BC Mining Museum - Brittania Beach 2010

On Oct. 8th the children had a Pro D. day - so Will took the day off and we did a day trip to Brittania Beach. Will went when he was in elementary and I had never been.

The kids were very excited about going to an old mine.
Some crystallite inside one of the displays.

These massive wheels were very impressive to the three boys.

The gold panning center outside is very well done. We found alittle gold and Matthew found several different precious rocks.

I think they would have done it all day if we had let them!!

The entrance was very beautifully done up.

Here is another view of the building (the 10 story one) where they would seperate the clay from the copper.

Would you rather have this lady for your queen?

or this friendly guy for king...

or this cruel creature for king?

Why can't we take our hard hats home?

After climbing up MANY stairs - we got to go in one of the mining tunnels in one of these.
After about 300metres we got out and continued our tour of the tunnels on foot.

A safety area set up for the explosives. It protected them from the damp.

One of the tunnels we went down for a demonstration - whoooooooo.

One of the pnuematic drills they demonstrated for us. I went away 50 feet to protect the baby's ears.

This is a shed full of samples of rock - the geologists would study them and be able to tell where the miners should be drilling.

A tray full of samples.

Inside the seperater building. The track was for a skiff that would carry work equipment up, up, up - to the top.

There is the skiff on the left.

Matthew in one of the displays.

The new museum mascot.

So that was a small glimpse of our day. The site has been totally renovated and updated to be very educational. We learned alot about mining - usually I might write more about that aspect of it but...you'll just have to go there yourself and check it out :)

PS - there is a coupon in the entertainment book.

Just made me thankful for the work I do - above ground!!

Sew Sweet

Here are some pictures of all the sewing I've done in the past two months.

These are two simple spit dokes I hemmed - Aren't they cute??
Here's the antique baby cradle that we use every time we have a baby. Will's Dad slept in it - in Holland (see the tulips on the side?). I love it!!

I also sewed a bottom sheet that can be used for this cradle or...

for this change pad (I sewed up two).
I love these colors. And the best part is that they are nongender specific. Yup, that's right, it's a boy or a girl.

Thanks to Tania for the idea- here is one of the laundry bags I made.

This is Ethan's. These work great. On E's laundry day, he brings up his bag and if it's too heavy for him (not an issue for him but more for the younger boys) he can just drag it up the stairs.

This is Aleana's.

Matthew's and Peter's.

If you like this idea, but not sewing so much I would suggest using pillow cases and just sewing the handles on using an x in a square for extra support on the seams.
They look so much nicer than laundry baskets in their rooms. We bought strong hooks to hold the bags up. I made our handles too long on some - I have three more to make so when I get to it I will fix the others.

A bib for the baby I am working on.

The quilt project that is just two sewing sessions from being done.

One of the stars quilted onto the blanket.

I had to decide what to do with the one row at the end.

Thanks to my good friend Jan who recommended sewing half stars.

They look great!

This was completed long ago but I haven't gotten around to taking a good picture of it.

This is Peter's baby quilt. When I finished it, I was never really happy with the binding - I tried my hand at stipling on the border but it looked awfully bad. So...three years after the fact I just cut the border right off and added this green binding that I had on hand.

I wasn't sure if it would look good and once again Jan encouraged me to go for it.

It looks really great with all the blue and yellow.

I'm glad it's finished because when I first cut it up Peter was most offended :).

Here's the curtain that I sewed up to cover the mess under the microwave.

A closer look at the gathers that were not fun to work with.

It's done and it's sewn in place to the velcro. Yahhh!!! Looks so much better, and the red stripes add a splash of color to our cream and chocolate kitchen.

Thanks for joining me in my walk down memory lane!!

Acceptance

I love this word. Acceptance. It means alot and it may mean something differently to different people. I don't feel like getting out the dictionary so I'll just ramble about what it means to me.

Acceptance is like sweet surrender. It is the point that we all reach when we embrace what has been given rather than fight tooth and nail for what we can not have.

It is spiritual. All the time. For me, it's when I quit struggling with God and I accept His handiwork. It's when I allow the frustrations of life to dissipate into a peace of where God has placed me and what He is doing with me.

It's also part of our relationships with others. Sometimes we need to accept relationships that we wish could be better. We need to accept our brothers and sisters in the LORD (that includes our immediate and extended families as well!) as Jesus accepts them. Have you ever thought of your son or daughter as your brother or sister in the LORD? Not something I think about every day. Once again, when I let my frustrations go, the LORD blesses with peace.

Having said all that I am accepting my lack of energy (low iron) and my list of "to do" that doesn't seem to get done. I accept that my main job right now is to take care of the baby - the house has to wait. I accept that the next month will not be the greatest and I will fall back again and complain and rail. I accept my weakness when I want so much to be strong. Today, I accept all of this and I am just really thankful for everything that we HAVE been blessed with.

I am most thankful that the LORD is so patient with me - In the hands of God - I fall.

Snippets

Here are some shots from the past month and a half.

Adriana and Michael came to visit one evening. As with all our visitors our children give them the royal treatment. I like this picture because Adriana and Michael are giggling. So cute!!

At the same time, my good friend Marjorie was visiting. Here she is conversing with our company. She stayed with us for about 5 days and we had a great time catching up.

This picture is blurry I know but it was the only one I had of us together. You get the idea anyway. We've been friends since I was in Gr. 5 and she was in Gr. 6. It's a blessing to have friends that know you and your family from your youth. Alot of familiarity. What a treasure!!
Too bad she doesn't live closer...

This is a walk we took through Tynehead Regional Park. I love Peter with his hands in his pockets looking so grown up. This is also a good shot of Marjorie who walks alot like she is marching.

Very determined and focussed.

A week later, Will and Ethan drove to Manning Park and spent two nights at Lightening Lakes camping in the van. The first day the hiked up Mt. Frosty together. What a hike that was!!

Lightening Lake early in the morning.

What a beautiful picture!!

Ethan on the trail.

This is a cabin one can stay in on the way up. For emergency shelter or otherwise.

This is about half way - they are through the forest now and starting to encounter rocky terrain.

This is the ridge you need to travel to get to the summit. By this time the clouds had rolled in and the temperature had dipped substantially.

Here is a shelter of sorts that previous hikers had built. It protected you from the cold wind.

Can you feel the mountains tremble? That's a line in a song on Praise. Well, this mountain was shaking and Will and Ethan said they could feel it. What a sensation!!! You have just climbed a huge mountain (4 hour climb) and then it shakes under your feet. Just a small taste of how an Israelite would have felt when God presented himself to them on Mt. Zion. Only difference was that they were on the bottom of the mountain!!

No view from this point.

For prosterity's sake.

On the way down it pretty much rained the whole way.

The second day (before they packed up) they went fishing and here's what they caught.

Can you even see it?

I love this picture of Ethan - doesn' the look more mature now that he has climbed his first mountain? The boys had a great time together and we did great at home too. I am so glad that they went and made great memories.

I've been doing alot of sewing lately. Here I am working on the baby quilt. Problem is I have been distracted by other projects since then (about a month and a half ago) and I haven't touched the quilt since. I will show all my finished projects my next blog. I made some spit dukes for the baby, bottom sheets for cradle and change pad, still working on a bib, and I made laundry bags for the four kids. I still want to make three more for Will and I and baby.

Thanks for the laundry bag idea Tania!!! It works so great. Yesterday, I started on a curtain to hide a drawer that broke and it required gathers. Well!!! It'll be a while before I do gathers again - the seams kept coming out and other issues. ARGHHHH! My motto is "Once you get frustrated - put it away for another day" - we'll see how long til I get back to it.

I also found some denim looking cottton for Matthew's room window. It's so tempting to just get that done quickly and THEN work on the quilt. We'll see where my sewing impulses lead me.

At the beginning of Sept. - Uncle Wes came to town. One night we had the whole gang over to visit with him. As you can see these four boys were very calm the entire time :).

A nice shot of Dad playing the piano. He taught himself!!

Once school started - Peter had a friend come and visit.

They played so well together that I was able to do my pickles on the same day.

What good little boys (and cute too I might add).

I love this green color!!

The recipe made it sound so easy but without a helper - it's hard work!!

I had tonnes of dills (they gave me double by mistake) so when Sat. rolled around Aleana helped me do a second batch and we were done in an hour. Thanks Aleana!!

It's hard keeping good help these days. Especially when they go to school every day!
Slowly, I'll get caught up...