Our family's life in New Zealand
My baby is growing up fast (good thing we’ll soon have a littler one!). He spent 1 1/2-2 hours this evening playing by himself with these toys. Esther and I were working in the kitchen, and could hear him making up stories and carrying on conversations as he played. So special!
Joe got his first haircut today, at 28 months. He has been begging for that for a long time.
Before…
…and after.
This is Saturday morning. We usually have pancakes on Saturday morning, because it’s the most relaxed morning of the week. Three weeks out of four, Gayle is able to be at home for breakfast. All week, he has to leave for work at 5:15 or earlier, so obviously we don’t eat breakfast together, and one Saturday a month he has to work a few hours in the morning. We all like pancakes, but I don’t have time for them most of the time.
The jar of sourdough starter. When I use some, I fill the jar with warm water, stir it, pour it off till only about an inch is left, then add a cup or so of flour and let it sit out 12 hours.
I started the pancake batter last night, by mixing sourdough starter, water, and flour, then letting it set till morning. This morning, I beat in a few eggs and some salt and soda, and fried the pancakes.
Fluffy, bubbly pancake batter.
I love cooking with cast iron!
We had a variety of toppings–some people like applesauce, some like jam, and some like honey. Most of the time, we don’t have jam on them, but I felt generous this morning. For some reason, the pancakes turned out light and fluffy this time–I have no idea what is different. They were good!
These two enjoyed jam on their pancakes.
He ate three pancakes! I only had four.
And now, the rest of the morning is underway–house cleaning, bread raising, and I’m hoping to go to the garden for awhile. The plants are growing beautifully–but so are the weeds!
We have a new baby in our house. He showed up Monday evening, in the hands of the girlfriend of a young man Gayle works with. They had been out walking, and found a tiny duckling running along the street, alone. They knew it wouldn’t live without help, and thought of our boys. We named the little fellow Henry, after a duckling in a picture book we have (Henrietta if he turns out to be female). Henry is the tiniest duckling I’ve ever seen; we’re wondering what kind of duck he is. We’ll have to wait awhile to find out! For now, Henry resides in a box in the corner of the kitchen, under a lightbulb, with a jar lid full of water and another with feed. He gets lots of holding, and I have a feeling that by and by he’ll forget he’s a duck! The first morning he was here, I was reading my Bible in the easy chair next to his box, and he was very quiet–until our flock of of ducks went by the house, quacking. He immediately started calling them!
It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten anything on here. Daily life is busy! Here are a few glimpses of yesterday (I planned to post this yesterday, but….) I had Esther grab her camera and take pictures of what all her brothers were doing.
Two little boys were busy coloring pictures in the morning–look at that concentration!
This boy was reading a book on our new Kindle.
This boy was making tent pegs to give to some friends.
Oldest boy was mowing–one of his favorite jobs.
Lunchtime–think they like salad?!!
I had a bit of time in the evening to zigzag around the squares of flannel from an old nightgown that I was making into wipes for the new baby, and Joe handed them to me.
Gayle has been hauling our year’s supply of hay today. Some dear friends of ours here got their hay baled today, and Gayle brought home ten big bales–each one is about a ton! He brought them one at a time on our little truck, then stacked them in a small shed here. Hopefully this will be enough for all the animals for the year!
I made bread today–but forgot all about it. By the time I found it this afternoon, it had overraised and there wasn’t enough time left to raise it and bake it today, anyway. So, I rolled it out and made pita bread–of sorts. Some pieces are more like crackers. Yummy!
I don’t very often fix a snack for the children, but today I was inspired to make not one but two! For an afternoon snack, I took a cup and a half or so of ricotta cheese that was in the fridge, and mixed in a bit of salt and some oregano and basil, then spread it on crackers. That was quite popular!
Busy making sure he got his fair share–and then some, maybe!
After supper and clean-up, I made some quick milkshakes. I filled the food processor about half full of sliced frozen bananas, then covered them with milk and added a bit of vanilla and a pinch of salt, and ran the processor until it was smooth and thick. I spooned it into tea cups and everyone enjoyed the treat!
Boys discussing their plans for tomorrow as they enjoyed their treat.
Our raised beds are growing beautifully! We’ve had a cool, wet early summer so far, and the lettuce is gorgeous. We’re eating huge salads twice a day. The herbs are doing well in their tires, too.
These rose bushes are near the garden.
Thyme
Rosemary, thyme, sorrel, oregano, and sage
I brought in half the radishes from the carrot bed one morning!
I am not one to plan a wonderful birthday party, but Seth turned 12 today and we had a small party for him. He got to have a friend over for the night last night, and another friend’s mother brought her children for a couple of hours this morning and then took the first friend home with her so his dad could pick him up. I had imagined that the boys would spend their time playing outside–but it started raining this morning! They were out for about half an hour, but then came in. We had to quickly think up inside games for a group–not my forte, either! They ended up playing Musical Chairs, and then Elephant Stop, which is a fun variation of Blindman’s Bluff. After that, they each made an individual pizza, and while the pizzas were baking they played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I learned how not to do that! I had printed out a donkey, on four sheets of paper, and they felt the edge of the paper. Then, they felt each other’s tails and used them as a reference point to put their own on. I decided that it would have been better to trace the donkey onto a larger sheet of paper, and then draw the tails on with pencil or marker–have to make it more challenging for my crew! They seemed to have fun, though.
Musical Chairs–down to the last two!
Elephant Stop
The birthday boy with his cupcakes!
Enjoying his ice cream!
This has been another normal, interesting week. The “mud” in the title comes from Wednesday evening, when the three youngest boys slipped outside after supper when I wasn’t watching. They went into the garden, which they had been told before supper not to do, and played in the mud. I’m sure it was fun–but what a mess! I didn’t get a picture of it, but it looked worse than this one from Michigan two and a half years ago! This time, they were coated from head to toe in thick, sticky clay! Because they had disobeyed, and because they knew beforehand what the penalty is for getting muddy, I had no compunctions about hosing them down with a cold-water hose. I had to hose and rub with my hands to get the quarter inch of clay mud off their clothes, then had them take off their clothes, and hosed them again, and then sent them to the bathroom to finish off with a cold shower! And it wasn’t a warm evening. They all decided they don’t want that again. While the youngest watched the other two getting cleaned up first, his lip stuck out farther and farther as he considered his coming fate.
One warm evening, the kitchen door was open, and Ginger came along to see what we were doing.
I spent a couple of days this week sorting clothing. Does this look anything like a secondhand shop? or a garage sale? We’ve been blessed with lots of hand-me-down clothes for the boys!
Next step: sort through what each boy had in his drawers/closet and decide what to keep and what to put away/throw away. Here is Seth’s stack (think he had more than he needed?):
One rainy day, Esther decided to make a batch of bread, since it always raises better on that sort of day. I gave instructions while I worked on clothing. It turned out pretty nice!
One day this week the sun shone! I did lots of laundry (and it all got dry!) and we weeded the strawberry bed. We found a number of ripe strawberries. Yumm! We have to get them quickly or the slugs eat them.
Aren’t Esther’s kids cute?
We went to Gore Bay for a baptism this afternoon, and when I mentioned we wanted a family picture, one of the ladies there offered to help take one. It took quite a few tries to get one with everyone’s eyes open, and this is the best.
After the baptism, we went to the home of the girl who was baptized for a meal. Joe discovered this wheelbarrow and had so much fun with it that they gave it to him when we left!
So there you have it–several tiny glimpses into our week. It was a good one!