The Talens' Tales

Alas, our streak of good travel did not continue for the journey home. Let's start at the beginning. For some reason, we decided that we knew how to get the airport from my parents house. So we were in lead the driving and we totally missed the exit. And of course, there wasn't another exit to get turned back around for another 11 miles. Thankfully, we had left my parents house a bit earlier than we needed too, so we arrived in time. Check in went just fine. But, when we brought our checked bag to the counter it was 2 lbs over weight. When we travel to Michigan, we try to pack as lightly as possible. I always do laundry at my parents house, so I basically pack 3-4 outfits for each person and we just repeat through the week. So, all four of us had fit in 1 standard size suitcase and one backpack that we used for carry on. I was hopeful that the person at the desk would see this and let our overweight bag pass. But, no. We would have to pay a overweight baggage fee. Thankfull...

A few weeks ago we did our biannual trip to Michigan to see my entire family. Our flights there went amazingly well. I am pretty sure it is the first time we have flown to Michigan since living on PEI that we did not have any problems. We had only one stop, but it was a rather long lay over. So we walked pretty much the entire airport. They had a nice kids play area, so we stayed there for a bit and let the kids run. They enjoyed it. While in Michigan, we had just a few family events. My dad's side of the family had their Christmas party one evening and almost everyone was able to make it. The kids and Great- Grandma. All of the great- grand children and Great-Grandma. We also had a baby shower for my sister who is due in February. It was a great chance to see many of my aunts and cousins, several of whom I had not seen in over 5 years. We did a few fun things with just my family as well. We visited The Critter Barn, a really nice petting farm with a lot of d...

Today we got to have a look at Baby T #3. And we are pleased to report that everything looked just fine.  Baby sucking on its thumb. Just like its siblings, baby wasn't totally cooperative for the exam, so we get to go back in a few weeks so the ultra sound tech can get a good look at the spine and kidneys. As Wilbert said to our ultra sound tech (who was the best one we have every had), "it is hard to know how people believe there isn't a God when you see something like this." We are praising God for a healthy looking baby so far.

So, yeah, it has been a while since I have posted anything. I can make all sorts of excuses, but really I have just been lazy and haven't had anything that I felt really needed to be posted. With all of the excitement of selling the house, thinking about our trip to Michigan coming up, getting ready for the holidays and my sister having her baby, well, there went the month. But the kids are great Enjoying the tent Oma and Opa brought back from their trip. Goofing around. Mataya is quite the ham. Oh, and I should mention that we are also excited that we are expecting baby #3! This little one will arrive, Lord willing, late April or early May 2016. I have yet to take a picture of me this pregancy. I guess I should do that soon...

What if you had the ability to read another persons mind when you touched them? Would that be a gift or a curse? Would you be able to harness it and use it for good, or would it take over and become evil? That is part of the dilemma that is faced by Willet Dura in The Shock of Night by Patrick W. Carr. Willet Dura is the head reeve of the king and has been called upon to investigate the attack of a priest. As he begins to question the dying man, the priest pulls Willet close and screams something Willet doesn't understand. And after that everything changes. He sees into the mind of any person he touches. Willet soon learns he has been passed the rarest gift of all. Now he not only needs to track down a murder but he also has to come to grips with the reality of his new life as a gifted person. Having read and enjoyed Patrick W. Carr's The Sword and the Staff trilogy, I was excited to see what he had in store for us next. I began to read this book and while I like...

We had a few really nice fall days last week which meant we could finally go out and play in the leaves. Joash liked to dump them on his sister's head.  And they both liked to jump and then sit in the big pile we made.  Where is Joash?  Mataya loved to throw leaves. She actually really likes to throw a lot of things, so I think she was enjoying not being told, "No" for once.

Sometime I find is hard to know what to share about my life and what God is doing in it. I feel I have a wonderful, but rather average life. I am a dairy farmer's wife and mom. My days consist of driving to places for my kids or husband, housework, cooking and laundry. I like to read, do puzzles and make cards in my spare time. I am involved in a few different things at my church. We are all healthy and we are not in great need of anything. So sometimes I think that what I see God doing in my life isn't really worth telling other people about. There is little drama or excitement. But for the past two years I have been a part of a group in our church whose main objective is help us do just that - tell our story. And to tell it to help disciple others in their walk with God as well. And something big in our lives happened this week that God has been prodding me to tell. So, here I go. That big thing is... we sold a house. Now this may not seem like a big thing in the gr...

An annual tradition at Joash's school is Storybook Character Day. This is the first time we really have done the whole costume thing, so it was a bit of an adventure for us. But, it was fun and Joash was pretty excited. Can you guess who he is? A little elfin man, who has gold thread and he won't tell you his name? That's right! Rumpelstiltskin. Joash was very specific about what the hat and beard should look like. And you can't really tell here, but he has a round belly too. Joash was very excited to go to school today and it was great to hear him explain to his friends who he was. What a fun day!

We had a pretty great birthday celebration with our five year old this weekend. Once again, he asked for a tractor cake. So this year I rented a cake pan from the Bulk Barn and I think that it turned out quite well.  Since it was an older style tractor and Joash wanted it to be blue, he decided it was a Ford New Holland. So, it says Ford and then I drew the logo for New Holland.  Joash birthday lunch of choice: Grilled cheese, bacon and orange jello.  He got some very nice gifts as well. All have been well played with over the last day. Happy Birthday, Joash!

Joash is 5 today! Here is what he likes at 5 years old. 1. What is your favorite color? Orange and yellow 2. What is your favorite toy?  Tractors 3. What is your favorite food?  Cake and pizza 4. What is your favorite TV show? Paw Patrol 5. What is your favorite outfit? orange and gray shirt with comfy pants 6. What is your favorite game? Checkers (we played it for the first time last week) 7. What is your favorite animal? Cow 8. What is your favorite song? "Old Polina" (a sea shanty on a record of Songs from Newfoundland in our basement. 9. What is your favorite book? If  You Give a Dog a Donut 10. Who is your best friend? Mataya 11. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with the pay loader in the sandbox. 12.  What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk 13. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My cow - Hazel the Heifer 14.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Grilled Cheese, Bacon and Orange Jello 15. What d...

Since someone is turning five soon in this house, we have been doing a lot of birthday preparations. Since Joash's birthday falls on the weekend, he took a snack for his class to school today. We decided to make fruit snakes. I like to send something a little bit healthy for a school snack and his class is in the middle of the a unit on healthy foods.  Joash thought these were pretty fun looking. He (and Mataya) helped me by pulling the grapes off the stems and putting the chocolate chips eyes on the faces. I am pretty excited to hear how his class liked them. Lots more to come about this birthday weekend!

Yesterday we woke up to a covering a snow on the ground. While it was mostly gone by noon, there was still a small pile that had slid off of our roof in the shade that had not melted by the time Joash got home from school. So he and Mataya eagerly played in snow for a while in the afternoon. While I am a not quite ready for winter yet, I love how my kids remind me of the wonder and joy of the changing seasons.

Forgiveness is a state that we live in as Christians. We are forgiven by God through the work of Jesus Christ. But sometimes the reality of showing that same forgiveness to others can be very difficult. Forgiven by Terri Roberts is a story of how she and her family were granted forgiveness in time where it seemed almost impossible. On October 2, 2006, a gunman entered an Amish one-room schoolhouse, shooting ten girls, killing five, then finally taking his own life. This is his mother's story. Not only did she lose her precious son through suicide, but she also lost her understanding of him as an honorable man. It was a trauma that none should ever have to face. But the biggest headlines came when her Amish neighbors did the unimaginable, reaching out to the family of the shooter with comfort and forgiveness. Today Terri lives in harmony with the Amish and has built lasting relationships beyond what anyone could have thought possible. From the grace that the Amish showed Te...

I find it very interesting how your kids can be so different from such an early age. For example, when Joash was very small, even before he was one year old, he loved to sit and read books with me. He would bring books to me all the time, knowing, I think, that I couldn't say no to him when he wanted to read a book. Mataya on the other had has always been on the move. Even when she was young she would only sit still for a few minutes when Joash and I would sit down to read book. But, just in the last few months we have seen a real change in her and we often find her like this... Not always in a crate, mind you, but sitting somewhere with a stack of books around her, paging through each one. She even "reads" quietly to herself mentioning some of the things in pictures. It is super cute. Joash also continues to build things. This was his project today... A tractor of course. The only help he asked for was cutting out round pieces of paper for the wheels. You can...

It was Joash's first day of Kindergarten today. Since his school has moved into brand new facilities, the start of school had to be delayed a day until all of the inspections could happen. So today is the day! And today of all days was the one day Joash decided to sleep in instead of getting up at 7 on the dot. So I had to wake him up. But once he remembered that school was starting today, he was pretty excited.  Mataya was excited too as she thought that she was going to go to school as well. When she was leaving the school with me after we got Joash settled, she said in a very sad voice, "oh dear." Joash had a lot to say about school during the ride home. He was very excited because there were some tractors to play with and different machinery to hook up to the tractors. They met Sally the Sound Muncher who ate silly things like spiders, snacks, suckers and scissors. And they had story time and had some time to look at books by themselves. He asked me if I was ...

Today on the farm, a calf was born. Not an unusual event by any means, but he made a little stop in the yard while moving from the place he was born over the dairy barn. Joash was quite fond of the calf and kept petting him and saying how soft he was. Mataya was not so sure at first.  But we finally convinced her to give him a pat and then she too said he was very soft and at supper tonight, she said he was beautiful. This is what it is to grow up a farm kid.

Just a few quick, "heard around the house lately" from here. These are some we want to make sure we remember. ********************************************** Mataya loves to swing. She has also learned from her brother that twisting on the swing is fun. While twisting, she always shouts, "My busy, my busy." She mean, "I'm dizzy." *********************************************** Mataya must live in opposite world lately, or something. It seems like so many of the things she says, she really mean the opposite. Walk into a dark room. "Me turn light off." Standing by the sink to wash hands. "Me turn water off." Spending a day at home. "Me want to go home." While she can speak clearly enough, this is certainly making it a bit more challenging for us to figure out what she wants. ************************************************ Joash trying to convince Mataya to taste her ice cream. "Ice cream...

It is Old Home Week here on PEI and we went today as a family. It was the Dairy Cow show today, so we checked that out first. There were lots of nice looking cows and heifers. The kids were not super entertained, so it is a good thing this mom packed some snacks The kids and Daddy!  Joash decided to give the Pedal Tractor Pull a try this year. He did a pretty good job, but he didn't quite make it to a full pull.  He even got a fun ribbon for participation, which he is pretty pleased with. The kids also enjoyed the tractors and the toy tractors as well as the people walking around in a cow and chicken costume. The kids also tried out some of the rides. This was the first ride and the only one Mataya went on. She was eager enough to go on and happy to sit in the truck at first, but by the end of the ride she was not a happy camper. Joash, however, had a great time and went on all the rides he went on last year and tried out some new ones as well. It was a ...

Dr. Gabriella Speciale has assembled an international team of elite scientists with one goal in mind--to create and control out-of-body experiences that transcend the limits of time and space. Reese Clawson's mind-bending experiments aim to explode the boundaries of human consciousness--and annihilate the opposition in the process. When a terrifying discovery and a string of failed tests threaten to dismantle both programs, the key to survival may reside in the mind of a gifted grad student whose unsettling dreams have thrust him into the center of a dangerous battle for control. As the threads of perception and reality become tangled and time itself twists in unexpected directions, one warning remains clear: what you don't know can kill you. This is yet another awesome book by Thomas Locke (Davis Bunn). While the whole concept of time and space travel is a little bit vague, but the pieces came together as the story progressed. The story really grabbed and I was sad wh...

While our summer has been nice. it feels like good beach days have been few and far between. So on Monday evening when I checked the weather and saw it was going to be a nice warm and sunny day and I knew there was no pressing farm work to be done, I declared it a beach day. We had both coffee time and a picnic lunch on the beach. And Joash was pretty excited to wear the solar power fan hat that he found in the workshop on Monday.  Joash really wanted to be buried in the sand, so we did.  Then Joash and Wilbert dug a deep hole in the beach to see if they could find water.  We also did walk in the water a bit and the boys jumped in the waves. The water was a bit on the cold side and Mataya did not want to touch it at all. We came home for nap time, one of the great perks of living only 15 minutes from the beach. We had a great morning at the beach.

Joash has been a busy boy lately. In the morning, he likes to eat breakfast, play a bit, then get ready for the day, do a "summer school page" (a page out of a Pre-K workbook we have) and then he heads out to the barn to help Daddy. And he is outside for a large chunk of the day. Here are some of the other things he has been up too. A family portrait by Joash. I drew circle to get him started and I helped with the hair and labeled of course. Bur the rest is all him. Opa's helper. Joash continues to create and be very inventive. Here he is using his "welding helmet." After going to the tractor pull, Joash had his own tractor pull in the house. Here he is with his tractor hooked up to the sled. He is wearing his "helmet" and holding the "rule book."