Oscar and Opa

I just love this picture that our daughter sent us. It was taken yesterday at the open house held in honour of Oscar's first birthday. 

Oscar and Opa

 

In the Early Morning Sun

Everything looked extra beautiful in the early morning sun today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unbelievably bright colours! No special effects. This is really how they are.

Happy Birthday, Oscar! Now You're One!

We saw and held Li'l Oscar for the very first time exactly one year ago today. I instantly fell head over heels in love with him.  We visit him every week and I find it fascinating to watch him; watch him breathe, eat, sleep, explore his world, problem solve, learn how to roll over, scoot around, sit, feed himself, crawl, climb - I can watch him for hours!  He is such a huge blessing in my life!  

 exactly one year ago

 

And today he is one already!  He has grown and learned so much in one year! 

Mommy was very excited to see what he would do with his birthday cake.



checking it out... where do I start?

my thumb tastes even better with icing on it!

I think I've had enough for now *

washing it down with some milk

 

 checking out his new toy

 

Sea Shells Everywhere!

I love sea shells. We have them all over the house - in a window sill, on a shelf, in a glass vase, and in a basket. I think they are beautiful and just love having them around where I can enjoy them every day. But today I met someone who really loves them and has thousands of them all around his house and property!

you can see the size of the project, compared to the height of the people in the background

It all started when I offered a few women a ride home from our Bible reading group this morning.  Anna was telling us about her neighbour's back yard.  She was so excited about it that she got his permission to show us around.  And here is some of what we saw.

He has collected shells from all over the world, especially from Cuba and Florida. Once word spread he started receiving contributions of shells from others.  I didn't think you were allowed to bring them across the border, but he has come through customs no problem, even when the customs officers knew all those bags and boxes were filled with sea shells.  He actually keeps meticulous records of how many shells he used in each creation. 

 

 

His house is filled with shell creations and also with ledges and frames displaying labelled shells.  There are picture frames covered with shells, pictures made of shells, shell garlands dangling from the ceiling, and apparently in the basement he has a whole sea shell miniature village around his train set. 

design between two panes of glass in his garage door

Ever since he was featured in our local paper, about ten years ago, I've been interested in meeting this man and seeing the display in his back yard. I managed to locate his house once because of a wishing well covered with sea shells in his front yard, but was never bold enough to go and ask to see the rest. Well, unexpectedly, today was the day! 

 Even though I prefer just natural shells rather than shells glued on frames and pots or as animals or sea shell buildings, this was still amazing to see.  You never know what is going to pop up in your day.  This was such a totally unexpected treat! 

Unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it!

Working on Our Computer Skills

Look what we bought this evening!  Yes, Gerard and I are both learning some new things on the computer.  Here's Gerard's book...

Except Gerard is no computer dummy.  He's actually worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst for many years.  So he reads a manual like this over a cup of coffee and then goes to the computer and applies what he just read!  I'm just a teeny bit jealous!  Right now he's reading up on Access so he can tranfer the church membership records from Dbase4 to Access. 

And here's my new book!

This one's a little more my speed.  The claims on the cover sound appealing... "in easy steps, plain English, easy to follow, and fully illustrated."  Perfect for me! (I'm hoping!). 

Today I spent almost the whole day at the computer working on a document related to my involvement with the personnel committee at our church.  It was a challenge and quite a vigorous workout for my brain! And it was stressful because I wasn't familiar with the program, so I took a break and did some pilates exercise, went back to the computer, took another break to vacuum the basement, back to the computer, another break for more exercise...

I don't have much experience with WORD 2010 so I clicked on almost every icon and menu I could find and eventually worked it out.  What a feeling of victory when I was done!  The perseverance definitely paid off!  And I'm hoping this book will help me figure out how to do some more of the things I'm used to doing routinely without feeling as challenged as I have been recently.

I'll keep working on those computer skills, and hopefully as I use this new version more it will start becoming almost automatic again.  They say by using your brain and challenging it, you can revive and re-wire your brain.  I'm hopeful - and I'm thankful and excited that I got as far as I did today!

Changes in the Air

There are changes in the air. I can feel it. The days are getting shorter. The nights are cooler. The mornings feel crisper. The leaves are changing colour...  The seasons are changing.  Today is the first official day of fall!
 

leaves changing colour up the street

 

I've noticed other changes too.  About two weeks ago something seems to have switched to a new circuit in my brain. It's hard to describe and I'm not really sure what happened, but the results feel wonderful!  It might have been my appointment at the cancer clinic for a routine check-up that triggered an emotional shift. 

 

I felt out of place there two weeks ago - no longer "one of them".  My life has moved on.  My focus is no longer only on cancer. I walked away from there with a new perspective:  "Time to snap out of the passive patient role into pro-actively living". 

 

The first thing I did was to start driving again.  I had practiced a bit in the campground and on some country roads during our vacation.  Now I'm driving in the city - first to church, then the local mall, then a further-away mall, and yesterday on the 401 highway and collector lanes and merging into traffic.  Wahoo!  It feels great! 

 

Other projects are coming off the back burner.  Here's one newly in progress...  I'm going to keep you guessing on this one for a while until there's more to show you.

 

the beginning of one of our new projects

 

And stay tuned for a new look on this blog.  I have to figure out how to do it, but it really feels like it's time for a change.  The tulips on the top of my home page have been flowering for a year and a half and my profile picture was taken almost three years ago.  High time for some updates!  Oh dear!  It almost feels like I'm back on steroids - bubbling over with all kinds of exclamation marks and big ideas!

The Olympic Heroes Parade

Thanks to CBC's Metro Morning radio show I was reminded of the Olympic Heroes Parade this morning. Just thinking about going made me excited, so I decided to go.

 

red and white everywhere!

 

there were walking and riding athletes

 

and wheelchair athletes

 

and a camera man on wheels - no hands!

how do they control these things?

 

interacting with the athletes at post-parade celebration at Maple Leaf Square

 

I got to hold a paralympic rugby medal - see the braile?

 

Via Rail - one of the parade's sponsors - I'd love to get a ride!

 

 

It was a very festive and patriotic occasion.  I'm glad I went!

Thinking about Sunday

I keep thinking about last Sunday.   It was a really good day; a day of worship and celebration and family. 

The message at church was focussed on Psalm 119, and on the importance of reading the Bible everyday.   Below are the words to one of the songs we sang.

And then we went to the cemetery and dug up and planted a little flower bed on our mother's grave.

 

We made a flower bed on our mom's grave on Sunday



We also had the joy of celebrating my brother's 40th birthday.  He had just come out of the hospital earlier that week, so we were thankful that he was feeling well and up for a celebration on Sunday.  Then last night we heard that he's back in the hospital again.  So the fact that we were able to celebrate this big milestone of his life on Sunday was a very special gift! 

Thy Word by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith

Translation in progress. Please wait...

 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

When I feel afraid, and think I've lost my way.
Still, You're there right beside me.
Nothing will I fear as long as You are near;
Please be near me to the end.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path.

I will not forget your love for me and yet,
My heart forever is wandering.
Jesus be my guide and hold me to Your side,
And I will love you to the end.

Nothing will I fear as long as You are near;
Please be near me to the end.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
And a light unto my path. You're the light unto my path.

All done!  My mom would enjoy this little garden.

 

"Just Eat It" - Don't Waste It!

perfect kind of day for cooking comfort food!

Knowing that there was rain in the forecast for yesterday, my daughter and I decided to get together to cook for the afternoon. Her goal was to stock her freezer with lots of meals to take to work.  We chopped and fried and cooked and here is the result...

about 20 quickie healthy meals! 

We prepared curried cauliflower soup, quinoa enchiladas, and cauliflower lentil and pea curry. It was a great thing to do on a rainy day; fun spending the time together and helpful in getting her stocked up with some good home-cooked meals.  And we had dinner together afterwards.  It was a wonderful rainy day!

Speaking of food...  I heard about an interesting food project called Just Eat It on the radio the other day.  A young couple in British Columbia  is working on a documentary asking, "If we all love food so much, why are we throwing almost 50% of it away?"  They have challenged themselves to live only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away. First they used up what they had in their house already.  Then they also grow some of their own produce, go dumpster diving, and get perfectly good "rejects" from various sources. 

freezer jammed full of good homecooked meals

Here are some of their very practical tips for cutting down on food waste:

1.  Plan ahead and buy only what you need for those meals.

2.  Look at the food you already have available and plan your meals around that instead of saying, "What would I like to eat right now?" and buying all kinds of new ingredients while your fridge and cupboards are full of food that ends up not being used and so is wasted in the end.

3.  Store your leftovers in see-through containers so you can see and remember what you have available instead of it getting stuck in your fridge going to waste (out of sight, out of mind idea).  

You can follow their story on www.foodwastemovie.com . It's really interesting!

My "Baby Brother" Just Turned Forty!

Yesterday my brother Jeff turned forty!

Happy 40th, Jeff! 

 

In preparing for this celebration I started thinking about my brother's forty years and realized I really don't know much about his growing up years because we never lived at home together.  In fact I never lived in any of the three cities where he grew up.  That happens in a large family; Jeff is the youngest and I'm the oldest of nine kids.  So by the time Jeff came to our family I had already moved out. 

 

So I asked some of my younger sibblings (who couldn't come to the celebration) to write up some of their memories of growing up with Jeff.  Reading those together triggered more memories.  It was a fun afternoon.  And we thank God for blessing our family with our youngest brother and for giving Jeff 40 years!

 

We celebrated by serving birthday cake at church

and having lunch and sharing memories together with the family.

For Your Enjoyment

Look what I found a while ago! This is the inside of a piece of bark. It looks like some kind of insect was burrowing it's way underneath the bark. Interesting patterns!

The insects are loving these sedum flowers and are all over them.  They just started opening this week and are adding some new colour to the fall garden. 

 

Celebrate Yonge

After hearing about "Celebrate Yonge" I was curious to see what it was like. So last night we hopped on the subway and went downtown to check it out.  I'd read that they reduced traffic on Yonge Street to one lane in each direction and turned the curb-side lanes into pedestrian space. What we saw was planters and temporary gardens separating vehicles lanes from the pedestrian lanes and there were licensed patios, outdoor cafes and seating areas with comfortable outdoor furniture spilling out onto the curbside lanes. 
 

 

 

There were quite a few people sitting around relaxing and socializing and we saw some line-ups for  Toronto International Film Festival events and lots of their volunteers in orange t-shirts all over the place.  For the rest there wasn't much going on.  Overall I found it rather disappointing and not very exciting, but that could be because it was a Tuesday evening and I was kind of tired.  I imagine that on the weekends there would have been quite a different atmosphere with more people and more activities. 

 

the most elaborate (and my favourite) temporary garden

 

After walking down Yonge Street from College to Queen, we checked out Nathan Philips Square (some renovations going on, but no people) and then went into a Sport Chek store.  That's when the excitement started for me.  Look what we saw!  Toe shoes!  I took the cardboard out just to see that they were actually seperate toes, and they were!  Apparently these have really caught on for people who like to have the feeling that they're exercising barefoot.  Who knew?

 

And next we ran across this at the cash register on the way out.  This is called a SPORK, a combination of a spoon, fork, and knife.  We were told they are all the rage with the downtown lunch crowd!   

 

A spork!

I guess I need to get out a little more often to keep up with what's new out there these days. Our little jaunt downtown was worth it again!  I love finding new and interesting things like this.  Very fun! 

Teaching Babies Sign Language

 

This week I heard two radio talk shows related to parenting. One asked, "Should parents be allowed to spank their children?" and the other was about the pros and cons of teaching your baby sign language. I've noticed that the approach to parenting has changed over the years since we were raising our own children about thirty years ago (30 years ago!). 

He got all the way up there by himself to get to those toys!

Yes, we were very close by to keep him safe.

 

And so when we found out that we were going to become grandparents I asked our daughter-in-law what they were reading about child rearing.  I borrowed some of those books from the library and also read others while we were babysitting at their house so that we would understand their approach and we would all be on the same page in our interactions with the new baby.   

 

One of the ideas that I had never encountered before was teaching your baby sign language.  They say most children can learn to sign before they learn to speak because large motor skills come before fine motor skills.  Apparently signing can avoid a lot of frustration for the baby and the parents because now the baby can communicate what he wants. 

 

signing "more"

 

I was a little skeptical about this at first, but am now amazed that little Oscar is able to sign words like milk, water, more, all done, and they're now working on please, and thankyou.  I'm amazed how a little kid can watch what you're doing, copy it exactly, and also know what it means!  Their rapid learning curve is just incredible!

 

The mother being interviewed on the talk show said her child knows how to sign about 30 phrases!  Our kids have decided to just teach Oscar a few words and not get into it in a really big way.  It's working for them this way and it's fun for me to be exposed to something new like this.   

 

checking out the new riding toy that Opa found for him

 

I really respect the way H and M are thoughtfully and intentionally parenting their little guy.  M's experience as a pediatric nurse probably helped get them off to a good start.  They're also attending a parenting group at their church and they have lots of friends and cousins with babies. It's wonderful to see how H and M are taking such good care of this little guy and just  loving him to bits!  



Fall Is in The Air!

The signs are here...   Fall is in the air!

crab apples on the front lawn

The neighbour kids are out across the street waiting for the school bus early every morning again. 

look at the cool temperature at 2 pm today! 

It's getting cooler out. We've been waking up to cool crisp mornings and today to pouring rain!  After dashing from house to car, to grocery store, back into the car and home again, I spent the morning in the kitchen.

pulled out the food mill today for the first time in many years!

It's the time when I enjoy making comfort food like soup again. While listening to the garden show this morning I chopped, cooked, and blenderized fruits and vegetables resulting in green smoothies and a nice big pan of fresh tomato soup for our small group's lunch tomorrow.  Working for a whole morning with a pile of fresh fruits and vegetables - what a luxury (both the time to do so and having access to all that produce)! 

pan of fresh tomato soup I prepared today

 

Our appointment-free summer is over.  It was back to some routine medical appointments this week.

I felt a bit out of place at the cancer clinic yesterday.  It was an odd feeling.  I feel a bit like an outsider - no longer "one of them". I guess, in this case, that's a good thing. It did bring back lots of memories and emotions.  The opthamologist declared my peripheral vision to be very good; good enough to allow me to drive, as long as there is nothing else that is preventing me from driving.  And the radiologist said, "See you in six months", so I guess that's good news too.

 

sunflowers producing seeds

 

The garden is also showing signs of changing seasons.  Some flowering plants are slowing down and producing seeds.  It's gradually starting to look and feel like fall out there.