Lots of Helpers

On the Move, Part 1

December 30, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 5 Comments

We will be moving again soon. We tried to buy the house we’re in, but weren’t able to get financing for it, so our landlord told us we need to be out by mid-January. We finally found another one to buy, and plan to move there the beginning of February. I’ll share more details here in a few weeks, after the next set of papers have been signed and we are as sure as can be that the place will be ours. For now, I’ll share a few of the many pictures I’ve taken as we work on down-sizing our menagerie.

This is my garden. I started all these plants before we knew we would have to move, and they were in pots way too long. I sold and gave away some, and then we finally took a load of them to where Simon is living, a few weeks ago, and planted them in that family’s garden. Most of the rest went over there a few days ago, and are growing in half barrels and other planters.

This kitty needs a new home, because we won’t have the kind of space he needs. I put this photo online, and minutes later someone asked for him. Hopefully, he’ll have a new family this week.

We’re keeping one of the kittens, but Grizzly needed another home, so I posted this picture—and within minutes she, too, had been spoken for. We get to keep her for another couple of weeks.

These pictures didn’t get the same kind of response—not many people want turkeys, apparently. If you want some, we have 40-50 that need to go somewhere!

Kittens

December 25, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We are really enjoying having two kittens in the house! They are about six weeks old now, and spend a lot of time playing. In fact, they are in my lap right now. Goofball is asleep, and Grizzly is chewing on her (yes, Goofball is sleeping through the chewing!). We gave them their names when they were quite little. Goofball has always been laid back about life, and would relax in our hands from the beginning. She has always liked to lay on her back to sleep or play. Grizzly, on the other hand, complained about everything—hence her name. She has been the favorite of their mother since the beginning, and the one that Princess almost always dragged into the house in the mornings. She would kick and scream the whole way in, rather than curling up like kittens are supposed to. Grizzly took about four weeks to stop crying every time we picked her up, but now she loves people as much as Goofball does.

Here they are at two weeks old.

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Three weeks and starting to play.

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Mr. Diligence holding them at about four weeks.

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Mr. Imagination with Goofball, the one he chose to keep, at a month old.

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Five weeks and wrestling. Grizzly is the one on the floor here, kicking at Goofball.

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November 2017 Pictures

December 21, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Here are the rest of November’s pictures.

The kittens were born about the middle of November, and we have really been enjoying them. I allowed Mr. Imagination to choose one to keep, since he so badly wants a pet of his own. He chose this one, and was thrilled when her eyes opened and he could hold her.

For Mr. Diligence’s birthday, some friends came, and the boys went on a 31 kilometer bike ride around the area.

School time!

Esther helped Mr. Imagination make peanut butter balls one day. Little Miss enjoyed helping, too—and they both loved eating them!

The roses are a bit past their peak now, but a few weeks ago Mr. Imagination picked a bunch and made this arrangement!

Mr. Intellectual’s science experiment to show how the diaphragm and lungs work.

He has also been trying to work out how to make a small hot air balloon. So far, none of his designs has been light enough to get off the ground, and now that we’re back into a bad drought, he has to halt his experiments so he won’t cause a fire.

They attached a fishing line to the balloon, in case it would rise.

The geese and 3-week-old goslings.

The kittens at a day old.

Everyone was rather distracted one morning when a trucker came to take away a truck trailer that had been here for years. Mr. Intellectual helped him load some other stuff on his truck as well, to take to the owners of this place. My little people really enjoyed watching the crane in action! Mr. Sweetie took his schoolbook outside so he could work while he watched. He actually got a little done!

Fun at Lewis Pass

December 18, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On our way home from visiting Simon three weeks ago, we stopped for a few minutes just this side of Lewis Pass. The St James Walkway took off from a small parking area here. We only walked a short way from the car park to where a good view was promised. What a view! As you can see, the day was clear and sunny, and it was absolutely gorgeous there. Just for fun, we took several pictures.

The three of us happened to have on our matching dresses that day.

All six of the children who are currently living with us.

Mr. Sweetie is goofy about pictures. He didn’t want his picture to be taken with the other children, but on the way back to the car park he wanted it taken on top of this rock!

This post is linked up here.

Port Robinson

December 13, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One Monday afternoon a few weeks ago, we needed to be out of the house for awhile because our landlady was showing a potential buyer through the house. We decided to go out to Port Robinson; a few weeks before that date, Gayle had taken Mr. Diligence out for a picnic and fun time together, and they discovered the trail leading down to the old harbor. The rest of us wanted to see it, too, so we went there on that beautiful, sunny afternoon.

The path down to the beach parallels the old slipway for awhile. It’s pretty overgrown.

Gore Bay from the trail.

Port Robinson

This is what’s left of the bottom of the slipway. Approximately 120 years ago, the way I understand, this was about the only way to get goods in and out of Cheviot. They had a surfboat which they lowered down the slipway from the top of the cliff and out into the bay to where ships would anchor, to ship wool out. Supplies were brought back up in the surfboat with a winch.

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie

That red blob is a sea anemone.

I was intrigued by the swirls in some of the rocks.

When we saw this flock of seagulls feeding just offshore, we wished we had brought our fishing poles! There would have been big fish there, too, feeding on a school of small ones.

There are two paua, known in California as abalone, in this picture. Can you find them?

We enjoyed finding these two large starfish!

Mr. Diligence was fascinated by the way the starfish held on to him.

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Sweetie, with Mr. Imagination in the foreground.

We even got to see a jellyfish!

Another starfish!

When it was flipped over, we discovered that it was feeding! A couple of the children were able to see its stomach being sucked back inside after it let go of the snail.

This was a very fun afternoon—don’t tell the children it was a field trip! We ended our time with a stop at Gore Bay to play in the water for 15 minutes. I’m so glad I didn’t twist my ankle until after this trip and the one to Hurunui Mouth several days later.

Book Review—Exploring Creation With Astronomy

December 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We just finished science for the 2017 school year. This is the fourth year in a row that we have used Apologia’s Elementary science, and we’re still loving it. This year, we used Exploring Creation With Astronomy. I thought Jeanne Fulbright wrote great books before—but in this 2^nd Edition she outdid herself! This was a very fascinating course. I’m glad I decided to buy the new book instead of borrowing the old one from a friend.

Since our school year began in February, we have traveled through the solar system and beyond. We began with a quick overview of astronomy and the solar system, and then took more in-depth looks at the Sun and each planet, as well as the moon. There was also a chapter on Space Rocks, tucked in between Mars and Jupiter. The section about the Asteroid Belt was especially fascinating to me; the hypothesis presented for the existence of the asteroids sure made sense to us! The second-to-last chapter was also very fascinating for me, as it presented information that has been discovered recently, so it was all new for me. I think it’s rather sad that Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf planet, but it was very interesting to learn about such things. The Kuiper Belt, too, was new to me—and so interesting! The last chapter talked about stars and space travel.

As we have done before, I bought the notebooking journals to use with the textbook. We get a lot more out of the course by using these workbooks. Every day as we read, the boys narrate a sentence or two (or more, if they enjoyed the section) about what they learned, and there are activities to do as you go through each of the chapters. Each chapter has anywhere from one to three minibooks to make, to help with review, and there is also a vocabulary activity. We liked the way the 2nd edition notebooking journal was laid out much better than the others we have used. Instead of having to find the pages for the minibooks in the back, they were right in each lesson, where we needed them. Also, these activities were interspersed with other things in the lesson, rather than always at the end. The book was a bit more attractive, too.

We didn’t do all the activities, but some that we did were great fun. Probably the most memorable was the time we made a “scale model” of the distances in the solar system if the sun were the size of a dime—so incredible!

As always, I highly recommend Apologia’s science! We love that God and His Word are honored all the way through, and we enjoy the very interesting way in which facts are presented.

You can see pictures of a couple of our projects from this course here and here.

Fishing Expeditions

December 2, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Gayle took the boys fishing one Sunday evening about a month ago. They were very excited to come home with 14 large kowai! Mr. Diligence had a birthday the next day, so we had fish for supper.

Today, we tried again. We all went out this time, hoping for a repeat—but not even one fish was caught this time. Oh, well. You never know when a school of fish will be coming in the river. It was a beautiful day out there anyway! This is what the Hurunui Mouth looked like today; quite different from the last time I was out there. We walked all the way around the lagoon to get to the mouth this time.

These gulls were flying around making quite a fuss. We found out why when someone discovered a nest!

I saw these ducks swimming in the lagoon.

A lupine bush. What a wonderful smell!

It was interesting to notice the variety in terrain just on that short walk along the lagoon. Here was a rock cliff; soon there was a patch of white limestone; and a lot of the time the hillside was covered with grass and bushes!

I wish I could share more of the experience with you. All I can do is give you a little glimpse of the scenery. There is so much more to it than that, however. There are the sounds—gulls screaming, waves crashing on the shore, and ripples lapping on the rocks and shores around the lagoon. There are the smells—the sea smell and the wonderful aroma of the lupines. There are the sensations—the hot sun, the cool sea breeze, the hot rocks and sand under foot. There is even taste—salt on your lips from the spray blown off the tops of the waves! And of course, the scenery is so much bigger and more beautiful than my camera can capture.

Back Route From Culverden

November 29, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One recent Sunday, when we went to church at Waikari, we joined our friends for a picnic lunch in Culverden in honor of a 40th birthday. Although it was a cloudy, windy day, we enjoyed our time with them. When we left, we decided to take the back way from Culverden back to Cheviot. We had seen that route on the map years ago, and always wanted to know what it was like. In fact, our children had been talking for quite awhile about riding across it on bikes. This is what the road was like for about the first 30-40 minutes we were on it: a farm track! We kept going because there had been a sign at the beginning, indicating that it connected to a road.

Looking back toward Culverden. The views were incredible!

Finally, the track turned into a real road again, and we got back home, only spending an extra 45 minutes or so traveling. We may never do that again, but it was fun for once!

Book Review—Beauty From Ashes

November 27, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

About the Book

Name of book: Beauty from Ashes
Author: Alana Terry
Genre: Christian Women’s Lit
Release Date: July, 2017

My Thoughts:
I read a book by Alana Terry a year or two ago and found it excellent. I’ve been seeing her name lately, so when I was offered the opportunity to review her new book, Beauty From Ashes, I decided it sounded like a good story. I was not wrong—this is an excellent book.

Tiff tells her story in this book, starting with being in church for the first time in years. Her husband, Jake, took her there, and she went because she didn’t have the energy to argue about it. She gets the surprise of her life when an old woman stands up to pray—and suddenly, Tiff is given hope for her tiny baby, Natalie, who spent her first month in NICU because of a brain bleed. Natalie doesn’t respond to anything, has never cried, and can’t even swallow her own saliva. What will become of her? And what will become of Jake and Tiff, as Jake’s mother, whose marriages both ended in divorce, has moved in with them and taken over care of the baby? Can Jake and Tiff manage to stay together, or will their lifelong patterns continue to cause relationship problems?

I found the writing style unique; Tiff tells her story in first-person present tense, with constant flashbacks to fill in the backstory. These flashbacks are not annoying, but done very well, as Tiff thinks about her past and tries to figure out her present. I absolutely loved the growth I saw in her life during the short span of time covered in this fairly long book, and rooted for her every step of the way. It was never obvious, however, what would happen: Would Natalie live or die? Would Tiff walk out on Jake or stick with him? And what about Jake? Would he stick with Tiff, or be influenced too much by his mother? This is not a happily ever after story; it is a realistic story. I loved it, though. One of my favorite scenes is Grandma Lucy’s celebration of life. I couldn’t believe what happened there—such a great touch.

I found Beauty From Ashes a very refreshing change of pace from most women’s fiction. Women’s fiction is mostly romances, where a strong, wonderful man sweeps a woman off her feet and somehow solves all her problems. This book, on the other hand, has as characters a weak, vulnerable woman and a man vacillating between what is right and what he’s always known and done. And in the middle of it all, God is working.

One thing that makes this book very real is the fact that the author is writing from experience. She had a baby in NICU for the same reason that Natalie was in there. Tiff’s feelings are portrayed so clearly—this is the author speaking from her heart. Don’t read this book if you want a story to make you feel good; read it if you want reality.

I received a copy of this book as a gift from the author, but was under no obligation to write a positive review.

WARNING: Many times, Tiff mentions having had boyfriends in her bedroom as a teenager, or being in a vehicle with them. These scenes are never described explicitly, but you know what was going on. Also, Jake admits once to cheating on her.

The Author’s Synopsis:
A baby was never part of Tiff’s plans. Especially not a sick baby in a NICU, struggling for life on a ventilator.

As days in the hospital turn to weeks, Tiff grows more and more convinced that God is punishing her for turning her back on him so many years ago. Or is it possible he’s working in the midst of her daughter’s bleak prognosis to draw Tiff back to himself once more?

The Orchard Grove Christian Women’s Fiction books are standalone literary novels about real-life believers facing real-life struggles. You won’t meet perfect saints whose lives are faultless models of the Christian faith. Instead, you’ll meet a perfect God whose plans of redemption are far more glorious than what the mortal mind could ever imagine.

About the Author:
Alana is a pastor’s wife, homeschooling mom, self-diagnosed chicken lady, and Christian suspense author. Her novels have won awards from Women of Faith, Book Club Network, Grace Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. Alana’s passion for social justice, human rights, and religious freedom shines through her writing, and her books are known for raising tough questions without preaching. She and her family live in rural Alaska where the northern lights in the winter and midnight sun in the summer make hauling water, surviving the annual mosquito apocalypse, and cleaning goat stalls in negative forty degrees worth every second.

Guest Post from Alana Terry:

Click here to see the special video message from Alana.

“You better come in,” I told my husband. “The doctors don’t think he’s going to make it.”

Not the kind of conversation you want to have with anyone at one o’clock in the morning. I was spending the night at the hospital with our nine-month-old baby Silas and hadn’t left the hospital complex in days. Scott was home with our toddler trying to get some sleep.

And our son Silas was dying.

Raising a medically-fragile baby changed me like nothing else ever has. Thankfully, Silas pulled through that horrific evening, but that didn’t mean life was sugar and cream from then on.

As anyone with experience knows, it’s hard work being a special-needs mom.

And it can devastate a marriage.

Thankfully, God brought my husband and me through those nearly impossible first few years while Silas was in and out of the hospital with no guarantee of his survival.

And he continued to sustain us through even more years of therapy, hospital visits, and medical tests.

And now we have a happy marriage, a healthy boy, and hearts full of gratitude for all God’s done for us.

But I never want to forget where we were.

The depths God delivered us out of.

The despair that would have overwhelmed us if God hadn’t been our strength and our support.

Writing Beauty from Ashes was one way to remind myself of those difficulties God brought us through. It’s not strictly autobiographical, but the baby in this novel went through a very similar traumatic birth experience as Silas did, and all the health issues — including that night in the hospital when I truly thought we were going to lose our baby — are based on the trials we went through when Silas was young.

I wrote Beauty from Ashes because we all need to be reminded every now and then that even though life can be impossibly hard, even though there’s no guarantee our children will grow up and love Christ and make good choices with their lives or even survive until adulthood at all, God is good, and he will sustain us through all the trials we have to endure.

I think that’s why Beauty from Ashes resonates so much with Christian readers hungry for more than a simple story with a happily-ever-after ending, like these readers:

“…by far some of the best Christian fiction I’ve read.” Amy L, author

” … a story that is both heart-wrenching and heartwarming.” ~ Jaime Hampton, award-winning author of Malnourished

“I didn’t think it was possible that the author could write any better than she already does … This is a book I will never forget … She writes with realism and doesn’t pull any punches … Every time I read a book from this author, my faith grows.” Deana at Texas Bookaholic

I hope you’ll take a chance to grab your own copy of Beauty from Ashes today, and don’t forget to watch the video and enter to win the $100 gift card to christianbooks.com.

Because Christian fiction should encourage, edify, and inspire.

And because God is big enough to carry all our burdens.

Click here to purchase your copy.

Climb Up Hurunui Bluffs

November 25, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, when we went to Waikari for church, we had a picnic lunch with a family we’ve grown to love, and then climbed a track to the top of the bluffs over the Hurunui River. The day was clear and beautiful, with the bluest sky you ever saw! The wind was blowing fiercely, but most of the time we were walking, the track was sheltered somewhat. The views were incredible all the way up, and especially at the top.

We started out by walking up the road a short ways, and then climbed over a stile beside the gate in the second picture. Then, the track went up, and up and up! For a long ways, a trickle of water ran through a rut at the side of the track. As we came to a place where the track leveled out and it looked like we were going downhill, I checked that trickle and, to my surprise, the water was still running the same direction! Apparently, the leveling out and downhill was an illusion.

Looking back toward the Hurunui River. The gap in the hills in the distance, if I understood right, is the Hurunui Gorge. If you’ve ever read the excellent book The Runaway Settlers, that is where they drove cattle through to sell them to gold miners on the West Coast.

Our goal was that hut at the top of the hill. It was a fire spotter’s hut at one time.

Mr. Sweetie