When Pigs Influence Family Fun Time

Stuff of Life I’m melllllllting! We’ve spent this week trying to beat the heat. Visits to the legislature grounds and cool malls have definitely helped the situation! Summer is not my favourite season for one reason – hot dry weather. If summer was 25 degrees Celsius and partly cloudy all day, I would be one happy camper! And thank God for our new blinds which are keeping the sun from turning our house into an easy-bake oven!!! Canada Day was so fun! Miriam has been suggesting for about a week that we should have an “Olivia” picnic. Olivia, for those of you who don’t know, is a pig who, in the book “Olivia Forms a Band”, goes to see fireworks and has a picnic with sandwiches and corn on the cob and strawberries and watermelon. So, knowing that Canada Day celebrations include fireworks, I shopped for the appropriate picnic ingredients, and on Tuesday we packed the picnic basket, walked to a park and sat on the grass under an enormous tree and enjoyed an official “Olivia Picnic!” We went home and the kids went to bed then we woke them up at nine (actually it was so hot that when I went to wake Miriam up I found her lying on her back, singing and playing with her toes.) The fireworks at Fort Saskatchewan were smaller than “big city” fireworks, but they lasted a long time and were beautiful. I was a little worried that Miriam would be sensitive to the noise as she tends to be with anything loud, and hoped it didn’t cause a major freak out considering how tired she was. But she sat with Oma and Oma covered her ears and she enjoyed the show. Finny cuddled with Jim and I had Carmen who was sleeping until the first firework went off at which point I stuck my finger in her mouth and she happily sucked away for the next fifteen minutes! NOTE TO SELF: Take the extra time and effort to intentionally make memories. This is a day we will all remember and which I can reflect on with pride knowing that on Canada Day 2008 we had a great family time together. Most of the “Stuff of Life” is little stuff like bath times and stories and playing in the backyard, but once in a while some of it should be extra special. Spiritual Insight of the Day I was talking with Carmen yesterday. More accurately, I was speaking English and she was speaking gobbledygook. Nevertheless, we had a most engaging conversation. She was completely thrilled with my singsong words and she smiled and squirmed and gurgled with all her might. It got me to thinking two things: First, isn’t this what the best friendships are about? Two people who can literally talk about nothing, yet completely enjoy the time spent together? Second, this kind of parallels what our relationship with God is like. We look up at Him and often don’t necessarily understand what He’s saying to us, but we know it’s loving so it makes us happy and we try in our own little ways to imitate His words to us. If God loves us the way I love my infant girl, are we not seriously the most treasured people ever? And to think that, as much as I love Carmen, God loves her about a bazillion times more. Cool. Scrapbook Idea of the Day It’s not exactly scrappy, more like “cardy”, but take a jaunt over to kwerner design blog. She has “Make a Card Monday” which features some cool video and neat ideas that can be transferred to the world of scrapbooking too. Also, if you haven’t yet, visit some of the sites I’ve listed on my sidebar there. I regrouped them so my daily picks are separate. I think Cathy Zielske may be the funniest person I’ve known aside from my sister or a gathering of my MacDonell aunts. She is so real. I just love it!