I tell you..

Janae is something else:)

She was shown today in Home Ec. how to make PINWHEELS,

and tomorrow they plan to make it as a class.

She takes her binder home, walks in the door, organizes the

kitchen, and makes them here immediately..

Perfect! Guess what we are having for dessert?

Not only is she fabulous with her culinary skills, she takes to heart the instruction as to proper washing and drying of dishes.. My kitchen looks like it did before they came home:)

THANKS JANAE!

YOU'RE AWESOME!!

Looking forward to what she all makes this year..

THANKS Ms. V. R!!

Before they went in the oven:

Washing and drying dishes:

Making cream cheese icing:

Diet is out the window..

think the others will notice there are 10 left?

instead of all 13 the recipe made?

I'm taking my chances....:)



Loving the weather we have been given..

Saturday afternoon we took Aneira for a bit of exercise to the river; she is a huge fan of heading out in the truck! The whole area looks different with the low layer of cloud and mist, and the ground sprinked with snow:

Dogs must have incredible stomach acids and powerful digestive enzymes.. the amount of nasty old pizza crusts, rotting salmon, other unidentifiable products she consumes is amazing...

On our walk this morning:



My favorite (so far) early birthday present!

Last night, we went to a Presentation at the Church Hall that the Rev. put on

regarding his recent trip to Bali and Papua with his wife. 

He received the gift from the congregation to commemorate his milestone

 of 30 years of preaching.

What a memorable and meaningful trip that was for them!

We seen lots of video footage and pictures they took:

 - the airstrip in Nipzan that Rev. Kuijt built

with their primitive tools and sheer native manpower, the slopes to it carefully 'designed'

(one air strip took a year to 'build'!)

- the plane from MAF landing and taking off in that beautiful valley

 - leaving them for a week in utter isolation - amazing..

- the seminary and students he taught there and observed..

- the simple way of life and local markets..

- the landscape and people..

- the man responsible for the event in which the evangelical 'brothers'

of Rev. Kuijt were killed and cannibalised was holding a picture of Rev. and Mrs. Kuijt

- the stories and history he relayed to us..

Very worthwhile Friday night choice of plans!

THEN..

The minister went over a table of articles that he had brought back

which was being sold with proceeds going to the MAF.

Did you know that the pilots involved need to fund raise/get sponsors for

$6500/month to participate in the Mission efforts there?

He had bags made of sweet potato stalks, a big bundle of arrows, a bow,

the primitive men's 'clothing article', handmade pick ax type tools, a globe

with his trip laid out, a chicken feather hat, necklaces with teeth,

a belt made of bat bones, etc..

I was enthralled with the arrows!

Nathan bought me 4 for an early birthday present!!

One was for killing pigs, one for birds and 2 for killing people!!!

Like, who else has genuine Papua arrows.. seriously..

you don't buy this on Craigslist.. there is a very high chance they were used!

The 2 'human' arrows have all barbs on them - the idea

is, you shoot them in the thigh, they can't pull the arrow

out due to the barbs, so they would break the arrow off, wait for the infection to

set in, and would die.  They don't have antibiotics out there, so..

Just amazing - the story behind each article there..

Check them out for yourself!

I (all pumped) texted Courtney on the way home (who was at a Youth function)

and her reaction was:

'Like, do we live in Khazakistan or what? lol'

Guess she thought maybe I was a little off the wall:)

Oh, and BTW, it is snowing in big white flakes again:)

You know it is January in Chilliwack when...

...even your pets seek out the few rays of SUNSHINE we get!!!

This is beautiful! the garage door is wide open to air it out..

 the windows are

 cracked to freshen the home up..

another gorgeous day out there!

Nice to be back to 'normal' here..

...some would argue that as impossible - us normal?

Just a quick composition of the updates from around here:

Weather? It is actually dry this morning with only a few millimeters of precipitation expected for today. There are still snow banks along the sides of McLeod which are higher than the car though.. It's been a slow melt.

School? Kids are back at it, fully committed. Kurt had all his midterms bumped up to this week.  He completed 3 so far, and has a Socials one planned for this afternoon.  Courtney has lots of homework tonight I've already been told, and Janae switched from Sewing to Foods for the remainder of the year. Second marking period has been moved up as well, with report cards coming out in February.

Work? Nathan had a challenging, tiring day yesterday with 3 machines down due to capacitor issues and feedback of power to the grid.  Things were WAY out of whack, so that took most of yesterday to sort that all out - thankfully he is VERY competent, and most of that is done 'in house'.. I have had a slower past month due to both the holidays and weather; it is awesome I can make my own schedule! The oldest two put in quite a few hours with the week of school closures, so that will reflect nicely on their pay cheques:) Janae is the best 'in house' worker around - no complaints and very competent in all areas - hope she doesn't find a job elsewhere anytime soon!

Diet? I haven't weighed in in days - I'm avoiding disappointment:) I've reached a plateau where either calories in needs to be decreased another notch, or calories burned needs to be ramped up a notch;) Nathan is looking all trim and fit..:) I hear the competition is doing rather well unfortunately...

Aneira? Looking more pregnant each day.  We expect the litter around Valentine's Day!

Romi? She's a mess, so she fits right in.. seems to have grown to twice the size we got her at.. she moves very fast and loves her little mouse - despite the fact 90% of the 'fur' is missing and the tail is gone..

Relationship between the two? They're great pals, bonded wonderfully; Aneira even lets her near her food!

Music? Once Krista comes back from Mexico, we hope to look at an older German violin for Courtney listed on Craigslist.  Her piano lessons are going great so far.  She is booked for a complete day of instruction and participation with the Capillano Choir on Saturday.  They hope to leave at 7 a.m. and be back late at night.. Mak and I really enjoy our Choir, and have a dinner and performance next Friday night to commemorate 50 years as the BNRC Choir!

Real estate? Still looking and mulling and discussing over the same piece of property. It's a tough decision to make!

Short term future plans? Do a Costco run first thing, hit a few of the dairies on the Farm Tour today with Nel - including the dairy with robots where Art was in charge of construction/renovation and where Ben works.. Bible Study tonight. Catechism run tomorrow night. Girls have Youth Night Friday night when we attend the Indonesia Presentation the minister is putting on of his trip there. Saturday - still far away - no 'plans' yet:)

Thanks for checking in, and hope you all have a WONDERFUL remainder of the week!



There's ice everywhere!

 Chuck, our inukshuk, just laid down and died....

Winter's still here..

Still no school..

They're expecting a storm consisting of ice rain and wind..

It hasn't hit us yet, but it is on its way!

Massive precipitation forecasted for the week ahead of us:(

Check out the scenery this morning..

The drifting along the ditches is spectacular:

 The goats must think this weather sucks..

Snow piled up everywhere along the way..

Farmer Kurt:



Day Four of disrupted school schedule!

This is something else! 

SIX midterms skipped for Kurt so far..

No idea how administration will handle the disruptions

due to school closures. 

At this point, there WILL be school tomorrow though!

So he can catch the last one tomorrow morning..

Enjoy your day!

Interaction

With the deck looking like this:

I'm allowing a bit of this:

Aneira is supposed to be an 'outside' pet, but with weather like this, I feel SO sorry for her!!!

Even just sticking her in the garage is 'mean'...

Romi thinks it is great!