And the winner is....

The bear with salmon won the contest. So, look for your Alaska quarters in 2008!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday

Even though my house does not look like it completely, I did accomplish much today.

The to-do list:

1. Laundry

2.Mop

3.Empty dishwasher and refill and run

4.vacuum rug at front door

5. school

6.remove winter clothes from girls closet

7. hang cleaned summer clothes in girls closet

8.go for a walk

I think that was it, I would like to blink and my house be clean, organized and every little project completed, but that is  not reality. Reality is that the work needs to be done by me. Tomorrow I have some little people coming by while their Mom goes to the dentist, so I am unsure what kind of day I will have. I so desire a routine day. It has not happened for a while now but we should get there on Wednesday, well, not Wednesday, we have a rescheduled piano lesson that day and then church, so we will aim for Thursday. Next week should resemble more of a "normal" week for us. I think the calendar is empty for that week.

I am looking forward to the used curriculum fair, last year was my first year to go and I found some wonderful things and hope to find more wonderful things this year.

The blessings had a wonderful day outside after school work was finished and cleaned up, until blessings #2 and #3 decided to take up tree climbing, blessing #1is very cautious and just watched and suggested they not climb trees. Blessing #2 fell and scraped up her arm pretty good. I had to clean and bandage the wound and she was still a little dramatic about the whole thing with little "ows" when she would move here arm. I gave her ibuprofen after dinner and she seemed less sensitive to movement. Time flew this evening, by the time I noticed, it was nine o'clock and baths still had to be had by all(I had sprayed them down with bug spray). Blessing #1 ended up going to bed on his own(that has never happened) while I got the other two bathed and ready for bed and it was about 10:45 before they got to bed. I hurried up and mopped and got the bathtub cleaned and the bathroom put back together and decided to post a quick post before heading off for my shower and few minutes to read before crashing.

That is pretty much our day in a nut shell.

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Friday

We have had a busy but family oriented week, I have actually done some grocery shopping on Wednesday all alone, it was quick and quiet, nice for a change but I would not want it that way all the time. Yesterday I went to play group alone, the blessings stayed home with Dad, I had to go as I was the devotion giver this month. It ws also kind of nice to go and chat.

My husband and blesing #1 are gone up to set up a bear bait station. So, it is a girls day, we are just staying home and probably in, it looks like rain today, very cloudy so probably cool, yep, I just looked and it is only 34 degrees this morning and it is 9am. I will be inside today trying to breathe, I am experiencing allergies after many years of reprieve. I grew up in Kentucky and had constant problems in the spring. It has taken me quite a few years to begin having these problems here, but the doctors say that is normal here. We want to try local honey but I haven't found any yet, but I will continue to search, the farmer's market opens next week, so I know there will be some there. They say (who is they?) that if you eat local honey your allergies will subside, we are going to give that a try, my sweet husband has problems as well and I think one blessing at least has followed suit.

Well, I have nothing else floating  through my stuffy head this morning, so.....

May the Lord find us faithful.

Happy Tuesday

We had a very happy day today, my husband has been working out of town for the past 8 days and he came home last night, I do not announce when he is gone until he is back. So, we had a big breakfast and went tile shopping. It was long and tiring. We bought the tile but need a couple of pieces for the corners that they do not carry, so we will find out in the morning if they can order them. I was so hoping to get the counters finished this week while my husband is off from work and at home. But, I also would rather wait a little longer and get the right pieces to do the job well. It is just a plain tile the color is biscuit and it has  a matte finish. Plain but it will go with everything and it is not glossy, I do not care for glossy.
Now for a few photos: These two are put up for my cousin, Brian who I just spoke with tonight for the first time in 8 years, isn't that horrible? I am so ashamed. But we talked for a good long time and got caught up and we will not let that happen again. We do email on occassion, but not enough. So, here is Mel and I. This picture makes me think "Wonder twin powers activate!!" Is that a disco ball in our hotel room. We stayed at the Holiday Sands hotel.  We were at Myrtle Beach in  the second  pictre as well, with Mel's sister Steph we had those t-shirts made at Myrtle Beach, we were so cool!!  Just  a little blast from the past for my cuz!! Good talking to ya' bud!

Sorry for the long empty space, those pictures were scanned and saved on my computer.

Here are the willows blooming, soon we will be green.

Here is our dog, I have never seen a dog lay this way, she does this all the time. She was being rotten here and not wanting to go inside, she loves to be outside, but we do not have a fence and she will wander the woods around our house.

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Inward beauty

I cannot say this any better so go read this  over at Growing in truthif you have not read it already.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Menu Monday

I usually forget this and throw it up on Monday morning which is monday afternoon for most of you. So, I am a little ahead of the game for one week.

Monday = Leftover lasagna

Tuesday= Cracker crusted baked fish (cod or northern pike),  salad

Wednesday=Grilled chicken salad

Thursday= Salmon on the grill;egg noodles; salad

Friday= Moose burgers, we do not grill these, they dry out (We label  ground moose packages "mooger" for the freezer; we actually grind our own when we have small batches);baked fries

Saturday= Grilled Moose steaks; roasted garlic mashed potatoes; salad

Sunday= Moose or Caribou Roast or stew, depends on my mood; cornbread  *or leftovers

I must stop and go to bed, this is making me hungry.

May the Lord find us faithful

 

Good Monday Morning to All, Sunday night for me

Monday will be a wonderful day, we will do some cleaning of our home and a little school after I deliver a meal that I forgot at home Sunday night, for someone at church. I had that meal all bagged up and ready to go with me and completely forgot to grab it out of the fridge. That is what happens when I take a Sunday afternoon nap!!!! But forgetting things is my life's story.

 Nothing new is going on here, we have been busy outside of home so I have no school news to add here, there has been no school. My husband will be off from work Tues. through next Sunday, so this coming week will be a hit or miss school week. I think we are going to replace the tile on the kitchen counters. This needs to be done sooooo badly. I have money saved up and just waiting on time. This week may be that time, we will wait and see. The tile is original to the home and about 25 or so years old, definitely needs to be replaced.

I also need to get the summer clothes out of storage this week and get them washed and the winter clothes changed out. My sweetheart put up the posts for a clothes line for me last fall and they are out there in the yard just waiting to be connected by the line. I love hanging laundry out on the line to dry. I love the smell of those line dried clothes. I have always had a make shift clothes line so a real one with multiple lines will be fantastic. I will definitely post a photo of our laundry on the line. (I know you are all waiting on the edge of your chair for that one.) 

May the Lord find us faithful.

Not planning on daily changes

I know I have changed my template two days in a row. I just do not love any of the templates, I do not know enough to create something of my own and I am not going to pay for any thing, so bear with me as I figure things out. This template is called glacier, so I figure that is fitting for an Alaska blog. Speaking of Alaska, the avatar "moose" is a picture I took, this bull walked through our yard a couple of summers ago. Sorry he is a bit blurry but I am not the best at resizing those pictures. 

When walking the dog this evening, I noticed the willows blossoming more and more. Things are waking up here, we should be green real soon, I took a few pictures but it is getting late and we have another day of curriculum fair tomorrow.

We seem to only be attending the workshops of Jim Weiss. He is a great story teller, makes me want to read so much more, he has my son just mesmorized. The Blooms are also here, I sat in on a few minutes of one of her sessions but the blessings needed a change of scenery and to move about a bit.

I so desire to attend a real homechool conference at least once in my homeschool "career". The one here is sponsered by a  state run organization and therefore there is no talk of anything Christian and no Christian companies selling their curriculums, etc.   Some of the past speakers have been Christians and I have had some good talks with them at their tables (out of session). 

Enjoy your day and.....

May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday photos

The blessings were playing baseball today and there is no snow in this picture!!!!!

I had the kids pose for me so I could get a picture of their Kentucky shirts, my cousin sent them these shirts for Christmas.

And finally, the bathroom went from this:

To this:

May the Lord find us faithful.

Menu and thanks Lynn

  I was givend the thinking blogger award by eclectic education for my geography blogging. Sharing about sharing about Alaska. Thanks!! Sharing about Alaska is second nature to me. Keep watching for more photos of our spring happenings as I am planning on documenting our "green up", that happens quickly as well, in fact most things (except winter) happen quickly here in Alaska.

I will post later today with my five thinking blogger links.

Menu  disclaimer: the blessings picked most menus this week

Monday -leftovers

Tuesday- Baked or grilled chicken with mac and cheese

Wednesday-Spaghetti, salad, french bread

Thursday- Sandwiches

Friday- nothing planned

Saturday-make your own pizza

Sunday-lasagna, salad, french bread

May the Lord find us faithful.

Alaska state quarter voting in progress

Vote here for the Alaska state quarter design, they are all great, personally we chose the gold miner in front of Denali. Did you get to vote for your state quarter? Do you collect state quarters? Our oldest does since he was born in 1998, so I started for him and he collects now.

I am feeling better, still have a sore throat but feeling better to an extent. See ya'll tomorrow.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Today's yard photo. It is almost all gone!!!

Bye, Bye rubber duckies. Hopefully the rubber duckies will go away this week. I am redoing the main bathroom of our home to bring it into Alaska with the rest of the house! (That is not wallpaper, I stamped and painted that border)

May the Lord find us faithful.

All for now

Just a quick pop in here. I have a sore throat and am beginning to feel yucky! Soooo, I may not be a round for a few days.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Today's view

Today shows even more snow gone, scroll down and find the first day I took a picture of this view. As you can see the blessings have been out there and have disheveled the boat a bit. I am heading out with the blessings and the dog for a little walk as soon as chores are finished. Then we will fold some laundry and do some read alound for a bit. Then, I have some Mommy cleaning to do.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Good morning to all

I took a couple of pictures outside this morning but he coloration is all wrong, so I do not know what is wrong with the camera, I will have my husband look at it this evening. The sky looks  all pink in the picture, has anyone had that happen before?

Still, the snow is going fast. Then, just as fast the trees will green up, that  always amazes me at how fast things get green here.

Biblical Womanhood had an interesting post(Posted Thurs. 4/05) about a feminist book. Wow, how far people have gone to being selfish and only thinking about me.

Also, if you know someone who has a husband, son, or brother serving our country in Iraq or other foreign land, please send them a care package or letter or email just to say "hello, I am praying for you", etc.  And do not forget to pray for them. They are serving willingly and need encouragement from "home". I plan on mailing out a couple of packages this weekend or early next week. If you do not know any one personally, then find someone.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Menu Monday

I always forget this!!

Monday - Spaghetti

Tuesday-Leftovers from Sunday

Wednesday-Grilled Salmon; egg noodles; veggies

Thursday- Roasted Chicken; mashed potatoes; green beans; rolls or biscuits

Friday-Burgers and Baked Fries;Milkshakes

Saturday- Chicken Parmesan; Salad and French Bread

Sunday- Moose Roast with potatoes and carrots; corn; rolls and for dessert Boston Cream Pie

May the  Lord find us faithful.

Pray please

Everything is all right, but last week while a Pa-Pa's husband was flying in a helicopter to Baghad they were shot at. Please pray for him while over there (Tom) but also pray for Pa-Pa and their daughter as they wait at home.

May the Lord find us faithful.

The snow will not wait until next Friday

I am posting a breakup picture today, the snow is going fast now.

I am curious to see how much goes away today.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Childbirth stories

Well, here goes

Blessing#1  Water broke around 6pm. Contractions started around midnight, dialated to 10 by 3am, when I got to 10, my contractions stopped and I had NO sensation to push and I was having back labor and no meds. He was not born until 9:17am. I had to have petocin (spelling?) I made myself push him out. I was exhausted.

Blessing #2 Water broke at around 6am, no back labor but when I got to 10 again, I still did not feel the urge to push and contractions stopped, no meds. But she was born at 10:45am so not as long.

Blessing #3 Born 15 months after blessing #2, water did not break, I lost my mucus plug around 5-6pm and we were at an outdoor show walking around. Around 9pm contractions were regular but not close enough to go in. Finally went to hospital around 12 midnight and asked for an epidural. My friend Pa-Pa was with me and so was my sweetheart, he slept while I laid there peacefully dialating at around 4am I looked at my friend and asked her to get the nurse to check me as I felt the urge to push, FINALLY, I knew what that felt like. She was born rather quickly and was born with a pneumothorax (they said it was like a small hole in the lungs or something like that) one nurse described as the baby did not get a good enough squeeze on the way out!!  Maybe because she did not sit in the birth canal for hours like my first two did!!!!! She was fine within a couple of hours but she had to stay in the nursery to be monitored for 24 hours.

That is all, there is no more.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Blessings

Here are the blessings in their new outfits from Nana, they all have colds this weekend so none of them are 100%.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Jenn's childbirth post

Jenn's childbrith post sparked a little curosity for me. Jenn was a nurse before she had her blessings, I have a teaching degree. Did you have a career before you had your blessings? What is your education background. I have a teaching degree but I never taught my own class before I had the blessings.

May the Lord find us faithful.

I forgot it was Friday

It is still melting slowly but you can see much more of the blue boat this week. We had some colder overcast days this week to slow things down, so we will see how it looks next week!

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

It's over!!!!!

We made it through and we even went ice skating afterwords! We have a ballet performance to attend tomorrow and then I am coming home and cleaning my house. I did a couple of things tonight but that is all, I am giving baths and putting people to bed, them I am going to bed!

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Half way there

We are half way there, I came home today to do some laundry while my son is testing. So, this will be quick.

What are your plans for Resurrection Sunday? We will go to church as usual then have a larger than usual lunch with some guests this Sunday. Then, visit and clean up the kitchen and back to church for the evening service. We will go through the Resurrection eggs with the blessings on Friday or Saturday.  We do not do Easter baskets or bunnies, do not fear my blessings have been eating the candy and they get plenty of it, I just have a tough time with "Jesus died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again, Happy Easter, here is your basket full of gifts." Jesus dying on the cross was their gift and I think we should focus on that. As for eggs, I save them for when my mom comes. She comes up every year and no matter when she comes they color eggs. That is just something my mom enjoys so I save it for her. My disclaimer: I got an Easter basket every year of my life until the year I got married.

Maybe I will make up spring planting baskets for my blessings in a couple of weeks with gardening tools and seeds, and some really cool rock looking candy they sell at a speciality store here, that sounds really good, thanks for helping me figure that one out! Ya'll are so great!

May the Lord find us faithful.

One day down two more to go

Well, he made it through one day, he took a long time but there were others who were not finished when we left.

But, the major news, my kids have played outside two days in a row without their winter gear on, they have on light weight gloves, fleece jackets and hats and their mud boots. There hasn't been much melting today as it is overcast a little cooler than yesterday. But days like this are nice during break up as it gives the water that has accumulated a little time to evaporate and dry up before more is added. I think fairly soon we will begin to se RVs and tour buses rolling down the road, a sure sign that winter is over!! Then we have tourist season!!!!! If you want to see the real Alaska do NOT take a tour, explore on your own. And come see me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am exhausted but when my sweetheart gets home we have to run out and vote before dinner. Then I am eating and crashing!!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Dinner last night

We did not have salmon last night. While I was sitting at piano at 4:00 pm yesterday, I was hungry, very hungry. I called my husband up and said how about Pagoda? He was game, Pagoda is the only Chinese resturant in our area that I will eat at. People drive from Fairbanks, the larger town to our small town of North Pole just to eat there(believe me their driving to North Pole is unusual!, they think it is soooo far.We are 13 miles from mid town) We had a gift certificate and leftover pizza for the blessings in the fridge, so we dined on wonderful Pagoda food.

Here is a link to the North Pole Alaska website that I just found.

I must go we have to get out to go to testing today and the next two days, I will be glad when this is over and we can get back to normal.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Menu Monday

Menu, this is what we have planned for dinner this week.

Monday-Salmon, egg noodles, raw veggies

Tuesday-Grilled chicken salad

Wednesday-Baked Pasta Dish

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday-Halibut(sides undetermined)

Saturday-Burgers, baked fries

Sunday-Ham,  Hashbrown casserole, baked beans, broccoli casserole, pineapple casserole, cole slaw, deviled eggs, rolls, millionaire pie, boston cream pie

May the Lord find us faithful

Playing outside

I had a question as to going outside cut off temps. for letting the kids go out. Public school policy is that there is recess if the temp is -20 or warmer. So, public school kids go out with those limits.

 I usually wait until  it is about -10 or warmer. The kids often do not go out every day in the winter. Usually it is sporatic or they go out on Friday and Saturday when my husband is home. I do not make them go out most of the time.

Now, it is warming up here so they will be going out most days until October!!! That may be an exageration but not much of one. They love to be outside and look forward to bike riding and sandbox, etc.

May the Lord find us faithful.

I tried to post this yesterday but it was lost and not to be found again. So, here I try again. Here area the blessings on the snowmachine, getting in some final days on the snow machine.

 Here is my wonderful husband "grooming" Emmy. The dog hair has been plentiful in the house.

 And finally, the thermometer read 53 degrees yesterday, it wasn't that warm really but when the sun was full on it gives a higher reading. It was about 35-40 though.
May the Lord find us faithful.