A lot has happened since we last made a blog post.  I guess I shall start where we left off, but I will not write everything we have done since then, because I don't have time and neither do you.  Instead, I will just pull the highlights of the past couple of weeks and leave the rest for other to write.  (Or perhaps for me to write on a later date.)  A few days after the events of the last post, we were invited to lunch and to spend some time in fellowship with a godly family.  After lunch, we all got our instruments out and played some hymns.

It seems inevitable that where there is music being played by a group like this, there will also be an audience.

After playing, we went outside to the barn.  Most of us had as yet not seen either their new robotic milker nor their new brown cows.  Certain people were more keen on watching the machine, while others were more interested in the animals.  I will let my readers guess which gender generally prefered which.

After visiting the cows, several people went to visit the horses.  Elizabeth even got to go bareback riding for a little while.

One thing I like about winter is the combination of snow, ice, and moonlight.  Here are a few pictures we have taken of this kind of combination.  The road in the picture is not our road, but a road not far from ours.  I love the way the moon's light is reflected on the icy road.

On Friday the 10th we had several people over for a Valentines Day supper. Evelyn worked very hard to make lots of little gum-drop roses.

We had several birthdays to celebrate as well, so when dessert was about to be served we brought each of the birthday people a dessert with a candle on top.  After supper, the men had a men's meeting and the ladies and children talked upstairs - and washed dishes.  I am very grateful for those who do those tasks that are rarely noticed.  It is always good to get together and share with godly people.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant." - 1 Corinthians 13:4

   Over two and a half years have now gone by since we began building an extension onto our house.  Though closed in before the winter of 2009, much work remained to be done.  Over the winter months, many things were accomplished indoors and the coming of the following summer took us again outdoors to finish the siding.  However, as time progressed and the large room upstairs was rendered fully functional, activity diminished and the construction all but came to a standstill.  After a long stretch of time, a few things took place: the installing of the staircase leading from the large room upstairs to the basement, and, more recently, the plastering, painting, and installing of mouldings between the old and new sections of the house, completing the upstairs part of the construction other than the area around the stairwell.

   This past week saw the beginning of another step...

... the basement! Actually, the work began during the early part of January when Evelyn took the initiative to start cleaning the place up so as to make space for construction activity. Thank you, Evelyn, for once again putting your God-given organisational skills to use for the benefit of others! And before you say, "That is cleaned up?" concerning the above picture, let me assure you that, yes, it is remarkably cleaner than previously. I'll leave you to guess what how the place looked in December.

   The first wall to go up was the one by the stairwell. This was a little finicky because the drywalling had to be perfectly flush both with the stairwell and the not-yet-installed wall. So, though it may sound odd, the drywalling was placed before the framing for the wall.

   After that, things took place in quick succession.  The wall dividing the basement in two was built most of the way across.  For the moment, we are leaving an access through it. The reason for this will become evident later on. The hardware store delivered the wrong size of drywalling - 12' sheets instead of 8' ones - but we are working with that.  It can be a little tricky to lift it into place, but Nathanael knows techniques that make it easier. Thank you, Nathanael, for all the time and work you have invested here!

   Rapid progress was made Wednesday and yesterday as wires were run, strapping was nailed to the ceiling, and two dividing walls were put up.

   It is exciting to see the construction recommenced. Even as we build, we are reminded that though we may labour to build, we labour in vain unless the Lord is the One Who builds. (see Psalm 127) And there is more than simply the physical building going on in a home...

   "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Ephesians 4:11-16

We have a tradition at our home of making gingerbread houses around Christmas time.  We mass-produce the main shapes so that all that has to be done is the decorating part.

Everyone likes to decorate their houses in their own way - some put on lots of candy, while others would rather put on less; some like to make their houses fancy, while other prefer to keep their houses simple.  There seem to be two antithetical philosophies in decorating these houses: the goal is either aesthetic or palatableness.  Well, there are some in-between houses, too.

Elizabeth made this neat-looking gingerbread house.

Another tradition we have at our home is the making and distributing of cookie plates.  The recipients of these plates vary from year to year, but generally include friends, pastors, widows, people in need in various ways, and people or organizations that are helpful to the community.

This year we brought cookie plates and thank-you notes to the fire stations, the ambulance station, and the police stations.  The ambulance station was closed (because it was Christmas eve), but we happened to catch an ambulance pulling out, about to start their shift.  The police seemed the most surprised of them all.  I suppose most people don't think to thank the police.

I Peter 2:13-14 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."

     We have received several comments on our family photo this year, so I thought it would be interesting to write a post on its production.  Ever since our family outgrew the Walmart photo studio, we have taken our own family photos.  This year's is by far the best we have done.  Thank you, David, for all the labour you put into this!  Jonathan, thank you for being his assistant!

     Many times we have taken our family photo in picturesque outdoor locations such as in front of the cedar hedge, against the "pierre du champ" wall of our house, or even simply by the spreading weeping willow by the road.  The reason for these being taken outdoors is primarily the fact that indoor pictures are very difficult to take due to lighting problems.  During this past year, however, we learned a bit concerning lighting from various sources.  So, David made the great attempt: a studio-style indoor family photo!  Accomplishing this feat required quite a bit of planning and preparation.  Our house does not afford any convenient photo background walls, so a background was constructed using a white sheet.

     Then the lighting needed to be arranged...  Nathanael's construction light came in handy as did a motion detecting light that was at one point mounted on the barn wall and a worklight of sorts made a number of years ago from scraps of lumber, aluminium foil, and a halogen bulb.

     Then came the picture taking...  We probably took dozens of photos.  The camera was giving us some trouble with getting the colours right.  Shadows were also very difficult to eliminate.

After a while, we decided to change the background colour to black by using some Geo-textile left over from the construction.

And then the photo-taking session resumed...

Here is the finalist.

But even still, our expert photo manager had to do some alterations to perfect it.

     "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Psalm 127

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