Baby Shower & Belly Shot

Sunday night the ladies of Camp Forest Springs put on a very sweet, loving and thoughtful shower for me and babycakes.  These ladies were generous and gave us some really great things that we will definitely be needing soon!

A friend of mine, Rebeccah, shared from her heart in encouraging us to call on the Lord for wisdom in parenting, to be encouraged by others’ examples, and to trust in the fact that God has designed Sam and I to be the parents of this little boy about to enter our lives. 

Funny things were shared too - like extreme diaper changing stories and how to avoid bodily fluid assaults from little boys:) 

Amazing food was prepared by another friend Viv - a little veggie pizza - a little fruit pizza - and this awesome cake another woman made!

It was a special evening of laughing and being together with the women of CFS.  I am thankful for this group of ladies and their thoughtfulness!

Here’s another shot of me at 37 completed weeks.  No.  Don’t even ask.  There’s no basketball under there.  Or any other kind of ball for that matter.  Just a baby that is definitely curled up, head down, while putting on weight each day, and getting ready to say, “hello world” really soon!  Let’s just say the heartburn has hit full-on, sleeping is just uncomfortable all around by this point, and I’m pretty sure it’s bad when you can’t get up from the couch without your husband pushing you from behind.  However, I am really doing just fine, have nothing serious to make complaints about, and am trusting that this little miracle inside of me will be coming in God’s perfect timing and in His perfect plan.   

Junk It!

Well, after dragging and sorting all kinds metal items from the garage, barn, and raspberry bushes, I finally found the time to load it all up and haul it to the recycling place in Medford.  The load included a cast iron tub, sink, and a couple of old wash tubs just to name a few.  It was great to get it all out of here this week so I can move forward on organizing the garage.  And a little extra cash never hurts either.

Believe It Or Not

The most ridiculous thing has happened at the Smith residence.  We got a cat.  Hard to believe, isn’t it?  I know.  Sorry to all of you cat lovers, but as far as I’m concerned cats are good for one thing…catching mice.  And that is exactly the purpose of our cat.  The summer season has ended at camp and the animals from the mini-farm are being returned or given away or butchered (we’re getting some pork too)!  So since we had already been talking about having a mouse hunter around the yard, we figured we’d take one.  As long as he is not in the house, it will be nice to have an efficient hunter to provide rodent protection around the yard, garage, and garden.  And he is a he, which is very good.  No desire for multiplying cats here.  We’re calling him Joe, and so far he’s a putz.  Joe is not yet full grown, and he is used to boys and girls picking him up and giving him a good pettin’ at the mini-farm.  I’m trying to break him of that so he’ll eventually look to catching mice as the fill for both his emotional and physical tank. 

Voyager’s Breakfasts

As a maintenance worker at camp, much of my responsibilities are behind the scenes…which I don’t mind at all.  But it is nice to be able to interact with the families that come to camp, and there are opportunities for me to do just that.  One event that I have been a part of every Thursday this summer is the Voyager’s Breakfast.  The Voyager’s Breakfast is bacially a short paddle around the lake via canoe to the “Journey’s End” camp site.  There we cook breakfast over the fire and enjoy food and fellowship out in the woods.  The menu includes sausage, scrambled eggs, toast (which is REALLY good over the fire), coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, and pineapple delights (if you don’t know what those are, please come visit).  It’s a great activity for the families to take part in, and good for us as staff to get to know them a little bit.

We are just wrapping up Family Camp 7.  Our final family camp of the year takes place over Labor Day weekend, and then we will dive into the fall retreat season. 

At home, Tawnya and I are busy getting the baby’s room ready.  Our big project right now is refinishing a dresser and mirror that Tawnya grew up with.  Then I’ll need to install the blinds on the windows and put the baseboard trim back on the newly painted walls.  Other than replacing the carpet we tore out of the room, it should then be good to go.  The carpet will have to wait…hopefully it will be done before our little tyke starts crawling.

Wanted: Dead & Alive

This summer’s Family Camp theme “Wanted: Dead & Alive”, has been based out of the book of James, focusing on several passages throughout.  The “Good ‘Nuf Gang”, a group of wayward cowboys, was created to be a teaching tool to show children & their families just some of the characteristics that the book of James warns against.  A western themed video production was put together using several of the staff, each playing one of these cowboys with a major character flaw.  This video is shown at the beginning of each week to introduce the theme.  Then every day the campers learn more in depth about each characteristic.  Sam was cast as “Bart Boaster” and I had the opportunity to be the “journalist” assigned to narrate the story.  It has been fun to see how a simple video can be such a creative teaching tool for the families here. 

Here’s a picture of a typical Wanted poster you’d see hanging around camp these days. 

Our media specialist edited all of the wanted photos to exaggerate facial features and make some of the characters look like really rough cowboys.  The posters turned out great.

John & Diane Windle have a puppet ministry at CFS and have incorporated the western theme into their skits as well.