

It's almost a week since Easter already!  I'm alive and well; so well in fact, that I've been out and about all over the place doing all kinds of interesting things. But first, back to Easter ... The Easter long weekend was a comfortable balance between holy week worship services, social time with family and friends, interspersed with quiet times at home with just the two of us.

It all started off on Thursday evening with a bilingual Maundy Thursday worship service with lots of music.  I found the translation between Korean and English a bit distracting, but worshiping in two languages simultaneously (we sang English and Korean through each other too) is a great way to experience our participation in a world-wide Christian family. 

this is what our whole order of worship looked like

On Good Friday we attended another beautiful church service with great music and lots of Scripture readings, and then a visit and dinner with friends.  Easter Sunday began with breakfast at church, followed by the Easter service.  And then we were invited to have lunch with part of our small group - where we were unexpectedly treated to Korean BBQ - a first for both of us. An interesting and delicious experience!

And on Monday we had our own family together at our place for Easter dinner.  With everyone contributing something to the meal the kitchen becomes the hub of activity and we end up with a delicious variety of food. 
 

somehow we missed Henry, Melanie, Ken, Tim and Alida on the pictures

Uncle Mark and Aunt Rosemary's turn for a picture with Oscar

coloured hard boiled eggs - no chocolate eggs until Monday afternoon!

It was nice to have Easter quietly, without all the commercial hype that usually surrounds Christmas time. 

Seedlings are Coming Along!

A quick indoor gardening update...  Our window sills are filled with plants and seedlings!  It's starting to look like a green house here!

basil seedlings in the bay window

forgot to label these so what they are will be a surprise

surprise gift at our Easter dinner