Home front September Update!

Well It's been a while. I've been having problems with uploading photo's from a variety of sources onto my blog. Albert upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 and since then I've been unable to find my photos easily. It's a work in progress!

Well what have we been up to since I write my last update (which I know, I know I posted only a couple of days ago but I wrote it ages ago!)

School
This continues to go well for us. The junior school is putting on a production on the last week of term 3 called the Peace Child by Don Gilbertson. An excellent book if you haven't read it already! Kate and Zara are involved in this production. There have been lots and lots and lots of practices. Since the production is in its final stages, there are full dress rehearsals complete with make-up (which yours truly managed, can I have a big cheer!).

I also managed to find the girls the required clothing (all black for Zara and cargo pants for Kate) at a second hand shop, I felt very brave going into the Savemart warehouse. (I'm sure there is such a  'condition' as 'clothing buying phobia', the phobia especially gets worse when LARGE amounts of secondhand clothing is presented, I seriously struggle to see the 'tree' in that forest of clothing!) Note of course I'm not against buying second hand at all, in fact it was the only place where I could find a black skivy for Zara at a very cheap price!

Grace is also doing a production with the intermediate school about Gideon and the vanishing army! I'm looking forward to watching the full productions next week!

I'm so thrilled that the girls (ok, not Michaela) are able to be part of a production. There are such great life skills to be learned, from patience, to being kind, loving, accepting, respect, teamwork etc.

A couple of other things happened, I'll bullet point them for you:

• Aaron and Audra and kids arrived safely in NZ! One VERY early Wednesday morning we packed the girls in the car and drove to Auckland Airport to finally meet our friends! It was so nice to finally see them. It has been amazing to follow their journey to be able to come to NZ, God opened many doors and baby # 4. How exciting! I admire their courage especially since they had never been over here! Aaron has started a blog where he is documenting some of their NZ adventures, here it is: thiskiwilifeblog. 
• Anniversary - We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary at the beginning of September and the lovely Hannah F offered to look after the girls for the day while we went and tramped on Rangitoto Island where we first 'met' about 19 years ago! Unbeknownst to us, Albert's sister Raewyn and family also were returning from their USA trip that day. On a whim we decided to surprise them at the Auckland Airport. Again a very early start to the day but oh so worth it, we hadn't seen each other in person for about 3+ years! We had a lovely day and the girls had a fantastic time with Hannah also! 
• We booked our ferry trip to the South Island for the Couperus family gathering in January 2016. We are looking forward to catching with every one!
• We have done some tramping in the Hakrimata's close to Hamilton with the girls. One of the uphill parts (which is very popular) has about 1300 steps going about 370 metres up. That's a lot of stairs, nevertherless  we (well the adults) were sore for quite a number of days afterwards!)

One more subject I would like to say a bit on is money. I've talked about money before and being a student family and being fully supported. The last three years have been so humbling to see God at work in all sorts of ways. He not only provided for ALL our needs but plenty of wants also. Now that Albert is working again it has been lovely to finally (in a positive way) to have some of our own 'earned' money. We are able to save (for Christian school fees, a big YAY!), able to buy some things we needed and have a little more wriggle room in our grocery budget! My love of bargains hasn't diminished however and I still look for all the 'reduced to clear' items at the local supermarket! I mean why pay full price when you don't have to! This means that we have been able to eat a variety of different meats and food yet still keeping to a budget! 

I'll share with you just a little example of us being able to be a little bit more flexible with our money. One of the stores in the local shopping center is closing down and so is having a huge clearance sale. I stumbled on this by accident as I was buying something for the production at school. One of the items I bought was some 'loom bands' for Zara's hair. (She needs to have it all plaited for the production). When I bought them home, the girls were asking whether they could have the leftovers for their loom. Of course I said. I hadn't realized that the girls were still very much into the loom bracelets etc. (We had actually never bought the looms for them when they were popular, they 'bought' some at Gems at one of their end of year functions) Since we haven't got a lot of craft out at all moment, I decided to buy the girls some bands and another loom as a surprise! I went back to the store and bought lots of bands in various colors and another loom. When the girls got home from school and saw what I had bought them 'just because' they were astonished. They could not believe that I would just buy something just for them without it being their birthday or Christmas! One of the girls asked "Are you sure that we can buy that with our money?". I had to reassure them that yes I paid cash and no I didn't spend lots of money and yes it is just because! It warmed my heart to be able to do something little for them. Since then they have been making loom creations all weekend! It really is the little/simple things in life!

PS Hopefully the container from the USA with our stuff arrives this week! We are excited to be reunited with so many of our USA/Canada memories!

Home Front Update August 2015

Settling in versus Routine
I've had a lot of questions lately about the fact how we are settling in. My answer to this question is that we are settling in very well. I have however been reflecting on this question with regard to our new life. We are settling in well BUT making new routines isn't quite as easy. Not in a bad way just different. Let me explain. For three years we have lived a very rigorous seminary bubble student life, where Albert would get up at 4.30am to study and come home at 5pm, have dinner and then go to bed around 8.30pm. Since Albert now has night meetings and the girls have a school routine, we have had to get used to a new routine. A change is not a bad thing, but it does take time. I think we now have the school routine down pat. Albert is getting into an excellent routine studying from home and attending various meetings. 

Some reflections on School
I have made no secret of the fact that self discipline with regard to a homeschooling routine wasn't one of my strong points. I almost feel like a burden has been taken of my shoulders because I'm no longer responsible for the day to day academics. Of course Albert and I take our biblical responsibility to parent and educate them very seriously. At this stage in life we have just chosen to outsource the schooling part! The parenting part continues to be hard work (so it should be!!) especially as we are entering into a new phase in our life, the teenage years! I actually look forward to the teenage years. I still have to pinch myself that I have a daughter who goes to high school, it's plain weird! Albert has been able to be home for dinner every day and so this gives an excellent opportunity to interact on a more adult level with the girls! The girls (all of them in fact) have some excellent questions about all sorts of topics which we enjoy discussing at the dinner table. Of course school brings some questions (no schooling option is a perfect solution) which have been great to discuss. 

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege to be able to go to parent/teacher interviews. Although our girls didn't get reports we enjoyed meeting each girl's teacher (apart from some of Michaela's). It was my fear (and maybe other homeschoolers as well) whether or not we had done enough to enable the girls to slot back into the school system. I'm very pleased to report that our God is faithful in answering my prayer and that the girls, although they had some gaps, which was to be expected, all entered back into the school system with flying colors! No red flags!!! 

We are thrilled for the girls to be able to go to an excellent school. I'm enjoying getting to know some of the Mums and taking part in some of the school activities. Albert has been volunteering his time in some one-on-one tutoring. 

So what keeps me busy then in this new season of my life?
Well I know I tried to answer that last month but since now we are in a more regular routine, I'm able to give you an update. I try to attend the Junior school Assembly on Friday afternoons and attend the school's prayer meeting once a week. I also have joined a ladies bible study on Wednesday morning on Proverbs. It has been nice to get to know more ladies from both of the Reformed churches here in Hamilton. It feels such a privilege to be able to have free time to go. On my school taxi driving runs I've been trying to listen to a sermon or two. School is about a 20 min drive each direction so that's a fair amount of downtime. I haven't been able to do this for a long time as the girls were always home. I have joined the Masters Swimming club and I'm out two nights a week to swim with the club. The coach has been very helpful in refining my freestyle stroke! 

We've also been trying to show plenty of hospitality. I know it is part of the 'job' as such but we have received SO much hospitality over the three years we were in the USA and Canada which we were unable to repay that I'm trying to extend that same hospitality that we received to our dinner guests! Not to pay back but to pay forward, hopefully people will be as blessed as we have been by YOUR generosity and hospitality. In saying that USA and Canadian friends, there is ALWAYS a place at our table for you! (and a bed!!). 

Heart to Heart

What can I say? There are some mixed emotions at our house in these last months in the USA! It will be soooo nice to be in the same time zone as family! To catch up and get to know some of the new arrivals to our family while we where in the USA. Since I've had a quite a few people asking how I feel about returning, what I will miss etc, I thought that I would put it out here on the blog so that I can tell you all! (note lists are in no particular order)

Will Miss

• The cheap cheap living. I wonder whether I could put Aldi, Costco, CVS and Target in my pocket and take them with me? 
• Couponing - free things, the shops paying me to take stuff home, YES please!
• Munster High School Swimming Pool - WOW I have never seen anything like it. I suppose that would be hard to put in my suitcase, all those gallons and gallons of water! (Munster High School Pool is a state of the art 50m indoor pool!)
• Change of seasons - I really enjoy the change, makes you appreciate each season so much more!
• SNOW - if you have been reading my blog for a while now or following me on FB, no explanations are needed!
• City Living - I actually enjoy the busyness
• Friends made, makes me VERY sad just to think about that!

Won't Miss

• Traffic lights - I wonder how much time I have spent waiting for traffic lights?
• Time difference with NZ - It's a nuisance!
• The concrete jungle
• The very hot temperatures, not a huge heat lover
• Banking system
• Lack of Credit rating
• VERY expensive health costs

Looking forward to

• Seeing family!
• SCHOOL Again no words necessary!
• Mountains - I LOVE mountains, always have even before we moved to NZ. We made lots of visits to Germany in my younger years!
• Being reunited with all my stuff in our container.
• Being a dog owner in the future.
• The future.

Grateful for:

• Being given the opportunity to experience another culture.
• Travel - I LOVE travelling, I know we did most of things very cheap or free but what an experience!
• Being humbled by people's generosity all across the globe and many different forms! (Not just money but also time resources etc)
• Experiencing God's faithfulness, no words necessary! 
• Seeing God work through the people we have met, I feel very privileged!
• Seminary - I actually really enjoyed our time there but realize it is a season of life and so it's nice to 'move' on in a positive way. 
• Sonlight - Our homeschool curriculum, not sure what I would have done without it! I did learn a lot. 
• My GPS! One thing that I can take with me :)

So in light of my post today, what are you grateful for?

Homefront Update March 2015

Chicago March 2015

Just a quick update on our family and our plans. 

Some of you might be wondering why the avalanche of posts. Well one of the reasons I have my blog is to document all we have done for the girls to read back on in years to come. So if looking at hundreds of photos of our family isn't your thing  just skip it (no offense taken :)).  Of course another reason is to keep our supporters up todate on how we are doing. On that note I have an apology to make. Albert did write a blog post at the end of last year which I neglected to post and when I did find the e-mail most of the content wasn't relevant anymore. Hopefully Albert will give you an update from his perspective soon. 

Girls
The girls are continuing to do well. Both Grace and Kate have been unwell at various stages, and both required a doctors visit. Thankful for continued good health for the rest of us. The girls are eagerly waiting for the snow to melt so that they can put up the trampoline in the backyard. 

Homeschooling
This was set back at least a week when I got sick in February. We have been busy catching up with doing long days of just school hence the house needs a spring clean. In light of this I've been buying bread, eating simple meals and keeping shopping and outings to a minimum to get our school work done. I don't just want to 'tick' the box but to really take in what we are suppose to learn. I am having some help from one of the student's wives. This enables me to catch up on some jobs that need to be done, tidying, reconciling accounts, blog posts, shopping etc. I'm hoping to finish school early May. I would prefer a week or so earlier in order to sort, pack clean etc but we will have to see. Our weekly home school group is going great, Albert is still doing the devotions and PE and I'm 'sitting' on babies while their mothers teach. A win all around :). 

Day Trips
Since this is our last couple of months we have taken advantage of the mostly free things to do around the Chicago area. One day we went to the Brookfield Zoo on their free day. As a family we also took a day out and visited the Adler Planetarium (I did pay for the shows but got a great deal through Living Social). Albert LOVES stars and space etc and providentially the girls were studying space in science so a perfect opportunity to learn more about it. I was 'spaced' out at the end of the day. (hahahah!). We are still hoping to make several trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, the older girls are studying genes and the Museum has a great exhibition on this. 

Shopping/Couponing
I'm doing some still but have scaled back. I have stopped my subscription to the local newspaper (which had a lot of coupons) and I am mostly doing couponing for things I really need (chocolate is a need surely?) We seem to 'fly' through shampoo and conditioner with four girls and long hair! I'm trying to use up what I have in my pantry and so we are eating lots and lots and lots and lots of lentils! If anyone has a favorite lentil recipe (not Sophie Gray's -  I use plenty of hers!) please feel free to email me the link! 

Packing
Well I haven't started yet but kind of itching to, not necessarily that I'm eager to leave but just because I like to be organised. I did this also in Wanganui and I was so organised that we had a couple of days 'spare' in which we made a surprise visit to Albert's parents. We have moved all the girls into one room so that I can have one room as my packing room. 

Lasts
This is kind of a sad thought as there are so many lasts. I am trying to keep the positive in mind and focus on the future. We are planning a farewell party on the 23rd of May, please come! 

Me
I'm doing well! I did get Kate's flu for about a week which wasn't as nice but bounced back pretty quickly! I'm also on my record for swims in a row. I swim on Mon/Wed/Fri mornings and have done so for 12 sessions in a row mostly following the assigned workout (3*100 yards butterfly is pushing it!) for about 3000 yards. I'm feeling great and hopefully this will cross over into some running fitness once the weather warms up.

Albert
He has managed to stay healthy, don't know why? Must be God's grace, there is no other explanation! Since you really shouldn't boast about yourself and let others boast about you allow me to boast about Albert! Albert passed his oral exam with flying colors! This is a pretty big exam with ALL of the faculty testing you on all you have been taught over the past 2 1/2 years. He was VERY diligent and studied long hours which resulted in not just a pass but a pass with flying colors! Proud of you! We are doing much better with our study/ family balance. This is something that is always a struggle for Albert and we work together on it. Communication of course is the key in this area and it's been good for both of us to plan our week together. I for one have full confidence in Albert to finish his semester well! The pressure is on Albert to graduate because I have bought the girls new graduation dresses! (Which is a funny story in itself. Since the girls get mostly hand me downs they questioned me about the purchase of brand new dresses for all the girls all at the same time! I had to explain that graduation is a pretty big life event for our family and Albert could not have done it without the girls help and understanding. It's a celebration for all of us, hence the new dresses!)

Home front Update January 2015!

First things first! We've got snow! Very excited! (I'm probably the only one in the MidWest but that's ok!)

Now that I have that out of my system, it's time again to give you all an update on how we are doing. 

Girls
The girls are doing well. Grace had strep throat early December which required a visit to the Nurse Practitioner and some antibiotics. She is feeling much better now. Last Friday/Saturday she again had a fever with cold symptoms but thankfully this didn't last long. Zara also got a fever, apart from that the girls have been healthy. Very thankful for that as there has been a LOT of sickness going around. Michaela turned 13 on the last day of the year, can't believe it was 13 years ago we became parents! Looking forward to the teenage years, should be lots of fun! (At least if she lets me win!)

Albert 
Albert finished his second to last semester in December. He actually did really well on time management this semester and managed to start studying for exams before the exam period started, a first. The dates are VERY tight and so you finish class one day with exams the next. He promised me to take some time off especially as we had visitors. Next item on the calendar for Albert is an Oral exam late January 2015. This is a pass or fail test hence there is some pressure to pass. I for one have full confidence that he will do well :). 

Homeschooling
Well we've past the half way mark which is exciting! I did some extra weeks over summer and so hope to finish early May. We had three weeks off and started again this week. Albert has been pretty busy with Seminary especially the last few weeks of last semester. So one of the seminary student's wives is a teacher and volunteered to teach the girls occasionally. WOW what a blessing! She spent two mornings with Michaela and Grace so far. I really do NOT have the teaching gift. Teaching is a GIFT and WOW she has it! God is faithful even in my homeschooling journey! As far as counting down, this is one area where I'm counting down, 17 more weeks to go! (Girls continue to do well especially since I'm using a bribe for all us to get our school work done everyday!)

2015
It's a year of change for us as a family. It's a year of lasts, a year of goodbyes, a year of hellos, a year of packing and unpacking with plenty of tears sprinkled in. I get sad just thinking about it. Exciting times ahead also too which I'm looking forward to. We have enjoyed our time here so much, learned so much, being humbled and grown so much in all areas of our lives.

Service
We've had the privilege of playing hosts to 3 lots of visitors over three weekends. How nice to be able to serve since we are on the receiving end so often. I know people don't expect anything in return but it's more blessed to give and so it was nice to give some back over these three weekends! I LOVE the fact that we are all so different and not all cookie cutter humans. There is so much to be learned from each other and so our weekends with our visitors were special times indeed. A couple of funny things that happened to us while we had our three lots of visitors. 

• We forgot to offer milk whether in coffee/tea or with meals. NOTE to future visitors, please ask if you haven't received what you asked for or better yet, help yourself, we're not offended!
• Snacks - plainly forgot about them. You know the feeling that when they leave and you open your pantry and there are all the snacks, oops! 
• Rodent (a plastic one) - We had nothing to do with this one at all. There might have been a rodent in a bed or not, I suppose you had to be there!
• Meals - I will try NOT to smoke the house out (which happened when I cooked the turkey (in an oven bag I might add) and some of the fat spilled out. Also will try to aim better when I transfer the hot cinnamon buns from the tray to the counter. Glass dishes shatter in lots of pieces, ask me how I know?
• God's perfect timing - We received several items of food before or while we had visitors including lots and lots and lots of mashed potatoes! 

Me

(Michaela got a tablet for her birthday and so is now receiving my updates, better keep this PG rated :) )

I'm doing well as always as I refuse to look on the dark side. I have had a cold for a week or so but my immune system is doing an excellent job of fighting it.  Thankful for a healthy diet and being able to exercise. I did some running with Albert early in the semester, taking advantage of the beautiful Fall/Autumn but since the weather got colder I've stopped running. I have increased my yardage in the pool instead. I have managed 2 weeks of 9000 yards (8.2km) in three sessions a week. A HUGE improvement. Despite me being a slow swimmer compared to all those athletes in the pool, I do really enjoy swimming and will miss it lots when we go back.

I promised Albert that I won't start packing the house up until the new year despite me itching to pack. It's not that I'm itching to leave, just like to be organised that's all. I would hate to do it all at the last minute. Also Albert is not going to be of much help in May in particular as he needs to concentrate on finishing well!

I've taken a couponing holiday as well for the last month. It's been nice not to chase deals for a while. The girls are flying through conditioner at the moment so I will have to get back to couponing soon. It is a part time job. I've done some shopping online through a cashback site. Nice to get some money back on things you were going to buy anyway or got giftcards for! Every little bit helps! (I would do all those things regardless of whether I was a student, I'm all about getting more for my dollar!)

Mini Holiday

After Albert's oral exam and before classes start up again, we are going on a mini family holiday. We are going to the same waterpark as in 2013 through one of the families of the church. I looked at staying an extra night as there were only two nights available this time on the cheap rate, WOW, it's expensive. Thankful for our church family to share with us their discount. People have generously donated money with specific use for family fun. Also the older girls have been helping our neighbor for which they earned some pocket money. We are all looking forward to going away just the six of us! 

Home Front Update July 2014

Girls having fun at friends

Look what I did?

WOW, We are already on the homestretch of this summer internship! Time has flown, though I'm sure that it always does!

We are having lots of fun so I'm sure that why time is going fast. According to the girls this summer is going even faster than last summer. I'm not sure I agree as last summer went fast also. This summer we are here for 11 weeks where as last summer we only did 10 weeks. Of course last summer's internship took us a bit longer to get there than this summer.

Since I've been trying pretty hard to keep you all updated (at least for the grand parents sake :), in photo form with a wee bit of a summary of what we've been up to, I thought for this update I would just talk about some random things and also how we are doing personally before I do that though there is just a couple of thoughts that I would like to get of my 'chest'!

Prayer Request!
While we are having a great/fun/exciting time here in Canada there are plenty of people both in NZ, USA and CA who are struggling/hurting/going through tough times at the moment. So please I urge you to pray for these people in your life or that you know of, you know whom I'm talking about! Pray for them, drop them a meal/card/e-mail/text. We are keeping people in our prayers daily, I hope you will too!

Gratitude
We are so overwhelmed by people's generosity both here in CA, back in the USA and of course our financial backing in the USA. I even got a birthday gift card electronically from a very dear friend in NZ! We are SOOO undeserving of YOUR generosity! One thought I would like to share with you today is the lack of worry we experience. The worry about where our next meal is going to come from, the worry about having to up keep the 'property', house maintenance and general 'worries' that come with owing a house/job etc. Albert is able to concentrate solely on writing sermons, preaching and visiting. He is able to do this as our church here and all our other supporters are looking after us! THANK YOU!

Homeschooling
We've finished for the holidays! YES! I managed to persevere for 4 weeks. This means that we are now 4 weeks ahead. I'm planning to start again the week when seminary starts back again. Hopefully we are able to finish by the end of April next year. My personal opinion of homeschooling hasn't changed and after visiting the local Christian school here last week, I'm slightly envious! I fully realize that school (Christian) is not the be all and end all, it's got plenty of faults but it was SOOO attractive. The older the girls are getting the harder it is in keeping up with them especially their English. I've got VERY good students for which I'm so grateful and the girls continue to thrive, they are even VERY social!

Excercise
We applied to the YMCA for membership but never heard back. We did talk about persuing it but decided not too. Several factors contributed to this, distance to travel being a major one. Instead we decided to get creative in still keeping up our fitness. See here for one :). Albert and I also have almost finished a 30 day AB programme. This program made us do ridiculous amounts of sit-ups (120), crunches (200), leg raises (65) and a ridiculous long time doing a plank! We're up to 1.50 minutes doing a plank, you try do one and then we will talk again! Talk about mental strength! We are also still doing some running a couple of times a week which can be a bit of a struggle in the humidity! The girls are enjoying 'beating' us and spending time with us walking/running!

Girls
The girls continue to do well. Parenting continues of course. Since we've been so busy the last couple of weeks with lots of late nights, we decided to take it easier late last week. We sent them to bed early, made them have an afternoon nap on Sunday and stayed home one day. This has made a difference and the girls are ready to go again! Parenting is NOT easy and while generally the girls are great, there is plenty of sin in their lives (as in ours of course!). Teaching some of the older girls to do housework properly is not always an easy or satisfying task. I'm soo grateful that my Mum taught me to do it right the first time and made me go back and back to make sure I got it right. This part sounds soo good in theory but it is a little harder to execute! I mean how hard is it to wash dishes? Come on! Hard apparently because you don't just let a little bit of water and soap touch the dishes and it comes out magically clean!The Girls told  me the other day, they are NEVER (hahaha) going to complain about the dishwasher again! (not that washing dishes is that big a deal, it is just teaching them about the 'art' of washing dishes!). I strongly think that having the right attitude as parents makes ALL the difference in the attitude of the girls. The girls thrive despite of the circumstances. If you like to see for yourself, come and visit, we LOVE visitors!

How am I really?
As you know from my previous posts, I refuse to 'beat about the bush', complain or make things seem fantastic when they aren't. So take this as how I am really :). I'm still living happily I might add even after not having unlimited internet, not being able to watch netflix and no dishwasher in the country!

I thought not having unlimited internet might be a problem but it has not been a problem. It's amazing on what you get used and how quickly. It is slightly sad (NOT a complaint!!) that we are unable to Skype our family (apart from my Mum who I try to Skype weekly) because of the time difference and us having to go to the church. E-mails work great and I'm able to keep up with most people via FB and text. So maybe the internet is not as big a part of my life as I thought it might be! Of course I'm not doing any couponing and so I don't need to be on top of the latest deals! I paid FULL price for Albert's deodorant the other day. I just swallowed my price (I mean pride!) and paid happily :).
No dishwasher - no big deal, girls are doing a great job of keeping up with the dishes after a few 'how to' lessons!

Living in the country - Well this is an interesting concept. Since I don't do many groceries as we are here only for a short time and I only buy what we need (which is very little). It does seem to me to drive 20-30 minutes for only a couple of groceries once a week a bit much. I'm not much of a shopper for anything else bar groceries so it doesn't worry me that the rest of the shops are far away. I suppose the thing that I miss is being able to go for a walk (on the sidewalk), visit the park and making an 'ooops I forgot that grocery item' trip. I do enjoy the 'space' for the girls to play in, they ride their bikes, can fly a kite, build huts, climb trees, like the view, the sunsets etc here in the 'country'! I suppose I did almost have it all when I lived in Wanganui (for those outside Wanganui, look at the photo on the top of the blog, isn't it beautiful?), the shops were VERY close by and the country/river were VERY close by also. I LOVED living there, I miss our walks Brydie, I miss the river and miss walking the dog!  So while I LOVE living in the city and all it's benefits I do enjoy being given the opportunity to live in the country for a short time without all the 'work' that comes with living in the country :).

I'm enjoying visiting people/families, doing some more baking, baking all our bread/buns etc and reading some books. It's nice to have some 'time off'. Albert however is working pretty hard although a different 'hard' compared to seminary! We have most meals together and since Albert has no other responsibilities other than church, he can spend his 'spare' time with us which is lovely!

One of the privileges of being part of a church is meeting people and their stories. Some of their stories are happy ones, some tragic, some sad but with happy endings, some inspiring and others just 'normal' (what ever that means!). It is AWESOME to see that despite what path you travel, God is there with you and does not forsake you no matter the sin/struggle/pain/or joy! It challenges/encourages me to look at my own walk with the Lord, my relationship with people, Albert and the girls.

Phew this is turning into quite an epistle, if you are still with me, well done :). This will probably be my last 'home front' update for a wee while. Some highlights in the next couple of weeks are:

• Izaak is visiting again! I know, he keeps coming :) (We are looking forward to it, I hope he knows how to grill hamburgers!)
• Albert's Parent's are coming at the end of the month. We haven't seen them for more than two years so excitement all around!
• A visit to Pompton Plains! We are taking a detour via Pompton Plains to catch up with all those lovely people from our last summer internship. 
• A visit with Ben and Franci. I've heard so much about Franci but I've never met her, so looking forward to meeting her in real life!
• Catching up with the Warners in Pompton Plains and baby Abbiel which we haven't seen yet!

I'm hoping to keep up with the photo blogs as I don't want a repeat of last year's internship and still posting photo's THIS year :(. 

Albert's Update

Guess where?

It's a lovely sunny day in Canada. The girls are working on their home schooling, and I am shortly about to do some marking with them.

We've been here now for just over 3 weeks, and we are nicely settled in.

So far I have preached 5 times. Twice after the first week of being here, once after that, and last Sunday I preached twice, the morning here at Wellandport URC, and the evening at another local church Adoration URC in Jordan.

I am enjoying being back in the pulpit again, and getting back into the swing of writing sermons. My Sermons are up on Sermon Audio if you want to catch up with how I am going. Any positive criticism is welcome!

One thing that I have been getting used to is the art of writing catechism sermons. It is a challenge to consider both scripture and the catechism, and then weave them in together. I have preached from two Lord's days, 25 and 26, and in a couple of weeks I will be preaching from LD 27. The advantage has been I now feel that I am getting a good grasp on baptism!

I am meeting weekly with my pastor, which is a good encouraging time. He is doing a great job of answering all the questions I pepper him with!

I have also been given a long list of pastoral visits to make, and I am slowly working through those as well. I love getting out and meeting members of the congregation and hearing their stories. It is a blessing to listen to them, and a privilege to encourage them and read God's Word with them.

I am also taking a Bible Study this Summer. We have started to go through a book called: "The Hole in Our Holiness" by Kevin de Young. It looks pretty good so far, it deals with our sanctification, and how we are to work at it.

So it looks like another busy summer, which is awesome. The more experience I can get the better! I enjoy the time in the classroom, but I think I enjoy more getting out and working together with God's people!

Till next time,

Albert

Homefront Update May 2014

Just a teaser for the 'real' falls!

One week down already with only 10 more to go .

Well this update comes from a rural town in the Niagara Region! Being rural is quite funny as I've never lived in a rural setting before. Although I'm not sure strictly speaking it is that rural. We were talking with some church members on Sunday who told us that they lived quite rural and I asked them whether they had electricity? HAHA. I think of very rural NZ like being in the 'wop wops'! (ie no electrity, running water, no neighbor for miles (kms!). So I suppose since some of the main towns are about 20-30 minutes drive, this could be called semi-rural! Interesting though that back in Lansing were we live to get anywhere it would take you at least 15-20 minutes drive, ok the distance might not be much but the volume of traffic combined with lots and lots of traffic lights lengthens your trip! So here the distance is longer but the traffic a lot less. Not having many traffic lights is a very nice bonus, not a huge fan of those.

It is quite surreal to drive over the border and be in a complete different country and culture. This is even more surreal when we visited the Niagara Falls last week as we could see the USA very clearly! So technically Albert could take me for a date to another country, how cool is that?

Home!
As per my other photo post we were very warmly welcomed! Our house was fully furnished with everything that you need for 11 weeks and more! From bug repellents, to craft sets for the girls (which they LOVED!), baking, groceries in the fridge, pantry and freezer (we promise to share the icecream with the girls if anyone from Wellandport is reading this!), some outdoor toys (skipping rope, chalk etc) for the girls, nice fluffy towels (I know we appreciate the small things being students ), brochures about the area, beautiful flowers (my reputation to keeping them alive is not great but I've got Grace on the job, hopefully she does a better job than me!), TV and DVD player all hooked up and if that wasn't enough a makeshift 'office' was 'made' for Albert in our bedroom! The committee organised a desk, chair, extension cords and lamp so that Albert can have an 'office' at home. We are truly blessed very undeserving so especially when we know people who are under going trials  at the moment, a baby girl in our home church in the USA with breathing/feeding problems, a one year old just recently diagnosed with cancer back in NZ. Although we covet your prayers (couldn't do it without those) I would encourage you to think about those close to you who are under going trials and pray for them.

Homeschooling
I'm pleased to report that by lots of prayer, hard work and huge support from Albert, the girls have finished their second year of homeschooling! Phew, it was a struggle towards the end, which I'm sure is very common. I finished about a week before we left and so that gave me about a week to clean and pack. The girls started their new year last Monday. It is a blessing to have something for the girls to do as the Canadian school year does not finish until the end of June. I have also enjoyed the slower paced homeschooling, ie just doing one day at the time instead of cramming three weeks into two weeks and also playing catch up. I'm hoping to finish by April and we are on track so far. Zara is also doing some science this year since she reading. Kate is very excited to start 'big' girl maths ie using the computer programe to do maths instead of textbooks. She is flying ahead and has already completed quite a few lessons, thankfully I've got the next installment of Maths so that Kate can do maths until her heart's content! Albert will continue with teaching the girls Language Arts which is a great way to spend some 'forced' dad time .

Exercise
Well this is non-existent at this stage. Running is not an option as the road we live on is a very busy thorough fare. We are looking at a few options. There is a YMCA but very pricy, we hope to talk to the director to see if they can't help us. Last year the YMCA was VERY nice to us with FREE membership, I don't think that will happen but you never know until you ask . The public pools don't open until the middle of June and so we might have to make a visit or two once that opens.

Groceries
I like grocery shopping so this is worth a mention! For those of you who don't know we have a Costco membership which is basically a big (nice) warehouse where they sell all sorts of things, mainly groceries. The reason why we got a membership because they have a great optical department. Since the girls and I all wear glasses this is a worthwhile investment. The grocery part is just a bonus. Last time we went the girls had a go-gurt each, yummy fish, cheese/crackers, chocolates etc. So for students like us, it is like girls this is your lunch! I do have manners I promise . Anyway using my USA membership was no problem and I was able to get a good number of essentials (ok popcorn chips aren't an essential, I'm blaming those taste testers!) for a very reasonable price. YAH! Especially since another country, has different prices for things and it takes a while to know what a 'bargain' is! Interesting though is that even though the Niagara Valley is a dairy country, the dairy prices are high especially compared with the USA. Sound familiar, NZ?


Farming
The Niagara Valley is primarily a farming community which is very fascinating. I knew this before we came to Ontario but I was puzzled where all the animals were. This is the city girl talking . After inquiring I discovered that all those barns that we see dotted around the country side either have chickens in them or cows. Very interesting! Most of the cows never see the daylight and are few grain which the farmer sows in the fields. I'm hoping to learn lots more about this farming community. (I do have to thank Steffen and Jant for enlightening me years ago on the facts of how a cow produces milk, I know it's straight forward I just had never thought about it before until it was explained to me. So thanks to you, I'm not completely ignorant and I even know that cream rises to the top of the milk!) We have been blessed already by some of the products of the farming with a steady supply of eggs (thank you! I'm making a Pav as thank you, very appropriate don't you think NZders?) and a box of beef (Thank you!, you made Albert a very happy man!). 

THE Falls!
I know that we've already been to Balls Falls but on Friday on Albert's day off we ventured out to see THE mighty Niagara Falls. WOW! They are as spectacular as people say. It was a rainy day and we were too Dutch to pay for parking (I know it's very touristy), so we only saw them briefly. I'll post the photo's of that day in another post. We also that night had the opportunity to visit/catch up with a Mid America Graduate from last year. It was great to see the Lord work in this family and their prospects are exciting although I'm sure challenging. Great to catch up with excellent food! We got home way too late but it was worth catching up with them!

That's about all from me for now, I'm going to try and upload photo's etc to the blog once a week. So if you haven't seen a post in a week, please text me, call me, send smoke signals and bug me! 

The small things in life are the best!

Home front Update April 2014

At West Beach, Indiana on Saturday!

The Beach -
This cracks me up, a beach with fresh water?

Three weeks until the Semester finishes! That doesn't seem long does it? Well there is lots to do between now and then :). 

Homeschooling
We're doing well here, ploughing along! I'm currently on Week 32 this week which is means that I need to do a few double days in the next couple of weeks in order to get all the school work finished for the girls before we go! (For those in NZ, the American School year is 36 weeks) This does mean though that some of the 'extra' jobs are falling behind. Albert has been devoting our family time to schooling the older girls particular in English, not my strong point. I've really appreciated Albert helping out, it means that he has dinner on the table at night and the washing is folded :). So the good news for the girls is that the school year is almost finished, the bad news is that we'll be starting the new school year as soon as we get to Canada! I'm aiming to do about 4-5 weeks of school in Canada as we've got most of the month of August off and also I'm aiming to finish by the end of April in 2015. This means that I've got May 2015 to clean/sort etc. our stuff before we go back. Zara in particular is making huge leaps and bounds in reading which is such a big deal as she now is able to some of her maths by her self. 
The new homeschooling material is being ordered in the next couple of weeks so that I can take it with me and also so that I can organise it all before we go to Canada. Last year it was very nice to have 'school' ready to go when we came back. 

Remember the family portrait in the winter?
same stretch of beach a couple of months later

Weather
This deserves a mention as it is ever changing. Last weekend it got to about 24C and then on Monday night a cold front approached and we woke up on Tuesday with -4C and SNOW!! I LOVE snow but it is slightly cruel to have summer one day and below freezing the next. While I have really enjoyed the winter despite it being very harsh (coldest on record since 1978) it has been very nice to go outside without bundling up! So on the weekend I finally washed all the snow gear (thankful for a HUGE washing machine and dryer!) and put it all away. The sleds have been returned to their rightful owners and the bikes brought up from the basement! A change of season! I haven't quite changed all the clothes over yet for the girls but will do that soon, maybe Saturday! 

Exercise
Again this deserves a mention as with this lovely weather, running has been so much more enjoyable. Albert and I are trying to run once a week for about 30 minutes while the girls stay home, a nice way to spend some time together. Well I'm sure Albert enjoys the quiet 'me' as I haven't got enough breath to hold a decent conversation! ;). Swimming is going well also, I am getting stronger in the pool. I have cut down on my distance and just trying to swim for time as otherwise with running as well it is too much. I do miss not taking out the dog for walks and runs. :( Hopefully one day I'll have my own one again!

17 boxes and we've eaten some already!
(these are great for our date nights,
as cereal is a treat for the girls!!)

Couponing/Rebates
I've become more picky here as I've got a good stockpile for most things. So I'm only after food/toiletries that are VERY cheap or FREE or I make money on! It must be cereal month at the moment as I have about 15+ boxes in my pantry and I paid less then 50c for most of them and some of them I got free. Also at the moment I have an air freshener in our bathroom which the shop paid me a $1 to have. Of course I'm not going to pay for a refill but it is a case of it being fun while it lasts! I also scored some free Snickers bars not that long ago which I thought would be nice for our road trip but unfortunately some have already met a certain fate! I'm also making good use of my ipad mini and uploading all sorts of money making apps :). I use one rebate app that has new healthy rebates like $0.25c on cucumbers, or tomatoes or bananas and I can even buy it at Aldi and then claim my rebate. Twenty five cents doesn't sound like much but it all adds up. I'm also using the Swagbucks mobile app which is earning me some points which I can 'buy' amazon gift cards with.  Plenty of kindle books and books coming my way I think! (or maybe Settlers of Catan!). 

How are we REALLY doing?
Girls are enjoying the fact that they are able to play outside. Since Michaela and Grace have realized that the quicker they do all their school work the quicker they are finished for the year, the harder they are working! Zara is not doing huge amount of school bar reading and writing and some maths. She is doing history with Kate and she is not doing science yet. Kate is doing well and will move up to the next year in the new school year. She enjoys maths in particular. Kate has also joined the 'glasses' crew in our house. It has made a difference already! Thankful for glasses!
I'm doing well also, I've had enough of school but determined to finish and get it all done. I would love to get all my cleaning/sorting done before we finish school but that might be a bit ambitious. A lovely Kiwi lady (yes there is another lady, as well as the lovely Hannah!) has offered to help me clean for the summer so once Albert finishes for the year, we'll all do a deep clean together. Albert's Mother told me to leave the cleaning for her when she comes but I can't leave the house dirty for 11+ weeks. Last year I sorted/cleaned the entire house before we left and it was sooo nice to come home a clean house! 
I'm also trying to lose some "US processed food" weight. This is not as easy as it sounds and I'm making slooow process but at least I'm getting fitter in the process which is a bonus I guess :). I read the other day that dog owners are in a lot better health than the average person, so I'm blaming it on not being a dog owner! (Just kidding of course about the blame!)

Albert writing his blogpost
(he took a photo of me writing a
blogpost so this is payback!)

Travelling/Summer
As Albert said in his post we are Canada bound this summer! We're excited!!! We don't know much about Canada yet apart from it being a Commonwealth Country and it having a metric measuring system! (YESS!!). A lot has to be done between now and then. Packing, health insurance to organize, visa's updated, paperwork all sorted out. Banking to sort out, this is so complicated especially with regard to the USA. Basically if you do not have a credit rating, you can't do ANYTHING financial! We tried to apply for a US Visa card but got declined :(. So after talking and discussing this with Hannah, we are going to use our NZ Mastercard (OneSmart put out by Air NZ) as there are no fees for withdrawing cash or any conversion  fees. In my eyes this seems silly that I can use a NZ card overseas and have no fees while if I use my US debit card it attracts all sorts of fees. Never mind. Enough said. 

Visitors!
Albert's parents are DV visiting us in August! We are all looking forward to seeing some family. Since we are going to be in Canada for the summer we are going to see them a couple of days earlier than originally planned which is a nice bonus. 

That's about all from me today. I'm still hoping to 'catch up' with all the photo's we took after the summer internship until now. I've got plenty more snow photos although Hannah has some very nice photo's of the girls and Albert in her blogpost . Go and visit her blog :). I've also got some more photo's of our Christmas of which we had several.......

Post Internship Holiday - Part 2

This is a follow up post from part 1 which you can read here. (Photo's to come in a separate posts)

Saturday Evening

• We got acquainted with Jeremy and Lilian (J&L) and Shana and got ourselves settled for the night. Again girls did well despite the busyness of our wirlwind trip to DC. 

Sunday 

• Morning - We attended church with J&L which was quite unlike what we are used to. For Albert, who wears a suit every Sunday, it was an adjustment to wear casual clothes. Thankfully Jeremy had warned him :). We enjoyed meeting different people (a HUGE advantage to travelling) and also met the friends whose house we stayed in Thursday night. 
• Afternoon - For the afternoon service we decided to head into the CBD of Philidelphia to attend the Tenth Presbyterian Church. We had heard lots about this church and so given the opportunity we took advantage of it. We used a parking building which the church reimbursed. A foreign concept to us to pay to park to go to church. One thing that was different to this worship service was that they had a lady upfront signing the songs, sermon etc. It's was amazing to watch her, what a ministry!
• Evening - We played games. They are a game playing family, that's my kind of family! We played another version of my favourite game "Ticket to Ride'' and also another game by the same company. It was great to play different games to what I have :). 

Monday

• Our hosts went with friends to an amusement park and we decided to visit the Amish country while we were so close. 
• We spend the whole day driving around the Amish towns some of which have interesting names to say the least. It was washing day which almost made me homesick as the Amish hang out their washing to dry. We sampled some local food including, soft pretzels, shoe fly pie (which is not bad at all!), snicker doodle cookies (cinnamon) and bought some locally brewed root beer (it's okay). We also saw some of the craft shops, WOW those quilts are pretty amazing, beyond my pay grade I think! We saw plenty of horse and buggies too of course. 
• In the afternoon we visited the Mennonite Information Centre which had a real life size tabernacle. We decided to 'splurge' and buy a tour to see it. It was well worth while and while it was hot (difficult to concentrate) it was very informative and interesting. You were not allowed to take photo's inside so I can't share with you any photo's, you'll  just have to trust me on that one! 
• Evening - we made our way back to Philadelphia and stopped by Valley Forge which is a pretty significant site of Early American history. Unfortunately they were closed and we just saw the carpark :(. We couldn't do it all! 
• We stopped for dinner at a local mall with the girls having Taco Bell and we trying for the first time Chick-fil-A having heard lots about it. We enjoyed it! 

Tuesday 

• Lillian had graciously volunteered to show us around the historic sites in Philadelphia and so after getting cheap parking advice we were off. Lillian took the bus and got there earlier than we did, oops! She also got us tickets (they were free but you had to have one) to enter into the Independance Hall. Albert and the girls got their badges while I queued up. What a great way to learn by visiting all the historic sites! Here is an extract from the website:

....where the dream of a free country of independent citizens became fact. Here were written the two documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, on which the foundations of our country rest. Here, from 1790 to 1800, when Philadelphia was the nation's capital, the principle of governance based on the rights of individual citizens was first tested.

• We also visited the Liberty Bell which is an American Icon. The museum had a lot of detail explaining the history of the bell and the crack in it.
• After lunch, Lillian took us to United States Mint which is were they make all the USA coins. It is quite a process which is explained in detail and we were able to watch the factory floor from above. When we were there, they were not making any coins. What an interesting place, again no photo's were allowed, fair enough :). After that we went home as it was very hot and I think everyone (at least our family) had seen plenty over the last four days! After we got home we had dinner and packed/sorted for our trip home the next day. 
• We were planning to drive all the way home on Wednesday as my Mom was coming from NZ the next day. 
• We had a very lovely time with J&L, thank you so much for having us, it was nice to meet a fellow Kiwi!

Wednesday

• After getting up very early and packing, hopefully we weren't too noisy, we took off for Lansing, Ill. We had learnt our lesson last time with regard to the consumption of liquids and so the girls were on a strict orders not to drink too much. The only 'hiccup' in our perfect drive was that after charging my ipad mini* the night before, it wasfried. We don't know how or why but it did. So this meant that the girls couldn't listen to any audio books and I couldn't read my books that I had downloaded but we survived and arrived safely in Lansing. Albert and I took turns driving. We would stop only to get petrol which was about 3 stops and it took us 12 hours from door to door! 

Our summer internship was over, what a fantastic summer we had. On a sad note, it was sad to leave the lovely people that we met over summer knowing that we probably wouldn't meet them again this side of heaven. On the positive, my Mom was coming the next day and so plenty of excitement around. 

*As soon as we unloaded we drove the the apple store. The apple store looked at it and decided that they couldn't fix it and promptly gave me a new one for free. Albert (although he is not an apple fan) had backed everything up for me through icloud and  all the store had to do was put my details on the new ipad mini and all was well. Both of us were VERY impressed by apple despite their 'stuff' being more expensive than android. I continue to use my ipad mini daily and have had no further problems. 

Albert's Update 25/3/14

Lake Michigan 

It's been a while. At least you can be reassured that the reason that I haven't written for a while is because I have had my head in the books! My dear wife has very rightly been on my case, so here is an update of my studies so far.

The Semester began with an intensive on Church planting. This was an interesting course that looked at the ins and out of church planting. This course was taken by Rev Danny Hyde. For the course we had to read a text that he had written "Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century." (No I was not paid to endorse the book!)

While Church Planting is something that I support fully, I would like to begin my pastoral career in an established church, at least in the first instance (Much to the relief of Hanneke).

I am taking a full load this Semester, which means lots of work to complete. For New Testament we are looking at the Pauline Epistles. Rather than taking a book by book approach we are looking at the overall themes through his epistles. We are required to read through all of the epistles as part of our required reading, as well as having completed an isagogics exam. We have been looking at the two age concept that undergirds his writings, and we are currently learning about Christ's eschatological accomplishment. (Big words I know, I had to Google them myself as well!)

For Old Testament we are look at Revelation in the Period of the Monarchy. We have flown through 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, and are just beginning to get our feet wet in Isaiah. I am looking at Isaiah 52 and 53 for an exegetical paper, and will be writing a sermon on 1 Kings 6:8-23. We have to preach the sermon in class, which is always a daunting task, a tough audience. I have a Hebrew Exam on 1 Kings 20-22 this Friday.

In Doctrinal Studies we studying Pneumatology, the Work of the Holy Spirit. We have looked at the person of the Holy Spirit, and are now working our way through the ordo salutis, the order of salvation. Lot's to learn, and a mid-term exam on Thursday.

In Church History we have just passed through Medieval Church, and are beginning to look at the Reformers. Last week was Zwingli. An exam for this subject last week went pretty well, although there was a lot of material to cover. 

That's all the subjects, but for each of them are papers to write, as well as sermons for the Old and New Testament classes.

I have completed all my preaching requirements for this year, and will probably not do many more. Having said that I am beginning Spring Break at the end of this week, with a trip to Calgary to preach at the same church where I was last year. Combine that with taking Chapel on Wednesday it is a busy week.

I also had the opportunity to spend a day in prison last week Monday. Danville Prison in Illinois has a Reformed Seminary. But I'll write a separate blog post on that sometime in the next couple of weeks.

For now it is back to Hebrew translation and vocabulary review. 

Hopefully the next update will be a little sooner than the next one…

Albert