Crazy Life in a Big Family

We have so much to laugh over, living as we do in a house with 12 people. Some days it seems more like so much to sigh over, but hey, that happens.
We have a little girl. That means cute little dresses, dolls, an imaginary world where everyone is some animal or other, Papa Rabbit and Mama Puppy and Grandpa Squeaky (why do I have to be Grandpa Squeaky?). It means excitement over pretty shoes, crying for chocolate at 2 am, and loving going places and seeing people.
We have four young boys. Boys mean noise and rowdiness. It means telling lame jokes on the way to church, forming a choir to sing Jingle Bells when a big sister comes in to put them to bed, arguing over Fords and Chevys and Dodges, pretending to be mountain ibexes on the stairs, and always making the sound effects of a whole battalion of artillery.
We have five "big girls". We stress over what we are going to do with the rest of our lives (as if it's in our hands), jostle for the mirror on Sunday mornings, have late night conferences sitting on the bed talking about anything, get hyper over card games, and generally have fun. Another thing we do is silent communication. One time our family was at our cousin's place and there were quite a few other people there, most of whom we didn't know. The five of us were hanging out with three other girls whom we had just met. I came in with a coke. Leah raised her eyebrows and gave a little smile. I shook my head. Leah gave me a pleading look. I rolled my eyes and went out to get her a coke. The other girls said, "Whoa, what just happened there?" We thought, "What, we do that all the time."
We have two amazing parents. The best thing about them is they are strict but reasonable. We have rules, but they are not arbitrary. They make sense. My parents love each other and us a lot.
We have so much to be thankful for in our family.

The main floor part of our addition has been finished for quite a while and we are enjoying it. The basement is almost finished and then we can move in! So exciting!

I have a new watch. My parents found it in a parking lot. :) Now I have a watch that is fancier than I would have bought myself, and I got it free. :))

Justine

Quotes from my Brothers (and Sister)

Thomas: "I know why people kidnap people - because they want more kids!"

Thomas: "Is it illegal to fight a robot?"

Gavin: "If it's a police robot then maybe."

Thomas: "Dad, do you know what it feels like when I eat Rice Krispies? It feels like I'm having a heart attack." And then, "I just heard my day imagination. I put a bite in my mouth and I heard a bang."

Nadia is very prompt to say thank-you when she is given something. But if she is not responded to with a "You're welcome" she'll scold, "Say me welcome!"

Nadia: "Mom, keep me safe!"

Mom: "From what?"

Nadia: "From the lion."

Mom: "The lion?"

Nadia: "Justine is a lion."

What I'm Wearing

Ah... pictures again! And I'm posting twice in ten days! (You are supposed to cheer here, by the way. lol just kidding)

So... another blogger was talking about how magazines etc. portray beauty in one specific way, and that way is unrealistic (photoshopped/airbrushed models), and she suggested people should put up pictures of themselves so that we have a more varied and realistic portrayal of what people look like. I thought that was a good idea so here are some pictures of what I am wearing tonight.

For most of today I was wearing old clothes. Old clothes are better suited to such activities as cutting the grass and working on the van. :) So after I came inside rather cold and dirty, I had a (hot!) shower and dressed up just for fun.

This fall I have been working on dressing more nicely. Last winter I usually wore one or other of two cozy warm hoodies. The problem with that was one was too large and the other a bit ragged. All summer I wore clothes suitable for working/being active since we were working on our house, I was working with my dad, and when we went out it was to play soccer or do some other outdoor activity.
In August we went to Value Village and found some stuff for winter and I made sure to get dressier, better looking clothes.

This outfit's info:

Sweater: Suzy Shier (I think) bought at Value Village

Jeans: Bluenotes, bought at Value Village (If I keep up with the posting an outfit thing, you'll be seeing a lot of these jeans. I love them and they are my only good pair.)

Justine

P.S. Value Village is a great place to shop. If you make sure you leave yourself enough time, you can find some really nice things for a fraction of what they cost new.

My Story Right Now

A blog writer, here, has been posting lately about writing your story. I actually haven't read many of the posts, but the snippets that come up on the blogger dashboard have been inspiring me.
My story. Where shall I start? Maybe with the land I live in.
When we moved to this area five years ago, it was ugly. Bare brown fields, November's grey skies, mud, rain. The land was flat. Not perfectly flat, but flat enough to make a girl who'd grown up among hills and forests feel exposed. There were no wild places, only empty fields of corn and soybean stubble with here and there a tame little forest. Worse yet, it was foreign. It held no little remembrances of fun or friends or events that had marked my life before. The road ways were unfamiliar.
Fast forward five years. The land is interesting. The next field is planted with soybeans, and we know who owns it and who is buying it from him and why. The field across the road is planted in soybeans too, though according to the rules of crop rotation, it should be corn. Since the spring was so wet, the farmer couldn't plant before June 15, after which one cannot get crop insurance for corn, so he planted soybeans. The roadways are no longer strange, for we can say, "That is so and so's road" or "That's the interesting way to go to soccer." The big openness of this land is actually considered an asset now. I know the joy of standing on a hill under a wide blue sky and seeing all the farms around and turning to see the town three km away. The scenes of this land are tied up with the happenings and milestones of the last five years, and I love this land so that it seems the most beautiful place in the world.
Do you have a story?
Justine

Thankful

Tonight I am thankful that God has commanded us to rest on Sundays. The more work we do, especially on Saturdays, the more I realize what a blessing Sunday is. As my mom said today, "If we didn't have to rest, we wouldn't." But we do have to, so we do. It is much easier to work hard on a Saturday when we know that the next day we can go to church and come home and spend a quiet day worshipping God and visiting with friends, then if we knew we'd get up in the morning and work hard and get grimy and tired again.
I am also thankful for the work we could get done today - putting in window wells, filling them with gravel, and putting the dirt back around them. It looks much better. :)
If you are interested in the military, or in politics, you should watch this. I think it is a good idea for the high up powers that be to know what the ground workers actually experience. I believe the workers would probably have a lot more respect for their authorities as well. It is pretty hard to respect the ones who give the commands if they are sitting in their city offices without a clue of what is actually going on, and no guts to do the physical hard work. So kudos to Defence Minister Peter MacKay for getting right in there and spending a couple of days in military training.
Goodnight!
Justine

Summer!

If I post today, my sisters can't say I haven't posted in a whole month, can they? I'll tell them it's only been 29 days. :) Warning, though. This post is rambly. Each paragraph is about a new and unrelated topic.
Right now it is summer and I love it! I like staying up late-ish playing a game because we don't have to get up early anyway. I like not having to do schoolwork. I like playing soccer with our homeschool group on Wednesday evenings. I like the competition, but also that since we pick teams each week, the competition only lasts that evening. We don't end up with rivalries, since we might end up on the other players' team next week. I like that we know everyone on both teams. I played on a town team one year, and while that was fun, I like this better. The best advantage homeschool soccer has over organized team soccer, I have discovered, is that we don't line up, shake hands, and say, "Good game" to the other team at the end. It always seemed to me (being a somewhat independent homeschooler) that adults were imposing on us their ideas of good will and friendliness. Which is one reason I am glad I've never been to public school. But now I'm rambling. :)
I'm reading Anne of Green Gables right now. I don't know how many times I've read it, but it is really a good book.
I am looking forward to 3 weeks from now! I am planning to go to a Christian youth camp along with some of my friends. The camp starts on a Friday night and goes until the Monday morning on the holiday weekend. It should be fun, at least I'm hoping it will be. :)
On Sunday it is my parents' 18th anniversary. 18 years ago they were very young and none of us were even thought of. And now we are a big, noisy, rowdy family. I love you, Dad and Mom!
Sisters are amazing. My sisters know alot about me. They are my best friends. We can tease each other and bug each other and tell each other our deep dark secrets. One amazing thing about sisters is they are always around and I for one love having my best friends with me. Who wouldn't love having people around to stay up late playing a game with and then stay up even later laughing over a story about A Mento that Got Swallowed Whole in a Store?
My brothers are great, too. Warren has been working like crazy lately, helping with the addition. Brent does not like to have anything to do with tools and dirt. He'd rather read. Gavin and I have almost daily arguments while we are drying the lunch dishes as to whether such work is girls' work or not. (I say not. Boys should be able to clean up after themselves, right? And we older girls also know how to paint, use a hammer, drill, saw, etc...) And as for Thomas and Nadia, they are best friends and when one of them is sad or hurt, they will usually run to hug and comfort each other.
How is your summer going?
Justine

Hello

About time for a post, eh?

It is busy here. Let's see - a bulldozer and backhoe working all day, dumptrucks in and out, the septic pumping truck coming twice, the outhouse company coming to drop off the port-a-potty, the inspector and the builder coming...

My mind is busy, too. I have been studying worldviews using the book, The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire. Thus my mind is full of words like nihilism, theistic existenialism, Eastern pantheistic monism. After a bit I thought, "Why do people keep coming up with impossible ideas? Why would anyone believe in nothing? How can Eastern gurus and such meditate without meditating on something, or contemplate with nothing to contemplate?" So then I went outside for a walk to clear my head. :)

Dad in the hole for the foundation. It is about eight feet deep. Notice the water sitting in the bottom. That will have to be gotten out somehow.

Gavin and the dumptruck.

Have a good day!

Justine