A little humour in the face of falling temperatures...

Otherwise known as, I need something to laugh about regarding the weather if this rain and cloud mean the end of summer already.










The Official Canadian Temperature Conversion Chart:

50° Fahrenheit (10° C)
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
Canadians plant gardens.

35° Fahrenheit (1.6° C)
Italian cars won't start.
Canadians drive with the windows down and still wear shorts and T-shirts.

32° Fahrenheit (0° C)
American water freezes.
Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

0° Fahrenheit (-17.9 ° C)
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadian Girl Guides still sell cookies door-to-door.

-60° Fahrenheit (-51° C)
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Canadians pull down their earflaps.

-109.9° Fahrenheit (-78.5° C)
Carbon dioxide freezes, makes dry ice.
Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

-173° Fahrenheit (-114° C)
Ethyl alcohol freezes.
Canadians get a day off from work to go tobogganing.

-459.67° Fahrenheit (-273.15° C)
Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.
Canadians start saying "Cold, eh?"

-500° Fahrenheit (-295° C)
Hell freezes over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

My Favourite Things Monday: Spring

After a hiatus from MFTM, here it is again, with an appropriate theme: Spring.

My friend here wrote about Spring blossoms. And while I love the explosion of colour that is taking place, with some tulips blooming as big as baseballs, my favourite part of Spring this year has been the ability to do this:



It has been a long, cold, wet, rainy Spring here on the West Coast. Apparently, we can blame this on La Nina. M and I were talking just the other day about how warmer it felt last year in February, when we went to Vancouver to check out the Olympics, than it was last Saturday, attending a very drizzly May wedding.

But there have been days, few and far between, where the sun has teased us for an afternoon, as if to assure that he's still there, although being coy. And so, making hay while the sun shines (always think of Pa Ingalls when this phrase comes to mind), I gather my laundry and out I go.

As usual, I have company in the form of my two little girls who have been cooped up way too much this rainy season. They follow me like eager puppies being let out of the kennel, almost tripping over my feet or their own. I let them run around the deck while I hang the clothes up. They are sad to go back in when I'm done. I tell them we'll play outside later when it has warmed up a little.

If it hasn't starting raining by the afternoon.

ch-ch-ch-changes

There have been a number of big changes in our west coast grace life these past few weeks. It seems life was sort of "on hold" until after we returned home from our vacation in Peachland and then it started pouring down us....literally - in the form of rain which was a nice change after the heat and humidity of the previous few weeks.

The biggest change of all was moving Annie into a big bed. M and I had been talking about it but were not in any big hurry. However, the day we got back from holidays, she took it upon herself to climb in and out of her crib not once, but five or six times. It was quite a feat let me tell you. She would grasp the railing and haul her little legs up and then literally fall in or out of the crib, whichever way she was planning to go. To prevent any injuries we decided, with much trepidation on my part after hearing numerous horror stories, of putting her in a "big girl" bed. It went surprisingly smoothly, with only a few days of her getting out of bed and playing with toys or trying to look through the window when she was supposed to be in bed sleeping. It was a bittersweet moment, seeing her so small lying on the big mattress, knowing she was my baby and realising she was growing up. She's only two and already I think she's getting way too big.

Another big change comes with me starting my new job. It's been going very good. In fact, it's only been about 3 weeks and I'm already through my training and onto being a full-fledged medical transcriptionist! After all the years of hard work, it is so good to have reached this goal. It's quite exciting to be actually working in the field I've studied for so long and I'm surprised that it's not as big of a change as I feared it was going to be, especially since I have a babysitter coming in once a week to take care of Annie. But she loves her Auntie P! I also think it's time to bring back the medical word of the day as well.

My body is also changing, making room for this baby. I think my stomach is smaller this time comparable with Annie, and I wonder where this baby actually is hiding. I guess it will pop out soon enough and I am enjoying the fact that I'm almost halfway (almost 20 weeks) and I'm not even wearing maternity clothes yet.

So... changes... looking back on them, especially the move from crib (read baby) to bed (read toddler/big girl), is not as traumatic as the first night when I peeked in on her and I wondered where my baby girl went. And I know in a few years I'll peek in on her and wonder where my tripping toddler went, and so on... It seems that more changes happen more often lately and I wonder if I'll ever get used to it... and I wonder if when she's 20, I'll look at Annie and remember the first night she changed from my baby to my big girl in the blink of an eye....

mud-licious... or, for a rainy day

...which wasn't today for those of us living on the West Coast. It was gorgeously sunny!

But as we know, it also rains a lot on the West Coast. And after the second (or third) consecutive week of rain and greyness, it can start to get to you... but I came across this wonderful quote to remember when all those dreary days make you want to walk into oncoming traffic...

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful. -E.E. Cummings

I just can't wait for that next puddle-wonderful day...

woodworking

It was a dark and stormy Saturday night and I was not in the best of moods when I pulled into the Walmart parking lot. That West Coast rain was pouring down, but unlike the name of this blog, grace was the last thing on my mind.

It had been a busy day running errands and only two hours before I had come home from grocery shopping and looking forward to sitting down with some supper and perhaps a g&t. Not being used to a new and much bigger grocery store had left my flustered and frustrated as I tried to find all the things on my list. Save-on-Foods in Abbotsford is a lot larger than Super Valu in Houston.

But the quiet time had to wait. After having a quick bite to eat to stave off a fainting spell, I had to head out again. A had thrown her soother in the garbage that afternoon and to avoid a 13-month-old-sized catastrophe we needed a new one ASAP.

The Walmart baby section is at the furthest corner of the store. As I walked down the main centre aisle I noticed a homeless man dressed in raggedy clothes drinking a hot coffee and watching the tv, most likely taking some shelter from the deluge outside. And his clothes were raggedy indeed - a myriad of colours from different shirts showing through a myriad of holes and tears.

"Why do the homeless have to look so homeless?" I thought uncharitably, begrudging his right to be in the store, as if the sight of him injured my eyes.

As the thought finished crossing my mind, shame filled me. How bad of a mood did I have to be in and how full of my own self-importance, to judge another person? The verse about seeing the sliver in someone else's eye around the plank in my own came to me.

I continued my journey to the far end of the store a little slower and a little more somberly, with words of prayer in my heart.

Those planks of judgmentalism surprised and convicted me. It seems I have some woodworking to do.

one

Some of you may be wondering about the name of this blog: West Coast Grace.

I wasn't going to pick a blog name that had to do with location. Knowing us, we could easily pick up and move again one day and then I'd have to think up another blog name. I was going to call it Living Under Grace, because that phrase has stayed with ever since I used it for my 10 Year Reunion write-up. I wanted this blog to reflect something important to me and perhaps also be a reminder to me, every time I login, that I do live under Grace every day of my life.

Well, the blogging powers that be said I couldn't.

Hence the name West Coast Grace and the description below it. You can't have a name like that without any mention of the sometimes torrential rain this region gets. The first time it poured since our move back I stood by our deck window amazed at the power. To be honest, I kind of missed it.

And just like the previous blog, this one will be a mishmash of life with my family, rants about medical transcription, and whatever else that comes along that tickles my fancy or catches my eye...

West Coast Grace. ..because His Grace pours down like the West Coast rain... That's what I want to be and what I am. Drenched with His Grace. Everyday.