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.

Introducing Nathaniel

My newest little nephew entered the wide world at 10:45 last night, weighing 10 pounds, 7.4 ounces... a big bouncing baby boy to make three of the world's most adorable nephews to be sure. Rachel's home already - amazing girl - and is hanging in there, trying to get a little sleep and recovery. I am stuck between nights so i haven't seen the little one yet, but hope to go tomorrow after my shift and have a good long snuggle. The photos are punked off of Mike's facebook - good old copyright and all that!

Hot hands???

So, thought i'd share a little anecdote from my so-called life...
I came off of a day shift on Saturday with a plethora of energy that needed to be harnessed in some sorta useful way. I had been discussing my garden with a co-worker and had been frustrated with myself for the waste of produce that seemed to be happening - the beans were growing too fast, the broccoli had gone to seed and the tomatoes were ripening so fast that i didn't know what to do with them.
So, into the garden i ventured after work and set to work harvesting the crops (sound like an old pioneer woman eh?). I picked the last of the beans, the cherry tomatoes that were ripe, the round tomatoes, the shepherd peppers and even a carrot or two for good measure (boy were they ever bitter!!). Unfortunately, all this bounty now required me to process it. So i busily set to work and put the cherry tomatoes in the oven with some parmesan cheese, some garlic and other goodies and roasted them - boy were they good!! Then the beans were blanched and popped in the freezer to be enjoyed at a later time. Then the tomatoes were stored carefully downstairs to be dealt with at a later date.
Finally, the peppers were cut up in little bitties and put in a baggie in the freezer to be used as colourful accents in nasi and other dishes. Towards the end of all this processing and such nonsense, i began to notice my fingers were pretty tender, burning in fact. I thought as i was doing dishes at the time, maybe the water was too hot... but nope, that wasn't the case, i don't usually wash with scalding water the way my mother does. So like a good two-year old, i stuck my finger in my mouth to make it better. Imagine my surprise when my mouth and lips turned into an inferno and i experienced a curious hot feeling as i swallowed. Something else fishy was going on here! I began to suspect the awful truth that i had not just processed sweet peppers, but something super, super hot! Sure enough, that's what it turned out to be and i spent the next few hours trying to put out the fire raging on my poor palms.
Mom and Dad researched online and we discovered milk would be a good solution - the fats in the milk somehow would slow down the burning from the pepper oils. Sad thing, i drink skim milk... but it still worked. I debated going to bed with cold washandjes on my hands for comfort but that idea didn't work and only caused me to pitch myself out of bed and run for the Advil bottle, eventually finding enough comfort to sleep. The next day was work again, and i'll tell you, wearing gloves for any extended periods of time was enough to panic me because the heat would creep up my arms and drive me crazy! Fortunately with lotsa handwashing and time, the burning has subsided and my poor dear hands are back to normal. I still have no idea how i got hot peppers in my garden. I even went out purposely to check the pepper tag which is still out there and it says "sweet shepherd peppers". How a rogue plant made its way in there, i don't think i'll ever know but at least it makes for a good story!

A walkabout on Tuesday

I will post commentary to these images in the next while... but my eyes are drooping faaster than i can put pics up here... Can you guess where we were?
Climbing up the falls was both fun and refreshing, not to mention quite a bit wet!

Just hanging out together at the top of the falls!
I don't even mind this picture of myself... it's been a while since i've seen a good one!

Thanks Esther!

Trying desperately to capture the sun's reflection off the water off the rocks -

i took so many pictures and never really managed to do it properly.

Just take my word for it, my brain picture shows total beauty and joy in creation!

This is my current favorite shot. The sun dancing on the water, the water dancing over the edge of the rocks and my heart and soul dancing with joy and the wonder of the moment!

I like the contrasts that show up here... the lights and darks, this with a little point and shoot digital camera which is pretty forgiving to a mistress who sticks it in her pocket, purse, dashboard, drops it, gets it wet and like a Timex, it keeps on ticking!

A little contrast again - the lovely summer leaves

provide a nice foreground for the falls.

A close second for a favorite shot of nature! The water tumbling over the edge of the falls and spraying down, capturing the sunlight in the droplets... aah... good times!!

Don't fall in there, Esther! The rocks were pretty slippery but we were careful and clambered all over the different levels of the falls. I had forgotten how nice the falls were, i tend to take the road that bends all around the falls quite often but don't often have time or company to fully enjoy the beauty. Thanks Esther for being a great, wonderful travelling companion, for sharing wonders of discovery with me and for loving rocks as much as i do. The hugely diverse assortment of rocks was an endless delight to us, causing us some consternation as we tried to climb back up the slippery cliff sides with our arms full of treasure rocks to take home and enjoy!

After clambering around and getting pretty muddy and tired, we enjoyed a time of sitting with our feet in the water, relaxing and watching the day float past us in a bubble!

We even found some little ?crystals or ?mineral deposits hidden in the rocks. They were little treasure troves buried in the countless layers of rock along the canyon wall. We would love to find out about these!We found some pretty cool coloured rocks around the bend. We even found one that looks like a piece of birthday cake! Probably the texture would be pretty similar to my baking style!!

A great shot of my oldest "niece". Someone who is growing up so fast, whom i have loved since i first laid eyes on her and who is a delightful young lady, with a warm heart and an inquisitive mind. Thanks for spending some good quality time with me and let's not make it too long again before doing this!! Love - Aunt Danielle

Conversation overheard

Hmmm... far too long again... maybe i'll stop commenting on the length between posts and simply reconcile myself to the fact that this blog is just going to be more occasional than regular. My brain in the last year seems to have malfunctioned and i don't seem to think the same way i used to... not so many creative thoughts or deep questions running about my gray matter but rather just vast streaks of nothingness it seems. Anyhow... on a rainy cozy Saturday evening, here i sit again typing with a vast blank screen in front of me. And what has all happened since the last time i posted? When was that even? I don't have nice pics of little kiddies or house progress to post at all. Excitement around here consists of being super happy that there is finally some rain - i can nearly hear my plants and lawn saying "thankyou" in little gasps of near-death voices.
Just got back in from a nice day out - was out to garage sale with Mom dearest this morning - we spent the morning traipsing around Ancaster and listening to lotsa conversations about this and that - and wondering what's all going on in their lives. Came across a garage sale off of Lover's Lane - little more ritzy area and we already were wondering why they would need any income from little piddly garage sale stuff - probably nothing to do with income, just clearing out space in the large designer painted house with a nicer kitchen setup in the garage than in many kitchens in many houses i've seen. They were selling off their "self-help" and motivational speaker tapes (go Tony Robbins) - must have worked judging by the size of the house. But the lady of the house was conversing with her bottle-blonde neighbour. I only heard bits of what they said but had to smother my laughs until i got to the car and i could tell Mom why i was snickering. This is kinda how it went down - my memory might trick me a bit but the general idea is there:
Lady A "I can't wear that shirt, i don't have boobs anymore."
Lady B "You can buy them you know."
Lady A "My husband already offered, but i told him i'd rather have a new couch!"
Lady B "Well, i want my eyes 'done'"
hmmm... stereotyped idea of rich snobbish people cemented right there... so we refused to buy anything and headed off to be with the more common people. Ach, not to say that if you live there, that's a problem, i'm just simply referring to a rich stereotype which had just been confirmed.
Then it was off to Elora - Mom, Dad and I drove up to that cute little town and just did some relaxing poking around the shops and stores there. I love being up there - the crooked buildings, beautiful flower beds, the wonderful art gallery and the weddings... well, okay, minus the one that was happening there today - I had a funny feeling when i walked by the bride and saw she was wearing a red dress and a frown, standing next to a shorter ?man?. I realized after i saw a lot of girls holding hands and butchy women, that the "groom" was a woman... and then it was time to high-tail it out of there to be sure! Nuf said bout that.
And then a lazy drive home through the countryside, across the covered bridge in Montrose, and a winding course with me navigating. I was really glad that by the time the rain really really hit us, we were already on the highway home and not struggling to read faded street signs in the pouring rain. Dad, thanks for driving us around - i know you don't mind at all, but we really do appreciate it! And thanks for sharing things about your family at supper tonight - it's good to hear about our past because it truly is our past, which will be lost if we don't talk about it... so thanks for that too!
Have a good evening all and stay dry!

2 more sleeps...until the big day!

So, two more sleeps until the big wedding day for my youngest sister Lauren and her man Tom. I thought i'd share a few pictures of mostly Lauren for your enjoyment. I want to wish them a wonderful day (i'm hoping and praying for less humidity) and a blessed life together!
A more typical pose than the above picture! There always seems to be
some screaming or bugging going on.
Awwwwww, another cute, cozy shot.
A very old family photo - for the record
One of the most brilliant shots of Lauren of all time! At the end of the famed "knife" movie
This girl is pretty up on everything! Trying on shoes for the wedding!
And a parting shot on the seaside where we were so happy!

Hup Holland!!!!

Just a few images from the past few weeks enjoying some time watching World Cup soccer and particularly the work of the Dutch soccer team! Somehow, we've all become rabidly Dutch fans who wear orange shirts, honk at people on the streets and even paint our toenails in flag colours! Why just last night i even had a little "race" (not really - i don't race) but mild competition with a carful of Spanish fans whilst ascending the mountain yesterday! The craziness continues!

So i've compiled a few images that i like from the last few weeks - to get the enthusiasm for soccer stoked up even higher! I LOVE seeing all the Dutch flags poking out of people's cars and feeling the excitement when we watch the games!

When goals are scored, the living room feels filled with electricity and when goals are scored against, great sighs of disappointment escape our lips and hearts beat ever faster, so fast as to nearly want to leap out of the rib's confining holds... maybe we'll bleed orange?

I'm not sure where this crazy patriotism comes from - i suppose it's like being totally Canadian during the Olympics - wearing red and white whenever possible. Now orange is the colour of the day - and i proudly wore it garagesaling this morning - happy to receive nods of encouragement as if i personally had something to do with the success of this team.

Last night, at a concert for the OneDay Foundation, the parking lot was a sea of red, white and blue flags and the Wilhelmus was sung with vim and vigour, as was the Canadian anthem. I'd like to think that there is a curious blend of love for both Canada and the Vaderland, neither of them being over the other. The one being the homeland many left in need after the war, the other being the land that received them and has moulded them into what they are today. I feel a little faux-Dutch sometimes - my Dutch is spoken so brokenly and with such a strange accent that people smile at me when i speak - and i don't seem to know the songs that go with being Dutch - "Mijn Nederland" and such are mostly foreign to me - but other good things are real - oranje hagel, my Dutch umbrella, Suske and Wiske, my klompen slippers, my memories of my Oma and Opa and all the time spent over in Holland as i was growing up - all combine to make a little streak of orange flow through my veins...

And now, watching these boys/men as they play their hearts out for the "beautiful game", the hope is raised again that maybe this time, maybe this year the victory will be for Holland and we can proudly keep displaying our flags. But even if they don't win tomorrow, i'll still be proud to be Dutch, yes, each country has things that are not to be proud of, Holland for sure does as well, but there are lotsa good things too!

So with the words of the song Oranje Boven flowing through my head and heart, i'll leave you with the last of the pictures that i managed to find - i'm sorry they're not displayed more creatively, but i still have troubles with the layout of this thing after writing for so long already - good old technology. I believe also that this is the 200th post! So this is a good milestone to commemorate that event!

GOAL!!!!!!
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I know that this shot is not from World Cup, it's actually from Koninginedaag (???spelling??? i know, have a little chuckle, Mom!) but it is good and patriotic and a fitting foto to end with!

HUP HOLLAND HUP