In just over an hour, The Recruiter and I will be off to a worship service in celebration of the life and the promise of the resurrection of a friend of ours, a fellow congregant and choir member, and our elder. We were shocked to learn early Tuesday afternoon that he had passed on sometime the previous night, found that morning by his brother, laying peacefully in his bed.
It was a life very well lived, though, to our minds, too briefly. We'll weep this afternoon, knowing what we have lost, what our community has lost, but I pray that we will rejoice in the knowledge that he is blessed and he is risen. Whenever I lose a friend or loved one, I am always surprised that my faith does not render me immune to those feelings of loss. But that's the trickiness of humanity. Even Jesus wept.
This is the second post in a row where I'm linking to one of my husband's blog posts, but it's very well written and expresses this past week entirely. It's a worthy read.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
brrr...
Yesterday, I woke up to light rain and 3C temperatures. Here's what my little Weatherbug app tells me today:
Did you see the worst part? -18C isn't fun, but it's doable. But this part:
Yeah. -27 with the windchill with humidity over 50%. Ugh. My father lived in Iqaluit for a number of years, and said that, as cold as it is up north, the weather is very dry, so it's a far less oppressive and unpleasant cold than the cold weather in Ottawa.
But we really need to go out. I can't hide from the cold forever and spring could be a long way off.
It's still morning, though. Maybe if I wait a few hours...it'll get warmer?
Did you see the worst part? -18C isn't fun, but it's doable. But this part:
Yeah. -27 with the windchill with humidity over 50%. Ugh. My father lived in Iqaluit for a number of years, and said that, as cold as it is up north, the weather is very dry, so it's a far less oppressive and unpleasant cold than the cold weather in Ottawa.
But we really need to go out. I can't hide from the cold forever and spring could be a long way off.
It's still morning, though. Maybe if I wait a few hours...it'll get warmer?
Sunday, February 13, 2011
six
Six years and one day ago, The Recruiter and I were married. It was a beautiful, gently snowy day, very similar to yesterday in our fabulous city. Since I was hosting a church youth skating party yesterday afternoon and evening, we celebrated our anniversary on Friday evening. I made a pavlova (I've been watching a rather astonishing amount of cooking shows lately, and Nigella Lawson made this and it was pretty undeniable) and we ordered in some Chinese food. This is the fortune I got in my cookie:
Not a bad sentiment for the beginning of our next year together, another year of happy and awesome, a year when our family will continue to grow.
Happy sixth anniversary, honey!
And don't feel too badly that we didn't get to spend much of our actual anniversary together: he and Peanut had a pretty fantastic afternoon together. And people ask us why we want to raise our children in downtown Ottawa - you don't just happen across experiences like this in the suburbs around here!
Not a bad sentiment for the beginning of our next year together, another year of happy and awesome, a year when our family will continue to grow.
Happy sixth anniversary, honey!
And don't feel too badly that we didn't get to spend much of our actual anniversary together: he and Peanut had a pretty fantastic afternoon together. And people ask us why we want to raise our children in downtown Ottawa - you don't just happen across experiences like this in the suburbs around here!
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
a little more living space
You know how I said that it was really cold today and our apartment was a mess so I was going to spend the day tidying? Guess who made good on that promise!
Since our little mold thing happened, most of Peanut's toys and books have been living in stacks on the floor. Eventually we moved them into laundry baskets. She couldn't find anything, it took up a lot of room, the living room was a disaster all the time and it was totally unsightly. Well no more: we have achieved order. The pics are all clickable and have notes on flickr.
Toy storage. Peanut's trunk holds soft toys (we purged a bunch recently, but we'll probably do it again in a little while) and the red unit holds hard toys, puzzles, blocks and books. The red unit is actually a chest of drawers we found, sans drawers, on the sidewalk in our last neighbourhood just before we moved. Until the mold adventure, it was sitting in the living room with stuff stacked on top of it and the inside entirely unused. Waste. of. space. When the mold ruined one of our two bookcases, we kept the shelves that went in it and discovered that they fit - sort of - inside the chest of drawers. We popped two of them in and had shoved it full of books that were rendered homeless by the loss of the bookcase. I had always planned to get rid of one of the sets of runners to make two shelves instead of three so that it would be a good fit for toys. I was feeling particularly industrious today (I'm going to blame hormones and nesting instincts) so I got out my tools and got rid of one of the sets of runners. It was big fun with a rubber mallet - you've got to love old school, glue-free mortised joinery!
The Christmas play kitchen and a little table and chairs Peanut uses for drawing. Before this afternoon, the red shelves were where the kitchen is now, the kitchen was where the table is, the table was where the trunk is, and the trunk was where the red shelves are now. The new layout works so well that I think we'll definitely be keeping things like this for the foreseeable future, so I'll hang a magnetic board and a magazine rack over the table to hold magnetic letters and art supplies, respectively.
Peanut in her space. She's so much happier now that she actually has room to play and can find everything, and I am incredibly happy to be able to see the floor! I still think that we have too many toys, and there's actually a wicker basket with some toys in it that hasn't quite found a home yet, but overall, this is a huge improvement and another corner of our living space looks and feels far more finished.
Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle the bedroom. Maybe.
Since our little mold thing happened, most of Peanut's toys and books have been living in stacks on the floor. Eventually we moved them into laundry baskets. She couldn't find anything, it took up a lot of room, the living room was a disaster all the time and it was totally unsightly. Well no more: we have achieved order. The pics are all clickable and have notes on flickr.
Toy storage. Peanut's trunk holds soft toys (we purged a bunch recently, but we'll probably do it again in a little while) and the red unit holds hard toys, puzzles, blocks and books. The red unit is actually a chest of drawers we found, sans drawers, on the sidewalk in our last neighbourhood just before we moved. Until the mold adventure, it was sitting in the living room with stuff stacked on top of it and the inside entirely unused. Waste. of. space. When the mold ruined one of our two bookcases, we kept the shelves that went in it and discovered that they fit - sort of - inside the chest of drawers. We popped two of them in and had shoved it full of books that were rendered homeless by the loss of the bookcase. I had always planned to get rid of one of the sets of runners to make two shelves instead of three so that it would be a good fit for toys. I was feeling particularly industrious today (I'm going to blame hormones and nesting instincts) so I got out my tools and got rid of one of the sets of runners. It was big fun with a rubber mallet - you've got to love old school, glue-free mortised joinery!
The Christmas play kitchen and a little table and chairs Peanut uses for drawing. Before this afternoon, the red shelves were where the kitchen is now, the kitchen was where the table is, the table was where the trunk is, and the trunk was where the red shelves are now. The new layout works so well that I think we'll definitely be keeping things like this for the foreseeable future, so I'll hang a magnetic board and a magazine rack over the table to hold magnetic letters and art supplies, respectively.
Peanut in her space. She's so much happier now that she actually has room to play and can find everything, and I am incredibly happy to be able to see the floor! I still think that we have too many toys, and there's actually a wicker basket with some toys in it that hasn't quite found a home yet, but overall, this is a huge improvement and another corner of our living space looks and feels far more finished.
Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle the bedroom. Maybe.
shroom
It's sunny! And I'm dressed before noon! Of course, sunshine in this neck of the woods generally corresponds with pretty intense cold, and today is no exception. It's -25C with the windchill. Brr. And as you are about to see - but will pretend not to see - our apartment is a mess, so we'll make good use of this cold day, hang out inside and make things a little more liveable around here.
I've been talking about my recent knitting project for a while now, haven't I? As my dreads have finally started growing and getting longer and are no longer just shrinking shrinking shrinking (yes, dreads shrink before they grow. It makes sense if you think about it, but who thinks about that until they actually have them on their own head?) I was finding it harder and harder to fit them into my hat. And the hat that I have been wearing, Urchin, while adorable is not really intended to cover the ears or endure the deep freeze of an Ottawa winter. Enter Shroom.
I love it! I LOVE IT!! It contains the dreads perfectly with room to spare (since they're only going to get longer!), covers my ears entirely as well as the nape of my neck which was an unexpected benefit and, best of all, it's super soft and looks great.
Details:
Pattern: Shroom (and aRav link to my Shroom)
Yarn: Cascade Magnum in light green/celery
Needles: 5.5mm and 8mm, 40cm and 80cm circs respectively (magic looped it at the end)
Mods: I added an extra inch of ribbing. I thought I would add an extra repeat of the puff rib, but when I ran out of yarn I tried it on, discovered that it made it a little too big so I ripped back and did the number of repeats in the pattern. And it's perfect.
Changes I'd make if I did it again: I might omit that extra inch of ribbing. But as I noted above, it does cover my ears and neck really nicely, and it might not do so without that extra inch, so it's debatable. Ultimately, I'm really really happy with it.
And as promised, our work in progress. Feel free to ignore the mess in the background. Scratch that, you MUST ignore it: just don't see it, ok? I promise to clean up today, I do!
With a little bit of Peanut silliness in there for added fun.
I've been talking about my recent knitting project for a while now, haven't I? As my dreads have finally started growing and getting longer and are no longer just shrinking shrinking shrinking (yes, dreads shrink before they grow. It makes sense if you think about it, but who thinks about that until they actually have them on their own head?) I was finding it harder and harder to fit them into my hat. And the hat that I have been wearing, Urchin, while adorable is not really intended to cover the ears or endure the deep freeze of an Ottawa winter. Enter Shroom.
I love it! I LOVE IT!! It contains the dreads perfectly with room to spare (since they're only going to get longer!), covers my ears entirely as well as the nape of my neck which was an unexpected benefit and, best of all, it's super soft and looks great.
Details:
Pattern: Shroom (and aRav link to my Shroom)
Yarn: Cascade Magnum in light green/celery
Needles: 5.5mm and 8mm, 40cm and 80cm circs respectively (magic looped it at the end)
Mods: I added an extra inch of ribbing. I thought I would add an extra repeat of the puff rib, but when I ran out of yarn I tried it on, discovered that it made it a little too big so I ripped back and did the number of repeats in the pattern. And it's perfect.
Changes I'd make if I did it again: I might omit that extra inch of ribbing. But as I noted above, it does cover my ears and neck really nicely, and it might not do so without that extra inch, so it's debatable. Ultimately, I'm really really happy with it.
And as promised, our work in progress. Feel free to ignore the mess in the background. Scratch that, you MUST ignore it: just don't see it, ok? I promise to clean up today, I do!
With a little bit of Peanut silliness in there for added fun.
Monday, February 07, 2011
a little bit of our living space
In my last post, there were some little birds that I'd spent a surprisingly long time sitting around industriously sewing. Well here is what they've become:
They're hanging from the centre bracket of our curtain rod in the living room. Because oh yeah! We have curtains! It's only taken us seven months of living here to finally hang curtains. There were venetian blinds in the window and verticals on the sliding door to the balcony, but they were horrendously ugly and a total bother. After our little mold escapade, the venetians weren't reinstalled, so we just left them down and hung the curtain rod and curtains. It's made a massive and wonderful improvement to the whole room.
We also have a "new" "lamp". "New" in that I've had it for years, and "lamp" in that it isn't a lamp at all but the parasol from my sister's wedding hung in the corner of the room with a hanging light behind it. It's hard to beat a paper product from our local Chinatown and a $5 Ikea hanging fixture for an inexpensive and fun light.
And finally, I did a little work with chalk on our large living room wall. We still haven't figured out what we'll hang over the couch, and it's a 7 foot long expanse of wall that fairly cried out for something. Our Words to Remember at church this month are verses from 1 Corinthians 13, and while I find them a little repetitive when read at weddings (generally because so many of the weddings I've attended where they were read have not seemed particularly Christ-focussed, despite being held in a church) they really are wonderful. They are a perfect reminder of the very nature of love and, frankly, I needed the reminder today. I have a cold, I'm very pregnant and I have the accompanying impatience that come with both. And I'm home alone all day with a 2 year old. So a little visual reminder that my constant love for my child demands an equally constant manifestation seemed helpful. Plus: pretty!
Some day, there will be ample sunshine and I'll actually be willing to take a picture of myself, at which point you will actually get to see my latest knitting project and my ever-expanding belly. And if it ever transpires that our apartment is in any way presentable, I'll actually give you a tour.
They're hanging from the centre bracket of our curtain rod in the living room. Because oh yeah! We have curtains! It's only taken us seven months of living here to finally hang curtains. There were venetian blinds in the window and verticals on the sliding door to the balcony, but they were horrendously ugly and a total bother. After our little mold escapade, the venetians weren't reinstalled, so we just left them down and hung the curtain rod and curtains. It's made a massive and wonderful improvement to the whole room.
We also have a "new" "lamp". "New" in that I've had it for years, and "lamp" in that it isn't a lamp at all but the parasol from my sister's wedding hung in the corner of the room with a hanging light behind it. It's hard to beat a paper product from our local Chinatown and a $5 Ikea hanging fixture for an inexpensive and fun light.
And finally, I did a little work with chalk on our large living room wall. We still haven't figured out what we'll hang over the couch, and it's a 7 foot long expanse of wall that fairly cried out for something. Our Words to Remember at church this month are verses from 1 Corinthians 13, and while I find them a little repetitive when read at weddings (generally because so many of the weddings I've attended where they were read have not seemed particularly Christ-focussed, despite being held in a church) they really are wonderful. They are a perfect reminder of the very nature of love and, frankly, I needed the reminder today. I have a cold, I'm very pregnant and I have the accompanying impatience that come with both. And I'm home alone all day with a 2 year old. So a little visual reminder that my constant love for my child demands an equally constant manifestation seemed helpful. Plus: pretty!
Some day, there will be ample sunshine and I'll actually be willing to take a picture of myself, at which point you will actually get to see my latest knitting project and my ever-expanding belly. And if it ever transpires that our apartment is in any way presentable, I'll actually give you a tour.
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