The End of the Month

The End of August. When the kids were still in school this time of year meant getting back into routines. Not only the routine of going to school, but the routine of getting to bed on time, AND getting out of bed in time too. They sure didn't want to miss that bus ride to school. It also meant eating meals at a more "normal" time. Today for me signifies the end of summer. The end of freedom per se. I've always enjoyed the freedom that summer brought.

As a stay-at-home during those summer years we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. and we did! We would spent countless hours playing outside. Spend days at the beach. Go on short mini-vacations - like to Marineland. We were not governed to the rhythm of a clock. gosh i miss those days!

This summer was a little different from the previous one. I found with the decline in my health I needed to slow my life down. So I dropped from a four day work week to a three day work week and spent much more time "just being" as opposed to "doing". I took more time to sit, whether I was reading, or just soaking up the sun.

It's hard to believe that last year this time we were busy packing, sorting & moving both our boys as they were heading off to post-secondary schools. How quickly a year goes by. Next week as Wayne returns to driving bus, Kyle begins another school year, Darcy starts full-time work, I find myself counting down the days until the next summer.

Blessings

Wash Day

Quite often on her day off, Krystle will ask if she can come out to the farm to use our washing machine and wash line. It is of course absolutely no problem as it gives me another opportunity to spend time with her. So today, I get home from the office to piles of dirty clothes strewn about my laundry room floor, a couple of loads washed and drying on the line and of course there sits Krystle at the piano, thoroughly absorbed in playing music.

oh how my heart rejoices!

Blessings

you know it's fall when

the leaves start to fall off the trees, the evenings are getting cooler and probably the most obvious is when the fall edition of the what's cooking magazine shows up in my mailbox. As soon as it arrives, I spend the next several minutes pouring over all the scrumptious recipes trying to decide which ones to try. Plus it reminds me to visit their website and look for new recipes.

To be honest I am a bit of a cookbook-aholic. I love, absolutely love looking at new recipes especially the ones with pictures. I also enjoy trying new recipes, so each time the new magazine comes, it gives me the incentive I need. To not only look for new recipes but to try some new foods too.

Blessings

Lady of leisure

This past week I was on holidays - well sort of - I was away from the office and my duties there. So for one week I was a lady of leisure.

According to dictionary.com the word leisure means N. ~ Freedom from time-consuming duties, responsibilities, or activities. Idiom: ~ at (one's) leisure ~ When one has free time; at one's convenience And that's exactly what I found myself doing. Doing exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, if I wanted.... it was GREAT! Now I wouldn't want any of you to think I was lazy, quite the contrary. I did get my house cleaned, the laundry all washed and put away, and even found time to read many books and enjoy the sunshine.

Blessings

Maybe

After running errands all through Exeter, Darcy asked if we could get a maybe. I am sure you're wondering what an ice cream has to do with maybe. Let me explain. My cousin's kid would ask his grandpa {my uncle}if they could go for an ice cream treat, grandpa would reply almost always with maybe. More often than not they went for ice cream. So he likely grew up thinking that ice creams were maybes.

Our family thought it was real sweet so we adopted calling ice creams as maybes. So when Darcy asked for one, how could I refuse?

Blessings

Surprise Visit

As we sat down to watch the movie Cast Away we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from these two. I just love it that Krystle & Gerard live close enough to just pop in from time to time. So we hot-tubbed, enjoyed a glass of wine, ate some wings and chatted. It was a much better way to spend the evening!

Blessings

Community

Our community has been in a bit an upheaval, these last few days. Last Friday our neighbours lost their dairy barn in a fire. And for us that brought back ALOT of memories as we too lost our dairy barn to a fire July of 1998. Even though it's been 13 years, I still get emotional talking and even thinking about it. Then on Sunday the town of Goderich was hit by a tornado. The pictures posted on facebook are quite devastating.

As friends, neighbours and perhaps complete strangers gather together to clean-up, lend moral support, bring food, in both of these tragedies, it shows that even in this ever busy society we are still willing take time to help those who are in need. I'm truly thankful to live in such a community.

Blessings

Inspiration

Someone posted this on facebook and I found it to be inspiring, so I wanted to share it.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Blessings

Magic 2012

StingerSling Spider. Moulder Beast. BellTower Sphinx. Aven Fleetwing. Llanowar Elves. Does that make any sense to you? No? Me neither.

But if you're an avid Magic Gathering 2012 player, you know exactly what each of these creatures are and their capabilities.

Darcy has found a new new game. One that can be played on-line with the X-box and he just purchased the cards to play with those in the family who are willing. He and I sat at the dining room table as he patiently tried to teach me all the rules of this very complex game. Not really knowing what I was doing I asked ALOT of questions trying to keep my creatures alive, using instants & artifacts, while trying to destroy his creatures by using spells. Make sense? nah i didn't think so. But he seemed to be enjoying himself as he helped me figure out what I needed to do, while he was trying to take my "health", which apparently is the only way you end the game. At one point I had him 7 - 3. At his turn he lays the Vampiric Dragon and wipes me out. Game Over.

It's definitely one of those strategic thinking games. Hopefully the more I play, and gather more experience, I'll become a worthy adversary.

Blessings

sunset porch

We live minutes, literally minutes from the beautiful shores of Lake Huron. On most nights at this time of year you'll find us sitting outside on the front porch, aka ~ the sunset porch ~ and get glimpses of the most beautiful sunsets ever. The view at times is breathtaking.

Blessings

Perplexed

According to dictionary.com it means

per·plexed ~ adjective
1. bewildered; puzzled: a perplexed state of mind.
2. complicated; involved; entangled

This is a pretty good description of how I am feeling these days. As of late I have been really struggling with some health issues. I had been seeing a Naturopathic Doctor who as faithful readers will recall put me on a fairly restricted diet {no dairy, eggs, nuts, sugar, MSG, or corn} to see if that would alleviate some of the symptoms. However after 8 months with little change, {other than I lost 20lbs} I was ready to give up. So I turned to a Medical Doctor who after a five minute diagnosis, refused to believe that any of my symptoms warranted her help. I was dumbfounded, until I found another DR and this guy, wow, not only did he believe me, but he's doing something about it.

In the past few weeks I have had several different kinds of tests done. The results? well I guess you could say it's a good news / bad news kind of deal. Good news is that nothing conclusive has shown up. The bad news? how can they fix something that they can't find? 2 Corinthians 4:8b {King James Version}: we are perplexed, but not in despair.

Blessings

Road Trip

This past weekend we enjoyed a short visit in Orillia to hang out with our son Kyle. Who at the beginning of Sept'10 left home to attend Georgian College in the Police Foundations program. Since he decided to stay in Orillia for the summer we knew our time together would be sporadic. It seemed there was opportunity for Kyle to head home each month, so we were able to keep connected. With the craziness of life and the distance to travel we haven't been to get there to often. So before he was back in the full swing of school we wanted to get one last visit in.

It worked out that Darcy was able to come too. So early Saturday morning we loaded up the vehicle and headed out. Only stopping twice, so Wayne could get something to eat, we were well on our way and arrived 3 1/2 hours later. We picked up Kyle and enjoyed lunch at Montana's. Since our niece Brenda, her hubby Rich and their two kids Cedar & Nemma also live in Orillia, I wanted to spend some time with them. So we left the boys at Kyle's to hang out while we did the family visit. We then went back to Kyle's for supper and got cleaned up cause we were going The TUX - which is the nightclub that he works as part of the security team. Sunday morning we went out for a scrumptious breakfast at one of the local restaurants and before we knew it, it was time to head for home. sigh

Of course like any time away there are always a few expenses incurred; like food, gas, and lodging, but the time spent with family was priceless.

Alter Ego

Today, I was over at Krystle's putting in some time between appointments and we started playing Batman & Robin Lego x-box video game. First off, you should know that I am very bad at these kind of 3D games. I tend to run around following the main character, literally moving my controller up, down and around trying to get my Lego person to move and when the controller vibrates, I tend to scream like a little girl. ^.^

We had to switch controllers many times since I would have great difficulty jumping, running, pushing, building, pretty much everything needed to do to pass each level. But I don't think Krys minded to much, in fact at point we were laughing so hard that our alter ego's both died.

As we continued through the many different levels I started playing a little better and we would keep advancing. At one point though we were stuck, we could not, for the life of us figure out what it was we were do. So naturally we called the expert, but before Gerard could answer, I accidentally jumped on something and it was exactly what we needed to do to keep moving. hurray!

It was a super fun way to fill in some time and I'm looking forward to the next time so we can finish the game and beat all the bad guys.

Blessings

Stuff Mart

Early this morning, Krystle called me and wondered if we could take a quick trip to Costco, which is absolutely one of our favourite stores. As we enter, and see the floor to ceiling shelves of stuff, Krystle said this reminded her of Madame Blueberries adventure to Stuff-Mart, in the Veggies Tales classic. Are you familiar with the Story?

Madame Blueberry is the tenth episode in the VeggieTales animated series with the subtitle "A Lesson in Thankfulness", it conveys the message that material possessions will never truly make us happy. We must instead be thankful for what we have. The story introduces Madame Blueberry who has many possessions but is perpetually "blue". When a massive department store opens nearby, she goes on a shopping binge thinking that owning more things will bring her happiness. Ultimately she must learn the hard way that joy cannot be found in material goods.

I can empathize with Madame Blueberry. While I am not to the same extreme as her, there are times I must admit that I too find myself getting caught up with stuff, thinking it could make me happy.

Madame Blueberry probably one of my favourite VeggieTales movies. This story teaches that "being greedy makes you grumpy, but a thankful heart is a happy heart!" A gentle reminder to us all.

Blessings

Night keeper

About a month ago, our son called at 12:05 am to inform us that he was spending the night at the Inn to do the Night Keeping job.

He's done it several more times since then. The job? I guess it's quite simple. He's to answer the phone, and keep an eye on the place.

As I think about the title Innkeeper I think of the Christmas Story innkeeper and the bad rap he gets because he sent Joseph & Mary out the stable. I mean if the Inn was full and there were no more rooms available what was the Innkeeper to do.

So far each of the nights that Darcy has stayed there hasn't been young man and his ever pregnant wife {with out money} show up needing a room. In fact nothing exciting has happened; which is a good thing. Making it a pretty easy job and one he doesn't mind doing again and again.

Blessings

Sleep - it's overrated

For some unknown reason, I am having great difficulty sleeping. It's not just tonight, or should I say last night. Since one could classify 4:15am as already morning - but alot of nights I find myself awake. It's not that I think I had alot on my mind which is preventing me to sleep, but there must be something buzzing through my mind that is preventing it to rest well.

So here I sit, yawning away trying to convince myself that I am in fact tired and should try to return to bed. Although I must admit I hate laying there for those seeming less hours trying to force myself to go back to sleep, while not disturbing my hubby.

Although, he too has had some restless nights. I joked that he's gotten to "that age" where one doesn't sleep anymore. He didn't seem to think that was very funny. And I'm afraid I must agree with him since the tables have turned and I too have been having difficulty sleeping.

Now for a nice cup of tea, maybe do a little reading and get myself back to bed.

Blessings

Trio of black cars

Kyle was home this past weekend to attend his cousins wedding {see previous post}. Since we all don't get to see him very often, it made sense to invite Krystle & Gerard over for some family time.

Our weekend was super full of fun! Kyle & Teya arrived on Saturday where we relaxed around the farm for most of the day. A game of Kubb {a Swedish lawn game}, hot tubing and roasting pie iron pizza sandwiches ended a perfect day. Sunday was the wedding and Monday - as we're enjoying brunch with Meme & Papa, I snapped this before the trio of black cars were gone.

As we sat around he table, eating, laughing, and sharing our lives together, I was reminded once again how fortunate? no that's not right, blessed is more like it....... I am blessed. To have the husband I do, the kids we've been given, the family I was born into, and I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Blessings

The 'other' royal wedding

Yesterday, our niece Marcia married her prince charming Brennan in a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the West Haven Golf and Country Club. The weather was beautiful, the venue was amazing, the ceremony was lovely, the food ~ wow it was fantastic, and the bride and groom were/are extremely blessed to have found each other.

After Marcia and Brennan left to get some private photos, Krystle thought it would be fun to get some pictures of the girls. So I donned my photographers hat (thank you Sandra Regier - for the photo ideas) and took a few shots. This is a SR classic and I love it. Also this one, a good photographer thinks outside the box and tries for different views. {unfortunately Brenda (maid of honor) is absent as she had to feed her baby} Not bad for just a point & shoot camera.

Blessings