What should I do?

I'm enjoying a hour at home by myself. The kids have been going down the street every day after lunch this week to attend a five day backyard Bible Club. They have very much enjoyed learning about Hudson Taylor. I almost feel lost! I don't really know what to do when I have time to myself as that doesn't happen very often. Today I am starting to get ready for our camping trip. We are leaving on Sunday morning to head down to Lake Metigoshe to spend several days camping with my sister and her family. This would be our fourth year in a row to be in the same place with the same people - except last year our trip to Mexico took over the planned camping. The kids are very excited to see their cousins and to be camping. We have raised three kids that love camping!
The weather looks to be hot the whole week and we are looking forward to being at the water and just relaxing.

Yesterday it was so hot and I kept thinking about how nice it would be to sit and relax in the hammock. As nice as I thought it would be to have the hammock appear this morning the space is still bare. I started to pray that the people who stole it would feel guilty and return it and then I begin to wonder if the Lord is concerned about me losing my hammock or the heart of those who took it. I'm sad that it is gone, but I am pretty sure the Lord of the universe is more concerned with where their heart is at. So, I pray that my hammock will be a seed in the journey of them coming to know the Savior. My slow process of letting go and starting to see the bigger picture of the journey of life loving Jesus - something that doesn't come easy to me many time. Small steps at a time.

Sandy

Something is Missing!

We woke up to a sad discover this morning. Twelve years ago when I came home from Bolivia I brought with me a hammock. Finally, this year we had a place to hang it up. Gerald hung it under the tree fort from the leg posts. The kids have had a lot of fun playing in it while Gerald and I have enjoyed relaxing in the shade of the fort. Someone came during the night and took it - all of it including the straps from around the posts. Our neighbors hammock that has been hanging in their back yard for about two years is still there. We are bummed for several reasons. It came from South America (hard to replace). We had really enjoyed being out there. I keep telling myself that it is just a thing and that is true, but we are still disappointed.
Sandy

Seven Minutes...

Seven minutes flat...that's all it took for my American wife to write the Canadian Citizenship exam. When we arrived about 30 minutes early, there were about 30-40 people sitting around waiting to take the exam. When the door opened to go into the courtroom, Sandy was at the front of the line and off she went. I barely had time to say a word of prayer and out she comes with a big smile on her face. In the 20 question, multiple-choice exam, she said she knew all the answers and is very confident she aced it...I think she's probably right...she studied hard-core to make sure she was prepared!
Now she has to wait 2-4 months to get the letter in the mail that either tells her she made it or go in for a "second" oral exam (highly unlikely). Then it is the "swearing in" ceremony in the same courtroom...all this should be a done deal by November...about 6 months sooner than we were informed it would take!
So we spent the rest of the day hanging out in Winnipeg together, just relaxing and enjoying her accomplishment!
Soon I'll be married to a Canadian woman...sounds a little odd but I think I can easily get used to that.:-)
~ Gerald

Big Test Tomorrow

The big test is tomorrow. I have been studying and feel somewhat relaxed about it. I am sure tomorrow morning it will be another story. I think they let us know right away if we pass or not. As someone told me this week, "I have never heard of anyone failing the test!" I don't plan on being the first. From what I understand this is the last part of the citizenship process. If I pass (or when I pass) the test I will receive a "Notice to Appear to Take the Oath of Citizenship". It certainly has gone a lot faster then the 15 to 24 months that they first told us. It is just now six months.

Tonight at supper we had peas from our garden. The kids ate them and informed me that they actually liked them and that they taste much different then the ones we buy in the store. I also harvested the first zucchini and made it into chocolate cake with chocolate icing - it is Andrew's favorite cake. Today was the first time I had to water our garden. We have had lots of rain up til now.

I took both boys up to the doctor today to have their warts frozen. Andrew was not impressed, but we had worked on them for a long time and thought they were gone when they started growing again. The doctor thought Andrew's would be gone with one application but that Caleb's might need another treatment.

Well, off the do the last minute cramming, :)
Sandy

Olivia's Birthday!

These past three weeks have been jam-packed with action for our family. Three weeks ago it was convention meetings with our denomination here in Steinbach. Last week it was VBS all week long at our church...Sandy was in charge of the snack (and I was her big helper...)...we prepared and served approx. 800 individual snacks over the course of the week...and these were very unique creations, as you can see...
This week I took time some holiday time...but I would not say it was a "vacation." We started the week with three days of camping with my folks and a sister and her family.
Then we went fishing with a dear neighbour friend of ours, Mr. Jake, as the kids call him.
Another activity included going mountain biking in the Sandilands...quite a workout for Olivia, but she made it all the way around the black loop...about 6.5 km.

The boys and I went golfing again and we also did some more work on the tree fort.

Then of course today we celebrated Olivia's birthday...our youngest child is now 6 years old! We had a wonderful day as we took her to Winnipeg and brought her to a special store where she tried on her new "ballet" outfit that she will use for taking lessons this fall...she was soooooo excited!
Her choice of restaurant for lunch was Montana's where she got to wear the "horns."
We topped it off with a ballet shoes cake that Sandy had made for her.

We have had a great week and feel so blessed to have spent this time together as a family. I will work this next week and then take the following week off again for some more camping, this time with Sandy's sister's family in North Dakota!

Gerald

Morning of Cleaning

I finally got motivated today to clean up our school room - almost two months after we finished school. The kids helped me put all of last years school books away, throw away all the garbage, vacuum, dust, and take all the stuff off the walls. I also unpacked all the boxes of next years school books and I bet you can guess what the kids are doing right now - yep, looking at their books for next year. I told them they could gladly look at them after they cleaned up the big room in the basement. It was at the point where we were walking around items to get where we need to go.

Gerald has been very busy the last few days with lots of meetings. Yesterday the chain on Caleb's bike was stuck and I tried very hard to fix it but I couldn't. I did walk to two different neighbors houses to see if we could find some help but nobody was home. At that point Caleb was NOT impressed that he would not see his dad for quite a few more hours. So when Gerald did come home I told him that if he did not get anything else done he had to fix Caleb's bike. And so it was accomplished.

Our family did our presentation on Mexico last night at the conference - the kids did an excellent job. Gerald and I were once again amazed how well our kids do in front of crowd. We were very proud of them.

Olivia got her ears pierced this week. It was something we talked about for her birthday - which is still two weeks away. She was not impressed with how much she said it hurt, but by the time we were on the way home she was glad it was done and made many trips to the mirror to check them out.

Tomorrow VBS starts. Gerald and I are handling all the food. We are all excited for the week.

Have a good weekend.
Sandy

Canada Day Golfing

Today was the day that we went golfing. It was fun because we got to do 9 holes. I got to drive the golf cart and that was lots of fun. I also liked golfing very much too. It was mine, Olivia's, Andrew's and Mom's first time golfing a complete game. Tonight we are going to go watch the fireworks here in Steinbach. This will be us kids' second time watching them on Canada Day, which reminds me...Happy Canada Day everyone!!!
Here are some pictures of us golfing this morning!

(A HARD practice swing...)

(A good looking shot...)

(Nice putt, Olivia...)

(Get in the hole...)

(Could I see your Driver's Licence, please?)

(Hello in there...aaaaahhhhhh)

(Ain't I purrrrty...)

This is Caleb, signing off...