Great Advent Ideas!

A friend from Edson sent me these great Advent ideas from a book entitled "Celebrate Christmas" 'and the Beautiful Traditions of Advent'. I thought I'd post them for you in case you want to file them away as ideas for future years :) Thanks Marilyn!

1) The Blessing Box
To remind your family how blessed they are make a box and pick a needy family or individual to give this to just before Christmas. Offerings of things they can give or things they can do or money to put in and as it is (maybe at family dinner time) that member shares how he has been blessed and how he wants to share that with others.
2) The Chrismon tree. This is a combination of the words Christ and monogram. Decorate a tree with monograms (symbols) of Jesus Christ. Find all His names - Good Shepherd (make a shepherd's crook), Light of the World (candle), Alpha and Omega ( 1st and last letters of the Greek alphabet). Make these out of cardboard and decorate and then hang on your tree - hand made or other. This helps to center our focus on the the true importance of Christ's coming.
3) Gathering Straws for the Manger - to prepare your hearts for the coming of Jesus. Set aside a bunch of straws to be given to members of your family as rewards for their individual good deeds and acts of service to one another. The straws should be added to the empty manger one at a time in anticipations of the placement of the baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. This simple symbolic gesture will help maintain an attitude of eager expectation in your hearts each day of the Advent season.

Scrapbook layout - Hanging Out

Here are two more Studio J layouts that I made. I was only going to make one layout with these pictures but the nature of the pictures just worked better with two layouts. I love that about Studio J - it was so easy to create another layout with the same paper pack! I knew it would coordinate and it only took minutes because I already had a lot of the thought work done. Also, because digital pages take next to no space in my album, I don't worry about adding more pages to it!

Jeremy's (and my Mom's) Birthday!

 

Jeremy had been asking for a "hockey stick" for weeks and threw a little tantrum when he saw one in a store and I wouldn't buy it. He didn't know that Nathan and Noelle had already bought one for him for his birthday! He was super excited!

We celebrated Jeremy's and my Mom's birthday a week early when they were still here at the end of October. I made a farm cake for Jeremy - it was a lot of fun! I baked the chocolate cake in two loaf pans and then assembled it all on a tin foil covered cookie sheet. I just spread white icing on the tray and covered it with yellow and green tinted coconut. The barn and silo weren't too much harder (thanks Dad for helping assemble it!) and Mom made butterscotch haystack cookies for the haystacks! The barn animals and tractors came from Jeremy's existing farm tub. Jeremy had a great time "playing farm" and didn't really want to eat it!

I have to admit that Mom did get the raw end of the deal for her cake - I used some left over pieces but didn't have enough icing left so I couldn't ice the whole thing. It was pretty special to have them here though and be able to celebrate with them!

Niagara Falls!

picture taken from "Journey Beneath the Falls"

We went to visit Niagara Falls at the end of October with my Mom and Dad. Daniel wasn't able to come because he had class but the rest of us had a great time. Niagara Falls is truly awe-inspiring. We had a beautiful, clear fall day to walk along the falls, eat our picnic lunch and enjoy the view.

We also took in Journey Beneath the Falls (picture #4) where you go down an elevator and then walk through the tunnel to view the falls from the front and behind. The sound and spray of the water is amazing. Noelle and Jeremy did not enjoy this part of the day!

Nathan, Grandma and Grandpa also enjoyed Niagara's Fury, a 20 minute 4-D production where you feel like you are actually seeing, hearing and experiencing the Falls, they actually got wet. I think Nathan was the most excited!

Niagara Falls is only about an hour and a half to a two hour drive away from our house, depending on traffic and we didn't explore any of the townsite or see any of the other attractions so I hope we have the opportunity to go back again! I have also been told that Niagara on the Lake is beautiful in the summer.

Advent Calendar

It doesn't look a lot like Christmas outside but the calendar says it is December and time once again to celebrate Christmas festivities. In our family, December 1 means starting to prepare our minds and hearts to celebrate Jesus' birth with a daily Advent calendar and Bible reading. Our Advent calendar has little pockets with felt ornaments in them and this year I also put little notes in each one with the name of a Christmas book or puzzle or colouring book! When we opened our Christmas decoration boxes a couple of weeks ago I squirreled away most of the Christmas story books, puzzles etc collected over the years and didn't let my kids see them. Now we can take one out a day and enjoy them together. I would love to hear about any things you do with your family to make Advent special - please post a comment and share!

First Snow!

Our first snowfall of 2010! Now this was all the snow we got on Saturday and it was basically gone by suppertime but for three kids from Alberta it has been much anticipated. All three of them bundled up and had a great time playing outside. The snow was pretty wet so it stuck together really well. Unfortunatley for Nathan, Noelle and Jeremy did not want to have a snowball fight. He might have to wait for the uncles at Christmas! Notice Jeremy is wearing his rubber boots - I still haven't gotten out his winter boots yet. Soon though!

Layout - Staying Cool

I just had to make a separate layout for these pictures of Jeremy getting completely soaked in a summer rain! I made these with Studio J so it was fast to pick "water" paper, add the pictures, pick the colour of my embellishments and then journal. I really zoomed in on the pictures (I took the pictures from the doorway of our house so I wouldn't get wet!) which meant that they were slightly blurry when they were printed but not as bad as I feared.

Albion Orchards

 I hadn't explored north of Toronto yet so on the first Monday afternoon that Mom and Dad were visiting we took a drive north to Albion Orchards. when Even though we were too late to pick our own apples, we had a great time exploring the orchard, the gift shop and we did get to pick our own pumpkin! We came home with a few bags full of huge apples (they were the largest apples I've ever eaten), a jug of delicious apple cider, homemade butter tarts, and a pumpkin. The kids had a blast climbing on the bales provided for them, running down the hill, hiding in the trees and checking out the pumpkins. Mom and I decided that we had never seen a 'pumpkin patch' before. We often grew pumpkins in the garden growing up but we had never seen a true pumpkin patch. The vines were all gone but the sight of all the bright orange pumpkins was beautiful. The last of our visit to the orchard is still in my freezer - yummy applesauce made from a bag of 'seconds' that doesn't need any sugar.

Scrapbook layout - Mud-dy!

This is one of the seven Studio J digital layouts I just received in the mail! I am scrapbooking most of 2009 digitally and I had fun with this one. My kids seem to love mixing dirt and water together!
I picked Backwoods as my paper choice, used a basic template Studio J provided, and then added the title, quote, and brackets (they were under "Stickease" and then I rotated and resized them to the size I wanted). One thing I love about digital scrapbooking is always being able to resize what I want - title, picture, embellishments!

Sunday thoughts - Transient vs. Eternal

2 Corinthians 4:18b "For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

Pastor Paul, in his sermon on Hebrews 8 today, talked about how the temple in Jerusalem was a shadow or copy of the heavenly temple and so the earthly temple was inferior and the heavenly one is superior. He pointed out that "for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Cor. 4:18b) and how often we reverse the two in our thinking and practice - we think the things of this earth are what is real and the things of heaven are not real.  But in reality the things of this earth are not real - they are transient, temporary, a shadow and will not last and the things of heaven are real - they are eternal, they are the original. Then he asked "What are you living for?"

This hit home for me - what am I living for? It is so easy to be focused on the transient - day to day living, jobs, responsibilities, cares, fun activities etc. However I want to carry these out with my eyes lifted upward and my focus on Jesus  - for He is what is better, eternally better. For He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 and “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." John 3:16-18


So as I ponder this, I think - this is the theoretical - I want to live for Christ - but what is the practical? How can I keep my focus on Jesus during the week, during the mundane and exciting activities of day to day life? What comes to mind is the simple - be in the Word (i.e. read my Bible), pray, listen to Christian music, listen to online sermons, read devotional books, discuss spiritual truths and share with other Christians - and from time spent on these activities my whole life will be affected. Now my challenge is to do these things! Over the years, my time spent on these activities has ebbed and flowed and lately I have been in a dry spell.  But after today's sermon, (and putting these thoughts in writing :) I know I need to once again consciously set aside time in my day to formally focus on Jesus (i.e. such as the above activities) so that I can informally focus on Him the rest of the day!


So now I challenge you - what are you living for?

Scrapbook layout - Holly

CTMH Paper: Cherry-O paper pack

CTMH Embellishments: Big Pinks flowers, Chocolate polka dot ribbon, Opaque Pearls, chocolate brads

Other: Making Memories rub-ons, unknown metal tags

I made time to scrapbook this week and finally scrapbooked my niece's birth from two years ago! I have to admit it was a fast page though because I used one of my Progressive Pages layouts from this summer. When I looked at Holly's baby pictures I knew that this layout would be perfect for them. When I ran my scrapbook classes in August (just before we moved!) we made Progressive Pages and I sat down with my group to play too!

If you have never heard of Progressive Pages, it is a fun scrapbooking game. You need a group of scrapbookers and everyone picks their own patterned paper and cardstock. Then everyone passes their selections to the left (or right!). That person then adheres one of the patterns to your pages anyway they like. The papers are passed again and another step is done (i.e. add photo mats, add title space, add journaling space, add embellishments etc.) Once your paper has gone around the group once (or twice depending on how many women there are) you have a completed layout just waiting for you to add your pictures! I have played the game with my scrapbook clubs once or twice a year for the last 3 years and everyone has a great time. It can be a little scary working on other pages but once you get in the groove it is a lot of fun. Oh, and I should mention there is a time limit on each step - just to keep everyone moving!

I picked Sweet Leaf green as the base cardstock and chocolate for my photo mats. I picked two patterned papers from the CTMH Cherry-O paper pack and my talented scrapbook club friends did the rest! I did add the Making Memories rub-on words, Opaque pearls and little metal tags myself but that was it.

If you are interested in the instructions I have for Progressive Pages let me know and I can email them to you. I put them together years ago from a short video off the Simple Scrapbooks website.

Scrapbook layout - What a fun day!

This is a digital layout from Studio J using "Tinkerin'" paper. I made three title boxes (I deleted the original title box which you can't edit and added new ones) -  and typed in two of them and added Stickease letters for the word "fun". I find it amazing how 3-D the ribbon can look; sometimes I add real ribbon or other embellishments to the pages after I get them but this one is completely digital.

The pictures are from August 2009 - I am finishing 2008 with classic scrapbooking but most of 2009 will be digital. I am hoping it will help me catch up as well as take advantage of the year membership I purchased (it gives me a deal on the layout price and shipping)!

The Toronto Zoo

Petting a Stingray! Noelle was able to pet a few but Jeremy refused.

 The shark was more elusive but I did get a chance to run my fingers along his back.

 Jeremy loved digging for dinosaurs in the kids' sand pit! There are actually replicas of dinosaur fossils for the kids to find.

 Check out that dimple!

Jellyfish!

We visited the Toronto Zoo back in September and I just haven't gotten around to writing about it yet! We went as a whole family with Luella the second weekend of September when she visited and then the kids and I visited it again at the end of September. The second time we went to check out the Stingray and Shark exhibit (which was closing October 11) that we didn't have time to see the first time. (We bought a family membership the first time because it is such a better deal).

The Toronto Zoo is one of the biggest zoos in the world and we were really impressed with it. The first time we explored most of the zoo but not all of it! One exciting moment was when a cheetah that the kids were watching from behind glass lunged at the glass repeatedly! It seemed like it was trying to attack them.

The second time the kids and I took our time and visited the Sharks and Stingray exhibit, the Kids Zoo, the Canadian Domain and rode the Zoomobile. The Zoomobile let us see the outside animals from a different angle and we didn't have to walk as far!

There are still a few more places left for us to explore another time though! I hope to visit at least one or two more times in the coming year. Next time we will take with us our "Complete Zoo Adventure" book that I ordered to use for our schooling this year. It looks like an exciting book that contains activities, facts about animals and Scripture to help teach about God's amazing creation.

Back to blogging!

My Mom and Dad were here visiting from Alberta for 11 days so I haven't had much time to email or blog :) We had a great visit with them and it was really special to have them make the effort to come and see us. It was fun showing them around Toronto and southern Ontario. We went to an apple and pumpkin orchard, visited Casa Loma, Niagara Falls, and Humber Bay Park, went out for Dim Sum, celebrated Jeremy and Mom's birthdays and Mom and Dad were able to visit an uncle in Waterloo for 2 days. At this rate I won't run out of topics to blog for a long time!

Scrapbooking Tip - Lining up Acyrlic Stamps!

It is sometimes hard to get a wavy stamp to lay right or a circle stamp to be a perfect circle when using clear acrylic stamps and placing them on a block. The solution is to put the stamp face down on the table so it lays naturally and then lay your block onto the stamp! Now your stamp is its natural shape and you can stamp away! I also use this technique sometimes when I have alphabet letters layed out exactly the way the I want on a page. I just take one of my big blocks (i.e. 2 x 11) or whatever size I need and lay it over the word. Once the letters are stuck on the block I can ink them up and stamp my title!

Scrapbook tip - Liquid Glass

I have often been asked what to do with Liquid Glass! It is one of my favourite items on my desk to use. It can be used as an adhesive or as an embellishment. Liquid Glass dries completely clear so as an adhesive it is great for adhering clear buttons or other clear embellishments to my projects. I love to adhere clear buttons to patterned paper and then cut them out and have coordinating embellishments for my page or card! On these pages you can see the buttons I made to match the blues in the striped paper.

As an embellishment you can use it to highlight certain parts of a pattern, use it on stickers, make a subtle accent by squeezing drops of it in a row or around a photo. In this layout I hope you can see how each dot on the dotted paper and on the mushrooms has a drop of liquid glass on it - giving it great dimension without being overwhelming. I have also outlined a plaid pattern, used it for photo corners, outlined flowers etc. The possibilities are endless!

The biggest thing to remember is to give the Liquid Glass time to dry. Depending on how thick the application is it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple of hours to dry. I apply the Liquid Glass and then set my project aside and work on something else.

If you have any questions or ways you've used Liquid Glass let me know!

As far as the East is from the West

During Pastor Paul's sermon on Hebrews 6 yesterday I was struck anew by his statement that God not only forgives our sin, he forgets our sin! "...as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." Psalm 103: 12 Wow! As much as I knew that intellectually, I can easily forget that. I know that I am forgiven but I will replay my failures over and over again in my head (especially when I am tired and trying to fall asleep). What a great reminder that God is so great and loving that He actually chooses to forget our sin and then He chooses to remember our good work that He has created for us to do! So when I can't sleep I need to remember my sin is forgiven and forgotten and focus on what a great God I have.

Scrapbook layout - Escape

Passages Level 2 paper pack, Cocoa ribbon, Stamps: Backwoods, Building Block

I made this layout this summer as the extra two pages for my July 12 for 12 clubs. It was fun to be able to fit 14 pictures on one layout! This layout comes from Imagine. The pictures come from my family's camping trip in the Kananaskis last summer (one of our favourite places to camp!) I printed the pictures through Scrapbookpictures.com because I could pick the sizes of 2x2, and 4x4, zoom in and see exactly what they would look like. They also offer many different sizes (i.e. 3x3, 4x7, 6x6, 8x8, 4x12 and so on!) which are great for scrapbooking.

A new adventure - Homeschooling!

I know many of our family and friends have wondered why we decided to homeschool. We had hoped to enroll Nathan and Noelle into a local private Christian School close to us in Toronto but because the Ontario government doesn't support private education at all (unlike Alberta which provides partial funding) the school was unable to negotiate on tuition. With Daniel in school himself we were hoping to come to an agreement with the Christian School but since we couldn't we decided to homeschool. This has been a decision made with a lot of prayer.

Why not a public school? The reasons that usually come to mind first are the potential for bad influence from other students and anti-Christian teaching. However, when we really pondered it we realized that these are not the main concerns. The biggest thing it came down to was worldview. With Christian education (private school or homeschool) children are taught with a biblical worldview rather than a secular worldview.

What do I mean by worldview? The best explanation I have heard is that it is like the glasses you wear to look at and interpret the world and all of your experiences. (i.e. it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it. Wikipedia) Everyone has a worldview - whether it is a secular one, a religious one, or a combination of views - and recognizing this can help us understand others.

So in a secular setting children are taught to look at the world without a reference to God and to His word the Bible. Now, one may argue that this isn't a bad thing and that parents at home and through church can teach this Biblical worldview but I can't say it is a good thing. It is like choosing white bread for my children to eat all the time - it is not necessarily bad (although too much of it would be :) but brown, wholegrain bread is definitely better and will nourish them more. By being able to choose a Christian education for our children we are able to choose what is better, we are able to teach them through Biblical glasses. I know this is not an option for all Christian families and every family needs to decide for themselves, based on the resources (physical, spiritual, monetary etc) God has given them, how they will fulfill the biblical mandate to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6)

There are definitely aspects of a school setting that we will miss this year but there are other aspects that I am really looking forward to. It has been a blessing that we are able to register with Alberta Education through Northstar Academy to homeschool. Since Daniel is a student and we plan to go back to Alberta in the summer, we can keep our Alberta health care, licence plates, and now school registration. This will entitle us to some homeschool funding as well as support through Northstar.

If you have any questions about homeschooling (or anything else I post :) please ask!

An Organized Blog :)

So I've been wondering how I should balance what I post - adventures, scrapbooking etc and I came up with the following:
Tips Tuesday - tips I've learned about classical scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking
Whatever Wednesday - anything that doesn't fall into one of the other categories!
Family Friday - adventures we're having in Toronto and anything else relating to my family
Scrapbook Saturday - layouts that I've made (classical or digital)
Spiritual Sunday - insights from books I'm reading, sermons I've listened to, Bible time with the kids

These titles are a little corny and probably don't matter to much to you but they will help me feel organized (and as you probably know - I love to be organized!) I couldn't think of anything for Monday or Thursday but that's probably okay - I don't know if I will realistically blog 5 days a week anyways!

If there are suggestions you have I would love to hear them! This blog is definitely a work in progress but it has been fun so far to share what is going on in my life. I've also had the thought that I am journaling for my scrapbooks before I've even scrapbooked the pictures! This is great because I don't know when I'll get around to scrapbooking our pictures from this summer but I will at least have some of our experiences and feelings recorded.

Layout - Sand-Sun-Mud

This has to be one of my favourite all time layouts that I have ever made. I think a large part is due to the great picture of Noelle on the muddy slide and ones of her second cousins! They had a great time that day!

If you were in one of my 12 for 12 Scrapbooking Clubs you should recognize this layout from June.  It was one of the summer Workshop on the Go kits. It uses CTMH's Splendor paper, Irresistibles Miracle Chipboard Die-Cuts (these come in white that have a pattern that resist whatever colour ink you use on them - great for matching any paper you want), and Glitz Stardust Glitter Glue.

CN Tower!

Nathan and Noelle loved the CN Tower! They talked about it for days. We went Sunday afternoon after touring Daniel's school. On the way back to the subway station we stopped at a Eastside Mario's for a delicious supper. What a great day! And of course, anything with Lisa and Travis will be fun!
 Here are some pictures:

Nathan lying on the glass floor. It was a very strange feeling to step on it!

From the skypod 447 m high!

Jeremy's place to hang out. He also fell asleep in Daniel's arms later in the afternoon - what a trooper though!

From the observation deck - feel the breeze!

This picture is for my Dad - we'll have to go to the CBC Museum when you come!

Toronto Islands

We enjoyed a beautiful day with Lisa and Travis visiting Toronto Island Park back in the middle of September. Daniel stayed home and did homework all day but the rest of us drove downtown to the lakeshore and took a ferry across to Centre Island. If you are like me and hadn't ever really heard about the Islands before, they are on Lake Ontario just off the northern shoreline.


View Larger Map

The kids were so excited to be taking a "boat".

The islands were beautiful with majestic trees, beautiful grassed areas, a quiet river flowing through, and sandy beaches. We only explored half of one of the islands (there are three in total).

We did get to spend a couple of hours at Centreville Amusement Park though. It is a small park perfectly suited to my kids' ages. Nathan said his favourite ride was the log ride and I think Noelle and Jeremy loved driving the little cars. I once again forgot my camera but Travis had his ....except his battery was dying. We did manage to get 13 pictures!

One really unique feature was "Franklin's Garden". It was very sweet and kids loved running around discovering Franklin and his friends and following Snail's path up the hill.

This post wouldn't be complete though without telling you about the traffic on the way home (we should have taken a picture of that too!) We had 40 minutes to drive to Nathan's music lesson at 4 pm and thought that would be plenty of time to drive there. The GPS estimated 17 minutes. First, we took a short detour downtown (our fault) and then we tried to get onto the Gardiner Expressway to make good time - except all off ramps were closed! We found out later that they had closed sections of the Expressway to work on the bridges that weekend. That meant everyone was on Lake Shore drive and we were all inching our way forward and stopping for all the red lights. We did eventually get to Nathan's lesson but 45 minutes late! I was going to phone his teacher and tell her but I couldn't find my cell phone and Travis' was dead (I know, not our best technological day!) Anyways, it was one more Toronto driving lesson learned! The next day we took the subway downtown.

Scrapbook Page - Calgary Zoo

I took Friday evening and scrapbooked! In a way it didn't seem like "real" scrapbooking because I was finishing journaling and putting together an album but it was still fun. Here are two of the pages I finished journaling on - I started the pages in July at a farewell hosted by my CTMH team in Edson. I had lots of pictures from our trip to the Calgary Zoo in August 2008 when we went with my Mom and Dad. I didn't really want to have 4 pages in my album but there were so many pictures. Then Denise Swelin gave me two of Close To My Hearts brand new 6 x 12 Flip Flaps which let me fit a lot more pictures in but still really only have 2 pages! These pages were fun to make. The Flip Flaps have a self adhesive strip that I attached to the bottom of the page and the top of the page.

Things I'll miss when we leave Toronto

We've only be here a month but already I can see there are some things I will miss when we leave!
1. The Italian bakery 4 blocks away. The kids love the Sicilian icecream (gelato) there!
2. The Italian Vegetable market 4 blocks away. They sell horse meat too but we haven't tried that yet!
Last Saturday I walked down, did my shopping for the day and walked home. What a novelty for me! There is also a meat market and a few convenience stores in the strip mall.
3. The City of Toronto comes and takes our compost once a week and our big recycle bin every two weeks in addition to our garbage (coming from Edson where we had to sort our own recycling and take it down to the depot this is a treat).
4. The beautiful September weather! I'm not sure what winter will be like but so far we are enjoying the balmy days, the flowers that are still blooming, and the beautiful fall colours - red, orange, yellow mixed with the green.

One thing I won't miss though is the traffic!

Scrapbooking Room

Thanks to Luella's help I have my scrapbook space organized! Daniel found a desk for me when we first moved and were looking at a used hotel furniture store. It is a two desk combo - the shorter piece is on wheels and slides out from under the top desk. This way I have a big work surface but can clean it up and push the desk back in when I'm not working.

Daniel also put two shelves above the desk and we are going to add one more. My albums are stored on the top closet shelf. Since we are living in a duplex with only three bedrooms, space is at a premium. That means my scrapbook space and Daniel's "office" is in our bedroom.

I know my space seems way bigger than Daniel's but in my defense, there are four bookshelves in Nathan's room (we tease him that he sleeps in the library!) and one and a half bookshelves are already filled with Daniel's books and  I know he will be adding more books over the years. :)

Thank you Luella for your organizing ideas! Now, I'm off to scrapbook, well, not really but I plan to start this weekend!

Subway and TBS

My sister Lisa and her husband Travis were here on the weekend (God has blessed us with lots of company from Alberta which helps make our move easier!) and we went to the Toronto Islands on Saturday and the CN Tower on Sunday (I'll post some pictures from that another time!). After church, on our way to the CN Tower we took the subway downtown so that the kids had the opportunity to experience Daddy's commute and it gave me the confidence to take it by myself with the kids. Daniel has a 75 minute to a 90 minute commute Monday to Friday (he has one class everyday) and Jeremy was particularly intrigued by the "train" that Daddy rode to school. Daniel takes a bus down to the subway station and then transfers onto two different subway lines to get to school. We just drove to the station and started from there! The subway is definitely one way to see how multi-cultural Toronto is - we met a family on the way back that had just moved three weeks ago to Toronto from Dubai and three years before that from India! It reminds me that moving from Alberta to Toronto is really a small move in a lot of ways.

The "train" is a-coming!

After two subway trips and a jump onto a streetcar for two blocks we arrived at Toronto Baptist Seminary and gave Lisa, Travis and the kids a tour around. TBS is unique because it was started by Jarvis Street Baptist Church over 100 years ago and continues to have very close ties with the church. Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a beautiful old church and Nathan was particularly impressed with the pipe organ in the sanctuary.

front of Jarvis Street Baptist Church

back of Jarvis Street Baptist Church

Sanctuary with pipe organs

There are two classrooms and the school library in the back of the church and two classrooms and offices in the main TBS building. After visiting the school we jumped back onto the subway and headed south to Union Station and the CN Tower.

By the way, I don't know if you had subscribed to the email feed link that I had posted but I don't think it was working so I have found another one through FeedBlitz that should work! So if you are interested in receiving my posts via email and don't want to have to check back all the time, just enter your email to the right!