Progressing nicely....

Yes, my flowers are coming along beautifully in their fullness.

It has been a beautiful Mother's Day.  Had good wishes from my children and friends.  Brittney and Shannon were over for lunch where we exchanged Mother's Day cards.  Had an hour Skype conversation with Matthew and received wishes from Thais, his girlfriend.

Church was good today too.  We highlighted mothers, of course.  Ended the service with carnations being handed out to all the women attending. 

God was there...I felt his presence.  Pastor Stacia talked about the reality of another dimension - the spirit world....of God's Spirit.  She spoke about the apostle Peter, talking to the people after Jesus was resurrected in the Book of Acts, chapter 2.  Upon hearing Peter's words they were all 'cut to the heart'.  That stuck with me..those four words.  It is those four words that describe how we are transformed into God's likeness in Jesus.  Being 'cut to the heart' consists of being convicted of how I have failed as a person in God's sight, how I really won't be good enough for him.  But it doesn't stop at being convicted of my sin.  It also involves repentance and asking to be forgiven for my failures.  When I realize I don't measure up to Jesus example of living, it is then that I am cut to my heart.  It is then that the Spirit of the Living God comes to fix me up.  Yes, he cuts and I bleed but only for my own good.  Infection usually always needs lancing and cleaning and stitching up for it to heal.  The infection of sin needs cleansing by the Great Physician! And in our relationship with God,  there comes a time when we must make a decision.....do we want a life of walking with God.....or not.  Walking with God isn't always easy either.  In fact, it can be miserably uncomfortable...it's one of the things that happens when we put ourselves into a servant role.  But it all begins with 'being cut to the heart'....being made aware of who we are as people who need cleaning up.

We ended the service by singing "Down in my Heart"....you know the one, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart  (Where?) down in my heart, (Where?), down in my heart....I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart to stay!"

A good way to end the service too, talking about our hearts!:)

Welcome....

We stayed at Day's Inn and Suites in Saskatoon on Friday night but upon our arrival in the afternoon we were greeted at their front door by a young fellow who appeared to be normal....until he stood up.  He weaved and shook a bit and sat back down but before we entered the premises he offered a "Welcome to the Day's Inn.  I hope you have a pleasant stay" and I replied with a "Thank you very much".

We went to Tony Roma's for supper and ate chicken, fish, a burger and a rack of ribs....by four people, of course.  Saturday, Brittney went to offer her French Immersion speech she had prepared to be presented at one of the schools in Saskatoon.  She had been chosen for her French public speaking skills and she and 47 others were chosen out of 4,000 French Immersion students in Saskatchewan. A marvelous experience for her!!!

While she presented her speech, Ken and I went to "Riverdance".  If I were to talk about it here, I don't think I'd stop.  It was most excellent and my Irish roots were aroused to say the least.

And tomorrow is Mother's Day.  Wished my mother was here to tell her how much I loved her...but I told her while she WAS here...and I'm glad that I did!

Here we are when I was 3 or so..

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Early Mother's Day...

Yesterday I was challenged by son to find 5 beautiful things during my experience of life today and to let him know what those things were.

I probably have more than five but I'll keep it at that.

Husband usually gives me a hug and a kiss sometime between getting out of bed each morning and dressing.  That was the first beautiful thing.....because he finds it very difficult to do that with his Bell's Palsy...to actually hold his lips in a position that would constitute an actual kiss.  His still strong arms held me as he planted a beautiful droopy kiss on my lips!  Now that's beauty!!!

The number two beautiful thing was driving by the river this morning.  It was calm and sunny and warm with the leaves wanting so badly to pop out to shade me.

Third beautiful thing was baking a cake with granddaughter using my mom's Golden Cake with Fudge Icing  recipe! 

Fourth beautiful thing was climbing one step at physiotherapy without a cane!!!

And number five was daughter coming over with a bundle of flowers for Mother's Day.  She knew exactly what I would like!  Soooo beautiful...both she and the flowers:)

I think I shall go for a number six.....because son gave me something to think about, five beautiful things actually, my mind wasn't always fixed on me.  It was fixed on other things....good things...beautiful things.  So I shall make him my sixth beautiful thing for today.

How blessed I am to have people to love....and who love me.

Here are some of my flowers....

Beauty!

And Saturday we get to use our Christmas gift - two tickets to Riverdance in Saskatoon on Saturday!  We've never been to one of their performances.  And with me Irish roots an' all......

May God watch over you this night...and on into the morning light....Amen.

It can cause depression...

And severe depression, at that.  I have gone through the winter, and now into spring, not able to exercise very much at all....not that I ever did very much, but with "the knee" I wasn't able to do anything at all much.

So, now we're getting into the little shirts and shorts and capris and folks, it's just not lookin' good.  I could live very well vicariously through my daughter and granddaughter but I shall not ( I looked pretty smashing at their age too, by the way).

But the way I figure it, the older one gets, ones ego and inhibitions decrease exponentially.

Having said that, in two short months I shall/will/somehow fit into a bathing suit.  No big deal.  As I say, looking great is not a priority for me....feeling great is, but at this point in my life, it's a case of my mothers genes coming to the fore and I shall not be deterred.  I shall wear this bathing suit and feel good about myself at the same time!!

Yay for being over 60!!! 

 

You didn't really think I'd plaster a picture of me IN that bathing suit, did you???  I DO have a feeling for your sensitivities after all.  

I like the color and the shearing and the somewhat higher cut leg.....and it was half price...that is always the defining factor!  

17 pages...

Ya, that's how long my Workers Compensation final assessment was....17 pages!!!

And being that I will see five different professionals this coming Friday morning...each professional had their own set of questions regarding my injury.

But really now, how many times and how many ways can you answer the same question..."On a scale of one to ten, one being extremely painful....ten being, not painful at all, how would you rate your injury in the past month?"  Each professional's specific form asked pretty much the same question, in varying ways...right down to "on a scale of one to ten...one being not bothered at all...and ten being extremely bothered.....how would you rate your injury affecting your sexual satisfaction in the last month?"  I KID YOU NOT!!!  And some of the other questions were actually funny!!!!

So the next step will be on Friday when I actually have to face all these doctors, therapists, psychologists, etc. with these forms in hand....and the answers that I have filled out!!!  Should be a hoot!  I can be just as weird and funny as they.....and I most likely will have an edge on most of them with around 20 more years of living to back me up!  I shall report to you later whether I passed their tests:)...heeheeheehahahahahahah

I came away from this 17 page document thinking "holy moly...there are actually people who get paid a great deal of cash for asking these questions....I really should switch professions!!!"

And tonight was a church Council meeting where we updated one another on each of our committees that we are responsible for.  It was good.  Our church will be involved in a VERITAS Pathway Seminar in September and we have begun to plan for this already.  We are presently getting a planning committee together to make this happen.  Work, but good and necessary work.  The VERITAS pathway will help us vision together as a church....with God's leading....as to where we should be heading as a church community, and what are the needs that we could meet in our community on the east flat.  How do we become a healthy, missional church?  Many questions that need answers.  Together, as the Body of Christ, we will work towards finding these answers.

Sleep well, friends.  Tomorrow will bring refreshing rain.....'nite Wendy...;)

from Bin Laden to Burgers....

We had it all today.  Every network going had news of Osama bin Laden's death and dropping of this human being into the depths of the sea.  Newsworthy, I suppose.  Most folks in the US were pretty happy/relieved that he had met his Waterloo.  At first, seeing all the cheering and such, it kind of made me sick but then I wondered what I would have done had one of my family been murdered or maimed by the operations of this man.  Yes, I wondered if I would have been cheering too......

We voted......then there was news of a majority Conservative government and a solid opposition party.....NDP opposition.  My father would be rolling over in his grave at THAT news!!!:(

Then news that I have to meet with five professionals with Workers Compensation regarding my knee.  This Friday beginning at 8 AM....an hour with each person.  My physiotherapist today said if my knee doesn't soon get to a healthy place, I may have to revisit the surgeon in Saskatoon and he will have to look again at the MRI to which I replied, "He didn't look at it the first time....he only read the report that was sent to him!"  Hmmmm....
Tomorrow I shall fill in more paperwork with my supervisor and who knows...maybe I'll be back at work soon.

We topped the day off with a home-made burger BBQ.  We decided that the last batch of burgers we made were most excellent and will attempt to do the same with the next batch.  Chicken burgers will also be made.  The last ones were super!

Now, I shall go and look at the election results.  And it was such a lovely day, don't you think?

And look, the leaves are coming out!!  Yay.......

We are reflections....

Whether we like it or not, our faces reflect a great deal of what's happening on the inside of our person.  Granted, we are all made uniquely, some with natural tendencies to have a constant smile stuck to our faces while others who would rather not work those upwardly inclined facial muscles. 

So, we have the smiley-looking folks and the serious-looking folks.  Outwardly, upon observation, one would think that the latter would need to adjust their inner selves in order to evoke a more positive reflection outwardly.

Following a discussion with husband in this regard, he was very quick to point out that what one sees on the outside, doesn't always reflect our inner selves.  I had to agree with him on that.  I know people who speak in positive and encouraging ways and their hearts are often in a good place of seeing the best in others, even though their faces don't always necessarily reflect total joy....complete with a smiley face:)

The reason I bring this up at all is because for the past two Sundays, while helping with the singing during our worship service, I have noticed very few people singing with smiles on their faces.....even on Easter Sunday!!!  And today was no better.  I have now come to the conclusion that it may take effort on our part to sing AND smile at the same time.  It's just difficult doing both.  I had been wondering about it though and I initially thought to myself that we have an unhappy congregation.....but in reality, we have an unsmiling congregation.  Two totally different things.

So, I shall not be so judgmental from now on.  I shall help lead singing and worship and not worry about why everyone looking towards the front does not express a sense of joy....I shall just enjoy their faces actually being there....with or without expression!

Praise God for the ability to smile....or not!