One Introductory Rant, One Trip to the Agricultural Museum

Greetings, dear blog readers.

Chrissy, Jesse, Janna, Robyn, Cooper, "Mystery Vance #4," and myself would like to welcome you back to Apartment 1004, a place of light-hearted, genuine, and slightly incredulous musings on faith and family life as we grow older together.

If you've tuned in for the past few years, you have now grown older with us, and we're glad to have you on this transformational journey.

The blog this year will be different for four key reasons:

1. It will be a daily affair, except for Sundays, during which we will rest and recover emotionally, spiritually, and physically. But every other day should have at least some kind of post, which will make it more consistent. 
2. It will be shorter. The mantra for this year is "three photos per day." This should help to stave off any emotional breakdowns that the intense pressure of writing a family blog might provoke.
3. It will begin in May. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but consider the fact that I am a teacher, and teachers often refer to May and June as the "lost months" - months in which we cease to shave, lose our ability to speak coherent sentences, and disappear under endless mounds of marking. I'm looking forward to sharing these moments with you. (This may also help me to be a little more intentional about my family in the midst of a busy teaching time.)
4. It will feature less exclamation marks. To my profound and utter horror, I have caught myself falling into the uncouth, vulgar habit of ending many sentences with exclamation marks to seem "cheerful," and "not angry." (For example, it is quite popular to end sentences such as this one with an exclamation mark to implicitly acknowledge that I'm not in a bad mood while writing this!) As they say, "the exclamation mark is the new period." But honestly, we all know deep within the depths of our beings that to end our sentences with exclamation marks and smiley faces without prejudice is to raise the white flag before the impending onslaught of illiteracy. I will have no part in the disintegration of the language and culture over which we have been granted a profound responsibility to redeem and protect...

Ahem. So our had a really good time at the Canadian Agricultural Museum today. We're making good use of a family membership granted to us by our friends the Grootenboers - we get to visit the Agricultural Museum, the Science and Tech Museum and the Aviation Museum as much as we'd like for the next year. Good times for all, especially when the kiddies are getting antsy, as they sometimes do after a long, long winter.

Here are three highlights:

The Vances are impressed by the sheer power and majesty of "Merrill" the horse. All children have been warned not to touch the animals. Jesse is concerned with making sure Janna follows this rule. Janna, meanwhile, is only concerned with how she will ever get off the step on which she is currently standing without grievous injury to her person.
(No injuries were incurred in the watching of the horse, thanks to Chrissy's watchful and timely interventions.)

Robyn made a new friend, whom she greeted with frantic waves and high-pitched barks. We're pretty sure she would have climbed right into the cage had we not pulled her back, to her great dismay and indignation.

All of us had a great time on the agricultural playground. At the end of the day, parks are still one of our great family joys. Here, Janna claims the cottage area as her own (but I think she would have been willing to share it if asked). Please note that Janna has hair this year.

Alas, the museum closed at 5pm, and so our visit was cut short. However, I'm sure there will be plenty more visits in the days and weeks to come.

So, for the first post of 2014, I'm signing off. Looking forward to corresponding with any and all of you. Maybe we'll see you in our travels.

Until next time...