Our family's life in New Zealand
Over a year ago, my children made this movie. Esther never got the bloopers put together until a few weeks ago, so I never posted it here. Now I finally have her permission, since the bloopers are ready, so enjoy! This movie was taken at the last house we lived in, by the way. Here is the real movie:
These are the bloopers:
I know this is rather overdue—but here are a few pictures we got of the moving process.
The first thing we did was to pack as much household stuff as possible into the shipping container. My husband is the world’s most efficient packer, and he taught his boys some of his tricks. We fit approximately 6 tons into that 20-foot container!
The two little boys couldn’t do much to help, but they oversaw the operation! Our truck, and a friend’s trailer, were used to ferry things from the house to the container, which was out by the road.
Firewood had to be moved, too—that was taken directly to the new house, after the container was full.
The company we hired to move the container made a mistake and sent too small a truck the first time. It couldn’t lift the container.
A few days later, we got them to send out their big truck, and that one had no trouble moving the container. The man tried to turn around, but the road was too narrow, and he had to back all the way out to the end of the road (about 360 meters).
Because we loaded everything we could do without for a week into the container, we sat on the floor a lot that last week. The boys laid on their tummies for bedtime prayers; this is Daddy blessing them.
I spent a lot of time the last week cleaning. The little boys helped me wash the kitchen fridge! And that is all the pictures we got of our last week in the Fosters Road house, and of the move!
And here we are at the end of August again! I’ve been spending my spare time packing. I hope to do everything we can do without for a week or two in the kitchen, today. Gayle has next week off work, and we plan to load all we can into the container, then get that moved. He and the boys will also move the outside stuff, including firewood, and then next Saturday we hope to move the last of our things and the animals. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what goes into the container and what doesn’t—what can we live without for a week or two, in case the container doesn’t get moved on schedule? It’s an interesting exercise. At this point, I’m thinking we need to keep out mattresses (but bed frames can go in), table, benches and chairs, clothing (and dressers), some food, and just basic dishes for cooking and eating. We can sit on the floor in the living room for a little while, although I do want to keep my rocker/recliner: I need a comfortable place to sit down once in awhile! Busy week ahead. Anyway, here are this month’s pictures that I haven’t already shared.
We took one, and then two lambs with us to church and Dead Boring for a couple of weeks. They’re big enough now not to need so many feeds, so we can leave them home now.
One Sunday afternoon, we went to the waterfall north of Kaikoura to see the baby seals. We were almost too late; most had already gone out to sea. There were seven, though, and a couple were really putting on a show just upstream from the beach. They are so graceful in the water!
After watching the seals for a bit, we walked across the road to the beach and watched the big waves. It was high tide, and the waves were really crashing up and over a large rock right below us. Two boys had fun running out onto that rock between waves, then dashing back to safety. The cliff in the picture above was across the road, over the path back to the waterfall.
One of our boys (Simon) is getting some practice fabricating. He cut apart a broken sack bearer, then welded it back together to make this small one for his little brothers.
We have three teenagers now! We had an informal birthday party for the birthday boy (Simon), and he requested this game.
We’ve had a bad flu go through the house this week. The youngest got it first, and was down two days. Several days later I got it and was in bed for three days. Two other boys got it right after I did, and they were down for two days each. A few days later, three more got it; one was down only a day, but the other two for two days. This morning, everyone is feeling better! We’re praying that Gayle and Esther don’t get it. The downside of homeschooling (from a child’s perspective) is that sick days don’t mean days off school! Teacher Mom insists that they do at least a little! This boy did extra, though; he completed three lessons yesterday while he was down sick!
This little boy loves his books! One of his most common sayings right now is, “Can’t read it!” as he presents you with a book he wants to hear. The boy who made the sack bearer also made this cradle by cutting apart a big plastic drum and putting wooden ends on. In my opinion, it’s too tipsy for the new baby, which is who he intended it for, but the first day this little boy loved it as a place to sit and read.
Esther wrote this blog post yesterday. I loved the pictures so much that I asked her if I could share it here. She obliged—and even put it up here for me so I wouldn’t have to figure out how! Enjoy.
Today is a beautiful spring day. There are hardly clouds in the sky, and the sky is deep blue. My brothers are soaking up the sunshine, and getting some fun projects done before we move.
When they were working outside my window, I decided to take a quick break from school and get some pictures of them.
One was working on his crossbow (formerly a combined rubber band/arrow gun) made out of popsicle sticks, bike brake wire, and I don’t know what.
Another helped with the project, and the last one worked on stripping more bike brake wire to fix the brakes on his bike (at least, I think that’s what he was doing).
The last boy tried to scare me with an arrow and rubber band from the former rubber band/arrow gun, but I just took pictures of him. 🙂
And, realizing that wasn’t working, he picked up his bike and tried to get me to take a picture of his muddy bike tire (it didn’t work; I got a picture of his face instead).
Breathing the fresh spring air and looking forward to summer,
–Esther
P.S. We are planning, Lord willing, to move next week. This week, Mom was planning to get a good amount of packing done, but Sunday she came down with the flu along with one of my brothers. Then, another one came down with it the next day. Mom is finally doing well today, it’s taken a good three days for her to get over it. Praise the Lord, none of the rest of us have gotten it, and we’re praying we won’t! God is good.
Our little fellow is feeling much better. He woke me up, crying, at 2:00 this morning, and when I asked what he needed, he said, “Food!” I fed him a bowl of yogurt, and he was fine. He woke up at the normal time, smiling, running around thrilled to feel good again. After eating breakfast, he found a bowl full of soaked beans I was planning to can (bottle) today, and filled all the jars for me, then started finding lids for them. He’s had a few spells of not feeling happy today, but overall he’s done great. 
And a bonus picture…tonight’s fad was building a house of cards!
I saved a grand total of four pictures from the memory card in July! Apparently, we didn’t do much during that month. We’ve basically been doing school and looking at houses.
Cats, as you know, like their comfort. This one found a sunny window out of reach of the chickens where he could keep warm one afternoon.
This is a model heart, made of homemade graham crackers, marshmallows, and icing. It is supposed to represent the circulation of deoxygenated blood into the heart and out to the lungs; then oxygenated blood into the heart and back out to the body. Of course the most fun part was eating it. Looks like the little brother in the background is afraid he won’t get a taste! (This was Seth and Elijah.)
Who can say no to that little face asking sweetly, “Pwum?” Of course, he got one!
I know I’m posting a lot about this little one lately. This stage of life is so precious! I so much love watching them learn at this age, and it’s so fleeting!
I was taking a short break at the computer this afternoon, and he brought me a chunk of wood, saying, as he handed it to me, “Baby”. Then he took off for the door again. He came back dragging a large piece of wood. It turns out that the large piece is the mommy horse and the small one is the baby horse!
For other news, we have a house to move into. We signed the tenancy agreement on Saturday, and included that we will have the house for two years, at the end of which time we’ll reevaluate and decide if we want to stay on, buy it (which I suppose would be an option at any time, really—at this point we don’t have enough money and don’t think we want to stay in that location too long), or move somewhere else. Anyway, we have stability for two years. We plan to move on the 6th of September, assuming they get moved out by the end of August as they plan to. Sometime this week, the boys and I are planning to plant some blackcurrent bushes and rhubarb that we have in pots over there, and maybe we’ll get a few pictures. The place has a fascinating history that I’ll try to tell you some of when I post the pictures! It’s a beautiful old house. We are thankful and relieved to have this sorted out!
We haven’t taken very many pictures this month. Mainly, we’ve been doing school and trying to recover from the shock of being told we have to move again, and of course, I’m dealing with morning sickness (although that is getting better, thankfully!). We have not found a house yet; there isn’t anything available to rent, and especially not anything that will suit us. We’re still praying about what to do, and pursuing any option that we are told about. We’re wondering if it is time to buy a house, although we really wanted a couple more years to save first. We’ll see what God opens up for us! Anyway, here are a few pictures from the month.
I dug one parsnip—but what a parsnip!
We went to Christchurch one day, and on our way home got to watch the moon rise. What a sight! Esther asked me to pull over so she could get a photo. Later that evening, I saw on Facebook something about the “honey moon” that was happening that night!
A hollow log across the creek, just before the digger pulled it out when our landlord cleaned out the creek.
One Sunday afternoon, Gayle took the children walking along the shore for a little while after church, while I rested in the van. They rolled down the steep bank in the gravel.
While the digger was here, we asked the man to move our container out of the paddock to the road, where it can be picked up by a truck to move it, when we move. We have no idea yet where we’re going, but we plan to pack as much as possible into the container, then get a truck with a crane to move it all to the new house. The paddock will still be too wet, so this will make it possible.
I had a lot of lemons to juice one day, and these two helped—until the juicer burned out.
The two little boys get pretty bored during school, so one day they invaded Esther’s room. They rearranged the jars on the shelves, then made themselves “beds”!
My little helper. I was making peanut butter, and he ate handfuls of peanuts!
Our 2-year-old has an incredible imagination. He really has a thing about lions right now, and frequently shows us a “baby lion” in his hands (invisible to us). He also loves playing with “hot wires”, which are to keep his animals in. Don’t touch the hot wire–you’ll get shocked!
Gayle and the boys have spent quite a few Saturdays and a holiday, now, cutting up trees that were pulled out from around this house before we moved in. They cut the tops and roots off, and then pulled the trees out of the paddock with the van. They only got stuck once! A neighbor came to the rescue with his tractor. These pictures are from the first day they worked on it—a beautiful, sunny day!
Little overseer. He hates getting muddy, and he is scared of the sheep, so he stayed up out of harm’s way!
It had been a very cold night—see that sheet of ice!
Esther was cleaning out a shed, in preparation for getting goats, which, after all, is not going to happen.
Opening up an old gate to pull the trees in close to the woolshed, where the wood was to be stacked.
And this is what happens when boys are trying to do a job too big for them! I superglued it together, and it has healed very nicely. To get it stitched, we would have had to drive an hour and a half, since it was a holiday, so I tried something I had heard of, figuring if it didn’t work, I could take him in to the local medical center the next day. Praise God, it healed without infection! I gave him massive doses of vitamin C for several days.
I took the picture because James wanted to know, while he was laying there, what it looked like!