We're all Sisters!

BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN SISTER
by Maya Angelou

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ
that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not shouting 'I'm clean livin,'
I'm whispering 'I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say.. 'I am a Christian' I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible, but God believes I am worth it.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I still feel the sting of pain...
I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

The Family Room

We've started redecorating our Family Room ... yet again!

It is such a dark room and we're struggling to give it the light it deserves. I've felt like a cave-woman, living in a dull and darkened room these past few years.

So, in order to correct the 'cavey-ness', Craig removed the 'pair of boobies' light fixtures from the ceiling and installed recessed lights in the spring - that helped, but it didn't help much:(

I picked a new paint colour - Swiss Coffee, aka White with a hint of cream. First coat is on ... it needs a second coat today.

If this doesn't help, then I'll need to address the big white elephant sitting front and centre ... well, its brown, tan, stoney, floor to ceiling with a big black metal box sitting in the middle of it. The fireplace! I'm either going to take a paintbrush and my Swiss Coffee to the 'beautiful??' 1970's Yellowstone inspired 'work of art' or simply have an accident with the sledgehammer!

Although, I know that touching the fireplace will then have a knock-on effect ... new fire maybe? Folks admire our stove and say things like "wow - that's unique" or "is that a vintage stove"? I simply reply that its the crappy stove which came with the house and I think it looks like it came off a steam engine. Its only saving grace is that it kicks out some serious heat in a wintertime (along with a ton of black soot which, gets into everything).

Then, of course, there's my wonderful 'blotter' carpet - original 1979 chestnut brown - nope, I'm not going to say any more about 'blotter' - those of you who've seen her, know how she is - and life will be a lot less carefree when she's not around ...

I'm getting distracted by my list of home improvements. I wanted to discuss being overwhelmed and procrastinating.

You see, I've been wanting to start re-painting the Family Room all summer long. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Then, an opportunity arose ... and I put it off. Another opportunity ... I put it off. I was kind of frozen at the thought of 'all that work'.

Last weekend, Craig simply picked up a paintbrush and began cutting in for me - just like that! No big deal! He doesn't see that we're going to be living in a mess for a few days, with no curtains and Family Room stuff strewn about the rest of the house. He just picks up the brush and starts painting. Of course, I'm not too far behind him with my roller (and Cadey behind me with hers)!

I could tell you of many instances that my husband has just needed to give me a push in the right direction! He knew that by simply picking up the paintbrush and making that first brushstroke that I'd be there right behind him!

How all this is true for me and my relationship with Jesus! He's waiting for me to make the first, small move and then He jumps in to fulfill my spirit and soul. Jesus has called me to obey several times in my own walk of faith. I struggle greatly to obey ANYBODY!! But, when things are laid upon my heart by means of the Holy Spirit, of course I struggle, but its a struggling to understand why.

I still put things off, pray, struggle, pray struggle, put off, pray, pray, pray ... come to a point of acceptance or understanding, and allow my heart to be changed, obey (or even simply strive to obey) and my life seems so much brighter.

Just like my Family Room ... I hope:)

Childish Talk

Even though my kids are growing up - heck - one almost has his driver's licence! We still use the childish and very cute pet names for items and stuff which, as little kids, they mispronounced. Here's a list of some:

Mulk = milk
Basketti Bominase = spaghetti bolognese
Tra-bat = battery
Tertis = Curtis
Pancar = Grampa
Tanks = thanks
Wossat fang? = what's that smell?
"Tertis is a wierdo-headi-yack" = Cadence's term of endearment for her brother

Our 2 favourites are:

(From Cadence) ... No-nee = a word used to describe the feeling of touching something velvety, furry or silky. Eg, toys, animals, the sheepskin rugs at Ikea or my pj's. When she was little, the word also incorporated the action of grinding her teeth - I think that it conjured up something emotional within her.

(From Curtis) ... Testicle = Popsicle (ice lolly). He was only 3 1/2 years old, but we still laugh about that one!

Hope I gave you a chuckle, and I hope your family is as silly as mine!

A dog's life

This week is always happy but tinged with sadness ... every year. We remember the passing of our old dog, Bailey. But then we celebrate the birthday of our new dog, Meg.

Bailey came to us as an answered prayer - literally! I'd been in the depths of grief and depression for many months after losing my Dad. I felt so empty inside, and I was seriously considering having another baby ... only one problem there - Craig didn't want to!

So, we decided on getting a dog. The kids and me visited PAWS twice a week, fell in love with a few dogs, but for many reasons, we were unable to adopt from PAWS. We prayed at the reception area of PAWS for Jesus to lead us to our new family member, on several occasions.

Then, my friend Carol called me. She told me about a free dog in the Pickle Press (our local free classifieds newspaper). The dog was Bailey - a lab mix - 18 months old - and she was free (many people were interested in her, so we left our phone number her owners, but didn't hold out much hope of even getting to look at her).

We immediately fell in love with Bailey - she was like a bigger version of Craig's Dad's dog, Sooty, and she was sweet. We had to teach her lots of things - she was soooo submissive! She learned quickly - not to eat the kids toys, to go outside to use the bathroom, not to pull on the leash and to be friendly to other dogs. She was so gentle and affectionate and loved being part of our family.

I began walking with her immediately - in the rain or shine - that was good for me. My depression lifted as soon as she arrived in our home - it turned out that she needed us much more than I needed her though. There had been some neglect in her life - physical touch was lacking, exercise was lacking, affection and love were missing. She got all that and more from us. She was the perfect dog!

We had her in our lives for just a few short years, but she was the centre of our family time and never really made any demands on us, except for food and exercise. She was suddenly diagnosed with Leukemia after an episode of nose-bleeds, she'd spent a day underneath our deck - not wanting to come out. There was nothing we could do, but to have her put out of her pain.

Our lives were empty once more. The kids didn't want to be home alone, I hated coming home to an empty house, I forced myself to walk and people would ask me where my dog was:(

The only thing to do was to get a puppy! We'd found a breeder up in Canada with puppies born a couple of days after we lost Bailey. The kids and I drove up one weekend to visit them - 11 little black balls of mischief! We decided that yes, one of these pups would be ours. We were waiting to get our pick - it felt like forever!

We bought puppy books and videos to educate ourselves and Cadence needed to go out and buy puppy toys. My Mum suggested we call our new dog "D-fer" which we liked, but since we were getting a female, shouldn't it be "B-fer"? Anyways, the name Meg seemed to be a winner - the first dog in my life was a Meg - my grandparents dog.

So, Meg came home at 10 weeks of age. What a nightmare! It was like having a baby again! Having to get up during the night to go potty, watching her like a hawk all day long. Worrying about her when I went to work. It was stressful, but looking back it was also a good thing.

She's such a trusting dog, because we're all she's ever known. We've never been mean to her, never hurt her, so she has no reason to fear us. She is just as loving as Bailey and definitely much more affectionate and she loves to cuddle, sitting on our laps, being cradled like a baby even!

She lives for love, food and walks ... well, that actually should read food, food, food, love, walks! We all adore her and wonder where her 3 years have gone.

I'll quite often think about Bailey - even now, especially when I'm outside, working around the trees in my yard. Her ashes are scattered around my trees - she'd spend hours sitting under them, waiting for the squirrels to venture down. Then, as I'm bending down to prune a plant or do some weeding, I'll get side-swiped or even 2 paws on the back of my shoulders and get pushed to the ground, or "Megged" as we call it. A face full of kisses and I'm immediately brought back into the present day ... Bailey would NEVER have done that!!

Camping Lessons

I'm 'camping' on the camping theme for another day. I came up with some valuable lessons - all of which happened to me and I wish to pass my knowledge on to you!

1. Do not go camping if there is the slightest chance of the tail-end of a hurricane around (even if the weather reporter strongly doubts that it will hit the area). This may cause you to: spend the night in your vehicle, or sleep with total strangers in their tent, or even sleep on the floor of the shower-block.

2. Do drink plenty of water when camping in the summertime. If you only drink beer, you will dehydrate, get constipated and have to spend two days of your vacation inside the tent, in agony, waiting for the laxatives to work.

3. Whilst hanging around the camp-site for your "movement", do not fraternize with other campers. They could be terrorists, plotting to assassinate a governor.

4. Do not let your dog see the dozens of cute little bunnies all over the camp-site. Especially when the lights are shut off at 11pm. Your dog will try to eat and dig her way out of the tent ... all night long.

5. Just because you're camping at a small, rural camp-site at the other end of the country (albeit a very small country), it doesn't mean that you're not going to bump into somebody you know.

6. Do not use baby wipes to wash your hands immediately before putting in your contact lenses ... believe me ... you'll regret it.

7. Unfortunately, no matter how quickly you zip and unzip that door, mosquitoes are still going to get inside the tent - and feast on your blood all night long.

Hope you learned something from my mistakes!

My daughter, the 12 year old photographer

Cadence took these photos last weekend when we went camping ... she blows me away with her talent ... enjoy!

Meesh, Meg (x2) and Mullens

I was feeling flat on Saturday – both emotionally and physically. We’d just said goodbye to Michelle and Megan late on Friday evening. We enjoyed a 2-week whirlwind visit from them. It passed by so quickly – I’m sad that it was only for a fortnight.

I have always enjoyed Michelle’s company. She and Craig are only 14 months apart in age and so they are close through their shared childhood experiences and have similar character traits. She’s a warm, tender-hearted lady and has turned into much more of a sister to me over the years than my own sister (but that is another blog entry in itself).

But I just want to say that I enjoy all my sisters-in-law (all 5 of them). I think that living away from home and the missing relationship I have with my own sister, Sindee, makes me appreciate family even more.

Michelle and her 19 year old daughter, Megan first visited Vancouver for 4 days.

Megan, or Meg for short was a good sport over sharing her name with our dog! – And yes, that did cause some laughter and strange answers, especially when I was talking to my Meg, ie, “Meg, let’s go outside for a pee-pee” or “Meg, want to go for a walk”? The dog was NOT named after my niece; she was named after my Nana & Grandad’s dog – an all black border-collie mix.

They spent the remainder of their vacation with us – visiting Seattle numerous times (Pike Place, Downtown, Pioneer Square, Space Needle, Alki Beach, the Waterfront, the zoo), Whidbey Island, Hurricane Ridge, Leavenworth and shopping Alderwood Mall and the Outlet Mall).

One image of Meg I’ll never forget is of when we turned the corner from driving up to Hurricane Ridge – up onto the plateau … and “BOOM” the view came into view! It took her breath away and she had to stop and stare to drink it all in … not at all what she was expecting! I think she was impressed.

We were exhausted! Not by them, but from being tourists again. They were so easy to entertain.

They left on Friday night.

We’d also agreed to go camping with friends out near Rockport on Saturday. All I wanted to do was spend a day in my PJs on Saturday. But Craig pushed us out of the door. And I’m glad he did.

We found a little piece of paradise! The peace and quiet, the friends, the river, the sun … it was just what my spirit needed. The kids went off and hung out with their friends – it was a true break. Thanks Jim & Charlene for everything! We can’t wait to be invited back.

So, we’re home now, thoroughly refreshed - and some of us resemble dot-to-dot puzzles – thanks to the mosquitoes – some were almost the size of dragonflies!