Family Day Weekend

This past weekend was the Family Day long weekend here. It was a b-u-s-y one for our family with a few different significant activities on our calendar. The long weekend was made extra long with Friday being a school board Professional Activity (P.A.) Day which meant no school!!!

Friday was mostly spent at home making sure homework and laundry were all done so that we can enjoy the upcoming long weekend. We did spend a bit of Friday grocery shopping and getting supplies for my girl's 16th birthday party.

My sister and her kids came over for dinner on Friday night as my niece needed some help with a school project. Not sure who had more fun doing the project, me or her... judge for yourself! ;-)

All day Saturday was spent at the Toronto Winter Open cubing competition, an official World Cube Association event, where my boy competed for the very first time! He did an awesome job, considering it was his first competition and that he's only been cubing for less than six months.

Official Results

Here he is solving the 2x2 cube, with a time of 6.11 seconds, and the 3x3 cube in 19.19 seconds!

Sunday was an awesome day spent with lots of peeps from our church family --- a dim-sum lunch to celebrate our Lead Pastor's birthday and a potluck dinner with our Home Church!

And, my baby girl turned 16 on Family Day Monday! It was a beautiful day of celebration --- she is one awesome young lady!!! Click here to read her reflections on turning 16 and the final tally of Street Kids Gifts that she received... I am one proud mama! :-)

Blessed!

That was our weekend, in a nutshell. I feel blessed. I am blessed. My heart is full... God is good and His love endures forever. No matter the circumstance, or the challenges in life, or the difficult decisions waiting to be made, or the not-so-easy choices that lie ahead... I know that God is always good and I am always loved! So, I will count gifts and I will give thanks!

If living eucharisteo is the key to unlocking the mystery of life, this I want. I want the hunt, the long sleuth, the careful piecing together. To learn how to be grateful and happy whether hands full or hands empty. That is a secret worth spending a life on learning.

~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts.

As I continue to count grace-gifts, with unending thanks... to The One who is always good and always loves... these are the things I am thankful for these two weeks... #2845 - #2857:

:: An education system that allows for adjustments and modifications for challenges that highly gifted children encounter.

:: A church family who braves a snow storm knowing that an inner-city community dinner wouldn't happen without them.

:: Celebrating Chinese New Year with my sister and her family, even during a snow storm!

:: Safety, especially when driving in snowy weather.

:: Trapped behind some cars stuck in the snow and making the most of the situation.

:: My girl's March Break mission team getting organized and raising funds!

:: Her trip, fully-funded!

:: Support and understanding from my boy's school Principal.

:: Two very awesome report cards!

:: The start of Lent.

:: Twenty years!

:: Sixteen candles! 

:: The gift of a beautiful daughter!

And so I say "hello" to this shortened week...

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

~ Psalm 100:4-5, NIV1984.

Choosing to live a surrendered life... because Christ's love compels me... and giving thanks for everything that my good God so freely bestows, so lavishly gives and so extravagantly showers!

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!