"Hockey, hockey and moooore, hockey!"

A good neighbour here called us up a couple Friday evenings ago asking if we wanted to put our kids on the Taber Christian Pond Hockey Team - his boys were too old for the younger team and they had equipment they were willing to give away. 
Andy and I thought about it over night and decided to give it a try, much to the kids extreme happiness.  Although we both do not want to be duffle bag totin' hockey parents, we were pleased with the description of this team, Christian, Parent run, non-competitive and no traveling (always the same arena).  And compared to the Coaldale kids team, which is early in the mornings on Thursdays, this was much better for us, 3:30 Saturday afternoons. 
I don't have real great pictures since Seth can't contain his excitement long enough for me to get a steady shot, and Tristan has to get on that ice.  It's way too adorable to watch, and to see them try so hard.  Seth gets right in there, skating madly after the puck, even managing to score on the first game! *Cheers!!!* Tristan is such a little squirt, and he's still learning how to skate but he is so intent on doing well that he manages to follow the puck around without falling. All the kids are between the ages of 5 - 9, some decent skaters and others laying on the ice not even bothering to get up.
These boys are so tired afterwards they can hardly hold up their heads in the big helmets, but are already saying they can't wait till next week.  
So far, so good:)

Fall, officially over.

Fall is over! We know that now. It's white outside, and cold. Minus 10 on the thermometer feeling like -20. Yesterday was still a beautiful day, all week was nice actually but we knew winter was coming so we cleaned up the last of the garden, cut down some weeds and carved pumpkins before they collapsed from the cold and the melted mush needs to get thrown in the compost, only good for fertilizer.   And as you'll see, when one wants to pose for a picture... naturally the other two need their turn too. :)

Andy recruited Seth and Tristan to jump on the weeds in the hopes more would fit in the back of the truck. After I saw this I requested they wear their helmets...just a tad dangerous in my eyes! 

Pumpkin carver 1

Pumpkin carver 2

Poser 1

Poser 2

Poser 3 :-D

Falling into routines

Things have been running along quite well here, we've tried to get into the swing of new routines while slowly ticking things off on our to-do lists. 
Sundays are busy with church and friends, often fitting in two visits, making for a full but refreshing day. It's the boys favourite day - or so they say, often racing out of church to meet their friends whom they are eager to see and play with and vice versa. Only a couple more weeks till we get our new minister!  Very exciting, since we've been having mostly reading services.
I love Mondays as they bring a start to a hopefully productive week. Cleaning, laundry, school...list making.  Good hearty meat and potato suppers...and once even a rainbow to watch develop and fade away again, right during supper.

Tuesday mornings is women's Bible Study, which I attend, so we start early with school and then I have some lessons laid out so Andy can help the boys with it while I'm gone.
Wednesday's are another early start morning so I can take Tristan to Son Shine Bible Time at church, where for this first unit (Sept. till Dec.) I am either doing the craft/snack with the kids or teaching the story.   Not really my cup of tea to be honest, but oh well - they were short of hands, and I try to help where I can.  Seth is in the middle of an 8 week swimming lesson session, which happens to be at the same time so Andy drops him off and when I'm done I run to pick him up.   
Thursdays have school, appointments, groceries, anything else that needs to get done and church choir in the evening, which is really quite fun when I remember to go..."what? it's Thursday night again??  7:35? Choir started 5 minutes ago!!"
Fridays I try to stay home to get lots done again, and ditto for Saturdays.  Baking, food prep, cleaning, hair cuts, you name it, it never ends! 
In the middle of it all we got two new doors put in, one to replace our front entrance door, as it was leaking cold air and letting in crickets, spiders, hundreds of ants, never mind that the lock didn't work anymore. We also got a hole popped in the wall from the front entrance to the deck, so no more walking outside and around with the coffee..we can go straight onto the deck!  I am soo thrilled, who knew a new door could be that exciting.  And these ones have windows too, which makes for a much airier room.  Now to pick a colour to paint them, I'm open to suggestions! So far I'm thinking a dark, goldish yellow. 

Thanksgiving also fell smack in the middle of the month and we got the have Ben and Ruth-Ann over to help celebrate!  It was really nice to have them here, and eat turkey with.  Andy learnt a new skill as well which is butchering chickens.  To me, it was gross, to Seth and Tristan, sublime, and Andy actually quite enjoyed it and even said the other day "I sort of feel like butchering another chicken or two!"  Thanks Ben.  Now it really feels like we're homesteading;) 
So many things to be thankful for this thanksgivings again, with one of the "biggest" things being able to spend so much time together as a family.  As Seth was getting ready for bed the other day he came to me and said "Mom, we have the best dad ever, we have so much fun with him, and he is such a great dad to do things with!"  That's right Seth, you have it good:) 

No worries - it's kids wine:)

We got a new flock of chicks!  We've had some unsolvable-for-us problems resulting in high mortality and frustration but slowly it's getting better. They are 18 days old already.

Andy also had his appointment at the Dutch Embassy in Calgary so we made a day out of it and spent some time at the Core Shopping Mall downtown and Ikea, resulting in some basic furniture pieces for the boys new bedroom.    For those of you who don't know, the dutch passport is now good for 10 years instead of 5!  (Can you believe Andy will be 43 before he needs to go again?).  I hope we remember...and I also hope next time we go, we do not take the truck!  Parking was not easy!

I'm getting rounder as the babe inside me is a good 7 months old.  Its taking up some of my breathing room;)  but on the whole I feel great, nothing to complain about.  The Lord willing in two months there will be another little Bijlsma occupying this place, and I've been busy making another bedroom ready downstairs so Rowan can get moved out of the crib. 

September, 12 months of living here!

September.  What to say.
So many thoughts and feelings running thru our head.
A full year ago we were here... moving from Drayton Ontario.  Can you believe it? No, seriously... One Whole YEAR! 
I can't believe a whole year has passed, it seems to have flown by.  Slowly things that were so strange at first have become normal or at least accepted as the new normal.  The kids have adjusted, they run to play with their friends at church or during the week and have stopped complaining about biking on gravel.  ;) or not being able to walk to the mailbox or library. Their conversation frequents the words 'pivots' and 'irrigation canals'.  They want to be chicken farmers when they grow up and grow the best corn in all of Taber once they are married.  Hmmm.  
What's still new-ish for Andy and myself is normal for them, and it's neat to see.  Andy and I love it here, we love this farm, the church, and the weather is pretty incredible.  I couldn't ask for it better, I have Andy here all the time, and we can spend so much more time together. And that's what is important to us, for children grow up too quickly. With that being said I have spent a fair amount of time reflecting and thinking back about what I miss and the most random things pop into my mind at strange times.  For one, I seem to be frequently thinking about paved sidewalks to go for a walk on (maple tree lined of course) and all my canning jars that I have had to replace... as well as St. Jacobs Market in the fall... but that might just be because I am six-plus months pregnant and deep friend apple fritters sound good to me all the time:)  Never mind all the dear friends that are totally irreplaceable!  We've missed you!
All in all, September was a good, satisfying month in every way.  Most of the garden got harvested and I am loving cooking with 'organic' potatoes, (we have enough for most of the year!) carrots, kale, corn, onions, pumpkin and tomatoes. As the boys say, we are eating like Almonzo from the book Farmer Boy!  Healthy and Hearty.  Don't forget pie for dessert.
And much to Andy's happiness we finally had time on a windy enough day for him to take out his surfing gear!  Seth and Tristan thought it would be so neat to watch their dad windsurfing that I packed them up in the van and we went to go watch for a couple hours.  Impressive and... windy.... to say the least.  
Here's a run of pictures which sums up the month visually.

Deck complete!

The bench is perfect for enjoying a before bedtime treat.

Time to harvest some of the pumpkins they grew!

Who can harvest pumpkins and not make pumpkin pie?

So so good! 

My little entrepreneur.

Fresh bread for lunch! Someone is hungry now!

Drying onions

Seth was a fantastic helper all summer long with the garden.  He loved it.

Fresh, sweet carrots.

If I'm doing anything in the kitchen Tristan has to be right there with me.  So we made Salsa together:)

Seth started Grade 1!!  Just like his daddy, he loves Math. He also received his very own Bible which he is reading with us at mealtimes.

Tristan is in Kindergarten and a very eager beaver.  I have to pace him or he'll be done all his books by November:)

Andy's biggest cheerleaders.

It was crazy windy...but fun!

That's our month in a nutshell.  

Cameron Lake called our name...

Sometimes when the sun is shining, fall is in the air and and hiking at Waterton Park is whispering in your {husbands} ear, you just gotta listen and jump in the truck and run with it.  Work will still be there tomorrow, as will the Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. 

Andy called in thru our sliding doors at 10 in the morning saying he wanted to go check out Cameron Lake for the afternoon. So that's what we did! :)  It was good idea and a perfect day for strolling and enjoying creation.  Which reminds me, we saw a grizzly bear!!!  Totally thrilling:)  We also found and identified a new kind of bird, a bright blue bossy Stellar's Jay.  We didn't get a photo but they are in the same family as the Blue Jay.  Some other kind people were trying to attract them onto their hand by feeding them munchies and they shared with our boys.   Rowan wasn't too helpful in that every time the birds came close he would shriek with excitement scaring them away, although one lady managed to get it to land on her hand.