Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Being Thankful

Well there it is then, Thanksgiving weekend comes to an end and we took Micah back to college, but not before we hit the city for a health appointment he had, and a little supper and shopping.

Getting some
Trying to find some "Healthy" Halloween candy.
It's a good season around this place as our sabbatical continues to unfold and the calendar says that there are three more weeks on our break, then I should be in tip top form and ready to go for another year or so.

It has been a good break and some of the counselling and workshops and reading I've been doing have opened my eyes to more of my insides. I'm growing in my understanding of me, and even finally some of my motivations start to grow clearer. I better understand why I react in certain ways to stress and work and even the basic things of life that I have long wondered about. There are clear answers finally coming, and for those I am entirely grateful. So in those ways, this break has been really good, above average.

In the "Resting" department, well, maybe that is still to be explored a bit more. We have been visiting family a good deal and been doing the personal growth piece, so I am settling down a bit more in my free time now to rest a bit more. So tonight I've been having some fun playing on the radio and checking in to a few Amateur Radio nets across Canada. Seems this radio puts out a good signal and I am getting lots of good signal reports back, which makes me happy.

So we are moving forward with new perspective and ideas.
For now I'm heading to bed. There still seems to be much sleep to be had and caught up on.

And I am thankful, for many many things.
That just needs to be said sometimes.
I am thankful.







Friday, October 04, 2013

Big cities, small towns

As I write this I am sitting in the inlaws home here in Broadview Saskatchewan. It's day 12 into our holiday/sabbatical and I think I am just starting to feel like myself again. More human, starting to laugh again and think deep thoughts again.

It's taken longer this time, for a variety of reasons, but things are starting to shift in me in good ways.

We first were in a medium sized city, Saskatoon, to connect with our son, Thomas. We visited with my family too and did a little decompressing.  Then we did a night at a relatives home, in small town Manitoba. A wonderfully quiet place where I basically fell asleep at 7 pm and woke up at 7 am. Nice.

Hillarys Home Then we hit a larger city, Winnipeg, to hang out with our daughter Hillary. She has landed in an apartment on the tenth floor in a nice building in the Exchange District, right down town. The parking was a little tricky with having to move the car at 8 am and 6 pm, but it was a great time there with her. We walked through the area lots and just hung out with her. I took a fair amount of pictures and just loved the busy activities of the city.

And now we are in small town Saskatchewan, where we walk and talk and it's quiet again. The air is getting crisp, as are the leaves on the ground, and we are still finding ourselves unwinding the knots we had created in ourselves over the past year.

It takes some determination to leave our regular life behind for a bit and get some distance so that we can look with clear eyes again at where we are at. I didn't want to leave the field first off, mostly because I wanted to sleep for six days. But with the encouragement from Lauralea and the limitations of the calendar we headed off. They were both right.


So Sunday we hit the road again and the next stop is Banff for a few days of pastor and spouse retreat.

The restored Randall is coming, but it's going to take it's time this year. I guess I'm not just as bounce-back-able as I once was.

Must be my new improved age.



Thursday, October 03, 2013

There is love. Again.

And so love has come again in the form of a little girl.
Nate and Johanna have had a baby.

Eva Grace Croes

Born Oct 3 at 1:15ish
7 lbs 11 oz, maybe 20 inches long?

I am surprised by this love again and caught up by the emotion of her coming.
It's like it hasn't been real, and then she's here, with an identity that is her own.

And my eyes get all watery and I am moved by powers that could move mountains, all contained within my heart.

It is strange this grandparenting thing. But I'll take it, any day.

For now, little Eva has come into the world and the world won't be the same.
Nor will our hearts.

Welcome Eva.