This caught my attention and I thought it was worth pondering. Life is too short to not live in the moment and make the most of things as they come by. Just a quick random thougth for today.

Twenty years from now

You will be more disappointed

by the things you didn't do

than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines

Sail away from the safe harbour

Catch the trade winds in your sails

EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER

Mark Twain

Good things....

I recently saw a fridge magnet in a gift store that read

"Not all days are good, But there are good things in everyday"

Even in the darkest of days there are good things that happen. I truly believe that.

We simply must open our eyes and hearts to be willing to see them.

God puts good things in our paths every day, for he desires good things for us.

How often do we miss God's good things?

I have had an idea peculating in my brain for some time about that very thing -then I read that magnet and my brain went into perk overdrive. Not totally ready to share the coffee yet, but soon. One thought is that we spend far too much energy on complaining and negativity and certainly not enough thinking about GOOD THINGS. Or acting on good things. We need to change our way of thinking and how we focus on life. We need to open our eyes and LOOK, and really see in order to find the good, especially in the not so good days. It seems
Especially when it is something that is shoved down our throat, society in general focus' on the bad. Pick up a newspaper on any given day, or listen to the 6:00 news and that negative view on life is confirmed. You might find a 'Good things" article tucked in a corner pages away from the front cover if it is a lucky day and we really have to hunt to find them some days at all.



We complain far too much about things that either we have no control to change or when it comes right down to it really do not matter one way or another. When it is too hot, or too cold, if the price of gas goes up a cent or the advertised special at the supermarket is "temporarily out of stock". When what we really should be thinking is wow, I am glad I do not live in a country where it is 35 degrees or higher everyday, or be thankful that we have a supermarket at all, where we have choice. I try not to be a complainer, however I know that I do... but I am trying to change.

For the past month and a bit I have been taking a moment at the end of the day to write down 1 GOOD THING. The list is growing and I have found that as I go through my day I am looking for good things, my perspective changes and life is just a little bit better from that point of view. I am looking forward to looking back months from now, and simply reading my list of good things.

Some are minor good things:

Cold water today is a VERY GOOD THING!

Oh, a good hair day!

Sweet, take out for dinner tonight.

Others will stay with me forever:

Had great heart to heart with Teryn about Dating while we were out in the van.

Was glad to make Joc & Oscar laugh when I visited today.

Reconnected with an old friend on facebook, I thought I would never hear from her this side of heaven!

Picked raspberries today for the 100'th time, but saw the Joy in a 4 year olds eyes as she picked for the first time in her life.

True some entries are, deeper than others, however each of them were significant to me on the day they were written - a small snippet of how life is good on that given day. Taking time to write them down has begun to change my outlook on life and where my focus needs to be. Finding GOODNESS in the simple things of life. Because like it or not it is our life and we are the only ones who can make the choice for it to be a good one or a not so good one. When it comes right down to it and we are honest, we all want the good life.

However, what that good life looks like, depends on how you look at the good life.

Is the glass 1/2 empty or is the glass 1/2 full? We do not need rose coloured glasses, we just need to open our eyes, goodness is all around us, we just fail to see far to often.

.

We are officially certifible... or maybe just a little crazy!

We arrived home from our vacation at 2:44 AM, yes you read that right AM! Monday morning, it seems that the 2 am hour holds a dear place in our hearts. When we leave to go to Creation Festival we aim to leave at that hour to avoid border line ups, Seattle rush hour traffic and the heat. This weekend we decided to drive in the cool of the evening and arrived home at the magic hour. Some would say we are crazy, we just see it as brilliant.

Driving from Cache Creek we left at 10:30 ish - We were still able to spend a full day enjoying the company of cousins, the pool and just relaxing. What we did miss was driving in the heat, all the traffic coming into to the city after a long weekend both great things to do with out. Especially given that I have what I think is a wicked case of heat rash... brought on during a drive from Cache creek to Kamloops where one thermometer I saw read 39 degrees. 39 freaking degrees! That is Africa weather, not BC even in Kamloops it was HOT and the locals were mentioning it.

I now know for certain that when I visit Lisa in Africa I will have to go in the rainy season. I do not do well in heat like this. A good portion of my body is covered in heat rash, also known as Prickly heat and I know why, it feels like someone is pricking me from the inside out with 100's of tiny pins. Not too much fun, but who wants to hear about the discomfort of heat rash when there is way more interesting and fun things to blog about.

We had a great time camping with several cousins from Royd's side of the family - 4 families in total -11 kids and 6 adults stayed the weekend. We also had visits from 5 other families who were either heading home after holidays or lived close enough to make it a day trip to come and hang out. It was good to see each of them. All of us saying that we NEED to do this again soon and get the word out further so we can have more cousins join us. It is good to reconnect, it is good to catch up, it is SO GOOD for our kids to meet in some cases for the first time that they can remember. They have seen each other so few times in their lives it is like meeting for the first time all over again.

Amazingly it does not take long for kids to overcome shyness and start pushing each other in the pool, laughing and scaring all "Non-relatives" out of the pool - they were VERY loud these Hilstad cousins. But I think it was the adults that laughed the hardest hearing Ron tell his story of his as advertised on radio "painless vasectomy" oh my, we were all in stitches. Great memories, laughs re connections it was good just to be together. Celebrating family and life.

Where are they now????

After the last post my brain went in this direction..... it really is not all that random, but rather a logical follow up. Sometimes I surprise even myself.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.

~Flavia Weedn, Forever, © Flavia.com

In 40 plus years of living I have said hello and goodbye to many people. Some I was happy to see go, and others to this day I wish we had more time together. Time to know each other better, more time because simply life was cut too short or simply because we had only begun to scratch the surface. (it makes me think Heaven will be a great big friendly reunion!) True to the quote above, I will never be the same. For me there have been some very deep and lasting impressions made. Memories that I will never forget, things we learned together and many things I realized I learned after they were gone.

Call me nostalgic, curious, or simply just nosey I would love to know where some of these people are now. What they are doing, how they have chosen to live their lives, are they happy.

There is Doreen, a Brownie billet that came to stay for a week - ALL THE WAY from Lac La Hache, in grade 5 that was like the end of the earth. We hit it off the moment she walked through the door, but after a few letters back and forth when she returned home we lost touch.

Diane Vanderly, who was part of my life from elementary school to the early years of Jr. High, then we ended up at different schools, and in grade 8 or 9 her family ended up moving.... I have no idea where, I had heard rumors of Ontario. But????

Janet Erickson, a friend through Brownies and Girl Guides, and also during High School. She was one of the people in those years that truly inspired me, she despite being totally blind lived life to the fullest, she skied competitively, travelled the world and succeeded in a difficult world.

Then there is the group of teens I spent the summer of 1982 with in Australia, the things I learned that summer changed my life forever. Most of those lessons came from living with a group of 30 teens from all over North America. I have managed to keep in contact with a few of these dear friends, but others have been lost. I would love to know what they are up to, where they are living, what God has done in their lives since that amazing summer. Where are they in their faith, John Ross, Elizabeth Buck, Billly Nevils, Ken Weatherl, Bethany Saxby (our Austrailan host), Stacy Perreault, Steve Baker. . . oh this list could go on and on.

There are so many more, some who's names escape me at the moment, people that have come in and out of youth groups and church doors over the years. I wonder if they ever wonder about me, what I am doing, or if I am even a blip on their memory screen. I have been blessed, I can say that even though there have been some serious twists and turns in the road that I would not have planned, life has been pretty good. I am happy with where I am in life right now, happy with the choices I have made along the way. I have lived some dreams, created others, faced some serious challenges and won, each path is an opportunity to learn and grow, I can say that I have enjoyed most of the ride this far. There is very little I would change. Sure there are things that I wish were different, but most of those are far from my control. There are still places I would like to visit, things I would like to do and as long as there is road ahead I am going to live it and enjoy along the way the people I meet and the places I go.

Yup, these things have been known to keep me awake at night. Pondering. . . searching online.. Every once in a while I will pop a name into the Facebook search engine and just see who I might find.. sometimes I am successful, more often not. When you are looking for someone with a common mane there are 1000's listed at times or looking for girl friends, if they have married and changed their names, makes it more of a challenge. I am in awe of how small the world has become with the help of modern technology. I am thankful that my girls have tools that will help them keep in touch with their friends no matter where in the world they may end up. These will not be wonderings that keep them awake at night.

I will continue on occasion to search, but more than that I will be thankful for the footprints each of these past friends have left on my life. Aiding in making me the person I am today, I thank them for the memories, the laughter and the tears. My life is richer because so many people have come and gone....

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.

~Author Unknown

Thinking about Childhood.

My life long friend is off to Vegas today - I had to laugh as I read her Facebook status line saying something like..... Wish me luck. If I do not return you know I have won big. Am now residing along some beach, with man servants and a big sailing yacht! My response, remember I am good at getting you out of / into trouble just say the word and I will be there....
The two of us could have lots of fun and photo taking adventures in Las Vegas...not to mention what fun could be had on above mentioned beach or sailing yacht! I hope she has a ton of fun, wish her luck on the big win.


I do not have very many early childhood memories that do not involve Deb. We were pretty much inseparable from the time she moved in when I was 10 months old to the time she moved in 1973ish it could have been 1974 ( I was in grade 3 I know that but what part the memory is gone) Thankfully she moved not too far away and we were able to keep connected, though drifting in and out we always manage to pick up where we left off, no apologies, no excuses. Friends like this are rare and few between and I am blessed because of it. I always know that she is just there... the type of person if I was stranded in her town and just showed up on her doorstep there would be no questions asked and I would be at home...

The conversation would be sweet, and we would laugh about the good old days. The times of eating ourselves sick sitting up the plum tree. Or sleep overs where little sleeping was done (but much yelling from one mom or another to get some!) Talking on the phone till our ears burned from the heat, while the whole time we could see each other in our bedroom windows (but we were not allowed to go out...so we burned up the phone lines) Bike rides exploring the blocks around home. Trips to Woodwards on 1.49 day, when our moms would cram the 4 kids in 2 buggies and "tag team" shop, one mom manning the buggies as the other shopped then switching off. (smart ladies that they were) Some of our best summer days involved VERY extensive barbie set ups, here camping trailer set up on her front yard, my tent trailer in our front yard, and in another yard 1/2 a block up the street G.I. Joe and Big Jim would have their space. Or there was the running between houses to find out which Mom was serving the best dinner and then asking if one or the other could stay for dinner. I think our mom's caught on to that one pretty quick when both of them said Liver and Onions one day..... talk about no options. (poor Deb the one time it was what my mom was truly serving...) I remember sitting in my back yard, waiting for Deb's little sister to be brought home from the hospital after her birth, just sitting waiting, for what seemed like hours. Huge water fights, or games of kick the can, dressing up for birthday parties - and I mean dressing up, party dresses, spiffy hair dresses and patten leather shoes a shining. Ah the sweet memories of Childhood. We were priviledged to live in such a great neighbourhood. The Rogers, Williams and Kyle kids were pretty much just the KIDS.

There have been some rough spots to be sure, but you know we have weathered those and have laughed many atime over some of the worst of them.... How many people can say they bit their best friend in the butt, drew blood through blue jeans, yes drew blood! (my bite her blood, I never have asked if she has a scar?) And know that all is forgiven - hey she broke the leg off my barbie on purpose I might add.... A barbie which she "replaced" for my 40th Birthday - and we howeld! Best gift of the night hands down. Or there was the time we were playing in her basement and we noticed that there was a little fire in this big metal box.. thinking that it was dangerous we blew it out. OOPS, how were we to know it was the pilot light for the GAS furnace. We got a tongue lashing from her dad..oh my ANGRY! Then there was the time a few years after she moved that we found a deck of smokes in the bush behind the school close to her house.... yup we choked our way through our first smoking expereience together. Sweet o.k. some bitter sweet and some just plain dumb things we did, memories of Childhood, but it was the 2 of us through thick and thin....

Life has certainly led us both down different winding roads, but some how some where in the midst of it all we always have managed to wind our way back and forth across each others roads. We do not see each other often, we "chat" a little on FB but I treasure this friendship as a rare gift and for those times we do manage to connect in person for real face to face I just add it to the memory bank and am simply thankful for just one more time.

How is it....

The earlier post was one I was working on a few days ago and chose to finish before I started this one.... this is what was running through my head as I woke up this morning. I was finally able to put to words something that I saw yesterday. Jumping on my soap box now.....

How is it that we can live in a technically advanced society, one where I can chat real time with my girlfriends in Africa, or Calgary. Where I can type and you can read if you so choose seconds after a blog entry is posted. Where social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter can help you find friends that even a few years ago were seemingly lost forever. But yet we as a society in general can not master the golden rule..

Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself

Though not found in the Bible deep seeded truth of loving others is. Why is it that things like skin colour, mental health, physical differences or moral choices bring out the worst in people. Makes me crazy! We are all created in the image of God, we are all human beings. Sure we have differences that is what makes the world a more interesting place to live. Face it if you were all like me life would be a whole lot different that you know it now.

Yesterday, Jen, posted this link to a video on her facebook page. As I watched I was speechless, I had no words at all, it played in my head over and over. Shocked that in Canada, a country that prides it's self in being a multi-cultural melting pot of acceptance, violence like this occurs. That one man supposedly only because of his dark skin was taunted and attacked by 3 others because THEY thought he was of less value. My heart ached, for Jen the mother of 2 teens of African American decent who she loves with all her heart. How do you send your boys into a world like this. How do you teach them to be tolerant, accepting and loving if there is a possibility that they too could face such a situation. The only thing you can tell them is rise above it, prove to the world that you are better men, than the likes of those who choose to be bullies. Then hug them, and cover them in TONS of prayer as they learn to walk on their own. Something that so many of us take for granted to a certain extent, our safety and confidence in simply being who we are, because we have white skin.

Or my other friend Marja, who suffers from Bi-polar disorder and has for decades. Fighting not only the challenges of the disease on a personal level, but fighting the stigma attached to it on a global level. She does an amazing job, but she faces challenges and prejudices along the way for sure. Simply because she is different from the normal and she is fighting for those who are often ridiculed in "normal" society. Why? Ignorance, people do not take the time to listen and truly hear the hearts of people who suffer, face it anything that shy's away from the norm makes people uncomfortable. People do not like to be uncomfortable.

Or Joc, an expectant mother of triplets who is laying in a hospital bed trying with all her might to bring these precious lives into the world several weeks down the road. Not now! Who early on in the pregnancy was told that she would have a better chance of delivering healthy babies if she terminated one. Chose to keep all three despite what the medical professionals were telling her. Would those same doctors want to hear some of the same hurtful things they were dishing out if they were in the same situation. Likely not.

I grew up in a home where derogatory names were the norm for defining people of different ethnic backgrounds. I recall quite vividly at a young age knowing it was wrong & asking my dad to stop... (hmm, possibly, this was the beginning of our relationship struggles...)

I was probably 6 or 7. I know it was Grade 1, because I remember the class room, I remember the teacher. I remember one very specific situation that made me think what dad calls people is wrong. There was a new girl in our class. Some of the boys started teasing her because of her dark skin, her long un-cut hair and the clothes she wore. I remember the deep hurt I saw in her eyes, & remember looking at her and a tear slipping from my eye and the smile that lit her face when she knew she had found a friend in me.....

Why is it in a world where we can send people to the moon, or cure diseases, pay people millions to make a movie for sheer entertainment value can not learn to love with out boundaries.

Why is it that we pass down hate to our children so easily but fail to show them how valued they are simply for the amazing miracles that they are.

I hope and pray that my girls have learned that people are of great value, certainly above things. That no matter the colour of their skin, economic class or physical or mental limitations - they have great value.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you"

John 15;12

These things make me smile.

Paper piles are a constant challenge in our house. It can be single sheets, lined or colourfully printed, envelopes that magically appear at our house daily often along with newspapers, printed items off the computer or paper bound in book form. No matter the form it can be found in every room of our house. It is my constant nemesis.

I love to read, and I have a hobby that is very heavily paper themed that given with the fact that I have issues when it comes to tossing out things the girls have created over the years you get the picture. It is everywhere. So this past week I started to tackle the problem, I figured if I take one box or pile a day for a bit I will get a grip by the end of the summer. At least it is a good plan. So far a little progress has been made and the recycling truck was heavier after this past pick up.

The fun thing about sorting paper, is you come across things that make you smile.



Like this gem, circa 1998.
Teryn drew this picture of her and I. Makes me smile big. Love that my ears stick out from my hair and we are both smiling. Check out the arms and legs, at least we seem to have clothes on. But my feet are huge. Too funny! I guess that is the perspective of a 4 year old. Love it.

This one is going to get a frame and will be hanning in my creative space providing inspiration for years to come.!

Then there is this. Shanna's math sheet from this year. When Ashlynn and I returned from Europe Shanna had us all in stitches on the ride home from the airport telling the story of this math assignment. I will chuckle for years and years.


Check out the instructions... Draw the missing line, measure and label the angles... done!
Then the instructions say Name it....
"Names" inside the bubbles..... Oh, my I laugh as I type! Billy, Bob, Joe..... She did just what the instructions said and named each quadrilateral. Too too funny.

The best part is that she told us the story and was killing herself laughing at it the whole time. Shows great self assurance. Man I love this kid.