Vellenga Views Online

Lovely day indeed

2012-01-04T18:35:00.006-05:00

We did some GOOD homeschooling today. :)

Here is the lad just starting his search and dig for gems.

If you want to know what else we did while homeschooling go here. :)

After we finished homeschooling we watched the rest of a movie "Missing Lynx" on Netflix. We're getting it free for a month to see if we want to switch off cable and on to Netflix. So far thinking Netflix is the way to go. :) We enjoyed lunch: the lad with sprinkle sandwiches, me with a turkey wrap.

Then out into the backyard to play in the snow. We had a rousing snowball fight after we made our walls. I am often amazed at the strength of this six year old. This snowball was big enough that I was having to work hard to move it. And he pushed and was VERY determined and he moved it quite a ways.

We also did some prep work for making our own snow sculptures.

Take some empty boxes.
Fill them with snow and let sit overnight to freeze.

We hope to make snow sculptures tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

I got cold so we came inside, I ran off to dollarama to pick up a few gloves/mittens for the lad. I've gotten a bit tired of trying to find new gloves/mitts for him so I figured an overabundance means we'll actually have some. :)

A supper of perogies, beans and apple...a good day overall. quite pleased with how the day went.

it's been a spell

2011-11-29T07:42:00.002-05:00

Since I last posted on our blog here... I'm actually thinking of just merging my blogs.. but not exactly sure about that.

anyways, what's been happening in our household for the past bit?

the lad has a fascination with spiders lately. Wants to trap them, keep them, feed them and what not. They do unfortunately die though... at least that's unfortunate in his eyes. Me.. I don't much mind that they die. he's captured a variety of interesting ones though. Some that just lives in houses, some that mostly you just see outside, and some that seem to live everywhere. The outside ones, I have to admit, they stay outside. This is what old aquariums are for.

he's also captured a whole whack of lady bugs. he's got them in a different aquarium that is packed full of leaves. We're seeing if they will survive the winter that way. We read that they live under fallen leaves and wood over the winter so he's testing that theory out.

Hubby's knee has been a bit of a bother lately. So he's been hobbling around off and on. He still can't work out properly but he's developed a routine that mostly works for him. He can't do squats, and he can't solely weight bear on that leg either. he has surgery booked for next October, our family doctor is going to see if she can't get him in earlier with a different doctor.

Me... well.. seems I'm hitting menopause early. It's caused some oddness in how I feel in my head, and most of the time I can control it. Doc says in time it will pass and to just bear through it. If it gets beyond me I'm to talk to her. I'm not completely there, but mostly. Life continues.

My rabbits have been for the most part doing well. I lost a litter in the early fall... not entirely sure why, but the does second litter had an issue as well so I think genetics played a role in that, as well as the weather. I find that bunnies die more easily in the cold wet weather than they do any other time of the year, if if they are under shelter and well protected. Bothers me, but all I can do is try to breed hardier animals.

the cats are doing well. Chase is due to have surgery soon. he's becoming too much cat and we'd like to just stop that. :) Milo still retains a bit of a sneeze from when he was ill, but for the most part is better. I need to get them into the vet this week for their shots.

what else???

Homeschooling continues... some days being better than others.

The gardens have been mostly all well manured and put to bed for the winter. I haven't done a thing with the flower gardens.. next spring awaits as I simply don't think the weather will cooperate at this point so that I can get them done. I think I'll ask one of the moms to take the lad for a couple nice days in the spring so I can work hard on them (hopefully with hubby's help). Then the lad can help with the rest of it.

And I think that's all I have in my noggin this morning. Cheers!

Earache Frustrations

2011-09-11T14:51:00.002-04:00

So the lad's tonsils swelled, they seemed particularly bad so called his ENT to see if we could come in. No as they hadn't had a specific referral in regards to them.

So called the family doctor got in. Said they were bad but not infected sent us home after telling us they'd refer us to the ENT.

Then the lad developed an earache. It turned fairly nasty over the long weekend. called Telehealth to see what to do who after taking all our information merely said the on-call doctor should be calling us within 24 hours and to keep the phone line open. Didn't call.

SO.. on Sunday afternoon we traipsed over the Emerg. Got put on Biaxcin. It didn't seem to help. Called the ENT who said "He's not taking patients this week and next week he's on surgery so he won't be seeing him then either, go to your family doctor." ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! But they did suggest we get drops for his ears so we headed back to the emerg where friendly doctor Milne prescribed the drops and sent us on our way.

By Wednesday the lad had me thoroughly worried. But Thursday he seemed a bit better, on Friday he was back to chatting my ear off but needing rest periods, and Saturday morning he was out hunting Crickets so all is MUCH better in our household. :)

we have a new cat

2011-07-26T06:59:00.002-04:00

We had sparks put down on the 11th, and today on the 25th we got a new kitten.

He's a spunky sort of lad.
Thinking that overall he'll do well for us. Time will tell.

He has no name yet and no pics have been taken of him yet.

He's a brown tabby.

got him from animal care and control in London. They have July free. $60 fee paid which we'll get back when we have him neutered. seven weeks old.

Sometimes God challenges

2011-07-11T11:55:00.004-04:00

First old boy rabbit Jack dies. He went from eating normally, to eating 2 cups of feed per day and drinking like a horse, to not eating and then not drinking. He passed away over night on Thursday the 7th.

Then last night the sore on Sparks shoulder was all icky. Not sure if it popped open or if he caught it on something. Either way, it's icky and infected and we're going on holidays so we're letting him be put to sleep today. Not a pleasant course of events, and not the way we wanted to start our holidays. He's an old cat, and has been a good companion, but it's time to let him go.

means for a couple of days we're taking Milo camping with us as he's a very social cat. After camping we'll pick up a kitten who will keep him company (probably drive him nuts for the first while) but will be a good companion to him. Hopefully an orange tom! :)

It's been crazy

2011-07-09T06:58:00.004-04:00

So this week has been rather a crazy one.

Monday: Jim's day off so we're in London.

Tuesday: cleaning and packing up a bit since we're going camping for two weeks. busy busy all day long. We had to go somewhere today as well but can't recall where or for what. :)

Wednesday: birthday party play date in Stratford for the lad. Lots of the homeschool families came. The lad had a hoot! The park by the festival theatre is such a nice park! :)

Thursday: Cleaning up the backyard, cleaning the downstairs bathroom. Busy busy all day long.

Friday: out to Kitchener for a picnic lunch with friends from Mali and Toronto. We had a good visit and good time. The lad had a hoot playing at the playground. We met at Victoria Park so it went well for everyone.

Saturday: Birthday party at Oma and Papa's. Normally we'd meet here but it's easier for papa if we go to their house.

birthday party

2011-05-15T07:32:00.003-04:00

the lad was off to his first ever birthday party today.

his new friend libby has turned 6 and was having a party for her homeschool friends.

they had fun together.

First to build a bear where, well...they built a bear. :) each child got a bear and something to go with the bear. The lad picked a brown bunny and originally called it rabbit rabbit rabbit...but now it's just called rabbit. :)

It did take us a while to find something that rabbit wanted to wear but he REALLY liked the bicycle outfit. :)

The bear a bear event was followed up by cupcake decorating at the food court. The children enjoyed themselves.

afterwards we did some schleeping around since we had a few things to do.

A tired Saturday morning

2011-02-26T07:21:00.002-05:00

Ever have a day when you are pretty sure you are supposed to be doing something but you can't figure out what it is? well... today is one of those days. All week Jim and I have been saying to each other... what is it we're supposed to do Saturday? but for the life of me.... can't remember.

Ah well.. what can one do?

Anyways, it's been a pretty good week overall. had a bad moment when a doe I bought last Saturday had to be culled. Really was bothered by that. I bought her, noticed she was a bit thin, found out she had a bad foot infection and tried to treat it. But then she started to bleed copious amount and so we let her go. I'll be getting another rabbit sometime from her breeder and see what happens down the road a bit.

But we had fun with week going to Dufflebag theatre with Justin. We had a hoot. Dufflebag theatre is four individuals who with a local orchestra (in this case Orchestra London) put on plays for children. They are interactive ... as in they choose children and occasionally adults, to help play certain roles in the play. They encourage audience participation. Justin kept wondering if they would choose him. :) It's a lot of fun and they teach children to enjoy theatre. The play was "the three musketeers".

Working hard this week on cleaning the bookroom. Not nearly as far along as I had hoped to be by this time...but WAY better than last week. Perhaps I'll get her done today? yeah...right...I do disparage of it at times.

Winter 2011

2011-02-10T08:05:00.002-05:00

We've had a good winter here in small town Ontario.

It's been COLD.
The rabbits have done well. The cats are healthy though Sparks is starting to show his age.

The boy child has done well...he's learning how to ski and skate this year, much to his protestion! it's hard mommy! yeah, well...sometimes you have to do things that are difficult.

Jim is having fun skiing.
I've taken up snowshoeing.

We've had a ton of snow...enough that I'm tired of shovelling it.

Sometime I'll put up pics. :)

Christmas Decorating

2010-12-04T22:03:00.003-05:00

Wow..it's been like 1.5 months since I last wrote here... Anyways, I'm here today. :)

This morning Justin and I cleaned up the living room.
We wanted to get ready for decorating for Christmas. :) Yeah...Christmas is coming!

So we dumped everything and anything into the book room to be tackled later.
And then brought up Christmas stuff. By the time we got that far though it was time for Jim and I to head out to the consistory dinner.

We enjoyed ourselves.

Justin stayed home with gramma and had fun together.

Justin and I had fun decorating for Christmas after gramma left to go home. Next week sometime we'll do up a tree! that will be a hoot. It's LOTS of fun decorating with a boy. :)

Jim got the GPS working on his new toy (an android tablet). So life is good. :)

Anyways, I have to go put stuff in mailboxes at church. It's late, I don't wanna go as the church is creepy at night when it's all dark...but I'll suck it up and go do it anyways.

Cheers!

Hope Day Tomorrow

2010-09-23T20:54:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow will be our second hope day (DV). Both Justin and I enjoyed it a great deal last week, and I have to say I am looking forward to it already. I guess it is because it is good to see Justin having fun with other children, and it is fun to teach a bunch of kids something I find so simple, baseball, and see them have so much fun with it. Hopefully we will have good weather, as I am not sure what we will do if it is raining. Only time will tell.

It's the crackers fault

2010-08-20T18:11:00.002-04:00

I was thinking the other day that one of Justin's teeth was looking funny so today I took a closer look at it.

It is definitely loose!
First one in, first one out apparently.

He tells me it happened when he had a cracker the other day.

He will NOT let me pull it out and he doesn't want me to have it. He's very protective of his teeth! :)

Silly five year old lad.

He's doing more for himself...

2010-06-19T08:49:00.001-04:00

the other day our son was filthy! Like from head to toe as little boys can be apt to do.

Mommy, I think I need a bath!

yes, I think you do too. Give me a moment to get this done and I"ll help out.

I get what I was doing done and find him missing.

I walk into the house to find footprints going through the kitchen, up the stairs and into the bathroom. No boy anywhere.

I go downstairs to find a boy snuggled into the sofa watching TV. All sparkly clean.

I was very surprised, and very pleased. The dirt on the floor...ah... that can be cleaned up. But the boy clean all by himself. Well...all I could say was WELL DONE LAD! :)

New New Easter - ???-May 1, 2010

2010-05-01T22:15:00.003-04:00

New New Easter.

Came to us from a breeder about an hour from here. She was part of an overstock issue with that breeder. We had her for about two years. Her age was unknown.

Justin met her and just fell for her. Marvellous rabbit. He named her New New Easter (after his stuffed bunny named Easter).

Not the best example of a Red New Zealand, but overall, a nice rabbit. Had the perfect temperament for a boy child's pet. Very calm, unflappable rabbit.

She disliked being alone too much. I often would foster kits on her for growing out.

She'd gotten sick a while back and had responded to treatment. I didn't quite trust that she was completely better so thought I'd put her out in the 4 x 4 for the summer, and potentially forever. Gave her a nice big area to roam around in, lots of room to foster kits in, and made her even more accessible for Justin to play with.

She was fine one moment, the next she was not.
I had planned that I would put her out of her misery after doing bunny chores, but she took that necessity away from as she passed away by then.

She is sadly missed by one four year old boy.

We buried her behind the rabbit tent with her favourite weed planted over her.

wow, it's been a while....

2010-04-17T07:51:00.003-04:00

So it's been a while since I last wrote anything here, so why don't I slip up the letter that I wrote various people this past week.
-----------------
Hi folks,

Yes, it's been a while since I wrote a letter. For those of you who don't like bulk letters, just want to reassure you that if I've had an email or written letter from you, this won't all be the same as I'll modify for the person getting it. :)

Not saying that some won't be the same as there are only so and so many ways of saying the same thing.

Jim... had a stroke, and is in process of recuperating from that. Tires more easily. Takes longer to do things that require mental effort. But he's back to muddling with the vehicles again. The van has had it's badly needed oil change, and has new shocks on it. And he's eyeing the Mazda lately...keep it, repair it, trade it in???

The meds Jim is on cause him to be cold frequently. Imagine this... sometimes he is colder than I am! Means when he is working on the van he has to pick a good temperature at which to do it. He is hopeful with his blood pressure remaining low that he can get off some of the meds he is on. Would be very nice if he could. We don't argue about the temperature as much as before. :) that's a nice side benefit. :)

He is back to working full-time. But his sermons are shorter (makes them more poignant). He still can't read books out-loud with Justin in the evenings very well yet, but it's improving. Time is our friend right now.

Justin...is very proud that he can spell HI and CAT! Does he know all his letters yet? no... but that will come with time. Likes to learn most anything as long as I can tie it to his loves in life...cats, trains or bunnies. Not always so easily done, but we try.

He is a very busy, cautious type lad. Often doesn't do things until he knows he can. We are hopeful to convince him to ride a small bike this summer. And I want to get him into swimming lessons.

He goes to nursery school 2 hours/week. Enjoys his time there but wishes mommy could stay with him.

He likes to dig! We've been working on extending our patio and he is having a hoot digging out there with me. Right now it's a muddy mess as we've had rain for the past couple of days.

Overall I find he is a good mix between Jim and I. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes a shake your head and ponder thing. :)

Milo and Sparks. Sparks is getting old. He is developing growths, and is getting thinner looking (not such a horrid thing for this very solid cat). Just signs that he's getting older. I expect by year end he'll be no longer with us. Milo remains the best cat we could have gotten for a cat crazy boy. He is starting to mature and act less kitteny, but usually where you see the boy, you see the cat.
The bunnies are doing well. I've sold a lot over the Easter season. I currently raise Harlequins (a smaller meat breed), Mini rex (my favourite breed), Polish (a tiny, sweet breed), and Holland lops. (everyone wants Hollands nowadays so they are easy sellers). This year I plan to show my polish, one harlequin buck, and if my lop doe who just kindled this morning produces what I think she did, possibly a young loppie as well. :)
Guinea pigs. Justin likes his piggies. We have two sows, one boar, and one visiting boar. And soon we'll have a few babies to sell as well.
As for myself. I'm doing okay. I've had some health issues that haven't quite resolved themselves. I have a test to undergo at the end of May. I am hopeful that might produce some answers. I am very much looking forward to yard sale and gardening season. I've started going for walks in the evening after Justin goes to bed. It's a nice quiet time for me.
Mice. Yes, I still raise mice. I've dramatically reduced my population of my breeder females though. I”m starting to get my long hairs which I am quite pleased with.

---------------

There, that gives an overall update quite nicely. :)

A tough day today...with moments of joy :)

2009-12-31T20:39:00.009-05:00

So I decided enough was enough with the mess in our house, today I am cleaning up!

For the most part that went okay. Floors are clean, lots of recycling ready to go, kitchen table is cleaned off, Jim's chair is over at the church, back hall cleaned up, Christmas stuff all put away and toys tidied. All good.

It was an exercise in patience....
one four year old who thought it would be a good day to play with his millet seed. WAY easier to clean up than sand, rice, or other such sensory hide stuff in and play with types of material. AND has the added bonus of being able to be composted and the plants fed to the bunnies in the spring. BUT NOT fun to sweep a floor, see a lad playing (and spilling) seed over a floor I had just swept and cleaned up. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One boy child thought that getting mommy's Christmas present out so that HE could play with it would be a good idea. NOT. but we got it out, I showed him how it worked and then let him make one robot with mommy's help and then promptly forbade him from ever using it without mommy's help. Reminded him about what he could touch and what he could NOT touch of what was "mommy's stuff". Hard sell for a four year old, but he knows. Really....he does. he just doesn't always remember......... (or so he says).

He wanted to go outside very badly the whole time I was cleaning. Told him...as long as he changed his clothes and dressed for outside, he could go outside. He insisted the mommy had to go with him. So he had to wait until the house was mostly livable...and then off we went with daddy's chair over to the church and to play "german bunny" in the church yard.

We built a snowman... and well...

see...it's built....

but then the boy happened... :) (sheer joy on his part...that and determination....)

now mommy...now??? all done with the picture???

I will prevail over the snowman!!!!

to the point of STOMPING it to death!!!!!!!

Victory complete, on we went to play "german bunny".
German bunny is a bunny who lives in a castle, and whenever we go to visit him one of two things happens. Either hunters come and we turn into tigers who have to escape from them. OR dogs are set loose who like to bite people and we have to hide from them.

We want to visit german bunny so that we can get some jewels from him!

AND that's as far as the story ever progresses. :)

I do like these moments of sheer joy and fun. Makes it all somehow better when a day is tough with an arguing child that needs time outs and such like.

Indoor fun fair

2009-12-28T23:07:00.001-05:00

held at the agriplex on the western fair grounds.
indoor carnival held for four days.

Justin had a blast.

1. magic show. he wasn't impressed with DooDoo the magician clown though she did manage to amaze him a couple of times.

2. bouncey things! boy...bouncey things are a whole lot of fun!

3. fun house! house of glass! he could spend hours in these things. and then to cap it all off..BUMPER CARS!!!!! Could a four year ask for any more fun? NOPE! Sadness when mom called dad to come pick us up. He wanted to play more, but mom was tired and little boy was getting tired too. :)

Put Up the Christmas Tree Today

2009-12-12T14:07:00.002-05:00

Jim was supposed to head off to a meeting today. Left at 6ish with a three hour drive ahead of him. He was not looking well at all. 1/2 hour he called to see what I thought about him coming home again. He came home.

He's been groaning around the house ever since. He can't breathe well, his coughing is not good, and he can't sleep unless he's sitting up! Not conducive to good sleeping. He has a doctors' appointment on Monday.

but Justin and I have continued our plan. Putting up the Christmas tree, playing games, listening to Christmas music and sporadically watching videos.

it's going well...we've been helped by Milo the cat as well. :) Pics will follow when we're all done. Stayed tuned!

Our Christmas Letter

2009-12-12T07:06:00.002-05:00

If somehow I should have sent a Christmas card but somehow forgot you as I updated my addresses, well...here's the Christmas letter I sent out this year. :)

Merry Christmas!

Has this winter storm put you in the mood for Christmas at all? Well...it has me! :) Isn't Christmas fun? I find myself wanting to bake cookies, get the house tidy, wrap presents and such like. I do so enjoy helping people find a reason to smile. And isn't the biggest reason to smile the fact that Christ came to earth, died for us, so that we could be right with God? Doesn't that fact just blow you away and make you realize just whose you are? We are God's, and we are here to show his glory. Let us this season show his glory to those around us. (at least that's what I hope to do!) :)

Anyways, I've been somewhat remiss this year in getting cards/letters/and such like out to people. I seem to keep finding other things to do.

1.Starting to slowly homeschool Justin. Takes time and planning. Sometimes I feel woefully inadequate because I'm not always the most organized person around. But when Justin wants to learn something, we take the time and learn. :) It's fun. I love watching him think. We've done some simple unit studies and do the odd craft. Making wood crafts is where it is at!

2.Lego! Ah this boy just LOVES his lego. He is constantly building robots of one sort of the other. It's good to see him use his imagination. Now to keep him well supplied with Lego.....

3.Bunnies! I raise my bunnies and thoroughly enjoy them. I have mini rex, harlequin, commercial new zealand, polish and holland lops. All have their shining aspects, and well... they also have their 'challenges'. :) It's all good. I'm slowly improving their type and learning the sheer fun that is rabbit showing! :)

4.I've done some limited pet-sitting.

5.We've had some vacation time this year. Unfortunately this summer every time we camped, we had rain. Kinda puts a dampener on things. But it was good to get away. Jim didn't quite get the reading time he needed, so next year we'll do things a bit differently.

6.Justin attends a nursery school one afternoon a week. It goes for two hours. He has fun but every week he tries to convince me that I should stay there.

7.Jim is serving as president of Classis Ontario this year. It's meant extra meetings and some added stress for him. I personally think he's doing a good job, though I wouldn't mind him being home a bit more often.

8.Things in Exeter continue as they have been. Jim continues to pastor, I continue to do the newsletter and to update stuff as it needs doing.

9.I still work at Subway one day a week. It's time for Jim to play with Justin, and time for me to make some needed funds. :)

10.My veggie garden did really really well this year. I was quite pleased. Lots of lettuces, corn (though the raccoons did raid our patch), I tried a new type of cucumber which flumoxed Jim, they looked a bit odd, but tasted good. Tomatoes like you wouldn't believe! My potatoes grew well, and I tried a chinese cabbage this year. I wasn't wildly impressed and won't do that again. It attracted bugs by the bucket load and was not appreciated by the bunnies either. It was so dirty and wormy that I didn't want it either! And we had some butternut squash. Oh boy... do we have butternut squash.

11.Not sure what else to write...it's overall been a pretty good year. Learned lots, cried some, laughed tons, and walked with God. It hasn't always been pretty, but it's been okay.

We do wish you a wonderful Christmas season. Do know that God sent his son to die for YOU personally. He did that so that you could have a close and intimate relationship with him so that you can more fully show HIS glory to the world around you.
Jim, Annette and Justin

Justin's Ear Appointment

2009-12-03T08:25:00.005-05:00

I mentioned three months ago (I think) that Justin's ear doctor moved him to every three months appointments rather than every six.

Jim came along this appointment.

Justin's right ear is healed over completely from the tubes.
The left ear has lost it's tube, it just needs to heal up. So, somewhere in this house is a small green tube that I didn't notice (not that that's a surprise, those things are tiny!).

The doctor thinks that it's not tonsils, but rather adenoids that are causing the trouble for Justin, and in three months may end up removing them.

He's given us a spray to see if that will help shrink them. It's called Nasonex. It's not cheap! A squirt in the nose every night before bed.

Our next appointment is March 2, 2010, at 1115.

Vacation - November 2009

2009-11-20T16:15:00.002-05:00

Due to Jim's illness, our rabbit sitter cancelling on us, and various sundries our original plan to leave on Monday ended up being pushed back to Wednesday.

We spent the week at Don and Deb Waterhouse. We camped in their backyard. Worked out well. Gave us our privacy, gave them theirs, and yet gave us time to chat with each other.

Wednesday we arrived. Basically just chilled the rest of the evening.

Thursday we went to the Royal in the afternoon. All of us were tired. We didn't see the whole thing, but we did see some and have a chance to nibble on samples, see goats being milks, watch some sheep being shown, and to chase down a wired lad every time we turned around. :)

Friday we kicked around our home base. Had chats with the Waterhouses, discovered a christian bookstore and enjoyed browsing. Justin came home with some LEGO wannabe and has been totally enamoured with it ever since. :)

Saturday we headed home. We hit IKEA first, and came home with an DVD bookshelf, some new cups for Justin and something else that I can't recall at the moment.

It was a good time away.
Amy did a good job caring for the bunnies and the house while we were away.

A sick hubby

2009-11-05T12:56:00.002-05:00

So Jim remains ill. It's been three weeks now of one thing or the other.

He's currently running a fever, is somewhat 'light' on his feet, runs out of energy quickly, and isn't eating worth a whit. He's drinking lots and mostly staying quiet in the house, though today we worked together to winterize the trailer which HAD to be done before it drops down solidly below freezing tonight. Didn't take long and hey...we were actually able to work together without biting each other's heads off. :)

working on getting this and that done around the house. Taking it easy. keeping a boy busy enough.

Trick or treating

2009-10-31T22:21:00.003-04:00

Justin went as a cat. A tabby cat to be specific.

Gramma tagged along. This excited the lad to just no end. :)

Justin was SO hyper and SO totally full of beans. Running and flying and saying "meow". kept it up 1/2 way around the block and then suddenly....he crashed. Wanted to ride in the bike trailer. Which led to us shortening our walk and just doing specific people for the 1/2 block home.

BUT before he crashed he made LOTS of people laugh and smile. :) He was very cute with his "meows" of trick or treat, and then his different "meow" of thank you.

He occasionally forgot his manners and would dive for the candy bowl and then needed to be reined in.
He occasionally got upset when people didn't know that he was a tabby cat and called him a tiger instead. :)
He mostly remembered to say thank you in one form or the other. :)
He mostly remembered to wait for candy and not grab.
He mostly remembered to say hi to people that he knew. :)

He stared at dismembered hands stuck in door ways.
He was fascinated by the "person" running away from the "witch", who made very strange noises as "he" ran away. (one of those motion sensors things that moves up and down and moans).
he loved the pumpkins and the pumpkins that were "throwing up" were a total fascination.

Some pumpkins were angry.
Some pumpkins were silly.
Some pumpkins acted like they wanted to eat other pumpkins.

He surprised one family by going "boo" (surprise with throwing grass up in the air). Was a total startle, but it was all cool. :) We didn't let a repeat happen though.

I LOVED the smiles of the grammas and grampas when he stopped in. One street close to us gets rare visitors as it is mostly a street of seniors. Just the huge smiles on their faces as Justin was very much himself. Brief conversations led to stories about missed grandchildren. :) That was the best part of the evening for me. Just loved that. :)

So that was trick or treating for us this year. Lots of fun for one four year, and lots of smiles for mom and gramma.

Jim stayed at home and handed out candy to SIX children. woohoo! we had six children. :)
TONS of caramels left though hmm....wonder who will eat those?????

Today's activities

2009-10-15T22:25:00.002-04:00

You may recall that this was my list for the day:

clean kitchen
fold laundry
play with the boy
dump more dirt down on the rabbitry site
see if I can empty one compost bin...that would be very nice
see if I have enough time to move one garden
talk with hubby
make supper of some sort. Perhaps soup. We could do that. it can cook all afternoon in the crock pot.

What I managed to accomplish

cleaned the kitchen
folded laundry
played with the lad
dumped dirt on rabbitry site and have started leveling it
removed one garden and then went out bought wood and remade it. Then proceeded to fill it with compostables and dirt.
talked with hubby off and on
made supper but neglected to turn ON the crock pot. Turned it on and had a cup of soup for snack.
made applesauce (6 jars)

I am hoping tomorrow that I emtpy one composter, build a rabbit carrier, tattoo three rabbits and get to bed on time for a early Saturday morning start.

We'll see how far we get. the carrier and tattooing are the most important.

Yersterday's Activities

2009-10-15T07:36:00.003-04:00

Finally made the decision that I can't afford to build a whole new rabbit tent. Just can't. So we're going to erect a different tent for the bunnies (another portable garage).

We'll use the current one for storing stuff in which will keep the back yard much tidier and give me an outdoor workplace and well as a place to put new bunnies, extra bunnies, growers and the like.

Jim is even thinking about buying a garage to put the trailer into. Means we'll be short on space in the backyard for the winter BUT our yard will be cleaner, our trailer kept safe from the elements and that all round is a good thing. And having a tent makes it nicer for doing my yearly yard sale as well.

But yesterday was a busy day.

Started dumping dirt down on the new rabbitry site so make the ground more level.
Pulled up the bulbs that don't like being out in cold weather. Freecycled half of them.
Brought all the houseplants in from outdoors. Actually managed on Tuesday to find new homes for three of them.
Took Justin to playgroup...this is a group that he goes to by himself. Gives me 1.5 hours of totally free time. He found that difficult at first, had fun, but is worried about the next time he'll be going.
Put together our new pressure washer.
Tried to get it to work, it didn't want to cooperate with me. It ended up working for Jim. Go figure.
I replaced the boards on one of the racks. the old ones were fairly stinky. These new ones help reduce the rabbitry odour and should stay clean. I hope. May need to fine tune how I do it all...we'll give it a week to see.
Got rid of the pile of dirt where the old rose garden used to be.
Got a new drill. This is MY drill. But I'll let Jim use it. :) But it's MINE!!!! Meant only for doing jobs that I can do. Not a big one, not an expensive one, just one that will do what I want it to do.
took new pics of all baby bunnies and posted them on the website AND blog. Soon they'll be up on kijiji.
talked with Pete a bit, Jim did too. he was mowing the lawn at church.
One of Slip's is a broken grey, and is female so I have it presold already. YEAH!!!! Slip is an amazing doe, I'm really proud of her. Silly yes, but I am.

Jobs I need to accomplish today

clean kitchen
fold laundry
play with the boy
dump more dirt down on the rabbitry site
see if I can empty one compost bin...that would be very nice
see if I have enough time to move one garden
talk with hubby
make supper of some sort. Perhaps soup. We could do that. it can cook all afternoon in the crock pot.

Jim says I always bite off more than I can chew, but I figure it's better to have a big list than one that's too small. :)

Long Time No Post

2009-10-10T22:45:00.003-04:00

Hello all...

I know, it has been a while since I was last here. Ah well...I have been otherwise occupied with things.

Weird...I seem unable to hint the apostrophe button...sends me to a quick links button. odd that.

anyways,
Today was a busy day.
Snuggled with Justin for an hour before getting up. read books, chatted etc.
then downstairs to check email, set the TV up, and then for me to go out and do the bunnies.
Ended up interrupting that process to talk on the phone with mom (Eva).
had breakfast with Justin before heading out to finish was I was doing with the bunnies.
Came in, talked with Jim, played with the lad and his lego. :)

Then cleaned the kitchen. Jim helped some! :) Got it 90% done too! :)

After that was done I headed outside with Justin to get some work done out there. Got the one composter empty. YEAH!!!!!! Got some dug out of the old composter (not as much as I hoped but some).
Got the given to me guinea pig cage emptied and set up for Harry to come pick up some day. He will be housing a rabbit in it over the winter.
Discovered we have four new guinea pigs from Annie! Surprise surprise! Eric will be a bachelor until at least January. He will not like that, but he will survive. :)

Oh ran out to pick up some groceries with the family. Got back to the house with a hungry lad.

What else?
Cared for bunnies. cooked sausage and taters for supper, Justin did something different he was HUNGRY!!! So he munched down while I cooked supper and did various things.

Relaxed over supper, put J to bed. Watched Stargate universe with Jim. Had a soak in the tub for an hour. Updated this and then I'll be off to bed.

Tomorrow is thanksgiving Sunday. I have much to be thankful for. :)

A burster

2009-08-16T09:29:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Justin made a lego "burster".

A burster when shot at someone turns them mean, and then he uses a zapper to make them nice again. :)

Wish I had pics.

We had fun playing together while doing our canning.

slowly making progress

2009-08-13T06:53:00.002-04:00

So I'm slowly making progress getting the backyard cleaned up.

The old rabbit tier has been dissembled and most of it burned up. Still have a bit too do but it's was 830 and I said enough of this I have laundry to finish too!

I"m hoping this coming weekend to get the rest done. Getting stuff put back into the tent/shed etc and then Jim can at some point move the trailer into the backyard too.

After the "stuff" is put away I want to start putting the post and beam shed together for the buns for the winter. fun fun! :)

Justin's Birthday Cake

2009-07-10T16:03:00.003-04:00

Annette made quite a nice birthday cake for Justin this year. Not only did it taste great, but for a first attempt at decorating a cake, it turned out pretty good.

As you can see from his grin, Justin liked it. There is one question though? Was it the cake he liked, the the cars on top?
I guess that answers that question. :)

Canada Day Fireworks

2009-07-02T08:00:00.003-04:00

obviously I have no brain this morning.

Jim told me where he put the pics from the fireworks last night, can I find them?

No.

So suffice it to say, we went to the Exeter Fireworks last night.

Got there around 8.
Justin played at the playground for a bit.
Then we sat and munched on corn chips and juice.
visited folks a bit.

And then I tolerated bangs while holding a boy in my lap. I enjoyed the quiet fireworks. Justin sometimes covered his ears with the 'bangs'. Jim enjoyed the bangey fireworks the most.

It was a good show. Not as good as last year, but they didn't have as much to work from this year apparently. None-the-less, for a small town. Job well done. I really like the sputtery ones....where you get the a whole bunch in different colours that just fly up in the air with a flash of colour. :) Canada Day needs fireworks, and we had them!

Milo Monday....a bit late

2009-06-06T06:00:00.003-04:00

Milo is too contented with himself.

He cheated...and won yet another mouse race with the boy.

For the full story, go here.

Sore Throat

2009-06-03T14:36:00.003-04:00

okay....let's all say..YEAH for spring colds.

NOT.

Jim and Justin are having to put up with a wife/mommy who can't talk today.

Justin keeps asking "mommy....talk to me" "why can't you talk to me mommy?" and then occasionally "mommy, wake up!". I'm very dopey today. Very quiet. YET!!!! i got the lawn mowed! YEAH!!! it looks TONS better now.

Jim was very helpful in the grocery store. He talked for me. :) And I ended up getting a more expensive than I thought it was Dora DVD. (dopeyness at times is NOT good) Ah well...the boy is at least happy about that.

Justin's playing upstairs. I think I may join him after I check what the laundry is doing.

Milo Monday

2009-05-24T21:04:00.005-04:00

Just reach out and touch someone, that is Milo's motto.

Family Fireworks

2009-05-18T22:07:00.002-04:00

Upon reading the title I realized it might be misunderstood. I am not talking about controversy or any other sort of metaphorical fireworks, instead I am talking about setting off fireworks as a family. This is something that my mom did with me as a child, as did Annette's parents with her and her siblings. For me it is one of my fond memories, and while we were out getting groceries I thought it would be fun to do as this weekend is one where traditionally fireworks are set off. I didn't get many pictures as I was the one running back and forth lighting the fireworks, but I did capture this afterward.

Milo Monday

2009-05-18T21:57:00.002-04:00

This Monday is a two pack. Milo insisted one picture was not sufficient to give a real sense of him.

Milo Monday

2009-05-09T21:44:00.005-04:00

Plastic bags are fun, and to think, people want to ban them.

Milo Monday

2009-05-04T11:12:00.002-04:00

Today we were taking a bunny to a new home. He was sitting in a cage by the front door, and Milo, never having seen a baby bunny before, was facinated:

New Family Member -- Well Sort Of

2009-04-29T18:05:00.001-04:00

Today after a busy day for all of us, we had a new family member added. Any guesses?

Well...that was a job!

2009-04-28T21:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday out with Jim, the wind started to pick up, I worried about the bunnies.

Called Bob (next door neighbour) and asked him if the 'tent' was still standing.

He said, yup, everything looks good. I relaxed a bit.
got home...checked the tent...well...it wasn't all right.

So got all the rabbits out. Jim a total sweetie for helping me with this as he was still tired physically from Saturday's rescue.

Put them on the grass, covered them with a tarp.
When in town on Monday I had asked Princess Auto if I could return the tent and get a new one. They said "yup!" so did that today.

Lauren came over at 5ish with Bella. Bella is a doe that I bred last summer so she's a bit more than a year old. She's had an 'oops' litter. She needed to rehomed out of fairness to her... Her family is getting a new housemate and quarters are getting tighter something had to give and so Bella came to live here. I don't mind. I've regretted not being able to keep one from that litter and Bella is just a knock out.

Anyways, Lauren said she'd help us put up the new tent. Wow...did her helpfulness ever come in handy. :) Took us an hour to get it all set. Another hour to get most everyone back in and squared away...until we had to break for supper.

After supper I put the rest of the bunnies away. That was a challenge.

Decided to get the guinea pigs out of their wet housing...I have NO idea how they managed to get wet but they succeeded. So they are now in their summer housing pen.

Lost two mice to the rain last night. I didn't realize the tarp I covered them with lacked in the waterproofing department so they almost drowned. Two (one baby and one adult) got too wet and died. The rest I managed to rescue! The babies I brought in the house and used the hair dryer on them for a bit. And I managed to catch one of my mouse escapees tonight. YEAH!!! :)

Boy are my muscles sore.

Thunderstorm . . . Damage

2009-04-25T16:56:00.008-04:00

So the first thunderstorm of the year just came through, although there are still some small, less intense cells on the local radar. I had just went out to close up the ends of the rabbit tent (one of those metal frame covered in tarp garages) when it hit. When I say hit, I mean HIT. The wind went from almost nothing to an outright gale--maybe not technically, but it certainly seemed like it. The rabbit tent started to lift off. I grabbed it with a little success, that is, it didn't blow away completely.

What did happen is that the tent pushed over two racks of rabbit cages knocking over the nesting cages in the middle, knocking over the aquariums full of mice (breaking one), and threatening to knock over the other two racks like a bunch of dominoes. I grabbed it and screamed for my mother because it was lifting me up--all 230 pounds and a tent.

There I was soaked to the bone, holding on to the cross bar of the rabbit tent being lifted off the ground wondering if I was on my way to Oz. Eventually (probably only a few minutes, but it felt like a very long time) my mom got out there to help, but even with the two of us we kept blowing up off the ground.

The only way to talk was to yell at the top of our lungs, and once the wind started to abate a small amount, my mom wondered if Justin was ok. Our concern was that he might come outside to find out what was happening so she went in to check. A minute or so later the two of them came out to help (yes, I still needed it) and slipped in the mud (yes, both of them). Justin started to cry, and stood right by grandma as the only safe place. Then when he had calmed he went and hid in the shed.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the wind started to diminish, and one person could handle things. So I checked on what was broken, then went inside to check the radar to see where the storm cells were. They were past our place, and as I was about to go out again, Justin was as the back door wanting to come in.

I let him in, and helped him take off his wet clothes. He told me how he was happy to live in a house because houses don't blow away, not like tents.

Out I went again, and mom and I lifted up the racks. I thought of trying to capture the mice, but having been bitten by a mouse before I decided catching scared mice was not a wise thing to do.

You may wonder where Annette was through all of this. She was at a women's conference in Hamilton. Thankfully, she was on her way home, and while I was not able to exit the tent yet, she called to say she was on her way home.

Soon, the wind and rain reduced enough, and I was cold and tired enough of holding the tent, that I simply headed inside to get out of the wet clothes, have a warm shower, and get dressed in something dry. Annette arrived a little after that and we went to check out the damage.

Here are the pictures:
While the two racks behind Annette are up again in this picture, but notice the middle cages are still on the ground.

Here is a large tear in the tent material.

Here is one of the two posts up the one side which were damaged by this. This has resulted in only two post on that side providing lateral stability so when the wind blows from that side the whole tent sways, and that side bows in very far.

The broken aquarium.

Finally, I didn't notice this until I took the pictures, but one of the top bars was snapped as well.

Nice Good Friday Day

2009-04-10T18:35:00.002-04:00

Good service this morning.

Gramma came over.

Justin and gramma played, then we did some yard work.
Jim removed the engine oil cooler lines on the van, and changed tires on the car.

then we chilled in the house for a spell.

Life has been good.
God richly blessed us today.

KW Home Education Conference

2009-04-05T15:31:00.002-04:00

Saturday Jim and I attended the KW Home Education Conference. It was interesting.

I LOVED looking through the resource centre. Picked up four books, was tempted by countless others, Jim discovered a couple he'd like to get at some point.

Most of the seminars were good, can't say I liked them all. Made me think abit more what I want to do and how I want to do it. I like the idea of doing unit studies...but not all unit studies. I also like the idea of classic education.

Lunch was simple of buns and salad.

Uncle Bill

2009-03-31T15:58:00.003-04:00

Today Justin's Uncle Bill came up for a visit.

Justin at first was shy and then remembered that Unca Bill is okay. They played, we chatted. We went for a walk, Justin disappointed we didn't go to the park (missy's park), but had a good lunch.

It was nice to visit and to learn more about what's up with him lately.

Too much fun for a tired little boy (late to bed, up early) so now the buggy is napping and I'm getting a few things down about the place.

Snow....

2009-03-30T09:07:00.002-04:00

I have to admit...I was NOT in the mood for snow this morning.

Pretty yes.

Like it, yes.

In the mood for it.... absolutely not!

March Activites

2009-03-26T07:37:00.006-04:00

Well....it's been a cold wet month thus far. Our snow for the most part has disappeared, but not completely.

We're going for walks again at the Pinery. We for hikes there, we play at the beach. Justin finds this a lot of fun, and Jim and I find it relaxing. Just to get out and be. Not distracted by this and that, but just out together.

a warmish day, but not really warm out.
wearing new shoes and not wanting them dirty in the mud
therefore play up in the snow! :)

playing on the beach.
we had to bring his stick home too!

It amazes me sometimes at how cold it can be out...I'm freezing and Justin's hands and neck are warm. :) How he stays warm I don't quite get. :) But I'm learning not to dress him as warmly as I do myself and to ask him before I stick a hat and mitts on him. :)

you'll see his beloved tagu is taking part in all this too. :)

Garden Ornaments

2009-02-25T21:48:00.006-05:00

pig

cow

chicken

More Backyard Fun

2009-02-25T21:29:00.006-05:00

these were a fascination for a while

buried by mom!

He likes his fort. it's a good place for 'bob' to hide from 'spud'

Rolling down a hill

Justin is a good helper

2009-02-24T13:07:00.004-05:00

we have a stool that well...is rather tippy for Justin.

So yesterday when Jim and I were out bipping around we found a different stool for Justin. One that we needed to put together ourselves, but it looked less tippy than the one he has currently.

While Jim was reading, Justin and I got busy putting it together.

Justin was a good helper putting on the thingey's that hide the screws. :)

Crafts with a boy Child

2009-02-23T07:00:00.004-05:00

We were out at the Dollarama a bit back, I discovered they have wooden crafts that one can make. Costs a dollar. Gives a lad and his mom something to make together. They are very simple, just glue and let dry. Justin likes putting the wheels together, I like having him figure out which piece goes where based on the picture in the front of the box. Makes him think.

Yesterday afternoon we added a train and a plane to that line up.

the rabbit that you see out front? that's another craft we did...it's from Jan Brett's website, the author of one of Justin's favourite books "the Mitten"

and the truck....well...it is stuffed to the gills with 'tiles' or 'mail'....depends entirely on the day. Sometimes those tiles make huge accidents on rail lines, other times the mail trucks are kept busy all day long, and sometimes they just make fine cargo for train trucks to carry around.

Lots of fun little squares of construction can be.

Who would a thunk it? I like doing crafts with my boy child! :)

Mommy I.....

2009-02-19T18:01:00.002-05:00

There are several things Mommy like to hear...

Mommy I can help!
Mommy Look what I did.
Mommy, help me with?
Mommy I learneded this......

Mommy's often don't like to hear....

Mommy I helpeded you wash the floor! Muck helpeded too! He's a big helper!

this after one has put away mop and pail....
then comes into kitchen to see sponges littering the kitchen floor with cold water well....EVERYWHERE!

yes, he helped.
yes, I didn't get angry.... I suppressed that with oh Justin, what a big help you were! Let's go find some towels now eh? let's dry up the floor! wow...isn't it all clean!

NO! We're not washing the floor again. It has to dry now.

I'm tired of this....

2009-02-14T08:03:00.002-05:00

I have a cold.

This household for the past two months has been struck with one illness of the other.

I'm getting rather tired of it.

can we please be healthy again?

on a more positive note: Mom and Dad came up Tuesday? I think it was.
we had a lovely visit. :)

Mom was gracious and pointed out a lovely cobweb I had that I promptly destroyed with glee! :)

Beginning of February

2009-02-02T07:47:00.004-05:00

So it's the second day of February...ground hog day I think. (do I really care???) :)

Spent most of the night sleeping last night, interspersed with the noise of Justin coughing (to me is seemed like coughing his lungs out). Don't like the cough, but overall he doesn't seem rattlely in his breathing so I'm not too concerned yet...but if he's still coughing really hard by mid-week I'll probably take him to the doctor just for a once over.

Jim is getting a sore throat...here's praying that it doesn't become a full-blown cold. he's been running a bit short on sleep lately so we're letting him sleep in a bit this morning.

Justin's been enjoying watching LOTS of movies lately. Mostly on Thomas the train. :) he likes Thomas that boy does. :)

we watched ratatouille the other night...that was fun. Nice movie. We'll need to watch Wall-E this morning because it has to go back to the video store this afternoon and there's no point in renting a movie without watching it!

Lots of fun yesterday afternoon playing out in the snow. we even dug out the sand-box since Justin needed a truck to carry snow with. it was SO nice out. :)

Jesse came over with his doe Bailey to get her bred to Baskin. That was an experience in itself! He was willing..she was a bit more....reticient shall we say. BUT he got the job done. I had a disappointment this week with losing a litter of baby rabbits. Hopefully won't have that happen again.

Anyways, I think that's about it. Talk more another time.

This weekend Past

2009-01-26T07:15:00.002-05:00

This past weekend Justin went to visit his gramma.
She offered to have him as she didn't have to work on Monday this week so could have him for an extended period of time.

He's apparently had a very good time. Playing out in the snow, going to her church (lots of children), playing with Thomas, watching TV, helping gramma work on her things and so forth. They've had a great deal of fun.

Jim and I went to a movie on Saturday afternoon...Inkheart. It was a good show. Have to admit, some things seemed silly to me...like what was the point of dressing the girl up in some old greyish dress? That just seemed odd. But overall, not a bad show. Good triumphs over evil.

Yesterday I found it very relaxing to just be able to go to church and LISTEN to a sermon. To not have to mind a toddler who either wiggles and makes noise (which gets people tsking) or that I need to take out to the quiet room (so we can have sunday school). Both make it difficult to heed the sermon. So that was rather nice.

Toilet training basically complete

2009-01-22T13:39:00.003-05:00

So I had promised Justin if he went three nights without wetting his diaper/pull up, that he could try going to bed without one.

Last night he did so! YEAH!! No accidents.

He did get me up at 4 00 a.m. though, crawled into bed with me and kept me up until I threatened him..GO TO SLEEP or we won't go to Missy's today (playgroup). He really wanted to go to playground so he settled right down again. Slept until 8 a.m.

He had fun at Missy's, didn't play with trains at all, played with cupcakes and the play kitchen. T'was all good. :)

Shopping, then home for lunch...which he took upstairs because he was going to play (I think he missed his trains). Silly lad...and today I'm too tired to make a point of where he eats.

Cheers!

January Updates

2009-01-17T20:42:00.002-05:00

January has been A COLD month!

I am slowly getting better from the bug that inflicted me in one way or the other throughout December. Doctor tests revealed nothing. I find I still need to focus on blander foods lest my digestive system react negatively.

Jim is doing well.

Justin is starting to figure out the whole toileting thing at night. Sometimes he gets up and goes back to sleep, other times he's up at 230 and raring to go. Jim and I tend to disagree with him at those times and then it's just a matter of trying to keep him quiet enough that SOMEONE can get some sleep. :)

I've managed to sell most of our baby guinea pigs. Justin has requested that we keep one of the Rainbow ones, so we've done so. Just three left to sell, two are spoken for.

One of Jim's cichlids has a mouthful of babies. He caught her today and put her in a net holder for live bearers. She's unimpressed, but hopefully those babies will survive. :)

My guppies are starting to multiply well. My hope is to sell them, but if for some reason I cannot, they will make good supplemental food for the cichlids.

Hmm...now what else?
Not a whole lot. We're having snow tonight. Kinda pretty, but rather miserable to work in. :)

I'm Blogging Through Calvin's Institutes

2009-01-14T23:16:00.003-05:00

I decided to read through Calvin's Institutes this year. As I started to do so using the Reformation 21 schedule, I found that I desired to blog this as well, so I have started to blog my way though it.

First Post
Second Post
Third Post

Kerussomen Christon Estauromenon: Calvin's Institutes 1.4.1 - 1.5.1

Scrapbooking with a toddler helping

2009-01-11T19:18:00.002-05:00

Jim was tired today, so I thunk to myself...how do I feel like I'm relaxing today WHILE keeping the boy child quiet and out of his father's hair?

Scrapbooking!

yes...I actually dared to try to scrapbook with a toddler.

it was actually fairly fun.

We looked through albums, laughing and talking about how much he has changed.
We looked through pictures and figured out which ones we wanted to scrap with, and which were "HIS!" (those we put in a small album of his own), and which ones would wait for another day.

Then we actually worked at it.
It takes MUCH longer to actually do it when a toddler helps. :)
It means you add things you didn't intend to .... like train and car pictures. It means usually toddler words to explain things. it means using markers that he chooses.

It was a good time together and I think worked to meet the ends of all concerned.

Annual Tinholt Potluck

2009-01-03T21:28:00.003-05:00

Today our annual Tinholt Potluck was held at the Drayton Reformed church.
Jim stayed home and mostly slept. He's still not feeling the best.

We all had a good time.
I had a chance to connect with aunts and uncles and cousins.

Justin had fun following "the big girl" around (his cousin Marisa).

Good food.
Fun with card games.
Conversation.
Singing.
Prayer.

Can a person ask for anything more?

Prayer request though: my Aunt Hen's brother has passed away.

Our buggy visiting his grandparents

2009-01-02T07:12:00.003-05:00

Sierra and Marisa (my second oldest brothers' children) are visiting my parents Thursday - Saturday. Mom mentioned that if I wanted, Justin could come as well. This way Justin can visit Oma and Papa and get to know them better while the work load of caring for a toddler is not too much for Oma.

Justin likes playing with Sierra though he says..."she's bossy", but then in his next breathe tells me "but she plays Thomas with me". So it all kind of evens out for him I think. :) Sierra for the most part plays well with him too...mostly remembering that he is three and not eight so patience is sometimes called for. :)

I like my boy getting to know his extended family. I do hope to instill in him the importance of family in him. Not just caring for immediate family but seeing that family has a broader picture to it. This will help I think in him seeing that the family of God is bigger than just our immediate circle but includes people beyond as well.

We'll be picking Justin up again on Saturday when we have a big family get together in Drayton. Should be fun.

Having Justin away allows Jim and I a bit of breather room too...after a month of various illnesses striking our household...it's good to just relax and not have to be too concerned about much beyond each other. :) We even had a chance to sit for a while. Was good that. :)

Something I want to remember Justin saying

2008-12-31T07:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Justin and I were up in his room chatting.

In the course of the conversation he was mentioning things that he liked. So I asked him.... what do you like most Justin? what are your most favourite things?

"I like my trains, and I like you guys".
"Mommy and Dad are my favourite, and my trains too."
"And my kitty, I like Tagu too!"

Made me smile it did! :)

Illness continued

2008-12-26T07:38:00.002-05:00

So Justin remained ill throughout the whole holiday season.

From vomitting to diarrhea to just general lethargy and not eating.

BUT we had a good Christmas. Justin played and played and played some more.
We had a nice visit with gramma.

Bunnies were born.
The dog was missed.

I had a lovely chat with my sister Joan and brother Bill on the phone.

Jim had a good nap.
We watched a good movie.

Presents to each other were enjoyed.

God has truly blessed us.

This Christmas Week

2008-12-24T07:50:00.002-05:00

Snow, snow and more snow.

Sick boy child.

Two adults with head colds.

Snow, snow and more snow.

But hopefully selling another bunny today. :)

Our Open House

2008-12-13T21:12:00.004-05:00

So we had our annual open house today.

We had fun.

We had a whack of people show up in the morning/afternoon. Justin had a lot of fun playing with a friend of mine...totally tuckered her out.

The weather turned snowy later afternoon so we started to expect that most people would stay home...that turned out correct as only one couple came over tonight and they were out because they had work to do at the church as well. :) It was nice to some focused time with them as well.

It was a good day. Justin was wound up and bagged by the end of the day. I'm glad we planned for some down time as he very much needed it.

I, as normal, made too much in the way of food BUT I had planned that I would bring much of it over to the church for the Christmas program tomorrow. Anyways, that's it for the day... it started WAY to early for me (330 with a buggy crawling into the bed). But it's ending early...I'll be in bed by ten. YEAH!!! Now to shut this thing down, grab a glass of wine and I'm off to bed...ah...but that does sound good. :) NIGHT!!!!

New Easter

2008-12-10T22:58:00.002-05:00

New Easter was a rescue rabbit.
She was well-loved by Justin the whole week that we had her. We had to unfortunately bring her back to where we got her because we needed to exchange her for a different new easter.

The new rabbit is called....new new easter. :)

Rice Krispy Balls/squares

2008-11-26T07:02:00.002-05:00

So for the past two weeks I"ve been trying to find the time and the boy will power to make rice krispy squares. I wanted to make them WITH the boy child and he's been steadfastly refusing.

But yesterday I said "I want to make rice krispies, anyone want to help?"
"I help mom, I want to come too".

So we made rice krispies.

I mixed and stirred while marshmallows melted. Justin threw them in the pan and ate as he went (good thing we had extras) :). I stirred in the rice krispies...even to the point of breaking one of my wooden spoons. It was fun.

Once ready, most went into a pan. Some made it into balls...those balls were promptly eaten by a boy child. the squares well....let's just say a certain OTHER boy (man) thought he should eat them too. Rice krispies....meant for Christmas..might not make until then. :) ah well...they are a perennial crowd favourite aren't they?

The Royal Winter Fair

2008-11-17T07:20:00.005-05:00

So the Royal was fun this year again.

Thursday we went down with Justin. We concentrated on child friendly things. The buggy had a lot of fun. The most fun was playing in the bin of canola oil seeds. he just had a hoot. Jim and I took turns sitting with him as the other wandered around booths looking for a bit. At one point a 12 year old boy stopped by and Justin played quite happily with him. This I thought was cool because everyone else he'd been trying diligently to send away.

The petting zoo was a disappointment because well...it wasn't a petting zoo. it was look at a bunch of animals in a corral and feed them. Oh yippee. That was Justin's response as well. I figure if you are calling it a petting zoo...let it be a petting zoo. let the children in to interact with the animals. if you are worried about biosecurity have the policy that nothing there comes home again. Limits the use of llamas and donkeys and such like but most kids want the bunnies, the chickens, the sheep and the goats anyways. For those animals that are coming home...pen them off separately just for viewing. Children are cool with that.

But colouring, puzzling, running around checking things out...all fun for a little boy. he even rode on a fake horse. Life was good. he'd had enough by 6 p.m. so we headed home again.

Friday he went up to see Oma and Papa. And on Saturday Jim and I went to the Royal. First we dropped off some bunnies for a fellow, and then arrived at 1 p.m. I bought a purse as my old one had lost a zipper. Bought one much the same (but better quality) for $60. Then off to the horse show. Today they had the canine-horse challenge, and the unicorn hitch, Big Horse Productions did a thing (neither of us were impressed), Amateur Hunter Jumper, and a few different pony/cart things. It was a good show.

We wandered around the rest of the day just looking and chatting. It was a very pleasant day. The drive home at night wasn't so pleasant...roads were slushing and rather convincing of the need to have some snow tires put on the van. But we made it back to mom and dad's quite safely.

Sunday Jim preached at my parents church and held a congregational meeting followed by a potluck lunch. The decision to close the church in the spring was made. Not an easy decision by any means, but a necessary one none-the-less. Who knows...perhaps miracles will happen before spring and an influx of believers will happen? :) That would be cool. We had a nice visit in the afternoon, had an early supper and then headed home. Took a while as the roads were rather slick but we obviously made it! Saw an accident on the way home and cars in the ditch. Bunnies were well, not as much snow in Exeter.

Let's see...anything else? Nope. So today is a snowy day. We're hoping to tarp over the rabbit shelter today as it's to be snowy week and adding that extra layer of protection would be helpful. And Justin is now up saying he wants to build a snow man. :)

Jim has pics posted up on his facebook.

I want to remember Justin saying this ...

2008-11-13T23:00:00.005-05:00

Upon being told to close his eyes and go to sleep.

But mom, I can't close my eyes or I can't see Tagu while I'm sleeping.

Can't fault his logic can you?
Made me laugh!

And this very tired boy at the Royal Winter Fair today.
he didn't listen at one point, and was giving me a bit of attitude....

I got him off the tractor and told him I can put him in time out here just as well as I can at home.

Got him into his stroller only to have him burst into tears.
"Mommy can't be mad at me!!!! I was just going to count! I'm not a bad boy!!"
Just crying his little heart out.
"ah buggy, you aren't a bad boy....you were just giving your mommy attitude and you can't do that. You're a good boy. Come on now, mommy is not mad at you, we're just both tired." the tears didn't stop quite so easily so I distracted him with a really cool toy barn....that we're going to talk with gramma about. :)

okay...It's November 10

2008-11-10T07:09:00.002-05:00

My knee is starting to do pretty good.
LOTS of work to get done outside...we have snow coming this week and next.
BOY that knee of mine put a kibosh on things..

Anyways, part of life.

Now...what can I say for an update....not a whole lot!

Had fun at the Rockton Rabbit Show with Jesse this past Saturday. Stopped into visit with Judy for a little while as well. Justin had fun at Aunt Judy's until he bonked his head into her elbow. (that's straight from his mouth, then they both had oowies). :)

Jim's discovered rust of more of an issue on Jamie (the mazda) than he thought it was.
He's continuing to work on Benny (the sunrunner, he's looking for a new body for it instead he thinks).
Quinn (the van) needs new pins in the doors. Somehow he thinks I can help him with this. I think those doors will be awfully heavy. But we'll see. yes...I can be a supportive wife in this too..I THINK!

What else...I've sold a whack of bunnies lately. We need to find a big tarp to go over the tent and part of the shed. Will probably need to find some more bungee cords as well.

Not a whole lot else I can think about.
Oh...Justin likes doing this at night before he goes to bed.
who loves you....oh let's see .. mommy loves you, daddy loves you, grammer loves you, oma and papa love you, your cousins love and your aunties and uncles love you and your church family loves you... but most of all...who loves you? GOD loves you.
He smiles. says it back to me with a grin on his face.
we say good night.
he falls asleep.
Life is quiet. :)

Oh...that comes from this book by Noel Piper. It's a nice book.

Bunnies, boys, hallowe'en, injury

2008-11-01T11:19:00.005-04:00

So Justin's perspective and bunnies are somewhat different when it comes to what toys are. :) Mind you....Blue REALLY likes the hanging toy I put in his cage and Markel tosses her ball around everywhere!

Justin had a total hoot getting hallowe'en candy last night. I know...some folks don't do hallowe'en for a whole variety of reasons...we just think...free candy! We won't have to buy boy candy at least until Christmas! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tick or teat! he said numerous times at everyone's house. He would get sidetracked by hallowe'en displays. Watched other children who were all dressed up. Visited people he knew. Said hi to dogs that he knew. He jumped off of porches of all shapes and sizes. Said please and thank you at most places...EXCEPT ONE. A lady who was giving out pencils! Justin was TOTALLY unimpressed, and at age three, hasn't quite learned to be polite despite disappointment.

I didn't work on Friday. I had hoped to, but my knee was against that notion. I'm able to walk on it better, but it remains for the most part, a pain-filled part of my life. If I over-exert it at all it immediately swells up. We didn't get out for too much trick or treating. Just around the block since my knee couldn't handle anymore than that.

I managed for the first time this week to take Sassy for a walk around the block. :) She was simply delighted. We didn't walk far, but she got to get out and about.

what else...I've sold a bunch of bunnies. They'll be going out on Thursday.

Jim's working over at the church today. It's a LOVELY day here in Ontario.

And almost all is well with us here. cheers!

Have to admit it...I like this

2008-10-21T07:21:00.003-04:00

Okay, Saturday I went to the Trail's End Market. They have an animal auction there. I sold three bunnies that had been given to me on Thanksgiving Monday, plus a buck that had bad teeth and with all the teeth clipping I've needed to do on him had developed a fair amount of attitude.

I also bought a whole whack of feeder rabbits. As I was packing up a fellow came up asking if he could buy one of the youngsters, I said sure.... he gave me $3 for a bunny I had just paid $1 for so that was all good in my book...and it was such a small bun yet so that worked out well. I have a lady who buys rabbit from me and my buns are not quite big enough for her yet. Anyways....

One of those buns was a nice young lop. I let him sit for a day just to see how he looked. Then called one of my pet store people and asked if they'd like him. Paul said YES! so I brought him down. I paid .75 cents for that rabbit. Sold him to Paul for $10, and while we were still there chatting with Paul a lady came up wanting to buy that same rabbit. Paul sells for $30, so call that quick profit eh? :) Worked out well for all involved...including that young lop who ended up going to a pet home instead of other options available for him.

I also sold Paul 6 mice which were starting to get a bit big for me (all boys and soon they'd start fighting) so that was nice too. Not as much as a private sale, but 75 cents each for something that costs me next to nothing to raise ain't anything to sneeze at either. :)

Then I also sold three bunnies to one lady. :) $60 more in my pocket. Mind that money immediately went to Home Depot to buy wood for making racks for my rabbit cages. I simply LOVE the rack that I've already made so I'm eager to get the other two finished and all my rabbits safely ensconced inside. Then I can get my hay inside, and can close up the tent for the winter. :) Hoping to get that done by end of the week.

all in all....a good day's work. :) Now to sell the rest of those babies.... :) I've people interested so it's just a matter of time and they'll find homes of one sort or the other. Even a guy in Mississauga who wants to buy some breeders (and Jim's going up that way on Friday). So hopefully it will all work out well.

update on the buggie

2008-10-21T07:15:00.002-04:00

So Justin remained sick for most of Sunday.

I kept him busy with playing with water, interspersed with "you're looking pale buggy, time to lay on the couch again." He drank and drank and drank. And ate bread "without the crust". :)

By supper time he didn't want to stay on the couch and was acting like he'd like a bit more food so he did 1/2 an apple, bread and cheese. :) ate it all up too! and then drank and drank and drank some more. :)

he was happy and looking good by bedtime. even helped mommy take care of the bunnies.

Monday I wasn't as chipper as I would have liked to have been, but overall I was okay. Jim was feeling a little rough around the edges as well.

but it seems to have passed (at least for me and Justin, Jim's not up yet). so life is good. :)

Today, a sick child

2008-10-19T10:55:00.002-04:00

Today Justin is not feeling well.
He awoke to having massive diarrhea and running a slight fever.
A very distressed boy.

Lay down quietly on the couch until 1030 when he wanted something to eat and then thought he'd "help" his mommy do the dishes. Acting better, looking very pale yet. I don't think we'll get out like we had hoped to do this afternoon.

We'll see how the day progresses.

Pleasantly Surprised

2008-10-05T22:32:00.002-04:00

So...I've been having nasty leg pain...but I've had that for a long time but it's been getting worse. AND it's been starting to go up my arms so I bit the bullet and went to the doc about it.

She took a whack a blood.

This was about 1.5 months ago.

She called me and said....take iron. 2 at least, preferred 3 each day. ferrous fulmanate.

I was HIGHLY skeptical. Docs always tell women to take iron.

BUT I'm becoming MUCH less skeptical. My arms don't get weirdly sore and weak. My restless legs aren't quite so restless. My leg pain has much diminished.

Life is good.
I get tummy cramps and headaches more frequently...but I can live with those. The leg and other muscle pain though...that is WAY better.

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-09-29T22:49:00.001-04:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family tree chart - Blank family tree

September is closing soon

2008-09-29T07:20:00.003-04:00

Life in the past two weeks ....

Things of Justin I want to remember
1. there's a song that has a line Come sail away, come sail away with me. Come sail away come sail away with me.... I had that line running through my head the other day and was singing it. What do I hear Justin singing in the sandbox while he's moving dirt? Come dig away, come dig away wif me. Dig away, dig away. Just belting it out. :) Was fun. Made me and Jim laugh.

2. We were singing songs ... twinkle twinkle little star....and I changed the words to it "twinkle twinkle little bat, how i wonder where you're at". He listened and then looked at me quizzically... "Mom! That's not my favourite song! You're teasing me!"... then he started to sing "twinkle, twinkle little star." he got stuck and "mom, help!" so together we sang twinkle twinkle. :)

3. His emerging sense of humour..and he's got the strangest giggle. :) Reading books at night, he'll change the story on purpose and then laugh hysterically. So we make a game of it rather than getting frustrated with it. It's funny. Though....a bit repetitive at times. The other night he did it with the foot book from Dr. Seuss. Everytime it said foot, he'd say Head. and then giggle away. :) He's a silly boy.

he also just LOVES the duck feet book. Chortles away, makes up stories about it. And I have to be the mad mommy sending the duck foot boy away. :)

I've learned why he doesn't like me singing.... It's TOO loud. If I sing quietly, for the most part he doesn't mind. Or if I'm singing loudly when caring for the bunnies he's cool with that too. He's a boy who at this stage in his life, does not like loud noises.

Momma rabbits who die leaving 11 babies behind helps one develop a bit more patience. It also is funny how full of happiness a person can get when a baby bunny figures out the bottle and goes into a deep sucking mode of "GIVE ME THAT MILK NOW!". I can get, 9 of the eleven to suck the bottle, one to drink milk from a saucer lid, and one, well...it nibbles on the nipple and slowly get milk into it's tummy.

What else....Jim had a nasty cold last week. Wiped him out. Justin is almost over his cold. Yesterday I fought dizzy spells all day...who knows what was up with that. I think I have two more bunnies sold. My little quiet holland lops...if I had eight of them I could probably have them all sold and picking which one I'm keeping would be so very easy.

I've gotten one garden put to bed for the winter, another few zillion to go. :) I've learned that having a dedicated onion bed doesn't work for me and how I garden. So I"ll need to figure out how to do that better. My tomatoes have done well this year. Had a fellow coming by to purchase my yellow tomatoes from me. Nice to make some cash.

Oh...I've reorganized the book room and Justin's room. A great many of his toys are upstairs now, I'm moving his craft stuff upstairs which means I"ll be able to tidy the kitchen up more, and oh...it's all coming together. Slowly...but it's coming together. :) yeah!!!!!

The Ear Doctor

2008-09-16T22:42:00.002-04:00

Went to see Dr. R today (Justin's ear doctor).

Justin's left ear the tube is out but lying in the ear canal. The ear drum is not healed yet.
In his right ear the tube is half loose. the ear drum is not healed yet.

His ears look good.
His hearing is great.

Afterwards we went to London for cheap gas.
Then home since Justin fell asleep in the car on us.

Tonight we went to an auction sale. Jim got a new tool and something else. Justin got a stool for the bathroom and a spinning top that he was just fascinated by and big truck! I got some odds and ends and something I'm told is for Oma. (Can't tell you here as it's a surprise). :) I didn't get all I hoped for but a bit more than I had planned. Life is good. :)

My Birthday 2008

2008-08-08T22:49:00.003-04:00

What a lovely day for the most part this turned out to be.

nice walk with Sassy in the morning. Weeded front gardens and gave weeds to the rabbits.

Canned peaches, chatted with Jim's mom who came up to play with Justin and to visit for my birthday. I'm 43 years old today. I have 13 jars of peaches and 4 jars of cherries. We had planned to do a picnic lunch with Eva but Justin fell asleep on her lap. He slept from 10-330. (seeing as he was awake at 230 in the a.m. I figured letting him sleep was a good idea!)

Got the lawn mowed and the main floor fairly well cleaned. Not perfect, but then again, it never is. :) I'm getting more proficient at it though!

Had a shower, got things organized for supper and then mom and dad arrived for supper. We had a lovely meal. Mom and Dad gave us this really nice picture of Justin. It's just a superb picture. :) Sausage on a bun with cucumber salad for supper. Conversation and laughter.

Then after supper I showed off my bunnies. They are sick right now so I"m treating them with meds. NOT FUN to have sick bunnies. Some of my bunnies are angry because I'm not letting them out to do "their thing" at all. Nor am I petting them much since I want them to GET BETTER!

Oh...My sister gave me Chicken cannisters! They are wonderful! Okay...she gave one to me and one to Jim. But they are MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will fit in well in my chicken kitchen. :) We have an animal book room, a chicken kitchen and a duck bathroom, though Justin commandeered the ducks from the bathroom to be momma duck and baby duck. Some day they will be rehung in the bathroom. :)

Judy and Henry arrived bringing dessert of cheesecake (the unbaked type), very yummy. Had more conversation and laughter. it was a very pleasant evening. A great way to spend a birthday. :) A nice day it was. :)

End of July, our life continues

2008-07-26T06:20:00.004-04:00

So Today Jim, Justin and I are running up to Trail's End Market to ship out some bunnies. Hoping to get there early so that we can get bunnies into early cages as opposed to late ones since I don't wish to be in London almost all day waiting for bunnies to sell.

To read up on our vacation go here.
To read up on what happened after our vacation go here.

Um what else......raccoons have been visiting the backyard. Scared one of the bunnies bad enough that it heart-attacked on me.

Sassy's been feeling spunky some evenings. When she's like that we chase balls in the backyard. :) Good to see her feeling spunky.

My squash plants are definitely well on their way to taking over the backyard. Wish they had stayed the bush plants they were supposed to be. ARGH!!!!! Makes it difficult to manage the gardens well when one has squash growing out everywhere.

Justin has learned he likes gooseberries. Raspberries I think are still his favourite. But gooseberries....they are good too.

Jim fixed the O2 sensor and the muffler on the car. YEAH!! my man is good! :)

That's it for now...gotta run.

A cold, long days, and gardening

2008-06-25T21:55:00.003-04:00

In the last two days I've sold 7 bunnies. Did cut people deals a bit, but overall, still made more than if I sell them as meat rabbits. :)

What else...oh..as you can tell from the header...we've had colds in this house. Jim started it all off last week, Justin caught it this week. It's one of those nasty sit in your sinuses type of colds.

Justin was a bit better today but his breathe has been simply atrocious so I'm thinking tonsils are also involved. So despite his eating today, I'm taking him to the doc tomorrow to see if needs to be medicated to help his tonsils heal up a bit.

Rod DeKoter and his boys are coming up for a visit tomorrow. They'll arrive mid-afternoon and stay for supper. Should be fun. Rod and Jim have been best friends for years. Good people. His wife is visiting her parents who are not doing very well unfortunately.

Justin helped mommy pull weeds this morning in the garden. Well...okay...he didn't really help. Tagu tried to help...but mommy often sent Tagu flying through the air to escape the bad weeds (Really...he was escaping...really!) :)

Rabbits enjoyed those weeds too! Well..except for Moss who's a bit on the picky side for greens eating as of yet.

Got the kitchen and living room cleaned today! YEAH!!! tough job but we got'her done. Had prayer meeting at the house and Jim's office is way too overflowing with books...we need a bigger office I'm a thinking! Too many books...can one ever have too many books????? So we needed to have the rest of the house livable. Found more toys to put out in the garage sale.

Oh...had a garage sale last week. It rained. I still have lots to get rid of. Thinking, if the weather holds nice, I'll sell again on Saturday morning. See if I can't get rid of more "stuff" that I just don't be needing in my house any more. Made a 1/3 of what I am hoping to make overall, but we'll see how it all goes.

Anyways, think that's about it. Talk more again I'm sure in another two weeks or so. :) Cheers!

It's into June

2008-06-13T22:23:00.003-04:00

Okay, our family over the past three weeks or so.

Busy. :) That would be a good way to describe it.

Jim's had LOTS of meetings. I"m looking forward to summer when he has a few less meetings. It'll be like having my hubby back!

Justin's been growing and learning lots. He made me laugh and cry tonight.
Laughter amidst frustration. He decided he would make a nice bunny nest tonight. Guess what he used???? laundry...both clean and dirty AND all the clothes from his room...every single last piece that he could find and reach. MY laundry..of the drawers he could open. Ditto with Daddies..... oh my.......NOT fun trying to put it all away again. Though by the time it was bed time Justin was eager to help mommy get his clothes back where they belonged. :)

We had a bit of a visit at Nancy's tonight (next door neighbour). She's back in school full-time to become an office administrator. Her son and niece were playing out front so Justin thought he'd join them. I invited Nancy to have me help her garden anytime she needed help.

Justin helped me plant the crab potatoes. yes...you read that right. I had some stuff not come up on the garden, and thought...oh right, I hadn't planted potatoes why not plant some? I had some potatoes growing 'eyes' so I asked Justin if he'd help me plant them. Well..those crab potatoes were all tired and they had to go to bed and sleep under the ground. They were hiding! :) it was fun listening to all his little boy talk with those crab potatoes. :) he then helped me replant my beans. Next week I may replant some lettuce and transplant my ground cherries to where I want them growing.

We've had mice and baby bunnies born. I always like new life.

My niece Ange got married. Monty seems like solid rock of a guy. He's a tattoo artist from Alaska. I got called a crackpot at the wedding because I'm daring to home-school Justin. :) I was quite taken aback at first and then I figured....older lady, not "up" with the times. We chatted a bit afterwards and she amended her crackpot statement to "those who home-school are rather different". I thanked her for that compliment. :)

My main man Jim....he's a handy man. He's almost done building this really cool workbench in the garage. :) YEAH!!!!! Looks good thus far. Hopefully it will prove to be as functional as it looks. :) I'm rather proud of his abilities.

Oh.. that reminds me. I was talking with one of the ladies at work today and not sure how we got on the topic but I mentioned that I trusted Jim implicitly (not to have an affair). She was shocked. She said...you do realize that we live in Huron county right? I said so? I wasn't raised here, neither was my man, and I trust him implicitly. She was just confounded and so very intrigued by the notion. I find that rather sad. Probably should have found a way to bring God into the conversation, but I didn't, and it was a short conversation.

as to me...I've been working on spring cleaning the house. One room per week is my goal. This week I got the main bedroom cleaned. Got the back yard tidied up as well. I've managed to get a few other things done this week as well but you all don't need to hear all about that. :)

Anyways, it's getting late. I'm tired and going to bed. Keep well all.

The Zoo, May 22, 2008

2008-05-26T06:53:00.010-04:00

Actually posted by Annette but the pictures are on Jim's computer. :)

So we went to the zoo on Thursday, the Toronto Zoo. Boy, did we have fun. :)

Justin had a blast seeing different animals, sitting on stones shaped like animals and just running around seeing things. He played with another little boy named Aaron, pretended to be a cat frequently, and just was a good boy. Surprised me that he managed to stay up ALL day and well past the time we got home. We all went to bed at the same time. A frequent request, whenever he saw something that he really liked was "Justin want go in there too." "go in there too?"

Some pics....NOTE: these are from the camera that died on us. It has been in process of dying for a while, so to have it completely die wasn't a shock, but was a disappointment. So some of the pictures are not so good, some were completely unrecognizable, I picked the best of the lot.

This is Tagu's big brother.

and Dumbo too!

Herein lies fascination with one of the three big aquariums we saw.
BIG fish.

The family of Warthogs, or as Justin and I say, pigs!
He stared at these fellows, asking, where mommy pig?

It was interesting to note that there were Ducks and Canada Geese in almost every exhibit, except where the big cats were. :) Wonder why?
This seemed like an early batch of goslings, looked at least three days old.
What young lad can resist going through a natural Tunnel?
Here Justin played with Aaron for a while.

Doesn't my hubby take good pictures?

I must so recommend going to the zoo in the spring.
The crowds are less.
The animals are out more.
There is room to explore and not get bumped into by people and it is WAY quieter. :)

We will most definitely go to the zoo again in the spring.
Just don't buy the ice cream! WAY too expensive. No more promises by mommy to buy ice cream at the zoo! (promises aught to be kept don'tcha know!)

Family Update

2008-05-15T06:42:00.003-04:00

Just thought I should post an update here again. it's been a bit, granted i do post things on my blog too, so it's not like I have been doing nothing. :)

Anyways, Justin is almost over his cold. Last night was the first night in almost a week and a half that I didn't have a little boy joining me in bed OR waking me up to come wipe a nose or give him a bottle or ... (you get the picture).

Mom and Dad were supposed to come up today, but Dad isn't. It will just be mom for Lunch and then shopping afterwards. Justin may stay with us OR go to gramma's for an hour or so.

What else...my newest batches of bunnies contain some really cool colours. I'm thrilled with that! I'm hoping one or two of the neat colours is female and then I can considering keeping. :)

Most of my garden is planted. Want to purchase some celery yet, plant more lettuce and so forth. But trying to spread out the lettuce a bit so it doesn't all come all at once.

Next week is holidays for Jim, will spend most of the day around here. the week after Jim goes to the Banner. and then back to regular routine. Jim's rather tired of work, needs a break. So next week he's off! :) He'll work on vehicles, moving rose bed and start work on the patio, we'll take a day trip to the zoo. I work Friday and then Saturday and Sunday we'll go camping up at the regionals and help out there. Monday morning Jim leaves for the Banner and comes home on Friday late. Should be an interesting two weeks.

Not much else to say, so will close off here.

Life Does Not Always Go as Planned

2008-04-27T08:36:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had planned to be out and about with Justin in the morning. Garage-saleing, pop in at the Agility sale in London and so forth.

BUT that changed when Justin mentioned that penis hurt and hard to pee. Checked him out, he had an "owie" down there. Took him to the doctor. Doc says either a yeast or a bacterial infection, probably yeast. Need to treat it with Monistat Derm for a week. IF that doesn't clear it up, then he gave me a sample of some other stuff to apply.

Justin is NOT pleased! I hate making my little boy cry twice a day. I just hate it! Not on my list of things I enjoy at all.

I hope the monistat clears it up soon, I really, really do!

Though I have to admit, Justin made me laugh yesterday. I asked the doc what causes this. He mentioned it was quite common in little boys learning how to pee and keep themselves clean, and that circumcised boys don't get this. We just need to continue to encourage Justin to keep himself clean down there.

When Justin and I got back to the car he asked "want go see circumcise mommy? Go now mommy?" I laughed! :) Told him Oh buddy, we can't go see circumcise, we just can't do that. :) So how would YOU have answered that one?

On a different note. A lady called me up from Windsor yesterday, asked me a lot about my bunnies, mentioned how she just wanted a pet bunny and she likes how the coats turn out on the lop-rex crosses. Said she was going to come up around four to get one. She never showed up to my knowledge, but later in the day I noted one of my youngsters was missing. I have to ask myself, did she show and was really quiet about it and helped herself OR did a bunny get out and get cat-nabbed? I really don't know. I'd rather it be curious bunny escaping than to think that someone could have slipped into our backyard without me noticing (or Sassy either). That idea just doesn't sit well with me.

Anywho, we have a missing bunny and an unhappy boy (only when his mommy is administering stuff to him). Other than that, Life is very much blessed of God in our household.

Middle of April

2008-04-21T06:16:00.003-04:00

I've just realized I haven't done a family update lately. :)

So.... what have we been up to lately?

about this lad of ours ---

Justin's favourite word lately is NO. He's fairly straight forward, everything is NO! It's a bit frustrating at times. BUT overall he's still a pretty good lad.
We've learned that right now water is absolutely fascinating...making rivers and waterfalls, sitting there and watching it. I've learned to watch him carefully with water because he'll dump it in places you really don't want it -- found him one day dumping loads of water into the mouse food container (it still had mouse food in it) I had to lay it all out on a sheet to get it all dried again. ARGH! Silly lad. :) AND he's learned the joy of throwing water at people. :) Fortunately he's fairly easy to out-run at this point in his life.
He likes to be silly - he'll do something and I ask what he's doing...'Justin silly boy!' will be the response...and sometimes it is safe, harmless and silly, and other times it likes "no Justin, that's not silly, that's wrong...don't break the rabbits food bowls".
He's learning to dance to music (just not mommy singing). BUT he likes to tell mommy what to sing so we often sing.
He likes to go to Toddler Time, but he hates it when Missy sings the clean up song. Has a fit at home when I sing it too. Not sure if it's for the same reason though. :)
Hoping to start swimming with him at the local pool soon. Should be fun to do that again.
He's learning his abc's and 123's and colours. Fun to watch his mind at work. He just likes to KNOW stuff right now.

Jim

wrenched his back/shoulder the other day not sure who, resulted in some pain and resultant lack of sleep. Found it difficult to do some things. Found he liked having a couple of back rubs through it all :)
has sent off his paperwork to go to the Conference at the end of May. I'd drawing a blank right now as to what the conference is. But it's a pastor's conference.
Continues to work hard at his job
Is trying to get the front fender off of the Sunrunner so that he can learn how to fix the rust on it using sheet metal (or something like that). He also has plans to fix the brake lines on the Mazda as they are starting to rust up a bit. Anyways, he apparently has two more screws to get off and the penetrating oil is taking it's time to do it's thing.
Disappointing....We got a plecko, added it to Jim's peacock aquarium, they promptly got ICK, Jim treated the tank, two fish died..and then Jim realized that he neglected to remove the carbon from the filter. Removed that, treated them again, the ICK cleared up. ARGH!!! Lost some good fish. Jim's hoping we can replace them today. So that was a disappointing thing over the past week.

Annette

uh...my life...always the hardest to come to......
My bunnies are fun! I like raising bunnies and selling the offspring. Fun work. I like seeing the different colours and personalities. Customers can be odd to deal with but I think that's pretty normal. Not bad money even if I sell the babies cheap. I've had people out from Missausaga, St.Thomas, Kitchener and of course London for them. Amazes me when people are willing to drive 1.5 hours (or more) for a bunny, but I sell to them. :)
I'm starting to plant my gardens, my radishes are starting to come up already. :) I hope the spinach and lettuce come soon too. Justin is learning to stay out of the planted gardens --- I put a brick on them to help him remember.
I've had fun learning to do build rabbit cages. :) I use old lumber and free stuff from the lumber yard. I'll have to I think buy one more piece of plywood, but other than that, should be done. I want to get the cages up off the ground but haven't figured out a cost effective way of doing that yet. Any thoughts...let me know. :)

Sassy, Sparks and various critters.

Sassy is doing well. Her leg tends to bother her at times. She hasn't had an issue with Justin at all lately! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! But the weather is so nice lately she can be outside alot, and we're outside a lot too, so it's not like she's been abandoned. :) Justin's getting older and realizing that rushing a dog is NOT acceptable. She goes for walks to the park with us, rides in the car to the store (Short trips), and plays ball a lot. :) She also ALWAYS gets a good morning walk, the evening walks vary as to what's going on in the house and with Jim.
Sparks continues to be a nice Tom Cat. He has some annoying habits that we'd like to break, but not sure that we can. He's a cat, they can be fairly particular.
The fish...the guppies are doing well, they are very colourful which is one reason why I like them. The Kribs are growing well, we have at least one female. They assist in keeping the guppy population under control :) Also hoping to get a breeding pair so I can sell any resultant babies. That would be nice. :)
Jim's put some new light bulbs in the tank upstairs with the south americans cichlids so they show off their colours really nicely.
Guinea pigs, we have four girls and one boy right now. the boy is new so going through a hold stage. He was a young girls pet who simply doesn't have enough time for him. We'll see if we get youngsters from them or not.

That's about it I think.

Feel free to leave a comment that you've been by. :) Always nice to get comments...just click on the little comments box. If you do anonymous (because you don't want to open a blogger account) that's okay...just sign your name please. :) have a great day!

Maybe We Should Do This For Our Old Clothes

2008-04-19T22:10:00.001-04:00

A boon and a blessing

2008-03-29T22:03:00.003-04:00

So yesterday Eva (Jim's mom was here). She had promised Justin she would sleep over at our place when he got back from Oma and Papa's. She's very good at keeping promises to little boys.

Anyways, she said she'd stay with him while Jim and I stopped at the Doc's office to get my hand checked out. Saw the Practical Nurse who works for them. She thought that my hand should be doing pretty good by the middle of the week, but I'm to keep it wrapped until it's all healed up and to continue watching for infection. She said that I need to monitor that longer than I might think I need to. So...I'll keep a close eye on things. She wrapped it up again for me, used a new to me dressing (some antibiotic treated non-stick dressing) and it well...suffice it to say I tolerated it as long as I could and then I ripped it off. The heat generated by it caused all my healing blisters to flair up again. We stopped at shoppers' drug mart to pick up some new stuff and I washed my hand well and redressed it. That pain I'm not to desirous of repeating. I'll stick with the Melaluca triple antibiotic for sure (that and unmedicated non-stick pads)!

We continued on our way to London. Picked up a couple of mini rex bunnies from a fellow who had thought he might donate them as pet food. I figured I could give them a better home than that! One I think will end up being blind in the one eye, he mentioned that eye had been bad since birth and recently had been worse again. he'd been treating it with eye drops and I'm continuing the same.

BUT I ALSO got some clothes. God was good to us. We stopped at Pennington's. I really, really wanted to find some dress pants to replace the ones that got burnt in the fire. I found some. Also found some other pants, and some undies (yes, a number of them burnt too!). Then we scratched the scratch and win ticket and got 50% off! Go figure that! So I picked up a couple of shirts as well! We got $200 worth of clothing for $100....and much of what we purchased was on sale already. :) Pretty cool God's providence in that ain't it? :)

Got some clothes at Wal-mart too. I'll want my mom to shop with me sometime this spring to see if I can find another shirt to go with these pants I got, I don't have much that goes it them and they are really nice light pants to just wear to church or out and about and so forth. But a "NICE" shirt will make it work well for church.

Anyways, Jim and I were chatting about how much I had wanted to build 2-3 rabbit hutches this week and couldn't because of my hand. And I decided I would ask mom (eva) if she would stay over and help me...I figured the worst that could happen is she'd say no, she'd rather go home. She said yes! We got two cages built (Jim and Justin helped a bit as well). We discovered that we can work together rather well. (my lessons with Jim have paid off). I have a happy buck (lop-hop) who is simply delighted to be in a cage where he can hop around and being a crazy buck! :) Scruffy didn't much care as he'd been in a fairly big cage for a while already (originally Lop-hop's but Scruffy didn't try to escape from it and a smaller cage was easier to lop-hop proof!).

Grammer (Justin's word) stayed for a bit in the afternoon and just played with Justin. He had a blast. She wanted to stay to do the dishes up and said Mom...go home. Leave the dishes, they'll get done sometime.

This weekend has proven to be a boon and blessing to me in many ways, God's providence clearly seen in many ways. And I've learned a bit more about the fine art of patience when healing. Should stand me in good stead as my life continues! :)

Update on my Hand

2008-03-28T07:07:00.003-04:00

So it's been 5 days.
My hand is getting a better. It still has moments of "ouch"....sometimes of my own doing when I forget it and try to push off something with it. NOT a good idea by the by.

The smallish blisters around the outside of my hand are going away.

The three-four large blisters haven't busted open which is good...gives the skin underneath a chance to heal.

The large area on my thumb doesn't ache constantly and actually looks pretty good. :)
The large area on my palm is still sore, but it's in a area where it feels every twinge of movement, it's healing more slowly but I'm okay with that, since it makes sense to me.

I'm not falling asleep for no apparent reason during the day anymore. and yesterday I had so much energy in me I could almost burst. I used that energy to do up the church newsletter and to start a webpage for my small critter business.

I see the Practical Nurse today at the Doctor's office. I'm imagining she'll give re-wrap it all up and then give me some more bandages for wrapping (or I'll have to buy something which is fine). I'm hoping to find a new pair of dress pants today to replace the ones damaged in the fire. Oh, and I'll need some pants for work as well....those I'm hoping to find at value village or a thrift store somewhere.

On a practical note - If I'm careful I can catch a jumping boy child (using my wrist instead of my hand). :) If I wrap my hand in plastic I can have a shower! :) I can't manage dishes yet. If I wrap my hand in a bag I can pick up baby bunnies to check on them :)

My parents were great with taking Justin for four days. He did really well with them. Was a happy boy and listened and slept when he aught to and so forth. Showed Oma his strong sense of determination at times, Her comment "he certainly knows his own mind doesn't he?" :) Oma learned that when he's a hungry boy child that he is definitely a hungry boy child. :) And that yes...he likes being tickled (as long as one doesn't overdo it). He plays really nicely by himself said Mom and Dad to me, more than once. So it was good to hear a good report back. It's like I know my boy is a good boy with strong determination....but it's good to hear the same from others. :)

Driving Instructors

2008-03-27T13:32:00.001-04:00

FIRE!!!

2008-03-24T19:19:00.003-04:00

Well, we had a little excitement this morning. I had just woken, and was still in that half asleep state that is common upon waking up. I heard the smoke detector go off downstairs, but I knew Annette was up, and figured she was cooking bacon or something else that commonly triggers the detector. Well, it kept going and going. Then I heard a yell from downstairs, "JIM HELP!" I got up and went down and upon looking into the basement saw a lot of smoke. Ran the rest of the way down to see Annette dumping water from the tap on a small fire among our laundry. Apparently a pile of laundry fell over against the furnace and go set on fire. Thankfully, Annette came in from caring for the rabbits, heard the alarm and went to see what was up. All that was damaged was various items of clothing, towels, sheets and the like.

Annette burned her hand when she grabbed what she thought was a towel, but which turned out to be a melted plastic laundry basket. So after we got the fire out, we called a member of our congregation who could take care of Justin (Thank-you Margaret M.), and after dropping off Justin headed to the ER.

Even though there really were no other people there, they took their time treating Annette. Partly I think to see how bad the burn was. But after some Toradol, Tylenol 3 and some liquid from the Novacain family that numbed the worst injured parts of her hand, they tried to clean the plastic residue off, with no success. The doctor said it shouldn't cause an infection problems and should come off as the skin sloughs off in the next while. The put an antibiotic cream over the hand and wrapped it in gauze, and we headed home.

Due to Annette only having one hand to work with we asked if her parents could take care of Justin for a couple of days, and my mom can to help with the clean up. Hopefully tomorrow when she goes in to the ER again to have her dressings changed and see how things are healing, we will find that all is healing well.

That about updates our fire adventure. I'm sure Annette will add to it when she can type again.

Busy Weekend

2008-03-23T21:13:00.002-04:00

So wow...was this weekend ever busy!

Friday...Good Friday. Had a service in the morning, then Jim had a funeral home visitation. I had work. Thank goodness for Eva being around...she was able to watch Justin while I was at work and while Jim was at the visitation. The Good Friday service was apparently really good....I had no chance to listen to it as Justin did not want to go to the nursery and there was no way he wanted to go into church. He was quite adamant that Grammer get out of Sunday clothes and play with him and Mommy was to go to work! He was 32 months of profound determination. :)

Saturday we had the funeral service. Really good service. Justin sat in service until the sermon started and then we took Marcus' boy with us down to the nursery. It was rather funny at one point....Christopher started to cry and Justin's response to that was "throw him out!" (in reference to my oft repeated threat of "I'll throw you out the window") Made me laugh, which made Justin laugh and become the helpful little boy I know him to be. :) He made Christopher stop crying by his playing antics. :)

Sunday, sonrise service, breakfast and morning service. Then off to see my Sister. We had a family gathering there to celebrate birthdays and Easter. We had a lovely time. Justin hunted for Easter eggs, and had a lot of fun playing with his cousins. Tired boy fell asleep on the way home and went straight into bed.

A good weekend, but rather exhausting. :)

Building with a boy child

2008-03-08T22:25:00.008-05:00

My boy and I worked hard today.

He hammered,

I hammered.

Together we got those nails into the wood.
I thought I was making a new rabbit cage.
He said, "we making crib for kitties!"I could not change his mind. :)
(can you see his Sparks and then Tagu in the train?
Giant Cosmos and baby Cosmos and little cat are there too really!)

Did we get finished?
Not today, 7 p.m. came much too fast.

He even learned today that thirsty, hard-working people
can drink juice right out the jug!

And one tired boy had a nice fun bath and crawled into bed.
Ah...but did we have fun. :)

For the Video of this, go here.

Justin's Current Favorite

2008-03-07T12:48:00.002-05:00

Today Justin kept asking me for Diesel 10 on 'puter. I kept searching youtube, but had to google Diesel Ten to find out what episodes he was in. I found he was in the movie "Calling All Engines." This is now Justin's favorite.

Travis on my bum?

2008-03-05T23:00:00.006-05:00

see these? Justin's are somewhat different, but you understand the concept. :)

Justin LOVES THEM!!! I have underwear I don't have a struggle putting or keeping on him! (so I guess I love 'em too!)

He made me laugh today.
I put on the Travis undies him. Justin was fascinated. "travis on my bum?"
"wanna see him, travis on my bum, mirror mom mirror? travis on my bum see him?".

here I had to lift him up so that he could see travis on his bum in the mirror. :)
I laughed.
I told him, yes, see, there is travis on your bum.
his response "wanna see travis gain!"

But by then my back was saying "Stupid woman, put that boy child down!" so I did. :)

My Back

2008-03-05T07:05:00.003-05:00

If anyone reads this blog and feels inclined to pray.

I shoveled snow on Saturday...heavy stuff at the end of the driveway. I must have done something wrong since my back did not appreciate my effort. By the end of the day I was not in good shape. Not good, but I will survive. makes me thankful for days when my back isn't spasming as much. :)

and to think ...I've shovelled oodles of snow this winter without a problem....

Ah well...God plans things out differently than I would, but grants also the grace to deal with it.

March 4, Ear Check-up

2008-03-04T17:42:00.005-05:00

Today Justin had his 6 month check up at Dr. Raymond's office in Strathroy.

His ears are good.
His tubes are still intact.

His tonsils are big but not infected. If they get too big they will be removed or if get white spots on them he'll be put on an antibiotic. They will need to be monitored. I can see his tonsils very clearly if he sticks out his tongue at me. To me they look HUGE! :)

He doesn't have a lot of wax in his ears which is a good thing.

From an ENT perspective he's in good shape.

Yesterday Visit

2008-02-29T06:44:00.005-05:00

So yesterday Justin and I headed up to Mom and Dad's for a visit.

The whole way down Justin kept up this litany.
Where we going mom?
To Oma and Papa's house?
What do there mom?
I don't know Justin, visit I think, what do you want to do there?
Play with TOYS! was the delighted response.

Granted, after 10 minutes of this the conversation was getting rather old for me...but hey...what do you do when it's just the two of you in a car? You point out trucks and silos and farms and tractors. And manage to intersperse those into the conversation, and when all else fails... get "tagu" to help you drive the car (and be scared off all the transports on the road). That's what you do! :)

Anyways, had a lovely visit with my parents.
Helped mom with a computer problem.
Justin played and played and played some more.

We left a bit later than expected because the first attempt at downloading a thing that mom needed failed, and I wanted to get it all installed for her as well.

Justin fell asleep soon after we left.
Slept when I brought him into the house.
Slept even after Jim tried to wake him up.
Slept after I got him up.
Finally I held him in my lap so he could watch Thomas on my computer. That helped him get going again. If he'd gone to bed for good at 430 he would have been up WAY to early for me.
We had a BAD supper...pizza, but it fit for a end to a tiring day.

To read up on how I got him into bed at the close of the day, go here.

It's been a Spell

2008-02-26T15:43:00.003-05:00

So it's been a spell since I've updated everyone. Not a whole lot to say either!

Okay...let's think here.....
This past weekend Jim and I headed out of town so that we could go to a teaching conference. We stayed at another Pastor's house as they were very close by. it was nice to stay with them and get to know them a bit more. Jim knows Doug better than I do, but the family seems quite nice and Doug is just this sweetie of a man. :)

This teaching conference was hosted by the Discipleship Committee of the RCA, Ontario Classis. The conference was put together to explain Vantage Point 3 and LOH (which official name escapes me at the moment). Anyways, LOH is based on Vantage Point 3 which is an adult discipleship/leadership training course. It lasts for three years, costs mega-bucks to be part of, but the classis is willing to reimburse some of that cost. LOH is directed toward youth, cost is more reasonable and includes a yearly retreat. Both sound good, but I have to admit I have some hesitancy toward it.

My hesitancy toward Vantage point 3 stems a lot from my irritation in the morning session where the Speaker used a lot of pop-psychology language where I ended up thinking...so what exactly is he trying to say here? Can't you just find a normal way of talking rather than using all these stupid catch phrases that don't mean anything.

My hesitancy toward LOH comes from
1. why should we pay for a conference that we might not be able to attend? Why should that cost be built in? Does it (and I never got this answered) include the price of accommodations (the standard answer to such like questions was "depends a lot on the churches and the region involved). Tells me nothing, even if it is true.
2. Most churches, if they put a bit of work into it, could develop a similar program for a lot less financial outlay on the whole. $100 per student per year (for 2-3 years)translates into a lot of cash. Cobbling something else together could quite effectively do just as good a job. Granted, means a bit of work on the part of the church, but that's what we're in ministry for...to do the best job we can with the resources God has granted us, to further the kingdom of God.

Enough of that. :)

Justin, while we were gone, had LOTS of fun with his grammer (Jim's mom). Tunnels, trains, tents, snow, popcorn and laughter all round. :)

I've posted my bunnies for sale. Have 12 to sell. I'll give kijiji a couple of weeks to do it's thing and then I'll just bring those I don't want to the market in London and sell them there. I potentially have two of them sold already. YEAH!!! :)

This coming weekend Jim is off to the Classis meeting in Welland, Justin and I might go to the Market in London and we're visiting my folks on Thursday (Justin and I, Jim has to work).

What else? Can't think of anything off the top of my head so I'll just close off then.

Update on my bunnies

2008-02-16T13:48:00.004-05:00

So, all my young bunnies are sold! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most I sold for $10 a piece, two for $8 each, most went to decent homes as far as I know, and three I sold at market for not as much as I wanted, but ah well... at least I didn't have to feed them and I didn't want to risk being stuck with them either. :)

One lady came out at 11 p.m. to get her bunny she was so eager. Dragged her boyfriend along for the ride. Came out from London.

Sent one off yesterday to a lady who is hoping to start breeding her own bunnies. Had a lovely chat with her and her two little ones.

We're left with the two that I really wanted to keep as replacement girls so life is good. :) Oh...and the one non-grower that I still have no clue what I want to do with. Not sure that I can leave her with the piggies indefinitely.....

Some of Justin's favourite on-line places

2008-02-16T13:31:00.003-05:00

As an aid to my hubby

some favourite pages of Justin's

colouring pages

Disney CARS colouring pages.
bob the builder colouring pages ... same company with CARS
blue clues :)

Activity Sites

thomas the train
bob the builder
pbskids for caillou, berenstain bears, and clifford.

And then of course there's the ever popular YouTube with it's various thomas the tank engine clips. :)

Challie's Contest

2008-02-13T12:24:00.003-05:00

You'll notice in the sidebar a link to Challies new Contest.
He is giving away this month the following:

Three prizes will be awarded as follows:

First prize: Five Films Gift Pack: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story, Inherit the Land: Adventures on the Agrarian Journey, The Eden String Quartet: A Bountiful Blessing, A Journey Home, The Peasall Sisters: Family Harmony.
Second prize: New Films Pack: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story, Inherit the Land: Adventures on the Agrarian Journey.
Third Prize: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story.