A Milestone to Mark...

Last September my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!  This is truly a remarkable milestone in today's world.  The fact that this couple has honoured each other's vows and treated each other in a way that has encouraged their relationship is truly worth noting.  I find it so amazing that my parents continue to be role models for me in my adulthood.  I just thought that once I was married I'd find my own way and not 'need' their example as much.  Watching them go through life together, through the ups and downs and continue to treat each other with love and respect and to keep growing together, is an added blessing to my life.

I really wanted to do something special for them for their anniversary.  They aren't really big 'party' people and I already pulled that on them for their 25th, so it needed to be something unique. 

While I don't claim to have 'arrived' in the world of quilting, it is a hobby I love.  It's a hobby that allows me to turn a quilt into a labour of love.  This quilt was TRULY a labour of love for my parents.  I started in aaaaages ago.  In fact there's a few blog posts way back to prove it! ( here, here, here, and even here)

But finally, FINALLY, it was completed.  Not quite in time for their actual anniversary, but not too far behind.  

This quilt is a pattern by a local quilter by the name of Cheryl Wall.  Cheryl is a wonderful, gentle soul who designs quilts with such character.  Thanks Cheryl!  This particular quilt pattern is called 'Village Sampler'.  I knew it would be something my parents would enjoy.  To add my own mark on the quilt I incorporated nicknames, initials, birth dates, and anniversaries of my parents, Rob & I and the kiddos, and my brother, all over the quilt.  

This was the very, very, very first quilt I've ever had professionally quilted!  (insert cheering and applause here)  This is a BIG moment people!  I bundled this quilt and another (I'll blog that one soon) up and headed out to my dear friend Rhonda of Quilted Cats Hideaway.   I didn't know what to expect.  I knew she'd have to custom quilt it, as there is a lot of different themes going on in the quilt.  I had NO idea she'd put endless hours and love into going the extra mile to make this quilt truly unique! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the finished product.  The amount of long arm quilting on this quilt is phenomenal.  Thank you Rhonda! Rhonda did a special post on her blog with some wonderful close ups of her quilting on this quilt...check it out here.

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom.  Know that every stitch was made with love for you both.  I am truly blessed to be your daughter.  Does anyone have a kleenex....?

Happy Canada Day Eh!

Long time no blog.  I thought I'd start current and work my way backwards (and forwards) if I can!

Summer is here and what better way than to kick it off with Canada Day.

As per our usual, we met up with friends for the parade and then finished the day off with a BBQ and headed off to the fireworks.

This year I stood in front of my closet and wondered...'what do I have to wear that is red?'  I had bought a Canada Day t-shirt only to get it home and realize it had a flaw.  I took it back and didn't bother picking another one up.  So...I stood there going through my closet and wondering..'what do I usually wear on Canada day?'  Then the lightbulb went on!  I ALWAYS wear my red Roots hoodie that proudly displays my country's name and maple leaf.  Problem:  for the first time in ages, it was unusually hot for July 1st!  So hot, that a hoodie was out of the question!  

All of that to say that it was a HOT, SCORCHING Canada day!  I felt bad for the marching band all decked out in their black marching uniforms and hats!!!  On the other hand, I was thankful for the firefighters and their water supply that they shared with us!

Great Country...Great day...Great memories...As usual! 

Mother's Day 2012

We had a special time celebrating Mom this Mother's Day.  My mom is truly worth celebrating.  We didn't do anything fancy, just a supper here at our place.  My bro brought Mom a beautiful HUGE bouquet of flowers, and we gave her a huge moss hanging basket!  She went home with a lot of flowers!  My Mom  is continually committed to her family.  She prays for us, keeps in close touch with us, defends us, loves us, and always puts us before herself.  She loves her children equally and finds joy in her relationship with all of us.  She is truly a wonderful example to raise my family by.  My Mom is one of my dearest friends.  We laugh together, shop together, cook together, holiday together, coffee together, and the list goes on.  My Mom is a phenomenal Grandmother.  My kids love my Mom (and Dad too..but hey, this is a Mother's Day post!)  The kids know that Grandma is always on their side.  My mom makes a deliberate effort to make time us and for our kids and it shows in the way our children love her.   So Mom, know that you are so loved, and that we treasure every moment with you! You are a beautiful woman.  Really, Truly, Beautiful.

We did a BBQ style meal.  I made yummy ribs..they're a 'little' bit of work but SO worth it!  We topped it all off with strawberry shortcake!

An Evening to Remember...

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of taking some amazing people out for a night on the town.  A year ago hubby had a terrible injury on the farm and nearly lost a few fingers.  Through surgery, extensive physiotherapy, and much, much prayer, he not only kept all his fingers, but has regained a lot of use in them!  When this injury happened we were at a very crucial time frame at the farm.  We had barns that needed to be prepped and birds that needed to be moved.  That time in our lives was traumatic and devastating, but we were so blessed by those people in our lives who truly love us and supported us in our time of need.  We had more help than we knew what to do with both on and off the farm!  You can read a little more about that HERE.  
Well, it's hard to believe that over a year has passed, but we wanted to make sure these special people realized just how blessed we were/are by their love and sacrifice.  It took us a long time to find a date that worked for everyone, but we did it!  So, we booked a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean and spent a wonderful evening with these folks.  The sky was the limit for this dinner.  The food was amazing, and the fellowship made for a memorable evening.  Once we were done dinner we strolled along the boardwalk and pier.  We are so blessed to call these people our friends.  So, friends, if you're reading this, know that we will never forget your kindness.  We will never forget who was really there for us when it came down to it.  We will cherish our friendships with you.  I thoroughly enjoyed my meal on this wonderful evening...after all, I worked my butt off both on and off the farm during that crazy time too!
Here's a few snapshots of the evening...oh, and my must mention note:  NO, I am NOT 7 months preggers in these pictures..this was obviously just a wardrobe malfunction!  Sheesh..I really loved that blouse when I bought it, but I'm having second thoughts....

Easter 2012

We had a busy, but great, Easter Weekend.   I worked like a mad dog on the Thursday before Good Friday to get my 2 days worth of work into one.  Easter seems to be just as busy a season as Christmas is at the church!  Thursday evening a bunch of the hubsters headed out to the auto show in Vancouver to drool over look at their dream vehicles.  The girls came over and we baked Paska together.  Friday morning both of our brothers came out to join us for our traditional Good Friday breakfast and service at church.  The guys always put on an amazing breakfast spread for our church and this year didn't disappoint!  We enjoyed the service, and Rob and I had our first experience serving communion.  It was a special time and we were humbled to serve and pray with our dear church family.  Friday evening we headed to my parents place for a wonderful dinner made by Mom.  The kids had a great time searching for eggs in the yard and their Grandparents and Uncle 'Pid' spoiled them rotten.  We had such a special time as a family.

Saturday I made another batch of Paska and we spent the day getting a few things done around the house.   We enjoyed dinner at the home of our friends 'The Rachs' and had a great time catching up on life while watching our home boys, the Canucks, win the President's cup! (GO NUCKS GO!)

Sunday I packed up the paska and headed to church for a lovely continental breakfast.  We enjoyed a great church service.  Monday was a gorgeous sunny day here and a few of my peeps planned a last minute get together.  Just a few hours, a little window shopping and a lovely glass of wine on the sunny patio was enough to complete a busy but wonderful weekend!  

What's with the Tim Horton's cups?  Well, every time Timmy's has their 'roll up the rim' contest, my Dad (who just happens to love Timmy's) saves his cups for the kids until he's got a huge stack.  Once he's ready, or the kids have bugged him enough, he lines them all up and lets the kids take turns rolling up rims!  None of us can understand how he can save them.  We all have to roll ours up right away!  Dad's always been a patient and kind man...this is no exception.  The kids had a hoot...

Love is Always worth celebrating...

While I am not a believer in all the marketing hype that surrounds our yearly celebrations, I am a believer in taking every opportunity to celebrate life!  Valentines is always a wonderful reason for us to show extra special love to those around us.  In keeping with tradition we made oodles of sugar cookies and delivered them all over, Daddy spoiled his kiddos with balloons and treats, and I was the lucky recipient of some gorgeous roses and a lovely, heartfelt card.  For the first time in a loooong time, we went on a Valentine's date and had a really wonderful evening together.  Love is always worth celebrating...Valentine's Day or not.

God Keep Our Land Glorious and Free...

We celebrated the birthday of our great nation again last weekend!  Canada Day is always a day we look forward to.  It usually brings good weather, good entertainment and great times with friends.  We started off the day by sleeping in (yeah) and then it was off to the parade! This year Rob was able to sit and watch the parade with us since he wasn't pulling Gallery7's float this year.  Ken also joined us for the parade.  I grabbed a quick Starbucks for a treat and we met up with friends and proceeded to take up most of the sidewalk for a block!!!  This year was a great parade, lots of floats, lots of good music, and lots of candy for the kids!  Rob went to work after the parade and then we picked up 2 Japanese students in the afternoon.  We met up with some other friends who were hosting students and we had a great bbq followed by a night at the fireworks.  It was a busy and full day, but very fun!

The gals, the guys..and the 'crew'!

I have a 'thing' for bagpipes.  I love them!  I think it could have something to do with the fact that my maiden name is McIntosh???  Maybe.  Either way, I love em'.

I used to have an ongoing joke with my Father-in-law about bagpipes.  He hated them, I loved them.  Whenever we heard them we'd look at each other and I'd smile and he'd grimace!  I even bought him a tape (yes, it was that long ago) of all bagpipe playing one year for Christmas!  Seems so funny now that it was something we bonded over...

No country parade is complete without a little tractor representation!  Although we prefer the green & yellow, we tolerate those who don't know any better;)

Perfect way to end the day....

Going Greek...

Well, it all started with the Pastor asking me if I would be willing to head up the meal for our Passover Celebration.  I asked how many people...he said, "oh, well, I don't know.  We've never done something like this before. I don't think it would be more than 50, maybe 100 people interested".  Hmmm, I thought.  Well, I've cooked for Alpha before and that was for 60ish people.  I could probably do this.  We talked about menu.  He was open to anything, but after discussing the theme of the celebration and the meaning of it we thought it may be fun to do a Mediterranean flavoured meal.  I love, love, love Greek food and I've been cooking it more confidently in the past few months.  I figured, if I could cook it for our family then I could expand it for 50ish people.  Guess what?  I didn't cook for 50ish people.  I cooked for 250ish people.  Yeah...I reacted the same way.  Here's the part where I need to define 'I cooked'.  I didn't really cook for that many people.  I organized the cooking for that many people. 

Here's how 'I' did it:
First, I phoned all the 'pros' in our church that I could find and asked them how the heck you cook for that many people.  I took notes.  Lots of notes.
Second, I planned the menu.  Lots of research, lots of math.  Two things I least enjoy.
Thirdly, I took the advice of those pro's and delegated each aspect of the meal to different people.  Those people were responsible for finding all the people they needed.  I provided them with their recipes, and offered to do their shopping for them if they didn't want to do that part.
Fourthly, I panicked.  A lot.  What if this?  What if that?  What if I failed hugely?
Fifth, I gave it to God.  If you're taking notes, I would suggest placing this first, third, fifth and so on....I prayed that God would provide me with the knowledge, the peace, the ability, the help and the opportunity to honour Him.
Rob had his hand injury in the middle of all of this and the Pastor graciously offered me an out on all of this.  He was so great about it.  He said it would be fine to order KFC.  Um, no, it's not fine.  I'll still do it!  Then I went back to step number 5, again and again.

God provided above and beyond.  He gave us peace in a crazy, overwhelming time, He gave us helpers with great attitudes and abilities, and He used it for His glory. 
I am a person who thrives on challenges and tends to take them on to deal with stress.  Backwards, I know, but it makes me who I am.

We served:
BBQ'd souvlaki chicken - we bbq'd 270 pieces and had 6 leftover!
Greek Potatoes - everyone got one portion, and about 10 lucky people got seconds!
Lemon/Dill Rice - lots of rice, and one pan leftover
Greek Salad - oh was it good! Just enough left over for a few lunches for the help!
Unleavened bread (in keeping with Passover tradition) with tzaziki dip
Dessert - this was not my dept but it was good!  I think there was a chocolate or orange type cake of some sort...I didn't have much time to enjoy;)
The teams had to be scheduled around the space and equipment available in the kitchen. 
Everything had to be labelled with instructions for the prep team and table setting crew.
I was on my feet for 13 hours solid and my notes looked like shredded paper by the time I was done, but we did it!

Some of the many challenges presented:
Addition of people right up to the event!  Seriously people, buy your tickets on time!
Shopping for that many ingredients and fitting them all in my car!
Not having access to the kitchen until 11pm the night before the event (there was a wedding in the day before the event)
Preparing all the food in a foodsafe manner and having the right people on hand to help with that!
Clean up for that many dishes! (surprisingly it only took 3 hours to clean over 1000 dishes!)
Coming in on budget when the meal was only $5 per person ( I think I came in UNDER budget!!!)
Naysayers in the ranks...
I have to share how disappointed I was to hear of a couple of people who talked negatively about this event before it even happened!  There was one particular 'party' who verbalized to a few people their displeasure at the choice of menu.  Really?  REALLY?  I get it if you don't like Greek, not everyone does.  The ironic reality is that it's chicken, potatoes, rice and veggies people...but instead of soaking them in sweet and sour, we're using savoury spices. I chose not to be discouraged for long.  Some people will ALWAYS find something to complain about!
Our Pastors wife was so encouraging.  We talked about how this celebration was about SO MUCH MORE than Greek food.  This celebration was about the importance and meaning of Jesus' last supper with His disciples.  This celebration was about the significance of His death on the cross.  This supper was about our heritage.  This supper was about gathering with friends and families and teaching our children more about their heavenly Father.  This celebration was meant to honour God.  It was a wonderful evening.  I didn't get to partake in the readings and such, but I did grab a quick plate of food and visit with friends.  I am forever in debt to our dear friends Rich and Shell for their joy and willingness in helping us with so much prep work.  We are definitely treating you to dinner one of these days...and it won't be Greek food!
I'll post a few of the recipes I chose for this meal in the next week and you can give them a try if you like. 

Everything was made from scratch with the exception of the tzaziki dip (mine never tastes as good as the store stuff) and the greek salad dressing (which is so perfectly made by our local Greek restaurant)  Kudos to the bbq team, the rice team, the potato peeling & prep crew, the chicken prep crew, the dessert prep team, the Greek salad gurus and the set up and clean up crews.  Your help and experience was a huge asset!  I have heard wonderfully positive things about the whole experience and that's all the thanks I need.  Would I do it again....NO!  Well, maybe.  Ask me later.  Most likely.

Oh...and did I mention that I'm a details person?  I am. To add some colour to the tables I went to one of our local daffodil farmers and bought bulk.  I love our Bradner farmers, they're so helpful and generous.  We got a steal of a deal on a large amount of flowers and he mixed several varieties up in the order just for kicks!  I love community.

My funny Valentines...

Valentines Day is always a reason to celebrate around here!  What could be better than another 'excuse' to shower love on the ones we love?  Our day started out pretty normal here.  Hubby dropped the girls off at school and then snuck back home to leave gifts for them on their beds.  He kept with tradition and brought each of the kids a fun helium balloon with some sort of treat attached to the bottom.  The girls' balloons had smarties on them and Isaac's had a small bag of timbits!  I love that he thinks of each child as an individual when picking out their balloon and the treat to go with it!  I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful single red rose and a box of chocolates accompanied by a meaningful card.  The kids were shown more love with special cards from their grandpa and grandma and some treats to go with it.  Dad and Mom gave me the adorable little primrose along with my favourite chocolates. The kids had their celebrations at school and we ended the day with a strawberry waffle feast for supper!  It warms my heart to see our children so thrilled with a simple balloon...sure, the balloon is fun, but the look in their eyes when they thank their Daddy for the gift is all I need on Valentines Day!

Canada Day

I'm Back!!!  After endless hours of frustration at not being able to sign in to my blogger account it feels good to be back!  We had some major computer issues over the last couple of weeks, but we're back up and running.  The next few posts will be catching up on what's been happening around here during summer.  So far it's been a busy one, but I'm anticipating a slower paced August with lots of fun family time.  Here's a few pics from Canada Day.  Canada Day is always a much anticipated event around here.  The kids look forward to the parade, and Rob and I look forward to hanging out with friends.  This years parade theme was 'with glowing hearts'...a line right out of our national anthem.  The parade was so-so good;)  We were anxiously awaiting the Gallery7 float that Rob was pulling for his bro, Ken.  Of course, it was the very last float...yes, last as in the street sweeper was following it.  But hey, save the best for last right? 
Our group of friends and families took up about a city block...yah, there's that many of us.  We had a blast and sang along and cheered as loud as we could...it sure brought the candy in for the kids!  After the parade everyone headed over to some friends' house for an afternoon of hockey, food and visiting.  It was a great afternoon.  Later in the day we brought the kids home and we all crashed for a couple of hours, then back up and out to the fireworks.  Great day, Great way to celebrate our Nation.

'Singles Awareness Day?'

Valentines is always a fun celebration around here. We get kick out of Rob's brother who likes to call it 'Singles Awareness Day'! In our house its a celebration of all kinds of love. We have a few traditions here for Valentines, as I'm sure many of you do. I like to decorate the house a little, and the girls and I always bake sugar cookies together, although this year we didn't get it done until late Saturday afternoon. Friday Abby had her preschool class over for a Valentine's Day Party...the kids had a blast decorating their own cookies and just playing together. It was a good opportunity to get to know some of the moms better. Rob started a tradition when Olivia was a baby of giving her a gift just from Daddy on Valentines Day. I think this is so sweet, and now he does the same for Abby and Isaac. He always brings them some type of goodies, a card and always a special Valentines balloon. This year Isaac got in on the fun and received a balloon too! I was the lucky recipient of some beautiful red roses and a lovely card from my sweetie. The kids' grandparents came last night and brought another load of Valentines goodness. It was a low key, but fun weekend of celebration.