Top Ten 2012

Some of the resources that influenced Marguerite for good in 2012 – in chronological order, except for the first two which continued throughout the year:

1.      Lamentations to Malachi – completed a 3 year stint of praying thru the Old Testament (ESV) – took me longer than expected but what a blessing!

2.      Ravi Zacharias – Just Thinking/Let My People Think radio programs – www.rzim.org/let-my-people-think-broadcasts  especially one called Releasing the Next Generation – a “must listen to” if you have teens or interact with them.  Sermons from Corey Dykstra - 1 Samuel series, 2 on baptism, and sermons by Rev. Todd Joling (on Sermon Audio) 

3.     When God Weeps, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steven Estes – full of real life examples from her own suffering & her ministry with the disabled and Scripture, the book gives purpose, sense, and dignity to the saints in their “needless” suffering, pain, sorrow in this sin-tainted, cursed world.  Difficult to digest and gut-wrenching in places, especially the hell chapter yet encouraging & triumphant, glorifying to God - persevering thru yields its rewards!  
 

4.      Kid/teen books: A Father of Orphan’s, Struck by Lightning, Amy & Her Brothers, Shipwrecked…

5.      Jesus: Dead or Alive?  Josh & Sean McDowell – great for giving to young skeptics at Easter…

6.      The Robber’s Cave, A.L.O.E.  (Lamplighter Rare Collector series) riveting story perfect for young men entering in the world workplace or secular dens of study

7.      12 Essential Minerals for Cellular Health, David Card – a modern, layman’s introduction to the inorganic biochemical elements in the blood & tissues required for cell function & integrity, with their therapeutic uses. A valuable aid for caring for your family’s health.     

8.      The Shoes that Love Made, Lucille Travis  – biography of missionary doctor/surgeon to lepers in India Dr. Paul Brand – author of Fearfully & Wonderfully Made and In His Image (recommended) - and numerous medical rehab journal articles, Hand surgery Rehab book – which I studied in my Rehabilitation Medicine program at UofT. My Internship supervisor in Plastic Surgery Rehab actually met & trained under him in India! Wow!

9.      Sudden Family, Debi & Steve Standiford – an amazing, true story of young American lawyers’ difficult and rewarding experiences in adopting Vietnamese teen boys

10.  The Incredible Chinese Script, S.H.Tow.  “Rest assured, The Incredible Chinese Script is in not just another book to add to your weariness. In its pages are astonishing discoveries of Scripture truths in the ancient Chines Script which affirm the unassailable rock of Holy Writ and the Genesis record.”  Especially good to give to Chinese friends and anyone caught up in Darwinism.

Merry Christmas to you and yours

from our whole clan!

 

           May you all experience the true joy and peace

           that comes only from our Lord and Saviour

    whose birth we celebrate at Christmas in a special way.

May we keep Christ central in all we do.

God's blessings to you all!

The night of Betty's kid's Christmas program (Fri Dec 7), I got to babysit David & Bethany - which was quite uneventful & relaxing (phew). After story time on the couch and supper we still had time for Bethany to finish this pretty plastic wreath that a couple of the other kids had started previously.

This is the next morning (Sat Dec 8) and after showing off her wreath to Oma, she ran up stairs and put on a fancy dress & black stockings and we rushed off to her first piano recital!

 

Here she is with Heidi at the church where Heidi organized a recital for all her piano students! Very nice! So neat to be able to go and hear the children play and see Heidi encouraging, coaching or accompanying them.

Kenny

 

Maria, Andrew & Daniel played also.  Great job everyone!

 

 

 

Christmas flower basket arranging with Oma

Thurs Dec 20, John dropped off Esther & Sarah at Sharon's while in the area for business so they could stay for the weekend - so nice! Great that Heidi, with her busy schedule, was also able to make it for the morning - nice to have some time with the teens before the little girls came (oops, Esther's not so little anymore!) Here we are hanging out in my livingroom after lunch.

 

 

After supper, just as the snow began to fall in huge fluffy flakes, the girls went out, candle & flashlight in hand, to fill the air with their sweet melodious "Glor-o-ria, in Excelis Deo, Glor-o-o-ria, in Excelsis De-eo".... One delighted neighbour asked if we had ordered the snow just for this (it hadn't really snowed yet this winter!)

Homeschool Christmas Program

In the choir

Singing "The Holy City"



Toastmasters

Esther has been going to Toastmasters the last 8 weeks (a public speaking course) and completed it today with a "Graduation". 

Here she is with her instructor, Heather

 

Doing an impromptu talk

The certificate she received

 



 

The program for the meeting (sorry it's sideways!) :)

 

 

The whole group of new Toastmasters

 

 

Winners!

Hey, congratulations, Andrew.  We heard you placed 2nd with your poster entry.  That's great!
Congratulations to Esther too!  She placed 1st for her essay entry and 2nd for her poem.  How fun.  The essay has been entered into the next level.  We'll have to wait and see what happens next.

RTH, visits November

Roy Thompson Hall concert, still a big thing for Dad & Mom preparing for it and singing - especially with a great number of their kids & grandkids in the audience! It took a lot of arranging and shuffling of kids to get everyone there!  The day after, Sat, they all converged on our place to get kids back to their rightful owners
and to help puppy-proof the back side fence. 

 

Lisa & oldest 2 girls, who were back for the concert also came for lunch. So nice to see them again!

 

 

While they were at the concert, I babysat "2 lil' giwls"  - quite exciting complete with getting to see a real firetruck - with the lights flashing!  "Pwetty cool!"

 

 

Birthday visit to Maurice &Rachel's


Jimmy & Willy

Cutie Marike 

Aww...

Joe

 

Storing apples for the winter

Tia sniffing out the bad apples ;)

 

 

Andrew's poster

Remembrance Day

Just a quicky to share with you Sarah's & Esther's entries for the Remembrance Day Poster/Literary contest.  Thanks Sharon for letting us know about it.  (The deadline for entries was actually already this past Monday, but the man was very lenient and said they could still bring entries in today.  He seemed surprised, yet pleased to hear that they were homeschooled.)

Esther entered an essay and a poem.  Here's the poem.  If you want to read the essay, you'll have to ask her.

We will remember

We will remember

All the brave heroes who died;

The boys who never shot guns

The men who trained for battles

They all died alike and they all lie under the poppies.

We will remember

All the brave heroes who lived;

The boys who lost their dreams

The men who lost their limbs

They all fought alike and they all struggle with pain.

We will remember

All the families left behind;

The women now widowed

The children now fatherless

They all loved alike and they all miss their men.

We will remember

All the bloody battles;

The victories won joyfully

The defeats endured courageously

They all were braved alike and they all deserve respect.

We will remember

All the reasons they fought for;

The freedom of their countries

The faith of their families

They all were worth it then and they all still are today.

 

We will remember.

 

By Esther Westendorp

 

 

Here is Sarah's picture:

 

47th Anniversary

October

Dad & Mom's 47th Wedding Anniversary

Congratulations!

Bouts came and made their special day much more special. Enjoying a delicious fall harvest meal of roasted root veggies, boerenkool from our garden, baby greens salad...

  At Chris's for Kenny's 12th birthday - the baby of the family is growing up! 

 

 Good to visit with Mark too who was home on a break from Ottawa U

Also went for Josh's 16th earlier in the month

(wearing Opa's klompen in the Spring)

Produce

Just a couple pictures of our 39-1/2 lb watermelon.  A prize winner I would say, and it tastes deliciously sweet (with not too many seeds either).  We gave away 1/3 of it and even after eating some almost everyday since Saturday we have quite a bit left.

Thanksgiving Weekend Celebrations

We have soo much to be thankful for, and so many loved ones, so we packed full 4 days with celebrating God's goodness to us!

Friday we went on our annual Thanksgiving outing with 2 grandchildren - this time Joseph and Daniel.
No apple picking this year tho since the crop was not good enough due to the early Spring and then frost again. The boys did have fun meeting Willy the pig at the local orchard still (no photos).
Here they are at Round the Bend farm:

 

 

check out their hair-dos!

 

 

Awesome Blossom store

Saturday,  my friends Rebecca & Emy came over with their friend, Linda.
Linda is director at a Pregnancy Care Center and told of some of the amazing work the Lord is doing there through them saving babies- and their moms!

A friendly man stopped his bike and took our picture as we were out enjoying the fresh air, sunshine and emerging colours. Check out those leaves!

Back at home, feasting on God's bounty enjoying a full course turkey dinner together with sweet fellowship and giving of thanks.

 

Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Day, being blessed by excellent sermons and fellowship at Hope.

Monday we were reminded of many more blessings at the Covenant Church service and then got together for the annual Family hike - a few of us, that is (Ralph&Sharon with 3 youngest) as everyone else scattered abroad (Balls Falls, RLL, Rattlesnake point, Alymer!). It just happened to work out better this way for the various families/members and since the group here was so small we were able invite another family who had no relatives of their own to celebrate with (- thanks to Sharon's help and their having just enough room in their van!).

The hike was close to our home on a fairly level path so that all of us were able to go and enjoy the lovely weather and beautiful nature together! 

 

Thankfully we still had a stroller so little Riley could sleep peacefully the whole walk, giving his mommy a nice break while Dad willingly pushed him. Tia stayed out of the way of Mom's walking sticks pretty well. The kids had fun walking her as well. 

  

Ralph & little David

 

Little Rogenique loves Sharon - she's great with the kids... (& the camera - thanks for your contributions to this post, S!)

4 little ones on the bridge

 

The quaint covered bridge

 

The pavillion showing the history of the trail - used to be a railway

 

The "walk of fame" - each stone dedicated to a well-know Caledon resident who contributed to society in some significant way

 

Dad, Joanna, Daniel, Jaden

 

break time

 The boardwalk over the Wetlands

"I'm gonna get you!!"" :)

 

Tia babysitting Riley as he continued sleeping after the walk!

 

Singing after another delicious meal

 

Now thank we all our God... for family & friends and another wonderful day after all!