Happy New Year!

As unbelievable as it seems, another Christmas is over and it is almost 2016!  It took me most of this year to get it into my head that it was 2015, but here we are, only days away from another new year.  I swear that the older I get the faster time goes by.

Christmas was nice, fairly quiet with only six of us here for dinner.  We spoiled each other with gifts and with my retirement package, I was allowed to be more generous than usual.  Next year, on a pension, it might be a bit of a different story.  We’ll see.

Boxing Day, we were at my Dad’s and there were 22 for dinner!  Quite the crowd, but a lovely visit.  I look forward to spending more time in Napanee in the new year, now that I am retired.  Mind you, Dad and Sally will be heading to Australia on January 2nd and won’t be back until mid February, so visits won’t likely start until the spring, although we have yet to see what winter has in store for us!

As to my retirement, to be completely honest, I don’t think I want to work anymore, except perhaps as a volunteer with seniors and to use the training I will get this year while becoming a deacon.  I have so many books to read, rooms and closets to organize, crafts to do!  Who has time to work? I also hope to be able to visit some people that I haven’t had the time to see.

I was pretty good this year.  I did connect by phone with folks I hadn’t been in contact with for some time.  Next year, perhaps I can actually go out and visit them!

So, a short blog today, to send out blessings to one and all for a wondrous and prosperous new year.  May you set and attain your goals this coming year!  God bless.

Christmas Traditions

Happy rainy Monday!  I have made no secret of the fact that I am a Christian.  I can’t say if I was born a Christian, because I was adopted as a baby, but I was raised one, and I tried to instil my beliefs in my daughters, particularly around Christmas.

When my girls were young, one tradition we had was to have a birthday cake on Christmas Day, to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It was made in the shape of a star and the frosting was always yellow.

One of the other traditions was to always get together as a family.  This was challenging for my siblings on the west coast, but those in Ontario got together Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day.  My daughters’ father had left before Kaitlyn’s first Christmas, so it was especially nice to be around family.

When the girls were quite young, we would go up to my parents home ahead of Christmas, but when my oldest was about four, she decided she wanted Santa to come to our house.  That began a many year tradition of going up to my parents (a nearly five hour drive) on Christmas morning.  It was very challenging in some of the weather we got around that time of year, but we managed it.

A newer tradition that my brother Paul started a few years ago, was the ‘Deck Paul’s Halls’ annual event.  It was intended to have the nieces and nephews decorate his tree, but there are a couple of aunts that seem to be more into it than the younger ones, but nonetheless, it is a great time to be together and we enjoy the time together.

Time goes on and traditions change a bit as families change, until we settle into new traditions.  We lost my mother just over ten years ago and then three years ago, my father sold the house, so we are settling into new traditions.  I must confess that my father has been away for a couple of Christmases, which makes me sad, but his girlfriend has so much of her family in Australia, I understand

Now, my girls come to my place for Christmas.  This year, my girls will arrive on Christmas Eve with their stepsister Victoria and Victoria’s boyfriend Shavoy.  This is kind of a bi-annual tradition.  Victoria is the daughter of the woman my ex-husband left me for, but Victoria and my kids seem to have been disowned by Gary and Litsa, so I am happy to welcome them all.  Victoria is a lovely person and we enjoy her company.

So, I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, with all of your own traditions and pray that all of you have a prosperous new year!  God bless.

Car Saga

It looks like I have yet to blog on the story of my car.  Black Monday (the day our company let 500 of us go, including me), was the 16th of November.  On the 22nd of November, my honey totaled my car.

I should start out by saying that except for a bit of a sore neck, Cavan was fine.  The airbags did not even deploy.  What happened was this:  some driver decided to cut off a car, which caused that guy to slam on his brakes, which caused the guy behind him to plow into him, the next car to slam into that one and then Cavan slid under the back of that pickup.  So, Cavan was the 4th into the accident.

My car was an eight year old Pontiac G5.  The damage was really just that the hood of the car accordioned up.  At least that was all that it looked like.  Then the tow truck drivers got involved.  What happens when you lift the front of a pickup and pull it forward when it has a car part way under it?  It pulls the whole front off the little car!  Most of the damage to our car was done by the tow truck.

To add insult to injury, the police would not let Cavan call CAA (the Canadian equivalent to AAA) and he had to let a tow truck on the scene take the car.  This resulted in our car being held hostage for nine days!  Cavan called the tow truck driver the Monday to have the car released, but he refused.  We tried again on Tuesday, but the guy insisted that someone had to be there to fill in forms.  I had to be in the city on the Wednesday, so I went to this place that actually had my car locked in a fenced in area.  I was told that he had to be sure he gave the car to the owner. He had no forms, I just put a declaration, freeform, on a folder and he never asked for ID, license or even ownership.

Our insurance company was unable to get a truck to pick the car up that day and the next day was US Thanksgiving, and the tow trucks were dispatched out of the US, so another day went by.  On the Friday, the insurance tow truck showed up and the guy insisted on over $1000 to release the car!  The insurance company wouldn’t pay it, but later that day, they negotiated a price.  The weekend went by and so did Monday.  Tuesday, my car was finally moved to where it was supposed to be.

In the meantime, we had a rental car and anticipating a new car, we rented a Hyundai Elantra, which is what I expected to replace the old car with, at some point.  The mechanic at CarStar was working on the estimate, but up until now, everyone told us it was not worth fixing, so we decided to take advantage of the Black Friday pricing.  The deals ran until November 30th, so we showed up on the 30th.  There were only two cars left that had that deal and I chose the red Elantra GLS with the tinted windows, discounted at $5000 off!

So, new retirement, new car!  It is still too busy to know what retirement is all about, but perhaps after Christmas, I’ll figure it out!

Here’s wishing all of you happy new adventures!  God Bless!

Christmas Concert

Happy Monday afternoon!  I’m late getting to my weekly blog because I was in Toronto from Friday night until Sunday evening.  Cavan was singing with the St. Michael’s Choir School Alumni Association at Massey Hall.  The final practice was Friday evening, with concerts on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm.

While Cavan was at the rehearsal Friday evening, I got to have dinner with my daughters at Yonge and Gerrard.  The dinner was delicious and we had a great chat.

I didn’t attend the Saturday concert, so I got to spend some more time with Alysse.  She met me at the hotel just ahead of noon and we wandered over to Allan Gardens for a little while and then stopped at Cora’s for lunch on our way to her place.  At Alysse’s, I got to help her decorate her Christmas tree and we baked some delicious paleo brownies!

Alysse then styled my hair for the St. Michael’s dinner and I headed back to the hotel to change for the event.  It was another lovely meal, but I was pretty tired from all of the walking I had done in the city that day!  We headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next day we slept in and had confirmed a late checkout at noon.  We loaded up the car and parked in the Choir School parking lot meeting Cavan’s brother, sister-in-law and mother for lunch along with his sister-in-law’s mother.  We ate at Fran’s, right across from Massey Hall and then just walked over for the event.

It was a wonderful concert!  The little kids from St. Mike’s (the Choir School starts at grade 3) were just adorable, but it was the Alumni that got the standing ovation. It was a great concert.  The Alumni for this performance range from the class of 1946 to the class of 2009.  The group was over 70 voices strong and just goes to show you that once you have talent, you can conjure it up whenever necessary!

So, this is just a short blog because I need to get to my Christmas cards!  I haven’t even had time to figure out what retirement is all about!

Stay safe and enjoy the coming festive weeks leading up to Christmas.  God bless you all!

Paleo

Good Sunday afternoon!  I promised to blog about paleo and I’m finally getting around to it!  There is another topic that I would like to blog about--my car--but that saga is not yet over, so that can wait until next week.

So, November first I decided to get serious about sticking to the paleo lifestyle.  I had kind of been dabbling in it for some months, but was not totally sticking to it.  I decided that November was a good time to get serious.  I was working from home most of the time and now it seems, am among the pensioners crowd, so I have time to focus on this.  

Cavan and I have been having fruit smoothies every morning for a while.  Just frozen fruit (yes, I check to make sure there is NO sugar or sweeteners added), almonds and a bit of juice so that it doesn’t become a slushie.  Juice isn’t generally recommended, but I do make sure that it doesn’t have any additives.

Lunch is generally either nuts and dried fruit, or vegetable soup that I make myself.

Dinner is either beef, pork, poultry or fish, with vegetables.  No potatoes, although sometimes Cavan has potatoes and if I have anything else, it might be squash or sweet potatoes.

I even made my own spaghetti sauce, with just canned tomato sauce (nothing added, not even salt), with a cooked ground beef/pork combo, chopped veggies and spices.  Then I cook spaghetti squash and have the sauce on it.  Great stuff!

If we go out, I often have eggs, as an omelette, or scrambled.  Sometimes I have a salad with grilled chicken, or once with grilled salmon.  The salad dressing is my little cheat.

So, it looks like my belly has deflated and clothes fit much better.  I think I will stick with it!!  

I will try some more baking, as well.  I made paleo cinnamon rolls that even Cavan liked!  With Christmas coming up, I am planning some more paleo baking, of course.  I have some recipes to try.  There are tons of paleo websites out there with oodles of great recipes.  This is not that difficult to stick to.

I am never hungry, so the only reason I might stray is if I am out for a meal and I can’t get exactly what I want.

This is a great lifestyle and I will try to carry it on for the rest of my life.  As the wheat belly book says (and that is where I started this journey), stick with one ingredient foods.  It is much better for you.  We need to get away from these chemicals.  They can’t possible be good for us.

So, I pray that everyone has a great week and wish you all well with your own food journey!

Surprise Retirement

Happy Sunday!  I’m afraid that I will be pushing paleo out another week, because I am going to blog about my surprise retirement.

Just so you aren’t left hanging on the paleo topic, let me at least say that I have been dedicated to paleo--before I was kind of doing paleo, but not dedicated--I have lost 10 pounds.  Now that is 10 pounds from November 1st until now, November 22nd.  I would say that is pretty good, but I will blog about it more next week unless interrupted by something else!

Anyway, let me set the scene for my surprise retirement story.  I have worked for Enbridge for over 31 years.  They have been very good to me through all of life’s ups and downs, including divorce, single parenthood and my MS diagnosis.  I have tried not to have to be off very often for any of my challenges over the years, and in more recent years, I haven’t had to be off for any reason other than the usual cold, or whatever, but I have had to have accommodations made.

My most recent boss was so very understanding and would agree to almost anything, as long as I didn’t retire!  So, I progressed from, working at home on Fridays, to working from home Mondays and Fridays, to only being in the office a day or two a week--whenever necessary to attend meetings on site, although mostly, I dealt with folks in Calgary, Edmonton and Houston.

Then, we worked out this plan of 9/80, which I believe I blogged about.  It meant that I worked nine hours Monday to Thursday and the first Friday I worked eight hours and then had every other Friday off.  Of course, there are ten statutory holidays in Ontario, plus, we got one Scheduled Day Off (SDO) each month, and I had six weeks vacation, once I had 30 years of service.  So, my next progression was to take the first Friday off as an SDO, or a vacation day.  That still left me with several vacation days.

So, long story short, I was working mostly from home, nine hours a day, four days a week.  Enbridge has been kind to me.

That was working nicely, and then Monday, November 16th arrived and at 10am, I got the call letting me know that due to workforce reduction, my employment ended .  I will admit that it was a shock, but again Enbridge has been kind to me.  I could have retired in May of 2014, but continued on because my youngest was still in post secondary school.  I now have a full pension, and get to begin the next chapter in my life.  They were also kind with enough severance to allow me to continue to help my youngest until she graduates in April.  Life is good.

I now have the time to catch up on reading, writing, crafts and the many movies that are still in shrink wrap, that I have collected.  I also have other ideas in mind, but I will try not to overtax my MS.

So, I pray that whatever chapter you are in, in your life, it is working well for you.  God Bless!

Paris

I was planning on blogging about paleo this week, but as I await a customer service rep to answer my call at Indigo, I’ll begin my blog and it will focus on the events in Paris.

The events in Paris this week are positively horrifying and heartbreaking.  Imagine, you are out for a nice evening and all hell breaks loose and we’re not talking the usual crazies who have had too much to drink, we’re talking suicide bombers--the day before it would have been unimaginable.  

I truly cannot even imagine what it was like to be there but my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and everyone.  Even here in Canada, Facebook and Twitter have been lighting up with thoughts, fears and prayers.  When will it all end?  

I have a great interest in religion.  I cannot even possibly imagine that anything in the Koran or any other religious works is telling people to do this.  It cannot be!  Whether you believe in Yahweh, God, Allah, or any other god, are they not all merciful and understanding?  Do they not all teach us to love one another?  How did things go so wrong?

I know that the God that I believe in teaches us to love one another as he has loved us.  He gave us free will, but it was not meant to do these things.  We all have difficulties in life, some much more than others, but we must not blame each other for that.  We must help each other to get through this life.

There is truly enough food and water on earth for us all and we can share.  We are free to worship whoever we wish to as part of our free will.  Although our God asks us to have no other gods before Him.

I spent some time reading things on the Internet yesterday--perhaps not the best idea.  One article I read said that the perpetrators want to force armageddon!  Do we really need to see the end of our planet?  For what purpose?  Is it really time for mankind to be obliterated?  Wow.  Pretty wild ideas.  Can’t we just sit down and work through this?

It seems I have way more questions than answers.  We can only hope that we can avoid another horrible incident, by staying ahead of these zealots.  Is that possible?

Please pray that this is possible and as each week passes, we begin to breathe again and enjoy the wonders of this planet called earth rather than watching them be destroyed.

God bless you and keep you!

Book Blues

Happy Sunday!  It’s a chilly one here in the feel good town of Cobourg, but a lovely sunny day.

Cavan and I spent several hours at Word Northumberland yesterday.  I did sell two books to a librarian at the Colborne library.  I’m afraid that was it.  Since it was only $10 for the table, I guess I did have a bit of a profit.  Disappointing, but as another author pointed out, ‘No-one in Canada makes money off of books except for Margaret Atwood.’  Probably reasonably accurate, although there are a few other great and prolific authors north of the 49th parallel.

The problem with my books and I knew this from the start, is that the age group is pretty small and, of course they are Christian books, which makes the audience even smaller. Oh well, I certainly published with my eyes wide open.

This week my second book ‘Animals of the New Testament’ was reviewed by the Christian Children’s Book Review.  It was not a good review.  The actual overall rating was ‘ho-hum.’  Oh well.  They took exception to the price, which I agree is too high, but set by the publisher, so I have no control over that. They also took exception to there not being enough pictures.  That was mostly controlled by what I could afford and since I decided to pack six stories in each book, there was only one picture followed by three pages of text.

They also had major issues with the book as it was taken as fact.  Yes, I do have a line of scripture at the beginning of each story to say where the facts were.  And yes, I inserted animals to help children remember the stories.  The critic felt that was too much of a stretch.

I believe that taken in the right light, that the books have merit and for those who don’t take the Bible literally, it might work better for them.  I’m quite sure that there were many other minor characters not mentioned in the Bible.  I did stay true to what animals do live in the region of the world that the stories took place--hence no polar bears or penguins!

Well, I keep plugging away.  As I mentioned to one publisher yesterday, ‘Books are only a tiny bit writing and publishing and a huge amount of marketing!’ I think that any author will agree with that.

As often happens to me, I left the event yesterday with more books than I arrived with.  That is the problem when you are not only a writer, but also a reader!  Not to mention that Christmas is coming and I bought some as gifts!

I pray that everyone has a great week and don’t sweat the critics!  If in your heart of hearts, you believe you are doing something worthwhile, carry on!  God bless you all.

November

Under the category of ‘time flies,’ here we are in November!  Hallowe’en is over and we now begin my favorite season:  Christmas!

I must confess that I don’t decorate as much as I did when the girls were little but, I still love Christmas!  I don’t decorate so much for two reasons.  One, my girls are grown and on their own, and two, I just don’t have the energy anymore.  

Cavan suggested bringing in the tree yesterday and I thought it was too soon.  I then realized that with life being so busy over the next few weeks, that perhaps I should start now!  Well, maybe next week.  

Even though I love Christmas, to me it loses that feeling of being special if you extend it too long.  Mind you, extending it into the new year, might get us through a cold and blustery winter! Hm….

One of my favorite traditions during this season, is a special day that I spend with my good friend Viv.  One day in December, usually the first Friday, I take Viv down to the Gardner Museum for the Twelve Trees of Christmas.  They have twelve trees on exhibit, each decorated by a different designer or architect.  Every year there is a theme.  

The very first year I went, my girls were quite small and the theme was ‘Over the Decades’ and they had a beanie baby tree for the 90’s, a space race tree (half US and half USSR) for the 60’s and a Monopoly tree for the 50’s.  it was great.

Every year the theme is different.  This year, it is ‘The Joy of Creativity,’ I’m sure it will be lovely.  Some years have trees that are a bit too ‘artsy’ for me.  I don’t remember the theme, but one year had a huge Christmas cookie cutter.  It was interesting, but a huge metal cookie cutter with no decorations is not my cup of tea.  One year had the ‘homeless’ decorated tree in a shopping cart.

The exhibit is definitely worth seeing.  This year, I discovered that the Allan Gardens has a special Christmas exhibit, with over 30 varieties of poinsettias!  Viv and I are adding it to our annual tradition.  What could be better than adding more horticulture to twelve trees!  I am really looking forward to this year!

The Allan Gardens event begins on the first Sunday of December, so Viv and I will delay our tradition for a week to fit in both.

The first weekend of December is pretty busy anyway.  Cavan is singing with the St. Mike’s choir alumni at Massey Hall.  I think I mentioned that in last week’s blog.  The Friday night is the rehearsal and then the shows are 3pm on Saturday and again on Sunday.  Busy times!

So, God bless everyone as they begin their own Christmas traditions!  Have a blessed week!

Busy Season

Okay, done whining for now!  My whining seemed to cause a bit of a ruckus.  My kids were informed that the fact that they cannot get along is not my fault and does not make me a bad mother.  I guess it’s just me.  I accept all kinds of blame.  Mind you, in this case I think that I should have taught more tolerance.  I would say shown more tolerance, but I don’t think that there are many more tolerant than me.  Next topic………….

We are coming into the busiest season of the year.  Being busy makes time go by very fast.  I can’t imagine the next two months going by any faster than the rest of the year!  It took me half of the year to get used to the fact that it was 2015!

So, Halloween is coming up on Saturday (yikes, still need to get candy!) and I have tickets to see ‘Harvey,’ with Dad, Sally and friends from Cobourg at the dinner theatre on Sunday.  The following Saturday is Word on the Street Northumberland, where I have another chance to sell my books.

After that, Cavan has Sunday evening practices for his upcoming afternoon performances with the choir school at Massey Hall on December 4th and 5th.  The following weekend, just the alumni of the choir school sing in Colgan, the home of the originator of the choir school.  

Then, of course, we get into full blown Christmas season!  Christmas is my favourite time of year!  I miss buying stuff for my siblings--we chose to only buy for nieces and nephews.  But that’s okay.  I have started shopping already, of course!  I was at a book signing for Neil Pasricha’s picture book--The Book of Awesome.  It’s for my littlest niece.  The pictures are great.  I have also shopped for my older niece.  I don’t quite know what to buy my nephews, but I’m sure I will come up with something.

I need to find a good time to get my lovely Christmas tree up.  One of the great features of this house is that it has a beautiful nine foot high window (about two feet off the ground) that is absolutely perfect for a tall, slim nine foot Christmas tree.  It’s beautiful!  It makes me very happy to have it there for Christmas.  As well as that, last year I finally put up my Christmas tree from the old house, in the family room downstairs.  I added a couple of ceramic trees and others that I had, that caused Cavan to call it ‘the forest.’  Just wait!  That threw down the gauntlet of challenge.  I didn’t put out all of the trees that I have.  This year, I will!  Big and small, I shall have all of my trees out!

Of course, in the midst of that, I still have work.  There is still lots to keep me busy finishing up the assessments for this year and planning next year.

So, now, I am on a mission to work as long as I can.  The longer I work, the faster I can pay off the debt I have accumulated while my girls finished post secondary school and got their careers off the ground. I achieved what I wanted and that is that they have no student debt.  Unfortunately, I have it, but I’m also in a better position to pay it off.

All is good.  As I always say, I am truly very blessed (despite my whining!).  I am grateful for every blessing and every challenge.  Let’s see what comes next!

God love all of you who read my blogs!  May you have a blessed week!

Terrible Mother

My apologies for using this blog to whine, and I know I whine a lot!  

There was a time when I thought that I was an amazing mother.  People often said that even though I had been a single mother since my youngest was four months old and my oldest only two and a half, that I did more with my girls than most two parent families, and I have MS.

As time went on an I had difficulties managing money and bad things happened to my kids, I began to realize that I wasn’t so great a mother.  No matter what happened, I loved my daughters and supported them through all of their challenges, and mine.

My girls are all grown up now and I am so very proud of who they are and what they have managed to accomplish.

Okay, this the proud momma part.  My oldest is a hair stylist and not any old hair stylist, she does weddings and photo shoots.  Most recently, a wedding photoshoot that she did the hair for was on the cover of a wedding magazine in the UK!  My youngest, despite her challenges with the dyslexia, is in her last year of university and will graduate with a BComm.  Very proud momma!

Both girls live on their own and are contributing members of society.  I do pay for my youngest daughter’s tuition and books as well as the apartment she lives in.  As soon as she lands a decent job, she will cover her rent as well as her other expenses.

So, where does the terrible mother part come in?  My kids can never seem to get along.  Oddly enough, although they always seem to be in a fight about something, I know that in a heartbeat, if something happened to one of them, the other would be there to support them.  I know this because it has proven to be true time and time again.

Am I asking too much?  Life is never perfect, but what did I do wrong?  Why couldn’t I have raised them to be more tolerant of each other?  It seems to be too late to fix it now.  Although this has been going on pretty much all of their lives, I have tried just about everything!

I’m open to suggestions.I think that perhaps I need to get them together and just talk this latest issue  through.  The only thing is, I figure that it will only last until the next blow up.  Is that all I can hope for?  Will the wisdom of age help them over time?  It is only the three of us.  How tough can it be?

Okay, that is my whining for the week.  I’ll try to find something more upbeat to blog about next week.  God willing, there will be a truce between my girls.

God willing, everyone’s week will be a positive one!  God bless!

Thanksgiving

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!  I was going to write a whining blog about what a terrible mother I am, but it’s Thanksgiving, which is a time to be thankful and I have much to be thankful for!

In my daily prayers, I always mention how thankful I am for God’s patience and understanding as well as His love and support.  I am also so very thankful for the angels that watch over me every day and they have lots of patience and understanding too!

I am thankful for my daughters, and Cavan and my good friends Viv and Dawn.  I am also thankful for the family members that God has called home before me; notably, my mother, my brother Bruce and my father-in-law Paul, although there are many more that I don’t remember to name in my prayers.

I am thankful for my father and his partner Sally, all of my siblings, their spouses and children.  

I am also thankful for Cavan’s mother and his three brothers, their spouses and children.

I am thankful for my work, for Enbridge, for my colleagues and coworkers, for my pay and bonuses, raises and work benefits as well as my bosses.

I am thankful for being able to get out of bed in the morning.  Twenty-two years with MS and I am still managing--truly a blessing!

I am thankful for this house, our home, my cats, of course, and my eight year old car that still gets me into the city and home again.

And I am especially thankful for all of the little blessings that I know I don’t acknowledge, but get me through each and every day.

How can anyone not be thankful at Thanksgiving with so many blessings?

I pray that everyone takes the time over Thanksgiving to remember what they are thankful for!  May God bless you all with continued blessings!

Challenging Week

Happy Saturday!  I expected to write about a challenging week in this blog, but I had no idea just how it was going to end.  And I’m still waiting for it to end!

I started the week at Toronto’s Word on the Street, where I didn’t even sell one book!  Very disappointing.  I did have some wonderful conversations with people who dropped by my table, though, and many took business cards, saying they would be in touch.  I wonder just how many will, if any.

I spent the night at my good friend Viv’s place, as Monday was a work day, and the following two days was spent downtown at a cybersecurity conference for work.  Wednesday evening, it got to go home and Thursday, I worked from home.  Friday, I awoke with a full blown cold!  Germs from the city, I suppose.  I am just hoping that the cold leaves as quickly as it came!

I popped some meds to try to battle the sneezing, coughing and runny nose stuff and actually managed to sleep alright, last night.  It almost feels more like a flu today, but I am managing to be upright to get a few things done.

This is starting to tell me though, that I should stay in my lovely little town of Cobourg, where I seem to be healthy.  Mind you, after the cybersecurity conference, I wanted to cut all ties with the internet world and never leave my house!!

So, this is a short blog, as I really need to go lie down for a while.

I pray this little blog finds everyone else healthy!  God bless you all!

Life is Too Short

While I was still trying to resolve the passing of someone from my company, I was informed of the quick passing of someone else I worked with.  Both were taken by cancer.  In this day and age it seems unbelievable that we lose so many to the many forms of cancer.  We are certainly trying to invest tons of money into finding cures.

I should point out that I also lost my mother and my oldest brother to two different forms of the disease.  Mostly it just seems that life is too short for some.  On the other hand, my dearest friend Viv will be 90 next year and she has two friends that are over 100!  So, what are they doing differently?  Isn’t that just the age old question!

I remember the Flintstone’s movie a few years ago, where Barney is bugging Fred for eating one of those huge drumsticks for lunch and telling him that he should eat healthier.  Fred says that what he is eating is fine and that his father died at the ripe old age of 32!  Okay it may have been 36 or 38, but it was thirty something.  You get the point.

So, basically, we are living longer for the most part, but we still seem to have these nasty diseases that can take us whenever they like.  Not to mention that many of these things didn’t even seem to exist years ago.  Mostly, I am referring to allergies. When I was growing up, you heard of the odd person with a peanut allergy and yet now, there are way more folks with food and other allergies.  What’s up?  Don’t we all wish we knew?

Suffice it to say that no longer how long you live, or the bumps along the way, life is too short, especially, if you don’t make the best of it.

We need to quit blaming others for the challenges in our lives and turn the challenges into opportunities.  Strive to do the things you want to do and give back to your community. That way, when your number comes up, you can say that you did your best to make the world a better place and while doing so, made yourself the best you could be.

God bless all of you with your challenges!

Has the World Gone Apple?

Good Saturday afternoon!  It is a rather dull, but not rainy at the moment, day in the resort town of Cobourg.  The perfect day to catch up on the week’s newspapers.  If it were cooler, I would say that it’s a great day to make some soup or stew, but although the temperature is a little cooler than before, it is still humid outside.  Very strange.

I write this this a day ahead of heading into Oakville with Cavan because he is buying an Apple computer (that he found on Kijiji no less!).  If you know Cavan, you will find this quite odd.  Although he has long since stopped being enamored with Windows (he much prefers Linux these days), he is actually going to be teaching Apple stuff to seniors.

By Apple stuff, I mean that he will be teaching iPhone 101, iPad 101 and MacBook 101 to seniors at the Cobourg Community Centre starting the 22nd of September.  He will also be teaching Windows 201 to seniors, as well, for those who want to know more than the basics of Windows.

I think he will be great at it and I also think that it is a great way to connect with the community that we have come to be part of.

What surprises me is that seniors want to get into Apple.  I’m darn near a senior myself and I have one of the old iPads (one of the originals!) that I hardly use.  Oh, I can read and respond to e-mail pretty much anywhere--my Sumsung Android phone, my Apple iPad, my Dell laptop from work in my front office, my HP Windows All-in-one workstation downstairs, or the Chrome Box I’m working on right now. But when it comes to much more than that, I have to stick with Windows.

From what I’ve seen, Apple does have the home market and doesn’t seem to be interested much in the business market, but it seems to be mostly the younger generations that are embracing Apple.  Both of my daughters have Apple phones, iPads and computers and they are in their mid twenties.  Us old fuddy duddys seem to stick with the older technologies.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Who knows.  As long as we can connect with the outside world, we all seem to be happy.  Even my kids seem to be impressed with my over 4400 Twitter followers!  Imagine!  Who knew that was possible?

So, grab your technology and connect with the world out there!  I’m of the belief that one day, God or Jesus will find a way to connect with all of us through the many technologies out there.  Do you think they would prefer Apple, Windows or Linux?

Press on with your choice of technology and God love you all!

Rejoice!

Good Sunday morning everyone!  It’s a dull and cool day here in the lovely little town of Cobourg.  A perfect day for curling up with a good book.  The grass and the flowers need the rain that is falling on and off, so it’s all good.

I am rejoicing for something pretty small, but none-the-less, it’s kind of big for me.  I got a royalty check this week!  Wahoo!   Okay, so it’s only $2.18 (US!), but it means that someone went to the bother of buying one of my books.  That makes me very  happy!!  Of course, the ultimate would be to sell enough to retire on, but it’s worth rejoicing over the small stuff.

I have the Toronto Word on the Street coming up on September 27th and I am looking forward to the event.  Perhaps a few more sales!  I am staying very positive.  Quite frankly, although I don’t go to many of these events, I do enjoy them.  I love meeting other bibliophiles in general.  Unlike the Toronto Book Fair I was at last year, there are some really good deals to be had at this event.  I have only attended a few times, but it truly is an event worth attending.

For those of you in Toronto and the surrounding area, please come to the event, if you can.  This is the first time that small-time authors, like me, are able to have tables.  So, it will be a great event--everything from the big folks like Amazon, right down to the little folks like me, will be there.  If you do come, please pop by and visit (or even buy a book or two!).  I’ll be in the KidStreet indoor area.

There will also be a few authors at this event.  Quite a few, as a matter of fact.   You  may get to meet some authors you have only known through their work.  There is also free stuff being handed out--bookmarks, magazines, etc.  I am hoping for good weather that Sunday, as most of the tables are outside.  They are under tent awnings, but none-the-less, it is better with good weather.

Of course, for those of you who cannot attend, you may find my books here:  www.animalsofthebible.com or even on my own site www.janetkwarren.com.

So, happy Sunday to everyone and may God be with you as you go through this week!

Pep Talk

I find myself often looking for a pep talk.

I have given many to my kids over the years and even to Cavan on occasion.  Sometimes, I even give them to myself, only I’m afraid that the pep talks to myself are a little more brutal, but then, aren’t we all a little hard on ourselves?

Just yesterday, I sent a Pinterest pin to one of my kids saying ‘Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.’  Every now and then we need someone (even ourselves!) to remind us that even though we are at a low point, we are not worthless and just need some encouragement to carry on.  

Sometimes we are at a really low point and need serious help and a simple pep talk isn’t good enough.  I thought I was at that point a little after my ex-husband left me when our youngest was 4 months old.  I saw a ‘shrink’ who told me that it takes about two months for every year you were together, to get over a person, and that by Christmas I would be fine.  That was not a pep talk and was not of use at all quite frankly.  Not to mention that everyone goes through things in their own time.

So, we all learn to carry on in our own way, or not.  I remember another instance, when I was in hospital, when I was first diagnosed with MS.  My neurologist recommended that I see a psychologist at the hospital.  It was funny actually, he asked me several questions like, ‘Are you sleeping okay?’, ‘How much are you drinking?’, ‘Are you taking any drugs?’, that sort of thing.  After that he said ‘So, you seem fine, why did you come to see me?’

I explained about my husband telling me he was leaving when our youngest was a week and a half old, going to tell my parents about it and finding my father had a brain tumor, losing a great aunt that I was very close to, being effectively demoted when I returned to work, living on caffeine pills to function when I returned to work from maternity leave and then the MS symptoms and diagnosis.  As I went through my story, his eyes got bigger and bigger and at the end, he wrote a prescription for antidepressants, without saying another word.  Interesting.

I think that in either case, a really good pep talk would have been more helpful.

Having said that, my favorite, although useless, pep talk of all time had to be by a friend of mine after I returned to work with MS; ‘Having MS is a good thing.  Now you can worry about having MS instead of worrying about not having a husband.’  Seriously?  Not having a husband never caused me even one minute of concern.

So, my personal pep talk for today; ‘Come on!  You will be fine!  Another year or two of work will be a breeze, compared to the 34 years before it!’

God love you all!  And may you be able to provide your own pep talks, with God’s voice in your own head, and carry on!!

Animals of the Bible

Okay, folks, brace yourselves. This is my feeble attempt at marketing!

I have known all my life that I cannot sell or market anything.  So, you ask, why would I write and publish books?  I can’t imagine anything that needs sales more than books.  No-one, it seems, other than the publisher, makes much off selling a book.

I worked with a PR person who gave me some tools for marketing books and I have not used the tools for that, although I have used them to connect with people.  As my good friend Viv says ‘The 4300 Twitter followers I have are 4300 useless people, if they don’t buy books!’  Well, they are not useless people because I have learned quite a bit from them.  There are some that I follow that tweet stuff that I’m not interested in, but I am hoping that even though I seem useless at marketing my books through Twitter, I at least tweet things that are inspiring and let folks know they are not alone out there.

I am also on Facebook, and again, I am not using it to its full marketing capability.  I post mostly prayers on my business page that I either make up myself, or find on the internet.  I am hoping that those are also inspiring.  It is not selling any books, though, and I have only 60 friends who ‘like’ my business page.  How sad is that?

For those of you who don’t know, I self published four children’s books last year, aimed at the preschooler, to learn the stories of the Bible and each one is told from an animal’s point of view.  I haven’t repeated an animal yet, although I have a couple of different types of birds and cats.  I have donated more than I have sold and to be honest, I haven’t sold a single book this year--the few sales that I had, were last year.

I will be at the Toronto Word on the Street this year, on September 27th and Northumberland Word on the Street on November 7th.  I have also managed to get one of the books--Animals of the New Testament, that features Malah the mouse that lives under the manger --into the insert of the children’s Christmas books catalog that will go to hundreds of bookstores.  So, I have some hope before the end of the year.

For those of you who are interested in purchasing, they are sold by many online retailers, including Amazon.  You will find them here.  You will also find the website for the books here.

I’m afraid that this is as ‘salesy’ as I get.  I truly believe that these books are useful, or I wouldn’t have published them.  I believe that I was guided to write them, so that they could be enjoyed by young children.  God willing, they will be.

God bless you in all of your endeavors!