SNAP THAT

Hello blogging friends, I am sending you Merry Christmas wishes and praying you are having a good time so far for the holidays. I myself am visiting with my family and will shortly begin to prepare our traditional breakfast waffles before putting in the bird for the dinner later in the day. We are not extravagant in our meal as we once were when my mother was well and able to prepare food. She was well known for hosting large dinners annually for the relatives. It was a bit of an open house at our home every year as children growing up. We always had many drop in guests on Thanksgiving Day, Easter, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Those days may be gone but mom still likes to host the gathering at her home with me doing the preparations and cooking. I am able to help her in this way to keep her connection as strong as she can as our family is no longer very large and we live far from most relatives. I am grateful I can provide this support to my family at these special time

Welcome to Rhonda who became my 51st follower .   After a long break from blogging I'm happy to pop in and say "hello" and "Merry Christmas" to my readers. I  did not plan on being away so long and meant to post some blogs while I was on holiday in Kenya.  However, I had limited time for blogging as  most of you will understand. Then when I did have time to blog, the power did not cooperate. I've been home for a week now.  I had hoped to log on and blog a bit sooner but despite taking two cameras and three memory cards with me on holiday,  I had no access to photos!  After several false starts to recover the photos, I did at last find a reasonable digital photo recovery program and have recovered at least half of my photos.  I lost a second memory card,and so those images will forever be lost to me. If any of you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I can recommend the reasonably priced "Digital Photo Recovery (DPR)" software. It allow

Friends,  You know my heart is with the Kenyan people. Recently one of my friends was part of an initiative to bring humanitarian relief to the over 4000 Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) who currently live in the Mau Forest. These people have nothing, absolutely nothing and you can see the destitution and hardship written all over their faces.  Please, I ask you to read this report with a prayerful heart as to what you can possibly do to help them, especially as we near this season of Christmas. God bless you.  Now here is the post from my friend. You can also read it directly on his blog here .  You can also read more about the conditions of the IDPs here .  The situation is dire as the people have been evicted from the forest but they have no where to go. ********************************************************************* We still have many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Kenya. I am just hoping this will be a thing of the past soon, but the challenges are still

I love this photo. I took it from my hotel balcony in downtown Vancouver. I think it almost looks like a painting. For more Scenic Sundays, click here.

Remembrance Day.  It's easy to remember the time we are to take time to remember; that is, the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour, or November 11th at 11:00 a.m. I am so grateful to the veterans that fought and died and those who fought and lived to tell the tale. They will forever have a place of gratitude and remembrance in my heart. Let us never forget their sacrifices. When I was in grade school, our school used to broadcast a program over the public address system every Remembrance Day.  Our teacher would place a cross at the front of the classroom. On top of the cross she would place a soldier's helmet and some poppies.  She would read from soldier's war journals to give us a sense of what the soldiers were dealing with on the battlefield.  The principal would play a narration of the famous poem by John McCrae for the entire school and we would all stand in our respective classrooms for a minute of silence and the playing of the bugle call. 

When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be. Molly Wizenberg, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, 2009 Today (Tuesday), I had a lot of pelvic pain. It wouldn't go away no matter what I did so I could not concentrate on reading in my cosy nook like I planned. Instead I cooked up some comfort food. First up was some hot homemade soup. There is no recipe really. You just put whatever you want into boiling water. Whatever will satisfy your soul. Today I boiled up some pot barley along with white onions, celery bits, carrot bits, chopped potatoes, a can of stewed tomatoes and cooked hamburger. For flavouring I added Dr. Bragg's liquid soy seasoning, some splashes of hot sauce and salt to taste.

My thank you to those of you who are praying for Kipngeno's school needs. He really needs your prayerful support. Hi friends, Here in Vancouver it is very windy and wet. I am reminiscing about warmer times and nice flowers in my garden. Like these red roses. And these Zinnias. It is the kind of day where I feel I should curl up on a nice chair and read or study. The rain can get to be too much here in late Fall/Autumn and Winter.  At those times, it is important to be grateful and remember that it is the rain that keeps our city green and full of grass throughout the winter, as well as bringing early flowers in Spring. My study corner for quiet study. There is a comfy armchair close by and natural light from the window. That is my world for this Tuesday. You can join others around the world here and see what they are up to.

Hello prayer partners, Kipngeno will be going to school in January, 2011 and we are so happy for him. I wrote about Kipnegeno in an earlier post and you can read about him here if you like .  He will be studying pharmacy, instead of nursing. Medical professionals are very much needed in Kenya. He needs a lot of funding and prayer support to start school in two months time and we are trying to gather what is needed. Please continue to pray for him and if you can help, please let my friend, Pastor Jonah know here . Otherwise have a great day.

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. Wernher von Braun The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love. What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork. Pearl Bailey I hate paperwork.  I know my blog is supposed to be about things that give me joy but I am sorry to say this is one task I take no pleasure in.  It is only after the paperwork is sorted and discarded, or put away in an easily accessible place, that I feel joyful .  Over the years I've purchased many books and tools for dealing with out of control paperwork and I've also tried many systems. In honesty, I've never found one that really works for me. When I was working I simply had not enough time to deal with paperwork as my hours were horrendous.  Now that I am disabled and dealing with chronic illness, I prefer to avoid dealing with paperwork.  I do try to make sure I am more or less on top of deadlines and bills but I admit that sometimes the deadlines do pa

May there always be work for your hands to do, may your purse always hold a coin or two. May the sun always shine on your windowpane, may a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you, may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you. Irish Blessing Dear fellow bloggers and readers, I want to apologize as I am not up to blogging or commenting right now. I travelled yesterday from my home in Vancouver to visit my mom. By the time I arrived I was very ill: vomiting, fever, headaches, etc. I got worse as the night wore on. I'm not sure if I have a flu or a case of food poisoning. The good news is that I feel a little better today. The worst of the symptoms seem to have passed. But until I feel much better I'm afraid I won't be able to leave comments on your blogs though I will certainly try to pay you all a visit. Thank you too from the bottom of my heart for your continued following of my blog and leaving comments. It means the w

Autumn.. the year's last, loveliest smile. William C. Bryant I'm nostalgic for these beautiful, sunny days of fall/autumn in Vancouver, Canada. Click here for more beautiful scenery from around the world.

Going around under an umbrella interferes with one's looking up at the sky. Jerzy Kosinski It was a rainy day today though not as wet as it could have been :-) Join in for more beautiful sky photos from around the world by clicking here .