Just Ducky

If you need an idea for a charming, harmless prank to do on a family member or friend, I can loan you one. An idea, that is, not a relative or friend. If you're like me, you don't exactly loan out the latter.  

Here's how I know about a good pranking idea to suggest: 

A few hours after we came home from Maranatha Bible School, I got my first clue of a mystery in our house. As I was showering, I noticed a tiny yellow duck sitting on the shower caddy shelf. 

"Hmm," I thought, "that's cute. I wonder how that got there. I'll bet Kerra put it there as a little welcome-home token." Minutes later, I noticed another mini duck, an identical twin to the first one, in my Q-tip cup.

"As soon as Kerra gets home from her singing practice," I told myself, "I'll have to thank her for the fun gift items she placed for us."

Meanwhile, I found a few more duckies about the house, equal in size to the first two I had discovered but in new colors. Pink and purple ones nestled in a set of glass candle holders on the banister above the entry stairs. Blue and white ones perched on the upper portion of doorways and window trim. Clearly someone had been up to some sort of ducky welcome home.

"Oh, it wasn't me," declared Kerra when I thanked her for the fun finds. "Someone got permission from me to come to our house last night while I was gone and place some items for you to find. But the person who messaged me about it wasn't the one who came here, so I don't know who actually did the hiding."

Hmm, interesting. My thoughts began paddling. A bigger deal than just a couple of ducks, then. Who knows what prankster(s) entered the house and who knows how many ducks they hid? This should be a fun mystery to solve. 

For the next week, we kept finding ducks both by surprise and by intentional hunting. I started lining them up in a circle on the kitchen counter as we discovered them. When the total number hit the 20's mark, I googled "hiding ducks" to see if duck pranking is really a thing. Turns out it is! Amazon is on board with the scheme, as well, offering for purchase multi-colored flocks of tiny resin ducks in packages of 100. 

"One hundred! Well. We have a long way to go," I thought. 

Ken got in on the hunt, too. When he discovered a duck in each of his work shoes, and another ducky pair on the window sill high above the entry door, he started thinking that maybe a man was involved in the duck-hiding scheme. Perhaps a husband and wife made up the pranking team, he proposed.

 I thought he had a point. I started shifting my ideas about youth girls being the culprits (because they had hung out with Kerra one night shortly before we came home from MBS) and employed my sleuthing skills to further investigation among our church family. 

I messaged numerous friends, prying into their whereabouts on a certain Friday night by asking if they knew anything about a duck prank in our house. Some said they knew absolutely nothing about it, but they wished they did, because it sounded like such a neat idea. Others said they had heard someone say it should be done, but they didn't know any more details than that, and they weren't going to say who had made the suggestion. A few knew that it was done, but they were quick to insist that they didn't do it. 

The vague answers and cryptic messages deepened our puzzlement while we continued collecting ducks. Maybe we would reach one hundred! The duck circles on the counter expanded as the tiny, colorful creatures showed up in flowerpots, egg cartons, jacket pockets, the spice cupboard, and of all places, in the fridge freezer - frozen into ice cubes! 

Not only did we collect tiny ducks by the dozens, but we also accumulated some duck puns in our ongoing hunt for the pranksters. "Did you have to duck the last time you came to our house?" or "Did you add to the "duckerations" in our house?" I might ask a suspect.

"I must have ducked the joke, because I'm swimming in confusion, but it could be I'm just a few quackers short." might be the reply. "I'm trying to keep my feet out of this web" or "I'm not trying to duck your question, but I could take you on a wild goose chase, if you'd like" were some other punny answers to my inquiries. One friend asked if we had discovered who broke in, so we could know whom to "bill" for any damage.😊

Our children were also interested in becoming mystery detective workers. Ricky got the brilliant idea to check video footage from one of Martin's Family Fruit Farm's security cameras, the one mounted on the side of the apple storage building that faces our house. 

That particular move is what led to the revelation: The duck-hiders were indeed a husband and wife team, and none other than our minister and his wife! Some other friends of ours were in on the scheme as well, arranging the different aspects to the prank in such a way that it was hard to pin down who actually did it. In the end, they just wanted Ken and me to come home to a surprise conveying the message that we were missed and we are loved. I'd say they chose a unique and creative way to do it!

So there you have it - a welcome home idea for showing your friends you care. Order your Amazon package today, and get started. Let me know if you need some suggestions for good hiding places. 

Also, here's some advice for you, if you're ever on the receiving end of a duck prank: 

1. Make sure your house is clean and in good order before you leave it for three weeks. (I shudder to think of the dust and spider webs our pranksters encountered while they hid ducks in ours...) 

2. Put aside your qualms about people pulling open your desk drawers and cupboard doors to find hiding places and just pull out the stops on your enjoyment in finding the ducks hidden in those places.

3. If you suspect someone duck-pranked you and you confront them about it and they say neither nay nor yea, but something about trying to stay neutral in this sort of situation, count on it - they are the culprit. 

And there's one more thing. When it comes to pranking, never put it past your pastor and his wife to pull off a good one.

P.S. We still come across a duck hiding spot now and then. The other day, I found the 100th duck! But is that the last one? According to the hiders, no one knows for sure how many ducks were placed. Now the question is What to do with 100 ducks? Playing Hide the Duck with the grandson and using them as conversation starters or accessories in fairy gardens uses only so many. What do you suggest? 

Marching in the Company Of

                                                  📷- Jenn Jantzi

A whole month (and a bit more) has gone by since we returned home from our stint at Bible School. When I look back over our March schedule - the places we went, the activities we did, and the people we encountered in the past several weeks - I realize that we live a full, rich life. 

Recently I heard a speaker on the Anabaptist Perspectives podcast quoting an "old anabaptist" on the topic of brotherhood when he said, "No man is in Christ apart from his brother." The speaker went on to explain that we all need to have some kind of group of people to love, someone to have to get along with. "You can't submit to yourself," he said, "You've got to have real people in your life to interact with", in order to fully live out the teachings of Jesus.

I can't say I've thought of it exactly like that before. Viewing our experience from this perspective, I feel like we are a blessed couple with lots of opportunity for living out Christianity in community. We have so many friends, relatives, and acquaintances as our "real people to interact with" - people who help to shape us, as well as people in whom we have a chance to help form character. I'm grateful that we get to do life in the varied company of these beautiful souls.

In the month of March, we were in the company of the following people, some pictured, and some not:

Pictured: 

Luci Martin from northern Alberta was the guest speaker at a seminar for us ladies at Oasis. I had the special privilege of hosting Luci in our home for several days over that time. (you can read more about the weekend in the series she posted weeks ago, being the perfect kind of prompt and prolific blogger that she is)

Carlin & Kayleen and the twins hosted us for a brief time at their place when we were on our way back home from a meeting in Lancaster, PA. I helped Kayleen prepare food for a friend's baby shower she was attending that evening. And we doted on those sweet little girls, of course!

The planning committee for our Sunday evening services at Oasis put together a memorable event for our church family on Palm Sunday - a Christian Passover Seder. I signed up to make multiple batches of unleavened bread (lotsa matzah, as my friend worded it) ahead of time. As "father of the household" at our table, Ken was the one to pour the water for handwashing before we shared the meal together. The committee did such a good job of explaining the symbology (I learned a new word that evening) of the different aspects of a Seder.

Val, Sharon, and Tina are smart, helpful, and fun editors in my writing world. I thoroughly enjoyed my day with them and other writers at the Authors' Book Signing Event that Living Waters, a local Christian bookstore, put on. I didn't have my own signing booth, since the book I'm working on isn't to the signable stage yet, so I visited other authors at their stations, and sat in on Topic and Q & A sessions in the main assembly. It was a special highlight of the day to rendezvous with the abovementioned members of my Writers' Group. 

                                                     📷- Tori Martin

Norm & Sharon and daughters blessed us with their music and their words at an annual fundraiser dinner for NYP one evening at an area church. I'm always so encouraged to see families who enjoy singing together. 

Darrel & Cathy visited our church one Sunday morning and graced us with their presence in our home for Sunday lunch and an afternoon visit. There's nothing quite like getting together with old friends we haven't been with for awhile, to make the hours zip by. 

                                                                   📷- Kerra Martin

The Waterloo Kenites came here last Saturday evening to celebrate Kerra, who had just become a quarter century years old earlier in the week. The gathering was also a catch-up party for Joy, Rolin, and Jasmine, whose birthdays we missed celebrating right while they happened during the past year. As usual, the triplets provided a good portion of the entertainment that evening. It was their first time to be here since Jude and Piper are walking, so they had great fun exploring Grandpa and Grandma's house!   

Our church family shared a preparatory service, a Communion service, an Easter Sunday morning service, and a potluck meal together in recent weeks. What a privilege to get to know my brothers and sisters better as we sing together, listen to each other's testimonies and stories, hear sermons and study the Word together, wash each other's feet literally and figuratively, eat each other's good food, laugh and cry together, encourage one another, learn from each other's mistakes, and follow Jesus together.

Not pictured:

~ Nephew Nick married his sweetheart Alisha on the day that we got home from Bible School, and we were pleased to attend the wedding as the groom's aunt & uncle. A meaningful part of the ceremony was witnessing the couple read the vows they had written to each other, and a special touch at the close of the reception was the gathering of guests around the couple for a send-off prayer of blessing.

~ Seth came here after school one afternoon and stayed for a few hours, long enough to eat supper with us, listen to some stories, play house (which included caring for triplet babies, of course), play Hide the Duck, and go fishing (for Grandma's pool noodle fish).

~ A pleasant and helpful policewoman showed up when Ken and I were parked on the shoulder of I-90 somewhere in Pennsylvania, changing a tire on our van after dark. She informed us that we weren't the only travelers with a flat tire dilemma, that she'd gotten reports of a nail spill in the vicinity (Ohh, so that debris we had hit earlier wasn't a dead deer after all!) and that there were two more similarly disabled vehicles ahead of us. After our spare tire was on, she drove behind us, lights flashing, until we were well out into traffic again. In the next ten-mile stretch, we counted 13 vehicles pulled off to the side of the road with a flat tire!

~ My writer friend Elaine from Parry Sound treated me to lunch and a chat with her at Kitchen Kuttings when she came to Elmira to attend a visitation one afternoon.

~ And then the following day, my walking buddy and Tiny Group friend Rose shared lunch and a catch up visit with me at Covenant Cafe in Waterloo.

~ A pranking mystery couple visited us one evening...well, technically we weren't in the company of the sneaky pair, we were only in the company of the dozens of tiny ducks they hid all over our house, to welcome us home from MBS. I'll give more details of this in my next episode, oops, I mean in my next blog post. 

I Wish I Could Tell You

I wish I could tell you I was super excited about leaving home for three weeks and teaching twelve lessons on Christian Womanhood at Maranatha Bible School and that I didn't, sometimes after I was there, count down the days until I could go back home and fry eggs instead of my brain.

But that wouldn't be all the way true.

I wish I could tell you that I remembered to bring along my Warning: Slowest Eater at the Table sign for personal use in the dining area of the MBS gym.

But I didn't. 

I wish I could tell you that forgetting the sign didn't matter because I have made great strides (since I was a student in the same facility 40 years ago) in my ability to finish a meal at the same time as other normal human beings around me.

But I haven't. (Can't decide if it's due to savoring my food too much or talking too much – probably both)

I wish I could tell you I was model of righteousness at Maranatha; that I didn't go back to our apartment following the class wherein I had taught Stewardship of Time and promptly flop on the couch and start scrolling through my social media accounts when there were students' papers to grade, laundry items to fold, and the next days' lessons to prepare.

But I wouldn't be honest in saying so.

I wish I could tell you that I didn't worry a smidgen when Ken got pale-n-sweatin' sick the middle week we were out there; that I wasn't dealing with my own case of inner wobblies as I drove my husband to a walk-in clinic at noon one day and then again to an ER several hours later to get the severe pain in his side checked out; that I didn’t have to keep tamping down rising fear when he later developed a cough that sounded like it came from somewhere deep as his socks. 

But my journal entries from that time would tell quite a different story.

I wish I could tell you that the weekend we went to visit Ken’s sister Laurel and her family close to the one-year anniversary of Verlynn’s death, we brought our robust, cheery selves to their household instead of our sick and weary ones; that I didn’t question God’s ways again when interacting with a beautiful family bereft of husband, dad, and (first-time)grandpa; that my emotional strength caused blessing and comfort to ooze out my pores instead of having my longings drip out and puddle into a soggy mess in front of the Yoders as we circled up for a farewell prayer.

They could tell you otherwise.

I also wish I could tell you…

…how fun it was to return to Maranatha Bible School, to frequent the building in which I was a student for parts of seven consecutive winters so long ago, to walk the same tiled halls and enter the same rooms such as The Library and Rm. 103, to smell the same particular scent combination of laundry detergent and hairspray and snack boxes when approaching the dryers down by the girls’ dorm, to see the sign on the prayer room door and remember the awe-some feeling of meeting God while closeted there, to catch a glimpse of the Yearbook Staff corner and reminisce the moment when Ken came over there and asked me to go with him on a ten-minute walk along the lanes of little Lansing (don’t laugh, that was the extent of romantic beginnings we were allowed as MBS students back then)

…how interesting it was to make connections with the present-day students, to say to them, “I went to Bible School with both of your parents” or “Actually, we’re related to each other – your Grandpa Kauffman is my first cousin” or “Nine years ago when Ken and I were instructors here, your sister was a student in my class.”

…how beautiful it was to get to know my fourteen students – young women who listened carefully and respectfully in class, laughed at my jokes and cried with me when I told them about our tiny babies in heaven, turned in thoughtful homework assignments, entered wholeheartedly into group activities (my, were they ever good at volleyball!), served others willingly, interacted well with the staff children, and were profuse with their appreciation for my teaching.

…how enlightening it was to sit at my desk in the teachers’ room, listening to the male instructors’ conversations going on around me and hearing their robust discussions generated by chapel messages or questions from students in class, and how empowering it was to have these godly men invite my participation in the staff teamwork and sometimes ask for my input on a topic they were teaching.

…how exciting it was to watch God answer prayer during our time at MBS – for wisdom in class preparation, for relief from pain (thankfully, Ken’s bout was due to a muscular injury and not some gall bladder issue or another even scarier cause), for safety in travel and for event-free border crossings when both the principal and the assistant principal needed to return to their respective home communities for funerals within the same week.

…how healing it was to intermingle with Laurel & Co. in their home, to share meals and games and laughter together, to meet sweet baby Adalynn for the first time and to watch her mama’s family dote on her, to see the effect Laurel’s tonic had on Ken – both the home remedies and the in-depth conversation opportunities she offered her sibling.

…how enriching it was to spend three weeks of concentrated study in God’s Word, to learn more of His ways while fellowshipping among His people, to hunger more deeply for God and to find Him so satisfying. 

I wish I could tell you…

So I did. 

The current MBS students (eating popcorn after Sunday night singing in the halls)

The future MBS students?

Dining tables creatively arranged on Valentine's Day

Justin Martin leading the choir in daily chorus period

Hands-on activity (making a cake while blindfolded) during Team-Building Saturday

Sampling and judging the "blind-mixed" cakes

Indoor Blitz with oversized cards

My students had amazing childcare abilities

Studious, but also fun-loving

All the beautiful ladies posing after The Tea Party in the lounge

A special treat to be at MBS at the same time as our niece April

Dining with the Yoders

"Let's go!"

What a great-niece we have! 💗

Concentration efforts while "Uzzling"

Making music and memories

What's been happening in your life lately? Is there anything you wish you could tell me?😉 I'd love to hear it! 

What I Like About My Life Right Now (besides having good bloggers to imitate)

By doing a blog post with the above title, I'm copying my daughter-in-law Jasmine, and Luci Martin, two of my favorites among the bloggers that I follow. One day this week, Jasmine posted an article with a similar title and the next day Luci took her idea and ran with it. Now I'm doing the same thing because I love the idea, too. And besides, what better time is there for me to describe my likes about life than during a month that includes two birthday parties for one-year-olds, and a trip to Jamaica?

1. I like watching multiple one-year-olds eat sweets for the very first time. Even though their mothers stayed on the healthy side of things for this momentous occasion by baking bananas and yogurt into the cupcakes and frosting them with plain whipped cream, the babies devoured the treat with great gusto. It was a pleasure to watch.

2. I like the fact that Ken and I are at a stage in married life where we can travel quite freely - after our children's first childhood and before our second childhood. I also like that we travel together whenever we can. I like that, even though we tend to do ditzy things in our travels, we still enjoy each other's company in exploring new places, we love to celebrate our anniversaries by "going away somewhere", and we both lean toward quiet, private resorts (even if they are quirky) above huge, glamorous ones. 

3. I like that we chose Jamaica for our international travel this year. I like the three-fold purpose of the trip: 1. To travel with "brother" Ruben and his wife Chris to visit their daughter Tenika who is an Auntie at a mission in Montego Bay. 2. To celebrate our marriage reaching 35 years old. 3. To visit some of Ken's Jamaican orchard workers in their home territory.

4. As shown in the following photo series, here are some things I like about my life in Jamaica right now:

I like the flowers. Their brilliance, uniqueness of shape, abundance, their tropicalness.

I like the birds and animals, mostly. (I did not like the sneaky rat I saw out of the corner of my eye in our bedroom at the mission!) From the "friendly" crocodiles, to the free range cattle and goats and mama chickens with their littles, to the zippitydoo geckos, to the scuttling crabs, to the bad-hair-day egrets, the tiny darting hummingbirds (and the fascinating long-tailed kind, too), all are unique and amazing in their own God-created way. 

I like the scenery - the many gorgeous and refreshing waterfalls, the patchworked mountainsides, the clouds being their best in the most tropic of blue skies, sunlight on the Caribbean waves by day and moonlight on the Caribbean swells by night, the phenomenal sunrises and sunsets.

I like the food. Fresh fruits chunked up or sliced on the spot, as topping added to a fruit crunch bowl or done up in colorful smoothies. Slow-grilled meat from The Pork Pit in Montego Bay, chicken in its various fried, curried, jerked and brown stewed forms, spicy whole boiled shrimp (if I can get past those black eyes looking up at me!), a most flavorful soup made from said shrimp and vegetables in a well-seasoned broth, new-to-me foods such as goat curry, festival, coco bread, and callaloo (Jamaican kale? actually, I could do fine without much of that), and rice and beans (called rice and peas, here) that you can get as readily as fries in Canada. And I must mention Jamaican patties! The flaky pastries pocketing beef or chicken and cheese are a special treat all their own. 

I like the encounters with people. 

*Traveling with Ruben & Chris for the first few days of our journey...sharing the delight of hanging out with their daughters...hiking up Dunn River Falls and experiencing the falls at The Blue Hole with them...learning about tropical fruits from Ruben who grew up in El Salvador...enjoying Chris finally getting her mango fix...taking turns cooking breakfasts with them.

* Having babies to cuddle and little people to talk to when I was missing my own grandchildren...one of the MK's at the mission, a precocious 6-yr-old girl, took to me immediately because I reminded her of her grandma - apparently I look like her, I sound like her when I talk, and of all the amazing things, my rough and cracked heels are even like hers! 

* Going to the Church of God next door to our resort on Sunday and meeting Skip and Janice, a couple from Oregon who live in Treasure Beach for three months out of every year. They were so friendly to us, and encouraging. Not only do we have our love of God and His people in common, but we ladies also share a love of amateur photography.

* Meeting Ken's orchard workers in their home territory was a definite highlight of the trip. I found it so fascinating to make little connections and to learn interesting pieces of the guys' stories. One of the young men has a twin sibling, just like I do. He and his identical twin brother have only one letter different in their names. He showed me pictures of the two of them doing music shows together. Another 40-yr-old worker is the youngest in his family and when he's not in Ontario picking apples for Martin's, he helps out his elderly parents by cooking food in the restaurant they began operating before he was born. When he was a toddler they'd bring him along to the restaurant and tie him on a leash so he wouldn't wander into the busy street out front while he played. Another worker is very polite; he refers to Ken as Chief, and he calls me The First Lady. We visited a young man and his wife and 2-year-old son in their very small and simple dwelling. These gracious hosts fed us whole, crispy fried fish, mini bananas, and fresh coconut jelly. A special connection with this couple is that in their burden of barrenness several years ago, Ken offered to join them in prayer. Within a year or so, God gave them a son and they are overjoyed. It was a blessing to talk with them about this prayed-for child who was playing right there in our presence.

* Spending time with the love of my life was, of course, the very best part of our whole Jamaica experience. Ken likes to ask couples how they met, and sometimes he asks them if they were to do it over, would they still choose the same partner? If I were to answer that question, I'd say a resounding yes. I'd choose him again, every time. Thirty-five years we've had together, and now we're going strong for the next thirty-five. That's what I like about my life right now. I like it very much!