Summer Changes

She gained!  A relatively painless process if you don't count the pocket book part :) 

I felt the part of a bad mother when sitting in on her exam and finding out how bad her eyesight actually is already.  But thankfully the glasses were ready in a couple of days and she looks quite darling in them if I dare say so myself. 

 He lost!  Harder to notice with the face paint Leah supplied this morning but his two bottom teeth are gone and his baby boy face is no more.

He did this in as manly a way as possible, of course.  The first one came out with a elbow to the face and the second one came out during a fantastic backyard soccer game (by Brynlie's birthday pool party!)  Being soft hearted Sam and terrified of blood I will proudly point out for him that he finished the deed and pulled the second one out himself.  Go Sam :)

He may be a bit tougher about getting his teeth pulled out now because I made him watch the video clip of the boy whose Dad helped him pull out his tooth by tying it with a long string to a decently sized rocket model.  If you've never seen it try googling it or something.  The boy's expression is rather priceless.

Yesterday I had a list of errands that just had to be done. 

When I had finished spending a couple of hours cleaning up STUFF in search of a cover of a DVD we had borrowed from the library, I sent all the kids to the kitchen for a brownie and a drink, then off to the bathroom to make sure we got at least halfways through the list before getting complaints, then out to the van to get their seatbelts on. 

By the way this is a very efficient method that I would like to heartily recommend to you.  By sending them out first they can (when in an obedient or eager to please mood) be ready, with seatbelts fastened, for me to coming flying out the door and take off.  Now, while this is a benefit, it's not the #1 benefit.  #1 to this scenario is the fact that by sending them all to the van I have now cleared the house and I can spend 15 minutes doing last minute things without them underfoot.  Guaranteed there will be at least one fight in the van and 3 or more will be wailing or wiping crocodile tears upon my arrival but at least I had 15 precious uninterrupted minutes!  Disclaimer:  this is written tongue in cheek and I am not so foolish to try this when things like hot weather would endanger their lives.  Also, when the mosquitoes are not in residence they're usually riding bike or jumping on the trampoline waiting for the 1 minute bell.

Well back to yesterday morning, I sent the children out to the van with the keys so that I could come flying out the door and ready to take off right behind them when one had to go back inside to pee.  Not 45 seconds later and a very sheepish son came slouching into the house with this annoucement, "well, that's the end of our going away!" and held up my van key missing the top 1/2.

Thankfully I can tell you that I was not in the same state as I was on the bike trip of a week ago and I actually managed to take this one in stride.  Not that I was impressed about the whole scenario... both my key fobs are at the repair man and this van happens to have only one key lock on the drivers door, which now was cradling the missing end of my key.

I was desperate enough to get some things done that I put my thinking cap on and after a few tries found a needle nosed plier that did the trick and a spare key to boot.  The kids cheered.  They thought I was amazing.  I had already had this suggestion.

"Call Daddy!"
"Why?"
"So he can call a fix it man!!!!"

Well, off we went.  Second stop on the list was the mall.  Now, that may be normal for most of you but I don't happen to visit the mall very often and when I do, I go at night when I can leave my 5 dear children in the care of their loving father.

I think everyone but Leah probably thought this was their first time ever to the mall.  They've probably been before but not in recent enough history to remember it.  And you know what they discovered?

THE MALL SELLS FOOD!!!!!  LIKE FRIES AND COKE!!! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORES!!

So, being a health nut ;)  (or cheap) I told them we would have a snack but I was under no conditions or terms going to pay for lunch in the food court.  We got a few fries and some rootbeer and settled in.

Until I saw the lunch special at the WOK.

"does anyone want to share some Chinese food with mom for lunch?"

And this is how it came to be that the mall patrons of July 27 got to see Mama bird feed her 5 little birdies some chow mein worms.  Most of the rest of it skipped the fork and went via little snitching fingers from plate to mouth.

And it was so much fun.  Even if we proved ourselves unfit for the queen's table.

playing inside while the mosquitoes roam :)

A Bike Ride

Warning:  This is a long story mostly for my own memories sake.  While you're certainly welcome to read it, no one is going to be offended if you decide it's too wordy a post for your time constraints!  If you do decide to plow through, what can I say but thanks for enjoying our bike ride with us?!

Last night the twins had their promised sleep over at Gramps and Gramma's house.  I slept amazing.  :)  I haven't called Gramma yet.

But with the twins away Steve had an idea to go for a bike ride with the kids.  And not just any bike ride.  He wanted to prepare them so they could do the Hope Classic with him next month.  When we mentioned a bike ride at supper the kids immediately hopped into a heated discussion about where we should go.  They were voting for a short hop a few blocks away with stops at the controversial bike park (where Sam just about lost his 4 front teeth) and a few playing parks.  We let them discuss (well ok, for honesty's sake I should say ARGUE bitterly) for a little bit and then Steve informed them of the intended route and purpose for the evening's ride. 

And they cheered, jumped up and down, raced around to get ready to go.  Not!

They started up all manor of complaints about it being boring and long but Steve just went on his merry way packing up bikes, helmuts, kids and their unsure mother into the truck.  It wasn't that I didn't want to go but it was already 7:00, I was tired myself and Sam was on his third day of run-for-2-straight-hours soccer camp and 1/2 hour of two-people-in-the-class-learn-lots swimming lessons.  I was worried about exhuastion disaster before we left the supper table. 

We established a single file order, Mom, Leah, Sam, Cam and Dad and hopped on our bikes.  Almost immediately the complaint was that I wasn't going fast enough.  But we left the parking lot where the race starts and weren't even 50 feet down the road and Sam was already standing still at the back of the line up with a very unhappy look on his face.  Steve went back to give him a pep talk and as they approched us I suggested since he was the runner, he went first and I took the back.

Looking back, I do think he was quite delighted with the suggestion.  At any rate, he sure didn't say no!  Off he sped with Leah and Cam right behind him and Sam and I moseying along, me saying all kinds of encouraging and motivating things to get Sam steamed up and eager to do this.  We were doing not too bad until Sam in his continued, I'm-not-gung-ho-about-this-and-I'm-making-sure-you-know-it, didn't cross the road when I told him to.

Now, in my defense, the road is a older, winding country road, the sun was in a scarier position and while the road isn't exactly hugely busy, the cars tend to coming flying around the corners.  And while Sam was being a bit of a turkey about the whole thing, I love him dearly and didn't want to see him slammed by a vehicle.

So I did what any frustrated and worried mother worth her salt does at such a time as this.  I freaked out on him, yelled and hollered and made sure he knew I wasn't happy that he didn't obey when I knew it was safe. 

He did what any frustrated and tired 6 year old boy does at same such time.  He cried.  He wailed.  He made his way down the next road getting further and further behind with a very unbalanced tears trailing down his cheeks to wailing noises ratio.  In other words.  This lad was using his lungs to whine loudly.

I think the saving factor was Cam, who on a bike that's a bit too small for him, was starting to fall a little further behind because his legs couldn't keep up a 500 rotations per minute pace.  Not feeling so left behind, we worked together as a group to catch up to Leah and Steve who were increasing the gap by the minute.  Sam caught up but Cam's bike wasn't going to make for such allowances.

Cam cheerfully let them go until 100 meters up the road he and I got to the stop sign and Dad, Sam and Leah were out of sight.  For a minute there I considered turning around with this boy and heading back to the truck to wait for everyone else to come back.  We were 1 km into a 8 km bike ride and unless Steve thought to stop and wait for us, there was no way we were going to catch up!   Only 2 things stopped me.  The thought of the very happy mosqitoes that would happily munch on us seeing as the truck keys were with Steve and a huge mountain of pride.

On we peddled.  And boy is that Cam a trooper.  He still wasn't completely happy not knowing where Steve was but I think it was mostly my fault because I had conveyed a lack of certainty about where we were and which direction we were heading.  In other words, this kid was freaking out that we were going to get lost.  I was freaking out that Steve would think I was close enough behind to let Sam fall back if he needed and that at some point I would come across a very distressed Sam waiting for us to show up.

Once we had passed the dogs that came onto the road to say hello and once Cam was sure I knew we were going the right way we had a wonderful time.  He hadn't really whined yet, more worried than whining so once he stopped worrying he started chatting up a storm with insight and observation that only a newly turned 5 year old comes up with.  A totally delightful time.

But it was a long bike ride and this kid was sitting on a awful seat so he started telling me about his sore butt.  And I was epathizing!!!

This whole bike ride scenario reminded me of the times Steve first started taking me running.  I loved long distance running but hadn't done it too much and I could still here him one day when running in a group, one person less happy about the run than some of the others and Steve said, "run to the next pole".  He taught us as a group that if you were getting tired the best thing was to look ahead, find an acheivable goal and run to it.  Then find the next goal and keep putting one foot ahead of the other, even if your goal was just to get from one telephone pole to the other. 

The other thing I was reminded of on this trip was of the night Steve and I ran 14 km.  Yup, we were cool like that and lots of our dating time was spent running kms.  I don't remember our 14 km route but there was a field/fence line complete with horses that made me think maybe we had headed in this direction.   By the way, completely off topic but while I don't remember the route we ran that night I do remember where it ended because after talking me through the first 13.5 km without any slowing to a walk he sent us up Little Mountain to finish!!  My legs were jelly at the top.

Back to biking with Cam, while he still wasn't complaining he did have a sore butt and so his daddy's technique of taking your mind off the distance and breaking it into achievable bits ended up being a lot of fun and successful too as we took in all the pretty farms and homes around us.  And soon we were on the home stretch.  To Sam's friend's house, around another telephone pole, the road where Sam's begining disaster had almost made me throw in the towel.  And as we crossed the road there came Steve and the kids in the truck.

I think it will be a long while before Cam forgets his Daddy's smile, raised fist and cheer when Steve saw him cheerfully trucking along so close to the finish line.  That kind of encouragement and love is the stuff that will push him to the finish line a few times in his life yet, I think!  Steve asked Cam if he was going to finish... with the unsaid question being if he just wanted Steve to pull up and throw the bike in the truck but Cam cheerfully informed him he was just about done and when he finished the ride he was heading for an icecream cone :)

And so those little legs went back to pumping furiously trying to get to the finish line before Steve could get his truck turned around.  He didn't quite succeed but he didn't mind either as he skidded to a halt on the gravel and stuck out his hand to get excited high fives from Steve, Leah and Sam.  With thoughts of an upcoming ice cream, the sore butt was now a trophy of the finished route and he proudly told the others of his pain! 

Quitely I asked Steve how the others had done and was so thankful to hear that despite it's beginning the bike ride had been a delight for all and Steve, drenched in sweat, had thoroughly enjoyed his run.
We piled the bikes back into the truck and headed with cheering and excited kids for a  McD's cone.

God is so good to give us these special times and the healthy bodies to be able to do it!

Another Day on the Farm

I think this boy won the cuteness award today... as well as the dirtiest award.  He had so much fun on the berry picker.  I'm not sure how much work he did but I think Travis got a bunch of his million dollar smiles just by providing him with a family of snails to play with up there.  Yup, there's got to be someone up there making sure snails don't end up in your jam :)  Anyway, Cam was so tickled with them and he ended up carrying Baby Snail all the way to the front to show everyone else.  (Big Brother, Big Sister, Mama and Papa all got tossed back into the bushes for next time :) )

 Cam also would have won the award for the best air conditioned, or the most destroyed in a single day.  Tell me, how do you get two huge symetrical rips in your shorts and how much talent does it take to include the rip in the ginch?  (Aunty Wilma - I typed ginch just for you because I thought about you reading it and I could just see you smiling! :) )  Anyway, I think Les and Travis ought to be VERY careful because it seems as though riding on the picker is a very dangerous occupation.

 These precious little hands were stained so purple from those berries.  I took some "tickling sugar soap" to his hands (thanks, secret pal!  My kids think that stuff is the funnest bath extravaganza yet and they know that after a day at the farm I'll probably attack their feet with it) but the sugar scrub didn't even make a difference.  I thought it was going to be a wear off situation until l got a call from Krista suggesting lemon juice.  Amazing, the stains washed right off with an application of straight lemon juice.  Oh, the helpful tips you learn here :)

 I'll have to try Cody's feet in the morning.  He had so much grease or something on them.  He wiggled and wiggled as I scrubbed his feet with sugar and I finally felt sorry for him and quit.

So thankful to God today for healthy little bodies that could play, work, discover, explore.  On a day like today when I stop to observe these precious kids, watch their eyes glowing with delight, I'm overwhelmed.

Exodus 15:11

“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?

The Gist

Dear Care and Brody, this is just a small sampling because I didn't have time to take too many pictures and Russia sent enough smoke our way that the skies are more gray than blue.

Leanne M spent a whole bunch of time designing some sharp new signs.  This is what you spot as you leave the Prest Road 4 way.    She also designed a very nice (and big!) banner for the highway and it's sitting on the fence line behind the raspberries.

 We also have a great sign over the stand now.  Most days we have juice, jam and squares that Krista makes in her free time (when she's not washing windows :) :)  Love you, Kris!)  Leanne spent a bunch of time here this week as I was at VBS and Krista spends the mornings in the field with the pickers.

 Yesterday we put the harvester through the rows again.  I don't know too much about it but I think it can be run with 2 guys, driver and picker when it goes into the barrels but you can be sure the kids think it's a pretty good place to hang out.  Even Cody and Tyler will spend some time on there working.  Thankfully Travis is a great guy to have around and the boys like being up there with him.  I haven't heard him complain yet so hopefully he doesn't mind it. 

 Les has that machine moving row after row and it looks like you have to pay pretty close attention to avoid ripping out bushes etc.  I don't know how fast he's travelling but it's slow enough that even the kids (the bigger ones) can get on and off while it's moving.  (That's Steve heading down the row to make sure the kids aren't freaking out in the ranger where I left it way down at the end)

 Berries come through and Trav and Leah are picking off leaves, green berries and spiders and slugs.  

 We do have trays to pick into but for this pick we picked into the barrels again.  I have no idea how much the barrels weigh but I think on Saturday we filled 15 or 16 of these.

 And, of course, as long as there's trips to be made from the house to the field, there are always willing kids for getting a ranger ride!  Missed a good picture yesterday when Mom learned to drive the ranger and had it packed with very happy grandkids!

So there you go, a little taste. We would find some work for you somewhere... can you come down?  :)

an ending...and beginning

I always tend to be a way-too-many picture taker.  If I wanted to share more Alberta pictures there are still a few hundred I could choose from.  I tried to do a post about the time we spent outside but it bailed on me.  And while I titled this "an ending" I may still do a post about an afternoon trip we took to a provincial park a few minutes down the road from Dad and Mom's place.  But for now, with Gramma (and Carolyn :) ) asking for a Berry post I'm going to leave the Alberta trip with this.

The reason we actually went out to Alberta in the first place.

We were so thankful to be able to get away for the day to witness the wedding of Jeff & Laura.  It was one of those weddings that stirred us with it's beauty.  It was the kind of beauty that goes far beyond skin deep, wedding dresses, flowers and all the other pretty things that come with weddings, theirs included (even though my picture isn't the greatest!).  It was the beauty of two lovely people, marrying in Christ. 

The beauty of loving families and parents raising their kids in God's ways.  The beauty of grown children thanking God for such an incredible heritage.
And we counted it a privilege to be there.