In Anticipation of Christmas

From our family to yours ..... Merry Christmas!

Advent Banner

Last August I was asked to design a quilted banner for our parish for Advent. Here is the finished project. It involved lots of hours of loving labor from myself, and four other women from our parish. The quilting was done by machine. The finished size is a little less than 24" wide by almost 20' long! My intention in designing it was to bring a sense of the joyful anticipation of Advent. Symbolically, there are the purples and pink with the "light" of the candles. The star is paper pieced with 12 points in order to symbolize the crown of 12 stars associated with Our Lady. The star was also designed to "fall" toward the crucifix, pointing the way to Christ, the same as Mary does for us. Quilted on the banner are the seven "O-Antiphons."

"O Sapientia" or Wisdom is the first one. At the top is "O Emmanuel."

Our next project will be a banner, same dimensions, for Pentecost. Any comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Singing and Dancing

Last weekend Mary was a bit rushed with both a ballet recital, and singing with the Sweet Adelines' "Christmas in Vegas." You can see a bit of the strain on her face. Both shows were enjoyable and a nice way to begin December.

Painting!

Quite a few years ago we resolved to paint before we moving into new digs (when possible.) This new house is no exception. All the bedrooms, except Peter's were various pastels. The other two bedrooms were pastel green, and baby pink. Mary's was lilac, ours was a nursery baby blue with an equally offputting wallpaper border. Those two are now a light tan, and our bedroom is a darker brown.

Peter added dark gray to the slanted ceiling. Mary opted for "Jamaican Sea" instead of purple!

Slowly the boxes are being opened, stuffed, errr ... I mean put away and we are getting used to all our new elbow room! Woke up to a covering of snow on the ground, but it has now become a steady drizzle. Just hope that doesn't freeze on the roads before Mary and I get back from her Young Women in Harmony practice this evening!

Thanksgiving, Painting, Moving

We celebrated our US Thanksgiving, with plenty to be truly thankful for. Here are some shots of our meal, and how our house looked! We closed on our house the Tuesday before, and spent Wednesday and Thursday morning painting. A few more pictures of the house will follow in my next post.

Still Here

In case you are one of those kind souls that check in on my blog ... rest assured we are still around.

I last posted before the wedding. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, our pictures turned out to be terrible. We have a wonderful set of photographs, and once I receive the cd from the bride, I'll post a few of our favorites.

Trip home was okay, except for leaving my beautiful mother-0f-the-bride dress hanging in the motel room closet in Arkansas. Needless to say (but I will) it was one of those times I wish I had been my usual snotty self and actually checked the closets after hubby said everything was taken care of.

We visited Chicago, and loved it! Expensive, but other than that, it was beautiful weather.

Made it home -- well, almost home -- but got to sit at the border for over 2 hours waiting to cross. In the process my air conditioner konked out. Several visits to the dealer later it was resolved. Warranty was taken care of except ... other than a letter informing us it was closed out we haven't received the check.

Both kids are back busy with some activities. I volunteered to help with a project I'll share on later. Anyone who asks me for help right after Mass always gets a yes, even when I really don't know what I'm doing. So far it is coming along beautifully ... pictures later.

We've plunged into the London real estate market and will be moving into a new-to-us house the end of November.

It blows my mind to realize that 2 years ago we were living (and shivering) in Peru. A year ago we were packing up our belongings for the trip north to here (being stalled by the arrival of Hurricane Ike), and almost ready to jump in the car. Now a year later we are settling in, and moving for what we hope is a place to stay for a bit.

Okay, that catches you up, sorta. More later. I hope your own family is being abundantly blessed!

Symantics, Again

Living in Canada has presented the downside of socialism front and center to us. We witnessed a bit of a more severe form in Peru, and can definitely see the leanings in the States. I've alluded to our frustration at the lack of actual health care access, even though our family income supports a "free" system of healthcare. Symantics - health insurance does not ensure health and more than welfare ensures fewer poor families.

The London Free Press newspaper and the internet are my sole sources of current events. Adjusting from a relatively conservative way of thinking in Texas to a relatively liberal way of thinking in London was rather jarring to my senses. I'm numb to it now. There is a very, very strong sense of entitlement here. The sad fact is that all this entitlement means higher taxes, ensuring that more folks will need the entitlement, meaning higher taxes, and in the end a hugely bloated government employing more "supervisors" and "overseers" than private industry.

One recurring theme in the newspapers concerns the environment. CFL's (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) have irked me from their inception. We are told they will "save energy." Here we are facing legislation that will make it illegal to purchase regular incandescent light bulbs. I can picture the hoards of folks trying to smuggle 60 watt bulbs across the border as I type, and smile at the silliness of it all.

Okay, symantics. Can we actually "save energy?" In short, no, we can't "save energy." If we could how about shipping our saved energy to countries that lack sanitary water systems because of a lack of this precious energy? How about gathering all our "saved energy" and letting it do good where folks could use the benefits just to have a bare existence? The reason is that you can't save energy the way you can save money, which is another topic for another time.

What we can do is consume less energy. We can become more efficient -- but we cannot save energy, anymore than we can save sunshine. We can only consume less. I prefer doing this voluntarily, rather than in the punitive manner espoused both north and south of the US/Canadian border.

Oh, and punitive measures abound here in the north. We have used cloth bags for groceries for a few years now. To "make" people comply our grocery stores started to charge 5 cents per plastic bag. I notice this past weekend that one store was charging 10 cents.

In order to drive a car we need to carry car insurance, plus get a pollution check. I want to breathe clean air, just like the next guy, but when I found out that there were several loopholes in the check system, I became incensed. Busses here belch pollution but are exempt. If a car is older than 7 years, they are exempt. If you can't afford to repair your car, you can be exempt. Vehicles that run dirty also use more diesel or gasoline to get from point A to point B. One more irksome idea floating around our community involves penalizing folks who let their cars idle. Now, that sounds great in concept, none of that nasty pollution boiling into the air while the car isn't going anywhere. But, remember that a lot of people here live in apartment buildings, without weather protectionsfor their cars. A whole lot of folks here do not use their garages for cars, opting instead to keep them stuffed with stuff. In the wintertime ice can get pretty thick on the windows, so many folks will let their cars idle at least long enough for the defrost to help clear the windows so they can drive safely. Not allowed now. Trains criss cross the city, often blocking intersections for up to 15 minutes at a time. Nope, idling not allowed. In fact one of the city council folks proposed a 1 minute limitation on idling. How about stop lights??? So they are now considering lengthening it to 3 minutes. I just know that the constructions crews that use diesel equipment will receive exemptions, and they should. You can't just turn diesel powered equipment off and on without destroying the engine.

Plus, get this, it takes up to 10 times as much "energy" to restart an engine than what would be consumed while idling during an equivalent time period. If there is a car belching pollution, then jerk it off the road. Give the person a bus pass if necessary. Okay, I've calmed down.

So, it really isn't as much about reducing pollutants spilling into the air as raising revenues, and being punitive in the process. I understand that human nature is fallen. I have witnessed folks doing and partaking in activities that are not in the interest of their fellow humans. A simple example is tossing used food cartons from a moving car.

Litter was the huge push when I was in grade school. There were campaigns calling our attention to how unsightly litter was along our streets and highways. And I agree completely. Between high school and college I worked on the State highway road crew for the summer. One of the less desirable, but necessary jobs, was to go out and empty trash cans on the highway. That was over 30 years ago. Yet, still today there is vast evidence that people still litter. Personally, I can not understand the mentality that says it's okay to have the items in your car while you are eating food, but entirely okay to jettison it when you are finished.

For a far more intelligent commentary on the current jargon about "saving the Earth" please read Father James Schall's essay for today, Wednesday, July 22 at The Catholic Thing.