Our family's life in New Zealand
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.
Our family Christmas tradition, since moving to the Southern Hemisphere where December is the beginning of summer, is to go on a picnic. Usually, we go away from home somewhere that we don’t often get to, such as the beach. This year, no one felt like going away. We took votes, and all but two of us voted to stay home! We decided to go down to the riverbed below our village and have a cookout beside the creek that flows into the river down there. Gayle and the two little boys went down ahead and started the fire; the rest of us went down when we were ready. The big boys loaded their barrel boat onto the trailer and took it down. We let them off at a place where the creek and road meet, and they loaded our food and other things into it, as the easiest way to get it all to the picnic site. Esther and I then drove on to the parking spot while they floated and poled downstream. Here they come around the bend!
When we were stopped at the ford where we loaded everything into the boat, I let Miss Joy touch the creek. She wasn’t sure about the cold water, but soon loved it!
Off they go! Mr. Diligence laid back in the stroller and had a luxurious ride.
Once we reached our destination and unloaded, the boys went across the creek to cut sticks for roasting sausages.
Miss Joy got to taste a carrot stick—what fun!
Mr. Sweetie broke his arm last week, so he has it in a sling. It’s a greenstick (or hairline) fracture an inch or two below his shoulder, so they didn’t put a cast on it. He’s looking forward to not having to wear the sling next week! It hasn’t slowed him down much, though.
Simon took his air rifle along, so after lunch he boated Esther and I across the creek and we got to try shooting. I never hit the target, but felt better later when he said that he had discovered, after we went home, that the scope was a bit off.
This first one was actually taken in late October. Mr. Intellectual got his Learners License, and that evening he persuaded his daddy to take him on his first driving lesson. Esther grabbed the picture as they were leaving.
Mr. Intellectual built this safe. He watched some YouTube videos on how to build a number lock, and then put it together. I’m not sure what he’s storing in it.
Mr. Sweetie drew this one evening, and then asked if he could take a picture of it.
Mr. Imagination drew this one, and posted it on the wall. 
Mr. Sweetie flopped into the wheelbarrow one day as I was coming out of the house, and immediately Goofball jumped up and settled down on him for a nap. She’s quite a goofy cat—lives up to her name!
Gayle brought Little Miss the dolls she had left behind in Michigan in January, when he came home from his mother’s funeral. She is loving playing with them! I didn’t get a photo of it, but one day she had several dolls, as well as her baby sister, lined up in the living room! It was quite cute.
These first two pictures were taken when Miss Joy was 2 1/2 months old, in early November.
This is her 3-month picture! She loves to taste everything she can get her hands on. When she’s laying down, both hands are up, with one almost always tucked behind her head, as here, while the other tries to stuff something into her mouth.
Her first time in the Bumbo. She likes being able to look around!
She is such a happy baby! She smiles and laughs a lot.
A week ago, I got out this toy that she was given. She likes to chew on it when she can get it into her mouth. That takes a lot of hard work, though.
We had to redo her passport photo for her NZ passport. Here are a couple of the failed attempts.
Little Miss is loving having a live doll to play with!
Just for Grandma—a couple of video clips.
Here are the last of my photos from October! This year is almost over already—how can that be?
One more bubble picture, from when that was the fad. This is Mr. Imagination.
Gayle and all the children except Miss Joy went fishing one Saturday. They didn’t catch anything except a blackberry vine, and they lost some hooks and the handle of a reel—but they had fun!
Little Miss wanted to dress her baby sister one morning, so I let her try. She discovered it’s a little harder than dressing a doll! Mr. Imagination helped her.
The cow and calf enjoyed the sunshine a few days after the calf was born during a rainy spell.
The boys were trying to make a stack of people. Mr. Sweetie climbed onto Mr. Diligence’s shoulders, but when Mr. Imagination got on, the stack collapsed.
Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination made these fish out of silly putty. The fish are playing with a ball, and the top of the frame is the sea.
Simon bought a new backpack, and Mr. Diligence wanted to try it out. He got Little Miss to climb in, and gave her a ride. She loved it!
This enormous dump truck is used in mining, likely coal mining. It is not licensed for using on the road, so they had to haul it this way.
Mr. Imagination was quite impressed with the length of this potato sprout when he helped his daddy plant potatoes a few weeks ago!
We enjoy watching episodes of MasterChef together, and Mr. Imagination has been inspired to create pretty food. This was a “dessert” he made one morning. He has pieces of banana and orange, and he made a sauce with mashed bananas and cream.
Miss Joy at a little over two months. She lives up to her name most of the time, and is a joy to have in the family. As I type this, she is sleeping snuggled up on my chest.
Some friends gave us a praying mantis egg case. We were fascinated to watch the baby insects hatch! Esther took a video of it, then sped it up 8 times.
We’ve been seeing wood pigeons around here quite a lot lately. They are huge, beautiful birds. For awhile, they were landing on the tiny ends of branches on the neighbor’s tree, just outside our living room window, and eating something on the tips of the branches. There must have been tiny berries; I really don’t know for sure. They would often hang upside down, pecking at whatever it was. One morning, the sun was shining on the pigeon we saw, and I was able to snap these photos.
A pair of plovers nested in the middle of the park across the street from us. The person who did the mowing left a large area uncut around the nest. We were privileged to see the babies the day they hatched—three tiny balls of fluff! A few days later, one of our cats followed us across the road when we went to milk the cow in the paddock next to the park. The cat caught sight of the baby plovers—and grabbed one. Simon took off after her as she raced back home, and was able to rescue the unhurt baby and return it to its distraught parents. The last we saw of the family, they still had three babies, but they seem to have moved on to a safer place.
These birds are more prosaic, but we are glad to have them! We bought 70 day-old chicks in June, and Mr. Diligence raised them. We kept 20 to supply us with eggs, and sold the rest. He wants to try this again next year. He didn’t make a lot of profit, but since he has no other income he’s grateful for even small amounts. We’re enjoying having grass-fed eggs again! It’s been a long time.
We have a small breeding flock of turkeys that we kept when we moved here. Last year, we kept the tom and two hens in a run that Mr. Diligence built, and they hatched out 10 babies. After they hatched them, we moved the adults into a small movable pen and let the young ones have the run. We were given some more turkeys after that, from ones we had given to our friends when we moved, so we added the females to our breeding flock. For several months, we discussed what to do with the turkeys for this year’s breeding season. They multiply best when they are allowed to free-range, and the paddock we were given for the cows is a turkey’s paradise. There is open area for them to forage in, and brush in which to find hiding places for nests. We asked the owner of the property if we could put the turkeys there, and he agreed. The next problem to solve was how to feed them, and catch them when we need to. Mr. Diligence built this hut with a slide-out feed trough. It works for feeding them! We were hoping that they would go in when they were fed and we would be able to trap them with the side doors. Unfortunately, they must not be hungry enough for that to work—they don’t come for feeding! We’re hopeful that we’ll get babies in another month, though, as most or all of the hens have disappeared. We’re hoping that they are sitting on nests.
This cat followed us all down when the men took the feeder down. She gets quite upset when she goes so far from home, and keeps yelling at us to turn around and go back!
After the feeder was put in place, the boys carried the turkeys down.
Just a couple of days later, the cow calved. We weren’t expecting the calf to come just yet, because she hadn’t bagged up. He was born nearly two weeks early, and was quite tiny, but very healthy and he’s growing fast. The cow started bagging up within a day after calving, and only a few days later was producing quite well. We’re very much enjoying having milk and other dairy products in abundance again!
Mr. Intellectual got the idea this winter to build us a picnic table. His daddy helped him draw up plans and figure up the timber he needed, and he worked at in in his spare time. We enjoyed one meal outside at it so far, and expect to use it more this summer!
Simon bought this van a few months ago, hoping to fix it up and resell it. The rust needed to be repaired before it is legal to be on the road again, so he got started on that awhile ago. He ground off the rust and repainted it. To do so, he needed to take out the front windscreen. He got it out with no problem…but cracked it putting it back. Oops. That added quite a lot to the cost of the project! He’s learning a lot!
About a year and a half ago, Mr. Imagination began asking me to buy him an art course. He wanted to learn how to draw better. I bought one, but it wasn’t what he had in mind, and he only did the first couple of lessons. He keeps drawing, though, just figuring things out on his own. When the review of Creating a Masterpiece came up, I asked him if he was interested—oh, yes, he very definitely was! So, we signed up and were given a one-year subscription to the online Drawing Program. We had hardly any of the materials needed, so he couldn’t get started for several days till the pencils came, but as soon as they arrived, he was off.
Each lesson is presented in a series of several short videos, with the teacher, a lovely, grandmotherly-type woman, showing each step of drawing a particular picture. Mr. Imagination (age 7) and Little Miss (age 4) both loved watching the videos and drawing the pictures. I loved that they could do the lessons on their own! With a new baby in the house, I don’t have time to sit down with them for art lessons. They were both able to come up with some very good artwork, for their age. Little Miss liked the picture of the pumpkins so well that she drew several more later, without watching the videos. She frequently requests to do an art lesson.
This was the first lesson they did, a cartoon-style giraffe. Even Mr. Sweetie did this one! They were told they could draw just the head and neck, or more of the body if they wished—just have fun. Mr. Imagination drew the entire giraffe. I love his picture!
My children have mainly focused on the pencil drawings, both regular pencils and colored pencils. Because we have no ready access to art supplies locally, I ended up ordering the vellum paper we needed for charcoal drawings from the United Kingdom, and it took awhile to get here. (For those who live in the United States, it will be easy to obtain the supplies; she has links on her website to exactly the items she recommends.) Mr. Imagination hasn’t tried much with the charcoal yet, but I expect him to before too long. He did do quite a few of the other drawings—we had quite the display on our living room wall for awhile, till he took some down to send to a grandma!
Here is an assortment of the other pictures Mr. Imagination drew. I like the wide variety of techniques that are taught with just pencils! The one with white pencil on black paper is a seal, by the way.
I am highly impressed with Creating a Masterpiece. The lessons are presented very clearly, with each step explained and shown. The teacher’s voice is easy to listen to, and it is obvious that she loves art, which is inspiring. I think I could even draw a nice picture by using her lessons! If you have a child who wants to learn to draw, I highly recommend this course. It can be used by all ages, from preschool, as Little Miss has proven, to adults who want to learn how to draw better.
Below are some of the lessons available to us; Mr. Imagination has tried most of these.
This is what one of the lessons looks like. You simply click on a video to get the next steps in drawing the picture!
Click on the picture below to read what 70 other people have said about Creating a Masterpiece!
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any pictures of our baby! These are mainly for Grandma and the aunties, so if you aren’t in that category, feel free to skip this post.
This was her second time away from home. She screamed for about a minute after we started off—and suddenly fell asleep with this adorable pout on her face!
Four weeks—one of the first smiles.
A month old, wearing a dress from a special friend who drove four or five hours each way, with another dear friend, to share our joy in our new baby!
Five weeks, and getting fatter!
Five weeks
Little Miss loves having a baby sister! Here she was having a party; the cups were the party hats!
Six weeks. Esther captioned this one something about hiding from the world. She likes to have her hands near her face when she sleeps.
Six weeks—just another cute picture!
Esther tried many times before she was able to get a good passport photo. Keep your hands down, baby!
Getting fat and still very happy!
Seven weeks. Obviously, the love between Miss Joy and Mr. Sweetie is mutual! (Or maybe she just thinks he’s funny!)
I have some wonderful children! I really don’t care if I receive any gifts for my birthday or not. It’s lovely to know that I am appreciated and loved, but they make sure I know that anyway. However, now that they are reaching adulthood, they are doing some incredible things for my birthday. Last year, they installed lights in the food-storage room in the garage, so I don’t have to find a flashlight when I need to get something from that room. I am appreciative every time I flick on the lights and open that door. This year, they topped that—when I didn’t think they could come up with anything I would like better!
My birthday was yesterday, and no one had any gifts for me. It was just a normal day, until after family worship—just at bedtime, actually. We finished our evening prayers, and the two youngest boys took off out of the room. They returned with:
A very interesting lemon cake that they had made without a recipe! It tasted fairly good, to my surprise. I was quite pleased with their thoughtfulness and initiative.
This morning early, the two oldest boys and Mr. Sweetie took off to town. I didn’t think much of it, because Simon goes to town on a Saturday morning every so often. They returned a few hours later, and brought a bag of kumara (sweet potatoes) into the house. I was surprised, and they told me, “We have a secret informant!” Last evening, Gayle had asked me, at bedtime, if the meal I made last night was my favorite. I told him I like it—but I like most of what I make! I had thought, while I was making it, that kumara would be good with it, but we didn’t have any. Apparently, he told the boys that I was hungry for kumara before they left!
The next act was to forbid me to go to the other side of the garage. I had planned to work in the greenhouse today, and pretended to fuss about not being able to go out there. Before lunchtime, however, they came in and told me to go out with them. I got to the greenhouse, and the first thing I saw was that the brick path was finished. The next thing I saw was:
A hazelnut tree and a lime tree! I wanted a hazelnut for a pollinator for the four we already planted, and the lime tree someone gave us froze this winter, so they replaced it for me. We’ll take more care with this one! Then, as I was admiring the trees, I suddenly got wet. Someone had turned on the sprinklers they had just installed along the ridgepole of the greenhouse! There are enough sprinklers to water the entire area, by simply connecting a hose to our outside tap! They had also tilled everything that needed replanting, so I got to play out there this afternoon and get some things planted. Isn’t this a beautiful place?
Freshly-planted cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.
The last of the lettuces we set out in April, and some of the tomatoes I’m growing for this summer.
My baby plant nursery, out of reach of the slugs, and the silverbeet (Swiss Chard) plants the neighbor dug out of his greenhouse and gave us. We’ll get a few meals off it before it bolts.
One of the sprinklers.
I love that brick path!
The sprinklers are on—Mr. Imagination likes to get wet!
Esther shared some photos with me that she took while they were doing the work. I enjoyed seeing them all working together!
They pulled out some of the bricks that were already in place, compacted the soil and leveled it, then finished the path.
The last step was to till everything again so it looked perfect!