July Learnings

31 days in a month = a lot of learnings.

Lincoln is learning to garden. Unsupervised.

I learned that the size of the crown doesn't need to be large in order for a little girl to feel like a princess.

Lincoln learned what a time-out was all about (breaks my heart......punishing is so not fun!)

I learned how to work the BBQ. Not too bad for my first time!!

Lincoln has learned how to hang onto the edge of the pool and just lay in the water. My heart goes into my throat every time, but here he is, laughing away:

I learned that Lincoln absolutely LOVES mac'n'cheese.....

....and Keziah absolutely does not!

I learned that if it's a rainy day and the kids can't go outside to play, give them a flashlight, which will occupy them for quite some time.

They also learned to have indoor picnics, all orchestrated by the big sister.

I had a tough lesson this month: I learned that I am allergic to poison ivy. Wow. Mosquito bites are nothing compared to the itch of a poison ivy rash. And I didn't even have a bad case of it!

The kids learned not to bother mom when she is on kijiji. It usually means she is finding great deals for them!!

We learned that you can make any campsite look homey. Somewhat. (we have never been on such a crummy campsite as we were on this time).

Nathan and I learned that a little mold under the sink usually means a lot of mold under the sink and other cupboards. Thankfully, it is all gone now.

Keziah learned how to do a cannonball off the diving board, thanks to her daddy.

In the last weeks, Lincoln has learned to play very well with his cars and trucks. With intense concentration, he lines them all up. Once they are all lined up, he takes them one by one and lines them all up on another surface. This will keep him busy for quite some time.

Speaking of cars, Lincoln learned what it was like to sit in a race car! Talk about living a boy's dream! Too bad he won't remember.

Keziah learned that having the company's summer BBQ at our place means bouncy castles and snow cones!

We learned what it was like to be chauffeurs parents to teenagers for a few days. It was a lot of fun! And we learned we had enough outlets for all the electronic stuff that came with them!

I learned that sitting on the back of a motorbike, biking through the countryside with fresh cut hay in the fields, is still one of the best ways to celebrate an anniversary. That is, until I get my own bike :o) Then that will be the best way!!

I do believe the biggest thing we learned though this month was how powerful our God is. Like someone has pointed out, we were reminded again how we wouldn't stand a chance if we were to see the full extent of this power. But we don't only see his power in the destruction, but also in the beauty of His creation. This month, it was the beauty of the sky, where one minute it can be absolutely blue with white puffy clouds and the next minute, the same sky is filled with clouds that look like boiling water.

And with that, the month is over.

I can't imagine what else there is to learn. But hopefully this boy learns how to come off the top of the playground by himself (he's scared of the slide now, so he just sits there and waits till I come and get him).

And the Sparks Continue to Fly!

You would think after last week's storm, we've had enough with sparks for awhile. Those sparks from the storm eventually went out after hours of smouldering and the fire department left Saturday night. But today, the sparks I am talking about are still flying, sparks that have been alight some 15 years ago.

Today is our anniversary. 15 years. Did I just make you gag talking about our spark? Sorry about that. :o)

15 years ago we woke up early, rushing about, in order to be at the church on time. We wanted a morning wedding, with a luncheon and have everything done by late afternoon. And that is exactly what happened. I was walking down the isle at 10:36, had our pictures snapped for awhile, and then were eating lunch at 2:13. We said good-bye to our last guest at 5:58 and we left. What a whirlwind of a day. But what a beautiful day it was! A few snapshots from The Day.

But seeing as it's been 15 years, I should be able to come up with a bit of a list of things I have learned. The problem is, I don't think I have learned a whole lot. You see, 'learned' is in the past tense. The things I have 'learned' over the years are things I am still learning. Allow me to list a few things of What I have and am Learning About Marriage

* it is not about give and take. It is all about give. Give, give, give. And to learn to give with a joyful heart. Yeah, still learning this one.

* stop trying to expect my husband to know what is on my mind. He is not a mind-reader. He is my husband. They are two totally different titles. Thankfully.

* respect. Respect my husband to him, as well as in front of others. That means not knocking him down, even if *I* thought what he did was humourous.

* do realize that a man and a woman work very differently. Men compartmentalize things. Women, well, we like to overanalyze things (or am I the only one that does that?). So don't get hurt when my man has moved on to something else, even if it's just been 1/2 an hour since we last talked about an issue. It's not that he doesn't care, it's because I am thinking too much of one thing. Time to move on.

* recognize the pressure my husband has to provide for our family. And I don't mean just financially here. He not only provides financially, but also stability, emotionally, spiritually, just to name a few. To come home after a hard day at work, and then provide me his ear and shoulder while I tell him about the joys and frustrations of my day, is something never to take for granted.

* what happens in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom

* treat him like a king. He is the head of our household, and I love that. But how do you treat someone like a king? By serving him. And that ties in with my first point: giving. If, as Christians, we are to imitate Christ in our actions, well, what did Christ do when He was on earth before He gave His life for us? He served others. Being married, I am called to serve my husband. And again, to do it with a joyful heart.

* forgive. Without forgiveness, you only hold yourself back. Besides, if I can't forgive, how can I expect God to forgive me? He definitely doesn't hold grudges. Phew.

The thing that makes me sad though, is knowing that not all marriages are healthy. Not all husbands love their wives like themselves and not all wives respect their husbands. A lot of abuse happens, verbally, physically and emotionally. Then reading the list above can be leave you with a feeling of "yeah, right. I'll do that once he starts doing this."

The last 15 years, it has been so easy for me to respect and love my husband. Not because I am such a loving and gracious wife (HA!!!! Lots to work on yet :o), but it is because I have a husband who loves and respects me. But that is not the way it goes for everyone. And so, the last bullet (there is so much more to add but I'll save that for next year's anniversary, the Lord willing) I want to add is

*pray. Again, easy to say, but it needs to be said. Pray for your marriage, pray for your spouse, pray for your family and pray for yourself. Marriage is like a bed of roses: there are lots of beautiful things to enjoy, but don't forget the thorns. Just don't let those thorns overrule the reason why you planted the roses. Kneel before our God and ask Him for strength, encouragment, a forgiving heart, patience, more understanding, or whatever it is you need to bring to the table of marriage what you ought.

Our marriages represent Christ and His Church. Christ is the Groom and the Church is His Bride. And before I go and make sure my husband is representing the Groom, I better make sure to focus on being like His Church. And so I leave you with what this looks like, written clearly in for us in His Word in Ephesians 5: 21-33

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^{[b] 32} This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

 May the Holy Spirit work this Word into our hearts as we go forward today, also remembering our wedding text of Psalm 48:14: For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

It Was a Dark and Stormy.....

....day. Ha!! Fooled ya, didn't I?! You thought the ending of that sentence would have the word 'night'. I just know you did, seeing as all of us had that written on a chalkboard at some point in our school career, to encourage creative writing.

All kidding aside, yesterday around 6ish, it truly became a dark and stormy day. Sure isn't a surprise, what with all that humidity we've been having. Now, like I wrote earlier, am I ever thankful we came home early from our camping trip! Otherwise we'd be still emptying our trailer when this storm came up!

The first storm was the fierciest and I only got two pictures. I would have taken more but I was hiding under my bed. You see, storms like this terrify me.

The wind picked up, along with it picking up trees. We didn't see any damage until later, when we dared to venture out. Once this storm passed, the sun came out. But this was just the beginning of a night of storms! You know the term "a storm came rolling in". Well, to be honest, I don't think I have ever seen a storm roll in. That is, until last night. Now I completely understand that phrase. This time I did not hide under my bed, but put on  my brave face and snapped some pictures. It was truly amazing to see. The pictures do not do justice at all, but I tried to capture it. The clouds were billowing into each other like plumes of smoke. They truly were rolling. Eerie but beautiful!

While these clouds were rolling about, the skies on the other side of our backyard looked like this:

But it didn't take long for the clouds to continue to roll over to that side of the sky:

We had friends over for the evening, and thankfully they saw smoke coming from the wires beside our driveway. Tree limbs had fallen over the wires and started a very small fire.

We called the fire department and they came around 10 last night. They are still sitting at the end of our driveway this morning, guarding the area as the trees could be all charged due to the live wires. They will be here until the hydro people get here.

Of course, the guys had to go out and investigate. Friends of ours family lives up the road and a tree landed into one of their bedrooms. Thankfully everyone was safe. And just up the road, we saw this:

Again, thankfully, the driver came out of the car with just cuts and bruises. It could have been so much worse, but it wasn't.

So right now, in the aftermath, our road is still closed. We do have power, until the hydro guys come and shut it off in order to deal with our wires. The air still smells of smoke, and the volunteer firefighters are eating my brownies :o)

We are ever so thankful to God for sparing us and all of our loved ones. His strength, power and fortitude was once again shown through the storms last night. I hope all of you are safe! May God continue to be with all those involved in cleaning up and restoring power.

"Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heaves like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants." Ps. 104: 1-4

Camping Trip Not to be Remembered

Well, we were supposed to come home today from a quick 5 day camping trip with my sister and her family. We came home on Wednesday, just two days after we set up camp.

If you live in Ontario, particularly the southern part of Ontario, you know about the heatwave we are experiencing right now. Of course, heat is what you want when you go camping. It is summer after all. However, this heat wave has been, well, hot. And humid. Like 45 degrees with the humidity factored in there. That is 113 degrees Farenheit. Put that temperature in the middle of the forest, with not an ounce of air flow, unless you count the breeze from the wings of the zillions of deer flies and mosquitos, and you have a recipe of Time to Go Home wishes. And so that is exactly what we did two nights later. We went home. It helped that we were only just an hour away AND we felt very foolish for slugging it out just for the sake of our pride, when we knew full well that we have quite the backyard oasis that we would be coming home to.

Having said all this, we did manage to pack in some fun. The kids had a great time, despite losing about 5 pounds of blood from the thirsty bugs. Tuesday was definitely our best day, spending most of it at the beach. My sister and her hubby knew of a quiet, clean spot for us to enjoy the sand and water. Seeing as we were on Lake Eerie, this is hard to find. But we found it! I'd tell you where it is but then everyone will go there, especially once they experience the park beach. Blech!!!!

Lincoln figured out a way to keep cool. Just roll around in the sand:

Keziah and Conall are best of buds.  He is 9 months older than she is, but they play very, very well together.

Despite the heat, we did make a fire for the kids so they could enjoy their s'mores. As soon as they were in bed, the fire went out. We sure didn't need it!

One time, Kez and Conall were playing Hide and Seek. So funny to watch!!!!

The most blissful time was when they thought the other was counting. So they were both hiding. Of course I didn't correct them. Are you kidding me?! I got three pages read in my book during that time! :o)

Once we made the decision to go home, we threw everything in the trailer and truck and were "packed up" in about an hour or so. I have never been so excited to go home. We made plans for my sister to come over the next day to enjoy our backyard. Bug free. And that is exactly what we did. The next day was great, with lots of fun playing in the pool. We spent the whole afternoon in the pool. Well, that is, in between pee breaks, which seemed to be needed every 8 minutes. Oh well. Prefer that than in the pool!

Keziah got to know her uncle quite well. So well, that she needed a hug from him. Only to end with a big splashing match!

And this, my friends, is the way to relax! Forget the campsite in this weather! We are so thankful for our pool! Thanks, mom and dad, for putting the pool in way back in 1988!

So while the actual camping trip didn't live up to as much fun as we were hoping, we still made the best of it! I hope all of you experiencing this heat wave are doing okay and finding ways to keep cool. I know we will yearn for these days in the dead of winter. At least I will.