Salmon Quiche

We have been eating quite a bit of Copper River red salmon lately. We had salmon for dinner the other night so tonight we had Salmon Quiche (using the salmon leftovers), which we have not had for quite some time and it was delicious as usual. I can say that because it isn't my recipe.
I use fresh salmon leftovers instead of the caned salmon listed in the recipe and I use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose. Good stuff, I tell ya!

Making Headers with Picasa

I am posting a link to Clover Lane  so I can find this link when I make my next blog title header picture collage thing! I read this when I made my first one, but I forgot where I read this little tutorial so mine were not as pleasurable to view as hers are. Now this should change as soon as I have time to make a new header or tweak the one I have.

Sunshine

The daylight hours are increasing daily. February can be very cold or it can be mild, depends upon the year. Come March the daylight hours are such that the days are warmer even if it is cold at night...as my wonderful husband says, "we have winter whooped now". April comes break up and the hope of green, which generally comes in May, although some years the end of May.

As you can see....

from the lack of posting that nothing much has been going on here. It has been one of "those" weeks. The temperatures have been pretty low all week and one or more of the Blessings have been in some stage of this cold that is making its way through our family. Today is Sunday and I am home with three of them; one has a barky cough, and two are stuffy and coughing. Never fear, school has continued this week since the colds aren't the kind of colds that knock them down and the in home activity level has stayed quite active. We just have to stay in to avoid others because around here we do not believe in sharing our colds. I think it is quite selfish to go out and share this type of thing so we stay home until the course has run.


On a different note: I just heard this from the kitchen, "Is(Elisabeth) more....IS MORE!" He wants more of whatever Is just gave him.

The Green Background

The weather man stands in front of the green wall and he has monitors on each side of him off camera that show what is being projected onto the green screen.  He also has a remote of sorts that allows him to change what is being projected as he goes through the weather information. Pretty neat for sure. He also had a green piece of fabric that he could put in front of the kids to cover them from the neck down and all that could be seen was their head floating across the weather maps.
I think this was the hit of the whole trip.

The Daughter That Blesses

Disclaimer: Both of my daughters are super special and God has a unique purpose for each of them.

I have a daughter that has always "paid attention" to the needs of others. As a baby she would stare at my face to read my mood. She has never liked to see me cry and she is the first to notice that I do not feel well, even if I am trying not to let them know. Last night, I could not fall asleep until the early morning hours and the little guy was up at seven so I have been tired all day and add to that some shoulder discomfort (probably from not sleeping well). Well, she noticed. Earlier in the day she asked if I wanted my hot pack heated and I said, I would heat it later. Finally tonight she just got my hot pack and heated it for me and brought it too me when she saw my misery. And just now she got up to get a glass of water and asked where my cup was so she could fill it up. What a blessing she is to me!
Oh, the shoulder feels better and if it keeps hurting, I will visit my chiropractor soon. It usually goes away quickly. This may also be the aftermath of beginning excersing again, using parts that aren't used to being used???? Maybe so.

Field Trip to the Local Television Station

Getting the introduction and the information about the green weather wall. Pretty neat.

 

I would not want this job of the guy in this room. This room is filled with television and computer monitors, machines, etc. It was hot and way too much screen time for me.

The end of the tour, back to the production studio with full lights for a little more information and pictures at the news desk. 

My broadcasters!

Oh dear and Mercy Maud!

Our temperature is a balmy -32 degrees today. My wonderful husband had a physical exam scheduled this morning but the doctor did not come to work today, I think the DR. was sick. So, my husband left the doctor's office and is heading to do some annual maintenance on the church boiler. That being said, I am having the Blessings carry on with a somewhat normal school day. Judith is sick so she will get the day off minus some not so challenging history work for today that she needs to do with us.

This afternoon those of us that are healthy will head to the local television station for a field trip. That should be interesting, although, I was bummed to be getting out in such temperatures, but thankful that my husband is home to stay with my sickie and Benjamin.

I know why I usually show myself as offline for FB chat....I cannot complete a sentence without being called away. Benjamin just spilled something, so he had to cleaned (thankfully just his hands) and I had to do a little floor clean up as well. Good thing I am not supposed to complete a blog post in a limited amount of time. I would rarely be able to finish a post.

Happy Monday!

The afternoon

Wow, after I wrote my post yesterday I had a bad dizzy spell and went to bed for the rest of the day. I didn't sleep all afternoon, but my nap did help. I feel much better today. Not sure what that was but glad it is over for now.
My wonderful husband cleaned the stove and it is now sitting in the kitchen waiting for removal of the old and insertion of the new.

Whatcha doing today?

I am snug inside on this -9 degree day. The wind was blowing something fierce this morning, but I am not sure what is going on outside right now.

We went to town every day this week, crazy I know. So, today is home day except for a possible trip to the North Pole library to pick up a reserved item, unless I can get someone to stop when they take the trash to the transfer site.

I am busy in the kitchen today. I am making pancake and sausage muffins in an attempt to have some pre-prepared breakfast food for weekday breakfasts.

There is a new to me stove in my garage waiting to be cleaned.

I may get some bread made later depending on how the afternoon goes.
Yummy salmon for dinner tonight as well.

The Turtle Club

This is the Turtle Club, where folks in Fairbanks Alaska go for prime rib and oddly enough, the salad bar. This is a very Alasakan place, it is located about 25ish miles from our house in a little bitty community.

Real Weather

I have the weather underground sticker on my blog, mainly for the sun and moon rise/set times, but we really watch our weather via the National Weather Service. How do you, or do you, check on your weather?

See the Moon?

See the moon in these two pictures? These pictures were taken between 2:30pm and 3:30pm. During the winter there are many days that we can see the moon all day. Kind of neat?

Last Friday, In Which I Get Myself Outside

I am notorious for hibernating, my wonderful husband gets out and does all kinds of things. Like, haul and cut wood, hauling the garbage to the transfer site, hunting, ice fishing, picking up chicken manure from our "source", riding this cute little fella around on the snow machine. You know, the good stuff.
This past Friday HAD to be a wood cutting day for my husband, so in order to get the little guy out for some outdoor time I had to get geared up and get out there. Our temperatures last week were great for being outside so we took advantage of that on numerous days.
Here we are getting ready to take off.

Here is our chocolate lab, Emmy. She looks older than she is and that worries me sometimes but she is healthy and great dog, just grayed early. I think she is five or six years old. She likes to fetch and lay around.


Here we are zooming past my husband, see my clothes line, I can't wait to use the clothes line again.

Two more zoomers!

My Little Helper

This is my little helper helping scoop and pour grain into the grain mill.


He doesn't like to be all done.

Not quite sure what he was telling me here.


Putting the lid back on the pail. I love the gamma lids!

The fruit of our labor? Homemade bread and white chocolate oatmeal craberry cookies. Yummy!

Monday

Why do Mondays get such a bad name? I know for me that I have spent the weekend doing the things that I do not have time for during the week. What? The homeschool mom doesn't have time for things during the week??? You betcha! I spend my days taking care of school and basic homekeeping...you know, things like laundry and 3 meals a day and basic picking up and keeping the kitchen somewhat clean.
If my wonderful husband didn't have Friday as a day off we would have Monday as our day off for getting prepared for the rest of the week, but our life doesn't work that way. One problem is the fact that my Blessings are still on a stay up a bit later and sleep later than we were in the fall. I gave everyone a break last week but this week we are backing to getting up at a certain time. Come tomorrow morning it will be rise and shine time!
Now, who is going to wake me up early????

We are swinging now

I am thankful that our first week back to our lessons ended on a good note. Good endings make me look forward to the next week ahead of us.

Winter Gear or How to Enjoy the Great Outdoors and Not Freeze to Death

I don't know if I have ever broken down our outer gear for my blog readers. Keeping warm is very important to my wonderful husband and myself. Since we live in a winter wonderland, we must keep ourselves and our Blessings warm. Here is our handsome model wearing his winter gear after playtime outside.
This is the outer layers. The inner layers vary depending upon the temperature. Today the temp wash hovering around zero so I only added a fleece top since Benjamin was wearing a short sleeve shirt today.



Here are things layed out on the floor, mittens are best as they keep hands warmer. Just aren't so great for picking anything up, oh well!
It is difficult to see the turtle fur helmet mask but they things are great for wearing under a helmet or under a yazoo hat to keep the face and neck warm!

Here are our boots. I have black bunny boots and my husband and Elisabeth(hand me downs from big brother have white). White bunny boots are warmer than black, but I have never gotten cold in these boots. They are not pretty and I only wear them outside to play and ride snow machine. I also keep them in the van, just in case....

Here is another view of the yazoo (sp????) hat, we all have one of these but I would have to search high and low for mine. I have the nice fur hat that I wear around town and I have just fleece hats for playing outside.

Our family choice for travel. If we go anywhere in the van in the winter we have all of our winter gear with us. Each Blessing has his or her own bag and after the gear has hung by the wood stove to dry it is loaded into bags and in the back of the van. This is precautionary in case of breakdown or other unforeseen mishaps. Plus, if we are visiting a friend and the kids decide to go outside to play, we are set. Safety people, common sense people! (Oh, I think I have read a little too much  Lumberjack's wife lately...wait, I don't think there is such a thing as too much of her!)  It isn't always convenient but it sure is smart. That is what I should call my husband instead of wonderful husband, smart husband.

History

I have not posted much about our lessons lately. When I imported my blog over I looked back at my posts and I posted much more about our learning...somewhere along the way I got sidetracked.
Today I will post about history.
I knew the time period we would be studying this year but I wasn't ready to use Winter Promise just yet. There is something about Winter Promise that I love and then there is something that just keeps me from being able to successfully use their programs, don't quite know what it is.
So, I ordered Veritas Press which was a huge mistake for me. So, I am using all the great literature and resources but putting my own take on things.
What I did order and love is Home School in the Woods New World Explorers. I will definitely order more in the future. I actually need to see what they have for the next time frame we will be learning about and get it ordered as we will finish with this in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a much better day than Monday. I actually fell asleep Monday morning in the middle of lessons, ugh! My Blessings kept going by helping each other until chore time. I finally woke up enough to get up and get lunch ready and get Benjamin down for a nap. I actually felt pretty good in the afternoon so we were able to finish up our lessons for the day and I even got a little housekeeping accomplished. Thankfully I was able to get to bed at a fairly decent hour. Got to work on getting to bed a little earlier.
Good news is that Benjamin is no longer waking up at seven a.m., he is sleeping until seven thiry or even eight o'clock, which thrills this Momma's heart.
Lessons were even better today so I think we will get back into the swing of things by the end of the week...
Levi had his annual eye appointment this afternoon and his glasses and warranty replacement lenses for his current frames are on order. With our insurance we can either order glasses or do contacts but not both. We are ready for contacts for Levi but he needed better frames so we opted to wait one more year before going the contact route, which he needs for all his outdoor and future sporting activities.

I am horrible at first days!

I did not do well with the first day back to our lessons today. We did get through the day and we even got outside after Benjamin woke up from his nap, so that is a good day in my book.
Tomorrow will be better.
Right now I am off to put Benjamin to bed and watch Hockey Night with my older blessings. This is an old movie from way back in 1987 but they love it! Megan Fellows, aka Anne Shirley, is in this movie....good times. I miss the 80s! Kind of!

A New Year and No Resolutions

I have never really written out resolutions but this year I haven't even thought about resolutions. So, I will just keep on keepin' on and see how this year fares!