Sunday is free skating at the arena these days. Judah took his first skate this last weekend and actually did pretty good after the first few heart-stopping, Canadian pride-arresting minutes. LOL. We reckon by the next time he'll be making big strides in his competency.

I'm becoming rather lax with my blogging it seems. Which is terrible considering that i nag other people constantly about their lack of frequent blogging.

I have been 'thought-blogging' this last week though, and looking for a quiet opportunity to sit down for a while and put it to paper cyberspace. Recently i've been watching some tv. Something i dont do much of regardless of where in the world i am, but Josh will have had the tv on to watch hockey or whatever and then he'll leave to play hockey at a ridiculous time of night (10pm) and leave me stuck on the couch like a whale within arms reach of the remote. So i've been watching some Canadian TV the past few weeks and have decided that despite my fondness for most things Canadian, our tendency towards gratuitous liberality and 'freedom of expression' is definitely not one of these things! What is it about Canadian culture that needs to push the boundaries beyond the lovely multi-culturalism and just a bit less socially restrained-ness of our southern neighbours? Why must we force 'real life' issues, fringe issues i might add, to the forefront of main-stream television? Why do Canadians feel the necessity to ensure that all people are correctly sensitized to 'the way things are' now in the world (well, in the western world that is). Does the watching public not realize that we're being brain washed here? Do the TV producers think we're so stupid as to watch such blatant displays of fringe behavior on the telly and swallow it as normal?! The scary thing is, this kind of brain washing does work. It has in the past. It will in the present. Canada is on the fast-track to her own glorified liberalism and uber-tolerance. And i want no part of it. I DO want a part of the new CBC Radio that plays singer-songwriters now more often than classical (although that was a painful transition for me to make, i confess). I do want a part of the rich tradition of multi-cultural embracing that we've developed and the national pride we attempt to foster for our teams in the winter Olympics and for our country in general. I appreciate the more down-to-earth-ness that i see demonstrated at least in the prairie provinces - that same characteristic being largely responsible (i think) for the fact that very few people are suffering greatly from this global recession. Who is it, then, who are pushing this supposed Canadian culture, this liberal agenda down our throats through the media? Who is it that is sucumbing to the American propensity towards fear-mongering when it comes to H1N1 flu and its supposed miracle vaccine? Are we all simply being led by the nose by those uppity Torontonians?! Bah!

Judah has continued to embark on a plethora of adventures in the past few weeks. My parents took him cycling in the park in the city last weekend when it was so lovely outside. They even managed to get to BDI before it closed for the season.
 





Josh was busy this last week mowing people's yards, washing windows and being an overall generally helpful guy to family and friends around town. Judah was quite stoked to help out with the window washing himself, although i reckon he made more streaks than anything else.


I am continuing to grow bigger and more uncomfortable as the days go by. I continue to receive MANY comments about the immediate arrival of my child, to which i have no sufficiently gracious reply. I've still about a month or so to go. Perhaps i should print a shirt that states this fact and wear it every time i go out. The ladies at Judah's preschool continue to be the most insiduous commenters in this regard. For my own records, my feet are so very swollen that my socks leave deep indentations on my ankles every day. They feel like balloons and i'm certain i have stretch marks on the bottom of my feet because of the swelling! I've pains in places that make me thing labour is imminent, however i'm sure it's just a preparation type thing. I've been scheduled for a fetal assessment this coming Friday to determine the position of the baby since the midwives continue to be confused at whether the babe is breech or not. Josh will leave that same day, before my appointment, for the west to speak at a variety of EMC church missions events. I've hired a doula in case i should need to go to the hospital while he's away Sleeping has become mission-impossible most nights, and i've often ended up moving Judah to the baby-crib-mattress on the floor and taken over his bed in order to get some uninterupted sleep. We need more beds in our suite i reckon.

As it seems we havent much earth shattering news or exciting events to blog about I thought i'd use my last 25 Judah-free moments before i pick him up from preschool to ramble off some of the things i'll be glad i recorded about furlough for to remember for next time (2 years from now).

We went to the doctor again yesterday. Josh to hand in his stool sample, since his recent diagnosis from the MHI indicated he had bilharzia cowed him into submitting to the indignities of completing the required re-entry tests. I also requested requisitions for Judah to do the same tests (stool, urine, blood CBC) since if Josh has something there's a small chance that Judah could also. We also asked the doctor to take another look at judah's foot problem, which still isnt cleared up. The bubbles underneath the cracking skin are still there, which indicates that the medicine is not being fully effective. We'll receive a referral to a dermatologist hopefully before we have to leave. (annoyed sigh! Great, a wpg doctor appointment with a 4 year old and an infant. just what i'd hoped to do on any given day). Anyway, we continue to be thankful for our new family doctor who is familiar with tropical health issues and is patient with the fact that we seem to be in his office on a regular basis. (hey, we may as well take advantage of free health care when we can!) Judah, while Josh was talking with the doctor about his issue, coloured the doctor a picture, which the doctor kindly posted on his bulletin board and subsequently gave Judah a lolly in return. Judah stated, as we departed down the hall, "that is a nice man!" It doesnt take much to impress him, seemingly. I'm somewhat resigned to the fact that Judah seems to receive lollies at every turn, not the least frequently from his upstairs grandpa, despite my pleas and stern reprimands! Straight from the clinic we went to the St.Pierre hospital for the blood work, since we had already resigned ourselves to having Judah jabbed that day. He did ok, despite some heartbreaking wails i heard through the walls. Josh kindly took the supportive parent role while I tried not to cry in the waiting room. Judah got a rather large pink teddy bear as a consolation prize after it was all said and done, and was good-natured enough to give the nurses a high-five on the way out.

I must confess, i'm quite relieved to be done/in the process of completing these health test requirements, since the possibilities of 'what if' have been weighing heavily on my mind. Now that Josh has his 34$-for-4-pills cure to kill the indwelling worms and Judah is in the process of getting checked out for any strangers in his body, not to mention getting his routine jabs up to date, i'm quite more relaxed. At least i've done now what i can for the health maintenance of my family. Please continue to pray for Judah's foot issue, that it would somehow just clear up on its own.

Josh is playing hockey with the Sr. team this winter, but apparently is missing half his equipment and cant remember to whom he loaned it (if indeed he did so). Note to selves: do not loan things over a 4-year period since then it's difficult to remember who has what.

I am still in the process of writing out supporter thankyou cards and trying with slow-success to get them out of my house. It will be a day for celebration indeed when that enormous part of our home-assignment workload is completed. Despite the "work" of it though i can say with surety that our cups of coffee and conversations over a meal with our financial supporters/partners (for/in our ministry with MAF) chatting about our last 4 years and theirs has been a blessing that is difficult to describe in it's soul-soothing. Every time we/i return from abroad i realize with pleasure how much we've matured and my pleasure in connecting with people of all generations, even within this hectic schedule, has been indicative of a point of growth in my own personal development these last few years. It's lovely to learn new things from the people with whom we are partnered and realize them for the rich source of blessing that they are.

Josh is also working for/with his brother doing construction (house framing) now that we've exhausted most of our visitation opportunities during the day. He comes home exhausted due to the unfamiliar physical labour and, to be sure, the energy sapping cold that has finally come upon us. We've got the sattelite tv hooked up in our sweet-suite now and Josh is enjoying watching sport and, finally, hockey games in the evenings. I can already confess that i'll be glad to leave the tv when we leave since Judah finds his right to watching it something worth constant whining. Alas.

I continue to enjoy the changing colours and textures of the fields alongside the country roads i continue to travel with regularity. I'm quite sad that i always forget to take our camera along to capture the glimpses of beauty.

My pregnancy, for the record, is going better these days in that my arms arent as excruciatingly painful at night (although they arent 100% either) and my innards seem to be working as per normal now. I can definitely tell that my body is moving closer towards the time it needs to let out its contents. My lower half is getting all loosey-goosey and my hips etc. are starting to be painful during the night. I will say, however, for posterity (ie. for future-jocelyn) that pregnancy after 30 is much more uncomfortable and difficult than pregnancy before 30. Keep that in mind if you should ever think to do this again!!