Beginning half of February

Here is Daniel in his snow fort. He is well supplied with wood for heating and cooking.

Matthew had to do his Air Cadets online again. Not so exciting, but what can you do? Well, he can play some games or check his email while waiting...it seems like they did a lot of waiting.

Matthew got into the fort building fad.

We sure had a lot of snow! Nathan had to help out with the plowing a number of times. He's got more experience and manages the go-cart better than anyone else.

The younger three kids treated our tenants with a snowman to look at out their front window. I didn't approve of it, so they only got to make the one snowman--our tenant enjoyed it though!

Matthew plowing again...such a lot of snow! What a winter!!

Why sit at your desk when you can sit on it? (Is it just homeschooled kids that don't know what chairs are for??)

I cut Evelyn's hair. It was too much work to keep the long curls from getting really tangled. I miss the curls, but I don't miss the mess (or brushing it when it was a disaster!)

Now Melanie convinces her to have ponytails or other cute hairstyles, and Evelyn usually lets Melanie do it up. We played Blokus together one evening when she was bored. We both had to be two colors, because it doesn't work to just play with two colors. But Evelyn is an expert at playing games while being multiple players. :)

Reading a still a common activity here.

Boys in books! (If a comic is worthy of calling a book.)

Unfortunately my updated phone is much slower at taking photos, so I can't always get the casual shots I am used to snapping as I discretely walk by. :)

Matthew's fort is getting pretty high! He made it really big.

Home renos made easy: if your home is a snow fort, all you need is a shovel and a good imagination!

Matthew decided to get serious with this snow shifting business. If you can fill a whole trailer full then you can really get a lot of snow to the wall...way more than a shovel full at a time!

The kids really did take advantage of the bounty of snow this winter!

I was pretty impressed with the size of Evelyn's fort. I'm pretty sure she did this all on her own.

Jennifer wasn't much in to building, but she made lots of tracks throughout the property. She was often around on the far end when Melanie and I came back from the golf course.

Matthew bought himself a used EV3 robot...which is a robot meant to work with Lego, and it works with the lego programming software.

The robot looks pretty cool looking too. Matthew got it to do a number of different things...but quickly got tired of it.

Melanie had another quilting project lined up to make. This one had a big centerpiece to work around...as a thank you gift to our neighbour for riding lessons, and for also all the years of having a job right next door(even if it is scooping out stalls)!

Lining up the diamonds to wrap around the corner was more complicated than when it was first envisioned. Good thing there were lots of people with ideas to help out!

Yup, that's how you should do it Melanie. (It's a lot easier to just move around pieces of fabric and see where it looks good, than to actually do all the finicky sewing if you ask me!)

January, second half

In January we started learning Mandarin! We met a family that wanted us to help them with their English--they offered to teach flute to anyone who wanted to (Jennifer said yes!) and Mandarin to anyone who wanted to, and in turn we answer questions about English, or give them an opportunity for them to practice their conversational English. It's really hard learning a new language!!

We got a nice deep dumping of snow. It was so deep that Matthew couldn't make much progress plowing it. Perhaps plowing it twice during the "snowstorm" would have helped.

So we all had to chip in with shovels and help make the way clear.

It was a lot of work--the driveway is sure big!

It took Matthew a really long time just to clear a short straight spot up at the top! What a lot of snow!

Inside and out of the snow, the girls play a game of "lego bingo".

Nathan helped me clear off the ice...it was getting big cracks in it from the cold...so I added slush to the cracks and it was cleared off as neatly as possible for resurfacing.

That evening when I was spraying the ice my rib sure flared up! Even worse than shoveling the snow off the driveway...I guess wrapping the garden hose around myself and yanking on it to keep it off of the ice while spraying was not the best activity. It sure hurt the next day! Ouch!

While Nathan Matthew and I worked hard on making the ice skate-able again (and I never got to use it again this season due to fear or making my rib situation worse) Jennifer and Evelyn enjoyed some carefree sliding. I doubt they felt bad for us. To be fair, they did help Melanie plow it off a few times.

Math time: Daniel behind his books is a common sight.

The snow sure got deep this year! Melanie and I often went for walks in the afternoon together on the golf course. Once the snow got really deep we ended up going a lot less far, for the same amount of work.

Melanie in the cold sunshine.

And me. (OK, we made it up the hill, is it far enough? Can we go back now?"

We took snowshoes a few times as well...they aren't any easier to walk in, but the next day the walking is a lot easier!

Hockey time!

Nathan enjoyed the ice a few times this year too. After all, he had to help rescue the rink when it was having some serious stability issues...so he got to enjoy the fruit of his labour.

Jennifer by the swing.

Evelyn built a snow fort along the side of the driveway with lots of rooms in it.

Daniel made one in the "island" of the driveway, with a fancy kitchen in it, including a nice fireplace.

More time for hockey. Philip enjoyed the ice for me.

You know a book is exciting when your child reads it in the van on the way home from church and keeps reading it while walking back into the house.

 

2022! First half of January

Despite a lot of fuss on the media Melanie made it home as planned in January without even any covid complications to her plans. We were happy that she condescended to return to us.

 

Although some of us didn't notice much difference. :p Matthew

Jennifer was happy to get advice once again on her sewing projects. After all, for the three weeks Melanie was gone, I only spent 30 minutes in the sewing room with her.

Evelyn was happy to get help again too.

The kids like to approach me when I am peacefully relaxing for the evening with a big stack of school work for me to mark. They love to hear me sigh and complain about the extra work.

Daniel is working (not so hard) on his math. He does not work through it very efficiently. But here in the kitchen we can anticipate whatever cookie or treat Melanie is cooking up...if the math gets boring!

Evelyn does not enjoy having to speak out loud for her second language learning. I used to think there was a problem with the microphone. Or the program. But perhaps it is a problem with her accent! I got a picture of her before she got frustrated. Sometimes she just leaves.

We had some great days for skating in January. Melanie spent most of the time telling us how much bigger and better the ice was in Smithers.

Matthew spent some time practicing his foot work--kicking the hockey puck around is more difficult than doing it with a hockey stick. Plus it's just fun to do something different.

Daniel decided to enjoy the snow instead of the ice.

This snowboard is a bit tricky to use, but it looks like he's managing ok. When I try the board just digs into the snow and I stop. I guess I'm a bit too heavy for it. :( Unless the snow is really hard packed.

Such a lovely sunny snow day! Even Nathan made it outside on the ice for a break from his studies.

We spent an afternoon at a friend's house...well, actually at their river. It was a really cold day, but then the ice was guaranteed to be good and frozen!

It was fun having a nice big stretch to skate on. We couldn't go further downriver though, as there was open water at the end of it!

We had a nice spot for getting on and off, this is where I happened to awkwardly fall on my chest, and possibly even crack my rib. Just thinking about picking up the "mat" and move it over, and whoops, I'm winded on the ice. Oops! Melanie had been racing away for a tag game and fell hard (on her jackknife in her pocket too) but SHE didn't break anything!

Tag was especially fun! We skated for a long time! Our hosts were pretty cold by the time we headed in for some delicious hot food.

We had some games and conversation too. It was a lovely day!