A little bit of dirt

I had to chuckle at Cara whining about her tomato falling on the ground and getting a bit of dirt on it.

 "Better sand on your tomato than insulation in your pancakes," I laughed!  This nice little sky light plus a missing light fixture over the kitchen sink meant lots of floaties ended up on the counter... and in the pancake batter that morning.

(The sun can't shine directly in now that the roof is sheeted but it's another bit of ventilation in the kitchen) :)

Cody-isms

Dear Son, learn how to draw a heart before you try to forge my signature in your agenda :)

"I'm NOT EVER running with shorts on again!" Said Cody on his first day of playing outside in shorts....maybe back in February (dear sis)  ;)

Today Gramps got started on the plumbing.  Things went amazingly well, credit of course goes to his super stellar amateur plumber's assistant/apprentice....... or not. 

Cody, though, was enamoured with the piping below this hole....after I told him that whatever he put into the toilet would leave the house through the pipe he spent the next 10 min. making noises by the hole and calling out to Gramps working below to be careful for everything coming through the pipe.  Such a boy!

And last week when spring cleaning at church, Cody asked to help at the end.  I gave him a cloth but before he got to work he asked, "are we getting paid for this or are we volunteers?"

Such a lovable kid!

Extra light and air flow

In the kitchen!
Yes, that would be spiders webs but as long as I don't get squirrels or mice coming into the house, the spiders can stay for now! (this is taken from the old kitchen looking through the sink cupboard)

 Steve ripped all the rotten wood off the back of the house and made some more ventilation in the process.  Of course, the kids think it's great to stand in the new kitchen and poke their hands through to wave at whoever is standing in the old one! :)

next best option...

when your front loading washing machine doesn't have a pre soak option. It works pretty good even though it's a bit extra work. :)

The Light Fixture Box that keeps on Giving :)

 So, this winter I called up my Dad and begged him to come and install a fixture box in the living room ceiling.  The room was always SO dark.  He graciously came out and crawled through the attic, sore back and all, and had it all set in a short time.  He asked about a fixture but the only one I had took annoying light bulbs so we nixed that idea.  Laughingly I mentioned we also had a big florescent light downstairs. :)
Then he cleaned up all his tools and we had tea.
And then I had a brain wave. I had discussed this dark living room so many times with my dear mother in law.  Wouldn't it be a fun joke to install the florescent light and email her a picture for her reaction?  Dad and I laughed for the next hour wondering what Mom O and Steve would say when they saw this dentist watt living room fixture.  He went and got out the tools again and went to work.

 We laughed and laughed.  And marvelled at how much a difference having light in the living room made on these dark winter afternoons.  The kids were so shocked at first they begged for it to be turned off!

 I went to take a picture from outside because now, instead of the house looking like no one was home, you could see straight into the kitchen :)  I snickered while I wrote up my email and I chuckled thinking about Steve's reaction.  Both were precious!

Steve came in the door and screeched to a halt.  "Whoa....we could puzzle under that light!!"

Mom waited the night to think about how she could kindly reply and sent this email in the morning. "Wow! nice change." and then gently changed the topic.  So loving! So Mom!  When I questioned her on the phone later on she laughingly admitted her thoughts ran along the lines of, "to each their own" :) :)  With both reactions... more laughter.  It was so fun.  But also, so practical.  That light lit up our winter dark living room like nothing else.

Then Care was here a few weeks ago and one day we went thrift shopping.  She spotted the drum and declared it perfect for the living room.  Hunting some more through the Habitat for Humanity Restore led us to a new fixture for $10.  Bunch more work and little parts by Dad and he got this new light finished.

I would show you a wider angle shot to see it in perspective to the living room... but well there's laundry and shoes and etc... :)

Thanks, Dad, for all the work you put into helping brighten the living room.  We are thankful for it over and over again.  But most of all thanks for being willing to do the extra work of installing that florescent light.  It gave tons of laughs, light, and time for me to find something else for cheap :)

another week of work

Thankful for more help again today!  Daniel showed up bright and early and didn't leave until the deck was finished.  Notice the bright skies, though, I'm pretty sure he was glad he came before lunch. :)

 Meanwhile, Steve and a his boys were working on shingling the roof.

 Learning how to be careful and how to use the roofing gun.  Hopefully they're all skills they can use in the future.

 Martin came by in the afternoon and worked away with the rest of the boys getting the roof done.  It's looking mighty splendid!

 As you can see, he did not pick a dry shift so we're super thankful he kept going until the roof was done.  And the deck looks great too!

It's quite something to have all these helpers stopping by and helping us get further and further along.

thankful for help on a gorgeous day!

lots of littles enjoying the deck joists :)

 So, Dad, by lunch time they had framed in all the new roof to tie it to the old one...

 that's a valley that runs from the north west corner of the roof up... I just thought it looked cool with the blue sky :)

 Travis showed up too, so by coffee time they finished sheeting and papering all the roof.  Wahoo!!

 Same but different view as this morning :)

 Cody and Cara thought they would try out the scaffolding... but no farther than the  post!

We'll keep trying to keep you posted!

this morning

morning, Dad :)   This is where they were last night... they cut away the existing roof (see last picture) and are busy tying the old and new roofs  together.

 and the outside is sheeted...

This morning the weather is looking VERY promising and Brian is busy destroying the old chimney and making it sound like the house is coming down around us :)  And it is, kind of... I see blue sky through the kitchen cupboards and I'm kicking myself for not getting some of that stuff packed up before it got full of insulation etc.  oh well!!

Skelters: Tons of Fun!

These new toys on the farm gave hours and hours of fun for the young....

 and old alike!  They sure go fast.... maybe it's just the lack of flash but it's sure more exciting to think about Gramma whipping Clay down the driveway breakneck speed :)

The two Leanne's even had a race... we both were chauffeuring our babies :)  You really have to try these out to see how much fun they are.  There was a few lessons in sharing with 13 kids (1 wasn't interested yet) and 2 skelters with 3 seats and one wagon between them!  The kids have big plans to use them for transporting fruit boxes this summer.   

Here's some extra info :)

Irresistible

The kind of mud my boys play in... it doesn't matter how many times I say don't, how many times they end up eating supper in their underwear, how many times they lose their boots in it.  They just can't stay out of the deepest, goopiest mud spots!

He is Faithful

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 100:5  

We were at Dad and Mom's for lunch and Mom read Psalm 100 to end the meal with the few kids there. A few hours later all 14 of the grandchildren met at Timmy's to have a special snack with Opa and Oma (Mom's parents and their great grandparents!)   We were there to have, in part, a special celebration for Opa and Oma's 55th wedding anniversary!  Opa and Oma will acknowledge that those years had very special and bright days but also some very dark days as well.  Yet, we thank the Lord that they can also still say Ps 100:5 - The Lord's Goodness, Everlasting mercy and Truth daily set before the 4th generation.

And yes, the very sight of us stopped traffic.  Our noise filled Timmy's.  Our order cleared the sprinkle tray. The many seniors there were enthralled... maybe even a bit jealous and completely blown away by the very idea - especially when we said Opa & Oma are expecting their 60th grandchild and these kids were 14 of 38 greats.

A Fun Day

 Being greeted by this gentleman set the pace for a VERY fun day!

Sam was first up the stairs and whacked the newspaper, thinking he would get his Dad.  Boy did he grin big when he realized he'd been had!  Cam was up next and was ready to go for a morning snuggle.  His eyes showed a few moments of confusion when he got behind the paper and didn't find anyone there but they quickly turned SUPER twinkly.  No one else wakes up quite like those two so while everyone did a double take, their reactions were a bit more subdued.

Combining that with a few other Mom pranks and a bunch of school day pranks and these kids came home fired up to do a little pay back.

And it was the greatest part of the day!  They were so much better at it than me.  No hour spent on pinterest to find ideas.  Here are a few of their best.

• Leah got her teacher to write a note that said she had been disruptive during math and needed to complete a few extra assignments.  They have to learn the art of being subtle because when she came off the bus pretty sad I wondered what she had done but the more she pushed for me to read her agenda the more the warning bells went off.  She did give me a dirty look when I wrote back to her teacher to "just lock her up and throw away the key" :) 
• Cara and Cody were in the lego room.  Cam came in from outside so cheerfully and announced he was going to help them.  In a few minutes there was a mini version of a world war happening in there.  I was a bit suspicious but I went to go play referee.  Those kids can act!!!!  If it wouldn't have been prank day I would have been sure they were royally ticked with one another.  Meanwhile this wasn't so much a prank as a diversion as Leah snuck into the empty kitchen and grabbed the ketchup bottle to do a "MOM, COME, LEAH'S HURT BAD!!!" with Sam outside.
• Cody, of course, wanted to do his own ketchup version on Steve when he came home but I veto'd that.  He was VERY sad.  After listening to his wailing for a while Sam sweetly came in, sat beside him on the couch, slung an arm around his shoulders and then offered to help him think of his own original prank.  They decided Cody was going to pretend to be sick on the couch.  Cam didn't think Cody's laying there with a blanket was super convincing and asked if Cody could have 1/2 a banana and a bucket.  His thought was Cody could chew on the banana, keep it in his mouth till Steve came home and then spit it in the bucket for shock effect.  Original idea... I love their creativity... but I nixed that too :)
• the last one I remember right now was a gigantic spider that they made out of construction paper, taped to a bamboo pole and made crawl along the bottom of the kitchen window.  Noticing movement, I looked up only to see this spider making it's way along.  I couldn't see them below the window and I couldn't see the end of the pole either.  So much fun!

I'll have to start planning now already to combat that kind of effort.  10 points for effort, my dear lovies!!!