as the year closes ...

all of us "older" folks always say "where did the year go???"... but i mean, really, didn't it go by quickly?  i must readily admit to being glad that 2009 is DONE ... it was an emotional year for me ... filled with family anxiety... it was also a year of drawing on God ... leaning on His wisdom ... reading MORE of His word ... trying to live what i did read ... and my prayers would sometimes just be "Lord i don't know, but You do ... Lord Lord Lord ... please Lord ... have Thy way Lord ... " then many moments of silence, just not knowing how to pray ...

 

the year did hold joyous moments too ... serene times ... watching the diamonds glisten and dance on the river ... or seeing those same elusive diamonds in the fresh fallen snow ... diamonds that you can't grasp in your hand, but that you can feel in your heart ... a gladness that God was always there, despite sorrows ... reminding me that i couldn't "be God" to my loved ones ... i couldn't make maria better ... i couldn't take away leo's chronic pain ... i couldn't make others DO what i knew without a doubt God's Word tells them to, so that they could be freed from the chains that they battle against ...

which brings us to me - and how i want to control things ... you know, just to make peoples lives better ... ... as if that isn't something God wants for them too!!!  and what He wants for me, His child, is to lay my burdens down and rest in Him ... to continue talking to Him about all my concerns - yes ... but then leaving those concerns there and being free to see the beauty He's put in my world ... the glittering water diamonds ... His Word that i can handle and read ... the many  many blessings i have ...

i hope that i can live 2010 as a wiser child of God ... i pray i can be a witness to others who need to hear the things i've learned in 2009 ... and i hope i remember to rest in Him, Jesus - who has redeemed me for all eternity ...

blessings on your 2010, dear blog buds...

Christmas Day

wishing that the peace that passes all understanding,

will rule your hearts and homes this Christmas Day ... 

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours!!!!

This is Christmas

copied from Decision Magazine, "Ruth's Attic" a selection from Ruth Bell Graham's writing:

Merry Christmas (in Finnish)

This is Christmas

It is just before Christmas, but perhaps you don't care anymore.  Something has happened, and now you find no joy or meaning to your life.  Perhaps the most you look for is some temporary form of escape.

Maybe you can't give anything.  There's nothing left to give - or there's no one left to give to.

Listen.

What's Christmas all about anyway?  Wasn't there a death, an emptiness, a need?  Wasn't there a  Love somewhere - infinite, eternal, unchangeable - a Love that gave His only Son?  That's what Christmas is all about:  God coming to Earth in the Person of the Christ Child to do for you and for me what we cannot possibly do for ourselves.

Jesus lived among us and had the same kinds of problems that we do.  You haven't a problem - and I  haven't a problem - that He doesn't understand from close personal experience.  He spent His entire life meeting human needs.  He died on the cross to deal once and for all with our greatest need - redemption from sin.  This Christmas, God is asking you to come to Him.  Bring your failures, your sins, your problems, your fears.   Bring yourself.

This is Christmas.  Redemption's glorious exchange of gifts!

Jesus birthday thoughts ...

i'm allowing my own excitement to grow, as mankind soon celebrates another year - marking the birth of Christ ... i know that the real date is unknown - but that actual date isn't as important as the remembrance of the eternal gift we received ... i could just weep with joy at the hugeness of this gift ... the marvelous grace of God ... i pray that hearts everywhere will stop and pause, peer at the night sky, to see if just maybe the Angels are STILL singing ... and may all wise men (women too) seek the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ... sweet Jesus ... i am so glad You came... and gladder still that you now reside in my heart and home ... YAY for all eternity!

gingerbread creations

isn't this a great gingerbread display!  one of my cousin's from finland e-mailed me the pic today - taken at her kitchen table ... what great gingerbread creations ... i love it!  so homey looking ... you can almost smell the aroma of Christmas ... 

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. ~Washington Irving

the cold, the song, the chocolate bar ... and other chitchat

our extreme cold conditions continue ... though we try to console ourselves with the fact that edmonton, alberta was -46C, while we were "only" -30C ... everything is relative!

with the cold temps, i went online to check out housing prices in our canadian far south (on lake erie) ... i also checked the weather in that area - a balmy 7C ... ? ... leo and i will have to do a comparative list of why we want to live in extreme cold weather, compared to the banana belt ... it was a nice way to spend a frigid afternoon, dreaming of possibilities ...

my family in finland has sent us little treats inside their Christmas greetings ... today we received a card with an old finnish Christmas carol cd ...

and chocolate ... i just love chocolate ... the finnish faser chocolate to be exact ... i just couldn't help nibbling on a holiday special filled with cinnamon, apple, cherry ... it was yummy ... in the new year i will have to get back to a more cholesterol friendly diet!  but not in december - i will enjoy (as you can see from this almost empty choco bar!!)

that's what i've been up to during these colds days ... but i DO have plans for baking pies ... and watching some Christmas movies ... and visiting ... i want to continue my telephone visiting, plus real life visiting too ... i have quit the hustle and bustle and just relaxed ... i love when that happens ...

blessings on your week!!!

home for Christmas

maria was released from the hospital on thursday!  she was in for 4 months this stretch (making it 9 months in total for 2009) ... when i spoke with her yesterday, she was so very very happy ... her husband had put up the tree and lights ... he was waiting for her to come home so that they could put up the ornaments together ... she realizes that she will be going back at some point (a nurse comes daily for the dressing change on her foot and antibiotic IV change) ... but hopes that this Christmas will be the best one yet ... i pray it will be too ... thank you for praying for her ...


Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21

a new look

well i finally updated my blog!!!  i like the new features ... they make fixing things up so much easier ... and fun! 

the picture that i used in my header was taken at our cottage home ... it was our "backyard" which bordered on to a channel leading to the river ... lots of opportunities for scenic photos! ...

we are still in the deep freeze here - hopefully next week it'll lift ... tho'even this bitter cold has a purpose - the ice fishing enthusiast are hoping for a quick freeze of the river, so they can drag their huts out there and fish ... awww, i remember those days ... not that i would go out, but leo would ... he would load up his ice auger and fishing gear on his little sled with a few pieces of wood to burn (in the pot belly stove in his ice shack),  then he would trudge out and spend a couple of hours trying to bring home supper ... which he usually did ... seems like a life time ago ...

just checking out the new posting method ...

blessings on  you guys as you prepare for your Christmas celebrations ...

chilly temps

the snow fell and so did the temperatures!!! it is officially a mind numbing -22C as i type this ... and tonight it will probably be -30C ... since it was so chilly - i made some chili ... yum ... it turned out great and helped to warm us up ...

my blues have lifted ... it seems they strike, make me sad - then they evaporate as i read the solid, real, Word of God ... "Thou has enlarged me when i was in distress ... the Lord will hear when i call unto Him ... put your trust in the Lord ... Thou has put gladness in my heart ... for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." Psalm 4 verses ...

blessings on your tuesday ...

the Christmas blues

i get the blues around this time of year ... just when all the Christmas decorations are out ... when folks start to get into the swing of cooking, socializing, wrapping gifts ... i struggle to keep my head above water ... it seems to happen every year ...

i know i'm not the only one ... other blog buds have shared their experiences ... that's why i'm sharing my feelings now ...

i guess my little family (leo, me, the cat) fall so far from the norman rockwell scene ...

leo is at the stage in his chronic pain life where he doesn't want to go out unless it's a must - like the doctors ... we don't invite folks over as much anymore either, because leo can't visit for long periods (which is anything over an hour!) ... it feels odd to have these quiet years on us ... and it makes me especially sad at this time of year ...

there is also the missing ... those who aren't here anymore ... my dad, leo's folks, others who know no Christmas anymore ... and the missing continues to family far away ... my brother and sister in the west coast ... my mom and younger sister in the north ... maria in the hospital ...

i talk to the Lord about it ... and try to tell myself to "snap out of it!" ... but sometimes i think one needs to just walk through this valley of emotional turmoil and teary eyes before the sound of angels singing joyous songs can be heard ...

"And, lo an angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were very much afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" ... Luke 2:9-10

3 years in the condo!

today, leo and i are reminiscing and praising our Saviour for new mercies ... and for past mercies ... like this condo we are in ... it was 3 years ago today that we got the key ... after a very quick real estate turnaround (2 weeks) ...

from my archives: november, 2006 and december, 2006 - the story is told in short posts ...

our God is faithful ... He knows what we need - and exactly when we need it!