A beautiful day in the neighborhood....

Sometimes the sun beckons us outdoors on a beautiful day, like the ones we've experienced lately.

Even with the most gorgeous of days before us, clearly we have to remember it is yet still winter. Protective gear is still required, especially gloves. The bluest sky with the brightest sun has blessed us greatly recently.

When viewing out our window panes in the warmth of our home, this same brilliant sky has also fooled us into believing a tropical balmy likeness has come to call.


Is it summer yet?

Uh, no.

Don't let that sun fool you because if one tilts up their chin just a bit when viewing out our windows, you'll be sure to notice those protruding icicles hanging off our eavestroughs with dripping water falling by day. These are not melted all the way, nor is the ice damming on the roof lines, just another hint of winter still in the air. It was only 0 degrees celsius in the photo above, heading upward to a warm 2C on the thermometer by midday.

During sunny days like this one, the temptation to crank out one of my hockey mother whistles to bring my busy bunch to a screeching halt, don our coat and boots, and get outdoors for a long walk and some fresh air is an impulsive action at best.

I do that, frequently and yet I just can't recommend it highly enough, getting outdoors in winter that is. Oh, and just so you heard that right, it really is a little known fact that I have an awesome and very piercing loud whistle talent, especially great for hockey games when my sons score on net. LOL

Twenty minutes a day folks, bare minimum.

Fresh air that is.

Have you had yours today?

(Sunday Flash - We went from -10 to +12 degrees celsius today, tropical no doubt! Back to the negative numbers tonight, but oh what a lovely day we had!)

Lenten reflections

Lent - a liturgical time for;

• hot cross buns
• the way of the cross
• candles
• purple
• sacrifices galore
• feasting
• fasting
• reflection
• developing new habits
• more prayer

During Lent, as always, it's a time to step it up, a time when I very much appreciate my morning visits chatting with my heavenly father, telling him, no spilling the beans about every little bitty thing in my life I have to have his assistance and guidance on, or issues I need to beg for mercy about, or requesting often for forgiveness..... alone together - just he and I.

This is one of my favorite verses for my morning reflections;

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

~ Psalm 139:23,24

Together in the early morning hours when the house is yet quiet, shortly after my husband leaves for work and daybreak is about to bid me good day, I seek and I always find for my heavenly father and I have our bonding time. Alone. Together.

I'm realizing more and more as I age, every new day offers more opportunities for grace, patience, charity and humility.

I live for the infusing of these virtues, in turn to practice them because I am aware of all my weaknesses as I am a sinner and not very good at all of those things, all of the time.

I do try though, I do. I fail often (just ask my kids, one or two in particular would be more than happy to tell you all of my faults, grin). Such is life for everyone, especially for a parent.

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father;
we are the clay, and You our potter;
and all we are the work of Your hand."

~ Isaiah 64:8

I love the ability to call out his name and beg for a kickstart to reboot my thoughts, my heartaches, my concerns, my hopes, my dreams and over and over again, I can offer complete thanksgiving and be ever thankful for every little thing in my life.

New beginnings. That's the ultimate ending to Lent because new habits are formed day to day within those forty days. Better habits to (hopefully) last a lifetime.

• I love Lent!
  

• I love purple!
  

• I love the tease at mass last weekend with the purple shrouds gently placed and laying under all holy items, perhaps in preparation of the veiling soon to come.
  

• I love the bells and smells, the reverence.
  

• I love the way of the cross, walking it in prayer and candlelight with my family.
  

• I love the ability for a renewed, zestful purpose of life and redeeming grace to enter the core of my very soul.

• So many things are such a blessing during Lent, if only we look to find them. Sacrifices and blessings, a perfect balance.

It seems every year during Lent, my husband endures additional items during March and April requiring extra courage and patience. The parade of semi annual doctor and specialists' visits begins again and just a tad of emotional fragility involuntarily surfaces to enter wholeheartedly into the big picture for us as a couple.

As an aside and still on a memorable Lenten note - It's been over a year since my hubby entered his seven week long hospitalization program for respiratory physio bootcamp. He has yet to be released as a day patient, still driving twice weekly for his usual routine. And for the past three months, he's been waiting to hear when he must return for his yearly respiratory bootcamp again. It seems the waiting list includes a new bunch of emergent patients, so we wait to find out. Perhaps by the summer he'll still enter, who knows. Again, life on the edge.

The hospital claimed last year he now completely belonged to them - for the rest of his life, and like the "Hotel California", you can visit but you can never leave, and that's about right.

All kidding aside, I like them keeping him close and taking good care of him because they could see right through him and know exactly what his weaknesses are and his requirements in all ways. I love that.

And I love how everything turned out last year when he had to enter the hospital last year, with only 48 hours notice and during Lent of all times, when he felt more down than ever in his whole life. Shortly after the first week when I thought he would come home never to return, cold turkey quit actually what would in fact end up being one of the very best things for his wellness, ever.

Just when it all got too hard, in walks another fellow hospital lung disease patient into his life, that of "Bob" who usually sat at the back of his first class each morning, the man he later found out was actually "Fr. Bob", a retired priest who soon became a calming presence for my husband during his Lenten days in hospital.

Angels are everywhere, I have witnessed several pass by our lives over the past 18 months! I have no doubt they are still here, hovering, waiting and wondering when we he/we once again require their heavenly wings to swoosh down to brush our cheeks again.

Oh, Thank you my Lord! Thank you for your sweet angels.



Lent. Like my husband told me when I entered into labor with a child ... Don't waste your suffering, and during lent we might add; and your sacrificing, your fasting and praying.

Yes, indeed, there are so many things to pray for.

Thirty-three years ago today...

I said "I do".

Yes, I did.

And I"m still doing it today.

Loving my husband always that is.

Goofing off as usual

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Celebrating our wedding anniversary with us before our departure to dinner.

We've been used to celebrating this day very quietly, my husband and I. Three years ago, all that changed when just six weeks earlier to our 30th wedding anniversary, the primary respiralogist on my husband's rare lung disease case presented an dynamic emotional time bomb to the two of us.

With xrays before him, and all the medical data he had acquired for the case, he estimated my husband had, maybe at the most, tops, eighteen months before he would be staring a double lung transplant in the eye. The news was tragic in nature, although the health journey he had already been walking wasn't entirely free from news such as this before. The timing was just horrible, as it always is. No one is ever prepared or really ready to hear such news, no matter what health state they are currently living.

Upon my husband's request previous to this, having already spent much time off work from severe unwellness, he requested a gathering for the first time ever to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, a reunion of sorts with family and friends to really celebrate when we flew to Vancouver to be with our children/grandchildren. We weren't really sure what life had in store for us. Emotions were all over the map that evening but wow, the memories we will hold forever in our hearts are so special to us. Thank you again to all who attended!

Next week we revisit a semi-annual round of pulmonary tests, CT scans and a visit with yet another main respiralogy doctor currently holding the files on my husband's case since our move here. Last September, she posed a thought creating some anxiety, to be revisited at this next appointment.

Life is fragile.

Relish in the thought of; " Every day a blessing!"

Celebrate life's special offerings!

This is my wish for you:

Comfort on difficult days,
smiles when sadness intrudes,
rainbows to follow the clouds,
laughter to kiss your lips,
sunsets to warm your heart,
hugs when spirits sag,
beauty for your eyes to see,
friendships to brighten your being,
faith so that you can believe,
confidence for when you doubt,
courage to know yourself,
patience to accept the truth,
Love to complete your life.

~ Author Unknown

Wordless Wednesday

(seeing is believing...)

March!

MARCH
by; Emily Dickinson


Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat -
You must have walked -
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell.

March

• - I love March.

• - I was married in March, 33 years ago this Friday. And I still find my husband just as scrumptious as I did when he was still only my boyfriend all those years ago. *blush*

• - It's Lent during March, but it wasn't in the first week of March the year we were married, thank goodness. :) We feasted then and still will all these years later. Soon, soon, soon, only three more sleeps until then!

• - Speaking of Lent, what better way to observe it, to see God's handiwork all around us, even if last weekend it was another gorgeous dump of white snow. I really like it when it snows like that myself. And we had 2 1/2 feet of snow fall over last weekend! :)

• - I love March because of the promise of spring sure to come right around the corner.
  

• - I love that daylight savings time is near, days will become even longer. It was still light outdoors just before 7pm last evening and it's now light out earlier in the morning.

• - Many feasts are about to visit our way - including celebrations in honor of the patron Saint of Canada - why St. Joseph of course. And then there's the return of a drive through pick up for shamrock shakes all around in honor of St. Patrick. Oh yes, there are others about to occur, and boy oh boy, do we ever love to celebrate and honor feasts and events in our family.
  

• - March - a time when everyone seems perkier, a wee bit happier when those darker days of winter fall behind along with the grumpies.

• - March, a time to make plans for spring and we are doing that, checking our airmiles and waiting for more to show up from last month's new earnings.