Meat Mania Mennonite Style

Yesterday was the chosen day for smoking some more sausage. It was a little chilly outside but that did not affect the smoke house or the smoking process. Since the pork was already ground up it didn't take too long to mix up the meat with the spices and then to stuff it into casings. The sausage was then placed in the smoke house for many hours. I baked up some fresh buns so that we could enjoy some of our sausage for supper. Once again our sausage production was a success.

THE BIGGEST LOSER

I don't know how many of you have watched "THE BIGGEST LOSER" on t.v. We don't get the channel on our t.v. However, I have watched the show a couple of times when I have been in the States. I think the reason I enjoy watching the show is that I can totally relate to the contestants who are making every effort to lose weight. Although I would not be considered "THE BIGGEST LOSER" I have reached my goal of losing 30 pounds. I actually reached that goal a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to make sure I could still make it through Christmas without gaining any of it back. When we got home and I got on the scale, I had still lost the 30 pounds I had been working on. YES!!! This however has not been an easy process for me. I have a love of food especially chocolate and I do not enjoy exercise. Many people have asked me about my diet plan. Although official diet plans have helped many people, I know the only thing I needed to do to lose weight was to cut down on all food intake and up my exercise, which was nonexistent when I started. This has been a slow and painful process for me as I started my weight loss and exercise program the middle of July. And although I never had any setbacks there were weeks when it seemed like the scale stood still and would not move in the downward direction. I would like to thank both Vern and Ruth for the HUGE encouragement they have been to me. Besides the constant words of encouragement, there were many times they went for walks with me when they didn't feel like it, but they were doing it for me. I would like to encourage anyone out there who is wanting to or is in the process of losing weight and exercising, to stick to it or start today and set small attainable goals. I would like to think that I will never have a weight problem again but I do love food. So this will be a constant thing for me to make healthier food choices. I have to get up every morning and make that choice to exercise even when I don't feel like it. Although I am not "THE BIGGEST LOSER", I am "A BIG LOSER".

Christmas 2007 PART2

Last night we had our Christmas here with Caleb and Kristina. We had a wonderful meal and made some great memories together, the only thing missing was our son Zachary. Since we were not planning on being in Chicago for Christmas I had some presents here for the kids. And all our stockings were here so the family enjoyed pulling out some treats from their stockings. On Christmas morning we watched Zachary enjoy his stocking as it was the only stocking I had brought with to Chicago as I was going to leave him a stocking to open on Christmas morning. Although things weren't how we had planned for Christmas, God did give us some really great times and wonderful memories. It had been a few years since we were in Chicago for Christmas and we are thankful for the times of connection we had with our family there. We also feel blessed as we have seen how God undertook for our dear daughter in healing her body from infection. Things could have been so much worse. We have also felt so much love and support from family and friends. We came home to several messages on our answering machine of people letting us know they were praying for Ruth. Thank-you for your words, notes, emails, and phone calls of encouragement. We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas even if things weren't quite how you had them planned in your mind. We have so much to be thankful for.

UPDATE ON RUTH'S HAND

We want to thank-you for all your prayers for Ruth. She went to the doctor yesterday for a check up. Our doctor here was VERY happy how her hand looked. She will go in on Tuesday to get the stitches out but all signs of infection are gone. When the stitches come out she will have to be careful for a few days as it is a time when infection could set in again until everything is totally closed up. Ruth will have to do some stretching exercises with her finger so that she will be able to use it normally again. But how thankful we are for how things have healed up! We had a letter from our insurance company waiting for us and so we will start filling out paper work. We would appreciate your prayers that everything goes through smoothly so that our travel insurance will cover all the medical bills. Thanks!

A Little Less BLING

Yesterday was a much anticipated day for Ruth as she got her braces off. The removal of the braces happened in just a couple of minutes and then the nurse was just sanding down the teeth to remove any cement from the brackets. She is now trying to adjust to wearing retainers but is quite happy to get rid of some of the bling she was carrying around in her mouth.

Back to the Great White North

On BOXING DAY we headed home to Canada. It was a long day as it took awhile to load up the van and Seth's car. Since Seth was moving back home he had a lot of stuff but mostly his bass equipment. But the guys did a great job of packing and everything fit. We had good weather and the border crossing wasn't too long of a wait and it the actual crossing went smoothly. We were thankful that Seth's car made it home alright as it is still having trouble and needs to be fixed yet. There was very little snow in Chicago but we were welcomed home to snow here in Ontario.

Christmas 2007 Part 1

Here are some pictures from our Christmas in Chicago. I labeled it part one since we were having another family Christmas here in Durham with Caleb and Kristina. Unfortunately we were not able to be together as a whole family for Christmas. But we were happy that we were able to spend time with Zachary as he was going to be by himself for Christmas. We made a lot of fun memories with family in Chicago. Titus got a twister game for Christmas and we had some good laughs and fun times with that. Although I ate too much so wasn't up to twister at the time. I sure we will get some games in now during the break though. Instead of the traditional turkey meal we had steaks on the b-q which was a real treat. We did not have a white Christmas and none of us were disappointed!

Schroeder Family Christmas

One thing we were able to do while we have been in Chicago was to go to the Schroeder Family Christmas get together. We have not been able to attend for three years. Therefore we were all looking forward to making some memories together with our extended family here in Chicago. Although not everyone was able to attend we were 44 people. My brother Bob and his wife Laura graciously open up their home every year for the Schroeder Family get together. Every family brings something to add to our Christmas meal which ends up being quite a feast. After our meal we sing Christmas carols together and then many of the grandchildren play Christmas songs on various instruments. It is such a privilege for Vern and I both to come from Christian homes where Christmas is centered on Christ. After our little Christmas program all the grandchildren open up a gift from grandma and grandpa. It was a fun evening where many memories were made.