Footsteps

So many blogs in my drafts and only so many hours in the day to wrote them....

See this tranquil little church nestled along the lake in the woods?

Back in April, this church was the scene of an invasion.  An invasion that would terrify the average mortal.  For you see, this quaint little church camp was raided by teenagers - dozens of them!  For a three-day overthrow! 

India rode up with our youth leaders and I hadn't seen her in a
couple of days. The kids didn't realize we had a large group of parents,
and our minister, car-pool from church for their closing ceremony.
This was taken seconds before India saw me.

We left our children to their own devises and somehow they managed to stay alive with only a few adults with whips and chairs to control them.  Okay, so maybe they didn't use whips and chairs. We don't know how they were controlled. If they want to tell me, I would be grateful (I do have a houseful of teens, after all).

I don't know what they did while they were there.  They are sworn to secrecy, after all - so the next child selected by the church doesn't find out before-hand.  I do know that whatever happened, changed the children.  Each one made a speech in front of their parents and peers.  The tears flowed as the children told of their new-found love of God and their new-found appreciation for themselves. Thank goodness for a fellow church member who handed me tissues when I realized I ran out.

The "huddle".  

There was cheering and a loud ruckus coming from this tight group of kids.  I believe they were psyching themselves up for their plot to take over the world.

The seniors from our church ... So many of them will be leaving us soon ... too soon.

The entire of our church kids ... they may look like a mild-mannered group - but they aren't.  We know them too well.

Now this is more like them.

Look!

Amazingly, the church survived.  Doesn't it look peaceful?

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Until next year...

You know you have a drinking problem when....

No. I don't mean alcohol, although I do enjoy the occasional wine or mixed drink.

  

It all started with tea... A simple enough drink that I love to relax with in the evening.  So does India.  That means two people trying to decide what flavour they are in the mood for.  Our tea drawer is two boxes deep so choosing sometimes takes a while.

A few of these are caffeine-free
but, come-on, sometimes you do have to sleep

Next, we moved on to loose teas.  I have to admit that some of these are really odd.  When you're trying to drink a cup of tea that smells like a chicken coop it can be very un-nerving.  (I found the tea box at the thrift store as we were bringing goods in from the loading dock to the work room.  The cookie jar is from there too, but holds peanuts, not cookies.) The regular tea bags are used mostly for suntea.  After drinking flavoured teas, they seem, well, flavourless.

On to the coffee.  The favourite cabinet in our house.  We never have less than 10 flavours of varying roasts. Although dark is our favourite. After all, if you're going to drink coffee, you might as well remember it for a while. 

And here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for.

Drum roll please

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Our "beverage station"

For those quick drinks we have a Tassimo. Similar to a Keurig, this coffee maker uses T-cups.  Because we REALLY like our coffee, we have to use double the coffee for one drink.  Next comes the iced tea maker which we use when we run out of suntea and don't feel like powdered tea.  Then comes the espresso maker.   I bought this from work and we've been buzzing ever since.  I found the Cuisinart coffee maker at the thrift store while stocking shelves, not long after we wore out the third coffee maker in two years.  It was the best $2 we ever spent. Matthew has developed a real addiction to frappuccinos, so the grinder and blender don't get put away anymore. This way he can have them handy for all the frappuccinos made throughout the day.

In the foreground is the best way to spot me in a crowd... my tankard.  It holds 20 ounces of coffee and I start my day with two of them.

....and people wonder how I get so much done...

Oudoe,

Ingrid