And another week has come and gone

We've had a busy, but a good week. I think one of the highlights was my Tues morning ladies' Bible study back in Elmira that I've decided is worth the 45 min drive. It is so nice to still feel at home at our old church and have good friends there. My low was probably yesterday when I was crying my eyes out because sometimes parenting is just so hard! I'm sure all you parents out there have had moments like that. I told Jeff that I can't even have a mental/emotional breakdown without getting interrupted by my kids. But really the girls are so wonderful and I love them both so much!
Katie being her mischievious self

She got a hold of my camera and went on a photo hunt

Sneaking up on Maya

Getting closer....

Gotcha!!

Maya got to practice for halloween. She was wearing the same doggie outfit last year, but this year it actually fits her.

Having a cutie moment. She steps onto the little car to reach the books and then sits down and reads quitely. (That happens maybe about once a month - all the other times she doesn't slow down long enought to sit and read a whole book)

THE RABBITS

This is our 3rd batch of baby rabbits. Blackie had 9 little ones and they are now at the perfect cute stage. Their eyes are open and they are starting to come out of their nestboxes.

The girls being very good and gentle.

Their attention span is fairly short though so the rabbits don't get smothered too much

Jeff's shed is finally operational. We have 6 large cages plus the one with the mommy and babies (outside). In a couple of weeks when the babies are weaned we'll process our older rabbits to make room in the shed.

I have no idea why, but this is how Katie watched a good part of her show this morning.

RETREAT

This weekend we had another church for a retreat. We've really enjoyed spending time with them and eating their yummy food:)

The weather was just perfect today for a wonderful picnic lunch under a beautiful fall tree.

Spending some time with my girls. They grow up so fast! It won't be long before they'll be able to read their own books, so I'll enjoy the time we have snuggling and reading together.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Jeff's parents for a couple of days and my brother Marc will join us on Monday for Thanksgiving dinner. We're looking forward to some special family time. Maya and Katie have been asking to see Grandma and Grandpa all week, finally we get to say "Yes, today we're going to see them!"

This and That

As usual we're busy with not much to show for, but usually we have fun, often the kids are playing nicely, often they're not. But such is life with young children. This post isn't really about anything, but giving glimpses of some of what we've been up to.
Daddy has a way of playing with the girls. I tend to just sit down and read a book with them between doing other stuff, but I know the girls love it when Daddy gets on the floor with them and plays. Lots of fun playing horsies.

Some of my entries to the local fair. Very happy about my first price for the banana bread. Jeff got a 2nd and 3rd for tallest sunflower and biggest sunflower head. I also got 3 more 3rd for my Zopf (bread), zucchini loaf and zucchini relish. The price money was just enough to pay the entrance fee to the fair. Even swap, works for me.

Wed. mornings Maya and I go to our church for coffee hour and quilting. Maya usually plays quite nicely before everyone else gets there for coffee, then she is a little social butterfly and entertainer while the gang is there drinking coffee and eating treats, and then after when I go back to quilting she usually watches a kids video. It works quite well.

This is the quilt we're working on right now. It is so cute. Very month has a little picture. If it were for sale I would love to get a quilt like that for each of the girls. Maybe when they're a little older. All we do is doing the sowing together, the patchwork is done by someone else. Who knows, once the girls are both in school I might take up the patchwork part of it too. And yet I have a feeling that my days will be busy even when both girls are gone for the day. And anyway that's another 2 years away. For now I'll enjoy the Wed morning and leave the rest to dreaming.

Anyway, it's time to go feed the family. I hope you have a great weekend.

Fall Family Day

Last weekend we had our annual Fall Family day. Basically it's just an open house of the mission with coffee&tea, wiener roast, games, crafts etc. We set up in pouring rain on Friday, but Saturday turned out beautiful (despite the cloomy forecast). We probably had about 50 people out, most from Toronto and it looked like they all had a great time.

Coffee station. The donuts disapeared in a hurry, but I don't think anyone went hungry. We had lots of hotdogs as well and some of the guests brought some food and fruit as well.

Katie and Daddy on their turn for a horse back ride on a nice trail on the property, maybe about 10 min., and on a real horse (they were huge). At the local fair that same weekend you would have paid $4 for about 5 min on a little pony tied to a wheel going in circles. The Percheron draft horse is definitely the way to go.

Maya and I also got a turn. The highlight of the ride was when the hores went "poopy". go figure!

We also had a puppet show that I think both the kids and adults enjoyed. I missed most of it because I was at home with Maya during her nap, but I just got the tail end of it and it looked like fun.

Mr. Apple Head craft. I don't like to do a lot of crafts that takes lots of prep work ahead of time and you have to throw out what didn't get used. Also, we have enough crafts and paintings at home already and I know other families are like that too, so I wanted to do something edible, low prep, and no waste. These apple heads seemed to fit the bill.

Adults also had lots of fun and got creative.

other kids just stuck the candy on without rhym or reason and then got busy eating it. Whatever works.

It was a busy but fun day.

There she goes!!!

Katie's first full day of school!!
It's hard to believe my girl is old enough for school. I love our school's graduated entry. Day 1: 1/2 h one on one with the teacher, Day 2: 1 1/4 hour with 5 other classmates, Day 3: 1/2 day with 1/2 the class, and today her first full day, full class, schoolbus and everything. I'm sure she'll do just fine.
On the way to the end of the lane. I think the walk to the road might become an nice family tradition.

Daddy and his girls. I think it was harder on him than he lets on. (same goes for me:)

We were way early for the bus, but that gave us time for pics:)

Katie is so excited to go to school. Even though she was awake from about 2 -4:30 a.m. she was in good spirits this morning. When I work her up she sleepily asked "is today a school day?" When I said yes she goes "Yeay!!" sat up and was wide awake.

Bye bye, Katie, have a great day!!

MAYA'S TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL
Thursday afternoon as we were cleaning the mission for this week's group Maya slipped and fell head first onto the ceramic tile.

We quickly figured that she'll need stiches, and since our Dr. office doesn't do that we had to take her to the emergency.

We were there at 5 p.m., by 6 she saw the triage nurse and at 8:30 she finally got to see the Dr. Finally after 4 hours and 3 stiches we were able to head back home.
Maya did fantastic, waiting her turn (Treehouse on TV helped a lot), letting the nurses and Dr. look at her booboo, entertaining other patients waiting with her funny antics, and even when the Dr. started stiching her up. Of course she cried and didn't really like it, but she did great and even thanked the Dr. after.

She'll always have a little scar in her eyebrow, but it'll just add some character to the character she already is:) So all in all, our first trip to the emergency room was a success, but I still hope we don't have to repeat it too often.

Days just fly by!!

Our busy week with the volunteers is over, but life goes on at record speed!
I've been doing some more canning and still have almost a bushel of pears sitting on the table to ripen. I'll probably do those up sometime this weekend or early next week. Might make some into peach/pear jam as well.
My pantry so far. Red currant jam, black currant jelly, wild grape jelly, peach honey, zucchini relish, pickled beets, peaches, peach&tomatoe salsa, and tomatoes. I also have lots of beans and corn in the freezer. I love the satisfaction of being able to store up fruit and veggies from our garden. The tomatoes and peaches I bought, but the rest comes from our property! If I get more ambitious I might even go pick up some of the apples from our "orchard" and make some apple sauce. We'll see how things go.

A couple of days ago I took the girls on a nice walk on our property. they did a great job walking and I keep asking myself why I don't to it more often. Today is a beautiful day, I should go out this afternoon!!

Mays is showing some interest in potty training. As you can see she's got the essentials down;) For the most part she just wants to do whatever Katie is doing and goes and sits on the potty (pants on) whenever Katie goes.

The girls are becoming great little helpers. They actually filled the washer for me, together, without fighting (much). It's great to see them learn and wanting to help, other than just licking the beaters when I bake.

Katie getting ready for Kindergarten!! Can't believe she's going on the bus in another week. She's been to the JK open house and had a 1/2 h visit one-on-one with her teacher. On Monday she's going for 1 hour and meet a few of her class mates, on Wed she's going for the morning with about 1/2 of her class and then next Monday she'll have her first day of school, going on the school bus and everything. It's a little hard to decide which actually is her First Day of School. I'm going to take some First Day pics when she goes on the bus.

FAMILY WALK

Yesterday we took the morning off and went for a nice walk at a county forest nearby. It was beautiful and the girls had a lot of fun.

Katie was taking turns pretending we were in the jungle or at the zoo. She jumped on all the rocks in the path saying they were crocodiles.

Timers on the camera are great, but I'm thinking I should start saving for a better camera. Even on the "kids and pets" setting a lot of the pics are blurry.

The girls are posing for cousin Nate.

Maya was getting tired by the end. I just love the way she rests her chin on Daddy's head.

Well I'm signing off for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Busy AND something to show for!!

Yesterday was a good day. In the morning Katie and I went to a schoolbus safety thing where we watched a little video and then we got to go on a little schoolbus ride. Oh the memories...

In the afternoon Jeff and Katie went out to pick up Jeff's multi tool thing (Chris, you'll have to ask Jeff about details). Maya had her nap and I started on caning 2/3 of a bushel of peaches. It took me about 4 hours from start to finish, and Maya was very good, even after she woke up from her nap.

Tonight our neighbours and our co-workers are coming for supper (Jeff's mom is sick so unfortunately they had to cancel their part in the fun). Then Monday in the middle of the night our new batch of German volunteers arrive. We're looking ahead to a busy but exciting week.
I hope you'll have a good one too.

Going, going - but where???

Part of my reading this morning:

REFLECT
From morning until night
I am busy.
Surely all this motion
is getting me somewhere,
isn't it?

Somewhere...
What an indefinite term!
Where am I going?
Am I any closer to being there
than I was yesterday?
I don't know...
I've been so busy going,
I haven't thought about
where...
Of course, i know.
I want to know God,
Now...
as He is revealed in Jesus Christ.

RENEW
Let's check and see if I'm going
ahead,
or backward,
or nowhere...
-Gladis and Gordon DePree

Often I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels, being busy but accomplish nothing, and yet maybe I'm looking at the wrong "results". Am I growing? Am I learning?
I pray that God would use me, that He would teach me to be a better wife, a better mom, a better friend, a better person. Am I letting him touch my heart? Am I letting HIM write my To Do list? I want to be all He intends for me to be, but I think sometimes I'm the one standing in the way with my list of priorities and expectations.
I want to let go and let God take control of my life, I want to loosen my grip, surrender.
Only with God's help is that possible.
I'm letting go.