Election Day

Election Day

It is Election Day here in Canada. I’ve read lots of blogs that rant and rave about candidates, parties and leaders…but I’m not that political, so my Election Day rant is actually about my polling station.

Look in the pictures below… that is an aerial shot of me and Corey’s home.

So, you see our house in the middle of the picture, and if you follow the arrow across our backyard, you’ll see the half circle, that is our community centre.

The community centre is obviously adjacent to your backyard and it is also a polling station for the federal election. When Corey and I heard this we were excited: “Oh great! All we have to do is walk across our backyard to vote.” But sadly, we were wrong.

Even though the polling station is basically in our backyard, we have to drive 10 minutes to vote. Isn’t that crazy!

I’m shocked… and I find it hilarious! Instead of a two second walk, we have to drive 20 minutes to vote (10min there and 10min back). I understand that you have to set boundary lines for the polling districts, but don’t you think that the polling station should be in the middle of the district, not on the edge of the district line? This is a bit crazy if you ask me.

So tonight after I get home from work Corey and I will drive the 10 minutes to cast our votes. Best of luck to all the candidates! And for all those Canadians of age, please remember to vote before 8:30pm today!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving!

What a beautiful time of year. Here are a few pics from the past couple weeks, as the autumn season has come into full bloom on PEI. We’ve enjoyed apple picking, nature hikes, and even a trip over to the Moncton Zoo to celebrate Penelope’s birthday.

On Thanksgiving weekend we enjoyed two turkeys, one with the Tremeres and one with the Kennys…mmm… both tables were a wonderful bounty of food! It was an amazing weekend, spending time with our families, enjoying lots of laughs, and great food!

The colors are so beautiful this time of year!

Birthday Girl petting the goats at the Zoo!

The goats were so funny! We had a great time feeding them!

Thanksgiving dinner

Picking apples

We have so much to be thankful for!

September - reading "The Shack"

September was quite a month!
We celebrated lots of family birthdays, our 3rd wedding anniversary, the SummerSet music festival, I started taking French classes again, we visited with family and friends, and I tried to read a lot more.

One book that I started in the later half of September was the new hit book The Shack. I haven’t finished reading it yet (I’m a bit of a slow reader), but thus far here are a few thoughts about the book.

For those of you who haven’t heard about The Shack, it is a novel about a man who has experienced a horrific life experience (so awful I was crying as I read through the first couple chapters), and then received a note from God to meet him out at a shack in the woods.

When he arrives at the shack, he actually meets God in all three forms (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

David Gregory, author of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, says that The Shack is “An exceptional piece of writing that ushers you directly into the heart and nature of God in the midst of agonizing human suffering.”

I love the quote (paraphrase), that Jesus isn’t interested in Religion, he’s interested in Relationships. This book really shows how God is building relationship with the character, how he is working within our human limitation to reach us, and interact with us…maybe not literally, like it is in the Shack, but I really feel that God can build a two way relationship with us here on earth, even though we can’t see or touch him.

We need to pray! The Bible tells us to “Pray Without Ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). I’m not a preacher, so I’m not going to preach, but I want to reiterate that God wants to build relationships with all of us and that one key component to any relationship is communication. Prayer is one medium to communicate with God and we are asked to pray continuously.

So, do I recommend The Shack? Yes… The Shack is a great tool to illustrate God’s nature, but it is only a novel. To build a true relationship with God we need regular prayer, Bible study and fellowship (just to name a few things).

Hope this blog wasn’t too deep…but those are my thoughts for the day!
xoxo ~ love you all!