praise the Lord anyway (#841- 852 of 1000 gifts)

"Being positive in a positive situation is easy. Anyone can do that. But when we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind.

In the matter of about an hour last Wednesday the course of our lives—and house— took a different turn than we had ever planned or anticipated. It was around 2 p.m. and I was making coffee when I glanced out the window and noticed a wateriness to the back yard that was altogether not right.

I stepped onto the deck to check it out and the sound of angry water, like a swollen creek, put me on alert. I had heard this sound before. It brought me back to the early morning of February 21, 2009 when our unit got the brunt of a burst water main. Last time it was beside our townhouse building. This time it turned out to be directly under the utility room attached to our home.

I alerted my husband. He started calling people. I ran downstairs, but already black water was flowing onto the three-year-old laminate. In the hour that it took for the city to shut off the flow, our den, storage area, and much of the garage was inundated with biohazard water. Ugh!

Then I started counting my blessing:

841. We were warm and dry;

842. We had a big jug of Safeway water on hand for the hours our complex was waterless;

843. We were insured;

844. A restoration company was taking care of the mess;

845. I was so glad this hadn't happened two weeks earlier when we were away on holidays.

846. When my attitude threatened to slump, I came upon my own words, written for my devo blog and published Thursday morning—the morning after our watery encounter. The quote I had included from Joyce Meyer was especially meaningful:

"Practice being positive in each situation that arises. Even if whatever is taking place in your life at the moment is not so good, expect God to bring good out of it, as He has promised in His Word....


...Being positive in a positive situation is easy. Anyone can do that. But when we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, pp. 38, 44.

Other blessings from the past two weeks:

847. My healthy, pain-free body, appreciated especially after seeing my friend, who broke her shoulder just before Christmas, ease into her jacket.

848. Raspberry chocolates. We got some for Christmas and have been working on them ever since (they are now gone *sigh*). There should be a law against such!

849. A sweetheart whose Valentine roses are opening beautifully on the kitchen table. Thanks honey! 

850. Walks in the fog on crisp mornings.

851. And walks on clear afternoons.

Looking across the Fraser River near Derby's Reach,  toward Maple Ridge.

852. Curling season has begun!

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If  you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts,  please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts  on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on  how to join are here.

light

Merry Christmas music box

I wish you could see this charming little decoration in action. It's cute as a still diorama. But flick the switch at the back and music starts to play, the lamp glows, light shines through the window, and the tree pulsates, morphing from red to blue to green back to red. Then place the magnet-bottomed bear onto the skating rink and watch him twirl across its surface.

Thursday Challenge

Next week: Light - 2nd Week (Candle, Street, Business, Fireplace, Glitter, Sparkle,...)

home

Kitchen table

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: MUSIC (Bands, Musicians, Instruments, iPod, Headset,...)

considering your resolution options

Happy New Year!

Have you broken any of your New Year's resolutions yet? Or maybe you're like me, and still in the process of making them.

I usually reserve the week between Christmas and New Year's Day for thoughts of resolve. However, this year we were away in Kamloops enjoying Christmas #2 during that week. So here I am on the 2nd of January with not a concrete resolution in sight.

But I do have some resources squirrelled away to help me consider my options. If you're with me in the resolutionless boat, you might want to take a look at some of these.

• If you'd like to pull up your socks in pretty well every department, consider adopting Andy Andrews "Seven Decisions," which include: The Responsible Decision (The buck stops here); The Guided Decision (I will seek wisdom); The Active Decision (I am a person of action) and four more. They're listed and explained on The Seven Decisions (pdf file).

• If you want to spend more time in the Bible, Sherry (Semicolon blog) has assembled 52 ways to read and study the Bible in 2011.

Let me add one more. I've just finished writing a year's worth of daily devotions at Other Flood: daily devos, and will continue with this in 2011. I'd love it if you joined me there for the daily (linked to an online Bible) Canadian Bible Society reading and a few devotional thoughts.

• And while we're on the subject of the Bible and things spiritual, you might want to spend some time this year, sorting out your theology, especially as it pertains to bad stuff happening. Rebecca has written a thought-provoking post to help get you started: "Every Year After Christmas: Getting Your Theology on Track."

• If you're a blogger, and want your blogging to be more meaningful and God-centered in 2011, read, then download for praying over and over Ann Voskamp's "A Blogger's Prayer." (And don't miss the links to three more articles about blogging at the bottom of the page.)

• If your resolutions tend toward housekeeping, homemaking, simplifying, tidying — that sort of thing, a good online resource is The Fly Lady. It's a huge site, heavy with how-to. A good place to start is Beginner BabySteps section.

Happy resolving to us!

first snow (#164-173 of 1000 gifts)

164. Snow — the first one is so beautiful.

165. Our cozy house.

166. A cute little Christmas tree I found and bought — pre-lit (on sale too!).

167. A Christmas wreath for the front door — too many to choose from at Michael's and all beautiful.


168. Cold crisp walks — not only the walks but how good I feel when I get back into the warm (like going for a cold morning swim).

169. Free stuff (I'm reading Gina Holmes' Crossing Oceans courtesy a free Amazon Kindle download, on my free Kindle app for ipod touch).


170. The birds that live in the pine tree in the back garden (chickadees, sparrows, finches). Watching them dart about, here, there, never still for 2 minutes... they make me happy.

172. Winter's contrasts.

173. Visits from the boy... making him sandwiches (I'll never tire of being a mom).

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

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autumn lingers (#123-131 of 1000 Gifts)

123. Though I've begun wearing my winter jacket on morning walks, the days have been warming up beautifully with the afternoon temperatures most days still in the double digits. Daylight time diminishes by minutes every day, so we all know it's just a matter of time till autumn surrenders to winter. But I'm so loving this lingering of fall.

124. Maybe it's hanging around too long and confusing the plants. Caught these in bloom last week. I know - rhododendrons blooming in mid-October?! Something has its wires crossed!

125. Our washer/dryer combo broke down. And that is a gift because it broke down in a very sane way (a slow drip of water into the machine tub, and a wrecked transmission that has only just begun spewing oil when the machine goes into spin mode). We have a new one bought and scheduled for installation early this week.

126. Plus, we came home from the trip to the appliance store with a new microwave (how does that happen?).

127. This book came last week (Inscribe's 30th anniversary anthology). I feel honoured to have a couple of pieces included with so much excellent prose and poetry by fellow Canadian writers.

128. Working on the Lavender Project with my friends from Women by Design at church. Thursday night we spent two hours in Cheryl's barn, stripping dried lavender blossoms from stems. We're planning to make sachets to sell in the Christmas craft fairs. It's to raise money for the hospital stay of Ugandan girls whose faces have been mutilated by guerilla captors. Plastic surgeons have volunteered their skills to repair the damage, but each girl's hospital stay costs several thousand dollars (Gulu Project - see photo no. 5).

Lavender - many buckets like this to harvest

It's a dusty and tedious, though fragrant, job.

129. My sonny boy sold his truck!

130. A laptop, making it easy to multitask during baseball playoffs.

131. A beautiful late morning walk in White Rock yesterday, followed by a delish Greek lunch at Cosmos, followed by a nap at home. I love lazy Sundays!

White Rock Beach from Marine Drive

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

peaceful

Houseboats at Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria, B.C.

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: GOLDEN (Jewelry, Coins, Sun, Leaves, Fields, Hair,...)

home

Our back deck - one of my favorite spots on a hot day. 

(Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time there yet this summer)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: SPORTS (Chess, Baseball, Cycling, Golf, Football, Soccer, Mountain Climbing, Skiing,...)

decluttering

A few days ago I sat down and worked out some goals and resolutions for 2010. I set general and specific targets for myself in five areas: spiritual, physical, social, writing and house and home.

My house and home section reads:

General: Cut down on clutter and stuff I keep and store.
Specific: Choose one area to work on per month. Declutter for three hours per week (all at once or spread over several sessions.) Area for January is my office.

A big reason for starting in my office is because it's in my work space that I give in most noticeably to my tendency to squirrel things away. I have drawers filled with clippings from newspapers and internet printouts on subjects I have found interesting and thought I might write about one day. But how relevant is stuff from 1998, 2002, or even 2005?

Meanwhile I've begun filling boxes with research notes from recent projects, saving them because -- well, who knows, I might need them again. But will I ever? (I paid attention last June when at Write! Canada, Chip MacGregor told our workshop he never keeps notes from a finished project.)

I started my decluttering on Saturday. I spent a most enjoyable several hours surrounded by papers, humming along to the shredder and music on itunes. But I have many tricky bits still to tackle. The book Simplify Your Life by Marcia Ramsland is holding my hand. This statement in Chapter 1 under the heading "Where do I begin"  is my little beacon at this point:

"The basis of determining what to change is really quite simple: Keep what is working; change what is frustrating." -Marcia Ramsland

How do you maintain a streamlined life?

frivolous friday - hobbit houses

These intriguing cave house photos (which I put into collage) came to me in an email forward. Aren't they incredible? This short note of explanation about their age and location came with the email:

In the north east of Iran at the foot of Mount Sahand in Kandovan, the villagers live in cave homes carved out from the volcanic rock. The age of some houses is more than 700 years.

Don't they look as cozy inside as out?

new throne

"In the end, what affects your life most deeply are things too simple to talk about." Nell Blaine

I have new office chair today - a Pure Comfort bought at Staples last night ("Soft bonded leather on all seating surfaces" - yeah, limited luxury for sure, but nice nonetheless.)

I'm not convinced my writing is worth it - but then if you'd seen my old one... It was born well back in the last century, and looked it. The fabric upholstery had worn off the seat, over which I had stretched a homemade slipcover secured with elastic to keep the foam flakes from escaping. (I see where E. hauled it down the stairs last night, a Hansel and Gretel trail of crumbs!) Other upholstery gouges were taped with black book tape that kept turning edges and going sticky. As well, the casters had serious rheumatism. But when we priced out new ones some years ago and found that they would coast $75 for the set - well, scratch that! That's half the price of a new chair!

Anyway, if I'm sounding more long-winded, blame my new Pure Comfort.

frivolous friday

I'm beginning to feel this way about plumbers. Remember the watery adventure I wrote about a week ago? Well, it continues.

The plumbers have been here most of the week, trying this and that, but still finding leaks in the system. Today somehow they managed to break the water line that supplies water to our entire complex. I was away, but hubby said it was Saturday morning all over again (except this time it didn't flood our house's innards).

I arrived home at 3:00 to find the pumper truck all but blocking the road. It sits right beside our unit, pumping groundwater ...



out of this hole in the side yard where the plumbers are trying to repair the damage.



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UPDATE - Saturday, February 28, a.m.

The plumbers worked into the evening. They finally got the water turned back on about 9 p.m. - just after E. slipped out to buy 2 jugs of water (Oh us of little faith!). Kudos to that hard-working crew!!

reno update

Now we're looking like this

and this

How quickly packing the packing skills of 2007 return - and the weariness.

Scott Tournament of Hearts screen shot
of standings Tuesday night after seven draws

How am I spending my breaks? Watching the Scott Tournament of Hearts, of course! How about B.C.'s (our) Marla Mallett?!

watery adventure

Pounding and the doorbell woke us at 1:50 this morning. E. went to see what was up, I heard a female voice, and when he didn't come back to bed I peeked through the Venetian slats to see our barefoot neighbor standing on the street, up which ran a trickle of water. Fire? A burst water pipe up the street?

A look out the living room window a minute later clued me in that this was not up the street but right beside our unit. Bubbling from the ground with the sound and energy of a spring river was a gusher that had already filled our side yard, the front yard, and was coursing down the street. Unless it was soon stanched, it would invade our garage, crawl space and den. We looked on in horror. What to do?

A few minutes later a fire truck arrived. The crew called the city waterworks people and then milled around in their bulky waterproofs, not seeming to know exactly what else to do either.

Every time I checked, the water level was higher. Maybe 15 minutes later, E. went into the crawl space and found seepage.

While I was back and forth helping him clear boxes and suitcases into the den I saw tea-colored liquid seep from under one of our storage shelves and spread over the laminate flooring. So we made a mad scramble to get everything off the den floor. One of the firemen suggested we shop-vac the water. While we fumbled our little-used shop-vac together, the neighbor brought his over and the "bailing" began.

E. said I should call our strata management company. Lo and behold, I was able to get a live person on the line at this unsightly hour. While I was on the phone to her, news came that the city works guy had shut the water off -- albeit all the water to the entire 41-units.

Meanwhile strata management and I were back and forth about getting a restoration company on scene (and would you believe a company [appropriately called "Angel"] arrived to set up powerful dehumidifiers and fans before 4:30 a.m.). The bad news is that no matter how they dehumidify, the laminate flooring will need to be replaced -- the whole room of it even though only one side of the room flooded. We're talking nasties here -- emptying three bookshelves and several storage cupboards, moving an old upright piano that weighs about 3000 lbs., and living with a garage-full of stuff while the reno gets done.

But it could have been so much worse. What if our neighbor hadn't woken us up? What if we hadn't been home? There is much to be thankful for!

Kudos too to the people who make themselves available at night -- firemen, city workers, a plumber who came in the wee hours so that this morning we woke to taps that once again give us water.

This is the sinkhole left in our side yard. What's with this spot. It's very near the place that was dug up last year to search for another water leak. I'm beginning to think we live beside the Bermuda Triangle of Wyndham Lane.

warning - compact fluorescents on premises!

We just saw a very disturbing story about compact fluorescent light bulbs - those curly bulbs with which we're told to replace all our incandescent bulbs (in fact, incandescents are set to be banned in Canada by 2012).

Global's investigative journalism show 16:9 exposed compact fluorescents for causing an unsightly rash in some people (the bulbs don't block UV rays) and for causing migraines in others (due to what is called 'dirty electricity' - i.e. some emit radio waves way higher than is normal with other light bulbs).

Even more disturbing is the unwillingness of Health Canada or any other regulating agency to talk about these CFL finds. The show's investigative team finally got some straight answers when they talked to researchers in England.

I have a feeling we haven't heard the last of this.

Related:

• "Fluorescent Light Bulbs Linked with Eczema, Seizures, Migraines, Skin Rashes"

• "Low energy bulbs 'worsen rashes'"

frivolous friday

...or starting the new year off on the right foot

(though I did not write the poem):

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'computering',
And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my work..
I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site
That I got SO way into.
I was into it all night.<>

Nothing's changed except my mouse
It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess...
While I sit here on my hiney.

book review: The Boomer Burden

Title: The Boomer Burden - Dealing With Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff
Author: Julie Hall
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, June 1, 2008, paperback, 208 pages
Genre: Non-fiction, How-to
ISBN-10: 078522825X
ISBN-13: 978-0785228257

In The Boomer Burden - Dealing With Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff, Julie Hall, a.k.a. The Estate Lady, shares expertise gained during seventeen years spent working in estate liquidation. As a professional estate contents' expert and certified personal property appraiser she is well qualified to give advice. It is not only welcome, but also desperately needed. Parents of baby boomers — Depression survivors who have found a lifetime of security in their possessions — are aging, then dying, and leaving behind a lot more than memories.

In an "Author's Note" at the beginning of the book Hall promises, "This book will provide you with the trustworthy counsel you need when facing the monumental task of walking your parents through their final days and then settling their estate." She proceeds to keep that promise in fifteen chapters that deal with things like:

• how to tell your parents are failing
• the importance of a will
• what an executor is and does
• how to protect the estate from grasping neighbors, friends and relatives
• how to ascertain the value of estate items
• how to clean out your parents' house, and more.

Important points covered in each section are repeated within the chapter as slimmed-down lists, definitions, and words of advice in sidebar-type boxes. Each chapter concludes with "What Can I Do Now?" - a checklist of three pertinent actions for the reader to perform at that particular juncture of the process.

The book ends with three appendices:

• a checklist for parent care
• a list of helpful resources
• a list of estate documents and information that children should locate and keep accessible.

Though the subject matter makes this a hard book to read, Hall's sympathetic tone and reasoned approach helps the reader quell naturally arising angst in favor of paying attention to what needs to be done. Her wealth of stories and anecdotes keeps the book interesting. If the story of neighbors who cleaned out the valuables of a senile lady's house, paying her mere dollars when the pieces were worth hundreds, doesn't outrage you, some of the stories of family treachery will.

Hall's real goal is to move the reader beyond outrage to action. If you are a boomer with aging parents, The Boomer Burden will motivate and guide you. It will show you how to set things up now while your parents are still alive so the estate isn't a nightmare to settle later when there is no will, no knowledge of where important papers are kept, and no list of who gets what. (However, if your parents have died intestate — without a will — it walks you through that scenario as well.) If you are a boomer or a boomer's parent, this book was written to motivate you to look after your stuff yourself and not leave it to your kids.

So, if you're a boomer with failing parents, get this book. As someone who was executor of my mother's estate two years ago, I can vouch for how bang-on its advice is. I only wish I had had it then.

If you're a boomer or younger, get this book in any case, not for your parents' estate but for your own. Follow its advice and leave your children one of the best gifts you can give them - a straightforward and well-administered estate.

book review: Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life by Mike Nelson

Title: Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life -- Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop
Author: Mike Nelson
Publisher: New Page Books; Revised edition (March 1, 2008), Paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1601630085
ISBN-13: 978-1601630087

Stop Clutter from Stealing Your Life -- Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop (2008 edition) is not just another book about ways to pare down and organize your stuff. Author Mike Nelson states in his introduction,

“This book is about more than just decluttering. It’s about balance … It’s about not having to buy more and more stuff to fill a hole in our souls. It’s about learning what’s really important in our lives and not using stuff to hide from life.”

In the twenty chapters that follow, Nelson delivers on the promised insights. In easy-to-understand prose and a voice that is both helpful and encouraging he tackles topics like what is a clutterer, common traits of clutterers, reasons people clutter, medical and mental aspects of cluttering and hoarding, and many more. He supports his persuasive views with numerous examples and stories, including his own.

Appendices explaining the use of a decluttering diary, a list of affirmations, a bibliography of resources (books, websites, organizations and professionals in the field), and an index follow the main body of the book.

Several things make this a valuable resource for clutterers and those who love them. The book’s central message, that cluttering and hoarding are only manifestations of deeper emotional and spiritual issues is a slant that was new to me. Nelson not only shows how that angle makes sense but supports his thesis with a multitude of stories and case studies gained from therapists and organizers as well as his own experiences first as a clutterer and then a clutter-buster.

Through these anecdotes I began to understand cluttering’s complexity and why it is so difficult to overcome. The multi-pronged approach he advises (self-help groups, getting medical help, tapping in to spiritual resources,* etc.) seems realistic. I also like the courtesy and sensitivity Nelson advises and models when dealing with cluttering family members and friends. Needless to say, he is not in favor of the heavy-handed, TV ratings-imposed tactics used by clutter and hoarding reality shows.

Wherever you fit in to Nelson’s clutterer continuum from mildly disorganized to pathological hoarder, you’ll find something of help and interest in this book. The chapter “Forty Ways to Leave Your Clutter” alone makes it worthwhile. If cluttering is not your problem, get Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life for its advice on how to deal with cluttering parents, teenage children and business partners. This book will help you understand how clutter is a lot like an iceberg. What you see may indicate that under the surface there’s a lot more to deal with than simple laziness and disorganization.

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*Some personal reflection about Stop Clutter

The central message of this book supports the fact that we are spiritual beings with deep-seated hungers. It gives many examples of what happens when we feed those hungers with what can never really satisfy (in the book 'things' but people also use drugs, food, sex, work, gambling etc. etc.)

Nelson suggests that using spiritual beliefs is one way to get over the need for things. His chapter on this was interesting, but pretty weak, in that he equated all religions as equal.

I would go much further and say it's the only thing that will finally work-- if our religious beliefs are grounded in truth. It's only as we recognize that hole inside as a hunger for God and give ourselves to Him (by trusting in Jesus to save us and living our lives for Him) that our gnawing hungers will be satisfied.

This book reminded me of two Bible passages. Both are Jesus speaking -- first about thirst:

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." - John 4:13,14

and then about hunger:

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." - John 6:35

my office grows up

Before:



After two days spent with paintbrush and roller: