Summer Camp 2008 - LOAD Day 25

Summer Camp 2008 - LOAD Day 25
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc

Today's prompt was 5 item Friday!

5 item Friday: I did it!
1. embroidery thread or floss
2. one piece patterned paper
3. one set letter stickers
4. one border
5. an acrylic shape of our choice.

Fun stuff! The journaling lists the places we went to, the scripture verse for the week and the bottom lines.

Summer camp 2009 LOAD Day 13

Summer camp 2009 LOAD Day 13
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc

This was a "just do it" layout. It was inspired by Karen Grunberg's BPS layout This is Us right now. Lots of pictures and lots of memories.

I'm learning to trust that God knows how to work things out

I'm enjoying having passed on the torch... more then I thought I would.

Today we had our fall kick off at church. It was a very different experience for me. I was not involved in any of the planning, the implementation or the evaluation. What a feeling.

I had to spend most of the church service in the hall as Mitchell had fallen asleep and I didn't want to take him upstairs or into the service for fear of waking him. So I listened in the hall instead. When I went to pick up the kids from Sunday School I noticed all the work my replacement has been doing in the storage hallway and I was just struck dumbfounded. It was beautiful. The hallway is organized and labelled. The nursery has been painted and is being purged. The Sunday School is running smoothly. It makes me so happy! It has made the transition a lot easier then I anticipated as a lot of her thoughts and future goals are very similar to mine! Today was the icing on the cake. I gave her a big hug and just thanked her. It was so nice to be a part of something but not - to step back and let someone else take control and I really enjoyed just being with my family.

I know that as a position there are still lots to be sorted out and I don't know the future in this area but God does have a way of working things out.... and I am learning to trust that.

Day Camp begins

We had a successful first day at day camp. The kids had a blast on site for the morning (the worship songs are amazing this year - they usually are but we REALLY like them this year it seems)

and then off site visiting a local farm in the afternoon.



We are following Group's High Seas Adventure Programing but we have adapted it to our style. This means that we have an onsite program in the morning with worship, games, scripture, bible story, crafts, and snack. In the afternoons we head off site to various local excursions.


I am the photographer for the group and then have to put together a small slide show to show in the mornings. Other than that I have had a big reduction in involvement with the running of it. (Last year I was Co-Camp Director) What a change!


We aimed to get there early today (and we did), but we didn't have to rush to be there as a staff, and it was nice! Don't get me wrong - I love being involved but this certainly has its advantages, and besides - they are doing a great job without me. Loving it!

Dedication Day/ Father's Day

Mitchell was dedicated at church on Father's Day. At our church we do infant/ child dedication and then later, when an individual affirms their believe in Christ, they may participate in believer's immersion baptism. I grew up in the United Church and was baptised as an infant. As an early teen I wen tthrough confirmation and then when we changed churches, I took part in beleiver's baptism in July 1997. Drew was baptised in November 2001.



As usual, when we needed to be at church on time (I wanted to get there early so that I could feed Mitchell there rather then at home but that didn't work out) we got there just in time but I had to sit out for most of the morning to feed him. We did finish in time for our part. There were 3 families with dedications but we all went up together.

Drew and I read our prayer of dedication together (the same for both Matthew and Marlee) and then Dad came up to do a prayer over him as well. The kids behaved fairly well but all three couldn't keep their hands off him! I'm glad he was so tolerant!


Afterwards we had cake for everyone and Nana got to hold him for the duration. It was rather warm so we kept "airing" out his gown. I had one little girl come up and ask why he was wearing a dress. It was so cute. I explained that the "gown" as we call it, has been in our fmaily for several generations and it is a famiy tradition to wear it for dedications and baptisms. It was my mother's great grandfather's, which makes it 6 generations? Either way, Grandma wore, it mom wore it, Sarah, myself, Matthew, MArlee adn now Mitchell have worn it. Sean came into the fmaily at 10 months of age so he was too big to wear it. I will have to chekc and see which cousins wore it. I didn't get a chance to get a picture of just Mitchell in it. I'll have to remember to do that soon before mom passes it on to Sarah. It has a few yellowish areas which she hope to work on. Scary!

We came back to our house to have a celebratory bar bq with my parents and Don. It was a beautiful afternoon although we definitly missed Melissa (get well soon =)) and Nana.

And of course a Happy Father's Day shout out to Drew! We couldn't ask for a better dad. He s always there for me and the kids. I'm pretty lame at gift giving if not given ideas and this year was no exception. I do hope he knows how much he is appreciated though and that we would do anything for him. He has really been giving 100%+ these last few months since Mitchell was born. Dinner is usually prepped when he gets home but making it and serving it has fallen to him regularly as it seems as soon as the daycare kids go, Mitchell needs feeding and there is no point in starting dinner with the other kids there. Mitchell also seems to need feeding right at bedtime so Drew has been the sole doer in that area too. I'm glad that I can still snuggle although that tends to keep Marlee up just a little later. But kudos to Drew - you mean so much to our family and we couldn't ask for a better husband/dad. Thank you and WE LOVE YOU!

We could get used to this...

...eating like kings every day that is. Our small group (initiated by KG) arranged a week of dinners for us soon after the baby was born. I then found out this week that my sister also arranged for a few days of meals as well. I will be highly recommending that we continue this idea with any other babies born at the church or amongst my friends. Also amazing is that each meal was actually enough for at least one more if not two. Right into the freezer for the next week! What a blessing it has been!

Last Sunday everyone (I was still in the hospital) had a meatloaf from S&C.
Monday (home day for me) was turkey pot pie with strawberries from A&A.
Tuesday was a yummy chicken and broccoli casserole with a fruit tray and dip from K&S.
Wednesday was a pork roast with roasted potatoes and asparagus from C&A.
Thursday was lasagna and salad from G&C.
Friday (Good Friday) was quiche and KFC with trimmings with the H for lunch - which carried on into dinner.
Saturday was some of the leftovers (there are LOTS - mostly put into the freezer as we knew we were getting more food daily).
Sunday was spent at family's places and we also got leftover lamb and ham for future meals.
Monday started the meals from my sister (organized from South Carolina none-the-less) - we had another amazing Pork roast with potatoes and veggies.
Tuesday brought an Asian theme with noodles, broccoli and beef as well as Caesar salad and bread.

I wonder what tonight will bring?

Skor Bars!

We had our budget meeting at church tonight. I took some of the skor bars I made for the mingling beforehand. When the meeting had a lull in it, the chairman thanked everyone for bringing the goodies. At this point my dad stood up and said something along the lines of " yes - especially those chocolate wafer cookie things - those were great. Where did those come from?" At this point I raised my hand (while seated at the same table) and said "those would be mine!" It got quite a laugh!

Anyway it is one of the easiest recipes and here it is:

Cover metal baking with saltine crackers, salted side up.
Boil 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup butter (you can use some margarine but I've found it should have some butter)
Pour mixture over crackers; spreading out to edges.
Put in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Open oven door and sprinkle 1-2 cups chocolate chips over top.
Once melted, spread out over top and remove from oven.
Place tray in freezer for at least 45 minutes.
Crinkle tray and crack cookies into pieces.
Store in refrigerator.


A few of us were thinking it would be good with skor bits or crushed walnuts on top as well. I can't wait to try!

Happy baking!

Take a chance-chance-chance

Today's learning thought for the day (which I didn't read until later) was actually quite appropriate for today. It's reminding us that taking the opportunity to take a chance sometimes can take us to unexpected places - you never know what you might learn.

I had the opprotunity to take a few chances today and am thankful that I did. And I wish i had in another instance.

Let me start by saying I feel naked without my camera - and I learned that when I forget it I should "take the chance" and go back for it. Now that I am thoroughly involved in P365, I almost always have my camera with me. On the way to church I realized I had forgotten it. I wasn't that far from home but decided oh well - I'm sure someone at church would have one if something came up. I wasn't thinking of afterwards.

After church A&E invited us to meet up at the local pumpkin patch as they had been asked to do some videography for their website. In order to assure that the place was busy, they were invited to bring along some families for free. I am often not spontaneous in this way, but since Drew was away, we had no plans and it was involving our small group, I "took a chance" and decided why not? Of course there are always things to do at home but we had wanted to go to the pumpkin patch anyway and what better way then with friends?

On our way out (I decided we didn't have enough time to go home, have lunch and get my camera b/c I had to practice some flagging before leaving - but that is another story) we went to Wendy's for lunch - where low and behold we met up with A&E. We had a nice chat over lunch and even though it was starting to rain, we "took a chance" and decided to still go figuring it would probably be fine up the road. It was.

We had a great time. The kids played so well together, we got to try out all the areas of the farm, took part in a pie-eating contest (mmm pumpkin), picked some great pumpkins for home and had no photos to show for it. But there will be some lovely shots I'm sure on the website at some point.

So yes - today I learned - take a chance - you never know what it might lead to (and you might be able to have pictures of it too!)

Fall Kick-off

Learning for today - Sometimes it's okay to get out of your comfort zone and trust that everything will be okay.

AND

I need to delegate more and pass the reigns over to someone else so that I can spend more time with the kids.

We had our Fall Kick-off today...

Showers of blessings

I attended a shower at church last Sunday for a bride-to-be and the gift my mom and I gave was a hit amongst the ladies so I thought I'd share. I called it a "Bride's Bag of Essentials". I based it on a gift that I got from my wedding shower called "The Duty Duck" which was basically an assorted group of kitchen things that were shaped into a duck. Everything was placed in a dollar store roasting pan with things propped into a yellow dish glove and draped with a dish cloth to look like a duck.

I decided to base mine a bit more on personal experience. It was as follows: (mostly from the dollar store). Each one had a hand-written tag with an explanation, held on with a metal shower curtain hook.

• a large brightly coloured plastic re-usable bag (I like to be environmentally friendly and we might as well make it fun!)
• a squeegee for the shower (with a quick spray of vinegar and water and a swipe, you won't have to scrub)
• a digital timer (you can do anything for 15 minutes - see http://www.flylady.net/ to see what I mean)
• an assortment of kitchen gadgets (spatulas, spoons, flippers and measuring cups (we all need kitchen gadgets)
• brightly coloured chip clips [they need to be fun colours] (I use them for chips, crackers, fruit, candies etc)
• fancy rubber gloves (if we have to wash dishes we might as well have fun and keep our hands wedding day pretty)
• microfibre dust cloth (again environmentally friendly - no chemicals needed)
• massage cream (no explanation necessary)
• candles (for the romantic evening)
• a scrapbook album for the wedding - 8x8 with spots for photos and journalling and explanations
• a casserole dish (for potlucks of course)
• pampered chef pot scraper (pampered chef is great and these little discs do double duty as spatulas or dish scrapers)
• cutting mats (roll up ones from the dollar store - ideally one each for veggies, fruit, meats and breads)
• a binder with meal preparation information (this one received the most praise) - it was binder with plastic page protectors and plastic page dividers that accomodate them. At the beginning was a note explaining some things (see below). There was also a sheet with headings of all the different types of protein (Beef, poultry, pork, meatless, other), and the names of recipes or foods that are "tried and true" family favourites. Each divider had the same heading with recipes behind it in page protectors. These are favourite recipes and I included ones that our family likes in particular as well as how to roast a turkey and make turkey soup. Many of the ladies really liked this idea and want to make it themselves! I like the page protectors because you can take it out of the binder, let it get splattered, wipe it off and put it back. If you don't like the recipe you replace it!

The letter in the binder describes how I sit with Drew on Sundays and plan next week's activities and meals. Then I check throughout the fridge (cleaning as I need to) and the house for what I need to shop for or use up. I then do my shoping and errands on Monday's. We have found that this saves us time and money. It's also nice to get input from the family as to what they want to eat. For meal plans I get ideas from flylady, saving dinner and fixing dinner websites. We obviously have our favourites as well which I incorporate.

I was a little surprised at all of the attention given to it - really just an assortment of every day things, however a few ladies said that the expertise of experience is really what is priceless. Nevertheless, it was very nice to hear - and as I told them, it really isn't a big deal when you enjoy doing it. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.