Church Picnic

Church in the park with baptisms also happened in August. There were drums and guitars and food and fellowship.

 Unfortunately I hit another pothole in the grass and gave myself what felt like a whiplash again.

Twice this summer!!  Gotta be more careful. 

Thankfully I had an appointment with my beautiful Harmony the next day and she put my neck and body back into alignment.

The visual reminder of the old passing away and the new creation being born is so powerful during a baptism.  

Such a glorious occasion in such a beautiful setting. 

My church family having a picnic in the park. 

It's a very good bunch of people to hang with. 

I'm just finding that getting out to these settings is a little tricky as nice as it is to be out and about...

Memory Fun

Had a fantastic morning putting on a mini Word by Heart seminar with these lovely women.  

It was so much fun getting into the Blind Bartimaeus passage and experiencing the story so that they could tell it as a first hand experience.  

Amazing how a familiar scripture story can become so exciting and alive when you take the time to do research and discuss it in a group.  So many aspects spring to life and make you realize again how very amazing Jesus is.

The ladies had such a passion for the Word and eagerness to get to work and memorize this entire passage within a three hour time frame.

After the intro, textual analysis, paraphrasing and acting I sent everyone out in pairs to do the talking and listening exercise. 

I loved seeing Sara and Marcia take on the project with such joy and eagerness.  Found them wandering around the yard laughing as they committed the passage to memory. 

It was a wonderful collection of women from various walks of life that I have known in many different circles!  

Unfortunately my camera ran out of room and I was unable to capture the fun luncheon we enjoyed during our break. 

Food adds that party element that I love so much!  

When I saw how quickly everyone caught on and how much fun they had I realized that I'd like to do this more often. 

Need to ask the Lord what that should look like and how I should go about advertising this valuable material.

Those three months of intense study and hard work are paying dividends...

Neighbour Love

This lovely collection of organic peaches was brought to me courtesy of my kind neighbours!  Look at all those colourful little orbs of juicy deliciousness. 

I've shared them with family, made smoothies and have frozen a bag of them for those cold dark days ahead that I am choosing not to think about.  

And two of these monstrous organic zucchini's are hanging around to be turned into something delicious.  I've used one so far and have made a very delicious creamy soup with it. 

They were brought into my kitchen courtesy of our neighbours across the street and from Patrice's co-worker (who is an old neighbour!)

These beautiful black berries came from our kind neighbours from across the street as well. 

Makes me excited to share the Mac apples from our big backyard tree so that I can be a loving neighbour too...

They are getting ripe very early this year as it has been a hot summer.

We are in the middle of yet another heat wave!!

Meteor Campout

I was excited to have a campout with Sara on the back patio to observe the meteor shower.  Now that I have the little bench out there my camping horizons have broadened considerably.  I put a big sheepskin on the bench, got my pillows and blankets arranged and Sara put her bed on the ground next to me and we were ready to view the shooting stars!

Meanwhile Sara was excited to try out a new type of "camp fire" that only required a tin can, 70% rubbing alcohol and a roll of toilet paper.  Everything was looking good, except for the fact that she had only 50% rubbing alcohol which she soaked the toilet paper roll with.  Not much happened with that so she hunted up another container with 95% alcohol "COMPOUND" written in the container.

I wish I had a video of the excitement that was created when she poured some of THAT onto the can.  The fire leapt onto the ground in a puddle and burned with blue fury, it also leapt back into the bottle she was holding creating a bit of a conundrum for her and it went wild on the tin can bursting the non existent fire into a temporary small inferno.

No pictures are available of that little misadventure but thankfully the fire did not leap onto me as I was laying on the bench not far from it.  It finally settled down and we loved watching the smooth elegant flames that burn with an alcohol fire.

As far as the meteor shower, I saw one spectacular shooting star early on and then the clouds began to roll in.  I loved laying outside listening to the crickets and watching the dark night sky.  The puppies curled up on Sara's bed with her and all was well.  Sara and I slept fitfully as we listened to a story and by 2AM we realized that the entire sky was covered in clouds so we both headed into the house for the remainder of the night.

 And that's the story of the Meteor Campout which was eclipsed by the tin can fire escapade.

Church at Home

There were some smokies left over from a "tailgate picnic" we had in our church parking lot a few weeks back and they ended up in my freezer. Being the extrovert that I am, this was all the impetus I needed to send out a call for a small group gathering in my back yard.  And even though the invite only went out on Monday, about 30 people showed up on Saturday evening! 

Food was assembled and blessed and the fellowship took off in full swing.  It was just lovely to have so many children and youth roaming over the property; playing bocce, jumping on the trampoline, swinging in the hammock and going for walks.

Matthew was his usual joyful self and it is such a treat to have a place that is wheelchair accessible for him as well.

Look at this good looking group of young men!  I had a wonderful conversation about quantum mechanics with the eleven year old!?!  

We also spent some time praying for each other and since Jordan is heading off to the coast to do some schooling we were happy to bless him in his journey.

There is something so powerful and beautiful about joining our hearts and prayers in agreement to see God's Kingdom come in our lives.

Everyone who wanted to shared a high and a low and then we spent some time in prayer for each one.  

I was the last one to be prayed for and as I held out my hands they were covered by the hands of so many and I was encapsulated in a circle of loving bodies and prayer.  

HE, the Alpha and Omega is a compassionate God.

And these same loving hands swept into the kitchen with me and left the place clean.

This is the beautiful body of Christ.

August Forever Please...

Dear Patrice made a big bowl of delicious borscht so it was that fast and easy to pull together a quick supper with the grandparents! 

Here they all are enjoying some watermelon after the feast.

These are my favourite days of summer.  

Sitting out on the patio enjoying the warmth and beauty and company.

And here is a yummy mocha drink bought for me by my good friend Asher.

He had mentioned that we should go for coffee sometime so we did!

He is one of my favourite people. 

This mysterious picture below was taken last Friday night at Guisichan Park where they were having a night of free classical music.

Oh be still my beating heart...

Cello and Harp

Flute and Piano

A sweet selection of opera songs

All enjoyed under the blue sky and big trees at this lovely Heritage Site! 

We were even given free bags of cherries and bottles of cold water.

Something felt a bit like heaven about this whole equation...

Outside Opera

There is something extraordinarily beautiful about listening to live music outside so when my friend told me about  an outdoor opera event I purchased tickets and made my way up to UBCO where it was held.

It was called Opera Under the Stars which would have been amazing but, as it was, the blue skies, clouds and mountains were an exquisite backdrop.

We met a sweet couple from church who had ordered one of the picnic baskets that were available for huge sums of money and they so kindly shared some of their delicious bounty with us.  

It was food fit for an opera! Very yummy. 

By the time the final notes had been sung the skies began to colour.  So glad I made the effort to get up there despite Patrice's protests.  I think she enjoyed it too...