Sibling Weekend

I haven't had time to blog recently.  At the beginning of last week I was serving on an accreditation team for ACSI in Delaware.  While I always enjoy the experience it is an extremely busy time with long days and working into the night as the team looks at every aspect of a school's life and then writes up our report. I returned home on Wednesday and spent most of Thursday catching up, resting, laundry and preparing for the weekend.

The weekend was our annual sibling retreat held at Pine View Retreat in Juniata County.  My oldest brother John and my youngest sister Linda and her husband couldn't be with us and we certainly missed them.  

Friday evening always begins with dinner at Bread of Life Restaurant in McAlisterville.  It's an annual tradition that we look forward to each year. The weekend is filled with lots of laughter, good conversation, telling of family stories, too much food, a little friendly competion with a couple of games, and time to reconnect as siblings.

This year Janet and I decided we would introduce the sisters and sisters-in-law to our favorite hobby of making cards.  Janet and I each prepared two cards that we would make with the ladies.  We had so much fun and the ladies enjoyed the craft time.

While we were busy crafting the "boys" were busy chatting and taking pictures for us.  I think a few of them may have even had a little nap as well.  A wide range of topics is discussed and i am pretty sure that each year they try to solve all the world's problems!

Another favorite pasttime for some of the family is putting together a puzzle or two.  Because of the craft, only one got finished this year and I forgot to take a picture of the finished puzzles. 





After dinner on Saturday night we played a game.  This time we were playing "Scum" which became quite lively as the evening wore on.  

At this point in the game the three brothers were on top with Ken as President and Jim as Vice President and Bob next. It was the only time all evening that the three of them were next to each other.  And of course every round changes so that didn't last long.  

Sunday morning after breakfast we gather for worship and a time of devotions. After Janet led us in singing a few songs, Jim and Donna led in our devotional time. We ended our time together with sharing prayer requests and praying together.  It is such a special time of remembering the spiritual heritage instilled in us by our parents.  After our morning worship time Ken and Arlene had to leave - their great grandson was celebrating his first birthday party and they wanted to be a part of that.

Another tradition is the yearly competition of dominoes.  We play a version called "Do you love your neighbor?" which is a team competition so we play the boys against the girls.  More often than not the boys win. I think there was only one previous year in the ten or so years that we have been doing this that the girls won.  So of course we were doubly excited to beat them this year.

But they are good sports - here they are "high-fiving" themselves on their loss! We had uneven teams this year, so Joyce played a hand for the girls and one for the boys.  Needless to say she both won and lost the game!

It was a great weekend which will linger in our memories.

Scraps and More Scraps

Papercrafting creates lots of little scraps of paper.  Now I don't like to throw them away if I think they can be used in some way.  Besides most of them are just too pretty to throw away. Several weeks ago, my friend Beckie and I took a class on using scraps because we wanted to get some new ideas.  

Once a month I get together with three other ladies to make cards. Usually we each bring a card and technique idea to share with the rest. This way we each go home with at least four newly completely cards.  So this month we decided to share what we had learned about using scraps. Here are some of the cards I made at our get together this week.

And here we are taking a lunch break.  We always have so much fun and being silly is part of the fun!  We had a guest this month as Beckie's daughter-in-law and granddaughter were visiting from Virginia.

Weekend Getaway

It has been a busy week so I haven't had a chance to update my blog yet. Sometimes I wonder how i had time to do everything I did when I was working fulltime!  Of course, I am sure there are a lot of things that just didn't get done.

We took a little mid-winter getaway last weekend.  We really felt it was time for some rest and relaxation as well as time to look ahead and set some goals for the next chapter of our lives. My dear hubby celebrates his sixty-sixth birthday tomorrow, which means he has reached the age that he can take full retirement. He has not decided that he is ready to do that.  We went to a little bed and breakfast in Solomons, MD.  It was a beautiful location and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was just a perfect place for our own personal marriage retreat!

All of the rooms at this B&B are named for herbs.  We stayed in Lavender Cottage and this was a picture that Elvin took looking out the front of the cottage. We had been to this place in June, 2014 and the gardens and grounds are so pretty.  It was amazing to see how much new growth is beginning to show.

Elvin likes to get up early. Here is a picture he took of the sunrise over the water on Saturday morning. It was just the best setting for relaxing, reading, talking, and planning.  And the innkeeper makes the most delicious breakfasts.




Getting back to reality after a weekend away is always difficult but I had plenty to do this week.  I spent one day shopping with my sister-in-law at some of our favorite craft shops and one morning making cookies with my daughter-in-law. We certainly had a lot of fun.  Today is a day to do the laundry, some cleaning, and catching up in preparation for a busy weekend ahead.

Blessings on your day!