Rainy Sunday - Family Day

After a very rainy Saturday we were treated with a very rainy cool Sunday. Great for the vegetation but rather dismal for getting outside in the sun. Ellie was under the weather today so we stayed home and attended church via the TV this morning. This afternoon we were treated by lots of visitors. First we had Anna visiting all weekend. Then Alida, Jeff and Logan came by. Always great to see them, but especially wonderful to see and hold Logan as you can see below. We all took turns with him.

Opa and Logan

Next Nick and Fanny stopped in to see us after spending time with John and Jessica and their new son Benjamin. After Nick was visiting with his own grandson he enjoyed playing with Logan.

Logan with Great Uncle Nick

And Anna just loved cuddling Logan too.

Logan with Cousin Anna

Sorry, Alida and Jeff, we had no good pictures of you on our camera from today, only of Logan.
After Logan and his family left, the four of us talked frankly about Ellie's condition, had a good cry and prayed together.

Brother Nick and Fanny with Ellie and Gerard

Thank you Lord for this day.

Rainy Saturday

Anna is visiting us this weekend and when she was watering the plants downstairs she noticed that one of our orchids was in full bloom. So she brought the plant upstairs and now we have some colour in the front bay window.

Orchid on Display

This afternoon we finally got some rain. It started with a downpour that lasted about 10 minutes or so. Later Ellie and Anna went for a walk under an umbrella. They thought it was a great photo opportunity. So I got to spend lots of time shooting the perfect picture, Well this is the best I could come up with. It shows Ellie in a one of her two new tops which they picked out at Value Village yesterday.

Ellie and Anna under the Umbrella

Wednesday - Walking with a cane and a visit from Alida and Logan

Wednesday morning Ellie inspected her flower garden and was delighted with all the flowers displayed on her perennial geraniums. There also were blue salvias, pink peonies, multi-coloured johnny jump-ups and beautiful bleeding hearts. A feast of colour shortly after the tulips died off.

Perennial Geraniums in full bloom

 Yesterday Henry and Ellie purchased a walking cane to help with a partial loss of her balance. This morning she walked up and down the city sidewalk practising with it. It is going to take some time before she will be able to make full use of the extra support.

Ellie trying out her new walking cane

Then Alida and Logan came to visit us. Wonderful. Of course, many more pictures to take. Here are a few. We also brought out our Baby Book for Alida so that we could compare some of the photos of Alida and Logan. There are similarities but we think Logan looks a lot more like Jeff.

Opa and Oma with Logan

Oma and Logan with a little support from Mom

Comparing Logan with Alida from her Baby Book

Monday - Outing in Morning, Family in Afternoon

Monday morning Ellie and a friend went out to a local park to go for a walk. The park they visited also had some horse stables and paddocks. After the park they enjoyed a treat at a local coffee shop.

                           

                     Treating  Ourselves on Monday Morning

Beautiful Display of Colour

Ellie wanted to visit with Gerard's family in Barrie while she still could. So Monday afternoon we drove up to Barrie and spent time with some of his family. We enjoyed being together, seeing one another, reminiscing, weeping and of course eating and drinking good food and coffee/tea.

Six Duiker Couples

Ellie and Gerard with Five of our Sisters

Logan's First Visit to Church

This morning we were pleased to welcome our new grandson Logan and his parents Jeff and Alida to our church service. Oma, Alida and Logan stayed in the Mother's room while Jeff and Opa sat in the sanctuary. Good to worship together on this Pentecost Sunday.

Logan and Oma in the nursery

After the service Alida handed Logan over to Opa to let him make introductions to the church family members during fellowship time. There were a lot of oohs and aahs for the 4-day old newborn.

Opa happy to carry Logan after the service

 Proud Opa carried him around even while sipping at his coffee. Logan slept through it all. He must have had a good feeding during the service.

Coffee after the Service

 Then it was Oma's turn to hold Logan while Opa served refreshments at home. This was Logan's first visit to our home. May there be many more to come.

Logan's first visit to Oma and Opa's

Introducing Logan Gerard Butler

Tuesday morning Ellie and I went to visit Alida at her home so that we could help her with some gardening. When we arrived at their house we found that Alida had been having contractions for a while already. We were very excited by the potential of the baby being on his way very soon.  Alida had already called Jeff to come home for lunch and wait with her for the contractions to increase. So once he was on the way, we headed home. 

Later they called to let us know that they were on their way to the hospital. And soon  we heard that they were being kept there because of the increasng labour. We were so excited!  God is bringing our little family member into the world! Hallelujah! We talked, prayed and rejoiced over the exciting news!

When we awoke in the morning, we found a message to say that Logan Gerard Butler had been born in the early morning! He was 6 lbs 3 oz and Alida and he were doing fine. We could come and visit whenever we wanted. So we contacted the Butlers and decided to meet them there at about 4 pm to go in and visit our newly born grand child all together with the four of us. 

What a huge special blessing!!!  Our mutual brand new grandchild!  Thank You, Lord!!!

Proud Parents, Alida and Jeff with Logan (12 Hours Old)

Oma and Opa Duiker with our new Grandson

Nana and Papa Butler with their new Grandson

Enjoying Family Time Again

Saturday morning was a wonderful family time!  Henry came over with the boys and we spent a few hours together in our playroom with Oscar and Charlie and later had lunch together.

Opa reading with Oscar and Charlie on the floor in the playroom.

Oscar reading to Oma

On Monday my Brother Bart and Wendy picked me up and took me for a trip to Stratford
to visit my Father and also my brother Jeff.  We had coffee and lunch together at Father's. Jeff was very tired so headed back to his apartment.  Then Bart and Wendy spent time enjoying downtown Stratford while Father and I had a nap and a long visit together with just the two of us.  It was wonderful!  We spent very loving time together sharing about our lives. Our personalities are similar. We are close. We are both living close to the Lord now and waiting for God to call us home soon.

Jeff and Ellie in front, Father and Bart in back

After spending time Monday afternoon in Stratford, Bart took me to Carel and Irene's in Kitchener for dinner. We had a wonderful time together, sharing all kinds memories of our childhood years in Alberta and also just sharing lots of other memories together along the drives that day.Bart and I had a wonderful time together!

The Three Oldest: Bart, Carel, Ellie

I had a wonderful day together with Bart and Wendy.

Cutting up first Rhubarb harvest on Tuesday

Preparing the Vegetable Garden

This time of year is so exciting outside around the house! The vegetable garden is all ready for seeding and planting. Anna, Karen, and I weeded and dug up the whole area Wednesday afternoon and already put in the spinach and parsley seeds in the evening.

Before 

After

The Garden Diggers

Seeding and Watering

Next week I'll add lettuce and tomatoes. green peppers, and onions in this back vegetable garden and also some tomato  plants in through the front flower beds. The rhubarb is ready to be picked and frozen for use in the winter's baking. Wonderful time of year!

Collection of Sewing Patterns Available

Having fun sorting through drawers of patterns, fabrics most are 100 % cotton), buttons, etc.  Anyone interested? All free of charge. Hoping to hear from you.  - Ellie

Karen and Anna in Toronto

What a wonderful time we've been having with our nieces, Anna and Karen here! We visited together and relaxed together while doing some house work and taking snack breaks. I had a number of practical jobs that needed to be done, and so together we worked while enjoying a wonderfully productive time together.

Giving the big fern a massive haircut

Before Anna started vacuuming, I carried our huge fern plant from the living room onto the back porch for a major trimming! It hadn't been thinned out for years, so it was a major job!

Anna vacuuming

On Monday Anna and I sorted and cleaned out the freezer and refrigerator while Karen went out catching up with  friends downtown.  After lunch Anna went out too while we had a nap and a doctor's visit.

Anna cleaning the fridge

On Tuesday the girls treated me out for a delicious lunch at a fresh natural restaurant. There were a number of varieties to chose from, so we got samples of four food selections. Wonderful time out together over interesting delicious food totally new to me! After lunch we walked around exploring interesting natural food looking shops along the way and enjoyed a delicious snack at a fresh bakery! All in all, a fun and relaxing time out!

Lunch at a Fresh Restaurant

In the evening we just relaxed together making a puzzle.

Relaxing evening with a puzzle

On Wednesday morning the girls cleaned out all the kitchen cabinets while I sorted all kinds of kitchen stuff, so a major cleanup! It felt wonderful spending this time together being so productive at the same time. We had a fun time calling a few relatives in Holland. We reached Tante Ank, Tante Nel, Tante Adri and Om Peter and really enjoyed catching up with them. So a wonderfully relaxing time with my nieces! Thank you, Lord!

Family-Filled Weekend

We've been spending a lot of  wonderful time with family the last few days, so now I'm finally getting around to sharing some of the highlights.

Saturday morning Henry and Melanie and the boys came over to celebrate Mother's Day with us.        

I quietly spent time playing in the sandbox with Oscar and Charlie while the other adults were sharing time together. The boys were digging in toys all over the sandbox and then had a hunt with their shovels to find them all back. It was so much fun to watch!

Oscar remembered seeing a bowl full of  seas shells and asked to spread them out on the table to check them all closely, so we sat there together enjoying the variety of shells. 

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  We enjoyed spending family time together so much!

Ellie and Karen - Family time around the dinner table.

On Sunday late afternoon we (Gerard & Ellie, John Aukema, Anna & Karen) went to Alida & Jeff's for a Mother's Day BBQ. Mark, Rosemary & Hannah came later with the dessert, a cake so that we could celebrate Rosemary's upcoming birthday together.

Rosemary's Birthday Family Celebration!

So much good family time together. Anna had been staying with us the whole week already while she attended a course at York. Then Karen joined us on Thursday for a week all the way from China.

And John came to see his daughters on Saturday and Sunday. Then all the time on the weekend with our immediate family as described above. Good times!

Beginning Plans for the Future and Visiting Edwards Gardens

In discussing what to write in this blog post, we realized that we had personally told some people closest to us, but had not published anything here yet, about Friday's appointment regarding the results of my most recent MRI. We received the shocking news that many little cancer spots had been removed from my brain, but the main one is even bigger than it was before the chemotherapy! We had not expected that it would be all gone, but certainly did not expect to hear that it was bigger than before the treatment. What a shock! 

We realize that we have pretty well reached the end of all treatment options. We are seeing a radiation oncologist tomorrow to determine if there are any possible radiation treatment options, but our main oncologist does not hold up much hope.  In the meantime, we are starting to receive preparation for the future of palliative care.  CCAC staff and medical personnel are visiting us to assess our current situation so that when my condition changes for the worse, they will know how we want to proceed.  

Our choice is that I remain cared for at home for as long as possible.  And that's exactly what they encourage people to do, so they were happy about our choice. We are still emotionally very fragile since this news, but are starting to enter into a more peaceful frame of mind of living one day at a time in the presence of the Lord.  

Wednesday Supper - Salmon steak dinner by Steve & Angie

In the meantime, life goes on.  We try to alternate busy days with restful days. Now that I have finished my treatments, I went swimming with Gerard this morning for the first time in many months and got warmly welcomed back by fellow swimmers.  We walked all the way to and from the pool and I swam for 35 minutes. It felt great!  After a short break at home we headed for Edwards Gardens to see the spring flowers in bloom.  They were actually almost over their peak of blooming but still wonderful to enjoy.  

   

                        

In the formal flower beds

Casual clumps of flowers along the the start of the forest trail 

Enjoying the peace of the sun and the stream along the way

We are feeling so loved, cared for and supported! Thank you all so much!