steph and romie boy

My beautiful daughter (and new momma) Stephanie and her precious Roman.

Happy Birthday Rachael

Pardon these blurry pictures. I've actually taken pictures of pictures so I could share some sweet photos from years gone by. This is Rachael on her first birthday.

Last night when I tucked Rachael in, I took her face between my hands and we looked into each other's eyes. "Thirteen years ago tonight I was in the worst pain of my entire life," I told her. She smiled approvingly as though she was very pleased to hold that distinction.

Today my lovely Rachael is 12. What delight she's brought to my life and to our home. I'd be lying to say Rachael's childhood was a breeze. She was a perfect baby. She slept well, ate well, cooed contentedly, smiled and laughed abundantly. But toddler years were full of assertion, demandingness, breaking things, and plenty of other reasons for people not to appreciate her. Other children may have said, "NO" more, but Rachael lived "NO." She didn't respect people enough to grace them with the word no, she simply did what she darn well pleased. Daily she'd go to the book shelf in the living room and pull all the books off. When she was finished, she'd fetch a parent to show her work. Matter of factly she'd declare, "no no Racho."

More than a few times I toyed with throwing in the towel of discipline. It seemed nothing curbed her independence, strong will, and steely resolve. Secretly I harbored animosity toward Gordon thinking his genes surely created this cute monster that I loved so much.
Her reputation went before and behind her. Overhearing people talk about her was all too familiar to me. All others seemed to notice were her negative traits. It seemed no one appreciated the traits that were positively wonderful.

She had more energy and strength than is fitting a toddler. She learned to climb out of her crib, to my horror, ridiculously early. Her destructive imagination knew no bounds. When she was a mere 13 months old, she became a big sister. Obviously that meant I didn't have all the time in the world to sit on Rachael to prevent her destructive ways.
When Hannah was beginning to crawl well, Rachael opened the oven door which Hannah promptly pulled up on. Rachael shoved her in the oven and shut the door. Things of this nature were so common-place in our home. She was clever, creative, curious, and energetic. She was full of life, zest, and energy.

Once a neighbor down the street phoned to tell me diapers were flying out an upstairs window. I ran upstairs, where Rachael was supposed to be in her crib sleeping, and found her at the window dropping one diaper out at a time. Yes there was a screen on the window, but she had managed to break it off. The thought that she could have just as easily fallen out the window tormented me for days. Because she looked so cute, I stood quietly in her door as she deposited diapers one at a time out the window. "Bye bye diaper" or "Uh oh" accompanied each flying diaper.

Her toddler years tested every thing I believed as a parent. The hardships began at 1 and grew steadily worse for 3 years. The "terrible twos" were a cake walk compared to the totalitarian threes. Praise be to God, at 4 years old, we rounded a corner. Hard work, which seemed to be producing nothing for a few years, started to bear fruit.

Many years and much delight and joy later, Rachael is the light of my life. She still has that zest and zeal for living. It demonstrates itself in two jobs that she's very good at, a voracious love for reading, an insatiable desire to know more about Egypt and Ancient Greece, a love for family and family time. She still needs less sleep than the rest of us but now I don't worry that she'll burn the house down, flush towels down the toilet, or climb out a window to go exploring.

The traits that made her a difficult toddler are now making her a strong, trust-worthy, wise young lady.

Today we had a most delightful day at the mall. She was loaded with cash and our birthday girl was quick to buy things for her sisters. She is truly delightful.

Those hours of excruciating pain 13 years ago were really quite a small price to pay. I am forever thankful for my sweet Rachael.

Rachael, may you continue to grow to be all God created you to be. May you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. May you grow wiser with each passing year and may you bring others at least a fraction of the joy you bring me. I love you Darling.

Rachael, 12 years old today. Isn't she a precious one? This photo was taken today.

Thursday 13

As is often the case, I only have a few minutes left of Thursday to post 13. Today is a list that I've been pondering for a few weeks.

My 20th Century Heroes and/or Mentors - A very diversified list. They are in no particular order.

1)Mother Teresa - what a selfless woman she was.
2)Coretta and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- the personal sacrifice they gave for racial equality.
3)Rosa Parks. Would I have the guts to just say "no" like she did? Probably not. But I want to be that courageous. Without her the Civil Rights movement in the US may not have gotten off the ground.
4)Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during WW2. He was a bold, persevering, compassionate leader. A leader less than him probably would have fallen to Hitler's advances. He had a brilliant wit and a command of the English language that I greatly admire.
5)Julia Cameron -- she, as far as I know, is not a believer (as I mean it), yet she mentored me in seeing God in creation, of living in the moment, of noticing the details around me. I'm much richer because of that heightened awareness.
6)Gary Larson, creator of the Far Side cartoon. Please don't think less of me for admiring his work so much. He is a brilliant student of humanity; this is clear in his cartoons. His observations are genius and acute. (And he's absolutely hilarious too.)
7)Norman Rockwell, artist. Oh to capture the emotions he so successfully painted of mundane Americana life. He too was a magnificent student of humanity.
8)Gandhi--I do not know nearly as much about Gandhi as I'd like. I intend him to be my next history subject.
9)mothers who delay personal gratification for the good of their children. I am a stay-at-home-mother-of-preschoolers-proponent, big time.
10)Ann and Philip Hatley from my hometown. They live simple in a complex world. They were living simply before I knew the concept, continually going against the flow of a materialistic culture. I don't know if I could do it in Small Town USA where appearance is everything.
11)Gordon. He can be a real pain in the butt,:-) but he has taught me more good than any single person in the universe.
12)Catherine Marshall. She was a Christian inspirational writer who influenced me significantly in the mid-90's. Hannah's middle name is Kathleen. Kathleen is homage to Catherine Marshall.
13)active people, those who jog, hike, mountain bike, etc for the pure pleasure of it. I want to be like that but I'm not.

July 18 A Good Samaritan Story

July 17 and 19 hold significance for me. One is my first love's birthday the other is the anniversary of a tornado I was in in 1978. Unfortunately I get the two dates confused and I can't remember which is which. So today I will split it down the middle and tell a story about a whirlwind visitor we had on one of those dates when I was 12 years old.

Daddy, my adorable toddler-niece Mindi whom I was babysitting, and I were the only ones home. The clouds were ominous and growing more menacing by the second. I was holding Mindi as we stood in the kitchen window watching the clouds. The rain started suddenly and poured like a river. Just as quickly the rain changed course and seemed to be pounding horizontally, still heavy like a river. The windows seemed to be heaving in and out. From the window, the view was solid white pounding rain. The visibility beyond the window was zero.

My dad was/is a hyper-vigilant person. It was very obvious that we needed to be in the cellar, but the short run to the cellar seemed nearly impossible in the driving raging rain. When I told Daddy that it looked like the windows were trying to burst, he told me we were going to make a run for the cellar. He grabbed Mindi out of my arms, he grabbed my by the arm and we ran into the pounding rain.

Safely in the cellar, we stood and strained to hear something beyond the rain. It was impossible.

When it became quiet again, Daddy opened the door and stepped out. The house was still standing, but the empty chicken house, which two days before or two days later would have had nearly 20,000 chickens in it, was flattened, and the barns too.

Massive oaks rested across the yard, snapped like toothpicks.

We took it in numbly, saying little, not knowing what to do next. Within the hour our usually quiet farm was crawling with visitors and viewers. Daddy was pleased as punch to show it all off, yet still kind of dazed by the whole thing. I must have been dazed too because I cannot recall what I did or thought after coming out of the cellar.

That night, maybe the next night, a Mennonite man phoned to ask Daddy if some of his people could come out and help clean up the next day. None of us really grasped what that meant. I imagined three or four men coming.

Early, very early the next day, black cars, trucks, and vans started pulling in. There were so many of them that we had to open pasture gates to give them room to park. We stood around like dummies in shock. Overrall-clad bearded men divided up between the chicken house and the barns. It was a scene to behold - almost as amazing as the destruction.

What we didn't expect were the ladies. Plain clothed rotund women, pregnant women, and skinny young women with hair buns and praying caps started piling into the house carrying pies, cakes, casseroles and everything you can imagine to feed the men at lunch time. Women and nursing babies were everywhere in the house.

Daddy, who the night before was in his glory with all the attention, carried himself less confidently that day. That evening as the last black car was leaving the yard - the mess 100% cleaned up, - Daddy revealed his uncomfortability at having been the "different" one. He declared, "I never wanted a beard and a pair of overalls so bad in my life."

Daddy didn't know how to show his gratitude. He thanked them profusely and gave their church a big donation.

Quite a Good Samaritan story, eh?

songcatcher

I got a movie at the library that I thought looked interesting. Last night the girls and I settled down to watch how a musicologist became totally captivated by Appalachian Mountain Music. It seemed harmless enough, and somewhat educational too.

Interestingly enough, there were two lesbians in the movie and I was mildly horrified to have to explain a couple scenes to my girls. I couldn't find the remote so I was jumping in front of the tv -- looking like a totally crazed woman -- shouting "shut your eyes, shut your eyes."

My girls know a healthy amount of necessary sexual information for this stage in their lives, but I am not a bit comfortable letting them see a love scene of any kind during our movie watching.

When Gordon and I went to bed he asked what all the screaming was about while we were watching the movie. I told him about the scene that had me trying to block the girls viewing and of yelling at them to close their eyes.

He pondered a second or two then, attempting to ascertain why I lesbian scene was pertinent to the movie, he asked, "why did they do that?"

Totally missing his real question, I pondered a second and responded, "I guess they were horny."

Roman

Is he not just too cute?

an adorable baby

My grandson Roman Carter. Isn't he precious?

two hearts

He's a pup in Japan. Doesn't he have a lovely heart on his coat? It's not doctored, he really has a furry heart.

Thursday Thirteen

Television Shows from my childhood - shows we actually watched.

We had one channel, Channel 5 out of Ft. Smith. If the weather was just right, we might turn the antenna -- a big heavy antenna that stood beside the front porch -- toward Tulsa. If we were lucky we could pick up Channel 7. But Channel 7 didn't grace us often.

1. Petticoat Junction. I'd love to see this show today. It was about a lady who ran an inn and her 3 daughters. It had something to do with a train too. I can't remember too much, but I remember the train tooting at the beginning of the show and the steam rising.

2. Lawrence Welk. Saturday nights, 6:30. Stacie and I would dance to the big bands.

3. Gunsmoke. 4:00 pm. Only if Daddy wasn't around to forbid us from doing something as lame as watching tv. If he caught us watching tv during the day, he'd find work for us. Typically we kept one eye on the tv, the other looking out for Daddy. When we spotted him, the tv went off FAST and we quickly started peeling potatoes or something like that so we looked busy. Awh, what a fond memory.

4. Billy Graham. He was never a regular program, as you know, but whenever he had a crusade and it was on Channel 5, we watched it. During Just As I Am at the end, I always got saved again. That's a joke. What I mean is that I wasn't sure I was a Christian, so just to be safe, I always invited Him into my heart again, and again, and again. Billy Graham crusades kind of scared me. They reminded me that I wasn't sure I was going to heaven.

5. Emergency. I'm not sure what they were saying, but "Rampirt" was what I thought they were saying. It was about Firemen and Paramedics. When they were working on a patient they always called Rampirt and reported the dilation of the eyes, pulse, blood pressure, and respiration. I felt I had the credentials of a doctor after watching Emergency.

6. HeeHaw. Yes, we were faithful HeeHaw watchers. "Where oh where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I'd found true love. But you found another and pluuutz, you were gone."

7. This wasn't a show, but a movie that was on tv. We never went to the theatre for movies. That's what the Methodists and Catholics did, and we weren't like them at all. We did watch movies on television. This particular movie gave me the scaredy cat willies. If there is such a thing as opening up oneself to demons, I got one or two that night. After that movie, I was pretty sure no one could be trusted. No one. Anyway, the movie was called, Diane the Devil's Daughter. I didn't see it once, but twice. I'm sure I didn't understand it, but one thing I knew was that everyone turned on her. I mean they turned on her in a really wicked way. Their eyes would spin real demon-ny like. Even Jesus in the stained glass window of the church had spinning, evil eyes. It was really quite a horrible movie for a little impressionable girl. I've often wondered if my hardship trusting others stemmed from that movie. It was quite critical to my emotional formation, I fear.

8. My Three Sons. I think we watched this after school when Daddy wasn't around.

9. Marcus Welby, MD. Another medical credential of mine.

10. WWF. World Wrestling Federation. This was NOT my choice. This came on on Saturday afternoons during the NBC's Wide World of Sports, I think. I hated the show. Michael was the wrestling buff. I cringed as he grinned evil grins while he watched it. It meant he was going to try those moves on me. And indeed he did. I knew lots of wrestling tricks. I don't mean to imply I could do them, rather I was on the receiving end of them.

11. Hogan's Heroes. Daddy would have had a conniption if he knew we watched these shows after school when there were potatoes to be peeled and fried. Seriously though, most of my tv exposure was sneaking it after school.

12. Brady Bunch. "Here's a story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls,..." I thought Greg was "hot" although I didn't know that expression back then. My girls use it now, so now I know that was what I thought of Greg. I thought that middle girl Jen was so petulant. I never liked her.

13. Andy Griffith. What a great show. I still love it, although I never see it. But Gordon bought me some DVDs of it a few years ago. My girls even get a kick out of it. We have all kinds of Barneyisms around here, but not as many as my sister Diane has.

Now, in the above I know I sound critical of my dad. I don't mean to be disrespectful. However he was terribly rigid about tv, especially watching it during the day, and he was quite the task master too.

So to balance that perspective, I will share a memory that is sweet. Daddy had a rocker that was his and his alone. For all my growing up years, it remained in the same spot. The rocker was replaced a few times with a new one, but it always went in the same spot. In the evening when we watched tv, I always sat on Daddy's left side with his arm wrapped around me. It was my watching-tv spot. I felt very secure and comfortable there. It's a very special memory.

Happy Birthday Michael

Michael (Poppy) with his grand-daughters.

Yesterday was my big brother's birthday. I thought of him many times throughout the day. I have a wonderful brother, I'm thankful for him and I love him very much. He's a teddy bear kind of guy.

In other news, my little Rachael is a woman now. I hope you can read between the lines and know what I mean. She and I are going out to the Cheesecake Cafe in a while in celebration of womanhood. She's so excited. Womanhood, cheesecake, a little bit of shopping, what's not to love about this new season?

She's a gem. When we talk about names and what they mean, Rachael hears that she is worthy of being worked for for 14 years just like Rachel in the Bible. We talk about Laban's deceit, poor ugly Leah, Jacob's sad predicament. But the bottom line for Jacob was that Rachel was worth 14 years of working for her deceitful, lying, conniving father.

My Rachael will be just as worthy.

I'm about to call Gordon and ask him to bring home something for supper. Since Rachael and I are eating out, the mood to cook for the other three just hasn't materialized. I'm thinking of pulling old grandmother lines. Something like, my hips hurt, my fingers hurt, I can't remember where I put my glasses. Since I am a grandma now, I wonder how far this will get me.

Every season has its benefits. :-)

Welcome Roman

Roman Carter.


My baby Stephanie became a mama a couple hours ago. Notice how Roman is looking at his mommy. I love that.

(Jaclyn, thanks for the photos. I love them.)

riding vs writing

Do you remember recently I wrote about a lady telling me she writes too and how we got into a ridiculous conversation that made little sense? Finally I figured out she was talking riding (horses) and I was talking writing. Well, I guess "writing" is a word that my southerness doesn't allow me to say properly.

De'ja vu. The same thing happened to me a few days ago. I met a man, he was Chinese so accent-wise, we got off to a little rough start. Some how we ending up talking about hobbies and I told him I write. He was so impressed. English or Western?, he wanted to know.

I froze. I knew this was familiar and I knew there was an explanation. I stared at him for a few seconds hoping I'd remember the explanation. Of course I did, and only after a couple seconds' hesitation.

Next time I say it, I'll enunciate it as best I can. I enjoy wriTing. That should help me out.

sandwiches and gordon

Today we were making sandwiches for lunch. A few were made and cut in two. Gordon took a bite out of two halves. One bite out of half 1, one bite out of half 2. It was a puzzling thing to see him do it, as it was out of character.

I must have been wearing a curious expression, because he shrugged and said, "What? I'm just marking my territory."

renos update

You know I've been busy on my kitchen. This is a picture. Again, nothing elaborate, but definately much fresher. The color of the wall is "tweed" and it's actually a green/brown. It matches the rest of the house very nicely. I hope you like it. Also, I hope in the near future to get new counter-tops too. Everything in good time, eh?

Months ago I got a new dishwasher. I am happy to announce I've used it two times and that was to see if it worked well and was hooked up properly. Even with a new dishwasher, I'm still green. The dishwasher is purely for esthetics. ;-) It helped my kitchen a lot getting rid of the old one. I'm sure I'll use the dishwasher when I have lots of guests and during the holidays. But day to day, I don't use it.

Also, I never posted a picture of my newly painted bedroom wall. I only did this treatment on one wall. We like it. People have asked if my bedroom is as small as it looks in this picture. The answer is yes. Our bedroom is small, yet adequate. In this picture, I hadn't decorated yet, so it looks pretty plain.

7 wonders

Years ago, probably in Junior High, I did an essay on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I think I still have it. Bozo Brain teacher gave me a B-. It was easily an A. Anyway, the "wonders" of the world have always intrigued me.

Last year I learned there was another list being compiled. This list is the New Seven Wonders of the World. I quickly cast my votes and encouraged all my family members to do likewise. I thought it was a cool way to influence history.

Well, today they released the winners of the New Seven Wonders contest. Of course these don't replace the ancient seven wonders, the are merely newer.

There were 21 contenders for the prize. I'm mildly disappointed by some of the results. As you'll see, only 3 of my choices made the cut.

The contest has been in the making for at least 6 years and received millions and millions of voters.

The winners are: (imagine the drum roll here)

• The Great Wall of China (I voted for this one)
• Petra in Jordan
• Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer
• Peru's Machu Picchu (I voted for this one)
• Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid
• The Colosseum in Rome (I voted for this one)
• India's Taj Mahal

When I voted, I easily chose my first 5, but I struggled with the last two. I actually did some reading as it was an important decision for me. My seventh choice was difficult, and unfortunately I don't remember what I finally decided on. In all honesty, my 7th vote could have been anything as they were all equally impressive, but none stood out like my first 6.

I voted for:

The Great Wall of China
The Colosseum in Rome
The Acropolis in Athens
The Pyramids in Egypt
Stonehedge in England
Machu Picchu in Peru
don't remember what #7 was

These should have won, but I'm going to be a good sport about this.

Help Wanted

I have a problem and I need your help. I'm really serious too. I think my address book met the recycling box and went the way of newspapers and egg cartons. It has disappeared and my life has thus been disordered and inconvenient. So I have no addresses. By the way, I'm talking physical addresses and phone numbers. So, you must send me your address if you want to continue receiving precious parcels from me; you know birthday and Christmas gifts, letters, money -- all those things I send people in my address book. Also I'll need your phone numbers. Without it I'll not be able to send birthday greetings and such.

I hope you'll cooperate. Gordon and Hannah bought me a new hardback address book that will never be mistakenly put in the recycling bin. Please send me you info. I really want you to be in my new address book.

Email me at vdykstra@telus.net If you don't I'll have no choice but to humiliate you on my blog. I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.

a few birthday pictures

Beppe' and Deborah
A special 8 year old.

Poor Billy

Poor poor Bill Gates. He's been shoved out of the title "richest person in the world." Seems a Mexican fella named Slim has more stuff to strut now. Something like 67 billion bucks. Poor Bill only has a mere 58 billion. Must really suck to be in the poor house like that.

58 billion? 67 billion? Truth be told, either is a fair chunk of change, don't you think?

Deborah is 8

Her very first picture and one of my very favorites. To view any of these closer, just click on the picture.
Calgary Zoo. 2004. 5 years old.
Deborah and Hannah at one of our favorite summer spots. 2004.
A few months ago, just before leaving for Brownie camp.
Kindergarten graduation. She wasn't sure if it was proper to smile or not, so she remained very somber throughout the ceremony. Can you see her lip gloss? She snuck that to school that day.

Today is my baby daughter's 8th birthday. It feels unreal that once upon a time Deborah was not a part of our lives. Nor does it seem that 8 years ago today she lay on my chest for the first time. That day was filled with so many wonderful memories. It seems almost poetic that my 14-year-old Stephanie was the first of us to see Deborah draw her first sweet breath of life. Still behind the blue sheet that separated Deborah from us, Gordon and I missed that virgin intake of breath, but Stephanie took it all in with sacred joy and awe.

Now Stephanie is going to deliver her little Roman any day. I wish I could be there to see his first moments. Some day she'll be the mother writing his birthday story. So as I write this, my mind is divided among 3 precious lives: Deborah who is 8 today; Stephanie about to push a new life into our world and feel the mammoth changes in the way she perceives life; and little Roman who will soon draw his first breath. Thinking of those things, I feel sort of like I'm penning holy thoughts.

I remember so well seeing Stephanie standing behind the glass watching the c-section. Her eyes were wide, her face radiant, and wearing nursing scrubs for the first time. Another precious memory of that summer morning of 8 years ago.

Over the past few days, I've recalled many sweet memories in Deborah's 8 years. When she was barely one, we drove to Colorado to visit my sister's family. Deborah was a phenomenal baby traveller. I'd heard nightmarish stories of families taking trips with their children and how they screamed for hours and hours. Well we basked in pride over our parenting skills and how we had produced a baby who travelled so well. Surely, we thought, this good fortune had something to do with our terrific wisdom and advanced parenting abilities.

Our Deborah made it to Colorado with patience and long suffering. On the return trip she sat in her car seat seemingly content as we toured Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. We got in and out of the van, took pictures and enjoyed a couple tourist spots. Then suddenly, as we walked toward the van, it was as though someone flipped a switch on our sweet baby's back. When she saw our van that we were walking toward, she started flailing, screaming, kicking, and slamming her head on my chest. The hazel-eyed baby that had given me many reasons for parental pride, had morphed into a red-eyed, rage filled, screaming demon-ette.

Her cheery mood quickly spread to Rachael and Hannah and soon we had three little girls trying to break up their parents' marriage. Gordon and I had never experienced such outbursts among one child, much less three at the same time. We started screaming at each other trying to navigate this new dynamic of family life. Stephanie and Christopher looked on in shock at the way our family was falling apart with little warning. (After recovery, Stephanie said, "Wow, I'd never seen ya'll talk to each other like that").

Later when someone asked Christopher what the highlight of his trip was, he quickly responded, "When Mama give the girls Gravol in Yellowstone." Yes, I ended up doping my little angels.

When we finally unloaded our human/demon-ette occupants in our driveway, my girls returned to their previous disposition.

Roughly six months later, the girls and I flew back down to Colorado where we met all my family for Thanksgiving. Deborah won hearts as she'd go to the kitchen and look up at the strangers that were her aunts, uncles, and cousins and say "dink peez." So politely she used the few words she knew when asking for a drink of water. "Dink peez," she'd say softly. If no one responded, she'd say it a little louder. If still no one responded, she raised her eyebrows, stood on her tippy toes and more assertively said, "DINK PEEZ." In the end, she always got her water.

Deborah loved to be rocked, sang to, and cuddled. Once she asked me to sing "Amazing Grapes" as we rocked.

When she was 2, I started discouraging her nursing. She didn't nurse but a couple times a day, but she was pretty serious about it. Being two though, we did get to talk about it. I told her that we were going to rock and sing, but we were going to quit doing "breasties." She was thoroughly confused. They were all one and the same thing to her. But she soon comprehended the new way. She did well. However on about the third day, she asked if she could have "breasties." When I told her we were not doing that again, she put her index finger and thumb about 1/2 inch apart and asked, "Just a little bit peez?" My heart ached, but we stood firm.

Of the girls, she's the most girly. She loves to dress-up, play with little girl make-up, have make-overs, wear high heels. More than once we've arrived at church to find her in her little play high heels instead of real shoes. When she was four, she was in the washroom when church started. We were near the front when she entered. The pastor ceased the opening call to worship, went silent as he smiled at our little Deborah entering the sanctuary. All eyes fell on her as she walked determinedly down the aisle with her Fisher Price high heels on, a purse strapped over her shoulders, and a fresh application of lip gloss. When I realized things were silent because of Deborah's entrance, I was thoroughly pleased to see the sea of smiling faces as they watched her. She was oblivious to the attention she was commanding.

Deborah is a very kind person. She's gentle, considerate, and polite. She is a social butterfly, always ready for personal interaction. Right now she and her Daddy are out of a birthday date, having lunch together. In a few hours, Beppe will come over and we'll have yet another birthday meal. At her request, quiche is the main dish.

Dear God, I'm so very thankful that you let me be Deborah's mother. I'm thankful for the life you've given her, for the safety and health you've blessed her with. She has given us so much joy and I'm thankful. Thank you for loving her more than I am capable of. Thank you for loving her enough to give your Son for her. More than anything, I ask You to continue to draw Deborah to You. Give her a tender heart that always follows hard after You. Draw her into a life of being a student of Your word and a pray-er. Give her a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Equip her with all she needs to be a leader in doing what is right and standing against what is wrong. Help her to be a lover of the things You love. Thank You. Amen.

trivia, again (Because it's Canada Day)

Facts about Canada

Canada is the second largest country in the world, with 9,971,000 square kilometres of land.

The baseball glove was invented in Canada in 1883.

With only three people per square kilometer, Canada has the fourth lowest population density in the world.

Vancouver Canada is tied with Zurich Switzerland for the highest quality of life of any city in the world.

Canada has the ninth biggest economy of the world

According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Canada has the highest quality of life in the world.

Canada does not own the North Pole. The North Pole is not owned by any country. It is believed, however, that Santa Claus is from Canada.

Canadian Quiz

I've been reading Canadian Trivia for the past hour. Hey, it's Canada Day! Because I know a few of you like trivia, I'm posting this for your entertainment. I hope Canadian trivia does something for you.

What is the origin of the name "Canada"?
Canada is a name derived from the Huron-Iroquois kanata meaning, a village or settlement

Who was the first Prime Minister of Canada?
Sir John A. Macdonald

What animal is on the Canadian quarter?
the CARIBOU

How many oceans touch Canada?
THREE - the Atlantic on the east, the Pacific on the west and the Arctic to the north

How many countries border Canada?
ONE - the United States of America

How many provinces in Canada?
TEN - from west to east they are: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland

What is the capital city of Canada (the national capital)?
Ottawa

True or False? Canada is the world's second largest country, by land mass?
TRUE

What is the Canadian $1 coin called?
the Loonie (the loon is a Canadian bird and is pictured on the coin, thus the name)

How many territories in Canada?
THREE - from west to east they are: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut

What is the most recent territory in Canada called?
Nunavut

When was the most recent territory in Canada formed?
April 1, 1999

True or False? Superman was created by a Canadian?
TRUE

Who were the first people to live in Canada?
(a) Europeans, (b) Americans, (c) Aboriginals, or (d) Norsemen
(c) the aboriginals or first nations peoples were the first inhabitants of Canada

What is the leader of Canada called?
the Prime Minister

What leaf is on the Canadian flag?
the maple leaf - it is the national emblem of Canada

What is the Canadian national anthem called?
O Canada

What rodent is described by the Canadian Encyclopedia as having "had a greater impact on the history and exploration of Canada than any other animal or plant species"?
the BEAVER

What measurement is used in Canada to measure temperature?
Celsius

How many national languages does Canada have?
TWO

What are Canada's national languages?
English and French

What was the name of the system of safe passages and safehouses that allowed American slaves to escape to freedom in Canada?
The Underground Railroad

What is Laura Secord famous for?
Laura Secord warned the British of the impending attack on Canada by the Americans during the war of 1812 and because of this warning the British won the battle

How many time zones in Canada?
SIX

What is the name of the highest mountain in Canada?
Mount Logan

O Canada!

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

quiche

Hannah had a dentist appointment one day last week and we didn't leave it until 5:30. I stopped at Safeway to pick up something easy for supper, settling on a quiche from the deli. Later as we ate, I asked if anyone could remember why I quit making quiche. A few years ago I made it regularly, but I stopped and no one can remember why.

Deborah will be 8 tomorrow. Yesterday we celebrated nearly all day. Kalyna slept over, we went swimming and to Chuck E Cheese. It was wonderful.

I told Deborah on Thursday night that I wanted to have a special birthday dinner on Monday and invite Beppe'. She was happy about having 2 birthday celebrations. When I told her she got to choose the menu, her eyes got big and she said after only a second's hesitation that she wanted my quiche.

So tomorrow evening I'll be making quiche again and we'll sit around telling Deborah tales. It's going to be delightful, I know.