SPRING is Coming (?)

It looks like spring may be coming after all.  It has been a long, cold winter, this winter of 2014.
We had a snow covered backyard on April 14, after a summery hot day on Friday, the 11th, when we opened our newly installed sunshade. 

We spend the Easter holy-days with our children and grand-children in Minnesota.  They are active in their community and church.  They participated in both the Good Friday service and on Easter morning using their musical talents to enhance the experience of all who attended there. 

  

Our new Altima needs a new back-up camera, the lane departure warning and the blind-spot detector pooped out.  Now we are perfectly able to drive without that, but these features should be working properly if they are installed.  I have heard before, that more gadgets can cause more problems and that luxury comes at a price.  Yet, we still “want” all this fancy stuff.  GPS routing and mapping is good for finding an unfamiliar location, but it does not do away with the need for a good road map.  Unless you are just driving express-way.
 
We are preparing to go to
Glen Eyrie again for the month of May.  We are aging scheduled to work at the Pink House and doing tours.

We will probably again take a scenic route and may take two days to get there.




 




Just to keep up the interest, I posted another Korcula composite picture as well.  We still have very good memories of that trip in October 2012.  

Looking at these pictures lets us relive many of the special moments we experienced in this region of the world.  As I mentioned before, Marco Polo souvenirs are ubiquitous here.  History is not quite clear about his stay here, whether voluntary or under house arrest... 

Spring Activities.

The month of March has been relatively uneventful. As I stated in the previous blog, we are now volunteering at CEF in Warrenton, Missouri. 

We did spend the last weekend of March with our children in St. James. As usual there was a small project to for Rick and I to work on. We had a nice trip in our new automobile. We leased another Nissan Altima. They offered us a great deal, and I do like a new car periodically. New technology and a new learning curve. But at least the steering wheel works as usual, as does the shift lever. Just joking! We will be here at CEF until the end of the week. We plan to spend some time with our children in St. James, after which we plan to drive back to Des Moines and go home to our town-home in Johnston.

In October 2013 we were still on our cruise. The last place I described was the Greek city of Corfu. After an overnight trip, we visited the Croatian city of Korcula. The place brims with stories about Marco Polo. We spend a quiet day seeing the sights and sampling the local fare. Our ship had to anchor off-shore, so we shuttled to the quay. Beautiful Mediterranean fall weather to make this visit very memorable. Our next stop would be Brindisi, Italy. The end of the Roman way. It is still a very important port city. One of the shipping ports for the UN.

WINTER Continues

It is March, and it is still winter.  Today we had above freezing temperatures since early morning.  It has been a long time coming.  We may actually see more above freezing weather for this coming week or so.  But, if the past is any indication of what may happen, it could change to  another snowstorm. All in all we are continuing to plan for the near future.  Our oldest son and his family are visiting this weekend.  We are looking forward to spending time with them.
At the end of the month we plan to go volunteer at Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) near Saint Louis, MO.  We will take that opportunity to visit with our children, who live in that area.


This last week we were special guests at the Dining Out of the Officers Candidate School, here in Iowa.  The unit had decided to honor local Viet Nam veterans; it is the 50th anniversary of the start of the Viet Nam war.  I got to wear my dress blue uniform, which still fits albeit a little tight.  It was a wonderful formal affair, with full attention to protocol.  We really enjoyed being there.  Of course we also enjoyed the fabulous meal and the special honors which were afforded.
Waiting for spring, though. 

Mid-Winter

Another month has gone by.  Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Another attempt at commercialization of our society.  I had no idea about this holiday and the associated customs when I was younger, because at that time I lived in the Netherlands.  When I was in fourth grade, in 1957,  a girl from our class emigrated to the US, with her family.  I thought it would be nice to be a pen pal to her and wrote her a nice letter.  When she wrote back, some time later, she had included a “valentine.”  She explained that all the boys and girls in the US were exchanging these small cards with loving texts on them during the event called”Valentine’s Day.  I still remember the small silky red hearts and the saying on this card:   “I love you, and it’s not puppy love”
I guess it is a good thing that we married in 1965.  This just goes to show that she was absolutely serious about this little card she had sent me.

We have had a very long cold spell, with temperatures remaining well below freezing for weeks on end.  We had planned to remain near home in Des Moines this winter.  I guess putting up with a deep freeze, is preferable over getting stuck in a blizzard; “weather” by car at an airport.

I have been making things.  Sjoelbakken for our children, and model Harley Road King for my bride.  The activity keeps me warm and occupied.  After a roto-rooter job on my left sinuses I breathe much better and have stopped snoring as well.  March is coming...

I can’t believe it is the middle of January 2014 already!  I realized that my last blog was on December 7, last year.  Hence I noticed that I had missed my self appointed task of trying to write every 2-3 weeks, but at least once a month.  Since I cannot go back in time, I’ll try to do an update.  After attending the Christmas Concert at our oldest grandson’s school and enjoying the Christmas Cantata at our home church, my bride and I had a quiet Christmas.  We had invited another couple to share our Christmas dinner.  We had decided on lamb-shanks in mushroom sauce, with cheesy - garlic mashed potatoes and veggies.  It was scrumptious!
We usually enjoy the Christmas Holy-day in quiet celebration, because our children go to their respective in-laws during this time.  Ever since our children were married, we suggested that they celebrate Christmas with their spouse’s families, since there is so much emphasis on Christmas in the American culture.  It was not part of our growing up years in the Netherlands. When our children grew up, we pretty much went along with the American customs, although we taught them about the Dutch Saint Nicholas celebration and practices of gift exchanges during the eve of his birthday celebration, on December 5.  (I guess it took him nearly three weeks to come to the United States, on December 24.)  I did a blog entry on the Dutch tradition in December 2008. (clickable in my archives).Anyway, celebrating New Year’s Eve has become our family tradition.  Different areas of the world have different celebration of experiencing the passing of the old - to the new year.   I blogged on this as well in the past, noting the custom of baking oliebollen;  other food to share, fellowship, and the games we enjoy while waiting for the stroke of midnight.  It has become a family tradition for our children to be here for an extended period.  We have a gift sharing gathering and then invite other friends to help us celebrate the invocation of the new year: we stop to pray for a blessing on the new year.  After this we share hugs and good wishes al around after which we finish unfinished games.  

We share a toast to each other with some “bubbly” and slowly go on to our respective beds.

And then came the deep freeze.  It made the news al over the place.  We weathered the cold spell well, no heater problems and no urgent needs which needed our immediate attention.  It is nice to be retired, so you can stay in and turn over another time in your nice warm bed.    

Blessed to Receive

Thanksgiving is past, Christmas is coming.  I truly believe that all the glitzy ads for "Black Friday" starting on Thursday (or even earlier) distract from this season:  It is all about “giving!”  In reality it is all about getting!  This is even compounded by extending  "Cyber Monday" for the entire week.

Many words have been written about the value of giving; like selecting that special gift, only to find out that it appreciated less than it should be.  This is magnified by the plethora of gifts with which we are showered during our traditional Christmas.  How does one appreciate one gift over another?  The issue of re-gifting has come up as being inappropriate, yet a gift once given is the property of the recipient to do with as she might desire. In any other way it is not really a gift: if there are any strings attached the gift and the giver impose conditions.  This is more like a contract, than a freely given gift-item.

This opens another problem area: reciprocation!  If I give a special gift, I expect a special gift in return.  Anything less causes disappointment and even resentment.

Then there are the heart-rending appeals for donations at this time.  Many worthwhile organizations use this era of the commercialization of the Christmas season very effectively.

I am not sure how I am supposed to act at this time;  obviously not like Scrooge, but that is one extreme. Selfless giving is also fraught with difficulties.  The choice between wants and needs seems to be more obscured than ever.  Clothing and food are needs, MP3 players and I-phones maybe “necessary,” but obviously fall in the category of wants. So, we enter the era of gift cards.
The only strings attached are the amount and if selected, the store where one is supposed to use the card.  It solves most problems for the giver as well as the recipient.  It is easier to reciprocate as well, after all there is a specific monetary value to consider.

I don’t purport to know the answers, but I would like to refocus my sights on the real reason for Christmas:    
  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...

I cannot out-give that, I can’t even reciprocate, 
          I can but accept it in humility.
                     Have a truly blessed Christmas.

Home again

We are home from Glen Eyrie.  It took awhile to get settled in again.  We had been gone for nearly three months. Previously our daughter or our son-in-law would turn on our house and put a day’s worth of groceries in the fridge.  This time we were on our own to do all this.   Needless to say it took a little longer to get back up to speed in our home.  Also because we had been very busy the month of October, we decided to take some time off from any recurring activities outside our home.  Corrie was adamant about going to choir.  She wants to sing in the cantata, and that means going to practice. It is very relaxing and fulfilling to her.  I opted out, I prefer a bit more leisurely choir activity.  I’ll probably join after the new year’s celebrations.

Last year we had just returned from our cruise in the Mediterranean. On October 13, we visited Corfu, Greece.  This was close to the Albanian border, and some travelers opted to visit there.  We stayed “in town” and did some sight seeing.  The were some old fortresses which guarded the pathway to the mainland.  We also noted a strong Venetian influence on the architecture.   This was also the place where Corrie fell in love with the Greek design tablecloth, which we bought.
It was a relaxing day, although there was some climbing from sea-level to the downtown area.  We took a bus into the old city and decided to walk back to the “new” harbor, where our ship was moored.  We enjoyed good weather and shared some local food and coffee.