Tinselled

I've been attacked with tinsel! I arrived home from overseas to discover that my home had been attacked by the tinsel-fairy with incredible taste. She seems to have tossed decorations left right and center and was not content until she had done every last corner of the house. Needless to say, it took me a while to get everything cleaned up. The fox on the top of the tree just made me laugh - he's perched up there so happily!
Even the houseplants all got into the spirit of the season, all sporting their own decorations!
Yesterday, i baked. Hopefully there aren't any chocolate balls in any of my baking, since i found them in the salt pot, the sugar pot and the flour sack and here, there and everywhere over the house!
Yep, there are utensils in there somewhere - it looks like a strange type of snake curled up there.
It seems that the big top has come to town! Or a candy-cane fairy...
My lamp is sporting a fuzzy red hat - sends off a very cozy glow when the light is on.
Tinsel is crawling all over my living room like ivy... it stays up for now!
This was my first inkling that something was up - a trail of stars all through the entrance hallway
My kitchen cupboards all look like presents, wrapped up in red ribbons!
The table is set for dinner - anyone coming over? I'd love to have some company - i'm even so decadent that i have TWO Christmas trees - i believe the second one may be Lauren and Tom's fake tree that has been hiding out in my basement in pieces the last few months - it somehow migrated upstairs and managed to get itself decorated with more tinsel than i ever thought was possible for one tree to carry - you only see about half of the length of that strand - the rest was all stuffed into my closet and nearly attacked me as i went to get my vacuum out yesterday. I had no idea that garland came in such long lengths!
Good thing i didn't just turn the microwave on - something would have lit up and it wouldn't have been the Christmas lights.
Whoever is the tinsel fairy had much too much time on their hands... it was a challenge to get into my drawers for the first little while... Boy, oh, boy, makes you think twice about stating "have fun decorating!" I had to laugh so much when i found all these decorations and had to marvel at the time and effort which was put into the whole process!

Groeten

Joeri flying through the snow... he LOVES the snow!
A day out in Leiden - i think my umbrella was inside-out more than it was right-side-up... but i was thankful for it nonetheless and thanks to the wind, it was easy to fix each time!
Aline's umbrella was a little stronger! I've seldom toured around in wetter weather, but we managed to have a wonderful day despite the rain.
A typically Dutch bridge in Leiden... it was so much fun to be a tourist.
Wet wet day in Leiden - i don't think i'd like to get back on my bike with a wet seat like that!
The Koepelkerk in Smilde - we attended church here on Sunday morning
- it's a pretty neat building!
Rode Pannen - Ome Klaas and I "went" to jail for an afternoon - we had a tour around the former jail which once housed some of Holland's worst criminals - very interesting!
The family farm in Smilde - looking a little snow-dusted.
Boy, these are out of order - standing in front of the prison museum in Veenhuizen - it sure was a nippy day and there was lots of history there - Ome Klaas was a good tour guide.
And now we're in Amsterdam - one of the ferries for people to cross the big cana
l from one side of the city to the other - how Dutch!
A mysterious little window - in an empty house in Woubrugge - i felt like a bit of a creeper but i kept thinking about the people who lived in the house - who were they? what was their life about? Can i poke around inside a little bit?
Snow day in Woubrugge - i went for a long chilly walk with Tantineke and Joeri - it was a winter wonderland - everything was so beautiful!
No, Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore or even Australia for that matter - this little wallaby is a resident in the dierentuin in Woubrugge - they seemed pretty insulated against winter's chill but were none too enamoured with the snow i think.
The snow covered lane in front of Tantineke's house - a fairy tale look.
Ome Johan working hard to clear the path in the snow - snow shovels have been hot sellers the last few days in Holland

Yes, an update from across the big blue ocean where apparently as i look outside now, it's snowing again... Everything here in Woubrugge is a winter wonderland. I sit here with nice red cheeks (a Vos special trait) and a full stomach from a lunch of lekkere fresh bread and a cup of hot chocolate after a nice long walk with my Tante along the canal/river here. We took Joeri (de hond) with us and he very much enjoyed his little outing - running here, there and everywhere, greeting all the neighbourhood dogs and doing the social rounds of all the trees. I got an amazing picture of him running flat out towards me and he's got all four paws off the ground. I'll post it when i get back home but it's pretty cute!
It's hard to believe i've been here for a week. I have the feeling i've been here in Holland for much longer, which i suppose is a wonderful thing. i'll give a brief synopsis of the events of the days to give you a bit of a taste of my trip... I arrived last Thursday and spent the day here in Woubrugge with my Mom's youngest sister and her family. Friday it was up north to Smilde for a family dinner at ome Ruurd and tante Gerda's place - very nice - set the record for how late we stayed up - three oçlock is very late... or early depending on how you look at things. Saturday was tante An's birthday party - so on the road again to Groningen where we had a tour around the canals on a boat and then heerlijk en gezellig stampot eten op de boot! Very very nice! And good to catch up with cousins again.
Sunday brought us to church in Smilde and a trip to the begraafplaats of oma and opa - memories always come bubbling up to the surface, remembering them and their special place in our lives.
Monday a visit to cousin marjan in roden and shopping in Assen with a little bit of snow - always exciting. Tuesday i paid for the privelege to go to jail! It was a museum in a jail which is now closed in Veenhuizen - extremely interesting and since we were the only two there, my uncle and i, we even got a private tour! How nice! And daarna, patats en kroketjes voor eten, mmmm lekker!! Tuesday evening i spent with tanan in groningen - a short but wonderful visit.
Wednesday on the way again, this time to Amsterdam, to visit cousin jantine who just bought an apartment in the city so there was lots to do to make it all official - and a nice dinner in the city on top of it all! i don't think coming home will be too easy with all the yummy food here!
Yesterday was spent with my cousin Aline in the city of leiden - a city full of history and culture, and lots and lots of very bad weather. I don't really think that i've ever toured around in worse weather - sooo rainy and wet and windy and cold... but we still had lots of fun and managed to see lots too! Also a nice dinner in a Belgian restaurant with i think fifty thousand kinds of beer - not really but maybe!
Now this morning, so much snow in the south and west of the land that everything is paralyzed and the radio station just warned everyone to just stay home if they didn't have to go out - so we're kinda stuck here... but it's kinda neat too... gezellig, echt wel - we got a christmas tree this afternoon and hope to decorate that this evening after dinner maybe... so i still get to decorate a little bit this year!
Anyways, the pictures above will receive titles when i'm home but for now, enjoy!

December....

My pictures are SO out of order... but you'll just have to put up with it... here are the boys accompanied by Oma's arm, playing with the marble set. As kids, we adored this toy at Mom's hairdresser's place, fascinated with how the marbles spin around and drop and roll. We always have to keep an eye on Aaron, that he doesn't make a meal of the marble but it was fun nonetheless. It was fun to share new toys with them and to watch them growing in understanding. The memory of their sweet hugs if enough to warm the very cockles of my heart (not sure where exactly the cockles lie, but i'm sure they're there somewhere!)
All right... so it's December, as i can tell by the nip of the cold on the tips of my fingers as i type... the furnace hasn't kicked in yet... and it's a little chilly here at the Meadows. But i was running through my pictures last night and since i need to keep up with my prolifically blogging sibling, i thought i'd better churn out an update and share a few pictures detailing the last few weeks in my life. The pictures are by no means all-encompassing... but a little snippet of life. Above is my attempt at holiday decor - some Christmas lights swirled around in a bowl with some candles and some sparkly things... funny thing is that when i went to Rach and Mike's for dinner the other night, what did she have on her table but something similar, involving lights and a glass bowl and Christmas balls... are we children of our mother or what? But hey, it looks super gezellig and that's what counts right? I feel like i could probably put little mini-lights all over the house - decorating all the window and door frames until my house would look like an advertisement for them or a warning as to how not to be efficient with power usage - specially since i don't like LED lights much...
Here's the next creative bit... yes, Mom and Dad, i raided your place for boots, mittens and clippers and headed off into the field to gather rosebuds... oops, sorry, no rosebuds at this time of year... but rather red sticks, red berries on very prickly branches, pine branches and some other random weedy, naturally sculptured things. I had to fend off a dog which came running at me and growling/barking. I wasn't sure if he was being friendly or angry, but at risk of losing essential fingers, i fended him off with the thorn branches and we came to an uneasy truce and he let me get away with my raw materials. I stuffed them all in my trunk and wondered what exactly i was going to do with them... i'm sure my neighbour who just happened to pull in at the same time as me was wondering greatly what i was up to. Maybe i missed my calling, cause man, did i enjoy poking around with those branches and having something turn out kinda neat. The picture is kinda dark because my flash stubbornly will not work, no matter what i do with it, but you get the idea...
Its partner in crime evolved out of the fact that i had some corkscrew hazel branches which i had also stolen from the home gardens and i thought i had better use them but they didn't fit in the big urn character-wise so they got their own container. I think i might need something shiny in there cause it's a little blah but still kinda fun! Since it's based in a chamber pot, i suppose i should come up with some sort of creative name for it... sprucing up the pot? Pining away for you? Going to pot? All suggestions welcome!
Also, my blinds were installed this week past... i really like them, a lot. Just saying. Very cozy and now the neighbours can't peek in at night and it feels oh so cozy in my kitchen!
Another picture of the blinds, you can see "before" and "after". Quite a difference i would say.
In November, my little nephew Aaron was over at my parents with his mom and he was just not feeling well. His breathing was really funny, kinda panting like and he just was not himself. We decided to brave the night and spent Friday evening in the ER. The staff were good, we were in and out in 4 hours thereabouts. He was a total charmer with his red hair, his cute fuzzy pyjamas and his yellow boots, he impressed everyone i think! He had an xray done which unfortunately showed some pneumonia poor little guy. So with a dose of antibiotics, we were on our way home. Aaron was so good the whole time we were there - only getting hyper a few times, then looking like a million bucks of course - that's always the way isn't it? I am ever so thankful we have a good medical system and don't have to trek miles on foot to get to the nearest medical provider who may or may not even have the expertise or meds to take care of us like many people in this world of ours have to do.

Shoo fly

There is currently a ..... fly chasing me around my house. I've somehow misplaced my fly swatter, thinking that all flies have gone to the fly resting place somewhere over the rainbow or wherever it is that flies go for the winter, maybe down south to the retirees and harass them as they sip their cocktails and eat oranges, but i certainly didn't expect him to show up in sub-zero temperatures - okay, my house's interior isn't sub-zero, contrary to some of my friend's opinions, but still, it's not ideal fly weather. He isn't even a "slow" fly like sometimes they are in the fall - he's a pretty nimble little stinker - i've tried to get him with the tea towel, my agenda, my tea cup, but alas, he's still got free range.. i know i wanted a pet to keep me company, but this is a little not quite what i had in mind... do they sell fly paper in December??

Tuesday morning, 9 a.m.

Yep, yet another post, i know, it's been a long time since i've posted so many times in a short while but somehow, this week, there's lots of food for thought and rambling. I'm sitting in my office with the curtains drawn back, the sun pouring in and warming up my feet perched on my desk and i'm drawn to watch the squirrels outside playing tag around the telephone pole in the front of my yard. There doesn't seem to be a clear winner but they look like they're having fun nonetheless... you'd think they'd be busy storing up nuts or such for the cold winter months, but maybe the weather's got them all fooled - it's sure got my garden fooled - it's nearly December and i'll admit that my planters outside still somehow look better than they did in June and my onions have been growing again, maybe getting a headstart for next year? Silly things...but brave. The last few days it hasn't really felt like winter yet. Oh, to be sure, there was some hail last week but that was transient and the balmy weather of the last day or so has been making me think we've skipped winter and gone directly to spring... but in my heart of hearts, i know that can't be the case.
Thought i'd just share a recent book i finished - by Joseph Boyden - Three Day Road. My mom had recommended it to me long time ago, but sometimes i have to come to these things on my own - and i really enjoyed it. It was a very interesting story, told in a round-about fashion about a Native man who becomes a sniper during the first World War. It follows his experiences in France while paralleled with his return to Canada after being wounded and severely addicted to morphine. The book kept me going right the way through and it was an eye-opener to me about aspects of history and culture that i don't seem to be exposed to much ( i know bad grammar - but somehow i can't fix it no matter how hard i try).
And on another random thought, as i was doing my dishes this morning, i was thinking how systematically (sorta) i like to do things. When drying my dishes, i have some days when i dry the whole lot and keep it all on the counter until i'm done, and other days, i have to put every single thing away directly after i dry it... Also, i need to dry utensils in a specific pattern - am i nuts? First paring knives, then regular knives, then big soup spoons, then little soup spoons and finally forks. Nice and orderly! Oh, boy, i sound like i'm heading for the edge of the cliff but that's the truth and i'll own up to it!
Well, no more adishional thoughts here... i should probably go hit the books again - i'm studying for a nursing certification exam and that involves a lot of reading and highlighting - sometimes i think i might go crazy and highlight myself... if you see an odd neon yellow glow in the east of Hamilton, you'll know i've gone off the deep end... heehee...
Have a lovely day - enjoy the wind!

A bit long i know, but very interesting..

I know this post might be a bit long and maybe a touch difficult to read, but i have been listening to the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis in the car and was struck deeply by this passage - also reinforced by a part of the sermon from Sunday evening about the need to be servants and to work on humility in our lives. Jesus, talking with his disciples, asking them what they had been arguing about on the road - them not wanting to own up to what they were really discussing - who was the greatest of them all? Talking about pride and the insidious nature thereof - creeping into our thoughts and lives and even our religion/faith - thinking we deserve something or by some twisted thoughts merit our salvation. I was put to wondering about the two extremes - being prideful and treating that as an "acceptable" sin versus being overly humble - to the point where we think ourselves almost martyrs for humility as described in Lewis' book. I think i get caught between both a lot - and it was a good combination reminder to guard against both of these things in my life, to follow ever the example of our Lord who is the servant King! Enjoy the reading, i sure am - it is opening my eyes again to many things about myself and to guard against the flaming darts of the evil one.

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

The most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. No more lavish promises of perpetual virtue, I gather; not even the expectation of an endowment of "grace" for life, but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation! This is very bad.

I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By jove! I'm being humble", and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.

But there are other profitable ways of fixing his attention on the virtue of Humility. By this virtue, as by all the others, our Enemy wants to turn the man's attention away from self to Him, and to the man's neighbours. All the abjection and self-hatred are designed, in the long run, solely for this end; unless they attain this end they do us little harm; and they may even do us good if they keep the man concerned with himself, and, above all, if self-contempt can be made the starting-point for contempt of other selves, and thus for gloom, cynicism, and cruelty.

You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. Some talents, I gather, he really has. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valuable than he believes, but that is not the point. The great thing is to make him value an opinion for some quality other than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible. To anticipate the Enemy's strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents—or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love—a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own; when they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours. For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left.

Happy birthday dear nephew

November 17, 2010
Dear Peter
As i write this, dear Peter, you are safely tucked into your little bed snuggled under your new quilt that Oma lovingly stitched with pictures of things so fascinating to a newly minted three year old, things that can populate your dreams and fill your imagination up. I cherish the hugs i received from you tonight, hearing you say "I love you Oma" and hearing that you told God you loved him as well. You are such a wonderful nephew and i'm so proud to be your Aunt Dell.
From the first moment i heard your name told to me on the phone and i knew somehow it would fit you just right to watching your face tonight as the servers at Swiss Chalet sang you a cheery happy birthday, you trying to figure out just what was happening and how to react, i have loved you deeply. Your sense of curiosity and interest in the things going on around you is neat to watch, figuring out how things work, how to take things apart and try to put them back together again, loving the marble works page in the Eye Spy book, explaining to your poor city slicker aunt how a baler or a combine work and gently correcting me when i call an excavator a digger and the like are all things that are uniquely you. You have known your numbers and letters for so long already that i will think that you will be super smart in school and do your parents proud!
Sure, you love to get into mischief and trouble too, and we see tendencies in you that we would rather not see - jealousy, fighting with your brother, and an incredible penchant for getting into things that aren't so good for a 3 year old to be getting into (of note, microwaves and metal travel mugs don't make happy companions, deadbolts are to keep you in the house, brothers are not to be locked into bathrooms by themselves) and we work on guiding you to be a boy who is kind to others and shares - all things you will learn in time, i'm very sure!
It has been an eye-opener and such a joy being an aunt - that sense of love i feel in me when i see any of you three boys, being allowed to spoil and cuddle to my heart's content and feeling so blessed to be a part of your lives. I hope you have a wonderful year being 3 and remember that i love you to the moon and back.... and i'll love you forever, i'll like you for always!
Love
Aunt Dell

Here we are...

I know, it's been a super long time since i've put any family pics up here... haven't even gotten any wedding pics up here from Lauren's wedding, oh slacker that i am! So to atone just a wee little bit for past wrongs, here's a photo i dug out of my files that my dear sister sent to me a few weeks back. There's a couple of mysteries here - I'm not quite sure why Mike has no shoes on and i appear not to have any legs... interesting! I do believe it is somewhat photo-shopped (love how that's a verb now!) since it is super difficult to get a photo of ten people all looking the same way, with a half-decent expression on their faces at the same time, especially with three kids under three. But here's the end product and it's not bad...the little boys make it cute - i just have to put in a proud auntie note here - I LOVE all three of my dear nephews - should have heard Aaron on the phone yesterday - so super excited to "talk"!

Going back to the basics!

It's 11 pm... do you know where your children are??? Well, to be honest, no kids here... just me, sometimes a big kid at heart... but i love that line - though i'm not enough of a social/media savy person to know even where it comes from, sad eh? I'm sitting in front of my computer, with the furnace safely turned off for the evening and pondering the fact that i've just watched my last bit of cable tv for the foreseeable (?sp) future. I know, i know, a very minor and relatively unimportant fact in the face of the world events that occur around us, but an occurrence none the less. I've decided after some (read much) thought, that i fritter away far too much time on watching tv and should be using my time much more effectively, i.e. reading books i should read (maybe finish one or two of the twelve i have on the go at one time - okay, maybe seven right now, but that's the honest truth - seven books at once, enough to drive one crazy!), spending more time with friends and family, studying for my exams and maybe even finishing up the last few jobs left to do in the house upstairs. Yep, it's going to be a good thing, but i will say i will miss my Top Gear, BBC and home renovation shows which have kept me company for the last few years. The cable lady sounded a little astonished when i talked to her this morning and presented my request... but i do feel the better for it.
As i was driving along this afternoon, listening to the gravelly voice of the narrator of my audio book, the Screwtape Letters, a passage came up where it talks of the devil using things that cause us to waste time and to spend time on pointless activities (a very very rough paraphrase, my apologies to the literary purists out there who deign to read this poor blog). It was a little affirmation that i've done the right thing.
So come on over, i'll brew a cuppa tea or a Senseo, we'll pull out our books, and discuss the politics of the day or the latest sad sports news or some topics infinitely more exciting... i'm all ears!

Fall...

a







Fall
.... means swishing boots in the dusty leaves, crunching, crackling the dry sheddings of the mighty oaks and maples overhead as they seek to ready themselves for the onslaught of winter winds and frigid days and nights, filling the forest floor with a carpet of reds, yellows, oranges, umbers, greens, browns of a thousand shades, walking on a quilt of many leaves, all mixed together in a gorgeous riot of colours filling my soul with happiness to know how broad the palette of our heavenly Father is
....means watching the leaves doing a wild and crazy air dance as they whirl, spin, float and drop towards the waiting stream, then touching down on the currents and immediately sinking, spinning, drowning, swirling as they are taken down the wild rushing pathway of bubbling, sparkling, gurgling, laughing water, the water brightening the hues of the just-fallen leaf and making it sparkle in a last gleam of glory
....means seeing the produce coming off the land in abundance, stacked high in the farmer's market, piles of orange and green and brown, speckled or lumpy or smooth or knobbly shapes with millions of seeds hidden in their soft orange hearts, ears of indian corn wonderfully arrayed kernels hidden in rustly stiff leaves that smell so good
....means smelling cinnamon and apples and sugar all being blended into wonderful, mouth-watering concoctions of yummy endless delight, filling your nose with the smells of home and comfort and memory
... means crisp days and nights, when vests and scarves can come out of summer hiding places and once again provide comfort and a barrier against the cold breezes which seek to nibble away at your neck and cheeks and impart their icy bite to your bare skin, causing everything to be red and rosy when you finally enter a warm respite from the chill
... means the dying away of the old self, with all its bitter and brittle opinions, motives and reasonings to be brought to life again through the springtime of our Lord, the redeeming love of our God bringing new and bright life and hope to lives desperately in need of renewal and revival in the midst of a dark and dreary world, in turn to bring life to those around us.