Take Time to Be Holy

I remember my Grandma singing the song Take Time to be Holy. (click to play) It was written in 1882 by William D Longstaff and the words are just as true today.

Take Time to Be Holy

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

Movie Making

This week a movie was being filmed downtown. Palm trees were added in front of the SP head office to make it into a Vegas condominium.

Little Sister's Birthday

Today is Little Sister's birthday. Here is one of my favourite pictures of her, out in the sun with fashionable sunglasses and hat.

I won't say how old she is but here are some facts about the year she was born:
- Soviet army puts down the Hungarian Revolution.
- IBM invents the hard disk drive.
- Japan joins the UN.
- General Electric introduces the Snooz Alarm.

She has always been my favourite sister and we have been the best of friends all our lives.

Happy birthday Little Sister!! I look forward to seeing you in about a month.

Supper's Cooking

When my mother got older she still had way too good of a memory about things I did when I was little boy. My kids would ask their Grandma, "Tell us stories about when our Dad did things bad when he was a little boy." One of the famous stories was about "Supper's Cooking."

When I was little our family had a gas stove in the kitchen. One time while my Mom had just stepped out the back door I must have gotten the idea that I could help by making supper.

I suddenly came out the back door and said loudly "Supper's cooking!"

My Mom could tell that something exciting was happening so she rushed into the kitchen. I had taken a little plastic frying pan, put in my Dad's cloth tape measure, put in on the stove and turned on the burner. Of course everything was up in flames. Mom quickly pushed the burning frying pan into a metal basin and took it outside to put out the fire.

Fortunately my Mom took into consideration that I came and told her right a way, so I didn't get in too much trouble. Needless to say it was quite a few years before I tried to "help" cook supper again.

Memorable Train Trip

When I was four years old our family travelled by train to New York state to visit my Dad's family. Even though I was that young I have vivid memories of that trip.

On the train I remember being in an upper sleeper bunk with my Dad. My sister, age 1, was with my Mom. While my Dad left me to go find more pillows I saw a button on the wall. Being a very inquisitive little boy, I pushed the button to see what would happen. And suddenly to my surprise a large black man in a porter's uniform appeared and asked what I wanted. My Dad was not far behind to see what was wrong. Fortunately I was not in too much trouble. I never have been able to resist trying things out to see how they work.

When we arrived I can still remember my Dad being so excited to see his family, since he had not seen them for about 10 years. He kept asking how soon they were bringing his Mother, and was so happy when she finally came.

The pictures shown here were taken by my Dad's brother Elias. My little Grandma is on the left. As a comparison my Mom (at the right holding my sister) was about 5'6" and looks tall compared to the others. My Grandma may have been small, but she had worked very hard, having 10 children, growing enough food to feed the family, as well as working in the field. She would have been about 78 in this picture, and lived to 88.

In the family picture I am sitting in front of my aunts and uncles, with some of my cousins beside me. My uncle took quite a few pictures of us including my "cowboy" pose. In the other pictures I look very serious and distinguished in my blazer and neck tie.

This was a very exciting and memorable trip, travelling across the continent by train, being able to meet my Grandma, and sensing my Dad's excitement at being there.

Scriptural Twittering

I have had a page element on my blog called Today's Verse for a while now. I have been manually editing a text box each time. However I wanted a way to keep track of which verses I have posted so far.

I am experimenting with Twitter now for posting my verses. The disadvantage is that each posting is limited to 140 characters, which may not be long enough for some verses.

My first verse in Twitter is Ecclesiastes 12:12 And further, by these, my son, [or daughter] be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. I thought of this in reference to the reading and studying Mary has accomplished. After all that studying no wonder she needs a rest for a while.

Little Elaine

Elaine's mother had this picture with Elaine when she was just over 1 year old. She is held by her Uncle Raymond. The others are her aunts and uncles, except for a neighbour, Ruben V second from right. Little Elaine is very cute!

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day when we honour and show appreciation for Mothers. Of course we should always do that but this is a special day for recognition of Mothers.

Here is a picture of my Mother taken at our house on Mother's Day 2006 at the age of 89. She turned 90 that November before passing away in January 2007.

My Mom put everything she had into her care for her family with unending love and prayers. I was blessed of God to have her as my Mother.

I also wish a Happy Mother's Day to Elaine today!

Trach Change

I just had another trach change on Tuesday. I have two identical trach tubes. Every 4 to 5 weeks one is removed and the other one is put in. Then I clean and sterilize the one that was removed, ready for use next time.

I have been having the trach changes done each time by a Respiratory Therapist (RT). Except when there is a problem and the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist does it when he examines me, as in my previous post on having a microscope up my nose.

Ky was coming over for supper on Tuesday. I offered that if she came over early she could do my trach change. But she didn't come in time so I went down to the hospital and had the RT do it. Actually one time last year the ENT specialist got Elaine to do the trach change. He wanted her to have the feel for it in case there was an emergency with my trach being blocked. I was proud of how cool and calm she was.

I was experimenting with the web cam and made a little video showing the trach tube. The part of the tube that goes down my trachea is 9.5 cm long. It has a "cuff" at the lower end of the tube, shown as the light blue balloon part. At night I inflate the cuff and the trachea is sealed around the tube to only allow air through the tube. During the day I deflate the cuff and air can go up past my vocal cords and through my nose and mouth. All this is becoming quite routine to me since I have been doing this for over a year now.

Symphony and Choir Performance

On Saturday evening I attended a performance of the RSO, and the RPC, joined by some other choirs. Attendance was "compulsory" since Elaine is in the choir, but I always enjoy their performances.

The symphony played some shorter pieces first, but the main program was a performance of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. This was over an hour with the symphony, choir and soloists. It was mostly in Latin with some German which I of course do not understand. (Apparently it is better in some parts if you do not know the translation.) But I enjoyed it for the excellent musical performance. I always like the powerful parts with the symphony and large choir building up to full volume. And the soloists had amazing voices.

This particular musical work would not surpass the annual performance of Handel's Messiah as my favorite, but I did enjoy it. All in all it was well worth attending.