Friday Lunch at the Farmer's Market

Our First Dinner Guest

Our new chore chart

So a new year, a new chore plan! We have many charts and plans and checklists. .. John decided to take over this one. He is definitely an engineer and his plan reflects that. . .He starts describing it to the children and says that he is using a parabolic function of age to determine points. ..each childs' age squared is the number of points they need. . . Moriah looked confused. He is also going to implement allowance for the first time since Joshua is doing this for a Boy Scout Merit Badge. Interest was piqued.

I'll let you know how this idea goes. . .

Responding to Grace's tag (www.writing-with-grace.blogspot.com ) here are my responses.

What kind of a car do you want when you're older?
Toyota Tundra (by the way, I do own the road)

Do you want to go to college?
Been there, done that

How many children do you want to have when you're married?
I am the old woman who lives in a shoe

City girl or country girl?
Suburban

Flying or driving?
I am not fond of any mode of transportation.

Inside or outside?

Outside on a warm day

Wednesday or Sunday?
Sunday

Fried or scrambled eggs?
Fried

Movie or TV show?
I'd rather just talk to people. . . ok if I have to choose. . .a movie because I don't like commercials.

FAVORITES

Thing to do outside? read in the sunshine

Favorite meal? chocolate

Place to read a good book? anywhere

No worries, right?

Week 3 and all are not so well. All five of the kids went to the doctor for bronchits. All got antibiotics. I hate giving antibiotics, but sometimes I have to. ..

The background: We met our new doctor. She is a lovely woman from BC(British Columbia) in another city. Ok, I don't know how to explain this, but there is a scenic overlook on the way to the doctor. . It is a very steep drive to me.

When you are sick here, you just go to either a walk in clinic, like an urgent care center or to your doctor as a walk in, where you won't see your doctor, but an associate. The kids were so sick that I knew we needed to go. . .Grace had blood coming out of her ear, Moriah could barely breathe. . .All of us just went as a walk in and waited for about 2 1/2 hours. Everyone was given antibiotics, breathing treatments. . .

The weather: It's still not too bad . . 1 C. .. it was a Chinook last week where a warm wind comes in from the Pacific. I was talking to a woman who said that her son didn't like the winters here because of the Chinooks. .. not enough cold weather. . . and snow. I just didn't know what to say.

Still no garbage pick up. ..I called today and they said to call back in 2 more days.

John did a Bible study on homesickness reading Jeremiah . . .being an exile would make one homesick. We were talking about homesickness in the Bible. I have been thinking about this: Phillipians 3:20
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21.
who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

I really should be homesick for heaven.

Does anyone else have a verse about homesickness?

The scenic view:

View From Our Back Window

Random thoughts about this week

Well, we have survived another week. Noah is doing well even though he looks worse. The glue is peeling off by itself and with help.
I am trying not to freak out as the temperature was 27 below zero C which is too close to F at this point. There was a moderate snow on Tuesday with this temperature and the newspaper headline was 200 Car Accidents on Tuesday in Calgary.
We also saw the strangest sight: A large white hare. . . it was just hopping by our street. It was big, but John's only comment that it wasn't as big as the one he saw that he thought was a dog.This was not a cute little bunny.
It is so hard to be new. It has been 14 days with no garbage pick up and we keep looking to see when the neighbors put out their cans. It is almost every day of the week, so we called our neighbors to ask and they said that we needed to call and arrange for it ourselves. They bring their own garbage to work and dispose of it there. There is so much to learn here. Think about having no garbage pick up with moving and Christmas.
The neighbors proceeded to invite us out to tea at 7:30 that same night at Second Cup which is alot like Starbucks. That was very kind of them.
I surrendered my Texas State driver's license for an Alberta one. The lady who helped us was a Canadian moving to Tasmania.
I was very proud of Gracie as we looked for a scarf and could only find very expensive ones, so she crocheted one herself!!
Someone told me that I was hard to understand because I have an accent. . .. ??
Below is the chest of cards from our Farewell for Now party. It was great to get our air freight. I didn't know how much I would appreciate these notes.

A Piece of Wood Hit Me

There are many things that I knew we would be doing for the first time, but I didn't anticipate that our first trip to the ER would come so quickly. On Sunday night, Noah ran into a shelf (strange, but true) and we knew another first was upon us.

John, Grace, Joshua and Noah all went to Alberta Childrens' Hospital about 7 pm. . . a 3 mile/6km drive. They waited and saw an interesting display of things children have swallowed, most notably-a knitting needle. The items displayed were actual specimens taken.

When finally called, Noah got "magic medicine" aka numbing cream near his eye and sixhead (substitute for forehead) Dr. Smart(I kid you not) finally came and asked the usual questions about what happened. . . only wanting Noah to answer. At first he replied, "A piece of wood hit me." She asked for further explanation. After that, she decided to use Dermabond, a glue to seal the wound. You could almost see the bone.

Dr. Smart asked Grace what she thought of Calgary. We have rehearsed this answer as we have lived in Holland and made the mistake of complaining about the country that these people love: it's too dark, your washing machines are really small, the service is so slow. . . everything is impossible. . . Well, we aren't doing that again, so when the doctor asked what she thought of her country, Grace replied, "The mountains are beautiful and I love the snow." She responded, " That sounds like a canned answer." You just can't win. .

She was also very interested in what the American thought of the Canadian medical system. The price was right, but I don't know that I would want to be paying taxes for it. I think John said that he was very pleased. (Note: Alberta Childrens' is like the Texas Childrens' Hospital of Alberta.)

Noah is recovering well and even went sledding in our driveway today.

I know why Kirsten wears braids...

I was surprised to find when we moved to Calgary that our hair was filled with static electricity and knots. This is happening because of the dry climate when it is so cold. The water in the air helps to discharge static before it builds up. When the air is very dry, the static causes hair to curl and then knot. When Claire got a Kirsten American Girl Doll for Christmas, I understood why her hair was braided. I always thought it was purely decorative.

We are braiding alot more girl hair to avoid the knots!

Warning: This may not be suitable for younger viewers

John heard the funniest ad on Canadian radio with the motto for Colon Cancer Canada: We're Behind Your Behind.