Books and freezer meals

                                                              

One good picture book and a great chapter book. Books like Sarah, Plain and Tall are my kinds of books, I have always liked books about people and places and things that really could happen. I have never been one to enjoy fantasy or science fiction. I like real books, and real places. I like to come away from a book challenged with the knowledge of how a place and time was and how it felt to work with your hands. And if anyone has ever raised a milk fed pumpkin, I would love to know how. I have researched it online and have not found specific instructions yet.

Also, if anyone has done the freezer meals thing, I would like to have some hints. I would like to have a few meals in the freezer for days when things go unexpectedly , etc.

Thanks,

May the Lord find us faithful.

Getting it together

Well, I did make some progress today. I did not listen to that voice in my head that was the couch calling my name!! I got out my homekeeping journal, which is a cross between this and a control journal. I am really trying to finally get in personalized for our home.

So.....I got up and picked up the journal did some things. First, the dining room is probably the most used room in our house right now. We eat here three meals a day, we school in here and the computer is also here. So, it is often the messiest room in the house as well.

 So, my  "duh" moment, each child has daily chores and each one has a room to swiffer each day. Well, instead of me working like crazy and doing it all my self to clean each room for a good cleaning or zone cleaning. Each child can help we work through the cleaning list for that room. I get help, they learn to clean well, and we spent time together. Plus, we have a list to work from and they can choose which jobs they want to work on, and we use the timer for 15 minutes.

So, we will go to bed with things a little better than they were this afternoon. And tomorrow we will continue on!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Finally got here today

It took me a while to remember to post. I finally changed templates. I had had enough demin. There isn't a whole lot to write about today. We are just trudging through school and laundry. I have to catch up from the weekend and I think it will take all week. Plus, I am just not motivated at all this week. So, I will have to get motivated and get busy.

We have increased daylight hours but it is still cold. So, I am so spring "feverish", it is not even funny, but on the other hand I would love to be on the couch doing nothing. I really think I am getting sick. Only time will tell.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Roxaboxen

I will try this again, I had a nice post all ready to go and then I made a wrong move and lost it. So, here goes. This is our FIAR book for this week, it is from Volume IV. We read this book a couple of years ago as a "read this on next Mommy" book, so I am looking forward to this week as I loved it when we read it. I plan on seeing lots of this book come out in their summer play as they are older now and will love this book now.

Check out In Beauty and Grace and look for the post about their attic space for their Little Women. I just adore what they have done and will continue to do with this space. It made me long for an old house with an attic space like that, but then I realized that my girls have an unusually large closet and as the younger girl toys fade away it will make room for this type of set up for them. So, all is not lost.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Two ways to know winter is almost over

There are two ways to know that winter is almost over here:

1. Iditarod 

2. Ice Alaska festival

Sure there are many more but these will be the most interesting to those who live outside of Alaska.

I blogged about these two items over at the Homeschool Nations Alaska blog

I added quite a few links for the Iditarod and the one for the ice alaska festival. So, have fun checking out those sites and tracking the race. It begins Saturday, March 3rd.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Good Monday Morning

I am back!!!  Good morning to all. First a funny! Not long ago blessing #3 was spelling a word so she starts out spelling each letter then she says "upside down i" "upside down i". The word had two exclaimation marks at the end!!!  Blessing #1 and I just thought that was just hilarious. 

Well, everytime I substitute at our church's christian school I know that homeschooling and being at home are a priviledge that I do not take for granted. I am so thankful that I am able to keep these blessings with me to teach and to train. Plus, I was exhausted. I actually crashed yesterday afternoon. But so far so good today. There are tons of people sick here and I just knew I was next, but thankfully I am up and going this morning. But, this was a reminder to keep myself in check and to know my limits. So this week will be bare minimum. Keeping in internal(at home) as I say.

Now, onto our homes. Homes here are either built with 2X6 or 2X8 construction. Some are built with that styrofoam/concrete system. Our house was built in the 80's and is 2X6 construction. We use triple pane windows and most homes have arctic entry ways, which consist of two doors thus opening and closing one and being in an entry room then a second door to continue on into the house. Thus allowing less cold air in and heated air out. I definitely wish we had one of these, but not yet. We mainly enter and exit through our garage. I am sure the newer homes are more energy efficient. When we built on to our home a few years back my husband attended an Alaska building class to make sure he built well. I was amazed when the walls went up and thought "that is all that is between us and the -40 degrees!!" But we are as warm as can be.  

Ya'll have great day.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Pitiful, pitiful

I was absolutely exhausted when I got home this afternoon. I had to take a nap. I did get up two hours earlier than normal to make sure everything was prepped and ready to go. So, I am thankful for the wonderful husband that sees it important enough that I stay home, and he lets the blessings stay home too. We just love it here!! I had at least two of my blessings tell me today that they are glad we stay home. There's no place like home.

Now to question answering:   We do have a wonderful growing season, not exactly long but we have lots of sun when it is growing season. We have not had a garden much since the blessings came along BUT we are planning a hum-dinger this year. We usually grow potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, I have had some success in the past with bush beans. I am planning on that being a big summer project with the blessings and a big part of summer school. We also have quite a few wild berries in the area, raspberries especially here around our yard. But there are blueberries, nangoon berries(raspberry family) and lowbush cranberries not too far away. Wild roses grow everywhere around the edges of our yard. I will have lots of photos to add to the blog this summer. Here is one from last May when my Mom was up for a visit. The hostas are an experiment. They sell them here (obviously) but they have a 50/50 chance of survival. So, I eagerly wait for spring to see how they faired the winter. I mulched them well, so only time will tell. Also, Wild Irises grow wonderfully here and I have them in the bed as well as ferns that grow wild in some areas.  My Mom is coming again this May and we are all counting the days until she will be here!!!

I had already planned on some sort of year around school to keep things going, we are here anyway. And it would not be horribly mean to have them do a little every morning before they jet out the door for a full day of play.  Also, I think entries in their nature journal from our gardening expedition would be fantastic.

I will probably be away from the computer all day tomorrow, family day!! See ya later.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Quick Good Morning

Just a quick good morning! I am off in this horribly frigid weather to substitute at our church's christian school. I do this on rare occassions when they are desperate for help. On that note please pray for our Pastor and his wife, they have both been sick this week. He had pneumonia and she has just been really sick. (I am subbing for her today and tomorrow). They are on the mend but please still pray for them.

Have a great day , it is -40 as I write this!!! BRRRRRRRR!!!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Caribou, I forgot the caribou!

We also eat  caribou, which is also hunted! My husband got one of those this year also.

My husband and son did not get any fish when they went ice fishing on Monday !! But they have fun riding the snowmachines anyway. (Side note here: They did go ice fishing on Saturday and caught the Northern Pike that we had last night for dinner)

Also on Monday, I know I have posted about the moose in our yard before but  there was another one in the yard munching down on some willow branches when we drove in from piano and she barely moved when I drove past her!! She was bold. I wish I would have had my camera as I could have gotten a good close pic of her from the van.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Oh yeah!! What we eat!!

I am so glad Jenn is curious about Alaska. I mean to post my menus but I forget to do it regularly.  Yes, we do eat moose. It is very good. We, well not actually me but my sweetheart,hunt for our moose (just like deer in other parts of the US). My husband is a hunter, he loves to hunt!! Moose is lean meat, so it isn't marbled and fatty like beef.  We also process our own moose (occassionally we have some ground into burger at the processors(we call it mooger). But when it is a small amount we grind our own using our kitchen aid and the food grinder attachment. And it is a family affair. Sweetie cuts (he does this well), I bag and the kids help wrap and label the packages! 

We also eat dall sheep (yummy), halibut(double yummy), red or king salmon, other fish he brings

 home.

So, I will list my menu for this week:

Monday:  White Chicken Chili

Tuesday: Northern pike (oven fried) Mac and cheese, vegetables

Wednesday: Moose Roast (crockpot)

Thursday: Red Salmon, scalloped potatoes, veggies

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Moose Burgers, baked fries

Sunday: Lasagna     French Bread              Salad

Jenn4him, Thank you so much for giving me something to blog about!!! I am enjoying this so keep those questions coming!!!

May the Lord find us faithfu.

 

Continuing on with Alaska

Let's see what I can tell you about Alaska......

This is an interesting place to live. I wonder if I could adjust to living in the lower 48 again. We have a relaxed life here. That is slowly changing though.

One thing that bothers me is that people here usually run late ALOT!!! We don't and it bugs me.

Alaska is huge! We live in the interior of Alaska, so you would probably get a different perspective from some one who lives in Southeast or Southcentral!   Here is some general info on Alaska for your reading.

Here in the interior, we have only had a Wal-Mart since 2004. We actually have a Barnes and Noble now also!!

We do  not  have six months of light and six months of dark here either. We have very few hours of possible daylight in December and Jan. but now we have a full day of sunlight. We will gain daily until June 21or 22 when we slowly start losing again until December.

I am drinking my first successful mug of hot tea, if you know me you know this is a huge thing for me. I am a southern sweet tea drinker(I am originally from Kentucky). BUT, I feel as though it would be enjoyable to sip hot tea and read a book. So, as I blog today I am sipping a cup of lemon zinger with turbinaro(I am not getting up to make sure I spelled that correctly) sugar. So far, so good!!! Some day I may attempt Yerba Mate as some of my friends do.  But for now, I will stick with Celestial Seasonings!!

I read a really great devotional today in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, for today's date. It was about daydreaming. It really put things in perspective, especially for us women who think things should be very Cinderella like and reality is they aren't.  Just a thought to ponder....

Wow, I have gone from topic to topic to topic.....Oh, well.........Ya'll have a great day!!!!

Since I do not have a FIAR book going this week, I will add two of my favorites from the past ......

                             

These two books are two of my favorites from Five in a Row.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Dear Jenn4him, how do I cope?

To understand this post read the previous post's comments

Dear Jenn4him,

I have lived here for 12 1/2 years so I cope fairly well. Believe it or not nothing shuts down here for -31, for that matter nothing closes for -45(or colder)!!! The only reason they call off school here is if it warms up to like 35-40 above and we have ice(that is rare!). Things here keep going just about no matter what. But the blessing for me? I am at home so I can choose to go out or stay in, I usually stay in when it is -30ish or colder. Also, we are gaining sunlight hours and generally it will warm up as the day wears on, as when I am writing this it is -28, warmed up 3 degrees since the comment was posted. So, it isn't that bad. It actually is all how you look at it. I enjoy the times that we stay in and warm by the fire of the woodstove.

I will venture out to piano this afternoon, BUT my husband is off from work today (federal holiday) so he is around, actually, get this.... he and our son are going ice fishing this afternoon!!!  Also, Jenn, I have enjoyed reading your blog!!! Thank  you for the comment, I enjoy answering questions about Alaska. Also, here is a link to some weather cams around the state. Enjoy! weather cams

In Christ's love,    kaysmarmey

May the Lord find us faithful.

Snow fall

I am answering Cindy B's comment about our snow fall. I do not have an accurate measurement, but we have had only about 30 inches or so. Of course that settles once on the ground. We usually do not get large quantities of snow here in the interior. We have snow on the ground from about the middle to end of October until some time in early April though.

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Is it spring yet???????

Yes, I have spring fever and it is only Feb. 16th!!!! I am ready for fresh air, I have the two windows open closest to the wood stove, yes I know it is only 11 degrees, but I need fresh air and to let some dust out. The wood stove has driven me crazy this year! But, I will dust it all out and sweep and swiffer and mop and go from there. I had to take a little break to unwind before the next go around. I am working my way through the house to get it cleaned up before the weekend. I have been feeling a little like I am getting sick so I think I am rushing to get it finished before I crash, but I hope not.

Have a wonderful weekend.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Happy Valentine's Day

We have been busy this morning:

Before breakfast

Breakfast:

Valentine card bags:

 

 

Lunch before cooking:

As you can see we had fun with heart shapes today. We also plan on making cookies this afternoon after a quick trip to the library. The books are due today. We also start a winter revival at church tonight so I probably will not be posting much more here this week as our days and evenings will be full!

May the Lord find us faithful.

FIAR this week

This week we are reading Snowflake Bentley . Here is a link to a information site on this man and his work

Study the snow.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Mondays

This was our last week with our violin teacher, she is moving to another state, we will miss her dearly, she was fantastic!!! I am trying to change our piano lesson time in an attempt to have more time at home on Monday and maybe even throw in a couple of errands before the lessons. We will see.

 I want to share what we have been using for Bible this year, Character Sketches. There is a Bible character sketch and an nature character sketch. We have been blessed to have a dear friend let us borrow these books until we finish them!!

   

May the Lord find us faithful.

Game time

The blessings are playing Dutch Blitz this morning!! They love to play this game. I had to get some pictures to share with their Nana, so I thought I would post here also.

Have a fun-filled Friday and Saturday!!!

May the Lord find us faithfu.

One of my favorites

We are reading this book this week (from FIAR)I absolutely love the illustrations in this book as well. Of course I cried the first two times I read it (I always preread books that look sentimental to get at least one cry out) I am a crier!  Check this one out asap and if your library does not have it then request and interlibrary loan. Now, get to that library!

May the Lord  find us faithful.

To get a hold of God

I have had Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest for many years and I have yet to go completely through the book, and so I find myself here again. I have a couple of quotes from today's devotion.

"The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer."

"We look for visions from heaven and for earthshaking events to see God's power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ."

When I read "do the task that He has placed closest to us" I thought of my blessings and our schooling. We should look for other ministries and ways to help others, BUT we should do what He has placed closest to us first.

May the Lord find us faithful.

I've been tagged......thanks Angela!!!

1.  ONE HOMESCHOOL BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED:

The Well-Trained Mind. 

2.  ONE SOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT:

 I have many but I agree with you Angela The internet.  I constantly look for things, I love the free things!!!

3.  ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT:

That's a tough one, especially now as I am extremely picky, but here it is, when we started at 4 I bought a lot of "classroom" school stuff, that was a waste.

4.  ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR:

Apologia Science Astronomy

5.  ONE RESOURCE YOU'LL BE USING NEXT YEAR:

Not sure yet

6.  ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY:

More hands on science stuff

7.  ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED:

A Christian library that catered to homeschoolers

8,  ONE HOMESCHOOL CATALOG YOU ENJOY READING:

Rainbow Resources

9.  ONE WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY:

Google.  It is my preferred seach engine.  I use it daily. 

10.  TAG OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS: I am not tagging anyone today

Accomplishing Monday

We actually had a good school day. Monday is usually music lesson day but our van was in need of a new water pump so my dh came home from work this morning and put it on. So, we had to cancel music and we stayed home and had a full day.

Once the van was finished blessing #1 and I went to pick up his new glasses and run a couple of errands. We are back home and leftovers are heating up in the oven. I am glad to be home.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Quote

Oh for a book and a shady nook, either indoor or out.
With the green leaves whispering overhead,
Or the street cries all about.
Where I may read all at my ease,
Bot of the new and the old;
For a jolly good book whereon to look,
Is better to me than gold.
-John Wilson

Supper guests

 I was going to say we had moose for dinner, but we do usually eat moose for dinner! We had some uninvited visitors at supper time last night.

                      

These are not the greatest pictures, they are a little fuzzy.  We enjoyed watching them have their supper, they are so big!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Homemaking Days of the Week

Now, I do not have such a schedule but I liked this:

Homemaking Days Of The Week

Monday - Wash Day

Lord, help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity, so I may serve you with
perfect humility through the week ahead.

Tuesday - Ironing Day

Dear Lord, help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected
though the years so that I may see the beauty in others.

Wednesday - Mending Day

Oh, God, help me mend my ways so I will not set a bad example for others.

Thursday - Cleaning Day

Lord Jesus, help me to dust out all the many faults I have been hiding in the
secret corners of my heart.

Friday - Shopping Day

O God, give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal happiness for
myself and all others in need of love

Saturday - Cooking Day

Help me, my Savior, to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it with
clean, sweet bread of human kindness.

Sunday - The Lord's Day

Oh, God, I have prepared my house for you. Please come into my heart as my
honored guest so I may spend the day and the rest of my life in your presence.