What One Day Can Hold

This day began with my reading a text a local friend sent me at 7 AM this morning...

her Mom has slipped into a coma...is on a breathing machine...

I was so moved by the sorrow of this. It look my breath away... 

So of course I lit a big just blessed candle and prayed and have been 

praying and thinking of them all day.... 

and this led me to suddenly photographing my spice racks... 

The one on the right, with the wire, was a wedding gift to my parents; 

the one on the left was my Oma's, my Mother's Mother.

The icon of St Nicholas is from my friend Pat who blessed me so many times

by her kindness!!! 

My spice racks are like my own visible personal memoir;

when I started cooking in BC in my twenties, 

I bought various spices... and now, after living in Canada about 15 years,

7 of them in Ottawa, I have been living in New Jersey 7 years already (!) 

and now have spices also from Trader Joes, which admittedly is one of my 

all time FAVOURITE stores.... 

Canada is officially a bilingual province so everything is in English ad French...
It's funny, I am not sure what I bought sage for!

But i think one of the biggest reasons I suddenly as looking at my spice racks
and they are my Mother's and my Mother's Mothers, my Oma.
And my friend's Mother may very well be in her last days.

I got this twirly spice rack in BC back in about 2002 I think...

they were really popular in wood back then... I got this one at

Value Village, a great thrift store.... 

Well.  Mr Husband had the day off.
It was wonderful to have breakfast with him.
And I had 2 pots of tea before lunch, which led me to
pot 3 of tea... (I had one more for dinner...) :)

The paperwhites are adding joy to my days...
and it was SUNNY today.

We had more tea and chicken burgers with salad for lunch...

I took all the ornaments off of our Christmas tree...

We went on a walk together in the later afternoon!

Before dinner I had the Christmas tree put away!

We had leftover (from freezer) chili for dinner!
And cornbread and salad!

And the house is getting back to 'normal' after Christmas...
next week I hope to sort through my piles of stuff (paper books and whatnot)
that is overflowing my little office area and then set up my writing table again.
I am really looking forward to this.
***
I am going DV to Brighton Beach tomorrow with a friend.
And I hope, for real this time, if I am able to, make the lamb rolls I have
been hoping to make...
we have a small dinner with another couple this Sunday night
and then a dinner a week from then, on the last Sunday night before
Great Lent begins...
so still busy days...
I guess I am doing a lot of work towards community building...
***
I listened to a very thoughtful loving and helpful sermon from
my church in Ottawa and it was so great to hear...
I ended up listening to more afterwards!
I highly recommend it!
***
Well, it's getting late, I better close for now.
***
God bless you all and may His love protect and guide you all of your days!