Family from the Forest

Blog Revamped

I(Michelle) took the time recently to revamp our family blog. Not only that, I've also imported our posts from our old 'Jot It Down' blog, that was situated over at Homeschoolblogger. Most of those older posts will be found here under the category Documenting our Adventure.

Going over the old posts has been an absolute joy in revisiting and remembering our adventures both momentus and miniscule begining way back in 2006.

If you feel inclined please post a comment. We'd love to hear from you and know that you are visiting and reading.

Pip Oreo Java vdB, Our Hamster

(by Samantha)

Here is the story of Pip, our newest member of the Family.

We have a friend, who breeds Hamsters. So we bugged, I think 'bugged' is a strong word, more like 'asked politely' if we could buy this cute little animal. We looked up hamster names in Google search. We liked three names: Pip, Oreo and Java, so we put it to a vote. The most votes would be her first name, 2nd and 3rd would be her middle names, and we ended up with: Pip Oreo Java.

I remember when we were in the car taking her home, everytime we went over a bump I'd cringe and pray she'd be okay. We all love Pip so very, very much. She is so cute.

That first night home with her she kept Jasmine and me up all night, Dad had bought a non-greased, squeaky wheel. Man, she was running like crazy on that wheel, eventually Dad bought a greased wheel. We taught Pip a trick too, we'd leave the cage door open, then walk a couple of steps away, put her on the ground and point to the cage, her legs went a million miles an hour as she raced towards her cage that she learned to live in. She also likes to be put in her ball and roll around in it.

Pip is a very particular eater when it comes to nuts, she LOVES peanuts. One time I went into the backyard with a shovel and cup in hand digging for worms, I got two caterpillars and one BIG worm, she loved them. There was also this other time when we let her run around the floor, there was this really BIG mosquito type thing, she ate it, body, wings and a leg.

This is the story of Pip Oreo Java.

Some Piccies from this last Week

Cuddles with the newest, littlest member of our church family....

 

The energy levels peak when a toddler is in the house. This moment that was captured during the week did not reflect the frenzied pace over the rest of the time this cutie was with us. These two are the exact age difference that was between Michael and Jackson when Jackson was a toddler. Now it was Jackson's opportunity to be 'big brother'!

 

Friends hanging out on the couch on a lazy Saturday!

 

Saturday night of food, friends and games!

 

Lovin' some Little, Big Planet

Taking breaks from FB and the Internet, a 6k walk

(Michelle here) Just coming out of a FaceBook fast of about 3 weeks where I've been restricting my time on this social media quite significantly. Over the last week I also restricted my internet usage a great deal choosing instead to get some long over due things done in the house and exercise more. Yesterday Marcel and I walked the six kilometres to a little village, Halfweg, which is about halfway between Haarlem and Amsterdam before catching the train back home. A bit of time with my man catching up on our week, talking over faith-related things and hearing from muscles that haven't spoken to me and a long while. Life in God is good, as always.

Space-Expo

On the eve of the landing of Curiosity, NASA's Mars rover, Jackson and I visited the Space Expo in Noordwijk, The Netherlands with the Leiden Home Learners. It was a fabulously informative afternoon making sense of the watching of the actual landing of the rover and giving us some insight into reason behind all the obvious elation going on in the NASA control room. What an amazing feat of ingenuity!

At the Space Expo the kids had the opportunity to explore the exhibits and experience what it feels like to be an astronaut and experiencing first-hand the affects of gravity after being in space.

In this activity Jackson got to feel how an astronaut's body would be reacting to gravity a week after being back on Earth.

In teams of two, each team set off a softdrink bottle rocket. And far out, those bottles (filled with water) could FLY!

After the fun with the rockets we all went into one of the workshop rooms to watch a video demonstrating each and every stage, step-by-step, of the Curiosity entering Mars' atmosphere, dropping to the surface and the landing. Checkout a video of each stage of landing here. Amazing stuff!

Then it was cool to play pin-the-landing-site-on-mars!

I will definitely be taking the older children to the Space Expo sometime in the new school year!

Marcel took a beautiful photo of Haarlem in Summer!

Jasmine en Pebbles!

Fridays are De Krat days! Our crate of super fresh food continues to be an exciting part of our end of the working week. Today Jackson shelled a bag of peas getting them ready for us to eat over the weekend.

Saplaza...You're on a high :)

"That was my first nightmare" said Jackson, after being fearless on his first two goes and just finishing his third and last climb for the day.

He had been watching his three older siblings for the last three years climbing on these high ropes, traversing the four different couses that started at the "easiest" level and working up to the most difficult, always wishing he could be up there himself. Well, this time he got his chance. Jackson's goal: yep, you guessed it. Those poles in the backgroud...the way-up-in-the-sky poles.

Some of the other intrepid climbers. I take my hat off to you all!

Jackson starts out on his first climb...there was no fear and plenty of excitement.

Getting the hang of it now :) Such a determined look on his face.

Accept for the finger nail biting of Jackson's mum standing on solid ground, it was a really fun time for all, cold, but fun.

A note of thanks to Brooke for the photos and Saskia for organising the activity.

Almost a Two Year Anniversary

[A post I drafted a couple of weeks back]

Do I put this post under the catergory of Celebration or An Update? Well, I believe it will be a CELEBRATION! We have been in this apartment now for almost 2 years and today I was remembering all the moves we've done since coming across to The Netherlands: it's worked out to be about one each year before settling into this place, on top of adjusting to a new country and a new culture. Don't get me wrong, we have been so very blessed and enriched in innummerous ways by this adventure. But moving is EXHAUSTING. Setting up house, establishing new routines and new rythyms each time.

Last year we put in a new kitchen. And us being us, we still haven't finished the painting or edging. It was only a few weekends ago that Marcel--and a little helper only just seen here on the other side of him-- installed the above-bench lighting.

We now have snazzy, new blinds for our front window which after living in rented houses belonging to other people--which have mostly been tastefully done--life just feels extra rich in being able to choose our own decor. A place we can call home for now!

 

An occasional day off

On Thursday Marcel said to me "How about a day off for you on Saturday." Oh yeah, not going to say no to that offer!!

And I must say I totally enjoyed it...sleeping in, quiet breakfast with my man, a bike ride into the Haarlem centrum to check out the market there and a clothing material shop for a roll of plastic, on to Douwe Egberts for a coffee, meeting up with friends for lunch, down to a Christian book store for a look, home again to finish my book on the Titanic and an afternoon snooze, and then family dinner and a couple of episodes of an old TV series the kids and I have gotten into.

All in all a good day. Feeling blessed!!