Sweet Friend

My sweet friend (and now mother-in-law of my son) came for a wee visit and we had a lovely few days together.

She is one of the finest human beings I have had the privilege of knowing (for over 30 years now!) and I especially love the depth of her walk with the Lord.  She has known a great deal of loss in her life but she is extraordinarily grateful and kind and focused on the one thing that really matters most in life. 

Marcy loves bird watching so we headed down to the bird sanctuary.

We saw birds!

And also a lot of other really beautiful scenery... 

The longer I live here the more amazed I am at the beauty of this area.

Even when it's cloudy...

She was also very gracious to go shopping with me for new frames for my glasses. 

Daniel and Ron were working on some kitchen cupboards for Gord & Marcy's place so we had some nice visits with them as well. 

There was also some Grandma time which was great!

And of course, little Albert (Birdie) had some one on one with Marcy.

On our last evening together we went out to a restaurant right on the lake and were able to watch lots of kite surfers zooming around on the windy lake.

It was a perfect location and such a nice place to eat dinner!

So cool how the Lord has arranged for this dear friend to be part of my family here on earth and part of my forever family in heaven!

Wedding Skies

Another wonderful wedding happened in my backyard this past weekend.

This lovely lady married the son of some good friends of mine.

He was in my daughter's grad class as well, so it's all in the family, so to speak.

The weather cooperated beautifully for the ceremony, the sun coming out just as the bride made her grand entrance.

Unfortunately, due to where I was sitting I was unable to get a good picture of the bridesmaids.  

There were a bunch of beautiful people here to celebrate the occasion with a picnic on the lawn.

Such a lovely idea.

Baskets full of sausages, delicious cheeses, baguettes,

crackers, jam, hummus and mini carrots.

And of course there was a bar where people were obtaining glasses of wine and other tasty beverages to round out the fine dining experience.

The weather went from hot and sunny to cool and rainy, seemingly in a matter of minutes. 

I changed my clothing three times trying to stay warm or cool, depending on what was happening.  Rather a confusing day, weather wise...

So I was very grateful that tents had been procured and were protecting the hapless picnickers from getting drenched.

But the weather didn't dampen anyone's spirits.

Games were played and fun was had on the big patchy lawn.

There were plenty of desserts, especially at our table which was a cause of raucous laughter. 

Someone kept bringing us plates of delicious fruit pie and whipped cream as well.

And then the cake was served. 

I was pretty much sugared out as I could not seem to stop eating those delicious dessert delicacies.

My dear daughter was home for the occasion giving her the opportunity to connect with this dear friend of hers and her little boy.

These gals graduated together and Patrice was the maid of honour at that wedding six years ago now.

The little guy was beyond adorable.

He hung in there till the very end, finally falling asleep as the music played and the dancers danced the night away.

A fabulous ending to an amazing day of love and goodness.

piano in the park

I got to hang out with Liz today and since I had to do business banking downtown we decided to take our coffee date to the park.

Where I played piano, of course.  

I love this funky little city, even though it's gotten way too big, way too fast.

Can't blame people for wanting to come in and join the party.  

Liz and I had a great time of sharing what the Lord is doing in both of our lives. 

We encouraged each other and prayed together. 

And had ice cream!!

I remembered I had a coupon that a student had given me or this fun little place 

so we indulged.

She likes the ice-cream and I like the waffle cone so it was a perfect combination.

On a perfect summer day.  

In Between

Yeah, so in between all of the raspberries and dinners on the patio and other delightful summer activities, I'm enjoying a quiet summer retreat up here on the hill.

Loving it, in fact.

Having the whole house to myself for a bit feels extravagant and amazing.  So very peaceful and fulfilling.

As much as I know I should be careful not to overuse my hands because of the arthritis, they are doing so very much better these past months.  The chelation is supposed to help to regrow the cartilage and I'm doing all sorts of anti-inflammatory supplements that must be helping.

Plus, the prayer. I probably should have listed that first in importance. There has been lots of it over the past couple of years. I've had my hands anointed repeatedly by my faithful, loving, FAITH EXERCISING friend Lisa.  She is just not giving up on God's promises to heal and restore and neither am I. I'd rather go out believing in healing and waiting in expectation than having no hope!

So, I am just delighting in the fact that I have hands that I can use;
*to make meals (lasagne today and potato salad yesterday and a salmon dinner the night before!),
*to do laundry (clean sheets and quilt, all sun dried and reapplied to my bed today),    *to do book-keeping for Elkar (spent a large part of yesterday getting caught up on that),
*to play with my flowers and in my garden (I discovered that the yummy peas that I had planted are actually pretty sweet pea flowers!),
*to play with my puppies and make them their healthy supplements (ended up getting up a couple of times with Moose last night since he has twisted his ankle and was obviously in pain - he finally got a valium embedded in a treat and slept like a baby after that)

Plus I've got loads of time for my Bible Reading, listening prayer, journaling, on line teachings, worship, and declarations.  I can get as noisy and passionate as I want because I don't have to worry about shocking anyone in the house and the dogs are learning to deal with my outbursts.  I can't believe how very kind God is and how He loves to interact with us if we will listen and wait on Him.

He speaks so kindly to me and I muster up the faith to believe that He actually loves me that much and speaks to me with such great affection and patience.
Over and over again He reminds me not to fear.  Ever.  So I'm working on that.

Yesterday as I was listening to Derek Prince I was reminded again that "the blood of Jesus cleanses me CONTINUALLY from sin, as I walk in the light..."

That is just the best thing ever.

So I'm praying that this summer will be one that advances the Kingdom in my life and in the lives of others as I make lots of little choices for good, on a consistent basis.  Because, I've been reminded through some teaching that denying myself for the sake of the Kingdom is a very good thing.  Seems to me that Jesus said that was part of the deal in following Him and I haven't been too diligent in following that up.  So, ...baby steps.

I'm off to prayer now.  What a privilege to meet with other passionate lovers of our King to worship and pray.

 45 Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.   Joshua 21:45

Soccer Buds

These two tall good looking guys have been friends for close to 25 years now.  They were in grade school together and graduated together and here they all these years later playing soccer. Our two families hung around a lot together way back in the day so I have a really soft spot for Jeremy.  

He's a fine, gentle, kind young man.  

And I can't say enough good things about my son so I won't get started right now.  I'll save that for another day, but suffice it to say 

I love him more than words can express.

So it was such a treat for me to come out to watch them play a great game of soccer.  Jeremy scored two of the three goals that won them their game.  

All the prayers that have been prayed over these "boys" will bear even more good fruit.  I'm convinced of it.

There's been lots of rain, lots of sunshine and lots of wind in this beautiful month of July. 

I took this picture of mom the day we had a car picnic and somehow we all ended up at my place having a nap.  Afterwards Mom and Tante Hilda sat out on my front deck to watch a heavy beautiful summer rainfall. 

One evening I was driving home and I saw a few deer in a field so I stopped to watch them.  If you zoom in you can see a buck leaping through the air as he and his buddies took off to greener pastures.  It was a rainy/sunny evening so the picture looks a little odd. 

And I found a great place to buy almost organic cherries.

Delicious cold orbs of juiciness hanging out in the fridge just waiting for me to reach in for a snack. 

Tis a truly wonderful season. 

Reams of Raspberries!

Raspberries are one of my absolute FAVOURITE fruits, but unfortunately I don't grow them (even though I have space for acres of them).  This year 

Tante Hilda had a lead on "a couple of pails" of them so I said "yes please", not knowing that the pails were unbelievably huge. 

Not that it's a problem to have too many raspberries, but it was late by the time I picked them up so I couldn't drop any off at Daniel and Nicole's place and I had to take them all home and get them out of the pails and into the fridge before they became a large squished mass of redness.   

It was fun looking for ways to use them and since I had been sick on Father's Day we had a nice BBQ in the backyard to celebrate with steak and baked potatoes and the fun little raspberry custard deserts I put together for the occasion.

Aren't they just the cutest little things?

Here we are again around the table enjoying this fabulous season of outdoor dinners and family gatherings.

The one drawback to the whole affair is that Dad doesn't really like raspberries because of the seeds. He admitted that he just swallowed them whole so he didn't have to deal with the seeds. 

I also made jam with a bunch of the berries.

The jam is a bit runny but it will be nice to use for desserts in the coming months.

I even made up some less sweet raspberry sauce for a little brunch I had with Dawn and her daughter Amber one morning!

YUM! 

S

So much goodness packed into summer!