Lots of Helpers

March 2020 Photos

April 26, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the photos from March that I didn’t get fitted into other posts.

For science this year, we’re working our way through Exploring Creation With Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day. When we studied the chapter about cats, the grand finale was to cut out pictures of cougars and deer from the notebooking journals, and toss the cougar onto the deer. If the cougar landed on three deer, that meant it had enough food and could live and reproduce. If not, it died. Each deer that didn’t get eaten reproduced, and another cougar would move into the area. It was very interesting to see how the number of cougars rose with the number of deer, and then the deer population dropped when there were too many cougars. It was a very vivid illustration of the balance of nature!

Mr. Intellectual dissected a shark for his Biology course. He was supposed to have a perch, but we made do with what we had. The shark had been in the freezer for a year!

Little Miss loves to haul things in her wheelbarrow! This was before Simon fixed it up and painted it.

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I’m not sure who took this picture, but I liked it. This is a rare picture of Mr. Diligence sitting still for a few minutes—obviously Goofball made herself at home on his knee very quickly!

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Book Review—Not If, But When

April 23, 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.

As a mother of several boys, I am always happy to find a product that will help in teaching them godliness in their personal lives.

When I saw the book Not If, But When being offered for review by the publisher, Christian Focus, and read the description, I was immediately interested. The subtitle, Preparing Our Children for Wordly Images, really only hints at the content of this book; I was glad that there were some sample pages on the publisher’s website. Looking at those helped me make the decision to request the book, and I’m glad I did. I read this book aloud to all five of my boys yesterday afternoon when the rain kept us all inside, and then talked about it with them during and after the reading.

This book contains two stories, one each for girls and boys. Since my girls are not within the age range for this book, I didn’t read the part for girls very closely. It is very similar to the one for boys. The story begins with a child coming home from a day at the waterpark with his/her class, and coming to a parent with questions about his/her friends talking about s-xual things. The child also had a friend show them some pornography pictures on a phone that day. As the parent discusses these occurences with the child, God’s design for s-x is discussed; God designed it and it is a very good thing—in the right context and timing. During the discussion about the pictures shown, the parent talks about how that type of picture objectifies and disrespects people that God made, and about how viewing it becomes an addiction. The child compares this to an addiction to coffee, which made my boys chuckle! Each short chapter has a scripture passage to read, and some thoughts to help focus the study.

The book is a high-quality hardcover with thick, glossy pages. It is beautifully illustrated with somewhat stylized pictures of children and homes, for the most part. The pictures actually have little or nothing to do with the subject matter of the book. My 5-year-old girl loves looking at the pictures, and because she can’t read, I don’t mind her browsing through it.

I asked each of my three teenage boys what they thought of this book and how it made them feel. One, especially, felt like it was helpful to him. He has struggled some in this area and appreciated the encouragement to keep his thoughts pure. The other two didn’t feel like they needed it so much. One of them thought it would have been a good book for him to read at about age 13. They all agreed that the way the topic of s-x was discussed in this book was pure, and helpful as a reminder to keep their thoughts pure. Because none of our boys has any close friends who have their own phones, they haven’t been faced with a situation like what was described in the story, so they couldn’t really identify with that part of the book. I am hoping that if such a situation arises, having heard this story will help my younger ones know how to handle it. Reading the book together gave an opportunity to discuss strategies to cope with such a situation; the publisher recommends this book for ages 7-11, with a parent reading it with them.

I am thankful to have had the chance to read this book, and plan to go through it again in a couple of years with my younger children. In the world in which we live today, it is truly a case of Not If, But When.

***The publisher accidentally sent me two copies of this book, and I have permission to give the extra one away. If you live in New Zealand, and would like your own copy of this book, let me know and I’ll mail it to you. If more than one person requests it, I will draw a name.***

Fifty-three families have read three different books from Christian Focus. Click the image below to read their reviews!

Psalms for my Day, 30 Prophecies: One Story & Not If, But When {Christian Focus Reviews}

Miss Joy

April 18, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Miss Joy is growing fast! At nearly 8 months, she crawls anywhere she wants to go. She stands up against anything that will support her—or not; she’s always experimenting to see what is solid and what is not. Nearly everything goes in her mouth; you have to find out if it’s edible or not! She has learned to leave the cat alone. That tail is so tempting—but the cat has made sure that Miss Joy knows she is off limits! No scratches, but there were definitely some warning slaps and growls. We’re also treated to a fast-growing repertoire of sounds, as she practices with various syllables. She has the funniest growling cackle that makes us laugh every time she does it. She was sick the last two days with a mysterious fever, which made her quite lethargic. We enjoyed the extra cuddling time, but we’re all thankful today that she’s well again, after a solid night’s sleep. I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: We thoroughly enjoy this baby!

I think this first picture was from early March. She was thrilled to find a window she could see out of! She likes being outside better than in the house.

The dishwasher is such fun to explore! I have to take the cutlery basket out and put it out of reach when dishes are drying, or spoons and forks end up strewn all over the floor.

She was tickled one day to find the pea vines in the bathtub planter. Peas are so yummy!She crawled into Esther and Little Miss’s bedroom one day and gave Esther this beautiful grin. See those two little teeth?

Tomatoes are so delicious.

Little Miss asked Esther, “Is it all right if we share germs?”

Mr. Imagination got out the box of games and puzzles one day. It was such fun to climb over and through, and then sit up in!

She found an apple under the table. Mr. Imagination took this first picture. I love it even though it’s blurry. Esther got two more, which are clearer, but I don’t think they’re quite so cute. The poor baby ends up stuck under the table sometimes because she can’t crawl under the benches.

Here are a few video clips we made of her laughing. I love how she laughs so hard sometimes that she loses her balance!

Lockdown

April 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are a few of the things we have done during lockdown. Gayle has spent a lot more time than normal playing with the children! He has never been at home without having a lot on his mind, and had energy to do things with them. His health is better than in past times when he had time like this. He has helped Little Miss with her preschool work a number of times.

He did an art lesson with Mr. Imagination and Little Miss one day.

Miss Joy loves having him around! She can steal treats from him sometimes. This was apple crumble with coconut cream on top.

Mr. Diligence hauled home grass clippings and other stuff for mulch from across the road one day. Little Miss helped him, so he gave her a ride home.

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Gayle made soap for us. I had intended to do this job in January, and got the tallow out of the freezer for it then. In early March I got the supplies out to make the soap—and discovered we didn’t have enough caustic soda (lye). I ordered more, and it arrived just before lockdown started—was I ever glad I ordered when I did, as we couldn’t get it now. I still hadn’t gotten the job done, so Gayle did it for me, with my supervision, one morning while I taught school, and then he cut it into bars a few days later. Now we have enough soap for a year or two.

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He also pumped a ham full of brine. We’ll eat the ham next week, after Mr. Intellectual smokes it for us.

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Today (Sunday) there are two board games going on at the kitchen table. Esther and Mr. Intellectual are playing a variation of Settlers of Catan, and Gayle is playing Monopoly with Simon and Mr. Diligence.

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Since Simon is home, he’s been working on his van. He also took time to wirebrush the rust off a little wheelbarrow that was given to Little Miss, weld it together, and paint it. She is very happy with her “new” wheelbarrow!

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As we walked home from our picnic down by the river today (we beat the rain!) we saw something unfamiliar beside the highway across the river. Esther zoomed in with her camera, and this is what we were seeing! Someone got creative.

Picnics During Lockdown

April 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We decided, to make Sundays a bit more special while we’re on lockdown, to have a picnic by the creek down the hill from our town. We built a small fire and roasted sausages and marshmallows, and then played in the creek with Simon’s kayak and a couple of boats the boys built. When everyone had their fill of the water, we went across the creek and did target practice with Simon’s air rifle, aiming toward a sand dune. We really enjoy having this safe, private place to be outside! It’s within walking distance of our house, and the water is shallow enough there is no danger even if a boat flips.

Miss Joy loves boat rides! I apologize for so many pictures, but I couldn’t decide which of these to leave out.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination wading in the creek. That’s the Paparoa Mountains in the background.

Esther wanted the water drained out of the kayak before she got in. It took too long—she gave up waiting!

This is the boat Mr. Intellectual built. It’s nearly unsinkable, at least on this kind of water.

The willow trees near the creek were covered with these big aphids!

The trees were also swarming with bumblebees and wasps. I found out how hard it is to get a picture of an insect. Esther did better, though.

I tried out the kayak—fun!

These boys rocked the boat…

…and these two rode the waves from it!

When we went across to shoot the air rifle, Miss Joy discovered something new—sand! She was thrilled to have something new to investigate.

Simon really wanted me to try shooting. It turns out that I’m a pretty good aim when I can lean on something like this…but not when I have to hold the air rifle up myself!

Simon likes to give everyone a turn shooting.

The previous pictures were all from last week, when it was cloudy and cool. This week, it was sunny and warm. This was the view up the river as we walked down to the creek.

We pass this row of trees on our way up. It was such a beautiful day today!

Here are a few video clips I put together from our afternoon at the creek.

March 2020, Before Lockdown

March 28, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

As of three days ago, our entire nation is in lockdown for a month, to try to eliminate COVID-19. We’re still trying to adjust mentally to not being able to leave home without a very good reason, and not being able to order anything non-essential online. We can still buy groceries and animal feed and fuel for vehicles, and medicines, but that’s all. Gayle is off work for at least four weeks, although Simon, as a mechanic, has an essential job and is allowed to continue working. For the most part, our life hasn’t changed, other than Gayle being at home, since the children are at home every day, anyway.

Here are pictures of some of the things we did earlier in the month, before things suddenly shut down. Simon got to help cut down this huge pine tree that was on the hill above the garage in which he works. The fear was that someday it would fall on the building, so a neighbor from the top of the hill helped cut it down. Esther took the younger children over to watch it fall.

The garage from above. This is where Simon spends his days!

One day, Mr. Imagination cut up a cardboard box to make himself a zoo.

The figure on the left is a horse with a carrot in its mouth; the one on the right is a donkey. The box is the feed trough, with vegetables in it.

This is a scarecrow, a cat and a mouse, with a fence in front of the cat.

These three boys took a tramp two weeks ago with three friends. They spent two nights in remote huts up in the mountains, and climbed to the top of a mountain on the day in between. Esther took these photos as they were leaving. They had the time of their lives! They came back very tired and needing showers, but they want to do it again!

Little Miss got to vacuum the living room. She wanted ear protection—and wore a crown!

This Land Rover pulled in at the neighbor’s one afternoon. We took a picture to show Simon. He said, “I’ve worked on that Land Rover!” He says he spent 4-5 days working on it.

Product Review—Home School in the Woods

March 26, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Last month, we were offered the opportunity to use and review a product from Home School in the Woods. We really enjoyed doing a history study from them six or eight months ago, and the children were fairly enthusiastic about doing another project now. I gave Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss the choice of two Lap-Paks, one about Knights and one about Benjamin Franklin. They decided they would like to do the Knights K-2 Lap-Pak, so that’s the one we requested. We’ve been working on the projects in it ever since receiving our download. We haven’t quite finished, but almost. We put the lapbook together yesterday, and got a start on coloring the picture for the cover.

There are 12 different little projects to do for the lap book. Each one gives more information about knights. The first project talks about the feudal system in general and how it was organized. There were also projects about the knights’ armor and weapons, and how a king knighted a man (that one was very fun!).

Each project required printing from one to five pages, each on its own PDF, on either white or colored paper or cardstock. I was thankful to have a supply of these on hand from the last time we did a similar-style study! Each project was a little different. Most of the projects have some sort of flaps to lift in order to read information underneath, and a couple of them have several small pages stapled together. One project involved drawing a coat of arms for yourself or your family. Mr. Sweetie remembered seeing a coat of arms that related to our family in a book we have about the Middle Ages, so he based his on that—fun! Two of the projects used paper fasteners to make moving parts, and another has a little “puppet” to show a tournament happening.

This project is a really fun supplement to a study of the Middle Ages. It was something different to do in our school days. We learned a fair amount about knights, and in such a way that the children will remember what we learned. They did get pretty tired of coloring pictures by the end; there is a lot of coloring involved. I had them work on coloring while we read aloud, and that helped. This project was good for developing fine motor skills, and, as one of my boys learned the hard way, it is good for learning to follow directions! I had to reprint one or two projects because they weren’t done correctly.

Pros—fun way to learn
easy way to do a little art
very little preparation time required
all printing is black and white, with one page per PDF
Cons—lots of coloring, which my boys struggle with
quite a few pages to print

Will we do more of these projects if they are offered to us? Yes, indeed! We would love to do the Benjamin Franklin lapbook next! Would I buy one? Yes, to use as a supplement to a study we’re doing. These projects are well-thought-out and easy to work into our school days. And by the way, if you’re interested in how the elections work in the United States, this publisher has a Lap-Pak about them. Check out this page if you want to know more about it. Also, if you are curious about lapbooks, I found a very informative blog post about them, here. Click on the link below to see what 79 other families experienced with various products from Home School in the Woods!

Home School in the Woods Collections - Lap-pak, Timeline Figures, History Studies & Activity-Pak {Home School in the Woods Reviews}

Book Review—Byrd’s Eye View

March 25, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book

Book: Bird’s Eye View
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Fiction / Christian / Historical / Mystery
Release Date: February 18, 2020

If everything looks so perfect, how does she know it’s all wrong?

Madeline just wanted to learn to develop her own pictures. It seemed an innocent enough pastime until she sees something in the developer’s tray that piques her meddlesome curiosity.

Now she’s on the hunt for clues to spare a man’s life, and she might just land her father in hot political waters while she’s at it.

The fifth book in the Meddlin’ Madeline Series, Byrd’s Eye View sees Madeline back at home in Rockland and determined to stay out of trouble, although that’s not likely to happen, is it?

My Thoughts:

I have been enjoying the Meddlin’ Madeline books ever since the first one was written four years ago. These historical novels are such fun mysteries! I really appreciate the work this author goes to to make sure the books are historically accurate, and she weaves a great story.

Byrd’s Eye View isn’t finished yet, as you can see by reading the guest post here. I have read the first nine chapters, though, and can tell you that this book will be great—I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of it! You can preorder your copy now, and if you enjoy historical mystery stories with a Christian worldview, you will like this book. Don’t break into the middle of the series, though; start at the beginning with Sweet on You. You can find my review of it here, and I have also reviewed Such a Tease, Fine Print, and Dead Letter.

I received a free copy of this book from Celebrate Lit, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

About the Author:

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More From Chautona:

It’s Like This Book Didn’t Want to Be!

It’s an hour and a half from my mother’s old house in Missouri to the Springfield airport—a perfect distance for plotting out a book. So, when I had to drive back to swap out rental cars, I decided to work on the early 2020 books. Up first… Madeline #5.

Often when I’m plotting out a new book, the first few minutes are kind of jumbled messes as I consider this plot point or that and get into a work flow, and that day was no exception. However, by the time I hit the interstate again, I’d done it. Madeline would learn how to develop pictures in this one. The plot would revolve around that new skill.

By the time I hit Noel, I’d really come up with a cool book idea. I was so excited. You have no idea. Then, as I passed Noel on my way to the hospital in Gravette, Arkansas, I stopped on the side of the road so I cold turn off the voice recorder and start working on another book.

The recorder was off. All my “brilliant ideas” were gone.

Sometimes, I wish I was a crier. It would have been appropriate right there. Just sayin’.

Determined to record the ideas all over again before I forgot them, I started the first few things, watching the recorder bars rise and fall with the inflection of my voice. It worked great.

The only problem was I couldn’t remember anything I’d come up with. Photography. That was it.

That’s when I called my friend and wailed.

Look, it had been a hard couple of weeks, a rough day, and now this. But, complaining about it offered enough catharsis that by the time I went back to Springfield the next week, I was able to record most of it again. Some of it was actually better.

Little hint: it usually is the second or third round of ideas.

By the time I’d finished, I knew what happened and what havoc it would cause, but not to whom or why. Enter Clark.

You know, the guy who made me split the first book into two separate books (you can read about that HERE), and the guy who tried to make things get really gruesome in book four (you can read about that HERE—halfway down the pageish—and be assured that I didn’t do it).

So, just as I was getting into Byrd’s Eye View, Clark and I met up at Denny’s to figure out how to make all the elements I had work.

My one issue became another one. Why became totally different from anything I’d considered. Who became a great reason for it to make things tough on Madeline’s father, and a previous thing I’d thought was a bit excessive became more so… and more believable at the same time. How cool is that?

There was still one problem, though.

I wasn’t done with the book I needed to finish before I could immerse myself in this one.

And this book needed to be done yesterday.

Look, I had actually considered not doing this book until later in the year. For a few minutes, I wished that I had. But Madeline always comes out in February/March and I’d kind of like to keep it that way. So…

Despite losing my notes, having plotter’s block, having Clark upset everything I’d planned and making it better… again. It’s here. And I think it’s my favorite one yet. Who am I kidding? Of course it is!

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.

This Week

March 21, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We took quite a few pictures this week! Miss Joy has been quite busy, and she is so cute we can’t resist taking pictures of her. She learned to climb up on things, and one evening she was delighted to get up on a box and find another box within reach, with delicious peaches in it! Then, she sampled the zucchinis that were next to her.

We were given a lot of black boy peaches last week, and spent several days canning them. Isn’t canned fruit beautiful!

I came home from my trip to town this week and found these “zumpkins”. Now I know who picked them! We left the self-seeded pumpkin plants in the garden; obviously some of them were a cross between spaghetti squash and zucchini. They are good with meatloaf baked in them.

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After we got home from town, I carried Miss Joy into the house in her carseat. The next day she was playing in the living room, and climbed into it. Somehow she tipped it over on top of herself. She wasn’t worried; she just crawled away, with the seat going with her! Someone called her a turtle.

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Mr. Sweetie was washing the kitchen floor, so I told him to turn a bench over to keep Miss Joy out of the kitchen. She immediately crawled over to it, stood up, and put her leg over it. So much for that idea!

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Storytime!

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And game time!

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While I was making lunch today, I went out to the garden to harvest veges for our stir-fry. I brought in this kale, silverbeet (Swiss Chard), basil, spring onions, and a rock melon. I told Gayle I had been to the shop. He said I’m the kind of woman who goes to the market every day. I replied that it’s sometimes several times a day! Sure enough, by the end of the day I had been out there three times, even though it was raining. This is my favorite kind of shop!

This is the stir-fry I made. Except for the chicken breast, it was all fresh from the garden. We’re eating well right now.

February 2020 Photos

March 15, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last several photos we took in February. Enjoy!

Mr. Intellectual has continued his boat-building hobby. His latest creation is this flatboat, made of plywood. By now, he has finished painting it on the outside, but they haven’t tried it out in the water yet.

The outside of the strip canoe is finished. The yellow is kevlar, which is intended to protect from rocks, of which there are plenty in our shallow West Coast rivers!

For the first time, we can see the inside of the canoe!

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Mr. Intellectual made this crossbow.

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One afternoon when Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination both had a little schoolwork to finish, they set this up. They both worked diligently!

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Esther had to stop in at the garage where Simon works, one afternoon, so I asked her to take some pictures of Simon at work. He’s been there for 2 1/2 years and I still didn’t have a picture of him doing what he does best!

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Miss Joy enjoying and being enjoyed by her big brothers, Simon and Mr. Intellectual.

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Miss Joy

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I bought some new clothespins in town one day, and when we came home the little ones put them in the bucket for me. Then, Miss Joy discovered the joys of dumping them!

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My girls!