Friday 24 March 2017

Family: The Great Adventure

Family: The Great Adventure

"Family Life is the most "Engaged" life in the world.  There is only one adventurer in the world, as can be seen very clearly in the modern world, the father of a family.  Even the most desperate adventurers are nothing compared with him.  Everything in the modern world .... is organized against that fool, that imprudent, daring fool, ... against the unruly, audacious man who is daring enough to have a wife and family, against the man who dares to found a family.  Everything is against him. Savagely organized against him.  Everything turns and combines against him.  Man, events, the events of society, the automatic play of economic laws. And, in short, everything else." 

- French Poet, Charles Peguy

Family is a great adventure.  That is if we define adventure correctly.  GK Chesterton insists that adventure isn't something you plan and implement.  We can't say that we had an adventure if we went on a camping trip and all went as planned.  If there was a massive storm and we had to makeshift a canoe and then sleep on the open water for a night before getting home safely - then we can say we had an adventure.  Why? Because adventure is, in its essence, unexpected, "a thing that comes to us." Hence the greatest adventure is being born.  It happens to us and we've no choice.  Then when we're born, there are two parents ready to pounce on us, whom we didn't choose either.  Family, is this big adventure.  We don't get to choose our children.  If we let nature take its course, we don't get to choose how many children we have.  And life happens to us.  In this, family is the great adventure!  For only the daring man would choose to live a life of sacrifice and risk giving his heart to his children whom may choose to disavow his love.  Does man have to go outside the family to find adventure and the wildness of his heart?  No.  It is found in the drama of the family.  He may have to head off to the mountains to clear his head and think, but the great adventure he so desires is sitting at home in front of the hearth waiting for him.

Our life as a family continues to be an adventure.  Who knew we'd be living in Ontario, learning all new skills and being a family of 8 in 750sq/ft.  Here is a bit of our story from the last few months:

1.  Christmas

Christmas has past. It was joyous and meaningful and the younger children are still asking continually how many days till Christmas again!

It was our first Christmas on the farm.  We cut down our own tree, celebrated the 12 days of Christmas, hosted a total of 12 families at the farm during the farm vacations and left Christmas feeling fulfilled and at rest.



2.  Building a Skating Rink

One of my jobs was to get the skating rink up and going.  After many nights watering the pavement and smoothing down bumps and filling up holes - we had our own skating rink!  This meant many hockey games for us.  Something very Canadian that we severely missed whilst in Austria.



3.  Sleeping Outside

After a few days of complaints and whining, I decided we needed to get a bit uncomfortable.  So we all slept outside on the deck of the cabin.  It was the children's first time sleeping under the stars (clouds) in the winter.


Skating the Rideau Canal as a family!

Ottawa prepares 7.8 km of the canal for skating the winter.  We accomplished about 2 km this day.




Then we stopped at a cafe on the ice for the infamous 'Beaver Tails'!  Yummy!


On the way home we stopped to watch the ice carvers preparing for the Ottawa winter festival called 'Winterlude'.



Here is a great Canadian shot:  Mom sitting on a block of ice nursing her baby in the dead of winter!


 Momma and baby Thomas!


Winter with a nice cool ice chair to relax in with a warm cup of hot chocolate.


Rainstorm in January

Here is what happens to our lovely snow when it rains in January.  The entire property was a skating rink!




 Winterlude

Winterlude lasts about two weeks.  We took in one of the free activities for the family in Gatineau.







Tavi boy enjoying the stroller ride.

They provided free ski lessons for Benedict and Kate.




It was the first time for both of them on skis.


St. Valentine's Day


Katie's Valentine date with dad: a skidoo ride and a winter forest picnic.


A picnic complete with doughnuts and a story.


 Candlemas

To celebrate Candlemas we walk through the Scripture passage in the Gospel of Luke with food and burn our Christmas tree (which symbolizes the official end of the Christmas season).

Here, we also had a chicken die, so we burned her too!



Our fire had some issues, but we eventually got some of the tree burning.



 Valentine's Date with Winter

Winter and I headed downtown with the goal to learn the bus system, see the ice carving contest winners and skate the entire 7.8km.




Of course we enjoyed some good Canadian poutine on the way.





And we couldn't leave without a beaver tail to celebrate the 7.8km finish.



As we decided to take public transportation this day my goal was to walk from the Parkn' Ride home.  Well ... it was a longer walk than anticipated ... over 1.5hrs in the snow and the first half wasn't groomed but rather was knee deep.  It pretty much wiped us out


 Ice Fishing

We tried our hand at ice fishing at the Nepean Sailing Club ... fun ... kind of... no fish.  Alas.



Sacred Heart Enthronement Ceremony

This is something we've wanted to do since we purchased the Sacred Heart icon in Medjugorje.  Our priest from St. Clements came and did the enthronement ceremony and we officially made Christ the head of our home.


This is the end of photos for now.  Rebecca and I are loving our vocation of marriage and the fruit of it (our children).  We thank God for this wonderful adventure and trust Him that He is looking out for us and guiding us.

Many blessings to all of you.

Love, Kenton, Rebecca, Winter, Tristan, Benedict, Kate, Tavi, and Thomas