This is REIL fun

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

God be with you till we meet again

I grew up with these 4 beautiful ladies. Jill was my Sunday School teacher and Jenna was closest to me in age, with Tracey being older, and Kara younger. I was heartbroken to hear that Tracey lost her battle with cancer and was called to her Heavenly home. I know she is in a better place, but I grieve for her husband, children, parents, and siblings that miss her so. She was a remarkable lady and I look forward to seeing her again someday!

Elder Reil and Elder Stiles

Elder Stiles finished his mission in Australia, and traveled to the Mission President's home in Toronto to be released. Elder Reil was serving as an assistant to the president and got to see him. I love these faithful young men who serve the Lord!

Remembrance Day

I'm feeling mixed emotions on this Remembrance Day. I will always feel gratitude to all of those who have sacrificed, and continue to serve that I might live in a free country. I just feel overwhelming sadness when I look at the state of the world. There is never-ending poverty, famine, disease, pollution, violence, corruption, and so many ways that so many are not free. I wish that after more than 100 years of remembering we would be in a better place than we are now.

The Mid-seasons

I went down a rabbit hole of trivia. What started out as looking to see what time the sun will set after setting the clocks back, led me to remember when we used to switch our clocks in April and October and now we switch them in March and November. Which made me think about time and the lunar division of the year into our 12 months, as well as the solar division of the year into our 4 seasons. But did you know that in former times, there were 8 solar divisions?

You may recognize Samhain as All Hallow's Eve.

Imbolc as Groundhog's Day.

And Beltane as May Day.

Lughnassadh is contemporarily known as Lammas Day, but you may know it as the August Civic Holiday.

The Swingset

We finally set up the swingset the kids got for Christmas last year!

The view from the back door.

November 2022

It's November! The snow starts to fall down, and the Christmas decorations start to go up.

But first, we have Thanksgiving!

I'm so thankful for this beautiful,

crazy family of mine!

A Pirate, Sea Witches, and Squid!

Our family LOVES Halloween! Getting dressed up, fun! Visiting your neighbors, fun! Getting lots of junk food, fun!

Besides getting ourselves dressed up, we also have to get the house looking all spic and spooky!

The sun is going down, light those pumpkins and turn on the lights!

Trick-or-treat?

We got lots of treats!

The kids get a few each day in their school lunches and our stash always seems to last forever!

Since Macy doesn't enjoy the junk like the rest of us, she got a new book, and all the kiddos got some fun suckers. Happy Halloween!

The Wildes in Town

Dave had to come to town for work, and Jackie got to tagalong!

Our family loves them!

Macy was playing...

Peek-a-Boo!

I also got to tagalong with Jackie to spend time with our mutual friends. It was nice that Lianne,

and Lucy came over for a visit.

Mary hosted a lovely lunch with Laura and Rhonda.

Renée hosted a lovely evening with games and yummy snacks with the Williamses, Stileses, Elliotts, and Martins.

We had a beautiful day hiking in Quebec with Renée and Alissa.

Then 4 of us were able to have a 2nd adventure that day...

at Nordik Spa.

With Annick! It's always a fun girls' day out!

I've now been in the spring and fall, and it's just heavenly! Thanks for coming to town Jackie, and for planning such fun adventures while you were here!