Another busy week ahead...

Good thing I did some baking today for our upcoming Country Store this Saturday!  Tomorrow is a church Council meeting, Wednesday will be tests and Kid's Klub and another meeting following, Thursday and Friday we will see how the test results are...maybe I'll be in Saskatoon, who knows.  Saturday, of course, is the big bake/craft sale at the church.  Throw in 8 hours of work at my daily day job and I feel tired already.

I was still thinking about our time with the family yesterday and how much work my sister-in-law did to make a beautiful meal and to make us feel welcome, as usual.  They are like that, my brother and his wife.  No put-ons, nothing phony...just real people who treat their family well.  I feel blessed.  Wished Matt could have been there, too! 

 Helen and Garry

 Helen and Raelene

 Raelene and Shannon

 Kylie and Brittney

 Rovelyn, Kelly and baby Taylor

Me and the little beauty, Taylor

And our little extended family just keeps on expanding with little ones springing up!  A true blessing!  

I pray for God's special presence during this week of busyness.

Thanksgiving...

It was a day spent with family...family we hadn't seen in quite a long while...and one member whom we had not met yet!  If these pictures even show up....

Ryan

Ken and Kylie

Seems my pictures aren't uploading or downloading or whatever....they aren't showing up on here.  I'll have to do more posting tomorrow....nite all.

The wait...

Normally I have patience to wait for things.  But some things I wished would just happen quickly already.

The results of tests have placed me in a position to have "further investigations"....as quickly as possible... then be referred to a specialist in Saskatoon.

So, here I wait.  Wednesday will not come soon enough.

But, God is in it and whatever comes my way, I shall walk the path...and learn once more the art of patience.  Makes one so much more empathetic.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Sunday.  I shall lead worship and gather the men, women and children together to offer our thanks to God, who gives us life and sustains us in the midst of trials and sorrows; who encourages us to go on.

Then we'll head off to Tisdale for a mini-reunion with my brother's family and to meet the new member of our clan...Taylor Rosa Benson!

God is good....all the time.

Great flapping goose wings, Batman!!!

There are perks to traveling out-of-town on a fall day, even if it is to get some tests done!

As Saskatchewan is a major fly-way for the goose population, it was a great sight to once more see migration in action.  Geese everywhere!  Snow geese, with their color-phase relatives amongst them, the Blue geese.

Husband is quite used to me yelling "STOP THE TRUCK", while traveling down the road at 110 km/hr.  Last I checked though, we may need a brake job some time in the near future.

The fields were like a snow storm had hit.  We managed to find a little spot to drive off the highway and I "crept" up on the flock.  Well, crouching as low as I could with a bum knee anyway.  I clicked as I progressed.  Up and over the rise I came, Mr. Olympus in hand, surprising the whole gang.  They were squawking and honking and making all manner of "frightened to death" sounds.  When they saw me coming at them, up they flew, with a sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas too.....oh, I think I should wait a little longer for that story...but it rhymed!!!

Here they are as I stood in wonder at the sight of them....

We continued on down the highway and got to the point where they had all landed a few miles away.  They sat on the road, covered it actually, so I got out of the truck and walked towards them.

 

Aren't they just grand!

And the noise....much worse than the Batmobile!!!

Winning....

Our Relay for Life  "Studs and Peelers" team had a raffle for an Ohio Buckeye tree.  Today we picked a name from a coffee can and our big winner was a Forest Service employee from Creighton, Donna Lundquist.  She happened to be in the area today and picked up her prize...a lovely shedding tree:)

 

Here are some team members, L->R Dave Stevenson, Nadine Penney

Twila Gola and the winner, Donna Lundquist.

Then at noon, another winning event took place.  It was a retirement luncheon for two over-thirty-five year folks of the Northern Support Services, Stan Mamczasz (it took me a good many years to be able to type Stan's name without looking!!) and Dianne Gervais.  It was good to recognize their service to the government and to join with other folks to celebrate their accomplishments.  I trust their retirements will be fruitful and filled with fun and good health!

Stan and his wife.

Dianne and her husband.

This evening was Kid's Club....we crafted bracelets with beads and bells as a precursor to the story of Isaac and Rebekah.  I began to tell the group of pre-schoolers the story of Abraham sending his servants to his home land to find a suitable wife for his son, Isaac and how the servants had to travel by camel over the desert to go and find Isaac a wife (Rebekah was found for him!!!).  So, I had a picture of this camel walking in the desert.  I showed the class the picture and asked them what the camel was walking on.  "His legs!", was the first comment.  I was hoping for "sand" as an answer but instead, I got what I asked for!!!  They are just too funny!

The day has ended with a long phone conversation with Matt and texting with Shannon.  All good.

So, besides work, it has been a busy day.  Nite all.........

A week of thanksgiving...

I'm attempting to be thankful for various things as I progress through my week...in anticipation of the coming weekend...Thanksgiving.

It all boils down to people.  Oh, I can be thankful for my job, my beat up old vehicle I drive to get me from point A to point B, my coat to keep me warm, water to drink and food to eat.

But when all is said and done and the dust settles on the ole' parched prairie, there really is only one major thing to be thankful for.....family....friends....people.

I wonder how many times I've blogged on this very subject, the one on "relationships".  Probably too many to count and yet I keep saying it over and over again...if we don't have relationships with others, we really don't have much.  When I'm pushing up daisies under the shade of the ole' pine tree, I hope I will have left this place knowing my life made a difference (in a good way) to at least one person.  Not much to ask.  But I could be a positive influence to that one person, and if that person left earth the same way, having a positive relationship with another person and it just kept on and on, that would be very good.  That must be how we make the world a better place, by leaving a legacy of something positive.  Just leave all those mean, negative, selfish things behind!

So, today I shall be thankful for the people in my life.  I am a truly blessed person because of them....and so, I thank God for each of them.

A deer...

Well, that's meat for the freezer.  One deer, so far....and we thank God for his provision.

It will be a week of cutting and trimming and packaging...for husband, at least.  As for me, it will be one of 'those' weeks.

Here's a picture of a cake daughter baked and brought over.  We cut into it and kept a few slices for ourselves but shipped the rest back to their house.  It even had a lovely blue bow!

And it tasted just as good as it looked!!!  She used my mom's recipe...:)