Incredible, Incredibly

Hi. I know I haven’t written much but captions since we’ve moved. There’s been a combination of reasons of course, moving – equals busy, busy, tendonitis, and not the right ‘mood.’ Waiting now for Andy to come back from fishing…so hope he got something as he’s had no success lately. Our lake is going through something called ‘turnover’ – an exchange of water and oxygen in it etc - that happens when a lake thaws and basically the fish don’t feed (is it?) – well, you can’t catch them – for about 2 weeks. So he busted out to some other lakes to see if they’ll ‘produce’ anything.

Ok, going back a bit. Moving in here was incredibly hard work. Cleaning took a lot of time and energy and I felt like I haven’t physically worked so hard in a while. Hunger pronounced itself at regular intervals. Setting up the kitchen took longer than expected…so many cupboards to clean. The first few days my arm really hurt, then subsided and I thought maybe all the physical activity (scrubbing) was getting it into shape, but now we are back to the ‘normal’ of on-again-off-again pain. I am trying to be more diligent with my physio excersies, which take longer than the lady said they would (they always have…each time I get a workout plan…funny). Then Dad and Mom K. came and that was great…I don’t want to imagine what setting up would have been without them.

Fast forward to this weekend ok? People. People. People. It’s funny because on Fri. I was noticing that the phone just doesn’t ring and I was missing people and noticing the isolation factor living out here. The next day a HUGE work party comes to help out at camp. About 70 people from Summerland Baptist church came and there were trucks and people EVERYWHERE painting, putting new plywood porches on cabins, building a ‘lean-to’ for kayaks and canoes to sit under, bleaches at the basketball court, posts along the toboggan run, cleaning trails around camp and burning wood from dead trees which had been cut down the day beforehand (many other things not listed). It was really amazing. Carol, the director, said the work they did would have taken one person about 1 year to complete. Pretty cool way for Andy to start his job eh? Yeah, this guy from the above mentioned church just had it on his heart that camp needed work and organized people to come help. They also contributed a big financial gift which covered supplies for the projects. So, I met some people…had meals in the dinning hall etc. After lunch one day a 3 yr. old boy plays peek-a-boo with me behind the curtain in the dining hall and then asks Sarah if he could show her his cabin. An older girl – Lindsey– in gr.3 is hanging around this little fellow too – Jack is his name. So, we take off to his cabin, with his Mom calling behind to see what’s up. We all walk there together and long story short, I made a new friend…Karen (the Mom) is into photography – she was documenting the work being done – and is Mom to a 17 yr. old, 3 yr. old and a 2 yr. old. The youngest two were sick and I got to share my infant Tylenol with them – poor things. So have an open invitation to go hang out in Summerland – 1.5 hr. away. Karen’s a stay-at-home Mom too. A note on Lindsey. On our walk to the cabins, Sarah and her made friends. She helped her down stairs and Sarah would reach her arms up to L. and she’d carry her for part of the way. L. was spectacular with the kids…it was neat to see this friendship formed. When we said bye to her Sarah was signing ‘more’…more playing with L.

Prior to this weekend I had some rambling thoughts about not feeling a part of camp. It’s different than at Crowsnest were Andy and I were both on staff. I said to him, “I want to go to a staff meeting, a prayer meeting, help out - I feel so out of it.” And there is an open invitation to help/volunteer/work for pay as much as I can/want, but it has not been possible. I’m working incredibly hard here at home (on top of the dishes pretty much every day – new home, new plan, clean everything up after every meal – novel idea eh?), and we are still unpacking slowly, my energy has been low – although the first week or so I noticed a marked increase in energy –more on that to follow. Then a revelation I had was that I can pray…and THAT is significant. Yeah, thank you Lord. He answered prayers for safety for the work crew. Sarah and I had a good time of coloring/drawing pictures/reflecting and making a welcome sign for the work crew in the chapel…the chapel looks like a small roadside chapel and it seats 8. We were going to color outside but there was a big chill in the air. We also drew a picture of Andy vaccumming cabins.

On the energy topic…I’ve noticed I don’t feel so drained in general and think it’s related to all the windows here in our home. I don’t feel so anxious to get out of the house because I can see so much from within the house – down a valley, up hillsides…I can see places that would take me hours to walk to versus what I could see from the basement suite we were in.

Looking for a good destination walk for Sarah and I…with the stroller, like for excersie for me. Decided it’s not the safest to run down the highway to the other end of the lake - save that for when I’m alone. So today we went down the driveway of camp, a bit down the highway with the big shoulder, back down the driveway and down ‘mainstreet’ (a ‘street’ with little buildings – firehall, general store, blacksmith shop etc.) and through paths between cabins to the playing field where I took Sarah out of the stroller and continued running around the playing field, running past her every few minutes to touch her hair – she’d giggle. She enjoyed pushing the stroller, playing with it’s buckles and watching me and ‘running’ a bit herself. Hung a few pictures today – Andy and I. Yeah, he’s home now…It’s 9:15 pm.

So, he’s been working incredibly hard lately too. Sat. was like 12 hr. I think – with the work party here. And Sun. a lot of the ‘party’ continued working, so that was a pretty big day too. He got sent home for a couple hours and back out in the evening again. Last night we were so tired but I got refreshed with a bath while Andy bathed (2 tubs!) Sarah and read to her, so after that we watched some of Narnia (Easter present yeah!). So, Andy had today off and tomorrow as well.

Andy’s Dad was here! We woke up Sun. morn and he was sleeping in the guest room – didn’t get his message. He was in Merritt trying to hook up with some people for a star gazing party and wanted to crash at our place on the way back. He left his bag with his name on it in front of the guest room door as a clue and as I came down the hallway in the morning to get something I stood there staring at it for a few minutes till I understood. It was great to see him and we went for a walk around camp with Sarah on his shoulders. I think he hauled brush with Andy and some work crew people too.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Oh, Sarah and I took a trip into town last Tues. and shopped – groceries, phone cord for our dear ol’ dial-up connection (spending way less time on the computer now J . The grocery store had this ‘sharing’ box of used kids books you could take and it said something like, ‘think of contributing a book another time.’ So Sarah picked out a Mickey Mouse toddler book about shapes which she was very happy with on the drive back to camp. Planning on going to town tomorrow as a fam. Hope the library is open – it’s got funky hours. I ‘need’ some fiction (like TV for me, right – relax, escape).

To answer Teresa, yes, camp still has that hike to a cross…we can see the cross from the lake and various other places…got to check out that again. Peace friends…don’t be strangers. I just cleaned the guest bathroom and am working on curtains for it too – sorry Dad A. for the brightness (no curtains hanging for his stay).

The title for this blog comes from Carol saying the work that was done the past few days was 'just incredible.' And 'incredibly' is to describe how God has carried Andy and I along through these big days.