Smoky Summer Eve

This is about the cutest little bunch of people EVER!!  Unfortunately Patrice had gone inside for awhile and missed out on the silliness so I'm kinda sad her face and arms are not represented here.

There have been so many fires in BC due to a very long, very hot spell and our valley has filled up with smoke creating a cool backdrop! 

Time passes and this lovely orchard has seen many gatherings come and go.  History is unfolding and there are wonderful memories that have been built on this particular ridge, overlooking these beautiful hills and our valley.

It was so sweet to have Becci and the kids here and this provided a wonderful reason for yet another gathering around good food and of course - watermelon!  This time the melon landed on the kitchen floor so the kids were slurping it out of the cracked shell and enjoying the red sweet taste of summer. 

The Godfather and his Godson plus gentle hearted Niko.

And cousin love...

These smiles all just melt me. 

What a beautiful, precious bunch of people I get to surround myself with.

God is kind and good.

Over and over and over again...

And this girl here is talented and graceful.  

I got to have a sleepover party with her just like in the old days when they lived here in Kelowna.

And this photo is just super cool.  

oops

So, this happened.  

I'm glad it wasn't worse, but I bumped into someone who was coming out of a parking lot as I was driving down a road.  I was on the way home from praying with a friend.  

My dear little Mazda just kind of folded in on itself so that I didn't have a horrible bump, but the girl I hit wasn't very happy.  I couldn't blame her either - she had a  beautiful white shiny car and both air bags deployed on the side I hit.  I was so relieved to see her come out of her vehicle even if she was swearing up a storm!   

I apologized profusely, over and over and was quite concerned about her - wondering if she had bumped her head and offering her water, advising that perhaps she should sit down. 

By the end of the rather unfortunate situation, she was saying that I seemed so nice and she wished we had met under different circumstances and I also had the opportunity to pray for her.

By the time I called about the insurance I found out that she had already accepted 100% responsibility so that was that. 

I am taking God up on His word that says HE WILL cause all things to work together for good for me, because I love Him and am called according to His beautiful purposes. 

And I'm praying for that sweet young girl - that God will use it for good in her life as well.

Meanwhile I have no car until they fix my little red zoomer.

Dear Beautiful Canada

Sara, Patrice and I plastered ourselves with Canada tattoos and headed downtown to join in with the city to celebrate our glorious country. 

There was a piano outside on the walkway so I felt compelled to play "Oh Canada" and soon a small crowd had gathered around and were singing along.

Our dear neighbours from across the street were part of the group and it was so special to experience the joy and camaraderie of our shared love.

My gratitude grows year by year for the privilege I have been given of living in this beautiful land.  Much is required from those who have been given much and by the simple fact that I daily enjoy the freedom and goodness of living in this huge land I know that much is required from me.

I pray that I will use this privilege well.

I was eager to celebrate this day which is set aside for frolicking and merrymaking, music and dance.

The Polish dancers were some of my favourites, but I also loved the Korean Fan dance and the Hawaiian and Tahitian dancers.  

Oh and those Old Time Fiddler's were amazing!

They serve free cake and there are all sorts of delicious smelling ethnic foods to be purchased.  

This wee aboriginal girl was having a wonderful time dancing around me and playing ball with Sara. 

Her little smile speaks of hope,

for a people who have been broken and driven into the ground but who are rising again. 

There is hope for restoration and brand new beginnings. 

And we found Tante Hilda who LOVES these festivities at Prospera Place and thankfully she is walking well enough this year to get around again.  Her heel which was broken last year at this time has mended.

Not as good as new, but good enough to bring Tante Hilda where she needs to go!

She was thrilled to get a tattoo from her "adopted grand-daughter". I myself was also covered with tattoos.  

Nine of them.  

Here is one of them...

And then we walked along the boardwalk meeting wonderful people and enjoying the joyful throng.

Such a hot day, but I kept pouring water on my head and I had my straw hat on to keep the sun out of my eyes so all was well.

Hard to believe I call this lovely city home.

In this expansive, diverse, amazing country, I got to be planted right here in paradise. 

Just Lovin' June

There was so much goodness in June, besides Daniel and Nicole returning home, Father's Day, Birthdays, and the end of school fun. There's even a spectacular "Bethlehem's Star" repeat happening tonight outside, but of course my little phone camera is incapable of doing it any sort of justice.  So I sat outside in the dark and gazed at something very bright just over the orchard.  Not sure if that was it or not, but I was impressed.  The moon was also exceedingly bright and beautiful in the still warm night sky as I took the puppies out for their bedtime routine.  

Taking pictures and making this journal reminds me on a regular basis how very much good God allows me to partake in.  It also helps me to remember as I look back at how rich and amazing my life really is.  I do have eyes to see!  I AM grateful!  

There's this lovely gal whom I get to share life with.  Here she is in her sweet spot - where the magic happens!  You can see a painting she did of Moose just behind her.  

And she so kindly took over shaving Moose before our record breaking hot June weekend. He was deeply appreciative.

He kept running joyously around the back yard chasing after balls with much ease and abandon following the removal of a great heap of heavy hot hair.  

This view never gets old and now the vineyards are bursting with leaves and life and the promise of fine wine.  

This here is Gellately Nut farm where I took Oma and Tante Hilda and Elsie for a drive.  We parked here to eat our drive-thru treats.  

Mom is doing so much better since her pacemaker installation.  

No More Fainting.

Praise God!

Today I attended the Graduation of the Karis House girls.  Such profound stories of immense overcoming.  They celebrated with dancing and testimonies, and the Trip's band played some great tunes. 

My dear Donara has overcome so much and has been struck down again and again but there she was in the midst of these beautiful women, rejoicing with them and experiencing her own restoration.

Letting go and Moving On was the theme as they are consolidating their many homes into one new building downtown. 

Here is Lisa enjoying the evening sun. She invited Patrice and I to join her down at the beach and they went swimming while I sat and read through an old journal. 

Glad I am not reliving those years!! Much easier to read about them and rejoice that they are over and that God brought me through.

And He will continue to!

It's Cherry Season!

These are some yummy Royal Anne's that I bought today at an orchard on my way home.

YUM!

Birthday Blessings

A blessed event occurred this weekend!  My sweet sister celebrated her birthday and it provided such a lovely opportunity for a party.

On a record breaking hot June day Elsie, Patrice and I sped off to Westbank to immerse ourselves in a cool air-conditioned theatre where we watched Cinderella and munched on a big bag of buttery popcorn. 

Two sisters sitting side by side, as we have done so very often in life, enjoying food and fun together. What blessing. To have this built in partner in my life who always loved me so very well, looked after me with intensity and devotion and was just there to share life with.

Holidays, mealtimes, bedtimes, TV times, driving to church in the back seat, playing with Nippy, celebrating birthdays, flying to other countries, visiting Oma and Tante Hilda on Brentwood Blvd, going camping at Gull Lake, going to a movie in downtown Kelowna so many years ago.

Our beds in one shared room, kneeling down to pray at night,  "Lieber Vater, mach mich from, das ich in dem himel komm..."

We're still trusting Him to do that for us!  

Our lives are intertwined in a wonderful way and we share so much more than just family.  

Our faith is our lifelong journey that will keep us together for eternity.

The Cinderella story is being played out in our lives right now and we are waiting for our Glorious Prince of Peace and for the wedding supper of the Lamb.

But meanwhile, as we wait we have little banquets in apartments around wooden tables with precious family gathered around. 

Watermelon and cherries, chicken and onion rings, potato salad and punch.

And laughter and God. 

And of course Mom's famous Napoleon Torte.

Everyone's favourite!

A phone call with our dear brother provided more opportunity for laughter and delight, as he had to miss out on his cake while Daniel pretended to finish the last of it. 

And Opa with his only grandson, telling a story of how his mother wore cherries on her dress for a decoration when he was a little boy. 

So glad we are still all here to enjoy each other and celebrate Elsie's one wild and precious life. 

My Dear Daddy

I love my Dad.

  Look at him here with his sweet smile, clean shaven face and beautiful eyes.  He always looks well put together and even noble somehow. He often gets eclipsed by my Mom who is the more gregarious, talkative, life loving half of their marriage, but Dad has been a steadfast presence in our home these many years.  As many years as I've been alive.  

I wanted to make his day special so I prepared a BBQ with steak, special baked potatoes and a strawberry mixed salad.  

But sadly, the steak (top sirloin from Australia) tasted really odd.  

And it was so chewy. Embarrassingly so.  

I fed mine to the dogs.  

Only Mom sat determinedly cutting and chewing, declaring that it was good!

She's the only one who ate her steak, with her 88 year old teeth.

She's a trooper.

And since I didn't have my sous chef Patrice working alongside me I ended up overdoing the "scored - baked potatoes" that looked really amazing in the recipe's picture.  

At least Elsie and Patrice liked them, but still.  

Pretty chewy.  

Thankfully the brownies were delicious.  I took them out of the freezer and sprinkled icing sugar on them so they were almost the best looking and tasting part of the entire meal.

Next to the watermelon, that is.  

Look at that WATERMELON Dad is clutching!  This is his ministry to our family gatherings and I just love it.  He said this doozer was the smallest he could find and he didn't even want to hold it for the picture because it was so heavy.  But I just love that he keeps bringing these big melons to our feasts.  

Tradition.  

Anyways, this isn't so much about the meal which was a huge disappointment to me and probably to Dad who rarely gets a good BBQ anymore because they live in a condo. 

This is about my Dad.

He is truly a remarkable man and I'm so proud to call him "Dad". 

As I sat writing his card, I began to thank him for some of the things that came to my mind that He had done for me that made my childhood GREAT.

The trips to Fairmount in the winter where we got to run outside into the wintery snow and lower ourselves into the lovely hot springs.  The camaraderie between lots of long time family friends at those gatherings was fabulous. 

He bought the family cross country skis and on the way home we stopped and all skied together under those tall evergreens in the still winter snow.

What an unusual and amazing thing for us to do together.

I thanked him for the camper he bought for the family. We didn't own it for long and as I recall it was a bit of a pain to drag up into the mountains, but it made an impression on me.  The fun of having a little house sitting on on the driveway for me to have sleepover parties in with my friends was thrilling.

The only camping trip I can ever remember taking it on was to Fairmount Hot Springs in the summer.  We brought our dog Nippy who grew so frantic the one time we left her in there that she ripped the screens out of the windows.

I thanked him for allowing us to  have pets.

He truly started a tradition with little Nippy and to this day dogs continue to play a rather large part in our family life.   Perhaps disproportionately so, but they make us laugh.  A lot.  

So thank you very much, Daddy. 

I thanked him for getting me downhill skis and for giving me the opportunity to learn to ski.  

I remember going to a sports store in Calgary where he let me pick out a beautiful sky blue snow suit and blue skis.  

It all felt so extravagant and amazing.

Being the youngest, I know I got the bells and whistles because there was finally enough money to allow such liberal spending.

And I got ski lessons at Paskapoo.

I thanked Dad for building me barbie doll furniture. Oh those beautiful beds he built for my "old fashioned" barbie stories.  He also built a table and chairs for them.  I went along to one of his jobs - a house that was under construction - and I watched these little masterpieces come together. 

They were sturdy and beautiful.  I left them unpainted because the barbie Clair and her husband  Joshua (a GI-Joe) were pioneers.  They had many many children together so Dad made sure to build me enough little beds.  Then I sewed tiny little quilts on Mom's sewing machine to finish that old fashioned look.  

I said thanks for the incredible trips he took our family on.  Back in the day not everyone was flying around as much as they do now, but Dad made family vacations a priority.  

I am so very grateful for those memories. 

We stayed right on Waikiki Beach in Oahu Hawaii back in 1969 or so. 

There was a big fat Hawaiian lifeguard named Jake that we hung out with around the pool.  There were pineapples and parrots and palm trees.

We went to Disneyland and Mazatlan, Europe and then back to Hawaii when I was 16.  My sister always at my side, looking after me, and beautiful mom and dad. 

Strong and steady and always there. 

Loving each other and loving us. 

They loved each other well and made our home feel safe for me.

Dad sitting in his office at his very neat and tidy desk.

Keeping careful record and making sure there was always enough.

Dad laying on the green striped couch in the family room watching TV or reading the newspaper. Such a familiar peaceful sight.  

I thanked Dad for carrying me to bed at night.  We had this game where I would close my eyes and as he carried me he would take a new route to my room so that I would be surprised when he finally laid me down in my bed.  

Sometimes he would lay down beside me and tell me stories. 

He was an excellent story teller and he told of his adventures in the war as he lay beside me.  How he and his companions managed to escape from prison camp.  He just made it all sound so fantastic that it didn't strike me that it must have been a terrifying, incredibly difficult time in his life.  

He left all of those parts out.

He left out the part that he suffered a very difficult and painful childhood, but still somehow managed to become a loving and caring Father.

He is truly a remarkable man.

He has left us with his memoirs written in a hardcover book.  Events Unforseen. What an incredible gift.  I have recently been re-reading this memoir and I am utterly amazed at how beautifully he wrote using a language he learned in his 20's. I am so grateful to have this written record of his life and some of mom's life.  

I know now where I got this love of "keeping the story" alive.

I've got that part of Dad running through my veins and right into this keyboard.  

His legacy lives on.

I'm so grateful to this man of diligence and hard work.

I'm grateful for his faithfulness to his wife and family.

I'm dumbfounded when I think of how generous and kind he has been to all of us, all of our years. 

He paid for my education and gave me a work ethic that allowed me to do very well in college and to graduate with distinction.

He provided bikes and later cars for us to drive and houses for us kids to live in.

He truly loves his family very well.

I see this is getting a little lengthy and I didn't know I'd wax all eloquent but Dad is worthy of so much more than one blog post here.  

I'm grateful to God for giving me this exceptional, loving, kind, generous, hardworking and faithful Father.  

I need to read this to him because his card didn't quite say what I really meant to say to him. 

This and a whole lot more.

I'm So Very Grateful.

Walking & Rolling

I was part of a fundraiser today for Hands In Service, an incredible organization that provides volunteer services for people who are housebound or disabled.  I know how much help I require now that I'm 28 years into my journey so I so totally support what they do.  People are so blessed when volunteers come into their home to help them with cleaning they've been unable to do or to bring them a meal. 

Such lovely acts of service.

I joined the team of a couple of gals I have wheeled with in previous years as we always have so much fun together.  So I was part of the "Goertzen Girls Team", but little did I know I would be able to get out my own little team of walkers and rollers!  Just look at these cuties!

Pupcake was the mascot and we had a delightful day wheeling and walking along the boardwalk on a beautiful summer's day.  

I was so grateful to dear Elsie for putting her plans on hold to bring mom and Tante Hilda out to this event.  

We were the real deal.  

And later we found a piano just waiting to be played so we had fun making music at the lakeside with the cutest little audience.  

It was so nice to get Mom out to the lake! 

The fundraiser ended with a toilet scrubbing wheelchair race which was amusing to watch.  I can relate on so many levels...

Here's Arianna doing her best to get her team in first place.

So that was fun!