Come along, make haste and join us in our adventures while living "In The East".
We are living in the east, geographically speaking, after a sudden work transfer beckoned us almost across the entire country, splitting our family in half with grown children/grandchildren remaining behind on the west coast.
We moved into our new home April/06 but never knew it would be God's providence to endure another move for work and positioning for a future medical situation. We moved again amidst 4 feet of snow in mid Dec/08.
We hope to continue sharing our pioneering moments with our family and friends back home, creating an environment for tenderly passing along the new memories we'll be making over here in the east, those that will stand the test of time in both thought and deed.
Sprinkling some ambiance into the mix will be a fully loaded and most positive outlook while we're on this adventure and new challenge together.
Please join us while we journey onward. Feel free to email me with your comments, questions or ideas. We welcome you here.
Sursum Corda! Renee
Wisdom nugget...
"Man's value before God is estimated by the dispositions of his heart, its uprightness, its good-will, its charity, and not by keenness of intellect or extent of knowledge."
~Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich
36 years and going strong!
Our Circle of Eight
The Grandparent Club
"Nobody can do for grandchildren what grandparents can. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children."
I'm certain you've heard of motorcross racing as a competitive sporting activity before, right? Well blow me down! This past weekend, there was a buzz in a city not far from our home with the Canada wide Ski-doo racing championships.
On another front, seemingly every gas station located within our vicinity was lined up with colorful ski-doo riders, filling up their tanks to zoom off on a ski-doo trail adventure. It has become so common to see these machines out and about, roaming up and down roads and not just designated trails.
So many riders are cautious about their sport, but there are some who aren't as great as following the rules. Last weekend we drove past a terrible accident where one ski-doo rider drove to fill up his gas tank and thought to ride up the road to his nearby home. Without tail lights, he was hit from behind and what a terrible sight to see his ski-doo in ruins.
For the most part though, I am so tempted to try it out, riding one of them I mean and so are our teens. If there was a rental possible, who knows? But, I will assure you, I'll take out the proper permits and stick to the trails....all the time. :-)
"Mommy why are our stop signs so big in the east compared to what we had in the west?"
Me thinks they are 2 1/2 feet from side to side for a really good reason....and every winter I am reminded why they are made so much bigger than the west's.
Two days ago 15 inches of snow fell on top of us over the course of the day and early evening. We are amazed at how high packed snow around our property has become, especially since it now hovers somewhere around four feet in total (and that's "packed snow"!).
As white becomes a brightener of our days once the light bounces off of it to create a wonderful symphony of secondary colors, I wanted to present these photos below to you that I really love...
The first is a photo with white daisies, a freshness to them that fills us with the promise of Spring and Summer to come. Oh yes, they do. They seemed oddly available to me somehow especially in lieu of the fact there is still so much snow still present on the ground. But, heh, winter meets spring here and that is a wonderful thought to behold and embrace.
Next is a photo I love of my husband. Our children laughed at me when I presented them with the photo above of me with my arms wide open embracing the ideal of more falling snow. I love snow! But this photo was snapped of my husband, likely to everyone's surprise in 2002. We were able to escape for a weekend to quietly celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. When we woke up the morning after our arrival, we were dumbfounded to find the snow on the ground outside, but rather than feeling all gloomy, instead we took it all in our stride while happily walking through it towards our Empress Hotel High Tea time reservation. So for our family; Revel in this photo because it truly is one of those precious "Memories".... Limitations today could not allow for memories such as this one, so we are learning to make new ones instead.
And while this last photo below is not typically white on white as one would imagine, it definitely has possibilities with all the fun colors dancing through the prisms of the glass. Enjoy!
Okay, okay, so here's one below with more "white on white".....smile
A new law was passed two weeks ago and became effective immediately within the province of Ontario.
It is now illegal for anyone to smoke inside a vehicle with any passengers under the age of sixteen years old.
Of course there are some folks out there who aren't happy with this new law. Personally I feel this law doesn't attack a smoker's rights as some might suggest, rather it stands up for those youngsters unable to fend for themselves to obtain a smoke free air space they deserve. In my humble opinion, this law is long overdue!
It surely doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the health consequences will be to those small passenger victims I often notice who are traveling with adults/parents sitting in the front seat, sucking back their weedy white rollies, inhaling and exhaling their puffs while consequently creating large billowy plumes of misty second hand smoke for little ones to gag and choke back on.
Do the adults doing the smoking with wee audiences in tow not stretch their minds far enough to dare themselves to think of the ramifications down the road, (or even for the here and now) of those subjected to their unhealthy habits? Perhaps common sense disappears when "self" becomes more important to the young "lives" in tow, mainly due to becoming so attached to their cig vice and the ensuing deep breath in, followed by a deep puff of smoke out, they soon forget their audience.
Ever smell an ashtray?
Ever smell a wee babe after a parent exits with them from a vehicle or home right after smoking a cigarette?
My intent with this post is twofold. First, I am thrilled and just love this new law and I'm cheering loudly over it! I can't even begin to imagine someone daring enough to begin lighting up their cigs in a vehicle with closed windows with our children around, or my grandchildren with them.
Secondly, is it not my intent to offer a personal slam to anyone who chooses to smoke, but don't do with children/youth in your presence! Did you know children who breathe in second hand smoke are subjected to 27% more toxins than the actual smoker is? This is a true statistic and one can only imagine what life was like before restaurants in Canada banned smoking from their indoor premises because whatever the statistic, children aren't the only ones who become susceptible to those added poisonous toxins. You and I are in that loop as well. We become lung filled walking time bombs if predisposed to genetic probabilities, or sudden illnesses. And if we so choose to do so, we also have the right to insist others do not block our air space with pollutants, any kind of them, even second hand smoke.
I've become a crusader of sorts for not only clean air space but also a volunteer spokesperson for all lung disease patients I meet and greet while walking through hospital corridors, or even complete strangers I might chance to see in town towing along oxygen tanks, suffering just to take a deep breath every few seconds while moving along. Smokers make a lot of noise about having rights to smoke where they wish to but let's face it, non-smokers have rights too, a right to breathe fresh clean air not riddled by stale stenches of burned smelling tobacco. If you smoke - whose health (aside from your own) could you be affecting? Do others around you appreciate your habit? Have others around you asked you to stop, or smoke elsewhere? Do you honour that request out of respect or love for them?
For nine years now I have walked side by side with my husband down corridors of respiratory hallways in several hospitals to date. I have seen firsthand what happens when a person becomes afflicted by a lung disease, any lung disease. I have seen the suffering of many, some so deeply unwell my heart breaks when feeling so helpless to assist them in any way to make them feel all better again. I have cheered for my husband's roommates, and was thrilled to find out Lloyd got his new lungs two years ago and is doing fantastic! He had cystic fibrosis, a more common lung disease than my husband's. On a down side, I've seen people with lung diseases so deathly ill, but feebly attempting to get to the smoke hole for their next cigarette despite the affect on their health as their lungs continue to deteriorate. That is awful to watch. The worse yet was seeing a woman holding a small oxygen tank on her lap, sitting against a store front on the cement ledge, barely able to breathe right, but smoking a cigarette. Shortly afterwards we heard a fire truck and wondered about her, because oxygen and cigarettes don't belong together.
On a personal note, I have some people in my own life whom I love dearly who haven't cracked the smoking vice yet and seemingly don't care to, despite (!) the knowledge of possible harm towards a negative medical prognosis in the future.
Do they even care? Maybe but actions speak louder than words.
Do I get after them? Of course I do, mainly out of love and concern for them and nothing more.
Do they smoke in front of me? They've tried....never with silence or approval from me. They can either stop or I will begin to walk until they complete their filthy fix. (sounds harsh huh?)
Do they smoke in front of their children? Yes. And that bugs me to bits and in my own opinion crosses the line of all wisdom nugget possession possible!
That said; If you're reading this and you smoke cigarettes, cigars, a pipe or any other type of smoky substance – now you know firsthand that I'm an advocate of this new law and I'll be bothering you even more than before...k? Maybe I'll have to rally parliament to have this law imposed Canada and US wide. Yep, it's a good goal folks...smile
If a smoker could view the interior of his/her lungs, perhaps even catch a glimpse and see into the future the end result of their smoking habit over time, would they still smoke? I wonder. Would they care? I wonder. But because we can't view the future with crystal lenses, nor can we see directly into our own lung interiors, I will leave you with a few videos to watch at your leisure below, which are very short in length, and yet the message will make your jaw drop to the floor. Or will it?
Now I'm off to suck back some clean air and fill my lungs up with the (snowy) fresh stuff as best as I can. That's my kind of puff...oh yeah baby!
All written material and original photographs belong to me. Please be courteous by asking permission to copy, print or share elsewhere. Thank you so much in advance.
"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes."
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He made a note for next time, when adjusting liquid measure and using substitutions, do not subtract anything from the exact amount required.
I can hardly wait until next time... upcoming bread maker in our family and all...
