One more day to win! & Life goes on

The time has passed quickly, it seems, to when I will announce my June giveaway winner. Tomorrow evening I will use random.org name picker to find out who receives this beautiful bag.

If you have a postal address in Canada or the United States and would like a chance to win this bag, maybe as a gift for someone else, please be sure to get your name into the draw by leaving a comment on this post. You have until 9:00 PM EST July 15. I’ll be announcing the winner Thursday morning, July 16. I’m now thinking about what I can offer for July’s giveaway. 🙂

June is a busy month for this family. Last Friday marked a year since my father-in-law’s passing from this life … a whole year already. Somehow, life goes on. My sister’s (mumble mumble) birthday was last week. Tomorrow is my dad’s 91st birthday! The day after that is my grandson’s 11th birthday and his graduation from elementary school is at the end of the month. My sister-in-law’s birthday falls on Father’s Day this year, which may hold sadness for her this time. For my husband too, and really for all of us missing someone dear and important to us. As I said – somehow, life goes on.

Last weekend my husband and I were guests at a small, lovely, outdoor wedding at a location overlooking the bay. Two of our four daughters were able to be there, one was the maid-of-honour – close friends with the bride for twenty-six years. Vows were said while waves rippled over the beach. It was a gorgeous sunny day set in the middle of cooler rainy ones.

Since I’m in a bit of a writing slump lately, my focus pulled this way and that, I’d like to ask you: What is the time of year that seems to work best for your writing? Is there something about one season that inspires you more than others?

Thanks for writing, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Chillaxin’!

I seem to usually have a variety of things to do. My newest focus is the fact that I am hoping to sell the rest of my crafts I’d made for my business which I allowed to mostly fold. (Can’t do everything after all) There’s a little arts and crafts consignment shop (Fat Cats) that opened recently. I was pleased to meet the shop owner/operator, Darlene, at the local writing group I mentioned last month. Since the shop isn’t far from me I decided to give it a try. This week I’m working at tagging and listing my crafts so I can deliver them to Darlene later in the week.

Wondering about my post’s title? Have you heard one of the latest word combinations … chilling relaxing = chillaxin’ ? I try to do that once in a while. BUT … one time I looked out my kitchen window this morning and look at what I saw.

Isn’t this the perfect portrayal of that word? Yep, that pesky – but cute – squirrel is chillaxin’. 🙂

How do you chillax? Are there any new word combinations you particularly like? Or have you made up one?

NOTE: remember to comment on my JUNE 3 POST so your name is entered in the draw for my June giveaway which is next week.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Strawberries make me smile

I LOVE SPRING! Sunshine, warm weather, birds singing, sunshine, ~~blackflies~~, warm weather, flowers, sunshine, ~~mosquitoes~~, strawberries, and warm weather!

I’ll be posting another giveaway soon, but for this morning I’m writing a quick post as I’ve been quite busy lately and have fallen behind. I came across the following joke which I thought you might enjoy.

Farmer Evans was driving his John Deere tractor along the road with a trailer load of fertilizer. Tim a little boy of eight was playing in his yard when he saw the farmer and asked, ‘What’ve you got in your trailer?’

‘Manure,’ Farmer Evans replied.

‘What are you going to do with it?’ asked Tim.

‘Put it on my strawberries,’ answered the farmer.

Tim replied, ‘You ought to come and eat with us.”

🙂 My question to you today is what do you put on your strawberries?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Quiz: What is your colour personality?

As promised, here is the quiz I think you will enjoy. It’s a very short one. When you do this one it will reveal to you what colour best represents your personality.

When I did this quiz a few months ago this was my result: BROWN: Your personality sometimes keeps you from making friends. Try to have a more positive outlook on life.

When I did it again this week this was my result: BLUE: Although you can sometimes have an introverted personality, you do enjoy being around other people once in a while.

What I find interesting about that is each can be accurate at different times. More than that, I think I’m a blue more than a brown this year. Change. It continues. 🙂

GO HERE TO FIND OUT YOUR COLOUR PERSONALITY.

After trying this quiz, how about letting me know what your colour personality is? You know I love hearing from you and reading your comments. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

More change; Valley Sunshine

Starting near the end of last year and continuing in January of this year I shared with you my thoughts and other people’s quotes regarding CHANGE. I felt there was marked change going to occur – specifically, but not only, in my own life.

2016 is definitely shaping up to be my year of change.

A long chapter of my life ended this week. It was so hard to let it go.

When I was in my early 30’s, and the mother of three young children (a fourth born later), I started a friendship newsletter – called Valley Sunshine – that quickly turned into a Christian one which developed into a type of ministry. I started with about three dozen ‘members’, a number that rapidly increased to over 500 worldwide! It was phenomenal to me. That’s with no advertising except word-of-mouth, except for a few mentions in others’ newsletters. (Once there was a half page article in the provincial newspaper about me/Valley Sunshine!) For over ten years that continued – run on donations – no subscription fee, with mail coming to me almost daily from all over the world, occasional phone calls, and a surprise package now and again. It was like a huge family of friends who encouraged one another. I know the Lord touched lives through that little homegrown publication; it was my joy to be part of it, and I look forward to one day knowing all He did through that humble publication. With the passing of my mother (my greatest “fan”), I took a long break from VS publishing. A few years ago I started it up again on a much smaller scale by subscription as requested. (It remained non-profit.) Finally, this week, I sent the final issue out. It was a hard decision to come to, but a necessary one. Trying to compile that last issue I mourned the loss of this connection with people I’d grown to love, this change of calling on my life, the hard choices; however, eventually I sensed the relief of admitting it’s done – it’s run its course. I still feel the loss, and I will for a long time. But …

It’s time to allow change in my life to have its own space.

As a caregiver one’s time is used very differently, it’s taxed in a way one does not expect. The things that used to be easily addressed cannot be handled the same way. I had to accept it was time to let change happen and allow the Lord to redirect my life.

Writing in other ways has floated to the top of my life. As you may know, I’ve been interested in writing for MANY years, have taken courses and participated in various online writer’s groups. Now I’m working on children’s stories again. I have a writing coach/buddy. I’m a member of an online critique group, and recently joined an in-person writer’s group (mixed writing genres) that meets once a week. I’m a member of 12×12 and participate in PiBoIdMo and ReFoReMo. All these things are intended to help me learn and improve. Life is still busy. Writing is a huge part of that for me.

Now I’ve told you much more than I had intended to when I started this post. I was going to give you a fun quiz to do, and the above was going to be the lead-in. It just grew and grew! Next post will be the quiz. 🙂

Much love to you.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to let go because it’s time so that you can move on to other things in your creative life?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Fort McMurray is burning! How to help evacuees

I’m sure you have heard and seen on the news the horrors going on in Alberta, Canada, right now, with wildfires burning out of control for a week. Fire has consumed hundreds of homes; over 90,000 people living in Fort McMurray communities have been evacuated – many with thirty minutes notice. Too many have lost everything except for the few items they were able take with them.

One of my cousins and his family are six persons of those thousands. He took his wife, their four children, and their dog, and headed farther north to one of the work camps for temporary refuge. On Wednesday they were able to drive south, closer to Edmonton, Alberta. I haven’t received an update for a few days. According to news reports it seems the area in which they live may have been spared, but they don’t know yet if their house was actually untouched.

Donations of necessities and also money are pouring in. Our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said that whatever donations are sent to the Red Cross for this disaster will be matched by the government. Now that’s a good deal.

I am writing this post to inform you of ways you can help too, monetarily, should you be able to do so.

First of all, if you are in contact with anyone who was evacuated because of the wildfires in Alberta, it is important that they let officials know where they are and what their needs are. They cannot be given financial government assistance until they register with the Red Cross, so please tll them to do so right away by calling 1-888-350-6070. Understandably, that number is very busy, so if they are unable to wait for a representative to take their call, they should leave their contact number for a call-back. And tell them to save all their receipts for purchases of food, accommodations and other expenses related to their plight in case their insurer will reimburse them.

Because this is such a traumatic experience, mental health support is also available by calling Alberta’s 24-hour Mental Health Help Line at 1-877-303-2642.

YOU can call 1-800-418-1111 to make a money donation to the Canadian Red Cross to help those displaced. When I called, I worked on some paperwork while waiting for someone to get to me in the queue. Yes, it was a long wait so listen to the recorded message that cuts in and you will learn what to do about donating if you cannot stay on the line. Okay, I’ll tell you what it is: “Thank you for holding. Did you know that you can press 1 on your phone now and we will hold your place and call you back? Otherwise please stay on the line.” Have your credit card ready. Even $5 will be of help.

The other option available to you if you want to make a much-needed money donation and can’t use a credit card is to mail a cheque or a money order. Since this will be a longtime ongoing situation, your donation will be needed and appreciated. Mail it to the address below and mark on your cheque that it is for Alberta wildfire relief to be sure it goes specifically for that:

Canadian Red Cross
P.O. Box 39
Saint John
New Brunswick
Canada
E2L 3X3

There are offices located in provinces closer to Alberta, but this is the one closest to me and will do fine for anyone.

Thank you for your prayers and donations. This is such a horrible time for so many people. It’s a huge and historic evacuation for Canada and it’s no where near ending yet. The fires are still raging and spreading, having devoured over 156,000 hectares now because it’s VERY dry in Alberta. There are currently 40 other active fires, most of which are now under control.

Please pray for heavy rainfall which is desperately needed for Fort McMurray and surrounding areas being ravaged by fire.

THANK YOU.

Do you know anyone affected by this crisis?

Thank you for reading, and for your help.