HISMSV - 6

Has it been really dry where you are?  It's so dry here that it's caused many problems, including for a good friend of mine whose husband lays underground irrigation systems.  He's been injured because the ground is so dry.  When I got up this morning and saw the heavy clouds and then we briefly lost power because of the lightning, it was a relief.  It ended up raining for about an hour and while it was wonderful, it's too bad we didn't get more.

This morning was sandwiches, sandwiches and sandwiches.  I made egg salad and then had to come up with something else.  I didn't want to do canned meat or cold cuts - we try not to eat cold cuts because of the nitrates and canned meat, other than salmon, really grosses me out.  I had to find something else.  I settled on several "cream cheese" sandwiches that sounded pretty good.  My first was called "carrot party sandwiches".  I took the bare bones, 2 cups grated carrot, 1 cup cream cheese, 1/2 nuts, 2 tsp lemon juice and modified it and realised that it was much like one of my favourite recipes from Frugal Granola - I did 2 cups carrots, 1 cup cream cheese, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 2 tsp lemon juice, 2 chopped green onions and 1 chopped celery slice.  This was finished with 1 cup grated cheddar.  If I do say so myself, it was yummy.

My second choice was less exciting.  I found recipes for pineapple and cream cheese sandwiches.  I couldn't stand the white cheese on the white rye so, after some testing, I added sliced strawberries and came up with a rather pretty sandwich.  As always, my "Martha Stewart" vision was not achieved but overall, by the time I made 30 sandwiches, I was sick of the entire exercise.

Of course, I worked with a very cute sous-chef!

We ran the food up to the church and it was like a huge feast up there.  I gather that there was a huge amount of food - we got an email this evening from our minister to invite us all to a luncheon tomorrow since there is so much food left!

We decided to drive up to the church as a family.  We stopped at M's house to pick up her food, too.  It was an uncomfortable drive.  I had two trays of sandwiches and a tray of my sweets on my lap, a trap of cookies in my hands and two lasagnas on the floor between my feet.  My heart was in my throat each time we turned a corner (having once lost half a crockpot of soup going around a corner on the way to church, I'm very careful when we are driving).  We got a few chuckles when we arrived at the church and I gradually emerged from the car under all of the food!

 I thought this was funny.  Our church truly welcomes everyone and while I don't believe we have many smokers, it would seem that with the funeral, we do have several so they got their own little oasis.

 The rest of the day was rather quiet.  We did a quick run to Canadian Tire (a favourite store in this house) and then came home for a nice lunch.  LB went for a nap, Dh got into his suit and went back for the funeral and Pk and I did some schoolwork (I'm trying to get a fair bit done this summer so that Sk is a breeze for her).  I love working with her (most of the time) and she is at that stage when the learning comes so quickly, it's exciting to see results.

We also have a couple of budding artists in the family and after nap, both wanted to do some creating.  Pk discovered some water colour paints in a teacher bin downstairs and now, every person she has ever met will be receiving a painting.  LB loves to draw (which surprises me, Pk was not interested at this stage but he will sit for 20 minutes and make circles).  I love this - the teacher in me gets so much pleasure from my kids reading, drawing, playing with Duplo (another big hit around here right now) and playing make-believe.

 You would think that the little man would resist his sister's make-believe games because it's hard to believe that he understands but they certainly seem to enjoy them.  This game was something to do with a baby getting ready for the bath.  This morning, they were camping and she had them both in hats and jackets and the dog beds (which you see behind them on the couch) were the sleeping bags.  I got Dh (not really to his pleasure, I must say), to get out the tent and set it up so that they could really enjoy their game.  What better thing to do on a rainy morning?

And finally, to the thing I always said I would never do, little people watching t.v.  I must admit to having totally caved on this one.  I will say that we don't watch commercial t.v. at all and whenever possible, we watch DVDs that fit with our goals for our kids.  LB is just beginning to enjoy Veggietales and just this week, he has begun to enjoy the Silly Songs DVDs.  This evening, we introduced him to "I LOVE MY LIPS", which we watched with PK 8000 times when she was a bit older than he is.  It was a trip down memory lane!

It was interesting getting Dh's take on the funeral.  He grew up in the Salvation Army and I must say, they know how to do a funeral.  It really is a celebration of life and even more, a "promotion to glory".  The music is upbeat and there is a sense that the deceased has gone on to a wonderful next stage of life.  Dh thought that our minister did a wonderful job with the sermon but he was a bit shocked at the somber tone and said that "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven" just got slower and slower until he thought it would just stop.  My f.i.l. has metronome markings for the music for his funeral - Dh plans to plan the bass drum in the band to keep it upbeat.  Let me say here, when my time comes, I want wonderful music, people wearing colours other than black and a sense of a life well-lived (I hope) rather than regrets.  I have actually been debating putting together a funeral for myself and some letters for special people which I hope will be never used but who knows?