words from the fridge - a thank you

The Back Story: On the side of our fridge there can be found a saying that speaks to me. I change it out whenever the mood strikes me and leave it for the kids to discover. Usually they do at dinner time and it always leads to a conversation about how it relates to each of us and how we interpret the meaning. They are interesting and fun convos indeed.

The Latest:

 

This is a variation of something the oldest will tell you I tell her constantly - You have to find your people. She's 13 and finding herself, her voice, her funny, her convictions and her friends. New school, new mix, new opportunities. It's a lot to process. Here's the thing though, I was a 13 year old girl once upon a time as well and I didn't find my people.

Making friends was never an easy thing for me. Anxiety will do that to you, so I didn't find my people, I would wait for people to find me and sometimes the ones that did were not the best people for me. They just weren't "my people", but I was so grateful that anyone included me, that I put up with, probably, more than I should have. Sometimes though, I got incredibly, unbelievably lucky and some really fantastic people found me. I don't really want that for her.... for either of them, I want her to find her tribe (or squad, if you will).



As I got older and learned to manage my anxiety better, making friends became easier. I found my people and that is a really wonderful thing. I also read a book, quite by accident, called MWF seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche. Very basically, the author moves to a new town, leaving her besties behind and decides to go on 52 "lady dates" to find a new best friend. I admit I don't remember much about the "dating" part of the story, but the science of friendships really kind of stuck with me. Again, very basically, women are healthier/better versions of themselves with a certain friend structure - So many very best friends, secondary best friends, friends because of something (eg volunteer friends, work friends) and then acquaintances. I read this quite a while ago, so I don't want to quote the actual numbers. It was an interesting take and given how terrific I have felt in the past few years and how my social circle has increased to meet those numbers...... well it made perfect sense to me.



I guess the lesson am hoping they both take from this is that you should never settle, but just because a person you meet isn't your instant BFF for life, that doesn't mean there isn't value in that relationship and by extension, you should always be kind and respectful. I think it's helpful to understand how your friends fit into your life. I am probably not going to say the same things to a volunteering friend as I am to one of my very best friends.



Lest you think I am constantly rating and judging my friends, I'm not. Who has time for that nonsense? Friends fluctuate through out your life, based on so many things, need, time, life stages, interests, geography and a million things more. Maintaining and cultivating relationships, of any kind, is a never ending journey.



To those people in my life .... and they know who they are..... thank you for a million things, things both known and unknown. For lifting me up when I needed it. For the laughs and the hugs.



For daily texts of randomness. For being the people I can say just about anything to. For making the work stuff fun and the fun stuff funner!





For stepping up in ways I never expected and a million more things I can't even begin to articulate. You have made my life infinitely richer and I am so very grateful we found each other. Much love to you all xo

summer camp at the fair

My girls were recently gifted with a week of summer camp. They were given the choice between two camps, but picking the brand new Ancaster Fair Day Camp was a no brainer for many many reasons, including Revill Family bestie, ML being the camp director. So there was zero worry about whether or not the girls would have the best week ever. In related news this summer has been chock full of the "best weeks ever" with more best weeks ever on the horizon! Yep, we are doing summer right!



So what is Ancaster Fair Camp all about? Not surprisingly they have animals! Not your average animals that most kids come in contact with, but there's a cow and goats and ducks and bunnies! Each one cuter than the last and the kids get hands on experience with them all!



Of course there are crafts. What self respecting summer camp doesn't have crafts. These crafts are special though, the kids can enter these crafts into the Ancaster Fair in September!



The girls came home with a stack of cute crafts with the entry tags already filled out! They can't wait to enter them. The kids got to spend time baking, playing, and learning camp songs all the while "earning their buttons".



By all reports my girls were game to try everything, they were friendly, respectful, they made new friends and as I mentioned, had the best week ever!



There was time spent with community heroes. Firefighters that let the kids have a try at working the fire hose. This picture just kills me. That's Maya back in the group, arms in the air cheering on one of the camp counselors. 



They had set up a pylon and the kids were trying successfully knock it over using the hose.



Looks like it was difficult business.



They wrapped a week of amazingly fun experiences with an animal parade and a trip to Ripley's Aquarium.



I am so incredibly grateful that my girls had the opportunity to attend not just a week of camp, but a week of camp put together by one of my very best friends. I have been an ear (and a hug) for her since this project was suggested. I have watched and listened to her put this whole thing together piece by piece for the past few months and it amazing. Every bit of it screams ML and trust me when I tell you, that is a good thing. I knew when she told me about this that it was going to be something great, but the reality has far outweighed my expectations. I am so proud of that chick!

oh Canada

This year we celebrated Canada Day in typical fashion. We are lucky that the little town right next to us puts together an excellent Canada Day program. We hit up the parade in the morning in our we love Canada/red finery.

center>

For a smaller town Lynden puts together one heck of a great parade.







Over the years we've kind of fallen into a nice little Canada Day routine that involves hooking up with some old friends at some point in the day. This year it was for dinner and wine before the fireworks, also in Lynden and it's one heck of a show as well.





It was a great day lots of laughs with the greatest of friends. I can't think of a better way to celebrate this great country. How did you spend your Canada Day?

just horrible

So Jammie Movie Night is still a thing that's happening here in Blogmotherland and it remains as one of my favourite evenings of the month. December brings the extra special Holiday Edition of JMN and in years past that has always meant that we let our guys join us and Mike gets to pick the movie. Just for kicks this year we mixed it up with a little Cards Against Humanity in place of the movie. Are you aware of this game?

The box the game comes in describes it as a game for horrible people. It is akin to Apples to Apples, if you've played that, but the questions and the answers are inappropriate for family game night. It is completely hysterical with the right group of people and lucky for us we have hysterical and inappropriate friends!

To keep things interesting and also fun I went so far as to order a "trophy" for the player who was the most horrible among us.. aka won the most hands over the course of the evening.



A coffee mug so everyone would know what a truly horrible person you are.

Also because I am the best wife ever I bought Mike the 10 Days of Kwanzaa or Whatever from the makers of Cards Against Humanity. In exchange for my hard earned cash the funny folks at CAH promise to mail him ten gifts during the month of December. Merry Christmas Michael! And his first gift....



Cards that put him in the game. It goes without saying that everyone was looking forward to putting the Mike cards into play.



Very basically, this is how you play. The Card Czar reads out the black card, everyone plays a white card from their hand and the Card Czar picks the best/funniest card. This is what happened when Mike's card got put into play. So, so funny..... because they're all true. Especially the Justin Bieber card!

As you can imagine it was a night of endless laughs and endless inappropriateness. The kind of night that makes you forget your troubles for a few hours. The very best kind of evening with the very best kind of people and one horrible horrible person....



Thanks to everyone you came and had horrible fun with us. Can't wait to do it again!

farm family of the year

Big weekend here in blogmother land. Our very dear and wonderful friends were named Farm Family of the Year and their award banquet was held last night. As soon as Mike heard they were being nominated he shot his hand in the air and volunteered to give the citation should they win. He's spent the past few weeks writing his speech and agonizing over delivering it. By late last week he claimed he was sorry he ever made the offer.

Here's the thing though, if you haven't had the chance to hear Mike speak in public.... he's good. Really good. Spending a year as President of a large volunteer organization gave him a crash course in public speaking and he graduated with honours. He likes to tell everyone that I'm the writer in the family, but when he has to he's pretty damn good himself. Last night was no exception. I do admit that by the time we got through dinner and the entertainment my heart was pounding just as loudly as his was up on stage. None of that was necessary because he knocked right out of the park.

Why were we both so nervous? You see we count ML and Terry among our very best friends in this world. They are the type of friends you can call in the middle of the night..... and we have called in the middle of the night needing help and they got up and helped, no questions asked. I can tell you all that they have shared with us and us with them, laughter, worry, happy times, not so happy times, movies, dinners, hands of cards, but it's really so much bigger than that. They've shared their lives with us, they've shared their family. We live two minutes apart which makes wandering in and out of each other's homes easy, which is good because we do it a fair bit.

They are very likely the most giving people I have ever met. Their volunteer resume is as long as my arm and I'd like to publicly thank them for inspiring me to do more and be more. I was very slowly working my way to becoming an active volunteer when I dipped my toe into School Council six years ago. ML sat as Chair of Council at the time and wow what a whirl wind it's been ever since. She really made me see how much good stuff came to your life when you did for others.

Farmers Feed Cities, that's the slogan and it's beyond true. I wish everyone had the opportunity to see the work day of a farmer. I have known hard workers in my life, but Terry is the hardest working person I have ever met. He has to be, farmers account for 1% of the population and are responsible for feeding the other 99%. So seriously, if you did eat today... thank a farmer.

favourite things

For quite some time I have seen Favourite Things Party postings on blogs and pinterest. Every time I see one I think they look like so much fun and I really should either have one or get invited to one. As luck would have it I did manage to score an invite to my girl JB's party last Friday night.

I wish you could all have the chance to hang out with JB. She is a pretty cool chick. She loves all that fun crafty stuff and she throws one heck of a party. My invite to this party came tied up with string because.... sing it with me..... brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things. Cute, right?

So what is a Favourite Things party? Well I had planned on taking lots of pictures, because I knew she would have her place totally adorable for the party, but then Mike caught one heck of a stomach thing and I didn't think I was going to be able to make it at all, so my phone didn't have enough of a charge on it to take any pictures. Luckily Abby was out and Mike felt well enough to keep half an eye on Maya and I was only around the corner if he needed me. So at the last minute I got to go..... Yay!

The rules were deceptively simple. Purchase three of your favourite things valued between $10 - $15 and bring them with you. I say deceptively because picking out my favourite thing was actually incredibly hard and I was not alone in that sentiment. Almost all of the ladies there complained about the same thing. The only advice I can offer is to remember that you are purchasing *your* favourite thing and not what you think the other guests would like.

Once we got to the party JB had us sign our names on a piece of paper, three times and drop them in a bowl. One by one, after an appropriate amount of snacking and girl talk, we all got up to present our favourite thing to the group and tell a little bit about why it was our favourite thing and then you draw three names out of the bowl and those three folks got to take your favourite thing home with them.



That was my haul... a hand knit twirly scarf, hand soap, tea, perfume, socks, chocolate and tea! Some of the other ladies brought gift cards, coffee mugs full of treats, and maple syrup. It was so much fun to see what everyone had come up with. JB had also made us gift bags to take our loot home in and a super cute wine glass with a sparkly stem. It was a great night with some fun ladies, lots of laughs and we all came home with new favourite things. So much fun! I wish you all could have been there! I'm totally planning on borrowing the idea from JB (I'm sure I won't pull it off half as well as she did) and have my own favourite things party in the new year. Next year is my "year of 40" and I plan on doing it up right!!



So don't wait, get your favourite girl friends together and throw your own Favourite Things party. You won't regret it.

touch a truck wrap up

Well Mike and I hit the ground running at 5:30am and by hit the ground run I mean we dragged our weary asses out of bed and stumbled through getting ready for the day. We grabbed coffee and breakfast all the while nerves slowly ate our stomach from the inside out.

Touch a truck is the biggest event we organize with a very kick ass committee. We are small, but mighty. Unlike other things I'm involved with, this is advertised to the "world". The world in this case meaning the areas we can cover with our local media, word of mouth and social media. So if it flops..... well I don't even want to think about it.

So much is left to chance when you're planning Touch a Truck. You really never know what you're going to get until that day. It's such a relief when I finally see those trucks pull in. In the past this has been a very late fall event and this is the first year we've had it in the summer, so it was a much more laid back atmosphere, which is to say those drivers rolled in at a leisurely pace. Totally fine, but rather heart attack inducing until they did.





They did show up of course and then we just had to worry about the people showing up. Thankfully they did as well. I'm happy at this point to be able to declare the 3rd annual Touch a Truck event a success. Of course we couldn't have gotten here without lots of helping hands. First off, the organizing committee. I think we work exceptionally well together as a team and I am lucky to be able to call you my friends. So to Mike, Steve, Jennifer, Jen, Fred, Michelle and Jody thank you for taking this project on. Thanks for bringing your A game. Thanks for making meetings fun and just for being the awesome rockstars you all are. Big thanks to my Mom for keeping an eye on my kids so we could come and go as needed. Very thankful for Grandma Sandi, Grandma Linda and Papa for pitching in and helping us at the event. Thanks to all the school's friends and family who gave their time to help out, Jake, Rick, Sherry, JJ and our kiddos. Huge thanks to the companies and drivers who make the show what it is. Can't wait for next year!

Also, how cute is this face?

honouring ward

Ward was a long time family friend. I wish you'd all had a chance to meet him. He was quick with a joke and could almost always be found with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. There are no shortage of Ward stories. My favourite one is definitely the memorial outhouse story. If you're local then you know that our fairgrounds moved to a new location fairly recently. As you can imagine meetings held during the planning stage of this move could get quite heated. It was a joke between Mike, Papa and Ward that the new grounds would have a memorial outhouse in honour of Ward. So they are in this meeting and people have conflicting opinions and temperatures are rising so Ward waits for his turn to speak gets up and says, I was told the new grounds would have a memorial outhouse, but I don't see it here on the plans. I think Mike and his Dad were still laughing long after the meeting was over. In fact they can't tell the story even know without busting a gut. That was classic Ward.





Ward was a long time fair volunteer and not long after he passed away out family discussed planting a tree on the grounds in Ward's honour. As luck would have it, Papa still had the tree Abby had planted in JK growing in his garden. Abby and Ward had a real fondness for each other. Ward would often show up at church with a little treat for her, a Polaroid picture of a new calf or a farming magazine he was done with. So it seemed fitting that we transplant Abby's tree in Ward's honour.




The girls let Papa and Mike do the heavy work, but they took their turn on the end of the shovel too.







A fitting tribute from our family to such a lovely man.

egged

We got egged!







This surprise egg hunt was waiting for us when we got home from church Sunday morning.





We have some pretty awesome people in our lives!





Thanks Easter Bunny!

finally

Tonight we got to see ML & T's new barn in action, well it was the first time for the kids and I, Mike's been up there the past two evenings. The cows need to be trained to use the robotic milker and as you can imagine some are faster learners than others.




ML gave us a little tour and Abby was fascinated by the entire setup. Abby loved checking out the robot room and having a front row seat for the milking. It's been months and months and months of talking about this barn and many more months of planning and building. I am thrilled for them that it's finally a reality.

ward

Today Mike and I attended a funeral for a very dear family friend. Ward was a character in the truest sense of the word. Always quick with a joke and never without a smile or a twinkle in his eye. He was a man that loved many things, but nothing more than his family, his farm and his community.

Sitting in the service today listening to the stories about Ward, many of which I already knew, it struck me what an inspiration he is for how I want to live my life. How I never want my family to doubt that they are the very center of me. How I want to give without expectation, to be kind because it's right and repay because I can. How I always want to have joy and fun and laughter in my life. How I want to be present and embrace whatever life brings my way. I can only hope that I do it half as well as he did. The packed chapel and the incredibly long funeral procession today was a true testament to the good he did in his 90 years.

Rest in peace Ward. It was an absolute pleasure to have had the opportunity to know you. Thank you for the gifts you have given this family, it means more than I can say.

love

Well what a weekend that was! It was hands down my favourite kind of weekend. Full of lots of fun stuff with a lot of my favourite people. A weekend like this is just good for the soul.

Friday morning Mike and Abby walked in the Canada Day parade.



There's my baby girl handing out pencils. She had such a great time and learned a very valuable lessons. When walking a very long distance it's always a good idea to where good comfortable shoes and not cheap falling part Hannah Montana slip-ons. Your feet will thank you for it later.

I am so proud of her for volunteering to go with Mike to these parades. It's a lot of walking and smiling and dealing with strangers, but she really loves it. This is her dipping her toe into volunteering and I just love seeing it. So proud that kid!

ML's kids were in the parade too, so we gathered everybody up afterwards and had a bite of lunch in the park and then hit the pool. After thoroughly cooling off we all piled on the hammock. Picture it... Me and ML at one end, The Abster and Ben10 at the other end and MyPie tucked in between us......



and then ML got a charley horse! I'm not quite sure how the rest of us didn't go tumbling out of that thing as she tried to get up.

After a hardcore nap by Maya, we hit up the fireworks with friends and their kids.





Saturday night we hosted a record crowd for the 7th Annual Roast Your Weenie Event. It was great to have so many people there. Great folks, like the uber awesome Widney Woman and her husband, who as luck would have it were in town and able to stop by for a too short visit that really deserves a post of it's own. The funny thing was The Widney Woman was telling her guy that we Canadians are pretty low key about Canada Day in comparison to how they celebrate the 4th of July in the States and then they get to my place and meet these folks....



the winners for best Canada themed outfit. Nice work ladies, two years in a row I might add.

Here's the deal, Roast Your Weenie started out as a work thing for Michael. Over the years it's kind of grown into a pretty hardcore Canada Day themed party. We give out prizes to those who know their Canadian trivia, have an old school candy toss for the kiddos and we make them cook their own dinner. How perfect is that?

My only regret is I didn't have a chance to get my hands on my camera as much as I would have liked. So now I'll have to hop around facebook downloading everybody else's. I wish every weekend was like this one.

And what did you do this weekend?

relay recap

I'm not going to lie to you... I spent most of yesterday asleep. Relay for Life will do that to you.

It's not just physically exhausting and oh boy is it physically exhausting, but it's emotionally exhausting too. It doesn't start out that way though. Nope when the teams start getting together there's a real party atmosphere.....



How can it not be a party when you're dressed like this? My girls really brought it with their outfits. People commented more than once about how great we looked. Unfortunately we weren't quite awesome enough to win best dressed team this year.... the ladies with cupcake fascinators took that honour.... don't worry girls I won't make you wear pastries on your head next year. I have to say our tent looked amazing thanks to ML. We didn't take best decorated tent and I think we were robbed, but there's always next year!



And that sign right there... that Dream Team sign...... I am so proud of! There was 60 teams and only about half a dozen dream teams. At one point the Mom of a 16 year old cancer survivor came over and thanked us for being a dream team. It was an overwhelmingly hopeful moment.

So that part is fun and great and then opening ceremonies start. My team lined up a long the sidelines to cheer on the people in the Survivor's Victory lap. There always seems to be at least one small child in a yellow survivor shirt that gets my tears flowing and that's just the beginning. Over the course of the 12 hours we girls, shed tears.....



held hands.....





hugged.....





and slept.......





and we walked. Oh boy did we walk. Like I said it's not an easy night, but that seems fitting because cancer isn't easy. It's an event I am proud to say I was a part if with a team I am so proud to call my dream team. Thank you again ladies for coming out and taking on this adventure with me. Same time next year, okay!