Miss Joy

June 22, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A common theme in pictures of Miss Joy? Cats and books! They are her two great loves. Esther caught this picture of her studying comics one day.

One day when she was bored, I told her to take my camera and take pictures of the cats. Here are a few of the ones she took, along with some selfies. The cockeyed one was done deliberately so she could get both cats in one frame.

After being stored away from home for 9 or 10 months, the legos have finally come home, and the three youngest are enjoying them. Miss Joy made these vehicles, and then wanted to document them.

She drew this picture one evening, and wanted me to send a photo of it to a friend.

Cats, flowers, the bird…more things that make her happy!

I’m not sure what this was about, but she was dressing up as something. The girls have been doing that a lot lately.

November 2024 Photos

December 22, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One afternoon, Esther and Elijah walked around the block and took their little sisters, who rode their bicycles.

Esther watched this starling building a nest in the garage roof. She was amused by the size of its load! Apparently, it didn’t get much of that load to its destination.

Esther also took this picture of a sunset. We got some smoke from Australian bushfires, so that’s probably part of why the colors were so vivid.

Miss Joy is learning to read! That’s slightly bittersweet, because it means my baby is no longer a baby. I love watching her learn, though. I took this video sometime in November, when she had just started to read stories. She was delighted with her new skill and wanted Grandma to hear her.

I found the girls having a picnic in the garden one day.

Miss Joy wanted me to take a picture of her with foxgloves on her fingers and her crinkle-cutter in her hand!

Girls and Cats

August 13, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When I looked through the photos I had from July, I noticed a lot of pictures of my little girls, and several of the cats–and some of both girls and cats.

Princess spends a lot of the winter in front of the fire. Usually she is curled up facing it, but this one day it looked like she just flopped down as she was walking!

One of the boys took this picture of Miss Joy while he was supposed to be doing school.

The girls love walking with their daddy! He often takes them around the block or down to the river.

The fad for awhile was crowns. Little Miss found a book on our shelves that showed her how to make a crown out of foil, so she made a number of them.

It’s always special to get Jo-Jo to sit on your shoulder!

One evening, Miss Joy was quite cranky. When I remembered that we had recordings of Grandma reading several picture books we have, I spent a few minutes transferring the recordings to my iPad and finding the books on the shelf. Her evening was suddenly transformed; she spent the next 45 minutes till it was time to eat totally engrossed in stories.

Goofball

A craft project we did one day was to make fans, since we had just spent a couple of days learning about Japan. The girls then packed a tea party and took it outside.

Goofball is Miss Joy’s favorite cat, because she is always gentle. We had our homeschool group meeting here one day, and while the children played outside, these two sat on our vine-covered stump and watched for quite a long time.

Our little mommy. She loves her dolls!

A Young Reader

March 31, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Miss Joy loves books. At this point, she likes to read them aloud almost as much as she likes to have them read to her! In the last two days we’ve gotten a few videos of her reading. Enjoy!

Three Years Old

January 22, 2023 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

There are a few extra cameras floating around here right now. Several people have either upgraded or gotten phones that take good pictures, so the old cameras were up for grabs. One of the boys gave Miss Joy an old camera that still works, and she spent several days taking pictures of whatever caught her fancy. Some turned out fairly good, so here is a glimpse at life as seen by a three-year-old.

Little Girls!

November 21, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It is so much fun having two little girls in our home. After having a lot of boys, I especially enjoy the girls. Miss Joy is old enough now that the two of them play together a lot. Playing house is now a thing in our home, something we rarely, if ever saw, while we had lots of young boys. This day, they had most or all of the dolls, doll clothes, and soft toys in the hallway, and were doing puzzles while holding their dolls.

Miss Joy loves to write and draw. She often spends a lot of time writing long letters or stories like this. The most recent example had a lot of circles, carefully drawn in the lines.

She discovered Little Miss’s pick-up-sticks. Her way of playing with them is to dump them on the floor and then carefully lay them back in the box.

I glanced out the window one afternoon this week and saw Miss Joy walking down the street in front of our house (it’s basically a driveway), telling Grizzly to follow her.

Entertaining a Toddler With a Broken Leg

August 29, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Some time in July, Miss Joy and her big sister collided on a trampoline, and Miss Joy ended up with a broken leg. It was just a greenstick fracture, so not very serious, but she had her leg in a cast for a little over three weeks. She was walking on it only about nine days after the accident, and getting around pretty much normally, but the first few days were a bit challenging. It’s a good thing she has a naturally sunny disposition! The other hard part was near the end; I think the cast must have been irritating her, because little things that normally wouldn’t bother her at all made her scream. Maybe her leg was itchy, and she couldn’t figure out how to tell us? Anyway, here are some of the things she did during the time she had her cast on.

This first picture was a few days before she broke her leg. I had a bowl of beans on the counter, soaking, and when she needed something to do, I gave her a sieve and a bowl and let her scoop beans and water. You’ll see down a little ways why I included this!

The morning after the accident, Miss Joy couldn’t move below the waist at all. The only thing she could do was sit; she couldn’t even figure out how to roll over. She was sitting on the couch with her books, and asked me for a “Bible.” I figured out she wanted a songbook, so I gave it to her and she sang for us. You can hear her in this video clip.

The next day, she figured out how to crawl, and she was off! That evening, Esther gave her a permanent marker and showed her how to draw on her cast. You can see in this video how focused she was.

Right around that time, she caught sight of another bowl of beans I was soaking when I carried her through the kitchen. “Beans!” she exclaimed. She couldn’t stand up, so I put her on the floor with the beans, making sure there wasn’t too much water in them. I didn’t want the plaster cast to get wet! She happily played with the beans for a long time.

One evening, she wanted more beans, but I didn’t have any soaking. Instead, I put rice on a tray and gave it to her. She spent an hour or so playing with that! We had to sweep it up a couple of times, but it was sure worth it.

She spent a lot of time looking at her books.

It didn’t end up being too hard an experience, after all. I sure wouldn’t want this to happen again, but we made it through, and she is as good as new again.

Miss Joy in June

July 25, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We took a lot of pictures of Miss Joy in June! She loves to cuddle her babies,

to draw, with Simon’s help,

and with Little Miss.

She started potty-training her babies,

discovered the joys of Garfield (look at those crossed feet!),

and got stuffed into a basket by an older brother.

She frequently asks me for a “pony” and then pulls it out right away.

She practices fine motor skills by snipping paper or cardstock into tiny bits all over the floor.

She cuddles her bears,

and snuggles in bed with her sister.

She is a dear little girl, and we can’t imagine life without her! We are so thankful for our little bundle of energy. She has every one of her family wrapped around her little finger—I enjoyed seeing her 17-year-old brother catering to her this morning.

April 2021 Photos

June 20, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of our photos from April—and a video clip of Miss Joy drawing! This little girl loves to draw. She frequently requests—or demands—paper and pencil; she wants to “ite!” Since these photos were taken, she has progressed from scribbling all over a piece of paper to drawing little circles. She also cuts things; scissors are her other frequent request. Yesterday, she cut one piece of scrap paper into little bits, then pointed to the stack and wanted another. It was soon in bits all over the floor, too!

Simon helped a neighbor kill and skin a few sheep, and a few days later, he came home with one of them! He and Elijah soon had it cut into pieces. I’m so happy that they can—and enjoy—cutting up meat.

Late one afternoon…I was making applesauce while Mr. Sweetie tried to finish his school work for the day.

A few weeks after Esther and her brothers built the shelves, she and I spent a day organizing the container. This is what it looked like when we started. We never got a picture when we were done, but it’s usable, now! It’s still crowded,but we can find things and get to them.

Simon starting on the tiny house.

They lined it with these sheets of insulation, and then put plywood over that.

Miss Joy in March

May 16, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

In looking over our photos from March, I’m seeing a lot of them of one person! Miss Joy is quite popular, and very cute. She’s into everything, and jabbers about everything. We can even understand part of what she says!

Her favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? This copy was given to Elijah by his grandmother, probably 15 years ago. It has been taped together and glued together, and is still being enjoyed! I just ordered a replacement, though, a board book this time, because this one got left in a windowsill overnight and the condensation soaked it. It’s still readable, but the pages are all falling out and the covers are swollen. We can’t be without this book, though!

Mr. Imagination built a couple of hammocks, and his little sisters enjoyed them.

Helping the big boys mow lawn! She must have been trying to figure out how to start it.

There are two little babies at church, and Miss Joy loves them. So does her big brother Simon!

Miss Joy is an artist. She loves to draw! She often asks for pen and “papee!” She wants to “ite!” She focuses hard on what she is doing, and keeps at it until her piece of paper is covered with her scribbles.

She also loves to climb in bed with Little Miss! It’s so much fun to read at bedtime.

I’m not sure what she was doing here in Esther’s room.

Sitting in the windowsill behind the couch. This is where Brown Bear met its demise.

One afternoon she came marching into the living room brandishing a croquet mallet in one hand, a block of wood in the other, and dangling a toothbrush from her mouth!

Another day, she figured out how to climb into the washing machine. Can you tell we enjoy having this little girl around? She sure adds sparkle to our days!

And, here is a video I just remembered making.