How The Lost Got Found...

About that sweater.

Walk with me.

You reach into the closet for it, only to find that it isn't there. "I know I washed it!" you tell yourself because there is no pile on the closet floor and there is no pile on the laundry room floor. You check the drying rack in vain. It's empty. Everything has been folded and put away. There is nothing on the clothesline to brush out of the way every time you pass beneath it on the way to the washing machine. The only place it could possibly be is on the rack in guest room. But...the only thing on THAT rack is Joe's Historica Fair display board laid out in all its glory. The table beside it is covered with white paper, red paper, yellow paper, paper strips and bits, glue dots, and the paper cutter. No sweater.

And then...one day, I reached into the guestroom closet for an extra pillow and a blanket for a sleepover....and there were two sweaters(One, my favourite, and the other....meh)and a myriad of favourite undergarments that must hang to dry due to their underwire components. These are the ingredients of life that get hastily and absentmindedly whisked out of the way and put "somewhere".

Absentmindedly, because obviously the mind is absent! The location of the item does not register on the map of your mind: the usually reliable system that keeps order in the chaos. On such a day the scale tips a little closer toward chaos than order.

It happens and I am WAY beyond denial.

It would have been really Biblical for me throw a party.

Dear World,

Please know that I have located my favourite sweater.

Random Thoughts

I can't find my favourite sweater.

I spent the morning at school visiting Grade 6. Scheduled board member classroom visit. I saw 6 or so Historica Fair presentations. Detailed, interesting, and educational. History rocks!!

I had coffee and cake with the staff at the elementary school. That was fun! Thank a teacher today if they are making a difference in the life of your child with more than just teaching.

I signed off on a proof for printed cards for the highschool.

I love getting comments on my blog, but don't measure my self worth by the lack thereof:)

How the heck does someone from Manila end up at sugarnuggets????

I have a free afternoon that I wasn't expecting.

I'm listening to Dvorak, " Symphony #9", the piece of music that made me fall in love with classical music. The PEI Symphony is performing his Slavonic dances when I am in PEI in April...op Zondag....

I am having so much fun being married. We celebrate Valentine's week. Ray is a giver of good gifts :) (read: chocolate)

I am doing laundry.

Duty calls.... cards need to made.

On the TurnTable Today

I got to spend the afternoon at home doing some baking.

I'm really excited that I get to go to school tomorrow and visit a classroom. This is one of the perks of being a board member....others might rate it as a duty...but how else would I get to go and see what happens at school? Definitely a PERK!

I'm baking and bringing a cake, the first one....failed, the second one....success. Let's see how many people read this and laugh when I come in tomorrow:):)

When you bake, you need tunes. So today......

1. Switchfoot - the Beautiful Letdown. Favourite tracks-The Beautiful Letdown (one my alltime favourite songs in the world!), On Fire(really cool song, even has a verse about the edge:), and Twenty-Four.
   
2. Addison Road - Addison Road. Debut album, I think... Faves-What Do I Know of Holy(goosebumps...), It Just Takes One(I have a son who feels this way...I think that's good...he's at the stage where he wouldn't like this song simply because I suggested it :) I will premeditate randomly playing it in the car when he gets in...
3. Selah - You Deliver Me. My new Selah cd!! Faves- Hosanna, Standing on the Promises, Glory to His Name....lottsa Southern Gospel.
   
4. Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane. It's new too. It still has to grow on me, you know that stage.
   
5. tenth avenue north - Over and Underneath. The whole album is really good, you should buy it!! Faves- Hold My Heart,Beloved, and another alltime favourite....By Your Side.
   

One son seems to playing the same song over and over and over again. Other son said today, "I think this is going to do me in...."

My Coffee Disaster

I am the only person in my household who drinks coffee. On one of my first birthdays as a newlywed Ray gave me a one-cup coffeemaker. He was so pleased with himself, coming up with the perfect gift! I used to drink instant coffee and it was a huge treat to have a fresh cuppa joe.

Ray would want this story to be told. It shows that he is a giver of good gifts, and I should be a better receiver:)

I had the Melitta cone with filter that fit over the coffee pot which worked really well, until the coffee pot got a crack in it and broke. I had a different pot, that didn't fit under the cone, and I always had to stand in the kitchen, holding the cone over the pot, while the water dripped through to make coffee. I only used the coffee pot when we had company...but when the one-cup coffeemaker appeared I immediately traded it in for a full sized coffee maker.

About a decade ago, we went on a family vacation with our young boys and spontaneously ended up at a cottage just outside Morrisburg, Ontario. It had a cute kitchenette, AND a one cup coffeemaker. We sped into town for Chef-Boy-R-Dee, milk, Cheerios, some hard lemonade, and a can of coffee. I had the most delicious cup of coffee of my life the next morning, and went on to extol the virtues of the one cup coffeemaker.

My Ray, he knows what he's doing. His ideas are quite avant garde. I tell him that the world just isn't always ready for his radical ideas. I have had a one cupper now for at least that decade. I love it everyday!! And I whip out the big gun when company comes, apparently I should assemble it more often so that I don't forget to put the lid on the pot. The lid triggers the pause-and-pour assembly to REMAIN OPEN. For when it remains closed, the brew flows over the basket and filter, into the open pot below, AND all over the counter.

So... it's very ironic that I ended up with a freshly brewed pot of coffee containing a quarter inch of coffee grinds in the bottom , 10 minutes before my book club was due to arrive.

The Edge

One of my favourite saying is that "I'm not afraid of heights, just the edge". Another favourite is "live on the edge, but don't fall off". I think I'm going to have to rethink my philosophy of "living on the edge". I suppose that your "edge" depends on where you draw your line. It also depends on your thrill threshold.

I've started another adventure and it has been so exciting! It all starts with a leap of faith. But the first step of the leap is AWAY from the edge. If you decide to live on the edge, you'll never take the leap.

I realized that taking the leap requires a certain amount of positioning to get you to the point of take off. This is also the time you spend the most time trusting, deliberating, debating or talking yourself out of taking the leap. There is an inherent danger in leaping foolishly with reckless abandon. There is always the possibility that you will plummet to a certain death. When you take a leap of faith, you will either have a thrilling free fall or you will soar. When you take a leap of faith, to follow a calling that God gives you, He will give you the equipment you need to guide you safely through, but often He provides it after you take off.

That reminds me of the safety gear we wore when we went ziplining in New Brunswick this summer. None of us would have dreamed of stepping off the first platform without a harness. 3/4's of the way through the course we barely noticed that it was even there because it became second nature. Clip on, clip off, clip the other on, clip the other one off. But God doesn't always work that way.


When you live as someone called by God, and He calls you to do something, you can just go....knowing that your flight plan has already been filed and that He goes before you. The view and the journey are both incredible. Along the way, lives intersect with yours as you cross paths, journey together, and build relationships and community.

It's not about where your draw your line, it's about whether you're willing to cross it to follow your Calling.