July
Journaling
1. Happy Canada D-eh! Stayed home, bbq’d
and sauna’d. The parcel arrived in Uganda in under two weeks. So nice to see
their smiles and receive a thank-you letter from one of the sponsored girls.
2. Work day; writing and crocheting.
Making individual crocheted letters to spell out B-inspired. I have a yellow
and black B and a green snake S so far.
3. Haircut and appointment with my
hormone doctor. She keeps adding new pills. Arrgh. Made two snow cones and a
brown and green mushie boy plushie.
4. Going to the doctor with my mom.
Ordering a new phone. Going from an 11 to a 15.
5. Made a penguin, an eggplant, and a
mini reversible octo. Working on my first sweater, although its without a
pattern and I fear two things; I’ll run out of the yarn and the size will be
off and I’ll end up frogging (undoing) my hard work.
6. Made a big purple axolotl, but not
pleased with the result. Canada is in the Copa America soccer tournament.
7. Church and the final meeting before
VBS. Picking up the grandkids for their week with us.
8. First day of VBS, slept poorly last
night. Snacks went well; dirt cups and green fruit and juice. Creation theme.
Swimming all afternoon at J and E’s. The kids were exhausted, as were we. My
husband was Dr. Noah Tall and he did a simple circuit, first showing all the
parts necessary but when he shook it up it didn’t assemble itself into
something that worked, it took intelligence and design, like creation.
9. Second day, much smoother, slept
well. Theme chaos and catastrophe. Snacks were snakes made of mini powdered
donuts and grapes. Dr. Noah Tall did a volcano to show catastrophe. Then
swimming and bbq dinner at J and E’s to thank the worship team.
10. Third day, theme confusion (tower of
Babel), so the snack was mixed up trail mix and shades of pudding parfait. No
experiment today.
11. Fourth day, theme Christ and the
cross, so the snack today was a brownie with white icing and a red cross, and
white yogurt with strawberries. Dr. Noah Tall lit some flash paper and he used
a whole sheet so it was quite a flame. But it represented Christ’s complete
sacrifice because there weren’t even any ashes.
12. Fifth day, theme consummation, so
the snack was a butterfly bag of goldfish crackers and babybel cheese to
represent our change and lemon bites and lemonade to represent the golden
streets of heaven. Then a hot dog bbq for lunch. Sooooo exchausted, the kids
are gone back home, now the clean up begins, tomorrow.
13. Such a busy day, beginning to
prepare for our out of country guests; we bought new sheets and pillows and are
assembling a bed in the other guest room. Also doing lots of laundry and
cleaning up.
14. Church, there was a video recap of
VBS. So much work but so much fun for the kids. Still exhausted. Trying to tidy
up. Assassination attempt on Trump in the news.
15. Running errands.
16. Housekeeper coming. Perfect timing;
after the grandkids and before the out-of-country guests.
17. Grocery shopping for our guests.
Rooms are ready, but I’m still so exhausted.
18. Made some homemade salsa and
prepared some bacon for breakfast.
19. Final physio appointment. Met most
of my goals; they’ve been very helpful.
20. Our guests are easy, which is
helpful since I’m still so exhausted. They spend a lot of time at J and E’s
since the sisters haven’t all been together for years.
21. Church, then lunch with the
missionaries who are staying with us; they gave an update.
22. Crocheting many birds.
23. Crocheted 10 mushie pops.
24. I gave some free plushies to the
kids; they were thrilled. They are heading back to the U.S. They left us a
giant gift bag of thank you gifts; Kentucky bourbon, yarn, lotion, and tea. So
generous.
25. I ordered a new iphone which arrived
today. I drove my mom out to Hamilton and my daughter took her the rest of the
way to London. Packing for our cottage trip up north for a week.
26. It’s our 38th wedding
anniversary. Life is going by so quickly.
27. Off to Thessalon. Long drive but I’m
a passenger princess so I’ll be crocheting. Picked up some blueberries and corn
in Sudbury. We are in two cabins so each of the grandkids will take turns
staying over with us, otherwise they’d have to sleep three to a bed.
28. Power outage for part of the day but
we managed. Made the mistake of driving into town to try to get groceries; it
was closed. Went sauna and swimming and ate karjalanpaistia that my mom made
and mashed potatoes that I premade. Bought some local artwork from the
campstore.
29. We drove into the Soo and went to my
dad’s gravesite which is terribly overgrown. We need to pay someone to clean it
up and maintain it. A Finnish woman was there who worked with my mom and knew
our story. Then we went to Station Mall for lunch and shopping and then grocery
shopping at Pino’s where we stocked up on their sausages. Had some with corn on
the cob and salad for dinner back at camp.
30. Our friend Harry flew into our lake
with his plane and took my husband fishing on an inland remote lake. From the
air they saw a forest fire beginning so they called in the location. They
caught seven speckled trout between them, all over four pounds. We gave one to
the couple that owns the camp. He stayed overnight even though that’s not
usually allowed, the fish helped.
31. Before he left the kids sat in the
plane for a photo op and then other kids from the camp did the same and then
they watched him take off. Campfire.
