Oct 7th - A quote

Oct 6th - Favourite items in your home.

• My black leather rocking recliner. It makes me happy. I write most of what I write from here.
• Cozy blankets. I have a wicker basket filled with blankets by my rocker and fireplace year round.
• My favourite (or one of my favourite) coffee mugs is black and white striped with huge pink flowers and in gold writing says Hello Lovely. It's gifted to me by one of my favourite little girls, Brianna Jo, made even more special because she picked it out for me herself.
• Lamps and candles.
• Stacks of pillows in colourful array.
• Books and books and more books.

Oct 5th - Whatever spills out at the moment.

{WW} pink

 

My Not-So-Pink Life

 

Jeans drying on the wash-line

Guns, bows, planes and go-carts

Lego, Lincoln Logs, Meccano

Fidget spinners blown up to see how they work

Dead magpies and coyotes

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Batteries, knives and flashlights

Cabela’s catalogues

Haircuts

Unicycles, bikes, balancing wheels

Forklift rides, old vehicles

Cranes and skid-steers and backhoes

Blown up pop bottles

Acetylene explosions

Peterbilts and chevy’s and engines

Gas, tires, patches, crazyglue

Whole batches of cookies devoured in one setting

Burping contests

Boats, tents, fires

Porcupine quill collections

Axe deodorant and razors

Bats, balls, volleyballs, hockey pucks and sticks

Corners full of books, empty granola bar wrappers

Flat brimmed hats and toques and old gloves

Coveralls hung only to dry

Shelves filled with deer sheds

Wrestling, whistling and whittling

Slingshots, glueguns, popguns

Paper airplanes

Walking on hands contests

Cowboys and Indian

Shrink-wrap, ropes and chains

Oct 4th - Something you've accomplished lately.

So my latest accomplishment is to accept four coyote paws abiding in my freezer. There's a bounty on coyotes now. I cried and then I laughed. Please don't judge.

Oct 3rd - Give the highlights of your last trip.

 This is Maligne Canyon in Jasper, curtesy of Albertawow.com. Words can hardly do justice and neither can pictures. This beautiful spot is hot on a summer day and cools down to shivery cold as you hike the five kilometres down to the bottom. There is nothing to explain the grand awe and majesty of God's glorious mountains. I came home with my heart full to the brim and overflowing.


We took a ten day trip this summer to Bill & Penny in Quesnel, B.C. and Jerry & Karen in Creston, B.C. This is a trip we've hoped to do for a long time so it was extra special.


One day we went with Bill & Penny to Barkerville, a revived gold mining town. It was full of actors and actresses and everything from bygone days came to life again. That was especially special to me because my dad took our family there when I was little. We went to church in Quesnel, met Bill's friends, had Sunday lunch with old friends, toured Penny's lovely yard and just loved being together. Penny and I even got a little bit of sister time together, shopping and going for chai lattes to the neatest little joint town. Bill took the men touring down by the river and the boys went gold-panning. Kajsa had a little sidekick named Wyatt Benjamin.


On our way out we stopped at the Ancient Forest where huge old cedar trees grow. It was just breathtaking, the lush undergrowth and flowing creek and the walk. One thing I probably won't forget is Zach walking most of that hiking trail on the wooden handrails. We set up our tent in Jasper at a beautiful little spot by a splashing dashing river. We shopped little souvenir shops in the town of Jasper and bought a couple groceries for a picnic by Maligne Canyon. We toured Lake Louise and Athabaska Falls and Johnston's Canyon and many other little spots along the way.


We stopped in Radium for night on our way to Jerry's at little hick joint. We ate funny food from a little grocery store and trail mix from Costco and chips from a tiny little service station where the man asked many questions and told us where to find the best coffee and where to drive down to the local river beach. We toured way out to Lussier Hot Springs (still too many people for our liking), down a long gravel road with many hairpins and drop-offs and wonderful camping spots.


We had a wonderful time with Jerry's. They went all out of their way for Zach's 13th birthday, including a Dairy Queen icecream cake. The men and older children went zip-lining on the Kokanee Mountain Zipline while Karen and Wyatt and I talked and waited. We toured an ancient forest with the hugest tree I've ever seen in my life. It took eight of us, fingertip to fingertip, to reach around the biggest one. That gorgeous mountainside we walked with them was luscious with ferny undergrowth, gigantic rocks covered in moss and the most beautiful stream bouncing and singing and praising its way downhill. We picnicked for supper one night, rode the ferry, had supper with Carl & Teresa and Danny & Marcie, shopped the local market, ate fresh fruit from the road-stands and swam in Jerry's lovely pool.


On our way home we watched a for-real-and-true forest fire break forth before our eyes. We toured through Banff again on our way home, stopped in Calgary for night and then my man took me to Cross Iron Mills, a huge mall near Calgary. I came home so inspired, so full in heart, so thankful for my dear sisters. It was truly a trip of a lifetime.

Oct 2nd - Something on you bucket list.

Isn't it amazing how we can accomplish one thing in life, only to start planning and hoping for the next? The other day when I was teaching the grade fives and sixes I got them to write a list for me including 3 things they wanted to do or be when they grew up. I nearly cried when I read one little grade five boys list which included: I want to be a dad. This particular little boy is rather naughty and loud but I would say this one thought vouches for his home life. He wants to be a dad.


Bucket List for Jo

• watch my kids grow up
• sew a quilt-along
• start a coffee/fabric/quilting shop
• volunteer again in the hospital
• take a two or three week trip with our family driving through the United States
• take the boys to the east coast
• paint my kitchen cupboards
• spend a term as house-parents somewhere

Now that's a few things. I guess I'm not a sky-diver, bungee-jumping type of person. I have enough excitement in my life! :):)

Oct 1st - What does it mean to worship?

I'm not going to let myself read one word of sweet wisdom from my fellow bloggers until I've posted my own. So the truth is, I may not keep up. More truth, maybe I won't be the only one. Even more truth, I really want to. My beauty-hungry eyes are feasting on trees of yellow and russet and green against thick grass carpeted in leaves. My house is overrun with men. Young men who smell, like, well, young men. My oven is full of fresh chocolate chip cookies which will be devoured in the blink of an eye. My cup of steaming chai tea is long cooled off but my heart is full. I don't know what God means by giving me so much today but I'm going to take it as a blessing and hope for a nap in the near future.

What does it mean to worship What does it mean to worship? And they that worship me must worship me in spirit and in truth. I don’t know. There are so many ways to worship our Lord. Honoring our family, making them food without grumbling, taking time to admire nature and thank God for the beauty around us. Singing. Any thing that is beautiful and right and good is a form of worship. Resting. Prayer. Trust. Thoughts of thankfulness. Asking for wisdom. Honoring the church, the home, the people we’re given to love. Acceptance.

Of Algorithms and Work and Boyish Obsessions

As I said earlier, this has been the very best summer ever. For one thing, the boys worked almost every day. There has not been one bored day, not one. This is huge. Suddenly my oldest two are grown up. Wyatt spent hours and hours along the fence, watching the men building shop on our back yard.


The shop is up and starting to be used for some work, although the three-phase power still is not hooked up which means no welding yet.


One thing Zach got into this summer was the Rubiks cube. Tristan, Wendel & Sharon's son, got him going on it when they were out this summer. It took him about a week and now he can solve it in a minute (shortest time). He used his money from Grandma Isaac for his birthday to buy a fancy fast Rubiks cube. We feel like it's a good thing for him to focus his mind and energy into things that are not harmful and take thinking and perseverance. The other day his face was lit up and he was telling me which algorithms he uses to solve the Rubiks cube. I listened and when he ran out again, I looked up the word algorithm. This motherhood thing is truly over my head sometimes.


And talking about work, Colby has worked part time for a few weeks now for Carlin Toews, in his chicken barns. The shocking thing is that he can arise before 6am to leave for work. It used to be such a struggle to get out of bed for school... And this morning he was up by 7am, ready to go hunting.


Which leads me to Colby's obsession. It's hunting season. Every spare minute is spent perusing Cabela's online and adjusting his compound bow and target practicing. Not to mention the hours and hours he spends in his camo clothes, walking the home quarters with binoculars in hand. He's a naturally quiet person and he manages to find the little hidden animals and hiding places the rest of us miss completely. For example, this spring he found a tiny little Bambi hidden carefully in the trees behind our garden. It was so very adorable with big blinking eyes (the only part of the baby that moved) and huge baby spots on its back. I've never seen a baby deer that close and the next morning it had vanished, hopefully safely with its mother. Also, he found a duck nest in the tall grass under the trees which he watched carefully and came in with a new egg count every day. One day at the beginning of bow season, Colby had his friend Gilwyn over to go hunting with him. They spent almost all day together in the great outdoors. So far, there are no new venison roasts in my freezer but I'm waiting for them.


Of course, Zach is in school again, which is new for him to go alone. He's in a grade by himself this year and feels a little lonely at times. He devours books. Whole sets of books. He's working through Eric Walters books right now. Do you all have good ideas for books for him?

{WW} relief

{WW} relief

The elevators at Royal University Hospital were crowded that warm July day. I squeezed on, holding my purse and lunch-kit and pressed the button for fourth floor. My little 3-day-old baby was waiting for me in the neonatal unit, his little skinny legs pulled up against his body. One good thing about being postpartum six weeks early was the part of fitting into pre-pregnancy clothes, beings as I tend to gain my allotted thirty pounds in the last three months.

“Hey, I’d give you a hundred bucks for that good Mennonite cooking in there.”

My mind suddenly registered fifteen faces around me, looking at me, smiling. The elevator was crowded. A man in a hospital gown, attached to an IV, stood at the back of the elevator grinning at me.

“Uh… probably not,” I stammered. I was the only Mennonite on board.

“Come on!” he persisted. “I’d give you a hundred bucks for that good Mennonite cooking in there!”

I looked at the elevator lights, willing it to go faster. How would I explain this Mennonite cooking?

My face flamed. “No… it’s probably not something you’d like,” I answered.

“On, come on. You know what kind of cooking we get here,” the man said.

All eyes were on me, when with relief I saw the elevator doors open at fourth floor. “It’s actually breast milk for my baby,” I said, stepping off with my head held high.

The elevator erupted in laughter behind me and I heard the man, in a little quieter voice, say, “I’d still give you twenty…”

{WW} too many

There are never too many

 

Jeans drying on the line

Hearts talks with the boys

Quiet hours by myself

Stories read aloud

Special meals with family

Evenings in the heated pool

Pumpkin spice lattes

Little voices singing

Sunrises to watch

Picnics at the lake

Corn roasts

Cool evenings around the fire

Cozy throws and quilts

Stacks of books

Laughing children

Prayers as a family

 

(Sept 12/17)

Jo Esau