Temptation

Are you licking the computer screen yet? Kevin and i baked 12 dozen cookies. He was more than tickled to place 2 smarties on each cookie. So if you are dieting......well sorry but my freezer was empty in regards to the baking department so if you feel inclined to sneak in my house at 2 am i do not think i will miss one of my 144 cookies, err 140 now maybe;)

Then and now

hello readers, things have been improving around here. The laundry chore around this home will be less of a burden to me. I have sucessfully trained Rachel to empty the dryer. No more bending for me....oh the achy back muscles i get and sore knees. Did i mention the back aches? Hey, after so much laundry on the farm and with 4 kids it can be back breaking. Don't you think Rachel is at the perfect height anyway?

The Will

Hello fellow readers. Here is my rant for the day. The statistics are scary only 1 in 5 families have a will. We were that higher percentage up intil last week. We went to the lawyer to finalize our will.....don't be disappointed you may not be in it unless we owe you money...or you get our 3 roosters and hen....all joking aside it was a difficult task to complete. Kinda morbid really. We had to approach someone and ask them to watch over the care and nurturing of our children in the case of our deaths being at the same time. We also had to ask a trusted friend to be the executor of the will. Our lawyer was very helpful. In the end though it really hit us that these types of scenarios can happen in life, not often but they can happen. How many of us do have a will? Do you know what will happen to your children and your home? Do you assume all will be taken care of by other family members? Last year, i believe, a young couple got hit by a drunk driver and they were both killed. They had 6 kids. 2 of their own and 4 were adopted. Now i do not know of their will or final testament but should we not watch or at least be ready if something were to happen to us as parents?

First Day of school

Sniff, sniff, yes i am crying. I would make a terrible spokesperson for Staples commercials. I do not think it is the most wonderful time of the year. In fact, as i look over my shoulder, it SUCKS, there i typed that out loud! I miss my boys, i miss their questions, some fighting, helpfulness and presence in our home. From 8-4, 5 days a week i am putting them on a bus and entrusting them to a Christian School with Christian teachers to teach my boys the one R one W and one A. I never understood why people called it the three R's. It's reading, riting and rithmatic! Silly people, must have been homeschooled, err, i better watch out, Tim was homeschooled. Oh and my sister homeschools, umm..... silly people! So peoples, are you a little sad too? No not those teens reading this, of course you are tired of school by now, you've been there soo long. But parents do you really like to see your kids gone all day? I may need a part time job! I only have 2 kids at home now. Let me know how you spend your days.....while i am crying beside the bus stop! Hey maybe pick me up to go shopping!

Of a different kind

I recieved a phonecall a few weeks ago from a rather hesistant lady on the line. She is from our church and asked if i could help out with a teen club outing. I scratched the date on a piece of paper and any minor instructions and let her konw i would speak with Tim first before i committed to the Saturday morning outing. I trudged to the shop to Tim and explained i was asked ot help with a game at the local farmer's market just south of here. I was to dress up with a friend and mingle in the crowds till one of the teens from our church attempted to address us and get our signature. Tim chuckled, he knew this was right up my alley! He agreed i could look silly for the morning but had to look for my own sitter for our children. No problem, but now what to wear, i have lots of maternity clothes, but i am almost always pregnant, well 36 of the 94 months of our marriage, anyhow the teens would recognize me for sure! hmmm, i have hockey gear! Na i will stand out, then it hit me, i would dress as a mus-lim woman. My dear dear longsuffering friend agreed to also dress this way and no i did not have to drug her or pay her to do this. The teens took awhile to find us, in fact they were hesitant to even approach us. We were definately looked down upon! One man bumped into my shoulder and whispered into my ear "Jesus", i was ready to converse with this young man and ask if he knew Him too but my reformed heritage wasn't exactly portrayed in my attire. Another man walked up to us both and asked," Are you real practicing mus-lims?" We quickly removed our coverings and explained we were playing a game and dressing up. He replied" Oh, ok, becuase i was going to ask what has the mus-lim religion done for you?" Perhaps he was a reformed evangelist? Brave of him to approach us! anyhow, enjoy the photos, we will not be dressing up at any other functions any time soon.

Gopher Patrol

After many tears this momma is relieved to say her plants may survive while my tough guard is on duty! You see we have this mysterious pest that loves to eat my annuals. I replanted 13 plants and was not very happy. Andrew took matters into his own hands. He grabbed a death defying freezer basket, tapped cardboard to the sides to camaflougue it and propped it up with a board. Next was the bait. He walked over to opa, who was busy augering grain into the truck, and asked for a handful of wheat to tantilize the little critters. Andrew then trotted over to his daddy's shop to find a shovel and booster cables. This was getting funnier by the minute. Lastly a camping chair came into the scene and my boy waited and waited on that chair for a whole hour! I walked out to him and asked about his conTRAPtion. He kindly explained in graphic detail how the silly gopher would see my flowers but get distracted by the good smelling wheat in his trap. Next he would nibble on the wheat while my avid trapper would pull on the twine and the trap would come crashing down around the pest. Then with the booster cables (it's okay..... no scary scenes here, it's still PG) he would clamp the cardboard sides over the basket. This was where Nathan was going to help....they wold drag the basket to the machine shop let the gopher out, then with the shovel, (here it gets graphic PG 13 now) hit the gopher over the head to knock sense into him.... right? He was so excited to have finalized all these plans! I thanked him profusely for protecting my garden! But questioned if he knew which gopher was enjoying my plants and if he was wrongly acussing a gopher... he pondered this and of course our Andrew is our thinker and has excellent one liners and replied, "well too bad for him, maybe his gopher friends will see and learn from his example." So if you need gophers trapped call Andrew 1 800 got cha

Will work for...hot tub time

Too much holidaying can lead to boredom. Andrew and Kevin seen grandma was going to wash her car and were very excited to help. Nathan tagged along with daddy to help grandpa work on a deck and railing for the morning. Mommy tried to finish her book while rachel slept. After the little jobs were done and good soak in grandpa and grandma'shot tub was a real treat.

Eternity

Hello fellow readers,

My heart is heavy as i write this. You see among our pictures of our trip to B.C. there is one morning where our family went on a visit to see some very good friends. How i wished i had taken a picture of our visit because that was the last time we saw him. A casual conversation about farming, family and faith is continually being rewound and played again in my mind. We left happy, encouraged and planning about how they were going to come for a visit this summer yet to go to another antique John deere auction. The last trip our friend took was on a fishing trip with his daughter, daughter in law and pastor. The Maker took him Home only a week after we talked with him over coffee. While on a boat in God's vast and beautiful creation our friend asked in prayer for the Master to take him upon His knee. We understood he passed because of a blood clot from his leg traveling to his heart.

Unexpected, unnannounced and unsureal we pause again and again at the strong man who i knew as a child growing up, i worked for and guided and protected me while in my dating years in b.c. He drove me to the church on my wedding day and has been like a grandfather to me.
He leaves behind many grieving family and friends. BUT dear friends, his anchor is cast in glory. My question remains this, are we living life in preparation for our eternity? Not to sound somber or depressing instead we are to long to say Lord come quickly, but are we really evaluating how we talk to others and leave them to know that it may be the last time we see them? We do not know our last hour or day. Yet sinful creatures we are, but life is fleeting.....i was reminded of this as i attended his funeral last friday. Dear ones, as i recover from the shock of this life taken, remind me to live life to the glory of God, by encouraging and loving one another. WE need to walk this walk together and when it gets hard the Maker will carry us through the valleys, "For when you saw only one set of footprints it was then that I carried you".

Trans Canada Waterslides

To top off our B.C. trip we headed out to Bridal Falls area and found the water slides. What a great idea! Tim's parents suggested we head out with Uncle Roy, Auntie Steph and their kids to the water slides for the day. It was a great hit. With a balmy 18 degree day with cloudy periods, the park was not busy. We had a blast and very tired children on the way home!

Our trip to Sunshine Coast July 2010

Our annual trip to B.C. this year was a very relaxing trip indeed. After madly cleaning our barn as quickly as we could....we dragged our holiday trailer with us and headed out to the sunshine coast to visit our friends Brian and Julie Kolkman first. We hiked the trails by smugglers cove and the prairie boys of ours were in awe of God's creation on the west side of Canada! After spending 3 days there, we headed back to the Abbotsford and Chilliwack area. Spending time with family was and is important to us and we relished in the beauty around us and shared coffees, breakfast outings, and lazy deck days with them catching up and ecncouraging one another.

Buck Lake June 4-6,

Joining… a support group (or hope to start one) to enourage and learn together with other moms on how to raise Godly children in an ungodly world.

Reading…"This was John Calvin" by thea. B. Van Helsma, "A Can of Peas" by Traci De Pree "En Route"Devotional by Clarence Stam and a few berenstain books along the way

Drinking…or imagining a wonderful cup of coffee in my hands, ok now i best make a fresh pot!

Wondering…how i can instill in my children that each day needs to be lived to the glory of God and we need to evaluate where we spend eternity and how our day to day life is preparing us for that.

Planning…a camping trip....well actually loading the trailer now and worrying i will forget something like last time....tim's onderbroekjes! Costco came to the rescue.

Hoping…the Pikkert family is finding the strength needed during this difficult time of accepting their father and grandfather is gone to be with his maker

Enjoying… the love language of my husband. He put new shelves in our trailer last night late for all the kids clothes and this morning while he was gone early to look at an auger down south i did the morning chores in the barn for him. I thank the Lord for my husband.

Learning…How short i fall of God's expectations of me as a mom, wife and friend. i need to work harder at friendships and maintaining them.

This was a loaded post but fun to complete. Feel free to copy and paste and fill in your own answers. I took it from a friends blog.

Updated Pictures

Mornings and Mothers

The best part of my day. As a mother i love to get up early before everyone else to pull my whole self together and prepare for another day God has graciously given me. Starting the day with the Lord is so important. In our bible study this past week our lesson reflected on a joyous mother. The sentence that struck me the most was, "As mothers, you and i are the number one influence in our children's lives." pg 142 A woman after God's own Heart It actually scared me. That line holds so much truth as we are the bigger part of our little covenant breakers' day. As a daily transgressor, I have had my times of selfishness, limited patience, wrongful disciplining, anger outbursts etc and it only reminds me each morning that "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations" Ps 100:5 A new start, a new chance to make things better and to strive to do it all to God's glory. Proverbs 31 has a high criteria for us as mommies. Tim bugs me that i have not considered a field and bought it yet;) I CAN work on that but it might be in Europe somewhere just so we can visit it. Proverbs 31:28 also reads "Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her." Wouldn't that be wonderful to one day get a phone call from a child that is all grown up and they say thank you mom, i now understand the role of a mother and the love poured out in the discipline and instruction you raised us with. Have you called your mom to thank her for the grey hairs she obtained and the worn out carpet beside her bed that her knees are planted in prayers for you?

The Renovations are complete

hello fellow readers. Here are the final photos of our home with just the fireplace incomplete and a few curtains i hung up yesterday after the pictures were already taken. We are so thankful it is done and are pretty happy about our "new" home.

still under construction

Day 16 of our renovations and I love my house...i love my house...i love my house...notice the sarcasm dripping between the dots? Why oh why did we tackle such a project. We have a very old house the previous owner put on a new basement and NOTHING is square. not even my windows! Know how i can tell? The dust lays all to one side! Well perhaps the wind has a play in that. Even the contractor we hired to help us with the finicky drywall work says we should be in the guiness book of world records for the most amount of putty used in the smallest square footage!

I love my house...i love my house....you get the idea. During the renos Tim and i escaped to Lethbridge to visit with family for 4 days and it was nice to get out of the drywall dust! While there my very brave sister in law offered to help me paint! Crazy girl, she must have had a few slokies or something! Pardon my butchered attempt at writing a dutch word for "drinks."

So this honorable woman came to our humble abode and chuckled at my disaray! Then off to work.....and work she can! She is a slave driver. My coffee time got cut in half! Half i say! But we did get much done! Thankyou Bernita! i am indebted to your patience and willingness to help out! Until i blog again dear readers, cough couch, excuse me i tried to dust off my desk while typing.

renovations

It all started out with a birthday wish, i asked Tim for a new fancy shmancy frying pan for my birthday from costco. Well, it turns out i was spoiled with a gift certificate to a flooring store instead. So i picked out new lino to rid myself of the sad-pulled apart hard to clean laminate flooring i had before. Well after the lino quote tim asked if we should go for a fireplace quote seeing the floor was out anyway why not keep renoing? right? WRONG! now i have a wall coming out, the part above the kitchen cuboards is out, the trim is all going, the tile in the bathroom is being stripped out and new paint goes on next week. I am the most spoiled girl on this side of Ponoka, maybe all the east side of hwy 2 even! Anyway here are a few pics for you to enjoy! Maybe next year if i ask for the frying pan again i'll get a new lawnmower.....hey a girl can dream right?

Everything has it's time" Eccl. 3:1-8

Hello again fellow readers! I was in a venting mood a few days ago and it was good i did not blog then. I was raised if you cannot say something nice do not say it at all. So can I type it then? I went shopping for groceries with my two oldest boys. It went very well until we got to the till. There in the magazines rack was some very provocative images of a known hollywood lady with barely a bikini on. I was instantly mad. Is that where righteous anger may kick in? This woman was at my boys' eye sight and if she hiccupped while the photographer took her photo I am sure her kazoonas would have fallen out. Can we spell M-O-D-E-S-T-Y? Oh the scripture references i could pull out right now.....but also scripture on how a man can lust when this pornography is soo easily accesible. In a grocery store of all things and at the perfect height of my 6 year old. I can give a perfect example. In line ahead of us a man oh say in his 30's had bought some apples and milk. He could not take his eyes off of the picture...in fact he dropped his apples on the floor TWICE trying to find the grocery belt without taking his eyes off the well endowed woman. I could have cried right there. We see again how we live in a sinful world. Do we have to keep our kids at home even from the supposedly family friendly grocery store? I decided right then and there to grab the magazine and turn it around. Hmm much better a nice ad for dove soap...works for me....mental note....do i need soap? The man looked right at me a little disgruntled. I nervously replied " I do not need my boys looking at half naked women" the only naked women i pray they will look at is their own wife it what i added in my mind. When Nathan asked why I was turning around 2 more magazines I replied, "Son, there are things on them nobody should see. It does not glorify God". He accepted that answer and we discussed the magazines and their contents in the vehicle more openly later. Nathan was dissapointed that a store would sell that stuff and i had to sorrowfully explain, money and advertising has more say than morals. I love to talk with my boys about anything and what a great opportunity is was to speak openly about this topic with them on that time. So if you see a mgazine rack looking a little disheveled...i may have been there with or without my kids. Have a great weekend and an enjoyable Sunday. Thankyou for reading my rant.

A New Room for Rachel

Ok people this is a super big deal. To me at least. I love to paint. Not on an easel or on artsy crafty stuff no i like to paint walls. If i walk in my minds throught all the rooms in our home the only places i have not painted are the garage and one playroom. Hmmmm....anyhow all these other wonderful rooms have been painted once and some twice and never was i allowed to paint any of them a girly color. Probably because i was soo out numbered.Well now that i have a girl i have merrily walked over to the brighter colors in home hardware and had some fun. Brown and purple it was! Did i ever have fun! The only hurdle i have to overcome is to get a matress for her crib and sniff, sniff bring her downstairs. Hey this is a big step for me. Pictures by request of my sister! Have a wonderful family day weekend!

In December we decided to venture down south to celebrate Christmas. No not that far south....do you see palm trees and pina coladas? Anyhow, Tim and I decided to hotel it seeing we have 4 kids now and invading someones home with them sounds much too stressfull. Just to make it extra special we went to a hotel with a pool! What a highlight! As you can see the boys had no fear with their lifejackets on. Backwards or forwards on their bellies they slid down the slide. We were so fortunate not to have to endure long lineups for the slide.....in fact we were the only family there that morning. We made Rachel our certified life guard. She sat under the fake tree and really did a lousy job watching us, she liked the towering tree abover her instead. So after a good swim Rachel was done! Nap time. Now this cheap and smart momma utilized her packing space well. You see Rachel slept in a tote. I packed her clothes in the tote on the way and back home. At the hotel her clothes were in a drawer. She also bathed in the tote and at night slept in it. We still chuckle at the picture! Between visiting lots of family and eating far too much food we had a great 4 day long weekend. The boys loved visiting with their cousins and sledding and skating with them. We live too far away from all the family. I think we should start a colony. Any willing participants?

Of Birth Certificates, pink eye and soothers

Caught your attention didn't I? Well it has been an interesting week here in the hen house. Last Sunday our dear Kevin developed pink eye, as i rub my eye again, come on i am sure you did too! It is an irritating little feller that gobs up little childrens eyes and takes a good dose of eye drops to clear. Well clear they did and then i was extra cautious to make sure Rachel didnt get it, or the other boys for that matter. This momma was on high eye alert. I even checked the dog at times. But that also passed, we survived and we needed a birth certificte for Rachel. You know to prove she was born. Well..... to prove to the world she was born. I know she was born....i am sooo glad she was born....she had to be born becaue she was late....or she would have exploded out of me. Ok bad picture. SO this mommy, with a toque on (i have to mention this now beause it is necessary to make it funnier later) headed to the registry office with postpinkeye Kevin in toe and of course the victim Rachel. As i got in the door, she started to whimper, i think it's cause she still feels the need to remind me she hates her toque. So i took it off and waited my turn with 3 others in line. She got more mad, so maybe mommy had to take her toque off. i did that seeing it was warm in the office and imagine what toque hair with a slight drizzle of static would look like on me who had not even brushed my hair that morning!! Wow, i type alot, anyhow. She continued to bellow. Louder and louder, by now others were watching. I pulled out my paperwork acting like i was not leaving for i had to be here too! A lady appraoched me and asked if she could help, i answered no thanks i think i am ok. Kevin was sweetly smiling at her from under his toque and revealed his post-slightlypink eye and the lady quickly backed up. Two people left and my turn crept closer. Rachel started her shrill. The lady cautiously approached me again and asked if she could feed Rachel for me. I replied no thanks she is nursed. Kevin decided to help me out by sticking the soother hard into Rachels mouth. He is quite persistant in the matter. He will not allow her to spit it out! Then came my turn, poor woman behind counter. She looked up from her computer to find a scary hairy mommy, a postpartum pinkeyed boy and a screaming baby. The questions she nailed me with..... i was so unprepared. Where was she born? Umm the hospital. Which one? I turned to the helpful lady behind me and asked what is the name of the Ponoka hospital? She replied "which one the mental or general", question answered. I guess you can have babies in the brain injury hospital as well. Unless Tim turned the wrong way ou of the driveway... i remember giving birth in the the general hospital. Tho i was really drugged with my epidural......no it was the Ponoka General. so the paperwork continued, Kevin persisted with the soother ritual and i swept hair out of my face again! The registry lady was content with with my info and i attempted to pay her, but my purse was gone. I turned around and found Kevin had attempted to help me pay by emptying the contents on the floor. Imagine, nursing pads, other pads;) mentos, reciepts coins OH another soother and stuff strewn about. Rachel persisted to remind me she was still hungry. Oh i love mother hood. I found the money, and knew i had to get out fast or i would end up in the brain injury unit today yet! We survived, picked up our mess and toques and left to nurse Rachel and our pathetic attitude in the vehicle.

Sleeping on the job

I lack much motivation these last few days. Perhaps it is the weather, or lack of sleep,or the depressing sight of endless laundry and dust on the furniture or even on my washer and dryer as you can see in the picture. It can be frustrating to say "aahhh, all done and all caught up" one day and then turn around to find the boys have happily cleaned their rooms and found another load of laundry for me! Or dusting...really....it is sooo overrated! I live in Alberta with dusty roads and on the farm t'boot so if you feel so inclined to write your name in my furniture why not ask for a doekie to start dusting for me? I also detest ironing. Pointless, the roosters in this house wear it and throw it on the ground anyway. I must confess if i do find a really wrinkly shirt in the dryer by mistake, i will re-wash it. Yupp.... you read it hear folks i wash sunday shirt sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. Just till i remeber to dry it for 10-20 minutes then hang it so not to have to iron it. I have started to teach my daughter the basics of laundry. How to sort it, what soap for what load and how to remove her poopy stains. Also to make sure she is not too overwhelmed by this tacky task i assure her any money or treasures she finds in jean pockets is hers to keep. My greatest treasure i found was a $20 bill in Tim's jeans. Poor sucker! Occasional hockey cards, quarters and candies also appear but the paper money is always welcome and never returned.

Maybe that's a note you want to make as a reader if you ever visit our home!

So as the bible reads we ahem, older women in Titus 2:3-5 need to be examples to the younger ones. I've decided to teach Rachel good things, like being a good homemaker, but by looking a the above picture this was her reaction to it. Hmmm, maybe vacuum training will go better.

On a side note, could whomever reads this blog just make a little comment like "what your least favorite job around the house is" this way i know how many people really follow this blog so far? Thanks, have a great weekend.

Three cocky roosters;) couldn't resist

There you have it folks, the three smiten roosters holding their little sister. The first week we brought Rachel home from the hospital Kevin wanted absolutely nothing to do with his new baby sister. In fact he encouraged her to leave by continually bring her carseat to Tim or I. But after realizing she was here to stay he reluctantly started to show more love. Today they all will run for her the second she bellows. At times they all come with a soother in their hands, where all these soothers come from beats me. A few days ago Andrew quietly asked me again "Mom, can i please hold Rachel?" i asked him to sit on the bed and she slowly started to wimper and then let out a good holler. Andrew looked slighly nervous and asked, "mom did you give her her supper?" I replied"yes m'boy, she got fed" Rachel really took off with her scream fest and Andrew tried to talk a little louder this time over her voluptous ( mom will correct me on this word) vibrating vocals and asked " mom did youreally feed her both sides?" Oh how i love their commemts. Like when i feed her, "Can we see mom" "No mommy and Rachel need privacy when she feeds." Oh like a cow huh? replies Nathan. Wow, what is next.

I sure pray my boys will protect their sister and be there for her when she needs them to shoo a few boys away! Hey the roosters need some target practice when hunting for coyotes and gophers right? How wonderful it will be to witness the seasons to come as they grow up together learning more about their Maker and strivng to glorify Him in all they do!