Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hello friends, 

I'm popping in briefly to usher in the New Year. I'm easing my way into 2021 as I started the year feeling very tired. I'm still working on an intensive paper project and I find it difficult to find "free" time each day to work on it but I'm doing my best and I hope I will be back to usual activities in a few weeks or possibly sooner.

Let me wish you and all your loved ones a blessed 2021 as we begin this New Year. I'm grateful that my friends and family and I have made it this far and I look forward to a breakthrough in 2021 through this pandemic in a way that will see us being able to meet up once more in person. That is my hope like I know it is the hope of many of you.

 

Though I'm technically still on a social media break I have been reading a number of your blogs here and there but I've restrained myself from commenting so I do not get too distracted.  Some of you have written about choosing a theme word for the year. I too have been doing this now for a number of years but only realized a few days ago that I didn't choose a word for 2020. I guess it's just as well since my year got off to a really bad start personally and then got worse for the entire world as the months went on. I'm so glad to see the end of 2020 and I'm truly hoping that 2021 will be much better for us all though it will take some hard work getting there.

The year wasn't entirely bad. I have to say that I had one huge benefit in 2020 and that was time. I finally had to stay put and couldn't go anywhere.  I was very good about social distancing and keeping to my very, very small bubble.  So it meant that I had a chance to do a lot of small jobs and odd jobs that don't usually get done. 

I was able to work on catching up with taxes that had not been filed.  I also finally started working with a new financial advisor.  I have modest investments but I want to make sure they are handled well. Then Covid -19 hit so it's anyone's guess where things will end up.  I was also able to continue downsizing and got rid of some larger items that took up too  much space in my smallish home (6 huge, antique dining chairs to a cousin of mine) and 1 large, motorized wheelchair.  Friends have been fundraising to do some work on the chair and gift it to a needy person.  The funds are now in hand but now it's a question of when and how best to undertake the repairs and get the wheelchair out of my home. I will be so happy when that day comes but I have to wait for my very busy friend to move things forward.   I've given away a lot in 2020.  The decluttering is something I've been working on for years already but decluttering never really ends.  In 2020 I decluttered lots of books, clothing, knick knacks and the large items I've mentioned. I also decluttered a lot of digital files and photos and made some progress on paper files. I also underwent a successful colonoscopy "do over" and got half way through fitting a partial denture before Covid -19 hit. I'm not happy with the fit so far but don't expect to return very soon for further work. I should at least call the denturist.

In reviewing what I achieved in 2020, I decided that my theme word for the coming year is "completion". I intend to continue with all the time consuming clean up of paper and digital clutter, clothing and odds and ends. I guess I need to add photos to this task because I even have boxes of mom's old photos. Many of them are photos I gave her so they are duplicates and triplicates. Hopefully the task will not be that difficult and if I only make a start on the photos that is okay as the paperwork is what is bothering me most (perhaps I should just save cleaning out the storage room for 2022).  I hope that by December 2021/January 2022,  this huge decluttering task that reflects decades and decades of accumulated 'stuff' will be done.

Completion will allow me to put the past baggage (stuff weighing me down mentally and emotionally) and focus on new activities, new beginnings, new plans and so on.

Another thing I spent a lot of time on in 2020 was cooking. I don't actually enjoy cooking all that much except from time to time I do enjoy baking. However, one needs to eat and especially during this time when one cannot get to restaurants it is important to invest some time and energy into cooking. Particularly, if like me, you get bored with the same old meals you need to put some thought into creating variety.  The word variety is a matter of perspective however since I'm not one to go all out and learn all kinds of new dishes. I prefer to tweak and vary dishes I already know how to make or create my own dishes as I go along.  A little meal planning also helps me minimize food waste though I don't usually plan more than a few days to a week ahead.  I've found planning for 2 -4 weeks at a time doesn't work for me and cooking ahead doesn't work so well either.

Here are the meals I made since the New Year. I don't tend to eat breakfast or lunch that often but I might snack on some leftovers before making dinner which is the primary meal of the day.

January 1, 2021 Store bought frozen lasagna, sour dough toast and green salad with feta cheese

January 2, 2021~ Chicken and rice soup with dumplings

January 3, 2021 ~ Stew:  sausage, navy beans, barley, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, kale onions and carrots in chicken broth

January 4, 2021 ~ Tiger Prawns in soy/chili sauce served with spaghettini and stir fried onions, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, Napa cabbage, garlic

January 5, 2021 ~ Seared, marinated tuna steak (soy sauce and sesame oil), served with steamed rice and salad (honey, orange, ACV, oil dressing)

Wednesday's dinner will be hamburgers on buns with french fries and green salad.

Thursdays' dinner is roast pork and mashed sweet beef and potatoes.Friday's dinner is fish and chips or sausages and roasted potatoes. will be spaghettini, meatballs and salad.

 

I had a goal of reading 45 books in 2020 and read 67 though I didn't spend much time reading until late March when we were restricted from going out to all but essential services.  The library was closed for most of the year due to Covid. Instead the library increased the digital inventory which meant I mostly read ebooks. I discovered it is quicker to read an ebook than it is to read a paper book.

 

I planted 2 gardens as I usually do.  The first photo is my patio garden which did reasonably well. But due to Covid 19 I never spent much time caring for the community plot (second photo) and it didn't do too well.  I've asked my nephew's girlfriend to do the gardening in 2021 and she agreed.  She was experimenting with patio gardening in 2020 and seemed to enjoy it. All she needs to do is buy the seeds, water them and weed. The compost and tools are all provided.

Last, but not least,  the Kenyan missions kept me busy. 

 

We worked unsuccessfully to have a young Engineering graduate join university studies in Canada. He is now looking for opportunities at home and also exploring the possibility of Master's degree studies in Europe. 

 

Ernest was hospitalized twice due to serious leg injuries (first due to being run down by a vehicle and second due to a bad fall on a muddy path). He is now recovered and wishes to try to find work. Due to his diabetes T2 and Covid 19 concerns, his doctor advised him to stay out of town (thus no looking for work).  We've been trying to keep him nourished through food and vitamins as well as cater to his monthly doctor visits and medications.

 

Eunice continues to be in hospital far from home and has her ups and downs. The Lord has kept her this far and she has hung in there for 2 years. We provide special food every month to keep her blood as strong as possible and also intervene with medicines (eg. blood thinner) and other things (eg. oxygen, blood transfusions).  We were hoping to make some progress with moving her back home in 2020 but other things took our time. We still hope in 2021 to be able to move her somewhere close to her home. The issue is she needs an intensive level of care but she comes from a village near a small town. She would not have access to the same level of critical interventions if we move her home. On the other hand, she would be nearer to family members who could potentially visit her once we are past this Covid pandemic. It is very sad that she is far from home and no one has been able to visit her since March.  We also continue to try to get her the small pension to which she is entitled and will need a lot more prayer on this need.

 

Pastor Jonah too has had a few health issues (serious food poisoning and root canal problems) that we've needed to deal with. The root canal work ended up being very stressful and also very expensive. In the end the right services were provided after trying at two different hospitals and the work was either not properly done in one place and no service was provided at the second hospital due to the overly long queues of people every day for a week.

 

Carolly, my young doctor friend found a job in a small, rural clinic which provides primarily maternity services so he has been delivering a lot of babies. Sadly, his grandmother died just before Christmas so some small helps were needed unexpectedly.

 

There are many other people too numerous to name who needed food relief during this past year and especially at Christmas. We are grateful for what we were able to provide.

 ~~~

Summary

I didn't have big goals for 2020 due to almost losing my nephew through being struck by a train and having a guest visit just before the Covid 19 pandemic was declared.  Like everyone else, I was focussed on trying to educate myself, about the pandemic, implementing safety protocols and discussing with others in my family and in Kenya how to keep safe as well as providing food and masks when quarantines were put in place. I knew I would be decluttering in 2020 so I focussed on that rather than making new goals.  The grinding household tasks were balanced with cooking and reading.  There was one new thing I wanted to do in 2020 but had to forego, and that was taking a weaving course.  I am pleased overall with what I managed to accomplish in 2020 despite it being a strange and challenging year. 

 As I look forward , I don't think I will have much time for crafting in 2021 though I will probably do some crochet and simple knitting here and there.  I hope to read at least 45 books, complete my paperwork decluttering, some small painting projects and general maintenance work. Every summer I plant my patio garden and this year will be no exception.  Though as I mentioned, I will have someone else take care of the community garden for the summer.

I've been pondering how better to serve the Kenyan missions so there may be changes on the horizon.  The first step  will be seeking direction through prayer. In the meantime we continue to serve a few people and their families in different parts of Kenya.

 

 If anyone can contribute to the important work of feeding, clothing and helping the people with medicines and so on,  donations will be gratefully received. You can send through Pay Pal to kerichojoy[at]gmail[dot]com

Thank you in on behalf of the people.

 

Last but not least, thank you all for being faithful readers and blogging friends. I really appreciate you all and am so glad to know you through blogging. I wish a great year in 2021 for each of you and to all of your loved ones.

Happy New Year 2021

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. For most of us it was much quieter and more restful than usual due to the travel restrictions during the ongoing pandemic.

I took a break from almost all social media over the Christmas holiday though I did sneak in a bit of blog reading and commenting here and there.  I'm glad I took a break because I was a bit tired from all the activities of December.

I'm actually still on break as I'm now working on a project which takes a lot out of me. I get easily distracted and I don't want distractions so I can get this thing out of the way as quickly as possible.  A lot of detail work is involved but once I'm finished, I will be able to return to blogging and visiting your blogs. But I wanted to make sure to stop by and say how much Christmas food was appreciated by the Kenyans who received it. Thank you for prayers and for the one who gave toward this cause.  It truly was a blessing. There are still other needs if you are wanting to donate. Rather than repeat them here, you can read more at the bottom of this post (click the link) if you like.

I also wanted to stop by and wish you all a very Happy New Year.  I hope that the new year will be kind and gentle and help us all recover from 2020 which took a lot out of us all.  We had to learn new ways of living, working, relating and being. Some lost loved ones.  I even know fellow bloggers and former bloggers who themselves got very sick with the dreaded Covid and thankfully are now in recovery.  Sadly some of this hardship will follow us into 2021 despite the readiness and availability of vaccines.  Even so I think people feel much more hopeful at the moment with the release and approval of several vaccines.  Please do continue to take good precautions as you go about your daily lives.  It will take time to vaccinate the world at large and to see how people react afterwards.

 

 

I'll be 'seeing' you soon. 

Love and hugs. xx

Just Before We Usher in 2020

 Happy New Year everyone!!!

I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas.

The time has gone by so quickly and now the new year is upon us.

I have a New Year's prayer for you as you move into 2020.

I had a nice Christmas with family members and post Christmas with friends of mine. 

It is nice to spend time with loved ones over the special holidays.

I also went with my nephew and my brother to visit my niece in Kamloops, BC.
It is about 4.5 or 5 hours drive from where I live.

The roads were great and the weather was fine as well.

The snow started falling while my niece and I were at the newest (and last) Star Wars movie.

The city looked like a winter wonderland that evening as we exited the movie theatre.

I had the very best sleep that I can recall in recent memory at a new to me hotel.

It was nice to feel refreshed and rested.

I took a few photos to share with you. 

I hope you enjoy them.

These photos were all taken along the Coquihalla Highway about 10 minutes north of the Town of Hope, BC.

 

 I haven't had a chance to make the next post my travel series because time passed so quickly over the holiday.
I hope to resume the travel posts early in 2020.

The next time I post, we will have turned a corner and entered the next decade.
My hope and prayer is it will be a wonderful, healthy and peaceful decade for each of you.

Many blessings.
♥♥♥

A New Year Awaits

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day.

Since Christmas Day is the beginning of the 12 Days of  Christmas I know some of you will celebrate

until January 5, 2019.

Some people have already reported back to work as they don't get a lot of time off.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope you are able to slow down the pace a bit and enjoy this season.

I also wanted to wish each and every one of you a fantastic year ahead in 2019!

I  will be taking an extended break from the blog as
I pursue some personal plans and goals.
I hope to write about it in the months to come.

Wishing you all the best
until I see you again in Blogland!

♥♥♥

A Few Good Days

Hello friends,

I hope you are all enjoying the first week of the new year. If you are back at work I'm sure you will be happy it is a short week this week. I know it is always difficult to get back into the swing of things after a bit of a break. In my last few working years I preferred working over the holiday when it was quiet and I didn't have the difficulty of transitioning back after Christmas and New Year's break.

I've had a bit of a cold over the holiday period. Just enough to make me less interested in being on line but not enough to keep me from other interests. It has been bright and cold over the past few days but today it warmed up several degrees and that always brings the rain. I'll take that to the heavy snowstorms they are dealing with across much of  North America.

In  my last post I showed you my crochet project. I finished my afghan the night before last but haven't yet put all the fringes on it. I just wanted to make sure I finished something sooner rather than later so I can move on to other projects. I've been enjoying hot cups of decaf tea late into the night while I work on the crochet project. I am happy with how the afghan turned out but I apologize for the exposure in the photo as I took this and the next photo late at night.

I enjoyed making this and may make another one in a different colour scheme.

I decided to get started right away on another project. 

This time it will be a doily.

I haven't made this pattern for many years. I've already had to unravel and re-do 2 times and will do so again.

The pattern requires a lot of counting and one error made means (for me) starting again.  Sometimes you can cover up mistakes. I don't like to do that where doilies are concerned. Once I make this I will immediately make one more while the pattern is still "fresh" in my mind.

I've got some minor alterations to do this week too before I can start on bigger projects of any kind.

My new reading material is called Arabic for Beginners.  It's about an American Canadian woman who accompanies her husband and small children to live in Jerusalem for a year. There she joins a group of  ex-pat women at her son's daycare and becomes friends with a young Palestinian woman. I'm in the early stages of the book. It is quite good in that it gives you insight into the Israeli-Palestinian life, politics and tensions. I've read several books of this nature and always find them helpful to understanding life in Israel.

The other book I'm reading is described as a cosy mystery. I can vouch for the cosiness of the book. Though not along the caliber of writers like Ken Follet, a few pages into it I can see it will be a satisfying read. It is a book by another Canadian author who is the author of two traditional mystery series. I only read mystery books quite sparingly. So far, I've enjoyed them.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment if you can. 

I hope you visit again when you can.

Happy New Year!

May you all have a fantastic 2018.

Happy New Year

Hello everyone, I'm just popping in to let you know I've been enjoying my Christmas holiday.

I spent a few days doing a bit of last minute shopping for stocking stuffers, tidying and cleaning and preparing for the Christmas meal which was loved and enjoyed by the invited guests. One of my guests was sick so didn't come but the 6 other guests made it and we had great time of feasting and fellowship.

I especially enjoyed seeing that my guests not only enjoyed the food but in some cases had 2-3 helpings.  I remember several of these same guests to dinner about 3 years ago when they were still fairly new to Canada. At that time they only ate sparingly. I don't know if it was due to cultural differences of what is polite, they didn't like the food or they were unaccustomed to the flavours of a Canadian Christmas.  What a difference a few years made!

I did a bit of last minute baking and one of the new to me items this year was Chocolate Crinkle cookies using Betty Crocker cake mix. I got the idea from Affectioknit's blog. My crinkle cookies didn't crinkle quite enough but they were tasty. I do hope to make them again as they are very simple to prepare.

Since Christmas, I've been slowly clearing all the dishes from Christmas Day and general tidying up. I've also gone out several times to shop for sales and to run a few errands. It has kept me busy enough though I made sure to skip the Boxing Day madness.  There are always so many people in the stores on Boxing Day that I prefer to avoid the shops. There are still lots of sales for the week after Christmas though you will have less selection as people go crazy snapping up the goods while they are on clearance prices. As for me, I try to do my clearance shopping throughout the year.

One of the places I went to was Michael's. I was looking for a small, table top Christmas tree to replace the one I've been using (above).  But they were practically sold out of Christmas items and there was not one tree in sight. Instead I purchased yarn, also on sale. I started making a new to me crochet afghan. Figuring out the pattern was a bit frustrating so after several tries I gave up and went looking for help on YouTube.

Fortunately the pattern is relatively simple once you figure it out! I normally gravitate toward brighter colours and was very tempted to buy bright blues or reds this time too.  But I like the soothing quality of the colours I selected. This afghan will be used as a throw in my living room on those chilly evenings.  The colour in the finished product will complement my living room furnishings better too.

Today (December 27th) I must go out and  buy a few items for New Year's dinner. It won't be a big dinner as we have a family tradition of remaining quietly at home and contemplating what is before us in the New Year.

Like many of you I do not make New Year's resolutions but several years ago I started setting out goals in several areas of my life (things I wanted to accomplish in each area of importance). 

This method has worked well for me to keep me moving forward in several areas of my life.

A few years ago I added a guiding word for myself to keep me mindful of a key theme I need to focus on over the year.

~~~

In 2017, I set my intention to rest but was only partially successful. 

Or should I say intermittently successful.

Mom's health deteriorated progressively in 2017 and she ultimately passed on Good Friday. 

After that I did take a good long rest which I sorely needed.

~~~~

In 2018 my word is "act" or "action".
(Col. 3: 23-24, 1 Peter 1:13, Titus 1: 16)

 Over the course of years a number of things on my personal agenda had to be pushed back or left undone due to circumstances and other priorities. 

I won't list my goals for 2018 as I haven't even set them down in writing yet.

There are a number of things to get done in 2018 (crocheting, knitting, a bit of quilting a bit of traveling) so I will be moving forward on those.  

Last year I also set a very modest reading goal of about 32 books. I say about because I don't remember the original number and it kept increasing as I read more books. In the end I finished off 47 books without having my nose in a book every day.  

In 2018 I will keep my reading goals to a modest number once again. For now it is set at 35 books and that number will likely inch up again.  A lower number lets me feel like I have time to do other things as well as partake in reading, one of my favourite hobbies.  If I didn't take the time to set other intentions then reading would be all I ever did.

 The goal will inch up fairly quickly at first because I already have about 7 books on the go which are at various stages of completion.

As for other goals those haven't been fleshed out yet but I have enough to get started.

We've had a few beautiful sunny days which usually means colder weather. It will warm up approximately 6 degrees and bring the rain.

Before I go I wanted to wish each and every one of you a safe and peaceful the New Year. 

 May 2018 be all you hope for and more.

 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.  
(Psalm 90:12)

Joining in with Lady Fi and the gang at Our World Tuesday

Happy New Year

May you all have the most wonderful, magical and blessed 

New Year

in 

2014!

See you in 2014.