My Birthday

 Dear Blog,

Today I turned 37. It was delightful day! I slept with the kids in my parents basement last night after we watched the Calgary Stampede parade on their TV. Their basement stays nice and cool on these hot summer days. I slept in with Lizzy. I was awake about 7:45 but she did not get up until after 9:00 I believe so I read as I was waiting for her to wake up beside me. Then Chris made me an yummy egg and cheese burrito and I spent the rest of the morning chatting with mom and dad, reading a fun little book called Daddy Long Legs and mowing our lawn which to me is a very relaxing thing to do as we have a ride on lawn mower. Chris took the kids for the afternoon. They ended up going to Calgary to do some shopping. I stayed home and finished reading my book, had a nap and watched a couple of movies while decluttering papers, organizing clothes and packing for our trip to Victoria next week. This evening we went to Mom and Dads to have Clever Scoops ice cream. Then I checked the chickens and took Laddy for a walk (with Lizzy and Selman) as per my usual evening routine after tucking Dad into bed. It was a hot day at 32 degrees but I must be acclimatizing as I did not feel it as much as last week when it was in the high 30s. 

I feel strangely at peace now which is great because the last few days I have been a little bit high strung with no really good reason. I seem to get that way before my birthdays. Well, perhaps the reason may be that when I step back and look at my life, it seems to be a bit overwhelming at the moment. Chris just got called as second counselor in the Bishopric a few weeks ago and I got called as 1st counselor in the Relief Society last Sunday. And then there are some other family dynamics that keep us busy too. And through it all, I keep thinking about how I will be going back to work in January. I dropped in to see my co-workers the other day as the kids and I were passing through Claresholm on our way back from Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and I brought my work family some ginger ale and club soda to let them know I am thinking of them. It was good to see them and it will be a good job to go back too. When the time comes, it will be busy busy and I am sure I will have my anxieties but I know I can do it! I just need to believe in myself. 

As for Chris, about a week ago he finally got a temporary job for this coming September and October. It is a half time teaching position in Nobleford but we feel very blessed to have it. And his parent's propane company has hired him for the summer to do some online programing so that is keeping him busy as well and is a blessing for our family. I feel like Heavenly Father provides us with a little light into our future just so we know what the next right thing is to do. And then as we do that, he shines a little more light so we can see the next step. This takes a lot of faith for a planner such as I, but I know this is a learning experience for me and I know that my Heavenly Father will take care of us and will give us the strength to do all that we need to do. 

The Champion pool is still not open so yesterday afternoon I took the kids to Little Bow Beach. I am so glad my friend came as I am not sure I could watch all 5 kids in the water by myself. We do a lot together and she is like a second mom to the kids and I am very grateful for her. It was hot out and I even got a bit of a burn on my back - oops. But the kids had a blast in the water and we hope to have a lot more water fun this summer. 

It is almost midnight so I should head to bed. Tomorrow we have 2 hour meetings at church (they started that in Champion ward last week but we were at the Nelsons house for Russell's baby blessing). We don't have to wear masks anymore and I will be in Relief Society once again after having been in Primary for 3 years. Should be fun. I love Sundays - going to church and then spending time at home with my family. Sunday really is the best day of the week. Bye for now. 

Back to the Blog

Well, I am back for another blog post. I was successful in completing my 5 weeks without blogging or looking at peoples blogs, or looking at facebook or instragram. Well, I did look at a few of my mom's pictures on Instagram when she wanted me to post something for her. But it was a few moments of forgetfulness. That seems like forever ago. So where do I start. It is finally Summer! The last few months of school went well. The kids did a couple of weeks of online school in May due to COVID restrictions across Alberta (the high number of daily cases was over 2000 during that time) but as of yesterday, July 1st, pretty much all restrictions have been lifted. It felt weird going to the Champion pop up market yesterday without a mask on. June seemed to go fairly fast. Mary had her kindergarten graduation on June 3. It was just a parade of vehicles that drove past the 10 little graduates at the champion school but there were probably 20 vehicles that joined the parade and so I think it was successful. I was the Champion kindergarten president this year and it was a hard year as the kindergarten is struggling financially. But we have worked so hard to fundraise this year and we have done our best. Mary will do kindergarten next year. Her birthday is in September and she is young. She did not really want to go to kindergarten this year and it was a bit of a fight at times so we are treating this year as a Pre-kindergarten and next year will be her year to shine! Caeleb and Elva did well in school. Caeleb just needs to continue working on his reading comprehension and Elva with her reading skills. They both do well in Math - they take after their daddy. 

Elva and Caeleb's last day of school was June 25th and we have been trying to survive the heat ever since. It has been in the high 30s for the last week or so. It is so hot, I have a hard time thinking and this blog post is hard to focus on. We did go to Bar U ranch with a friend on June 30th and hardly anyone else was there, most likely due to the heat. I love history and to explore old buildings and the kids seemed to enjoy the wagon ride. 

Yesterday was Mom's birthday and Canada day. We did not do much. We went to the pop up market in Champion and we picked up chinese food and had a watermelon cake for mom's birthday celebration. I took a picture of the kids in front of our Canada day shed. 

Today we had some friends over and we played in the barn and I had scripture study with my friend. She is of a different church but we study the Bible together and I am so glad we do. I learn a lot from her even if we have some different beliefs. Then I took the kids to the air conditioned church in town so they could play ball while I helped tidy up the primary room. And now, my brain is fried and my tongue is parched, so I will post this post and head downstairs for some water. Until next time!