A satisfying day...

Certainly much better than I thought it would be after tossing and turning my way through the night last night, hashing over homeschool ideas, anxious about the decisions we've made for the new kitchen and basically finding one thing after the other to fret about.  Early this morning I'd had enough of sleeplessness and convinced Gerald to get up with me to go for a walk.  Already at 7:00 the air was heavy and warm, but there was something special about starting the day outside in the great outdoors, chatting with my best friend.  All the things that had occupied my thoughts in the night were, of course, put into perspective with the arrival of the new day. :)

Following up on one of my middle-of the-night ideas, this morning I set to work making  a 'skills and knowledge' list for each of the kids.  I'd come to realize that some of the younger ones (and maybe some of the older ones) have some gaps in their education.  On the lists I've included, as appropriate for each person, things like how to tie shoes, read a map or make a phone call, learning our address and phone number, the provinces and territories of Canada along with their capital cities, the books of the Bible in order, and for the older ones, learning how to change a tire and check the oil on the van. Now that these things are all so nicely set out in lists I should be able to sleep tonight. ;)

After I had a bit of a nap and we had a refreshing swim, we picked the beans and cut some fresh, tender lettuce from the garden.  We enjoyed the beans for supper...mmmm.  We don't have a very large garden this year and even the area we have worked up is not full,  but we do have some sweet corn that is doing well, along with some promising looking tomato plants.

This evening we went to the lake, not to swim (the nearst beach isn't very clean) but just to walk, skip stones and enjoy the view.

As it turned out, there wasn't much of a view on account of the fog.  There were plenty of flat stones to skip and an amazing assortment of coloured and shaped stones to admire.

This one's for you, Amy...

The things that we enjoy the most are not expensive outings to highly commercialized attractions, but simple visits to quiet, natural places where we can enjoy God's creation and each other's company.

Now back at home, we are enjoying the sound of RAIN!  Such a refreshing sound after the heat and dryness of this month, and a sweet reminder of God's abundant provision, not only of water for the land, but of living water for dry and thirsty souls.  We are looking forward to being nourished from His word again tomorrow.

Our addition project is moving along at a steady rate.  The drywallers have started taping and mudding.  The high humidity is making it take longer than normal to dry, so that is setting things back a bit.  That's OK, since the kitchen installation was delayed until August 8 because of scheduling issues.  This week the plywood underlay was put in and we got most of it screwed down.  We should be able to start painting late next week, and hopefully we'll have settled on the colour by then. 

The other day we found this amazing creature on the bumper of the van.  This is the first walking stick we've seen this year.  Some years we've seen many of them, and I'm hoping this year will be like that.   Almost too weird to be real, they are pretty difficult to see when they are on a plant.  What a spectacular display of God's creative design!

This week Meg was busy sewing this project...

Aren't they adorable?  And they have such character.  This was done in true resourceful 'Meg style', having been made out of a large pair of women's capris that she found at the local thrift store and thought would be just about the right colour for what she had in mind.  Love it!!

Until next time,