please pray

I just posted this morning about our return from vacation in Goderich, Ontario when an hour later, my sister Canada-side called and told me a tornado ripped through the town yesterday afternoon.

It has taken my breath away to see the destruction caused by the winds and to think we had been there the day before. I think it seems all the more shocking because of the beautiful weather we experienced the week prior - even storm clouds which threatened blew on by. Thankfully, it did not happen mid-day on Saturday ...as we drove through the town on our way home, the town centre was humming with people at the farmer's market.

Here are some pictures I snapped while we visited town last Thursday. If you visit this link, you will see those same streets littered with debris, windows gone, roofs and the sides of some buildings ripped away.

Ben "strolling" to the library - a first for us

a wonderfully vintagey place to buy tasty confections

the town center

pictures of a few Goderich attractions

 Please pray for the town, it's people, the man who lost his life and those dear to him, and those who are injured. Please pray for peace of mind for those who experienced this storm, that they may not dwell on what has passed. Pray for those who will be working to restore the town to its former charm and keeping others safe while the debris is cleared away. Praise God the He is our Rock and Safe Harbor even amidst these storms.

it's so hard to be back

That's what we've been saying for a couple of days now after returning from vacation. The week was a complete gift from God - everything from the weather, to keeping everyone injury free to the sweet time we enjoyed as an ever-growing family.

Perhaps the returning was all the harder because it had been six long years since I'd been to Goderich - it's hard to believe the last time we were there Brie was two and Reese was four months old and we were the only ones with kids-in-tow (though Joel was there, too, but he wasn't to make his appearance for another month).

Now we have four children and my sisters have four between them, with another on the way, and my cousin was there with her two girls and Brie was again able to celebrate her birthday in a place which has become an often-chosen vacation spot and tradition begun by my grandparents almost more than 25 years ago. It is rich with memories, and as Lauren joked at one point, it is "rich with God." ;)

I will share more on this golden week and will tuck in the postings between the many other to-do's that come with returning home.

the other side of tri (a glimpse)

So I've wanted to write a much longer post than what this will be for a few days now, but a sewing project plus a few other necessary to do's put writing on the back burner.

Dave and I survived the triathlon and I'm glad I made it past the quitting zone - a place I reached days before the race even started! Today we found out the official time results: In a field of 247, I finished 215th with a final time of 2:03:52 (top female did this thing in 1:22:00). Dave finished 192nd with a time of 1:57:05 (top male did it in 1:12:51).

When I catch my breath from the activities of this week, not the race ;), I'll go into greater detail on what it looks like on "the other side of try."

Also, there's still time to donate to our mycharitywater page (see link on the right) to help bring safe, clean water to people in developing countries - the water we swam in smelled horrible and was an interesting color, but I think it was still safer than what most people in this world are forced to drink every day just to survive.

swim.bike.run. nerves

It's been forever since I did on update on the triathlon. The doozy of a cold I had back in June totally squelched my training plan, desire to do the race and has left me with only a mustard seed of faith that I'll actually make it through. But what God can do with a mustard seed...

Dave and I picked up our packets today. Turns out we're in a different wave (the, ahem, gap in our ages throws us into different categories ;) ). So much for "doing this together," as Dave promised me on the outset. Thankfully, I have a 5 minute lead on him, and guess that he'll catch me up in the bike portion (if was the other way around, I don't think I'd see Dave until the finish line). Unless God decides to move a mountain and have me maintain a 5 min. lead.

So, with great trepidation, and a lot of hope that, indeed, God wants to be the One to bring me though, it looks like I'll be jumping in with both feet into the triathlon. Point-four mile swim, 16 mile bike, 5K run and a good long nap afterwards.

(There's still time to donate to our mycharitywater page if you'd like to support our effort to raise money to bring safe, clean water to people in developing countries. Check out the link on the right column for more details --->)

birthday beach fun (and a beach shade idea)

Four pieces of bamboo + many grains of sand + four rubber bands + one sheet =

one super sunshade (it looks a little lopsided because the wind was blowing and the sticks in back are shorter to create a lean-to-like shade).

 
For Dave's birthday today, we headed to the beach. The last time I took the kids there, I forgot about the importance of readily available shade (it had been a long time since we'd been there during the heat of the day).

I could have simply gone out and bought a beach umbrella, but since we're trying to save a few pennies, I scouted around the house for shade-making materials. Since not everyone has bamboo growing in their backyard :), curtain rods, broom handles or anything else that is straight and can be stuck in the sand would work. The rubber bands I used were the super thick kind that can be found on grocery-store lettuce.

And when we weren't taking a break in the shade...

Reese was building castles.

 Ben was sticking his head in the sand (now there's a cliche!)...

  ...and crawling in the water post-sand bath...

  ...and riding on daddy's shoulders...

 

 ...and getting tossed into the water.

 Luke was trying his skills as a fisherman,

 and Brie and I were in and out of the water, enjoying the beautiful day and soaking up this gift of a summer's day.

Thank You, Lord, for today.

@ a work in progress

I recently found Courtney's blog, A Work in Progress, after reading a post she did for (in)courage. I love her heart for God and her family and I'm excited to be guest posting on her blog today about a funny story involving Reese and Luke and the lessons we learned from it. You can check it out here.

While you're over there, read this guest post Megan did yesterday Courtney's blog - she also is giving away a copy of "A Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp (a book that's on my reading list).

photojournal: our life in tables

We recently re-added my old kitchen table to our house (my sister and her husband had borrowed it for a couple of years), it dawned on me that we have a. lot. of tables. It made me a little uncomfortable at the excessiveness of our table collection, especially with people in the world with barely a roof over their head.

However, I also realized each has it's own story to tell and decided to capture that here...

We migrated to this table soon after Ben's arrival. This cloth stays permanently on the table, at least, when Ben isn't pulling it off. It may be hard to tell, but I had to masking tape over some rips in the cloth - let's just say it's not a good idea to cut your fabric with a rotary cutter on a surface that could be damaged by said cutter. You know, just in case you overshoot the cutting mat.

Where we dined before we outgrew it. Now it serves as my office desk and a catchall (something I'm persistently trying to tackle).

A birthday gift to Dave. This year it's seen few picnics but ample chalk drawings. It also travels about the yard when Dave needs to cut the grass.

We aren't coffee drinkers and it's not a table, but this trunk works hard in our living room. It houses some homeschooling materials, the portable TV when we let the kids watch movies, often books and our feet. Dave found it in his apartment during his years as an intern in Washington.

Formerly used as our work desk, it now is consistently buried in my sewing and crafting projects. And my sewing machine is buried under that quilt I need to complete. ;)
 

 This is probably Dave's favorite table because it belonged to his grandparents. It sat in our basement for a couple of years until we brought it up last fall during his mom's surprise birthday party. We liked it in it's current spot so much, we let it stay. Once a kitchen and card table, it now extends my sewing table needs, provides an extra spot for the kids to do their school work and occasionally still has a meal eaten upon it.
 

And this is the table that began this whole post. My kitchen table from the days before I married Dave. It's now his office desk in "man cave" (as he likes to refer to the basement).

Do you have a table or two in your house with a poignant story? What's your favorite memory from sitting around a table?