The Talens' Tales

Joash loves to spend time outside. He especially love to spend time with his dad learning about fixing things and all of the things on farm. Lately he has been doing a lot of sawing on scrap wood in the workshop with a small hand saw.  "This is a manual saw, Mom."  And yesterday he came in with a bracket and then later took it back outside with a few pieces of wood that he had cut. Wilbert helped him attach the wood to the bracket with screws. "This is my clamp." It is so fun to see what my boy can come up with.

Once again this summer as much of the Talen family as could gather for a little vacation. This year we decided not to go to far from home since we were only going for 3 nights, so we stayed at the Waterside Apartments in Cardigan, PE. We had wonderful weather and a wonderful time of relaxing and fun with the family. The view out our front window when I woke up each morning. The Waterside Apartments. There are four three-bedroom apartments in this building, so we had two as a whole family.  Did you know Cardigan is home to Canada's Smallest Library? We of course had to visit.  We took a bike ride as a family on the Confederation Trail to Brudenell Provincial Park.  There was a lot of kayaking that took place as well since we had four kayaks between all of us. Joash and Mataya even got to ride along sometimes.  We also visited 4 different play grounds during our stay. The kids loved exploring all of them and Mom like that there were lots of peo...

In Hope Harbor, by Irene Hannon, Michael Hunter is looking for himself. After taking a leave of absence from his job, he travels across the country to Hope Harbor, Oregon. As soon as he arrives in Hope Harbor, strange events seem to happen that are too much to be brushed off as a coincidence. Michael begin to see that maybe God really does have a different plan for his life. Tracy Campbell is back home in Hope Harbor trying to help her uncle with his cranberry farm that is floundering. Tracy recruits the newcomer, Micheal to help her with a project that is near and dear to her heart. Could this be the beginning of a change of heart for both of them? If you like predictable Christian romance this book is the book for you. After the first chapter, I was pretty sure that I knew what would happen at the end. Yet, I didn't really want to stop reading the book or skipping ahead to find out what happened at the end. Instead, I wanted to keep reading it to make sure I was rig...

While we love to be outside, the mosquitoes are terrible this year around the farm. When it is a calm day, there are swarms of them that are everywhere. I was trying to hang laundry on the line and I had to run to another area of the yard for a little reprieve from the mosquitoes before diving headlong into them again.  And I promise I put bug spray on this girl. We have tried all sorts of different kinds and concoctions, but no matter what, the mosquitoes just love her.  Thankfully the bites don't seem to bother her too much. And she loves to be outside even though the bugs bother her quite a bit.

We have been singing "Mighty to Save" around the house a lot lately. It was one of the songs that Joash sang at his closing program. And it is clear that he did a good job teaching is little sister. ( Please pay no attention to my poor angle with the milk jug in the way. We have to be a bit sneaky taking a video of Mataya. As soon as she sees the camera she say, "Me want to see.")

Yesterday was Joash's Pre-K graduation. Looking back, it is pretty impressive what going to school two mornings a week, and growing one year old has done to my little guy. At this program he said his line well (and a few other funny things in the microphone). He sang and did actions to the songs. While he is still my shy and timid little guy, he has become much more brave and that has been great to see. Here he is getting his certificate and gift from his teachers.  "This string stuff really tickles my nose, mom."  Joash and his wonderful teachers. We were so bless to have two Godly women teaching our child.

We had a great Father's Day together with most of the Talen family present. Wilbert's brother and sister-in-law are back from Uganda, and Wilbert's sister came home for weekend as well. We we just missing Emil and Karisa, but hopefully we will be able to see them later on in the summer. Joash had a nice gift from Pre-K for his dad. They filled out this information sheet.  It was pretty accurate, really and we were happy to see his super hero was Jesus. :) Joash also coloured on a key chain and Wilbert has already found a use for it. We are thankful to be the parents of our great kids!