Beautiful days of normal

One of the goals of my heart is to enjoy the small things in life and appreciate the beauty in everyday.
And this past July was a beautiful month.  My heart could sing everyday for the normal we could enjoy.   Home and family is a beautiful thing when loved and appreciated as God intended it. To His glory and to see His goodness.

Here are a few pictures from small events that I enjoyed watching during our daily grind.  I'll admit more are of the girls this year than the boys as they were usually further from the house building forts and "barns" or drilling in the shop on the newest/greatest invention. They also enjoyed alot of biking, making their own "Tour de Purple" (instead of Tour de France).  

Marla reading to herself.  She takes the time to very quietly sit and enjoy books.  I wonder what her little brain is thinking.

One day I happened upon Abby trying her hand at drinking like our puppy.  :) She was totally in her own little world.

Coffee every morning with the best man of the house.  Marla gets right in there.

I get to garden daily with these little helpers.  I love watching their little faces as they seriously pick raspberries or peas while I weed.  Sometimes they shovel and dirt gets flung all over the place but the mud between their toes is a sign of health and happiness. 

Enjoying an after supper walk around the canal loop.

Water table refreshment on a hot Sunday.

And sometimes, you just gotta sit and eat as much popcorn as you can before the big boys join in :)

I think most of the month of July was spent in bathing suits and the kids got pretty brown! Our days went like this: swim, eat freezies to stay hydrated, swim again, work a bit, swim and find dad who condones ice cream at any time and then possibly swim again.  Pretty great life. 

<above>  Kittens never get old.  Having something to love is important for a child. 

<below> Bedtime shenanigans.  I like the kids to be washed up after supper so they can go clean to bed. A few times going to bed felt like such a waste of a gorgeous day so often we went back out to play some bocce ball or have coffee on the deck while the lawn irrigation did it's thing.  Little girls in matching pjs with happy faces bring smiles all around.  Princess 1 and Princess 2. 

😄 someone thought getting wet yet would be a blast before bed. 

And finally ending the day with a story or four.  💕

 Every day is a gift and everyday we give thanks for the warm little people that bless our life.

Grandparent visits

The end of May and beginning of June brought visitors twice. First Beppe came for a week, as was noted previously, during the time of the 4H show and sale.   Abby thought she had found a gaming friend for life so when Beppe left there were many shed tears over the loss of her new companion.  💖  When family doesn't live close by we get the unique opportunity to have family over for longer time periods and also for more occasions than people who have family close by.  Breakfast, lunch and supper for days mean a lot of intimate time together and so you can really get to know the person who is over as well as I'm sure they really get to know us, wrinkles, the need for grace and love and all the rest of the good, bad and ugly that makes the world go round and a family a family.  Abby is used to this now and has big emotions when people leave. I'm sure she would love everyone to just stay here and we could all be one big happy family all the time.  Kind of like a colony :) 

Walk for Life fundraiser in Lethbridge

Great Opa and Oma came in June for a long weekend as they passed thru Alberta again on another trip to BC.   The day after they arrived we were treated by them to a breakfast out at Smitty's to celebrate their wedding anniversary. (I'm thinking their 59th but I could be wrong)  That was a fun treat although going out to eat with five kids these days seems like a lot of crowd control :) It was impressive how game they were to deal with us all.  I guess Oma did raise 8 children of her own.

We also enjoyed a campfire and s'mores one evening.  Beautiful way enjoy a long summer sunset. I love how Opa and Oma are so comfortable with having kids around.  They get right in there and we all feel at home. We sang some songs and told some stories and jokes.  Before we knew it it was past our bedtime. 

On Monday when they left to drive on we went with them a ways down the Crowsnest Pass to the Leitch Collieries, which is a collection of structures and remains from a coal mine and processing plant dating pre WW1.  At the time it was state of the art and massive, most of it built and never even put to use, and now rests as a Historic site. We'd never been there so this was the perfect opportunity.  We also went a few kilometers down the road to the Frank Slide site and spent a bit of time walking  around before the rain started and we went our separate ways.  We are always so grateful for these visits from Opa and Oma.  We pray God will continue to grant them health that they may continue to be a blessing to those around them.

These two thought using Oma's umbrella was the epitome of cool.

One Sunday afternoon - 2018

💙💙💙💜💜

All together taking these pictures took about 10 minutes. Apparently that was 10 minutes too long for the three youngest.  I love the last one as Seth can't stop laughing over Marla's lack of cooperation.  It so captures all the right emotions of the moment, Seth laughing at Marla, Tristan has a plastered on smile for his mother, Rowan is trying hard to smile and stay interested but it's not working so well, Abby looks bothered and unwilling to turn the frown upside down and Marla is making a run for it.  Love this shot 😆😅 Those are our children. 

4H - Grassy Lake

This past winter we opened another chapter in our book of experiences.  This time it was because we joined the Grassy Lake 4H club. I should say Seth joined it, with his dad being his chauffeur and guide.  It seems to be the things to do here, and we were encouraged to try it by some friends from church so since Seth was "of age" we decided to give it a go. It was a big commitment from all of us but turned out to be a whole lot of fun and a worthwhile experience. 
First off was getting the calves.  Since cows are herd animals we needed two so Tristan got a spare. Two is better than one anyways... ;)  Meet Strider (black) and Rook (white).

Andy put together this shed just in time for the bad winter and we were all proud of the great job and amazing shelter he put together.  A wonderful addition to this farm.

From the months of October till the sale in June, the steers were fed a measured 4H ration twice daily.  The boys got up every morning (without complaining) to tend to their cows. They got fed before we had breakfast and before supper time.  Once, at the beginning of the season, we were looking out the living room windows and laughing about our neighbours cows running around in his field - loose.  Turns out, they were our cows *covering eyes with hands* and the joke was on us, they had broken thru the sheep fencing in search of greener pastures.  We had to periodically spend quite some time and energy fixing the fences and making them steer proof. 
Strider had to be halter broken which was a job in and of itself.  The club had monthly meetings and activities, such as highway cleanups, bowling and gathering food for the food bank.  A big event was the speak off, for prepared and impromptu speeches.  

By spring the steers had grown a lot and before we knew it, it was show time!  Very exciting!

Below you can see Seth - third from right.  His steer was monstrous and got a ribbon for club rate of gain, coming in at 1615lbs!  Seth was a little nervous showing him as the cows were a bit nervous and a 75 lb boy dragging around a stubborn 1615 lb steer has all sorts of crazy potential, but thankfully all went well and it was a fantastic experience. 

It was special that Beppe came from Ontario for the event and we could share the fun.  In the end, Strider was sold to Independent Crop Inputs from Taber for $2.10 per lb and off he went.  It was sad, but that was the end goal.
We should especially thank our neighbour Ben Tams for his help and guidance during this whole first year.  His experience and knowledge was invaluable to us.  

Rook ended up in our own freezer and we are thrilled with so much good quality meat. (790 lbs!!)  All in all this created a big sense of accomplishment for the boys, Tristan feels like a champion providing us with all this meat.  He got to have the first bite of the first steak.  What a winner.