Three Sisters!

Here she is! Sweet baby Rachel!

This evening, I went to Stevin and Katrina's to make supper - it was also an excuse to see and cuddle Rachel!

But first, we had to get supper underway. The girls helped me make 'Salisbury Steaks', and we discovered that Petra is a good patter, and Naomi make some pretty good fluffy steaks too! (hamburger patties don't like a lot of handling, and we did well!) And orange jello with oranges in it for dessert!!

After supper, it was time to start getting ready for bed, and of course, what's getting ready without a bedtime story? And after story time, 1 of which was for Rachel's benefit, I tried to get a couple of pictures. Easier said than done! I really like the last one! It'll be fun with Maria in the group, too, in August!

Our 12th Child!

Praise God! Rachel Jean was born at 03:31 on July 21, 2009. This sweet baby girl has captured my heart already. But of course! she's my 4th granddaughter!

Picnics

It's summer weather today, but then we've had a fair amount of summer weather - just not in consecutive days!
A couple of weeks ago, Stevin and Katrina and the girls picked us up for a picnic, and we went to the public beach at Charleston Lake. It is a lovely park with a sand beach that we enjoyed very much. But it was windy that day, so we didn't really have much inclination to go into the water! The girls tried, but the waves did too much splashing!Picnics are great fun, and this past weekend we took Mom T. out for her birthday. Her home is located across the road from Andrew Haydn Park on the Ottawa River, so that's where we went. The day had started out sunny and warm, but while Mom and I walked around one of the little lakes, the clouds started rolling in, and then it started to rain. So we waited it out in the car, and waited for the sunshine to return. Because the trees were still dripping, we found a table at the top of a hill, and that's where we had our little picnic. A simple meal of potato salad and chicken salad sandwiches, with juice or chocolate milk to drink, and angel cake with strawberries and whipping cream for dessert. M-m good! In the picture, you see John and Mom enjoying their top of the hill experience!
I'm looking forward to more picnics - especially when all of our kids come home in August!!!

Needing eagle's wings...

It's VBS week here at Bethel Church, and I volunteered for the music again.
And although I was not enthusiastic about the songs at all, I'm surprised at how well the children are doing with them.
The songs are by 'God Rocks" - an excellent group. But most of the songs don't seem to be written for children's voices to sing along with. The parts of the songs that are led by the male voices are too low for the children (and me), and when I move into the higher range, I find it too high for comfort. Well, we've adapted.We all know the words now, and we sing low with next to no volume, but you should hear the children when we go into the parts that are led be the female vocalists!!
Rather than learn all the songs, I've concentrated on 3, repeated a song from 2 years ago, and tomorrow we need to sing only 2. Relief. I thought I'd rather learn a couple really well, and that might get sung again in Sunday School, than learn difficult melodies with no chance of repetition. It's worked. The kids are doing us proud.
The theme this year is a galactic one: 'Starlight Rescue'. It ties in directly with the KidsFest being held across the nation this summer by the Billy Graham Association. Brockville is one of the cities chosen for a Fest to be held on August 15.
Starlight Rescue involves the station leader to be dressed up in 'space suits'. Outer space is a very cold place, but we're finding it to be a rather warm experience!
And we're all busy people away from VBS, so today we saw many tired faces.
Tomorrow, we'll be ending the morning with a short presentation for the parents, followed by hot dogs and a 'carnival' outside. Let's hope it'll be sunny but not too hot!
On another note - I've put my phone on vibe in my pocket when I'm away from home. I can't hear the ring sometimes, and I'm eager to hear of whom we will be welcoming into the family this week!

Let's make that a baker's dozen . . .

If you've read Martin and Emily's blog, you know now that we will have our baker's dozen in January!