On the Road Again

Happy Saturday! It’s a beautiful sunny, but chilly day, here in the resort town of Cobourg.  The temperature is just below the freezing mark, but it is nice to see the sun!

Somehow, it has been three weeks since I last blogged, and I have been busy and, it seems, on the road a lot. The last blog, I see, was October 21st, and I know that the week after that was crazy busy and on the road a lot.

I had an appointment in Toronto on the Wednesday, so I drove in and back that same day. I had Thursday at home, but then Friday, I drove into Ottawa to visit with my cousin and sister. I drove back on the Saturday.  The Sunday, I was way too tired to drive, and Cavan drove us to Sudbury, where he had some work and I got to visit with some folks I know up there.

The plan was to stay in Sudbury until the Wednesday, and head home that day, but the best laid plans by mice and men… I don’t know what it is about Sudbury, but whenever Cavan does a server install, he hits the craziest issues and we did not arrive home until 11:30 Friday night! I was zonked! I guess that catching up on the blog did not even enter my mind as I got caught up on an entire week’s of tidying and two weeks of laundry, on Saturday, because Sunday, Cavan had to be in Toronto for choir practice and I had to be in the Niagara area for an ordination.  Then, because Cavan had a meeting the Monday morning with a customer in Toronto, we stayed overnight and finally got home Monday afternoon.

The rest of the week, at least until last night, the only travel was here around town. Last night we drove up to Peterborough to meet Red Green, and get books signed. So, today, is a resting day, and I have had a few this week, fortunately.

This coming week is pretty quiet, a few meetings, and my usual seniors visits, then the next week gets busy again!  The Wednesday I drive into Toronto for a luncheon and an appointment, driving home on the Thursday. The Friday, we head to Ottawa for family visits and the head home Saturday. And the Sunday, I have to be in Niagara for Synod and Cavan has choir practice in Toronto. At least we are back the same day! Then we are home until the Friday, when I have a pensioners Christmas luncheon and Cavan has dress rehearsal at Massey Hall. We will be staying downtown near Massey Hall, as the shows are at 3pm the Saturday and Sunday and then, we are home!

That should be the last of the major travelling for a while.  I will still get into Toronto to visit my friend Viv once a month and up to Ottawa once a month to visit my sister, as she continues her journey with Huntington’s. I pray that the weather is kind this winter, that I can safely manage the monthly trips.  Generally. I don’t have to drive there and return the same day.  I find that taxing, even with just driving into Toronto.

We will not be travelling for Christmas this year as Dad and Sally will be on a cruise.  I get to stay home and make food for my two daughters and their stepsister and family. That allows me to rest when I need too.  We haven’t yet decided where Cavan’s mom fits in, but we’ll figure it out!  Christmas is about family, but sometimes, family is exhausting for those of us with MS.  

Anyway, lots of travelling for a bit and then I get to stay mostly in town, as winter does it’s thing, which I pray won’t be too nasty for the times I have to venture beyond our little community.

May your travels be safe!  God bless!

People

Happy Saturday! Well, I was supposed to tackle the garden, but I ran out of steam, so a job for tomorrow and Monday.  It’s frustrating that so little wears me out, but such is the nature of my MS these days. At least I don’t have much of a garden at this house.  My choice, and it’s all perennials except of course, for the weeds that I do need to be more on top of!

Time for the topic at hand! People. We meet many people through our lives, starting with pretty much just family when we are first born and then widening our horizons with friends, acquaintances, co-workers, medical professionals, etc.

There is a book called ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven,’ by Mitch Albom, which I understand is amazing and I really must read. Some time ago, my doctor wrote about the five people he had met in his lifetime that helped him to shape his life/career. We do meet a lot of people in a lifetime and some are in our lives for a short time, some for many years and some all of our lives, or at least most of our lives.

Every one of those people has the potential to make a difference in our lives, some by becoming a big part of our lives, like spouses and children, and some by just imparting some wisdom on their way through our lives. And then there is everything in between.

I am thinking of this because I am feeling so very blessed with the people I have encountered and spend time with in the various roles I have here in our town of Cobourg.  I am on two accessibility advisory committees, one for the town of Cobourg and one for the county of Northumberland. What a caring bunch of people on both of these committees!

I have connected with Community Care Northumberland, where I do friendly visiting with two ladies in the community, and I do palliative vigils, where I have met people in the last days of their lives and learned some really interesting things about the people they were.  I am also on the Community Care Northumberland local committee for the Cobourg location, where I get to find out about the amazing people in our community and what they do. Also, through this agency, I get to meet other volunteers at various events like the volunteer appreciation lunch, the annual palliative training and the bereavement training that I just took.

I also connected with the Extendicare down the street, where I visit with some lovely elderly people and have a great appreciation for the things they have been able to do in their lives.

I have even met the most amazing group of people through the Community Catholic Church of Canada.  I have known the Archbishop since she was an Anglican priest at the church I took my kids to 20 years ago and she has introduced me to some really awesome people and because of this, as I widen my horizons, I have met some awesome people at St. Peter’s in Cobourg and St. George’s in Gores Landing. They are all a wonderfully warm and welcoming group of people.

I also recently connected with an MS group that meets for coffee once a month and we just chat. I have often said that I have met some of the most amazing people since I was diagnosed with MS about 24 years ago.  I have met some fighters and I have met some who chose to crawl into a bottle, or never leave the house. We cover the spectrum, I think.

Every one of these people, has a story, and every one of these people has given me food for thought. Some of that food has been merely a snack and some of that food has been a many course meal.  It’s amazing, just what you get to learn that you can then apply to yourself, or just save for another day.

So, my suggestion is this:  cherish everyone you meet. There are some not so nice people out there and you will learn that you don’t want to keep them in your life, but you will still learn something.  God bless you and all the people in your life!

Thanksgiving

Happy Saturday! I’m afraid that I was really busy last weekend and didn’t slow down to blog, so here I am finally relating the events of last weekend, the Canadian Thanksgiving.  It was an unusually busy time for me, but it was great to spend time with family.

The weekend started Friday night, when my daughters arrived for hamburgers on the barbeque. The weather has been amazing, so it’s great to have the barbeque going.

Saturday morning, my oldest daughter, Alysse was up at 2am, to get ready to head to Brampton for a wedding that she was doing the hair for.  It was a nearly two hour drive from here and she had to be there by 5am to get everyone ready. She had time between that wedding and one in Whitby to scoot home for a few things. After the Whitby wedding, she headed to my place to check on the turkey, which I put in the oven before my youngest daughter Kaitlyn and I headed into Napanee so that she could visit with her grandfather and step-grandmother, as well as her Aunt Linda, Uncle Shane and cousin Alexandra. It was a short, but nice visit.

We headed home to finish our Thanksgiving dinner, although her step-sister Victoria, husband Shavoy and son Caleb had already arrived. We got dinner finished up, and had a great visit together.  Victoria brought her famous apple crumble and we were all thrilled.  I had made three pumpkin pies on the Thursday, so one was also part of dessert.  A little while after dinner, as Caleb was starting to doze, they headed back to Mississauga, dropping Kaitlyn off in Toronto, on the way home.  That was the end of day one of the Thanksgiving dinners!

Sunday, Alysse was kind enough to join me at church, after which we did a bit of shopping at the Cobourg mall before heading home to get ready to drive to my Dad’s place for 3pm.  A little while after we arrived, we headed north to my step-sister’s home, where we had day two of our Thanksgiving dinners! It was a great visit, with much of my family there and we had turkey number two, along with ham.  My brother David brought his famous apple pie, and a cherry pie! I brought another one of our three pumpkin pies--there was a ton of food!

We headed home a little while after dinner, to get ready for day three of the Thanksgiving dinners.  The Monday dinner Cavan was smoking a prime rib roast for.  Alysse headed home in the morning and Jett (our cat) got to come out of the bedroom, since his nemesis Dallas (Alysse’s dog), headed home with her. When the roast was ready, we wrapped in in aluminum foil, towels and an insulated bag and headed into the city to have dinner at Cavan’s brother’s place.  They had ham as well, mashed and scalloped potatoes, with lots of veggies, making for another great dinner.  We also brought pumpkin pie number three, which along with an apple pie that Maureen made, created marvelous dessert choices.

So, three different places, three different Thanksgiving dinners, and great company, making for a great, but rather exhausting Thanksgiving weekend!

Christmas will not be quite so busy, as Dad and Sally will be on a cruise, so it will likely be just dinner here, although we will likely see Cavan’s family at some point.

For those of you in Canada, I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  For those of you in the US, I pray that your Thanksgiving is as satisfying, when you celebrate late next month.  For those of you outside of Canada and the US, may you celebrate Thanksgiving all year long!

Blessings to all!

Book Unsales

Happy Saturday! The September weather has finally found us and tomorrow is the first of October! That’s okay, I’m just glad that it has finally cooled off.

I was down at the Women of Faith Breakfast at St. Peter’s this morning.  I so enjoy those ladies.  I have to say that everyone I have met at St. Peter’s and St. George’s (it’s chapel) have to the most marvelous people. So very welcoming and giving.  What a blessing it is to spend time with them.

I’m blogging (actually complaining) on a Saturday because tomorrow, my daughter and I are heading up north for the day to visit with her godparents, who we have not seen for some years.  We have kept in touch, but we haven’t seen each other in some time.  I am really looking forward to the visit!

So, today’s complaint is the lack of support from AuthorHouse.  I believe that I mentioned a few blogs ago about the sale of 1520 books in May and June of this year.  It did seem too good to be true, so I kept going out to my sales reports to ensure they were still there.  Well, they were still there until September 1st and then they were gone without explanation.

Now, I know that there are any number of things that could have happened, but AuthorHouse cannot seem to provide me with any explanation, although they say their records are auditable. I’m a computer person, so I know a thing or two about programs that update records, and I can assume that they do not have a program that randomly deletes records.  That would not be auditable.

There must have been a program run overnight on the 31st of August that deleted my sales and spat out a report that said why.  There could be reasons like:  they could not fill the order, the books could not be shipped, all the books, or some of them, were returned. Some sort of explanation. That is all that I am asking for, and I want the proof of it.  They should have been able to provide me with a report that said something like:  The order for 60 books ordered on May 18th 2017 could not be filled, because the printer could not schedule it in time.

It would be interesting if that order was not filled because at the end of July, an order for 60 more books appeared with an order source of ‘AuthorHouse web bonus US.’ that was backdated to May 31st.

Another interesting point is that they claim that the sales were just ‘an error,’ but I also know that that is not true, because someone from AuthorHouse actually called me when the June sales were being made and told me the name of the person purchasing the books.  Had I known that they were going to be so dishonest, I would have made sure that I had written down the name of the person who called with their extension and the name of the purchaser.

This is very annoying.  Aside from the fact that it should have been royalties of over $7000 US, it is just distressing that I am dealing with a company that is so dishonest.  If it is indeed sales that did not go through for some reason, I should be able to not only get an explanation, but a full report, as proof to what happened.

Okay, off my rant.  If anyone has had any similar experiences with AuthorHouse, I would like to know about it.  I will never deal with them again. I had four books published through them and will find a more reputable company to deal with for future books in this series.

Well, I hope that everyone else has had a more profitable September!  God bless!

Signs

Happy Sunday! It’s a hot and humid day here, unusual for this time of year, but I truly believe that the seasons are shifting a bit.  When I was a kid, July was hot and August a bit cooler.  This year, spring and summer were mostly rainy with summer having a few hot days, but September has been pretty hot all month. This is something we would never see years ago.  Not to say that we didn’t have the odd hot day, but it certainly didn’t sustain itself over weeks, this time of year.

So, is global warming a hoax? I think that the evidence over the last few years would have to say no.  There are signs, like this hot September.

Last year the farmers’ almanac promised a long, cold, snowy winter. At least our winter, was not long, cold or snowy. A disappointment to Cavan who bought that new stage 2 snow blower two years ago and didn’t get much use out of it the two years he has had it.  Perhaps another sign?  Let’s see what this year brings.

Sometimes, I am not good at paying attention to signs.  I have had MS for about 24 years now and I still ignore the signs that I have to slow down or take a break.  My summer was relatively quiet, but September has more than made up for it, so far, and fortunately, by the look of my calendar, it looks like it will get a little less busy in a week or two.

Cavan has been working really hard on the deck, and except for some staining, I haven’t been much help at all. I just had too many things scheduled and now that I have a bit of time, I have MS symptoms reminding me that I wasn’t paying attention to the signs earlier. But then, I am notorious for pushing through, thinking that I just need to make it to the weekend, or the end of the month, or whatever.  Then the MS gives me a big shake and insists on now.

So, I am in my nice cool house, with a thick numbness coming up the back of my left leg and a dizziness that I just can’t seem to shake. Ah, well, desk work and a bit of reading it is.

I have to be grateful for the help that Cavan had on the deck.  His brother, Sean, and sister-in-law, Maureen, were here last weekend with their son Liam and just yesterday, Sean and Maureen were here and all of the spindles are now back up (152 of them!).  Cavan is now working on putting the lights up, that we had planned ages ago, and we just have to work on the floor of the deck.  Thursday, it is supposed to start to be more seasonal, so hopefully, that work will kick off and it will all be finished in a few weeks.

The other sign, of course, is age. We’re not getting any younger.  As Cavan pointed out, who is going to refinish the deck in another five years, when it needs to be done again?  Hopefully, it won’t be sooner! A bridge to cross on another day!

Well, that’s life!  How does that song go? ‘Signs, signs, everywhere a sign…. We need to pay more attention to them, I think, but life gets busy and we just keep moving forward. There is a couple I used to work with, who have two lovely young daughters and are expecting a new child.  I follow them on Facebook, but I was commenting that they should not blink, as time goes by so fast.  My two young daughters are now 27 and 25. It goes by so fast!  Watch for the signs and take the time to smell the roses and really enjoy your kids!

So, my friends, enjoy your week.  I missed last week’s blog as I was in Ottawa, but I’m back on track now. May your week be peaceful.  God bless!

Attending Church

Happy Sunday! I feel so blessed to look out my window and see a beautiful blue sky and know that there is no hurricane headed this far north. I pray for those recovering from hurricane Harvey and those in the path of Irma, followed by hurricane Jose right behind her, then Katia. There have been so many natural disasters in the last few days and weeks.

Wow, there was also the earthquake off the coast of Mexico  Flooding in Mumbai, Nepal and Koshi this year. Here in Ontario, we also had unusual flooding, but not to the extent that other parts of the world have seen. Wildfires in BC and some other parts of the world, too.  I pray that everyone can manage whatever has been thrown their way.  

The first responders have been amazing.  I have a friend who lives just outside of Houston, who rallied folks and money to prepare food for first responders all last week.  I know that one day, there were nine huge pans of lasagne! There are some wonderful, amazing people out there!

But, I did not intend to blog about natural disasters.  I wanted to blog about church.  

I have attended church since I was very young.  When I was in my teens, I took my younger siblings to church--well, Dad dropped us off, I just managed them once we got there. I was confirmed at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Ottawa, and attended Holy Trinity Anglican Church, when I lived in Pembroke.

I got away from church, for a while as I got a bit older.  My first husband and I were wanting to get married in a church and raise our kids with the church, so I started attending Church of the Epiphany Anglican church in Scarborough and we were married there. We moved further east in Scarborough, so I stopped attending for a few years, but then started attending St. Dunstan of Canterbury Anglican Church with my girls, where I taught Sunday School for seven years and my oldest daughter was an altar girl for a while.

Fast forward quite a few years of raising my girls as a single parent, and a move to Cobourg.  I have attended St. Peter’s Anglican Church a few times, but have pretty much settled on attending St. George’s Anglican Church in Gores Landing when it is open.  It’s about a twenty minute drive and it is such a lovely church with such lovely and welcoming people. It is only open from Easter until the last Sunday in October and I think we enjoy the coffee time as much or more than the service itself. I have learned so much about the area, and it has been such a blessing. We are working right now on getting a plaque prepared for a mass grave area in the corner of the cemetery on the church grounds. There were several groups of people wiped out by disease quite some years ago--typhoid and something else. So there will be a plaque put there to honor the German railway workers and the Irish immigrants buried there. There is such a history in this area.  Heartbreak, disaster and yet much love and fellowship.

Next weekend, I shall be in Ottawa to visit family and I think I shall attend St. Stephen’s one more time.  It is near the cemetery where we laid my mother to rest, so I shall visit there before I return home, as well. It’s funny how I now seek out churches to attend. I do so love the fellowship that it allows.

I guess this is a bit of a short blog this week.  I have a bit more tidying to take care of before my guests arrive tomorrow, so I had best get to it! May your week be gentle.  God bless!

As We Age

Happy Sunday!  It’s a rather dull day out there today, although the sun has been peeking through the clouds from time to time, to remind us that it is still there! It’s cooler too, but I welcome that.  I much prefer spring or fall weather.

Well, folks, today’s blog is about aging.  We all age.  Some of us get bent out of shape that our body (and minds!) show that age, but aging is inevitable, showing it perhaps not so much…..

I was saying to Cavan the other day that another sign of aging is increasing and varying doctor’s appointments. We all have a GP (general practitioner, a.k.a. family doctor).  At least we should.  I have a neurologist, as most people living with multiple sclerosis should.  Now, I have to see a new doctor and have my first colonoscopy. Wahoo! Catch the sarcasm there?

Yup, I’m scheduled for my first ever colonoscopy on Tuesday.  Cavan had one a few years ago, but then he has irritable bowel syndrome, so it is a good thing to scope for that that too.

I don’t know what the age range is, but here in Ontario after the age of 50, I believe, you get to send little poop samples in the mail that get examined for blood and if they find any, you get to be scoped, as my doctor says.  I don’t know the upper limit on that, but I do know that my dear friend Viv, who is 91 has never had to do such a thing and had never heard of it. I also don’t know for sure how often we do this, as I get reminders in the mail from the province, but I believe that it is every two years.

Us ladies over 50 also get to go for mammograms, which I also believe are every two years, but then I also get reminders in the mail for that too, so I don’t need to keep track of that either. Us ladies also used to get a pap test every two years, but I believe that it is every three years now.  My doctor keeps track of that one.

All of this is preventative, or perhaps really more accurately, since it doesn’t actually prevent anything, tests for early detection. It would be nice to get to the point of actually preventing things.  I suspect that healthy eating and exercise is about as preventative as you can get, but we also know that even that is no guarantee.

I have recently gotten into essential oils.  Have I blogged about that? I have this feeling that we really need to get back to basics, to avoid having to resort to chemical medicines.  It may not always work, but the more I read about these essential oils, the more I think there is something to it.  Right now I’m working on a good formula to help Cavan to sleep better.  I have tried a few blends, but haven’t arrived at the perfect one yet.  He has a CPAP, so a diffuser isn’t of much help and I did get an insert for the CPAP, but it is a small piece on which you cannot put many combinations.  I’m working on a better solution.

So, what else do we need to take care of in our old age?  Cavan and I got the pneumonia shot that us elderly can have.  They don’t know how long it is good for, so I think we get another one every 10 years.  We also get the flu shot, but everyone can have that one.

I was just reading that coconut oil is good for alzheimer’s. Cavan and I are both highly likely to end up with alzheimer’s, so this is good to know.  Interestingly enough, I have been having Cavan and I take two coconut oil capsules with breakfast and dinner.  I’ll have to perhaps increase that, as I don’t think it is the dosage they recommend, I have to read up on it again to confirm, as I have forgotten what it said.  Hm, forgotten?  I had better get right on it!!

So, folks, make sure you are sending your poop through the mail, when requested and get whatever tests recommended.  Let’s have a gentle journey into our old age.  God bless!

The Blame Game

Happy Sunday!  It’s a beautiful sunny day here in the resort town of Cobourg. I enjoyed the church service up at St. George’s this morning and we had some visitors, who don’t make it to Gores Landing very often and one of the lovely ladies actually bought a set of my books.  That’s four sets that I have sold at the church! And, I’m happy to say that the reviews are great.  I’m thrilled that they like the books.

I have a rather testy subject today, and if you follow my blogs, you will know that I don’t often tackle controversial topics, but this is likely one.  I have been bothered by the whole neo-nazi thing raising it’s ugly head.  I thought we won that war it is was all over and everyone was going to play nice and get along.  I am always the eternal optimist.

It seems that we still have groups out there that think they are better than anyone else.  This is where the blame game comes in.  If I’m not mistaken, some of what they are saying, now and back in the Hitler days, is that these ‘nasty Jews’ (please excuse these thoughts as they are not mine) are taking our jobs. These ‘nasty Jews’ are infiltrating our communities. And it goes on and on.

My goodness, can we not just all get along?  Every person has their merits, their strengths and weaknesses. We all have those things that we are good at and things we are not so good at.  That is even what our commerce systems are based on.  Move the call centres to areas in the world that are good at it and let us do what we are good at.

We have no right to blame others for our situation.  That’s too easy.  I can easily try to get sympathy because someone else got the job I wanted, but if they were the better choice, that was the right thing to do.  Now, I do take issue with the tokenism thing.  The idea that for stats, we need a certain number of minorities. I may have even been someone who, unknowingly, benefited from it. I was a single, disabled, mother.  Great for stats, but I don’t believe that I was ever treated differently because of it.  I was working for the same company when I was healthy and married, as I was when I became a single mother, and then disabled with MS.

What makes me really laugh at this though, is that these neo-nazis are sending their spit in the mail and finding out that they are not totally white.  Isn’t that a hoot!  My husband who’s sister-in-law teased about being a pasty, white Irish guy, has Ashkenazi Jew in his heritage, we discovered.  I have eastern asian in me--Iran, Iraq, Israel.

Remember, Jesus was a Jew, he wasn’t Christian, how could he be? Christianity didn’t exist before him and he certainly wasn’t white.  Mohammed wasn’t a Muslim, Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist. Think about it people.  It all had to start somewhere.

Instead of hating, look at all of the major religions, what do they all preach?  Love!  Love thy neighbor. Put your hand out there to hold another’s. We can be nothing but stronger together.

Forget the blame game. We can only blame ourselves if we hate, but we can be much stronger if we love each other and support each other.  We can make this happen.  Do not divide, unite!

All right, off the soap box. As you can probably tell, this stuff frustrates the heck out of me.  I like to see the good in people.  It is in everyone, I’m sure.

So, go out there and look for that good in people and it will surely make you feel better.  God bless all!

Church

Happy Sunday! I figured that a good time to get working on the blog was when Cavan was working on the ribs in the smoker.  I just need to toss together the coleslaw and voila, dinner!  I love it!

So, church. I make no secret of the fact that I am a believer in God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, etc.  After all, I’m a priest, who was raised in the Anglican church and despite lack of attendance at various periods of my life, I never stopped believing.  It just seemed that other things got in the way and I’m afraid that truthfully, laziness was the primary reason.

These days, if I’m in town, I head up to St. George’s Anglican Church in Gores Landing for Sunday service.  It’s only about 20 minutes away and it’s a lovely old church, with a wonderful group of parishioners who have been very welcoming.  I was hoping to preach a bit, but since I was not ordained in the Anglican church, I may only do readings.  I’m okay with that, although I am hoping to win them over, one day.

Just this week, I came across two quotes about church that I would like to share, because they made me think:

“The church is a hospital and not a courtroom, for souls.  She does not condemn on behalf of sins, but grants remission of sins.”  St. John Chrysostom

“The mark of a great church is not how many come but how many people live differently as a result of being there.” Unknown

Both of these quotes speak to me. The first because I have always believed that we are not here to judge, that is the job of someone much greater than us.  The second because I have also always believed that we attend church to get something out of it--some ideas of how to be better people.  Those ideas need to be actioned.

So, essentially, I attend church expecting to be given two main things:  forgiveness for my sins and some ideas on how to live a better life, not only for myself, but how to help others live a better life. These two thoughts are also influencing my thoughts on sermons.  I have discovered that I really like to write and deliver homilies. When I was in training, I learned that there are usually four parts to a sermon: 1. Trouble then, 2. Grace then, 3. Trouble now, 4. Grace now. These parts can be woven together nicely and not necessarily presented in that order, and I think that a really good preacher can do that fairly seamlessly.

I am thinking, however, that you need to go one step further and actually give your congregation something actionable. My sermons often end with something like ‘How will you serve Christ this week?’. But perhaps I need to be more specific and give them some ideas on how to do that. I need to make them understand that they are forgiven for their sins and that they can do better, with some guidance.  They need some guidance on how to avoid the trouble entirely and to take it one step further, not only avoid the trouble, but help someone else avoid the trouble, or at least somehow let someone else know they are not alone.

I’m still pretty new at this and truly, I think you never stop learning how to reach people. I will continue to learn and grow, and hopefully over time, continue to improve the messages that I share and how I share them.

I’ll keep looking for better and better messages and better ways to present them.  May you find better and better ways to do what you do too!  God bless!

Memory

Happy Monday!  It’s what we call a civic holiday up here in Canada.  In the province of Ontario, it is called Simcoe Day, in honor of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, and the man who initiated the abolishment of slavery in Canada. Truthfully, most folks don’t care what the day is as long as it is a day off.  Those of us who are retired, don’t often remember what day of the week it is, much less what the holiday name is, unless, of course it is Christmas and I love Christmas!

Today’s blog is about memory, or perhaps more fittingly, the lack of it. This was prompted by the fact that I couldn’t remember what I was going to blog about. I know that I had an idea for something very profound (I’m sure it was!), but it got lost somewhere in the grey matter, called my brain.  I could, and often do, blame the MS--it’s nice to  have a convenient excuse for such things.

I may have another excuse, which I hope doesn’t show up too soon, or if I am truly blessed, will not show up at all.  Cavan and I sent our spit in the mail to 23andme and got all kinds of information back.  For both of us, it mentioned a high probability of Alzheimer's. Not too terribly surprising for Cavan, as his mother suffers from it and his paternal grandmother also suffered from it.  So, he has it on both sides of his family.  For me, I am adopted, so it was not a surprise, but besides a high probability of celiac, it was the only red flag.

Well, I guess the flags are really only yellow, as with probability you never really know if you will get it or if you will dodge that bullet. Celiac is probably a certainty for me.  I have known for years that I feel much better if I avoid wheat. I told my doctor that because I am not in agony, it is hard to convince myself to avoid it for the rest of my life.  I was actually surprised by the range and severity of symptoms when I read up on it, and I have a few of the symptoms, but fortunately, none are really severe.  I will go back to avoiding wheat for a while, though, as I would like to feel better.

Going back to the memory thing.  I know that if something is not on my calendar, I will definitely not remember it, but as I discovered last week, if it is on my calendar and I don’t check my calendar, I will also not remember it! Cavan is the same, so we actually share calendars (Google is amazing for that!), so that we know where each other needs to be and we can properly schedule appointments to make sure that nothing overlaps and we don’t get double booked.  This is especially important when you need to drive, as we are down to one car.  This works most of the time, although there have been a few times when one of us has had to walk, take a taxi, or hop on the Cobourg bus.  I have taken to coloring events on my calendar yellow if I need the car (which is really just when I need to drive into the city).

As with my MS symptoms, you just need to adapt.  You learn a different way of doing things. I have lots of sticky notes and keep whatever I can online so that I can find it. My phone is my life, because of that.  All phone numbers are stored on my phone, although it is linked to my Google account so that they are shared back and forth between the phone and my Google account, and that gives me backup. I think I need to start writing down ideas for blogs, though!

Anyway, things are good and manageable for now, for both of us.  Eventually, we joke that we may get to needing only one book and one DVD movie to watch, as we won’t remember how either ends! We have a little trouble with that now, but we still try to keep up with various TV series and go to the movies occasionally and I like to read a lot. I don’t think I will really get concerned until we start getting lost in our neighborhood. With prayers, perhaps we will never get to that point.

Prayers for all of your challenges!  God bless!

Dexterity Triumph

Happy Monday! It’s a beautiful, but hot day here in the resort town of Cobourg.  No problem, I have tidying on my list to do today.  I’m afraid that I have gotten sloppy over the week, but I’m on it today!

Here we are at the end of July!  I can hardly believe it.  The years do fly by now. It’s actually August tomorrow--a new page on the calendar and a time for new opportunities. Don’t you always feel good, when there is a new month full of possibilities?

Well, I’m actually blogging about this past weekend’s opportunities. I had the switching up of the pets on Friday. I had my youngest daughter’s cat for a week and a half.  Poor Kanye was sick and Kaitlyn’s condo had no air conditioning. So, I picked him up the day I arrived back from Nova Scotia, but had to return him on Friday as my oldest daughter was coming out with her dog and it was a bit much to have the Dallas the dog, Kanye and my own cat, Jett in the same house at the same time.

Anyway, a friend of Alysse’s was hosting a painting party.  I don’t know how many folks have attended these, but they are fun! To me, a painting party was when you invite a bunch of friends over to help you paint a room in your house, but this actually walks you through creating a painting on canvas! I was excited to attend, but a little nervous, as the MS has left my hands somewhat numb and with some dexterity challenges.

I am happy to say that I actually produced a painting, and you can actually tell what it is a painting of! On top of that, we had a glass of wine, while doing it.  What could be more fun than wine, paint and brushes and a blank canvas?  Our instructor is a friend of my daughter’s and she walked us through producing the painting, step by step.  Everyone creates the same painting, but you can take artistic license and make some changes as you go. I would recommend it to anyone!

My second dexterity triumph was the next day, when I hemmed a couple of dresses. I used to be really good at this, hemming so that you couldn’t actually see the stitches on the outside. I now have to use a larger needle because of numbness, and to be able to see it well enough to thread it! But, it is still fine enough to produce a decent stitch.  The stitches aren’t as uniform as I used to be able to do, but you can barely see the stitches on the outside and I’m rather proud of that. There was just the one little incident when using the scissors, that my right index finger froze in a bent position--very painfully, I might add--and I had to get it to straighten out.  The pain was in my wrist, where I guess the muscle contracted and didn’t want to let go.  Oh well, what’s the fun in tackling something without a challenge or two.

So, I can proudly say that I managed two fairly challenging projects and triumphed! I’m rather proud of myself, I must say.  It has given me the ambition to tackle some crocheting with finer yarn and hooks!  We shall see if I can manage that.

I think it is always nice to stretch your boundaries every now and then. Enough with the same old, same old!

Well, folks, may you rise to meet all of your challenges and may you look to the new month like a blank canvas of many possibilities.  God bless!

Book Sales

Happy Sunday! A lovely day out today and I have only blogging and washing sheets on my agenda.  What shall I do with my spare time?  Ah yes, I have a book on the go!! I shall definitely get to that today.

For those of you who waited with your breath held for a blog last week, my apologies.  I was in Nova Scotia enjoying some time with one of my cousins.  It was a great relaxing time--reading, sunning on the beach (love the salt water!) and catching a video on the TV at night.  We also did a bit of wandering the country roads, including visiting some places that I visited as a child.  A great time was had by both of us.  Linda Ann is a better cook than I, so she was the cook and I, the bottle washer.  A great combination.  And oh, the seafood!

Today, I am going to share my book sales story with you.  As anyone who follows me knows, I have written four Christian children’s books.  Each with six stories, based on Bible passages, but told from an animal’s point of view.  Sales were really slow, and I knew they were meant for a rather small readership.  But then came the call from my publisher!

I self published my books through AuthorHouse (you can also buy through Amazon and various other online stores--and even find them here:  www.janetkwarren.com).  One of the AuthorHouse agents called me at the end of June to ask if I was doing a sales campaign in Africa.  I am not doing anything specific, however, I do have nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter and many are in Africa.  It seems that someone from Nigeria was buying a bunch of my books!

The fellow tells me that they were purchased on a credit card and they were concerned that it was not legitimate. I know that Nigeria has a bad rap from various scams, but if I were to steal a credit card, buying Christian children’s books wouldn’t be the first thing I would think of to buy.  Mind you, as a priest, if I did have access to a credit card that had a really high limit on it, I would love to buy, or build, a church building for our Community Catholic Church of Canada, and a new hospice for Northumberland County.  Prayers...

I suppose that I probably spend far too much time watching crime shows, so the cynical side of me says that it could be a way to launder money.  It’s a stretch, but stick with me here.  What if dirty money was used to pay a credit card and said credit card was used to purchase anything in large quantities. Then say those items were returned to put the money back on the card.  It might seem like legitimate cash.  Mind you, it is only cash on a credit card, which is difficult to use, as if it is taken off the card as cash, I think you get charged interest, even if the amount is more than the limit on the card. You see where I’m going here.  It’s likely a real stretch, but you never know and there are, unfortunately, lots of people out there to make an illegitimate buck.

The bottom line for me is optimistic.  I want to believe that the sales are real and true, but I won’t know until I have the cool cash (well the check, actually), in my hot little hands and that won’t happen until some time in the middle of September, at least that is for the books purchased in May and June.

I have been going out to the AuthorHouse website and running the sales report from time to time, to see if the sales are still showing.  So far so good.  As a matter of fact, since I hadn’t looked in over a week because I had no internet in Nova Scotia, when I ran the report when I got home, there were 60 more books purchased, listed as ‘AuthorHouse Web Bonus’ and that was dated May 31, although the entry didn’t appear until July!  Wahoo!

So, prayers for a check to arrive. And prayers that sales continue!

May your prayers be answered, as you are hoping!  God bless!!

Summer Busyness

Happy Sunday! It was a beautiful sunny drive to St. George’s this morning for Sunday service, but I shouldn’t have been surprised by the major, but short, downpour this afternoon, as I had been warned.  It is sunny yet again now.  Crazy weather!

I had the honor of spending some time with a palliative this afternoon, after church. This was at Golden Plough Lodge again.  Not my favorite facility.  It is quite old, but I must admit that any of the staff I have dealt with have been wonderful. I shall be back with him in the morning for a couple of hours.

I’m back on the topic of busyness today, as we are now into summer and it seems that some things go on hiatus during July and August, to allow for personal busyness.  I am not particularly busier than in other months, but I do have my trip to Nova Scotia coming up in a week and a half!

All three if my advisory committees are taking a break until September, but since they only meet monthly, it doesn’t make much of a difference to me. It looks like the weekly cyber Sunday service will also take a break for the summer.  That, I shall miss.  I really enjoy it.  Having said that, most of my fellow clergy do weddings, so of course this is their busy time.

Our fearless leader, the bishop is the busiest of all! Before we can upload the cyber Sunday service, she has all the editing to take care of and although she loves it, it is time consuming. Add that to all of her other duties during wedding season and it starts to get out of hand and is one thing that can be dropped when things get really crazy busy.

I am hoping that anyone that has summer holiday plans, can manage to find the sun.  It comes out every now and then to tease us, but never seems to stay more than a day or two.  I’m hoping for some sunny weather when I’m in Nova Scotia, but I can read and gab in pretty much any weather, so I guess it doesn’t really matter that much.

I am actually trying to not be too busy this summer.  I was too busy there for a while, attending the priest course, along with the friendly visiting and advisory committee meetings, especially when I was spending time with two different palliatives.  Since I do palliative visiting through both Community Care Northumberland and the Extendicare facility, I can be assigned a palliative from both.  That has only happened once, so perhaps it will only happen rarely.

I do want some time to catch up on reading this summer.  The same as I did last summer. And with my courses over, now that I am an ordained priest, my life should become a little more scheduled, so that I don’t feel overwhelmed. That, I’m looking forward to! What’s the point in being retired, if you can’t put your feet up and rest?

I would also like to plan a couple of little trips, too.  Viv and I got to Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake to see plays last year, but haven’t even gotten to one this year! Perhaps in September………

Well folks, that’s my blog for today.  May your summer be enjoyable and not too crazy! May you find the time to do the things that you like to do, rather than being pulled in a million directions. I remember the days when my kids were small and the many, many things we had to fit into the summer.  It can be exhausting!  Rest, relax and enjoy!  Life is short, you many as well enjoy it!

Blessings on your summer plans.  May they all work out as expected.  God bless!

Ancestry

Happy Sunday! I was expecting rain today, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with sunshine so far.  It was a lovely drive up to St. George’s this morning, for a baptism.  It’s the most people I have seen in attendance yet!

I was mulling over a bunch of topics for today and had pretty much settled on ‘Rain, rain, go away!’, but not only am I tired of seeing the rain, I’m tired of talking about it.  Working with folks in Alberta and Texas before I retired, weather in general was always the topic of conversation. And, I suppose that there is almost always something to talk about where the weather is concerned, but please, no more rain! We had several roads closed here in Cobourg due to the Thursday night heavy rain.  It’s the worst I have ever seen.

So, off to another topic.  Several weeks ago, I took the plunge and got the 23andMe kits for Cavan and I to send in our spit samples to discover our DNA etc.  Interestingly enough, both of our samples arrived and were registered as received by them on the same day, but Cavan had his results about three weeks before mine!  

I must confess that I was getting a little worried. I had disclosed that I was adopted, when I filled in my data, so it occurred to me that they might have found something that was, concerning, shall we say. Well, when I did get my results, there was nothing concerning at all.  It turns out that I’m 73% British and Irish 17.1% broadly northwestern European, a little Scandinavian and German as well, but also 0.1% North African.  Hm, interesting.

Cavan took our detailed DNA results and uploaded them into MyHeritage, which gives a nice little presentation about it. They define the North African part as actually being western Asian, including Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Israel.  Now, that’ really interesting.  Perhaps I’m a distant relative of Jesus! Wow. You never know, do you?

In addition to the DNA part, 23andMe also tells you about genetic risk factors, drug response and inherited conditions, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff.  Again, there was nothing earth shattering that showed up.  I have variants that show a higher risk of Alzheimer’s and Celiac.  That shouldn’t be a surprise.  I have memory issues already that I blame on the MS and have had difficulty with wheat for years.

Nothing else of real interest showed up.  I guess that’s a good thing.

As to the DNA stuff again, based on others that have submitted their spit samples, some second, third and fourth cousins have been found that I guess I could reach out to, if I wished to. Years ago, before I was diagnosed with MS, I put in a request through the Brant Children’s Aid to find relatives.  I did find a birth brother.  He also, had been given up for adoption and is a year younger than me.  I did meet him, but felt no real connection, so I guess that means that I am quite happy with the family that I have.

Life is interesting. You never know what you might dig up, if you start digging.  Some things, you are better off not knowing, I suspect.  I did know one woman who had been tested for MS, when she was in her 20s. She didn’t find out that she had it until she was in her 50s. Her doctor felt that she would be better off not knowing.  I know that there are people who would take that diagnosis and live life to the fullest and others who would take that diagnosis and crawl into bed and stay there, or worse, crawl into a bottle and live there.

What is the answer?  I guess it depends on the person.  I was a single mother with two very young kids when diagnosed with MS, so I always said I had not choice but to move forward, but there is always a choice and my choice has always been to do the best with the cards I have been dealt. I think that is the best thing to do.

What did I expect to find out from 23andMe? I think it was really just some answers for my kids, if they were wanting them and as it turns out, it’s all good!  May your choices in life lead you down the kind of path you can deal with.  God bless.

Essential Oils

Happy Saturday! It’s lovely and sunny out there today and we were getting ready for friends to come to a big rib roast, but alas, they cannot make it, so the ribs are going in the freezer for another day. Of course that means that I get to get some chores done, including my blogging!

I usually try to blog on Sunday, but I’m spending it with my girls.  It’s Father’s Day, but they don’t see their father, so we are going to a Salt Cave.  Perhaps blog material for next week? It will be a nice day together no matter what and the salt cave is a new and different thing to try out.

Today, I am blogging about essential oils.  I will confess that I am only just learning about them, but I think I am pretty much sold so far.  I was looking for something non-medical for various things.  Cavan has trouble sleeping and one of my daughters suffers from anxiety sometimes. I think it is nice if you can go the natural route, rather than the chemical route.

For Cavan’s sleeping, there are several alternatives.  I have a diffuser and I love the lavender in it myself and I’m even trying various combinations so that I don’t wake up with my usual allergy symptoms.  The diffuser doesn’t help Cavan because he uses a CPAP (Continuous positive airway pressure) machine. For those of you who don’t know, it is for people who stop breathing when they sleep.  I will probably blog on that in some detail at some point, but for the purposes of this topic, it is relevant because his nose is covered, so the effect of the diffuser cannot help him.

A friend of mine, who got me involved with the essential oils, pointed me to a site that sells an attachment for the hose of the CPAP machine, so that I can put a drop of the oil on an insert and we’ll see if that makes a difference.  I only just received the attachment, so we have yet to try it.  I’ll report on that after we have tried to find an oil that works for him.

Lavender is the most often used oil for relaxation, so we will try that first, but I am buying oils from doTERRA, so I have a few blends that might be helpful.  We’ll keep trying them until we find something that works, or find that none of them help.

What I did discover about the lavender, however, is that it is helpful with a burn.  I was helping Cavan drill holes in our brick wall to install a hose reel.  The drill bit gets VERY hot.  At one point, my arm was tired, so I lowered the drill enough for the bit to touch my leg (I was wearing shorts!) and I got quite a burn.  The lavender applied directly took the pain away.  After several days, it is still looking pretty nasty, so I applied some frankincense, so hopefully, I can avoid an infection.

For my daughters, I have purchased a starter kit for each of them (from doTERRA, with points!), and I also got them necklace diffusers, so we’ll see if they find it useful. I also got them each a different oil blend from doTERRA.  I chose Cheer for Alysse and Peace for Kaitlyn.  I couldn’t decide which to give to whom, but I let my cat smell both.  He really did not like the Cheer, so that settled it, because Kaitlyn also has a cat.  Alysse’s dog isn’t as likely to be as fussy.

So, this is the beginning really, of my essential oil journey. I will blog again, when I know some more about how they have helped (or not helped) us.  For now, I shall enjoy the new scents!  God bless!