you capture - happiness

Yesterday I spent the day up to my eyeballs in creativity. As I have mentioned my Michael is a member of the executive for our local agricultural society. This society is responsible for the organization of our local agricultural fair. This year is the first year at the society's brand new site. New buildings, new grounds, new opportunities - it's an exciting time to be a volunteer. I have to admit, previous to this year, my volunteerism has been isolated to holding down the fort here, while Mike is out at endless meetings, but this year it's a whole other ballgame.

Mike comes by his love of the fair honestly, his Dad has been a volunteer there for decades. Papa has worked on many different areas of the fair, but currently he is the School Fair Manager. Which is a huge job. He visits many of the area schools several times a year to pick up and drop off things like prize lists, art work and prize winnings. He organizes the volunteers to accomplish what needs to get done in preparation for fair time. He answers questions, puts out fires, builds what he needs to to make the displays look nice, worries about things like making sure the tags are showing so the kids and their parents can easily see there name and their ribbon. And he stresses. Is it all going to come together? (Yes it did. Of course it did. It does every year) Are we on time? Over time? Making good time? (Great time. This year we made great time) Will there be enough hands to do all the work? (Too many hands this year. It was a scramble to find them all something to do. The new site has lots of people excited) All of our work was done and the building tidied well before opening ceremonies. Letting us enjoy ride night, a volunteer appreciation night where the rides are free, without worrying about work that still needed to be done.

About a year ago I ended up agreeing to help out with the paperwork involved with the school fair. Yesterday the judges arrived and began the judging process. Then volunteers, in teams of two, follow behind - one records the child's name, school and what they won and the other staples on the appropriate ribbon. Now a clipboard, piled high with sheet after sheet, of information about the prize winners sits on my desk. Over the next little while I'll go through each sheet and input all that information onto spreadsheets organized by school. Then I'll figure out how much money is required to pay out all the prize winners and then break it all down into envelopes for each individual kid at each school so Papa can deliver it to them. It seems like an insane project to take on, but I did and for a couple of reasons. One, it's actually something I enjoy. The organization of all that information. The setting up of the spreadsheets with the columns and formulas and what not. All from scratch since all this figuring used to be done by hand. (Oh my gosh!!) The inputting. I actually enjoy the inputting. Seeing the pages move from the clipboard to the completed stack. But larger than all that, to help out Papa. To make it one less thing he had to worry or stress about. And that makes me happy.




All of that to tell you in a roundabout way that this week's you capture is Happiness. So why did I tell you all of that just to show you a few pictures? Because today is Papa's birthday! Which went largely uncelebrated today with all the work we were doing. Although I did bring him a piece of award winning carrot cake (yep, my cake took first place again this year!) Also because this year Papa is being awarded with his life membership, as decided by the board in recognition of all his hard work over the years. It's a big honour within the society and we're all very proud of him. That also makes me happy.



The new school fair building. All entries judged, tagged and recorded. The protective screens are put in place last. Finished early. That makes me happy.



Prize winning pumpkins. Abby's took first place. (It's the fifth one down.) That makes me happy.



Fall flowerbeds in front of the new main building. The colours make me happy.



These girls! Of course they make me happy.

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