I've been plugging away at my cross stitch. I had a bit of a slowdown because I spent most of last week preparing for the Family Sunday at church. But, I think I've been making some nice progress. At the rate I'm going I estimate I'll be done by.....next June....about 1 year after I've started. :P

I hope I get faster.

Oh yes we're crazy. We've been talking about getting a pet and adopting a dog for months now. Husband really loves dogs and wanted one, Andrew did too....and as much as I might complain about dogs I really like them too.

We adopted this gorgeous dog from the Winnipeg Humane Society this evening. She's 4 years old and is so calm and good with Andrew. I'm so excited to make her part of our little family.

We bought Andrew (4 years old) Amazing You: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts and It's Not The Stork a few weeks back because he'd started asking questions about where babies come from and how he got into my tummy and how he got out of my tummy.

He's been very interested in them and as a result it's been all we've read for weeks now.

He gets that he came from a sperm. He doesn't understand how the egg comes into play. He talks a lot about sperm and where sperm came from the point that he clearly announced to our waiter at supper the other day the following, "I came from Daddy's Testicles".

Awesomest moment ever.

Ever.

I bought a red pepper flat a few weeks back.

I planted them in our biggest planter and I've put them out in full sun and have been giving them frequent watering as instructed by the little card that came with them. They seem to be s-l-o-w-l-y growing. They haven't died yet. I guess that's a good sign.

They seem to have buds on them right at the top. I can't wait to see what happens with them.

Maybe I do have a green thumb?

PS. I added a tag cloud for my post labels. Isn't it adorable? Thanks Lorien for your help...way back when.

~dinah

Don't worry. I did survive...I've just been recuperating. Phew! It's hard work planning and carrying out a service like that. As soon as we got home on Sunday I needed a nap. Thank goodness Andrew played quietly with his toys and then watched a movie.

Husband took lots of pictures so I'm going to share some of them with you all in Blogland. I'm hesitant to post pictures with any of the kids in them due to privacy reasons for the chitlins, so I'm only going to post set-up photos and one and Andrew. If the pictures of everyone do go up on the churches website I'll post them here...

First Up!
My letters--They say "Sending Christian Greetings" which was the theme of the week. While they did take forever and a day to make I think it was totally worth it.
Initially I was going to hang the letters vertically and made the letters reversible. Once I tried to figure out how I would actually hang the letters vertically I realized it was next to impossible so I decided to hang them horizontally on a clothesline with clothes pins (thanks Google for the help on that one!). Because of this last minute Saturday afternoon change the letters on the backside are all backwards...it says sgniteerg naitsirhc gnidnes. People didn't get it. Quite a few asked what it was supposed to say. Yay for seniors. :P
You can see that we very creatively hung the string off the chandeliers in the hall. :P Husband thought of that & he's a genius! Husband also hung the string and put up all the letters on Sunday morning for me. He's a sweet Husband.


Next Up!
My banner - Husband sat and took some pictures of it on Sunday too. I can't believe I made something so big! It was supposed to be for the kids to march around with on Family Sundays but really it's too big for them. They can't see where they're going when they carry it. lol

You can see how I had the stage set up. To the right of the banner was the power point screen. It went better this time because we used the stage. The kids seemed to get the idea of where they were supposed to be better then the last two months. The set up is more traditional then the church has been used to since moving to the hall space. I know they have grown to prefer the semi circle or full circle seating plan, but it almost made it too difficult for the children to keep focused.


This is the little altar I made up with the books we were reading/discussing, the cross, and the radishes that the kids planted last month (oh and btw, can anyone tell me why the leaves are turning this orangish colour?). I meant to mention it during the service...but of course I forgot. Boo on me. I don't know how ministers/preachers remember to say everything they want and plan on saying.

& Andrew being Andrew beforehand.

The ideas for next time....

• play stump the vicar (we always call our minister vicar) - play for five minutes and if someone stumps the vicar with a question about church/religion/the united church they get a prize
• be more focused - have less small activities and one big one instead
• GET LOUD! Make a joyful noise!
  
• work completely of taped music - the man who plays our piano on Sundays doesn't seem to get the idea of lively children's music...
• Have 'stations' set up around the church for children to go to if they're bored - quiet things like a puzzle, play doh, felt board.
• Rely less on books and other peoples ideas and do more of my own 'stuff' aka my secular and non scary way of saying preching. lol.

Make this. Fix that. Bring this. Paint that. Outline this. Tape that. Print this. Type that. Find that music. Find the right lyrics. Bring that music. Make sure it is all in the right order. Make sure the old people can read it. Check the animation. Make it look pretty. Cut this. Translate that. Spell check EVERYTHING. Type some more of that. Type some more of this. Tie it all together. Write that prayer. Don't forget ANYTHING.

Stay up real late.

Don't get enough sleep.

That's pretty much my day so far. Tomorrow is the big day.

& sometimes it's just so hard.

sometimes the words don't want to come out, the ideas stay firmly planted inside myself. i think that i have something viable to say, but when push comes to shove i make powerpoints and scan story books and work from the works of others. & sometimes i feel so uncreative i hurt.

i've sat here for 1 month trying to decide what to say on this upcoming sunday and still there is nothing.

i want to say be passionate. teach your children passion. show your neighbors children your passion. show the world your passion. help others find their passion. help people discover.

take your knowledge and go out into the world. be servants of christ. be good. do good things. spend your money wisely. be kind. be tolerant. love your family. love strangers. love the world. be open to the world.

i want to say that it doesn't matter who your neighbor calls God or who people in other countries call God. i want to say that it doesn't matter. christ taught us to love everyone.

i don't have the answers. i don't even know where to start. i want to say that i just want to show images and words and thoughts and text and let them draw conclusions. i don't want to tell anyone what to think.

i want to say that i feel like a fake because i picked this theme of Sending Christian Greetings when really i have spent most of the month wondering why we aren't just sending Greetings to the world? why did i choose to restrict our greetings to such a select few? i want to say that i've spent most of this month wondering why i find the theme i picked so sad.

I've got basil! It's finally starting to grow. I've been pinching of new leaves occasionally on the advice of several gardeners. I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but the leaves sure do smell good when I pinch them.

Can you tell we're really enjoying our new camera? :P

I'm working hard at prepping for my Family Service on this Upcoming Sunday. I've not had much time for real blog posts. I'm super excited about the service. The them is "Sending Christian Greetings" and I've got lots of fun and exciting stuff lined up.

We are really enjoying our new camera. It takes very nice pictures. Here's a few from our Canada Day at the Carnival...