Away From Home

Fun With Friends

July 20, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, a friend brought her son over to spend the week with our boys. We love to go visit them and be at their church when we can, so the following weekend we took him home and spent the night there. Most of the week he was with us we were at home, although one day Esther took all the boys to Pancake Rocks (possibly some pictures to follow in another post, if/when I get around to looking at a couple of memory cards that aren’t home right now!). I only took two pictures here at home that week—have a look at what can happen in our living room, with lots of boys living here! Simon was trying to keep the other two boys in the living room, and he succeeded.

Here’s the other picture. I don’t know what Esther was showing them, but apparently they were interested! I’m also not sure who took the picture.

On our way to our friends’ house, we stopped at a small parking area just 1 km down from the top of Lewis Pass, on the Canterbury side, for a short stretch break. It was cold, but so beautiful there! Esther decided she wanted a picture of all the boys, so they lined up. First they tried putting their chins on each other’s shoulders; that would have worked except that Mr. Imagination was in the sunshine so his face is blurred out. Then, they tried the other pose. Their friend claims our boys as his brothers!

We got to their house in time for lunch, which gave the children a lot of time to play. The younger ones built this hut from a bunch of stuff they found laying around, and played in and around it for hours! See Mr. Imagination peeking out? The older boys went out on the hills, as they love to do there. They killed two geese and dressed them for eating. Simon was in his glory! He loves to hunt, but has rarely caught anything.

Once it got dark, the little ones had to come in. Little Miss played for a couple of hours with a kitchen set. In this first picture, she is listening to her brothers trying to tell her that she should cook worms. I didn’t quite get the most horrified expression, but trust me, she was NOT impressed!

June 2019 photos Part 1

July 6, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have a lot of random photos this month! So many I’ll have to divide them into two posts, so watch for the next installment in a week.

One Sunday afternoon, around the beginning of the month, the mountains were covered in snow and so beautiful! All the children decided to go on a bike ride up the road and enjoy the beautiful winter sunshine. Esther took this picture.

Simon goes through a lot of mayonnaise. Every work morning, he fries two eggs for his breakfast, spreads mayo on two slices of bread and puts the eggs on top of that, then eats them with a large cup of creamy tea. Because he uses so much mayonnaise, he ends up making it for us quite often in the evening, to make sure he’ll have what he needs in the morning!When I took the children to Hokitika for the homeschooler’s art day, we had another gorgeous, sunny day. I asked Mr. Diligence, who was in the back seat of the car, to take some pictures for me. This is the bridge going out of our town; it’s scheduled to be replace within a year and a half.

Looking downstream from the bridge, down the Ahaura River. Its confluence with the Grey River is just downstream—the Grey is under the line of fog. See the snow on top of the Paparoa Mountains? The Tasman Sea is just the other side of those mountains.

Going on down the road towards Greymouth!

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Another view of the Paparoas, across a dairy farm. The Grey, again, is under that line of fog.

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This is the bridge my sons built me over a ditch in the paddock our house cow is currently living in. They built it strong enough that a couple of big boys standing on it can’t make it sag! I requested the chicken wire to be stapled on so I don’t slip on wet or frosty mornings—and I’ve been very glad for it! During the summer, I milked at about the place the fence turns, just above the end of the bridge, but the cow didn’t like crossing the ditch after the rains started, so I knew I would have to cross it myself. The new milking shed is just behind you, if you were standing where this picture is taken. By the way, I plan to get a photo of the cow in the shed sometime, but I’m milking before sunrise and after sunset right now, because our days are so short, so there isn’t enough light! It’s working well, though. She has learned to walk right in and put her head in the proper place, and the morning it was pouring, I was very thankful for the roof.

Midwinter harvest! I got the cabbage, leeks and carrots from the garden, and everything else came from the greenhouse. We are enjoying this feast.

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One evening while we had family worship, Mr. Imagination was acting up, so I told him to do 5 push-ups. Mr. Intellectual and Simon couldn’t resist; they had to join in. Simon did 20, I believe, before he had to give up. Mr. Intellectual saw his brother grabbing the camera, and jumped up on his chair before the picture was taken.

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Art Afternoon

June 29, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One day last week, some homeschooling friends of ours about an hour’s drive away from here hosted an art afternoon for younger children. I took our four youngest. The younger children were to make 3-dimensional hot air balloons from colored paper, and the older ones made airplanes from popsicle sticks. Many of the younger ones, after they finished their balloons, also made airplanes. The creations were then all hot-glued to a large sheet of heavy paper for a collage to hang on a wall at a local rest home.

Little Miss made three balloons! Two went on the collage, and she brought the third one home.

Mr. Diligence made this airplane.

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Here is the finished collage.

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Little Miss came home and made another hot air balloon, using the one she brought with her for a pattern. She really enjoyed the day!

Little Children’s Fun

June 15, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The little children got their legos back last week, after a month or so without them. When there is a dispute about legos, I take them away for a month—I refuse to arbitrate disputes such as, “He took my piece!” or “She has my man!” If they can’t work out these problems without my input, they don’t need to play with those toys. They have a lot more fun when they only have them periodically, anyway. This time, Simon remembered a website we used to use, which has plans for all sorts of lego creations. He got me to help him find it, and they printed out several different things to build. Little Miss is delighted with her train!

Mr. Imagination chose an airplane, and with help from a friend, got it put together.

Here are a couple of pictures that I asked Esther to take with her camera in March, when we were visiting friends in Canterbury. The children were playing on the hills and in the creek on the farm, and found these geckos. They had a lot of fun with them!

Trip to Kaikoura

May 26, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

This weekend we made a quick trip to Kaikoura. We hadn’t been back there for church since we moved here, almost a year and a half ago. Most of us went to visit our friends there a year ago, and we’ve seen some of the people since then, but there is one dear lady we hadn’t seen at all. It was so good to be there and touch base again with the people we spent eight years with!

On our way, we stopped for a little while in Waiau, and the children enjoyed playing at the playground in the warm sunshine. Mr. Imagination got hit in the face with a piece of playground equipment (a brother got a little careless in bouncing it) and apparently had a slight concussion; the next half hour of his trip was miserable. After he had a short nap, he was fine.

Left to right: Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Imagination, Mr. Sweetie, Simon

Our next stop was the cemetery in Cheviot where Seth is buried. We had bought a headstone for him six months ago, and hadn’t seen it yet. That was rather an emotional part of the day.

We next moved on to St. Anne’s Lagoon, just south of Cheviot, where we had a picnic lunch. The lagoon was gorgeous on this clear fall day–look at those reflections! It was so nice to see the lagoon full of water again. A couple of years ago, during the three-year drought that Cheviot endured, the lagoon dried up.

After lunch, we headed on to Kaikoura, where we had a joyous reunion with old friends. There were still a few hours of daylight, so we went out to the Peninsula. Most of both families walked partway around at sea level, then climbed a stairway to the top and came back to the car park. The mother and I, and some of the children, walked out on the rocks a little way, then went back to their house and started preparing food. It is so amazing to see what low tide looks like now–so different from before the November 2016 earthquake, when the sea floor rose two meters.

Timaru Trip

May 4, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend, as we have since 2014. As always, it was a wonderful time of worshipping and hearing the Word preached, and spending time with many friends, both people we have known for a long time and those we just met for the first time. I took a few pictures of the spectacular scenery on the way and on the way home—but never took the time to pull my camera out of my purse while we were down there!

The sun rose while we were going through the mountains; here we are starting to head up toward Arthur’s Pass from the west.

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After we went over Arthur’s Pass, as we approached Porter’s Pass, we noticed a thin line of snow just along the tops of the mountains.

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Awhile later, once we were down on the plains, we looked back, and could see the other side of those same mountains!

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We took a route we haven’t taken before, and got to enjoy the gorgeous Rakaia Gorge.

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On our way home, we enjoyed the spectacular scenery again. This is between Porter’s and Arthur’s Passes, again.

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Reefton

April 20, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, we went to church in Reefton. We don’t normally go there, but occasionally we find ourselves with a Sunday free, as in the people we normally worship with aren’t around. There is a very small Baptist church in Reefton, however, that we are learning to know, and we have greatly enjoyed the few times we’ve been with them. Each time, we have come away encouraged. Because it is a half-hour drive from home, we took along a picnic lunch and enjoyed some time in a park. Mr. Diligence climbed this large oak tree, and his brothers, of course, had to pick up acorns to pelt him with. He did his best to deflect them, and they all had great fun.

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After we were finished with lunch and had everything packed away, we called him down from his perch, and drove up to the Reefton Lookout. We had an amazing view from the top, over the valley in which the town is built and beyond.

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The “road” on which we drove up and back down was very narrow and rough. Simon did a superb job of navigating around the washouts and under fallen trees, but the branches and brambles that leaned over the track scratched the sides of the van.

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This sign greatly amused us. Especially read the small print! (The large print points to the Lookout and the ZigZag, which is a walking track at the end of where vehicles can go.)

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Fishing

April 7, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a friend called and asked if we wanted to go fishing. He has a kontiki, or longline, which pulls a fishing line a kilometer or so out to sea. They leave it out for awhile, then pull it back in and hope for a fish on each hook! Of course the boys wanted to go. I needed a nap, so Gayle and the boys and Little Miss all went. I took a nap, and Esther worked on packing the picnic we were planning to have down by the river that evening anyway, in honor of Mr. Imagination’s birthday. We followed about an hour after the boys left, and arrived just in time to see the fish being reeled in.

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Here is the contraption that takes the line out to sea.

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There were quite a number of sharks on the hooks. Most were small enough that they were thrown back in, but I think there were five big enough to eat. Our friend saved one for his son, and he and Simon cooked the other four on the fire for us to eat right away. They cleaned them, then put butter and seasoned salt inside the cavity. They put sliced lemons on the outside of the sharks, and wrapped the whole thing in several layers of foil, then put them directly on the coals of the driftwood fire they had started when they got to the beach.

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While we waited for the sharks to cook, we roasted sausages and marshmallows over the fire.

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When the sharks were cooked, we dug into them—yum!

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Here is a few down the beach.

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Mr. Imagination wanted me to take a picture of his rock. He says this was his best birthday celebration yet!

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And on the Home Front…

March 9, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

My sons who stayed home from America had quite a surprise for us when we came home. I thought they were joking when they talked about building the bunkbeds in their room which I had suggested some time ago—but they actually did it! I was very impressed.

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On the other side of the room, they built a closet to store their clothes and other belongings. This takes the place of some shelves that used to hang above a bed, which I always thought was a bit dangerous, and a couple of dressers. There are a lot of shelves inside this closet. The room feels much larger now, and the boys have room to have a table at which they can play games or build models. So nice! They were very excited to show it to us when we arrived home; I had to look in the window at it before I even came into the house! They also installed a light in the kitchen that I’d been wanting, to replace a fixture I hated.

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They also had time for some fun. A few days before we came home, they went fishing with a friend two evenings. He has a Kon Tiki, or longline, for fishing in the ocean. A small motor pulls the line out, and then another reels it in. They didn’t have a camera, but Gayle took a few pictures of their catch with his phone. These are mostly sharks, which are fairly good eating.

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Photos En Route…and More From Michigan

March 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When I looked at my childrens’ memory cards, I found some interesting pictures taken on the way to and and the way home from America. I also found a few more taken in Michigan that I wanted to share! So, here you are.

This was on our first flight, from Christchurch to Auckland, when everyone was fresh and excited!

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I could see Farewell Spit from my window as we flew north. I’ve seen pictures of it at low tide, but it was apparently high tide this time—quite different!

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This was one of the interesting planes we saw on the tarmac in Auckland. I don’t know what airline it is, but the artwork on it was spectacular!

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Our first glimpse of snow on this trip came as we approached Chicago.

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My boys were fascinated with all the big planes parked at the International Terminal in Chicago.

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They also liked the diversion, during our four-hour layover in Chicago, which turned into five hours when the flight crew got held up in traffic, of watching luggage being loaded into the belly of our plane. 13-IMG_5449

As we traveled home in our van across the mountains from Christchurch to the West Coast, we had to stop on the way down from Arthur’s Pass, because there are a couple of one-lane spots still from a major storm in November. We were amused by the tourists in front of us—two people jumped out of their cars to take a picture of this waterfall—so one of the boys took a picture of them taking a picture!

On the Sunday we were in Michigan, we drove to Ludington after church to see the ice at the breakwater. I’ve never seen the lake so high against that breakwall! We decided not to attempt walking out on it.

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There was a solar eclipse that night. Some of us were still awake to watch it reach totality. We tried to wake some of the others up, and they groaned and rolled over. One of those, who shall remain nameless, came into my room a few hours later, still in the wee hours, and asked me when the eclipse was happening—he was quite unhappy to have missed it, and said we should have shaken him. We had.

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And, to wrap this up, here are a few more shots of snow-deprived little people enjoying a rare treat!

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