Free Shipping Contest

 October Journaling

 

1.     Church, then a luncheon to welcome our new youth leader and his wife. No evening service.

2.     I’ve had a dry cough since we were at the cottage so over a month. Tested negative for covid. Working on my lesson for Bible study Wednesday.

3.     Housekeeper. I love that my house is clean at least once a month. Sending parcels to Nunavut with the free shipping for six Tuesdays. I’m sending her yarn, Hallowe’en candies, bras and underwear, and toiletries.

4.     Chiro and massage.

5.     Bible Study, then our son-in-law is coming to stay over with the grandkids because he has a conference in Toronto tomorrow. My husband is taking the day off to help out. Sausage for dinner, and sauna of course.

6.     Fun day with the grandkids, outside, and doing crafts. Our other daughter arrived for almost a week. It’s my son-in-law’s birthday.

7.     Picking up the turkey for my mother-in-law, from Longos. She’s hosting but took a cue from what I’ve done the last few years and had them cook the turkey. They don’t deliver anymore though. Bringing two appetizers and three desserts for tomorrow.

8.     Church, a joint service with EBCE. Thanksgiving dinner at my mother-in-law’s house.

9.     I entered a contest through Canada Post because I use them for shipping. We can win one of five gifts of $5,000 in free shipping in a year, so that would help so much with Uganda. I wrote a handwritten letter stating what it would mean to win it. Sent it with prayers.

10. A doctor’s visit for my mom, and she needs me to go with her.

11. Expecting a large order from Amazon, some containers for decluttering and organizing my pantry, and early Christmas gifts for the kids. They had Amazon prime day yesterday, the day after Canadian Thanksgiving, I guess to give Canadians something similar to Black Friday in the U.S. Sent another parcel to Yukon.

12. Received my deliveries from Amazon. Out to Michaels Craft store to buy yarn for the woman in Nunavut. She crochets, too. Prayer meeting tonight.

13. Thinking of getting an upright freezer; my mom offered to pay. It will be our Christmas gift; very generous.

14. I cleaned out and reorganized my pantry. It took ten hours over two days. It’s beautiful. I’ll post a picture. Missions' week kicked off with a breakfast.

15. Missionaries from Thailand this morning; went out to a restaurant with them for lunch; then a nap, then an evangelist who teaches the church how to share the gospel.

16. Writing, preparing for my lesson this Thursday.

17. More writing. Finished.

18. Mammogram; ouch. Our new upright freezer is coming today. I’m so excited. Prayer meeting; the speaker is from Samaritan’s Purse about the Christmas shoeboxes.

19. Bible study. Then going to Costco to buy things that will actually fit in my freezer.

20. Organized my stand-up freezer. It’s full already.

21. Cleaned out the freezer under my fridge. Threw out so much stuff. But now I know what I have.

22. Church. Conclusion to Missions Week. Our daughter arrived back from Colorado after ten days. She met her ‘in-laws’ and took a trip to Aspen.

23. Working on my lesson for Thursday.

24. More writing. Our granddaughter (6) lost her second tooth. So cute.

25. Finished my lesson for tomorrow. We will be changing our format for Bible study after we finish Ephesians. It takes me so much time I can’t get much else done. So we will use my prepared lessons on Exodus from my podcast, Bible Companion Series. I told them it was either that, or someone else needed to teach because I was burned out. They liked this option, unsurprisingly.

26.Taught my class on Eph. 5:22-33 about the responsibilities of husbands and wives in a Christian marriage. I felt like cooking after grocery shopping so I prepared some vegan mushroom soup for our daughter and her boyfriend for over Christmas, and meal prepped some beef and broccoli, made some chicken stock, and steamed and froze some spinach. I’m loving my new upright freezer.

27. Recording and cooking. Today I made tomato soup, salsa, and two sheet pan meal preps.

28. More cooking and baking.

29. Church. Excellent preaching.

30. Working on my lesson. Also packaged up some shoeboxes for kids through Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child; 2-4 year olds which are often forgotten.

31. Housekeeper. Also, it’s Reformation Day. After darkness, light.

Addicted to decluttering

 

September Journaling

1.     Drove into the trading post and bought the grandkids some matching pajamas. Made Finnish pancakes and sausages for breakfast; freshly caught fish and buttered noodles for lunch; and karjalanpaistia and mashed potatoes for dinner. Some crafts and then a campfire.

2.     Final full day at camp. 30 degrees. Our daughter keeps sending us listings for cottages up here; they’re so cheap, around $100,000 for two lots with a camp on them. Maybe next year. She’s heading into 8 months of school with no income. Fireworks tonight put on by the camp.

3.     Driving home. Picked up some northern blueberries on the way back.

4.     Been watching some youtube content about decluttering, minimalism, and organizing. I realize that what I thought was decluttering was just reorganizing clutter since I actually got rid of very little.  I will never be a minimalist, but I am determined to be able to access my closets and know where everything is.

5.     Finally finished Joshua chapter one for my podcast. Vacation slowed everything down. Just need to record and post it this week.

6.     Housekeeper here for the day. Thankfully I finally cleaned and organized the grandkids’ craft supplies. We’ll see how long they stay that way. Chiro and massage today. Prayer meeting this evening.

7.     Grocery shopping. Writing. Made keto chicken strips and corn on the cob for dinner.

8.     My husband has a men’s retreat this weekend with church. Today I am tackling a big closet for decluttering.

9.     More decluttering. Finished that closet. It’s addicting because it feels so good to get rid of junk.

10. Church, mostly women as the men are still away. Then decluttering a big closet in another room.

11. The 22^nd anniversary of the attacks on the U.S. Finished the second big closet, it’s mostly wrapping paper, so now it’s all sorted.

12. My mom has bloodwork and ultrasounds to check how much blockage she has in her arteries; under 50 % is good, over 50% is not good.

13. Prayer meeting.

14. Back to our Bible study; getting burned out; will finish the book of Ephesians but then need to look at either doing something I already have prepared, or hand it over to another teacher.

15. Went to IKEA for dinner and bought some storage units for the grandkids craft things to keep them out of sight. Our daughter is coming here for the weekend from Ottawa.

16. Decluttered and cleaned out the drawers and cupboards in our bathroom. Helped my husband assemble the cupboards.

17. Church. We had three child dedications, communion, and a resumption of evening services with preaching by one of the missionary families we support who serve with Bible Translation in Indonesia.

18. Had to take my car in because the muffler is shot, also the fan belt.

19. Working on my podcast. When I was at IKEA I bought a ring light and phone holder to try making a youtube channel. Our second grandchild (6) lost her first tooth last night, her left eye tooth, and it is picture day today. But it’s cute. Went grocery shopping. I need to declutter and organize my freezers because they are both filled to the brim and I only ever use what’s on top because I don’t know what’s in there or what’s still good to use.

20. Recorded a podcast episode; Joshua chapter two. Reviewed my class notes for tomorrow; we have a new person joining us; she found out about us through the website. Decluttered the hall coat closet. So many shoes I don’t wear but still keep, and a million scarves and hats and mittens. Prayer meeting tonight.

21. Bible study.

22. I decluttered, cleaned, and reorganized our fridge using clear containers. It’s a thing of beauty, but it took me a few hours. I’ll post a picture.

23. Booked our cottage for next summer at a different place, and they wanted a 50% deposit up front. We paid ours and our daughters, so no dinner out tonight with the extra expense.

24. Church. Our former pastor is the guest speaker and my husband is preaching in the evening.

25. Day at home catching up on writing.

26. Botox injections for pain. Decluttered one cupboard in the laundry room.

27. Going with my mom for a cardiologist appointment. Then we went out for lunch, then to Walmart. My daughter called and asked if I could come over to watch the three year old because she has impetigo and needs to be on antibiotics for 24 hours before she can go back to daycare, so I drove over.

28. I had to do my Bible study teaching virtually because I was in Hamilton.

29. Pain clinic for back injections.

30. Women’s meeting at church; we painted by pouring paint onto a canvas. I liked it. Baking and cooking for a luncheon tomorrow to welcome our new youth leader and his wife. I made a veggie platter, cilantro-lime rice, and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.