November 24, 2020

 On Friday, November 20th President Nelson gave a short talk and suggested that a cure for some of our ailments at this time, was to seek to develop an attitude of gratitude. He suggested that for the next 7 days we post on our social media things we are grateful for and then he offered a prayer on our behalf. We have taken the challenge and have been daily posting things we are grateful for - our parents, each other, our children, our grandchildren, our country and we plan on posting the gospel and the Savior Jesus Christ as our final two. It has been fun to read everyones “gratitude posts” and I think it has lifted spirits. We are blessed to have a Prophet.

We continue to move along in our restricted but happy life this week. We were invited to a zoom Canadian Humanitarian fund raiser program on Friday evening. They are the group that Tom went to Africa with and initially were organized by the Northcott family. We met with Carol again on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. The province is extending social interaction restrictions for a longer period of time so church continues to be completely zoom meetings. I led a Relief Society zoom discussion group on Sunday. We are also trying to work out the options for our Christmas Musical. Our own Christmas decorating is essentially done as the new tree we ordered turned up on our doorstep yesterday. Tom helped me assemble it and I decorated it. It is taller and narrower than our old tree. Voila, the tree but a tired me.

 

We had cleaned the house yesterday too and I was exhausted by the end of the day. We try to walk to the Temple at least once a week on our daily walks as we are monitoring the building of the fence around the perimeter of the property. Tom worked hard to gain approval for the fence before we were released and we are thrilled to see it happening. We continue to celebrate our family birthdays online and it was Keaton’s birthday this week. He got the family wishes going by wishing himself a “Happy Birthday”. He is a character. We cleaned up the leaves in our front lawn after a bad windstorm. That was our third time and hopefully the last as the leaves are pretty well all down now. Sarah had her bridal shower this week and it had to be a drive by one. Cindy took my card for her. We visit with our families and others. Both my ministering sisters called me this week and we keep in touch with our people to whom we are assigned to minister. The Lord has a plan to keep us covered no matter what the situation and our lives are a new kind of busy,

Our neighbour Jean returned from Austria a couple of weeks ago after getting her daughter Charmaine settled at music school in Salzburg. Jean has just finished isolation and Charmaine has now also returned home as the university has been shutdown. Everyone’s lives are upside down these days.

We try to stay healthy and are eating less cholesterol and both are losing weight. We are awaiting two specialist appointments for Tom. My knee is much, much better but not fully recovered. The body breaks down as we get older.

November 17, 2020

 I took the bull by the horns this week and suggested we start putting Christmas up. This has been a different kind of year and I just felt that “We need a little ChrIstmas, Right this very minute. Candles in the windows, Carollers at the door”. (from Auntie Mame) We got our outdoor lights up and everything else outside and inside up except for the main tree as we have ordered a new one and it will not arrive until December 1. We gave our old tree to the Hardy family and they are thrilled.

 Last Wednesday was Remembrance Day and we made our traditional pilgrimage to West Vancouver and my parents grave. The Hardy family faithfully join us every year and we have the opportunity to consider and appreciate my parents and their joint wartime sacrifice to bless our lives. Dad was in the airforce and had been a flight instructor here in Canada but, after securing Mom’s hand in marriage, he went overseas to fly bombers for the last two years of the war. Mom was the brave angel on his wing, praying and fasting for him constantly. We take our Remembrance Day wreath and add our current poppies to the numerous ones already on it and we walk around the cemetery.

We had a meeting with Carol Jones on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. Maxie Wong had passed away the end of October and her Celebration of Life was a zoom meeting Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see the North Shore Ward people and consider dear Maxie and her life. We received word last night that Betty Small had also passed away and she is another dear North Shore Ward friend and good friend to Maxie. They are enjoying one another still. Ron and Jane Komm saw us on the zoom and phoned us afterward and we had a nice catchup with them. They are stuck in Waterton, in their cabin, in the snow because Steven’s family have taken over their house while their place is being renovated. They may not even get back for Christmas.

We have been working on our Ward Christmas devotional and are hoping that the Bishopric allow us to just film and broadcast it to the ward because of the difficulties of coming together and the uncertainty of our lives right now. We have also been hanging sixteen frames up in the front hall to display pictures of the grandchildren. With the measuring and levelling required, it took two sets of hands and Tom was very patient. It is done! We have raked leaves twice now and will probably have one more go at it.

Tom had a phone appointment with the specialist on Friday and they have set up an office visit for him on December 4. We are hoping that he can get in sooner and are praying for that end. Tom will call again to let them know he is willing to take a cancellation if one occurs.

My ministering Sister Connor called today. She has had covid and recently completed her isolation and now she is calling to see how I am doing. She is so sweet.

November 10, 2020

 Our 50th wedding anniversary was August 26th of this year and we had a lovely day but the children gave us not only flowers and a beautiful cake but gift certificates for a photo shoot and a dinner at the Salmon House. Well, we were still enjoying our anniversary this past week as we received the photos from our photographer Debra Moore, which were taken last month, and finally went for our dinner at the Salmon House. We went to the North Shore on Wednesday late afternoon for Karl to cut my hair and then had a lovely meal at the Salmon House. It was our first dinner out since our lunch at the Little White House in Langley on our anniversary and covid regulations still prevail.

Doctor Collingridge phoned with results from Tom’s blood work due to his prostate concerns and they were not good. His cholesterol is up too and so he is on medication now for that problem. He is now to see a urologist regarding his prostate but the appointment they made was for the end of November and the children were concerned about that so Tom called the specialist himself and managed to get it changed to this week. We are all praying for him and anxious for the specialist to determine the cause of the problem.

We have been looking for a new Christmas tree and have brought two options home, returned one and ordered another one online. We have promised Cindy our old tree. We also got the outdoor lights up today before the weather gets worse. We probably won’t turn them on yet. Christmas has begun!

We cleaned up leaves in the yard but will probably have to do it once more. We have gathered pictures of Trevor’s wedding and family and sent them to JayLynn for a Christmas project that she is doing. We have met with Carol on Zoom this week again and took her the sacrament on Sunday. The government has asked that The Lower Mainland take more preventative measures for the next two weeks as covid rates have risen. Gyms and such are closed and we are to have no one in our homes except those who live there. Carol found a loop-hole to the regulations that permitted us to take her the sacrament. We worked on our Ward Christmas musical and are looking into filming and broadcasting it. We zoomed our Ward meetings on Sunday but also watched the Vancouver Stake Conference. Francois Tougas was released from the Stake Presidency as they are moving to the island and Chris Miller put in. We were thrilled. We love them all - Tougas and Millers. We talked to Roger this week, Joanne and Barb. We phone or email our ministering people and are in regular touch with our children, grandchildren and others. We are grateful for each other and for our home which makes up our little world.

November 3, 2020

 October has flown by and we are now into November. We even celebrated Halloween Saturday evening. We were not sure if Halloween would happen this year or, if it did, what it would look like. We bought treats and decided that we would leave them on the front step and allow children to help themselves rather than us hand out at the door as usual. It worked! We think we had about 70 children come. We just restocked our box from time to time and the children were on their own. We are not sure how much each child  took but that is okay. We had more fireworks going off in the neighbourhood than usual, especially in the field behind us.

We have been sorting thru bins again this week and I was thrilled to find the pictures and CDs that have been eluding me. We looked at the CDS and I went thru all the pictures and organized them. I still feel that there is a lot of organizing yet to be done to simplify everything we have. I keep in mind how the children would be dealing with this if we were not here. We want to have things organized for them in the future. 

I had a meeting with George Hara this week for him to introduce me to a new Family Search system. I was his test run. We met with Carol Jones again via zoom on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. She studies the scriptures and manuals and is thrilled to be a new ministering sister. She is a solid convert. We met Minna Miller at the Temple on Saturday when she was out to attend an endowment for one of their young adults. She brought us some samples of their Nitric Oxide product which is being tested, with positive results, for covid prevention. You spray it into your nose when you have been in public or feel you may have been exposed to the virus. I guess we are now part of the the test group. Chris wrote us a nice letter after we chatted with him on the phone while we were with Minna. We have great people in our lives and we are very blessed.

We have even had some family at our home this week other than just FaceTime contact. Max had his car on our driveway awaiting sale for salvage. The time came this week and he was here and visited with us until the tow truck arrived to tow the car away. Ross and Sarah also came to hand deliver their wedding invitation and we had them step in for short visit. It is nice to see live faces that we love. We do FaceTime the children too. We had a nice visit with Zachary on Sunday discussing scripture. He has been reading the Book of Mormon numerous times and we are very proud of him.

We continue with zoom church meetings. We were invited to the Vancouver Temple Workers’ Devotional on Sunday. The Presidency zoomed from Duncan and they had Michelle Rolfson sing. It was very nice. Frank Deyell was called to be an assistant Temple recorder and he will be great. Brent has been called to the Abbotsford High Council. Tom’s faithful helpers are being used well. We met with the Bishop for Tithing Settlement via zoom on Sunday and the Bishopric approved our Christmas Musical proposal. We now have to decide if it will be live or recorded and broadcast or both.

Tom went to see Doctor Collingridge on Monday to have a check up and discuss somethings that were concerning him. We went to the bank today and shopping at Home Depot for a new Christmas tree. We also stopped at the drug store. 

We have had some beautiful sunny fall days and and now we are into a rainy few ones but we feel blessed to have each other, our home, things to do and wonderful people around us.