Moving & Lessons at the Farm

Nearly two months have flown by, and have we been busy!

Let's see....

We filled April up with packing and moving. To add to the intensity, I fell and broke my foot. This called for an immediate call to GRANDMA-911! Thankfully she was able to catch a flight and spend 2-1/2 weeks with us. We could not have done it without her!

School (books) were put on hold as everyone pitched in to pack boxes, clean, organize....

moving is such a big job!

A number of life lessons and skills were taught and aced! :) The kids were troopers!

It was a nail-biter, but with a few days to spare we found a new rental and Grandma helped get us all unpacked and organized.

In amongst all this has been medical trips to Edmonton for our growing baby (the Lord has blessed us immeasurably, and baby is doing so much better), soccer practices and additional games/trips to Edmonton. We were then hunting for a new (to us) vehicle as baby #5 has us officially outgrowing our truck. After much searching we found a Suburban that fits us :) Praise the Lord.

School.

School hasn't been photographed as it's been mostly hitting the books and getting through our lessons. Not too exciting. We do have a great space downstairs that we've set up for school. Once we're organized I'll take a few photos. Also, 2012/13 planning is well underway and the new curriculum is arriving. Very exciting! I'll have a list of what each child is doing soon too. Just need to go through it all and see if there are any gaps.

OK... some photos.

 Joshua was a pro at making boxes for us day after day after day after.... well, you get the idea.

 Matthew loves anything involving tools. A bit of furniture was left at the new house which we didn't want/need so Matthew was hard at work helping Daddy disassemble it all for storage.

 Rain! Something we haven't seen very much of at all these past few months so the boys thought they ought to go out for a walk and enjoy the freshness of rain!

 A new home means a new park :)

 In May we celebrated Sarah's birthday. She had a grand time at her cupcake decorating party!

 Sarah isn't a very fond of cake, so we came up with a popcorn, pretzel and M&M "cake".

 Matthew delivering his gift to Sarah. He took the task very seriously!

 For her family party we went with a tower of cream puffs for her "cake".

Sarah loves the park as much as Matthew does! :)

***

Some of our greatest times of learning is when we are at the farm in Edmonton. We love the farm and one day pray we too can have land in which to toil & play. Until such time, we savor our moments with nature and with the family.

 As we pull up, the first thing Matthew asks for is to go see the "tows!" He would stand here all day watching them. The children have learned about grazing, feed, auction, and calving. We've learned that cows take 9 months and sheep only 5 months, so timing is important so that there are no births in the freezing temperatures of winter.

Chickens. Yes, this would be one thing we'd have on our "farm". We've learned that grains, although important do make chickens fat, and feeding them grass gives their eggs a nice yellow yolk. The kids loved ripping up the grass and feeding them through the fence. Collecting eggs is also a favorite activity. They've learned that a chicken lays one egg a day (generally speaking) and that their best laying year is their first year. Often after two years, they are ready to "retire".

A new baby goat. We've been at the farm as one of the goats struggled and the children were able to take turns bottle feeding it. They tenderly watched and prayed for the little goat to pull through... and he did! :)

Bunnies.

 Matthew seriously loves cats! The farm cats were so good with him and accepting of all his love and hugs. Lessons learned from cats? On the farm... there always seems to be kittens! :)

 On our last visit, we were out checking on all the mares with their new colts. (Cousin) John noticed one of the mares was missing (the one who had not yet given birth). So John went off searching and calling for the horse. She came out of the woods and directed John down to the edge of the muddy pond. Here her colt had stumbled in and gotten herself stuck. John thought she was dead, but as he approached her, she slowly lifted her head. He called to us to come and help and sunk into the sticky muck to dig out the little colt.

 After a lot of energy, and a lot of pulling, he was able to rescue the colt.

We wondered if she had a broken leg, but after a few moments of catching her breath she was up nursing at her mother's side. The children asked about her this past weekend and the colt is doing great. If we had not been there when we were, they would have lost the colt.
More lessons learned.

When the sun goes down we all gather back at the farmhouse to enjoy a hearty meal together with great conversation about the days events. No pencil and notebooks, but a mind full of new knowledge and heart full of memories.
xo