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

Changes...

I have decided to go private with my blog. This is only for my own comfort - I do not like writing when I don't know who is reading it. I never know whether I am saying too much or if someone might take something the wrong way. So, when my blog is private I will at least know who has access. :) This will go into effect on Thursday, June 2nd. If you would like access after that, email me at justine@bell.net and I will send you an invite.

This boy...

...is a joy to work with. :)

Love you, Brent!

P.S. Can you see the happy face he made?

A Post with Pictures :)

Today, after many days of clouds and rain, we had a few hours of sunshine. This evening all of us kids took advantage of the sunshine to play outside.

Outside our dining room window is a robin's nest in a tree. The robins have four babies. We joke that while we are watching them have their breakfast, they are watching us eat ours.

In a large puddle in the field next to our house live a pair of ducks. The ducks come nearly every year, but usually the puddle dries up pretty quickly. This year we have had so much rain, the ducks are still here. I do not know if they are raising a family though.

Nadia loves the swing. She begs, "Go too higher!" We always ask her, "Is it too high?" because we aren't sure if she will be afraid. Now she thinks "too high" is fun.

Meg taught Nadia to answer the question, "What country do we live in?" Nadia says "Me live Candada!"

Some more things Nadia says are:

When she has new clothes, "Want show my papa!"

Nearly every morning when we are doing schoolwork, "Want to colour." Then, when she has coloured a picture and folded/scrunched it up, "Here Dee-Dee (Justine), this yours." And when I have looked at it and given it back, she refolds it and says, "Here Meghan" or "Here Awsee (Allison)" or "Eah".

Sunday morning she heard Thomas crying upstairs and she cried, "T-Tom!" and ran all the way upstairs to the boys room. She loves her brothers.

The other day when Thomas got hurt, he exclaimed, "Ow! My skeleton!"

Justine

Please Pray!

This family lost their father and their home a couple of days ago.
http://www.visionforum.com/news/blogs/doug/2011/04/9416/

This and That

~Last week when we were digging a hole to bury some chickens, we said we might find some historical artifacts. After we explained to Brent what a historical artifact was, he said, "Ya, maybe we'll find an old fashioned Volkswagen Bug down there!"
~We have been talking about The Royal Wedding over here. However, since it starts televising at 2 am and the actual ceremony starts at 5 am (our time) I don't know if we'll be able to watch it. Think getting up at that time extreme? There were people camping out yesterday along the procession route in order to have a spot on Friday.
~This post doesn't have pictures because I have taken about four pictures in the last month. Those four were taken solely for the purpose of trying out Photoshop, so they aren't very good.
~Spring has arrived! At this point I think we won't get anymore snow. The last snow we got was the 18th. Now however, there are green things sprouting everywhere and it is warm out, so I'd say it's safe to suppose we won't get more snow.
~Leah, Meghan, and Emily have all gotten new pets in the last couple of weeks. Leah has two teddy bear hamsters, Amos and Enoch, Meghan has a rabbit named Myrrh, and Emily has two zebra finches which she calls Tobias and Tiberius. The hamsters have to go, though, because Allison is allergic to them. So....if you live near enough, do you want two cute hamsters, with cage, food dish, water bottles, wheels, ball, etc. for $30?
~Yesterday Leah made some creative clay stuff. The afternoon was rainy and everyone was loud and rambunctious, so Leah's clay gave them something constructive to do. Warren made Leah a pair of earrings - pine trees on wires.

Justine