Apple for Mom

Elise and the rest of the K-5 kids delighted us with a spring concert. It was beautiful! We had a very hard time locating Elise in the crowd.   

Mice  tunnel in barn walls and create insulation problems. So- after yet another huge heat bill, Dad decided to strip all the siding off Barn 1’s east side and fix the issue. He hired Eric and Ruben VanOort and their crew. Braedan and Stacy were down for a few days and Braedan got to work with his brothers. It was fun having them in for coffee breaks and Elise just soaked in the Stacy time.    

We needed a photo of “just us” to update church social. I don’t remember who we had over, but it turns out he is a photographer. However, no matter who takes the photo, it’s difficult when the dogs will neither leave nor sit still.   

As we have bright windows in the family room, this year we decided to try growing a few veggies like green onions, lettuce and radishes. Here’s hoping!   

 For the Family Day weekend, the highlight was that Stacy, Braedan and  Jill came to visit.  Jill cut Caleb’s hair, and we adults attended a fundraiser for the FYPL study weekend. Caleb was the MC, which he did very capably. We had to dress up 1920s style. Stacy wore an old dress of mine and was likely sorry she agreed. Braedan had an old vest from Grandpa. 

It was Valentine’s Day- and I had a good meal planned. I decided to go all out fancy as I had new (to me) fancy dishes and candlesticks. Elise made place cards and I invited Opa and Oma. We had such a good time together!   

 Uncle Rick and Auntie Jaclyn were given a most precious gift- baby Nathaniel! We rejoice with them and are delighted to welcome a new cousin into the family. 

Both grade 2 classes got together to have a fairy tale day. Elise did NOT want to be a princess- so she went as a magician. I got to attend as a parent helper and assisted with castle sponge paintings.   

The season ended with a tournament. Although the boys didn’t win too many, they had fun. Luke even had three of them (Caleb, Ezra, Ethan) sleep over with a hot tub night. Good times!   

Luke’s cooking class at school invited two guests per student to enjoy a fancy dinner cooked by them. He chose both of us his parents as his guests- we were very happy with his choice.  He was a very attentive waiter and we thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the whole evening.   

This is Caleb’s last year in the CCJHL. He played for the Hawks, a team sponsored by Flokstar Farm. He had a few heated moments with aggressive opponents and calls he felt unfair from the refs,  but was a very skilled and dominant player, assistant captain proudly wearing #14. He was selected to the AllStar Team to compete against the Langley all stars in a fundraiser for Bethesda. Not only that, he was chosen team captain by the four coaches. Although his team lost in the playoffs, he was the only one who scored in the last game.   

Micah and Stephanie came to visit at the end of January. It was wonderful to look forward to this after the Christmas busy time was over.  They went to the Agricultural Show with us and hiked our new stairs on Little Mountain and played games.  Stephanie made Elise’s life a little easier by letting her play cell phone games while trying to get down her awful medicines.  And all too soon, it was time to say goodbye again. 😢  

Elise is loving the GEMS program at church. She got to try cake decorating- and the leader, Mrs. Nicole A, even made sure the cake was dairy free!   

There is a fake ice rink in Agassiz. We thought it would be fun to try. It was fun- but not exactly good for skating. The slipperiness was uneven from sheet to sheet, so it was fairly hazardous. Elise loved it as the skating was slower and less slippery than real ice. The skates needed sharpening after only a few minutes.  We then went to Oom Joop and Tante Grace for a snack and drink. Luke got his first beer- de-alcoholized, of course.   

 No words needed. (Except that Luke was quite thrilled with his new shirt- and that Dad wore a bolo tie to church just for him)

 Elise did a blood test through our naturopath. It showed she is unable to properly digest carbs or fat and can’t process vitamin B or D effectively. In addition, she has yeast overgrowth inside her gut.  The plan is to give her high doses of B and D in liquid form, plus protein shakes, pre and probiotics and fungicide. She can’t swallow pills yet.  These meds were awful! We tried dilution but that only spread the bad taste into a large quantity. I tried baking the B into speculaas-  nasty! We tried reward- a new piece of clothing from a recent Old Navy order. We tried a timer. We tried withholding snacks. It could take over 2 hours per day to get it all down her. 😢. It was a really hard month.  I ended up switching to a B gummy. It was missing riboflavin and niacin but had the others. We stopped the protein shake in favour of more eggs and meat every day. The fungicide she just had to be brave and drink.  On the plus side, she did seem to get more energy ...

A party in the shop with Karaoke singing and lots of good food was a wonderful way to usher in 2023. We had a wide group of people from all over to celebrate with. Luke and Emmett were our capable DJs.   

Our church hosted a pizza, baking and skating event. As I am on the Evangelism Committee, I was on duty for serving and cleanup. We had a good turnout and lots of enjoyable conversations and skating. We had Emmett sleeping over which made it extra fun for Luke! The boys were great at helping with stacking the bars.  Mark Strahl also hosted a skating which we attended. Once again, the boys were very helpful!   

The Flokstra clan went bowling together and a good time was had by all. Karen’s family was finally able to get here a week later than they had hoped.