"It is finished . . ."

The thing about moving around so much in life is that I have few people around who get my little internal jokes.  Only fellow students from back in Scotland would get this one - the line from one of the Gaither songs we all had to sing as part of the choir . . . "It is finished, the battle is over . . . "  All, because all 60 or so of us had to be part of the choir whether we could sing or not!  Made for some fun (and funny) times.  And this song's chorus could be heard - whether sung or hummed - every time an exam was finished or a major event done.   It was perhaps sacrilegious, but was irresistible by the majority of us.

There's a couple of things I'd like to belt the refrain out for - one being our housing permit problem.  A quick update is that the title insurance agency at last settled with us last month and mailed us a cheque to pay a contractor of our choice.  Three different contractors had put forward estimated costs to bring our house either up to code or to return it to its original state, pre-fence and back porch.  We were surprised when the insurance adjustor emailed S to say she'd chosen the lowest cost to return our back area to its original state.  Which meant just stairs coming down the back door, like this:

I'd love to have some of that green grass back and what seems to be a tree on the property - wish the previous owner had left those things.  As is, he had rebuilt it like this:

S and I were stunned and disappointed that after all of the work and time to get the required permits and the estimates, the insurance company planned to opt for the cheapest solution.  With the cedar finish, we'd have to do a lot to weather-proof it without the protection of the porch.  :(  Much nicer than I, S had written a gracious response to the adjuster expressing gratitude for her work.  Next morning, she had a change of heart and emailed to say she'd go with the lowest bid to rebuild the back area to standard!  What an answer to prayer that was!  Good thing I hadn't responded with my questioning email as to why we'd bothered, etc.!

So the fence is massive and will have to be brought down to size (which I'm okay with - more sunshine for a future garden!), the deck will be rebuilt to code (its kind of ugly anyway), the side overhang will be brought back three feet from the property line.  Lots of work.  The contractor should begin sometime toward the end of May when the ground has thawed to put the required pilings in.  And hopefully when all is completed, the court summons - which was postponed from last week until mid-June - will perhaps be waived after all.  We will be so happy to be through with this stress . . . though we've been warned that the City will likely then take issue with the front deck.  We'll deal with that when/if it comes . . .

But the triumphant refrain to the song has been going through my head these past few days for the other stress.

Some of you may be unaware that for the past year, S has been editing a book.  It started off as half-finished adult curriculum material dealing with creation from First Nation and Christian perspectives.  With cut-backs in hours, the curriculum was shuffled from one department to his department when S first started work.*  Not one to do anything half-baked, S had read things through and come up with his own ideas.  If the curriculum was to have any integrity representing Indigenous views of creation, it'd need to have Indigenous contributors.  Being the book guy that he is, S started to contact respected authors he's read - American and Canadian, First Nation and Christian, male and female -  to ask if they'd want to contribute a piece on given topics so that a true dialogue on the topic could happen.  Suddenly, it morphed from curriculum into a 300-and-something paged book with authors such as Lee Maracle, Brian McLaren, Ched Myers, Thomson Highway and others.  It's been fun to see their names in our inbox, surprised at how gutsy my husband is to approach all these busy people out there!  Herald Press got word of what S was up to and asked to publish the compilation when it was all done.  Which it isn't yet, though it will look like this when it comes out next month:

What is finished at last, is S's work on it all.  The edits have been made, the endorsements are in, and as of yesterday, S wrapped up the index.  He'd arrived home early Thursday morning from Montreal, exhausted after two nights on the train, only to learn that if he wanted an index in the book, it had to be in by Wednesday.  The general internet opinion is that compiling an index requires a minimum of two weeks.  He had less than one.  Knowing S well, I encouraged him to try.  He loves a book with an index and would have been disappointed to have his book go to press without one.  And so Daddy returned last week only to become pretty much unavailable.  He worked mornings, evenings, weekends and when it wasn't quite done on Wednesday, the editor extended until Friday.  He returned home after the kids' bedtime with no more 'umph', but no more computer to keep plugging away at either.

And sadly, we both felt too done to even celebrate!  All week, I've been struggling with a bad cold.  I had started the dairy, gluten and sugar free diet while he was away and at the naturopath's advice, need to do it for a minimum of four weeks.  She'd warned that I'd likely get flu symptoms and boy, did I ever.  I'd taken my picture one morning for a laugh as I looked so pathetic with my red swollen nose and raw lips (antiqued in the photo to tone down the colour).  I'd planned to email it to my parents to say how much I needed them to come over to help me!!  Oh, how I'd wished it was possible.

As is, I made it through the week with a trip to McDonald's Playplace, Chapter's train table and the library for some kid DVDs.  I'm still not better, nor is Ai who stayed home from school all week.  Sadly, S started his cold Friday afternoon as the index was approaching done and his body could succumb to his exhaustion.  I foresee more DVDs in the near future.  But I also foresee much reason to celebrate.  S has done an amazing job putting together a rare book of Indigenous and Christian contributions to the touchy dialogue of creation and of environmental concerns from their unique viewpoints.  It won't be for the light reader or one who doesn't like controversy, but I think it will fill a much-needed niche for some.  I am super proud of S.  I'm amazed at his vision to brainstorm this conversation, impressed by his writing and editing skills, awed by his guts and his hard work to see it through.  Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry . . . we exhale.  What a huge relief for S to be done the major stuff.

I'm sure it's not really finished, but perhaps his work load will lighten a good deal and he might return to a more normal work load?  We can both only hope . . .


* Thankfully all the work on the book could be counted as official work time.  However, S had stepped into a position that had previously been filled by a married couple who worked together half-time, but far more than half-time (as is often the case in ministry).  It was acknowledged that there was far too much work for one person to take on - not including the steep learning curve S was to have as he began his new job.  To have this project added on to all the other things he's responsible for has made it impossible for him to get everything done in the typical 40 hours/week.  He has been intensely busy for the past year and a half, so it should get better, but he still had too much work even without this project.  Poor guy . . .