see-through faith

Today our youngest (along with her two sisters and five brothers!) turns 1.
And let’s not forget TS’s terrific girlfriend who also celebrates her birthday today! Congratulations to you all.

From left
sisters Misty (3) & Maggie (1) together with mum Mindy (6).
(Photo -used with permission – taken by hubby over in Merimasku earlier this summer with his camera phone!)

I really enjoyed my computer fast yesterday.  They say it takes about half a year for a practice to become a habit … a few months ago I actually started to look forward to the Friday fast, though last week I took it on Thursday (at the silent retreat) because I came back to a big proof reading for Monday.

It’s easy to recognise an addiction to facebook / email etc … cos I did find myself wandering upstairs  a couple of times yesterday… only to check myself and remind myself ‘whatever it is it can wait’ and it did.

So how did I spend my day?

• walks with the dogs in the winter sunshine
• reading a good novel (The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith – a very good read btw),
• doing chores (see below) – for once I really enjoyed cleaning the house – would post before and after pics if it weren’t so embarrassing!
• continuing to read a not-so-good book I promised to review (more on that later)
• time worshipping (as I drove to town and back)
• and ourInspire Band (accountability group) which was excellent (and so very needed)

Today is a big day for our family!
It’s the Åbo Open dogshow here in Turku (Hubby is the main organiser this year) and it’s a lot of fun. He crazily (?) had the idea of inviting all of Maggie’s siblings to a reunion this evening.

All but one are coming. That means there will be seven of the eight puppies (now young adults 7 months old) here today. I’ve been busy preparing for this for days. There will be 10 (yes ten!) dogs staying over tonight, and about 15 adults in total plus a couple of kids. I told you hubby was crazy!!! or was it the rest of our family who actually agreed to this who are the crazy ones? (nah don’t answer – truth hurts sometimes!)

It’s meant a big clean and re-organisation of our house … and earlier this week I made (and froze) four huge lasagnes (one veggie, one lactose-free, two normal) for supper tonight. Today I’ve been baking ‘pulla’ (Finnish sweet buns) and a berry pie, for when the pack arrives. There will also be two different salads to accompany the lasagne. (I’ve been helped enormously by Rasmus’ owner who brought ham pies (quiche) and meat-pastries for the post-sauna snack tonight, for which I’m really grateful) -breakfast at 7am tomorrow will be self-service (porridge, Carelian pies and boiled eggs, yogurt, and sandwiches)

As you can see there are already five dogs here.

Here’s hubby walking our three girls plus the two boys from Salo (both are Mindy’s puppies – the younger of which Pele (aka Little fella) is actually ours, but adopted out so we can use him for breeding purposes later).

Today Mindy has a TOKO (obedience trial) – hoping it goes well, and the show proper is tomorrow. We’ll show Misty and Maggie, but Mindy will be in a special show (for breeders) with about ten of her offspring. Hope for some good photos also from tonight!

• my friend arrives tomorrow from England. I’m happy about that -though there’s a lot to do before then!

• TS came home from surgery this evening. They did a key-hole op on his knee which should restore the movement and help prevent the knee-cap from slipping off so easily. He’s on pretty strong drugs right now (picked those up from the pharmacy on the way home!) … laughing with his little sis and his girlfriend which is lovely to hear. Hubby and I have given up our bed (room) to him so he has easier access to the loo and kitchen. That’s going to last for a couple of weeks at least. I quite like his room (really the spare room) upstairs so I’m not complaining much other than the fact that hubby chose to sleep downstairs on the sofa bed ‘because of the dogs!’

• enjoying substituting in the junior school this week. Nice kids and a really nice school to work in. It’s been 18 months since my job teaching English in the senior school there finished (because two schools amalgamated). Sometimes I reallly miss working with the teens .  I wish I knew what God wanted me to be involved in now.

• busy proof reading a doctoral thesis right now. Finished one smaller work last night. Both pay the bills but it’s not my life’s passion that’s for sure! (and is sometimes very demanding work too because most people want it done ‘yesterday’ – though this postgrad is much more realistic than most which is a relief!

• no news on the new pc arriving yet. They sent me a delivery number but it hasn’t shown up in the postal service records yet so I can’t trace it. I emailed to find out if there’s a problem. Luckily this one is working again and I’m getting on with things – and yes taking backups all the time!

• Oh and dog news. DD showed Misty (the bigger sister) last weekend. She was disappointed to get ‘only’ a red ribbon (= very good) rather than the pink one (=outstanding). Misty’s sister Tuikku did get a pink one though so that was good. The next show is Åbo Open and we’ll show all three (Maggie’s first show) and hubby has had the crazy idea of inviting all those who show Maggie’s siblings in the show to stay the night. We’ll have puppies and owners crawling out of the woodwork … and yeah I dare say we’ll take a lot of photos. The puppies are now five months old.

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even

…

In his master’s steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor

Shall yourselves find blessing

(This English Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity, nonetheless it is sung at Christmastide mostly, I suspect, because today December 26th – i.e. boxing day – is the feast of St Stephen, the first martyr. You can read about him in Acts 6:8-10 and in Acts 7).

The words to the carol “Good King Wenceslas” were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853, the music originates in Finland 300 years earlier.)

Here’s where hubby, dogs and I trod on the feast of St Stephen

Took Maggi to the vet’s yesterday day. I’d forgotten her real name. Britti Funny. Yes it was!

She’s now 10.8 kg.

Little Fella ain’t so tiny anymore either. He’s even bigger than his sister – and the pair of them are so similar in looks that I kept getting them mixed up when Pele and Rasmus came to visit last night.Rasmus is now trimmed and ready for the dogshow the weekend after next. DD will show him.

He’s placed second earlier and got a pink ribbon (ERI=excellent) a few times, but as two of his sisters (Misty and Tuikki aka Tankki) have got sertti (certificated) we’re hoping for a great result for him too. He really is a lovely dog.

This is turning out to be a busy weekend so this was taken more-or-less on the run.

Class Photo

All puppies are now in new homes. Maggi is ours.

Yesterday the last of the pups to be sold left. His name is Ilo (meaning joy) and his leaving has left another hole in our family.

Now we as a family adjust to having mum, big sister and baby (9 weeks yesterday and already 7kg!).

This morning Maggi (our little one) howled when DD took the bigger dogs out for their walk. She’d already been out for hers – but obviously felt abandoned. It meant I had to get up earlier (no bad thing) and she was at my feet as I made porridge, emptied the dishwasher etc. Her anxiety was so great that when I went off to the loo she sat outside the closed door and howled -pitiful, heart-wrenching howls – again. Ouch!

All the dogs have gone to really good homes. We wouldn’t have had it any other way. (Hubby was so fussy that at one point I really wondered if it was a ploy to keep them!) Ilo’s owners have an older (10½) male called Leevi and so he’ll have an uncle. I’m glad about that as he’s going to miss his sister too. We had only the two pups for a whole week – (the others all left in stages the last of them by Tuesday last week) – and it was serious bonding time.

From this B litter none of the pups stayed in the Turku area which is a pity. However, we are hoping many of them (also from the A litter) will come back to Turku, for the Golden Ring show Åbo Open, in March.

This is the end of the puppy watch.  Hope to post a photo or two soon.

Just realised that I’d never written the names of the pups here. They are:

Kultjaharjun (that’s the name of our kennel)

Britti (B because it’s the 2nd i.e. B litter -we chose Britti cos the pups’ dad is from England but also it sounds like Finns might say Pretty)

and then their own individual name.

the boys are

Britti Magic (aka Musti because he had a black (musta in Finnish) band)

Britti Beast (aka vanha Pele who had a red-white band)

Britti Teddy (orange band)

Britti Bello (aka gay boy – pink-white band)

Britti Special (aka Pele – our foster dog, also known as little fella)

The girls are

Britti Angel (who left today)

Britti Funny (aka Maggi OUR one) the name was chosen because her sister Misty is Kultaharjun Action Comedy

Britti Beauty (DD’s favourite)

This time tomorrow we’ll be down to six pups, as Beast (vanhaPele) sets off on his next adventure to his new home.

On Saturday Britti Special will skip over to Salo (about 70km from here) but only for the day as a friend is coming over on Monday to take some photographs of him and Maggi. He’ll move out on Tuesday afternoon, along with Britti Magic (Musti), who is heading up north,  and Britti Bello if memory serves me right.

On Sunday Britti Beauty (DD’s favourite) will be collected along with Britti Teddy.

By Tuesday night (when they turn 8 weeks old) we’ll be down to just Mindy, Misty and Maggi.  This co-incides with DD’s half term weekend and TS is also free from his work practice on Thursday and Friday, so I wonder just what we’ll do with ourselves (other than clean the house!) because we’ll all suddenly have some time on our hands.

For those of you who are interested Mindy’s real name is Hiekkakankaan Villa Delores. And the pups were fathered by Ch. Catcombe Cock a Doodle Doo (aka Doodle), who was champion at Crufts earlier this year. (Scroll down to see some fabulous pictures of him retrieving). We are very hopeful that just as Doodle followed in his father (Corblimey’s) pawprints , little fella (Britti Special) will get the hat trick and be the third generation winner. Time will tell but he’s definitely the best of litter and more importantly won our hearts.

Photos soon I promise. But for now check out the one’s from the website.

• Yesterday would have been my dad’s 80th birthday. Ouch. He died in 1997 – the same summer as Princess Diana and Mother Theresa – I don’t think there’s many days that go by without me thinking of him. The memories were especially poignant yesterday. I remembered celebrating both his 50th and 55th on the edge of Loch Lomand (in the rain both times!) and eating corned beef sandwiches with piccallily, how he was a chocoholic (even worse than me!), how we celebrated his 60th here with friends and how DD’s godparents bought him silly tiger slippers ..  Those little flash backs and snippets – I am thankful for them -but still they are not the same as having him around. I think of how proud he’d be of his grandchilden (TS and DD were only 7 and 5 when he died, now they are 19 and 17 respectively), I think how he’d think we’re crazy having the dogs but how he’d love them anyway, I think how he wouldn’t quite get my passion for theology and mission spirituality, but how he’d support me anyway, I think … I think … I think. And yeah the tears flow sometimes. Not those heart-wrentching sobs of 12 years ago, but he really was a good man, and I wish he’d lived a lot longer …
• The first of the pups ( a girl) leaves today …she’ll have a very long car journey over to eastern Finland this afternoon so the new owners are arriving at 3pm. Luckily I’ll be swimming then. I don’t do goodbyes well!
• The pups’ favourite sport at the moment is chasing the mop as I try to clean the floors, wish I could video it – it’s so funny (but hard to get it done!) Oh and they love chewing newspaper. You can picture the mess! I won’t miss that!
• I felt I finally got somewhere with my thesis yesterday and the day before – Hallelujah! May it continue!!! Chapter 1 and 2 are more or less finished. I’ll start chapter three next week. Tomorrow I’ll fast from the internet, all things academic, and have a day of REST (pups permitting)
• This morning I started using my light therapy lamp. I’ve felt the onset of SAD over the past week. I’ve been tired, exceptionally irritable and well out of kilter as they say. Hopefully this and the extra vitamins will help. Going out midday for a walk with the dogs is helpful too, and my friend and I have still managed to swim outside on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons (warm water even if the air temperature isn’t much more than 5-8C)  and are going again today. Luckily the storm was yesterday – today looks pretty nice (if autumny) out. I’ve been raking leaves too (while puppy watching, that rascal little fella sneaked through the fence because the grass was greener on the other side!)
• I finished reading Star Gazing in bed last night. It’s a good – if light – read, but it also made me think a bit more deeply about how the blind ‘see’ the world. Unexpectedly it also dealt with the issues raised by abortion and termination because of an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy and abnormalities picked up by means of the amniocentesis test. I thought the author handled those issues well within the frame work of the novel. It also made me want to go back to Scotland – it’s 1½ years since I was last there so I’m overdue a visit. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to Aberdeen – I’ d really like to see the Piper Alpha memorial and the Queen Mother’s rosegarden one day. But my next trip to Scotland will be – I hope – to the western isles. One of my fellow MA students owns a croft there, and said I could visit. Now where’s my passport …? (grin)
• Talking of Passports … the airline contacted me yesteday to say my November flight to the UK had been cancelled. So I had to reschedule and now I’m flying out a couple of days earlier than I originally planned. It means I get to see my friend in London, so I’m not complaining.  God is good!