10 in TEN weeks!

In our big beautiful family,
we are always celebrating life and love with our precious and growing bunch. 

We've been thrilled with the improvement of technology, always managing to keep up with our older adult children, and nine of our grandchildren, all living on the west coast.

Birthdays are something we miss being present for, so in today's blog post, please allow me to share the last 10 from our lovely bunch, all ten of them celebrating birthdays in a ten week span.

Here are our;

10 in 10

December 6th - Granddaughter J. turns 5!

December 9th - Daughter in law J. still in her thirty somethings :) 

December 16th - Granddaughter F. turns 3!

December 16th, celebrating the same birth date with sister F. above; 

Granddaughter G. turns 12!

 

December 25; Well, I guess I count in this ten weeks, still in my fifty something years,

so yes, this is me with granddaughter not loving the cell phone photo moment.

January 3, our oldest daughter A. is still thirty something too :)

January 26, our grandson M. turns 1!

January 29th, our daughter A. is still twenty something!

(great photo steal; snowboarding on Grouse Mountain, 

overlooking our former Vancouver, B.C.)

February 1, Granddaughter P. turns two!

February 10th, our youngest daughter turns 14!

And there's TEN in TEN weeks. 

Next up? 

Our youngest granddaughter turns 1 on March 1!

(Okay, since this blog post is LATE, here she is...)

Another whole year of more birthdays for the rest of the bunch are yet to come.

Maple syrup sugaring on our property

~ We've lived on this three acre property for four years now, and not once had we thought of tapping our maple sugar trees. 

Well, not really. 

 (this week)

 Shortly after we moved in, my parents came for a visit. 

Out of the blue one afternoon, I remember my father looking out the back windows, just relaxing in our family room, and suddenly mentioning how it would be interesting some day to "try" and tap a couple of trees, just to see what happened. 

That whole notion since, had admittedly never left me, though to be fair, I really didn't think it would ever be something we'd even attempt. Nope, neither myself, nor my husband, even after attending all those maple syrup festivals in our little town, did we ever think we'd ever "really" do it. 

 (last week)

But, it was sugaring time now, a mere six weeks is the open window, at best to tap and await when the days grow warmer, and nightfall nightfall temperatures continue to plummet to freezing levels on the thermometer. Of that entire six weeks calendar opening, only three of those weeks will offer a truly productive sappy syrup yield. 

I wanted some of that, syrup yield that is. 

My husband and I began to talk before Christmastime, to dream, to wonder if we could, if we dared, and if we even wanted to pursue the adventure in the first place.  Maybe the whole project was too big for us, maybe not.

He went into respiratory rehabilitation in hospital, and the topic kept creeping in to our conversations. 

The trick was to remember how much snow continued to fall; where could we tap trees so we could trek out to them in deep snow, how far apart the tapping couldn't be for crisscrossing, collecting and tromping around to deposit the yield into containers for temporary storage, and so forth. 

After exploring our options by reading, watching and learning all about maple sugaring, at first we thought there would be no way.  

On the down side, everything we'd seen looked too much like a huge commercial affair; sugar shacks, 25 gallon sap barrels on tractors, boiling the sap in huge bins over an open fire, and dozens of helpers moving about assisting in the process.  

Right. Uh-huh. Right.

No, no, that wasn't what we thought we could do, certainly we required something more ma and pa on a much smaller scale than that.

And then, I found some information for rookie sugaring folks like us, and I'm still smiling over that. 

Confidence grew, WE COULD DO THIS, and soon my husband assigned me the task of finding local suppliers, and sugar shack folks near to us. It seemed in so many blogs I read two weeks ago, someone was featuring their sugaring attempts. And so, the idea was not only born, but it was time, yes it was TIME! So, with rolled-sleeves-way-up, the adventure was about to be enthusiastically executed. 

We found a famous Canadian supplier located about half an hour from our home, very handy. And, what a GREAT store it was! They were fantastic for an information highway, ideas were gobbled up for when we get bigger, ha!

We left with our purchased humble load of supplies; a few 2 gallon buckets, spigets and hangers, lids with steel rods, and our maple sugaring drill bit, (sized to accommodate our spigets).

Without a word of a lie, oh my, after our very first drilling attempt rendered immediate dripping of maple tree sugar sap, everyone was peaked, and all bolted to dip fingers into the dripping sweetness. Wow, that was quick! 

Already our little project became enhanced from - the "do-we-have-to" attitude bit from kids" into "standing upright and suddenly energetic kind of kids", right into almost "taking over the project kind of kids".... truthfully. In fact, they did! I have photos to prove it! :)

Surprise, surprise, we already have some sugaring going on here. Woohooooooooo! 

As this blog is uploading, our eager children have been checking the buckets three times a day, and our first gathered batch of sugar sap is boiling away, and tonight we will have our very first home grown, homemade, Canadian maple syrup. Now, that's very, very exciting! 

Maybe the breakfast menu will change for tomorrow. Pancakes sound just perfect to me. 


...definitely to be continued...

(PS Is anyone else having issues with how Blogger is changing font sizes when posting a draft? Sheesh!)

(Many) grandchildren photo opportunity attempts...

They gathered for a play date at a local park. 

The weather was spring-like, unlike here, so the first thing I noticed were the brightly colored rain jackets and rubber boots. No, we can't wear those yet, or surely frost bite will happen in a jiffy. 

My how they've all grown! 

These are our grandchildren, all were visiting in one place, at the same time. 

Wow, all ten!

These sweeties are ages almost one year to thirteen years. 

Ever try to get ten children to smile all at once?  No easy feat, that's for sure!

Our three year old granddaughter wasn't going to take her hands from her eyes, not once. It's okay though, it's happened before with another so it's just a phase. One day...

Aren't they just a lovely bunch? 

Love them ALL so VERY dearly...

An everlasting LOVE...

Yesterday we (like it or not) ushered in Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of Lent. 

 ...For I have loved you with an everlasting love...

~ Jeremiah 31:3

Along with its entry, one couldn't help notably sighting both adults and children, darkly crossed on their foreheads, with visible reminders of "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust". 

With Ash Wednesday falling where it has this year on our calendars, being able to have "St. Valentine's Day" love feasting in our midst the very day next day, make no mistake that (sacrificial) love reminders are warmly embracing us, both spiritually and emotionally, and have never occurred back to back this way, simply by coincidence.

 

"Teach us...

that we may feel the importance of every day,

of every hour, as it passes."  

 

~ Jane Austen

   Week 3 is steadily moving forward for my husband's respiratory rehabilitation. Once again, we have been offered an uncanny and timely reminder, on how this often crushing cross lung disease affects our family. With the timing too comes the occasional reminder to take a momentary step back, to grasp how fleeting our daily moments really are, and to begin taking the next necessary steps ahead - concentrating on keeping one foot pacing along in front of the other...go,go,go.

Perhaps, rather than thinking this cross as an unfathomable burden, I've been really pondering, why not make the attempt to slightly turn it around, and be grateful for this gift of timing instead.

 

It is a love offering option to try, no one said it would be easy, and of course it's lent for a double reminder of sacrifices being made, but think of it... if only we would choose instead to pray for eyes wide open, and for the courage to surrender to all of the wonderful possibilities life can offer us throughout the lenten season ahead.

 

Certainly every individual has their own personal crosses to carry, so may this early entry into Lent once again remind us to mindfully reflect on how we are honestly doing with that important task.  

The decision to re-enter into resp. rehab, wasn't something my hubby wanted to submit to when doctors insisted it to be so, especially the part about having to be away from his family as an inpatient in the confines of a hospital ward, along with some 28 others in his respiratory hospital wing, all of them also making the grueling attempt at working hard to continue battling various types of lung diseases like him. 

 

But, for the love (and begging pleas) of his wife and family, his affirming decision has consequently offered us all, an example of a very real and sacrificial kind of love.  

 

As St. Paul declared in Corinthians 28:19; 

"...real love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Love never fails." 

There are times when the weight of one's cross quickly becomes much lighter with the love and cheering of family and friends. 
 

Our children have all offered their father (sometimes daily) love within their cheery texting/emailing sentiments;

"Go, Dad, Go!"
"You're my hero"
"Keep up the great work!"
"You can do it!"
 "We love you!"

"You've got this!"

He has never been far from my own heart, and my spontaneous prayer offerings throughout the day, thoughts frequently visiting me over what he might be doing at that present timing, hoping he's breathing okay, praying yet another new round of medical tests don't produce further complications (like two did last week), and attempting all the while to keep up everyone's spirits around here.

 

 "You can't make up time; 
you can only use what's left, better." 

 

~ Oscar G. Darlington  

 

Today, and every day, I continue to cherish and celebrate the love I have for this man, still strong so many years later since that very first "Knights of Columbus" dance where we vividly noticed how cupid's arrows began darting at our hearts. 

 

I eagerly await and trust in the journey ahead, submitting totally to God's will for our lives...because "he loves us with an everlasting love".
 

  

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

"Keep a good heart.  That's the most important thing in life.

It's not how much money you make or what you can acquire.

The art of it is to keep a good heart."

  ~ Joni Mitchell      

All a flutter, quite literally... Lent is here

Week 3 - Respiratory Rehabilitation

all began yesterday..

 

 

While my husband was home attempting his weekend recovery from being an inpatient at the respiratory rehabilitation hospital, almost as suddenly as he arrived after his brutal drive through the highly cautioned winter storm of the year, the following day he was knocked under with some sort of a awful flu bug. 

Interesting to later learn upon his return to be an inpatient again for the third week in a row, two of his fellow roommates had also fallen with a similar bug, both placed into isolation for the weekend. I guess so! But who "irresponsibly" brought it in there in the first place?

What to do with roommates who have come from a far distance away and cannot return home for recovery time on the weekend? You got it, they are sent into isolation, like jail time. sigh...

While my husband's head and body gently weeped through his time of trial that threw him temporarily against the wall, I monitored and placed my own husband into a type of isolation.

 Although he felt so much better before noon on Sunday, he was instructed by everyone to lay low, and to hydrate and nibble back to better health. There were family plans for the weekend, and with or without him now, the show had to go on. But, happy to report by 5am. Monday, he felt just fine, and was given the go ahead to return to the hospital.

His weekend schedule for using his varied breathing apparatus was not attended to per his daily appointed timings, a slight bit distracted by life as it were, but how interesting to get to know a new (life saving) breathing device so simple, and yet so powerful that it can take the place of a percussion vest for lung disease mucus extraction and lung lining/gasping to breathe control. 

It was the best hundred dollars ever spent, and so much more convenient than having to wear, and perform instead within the confines of a percussion vest! 

I've been alerted and will be summoned to visit the hospital several times over the next few weeks to learn proper percussionist cupping, to be performed several times each day for at home care on my husband, one lung at a time as a gentle daily measure. To supplement his routine, this little helpful flutter device has also now become a part of my husband's required daily mucus clearing regime.

What a wonderful and instant-relief type of invention! He's very impressed with it! It works by taking a deep breath, then blowing through the pipe to move around the steel ball inside. Then sound waves begin rolling up and down from the pipe through the depths of the lungs, to loosen up mucus on their linings. It works instantaneously to offer huge relieve and some normalcy.

 The traditional mom/dad and birthday child happened...

 Did I mention we celebrated the traditional birthday breakfast here, just in time, before my hubby fell ill. We also hosted a birthday party on Sunday evening for a newly turned fourteen year old daughter with a few friends, plus, we brought a son's friend home overnight from church who lives quite a distance away, and all the rest who live here were on deck to help ensure the birthday party flew well. Concern for their father had kept their minds and hearts full all day, the party was a great distraction. Believe me!

Yesterday, we all spent the day decompressing. For real. 

I'm sure I won the "crazy neighbor award" again this past weekend, for being a weirdo who had all our doors open wide, fans on, freezing out rooms to kill germs and freshen all up again. 

I actually stood in the front doorway, just absorbing the fresh air for sport. It felt great just to stand there, frozen in my deepest thoughts.
 
Yesterday it began to warm up and rain. Then, it snowed. It squalled too. And we all could hardly care less. There was a little math, english, and animal care performed, then a few found themselves napping, and there was the survival fallout to fend off, from one more stressful wellness moment that could have been life changing and disastrous in every sense of the word.

Sleeping on a couch for two nights has no perks, unless all my aching bones, and foggy brain from hourly waking to check on my hubby possibly count.

Forget the official Ash Wednesday start to Lent tomorrow folks, for it's already been here for some time now in my mind, already so much to offer up toward the many prayer requests promised out there. There are so many we know with difficult health circumstances at this present time, that makes me feel wimpy even daring to complain about my weary body and escalating brain fuzz. 

For these, and all we can offer wholeheartedly at this time ~ we pray to the Lord.

...never was it known, that anyone that fled to thy protection was left unaided... Amen.  

And then, mail call! This arrived at a timing like no other, from my extremely thoughtful, dear sister in law who worked with her loving hands to needle craft and create this special gift just for us. 

Believe it or not, she apologized for having purchased the kits some six years ago, and hadn't had the time to actually complete it until recently. 

As we all know, often our timing is not dictated in our own schedules, and the actual timing of completing and sending this gift via parcel post became the PERFECT timing for us, humbled recipients of this lovely and unexpected personalized gift. 

It's so perfect, and the timing is too! It really is! Thank you! Thank you!

Those are our chairs folks, the water's edge always our preferred place to be, at least for a breathing reprieve on tough humid fallout days, the sand weaving in our toes, the wind gently tossing about our hair, and the cherished (way out there) horizon before us, always manages to represent our deepest desire to just calmly trust and pray for all that is to come.

Onward to Lent then, and keeping our hearts all a flutter for St. Valentine's Day and beyond.

May you be blessed this week folks, with the love of family, hearts filled with good and wonderful lenten intentions, and the grace to carry it all through. 

Hugs!