Thursday

Day light: Lynn from over at homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticeducation asked about the long hours of daylight in the summer. Well, you just get used to it. We have a rollershade in our bedroom and in each room for the blessings. Plus, when my eyes are closed, it is dark . The one thing that gets us is that we all stay up later. It is really easy to be outside doing something and look at your watch and it will be 11:00pm, it is easy to get busy and there isn't darkness to tell you it is bed time. I think we have around 21 hours of daylight today! Plus, why make the blessings go to bed early when they can be outside playing!!

I have had a couple of anniversary questions as to what we did, well, the whole family went out to eat Sunday after church. My wonderful husband was working out of town this week, he actually went fishing after work that day! But, he planned ahead for his absence and gave me a wonderful anniversary early. He was really on top of things and thinking ahead. He is just so great! 

I am taking the weekend off from the computer, so I will be back to post again on Monday or Tuesday, I have some unfinished projects to complete this weekend and need a computer "fast" as well! Enjoy your weekend.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Fourteen Years

My wonderful husband and I have been married for fourteen years today. If I had not been so busy visiting with my out of town friend today I would have scanned a picture of us from our wedding day. If I am home tomorrow I will do so. June 29th will mark my fourteenth year in Alaska. I came here sight unseen and can definitely say I like living here, although a new subdivision is being planned right across the street and I am not thrilled about that but that has nothing to do with living in Alaska. I must go get my blessings to bed and take a shower. I started digging for my addition to my front flower bed today. I am adding a tree and working on digging out the rest of the bed this summer. I have a couple of hostas to plant and I plan on digging up some "wild" perinneals form our yard to put into my bed (gardening on the cheap). I am going to buy a tree though. I am going to have my friend help me pick one out while she is in town.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Weekend up date

"Thank goodness I was never sent to school, it would have rubbed off some of the originality" - Beatrix Potter

I found that quote on a blog I read and I just had to post it here, and you know that is one of my goals, to keep the originality. Speaking of Beatrix Potter, I bought the movie Miss Potter last Tuesday when it was released. I loved that movie! It is just my kind of movie. I love the clothes, the scenery, the story, the life, the art, the imagination.

Our day: We spent the day with some friends that are in town visiting for a few weeks. We were/are very close with these friends and it has been three years since they moved. We had a great day, we picked up our friends this morning at my friend's sister's house, then we picked  up another friend and we headed to the play ground. The kids played and my friend and I caught up, there really wasn't too much to catch up on as we talk at least weekly, but it was just great to sit and talk face to face. I had packed a picnic lunch of fruit and veggies, cheese, ham, crackers, nuts and waters. We talked and grazed and the kids played and grazed. Then we loaded them up and went to Pioneer Park and rode the train and carousel and walked around and ate ice cream.  Tomorrow they are coming out to our house to play here.  So, I need to get finished with this post and get my house cleaned, I was away Thursday-Saturday and rested on Sunday, so there are many things to do before I get to bed!

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Summer Solstice

Today is summer solstice, "the longest day". We will remain steady for a while without losing sunlight yet, but then the sun will slowly begin to shorten its time shining on Alaska. Then, we will lose again until December and begin gaining all over again.

Pa-Pa, the sun run is Saturday night!

May the Lord find us faithful.

No humitity

We are a dry climate, which is helpful in summer and even better in winter!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Hot and sunny,then a nice breeze blew in

It was hot yesterday and it is hot again today. About 30 minutes ago a nice wind blew in and has cooled us off a bit. I have washed about 4-5 loads of laundry today and hung them on the line, the last one is out there and I have a load of towels that just finished washing, they go in the dryer. I still have to make a cake for the reception on Saturday, but I think that will wait until I get home from church tonight. It is a little too warm right now to use the oven. When it is hot here, it is hot! At this time my weather sticker says 83 degrees.

Our day, we have had and will continue to have a full week, this is our only full day at home. So, we are not schooling this week. This afternoon I made a picnic lunch and we spread a quilt and had a leisurely lunch in the yard with good conversation and lots of fruit and veggies. Yes, I have many things to do, but they could wait while I had some time with the blessings. They have been outside so much with summer that I feel as though I do not see them enough. Maybe that is another reason while I chose to school is summer, to spend time with them!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Flowers and men

Today is sunny, we have had rain almost every day this week and last, so it is nice to get out and enjoy the yard and hang some clothes.

Here is my rhubard now, just a little under a month since the picture in the previous post.

  Here are the flowers by the front door and there is also this little red wagon full of pansies and lobelia. Then, there are the flower pots I placed next to the swing.

               

 Here is my lone fern, I am looking forward to this thing spreading. I would love to have more of these.

And, my first iris bloomed this morning.

Now, the men part of the post. My husband arrived home this morning from dip-netting red salmon, they did not get their limit so he will have to go back and get the rest. This is a subsistance fishing trip and we love our red salmon!!! He arrived home and he and blessing #1 changed gears and are now headed down to the church's camp to do some planning and prep work for the work team that comes next week. They are putting working bathrooms into the dorms!!! This is wonderful. We got one inside toliet and shower in the main cabin two or three years ago and now the dorms are getting bathrooms. There is still no electricity at the camp but they do run a generator during the day to run the fridge/freezer and water pump.  Electricity may come in the next few years though, it is getting closer to the property every year.  Anyway, I just wanted to show my most wonderful husband and his son in their Carharrts ready for the work ahead of them today. I just love that man. And, my son came in and gave me an extra hug and kiss before he left since he was going to be gone. He is growing up very quickly, I think he will be going on his first halibut trip with Dad next month.

   

Happy Saturday,

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Alaska flora from my yard (Mid May)

 This is fireweed, it gets a hot pinkish to purpleish flower.

 This is our lone birch   tree that lives inside of our yard.

 This was my rhubarb in May, now it is huge.

 Here is a tree with a nest in it, I do not know if it is being used or not, but here it is.

I will try to get out and get some pictures of things now that things are in full bloom and still growing.

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Made it through the day

When I felt completely overwhelmed emotionally yesterday, I stopped and prayed. I asked for God's strength ( the only way I could successfully function). I set two goals: 1. To be able to clear off a table that needed to be cleared off and 2. To be able to cook dinner and make sandwiches for my husband's fishing trip. As soon as the guys were out of the driveway we popped pop corn, put on our pajamas and watched a movie. When the movie was over the blessings went to bed and I went to my bed to watch a movie that I had planned to watch. I really needed that time to do nothing.  I feel much better today and I am thankful for that.

Today, we are off to town for lunch with a friend and to do some planning for a project the two of us are working on. Then a little shopping for Father's Day, then home!!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

How old do I have to be to finally know myself?

Well, I have crashed again. I have finally realized that I am a person that needs down time.(I married a "go-er")  We spent all last week traveling with the grandparents, literally, go, go, go! I made it through the weekend but yesterday afternoon, well actually, Tuesday I had to take a short nap, but yesterday, I had to say "uncle". I stayed home from church last night and just laid on the couch. It occurred to me that I just need down time. I get a little more in the winter as we spend more time indoors. My only frustration when I need these down times is the catch up work that comes. Today, I still feel a little worn down but I must go forward, if only a little at a time. So, here I go into this day, I am curious to see how it turns out.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Alaska solstice and issues

Jenn asked a couple of Alaska questions, so I will answer to the best of my ability. First, summer solstice: I have lived here for 14 years (well, actually 14 years on June 29th) so I am used to the lessened sunlight in the winter and excessive sunlight in the summer. One thing about solstice, we stay up later in the summer with all the sunlight. I had ladies' Bible study last night and we go out to eat after, well, by the time I dropped off another lady at home and was pulling out of her driveway it was 11:20pm and as sunny as 5:00pm. The drawback, we sleep a little later, today, I woke up at 8:45am and I was the only one awake. This June has been a little rainy, but we will take it happily, usually we are very dry and have forest fires, there is nothing worse than smokey days, the sky is an orange-brown and we know the sun is behind all that smoke but the smoke is so thick that it cannot be seen.

Now,  the second question:" My other question is this: do you think people who live in Alaska feel isolated from the rest of the US? Do they feel any different than someone who lives in the lower 48 about issues?" This one is a little more difficult for me, so, yes, some times we do feel isolated, I grew up in KY and could drive and go wherever. Here, Alaska is so vast and we live in the interior which is fairly isolated. 6-7 hours to Anchorage 8 hours to Valdez,etc. On issues, we can keep up on issues now better than ever with internet and cable or sattelite, etc. When I moved here 14 years ago, we could not get cable where we lived and local tv was hilarious(back then I watched tons (too much) tv) there were not enough stations for abc, nbc and cbs, so the stations shared programming, that was weird to get used to.  And, we did not have a computer yet either.Then, Alaska has its own set of issues that make us unique to the lower 48. One thing, many people have moved up here to get away from the lower 48 so there are some unique people here as well with some unique personalities. But things here are changing fast as we here in Fairbanks are now bombarded with "big box" stores all the sudden and some of that uniqueness ( in my eyes) is starting to fade. Yes, I am glad that we now have some choices as to where to shop, etc. but there was something about this "Golden Heart City" that gave it that title and I wonder if it will stay the golden heart city? So to answer clearly: Yes, we do sometimes feel isolated, but we can know what we need to know about issues and it depends upon the issue as to how it effects Alaska.

May the Lord find us faithful.

An information request

I have some ideas floating around in my head. Kim posted about a Beatix Potter birthday party at the end of July. That got me to thinking. I do not do enough of the little special things with my blessings. I always seem to be busy cleaning or cooking or something else. I just always seem busy, yet we lead a fairly simple life so this perplexes me at times. So, my request. Could you wonderful ladies out there share the little things you do, ie. picnics, tea party decor and menus, plays,etc. I am planning on coming up with my own ideas as well, but some springboard, tried and true ideas would be helpful as well. I am really thinking more of this for my girls but my son will enjoy as well.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Family Socialization

Okay, I am stepping up to the soap box and "preaching to the choir" (so to speak). My day has brought me past a few people and I have made some observations. Why do parents allow their children such "freedoms" with their friends? When did friends become so much more important than family? First instance, a family is doing some sort of building project at their house and their are 6 people living in the home, but only 2 working(I assume Mom and Dad), Dad thinks social interactions important and does not require them to work at home, how sad. They (Dad and children) are missing great opportunities to learn something and tie heart strings. My other observation, I almost hit a boy on a bicycle at the grocery store parking lot because he was riding unattended and rode right in front of me and never took notice. Where are his parents? I could go on and on and on here, but I will not.  So, while I enjoy listening to my blessing play together after they have endured, standing in  a long Sam's cafe line for lunch, visiting two green houses, Wal-Mart to buy mulch, the post office to pick up a package and the grocery store to buy milk, but hey, they had pizza for lunch (treat) and we listened to Little House on the Prairie on CD while we were in the van, they were happy, I was joyfilled. We talked about the book while we waited in lines and now they are playing with playmobil sets and some one was going to Independence! What a wonderful day, I am truly blessed!

Prayer Request: Please pray for Joscelyn, she is an almost three year old blessing of a friend of mine. She has rhumetoid arthritis and has gotten worse in the past couple of weeks, they are traveling to the lower 48 to see a specialist and decide on a treatment and  maybe surgery. I just saw her for the first time in about a year ( they moved about 6 hours away last summer) and she is just as precious as she was  a year ago, of course. They covent your prayers at this time. They need strength and discernment.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Our travels

It was a fast six days while the grandparents were here! They arrived late one night and we were up early the next morning to hit the rails!Here are the blessings waiting for Me and Gramma to get things together and load up. My wonderful husband took us to the train depot and dropped us off.  

 Here I am on the train, a rare thing to have a picture of me, I usually take all the pictures.

We then rode the train to Denali National Park Depot. My still wonderful husband drove to Denali and met us. We looked around at the visitor center and ate lunch, then we loaded up in the van and headed south to Anchorage. As soon as we got to the hotel, we all jumped in the pool.  We spent two nights in Anchorage and then headed across the Glenn Highway  to Valdez We stopped at Worthington Glacier for pictures and to see some snow, my dad could not believe there was snow on the ground, we were at a higher altitude!  Our next stop before reaching Valdez wasKeystone Canyon and Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls. 

While in Valdez we went on a Day Cruise, we saw Dall's porpoise  Whales,

 Here are two whales blowing.

I cannot remember which kind, I slept most of the cruise, I was exhausted from late nights and early mornings.

 And Stellar Sea lions. On the way home they got a good view of the Trans Alaska pipeline It was a fast and furious trip but we had fun and spent many hours driving and laughing. We have so many fun memories, we took over 400 pictures total so this is definitely just the highlights!

May the Lord find us faithful.

newspaper article

Here is a link to the newspaper article about the 9 year old girl. Not much more information but I will keep checking for further information.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Back

We made it home last night at 10:30 pm. The grandparents leave tonight so I will get pictures on the blog tomorrow (Friday). I have been catching up with most of you and look forward to reading what has been going on with everyone while I was away!

Prayer Request:

Last night on the way home, we came upon a few cars stopped where we were stopping to eat a sandwich. The men checked it out and it was a little 9 year old girl who had been shot in the neck by a .22. My dad, a nurse anethesist, stayed to help until the Army rescue helicopter came and got her loaded up to fly her out. My dad checked her vitals and he said she seemed fine and was hopeful that it was just a flesh wound. I do not know her name or where she was from, we literally came upon this scene in the middle of nowhere on the road. So, we were about 1 1/2 hours from the nearest town. Thank you for praying, I know you all will, you always do!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Valdez Alaska

Wet greetings from Valdez, Alaska! This is the first chance to get on the computer. I will post pictures and other information when I can. How is the new server going for those who have been posting lately?

May the Lord find us faithful.