One Sunny Day in Vancouver

As I am not yet home I'm going through my recent archives to share a sky post with you. These ones were taken on one of our rare, sunny, Spring days last month.

Please click on the badges above to see the wonderful entries posted by people around our wonderful globe. Happy Easter weekend to you too!

To God Be the Glory

Every year at this time I hearken to the childhood days of my Chrstian walk and the songs and observances that I was taught. One of the songs we learned was this one I wish to share with you in video. It seems appropriate in this Easter season especially to give God the glory.

This Easter He has helped my mother to pull through an especially trying time at the hospital and I give thanks for that. Though she isn't out of hospital yet she has grown stronger and we are hopeful she will be released after the holiday weekend. I am still with her and visit her each day.

I pray that those who are of the family of faith will have lots of opportunity to pause and reflect over this busy weekend of what God has done for you. May He continue to keep and bless you and your loved ones.

I haven't been able to blog on those things I want to share but those posts can be saved for another day. Thank you to my blogging friends for continuing to read my blog, for commenting and for offering thoughts and concerns by email. I appreciate each and every one of you.

What's Happening in My World this Week?

I've been quite busy these past few days. Suddenly the other day I realized that I have a lot to get done within the next week or so: various blood tests, finding a podiatrist, getting my prescriptions refilled, writing to my sponsored children, getting my hair done, attending a diabetes clinic, coordinating my travel to visit mom and the business I need to do there, finishing and filing mom's taxes and mine, paying bills and getting some financial things in order. I've been good about keeping to schedule but today I needed a rest. I may not have much time for blogging over the next week but am not 100% sure. If I can I would like to post some more blogs about my Kenyan trip.

I'm looking forward to my quick overnight trip to visit my mom and niece. I have some business to do there at the same time so the trip needs to happen soon. I decided not to travel over Easter because everything in this small city where I'm going virtually shuts down on holidays and it will be difficult to get business done. Also my mom and my niece will each have Easter dinner to spend with others so they'll be gainfully occupied.  I'm trying to arrange for my niece to come and stay with me overnight and she sounded excited when I asked her about it over the phone today.  Maybe she can bring her swim suit and we can relax in the jacuzzi.

This photo I took during the last big snowfall.

We had unexpected wet snowfall here today. Wow! I can't believe it but in the province next door to use they had much more snow. Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny but right now with the low lying and thick clouds it doesn't look too promising. My garden has been cleaned and I've been waiting for the time to put the bedding plants out. Hopefully it will be this weekend.

Pretty red blossoms in my garden from another year.

Corn in my garden from another summer.

I was busy today looking for paper items to send to my 3 sponsored boys in Ethiopia and Kenya. I had one letter from little Peter near Nakuru, Kenya telling me what a wonderful Christmas he had this year due to the funds I sent for his family. It really warms my heart so much to know I've made him happy and probably alleviated some stress for his dear parents who can also enjoy their children's happiness over the holiday. I also heard from little John in Mathare, Kenya. It is his birthday in mid-June so I've sent a special amount of funds for his family to help celebrate his birthday. I had my first letter from young Haile in Ethiopia too. He is my newest sponsored child so we have only exchanged one letter each. It nice getting a letter to learn of his interests. 

I know that sponsored children love to keep their letters and photos and I'm not sure if any of these little boys have something to keep them in. I was thinking of how to address this. I came up with the idea to send a medium sized gift bag  made of heavier paper. I can fold it in a large envelope to send in my next mail out. I also sent the boys post cards of my city and maps of my country as well as lots of stickers and sticker albums. The boys are all young. One is 6, one is turning 7 and the other is 10. Since I don't have little children in my home, it is challenging for me to write to them of things that they will enjoy but doing good with ideas so far.  I'm sponsoring all 3 boys through Compassion International Canada. If you would like to sponsor a child please take a look here.  You can even write to a child if you don't have money to sponsor them monthly. Just ask the office to identify a correspondence child for you.  These are children that have monthly sponsors but no one writes to them. All children just love to hear from someone and to know that someone cares about them.

I've featured this photo before but I really like it so am showing it again. It is of a tree with bird's nests in Kenya. I took it on the drive back to Nakuru from Lake Bogoria.

PRAYER REQUEST:

No sooner did I post this then I got a phone call. My mom had to be sent to the hospital again. This is the 4th time she has had to go by ambulance to the hospital since February 1st, the day she moved into the nursing home. She has some kind of infection and appears confused and the doctor doesn't know where the infection is coming from. Every time I get a phone call, I get into a tailspin. It seems I barely recover from one episode and it happens again. I will be monitoring things as best I can so I can determine if I need to go and see her sooner and skip my diabetes clinic. Please keep us in your prayers.

Update: 
I am at my mom's. Thank you for your prayers.

My Land is Kenya

I want to welcome  Sunshine  who is my 91st Follower. Thank you so much for joining my blogging family Sunshine. It means a lot to me. I hope to visit your blog too!

Roger Whittaker was born on March 22, 1936 in Nairobi Kenya.  He is an Anglo-Kenyan singer-songwriter and musician with worldwide record sales of over 55 million. His music can be described as easy listening and he is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability.

Roger's parents Edward and Viola, were originally from Staffordshire, England, where they owned and operated a grocery shop. His father had a motorcycle accident and then the family moved to a farm in Kenya because of the warmer climate. His grandfather sang in various clubs and his father played the violin while Roger learned to play the guitar.

I won't recite all of Roger Whittaker's biography as that can be found on his official website or on variety of other websites.

I just wanted to share that as a child I loved hearing Roger Whittaker's music. I grew up in the far north of Canada in a relatively out of the way, and obscure corner of the world. Yet even there the melodious voice of Roger Whittaker, made it's way to me from way over in Africa. I especially loved his song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".  It evoked the sounds and images that I thought made up Africa and it enticed me (among other things) to want to see and experience Africa for myself one day.  My childhood dream came true a few years ago when I travelled to Africa on a missions trip.  While there I was privileged to go on safari.  I got to see and hear the majestic beasts of the wild.  That first trip to the wilds of Kenya was something magical and mystical, that I will not soon forget.

Many of you will know that at this moment, Kenya is going through tumultuous times. It recently approved a new Constitution through national referendum and is now going through growing pains as a country. My trip to Kenya in November/December, 2011 was my first trip to Kenya since the passage of the new Constitution.

While there I often saw a television commercial showing the ceremony surrounding the passage of the new Constitution and the celebrations that went along with it. The televised images were set to a beautiful song that I had not heard before. No one I asked seemed to know who the singer was. I knew that I knew that voice but I could not place it. It haunted me. Finally when I got home the name of the singer came to me and with that and an idea of the song's title I searched for the song on line.

What a fabulous tool the internet is!   I was able to find out that the patriotic commercial is set to the Roger Whittaker tune entitled, "My Land is Kenya".  The song and the images were so beautiful that whenever I watched it, it brought tears to my eyes. I know and understand the struggle behind the words and the images and that makes them ever so much more poignant and meaningful to me. (Since I first published this post on April 12, 2011, the original video I posted is no longer available. Perhaps it has been replaced by the new government as I've noticed a newer version of it which I'll post in a newer post soon.  As for now, I'm posting a video of the song set to some beautiful images of the country, Kenya).

My dearest wish and prayer for Kenya is that Her and Her people would thrive and prosper and be a beacon of light and hope to the Continent of Africa and to the world.  Kenya is truly is a paradise on earth and I pray that the people of this great nation would arise and take their rightful place in the world. Long may Kenya prosper and may Her beauty shine bright for all of us to see.

God bless Kenya. 

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Blue Monday, April 11, 2011

How would you like to take a spin in this little blue number? * wink.

On another topic altogether, I managed to get rid of the clutter below. Someone from the local Freecycle kindly came and took it off my hands. I feel so much better that someone else will get some use out of it. I never like to throw things away and would have to take it to the charity shop if I couldn't give it to someone. Next I'll be on to shredding all my old paper records.  This can be done a little at a time.

Have a HAPPY BLUE MONDAY!

Click here to join Smiling Sally and the gang for Blue Monday submissions.

7 Strategies to Overcoming Stress

I want to welcome and thank my newest follower, Becky! 

I hope you will enjoy your time visiting my blog. Please do feel free to leave a comment.

All around us there are calamities and wars or rumours of wars. There is drought, there is starvation, there is violence everywhere, there are natural disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Haiti, New Zealand and Japan. There is economic crisis and joblessness. Sometimes we just get overloaded with stress from what is happening around us and to us.  We can become fearful and not know know how to deal with the barrage of things coming our way. We can begin to feel hopeless and full of despair. 

It is for all of these reasons that it is important to know how to deal with stress.  I am no different than most people and so I also need to learn strategies for dealing with stress. I also need continuous reminders and encouragement for how to reduce stress so that I can live the best life for me and for my loved ones and friends.

Today I heard a sermon on 7 strategies for dealing with stress and I took notes while the preacher was preaching. I thought these strategies were good and so I wanted to share them with you. I'm sharing them because now more than ever, I hear from friends and loved ones about how they feel overwhelmed in these tumultuous times.

1. Face the future with faith.   Powerful events create fear and cause people to die of stress, anxiety and phobias.

And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars,   and on the earth nations will be in distress,   anxious  over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. People will be fainting from fear  and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 

 Luke 21:25-26

The next verses however tells us that the Son of man shall come with power and great glory when these things happen and that our redemption draws near when he returns. (Luke 21:27-28)

Luke 21:36 tells us to watch when we hear and see bad things all around us, and to pray that we will have strength.

2. Exercise regularly. Exercise relieves stress by decreasing stress hormones like cortisol. Apostle Paul compared physical exercise with physical living. (1 Timothy 4:8). Godliness and it's fruit will last well beyond physical lives but physical exercise has value. The exercise doesn't have to be demanding. It can simply be a nice walk where you can enjoy the flowers, the birds singing, or walking your dog on a leash and enjoying how dogs love to explore everything they come across.

3. Claim God's promises. There are many such promises in the Bible. (Peter 1:4) God has given us in His Word exceedingly great and precious promises.  He promises to answer our prayers. (Matthew. 7:7-8) Promises to give us the desire of our hearts if we delight in Him. (Psalm 37:4-5)

4. Forgive one another. (Proverbs 20:22)  There have been studies to show that people who forgive someone who has wronged them can enjoy physical, emotional and spiritual well being. Forgiveness is defined as letting go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. See this article from the Mayo Clinic.

5. Pray about your problems with an attitude of thanksgiving. Acknowledge your fears and worries and ask God for his help. (Philippians 4:6)  Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Share your intimate thoughts with God. He knows them anyway.

 6.  Stay positive. Maintain a positive and tranquil mind.  The Apostle Paul talks about the beating he had received while in prison but he focussed on maintaining a positive attitude (2 Corinthians 11:24-25) . Even while in prison he wrote letters of encouragement to other Christians (Philippians 4:8-9).  We are encouraged to focus on things that are lovely and pure.  It is so important to keep a sense of joy and wonder about life and our blessings even in the  midst of trials and difficulties.

 

7.  Set the right goals. Not all stress is bad. Jerrold Greenburg who wrote the book Comprehensive Stress Management tells us that the goal of stress management is not to eliminate all stress in our lives. We can use stress to help us achieve our goals if we channel it in the right way. We need motivation to be successful in life and stress if managed properly can help us achieve our goals.  Jesus tells us in Matthew  6:33 to "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you".

I wanted to add that eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep are also very important to how you handle stress on a daily basis.  I am still working on trying to implement all these strategies as consistently as possible. Some days I am more successful than other days. The important thing is I keep trying.

If you are dealing with overwhelming stress, 
I want to encourage you to keep hope in your heart.  
God says in his Word that he has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy  1:7)

A New Dish to Try & Making Progress on Goals

I've spent the past two days getting caught up on Spring cleaning and pulling together all of the things I will give away or try to sell.  Normally I give everything to the thrift stores but I think this time I will do up an advertisement for Freecycle.  This is where you and like minded people, offer or request things that you want to get rid of, or acquire for free.  Even though there is a local branch, I actually heard of this service through a friend who lives in North Carolina. While I've been a member for quite some time, I've never actually used the service so this will be my first try.  I have a lot to give away: 6 bags of outerwear and linens, one tub of patterns, and two small boxes.

My assortment of stuff for giveaway.

I also did a lot of laundering of things that only get laundered maybe once a year and need special attention.  Lots of things continue to be moved around the apartment and "rejigged" as I get rid of things and make room.  This is a constant "work in progress".  I'm getting fairly close to getting to outstanding paper clutter and going through the 4 drawer file cabinet. I intend to get rid of at least 3 of the 4 drawers of paper but these need to be shredded and that takes time.  Once there is room in the cabinet,  I can add the papers that are currently in boxes I brought home from moms. I have already sorted through these boxes fairly well once when I first brought them to my home but next sort will be the fine tuning one where I decide what is absolutely necessary to keep.  My challenge is that I am the keeper of special or important documents; not just mine but for 3 other adults (family members) who cannot keep it for themselves due to various circumstances.

Another big project out of the way today was a good cleaning of the garden. A friend came over to do the work for me and I was amazed at how much he did in such a short time. It took him about 2 hours to clear away what would normally take me time over a 2 or 3 day period. I'm so pleased to have this work done because it is going to rain for the next few days. Once the rain stops, the bedding plants will at last get planted!  The constant rains and cool weather have really delayed all this work but at least it is getting done now. We did have a few days of sunshine but on those days I was busy. The patio furniture will be cleaned up very soon too and made ready for al fresco dining and relaxing with friends.

I managed to try another new recipe today. Something I've been wanting to try for years. I don't know why but it is one of those dishes that I just never got around to making and I felt intimidated by. I have my blogging friend, Diane at the blog, My Life in the Charente to thank for inspiring me to make the soup at last and I was pleased to find that it is really very easy.  My regular readers know that I only like to make easy recipes.  You can find Diane's recipe for butternut squash soup here.

Butternut Squash Soup

I most often modify recipes according to what I have on hand and today was no exception. In this case, I omitted the dairy, the citrus and the apple; not because I didn't want to add these but I didn't happen to have them on hand even though I normally would have these items in stock! I just made sure I had enough broth and seasoning to ensure the squash and onions were cooked and to ensure that the blended version would be reasonably thick and creamy. It worked out perfectly and it was so tasty! I will definitely try this soup again and also the spinach soup I tried for the first time the other day.

A Thing of Beauty is Joy Forever, Skywatch April 6, 2011

Thank you and welcome to my newest follower, Wren.

Long time readers of this blog know how much I love apple, cherry and plum blossoms. I never, ever get tired of them and they bring such joy to me at this time of year.

Yesterday was an especially nice day to take a walk since it has been raining so much here and we haven't been getting consistent sunshine. I took these two photos to show you the blossoms and also to let you see that there is still fresh snow on the mountains.

Please click on the SkyWatch badge and it will take you to more beautiful skies around the globe. Thanks for stopping by!

Spinach Soup & Bean Salad

Now and then I like to try new recipes. A good part of the time the recipes are from blogging friends. This week I also tried a simple bean salad I've been wanting to make for awhile and somehow never seem to get around to.

About two weeks ago I bought and soaked garbanzo beans and kidney beans intending to make this salad but ended up not doing so. So this week, I went out and bought a large can of mixed beans and a regular sized can of green beans.

I drained and rinsed both cans of beans and put them in a corning ware dish (any serving dish will do).  I then chopped some roasted red peppers and added them to the mix. I wanted to add some chopped red onions but I didn't have any on hand. For the dressing, I mixed some cider vinegar, olive oil, sugar to taste, cracked salt and pepper and whisked them all together. I tossed the dressing and bean mixture and put it all in the fridge to chill for a few hours.

You can tell I was in a hurry because of the splashes of "juices" on the bowl.

I also made a delicious spinach soup from a recipe posted by my friend Jo over at her blog Memorable Meanders. You can find the recipe here at Jo's blog.

Thanks to Jo for sharing the recipe for this wonderful soup. It's a keeper.

Visting a Village

I would like to welcome my newest follower CrystalMary.  So glad to have you on board CM!

When I last left you on my Kenyan safari we were in the town of Marigat. As we left Marigat we proceeded east for about 3 or 4 hours along dirt roads that had huge ruts in them. The earth was parched and in many places we drove through fields where there were no roads at all.  We were "bump bumping" along the road for hours and hours.  We thought it might be a shortcut to where we were going to take this route but in the end, I think it might have taken longer.  I didn't mind. I took it all in stride as an adventure since I've been to Kenya on these "roads" before.

I took many lovely photos but unfortunately most of these are not yet recovered. My regular readers will know that I had problems with the memory card and lost a lot of my photos. I have yet to recover them all.

On this journey there were lots of cacti.

You can see that it is still fairly green where these huts are located.

In my post on Marigat, I mentioned that the town has a Perkerra Irrigation Project. You can see beyond the tree that the fields are lush and green. This is a result of the irrigation project.

I made a special point of capturing this bike parked by the tree in the the middle of seemingly no where.  The irrigated lands are just beyond.

We passed so many cattle and goats along the way though you can't really see water here there is supposed to be the Perkerra River. That is where the water is coming from for the irrigation project.

I love the trees in Kenya.

You can see how dry the earth looks.

We're taking a "shortcut" to the village. Before we can get there we must cross this river.

I decide to cross the river on foot.  It's part of the adventure and will make interesting memories.

I took a lot of photos from the passenger's window as we drove by. Some turned out better than others. Some huts were close together like these while others were much farther apart.

There were several ostriches around the area and they provided a lot of entertainment for me. I  love watching them move across the dusty savannah. One kick from their long legs would certainly knock a person out.

I'm not sure of the name of the place we were headed though I have in fact been there before. It is a village of very far flung huts and not much else. Though there is a church, perhaps more than one.

You can see that the area is rather mountainous and rocky but the flat land is very dry. 

We were on our way to a small place that I had visited approximately 4 years earlier. I had visited the missionary in the area and we were discussing the need for a community borehole. A year after I left this place some contacts I made visited this community with my friend Jonah and committed to raising funds for a borehole. 

This part of our journey was in the main part of the village. We had to drive through the fields to get to our final destination.

I had to take photos of this man because he was walking in a far away village and he was carrying a briefcase. I was fascinated that he had a briefcase. I couldn't fathom what kind of work he might be doing and where he might be going. I imagine he was going home but what office was he leaving?

I zoomed in to get a better look at the briefcase.

Where ever I go I love to see the children.

I also love to see girls and young women being girls and sharing their confidences with one another.

The final leg of our long journey was on roads like this and the field below. These were good roads and easy to travel compared to the first several hours of our trip off the highway.

My next post on the Kenyan safari will take you to the actual village borehole. I hope you will come again soon.

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A Time for Every Purpose

  For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
  A time to be born and a time to die.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2

I went to early morning services this morning at church. I usually go to the late morning service but today the power was being turned off for the morning at my building while they do some kind of maintenance work. It seemed best to be out.

When I got home I was stunned by a phone call from my mother. She reported that Marlene, the wife of the husband and wife team (Tom & Marlene) that looks after my autistic niece and another autistic woman, in addition to their own daughter, has died. 

Marlene died very suddenly yesterday of a massive heart attack. She was only 49 years old. 

While most of us know that death can come to any of us at any time, we are nevertheless shocked when it happens so suddenly to someone in seeming good health.  

After talking with my mom, I called Marlene's husband, Tom and offered my condolences. He is in shock and doing his best to remain positive and focused for the whirlwind that will arrive this week as family and loved ones arrive.  Even in grief he recognizes that my niece also needs comfort as it is like she has lost two moms and I guess she has been saying "Marlene died, like mom".  He told me that he shared with my niece that his wife is now in heaven greeting my sister, my niece's own mom and that the two of them are laughing and sharing stories about my awesome niece.  I guess my nephew has also been there to comfort his sister.

 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn...

Ecclesiastes 3:4

I just heard the news and I am still processing it. I am in a bit of shock and my system is jolted with the sudden and unexpected news.  My heart is grieved for a woman I knew to be a powerhouse in her sphere of influence and she will be greatly missed.

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again...

Ecclesiastes 3:20

I will say some prayers for the family today and gives thanks anew for my daily blessings and the gift of life, a fragile and sometimes fleeting gift.

Love to you and yours.