We're back to blogging!

Isn't it amazing how quickly time flies by?  Not just when having fun but when you're busy.  Well, with homeschooling five kids, building a house and living with my parents we're quite busy already.  But then throw into the mix that Dominik goes to work full-time and I fall back to part-time!  Plus hockey and dancing and a few riding lessons thrown in for fun!  It's been fine but we are really thankful that Christmas is here!  It is lovely to have a break and to now be able to blog a bit again too.

We got back from Austria and enjoyed two weeks at our cottage, up in Lanark County.  It was good to have that break before we started building again.  We didn't catch too many fish, but just being away from town and out on the lake was wonderful.

Jonathan has finished a video about building our house- it doesn't quite bring you up to date but another video is on its way.  I start to think that we will need another computer so that there isn't a queue for working on this one!  To date we have ('we' being Dominik!) managed to finish the wiring of the house, the inside walls are framed in, all windows and doors are installed, the chimney for the woodstove is already in place, and the outer walls of the house are insulated.  Our next steps will be to wire the breaker box and lay the plumbing, then we can insulate the ceiling and install our woodstove.  Then we will be able to chip away at work in comfort!  We won't drywall the interior walls yet as this will allow the woodstove to heat most of the house.  Dominik and the kids cut a lot of firewood in the fall, so we're ready for the stove!  Our new 'hope-to-move-in' date will be as soon as we can in the spring.  When the ground thaws a bit we will get the septic done and the well dug.  By that time we hope to have enough finished to have it liveable.

We have decided to make this house an off-grid home.  We hadn't really seriously considered it when we started planning, but the cost of hooking up to the electric system here made us re-examine solar.  We visited a friend-of-a-friend nearby and he bought his solar package from a company in British Columbia which is really very affordable.  With that decided, we then have to think differently about appliances and anything which runs on electricity.  This doesn't really change too much in our lives, but it certainly gives us a satisfying feeling that we will be able to be more independent and self-sufficient in our living.   We already want to use propane for the stove and for hot water.  Maybe we can find a way to connect the woodstove to the hot water as well, in future.  For now we just want to get set up and get in the house! :-)

In other news, Jonathan, Jeremiah and Josiah have been enjoying playing hockey in the Kids Christian Hockey League in Brockville.  They each play just once a week and they all look forward to it!  Rebecca has continued with Irish Dancing and is able to help with the younger classes as well as being in a class of two at her level.  We attended the performance at Christmas and could see how she and her dance partner had improved this year.  Elena did some riding in the fall and will continue with that in the spring.  It was great for her to get out and ride and to become more confident around and on the horses and ponies. 

Besides house-building and home-schooling, Dominik came in to work for 6 weeks at the Christian school because one of the teachers was found to have cancer and had to go for treatment.  This was a grades 6-8 class.  I was still working, although mainly part-time (an occasionally supply-teaching), and it was fun to be in the same work environment together!  Now he knows about all of my co-workers and who the kids are that I see every day.   He's had his 'retirement' in December and I will be taking the grade 6 class in January.

We have begun meeting with friends to have church on every other Sunday, and this has been going really well.  It's an answer to prayer to have a group to be involved with, where people can use the gifts that God has given them, and to be where others can come to 'church', without it maybe feeling like church.  We've had a good number of people come out to that and we look forward to see what God will do with this in the new year.

We stayed here at my parents for Christmas and have two Austrian Bible students from Colorado visiting us.  They are the sons of co-workers of ours from Schloss Klaus.  It's great to have more Austrians around for the kids to speak German with and to play hockey and endless games of 'Jungle Speed' with! 

We wish you a joyous time over the Christmas holidays and a blessed New Year in 2020!!!!

 

Just under a week left in Austria!

Isn't it amazing just how fast time can fly by.  Here we are in Austria, working away at retreats and back into our old life as though nothing had changed, and yet next Tuesday Jeremiah and I will be flying home!  Shortly thereafter Dominik and the other kids will follow.  It feels as though we've had a marathon time of visits and camps and rounds of coffee.  People wanted to see us and chat about life here and in Canada.  The kids have all been to one or more camps, which is a huge blessing!  But we're not exactly on holiday. It's normal life, just in another language!  We are so thankful to have had this time, and yet we also look forward to another visit sometime in the future when we can also include a camping trip to the beach in Croatia or Italy.  That is a summer holiday here. :-)

A farm before the mountains.

Austrian houses.

Older balconies....

Younger house and balconies!

Kirche in Frauenstein.

Here you can see the Bergkirche- which is on the hill above the Schloss, with the Kremsmauer towering above it!

They build houses differently in Austria.

Another farm...neat and tidy.

One of many Kappelle found in the countryside,

St Anthony- in the Kapelle in Frauenstein.

On a friend's farm- the bundles of kindling made beautiful.

I've been thinking about all the different things that we appreciate here.  The beautiful mountains are obvious.  But then there are things like the washing machines.  Front-loaders with a smaller capacity than those giant ones in North America.  These machines heat their own water and you can do a wash at 90 degrees celcius!!!  We had a few white items which had turned grey in our time in Canada.  We feel like the top-loaders just 'tickle' the laundry and rinse it through with some warm water.  How hot might that be???  Well, these grey things were washed at 90 and now they are white again!!!!  One of these is at the top of my wish list for our home.  I truly can't wait!!!  Maybe we should open a shop and promote them!  Canadians need to know!!!

Look! 90 degrees!

What else do I miss?  The local pharmacy.  It has shelf after shelf of bags of teas.  Yes, teas.  They are all medicinal and are widely used here.  It's mainstream medicine, not even considered alternative as it would be at home.  Do you have a sore throat?  Sage tea is just the thing!  Mixed with a bit of honey, it tastes devine!  What about a cough?  Well, you could try thyme tea or a specially prepared mixture called 'Brusttee' (Chest tea).  They don't tell you all that is in the mixture but it is fantastic.  Not only does it work but it starts off as a startling blue colour (maybe from Bachelor's Buttons) and then changes to a brown as it steeps.  Again, add a little honey and it is magnificent.  If you wanted tylenol (paracetemol) or such like, you would have to ask.  And then it comes in much smaller quantities than what you find at Walmart.   They have teas for kidney problems, lung problems, to purify the blood, for sniffles and for everything in between!

Medicinal teas in the pharmacy (Apotheke) in Micheldorf.

Add caption

Now let's talk cars.  Manual cars.  Lovely cars with a gear shift!  If you want to travel anywhere in the world, you really need to know how to handle a stick shift.  It has been so much FUN driving one again.  I am thankful for the car that we have in Canada...we really need the space that the van provides, but these manual cars are fun.  Understandably there are loads more BMW and Mercedes and VW on the roads.  Also cute VW vans which would make great campers, and the occasional Ferrari or Porsche.  When we are driving around the kids can play a game looking for European license plates.  In one hour on the Autobahn you might see (remembering that many are travelling for summer holidays just now) cars from many parts of Austria as well as Germany, Latvia, Italy, Romania, Holland, the UK, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Russia, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovena, Serbia, Slovaki and Slovenia.  Occasionally you'll find the Ukraine and more far-flung places.  We used to travel with blank maps of Europe and coloured pencils so that the kids could fill in the maps as we saw the cars.

Today we said a tearful goodbye to the leaders who had come for the Ten English Days Camp.  They came from England, Scotland, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.  I'm so happy that all of our family could once more experience TED and build some relationships with these leaders.  It could be some time until we are all back again. 

We had a day out at the pool in Micheldorf.

There was a battle of their small groups! They were ships: Relationship, Discipleship, Kingship, Dictatorship, Mothership etc.!  This was Battleship!

The forecourt of the Schloss.

Kerstin! :-) 

Not -so-random Teddies (Paul and Jonathan). :-) 

Final battle of the week-long game!

Teddies against the leaders water game. 

So now it is time to pack and to look towards our life in Canada again.  The sooner that we get our house finished enough to live in, the sooner we can have visitors!!!

Uncle Severin's wedding!

On the first Friday in July we went to a wedding here in Austria.  In fact it is because of this wedding that the kids and I are able to be in Austria at all!  Dominik would have been coming to work this summer again at the Schloss, but I would have been in Canada with the younger children.  However, as his brother was getting married, we all very happily flew over!  We have had Severin with us in Canada quite a few times and he has worked closely with Dominik on the plans and the building of our cottage.  We were so very happy when he announced to us that he and Ruth were going to be married.

Unpacking the sawmill together.

Building our cottage with Severin.

A wedding in Austria sounds romantic from the start, but this wedding was taking place in a ruined castle which dated back to the 12th Century!  It is situated on a hill overlooking the Danube river, and the reception was to take place in a large, open stone room- such as one might find in an old castle.  One of the most amazing things, especially when you come from Canada, is that this large room had large open windows without screens.  They're not needed as there aren't really any bugs to speak of.  There might be the occasional mosquito, but I didn't see any that night.  We could lean over the stone windowsill and look out across the Danube valley in the gathering twilight.  The lights of the towns along the river and the starts broke up the darkness. 

Looking down the Danube.

The castle as dusk approaches.

Bars on the windows.

Yes, this is a toilet. 

The wedding was a very small and almost informal affair, considering that it was in a castle.  Only immediate family and a pair of friends were invited.  It was cosy and relaxed, and it gave us an chance to catch up with family that we hadn't seen since our move overseas. You can enjoy the photos and look up the website for the castle, if you like.  www.ruineaggstein.at
It is open to the public and they have a restaurant in the courtyard.  There are also river tours from further upriver, taking you through the Wachau region, which is famous for its wine and its apricots.

Preparing for the wedding.

Severin's neices lead the way for 

His first view of his bride!

The Rittersaal is ready for the reception.

Guests after the ceremony.

Our five children.

The boys and the bear!

 Cousins!  Benjamin and Paul are missing though.

Dominik and Benedikt.

The party is beginning.

Lighting the torches.

We roasted marshmallows before the kids left for bed!