Raising your kids without raising your blood preassure

This weekend we went to a wonderful weekend parenting confrence that was hosted by the Winkler Ministerial at the EMM Church. The fee was $15 per adult, childcare was free and lunch was provided. What mennonite could resist? When Charity rejected the childcare option, grandma and grandpa Dyck along with auntie Sara stepped in and took her with them on Saturday. And Auntie Barb spent Friday evening with Charity.

The speaker this weekend was Christian commedian Phil Callaway.

He spoke very much to our situation. We have some very lively kids and we often wonder "what are we doing wrong? Why do those parents ignore their kids and they sit still while ours run and run...." We were encouraged to hear stories about how there is light at the end of the parenting tunnel. Actually, I laughed until I ran out of air a few times.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

If we'd had the camera out

If we'd had our camera out this morning, our blog would be something like this.

This is a picture of Nettie and I waking up this morning. This is Nettie telling Chris to remember that it's garbage day.

This is a picture of Chris, hearing a low rumble from outside.

Here I am without a jacket running down the ice covered lane after the garbage truck. (note the -22 degree temp on the thermometer in the foreground). If you look closely on the left side of the picture you can see the people in those cars behind the garbage truck are staring at me.

Here I am walking back up our lane carrying a full garbage can and a bag. (notice the slumped shoulders and the defeated look on my face).

Wordles Wednesday

Please Pray......

Chris' friend Charles had a liver transplant on February 12. All was going well till last night when he started to bleed, so please remember him in your prayers. Here is the last update from Christine (Charles' wife):



Quick update from the hospital: Charles is still stable enough that people are not panicking--which is good, but they still have not found out where the blood is coming from, and it IS still coming, though more slowly--which is not so good.
He's been transferred back to the Organ Transplant Unit, which I had thought we were finished with...if he has to be in the hospital at all, this is a very good place to be...sigh. They are figuring out right now what they need to plan and prep for next, since the gastro scope did not show anything useful--again, both good and not great in that they need to keep looking. Please pray that they do a good job of managing his condition while they figure things out, and that they WILL figure things our as soon as they reasonably can.
A bonus for us: quite a few of the med staff are away at a conference for a few days, but our lovely coordinator is still here--too bad for her, since the conference is in Banff, but good for us/me, since she could probably talk me through pretty much any crisis I needed to navigate! The young physician who is mostly in charge of Charles's care seems to be doing a good job in his own way...
I think Charles is most discouraged by the news that he will probably not be allowed to eat for a while...somehow that's tangible, personal, and hard for him to hear.
He is working on his loom knitting, though--two projects on the go already! =)
More later...



If you would like to read more check out the journal entries here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cschroeder

Valentine's Day Party

On Saturday Feb 14, we held our 8th annual valentines party. Every year we invite a number of our un-attached friends for an evening of food and table games. This year the turnout was good.

Making the heart treat boxes:
Look Janet peeled an orange............

In the past the meal has generally been chilli on a bun, but this year Nettie, Sara, Barb and Mary put together a mystery meal complete with options like "Farmers Friend" (water), "Rippers delight" (a knife) and "David's Geometry" (our main course, shepherds pi...I mean pie). The meal was served in three courses which people ordered in advance. Some people had courses of the meal that were mostly composed of cutlery and no food, and then later they got food without cutlery.

(Nettie eating her salad with crackers as her utensils

Catherine, eating jell-o with a straw. Nobody could suck hard enough to get the stuff up the straw, so it's sort of like having one chopstick.


Mary "drinking" her jello from her plate.

Sick Sick Sick

They other day Chris was sick and stayed home from work. By late afternoon Kaitlyn had joined in.....

Toboganning Accident

On Sunday Jan 18 we went toboganning at the hill on the church parking lot. Though we didn't get any pictures of the good sledding we did, we did get a picture of the lasting effects to Justin's face.

Gone Skating...

On Saturday, Jan 17, our family along with Nettie's sister Sara went to Bethel Park to skate on the "loop" of ice that has been made there by the city. It was sunny and relatively warm, a great day for skating with young children. Justin is still in "stepping" stage with his skates and Kaitlyn spent most of her time sitting on the ice or being held up by someone else. Charity was very pleased to do her first outdoor walk. A good time for everyone.

Making Cookies

Yesterday Morgan (a neighbor) came over for the afternoon. He comes every Thursday after Kindergarten. Kaitlyn and him have lots of fun playing house. I decided we would make cookies and decorate them, here are some pictures of Kaitlyn and Morgan making 'schmaunt' cookies.

They had lotsa fun....

Okay.... you're right they did not sit and watch the cookies bake for the entire 8 minutes.

Pauls Family Christmas

The past few days have been a busy and eventful time. We have met with both of our families and received more then we can enumerate. Christmas morning was spent here at home with our immediate family, and then in the afternoon we went to Reinland for the Dyck family gathering.

The Dyck gathering was made up of an even 15 kids and 15 adults (Henry and Agatha have another one on the way. I guess we could use a few more adults...but that'd just bring more grandkids.) Tiffany and Andrew shared the honor of reading the Christmas story of Luke 2. The day was loud and fun. We came home full of food and hauling a pile of loot.

Boxing day was a day of recuperating and preparation for the Pauls gathering. The Pauls gathering was an over-nighter at Chris' parents home. The moring of the 27th we opened our gifts and later that day we all went to Winkler and checked in to the Days Inn where we spent 2 nights. Grandma Pauls (Chris' grandma) bought the whole extended family (somebody said 36 people) an all inclusive two night stay (wow!). We spent our time singing, swimming, visiting and water-sliding. The singing/sharing times on Sunday were a highlight. We counted six individuals/families that lead worship in their churches and this was definately a contributing factor. It was also a treat to see the out of province relations.

Our lives are simple, so here's a video of our new kettle that we got for Christmas! (we're pretty proud)

We've also enjoyed sitting on our couch watching our new "Little House on the Prairie" DVD on our new portable DVD player while wearing our new Christmas socks! Perhaps next week we'll start on our new "MASH" season.

Justin's Birthday Party

Last Thursday, we had a party to celebrate Justin's 6th birthday. We thought it'd be easier to accomodate 10 kids at the school gym, so we rented it for two hours after school. The boys had a good time running up and down and playing games. Chris got a well needed workout and Nettie got a few pictures while assisting with crowd control.





















This is a video of us playing "Turtle Tag". It's like regular tag except when you get tagged, you have to roll onto your back and paddle your hands and feet like a turtle that's been rolled onto his back. Then another kid has to roll you back onto your feet before you can continue. The kids taught it to us.



By the time our time was up at the gym, the kids were pooped. Their energy came back on the ride to our house, a lot quicker than our energy.


















The meal was typical 1st grade birthday party material. Hot dogs, juice and birthday cake. Justin and the boys had a good time. We found that we were really tired once the adrenaline wore off. Many thanks to Nettie's sister Sara for her help with transportation and helping at the house.

2008 in Review

Since we don't send out a Christmas letter every year, we've decided to do a similar thing on our blog. 2008 has not been an uneventful year, it began with the closure of CP Steel in January, a decision that had been made earlier. Closing the shop after 7 years was difficult, many of the tools and machines were sold off. In February Chris started his new temporary job, welding at General Metal Fabrication. In the Spring he started his permanent position as Customer Service Representative at General Metal, a job he enjoys.

As I look back on the Spring, I can't beleive that Justin only learned to drive without training wheels this year. He's so good without them now it feels like he's been riding without them longer.

The summer brought swimming lessons, soccer, gardening and house painting. In Spring Nettie bought a family pass at the pool and we spent as much time as we could there over the Summer. Justin did his swimming lessons over the summer and greatly improved. When he began, he was a little nervous of getting his face wet, by the end of the summer he was jumping in without a life jacket on. We also did a bit of swimming in Altona and later in the Summer we went to Delta Beach North of Portage where the water stays shallow a long way in.

Nettie spent a bunch of her summer in the garden. We doubled the size of our garden this year which made for some great summertime stir frys. We had more than we could deal with, so at the end of the summer we filled our wagon up with the last of our corn on the cob, a few tomatoes and some peppers and found neighbours who would take them. It was a fun way to meet the neighbours.


It sounds sort of stupid to say that I spent my summer painting the house, but that's the truth. With all of the other stuff (not sure what it was now) that we had up this summer, I fought to get a few hours in at a time.


The fall began with Justin entering into Grade 1 and a new renovation project, new windows. We got half of our new windows in before the weather forced a hault to the work. Fall also saw the creation of a new Bible study group. We, along with Barb Klassen Nettie's sister Mary and Jim & Judy Wiebe's family began a study on the Book of John. It has been a challenge to all of us and we've had some really good discussion along with some wonderful desserts.


Kaitlyn has turned into a little lady this year. Kate loves to dress up and she loves to be pretty. Kate learned to drive a tricycle this spring and she likes an excuse to run. She's learned to speak very clearly, better than a lot of kids that are older than her.


Charity is developing quickly. In the past month, she's mastered walking and is now working on climbing. Though she's still small for her age, she's learning some of the sign language that the other kids know and she's starting to babble sentences to people. Every now and then she even says an identifiable word (we're her parents, of course they're on purpose).

2008 was a year of change for our family. God has blessed our family.

Happy Belated Birthday Charity

On October 30th Charity turned 1!! Her birthday was just a private affair, only our family.

Justin and Kaitlyn are so very excited about Charity's accomplishments. It is great to see the joy for each other. We are so thankful that our children get along as well as they do. They are a huge blessing to us.

Here is Charity following family tradition and destroying the first piece of birthday cake. She had lotsa fun!! (It's long!!)

Wow one already, time goes by so fast. The other day I caught her climbing up onto a chair, I went for the camera and this is the look she gave me when she finally figured out how to get into a sitting position from a standing position on the chair. She was SO excited.

Here is a photo of our Clown and our princess. We dressed up for the penny carnival at church. The Children had a great time. Except for Charity who was under the weather. After we drop in a few homes to say "Trick or Treat smell your feet," as Justin Would say!

Our Girls

Energy..............

A Pauls Cousin (Finally!!)

On October 12th God Blessed Jay and Trevor with their new daughter Brooklyn Dawn. Brooke is the first cousin on the Pauls side of the family. The kids were so excited to meet her.

Justin holding baby Brooke like a professional older cousin.

End of an Era

On Thursday Justin had his twin friends Lane and Cole over for the last time before they move to their new home in Ontario. They did what they'd usually do, playing video games and making a mess in the sandbox. On the way back from dropping them off at home, Justin said "Maybe they'll come back at Christmas time." When we explained that it was possible but unlikely Justin became very quiet and we could hear sniffling in the back of the van, not the first time that tears have been shed over this move. It hurts to see him hurt like this.

Summer Memories

Picture of our Children this summer!!

Charity discovers the watering can.

Justin at Soccer

Kate creates new fashions!

The produce of our blessed garden

Apple Sauce and Apple Juice by the Pauls Family

We blew them off with the air hose when they were done.

Charity's first ice cream cone of her own

(there was an auntie Anna involved)

The New Earth

A few months ago we had a speaker named Bob Wilkin come to our church. One of the things he spoke about was the new Heaven and new Earth. 1000 years after the tribulation there will be a new Earth. (don't take my word for it, look it up in Rev 21). He went on a tangent and said a few things that he admitted were out of his own mind. He told us that he thought that the greatest symphonies were yet to come in the new earth (it'd be easy when you have an unlimited lifetime to work on it). The greatest architecture and the most amazing history. (We don't know what history is yet because our past is so short on this planet). It's gotten me thinking and considering the things I do and how I spend my time. It's made me question what I'm aiming for. Do I want to spend my entire life trying to pay off my "dream home?" or fighting to have a better vehicle and more stuff that I can show off with, only to find out that it didn't last? There's better ways to spend time and money. We're investing in a retirement plan that will literally last for eternity. When you consider the length of this life and the length of eternity it seems to be a no-brainer. I'm starting to have a better understanding of those who've given up all of their possessions and followed where they feel God is leading them to go.