Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

Around Home in September 2025

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We brought a few jump ropes home from America, ones that were made from strips of t-shirts braided together. The girls loved them–the boys decided they were too small and light for them.

I had never seen a rainbow as low to the horizon as this one! It was incredibly bright.

Mr. Imagination still has the right name! We were given a boxful of citrus fruits, and he carefully crafted these teeth from a rind, to wear over his own teeth.

Tui like kowhai blossoms!

Miss Joy and her cats! Sometimes when she’s bored I hand her my phone and tell her to photograph the cats. This time, she obviously decided to feed them so they would all be in the same picture.

And, another picture of a cat!

The fad for a few days was building houses of cards.

This is Mr Imagination, tossing a piece of food in the air and trying to catch it in his mouth. He and Simon, who also stayed home from Bible Study one evening, did this as long as the pineapple pieces held out!

I think one of the girls took this picture–not sure which one. The flowers are in one of their playhouses.

Little Miss got to raise two calves this year. Our cow Maple had the brown one the end of July. We were delighted to have an A2A2 heifer calf from her! We needed a companion for Maggie when we brought her home from where the two were boarding while we were in America, so we asked some dairy farmer friends for a beef cross, and they gave us the white one, a Charolais-cross that we named Misty. We’re quite happy that both calves are quiet and calm.

For several days, the fad was taking pictures of Reepicheep sitting on a phone.

James dislocated and fractured his shoulder the day we traveled home from America, so he was off work for six weeks. Because he can’t stand to do nothing, he found all sorts of projects that could be done one-handed. One of those jobs was collecting all the buckets around the place and water blasting them. Here they are, stacked up to dry. I could hardly believe the size of the stack.

This was another job–a tool rack for the front of the chicken coop, which is in the middle of the garden. He got one of his two-handed brothers to pound the pipes in to make the holders for the tools. We are delighted to have this rack; because it is handy, and easy to use, we actually put our tools away instead of leaving them around the garden. Now, the spot where the tool rack was has hooks for raincoats, and boots can sit on the floor of the carport under them. Perfect!

Spring flowers!

School time!

The base-10 blocks are much more fun for building with than for counting with!

Book Review–Start Little, Dream Big

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About the Book:

Book: Start Little, Dream Big – Grow The Ministry You Were Born To Build

Author: Linette Rainville

Genre: Christian Books, Women’s Spiritual Growth, Adult Ministry, Ministry and Evangelism, Church Leadership

Release Date: August 7, 2025

“Start Little, Dream BIG” is Linette’s personal story of how God turned one bag of skinny jeans into a million-dollar outreach.

Learn how the smallest step of faith could change your life!

Linette Rainville knows this truth firsthand. A proud Buffalo native and U.S. Navy veteran, Linette began with one simple act of obedience—a bag of skinny jeans she tried to “trade in” for things her family needed. That humble beginning sparked a million-dollar outreach ministry that now serves over 40,000 families every year with food, clothing, hope and Jesus.

In Start Little, Dream Big, Linette shares her redemptive journey and practical wisdom for women ready to step into their God-given calling. It’s filled with real-life moments—some laugh-out-loud funny, some bring-tears-to-your-eyes kind of raw—but all with one goal: to provide you a guide and a blueprint to build your own meaningful ministries, projects, and movements from the ground up.

Whether you’re just dreaming or ready to launch, Linette invites you to join her and a growing sisterhood of modern-day Esthers who are answering their call with courage, faith, and Godfidence.

You don’t have to do this alone. Your big dream starts with one little step.

My Thoughts:

I wish I had been able to wait to read this book until I could read the print copy. Because of time constraints, I had to read the ebook, and found the formatting annoying and difficult to follow–likely just because it was a PDF converted to Kindle format. I now have the print copy in my hands, and it is much nicer! One thing that really annoyed me in the digital version was the frequent use of ALL CAPS to emphasize points. That isn’t nearly as bothersome in the paper book!

Anyway, about the content. I wouldn’t have chosen to read this book, but because more reviewers were needed I agreed to check it out. As I read the first several chapters, I was thinking about my life and wondering why God hadn’t given me a vision for some way to help people, other than my own family. As I continued to read, and continued to think about it, though, I realized that He has! It just happens to line up with my natural inclinations so much that I almost feel guilty pursuing this dream. Continuing on, I found more and more confirmation that what I am doing is actually a ministry, and is actually what God has for me right now. (This ministry happens to be our library, and while I am tempted to think, quite often, that I’m only doing it as an excuse to keep buying books, the need for it continues to be confirmed in various ways.) So, while I didn’t find this book all that gripping or inspiring otherwise, it did help me and encourage me to keep on doing what God has given me to do.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

Linette Rainville, Jesus girl, USN Veteran and Movement Leader, is on a quest to raise up the next generation of Esthers and Movement Makers. As a podcast host, speaker, mentor and founder of Daughters United, a global equipping ministry, she empowers women to build projects and start ministries from the ground up. With 25 years of hands-on poverty outreach experience, Linette has reached thousands of Kingdom women, guiding them to pursue their callings, lead movements, and build missions.

More from Linette:

Friend, can I just take you back for a moment?

I never thought I’d find myself here in this place. After serving my country in the U.S. Navy, I came home with a spinal injury that ended the career I had dreamed of. Suddenly, the uniform I loved was gone, and I was simply doing my best to care for my family on an income that barely covered the basics.

It stung. It carried a stigma I swore I’d never face. You see, as a young girl my mom and I had lived on welfare, and I had made a promise to myself that my children would never have to experience that. But then life happened. A “disabled” label got stamped on my record, and just like that, my best intentions seemed to evaporate.

A few years later, I was blessed with the gift of motherhood and the challenge of disability. My husband and I were making it on one single blue-collar income, just trying to survive.

And then—God.

One ordinary day, walking out of a thrift store, the Lord planted a seed in my heart. That tiny whisper turned into a vision. That vision grew into a mission. One obedient baby step at a time—one yes, one phone call, one event, one open door—the Lord built something so much bigger than me.

Over the years, what started as a little prayer has grown into clothing programs, a pregnancy help center, food pantries, a soup kitchen, domestic abuse support, homeless outreach… and an army of volunteers who joined me along the way.

What’s wild is this: that one “yes” in 1991 has rippled out for over 30 years—locally, regionally, and now even globally… reaching over 50,000 lives each year—meeting real, practical needs.

And here’s where you come in.

Because this story—it isn’t just about me. It’s about you too. I believe God is stirring dreams and assignments inside of my sisters today. Maybe you’ve walked through storms. Maybe you’ve carried labels that felt heavy. Maybe you’ve stood staring at the “skinny jeans” of your life—dreams or abilities that no longer seem to fit.

But here’s the truth: all is not lost.

I see you.

I see you walking out of those valleys and climbing mountains, becoming warrior-ready and equipped to make a difference. I see you searching for a guide, a compass, and a roadmap for your mission.

That’s why I wrote this book. It’s the first in my Skinny Jeans Series, and I pray that it will become a companion for you—to remind us that God’s plans are never finished, even when ours feel broken.

Because as Jeremiah 29:11 declares: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So take heart, friend.

God can take your little and build something bigger than you ever imagined…

one small YES at a time.

With BIG LOVE,

Linette

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

New in the Library! November 2025

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We didn’t add nearly as many books to the library this month as the last two! I’ve been eyeing Neighbors in Latin America for a few years when I peruse the Christian Light Education catalog. We buy a lot of our school books from them, but I don’t use their Social Studies, so I haven’t had a reason to buy this textbook. However, I saw it advertised secondhand recently, so bought it. I plan to read it as part of our morning routine at some stage. A Wilde Wind is written by Penelope Foote, sister of Rosie Boom; both of these lovely ladies spoke at a homeschool ladies’ retreat I went to recently. I loved Penelope’s first romance novel, The Disenchanted Club, so I bought its sequel/companion this year. It is really good, too–not funny, as the first one was, but much deeper. It goes on the New Zealand fiction shelf in our library. I borrowed Dirty Genes from a sister-in-law while I was in America. Soon after I started reading it, I decided I want it on our shelf, so I bought her a new one and had it shipped to her house. This is eye-opening as far as health and what might be behind a lot of illness. I have never seen a better description of myself than is written here! I am adding it to our Health shelf.

The Collier’s Junior Classics set was rather an impulse buy. I saw someone advertising these ten volumes for $20, and grabbed them. Aren’t they pretty? Beyond that, they are a great introduction to a lot of older books, with a chapter or two from each. When these books came in, Esther sat down and read the tables of contents. It was great fun to see how many of the books that are excerpted here are on our shelves! I also bought Freckles from the same person. I read this book over 30 years ago when I was recovering from appendicitis. I am looking forward to reading it again! This edition was in a New York City public library. It is an Anniversary Edition, published in 1914, 10 years after the initial publication.

When we received the Junior Classics set, we had to figure out where to house them. We had already combined the poetry books and anthologies into one Poetry/Anthology shelf, and decided to swap them with the cookbooks so that they will be more visible. Look at how many books are on that shelf!

I bought a few more books from Facebook listings about the same time. There were three picture books set on a farm near Hororata in North Canterbury, New Zealand. When I saw that, I pointed out to my little girls that we had driven through there the day before–fun! These books are fantasy. Smoky Mountain Rose is a fun retelling of Cinderella, set in the Appalachian Mountains in the USA. I love Diane Stanley’s picture book biographies, so I snatched up Cleopatra. I like the way the author handles Cleopatra’s death–it’s not graphic. These books are on the New Zealand Picture Books, Picture Books, and Picture Book Biographies shelves.

One of the books I picked up at the Bookarama was Uncle Trev. We already have Uncle Trev and the Great South Island Plan, and really enjoyed the ridiculous tall tales in it. This one is even better, although I removed the last chapter because I didn’t like it at all. It joins Comet in the Sky on the New Zealand fiction shelf. We just read that one aloud, as well. It continues the story of May Tarrant, which began with No One Went to Town and Black Boots and Buttonhooks. Sister, by Ellen Howard, was a Facebook purchase because the cover intrigued me. It turns out to be a glimpse into the life of a pioneer girl who had no idea how babies come into the world, but who had to take care of her family at age 13 after her mother had a baby and things went wrong. I placed this book on the Young Adult fiction shelf.

I chose Second-hand Children when I decided on all the books I would read this year for the Read Your Bookshelf Challenge. The November prompt was “food” and this book has food on the cover! It turns out to be a fun story about a family of fatherless children growing up in Wellington. The two youngest girls were quite the characters! This book is going on the New Zealand fiction shelf. I have loved books by Jean Fritz for a long time, so when I come across one I don’t have yet, I grab it. The Double Life of Pocahontas was quite an interesting story about her, as well as John Smith. I also enjoyed Chocolate by Hershey; I don’t think I had ever read about that man before. We found this Creative Minds biography at the Bookarama–what a find! That is a good biography series. Both of these book go on the Junior Biography shelf.

Four of these next books were also from the Bookarama! A Pony for the Winter is a delightful horse story for the Independent Readers shelf. An Elephant in the Garden and Fight for Freedom are both World War II stories. An Elephant in the Garden is historical fiction, about the bombing of Dresden, Germany late in the war. Though it is a war story, it is delightful. It will be with the Junior Fiction books. Fight for Freedom is a true story, set in Indonesia. It is not a nice story; the protagonist was badly mistreated by the Japanese. However, it is a glimpse into a part of the war I have never read about before. I bought this one because I recognized the author; he wrote The Silver Sword, one of our favorite books. It will be on the Junior Biography shelf. Danger on Midnight River is a fast-paced, short adventure story of survival in the wilderness. Reading it could actually help someone survive in a wild river–it is that detailed. I found two more I Survived books on the Facebook page. My 10-year-old was excited when she saw them, and couldn’t wait for me to read them before giving them to her!

Down Cut Shin Creek was one of the books I brought back from America. It is a wonderful story of one of Franklin Roosevelt’s relief programs during the Great Depression. I read it aloud to my youngest children one day when I was injured and couldn’t work, and they were enthralled with this true story, which will go on the Junior History shelf. I finished reading Heart to Heart With Rosie Boom recently. What a wealth of encouragement is between these covers! This book lives on the Adult Miscellaneous shelf. I read Hue & Cry to one of my daughters over the past several weeks. It has been on the Junior Fiction shelf for several years, but I hadn’t read it yet. It is a sequel to The Journeyman, which we had just read. What a wonderful story! I commented to my oldest daughter that it is a real treat to get to read aloud a book by Elizabeth Yates for the first time.

One Sunday afternoon I had the chance to sit down and read. I decided to quickly scan through the rest of the American Girls books that I brought home from America a few months ago, since my 10-year-old daughter wanted to read them. As I remembered from when I read them 35+ years ago, the Kirsten books were my favorites. These books tell the story of a Swedish girl whose family emigrated to Minnesota. They are lovely family stories! The ones about Kit and Addy are good, too, but it’s a little disappointing to only have one from each set. Maybe someday! I took a chance on the Bear Grylls Adventures books when I saw them advertised. I had read a review of them that intrigued me, because the review mentioned that these books are printed with the Dyslexia Font. I have several sons who have dyslexia, so that word catches my attention! The day these books arrived in our house, one of those sons picked up one of the books and read it in half an hour. That made me think these might be good choices for boys who struggle with reading! I did censor one of them a bit, deleting the references to millions of years. All the books in this set of pictures are on the Junior Fiction shelves.

I bought The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit because I like some of Carol Ryrie Brink’s books. Apparently, she had fun writing somewhat fantastic/tale tale sort of stories! This is a fun book for young readers. Jericho’s Journey has been on our shelf for many years, but I hadn’t read it yet. It turns out to be an account of a family’s move from Tennessee to Texas in the 1850s, based on old diaries of the time. I liked the way Jericho grew up through the course of the journey. Old Ramon is one I found at the Bookarama and bought because I tend to like those older books. Then, I was reading through a list of Newbery Medal books, and discovered that this book was on the list. One of the boys chose it for a read-aloud, so it didn’t end up buried in the stacks. This book explores the relationship between an old shepherd and a young boy, as the old man tells the boy (who is never named) about his life and things he has learned, while they follow the sheep to new grazing. Both Jericho’s Journey and Old Ramon have coming-of-age themes. All three of these books are on the Junior Fiction shelf.

My mom just arrived for a visit, and brought me a few books that I received for review. I read With Mercy’s Eyes while we were there in August, but a niece wanted to read it, so I left it behind. See my review here. It will be on the Adult Fiction shelf. Be sure to read the warnings in my review before deciding to read this book. I also already reviewed the Bible Companion Book 5 here. I really like this series to read along with my Bible readings. It will be on the Devotionals shelf.

To borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. Find out how we loan books on this page.

Chicks!

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It is a lot of fun to hatch chicks! We have already done two hatches this year, and the third is in the incubator right now. Of course, hatch day is our favorite part of the cycle. We always move the incubator from the top of the refrigerator where it sits for three weeks, to the floor in the living room where we can watch what happens. Every little while during the day, someone grabs a flashlight or turns on the flashlight app on a phone to get a count, and we rejoice at each new chick that emerges. The first two hatches this year had few enough viable eggs that we didn’t have to take the chicks out to make room for the last ones to hatch, so we left them all in for about 36 hours after the first one emerged.

The cat likes hatch day, too, although she gets quite frustrated. Just before this picture was taken, she had carefully sniffed her way all around the incubator, trying to find a way in to the chicken dinner she could smell. She’s never been able to get inside, but that doesn’t stop her trying!

It’s even more exciting when we open the incubator and take the babies out! This one is a Barred Rock.

The white ones, and some of the black ones, are mixed-breed. The mothers were a cross between hybrids and Barred Rock, and the rooster is a Black Australorp, we think. Some of the black ones are purebred Barred Rock, and some are a cross between Barred Rock and Black Australorp; we have one Black Australorp in the pen with the Barred Rock hens and rooster.

After taking the babies out of the incubator, they go to the chicken coop. This is the new coop that James built to replace the one that burned in March. It is a much-improved version! (And notice the garden tool storage on the front? Genius! That was one of James’s projects while his shoulder healed from being dislocated and fractured in August.) The small window to the left is in the brooder; the rest of the building is open. The babies start out in the brooder, a cupboard about waist-high that we can keep warm and draft-free, and when they are bigger, they graduate to the floor and then can go outside through a door on the back wall.

This is the brooder cupboard. Instead of heat lamps, we now use a heat plate, which the chicks can go under for warmth as if under a mother hen. They come out into the cold to eat and drink, mimicking the way they would live with a mother. We did have to add a small space heater for the first couple of days, as both hatch days were very cold, wintry stormy days and the babies couldn’t get warm enough with just the heat plate.

As the babies got older, we opened the window for ventilation and to cool them down so their feathers would grow faster. They crowded into the window to watch the world go by, and went crazy for worms that we poked through the screen to them. One thing they watch is the cat who has been known to pull chicks through cracks around the door of the coop. She no longer can, with the new, improved design, but she still sits on the step and smells longingly, just waiting for us to be careless and let her in.

The second hatch was the most interesting I have ever had. There were 38 eggs in the incubator after I candled on Day 10. They started hatching Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we saw one that was about halfway cracked around, but then it stopped progressing and was the same in the evening, so we reckoned the chick had died. Thursday morning they were finished hatching, so I opened the incubator to take the 33 chicks to the brooder. As I started picking them up, the one that was halfway cracked started peeping! That was quite a surprise. After I took the babies out, I came back to check on that one. It was dried into the shell, but very much alive. Now we had a quandry. It is not advisable to help a chick out of the shell, because they have to struggle in order to be strong enough to live. One that we helped never was able to stand up, but kept flopping on its back and died after a couple of days. We discussed this one briefly and concluded that if we left it alone, it would certainly die, because it was obviously totally stuck in the shell. We decided to help it out and give it a chance, so we peeled the shell off. Sure enough, it started flopping onto its back–but within an hour it was standing up, walking around, just fine! When it was dry, I took it out to the brooder. When I got there, I was horrified to find a chick laying just outside the heat plate, flat, cold and stiff. Three more under the heat plate were also flat out, being walked on, getting cold. (Remember what I said about a winter storm? The heater hadn’t gotten the cupboard very warm yet.) They were still gasping, so I grabbed all four and hurried into the house, where I put them into the incubator and turned it on again. I was hopeful that two or three might revive, but that one was obviously dead. After another hour I went out to check again, and found a few more in bad shape, so they came in, too, and I worked on the brooder again to make it warm enough for the rest, with little enough space under the heat plate that they couldn’t get on top each other. By this time, the three in the first group that were looking half alive were up and around–and the “dead” one was moving! Within two or three hours after I brought them in, all of the rescued ones were walking around, fluffy and fine as if nothing had happened, except that one had lost some of the down on its back when others climbed on top of it. After a couple more hours, I returned all of them to the brooder, and they are still alive and well now. It is impossible to pick them out of the others!

On the Way Home

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Here is the last post about our trip to America. This feels like it’s been a long project! Now I need to check out all the cameras and phones to see what pictures I have from here at home to post so you can see what has been happening since then!

We left Ohio the last Tuesday in August, more than ready to get home. It was a beautiful, sunny late summer day, and Grandpa wanted to take us across the Ohio River on Anderson Ferry, instead of going the normal way over the bridge. So we had the fun of a 5-minute ferry ride!

Our flight from Cincinnati to Houston went without a hitch. I let Little Miss, who was sitting beside me, use my phone to take pictures of the rivers she saw underneath us.

We landed in Houston and found our gate, got our boarding passes (because the children fly home with New Zealand passports, their boarding passes couldn’t be printed in Cincinnati), and got on the plane right on time. The pilot announced that we were ready for takeoff and should get in early. Then, a minute or two later, he came on again to say that the crew who were going to push us out of the gate noticed that two navigation lights were off on the plane. It took three hours to get them fixed and create a new flight plan–three hours of sitting in the plane on the tarmac. When we finally took off, Miss Joy was sound asleep and Little Miss was so tired and dehydrated that when our meal was served she got sick. That was a long, miserable flight. We were very happy to see New Zealand in the morning as we neared Auckland!

I had again allowed the children to use my phone, and Little Miss took the picture above, as well as this one of a very bored, sleep-deprived Mr. Imagination, and the next one as we were coming in for landing.

Because we were three hours late leaving Houston, we missed our flight to Christchurch. We were rebooked on another flight a few hours later, which went smoothly until we were about 15 minutes away from landing. Then, we ran into a nor-wester, an extremely strong wind that sweeps over the mountains and across Canterbury. We’ve experienced many of them on the ground, but it was a whole new experience to be in one in the air. The men and boys on the flight whooped and cheered as if they were on a roller coaster–I gripped the arms of my seat and hung on for dear life! What a relief to land safely. If you look at this picture, you can see the change in the clouds over the main divide. We live somewhere under those smooth clouds in the distance.

After we landed, our friends picked us up, took us to their house to get our vehicle, and fed us lunch before we headed for home. Notice the snow on the mountains? It’s a bit of a shock to leave summer in Ohio and arrive in winter in New Zealand! It rained for about half of our trip home, so we were a bit concerned about the 100+ books in our luggage, since we had it all in the back of a ute with a leaky canopy. Not much got wet, though, and the little that did was clothing that we could wash and it was fine. We were very happy to be at home!

Book Review: Sermons From a Soapbox

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About the Book:

Book: Sermons from a Soapbox, Messages of Hope and Encouragement

Author: Ladonna Shanks

Genre: Devotional, based on personal experience; Memoir; Adult Nonfiction; “Life Lesson Essays”

Release Date: April 8, 2025

“What is God like?

Does He even exist, other than as a figment of the imagination?

Or is He real, a part of daily life and our world?

In Sermons from a Soapbox, Ladonna Shanks shares her personal spiritual journey of more than seventy-five years. “I cannot write what I have not experienced,” serves as the base of her easy-to-read, anecdotal essays. The short “sermons” challenge the reader to think, question, search, and consider living where God is . . . in the spiritual, long-term, instead of humankind’s physical, short-term.

My Thoughts:

I have not yet read all of this book, but I like what I have read. Each of the essays is inspiring, a bite-size piece of encouragement. I like the way this author has taken snippets of her life and drawn spiritual lessons from them. She talks a lot about the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God.

Many essays begin with a dictionary definition of a particular word or term–I found that an effective way to make me stop and think more deeply about what she is talking about. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book soon! (The reason I have not yet read it all is because it is the type of book I struggle to read on my Kindle, but the print copy will be arriving at my house in another week or two, so I will read it then, slowly enough to savor it. I read enough already, though, to know that I like it!)

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

Ladonna Shanks was born and raised in Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley. During her several decades of life, she has been an entrepreneur, a small business owner, and, most recently, a writer. Her first book, Tidbits and Pearls, A Book of Essays on Living Everyday Life with God was published in 2019. Ladonna’s family, including five grandgirls, and her commitment to God serve as her priorities.

More from Ladonna:

The desire and passion to share God’s quest for friendship with humankind has driven me to write of my personal experiences with Him. “I cannot write what I have not experienced” is my mantra.

The easy-to-read anecdotal essays make up both of my books: Tidbits and Pearls, A Book of Essays on Living Everyday Life with God and my newly published Sermons from a Soapbox, Messages of Hope and Encouragement. (My editor calls them “Life’s Lessons Essays.)

I never preach, but I share my life. My desire is to challenge the reader to consider life in the long-term, eternal instead of the short-term, physical. I want them to think.

I am open, honest, and transparent as I present my weaknesses, failures, and inadequacies in contrast to God’s faithfulness, care, and love.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Pennsylvania and Last Days in Ohio

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When we left Michigan near the end of August, we went to Pennsylvania for a few days for Kingdom Fellowship Weekend, a gathering of 1-2,000 Anabaptists for teaching and fellowship. To say the least, it was a bit overwhelming! When a large gathering here is a hundred people, to be in the midst of that many people we didn’t know was challenging. We had some relatives there, though, and it was great to catch up with them, and we met up with several people we knew way back, before moving to New Zealand. That was good!

We spent about 12 hours on the road the day we traveled from Michigan to Pennsylvania. That was a long day! Most of it was quite boring, driving on the turnpike. We did spot a few interesting things, such as a few bald eagles. And, somewhere in southern Michigan, we saw this enormous beam being transported. The children were pretty impressed.

This woodpecker was outside our room at the camp. Because we had just been with my mom, who is quite a naturalist, we were all especially attuned to things like this.

Before breakfast on our first day there, I took the children exploring around the campground. They loved this bridge and tiny amphitheater! They spent some time running around the benches.

Another favorite place at the camp was the playground, where the girls made a lot of sand turtles one day and then wanted me to take a picture of them.

We had another long day of driving the day the camp ended, when we went back to western Ohio to Gayle’s dad’s house to prepare to fly home. This was the sunset that evening, somewhere between Columbus and Preble County.

These next three pictures were actually probably taken before we went to Michigan, the day that we sorted and did our preliminary packing. My sister-in-law was sorting through closets, and found a lot of dresses she and her sisters used to wear. She had fun dressing our girls up like herself! The quilt was hand-made by a great- or great-great grandmother, some hundred years ago or more.

When we got back to Grandpa’s house, the children were excited to find more kittens. This one was especially exciting because it looked “just like” the cat in a book we read at Grandma’s house in Michigan, The Almost All-White Rabbity Cat by Meindert de Jong (an author whose books are out of print but I want all of them!).

The children also had great fun hunting insects with a net. They got this grasshopper and butterfly, and wanted them recorded.

The very best find, however, was the snakeskin Mr. Imagination found at his aunt’s house. He was delighted!

More Michigan Pictures

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We enjoyed two weeks in Michigan, staying at my mom’s little house, just down the hill from the house in which I grew up. We helped her with a few little jobs. Gayle and Mr. Imagination cut down a few dead trees and cut them up for firewood for my sister who lives in the big house.

Miss Joy loved cuddling Johnny Cat, who hangs out at Grandma’s house most of the time, while she watched the tree-cutting operation.

I enjoyed seeing deer come close to the house a few mornings while I had my Bible time.

It’s hard to reconcile the way the land is now with the way I remember it. When I lived there, all this land was grazed by our herd of milk cows, but now it’s all overgrown! I had a hard time recognizing familiar spots.

We visited my dad’s grave on the way home from church one of the Sundays.

We enjoyed picking blueberries. We went just with Grandma once, then again several days later with many from the extended family. My sister and I went back another time, just the two of us, to get a few more. What fun!

We made a delicious fruit salad with the blueberries, strawberries and raspberries from Grandma’s garden, and some peaches that we bought. Yum!

One day, Grandma and I went shopping with the two girls. On the way home, we stopped at an overlook at the edge of the Pere Marquette River beside Ludington. What a view of the wetlands!

The children enjoyed Grandma’s marble roller.

On the day we went to the Otto Nature Preserve, we stopped in Silver Lake to get ice cream from the place where my niece works. The shop wasn’t open when we got there, but she was working and opened the window to sell us each a cone. I recommend The Other Place if you are in Silver Lake!

The children enjoyed putting together Grandma’s puzzles; Miss Joy wanted a picture of this floor puzzle after it was completed.

They enjoyed playing her games, too!

Mr. Imagination loved mowing Grandma’s lawn–and was especially delighted to find a couple of small snakes!

I had fun trying to get pictures of a few butterflies.

One morning, we noticed a huge flock of vultures wheeling overhead. Off to the east a short distance we could see another similar-sized flock, and there were many more perched on the power tower on the hill just to the north. I counted the ones in this flock and estimated that we could see around 60 vultures all at once!

Mr. Imagination had fun exploring the creek (changing clothes and showering afterward because of ticks and poison ivy!), and brought this frog up to show us one time.

Little Miss found this walking stick in Grandma’s garage.

Because Grandma loves nature, the children brought her anything interesting that they found. She put this caterpillar in a cage to see what it would turn into. Within a few days it was pupating.

Miss Joy asked me to french-braid her hair one day, then wanted a picture of it so she could see it.

New in the Library! October 2025

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I thought it would be hard to top the number of books we added to the library the end of August/beginning of September when we brought suitcases full of books from America. However, this year’s local Bookarama had around 44,000 books on offer, and we went twice. I won’t tell you how many books we brought home altogether (because I don’t know), but here are the ones that went directly onto the shelves. There are also stacks of them that we need to preview before adding them.

First up: The picture books. I was pleasantly surprised to find this Jungle Doctor Picture Fable. We now have three of them, and they are delightful! The Saggy Baggy Elephant is just a fun classic picture book. I had never read a Lighthouse Keeper book, but we all loved this one when I brought it home. It is funny! I Went to the Zoo is a fun story for young children; it’s along the lines of Jack in the Beanstalk, with something added to the story on each page. The Old Cattle Dog is a wonderful tribute to working dogs and their relationship with farmers. Another Amelia Bedelia book? Yes, please! And then, we found several more Lynley Dodd books that we didn’t have yet. Those are always fun to read aloud.

More picture books! All of my children have loved the Magic School Bus books, and while Blows Its Top and Hops Home are not as informative as the first set, they are still educational. Snow is a very easy reader. Lonesome George Finds His Friends is a beautiful easy reader about the Galapagos Islands. I don’t often find picture book biographies at places like this, so I was happy to find one, even though I had never heard of Louis Sockalexis before. The Bantam and the Soldier is a poignant glimpse into the Anzacs in World War I. I got Helping Paws for my dog-loving little girl. Look Out! is a very easy reader. We don’t have any other books about elephants, so I bought that one for the gorgeous pictures. I saw Let’s Find Out About Fishes in a box that someone was preparing to send to the dump–I quickly asked if I could have it! My youngest loves the Can You See What I See books. Where’s Wally actually didn’t come from the Bookarama; it was rescued from a burn pile last year but only now got added to the library.

Lucy & Tom’s Christmas is a gorgeous picture book of a family celebrating together. We had a different Little Yellow Digger book, but not the first one. My littlest loves the series that Grandpa Kangaroo is in. I think the stories are rather silly, but the photography is amazing. Ships and Seafarers of the South Pacific is a good addition to our Junior History Shelf. The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive is one of the original, more informative series. Autumn Muster is a beautiful glimpse into high-country farming here in New Zealand.

I bought Skateboards, Scooters and Racers to add to the Art/Craft shelf. I had to reconstruct the back cover; it looked like it had caught fire! The Danger Zone books are intended as a humorous look at history. I had never come across a book about the Bediun people before finding B is for Bedu! What a fascinating peek into the lives of these nomads.

I also bought a number of classics. Isn’t this edition of A Tale of Two Cities beautiful? Notice the date on the label inside the front cover. I’ve been looking for an unabridged hardcover copy of Heidi for a long time, and finally found a beautiful one! I was delighted with these copies of The Swiss Family Robinson and Eight Cousins, as well. The Companion Library edition of Rip Van Winkle and Toby Tyler isn’t gorgeous, but I like Washington Irving’s stories pretty well, so I got it.

Window on the World is one of the books I sold about 10 years ago in a temporary fit of insanity and minimalism. This one is in nearly-new condition. I had been considering buying it new again to use with my youngest two daughters’ history/geography lessons. I bought Play It Again because sometimes we need ideas for new games. One of my children picked up Welsh Tales; she loves collections of stories.

These are some of the books we acquired earlier, and now have added to the shelves. I bought Baby Island because we love the author. It is perfect for baby-loving little girls who also like adventure stories! As I read it aloud, one of my younger boys was holding out for the cannibals to show up on the tropical island–what really happened was much better! We’ve read or listened to In the Presence of My Enemies several times, so when a copy was found at a secondhand shop, it was snatched up. I read The Trailblazing Life of Daniel Boone to my daughter for history. She was rather bored, but I liked the way it told the story of everything that happened in the colonies and the new United States during Daniel Boone’s life, rather like Genevieve Foster’s books.

My youngest has loved Lulu and the Dog From the Sea for a few years, requesting it to be read to her a couple of times, so when I saw two more Lulu books advertised on Facebook, I got them for her birthday. Then, I found another at the Bookarama! I’ve now read her two of them, and we’re halfway through the third. These are great for young animal lovers. They are on the Independent Readers shelf, for children who are transitioning from Easy Readers to longer books.

I’ve read The Love Dare on Kindle, and found it very good, so I got the copy I found at the Bookarama. I’ve been working on reading Astounding Truths of the Bible as a devotional for a long time, and finally finished it. I got Norman Rockwell’s American Family when I saw it on Facebook, and we all really enjoyed studying the pictures.

I’m hoping to find more of the spin-off books from the Little House series; my girls like them. So, I got On Top of Concord Hill. One of my boys, the only one who likes to collect books, picked up The Twelve Million Dollar Note at the Bookarama. He read it already and really enjoyed it. I found True Tales of Animal Heroes at a secondhand shop while we were in America, and read it to my littlest as a bedtime story; she loves this type of book. One of my girls actually bought Stories for Eight-Year-Olds a year ago, but somehow it never got entered into our library! Esther found Irma’s Big Lie some time ago, and finally read it. It sounds like one I would enjoy reading aloud. Apparently, the protagonist learns the value of honesty! We found a couple of Paddington books that we didn’t have. Esther is collecting those, so they came home with us to go on the Independent Readers shelf.

Some of my recent buys on Facebook included two Clyde Robert Bulla books for the Independent Readers shelf. We love his books! I remember reading these two when I was young. I was also able to complete my series of the Milly Molly Mandy books, more that my youngest loves. There is no real plot to them; they are simply lovely stories about a little girl and her friends. I also added A Girl of the Limberlost to the shelf for circulation, since we sourced dust jacket covers to protect the beautiful, but fragile, dust cover. And lastly, Indian Two Feet and His Horse, another lovely Easy Reader that I remember my siblings reading 30 odd years ago. It is delightful!

I spent a Sunday afternoon this month previewing some of the American Girls books I brought home from America. I remember reading and enjoying these books when they first came out, in the 1980s, so I bought some of them for my girls. I noticed that Molly had some bad attitudes, and treated others in ways that weren’t so nice, but each time she ended up seeing the error of her way and apologizing. About that same time I also preread these two new I Survived books. The American Revolution one is rather violent (quite realistic), but I really liked The Black Death–it’s probably my favorite in the series so far.

I found time to read a couple of books that have been here for several years without being read, as well. The Midnight Fox turned out to be a wonderfully heartwarming story of a boy who grew up one summer. The Boy on the Wooden Box is the story of a boy who was saved by Schindler, during the Holocaust. I read King George: What Was His Problem? to one of my children as part of our study of American History. It was a fresh, new look at the American Revolution; I liked the way the author wove the story of a particular soldier through the book. To Ride the Gods’ Own Stallion is one of the books I brought home from America, and so is The Ark. We just finished reading both of them out loud. The first is set in Ancient Assyria, so the violence that shows up is not surprising. For about half the way through the book, I was debating about keeping it, but by the time we reached the end, we knew it was a keeper. The changes that came about in the lives of the main characters were worth reading about. The Ark is one that I read some 30-35 years ago, from the library, and have wished to have on the shelf for many years. It has just been reprinted by Purple House Press, and they had a very good sale earlier this year. I loved having the chance to read this family story together–it’s special! I also brought The 40-Day Sugar Fast home with us from America. It is well worth reading and doing a fast, whether from sugar, or from books, as I did for 40 days after we came home.

And, to wrap up this month, here are a few more books from the Bookarama! I skimmed through these Magic School Bus books and then handed them to my 10-year-old, who loves them. She helped me to make sure we got all the evolutionary references marked out. And lastly, here is a hardcover copy of A Christmas Carol, which one of my boys picked up. It is a beautiful edition!

Wild Weather!

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The weather this week has been wild! On Tuesday, it started raining around midnight -1:00. I lay awake for an hour or so because the rain and wind were so loud. By about 8:00, we had received 96 mm of rain here (about 4 inches). All the ditches were full, and the corner creek in our paddock down the hill was overflowing. The cows were up here, so they were all right, and both pens of chickens happened to be on high enough ground that they were fine. About 10:00, a neighbor from down the hill stopped in to let us know that the paddock was flooding, in case we didn’t know already. He told us that the main creek down there was still rising. Mr. Imagination and I walked down to make sure the chickens were still all right. By then, the sun was shining brightly. This is what we saw. The first picture is our paddock, with water pouring into the corner creek (to the right) from the main creek from two directions: under the road, and beside the milking shed. There are normally two drainage ditches through the paddock, the one curving in the middle of this picture and the one to the left, but on this day, there was water everywhere it could be. The other two pictures show the neighbor’s paddocks across the road, where the floodwater from Orwell Creek was covering everything.

Here’s a video of what we were seeing.

After we returned to the house, Esther took the girls down to the river to see the flood there. There were trees down in the Domain. The second picture shows the Ahaura River, about as full as we’ve ever seen it. Then, they walked the other way, down in the direction of the confluence of the Grey and Ahaura Rivers. Obviously, there was no way to get close! The entire valley was under water.

After that, they walked down to our paddock. The water had dropped a bit, but was still pretty impressive!

The next day, Mr. Imagination took these video clips in the paddock. They’re not very easy to watch, but the footage of him petting an eel is pretty amazing!

Two days later, another storm came through. This one “only” gave us 60 mm (2 1/2 inches), but the wind! It was the worst wind we’ve experienced here. The children were doing school in the kitchen, and looked out just in time to see a huge tree across the road fall down! We were immediately thankful that our cattle were not there. They often graze there, and in fact, they’ll be there tomorrow! They would have been sheltering under the tree, and the entire herd would have been destroyed. It’s a little hard to see here, but the tree is laying on its side behind the electric pole.

This is the size of the rootball!

This is the kind of view we have had out our window many days this month!