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Goofiness in July

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I didn’t realize how far behind I am at posting pictures of our life! This was the third weekend in a row that I have been away from home. Two weeks ago, I went to a homeschool mom’s retreat near Christchurch, and had a migraine virtually the whole time, so by the time I got home late Sunday evening I was exhausted. Last weekend our whole family went to some meetings at a church in North Canterbury…and got home just in time to make dinner. Yesterday, Gayle had a medical appointment in Christchurch, so he and I went over for that, leaving all our children here at home. We stayed at a friend’s house overnight because due to the nature of his appointment the doctor wanted him to stay reasonably close to the hospital for 24 hours. We went to church over there and then came home, beating our children home! They had taken advantage of us being away to go out to eat together, and one of the older ones treated them all to a visit to a fun aquarium. So, here I am with enough time, finally, to do some blogging about our life!

Near the end of July, Esther, James and Mr. Sweetie went to America for a month to visit family. Somehow, I ended up with silly pictures of the boys just before they went. Here is James with his favorite cat.

I’m not sure what the point was supposed to be, but he put the stool over himself!

Meanwhile, Mr. Sweetie was doing this!

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination spent several days trying to build a motorbike, with a weed whacker motor and a pushbike. It worked for a few seconds.

The girls spent a few days playing on top of this cage in the orchard at the edge of the garden.

The children found a pair of glasses at the dump, and Little Miss enjoyed playing with them.

And this is Goofball, the gentlest cat we have, and the best hunter of the three.

Birds–In Memory

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Mr. Imagination’s birds mostly stay in their cage and look pretty. We try to let them out to exercise several times a week, but because we have to do it when the cat is locked up it doesn’t happen every day. We are always able to pick up Jo-Jo, the cockatiel, but Kea, the budgie, doesn’t want to be touched. However, she will land on people’s heads now–or on a back, if someone is bent over! She weighs so little that sometimes it’s hard to know if she is still there. Everyone likes it when she lands on them!

A few days after I wrote that paragraph and scheduled this post, we found Kea on the bottom of the cage one day, unable to use on of her legs. We did what we could for her, but a few hours later she died. Jo-Jo is very subdued these days, and we miss our lively, beautiful bird.

Miss Joy

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Imagination

Little Miss

I didn’t realize till I was putting this post together that I had pictures of all four of the younger children with the birds! Speaking of which, has anyone noticed how different my life is now from when I published my first post, in July 2011? At that time, I had six children and the oldest was 13. Since then, we have had three more babies, one child died, and four of them are now legal adults with jobs! At this stage, I have only four schoolchildren, and the youngest will soon turn five. Thirteen years can make a huge difference in a family.

Leaf Fun

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When the leaves fell off the peach trees in May, the three youngest had great fun raking them up and playing in them. I remember loving maple trees when I was young, because of the wonderful leaf piles! This isn’t as good, but as close as our children are likely to get to that. While they were playing with the leaves, they got the idea of making a movie about it. I’m not sure what the plot was supposed to be, if any, but I put together the clips they got. You might want to turn it off when it starts getting crazy–when all three are tumbling together in the pile.

October 2023 Photos

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Here are the rest of the photos from October. One of the younger children’s favorite places to go is the dump down the hill from our village. I was informed, “You don’t give us Christmas presents, so we have to come up with our own.” So, they drag home all sorts of “treasures.” These beams were among recent finds. One of the boys took pictures of them to send to Simon to see if he wanted them, and Goofball obviously wanted to be in the picture.

Our friends in Ngahere had a bonfire to get rid of Simon’s garage, which he dumped in their paddock (with their permission) to get rid of it.

We took some friends to Waiuta the beginning of October, and someone got this picture of Esther and Miss Joy.

Gayle often takes the children on a walk or to go swimming when he comes home from work. The day they begged him to take them swimming, they quickly decided it was much too cold, so they played in the warm, dry sand instead.

Another day they made a different kind of castles by the river.

My sister asked me how to make t-shirt dresses, so I sent her a picture of some I recently made for the girls.

This picture shows something amazing. That Jersey calf gave us a lot of trouble when he was born. He was born one afternoon, and by bedtime we could tell he hadn’t had a feed yet. I milked his mother and gave him a bottle, and he took it greedily. The next day, he wouldn’t suck at all. We tried him on a bottle a couple of times, and tried to get him to suck on his mother, but he absolutely refused. The next day, we forced a few cups of milk down him, but he was getting very weak. He struggled to stand up, and when he sucked it was very weak. Simon got us a tube feeder, and we tubed him twice. I asked for advice on a house cows group, and we prayed a lot for this calf. The third day, we followed the advice we got, and did something called the Madigan squeeze on him (google it). We did that twice, and the second time, he started making sucking motions. That evening when we put his mother in with him, he sucked on her for the first time! The next day, we went away for the weekend, so we left this calf with his mother. When we got home, he was bouncing around happily, acting perfectly normal and healthy. Two days after that, we had to move the cows to another location for grazing. Since that place isn’t calf-friendly, he had to stay behind with the beef-cross calf, so we gave him a bottle. The first time, he wouldn’t drink; the second time, he took nearly a whole bottle, and the third time, he was away. Since that day, he has greedily sucked down every bottle we give him, and wanted more. I took this picture to remind us of the miracle God did for us.

Little Miss had an assignment in her Language Arts book to write a poem about spring. She decided to illustrate it, too!

Sand art. This kept them busy while Gayle and I were away, and then the sand went in the trash.

This also happened while we were away. The girls made bouquets to sell to Esther!

This quad bike went up to the farm with Simon, so he can fix it.

More Children’s Fun

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Our children are always coming up with new and creative ways to have fun together. One Sunday afternoon on our way home from church we stopped and let the girls pick a few daffodils beside the road. Then, Esther took a selfie with her little sisters and their flowers.

Mr. Imagination built this contraption for Miss Joy. It’s supposed to be a tractor; it’s more like a go-kart. They have spent a lot of time pushing each other around in it.

One afternoon, I noticed the girls playing that they were going shopping with the book bags Grandma made while she was here. I didn’t want to distract them by going in the room to get my camera, so I grabbed the iPad to take a picture. It didn’t turn out very well, but it’s precious to me anyway.

Miss Joy loves Goofball! Goofball isn’t sure she loves Miss Joy, but she puts up with a lot. She’s a very gentle cat who keeps her claws in.

Gayle frequently walks “around the block” with the children. One time, he let them slide on piles of gravel at the bottom of the hill. They sure had fun–and they sure came home dirty!

Science

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Several months ago, we were sent a box of Covid tests by the government, because we live more than 20 km from the nearest testing station. They expired in December, and we had never so much as opened the box, so I let the school children experiment with them. They tested all sorts of things… lemon juice, kombucha, whey, broth, mud, cow poo, the cow’s nostrils (the milk cows were right outside our windows that day). Much to their disgust, nothing tested positive! I enjoyed watching them write down their predictions and the results they got.

Little Girls

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We got some good pictures of our little girls over the past couple of months! This was an evening we went to visit some friends. One of their children spread dish soap on the trampoline, and the children all had great fun! Later, we bathed Miss Joy and the youngest of the children of that family.

The little girls occasionally make soup. Here, they are stirring soup in “pots” over “stoves.”

James bought a new backpack, and put Miss Joy in it to test it out. She was delighted!

The girls were walking around one day eating sorrel leaves and checking the strawberries for ripe fruit.

One of her brothers gave Miss Joy a camera, and she had great fun playing with it for a few days.

Elijah arm-wrestled the little girls one day! I was too late to get him wrestling with Miss Joy; she needed some quality time with her thumb and blankie after losing.

Miss Joy put this cloth on her head one day, and then brought me the camera and asked me to take a picture of her.

Children’s Night Out

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Something that our children like to do occasionally, since the older ones have full licenses now, is all go out to eat somewhere, leaving Gayle and I at home alone. They don’t do it often, and they don’t get fancy; fish and chips is a favorite. They went to town one evening in January, bought fish and chips, and ate them at a trailhead on a hill above Greymouth. Then, they walked to the end of the track, enjoying the scenery and each other. Esther and a couple of the boys took pictures on their phones, and then I borrowed the pictures.

Left to right: Mr. Sweetie holding the food box, Elijah, Little Miss, Simon, Miss Joy.

The Grey River in the foreground, Cobden in the middle, and the Tasman Sea out to the horizon.

Part of Greymouth

Looking up the Grey Valley. Left to right: James, Mr. Sweetie, Simon holding Miss Joy (who informed me later that she had walked up the entire track!), Mr. Imagination, Elijah, Little Miss.

The Grey River and Grey River Valley

My three girls–Little Miss, Miss Joy, Esther

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

Then, Miss Joy wanted to do it, too!

Off they go down the track!

Meanwhile, at home, I made a special candlelit meal for just the two of us! It was a very good evening.

Children Playing in Water–Videos Then and Now

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A few weeks ago, I remembered a funny video Esther took in September 2010, so we found and watched it. It made me laugh again, just as in the past! The baby is Mr. Sweetie. Seth is in the yellow shirt on the bike. Simon has a yellow and brown striped shirt, Elijah has a blue striped shirt, and Mr. Diligence is the cute little fellow in the maroon shirt. They sure have grown up since then!

This was yesterday, with Little Miss and Miss Joy starring. Puddles were made for children!

Picnic!

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One sunny afternoon, our little girls went outside to play. Little Miss packed a snack for the two of them, and took out a sheet, and they had a picnic together. I got the camera up just too late to catch the cat who wanted to join them!04-IMG_0096After their picnic, the girls went to the empty section in front of our house, which had just been mowed, and raked up the grass. First, Little Miss buried herself in it.

12-IMG_009913-IMG_0102Then, Mr. Imagination joined them, and they organized the grass clippings into walls to make rooms of a house! They spent at least 2 1/2 hours playing outside that evening, having lots of fun. It was getting pretty chilly before they came in. The cat liked having them out there, too!

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