Friday’s Fave Five – December 23

I’m in a liminal space right now, as we settle into our new home in Moose Jaw in the season of Advent. There’s a strange sense of moving forward while still waiting that leaves me feeling discombobulated. It’s the Christmas season, yet with the transition we’ve experienced and are still sorting through—it doesn’t really seem like it. Still, the lights on my non-traditional trees and brown paper wrapped gifts under it tell me otherwise. This morning, as I sit snug under a blanket in my office with a sleeping Yorkie by my side, I pause to look back at the week and count blessings with a Friday’s Fave Five post.

Grandma/Granddaughter time. I wrote about our mid-week shopping trip earlier so I won’t say more about it, other than it’s a sweet, sweet gift to be able to spend time with my love.

A working furnace. We experienced a blip with ours that left us without heat for most of the day yesterday and required a call to a local plumbing and heating place. A working furnace is pretty important when the temperatures dip below -40 with the wind chill! We spent the day under blankets by the fireplace until the technician arrived and fixed the issue—which had nothing to do with the furnace itself but with an iced up intake pipe outside (ours was the fourth of its kind he tended to that day). Gerry learned how to mitigate against it happening again so it turned out well in the end.

A dumbed down house. I’m wary of the trend toward “smart” homes. Our new one has some technology that has me flummoxed. We took out the smart thermostat in favour of the old programmable one (that was still here) that allows us to control it the way we’re used to. It was a week of technology woes what with figuring out how to control the temperature and restart the SaskTel TV box. Remember the old days when the thermostat was controlled with a dial, and TVs with knobs? I’m glad for most of the improvements but, man, one has to practically be a rocket scientist to navigate this brave new world.

Those who work outside. It’s been bitterly cold this week with most days seeing -40 windchills. We stopped for gas one day at a full serve station where two bundled up fellows were manning the pumps. We received deliveries of things for the house.  The furnace guy came, as did a woman from the window blind store, and a pizza delivery person. And I can’t forget Gerry, who cleared snow from our driveway and sidewalk. We’re all looking forward to getting out of this deep freeze when things start to warm up a bit starting on Christmas Day.

Daily devotional time. A return to routine with early morning reading and prayer time is absolutely priceless and necessary to remain balanced in a world that’s anything but. The wing chair in my office, with a dog on my blanketed lap and a mug of hot tea on the table beside me, my Bible in hand and an assortment of highlighters, pens, and other books in a basket next to me is where you’ll find me first thing in the morning from now on.

So, today on this day before Christmas Eve, I send warm greetings your way and prayers for these next few days to be ones of peace, mystery, and a smattering of seasonal magic.