Summertime by the pool.

The girls and I on the pool deck in the backyard..last summer...This was before the pool deck weathered over the winter and peeled! :( The baby is my nephew Silas.

This was my devotional today...this guy thinks like me.... I wonder about all those little things that most people don't even think of. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

July 26 , 2006 'The Great Coffee Scandal' by John Fischer I'm sitting here this morning drinking my Starbucks French Roast and thinking about what seems so remarkable and complicated about how coffee came to be. I can just see some South American farmer sitting next to a coffea plant one day and suddenly seeing visions of shelling its red berries to get to the little bean inside. And once he saw that little bean, he would immediately know to dry it, roast it, grind it up, and pour hot water over it through a filter in order to get one of the most popular beverages in the world. I'm sure that's how it happened! Don't you ever wonder about stuff like this or am I the only one? And doesn't it make you wonder how many other drinks or potions are still out there undiscovered? Why did we find the ones we found? Were we wired a certain way? Is it just random that we landed on coffee? Could it just as easily have gone another way and suddenly we are all drinking hot baba from the babao plant? (Don't go looking; I just made those up.) All this tells me that we are not alone in not being an accident. That little bean inside the coffea berry is no accident either. God has built all sorts of beneficial secrets into his creation and then left us to discover them and use them. And this comes with responsibility as well because some of these secrets are harmful. That's all a part of the good and evil around us that makes life such a challenge. All of this makes me stop dead in my tracks and go, “God, you are so awesome! To have plants, animals, natural resources, and an environment in which they can all thrive together is one thing. The brains to make something out of all these resources, and the potential to use what we make for good or for evil are even more incredible gifts you have given your creatures. Who could have thought up a God like you? Certainly none of us.” So enjoying my coffee today has turned into an unplanned act of worship. It's amazing how you can access thoughts of God through the simplest channels. It's really not that hard once you start thinking down this road. That we can go about our work and never give a thought to what's behind the world we deal with every day is the real scandal.

Weaver Mom's meme...and before that Susan the Penless one....

Weaver Mom tagged me to do this meme... so here goes...


INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

Still See A Spark In You
walking through doors
Susie’s Space
Penless Writer
Learning to Weave

Next select five people to tag:

Leigh Ann
Heather in Canada
Jeanine at Roots
dcrmom
Devildogwife

Anyone else who wants to play is, of course, welcome!! (and no obligation if you don't feel like doing this either!)

Now ~ the questions:
"What were you doing 10 years ago?" Well...I would have been just getting ready to start homeschooling my oldest. As well as having a 4 yr. old and a 2 1/2 yr old... and pregnant with the fourth.

"What were you doing 1 year ago?"At this time last year I was just getting unpacked in our new home...

Five snacks you enjoy: cheese and crackers. cold pizza (veggie w/feta!), caramel popcorn(rarely), this is a tough one for me because I'm a lazy eater...I'd rather go all day without eating than be bothered to make something....actually I usually drink black tea with cream and sugar instead of bothering to make something(since I don't buy ready-made snack food).

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics: Create in me a clean heart, Seek ye first, Amazing Grace, O Lord you're beautiful, and a lullaby that I still sing to Janelle once in awhile. Lullaby and goodnight, with rosy bed light.....I don't listen to alot of music so these are the ones that Mrs. Weaver listed...and they are also ones that I remember from my childhood.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:I too would hire a financial planner so that I'd know how to handle the $$. Somehow I would want to help children of Africa and/or China..adoption or maybe something bigger than that. I'd dig a bunch of wells in Africa. I'd help out my family members in some way or other....ummmmm not sure what I'd do for us....pay the house off...

Five bad habits: procrastinating..which is probably at the root of all my bad habits. Letting things slide with the kids. reacting instead of responding...Not eating all day....drinking coffee and tea...forgetting to take my vitamins then crashing from lack of energy(duh!)...allowing clutter to accumulate...is that enough??

Five things you like doing: I love to read. I enjoy photography. I like singing with a couple of friends, but we rarely do it anymore. Spending time with the girls...Enjoying a quiet cup of tea on the pool deck early morning before anyone gets up.

Five things you would never wear again:I can with full confidence say that I will never wear those stretchies we wore in the '90s with the long sloppy t shirt over top!! Stirrup pants. 6 inch heels (ouch)!! costume jewellery that matches the outfit's colour, as well as the shoes of the same colour. High top running shoes...is that 5 yet?

Five Favorite toys:I don't really have any toys...hmmmm I guess the swimming pool out back....well this computer would definitely be one thing. A camera( which I don't have but will have as soon as I save up for it!!((: ) can't think of any other toys....I'll add them later if I come up with any.

I'm not tagging anyone specifically... If you want to do this though, I'd love to hear about it!! Have fun!

Sitting Here Thinking about all the Work I Have to Get Done!!!

Today is July 17....That means it's 8 days until my company starts arriving!!! My 88 yr. old Grandma- whom you all prayed for-is coming on the 25th of July. She is doing really well. (Thank you for praying!) A few months back we weren't sure that she was gonna make it after a fall where she broke her hip. She now has to use a walker but that's not all that bad, after all, she IS 88 years old!! ☺ My brother, his fiance and their 4 kids arrive on the night of the 31st. They drop the kids off and come back on the night of the 3rd, then stay for the long weekend. Then after the weekend, another brother and his family stop in on their way home and drop off a daughter who'll stay for awhile. Then somewhere in there, my Mom and possibly Dad are coming for awhile..I'm never sure how long they'll stay. We're all so excited to be getting company!! My brother is renting a big ski boat while they are here, so I should have some water skiing pictures to put up the first or second week of August. :))
BUT.... NOW the work begins!
-I need to go through everyone's clothes and get rid of all the too small stuff.
-Finish painting livingroom and get blinds back up.
-paint kitchen.
-sort out boxes and junk in downstairs family room so cousins have somewhere to sleep!
-get carpets cleaned.
-sweep and wash deck. wash white railing.
-finish sanding wood pool deck.
-stain pool deck.
-clean carport and take trip to the dump.
I'm sure I could go on but I'm getting depressed just looking at these!!! :D Well not really but.. yeah.. it's alot!
So today... I think I'll start with sorting the clothes. Well I see that it's getting late... time to go call the girls and get everyone moving! Hope you're all having a good week.

Quote for the Day.

Of those who say nothing,

Few are silent.

-Thomas Neill

I love this quote...it's very good.

Summer meals---Ideas Anyone??

Ever since summer started I've been at a loss for meals during the day. Normally of course, the kids eat at school. I don't know why I'm having trouble coming up with creative meals?! Maybe it's the heat!!
Anyway if you have any ideas for some yummy (and NUTRITIOUS!!) and economical summer breakfasts and lunches, please leave your ideas for me!! The kids will eat almost anything too, so that makes it easier. One thing that seems to happen is that we eat junk we wouldn't normally eat... so this isn't a healthy way to be doing things!
We try not to eat a lot of dairy...but some is okay.

It's been really hot here this past week. Today it's up to about 34*C--that's about 93 or 94*F -for my Americans blogging buddies that are reading this. By Friday we're supposed to be up to 40*C or 104*F!!


Thank goodness for the pool! I hope you're all having a great week. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you all with some good ideas!!!
thx!
☺

17 Years Ago Today!!

At this time 17 years ago today I was waking up in the apartment that my fiance and I would soon share together as our first home. My maid of honour was there with me. We got up and showered and headed off to the hairdresser for a wedding "doo" and makeup. The esthetician thought it would be a great idea to wax my eyebrows. I'd never had my eyebrows waxed and thought "sure why not?" Not a good idea! The skin above my eyelids was red almost the whole way down to my eyelashes... and not just a little bit red...they were RED! oops...great...the Godzilla bride with the red eyes..here we come!! We figured it would settle down by the time of the wedding...hmmm..... not to be. Oh well my moh came to the rescue... she plastered my eyes with eyeshadow to cover it. It ended up turning out okay. The other girls came over to the apartment and got ready with us.
The wedding was supposed to start at 2......at about 2:15 the phone rang and someone (I think it was my Dad) was calling to see where we were. Dad had forgotten or somehow didn't know that he was supposed to come pick me up. Anyway someone did come and pick us up and we got there just fine... albeit a half hour late! People told me afterward that they were starting to wonder if I had changed my mind and wasn't coming at all!! :) The wedding took place as planned and the rest is history.
We bought our first house 15 months (Oct/91) after getting married. It was a cute little 2 bedroom house with a huge flat yard. A great yard for little ones to play in!
We wanted to have children fairly soon after getting married. Sooo... Our first daughter, Lindsay, was born May 14, 1992, two months short of our second anniversary. When she 15 1/2 months old our second daughter Courtenay was born on August 29, 1993. That second bedroom was filling up! We were having a great time with our little girls and soon after Courtenay was born....well one year, we were expecting our third. Amanda was born on April 3, 1995. We now had 3 children, 3 and under, in our tiny little 2 bedroom home. It was beginning to get quite crowded, especially once we put Amanda into her own bed! The bedroom didn't have space for the 3 beds so we had a mattress under one bed that we pulled out at night for Amanda. We stayed in this little house until a month after Amanda's second birthday.
On June 20,1997 we moved from our little 850 square foot house to a 2400 square foot house!! Wow - we were lost in the expanse of it!! What a wonderful change this was. The 3 girls were so used to sleeping together in the same room that we kept them crammed in one bedroom for the first little bit until they got used to the new house. After a short while we moved them to separate rooms.
The following spring, on May 2,1998 our fourth and final baby was born. We called her Janelle. She was a tiny little peanut... weighing 6lbs 9 oz. Our kids ages at this point were Lindsay-6, 12 days after Janelle's birth, Courtenay 41/2, Amanda 3 and newborn Janelle. It was a busy but happy time for our family. It was like I'd brought home a living dolly for the girls to play with! They loved her!
I was also homeschooling the girls at this point. I had taught the first two kindergarten together the year that I was expecting Janelle. So we started them in grade one together while having a toddler and a 4 month old!! Wow!! I was busy! And very tired all the time. I didn't realize until some time later that I was very iron depleted! So my days were long.. but mostly happy ones! You have to know by this point that I love babies/children otherwise I wouldn't have had the four or homeschooled them. We lived in that house for 9 years. We moved to our present home last summer on July 3rd and again... a little bit bigger than the last house - to accommodate our growing family. We are no longer growing in number but instead- in stature!

We aren't planning any grand celebration today. We are having some friends over. Our wooden pool deck is in need of some work. We think that the people we bought the house from last summer just threw a coat of paint on everything so that it would look pretty and fresh for a quick sale. Now after a year of weathering the paint is peeling off the pool deck and it's a real mess! So Steve is bringing a pressure washer over to blow the rest of the paint off the deck so we can refinish it. After that we'll get the BBQ going with some chicken and burgers. I also plan to make some potato salad and some macaroni salad and probably a caesar or greek salad as well. Then for desert we'll have some of our fresh strawberries and ice cream.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.
:) ☺ ☻

Time for a Change.

I've had the same blog template since I started blogging in February of this year. So I've been playing around by trying out the different templates that blogger offers. There aren't really any that jump out at me and if you can adjust and change and add and subtract- I don't have the computer savvy that Leigh Ann does-haven't figured out how. Mind you----I haven't really put any effort into figuring it out either though. So you will likely see a few changes in template as I play around with them.
I could give some really creative excuses why I haven't been posting for awhile but I won't. Like I've heard some other blog friends say..."I started doing this for fun so don't want to feel guilty when I don't post for awhile". So that's why you haven't seen much of me lately! I don't want the kids looking at my back all summer!!! :o)

Last night we went strawberry picking. Between all of us we picked about 11 or 12 gallon buckets! I think they gave us a good deal on them... I didn't notice 'til after we left but we got over 50 pounds of fruit for $47! Today is when the work starts though! My friend Louise came along and picked berries with us. She's bringing the kids and coming over to "do" strawberries with me today. The plan is to just wash and freeze them. I think it's going to be a good day to be in the house-the forecast is for 33*C (91.4 F) today. It will probably get that hot or hotter in here today though because I took the blinds (livingroom) down awhile back to paint and haven't done the window sills yet so haven't gotten the blinds back up--MISTAKE!! It's Friday today so too late to do it this week. I was just saying to my daughter Courtenay that we HAVE TO finish painting next week and get the blinds back up!!

Have you ever had "swimmers itch"? I have it!!! Grrrr! Actually I have it very mildly. My two younger girls have it bad-especially Amanda. It's rather disgusting actually because it's a parasite from duck poop. The duck poops in the water...parasite leaves the poop goes into snails and then does something there. At this point it leaves them looking for the next host which is normally the duck... but if the human gets between the duck and the parasite... guess who becomes the host?!!?! Eeeeeew! (these photos are off the web, but they tell the story) The thought that there are parasites burrowed into my skin makes me shiver. But they say the body kill them off within a few hours... so I guess it's really not that big a deal. The really big deal though is the itch! I was just reading about it online. It says that you can get nausea and fever.... So THAT'S why Janelle was nauseous and had a fever last night! Actually she just got up a few minutes ago and still has a bit of a fever. Amanda seems to have more spots but hasn't had any symptoms except for severe itching....I see she's gotten a blister of infection on one of the spots...Anyway... to sum it all up-we won't be going back to that beach again! I think we'll just stick with swimming in the pool.

Well I'd better get moving here. I need to run over to Walmart for freezer bags for the strawberries.
Hope you're all having a great summer and are enjoying the nice weather.... Hey Peter I hope summer has found you in Scotland as it has here in BC!!!
I'll probably post the before and after pictures of the pool in the near future.
Have an AWESOME weekend!