kitchening

Since we've been wandering through rooms that are not mine -
we may as well head for the kitchen - the heart of the home.

And while we do not have an island
we do have a mighty handy peninsula.
My kitchen has a perpetual stack of dishes to be done.
And looks very much unlike these.
Oh well.

laundry room

Seeing that my bathroom wasn't ever going to look like
the pictures in the post before
I may as well share a picture of
what my laundry room won't look like either.

That having been said...

I am especially happy with most of my laundry room.
Two washing machines and plenty of room to air dry my unmentionables
(which just became a moot point... because I just mentioned them)
Room to keep the clothes that are waiting to be washed.
Room to keep the clothes that are waiting to be folded.
Room to keep the clothes that are waiting to be put away.

There is an obsolete pipe sticking out of the wall and
some drywall work and painting needs to be done,
but, in all, I love to do the laundry in my mellow yellow laundry room.

bathroom

 I am currently cleaning the bathroom.
Just waiting for the floor to dry.
Even when it is clean it doesn't look like this.

Or this...

Or this.

Oh well.

that don't make no cents

Both my Dad and I like to collect coins.
He is especially fond of pennies.
I think that he would like this.....

Last May when I was out on the town with my brother Jeff,
I pretended to look for pennies in the fountain.

I think, for a minute, Jeff thought that I was going to climb over the edge
and go a'swimmin' to get a couple of pennies.

7 up

When I was little we children were not allowed to have any soda pop.
Mom said it was because the sugar was not good for us.
I think part of it was that she was too cheap to have four thirsty kids
guzzling up all the pop in the house.

As we got older we were finally allowed to have some pop.
My favourite was 7UP.
Mom, however, watered it down so much
that we were actually drinking pop that was more like 3 1/2 UP.

My first drink of real pop was too bubbly for me
and I was convinced that someone had put booze in it.

Had I been better at photoshop I would have tweeked this jpg
and made it 3 1/2 UP.

sick

I was sick this past Saturday.
Without revealing too many details
there occurred an intestinal blitzcrieg that rivalled a volcano.
Enough said?

Don't much like feeling sick but I was very disappointed
to miss the concert by Anne and Andrew and a great group of musicians and singers. I sent Martin to the concert with a fully charged digital camera
with video capabilities of over 8 minutes of footage.

Now Martin is not very fond of taking pictures- much less video.
The first video that he recorded was of the dark stage.
Then you could here Laura whisper that maybe he should start to record
when the concert was actually started and the room wasn't dark.
That was the impetus for Martin to hand the technological beast
over to his daughter so she could attempt to capture some of the evening for me.

The camera is not the best and
where they were seated wasn't the best for recording either
but I was so happy to be able to see part of what they performed.

This should link to Jesus Loves Me
Jesus Loves Me on Youtube

This one links to Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace on Youtube

Enjoy. I did.

smart idea

Sometimes I am quite flummoxed with a conundrum.

Don't know that I was ever this brilliant.

sandy

When I was growing up we had a dog named Sandy.
 I don't remember if it was a male or female. But I will refer to it as a male.

It was a nice enough dog.
I believe he was a Husky Collie mix.
He was an outside dog who occasionally got loose and
ran through the countryside ditches and would come home reeking to high heaven.

 

Once there was anticipated bad weather on the way
and we decided to bring Sandy in for the night.
The best place for him to sleep was in the basement
and the dumb dog decided to not participate
in the going down into the aforementioned basement.

This is a picture of another dog doing what Sandy did.
But you have to picture my dad on this side of her
trying to fold her legs in and get her downstairs.

Ah the love of a dog...

books to go

I am getting rid of some of my books.
Definitely not all of them and not even a lot of them.
Just some of them.
Ken had a look and then took some and
I should check with Laura and Scott and
then it is off they go....

If only I could leave them here.

the first day of December

Dragging myself kicking and screaming into the holiday season.

I do enjoy much of it.
Pretty much all of the food,
some of the busyness and
all of the company.

Almost none of the dragging of the tree up from the basement.
An entirely huge amount considering that the itty bitty lights are already attached to the aforementioned tree and I don't need to fuss with strings of lights no more.

( I see the errancy of my grammatical ways and

 flaunt my ability to writes this the way that I wants it)

Going through the box of ornaments with memories delighting my countenance.

( I don't even quite know what that means...

after all, just what is my countenance?

and just why is it delighted by glittery globs of children's creations

 but - oh well )

Tons of it when I get to watch little children's faces when they see the sparkly lights.

As the season begins. Take delight in the wonder.

bewitched

So, if I had to pick a favourite television show from my past it would probably be Bewitched with Elizabeth Montgomery.

The thought of being magical was always quite intriguing to me as a child. I had wished that I had witch powers to help me navigate my life.

I believe I own all of the shows on DVD and looking back at them they are actually quite hoaky but they still hold a nostalgic charm for me that I assume will last as long as I do. 

While I might have wished for magical powers like Samantha I was very glad that I never had to wake up to a new husband and pretend there was no difference between Darrin Number One and Darrin Number Two.

 Darrin One

 Darrin Two

I wanted to live in that house.

I have always thought that Elizabeth Montgomery was the perfect person to play Samantha Stevens. And it wasn't just the twitching nose thing.

I have always thought of Samantha as a beautiful woman. But she was also kind and smart. Samantha was the one with the powers but she struggled with mortal life.
Samantha had a husband who didn't truly understand her. She did her best to give up a magical life to be married to him.

One of the earlier shows had a story line where Darrin wasn't happy with Samantha's efforts to give up witchcraft for him and the story then showed the idea that Darrin was prejudiced against witches. I think it was when I first watched that show that I understood that prejudice comes in alot of forms.
The idea of intentionally choosing the kind of life you live was also a lesson that I learned from that show.

They don't make shows like that anymore.
But it is just as well as we probably wouldn't watch anyway.
I'll stick to watching the old shows when I want a hint of magic in my life again.

Big Bang

One of my favourite current television shows is Big Bang Theroy.

Sheldon: Howard, you know me to be a very smart man.

Don't you think that if I were wrong, I'd know it? 

 And one of my favourite characters is Sheldon Cooper. 

A genius sort that confounds the mind. Played brilliantly by Jim Parsons. 

Howard: Sheldon, if you were a robot, and I knew and you didn't, 

would you want me to tell you?

Sheldon: That depends. When I learn that I'm a robot, 

will I be able to handle it?

Howard: Maybe, although the history of science fiction is not on your side.

Sheldon: Uh, let me ask you this: when I learn that I'm a robot,

 would I be bound by Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics? 

Raj: You might be bound by them right now.

Howard: That's true. Have you ever harmed a human being, 

or, through inaction, allowed a human being to come to harm?

Sheldon: Of course not.

Raj: Have you ever harmed yourself or allowed yourself to be harmed 

except in cases where a human being would've been endangered?

Sheldon: Well, no.

Howard: I smell robot. 

Sheldon: I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

Sheldon: Why do you have the Chinese character for 'soup' 

tattooed on your right buttock?
Penny: It's not 'soup'; it's 'courage'.
Sheldon: No it isn't. But I suppose it does take courage 

to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.

 Sheldon: I am the proud owner of WilWheatonStinks.com, .net and .org!

 

 *After getting a spare in the bowling match*  

Sheldon: THANK YOU JESUS!!! ... as my mother would say.

 Leonard: Do you think we can outrun him? 
Sheldon: I don't need to outrun him, I just need to outrun you.

ninja cake

It probably would have kept some of my kids away.

stack 'em up

this looks like a great way to store your children

oh the irony

attending the (grand)children

I am supposed to babysit Ethan and Moriah today and I am looking forward to it. They have become such little people now and are not babies anymore.

When Alexander and Isabel were over and we tried to get a picture of me with the two of them. So we took alot of pictures trying to get a good one. This one was the best.

But most of the pictures ended up more like this one.

 *****************************************************************

Someone's brilliant idea.

food glorious food

Some people have very creative ideas about how to serve food.

If I am ever accused of creativity in that department 

the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of me having stolen that idea. 

Here is a good one.

 

  and another and

then another

a work of art - in my opinion

the great clothesline battle of 2012

My clothesline was injured in the great bobcat war of 2012. 

Martin was going back and forth 

with dirt or rocks or some such stuff 

and snagged my clothesline.

A battle ensued and the clothesline lost. 

Bobcat 1

Clothesline 0

It is good that we are coming up on the time of year 

that is getting too cold out to want to hang much outside anymore.

Now I cannot so this.....

 Not that I was going to...

My kids are much to big for that...

But grandkids are always an option...

clever idea

It is amazing how people can come up with clever ideas.

so that's where they went

I always knew that they left town and gathered some where else.
They certainly are not in my dryer.

Well done good and faithful servant

My mother-in-law passed away almost two weeks ago. It was a sad time for us, yet  during this time there were so many reasons to be so thankful.

For the godly mother that she was for my husband and his siblings.

For the wonderful church family and retirement community that they were a part of.

For the wonderful care she had been receiving from St. Joseph's Hospital since March.

For her ability to communicate with us until very close to her passing. 

For medication when the pain increased. 

For the singing we were able to do the day before. She was able to sing along and while the voice was scratchy and slow - it was simply a beautiful testimony of God's care for her - and us.

For the fact that Dad was with her when she passed and that it was peaceful. 

For the family ties that held together during the week of preparing for her memorial service. 

She had wanted so much to go back home to be with her husband but her medical condition simply did not make that possible. I believe that now she is where she longed most to be - at home with Jesus. I had prepared a bit of a biography to be included in the bulletin for the memorial service. It follows:

                                   щщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщщ

Sjoukje 'Shirley' Everhardus was born on April 2, 1930. She grew up on a family farm in Groningen with 11 siblings. In 1950 Mom's family gathered to meet a visiting friend of her brother Bruin. He was a young man from Drenthe named Henk. As the evening wore on, the family all left the room until Henk and Sjoukje were alone. Sparks began to fly. They were able to spend 3 1/2 months getting to know each other before Dad left for Canada to start his own farm.

When Dad moved to Canada facial hair made its way to his upper lip. They corresponded by mail for 1 1\2 years and the letters kept getting longer and longer then plans were made for Mom to come to Canada. When she arrived Dad was told he could have a moustache or a wife. He chose the wife. They married within a month during the Sunday evening service in the Jarvis CRC on October 19, 1952 .

Their first home was a little farm on Army Camp Road in Hagersville. No running water and no electricity. The children began to arrive: first was Sylvia and then Martin and then Chris.

Then they moved to Mount Hope where Harriet joined the family and they all eventually moved to Hamilton in 1965. Dad worked in construction and then started his own concrete business in 1967.

Mom would help Dad by taking phone messages and mending his ripped pants. When Dad first started working in different cities Mom did ask him why he was always going to work for this Mrs. Sauga.

Mom was an environmentalist long before it came popular. Waste was not good. There was always a big garden and lots of canning done. Mom spent many hours sewing clothes for her family. She was able to knit with her eyes closed and even with her hands behind her back.

Quite often when we would visit Mom and Dad we would end up leaving with something or other - some knick-knack or dinges that they thought we could use. One of our favourite family stories is about the time that Mom and Dad had given Chris a pair of Dad's pants that they thought might fit. Then years later Mom and Dad went to a garage sale held by Chris and Cathy. Dad and Mom saw a pair of pants there that looked good and went to try it on. It fit well so Dad and Mom bought the pants. It wasn't until later that they discovered that they had just bought Dad's pants back.

Was it always easy? Not it was not. Along with much joy there was sadness and losses along the way. Despite challenges with her health for many years Mom was still able to take care of her family quite capably. Through it all Dad was by her side caring for her and loving her. When Mom's health deteriorated her granddaughter Cara was particularly helpful.

Mom's family would like to thank Mom and Dad's Wellingstone family, their church family and pastor who have been very supportive. In particular Henny Haveman has been beyond wonderful to Dad by daily driving him to the hospital to visit Mom for months. There were many tangible ways for them to see how much they are loved.

Mom's faith was something that defined who she was. Her love for God and her longing for heaven was clear to all of us who knew her well. We will miss her.