Fun, Food & Festivities.....and you're invited!

We're doin' renos.

Church, that is.

We're going with "burgundy red" boards with the white trim.  We all figured it just needed a little face lift.  The inside was painted a while back with all the new "in" shades and colors.

I took this picture sometime in January with the Nativity Scene still sitting atop the roof.  It was a brisk, cold Sunday morning!

Since this picture was taken the facia has been repaired, trees trimmed and are now in bloom, flowers have been planted beneath the sign and the grass is all green and cut.  The sky is just as lovely though.

So, it will be interesting to see how this picture varies with the one I shall take following the painting update.  I do think it will give our "place identity" a new and improved look to the neighborhood.

Speaking of neighborhood, JUNE 12 is our neighborhood family BBQ starting around 4 p.m. with stuff for kids to do, followed by supper prepared and ready for you to join us at 5 p.m..  We're cooking it for YOU...so we can get to know you and for you to put faces on folks that venture out once a week to this place to meet God.  It's good to be a part of this section of the city...15th Street and 15th Avenue East, across from the Good Shephard Care Home...the northeast corner of the lighted intersection.  We're just ordinary folks who desire good things for this city and specifically, our neighborhood.

And there's no charge either.  Where else can you come and get free food, and meet really good cooks and BBQ'ers.....and be in a community that attempts to love with abandon?

I think you could be pleasantly surprised............as you can see, we tend to do a lot of eating!!!

Of course, we have a lot of fun together too.  THAT'S IMPORTANT!!! 

We need....

some color.......

So there you go.  Hope it let a glimmer of sunshine into your day.  I think we all need it.

Today too, is Trinity Sunday when we acknowledge the very difficult truth of God being one, yet three individual beings....Father, Son and Spirit.  Pastor Stacia quoted St. Augustine today when  she said he described God as "a society of love" (I think that is what she said...I really wasn't sleeping...I should have written it down!!).  But that thought of God, together as a society...yet one.....and all of them bound in love, had me thinking.  It really is what God wants churches to become.  A society, a body, where everyone comes together, each one having a part of God within them, the part that is love, and in turn, using that love within them to love others.  Complicated.......yet simple.

Kind of like a flower.......

Extremes....

One week you have this....

The next week you have this...

If I had a choice, I'd pick wet and lush as opposed to dry and harsh.

The rain smells good too.

Today's Saturday.....but Tuesday's comin'...... (warmer at least)

Unwrapping of a gift....

I received a gift today....well, I actually received one yesterday too, but I have yet to get a picture of it.

Today's gift was hanging in my co-workers office.  She came to me, telling me of the package that was being unwrapped, ever-so-slowly behind her as she worked on her computer.  She wasn't doing the unwrapping either.

God, in his goodness was offering her a gift right in her office and was painstakingly unwrapping it for her to enjoy.  Petal by petal, soft yellow stars within pale pink "waxy" petals revealed themselves...... hanging in clusters upside down on the lush green plant.  My friend didn't have any work to do, other than feasting her eyes on the package.  She came by my desk, suggesting I bring my camera.  She wanted to share this gift with me.  And so I went.  Her hoya plant was blooming again but this time it was smack in the middle of revealing itself to anyone who wished to appreciate it.

And so, I captured it's beauty, as best I could.  No camera could ever capture it fully and totally but here it is for you to enjoy.  I pass on the beauty of this lovely gift...to you......

Beauty......!!!!!  Thanks for the gift, God.

Walkin' the walk....

Just one week from tomorrow, June 4, the annual Relay for Life run will begin at the Harry Jerome Track - Carlton Comprehensive High school.

Our team "Studs & Peelers" (from a forestry perspective, of course) will enter into it's 10th year as a team.  I think there are only 3 original members from the year 2000, but we are a continuing team nonetheless. 

This will be my 7th year.  I haven't always stayed overnight in these last few years at least, but I try and do my part with the fundraising throughout the year....as does everyone else on the team.  Funny how one looses enthusiasm for this kind of thing, the older you get....staying up all night at one point in my life, would have been fun, energetic, and filled with youthful vigor....but not now!!!  So, I shall probably stay until the pipers play their mournful songs on the "Hill of HOPE" and then return home to my own bed....depending of course, how dear husband is faring after his angiogram. 

The year for our "Studs & Peelers" has been filled with pancake breakfasts, daffodil sales, BBQ, special occasion Baskets, cookie days, pie days and various kinds of efforts of good friends, to raise money for cancer research.  It has become a way of life for us all at the Forest Center Building.  People look forward to buying our goods.  Everyone is exceptional in their support of this effort and the entire building is to be applauded for their kindness and generosity in helping us out.  One of our team member's young sons, Jacob, in lieu of presents for his birthday celebration, took pledges for our team and raised $85.  Another team member sold bleeding heart plants from his garden and yet another Forest Service staff member's daughter, Carlie, made "sticker fish hooks" you place on windows (for $2. each.....raising over $20). 

You see, that is what this fundraising effort has become....kind of a family event in our building, where everyone participates in one way or another...all towards a common goal.

Ten years of having a team is a good long time.  Not too sure what will happen next year with it all.  It may be time for young, new-spirited folk to take up the cause.  We'll see how it all works out.

Until then, I'm fundraising for my walk next week.  I normally would have raised at least over $100. by this time, but alas, I am only one quarter there.  If you know of anyone wishing to donate to this cause, I will continue to be a willing recipient of any and all monies.....a tax receipt will be issued for anything over $10.

.....and may God bless us, every one..........

Next Wednesday...

That's the day my man goes for his angiogram.

Anything like this can be a bit fearful, so I pray God would give him strength and calmness in the middle of this storm.....and for the doctors to take care of him in the procedure.

I would ask for your prayers for him...this big lug of a fellow, who spits off at the mouth at times and can make folks edgy and somewhat defensive.......and who has a heart of gold ...this man I love with all of my being...who I know, loves me too.....

What are friends for after all, if you can't count on them to pray..... thanks.....

Rain, rain, go away.....

Come again another day
When you can't stay so long...
Until after summer vacation...
As soon as the farmers get their crops in...
So we don't have to cut the grass so often...
Because I hate looking like a drowned rat...
'Cause we don't appreciate water on the basement floor....

Ya, for all of the above reasons.
Enough already....
And the forecast for this weekend says
Rain....Rain.....Rain.....

Got paddles????

Fun with the girl....

After lunch at the Hawood Inn and a drive around the trailer park,

it was a trip to Big Olaf's ice cream shop

where father and daughter acted out the "old dial-up telephone"!!

It was a fun time and the sun came out....once....:-)

We found the broken egg of some poor bird parents....:-(

It was cold and windy but smelled wonderful....just like a lake!

Our very own ecological footprints on purple sand

were the only things we left behind.

A grand day it was at Waskesiu. 

We leave it behind now, for another month and hopefully by then, the weather will have improved considerably.

Pentecost.....

Acts 2



1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them."

Today is Pentecost Sunday.

Pastors Seth and Stacia had the sanctuary adorned with the color red...the cross cloaked in hanging red satin, red candles on the altar, red carnations on the pulpit and the still red poinsettias from Christmas.

Flaming red....the color of fire.

Scripture talks about the promise of God's Spirit coming to his people, to comfort them, to enable them, to empower them and to change them.  He came as tongues of fire and a loud wind, doing miraculous things amongst the believers.  I have experienced miraculous things also with God's Spirit....no fire or loud wind but a gentle whisper to leave my old life behind and take up a new way of living....something I have never regretted.

That is what we were reminded of today.  God's flaming, purifying Holy Spirit comes to cleanse us from impurities, to refine us into what God desires us to be and to allow this same Spirit to reform us into living vessels of holiness and truth.  It does not mean that the Spirit has come to make us perfect for the rest of our lives but it does mean that He has come to do a work that is constantly changing us into God's likeness.  It is like a refining fire that cleanses and purifies....moment by moment...he takes our lives and makes them new especially through difficulties and sorrows, losses and sickness, disappointments and insecurities, times of anger, disillusionment and frustration....even through our times of faithlessness and questioning. 

Pentecost Sunday....a day to remind me how far I have come.....and how far I have yet to go.

Come Holy Spirit.....come!!!

Tulips and a friend....

A few weeks back there were tulips at the front of the altar at church.  They were beautiful and amazingly bright....just like the lady holding them in this pic.

This is Win.  I consider her a dear friend.  We don't do as many things together as I'd  like but whenever we connect, usually on Sunday morning, we chat about our week, about our children and we laugh alot.  Win had been a teacher all her life and it shows....still.  She is deliberate in her speech, she asks questions of you that makes you feel like your life is important and that she cares about you.  I like those qualities in her.  She's also a very gentle and kind individual with a crazy sense of humor.  I love her....

Just another example of how age really isn't a factor in a friendship.   It's good to have friends of all ages.  It keeps one up on things of the day as well as being sensitive to those entering new phases of life.

Win is someone I look up to and I pray God would bless her immeasurably with good health in these days....

We have a name connection....

Queen Victoria (daughter of the Duke of Kent) and her consort Prince Albert

Yes, we Prince Albertans have this special connection to the upcoming weekend we celebrate - Queen Victoria's birthday.  Her husband, Prince Albert, was the love of her life.  Following his death, the Queen mourned his passing for the rest of her life.  She had great influence on the people of her day as well, with strict rules for living and purity (reasons coming from her upbringing and her mother's strict influence, in particular).  Some of these rules affected even up to my own generation.

Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch that ever lived....her reign last nearly 64 years...1837 until her death in 1901.

Actually, another connection (in name only), is the fact that her father was the Duke of Kent.  Imagine that!

I do enjoy being called the Duchess of Kent....I feel quite regal and all.....

Long live the Queen!!!

Bzzzzzzzzzzz.....

I was about to eat my lunch today when I looked out the side window.  There it was again.  All white, blooming and buzzing.

Forget lunch.

Off to the great outdoors with camera in hand.

The neighbors crab apple tree was resplendent in her white gown.  Blossoms everywhere and some very close to the fence.  I snapped away, dodging busy bees and tiny hanging worms.

They're a sight, aren't they?  The scent was overpowering too. 

It was a good lunch time.