Pre-Christmas December

 

We have had at least one decent snowfall, but sadly it has not lasted, and while it is cold enough now to hope for outdoor skating in the near future, we'd love to have some snow too... We've weathered one significant storm as well, but for us it was mostly just super high winds - not even rain in place of snow. The fun piece about the storm was that it was a few nights before Grace's project was due and we were all praying for no power outages so that she could continue to work undisturbed. And the total amount of power outage we had was about 5 seconds; and looking at the outage map, pretty much all around us were huge areas of power outages! Thank you God!

 

Painting the windows is one of Mom's Christmas traditions that has managed to travel around the world with us. This year she found some particularly good pictures to work from to give us lovely windows for the season. They took a long time though! Especially since she didn't get any help because Grace and Jasmin were glued to their computers racing to finish Grace's final project on time, and Aiden his first semester's worth of work. Mom just managed to get them done in time for for our Advent evening party.

So did Grace and Jasmin. They had to pull an all nighter the last night, but Grace is completely done her degree now! The project, the production of which we have lived around for the last 3 months, will hopefully be released for viewing soon - watch for it!

The party was a great success - we'd been very liberal with our invitations, so we had a lovely full house for our evening of antiphonal readings and advent songs along with snacks and hanging out. We discovered yet more people connections we weren't aware of - it is still managing to surprise us how many people know Mom's siblings or parents, though it shouldn't considering they've lived here for 20 years...just not something we're used to :)

Added into the mix of busy days was an invitation to join the Christmas choir at our church for the Christmas eve service. So the Sunday after the girls' all nighter was an afternoon practice followed by our party. Oof for lack of sleep! And then the Monday and Tuesday following were the Christmas eve services, so our holidays started with a bit of a bang of busyness instead of rest and relax!

Tuesday we also celebrated big as a family (Dad's birthday from the 16th which we hadn't had space to celebrate, Grace finishing her degree, and Aiden getting accepted to Dalhousie)! We did the typical yet very rare thing for us and went out to eat. Dad had discovered a fantastic little fish n chips place on the Bedford highway (Rudy & Olive's) in the summer, and it was good enough that that's where we chose to go. It's just a little diner that is constantly busy so not much of a dining experience, but the food is excellent and the portions satisfying.

Banana Bonanza and a few other life's like that moments

 Flashfoods  (an app where we get a lot of our groceries from at 50%off or more) often disappoints us with showing a picture like this but what you are buying is actually a bunch of bananas. So I chose to buy two bunches at $2 each. And then, at pick up, I discovered that I'd bought 2 40 Lb boxes of bananas! So we went from banana starved (no bananas for over a month, not even frozen ones) to way more than we can eat, bake with, and freeze before some go off! So, if you're in the area... want some bananas?

We've had some exquisite beauty in the mornings lately: heavy hoar frosts and wintery sun make for a breathtaking wild beauty landscape! Of course, a phone camera held by a novice can't hope to pick up the multilayered beauty... frosty mist in the distance with frost silvered bare trees melting in around the edges, the random harmony of fall colors still clinging to some trees, sun sparkling off the frost gilded foreground grasses... 

Last winter we wrestled with our wood stove, trying to learn its quirks to keep the house warm relatively consistently without it smelling like a campground nor having to nurse a reluctant fire. This year so far we seem to have figured out a few things, but now we wrestle with a voraciously hungry roaring fire that we can't seem to dampen a bit too often. But since it is doing a much better job at actually heating the house, it's not so grievous. 

Every household experiences "that time" sometime: the one where every appliance or gadget seems to break at the same time... for us it was Jasmin's phone, Mom's laptop keyboard, Grace's monitor. All big ticket items. And yet, it happening in November is very fortunate with two important annual sales to find replacements that don't cost too, too much. And, of course, with two techies in the house (Dad and Aiden) and a thrifty Mom, there were enough bits and pieces to cobble together some solutions in-house as well. 

November rain

 November rain

So welcome to this drought dried land

And yet

The dark, dreary nature

of rainy November days

Not so welcome

Remembering the need to pay attention to weather

What coat, what footwear necessary

Slow adapters or simply protesters

Our children still often venturing out

Barefoot (or flipflops) and coatless

Learning again to keep the fire lit

Stock it just so

So heat radiates and smoke doesn't

Wonderment at our animals even still

Freda prone to dash-leaping in the pond

Bedraggled chickens pecking through their yard

Erratic morning runs

Waiting for dry days

Cold but glorious in wan Fall sun

Adjusting to afternoon dark

Pushing back against the time dislocation

Missing after supper dog jaunts in daylight

Why do we do this again?

The smell of wet Fall forest

The bursts of red berries, yellow leaves 

Backdropped on deep greens and greys

The sound of the stream running again

Thank you God

Light busting through wintery grey clouds

Rain on the windows, running in the gutters

Pattering on coats and umbrellas

Ponds refilling, streams again running

Feet squelching in cold mud

November rain

Things We've Learned from Close Proximity to A Movie in the Making

It's possible to cater to up to 500 people from a food truck!! Not that that is what happened here, but revealed in talking with the chef. He produced amazing food - The Nomad Gourmet indeed.

Movie filming doesn't happen on schedule. In fact, so much so, that the schedule is posted is without times, and the evening before is when cast and crew find out when they'll need to be at work for the next day. This was ok for us mostly as we parked our car down the drive way so we could get out when we wanted, and we don't have a strict schedule ourselves. Where it hurt more was learning the night before at 9:30 pm that we had to be gone from our house for a filming by 7 am and stay gone until after supper! Thankfully it was a day Grace didn't need her set up for school work, and we had somewhere to go for the day that worked.

Meal times are as fluid also. This messed up our family schedule quite a bit, but sneakily. We realized just how out of kilter we were one night about 11:30 when Mom (who is usually in bed if not asleep by 10:30) was still up and about and noticed Jasmin was tuning her violin to start practicing, Aiden still playing a computer game with friends, and Grace and Dad were still working full bore like it was still afternoon. Not even sure if we'd had supper yet... When lunch happens mid to late afternoon, your sense of time gets really out of sorts!

Work start and end times are strictly counted when there are child actors. Countering this is the need for flexible hours for all sorts of reasons. Days can start at 5:30 am or 11 am and end at 2 am or 6 pm. It went ok for us, but it was sure nice to have the house to ourselves again with no imposed early mornings or late nights when it was all over.

We didn't get to see the sets or watch a filming: no extra people are welcome in case of accidental, super expensive to fix noises or movement. So we are just as eager as everyone else to see the final product.

Different, interesting, unusual: an its-worth-it-once kind of experience.

October Amusements

I've started paying a bit more attention to conversations in our household... perhaps somewhat because we are in closer quarters again while a movie production has taken over our main floor and we're all upstairs.  It is quite amusing! Not all of these are recent, but they are a great sample of what you might overhear on any given day in our house. 

"How dare you steal my throne!"

"I wouldn't call it stealing. it's more like usurping."

"Its 4 o clock, what do you want to do with your life?"

"The deed has been done; the potatoes have been put in the oven."

“I am the potent stink of your nightmares.”

“What are you at face value?”

“Very beautiful.”

"There's no way they'd shoot a frog over that distance. It's not aerodynamic."

"My elbow is NOT on the floor!" The Boopie

"So how long are we going to keep the tripwire in the fridge?"

"Put it in the fridge."

"No, the oven."

*holding book to be scanned in the printer.* "…???"

"I mean the cupboard."

"PRINTER!"

"For some reason my first urge is to punch it."

"Noooo! Don't punch the puppy mush!"

"People...cubules. People... globules?"

"People blobs?"

"Yes, people blobs."

"THE PUPPY EXPLODES!"

*incoherent noises*

"YOU! WHY?!" (good guy that has been betrayed)

"Oh. I..."

[Turns around] "Ah. I'm sorry, why are we yelling vowels at each other?" (sleazy villain).

"What is that?"

"It's a bat, but it's also a dog."

"A bog."

"The pine needles found the perfect spot to make my neck ticklish."

"I can feel my tongue cooking."

"Procrastinator. Pro...?? Main character."

"Protagonist?"

"The *protagonist* of the Bible..."

"My life is a hopeless pit of despair."

"it's more like a trench."

"I need mooos!"

"I WILL DEFEND THIS MOO WITH MY LIFE"

"Puppies cause paradoxes almost every Sunday. It's like a tradition now."

"We shall save them for next time."

"next time is now." [Continued eating cherries]

"The new and improved removable pocket! Don't lose your stuff, lose your pocket!"

"Let me tell you about my boy problems. Well, they're not really problems. They are--"

"Boy topics?"

"Boy topics."

*rummaging around noises* "oof" *bumps into something* "ah" *hits more things* *in sad voice:* "I don't know where the furniture is."

"Oh yeah."

[something]

"Oh no."

"A carrot just stabbed me and maybe this is completely normal."

"My ears are completely untrained."

"they're peeing on the carpet?"

"They're chewing on the furniture."

"Something is up. It is not the sky or the ceiling but rather lies slowly emerging from a boiling pot of tar."

"I would eat that pen if it wasn't expensive."

"what we're doing is about as ridiculous as playing rock paper scissors with an orange."

"Aww, the boopie is sad because he exists!"

"Please don't play in the noise."

"I want to hear your face."

"Tripping over your own frog."

Sibling narrating: "She stares at the wall like it holds the answer to the universe--It's 42, by the way. 42 is the answer to the universe."

"Be anxious for nothing, but don't crash the car."

"You suck at dying"

"Well gee thanks, I try"

*Plays nice music*

"You know what this makes me think? People beautifully screaming."

"This is not just shooting a bazooka at your foot, this is running out of ammo, walking to a restocking facility five miles away, reloading, and shooting your foot again."

"There is no voice overs in real life except God."

"Say, then think. Then regret."

*deeply sniffs foot*

"why did you do that?"

"...I was hungry."

"Does this go in the eco friendly death container?"

"...???"

"The...green bin??? Compost??"

"Do you ever feel claustrophobic in this room?"

"Yes. I feel claustrophobic in this room with no one here and there's just chairs."

"You really need 2-fatctor authentication on your mind control."

"I have just witnessed the destruction of physics."

"I tried to turn off the soap."

"He is a cross between a puppy, a half-feral cave man, and an ATM."

When describing the world record for making bed:  "Fluff, fluff, whoomph."

"Emotional damage: Reason: wrinkly soul"

"Spiders look burnable."

*holding orange slice* "you want to throw it like a dart and not a slap."

"Look in the bottom right corner of your soul."

"I can't believe how hard I felt that in italics!"

A household of Hu teenagers is an amusing -and confusing!- place to be. 😊

Odds and Ends of September

 Another bird stunned itself on our windows. But at least this time it was only stunned: fluttering in the corner, balancing on my hand, then the wash line, then gone back to the sky.

After being super entertaining and educational all last school year, and becoming self- repopulating with  an unintentional platy-swordtail mix, this week our entryway aquarium went off to its new home as our house is needed for a movie set next month

Always more shenanigans happening here...getting more interesting as Aiden overtakes both girls in size!

Yet more harvesting and processing of chokecherries, apples, tomatoes - there so often is something in process of preserving it for winter. If it wasn't so yummy, we think it would make a lovely color dye.

Freda has learned not to come into certain rooms, but she sure knows how to entice you out with her patient and longing eyes.

And without photos:
- A morning's visit with a not-so-far-away friend
- The restart of early morning prayer at church
- A day in exile with Freda as Jasmin did a live training class with one of Imma's dog for Jasmin's new schooling toward being a certified dog trainer.
- Aiden slipping into school routine without a ripple and Mom's sad/proud that he needs me so little
- More morning/evening calls for Mom with SAFE families on the other side of the world

The Rest of the Summer

 We've been busy!

Another wedding to attend for Mom and Dad in Moncton

An added extra overnight trip to on church's headquarters near St John

A delightful visit from an Ottawa friend and her kids for a few days. So thankful for this lovely place that housed the 10 of us without a murmur.

Aiden finished all his school work for the year

Celebrated some rain and misty days - finally!

Continued attempts to run and swim regularly

Lots of talk and prayer and dreaming of what this new school year will hold:

Grace will be done her degree in December

Aiden will be taking courses geared toward university entrance

Mom looked into finally finishing off a degree 

Dad still hopes to pick up his PhD studies

Jasmin enrolled in some new courses - for dog training this time, to go along with her love for dogs and fostering a CNIB guide-dog-in-training

Extra outings and "dates" so Freda can practice settling in public places... she still has to learn to find the most comfortable spot though!

Enjoying our garden produce - even if bean harvest is small because Freda ate most of the seeds...

Many Young Adult gatherings for Grace and Jasmin (and sometimes Aiden too!)

Aiden volunteered at VBS for three nights

We've hosted meals with old friends and new

Fall harvesting jobs:

mint jelly

    chokecherry jelly

        apple cider

            lemon curd

                apple sauce

                    pie filling

                        tomato soup and sauce

                            lavender syrup

                                blackberry jam

So much that we've run out of jars and fridge space - and there are plenty more apples, mint, lavender, chokecherries, and tomatoes...mom is going to have to learn proper canning so the jars can store on the shelf instead of the fridge. It is fun to have so many food choices off our own place instead of the store, but a lot of work to keep it for the winter.

Ottawa and Back

 A little bit too slack - our planning of this trip

Perhaps a bit too preoccupied or maybe over confident

But in either case, we did well

A little rough around the edges perhaps 

But with a surprise discovery

Mom likes to drive so much more than sit in a car 

She drove nearly 10 out of the 15 hours of the trip

Both ways!

Thursday and Friday passed long

Us scattering to various parts of the city

Meeting with those friends who weren't away

Lots of catching up to do - in talk and play

Encouraging, helping - full hearts all 'round

Dreaming of further visits - perhaps to ours next time

How hard it is to have friends scattered so far always!

Wedding delights filled out Saturday

Careful planning, unique touches

An in-love couple, and gathering family

Made for a beautiful celebration

in a delightful secluded spot

What joy was shared!

Sunday church catching up with fellow workers

Among a happy chaos of many families in a bursting building

A thankfully much quieter extended family meal

Lots of sushi 'till no one can eat another bite

A lazy afternoon together in meandering chat

Monday outings again for Mom and Dad

More heart to heart talk with the meeting of friends

Kids remain back 'home' to get schoolwork done

But also with a friend and cousins to game with

Tuesday, home again safe

Long smooth day on the road

Driving, school work, audiobook shared

Mom's Unintentional Summer Project

In a spring fever kind of way, back in April/May, Mom started clearing our brick pathway of weeds, intending to spend a week or two on it before yet another year of wild growth swallowed it entirely...

It's now halfway through July and she's made it across the front of the house... but there is still another whole side to go - and, as you can see, it has already been swallowed...

At this rate, both the summer will be over and the beginning bits will already need weeding attention again...

But since the reasons why it is going so slowly include things like trips to visit friends, beach trips, (sort of) daily swims in our lake, she doesn't mind all that much that it is taking so long. (the other big reason is she can't do it for long and still be able to move the rest of the day... which isn't as ok...)

But, she's - finally! - found a podcast she can listen to without getting irritated with the chatty format (Fastened Like Nails), so the time spent weeding is pleasant.

And, the satisfaction of the job itself is quite rewarding: seeing the path reemerge from the wilds. What a gorgeous place God has planted us in!

 

Jasmin!

 
After a round of three full-house birthdays, Jasmin went for a quiet one :)  We kayaked on our lake, had a lovely adapted English high tea, played Wingspan, and watched a movie.
Freda wasn't happy to be left behind, but also was not too sure of riding a kayak either! She did manage not to tip Jasmin into the water, though Freda did end up in the water at one point.

 


In other news, Mom and Jasmin just can't stop taking photos of all the lovely flowers we have here! They love watching the birds also (waxwings, finches, hummingbirds, evening grosbeaks...) but they are much harder to catch on camera.

     And some fun with other wildlife: fishing ginormous tadpoles and pouncing on frogs in the field, watching the gentle light show of fireflies at night... and avoiding the stubborn porcupine who refuses to give up his habitat to us. Since we currently have 3 dogs with us (Imma's 2 and our CNIB puppy Freda) that is a high priority.

1/2 June

Aiden turns 13! A houseful of teens we have now...
We almost didn't get to have his planned birthday (lake swim, campfire supper, and hide and seek in the dark) because of weather, but we squeaked it in before the rain, and it was quite satisfactory - even the homemade caramel ice cream cake that ... mostly worked...

 So, it took us a whole month, but Imma and Mom built a garden/chicken coop fenced area! We cannibalized falling down paddock fencing, scavenged nails and screws, pooled our tools, pieced together what fencing mesh we could source, and still spent around $300!! But we're proud of what we've managed to create, and it really ought to be secure for chickens in this wild place.

School is mostly still happening, though in a different summerish form. We've started having most days at home and only getting together to do the fun stuff: science experiments, art projects, and film classes. The end is in sight though! Today we got a bonus of seeing a nesting turtle in plain sight:

 

May

 

We are discovering to our delight that whoever planted the flower beds around our house really knew what they were doing! We're getting wave after wave of new blooms as we move through the spring: crocuses, then daffodils, and now tulips and bleeding heart (surrounded by an amazing carpet of forget me nots!), with more discoveries on the way - underneath apple blossoms and others we don't yet recognize. The beds have gone rather wild, but still are presenting beautiful riots of color. What an amazing place!

We've had some unfortunate close encounters with birds (apart from the neighbor flicker pair that still like to hunt their meals in our gutters occasionally). First the kids found a barn swallow stunned to death in the horse barn, then a northern parula hit our living room window and didn't recover...

We finally have our own dog in the house (sort of). We boarded Sailor, a yellow lab 5 month old puppy, for 10 days as part of his training regimen. We are now official puppy finishers with the CNIB program - raising puppies training to be guide dogs for the visually impaired! And shortly after Sailor, we welcomed Freda, his sister, who will stay with us for up to 6 months until she goes to guide dog "college." Here she is meeting our fish family - which has grown significantly as we successfully are raising 6 more fry!

Mom has been slowly working towards putting in the garden. Braving clouds of blackflies and the expectation of ticks, she has managed to get a small patch of ground turned over and ready along with about 1/2 the fencing wood required salvaged and chicken wire to surround it. Now for enough time without rain and with energy to put it all together! Needs to be soon as the plants we started indoors are more than ready for their outdoor planting.

Another project she's been scraping away at is preparing a chicken coop! Imma has 12 extra chicks this spring, so we are going to take some. Although we had big plans to fix up the garden shed as a coop and build a run, that has proven to be too big a project to tackle in time to welcome the chicks. So a combined birthday present became a readymade mobile coop that will be housing chicks as soon as next weekend... so we just have to find the time to put it together this week! Perhaps a coop afternoon project :)

Imma rescued a somewhat frazzled mom by bringing in a birthday party Sunday night. So mom had a party like she hasn't had in years - lots of family people, some worship songs, and LOTS of cheesecake (3 people brought some :) ) Mom felt very loved...

 

 And then, on birthday day, Jasmin had her first book talk for Uprooted Homekin at the monthly homeschool youth meeting. She also led a workshop for the kids. It was fun to see her confidently speaking of her book and sharing lots of hard-won knowledge with the group.

19 for Grace

  Grace ended up with two Saturdays worth of birthday celebration!

In order to accommodate a friend, we went from a week to prepare for a party day to 2 days...

But it was a grand successfully celebratory evening of board games: Wingspan, Catan, Quirkle), cousins, friends, and neighbours, and an eclectic mix of Asian snacks: curry puffs that Mom made from scratch (minus the deep frying), spring rolls, want-want crackers, pineapple cookies, and ais kacang (or halo-halo, or bing-su, or kakigori, or bao bing, or... a shaved ice with various toppings dessert popular all over Asia - and beyond!)

And as usual, we were too busy having fun for much picture taking :)

And then, today, Grace, Jasmin, and Aiden took themselves rock climbing for the day. They took a break in the middle at ate lunch with Imma at a Yemeni restaurant - Grace was curious! - courtesy of NiNi's birthday money. They came home quite satisfied and tired :)

20 Years

Last week we celebrated our 20th with a few amazing things:

We managed to mark the anniversary on the correct day! So many of our celebrations have been bumped days - even weeks - off the mark by anything from sickness to moving across the world.

We managed to celebrate as planned with no last minute changes or improvisations around a disruption.

We got to walk out some history - all too often we are in a new place with new or transposed traditions.

Rather than opt for fancy and fabulous, we decided to aim for nostalgic... Walking has been our lot since we first met:

At COPE camp, where we first met

In Timberlea, hashing out all the pre-marriage details

In England, on our sort of honeymoon/know the relatives visit

From Spryfield, walking out early marriage

And in many Asian countries, still a date of choice - and a mode of transport!

So, in another lovely first, we went back to where we started and hiked the first loop of the Bluff Wilderness Trail. 

At that time as a rural girl very much at home in the woods eager to share this love with her new love, and, without a doubt, as a long suffering city boy simply willing to accommodate his new love's strange ideas of fun: hiking in all seasons for the sole purpose of building a fire to awkwardly cook some kind of hodge-podge meal.

 

And now, a much more in sync couple who actually both enjoy the experience!

Although this time we didn't stop to build a fire or cook a meal. Mostly because we didn't have the time - we barely made it back to the car before dark - but also not wanting to sort through the much more stringent rules for fires that are in place since the big forest fires. We did stop for snacks and views though!

Blisters and next day hobbles aside, it was a delightful way to commemorate 20 years! 

Spring Happenings

 One of our fish had fry! We managed to rescue 2 and they are still alive and growing quickly. Notice the difference in size - the tiny orange fish at the top and the black and white ones near the bottom... this fry is nearly a month old and at least twice as big as he was when we discovered him. We're quite tickled that we've managed to keep fry alive this long (this is our second try).

Mom finished her blanket - finally! This was a project she started back in January on the way to Thailand for the SAFE conference. It's a really nice warm blanket for these couch days when the weather is not quite warm enough for no fire and not quite cold enough to comfortably have one.

We got started on a garden. Figured if the seeds were started, the outdoor garden project was more likely to happen! It feels a bit of daunting project since it will need to be created and fenced and fertilized as well as planted.

An evening of sillies that was full of laughs - and morning discoveries of odd bruises! They tried - and succeeded with numerous attempts - every combination, proving that Aiden is truly gaining on his sisters in size and strength. Jasmin on top is where she can smile :)
 

First Time

 Sunday last

All arranged

An evening fully free

Together

A downtown concert

Music we know

Rediscovered in a different mode

Enjoyed

And wonder of wonders

An extra spontaneous

Seeking out of dessert

Splurge

We worked it out

Only one other concert together

At the beginning of the marriage

A gift

Seems fitting:

Both in this city

One at the start

and now as we approach

20 years

Still at the beginning

or maybe quarter way through

But nowhere near the end

Lord willing

Misty March Meditations

 Love (III) 

by George Herbert

 Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back, 

Guilty of dust and sin. 

But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack 

From my first entrance in, 

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 

If I lack’d any thing.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”; 

Love said, “You shall be he.” 

“I, the unkind, ungrateful? ah my dear, 

I cannot look on thee.” 

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, “Who made the eyes but I?” 

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame 

Go where it doth deserve.” 

“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?” 

“My dear, then I will serve.” 

“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.” 

So I did sit and eat. 

FINIS 

Glory to God on high, and on earth peace, 

Good will towards men.

1/2 March

 A sign of Spring? Deer REALLY close to the house - without a window in the way only 2-3 steps away

(Unfortunately we've also seen the big porcupine in the field again... with a commitment to chase it with sticks until it decides to stay away)

Lots more clay work happening here during read alouds as well as proper art classes. Here a remarkably good fish drinking and eating snacks while watching... his own creation instructional video

Physics experiments seem to have been more plentiful also. This one learning about the math to measure acceleration and the role of friction and gravity. It got rather tricky as our floors are not level!

And a late mention of some Valentine tulips from Imma. She and Mom had a lovely midday date with tea and cheesecake :)

The kids are attending Youth Alpha Sunday evenings and it is so nice they can drive themselves there!

Otherwise it has been full days of school work trying to get enough work done to get Easter week off (since we didn't take March break) and still finish before summer arrives. With the addition of tennis once a week, this gets to be a bit more tricky and has precipitated such changes as doing read aloud work during lunch times...