Best Before Date

Happy Monday, everyone!  We had a beautiful, warm Easter Sunday yesterday, but today is cool, rainy and dreary.  Oh well.  Hm, it seems to be a dull and cloudy day pretty much every time I sit down to write my blog.  Is that supposed to be a hint?

We had a lovely day yesterday at my dad’s place.  His girlfriend Sally cooked a lovely meal, as always.  Much of my family was there--actually all of my family that lives in Ottawa and Toronto, except for my youngest who had to work.  We also were on Skype with my youngest sister who lives who lives in Vancouver.

Among the many topics of discussion, we talked about our health.  Me and most of my siblings are over 50.  I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis over 20 years ago, one of my sisters was recently diagnosed with Huntington’s and one of my brothers has been diagnosed with celiac disease.  We were joking that we seem to have reached our ‘best before date.’

Getting old seems to have it’s challenges!  On the whole, I guess we can’t really complain.  We are still getting around and work is still possible.  I would still be working, had I not been retired by my company, but that’s life.  As long as I can still pay the bills, I am not complaining!

It seems to me, however, that these diseases, and allergies, are much more prevalent than when I was growing up.  Even peanut allergies were few and far between and yet now, it seems that every other person is allergic to peanuts, or something.  My honey is allergic to onions.  I have yet to meet someone else with that allergy.

I have one sister who is allergic to nuts--peanuts, tree nuts, coconuts--and pretty much every antibiotic. Curiouser and curiouser.  There must be some reason why autoimmune diseases are so prevalent.  Perhaps we have ‘processed’ our way to it?  I am doing my best to stay away from processed food these days. Of course, I ate like crazy because there were so many delicious things to eat on Easter weekend, and I am suffering with bloat, etc. today to show for it.  I think I need to stick to the simple stuff

I watched a video of a radio personality tasting some cream cheese she found in her refrigerator that was at least two years past it’s best before date. It had never been opened and she said it tasted fine, but I would ask, ‘what was in it that preserved it that long?’ Isn’t that what we really should worry about?  We sacrifice safety for longevity.  Is that really the right thing to do?

Do these preservatives have anything to do with any of the autoimmune diseases out there?  Huntington’s is definitely genetic.  MS and celiac have a genetic predisposition, but something environmental kicks them in.  Could that environmental thing be preservatives, or genetic modification?  Gee, I have lots of questions, but very few answers, I’m afraid.

Well, there are millions of researchers out there hunting down the answers to those very questions.  At least I believe there are.

I pray we find some answers one day, and perhaps we can extend our personal ‘best before date.’

God love you all and I hope you had a lovely Easter.  Have a gentle week and we’ll see what April brings at the end of the week!  God bless!

Spring!

Happy Monday everyone! I woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day, but the clouds seem to have rolled in.  The optimist in me says, ‘April showers, bring May flowers!’ Keeping in mind that it is only March--but it’s almost April!

Spring is a time for renewal:  the buds begin to grow on trees, my flowers begin to poke through the ground!  Oddly enough, my tulips and daffodils have started to grow, however, the crocus in the yard have yet to poke through.  Rather strange.  I hope that the crocus haven’t given up yet!  They have only been in ground a few years.

My bird buddies are also beginning to come back.  I have seen several robins and there are some bluejays beginning to feed at the bowls I have out on the downstairs patio--such a welcome sight!

Spring is also the time that my cats go a little whackadoodle, but they seem rather subdued.  Mind you, they will be 15 years old this year.

Spring is also the time for cleaning--already done!  The organizing is also done, but I have discovered that the longer I have to look at my house, the more re-arranging I want to do!  I’ll get it right yet!

Closely behind the spring solstice is Easter and it’s a little early this year!  As a matter of fact, Easter Sunday is also my oldest daughter’s 26th birthday.  Here’s trivia for you today:  Everyone knows that Easter falls on a different weekend each year, but for those of you who don’t know why, here is the scoop:  Easter falls on the first weekend following the first full moon after the spring solstice.  How about that?  The first day of spring was yesterday (March 20th) and the full moon will be Wednesday (the 23rd). Next year, Easter Sunday won’t be until the 16th of April.  I have a friend whose birthday is on April 9th and she tells me that rarely is Easter on her birthday.  I believe that she said that it has happened only once in her lifetime and she will be 90 this year!

Lent, often associated with spring, is the time for the Tenebrae services that Cavan sings at.  For those of you who missed my blogs on Tenebrae, the word is Latin for darkness and ideally that church service is performed on Good Friday.  The St. Michael’s Alumni Choir sings at several, though.  One of which will be at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto on the 23rd.  It will be the first time that I have been in it since before the renovations.  It is a truly beautiful church and even though I am an Anglican attending a very Catholic service, the roof has yet to fall in on me.

Spring and autumn are my favourite seasons.  Spring because of the colors of the beautiful flowers and fall because of the lovely colors of the falling leaves.  Summer I don’t care for much because it is often too hot for me to enjoy the outdoors and winter is is generally too cold to want to be outdoors.

It will be nice when it is warm enough to enjoy my morning tea on the back deck!  I look forward to that.  We have a lovely swig on the deck--the perfect place to read a book with my tea!  Ah, the life of a retired person!

I pray that everyone has a wonderful week.  I am headed out tomorrow for an overnight at my oldest daughter’s place. God bless!

Please and Thank You

Happy Monday!  It’s a really dull and rainy day here in the little town of Cobourg.  The good news is that I saw a robin today, our harbinger of spring!  With the rain, that should bring on the spring flowers and turn the grass to green, I hope.

My blog today is about two things really, manners and respect.  Those of you who know me, know that I’m a bit of a fuddy duddy--someone who likes to see folks use their manners and proper English.

A while ago, I started tweeting quotes, mostly Bible quotes and I get them from my inbox each day from various resources.  I try to make sure that they are uplifting and/or inspiring, because we know that some parts of the Bible are in the ‘fire and brimstone’ category and I prefer to stick to the positive messages.  We get enough negative stuff out there every day.

Around about the same time, I started posting prayers on my Facebook fan page.  Occasionally, the prayers are from me, but because I am still trying to find my own style, I mostly get them from a daily e-mail I get from Crystal McDowell, who sends out a daily post from Daughters of the Creator.  I adapt the prayers to change ‘I’ to ‘we’ as I suggest that we pray together.  I also capitalize ‘You,’ when it refers to God or Jesus, because I believe that it is appropriate.  You will also tend to find that I add please to the prayers.  Not always, but often.

I know that we can ask God for anything, but, as with asking anyone else for anything, I think that ‘please’ is appropriate.  When I say my own prayers, there are also dozens of ‘thank yous’ as well.  I believe that I have been very blessed to have so many blessings in my life, and I have much to be thankful for.

When I am rushed, my simple prayer is:  Dear God, thank you so much for all of my blessings, particularly for the angels and the people in my life. I also ask for forgiveness, please, for all of my sins of commission and omission.  Good night and amen.

When I am not rushed, I list the people in my life that I am most grateful for: my kids, Cavan, my parents, my siblings, their spouses and children, Cavan’s parents, his siblings, their spouses and children and I list my closest friends and then I try to remember the things that I am most thankful for:  being able to get out of bed on my own every day, our home, my car, my cats and some other things that might pop into my mind at the time.  Often, I also have specific people that I pray for.  Then, I ask forgiveness, please, for the things I have said, done or thought that I shouldn’t have and the things that I didn’t say, do or think that I should have and I ask for guidance to do better.  

I know that I will be forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t add a please.

I also ask for peace throughout the world and for no hunger or thirst in the world--a pretty tall order!

Perhaps I’m just getting a little set in my ways, but I believe that even my daily discussions with God should show manners, and that my postings should show respect, by capitalizing ‘You’ and ‘Your,’ when referring to God or Jesus.

Okay, off my soapbox for now!  I pray that everyone has a great week and with Easter coming up in two weeks and I pray for some nice sunshiny days and spring flowers!  God bless!

Mission Accomplished

Good Monday morning! It’s kind of  dull day here, but it is supposed to be unseasonably warm--wahoo!  Still no crocus poking up through my grass, but hopefully soon!  My sister in Vancouver already has crocus up and daffodils coming up--soon here too, I think.

So, with the very early arrival of my shaker cabinets just over a week ago, I pushed through and finished my reorganization of the house.  I should point out that  now I realize that it is never really finished because every day now, I seem to come up with another tweak, some other idea of how furniture should be arranged, or another drawer I forgot to tackle.  Ah well, I’m retired, it can be my life’s work, I guess!

It is interesting how things go.  When I started this, I decided that I really didn’t like my Mom’s china cabinet in my dining room.  It was really too big for the space it was in, so I ordered two shaker cabinets to replace that and the old baker’s rack.  When I emptied Mom’s china cabinet and was taking pictures of it for Kijiji, Cavan said, ‘You don’t really want to let it go, do you?’

He was right, but where the heck could it go?  Well, Cavan pointed out that I didn’t need the table in the front room because I wasn’t working any more.  But of course, we didn’t want to let that go either.  So, it went into the upstairs guest room and what we are getting rid of is the twin bed that was in that room.  I kept it because it was relatively new, but there was also a double bed in that room and we really don’t get that many guests.

The dilemma--what to do with the bed?  One of Cavan’s cousins is recently separated from his wife, so we called him to see if he could use the bed.  The bed will have a new home as soon as David can pick it up.  It’s all good.  I have seven big Rubbermaid containers of stuff for our garage sale.  We still need to go through the garage and utility room, but that is Cavan’s stuff, so all in good time.  My daughters will also go through what I’m getting rid of to see if they want anything and whatever they don’t take, and doesn’t go in the garage sale, will go to the place downtown called ‘Beyond the Blue Box,’ which is a great organization and take anything they can sell.

So, folks, I’m taking a couple of weeks off to read and watch movies before I get into recording some of my stories and then I’ll figure out what project to tackle next!  I have rug hooking kits and lots of crocheting projects to tackle.  Who knew I could be so busy in retirement--I did!

Have a great week folks!  I’m picking up my mother-in-law, while I’m in the city on Wednesday and bringing her out here for a few days to celebrate her birthday. We have a puzzle to work on.  Enjoy your own tasks scheduled for this week.  God bless!