Book review: Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde is a funny, clever writer! He is a true bibliophile's dream. His books are laced with references to other books and his plots twist and turn from the unreal to the very imaginative. You're never sure where you are going next because it is always somewhere you would never have thought of. I read this book years back and have been following the Tuesday Next series ever since. There are five books in total. The Eyre Affair introduces us to Tuesday Next, a LiteraTec detective investigating all crimes against literature. In Lost In A Good Book, Tuesday dives into the world of books to find her husband. The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and First Among Sequels continue in the same vein. His other series about the Nursery Crime Division is equally as entertaining. The Big Over Easy takes on the case of Humpty Dumpty's murder, and The Fourth Bear highlights Goldy's disappearance. If you enjoy reading, have done a lot of it, and love some comedy/mystery/sci-fi, you oughtta try this author. Warning: read the books in the series in order, or you will never understand what is happening!

A new quilt (finally)

I've been working on a quilt since May for my grandma. It was her birthday on Saturday, and I finished it an hour before her party! Talk about cutting it close! It's kind of a family tree/memory quilt, so I put pictures of each person on it. Of course, on Friday the black ink in my printer ran out; yes, I panicked. I had cut just enough fabric for the pictures I had left, and managed to wreck one sheet. I was filled with visions of being up until the wee hours of the morning - first, washing and drying new fabric, putting the printer solution on it and letting it hang dry, then printing, then waiting the appropriate amount of time before hand washing it and laying it out to dry. Wouldn't you know it, after I had used the last sheet of printable fabric, I glanced toward my paper stacked chair-by-the-computer and spotted a sheet that had been left over from the last batch of pictures I had done. A big rush of relief! Many "Thank you, God" prayers later and I was done (with the printing, anyway)! So, here it is.

The bee hives came first. An integral part of the quilt! Grandma's CB handle was Queen Bee (Grandpa was Bee Keeper). They were beekeepers for many years, and I remember going into the honey house at harvest time - that was the best smell in the world.

Next came the stems and leaves. Gotta say, silk ribbon isn't exactly easy to find here. I bought some from a limited stock at Michael's, and when I ran out I found that they had discontinued ordering it. I was forced to use all the little scraps I had left!

Then the roses. Yes, three-dimensional. A lot of fun to do!

Of course, the centerpiece needed their wedding picture. They look like young crazy kids!

The final product with everyone's pictures. I did b&w so none of the colours would be too clashy with the final product. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are still a few things that need to be done - a hanging sleeve (which my auntie will help out with since I'm clueless in that area) and tacking the pictures on more securely. The photos are replaceable since people keep having babies. Or get married. Or grow up. Or get hair that turns greyer, or shorter, or nonexistent (sorry brothers, just had to throw that in!).

*the pattern I used was Beekeeper's Garden by The City Stitcher.

Yummy treats

I was the recipient of a funky little internet treat going around the blog world. Thanks Celtic Sister! Candied apples! Well, to be a bit more accurate, a lovely picture of some candied apples. The stipulation, once the gift is received, is to randomly pass it on to someone you don't know. In the spirit of the game, I started hitting the "Next blog" button at the top of every blogger page until I ran into a blog named pneuma. We seem to have similar interests, so I am gifting this to her. Hope you have fun with it!

*If you want to find out how this originated, go to Hootin' Anni.

Life as I know it

I really wanted to put some photos up on my blog, but I can't seem to find my plug-in thingie for the camera. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, but things tend to get lost in this house. I usually have a general idea, but ... let's just say my junk drawer in the kitchen has gotten a wee bit out of control! Organization is definitely not a gift of mine. I try to blame it on being artistic, but that is a rather lame excuse.

Well, life has been a bit busy around here. Luke has been gone for most of October. First, to get a car from the States with a side trip to visit his family in Manitoba, and then to go hunting in the great white north with his Rainbow Lake buddies. He's coming home today (yeah!) but will be off again on Friday for the Promise Keepers convention in Calgary. It wouldn't have been so bad if Thanksgiving hadn't been last weekend! As it ended up, the boys and I got our fill of turkey at the church supper. You can always count on Mennonites and their converts to have a gourmet feast on all the good holidays!

Hockey season is here again (it kinda feels like it never left!) and all three boys have joined up. Yes, I said three. Titus has taken to his skates this year, and I have apparently become the one hockey mom who needs to go out on the ice with her child. Thankfully Luke will be there on Thursday! In the dressing room, all is good. Titus wants to get out there and do his thing. However, the minute we get on the ice, the waterworks and whining start. We go off the ice for a break - happy. Back on the ice - sad. Despite everything, he can now skate without a chair and get up by himself. Go figure! Caleb and Ethan are on the same team this year, which is nice. Their practices are so organized and chaos-free. They can even get most of their equipment on by themselves. Hooray for growing up!

As for me, I'm doing my thing. Last Saturday, I decided that a new fallsy dress for Thanksgiving was in order. I found a tutorial and whipped it up that evening with some fabric that I had in my stash. Unfortunately, it didn't look that great on me. At all. I'm to short and "voluptuous," as my mom likes to say! Oh well, it was nice to actually make something clotheswise for a change. Another thing I've been working on for the past four or five months is a memory quilt for my Grandma's birthday on Saturday. A lot of work, but lots of fun! There was quite a bit of hand work, which always prolongs the process, but I'm at the point now where I just need to put pictures on fabric and tie them on the quilt. I'd show you a picture, but ... ! I'm also doing a little bit of volunteering over at the boys' school while Titus is in preschool. Yesterday I spent all morning with a couple of kids from Ethan's class making apple dolls. Those things are so utterly cool! I may have to make one of my own!

So, that's the Willms update. Sans pictures. You'll just have to use that imagination. Especially for me on the ice with Titus. In a black winter jacket. That someone managed to dust with Dr. Scholl's foot powder. Which I had no idea about 'till I got home. 'Nuff said.

They just don't listen...

No matter how many times a person tries to teach their kids how to do things the proper way, they tend to do it the way they want. Everytime Caleb brings math home, I have to hold my tongue. It isn't the adding or subtracting I object to, it's the way he writes his numbers! Always starts from the bottom up. Have you ever tried writing the number two from bottom to top? How about a five or six? Awkward, to say the least. And yet, when I show him how it is supposed to be done, he'll smile at me and say, "This way is just easier, Mom!"

Ethan cannot hold a pencil. I've rearranged those fingers countless times, just to look back after a moment and see them right back where they were to begin with.

And Titus. Lately, he's been writing like an Hebrew. Right to left. We'll tell him and show him where to start, and it sticks for a week or two. Then out-of-the-blue he'll be back to his Israeli tendencies. Where does it come from? Backward letters I've seen. Backward words? Huh?

*OK all you grammar buffs. I know you're out there. That last paragraph. "...like an Hebrew..." Should I have just used "a" or "an"? I've noticed in books and whatnot that "an" seems to be what you put in front of an "h". To me, it just seems wrong. Anyone know for sure?

Book Review: Shake Hands With the Devil

I love reading and I love finding good new books. So this is for all you readers out there with a little time to spare. I picked up this non-fiction account of the Rwandan genocide after seeing an interview with the author on The Hour. Romeo Dallaire was a part of the UN mission in Rwanda before, during, and after the slaughter of over 800, 000 people by Hutu extremists and Tutsi retaliators. He tells how the west largely ignored the calls for help to the region because of its relative unimportance in the world. Bureacracy, money, political wrangling - all play a part in this tragedy. He describes the awfulness of having to stand by while people all around were being murdered, and then of having to talk nice to those responsible while trying to broker a ceasefire. Truly a heartbreaking and enraging book. It made me more supportive of our soldiers around the world who are engaged in dangerous peacekeeping missions. I also understand a little more about why and how these atrocities begin and who the people are behind them. It's a good book! Five out of five stars.

Another Autumn

Yes, the days do fly by quicker and quicker. Seems like only yesterday when I was impatiently waiting for the snow to go away! I love watching the fields grow and ripen - what is it about golden grass that fills my heart with joy?

On a totally unrelated note: I was talking with Titus yesterday after music practice, asking what he did while I was singing. "Oh, just colouring and glueing and scissoring." Why can I never come up with awesome words like that?

Another thing - where did the phrase "shake a stick at" originate? You know; "There were too many trees to shake a stick at." Does that even make sense? Anyone?

What Now?

The last ten days have been a mixture of many things. Thankfulness that no one was seriously injured (I learned that the women in the other car only had bruises), horror from the memories and the "what if..." reel that keeps running through my mind, love from all the people who know me, and wondering at what God wants with me here on earth. I've always known that God has had a plan in my life, but I've been waiting around for Him to reveal it to me. Sometimes an actual voice telling me what to do next would be helpful!

It has always been my biggest frustration - God's will. What is it? Where is it? Who's going tell me what I'm supposed to do? Read all the books you want - they can't tell you exactly what your life should look like (unless they tell you to ship all your money to them so you will be blessed - does anyone actually do it?). So I have to decide how my life can be a light in this world of darkness. Easier said than done. For most of my life I've been trying to get this one verse to sink in: Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (NASB) Unfortunately, I just want everybody to like me. I am surrounded by those who think the Bible is full of silly, out-dated rules and impossible miracles that only a fool would actually believe. So I keep silent. And smile. And nod at what they say. Something has to change! And that something is me. Trusting God to give me words that people will hear like He gave Aaron. Trusting God to give me courage and strength like He gave Joshua. Trusting God to give me a heart like He gave David. Trusting God to shine through me.

Tuesday evening

That's the suburban. The boys and I were heading out to a meeting on Tuesday at 7 pm. We were crossing the divided highway. I looked, but apparantly did not see the black Volkswagon coming. I even thought I was through the intersection when life suddenly became very scary. We ended up in the ditch, hanging from our seatbelts because the 'burb had flipped over. I unhooked the seatbelt and looked into the back to see three crying boys. Crying has never sounded so sweet. Caleb had already unbuckled himself, and I made Ethan undo his belt while I got Titus' undone. After that I cleared the glass away from the front passenger window, made sure it was safe to get out that way, and then got Caleb out. I reached back in for Titus, dragged him out, and found that a good Samaritan had reached through Ethan's window and pulled him to safety.


Luckily Luke was home and was able to come out right away. We made sure the boys were put in neck braces and stretchers and taken to the hospital in ambulances. Luke rode with Titus and I rode with Caleb and Ethan. We were all discharged that same night after x-rays were taken. The boys and I are all a little sore and bruised, but so very grateful to be alive!

Here are links to more pictures:

Inside the other car

Where Ethan was sitting

Passenger side

Front of the car that hit us

Where a tire used to be

Dreaming of the sun

Yes, this has been a most dreary and wet month. All we got in July was sun, sun, sun, making the clouds so dreadfully jealous that they took August hostage. What I wouldn't give for an Indian summer in September. Wouldn't it be lovely to just have to get out of the house because the weather won't let you stay in? So, I'm starting a petition. I don't know how many signatures God needs for a change in weather, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I've about had it up to here with mushrooms growing on my lawn.

The brain of a 3-year-old

Titus' birthday is coming up soon and we were talking about birthdays in the truck. He was wondering if he would ever have any more birthdays.

"Of course you will," Ethan replied. "You keep having birthdays until you die!" All was silent for a minute, and then a heart wrenching cry started in the back seat.

" What's wrong, Titus?" I asked.

"I don't want to die on my birthday!" he got out between sobs. As of today, he is still making sure that he will not die on his birthday. Poor little guy!

Wrapping things up

I'm getting a little bored regaling you with holiday stories, so I'm going to end off with a quick recap. After Revelstoke we ended up in Salmon Arm for some water skiing and sitting by the lake. We then travelled down to Kelowna for a family reunion that was a lot of fun. So nice to see my cousins and uncles and aunts and my grandma! Also very hot there - we sure used that air conditioner in the trailer. As per family rules, we did the required go-cart racing. I was second over all the cousins, and quite proud of that. Luke didn't count as a cousin, he competed in the highly professional uncle division and came so close to the top! After Kelowna we drove to Calgary/Okotoks for some visiting of friends and family. We then went to Edmonton for a day of West Edmonton Mall fun (the kids all agreed that this was the best part of vacation!). Rides, waterslides - can life get better than this? We then wound our way home a few days early because I was starting to get a little homesick.

The next week, Caleb went to camp for the very first time. So scary for me! Luckily our church was in charge of the cooking for that week, so I spent a day out there in the kitchen and made sure he was doing OK. After that week, the days have been spent in summer-like pasttimes. Swimming lessons, pickle making, drag race watching, etc. Now I'm all caught up! Hopefully I'll have something current to share with you next time.

The Wind

An interruption in my regularly scheduled broadcast - a commercial titled The Wind. I wish I was the wind...

Next Stop - Revelstoke

We meandered our way to Revelstoke to visit Dan and Jocelyne and their baby girl. I have never met a happier, more content baby in my entire life. Nyola is such a doll! Of course, we went swimming, hiking, swimming, canoeing, and swimming (can you see a pattern emerging?). It was pretty hot and we were again grateful for the air conditioned camper! We traded babysitting with Dan and Joce - I think we got the easier part of the bargain. If a person isn't use to all the energy that three strapping boys can produce, it can be a little overwhelming. It was nice to go out for supper with just Luke. It doesn't actually happen all that often. Dan and Joce, thanks. We had such fun at your place!

*This is just an aside for my dear brother-in-law Ken. If you guys are going to have another baby, that's great. However, you are sadly mistaken if you think I'm going to keep calling everytime you leave a comment with the implication that the next Krahn is coming!

On To Invermere

After we left Grande Cache we headed out to Invermere. Talk about nice and hot! We stayed in a beautiful campground and spent time with some friends from Rainbow Lake. Curtis took Luke and I on flights with his ultralight plane. So awesome!! Only two people can fly at a time; the pilot and one passenger. It was pretty tight quarters! Curt took the plane up to 8500 feet when I was with him - we could see so many mountain tops! I only wish I could have brought my camera. He advised against it because of the wind - if it blew off it would fly right into the motor. Not good at 8500 feet.

Luke and Curt went golfing so Erin and I took the boys mini-golfing (they wore their golf shirts - so funny!). Big mistake; it was 38 degrees Celcius. We told the kids that girls only golf 15 holes in mini-golf. I think they believed us. After ice cream we went and had a big steak supper at Curtis and Erin's place with a few other former Rainbow Lake residents. Ethan managed to contract a serious case of heat stroke and spent the evening throwing up and sleeping in front of the fan (poor guy).

We had such a nice time, and were very grateful that we had rented a trailer with air conditioning! That campground ended up being the nicest one we stayed in for the entire trip. Thanks, Curtis and Erin (and Bernice, the nicest, most kid-friendly St. Bernard I've ever known)!

Hello again!

Yes, I am still alive. July seems to have flown by, what with all the vacationing and post-vacation laundry and jam-making and ... well, you see the way my life has been. July just wasn't the month for blogging. It did give me quite a few things to blog about though, so without further ado...

We had been planning on leaving on Thursday (July 5th) so that Luke could help me pack for a day before racing off to British Columbia. Of course, planning and this family generally part ways at some point, and we ended up leaving Tuesday night after Luke got home from work. We were renting a trailer, so we packed all our clothes, pots, pans, camping gear, firewood, and groceries into the Suburban to take to the rental place. Luke was the only one who could get into the 'burb without some major manuevering. The rest of us had piles of food, books, backpacks, etc. at our feet. A bit of a stuffy drive, if I do say so myself. Of course, no picture. I was just a wee bit too frazzled to be thinking about such things at the time. It was our hope to make it to Grande Cache and camp there for the night, which was only a two hour drive - what could go wrong?

We only had fifteen minutes to go when we saw the elk standing in front of us. Luke hit the brakes and we narrowly missed getting our front end smashed to bits. A mile down the road we came across a truck that hadn't been so lucky. The elk had come over the hood and broken in the windshield before sliding off and dying. We stopped and Luke helped drag the elk off the road. Being in the mountains, we had no cell service to phone an ambulance, so we brought one of the men whose face had been cut up into our trailer and tended to him. Both of the guys were in a bit of shock. We were there almost an hour when a police car came on the scene and took charge. We stayed for another hour and loaded the luggage and speakers from the truck into our trailer to take to Grande Cache for them. It was 2 in the morning by the time we got to town - we stayed in the mall parking lot that first night with a reassurance from the police that if anyone tried to bother us we were to tell them to phone the police station and it would be taken care of. What a way to start a holiday!

In the summertime ...

It has been a good couple of weeks here in the Willms' household. Grandma came from Manitoba to visit her grandsons. It was heaven on earth for Titus. Someone who would play with him while the boys were at school and Mommy was busy doing Mommy things. All day there were dinky car races, Uno games, colouring, reading ... oh, the bliss! Grace left early Monday morning before the kids got up. Titus was OK until he decided to go wake Grandma up. When I explained that she had gone home, he was inconsolable for a good while. Poor little guy!

Now we are into the heady days of summer when all we have to do is go camping, eat s'mores (it took a hands-on lesson from Jim and Heather for me to figure out all the logistics), and do crafts. One thing to get used to are the boys home from school. As I write, Ethan is reading over my shoulder and correcting my grammar! Not bad for a grade one graduate, I say. Other things we plan to do - watch some car races, play more golf, ride the bikes, have a water fight, and go on some boyish adventures. Our vacation is less than a week away and everyone is looking forward to it. It ought to be a blast of laughs going with these three goofy guys!

New nephew

I have a new nephew! He was born on Father's Day (on his due date! what are the chances!) to Eric and Jana. Owen Robert. What a cute name. I'm going to see him today for the first time. This is my first nephew/niece that I've been able to see in the hospital fresh out of the oven. I'm so excited!

Grammer School

Well, I've been checking out preschools for Titus to attend this fall. After last year and his "imaginary" school, I thought the time was right for a foray into the real thing. Naturally, I started looking at the one closest to home. I went to the registration meeting and was tremendously disappointed with the lack of organization and professionalism. Not only were there no registration packages, but no formal anything to base any sort of decision on. Parents came, saw the school, wandered around aimlessly, signed a mailing list, and left as bewildered as when they arrived. I asked a few questions after I had discerned who was on the preschool board, but they seemed to know only a little more than I did.

A month later, the registration package arrived in my mail. I opened it up, read the first page, and put it down again. I then got a phone call from the teacher telling me that the wrong package had been sent and to expect another. Yesterday, I received the latest one and proceeded to go through it. I soon discovered that I am a grammar snob. Somehow, I don't seem to care what kind of program they are offering or what method they use. If they can't write it out properly, or get someone to proofread their work, I get too upset to look past it. Apparently they are only "excepting" 24 students. And the teacher is "nearly" a facilitator of learning. I mean, come on people! Put that together with run on sentences and words out of place, and I go nuts! I don't mind bad grammar in, say, a blog, or something informal and personal, but in a business or school? Something professional? From someone who has been to college for 4+ years and has a degree in Education it is appalling.

So there's my rant, and I'm guessing that it is not all grammatically correct. In fact, I know it isn't. I do, however, want my son's teacher to take this seriously even though it is only preschool. Right?

Great Mosquito War of 2007

Yes, that is a dead mosquito. Slightly mangled. And it's all his own fault!

Sunday night we were the victims of a raid on our bedroom by the relentless invader Mosquito. The Mosquito tribe attacked us in the style of guerilla warfare, complete with camouflage and subterfuge. We responded with a method of seek and destroy that seems to be so popular with the U.S. army nowadays. Battle was joined for nearly half an hour with a dozen casualties for the Mosquito invaders. The reason for the assault - a window mysteriously open in our room. Who was their inside man? We may never learn the identity of that perfidious traitor, but through criminal profiling we have learned that he is very young, between two and four, and has blonde hair and blue eyes. When we catch the perpetrator (and we will!) he will face the severest penalty of the law in Willmsland.