NZ Filbruns

Fishing and Milking

February 15, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One Saturday afternoon in January, a friend invited us to go out to the sea with him while he put his longline out to see what fish he could catch. Gayle and Mr. Sweetie were already in town (Greymouth is along the coast), so our friend took the other boys with him. Esther and I and the little girls went later, when we learned that everyone else in our church was there, too! They caught 11 elephant fish, a kind of shark. Someone put one of them in the coals of the fire that was going, and we ate it while we were there. Someone else took several of the fish home with them, and we brought eight of them home. The boys and Gayle filleted them the next day (they were in a chilly bin on ice overnight). Yum! This is Mr. Intellectual with one of the fish right after taking off the longline.

Simon starting to fillet one of the fish.

Those are big fish. One of them is more than enough for a meal for our family.

One morning I finally remembered to take a camera along when I went to milk. Mr. Intellectual had to go out and bring the cows up to the shed. The cow, Poppy, is in the lead; the heifer, Pansy is following.

Poppy goes into the stall with no hesitation; she knows there will always be treats waiting for her.

Pansy wants the treats, too; most of the time, she comes and tries to get them.

They actually spend a lot of time hanging around the shed, chewing their cuds, it seems like. Most of the time lately, they’ve been waiting for me there when I go down to milk.

See the roses climbing high in the tree?

The neighbor’s rose hedge was amazing when it was in full bloom! By now, it’s done blooming, and last week, she pruned the whole thing back to not much. This kind of roses grow very fast, though; soon it’ll be beautiful again. I walk past it every morning and evening when I go to milk.

Book Review—Good Grief

February 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 6 Comments

About the Book

Book: Good Grief
Author: Sue Borrows LaRue
Genre: Religion/Christian Life/ Death, Grief, Bereavement
Release Date: August 13, 2019

NOTE: I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK BY THE AUTHOR. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN. LINKS IN THIS POST MAY BE AFFILIATE LINKS.

This is a true story of love, loss and new life. Suzie Borrows battled for her husband’s life praying for a miracle. God answered her, but not in the way she imagined. He had a plan that exceeded her dreams, and through undeniable revelations His purpose became her purpose.

My Thoughts:

Some books I choose to review because the subject appeals to me. Good Grief didn’t appeal all that much. I don’t necessarily like to read books that have to do with loss and grief; my own experience with that is still fairly fresh and raw and I don’t enjoy reading stories that trigger those feelings. However, when Celebrate Lit was asking for more reviewers for this tour, I decided to sign up. It turned out to be an inspirational book!

Life was great for Daryle and Suzie Borrows. Everything was going well for them in their marriage, their work, and their family, and they were happy. Then one day, Daryle suddenly began experiencing strange symptoms. What was going on? Soon they received the unwelcome diagnosis of a brain tumor. Then they began the battle for Daryle’s life—but he died a year later, leaving Suzie paralyzed with her grief.

During the next few years, Suzie learned how to walk with Jesus as her heavenly husband. She learned to talk to God about the things she needed, and to ask for His help with them. Little by little, she discovered what God wanted her to do with the things He was teaching her.

This is a great story about a woman learning to rely on God for everything. It is a great story about how God cares for His people and plans everything in our lives—even the hard things. I am glad I read it, and recommend it for people who like to hear other’s testimonies of how God worked in their lives. In closing, one quote that really stood out to me was from Chapter 10: “I made a concious decision that I needed to change. I began to meditate on the positive things.” This is such a good point to remember—think about the things we have to be thankful for, rather than wallow in the negatives!

About the Author:

Suzie moved from N. Ireland to America as a child, accepted Jesus at 11, married the preacher’s son at 18, had two children, and a loving marriage for 32 years. Nothing she had experienced prepared her for the devastation she would face. She depended completely on God for comfort and direction. Which led her to begin a widows group, Boston radio show, and www.sueborrows.com. Suzie now lives in Westport, MA with her husband Bruce.

More From Sue:

What do you do when writing a book was never on your radar? Answer, you write it in tune with the Holy Spirit in three weeks! An amazing hand-written letter from God, original poetry, and prophetic words from the Lord delivered to my doorstep and so much more! You are never alone when you are hurting or grieving and if you allow Him, God will be undeniably present and you will know His heart for you.

To purchase your copy, click here.

The Garden This Week

February 8, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 4 Comments

The garden is at its peak as far as beauty this week. It is so lush and green! We’ll probably get more of a harvest in another couple of weeks than we are now, but by then it won’t be as beautiful, so I took some pictures this week of what I get to enjoy.

This was my harvest on Wednesday afternoon: zucchini, cucumbers, spring onions, beetroot, radishes, lettuce, green and purple beans, basil, a cabbage, and a kohlrabi.

As you walk into the garden between the garage and the container, this is the first garden patch you come to. There are climbing sugar snap peas and runner beans along the side of the container, and beyond that is a tomato patch. The sunflower/cosmos “house” is just past them, and there are pansies planted in the top of the stump. Next is a bed of cabbage and broccoli, with some calendula in it. I also have a few tomatillos and ground cherries in that bed, but you can’t see them in this photo. The next bed has a few cucumbers at this end, then cauliflower, kohlrabi, silverbeet, and then kale. The second photo shows that bed better; past the kale is the old lettuce bed, which needs cleaned out, and then cabbage. On the other side of the path is a patch of cucumbers and corn, and there are self-seeded pumpkins here and there. The turkey run is on the other side of the fence, past the corn.

Turn around, and past the red currants, you’ll see this patch of tomatoes and green beans, with cucumbers at the far end. The greenhouse is beside them. The pink/lavender building is the back side of our garage; the building in the back middle of the picture is the neighbor’s workshop, where they maintain their fleet of tractors and other agricultural equipment. Our three youngest have been putting water in the yellow bathtub and playing in it.

Go into the greenhouse through the south door and this is what you see. To the left is a large, self-seeded South Australian Dwarf tomato plant, then a few okras, and then my peppers and chilis.

To the right are the cucumbers, which I’m training up on strings.

Just past the cucumbers is a small patch of rockmelons, and then some tomatoes and basil.

Next, there are a few beetroots, and then more tomatoes and basil.

On the left, past the peppers, are eggplants. I’m not sure what the tall plant is. It masqueraded as an eggplant when it was tiny, but now it looks like a nightshade. I’m waiting to see what the fruits look like when ripe before deciding on its fate.

Past the eggplants, there are a few cabbages, then this silverbeet left from last winter, and then a tomatillo, tomatoes, and basil. On the right are a few carrots, more tomatoes and basil, and then a patch I planted in carrots (although they aren’t coming up) and two or three borage plants that grew when I gave up on them germinating and dumped the pots!

Come out of the north door of the greenhouse, turn left, and this is what you see. The first bed is beetroot, then spring onions and leeks at the far end, with a cosmos or two and some dill. Next is a small patch of potatoes and the onion patch, with dill in it, too. Close at hand, on the far right, is a Daikon radish that went to seed. The bees love it!

There is a small patch of lettuce at the corner of the potato patch.

The next bed over is mostly potatoes, and then we have a patch of broccoli and lettuce, with a few corn plants separating them from more potatoes. The last bed in this part of the garden is the corn.

Looking back toward the greenhouse and the garage. The white building on the other side of the dill is the chook coop (or turkey coop, right now). The plants with white flowers, sprinkled through the potatoes and onions, are coriander (cilantro) that self-seeded and is now going to seed again. I’m going to try to save the seeds.

These green beans and lettuce are at the end of the third patch of potatoes.

This is the far corner of the garden; these are the pumpkin plants.

On the other side of the path, behind the magnolia tree, is the zucchini patch, and the rest of the tomatoes. The turkey run is that fence past the tomatoes.

Here are the turkeys! The white one is the tom; the others are hens. We also have a white hen. She’s sitting on eggs at the moment, at the other end of the run. There are two more nests, too; I was informed yesterday that another hen is setting now.

We’ve had a dozen turkeys hatch this year; five have survived the weather. They’re getting pretty big already.

I also have a couple of small garden spots by the house, just outside our bedroom. It’s sunny and sheltered here, and handy to the kitchen, so I have my herbs here. This one has celery, parsley, basil and rosemary, and some flowers. There’s also a tomato that snuck in with a basil!

On the other side is this patch, with more basil, some silverbeet, calendula, nasturtiums in the bathtub, and still more tomatoes! Little Miss is loving picking edible flowers for our salads. We’ve been using calendula, nasturtiums, pansies, and borage. So fun to dress up a salad that way! The boys are disgusted, though. They like plain lettuce.

I am thoroughly enjoying the garden right now. We were able to get so many grass clippings this spring that weeds have been minimal, and the boys weeded the rest of it. We’ve also had a nice amount of rain (since the monsoon came to an end in early December and allowed things to start growing!), and with all the mushroom compost we bought, everything is doing well. What a blessing!

Traveling in January (and the canoe)

February 1, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We had several visitors from other places in January. Practically every time someone comes to visit, we take them to Pancake Rocks. I ended up staying home from the last two trips there; I have a baby who does not like to go away from home, so I stay here and prepare meals.

The first visitors for the month were two young men and their sister. Gayle and the children took them to Pancake Rocks on New Year’s Day. They stopped at the Brunner Mine first; this is the Grey River from there.

After checking out Pancake Rocks, they went to Punakaiki Caverns. It’s apparently very beautiful! I’ve never been there myself.

They also took the Truman Track down to the beach. I have been there! Here are Mr. Diligence and Mr. Intellectual climbing a rock.

Our other visitors arrived towards the end of the month. This was two young ladies Esther’s age from Germany. Esther took several trips with them. The first trip was to Pancake Rocks; I didn’t save any of her pictures. Later that week, she, Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie went along to the glaciers with them. Here they are walking up to Franz Josef.

They also went to Fox Glacier, but couldn’t drive up as we did the last time. In fact, the road on both sides of the river that goes away from Fox Glacier has been washed out from the record-breaking rainfalls we’ve had this year. They walked up the road on the side away from the glacier; it’s closed to vehicles because of the slips. They walked a total of two hours there!

In between trips, the boys took the German girls down to the creek and gave them a ride in the boat.

Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss enjoyed the water and mud!

Esther and Mr. Sweetie also went with the girls to Arthur’s Pass. They stopped at Lake Brunner on the way.

This is a waterfall on the Millenium Walk, near the visitor’s centre.

These pictures were taken at the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls.

We have enjoyed having visitors!

Now that we’re home for a Saturday with no visitors, however, this happened:

The canoe has been sitting for the past year, waiting for the fibreglass. Mr. Intellectual got the sanding done awhile ago, and he patched up the holes. Now, the fibreglass is on, with the first coat of epoxy. Doesn’t it look good?

Videos of the Children

January 22, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The boys were using their forge one day, and Esther took some video clips to send to a little boy who had just broken his leg. She put the best ones together here so Grandma can get an idea of what they are doing.

These are just a few cute video clips of what Miss Joy was doing in the latter part of December. We’re enjoying her so much!

She had just found her feet when I took this video, and while I was taking it she got her toes into her mouth for the first time! That was three weeks ago; now, every time she’s on her back her hands go to her toes–until she decides to roll over and get moving.

Photos From December 2019

January 18, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We often have homemade pizza on Sunday nights. Here, Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie are working on shaping the crust, which Esther mixed up.

Mr. Imagination made many fun desserts for awhile, inspired by watching MasterChef. This is apple, banana, and raisins, with custard drizzled over.

Little Miss made this one.

One morning we found a dead tui. We were quite sad that such a beautiful bird was dead, but Mr. Diligence decided to try to stuff it. He spent all morning carefully skinning it and trying to make it look somewhat life-like.

He sprinkled salt inside the skin, then stuffed it with cotton balls and sewed it up.

Little Miss loves to play with her baby sister! For awhile, she lined her up with the dolls. Miss Joy won’t stay put for that now, though—she’s on the move at this point.

Big boys doing press-ups. That’s Mr. Intellectual to the left and Simon to the right.

The boys went down to the riverbed one day to collect willow branches for tomato stakes. They had to cross the creek to get them. Here are Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence.

Mr. Sweetie went along.

Miss Joy is a happy girl!

Mr. Sweetie and Little Miss were pretending to be asleep, and Miss Joy looked from one to the other and back again, trying to figure out what they were doing.

All dressed up for church!

Buller Gorge and Pancake Rocks

January 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The Sunday after Christmas, we went to church in Reefton. We had a friend with us, a young woman whose family we spend a lot of time with. She had never been to Pancake Rocks, so we decided to take her there. Since we were in Reefton, we drove to the coast via the Buller Gorge, which she had also never been through. We hadn’t been through there in several years, either, so it was fun to see that beautiful place again.

There is some farmland along the Buller, where the valley widens out enough. The colors were so vivid that day!

This place is always fun to see, where a single lane has been carved out of the highway. It may be hard to believe, looking at this picture, but about a month or a month and a half ago, when we had a lot of rain, the level of the water was up to the road there at the cut-out! I saw a picture online of the floodwaters swirling around the guardrail.

We stopped at a roadside picnic table to eat lunch, and went down to the river. See how the grass is laid over, way above the level of the water? That’s where the water was, when the river was in flood!

There was a small, beautiful creek there.

When we reached Westport, we turned south and drove along the coast. This was the first time I’ve ever seen the mountains along this route; the other times we went through there, they were covered in clouds.

There was no action in the blowholes at Pancake Rocks, since the sea was so calm. We got some good family pictures, though! Here I am with my beautiful daughters.

Unfortunately, we chose too shady a spot for our family picture. We’ll have to try again another time.

The Nikau palms were in bloom.

We got a picture of Gayle with our handsome (?—look at Simon!) sons.

The second (or third or fourth) try went better. What clowns!

The next day, before our friend went home, the children walked with her down to where the Ahaura and the Grey rivers come together.

Book Review—A House With Holes

January 9, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Book: A House with Holes
Author: Denise Mast Broadwater
Genre: Christian Memoir, Marriage
Release Date: October, 2019

NOTE: I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK BY THE AUTHOR. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN. LINKS IN THIS POST MAY BE AFFILIATE LINKS.

Seasoned renovators Greg and Denise Broadwater dream of owning and restoring a historic home in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. What follows are six years of unimaginable challenges and successes concerning the renovation of their condemned 1920s Charleston Cottage, their place in a transitional neighborhood on Congress Street, and their thirty-year marriage.

In a community that struggles to feel like home, alongside normal stressors of full-time work and family weddings, the heightened tension taxes the Broadwaters to the brink. Nothing is left untouched in their hundred-year-old cottage full of architectural and historical details, from the rotted floorboards to the hole in the roof and the knob-and-tube wiring that causes a fire. But through Denise’s fascinating memoir, A House with Holes, the Christian author and therapist shares how she and her craftsman-architect husband strengthened the holes in both their home and their relationship during this wearying time in order to survive and thrive.

Using Broadwater’s counseling experience, marriage principles have been woven seamlessly into the text, demonstrating ways to maintain relationships in the midst of struggles. Reflective questions close each chapter so that readers may ponder their own relationships with growth and understanding.

My Thoughts:

When I look at books that are available for review, one of the first things I look at is the genre. I really enjoy memoirs. When I saw that A House With Holes was not only a memoir but also a book about marriage, I was quite intrigued. The topic of the memoir is unusual, as well. How many stories have you heard about restoring old houses? This one happens to be in Charleston, which is not a common setting, either.

Denise Broadwater, a counselor, and her husband shared a dream, a dream of owning a house in Charleston, South Carolina. In order to afford one, they had to buy the type of house that most of us wouldn’t look at twice—a small cottage with a leaky roof and rotting floors. Because of local regulations, the house needed to be restored to its original condition, a project that took much more time than the couple had expected! Along the way, they experienced many challenges, such as a brick through a window, a raccoon in the kitchen, and walls or floors missing at times. Every so often, Denise reached a point where she felt like she couldn’t take any more—and to tell the truth, I’m not sure I would have been able to handle the conditions she was living in!

Throughout the book, Denise includes sidebars with advice for marriage. Each of these is quite thought-provoking, and would be good for me to go back to and ponder often. One that especially spoke to me talked about regulating our response to triggers. The advice she gives is very good! Many chapters also end with several questions about relationships, helping me, as the reader, to search myself and find ways to improve my marriage.

I could identify with the author in so many ways! One in particular that stood out was when she exclaimed to her husband, “When does this ever get better? Over thirty years, and we are still fighting the same battles!” We haven’t been married that long, but I find myself struggling with some of the same things I always have! I am happy that I had the chance to read this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes to read advice for marriage in the context of a person’s life story.

About the Author:

Denise Mast Broadwater is a licensed professional counselor in South Carolina, treating anxiety, depression, life adjustments, and marriages. She began her career as a family therapist working with at-risk families and youth. Previously, she was an elementary teacher in private education. She is a wife and the mother of three children and recently became a grandmother. She enjoys rowing at the gym, cooking new recipes, sewing quilts, and blogging at Life Lights Blog (emptynestmarriage.com) and Charleston Renovator Blog (www.freedmanscottagerenovation.blogspot.com).

More About A House With Holes

Marriage comes with the struggle of making life work—but with a promise of home, a place to rest, to be who we are in all our mess, to feel loved and accepted in the truth of who we are. Opening up our mess means adjusting to our anxieties, habits, and struggles.

We all know marriage can be tough. Marriage requires commitment and flexibility, allowing for each spouse to develop his and her own gifts, to work together through challenges, and to communicate in a way that draws the couple closer through any issues that arise. The same can practically be said for renovating a house—especially an old house.

In A House with Holes: One Marriage Journey in a Charleston Renovation, author and therapist Denise Broadwater shares the challenges and successes of the restoration she and her craftsman-architect husband embraced after their purchase of a 1920s Charleston Cottage that was slated for destruction. Oddly enough, the project began to mirror the ups and downs of their empty-nester marital relationship.

Through this intriguing memoir describing the architectural style and details of their historic home on Congress Street in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, Denise shares her struggles and disappointments during the six-year upheaval. They lived with open holes in the floors and roof, wild critters, and in an old neighborhood that was unsure of their intentions. As her attitude changed with her living situation, Denise discovered her marriage rising to meet the challenges they faced and this struggling community opening to become a place of belonging.

“All marriages have holes—that’s a given,” Denise says. “The holes are places you disconnect: a container for selfishness, for disappointment, and for addictions as people try to find alternatives for unmet needs. Intimacy opens up the holes. Growing means making small movements toward each other, coming together to reduce friction.”

Principles and questions about marriage have been worked seamlessly into each chapter so that readers can “shore up” their own relationships and grow in understanding while

vicariously watching the progress of the Charleston Cottage through the eyes of a seasoned DIY renovator.

The Broadwaters’ experience of doing life in the midst of a major house renovation demonstrates marriage recovery, and her expertise as a counselor shapes lessons for married people everywhere in an honest, easy-reading, and relatable telling.

I have read more than my share of books about relationships, but A House with Holes is refreshingly different. Reading this book feels like binging on a Netflix series because you have to see what happens next. Denise is a therapist who has an in-depth understanding of relationships, and she has invited you to have a front-row seat to view what it took to create an amazing marriage while undertaking an almost impossible renovation.

—Dr. Larry Wagner, PhD, professor of counseling,

Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here. (Scroll down the page to see the stops.)

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—SchoolhouseTeachers.com

January 8, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the past three years, ever since I joined the Homeschool Review Crew, we have had a subscription to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This year, again, we were given the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership. I spent about three hours one afternoon exploring the courses that are available on this website, and barely scratched the surface. There are so many resources here! It’s almost overwhelming. To use it properly, you would need to know what you want, and then search for that, specifically, then branch out into the fun things that you find.

We’re taking our summer holiday right now, so we haven’t been doing much school during this review period. I did find a few fun courses to do. Mr. Imagination loves cooking, so we started using Sue Gregg’s Whole Foods Cooking Lessons Archives. Her cookbook is divided up into 14 weeks of lessons. Lots of topics are discussed; it was a great chance to teach all the children about why I like to soak our grains before we eat them. There are several lessons involving grains, and then the course moves on to beans, and then animal protein. We haven’t gotten very far in this yet, but I like what we have used! The lessons include the printable recipe, and a series of pages showing every step of the recipe in photographs. My favorite feature, though, is the Talking Food Pages, where she teaches the why behind her choices, such as soaking the grains, or using real butter rather than margarine.

Another course we started is American History in Picture Books. We’re working our way through American history right now (we have been for the past two years because we have found so many wonderful books to read!), so I didn’t start at the beginning of this course. Instead, we jumped to Unit 6, which is scheduled for Weeks 22-24 of this 58-week course, and read the books I was able to come up with for that unit. The focus was on Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812, and the Erie Canal. I definitely want to continue using the book recommendations in this course to supplement what we’re already using. These are my favorite type of picture books!

I also bookmarked two geography courses, Trek to the Holy Land and Beyond, and Everyday Explorers Australia Archive, which also covers New Zealand. These look really fun—I’m hoping I can work in time for some geography this year! There are also two more cooking courses in my bookmarks tab. They look fun, too. I like the thorough lessons plans that are included. Each course is broken down into daily lessons, with all the information you need to teach, every day, and boxes to tick off so you can keep track of what has been accomplished.

You can put together a complete curriculum for your whole family from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. They have courses for every subject—Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Art…you name it, they have it—and for every grade. The courses are easily searchable by grade or by subject, as well. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time looking, as it’s so easy to get off onto rabbit trails, with all the fun courses there are. And then there is the World Book library, which I haven’t even looked at yet….

We also enjoy the video library. There are video courses for every subject. Our favorites, of course, are the history ones. Some of my boys ask, occasionally, if they can watch a Drive Through History movie (we wish there were more available, but enjoy the ones that are there), or a Torchlighters movie about a hero of Christian history. In the past three years, we’ve watched some of those several times.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is truly a great resource for the Christian homeschooling family. I’m hoping to utilize it more fully this year than I have in the past—we’ll see if I can remember to do that!

A good many other families are also using SchoolhouseTeachers.com right now, and describing their experiences. Find their reviews by clicking on the banner below!

Online Homeschooling For the Whole Family {SchoolhouseTeachers.com Reviews}

The Day After Christmas

January 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

The day after Christmas we went across the road after supper, and played Kubb in the park until dark. It was fun to spend time together that way!

I took a blanket for Miss Joy to lay on. She loves being outside!

Esther tried a mini photo shoot.

Some old equipment is in the park, and Mr. Imagination enjoyed playing on it.

We had some spectacular sunsets from the smoke blowing over from the Australian bush fires. Some days, so much comes over, though, that we can’t see the sun at all.