Please remember:
your job is the dream of the unemployed
your home is the dream of the homeless
your smile is the dream of the depressed
your health is the dream of those that are sick
beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from the negative, find something to be grateful for.
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| Source: Internet |
Currently Reading: I've started my Christmas reading a little earlier than originally intended, mainly because the books I requested from the library arrived earlier than I expected. I started with book 1 of a 4 book series; Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand . It was a simple easy read & one I quite enjoyed after reading some topic heavy manuals earlier in the week. I have book two on order, Winter Storms. In the finishing the first book, I have started to be interested in the family the story centres around. I am not totally connected to them all yet, but maybe by book 4 I will be. I'm rooting for love that conquers past hurts & lost love . Also, for me, it's not too sweet as to make my back teeth ache.
I have also started to read a favourite discovery from last year, Christmas Days, 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 days by Jeanette Winterson. What I liked about this book, was the sense of whimsy, a sense of possible magic & definitely some sense of miracles, along with a splash of reality. This is the perfect season to get a good helping of believing in the miracles & the magic. I am reading this one slowly, a chapter a night, hoping to make it linger in my run up to Christmas.
Currently Watching: On Sunday, being the first Sunday in Advent, I watched via uTube (thank you technology) the service from Canterbury Cathedral. What a choir!
Currently Enjoying: the ease & quiet of a new washer & dryer. And it only took 3 days to catch up on the accumulated laundry in the 10 days I was without washer/dryer. I call that a life win!
Currently Decorating: I've started the slow process of decorating. It is earlier than my normal start date of December 1st. I was feeling that trying to get everything done, including decorating both trees, was too much to expect of myself on the first of December. Starting on first Advent Sunday was, I thought, not too early & it keeps pressure of doing it all in 24 hours off my shoulders. Horse tree in the family is done.
And I will leave you with this thought ... " it is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us, memories of goodness and thus to open the doors of hope "... Pope Benedict XVI
Respectful Ways To Offer Advice
"are you open to advice or are you just wanting to vent? I can follow you down either road"
"you probably already tried this, but what about ...?"
"it's not like I'm an expert, but I'm thinking out loud, what about ....?"
"I don't know all the details, so I might be missing an important piece, but have you tried ..."
"stop me if what I'm saying isn't resonating with you because I want you to feel heard, but one time I was in a similar predicament & I tried ..."
... from the Secure Relationship
Good morning everyone in blog land. I hope everyone is well. On Sunday we had a snow storm all day. Thankfully not a lot of snow, but very windy which made driving too dangerous, so we did not go out at all on Sunday. Of course it was nothing like the storm north of us in Midland & Barrie areas or to the south of us in Buffalo (USofA). Buffalo will be digging out for weeks.
Currently Reviewing: One Little Word(s) for 2022 has overall not been one of my successes with OLW. My theme for 2022 was all Re words & my intention was to pick a Re word for each quarter. January - March the word was Reduce. Lots of success with reducing physical things, not so much with the reducing of emotional or other non physical things. Still the reduction of stuff did bring some peace of mind. Reduce has been running in the background all year. For the second quarter I settled with Return as I was most hopeful & determined that we should Return to getting on with living our lives within caution that COVID was still freely reproducing. Not so much success during April - June. For July - September I decided that Return would maybe be more of an actual action, alas it was not to be. So many other things got in the way. OLW for October - December has been Review. I've been doing a lot of that, reviewing the success & not so successful elements of my 2022 OLW plan. I have also been reviewing a lot of our stumbling blocks in 2022 as I would really prefer not to take any of them into 2023 with us.
Currently Inspired - Sort Of: I am trying to settle on a December project. Ruth, from This West London Life kindly sent me some instructions on her new style of December Daily project. You can see it here: Ruth's DD Foundation Pages . I've also been reviewing comments from people who have participated in an online December Pause project. Many of you know that I have often, from the start referred to the pandemic as The Great Pause. So maybe since The Great Pause has been a major stumbling block in our lives, I might put the concept of pausing to work to sort out December Daily 2022.
Currently Stimulating The Economy: just when I was in the middle of laundry day last weekend, our washing machine decided it had had enough of life & died in a dramatic way - who knew a machine could make such noises! The dryer, which was the other half of the set, decided, it couldn't go on without its' partner. Mr Man had one fix on the washer last year, but basically the repair person said "you know Madame that these machines are NOT built to last." SO, Mr Man in true hunter fashion hunted for the best bargain known to man & we ordered a new set. There are washing machines out there that connect via WiFi with your phone. Brilliant technology, but can you imagine the techno needed & if it goes wrong how expensive to fix ... besides I get enough messaging on my phone I don't want my washing machine to add to that load (laundry pun)! We expect delivery this week. On December 25th it will have a big red bow on it & marked Merry Christmas ,being that it is taking most the gift giving $$$s.
Currently Reading: "The Christmas Sisters" it was a start on my Christmas themed reading. It was SO predicable in plot, so IMO, not a very good read. I am in the middle of reading "The Courage To Be Disliked" not what I thought it would be, it is a philosophy book. It's written as a two way conversation between the youth & the wise. No recommendation from me.
Currently Planning: Christmas activities. One is to stroll the streets of a little village/town 20 minutes to the east of us. They go all out for decorating the shop windows & sidewalks. It is particularly lovely at night.
"Alexa ... start the laundry ..."
Gather your mistakes,
rinse them with honesty & self reflection.
Let dry until you can see every choice & every regret
become brittle.
Cover the entire surface in forgiveness &
remind yourself you are human.
And this too is a gift.
... Rudy Francisco
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| Morning Fire Red Sky |
Good Morning everyone - now doesn't that have a ring of being in the classroom again & being greeted by the teacher?
Currently Shopping: I've bought a few Christmas gifts. This year gift giving will be much more subdued as there isn't a lot any of us need. Those that we gift exchange with all agree, far too costly for most things. We've also agreed to give things that are consumable, edible mostly because none of us want to find a place to store or dust afterwards.
Currently Reading: The Locked Room, book #14 in the Ruth Galloway series. Thoroughly enjoyed & I was ever so pleased for Ruth of what she gained at the end of the story (no spoilers in case you haven't enjoyed as yet). I am just finishing up, A Demon Summer, book #4 in the Max Tudor murder mystery series. I think for me this will be the last read of the series or at least a break, I really don't enjoy & find that I have to force myself to read.
Reading each & every page, not only once, but twice, The Holiday Insiders Report. This is a magazine produced by the grocery chain that I shop at; I shop at one of the subsidiaries of the chain. They showcase all their new products for the holiday season in it, it's like a catalogue for foodies & this year it will feature as a guide for our gift giving. I save all my points with the frequent shopper club card & use to do a lot of treat shopping with the points earned. Candy Cane ice cream is back, they haven't take up with my suggestion of Candy Cane frozen yoghurt 😔
Currently Crafting: or maybe not, I cannot decide this year if I will do a December Daily project. I did not do one last year, although I did lots of Christmas related pages in my day to day album. It's not only about space for another album, but the energy to plan, implement & process. Maybe I need to sort through with my holiday papers & stickers to be inspired.
Currently Virus (up)Rising: Once again COVID is rising in cases of illness & death. What's also scary is the rapid rise of another respiratory illness, RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) . Primarily this is a virus that affects children but adults can also get this virus.
Our provincial medical officer is now requesting (not mandating) that everyone start wearing their masks again when indoors. I cannot believe there is really any debate about putting on a mask, particularly indoors, when it has been medically & scientifically proven to help reduce the spread of all respiratory viruses.
Three major provincial children's hospitals, Toronto & Hamilton & Eastern Ontario, are now delaying surgeries as their capacity to treat is now at critical capacity because of the rise & treatment required of RSV in children.
I live in a region with a small & over worked general hospital. For more than six months the ER gets closed for 24 to 48 hours, not always, but usually on the weekend. The ambulances, if you can get one, are taking over an hour to get to our village. I recently read that the ambulance shortage is because when they get the patient to the hospital, they must stay with the patient until the hospital can receive them - it's called off loading & that process can take up to 8-12 hours, so it keeps that ambulance out of the circuit !!!!!! You just don't want to risk getting sick or hurt in Ontario.
Currently Garden Visitors: Now that the leaves are all gone off our two large Burning Bushes, Euonymus alatus & only the berries remain, we have been receiving daily visits from Cedar Waxwing & Black Capped Chickadees. Our largest two bushes are located in the front garden so that both cats can sit at the large window & watch as birds fly in & out of the bush - it's bird theatre.
Cedar Waxwing enjoying the berries
Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it snowed yesterday morning. Not a big snow, light, wet & sticking to the ground. I'll say no more for fear of being rude. Happy week everyone ... class dismissed. 😉
RESPECT, REFLECT, REMEMBER
We Will Remember Them by Robert Laurence Binyon
With proud thanksgiving,
a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
If an egg is broken by outside force, life ends.
If broken by inside force, life begins.
Great things always begin from inside.
... Buddha
Good Morning one & all. We experienced record breaking temperatures of mild this weekend. For us on Saturday the temperatures got up to +24 and the sun was shining brightly. Not the typical November days. Plus on Saturday we turned our clocks back one hour - now living in "standard time". I look forward to the time when we don't move the clocks anymore. For us in Ontario we are waiting for Quebec & New York State (US of A) to make up their minds about it, since the 3 of us trade & do business together.
Currently Reading: Want by Lynn Steger Strong. While the book is well written, the story was depressing for me. One of the jacket recommendations said "Want is honest & funny & profoundly moving" I never found anything funny or amusing about the story & as for being honest, well again IMO, it was a depressing honesty.
I've got 12 books on request at the library, many are not published until late November through to January. I am so excited about Louise Penny's latest to be released November 22nd. I've also started my quest for Christmas themed stories. I will be re-reading, in December, the gem of a Christmas book I discovered by chance last year; Christmas Days; 12 Stories, 12 Feasts for 12 Days.
Currently Watching: Nothing really. We will quit our subscription to Crave TV this week, once House Of The Dragon finished, I've not found anything on this expensive paid channel.
Currently Curious: I read an article about a woman burning up the internet with her question about "do you make people take off their shoes at the front door" Dah, yes, of course. But after reading the article & comments, it seems this is a Canadian thing. Really? I wouldn't dream of wearing my outside shoes into someone's home, I always take a pair of slippers with me or another pair of house only shoes. Any of our guests automatically slip off their shoes when coming in. We have a slipper basket at the door. And come to think of it, health care offices that I go to also have a bin of slippers or shoe covers at the door. So is this a Canadian thing? Do you and/or your guests take off your street shoes when entering someone's home?
And I will leave you with this thought for week: "many may drink at the fountain of knowledge, but it seems there are some only gargling!"
Marriage Is Hard
Divorce Is Hard
Choose Your Hard
Obesity Is Hard
Fitness Is Hard
Choose Your Hard
Being In Debt Is Hard
Financial Responsibility Is Hard
Choose Your Hard
Communication Is Hard
Discord Is Hard
Choose Your Hard
Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Choose wisely.
... The Minds Journal