Another First

Leah and I played our first scrabble game together tonight.  It was a bit slow and I helped her out from time to time but she held her own quite nicely.

 

Maybe even more fun was watching her stand on the table to take the picture of the board. :)

 We kept the dictionary and list of 2 letter words within reach.  For a long time we were a very few points apart.  What a lot of fun!  Good job, Leah.

BC Day

Started off with a BIG picnic, although there were still many family members who weren't able to be there.  The group got divided, as many chairs per square feet of shade as possible :)

 After some very good eating and very warm playing (who plays soccer when it's over 30 degrees out?!  Oh yah, that would be sports loving Sam, Cam and their dad) we headed out to Lindeman Lake with Grampa.

 I was worried this little girl wouldn't make it too far.  Usually she wimps out pretty quick but she cheerfully informed Gramps they should play follow the leader and led him both up and down the mountain.  She pretty much told him where to put each footfall.  If she stepped on a root, he had to do the same, if she climbed off the path to the right, she expected him to follow. 
So really we shouldn't have been surprised when she slipped, stood up, turned around and said in the driest of tones, "Make sure you do that to!!" 

 Both Sam and Cam needed to water the bushes and gave their plums to Gramps to hold and keep track of.  Sam or Cam's?  Cam or Sam's? :)

 What can I say?  A crazy lot of young ones!

 This princess wore flip flops to the picnic and then proceeded to forget to change to socks and runners that were in the back of the van. Too bad for her her parents decided the lesson for the day was going to be in responsibility and told her that it was what it was.  No one was going to be able to run back to change.  She's lucky there was a pocket on the front of the back pack for her flip flops so she didn't have to carry them the whole way.  She marched like a trooper and did just fine!

 Of all the kids to be exhausted and crash before we got home, we sure didn't expect it to be Cody!  He played pretty hard at the picnic and over and over again he would sit down on the side of the trail and assure us his energy was gone.  Or, "my energy is all flowed out of me" or something creative like that.  We strapped on an imaginary jet pack but even that didn't fire him up like usual.  He, of course, woke up when we got home and suddenly couldn't walk another step.  I took pity on him because he was so tired but when he couldn't even stand on his one foot to brush his teeth I thought I better take a second look.  Sure enough, there in his heel, was a nice sized sliver sticking straight in!!  He had taken off his shoes on the playground and obviously picked up a piece of wood chip!  Not once did he say anything about having a sore foot but it must have been a big part of the reason he was not into hiking!

Ahh, stockpiling memories is such a special part of summer vacation!

A Start :)

Dear Sharilyn... or for those who don't know, the amazing friend who was my secret sister all last year.  She spoiled me tremendously and is the one responsible for our incredible family pictures.  But more about that another time.  That's why this is just the start :)

 

Thanks, Sharilyn, for kindly allowing me to change the original color scheme when you were still a secret and then graciously redoing them when I not so subtly suggested I would still love to have them when you weren't secret any more. 

 

They are marvelous!  They look beautiful hanging up and I love how they turned out.  I changed my mind from hanging them in our room to hanging them in the hallway where the kids and Steve & I will see them many times a day.  Hopefully we all turn them into prayers that God can use to change and grow all of us!

 

 

For anyone who cares, here's how I went about it.  I layed them on the floor and tried to figure out a layout.  Okay, not really, I looked up the original online and used their example to make this step really easy!

 Then I moved the top row from the carpet to the lino so I could have a really easy straight top line, measured them to sit 2 inches apart and ran masking tape all across the tops.

 I took my pen and put a dot in each corner where I wanted a nail to sit and a line to mark the edges of the canvas. That last step being overkill, just in case :)

 Then I looked and measured and looked again and debated within myself about where to start on the wall.  Between the wall edges, wall and light switch etc.  Found my center, made a mark, measured it level from the ceiling, and lightly rubbed the tape down.  The rest was super easy!

 I banged a nail into each blue dot I had made and hung up my first row.  I measured 2 inches from the bottom of each canvas and layed the top of my tape on those marks.  Banged another 6 nails in.  Or, first went to the shop to replace the one nail I managed to somehow mangle :)  It can't be THAT straight forward!

 Each time I had my nails all in I carefully peeled the tape back and immediately had my next set of measurements ready to go!  Just had to measure 2 inches down and set it back down, using the edge of the canvas above and the mark where the edge of the canvas was on the tape
(you know that mark I thought was overkill?!)

A decently straight grid and beautiful wall art to enjoy!  I changed the picture that was here to give a bit of dimension. This is no small art work, each canvas is 8x8.

 

Thanks so very, very much, Sharilyn!!

Harvest Time

Praise to the Sovereign Lord for His Creation and Providence

Psalm 104: 1, 14, 15, 31

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,

14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
¹⁵ And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart. 

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.

 

Another berry season is essentially finished in the blink of the eye. 

And we are so thankful for how God has provided.

 

For some reason (I do not know the explanation) our berries are very big.  The "little" one on the left is a more "regular" sized berry but I think it's safe to say that most of ours are the size of a quarter or bigger.  And they are just so delicious.

 

 

Summer Days

I haven't been too present here.  There just isn't too much extra time.  But I wanted to quickly share these from today.

 

We're now up to our.... or more concisely they are up, over and beyond their eyebrows in the most delicious blueberries ever.  These two girls worked hard today without much break picking these boxes full.

What would the kids say if they saw their picker boss THROWING BERRIES??!

 But don't worry, not every one has to work overly hard out there ;)

 And some cuties get to spend hour upon hour of special cousin time playing all manner of games.

 Or wrestling or whatever :)

 And this dear lady?  Mom keeps the kids in line, well fed and makes maybe even most of the week's suppers for all of us!!!!!!!!!

Happy Monday

Hope you have a great day and a wonderful week!

Love from all of us but especially Cara, our in house art specialist :)

Got her "L"...

For Uncle Brian's ranger at least.  Yes, if you're driving by on the highway you may want to be careful.  Leah is now allowed and able to drive an adult + kids around the farm in the ranger!!!

Crossing my fingers that this makes my first couple days in the passenger seat of the van somewhat more perspiration free come 6.5 years in the future. :)
You will notice that her Dad doesn't look all that concerned from the back while she looks entirely much too gleeful!!!  Truth is while I taught her the ins and outs of this I sat right next to her with my left foot ready if it became necessary.  I was somewhat shocked to see Steve had climbed in the back.

ps.  Once Gramma sees this picture Leah's gonna get an earful about slowing down + dust!!!