Photo a day

Okay, I have not been doing a very good job of taking a photo every day this month. (Sorry, Anita.(a.k.a. initiator of the photo a day challenge))

But I have taken a few over the past three days.

Here are my favourites:




We went to the beach on Wednesday and met some friends there. I bribed the kids with a movie night to let me take this picture. (A woman watched me take the photo and I said to her, in explanation: "I'm a scrapbooker." And she replied: "I figured as much." LOL!)




While we watched Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on Wednesday night, I braided Sage's hair. I took this photo at the park on Thursday morning:



This afternoon, we biked to do some errands (optometrist to pick up my repaired sunglass clips, post office to mail off a RAK, the library and the movie store) and I took the kids to Warky's for supper. We stopped at the park on the way home. Lots of photo opportunities there, but of course, I didn't have my camera with me. :(


When we got home, I suggested that the kids look at their books from the library on the patio in the backyard while I mowed the lawn. And I got these:

So sweet

Yesterday afternoon, I was scrapbooking at my craft table and Sage wanted to "do scrapbooking" with me "with paint."

So I set her up with some pink cardstock, purple paint and a paintbrush and she was as happy as a clam. And while I scrapbooked, I mean, we scrapbooked, she chatted away.

And I, being the wonderful mother that I am, tuned her out.

But then I tuned in when she said something about "thankful for loving me."

"What did you say, Sage?"

"I said: "Thank you, God, for loving me. And thank you, God, for Daddy and for Mommy and for Jonah and for Austin!""

Totally makes me understand what Jesus meant when he said we need to become like little children.

Baby, it's hot outside!

Crazy, humid hot.

The kind of hot that makes you very grateful for air-conditioning & cool basements to scrapbook in.

Here's what I created this afternoon:



I was pleased to find another way to use my "treasure" stamp. And I'm loving the Rhonna Farrer journaling chipboard!

Here's to keeping cool!

Painting, strep & a visit from my twin

So yesterday, I woke up with a really sore throat that hurt when I'd swallow. I took Jonah to the doctor's for his five year check-up (& his kindergarten needles) and asked the doctor to check my throat right away. Turns out it's strep. Yuck. So I'm on penicillin and waiting for it to kick in soon.

My twin brother, Chris, is out for a visit from Nanaimo and he and my mom drove out for the day.

It was really nice. We haven't seen him since Christmas 2005 and it was really good to see him connect with his nephews and niece.





Sage warmed up to him okay, but then this afternoon, she decided to roar at him to "scare him" and he roared right back at her! Well, she did NOT like that at all! She kept her distance for the rest of the visit, but did give him a hug before he left.

So this week, in preparation for their visit, I painted my front door. (Man, what a drawn out process!) But it's Raspberry Truffle now and I'm really happy with it.


I've also been working in the yard, fixing up my paths. Everything is huge in my garden this year! This is the path that leads around the north side of my house to the backyard.


My back flower garden (& three tomato plants)


And the hydrangea that I moved in Spring. It's doing much better in its new location.

Wouldn't it be nice...

to have lots of money?

I think this a lot. It doesn't consume me or anything like that, but every once in a while, I'll come across a financial need and think that it would be really nice to be able to meet it.

Or a want.

This morning, I definitely found a want.

I went shopping in a store in our town with a friend and decided to try on some bathing suits. (I know, I must have felt like punishing myself or something, but I thought if anything, it might be good for a laugh.)

Well, I found this gorgeous dark brown and teal blue suit that actually, believe it or not, looked good on me.

Seriously.

Now I think this is a first for me since my early twenties, if not my teens. The term "nice-looking bathing suit on Leigh" just seems like an oxy-moron to me.

But there it was. A very flattering bathing suit. I was so tempted to buy it.

So, what stopped me?

The price.

$145.

Yeah. Not in this lifetime.

However, it did help me get some perspective on the whole want vs. need thing. God totally provides for my needs (& some of my wants, too). And it's okay for me to not get something that I want.

Even if it did look pretty darn good on me.

A day in the city

Austin's team was chosen to play in a jamboree at the Goldeyes Stadium and yesterday was the day.

His first game started at 10am. They had set up 3 little diamonds on the Goldeye's field. It was really cool to watch them there. They also had a nice playstructure, so that was good for Sage and Jonah. Austin played left field and got on base quite a few times, which was great.

For lunch, we'd packed a cooler, so we crossed the river into old St. Boniface and ate on the steps of the Cathedral, which was really nice. We showed the kids where my dad was buried and of course, took some pictures.

Austin's second game went well, too and afterwards, we took the kids to see Ratatouille.

(Cam almost had a heart attack at the cost for the five of us to get into the theatre-- good thing Sage was free!) After supper at A&W, we headed back to the Goldeyes stadium where we watched four innings of the game.

Austin was really happy to get his picture taken with Goldie.

a day in July

Kind of a typical day for us in July, give or take some aspects.

The kids enjoyed a bit of TV time this morning-- Kids CBC.

We rode our bikes to run errands this morning (dropped off a birthday present for Jorja, got groceries, returned a movie & stopped at the church.)

After putting our groceries away, we biked to the library...

and the park. They put up a new playstructure at the park which the kids really enjoyed.

After lunch, we went to the beach for the boys' swimming lessons.

After supper we had a "movie night" (tonight's feature was Cheaper By the Dozen)...


followed by Bible story reading, praying and blessing the kids.


After they were in bed, I watched the last part of CNTM and then went downstairs to finish a layout, scan & upload it to the MSS gallery and play on the computer for a little bit before bed.

WBC

So, I spoke at the Winkler Bible Camp last week during their evening chapel, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm.

There were over 120 kids there, ages 6 to 12. They actually ran three different camps at the main site this last week. Two little buddies camps (which were three days and two nights each) and a week long camp for ages 8 to 12. So, my audience wasn't always the same.

So, how did it go?

It went really, really well!

I had an absolute blast-- everyone at the camp was very friendly and accomodating. It was really cool to be a part of a program like that and to be used by God in this way there .

Even though I hadn't been given a lot of notice for preparing (like all of four days!), I think it was better to do it at the beginning of the summer and just get it over with. Otherwise, I'd spend most of the summer stressing about working on my talks, thinking about what I wanted to say & having it occupy my thoughts.

When I mentioned this to the camp director today after church, he said that that was good to know for next year. (So I guess they were pretty pleased with how I did, if they're wanting to invited me back.)

The one disappointing thing: I didn't get a picture of myself at the camp, except for this one that Austin took:

Photo a day challenge for July

Anita posted a challenge at MSS to take a photo every day in July. I missed one day this week (my memory card was full) but here's what I have so far:

July Design Team stuff

The July kits are available at My Scrap Shoppe. It's a really pretty kit. I was a little nervous when Marcy said that it would be Tinkering Ink (I haven't really liked their patterned papers very much) but I really liked this line.

Here are the layouts I created with it:











The DT challenge this month was to create a layout being inspired by clothing. So this is the shirt that inspired me:



And here's the layout:



(The title was inspired by a pair of Sage's Dora the Explorer jammies.)

And the bonus for MSS this month was our top ten tunes to scrapbook to. And here's mine:








Oh right, I don't have any! ;)

My CD player doesn't work, so I usually scrapbook in silence. With three kids, I've really come to enjoy the quiet!

Thanks for looking!

Celebrating Canada Day

I know, I'm a couple of days late, but it's been a little crazy here lately.

Last Thursday, the director of the Winker Bible Camp called me and asked me for a "huge favour." It seems they had all of their speakers lined up for their evening chapels for the whole summer except for this coming week. Could I help them out? I said sure, getting myself in for preparing and executing four 20 minute talks to 120+ campers this week. The first one last night was on bullying and I think it went well. Tonight's topic is on tempation. I have a good idea of what I'm going to do and say, but I still need to write it out.

But before I get to that, I wanted to share some of my favourite pictures from Canada Day.

Taken on our front porch before church-- loved that they were all colour coordinated!

On the couch after church. We set the camera on the entertainment unit beside the tv and the kids took turns pressing the timer button and running to the couch.

They had some Canada Day Celebration stuff at our rec centre, so we went to check that out in the afternoon. Love the colours of the tires.

Taken at the beach in the evening before the fireworks. Jonah kills me! This was his pose when I asked him to smile. :)

Love this one...

And this one, except that she's looking way too old here!

I tried to get some pictures of the fireworks, but it was really hard. So after a few tries, I put my camera away and just enjoyed them.