Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It's a boy

Edited:


Here is Blessing #4 just minutes old.


 


 


December2008andBabyBenjamin075.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


December2008andBabyBenjamin091.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Meeting for the first time.


December2008andBabyBenjamin094.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


 


 


 


On Monday I delivered an 8 lb. 10 oz. baby boy. I will try to get a picture posted later today. We are home and all is well. The Lord is so good.


 


 


 


May the Lord find us faithful.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Four days....

I honestly have never gone this far past my due date before. But I will update that things are moving in that direction and my husband is predicting a baby by midnight tomorrow 12/15...time will tell. I do have a DR appointment tomorrow afternoon if nothing moves forward before then.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Still Packing Baby

I attempted to update last night but there were some huge computer or internet provider issues so I just went to bed. I still have not had baby. I really hope things happen today as my Mom leaves in just 6 days!! We have been keeping busy with activity inside and outside of the home.


Monday evening, Mom and I went shopping, lots of walking.


Tuesday day, shopping with the blessings, more walking.


Wednesday, DR appointment and shopping with my husband...more walking.


Thursday, walking in the snow with big, heavy boots on.


Friday,  a "gotta clean now" hour then a trip to the Ice Park, more walking in heavy boots and I even went down the slide with the kids. Still no labor, not even a twinge of contractions. I do have a few pictures from the Ice Park though.


Here is my Mom and the blessings


December2008052.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Here I am with the blessings in front of an oversized Santa sculpture.


December2008107.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Two of my blessings with two friends going down the ice slide, this was fun, I would post my picture but a friend took it with her camera.


December2008064.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

40 weeks and 1 day pregnant!!

It may be time to remove the pregnancy tickers, they are adding days on now and that is not fun to look at, I am officially one day overdue, which is pretty normal for me, my children stay cozy until 40 weeks and 2 days, so we will see what tomorrow holds.


I did just return from a walk through the snow with the blessings and my Mom, so maybe that will get things going....only time will tell.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Still waiting

See that baby floating around above that zero, well, my baby is still inside and I am trying to wait patiently. I have a doctor appointment this afternoon....only time will tell.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

A special request

I had a special request from a friend who is out of town...she asked for a picture to be posted on my blog. So, here I am four days before my due date.


December2008003.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


My mom is here now, so I don't know what baby is waiting for.....


May the Lord find us faithful.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Thought

I thought I had better update lest ye think I have had a baby and failed to post. My little blessing is still safely tucked away inside, although the crazy movements of past nights has slowed so these are the "last days, maybe even hours!!!" of pregnancy.


I am up earlier than normal for me. We have trimmed the tree and then the boxes half opened and spilling out all around the house were corralled into the dining room(last weekend) and there they have sat. Today they are getting shut and the last items out for decorating and then they can go away when my husband can get to them. At least they will be closed and neatly stacked. Later this morning I will be getting my hair trimmed. It hasn't been trimmed since August and is quite over due for maintaince.


We had our church Christmas party last night and our Pastor says our baby will be born by 8:15 tonight, we will see....he thought all the laughing at the gift exchange would bring on the labor. We did laugh alot.


 May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Today's Doctor Visit

Today's visit was fairly uneventful. I may be dilated to 1, which in all reality means nothing. I had to schedule one more appointment as they had not scheduled me past today's visit. So, hopefully by next Wednesday we will have a baby. Regardless of what happens we should have a baby within 9-11 days! I usually don't go early but I do not go over either. On the good side, I still feel great, oh, I sometimes need a nap but I am overall very much able to do what ever needs to be done. The Christmas tree and a few other decorations are up. The boxes are still out but I may do a little extra decorating as this week progresses. School is scheduled as regularly this week as it is our last week before our Christmas/Baby break starts and Nana will be here next week as well. I have to wait until after tomorrow evening to have this little blessings since our Ladies Christmas Tea is tomorrow! After that I am all about labor.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Still sleeping sporatically and Happy Thanksgiving

Here I sit at 11:30pm wide awake (I still hear blessing #1 making some noise from his bed as well). I fell asleep on the couch tonight but woke up and headed to get ready for bed. By that time, I was awake and I am still awake two hours later. What all has happened in that time frame? I  hugged, kissed and prayed with my children before I went to bed, my husband came in and turned the light on to read, his cell phone rang and I listened to him talk on the phone, blessing #3 came in with a stomach ache and by that time I got up to get something out of the freezer for tomorrow's dinner since the phone call was a confirmation from some dear out of town friends (that are in town) that they will be able to come to dinner tomorrow evening. By the time I returned from the freezer I decided to give up and read a few minutes, then my husband sent me to check on the stomach ache sufferer and now she is asleep and I am wide awake! Guess I am getting ready for those late night feedings!  A lot can happen in a short period of time around here, especially at the bedtime hour! 


Today was my weekly DR appointment. It was a quick one as he had a baby close to delivery at the hospital. The baby was measured and the heart rate taken, everything is on track and "normal". I asked a quick question and was out the door. At this point I do hope that baby waits until after Thanksgiving to make an arrival. I know I am not due yet but I am in that "delivery" zone and we wonder how much longer until baby comes.


 


victorian.jpg image by kaysmarmey

I am looking forward to my favorite holiday on Thursday even though I will not be at home doing all that wonderful cooking and preperation and decorating for the day. As I reflect on last year's Thanksgiving, I will miss the people we had here last year but this year we will be with our friends who just returned to Alaska and we will have a great day. I must remember to make and take "sweet tea" as they are northerners and do not make or drink sweet tea. Some things you have to over look in people, but they are still okay.


Pa-Pa is in our hometown to have Thanksgiving with her family and I do wish we could be there to have the time with our families and see Pa-Pa and K as well, but it just wasn't to be this year.


I do not know if I will have much free time over the next couple of days to post as I will be doing a little cooking to take to share and a little school work has to be done, etc..... But I will post if there is any baby news to report.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Still here

I am still waiting for the birth of our little baby. I am not due yet so that is no surprise. We have been busy with school and things here at home.  I will make sure to update when the happy event occurs.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Praying

Please pray for a family that used to be in our church. They moved away a little over a year ago to the lower 48. The wife/mother passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer. My husband has known her many more years than I have as they both worked together many years ago. She had two girls who are around 10 and 8ish. No matter how much one prepares there is nothing that one can do to get ready for this type of thing. May the Lord find us faithful.

Being away

I have not intended to be away from the blog for so many days. Things are fine with the baby but we have had headcolds going through our home. The other two are doing much better and I am the third person one on her way to recovery. I had the typical beginnings of head stuffiness over the weekend and my cough began on Monday. For some reason I always get a cough after a cold and this time was no exception. At this point I am not really in a good place to handle a cough. I have been taking a cough syrup and that has helped tremendously.  I am thankful that yesterday was Veteran's Day as the veteran that lives here also had the day off from work yesterday and he took care of many things that I just could not get too. I also got to go to an impromtu late lunch with a dear friend who stopped by to check on me. I have been craving soup all weekend and she was going to the local Chinese resturant so I was able to have some hot and spicy soup. My taste buds are so dead from the cold that I didn't even taste any hot and spicy. But after I ate that soup and began my entree I broke out in a sweat and then became clammy. I honestly know that was the turning point in my cold. I feel much better today and slept better last night. I will still have my cough for a few days but I am used to lingering coughs. The blessings who had colds recover much faster because I have my natural remedies that they get when this type of thing begins and they have very short bouts with colds.


No new news from my DR visit on Monday. But we are now to weekly visits to the office. We are in the home stretch.


I love being home wtih these little people. I have two at the breakfast table reading and eating their breakfast. If we had to get up and leave each morning breakfast would be a little more "rushed", they can linger a little longer and read...


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

35 weeks

I added a second baby ticker on the left side... I know one was enough but I wanted to see that little floating baby but I still think the little baby in the pea pod at the top is cute. So, for the last five weeks, I choose to have two baby tickers. Oh, that little baby in the pea pod is getting closer and closer to home!!!! Yahoo!!!!


May the Lord find us faithful.

Do the people at Taco Bell....

I go to the North Pole Taco Bell on a regular basis, drive thru only. One of my only cravings has been for Double Decker Taco Supremes and a Pepsi. Truely, that has been one of my biggest dietary mainstays this entire pregnancy. I will say that my Taco Bell eating has lessened since my surgery but it has not stopped. Actually, I was there last night and I think I will stop again tonight on my way to church. I wonder if they will miss me when I am no longer pregnant?


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Nature study

Today was....well, Monday. I still do not function well on Monday. I am a little tired from Sunday and our Sunday was busy and not restful at all. That translates to no nap for Mama. Of course, we accomplished our school work for the day but we had one of those "teachable, obserable moments" today. As I mentioned before we are studying flying creatures of the fifth day in science, that said, the blessings were listening to the science lesson someone spotted a magpie out of the window. Here is a picture of a magpie, I think they are prettier when in flight with that long tail of theirs.



 


It took me a while to find a picture of a little ermine since we happened to see one of these guys while looking at the magpie.


Picture - ermine peeking<br/>over a snow drift.<br/>fotosearch - search<br/>stock photos,<br/>pictures, images,<br/>and photo clipart


He scooted across the yard, he is actually a welcome sight as he is a carnivore and eats little shrews that live in and around our yard. Plus it was nice to see a different animal hanging out here in our yard. And we saw it all from the comfort of our own couch. I love living here!!!


 


May the Lord find us faithful.

Please Pray and Vote

Tomorrow is the day. Please pray and please vote.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLY_HRt-AM


May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Finally a picture of the big news

Blessing #3 lost her first front tooth a couple of weeks ago and she lost the other one one night this week. I finally took a picture. This isn't the most flattering picture of her but I was doing the best I could.


October2008025.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


Due to my complete lack of energy I have decided I need to do three "duh" things. Things I should be doing but just don't, I know... I know..... but I haven't



  1. Get outside every day, even if just for a few minutes.

  2. Eat a little better. I am back to not really caring about food and not enjoying cooking.

  3. I had failed to take my vitamins and chlorophyll for two days, I got them all down today.


October2008029.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Here we are outside today. Blessing #1 got these "bunny" boots this summer. They keep feet nice and toasty warm.


October2008032.jpg picture by kaysmarmey The kiddos watching the dog run around like the bone head she is. It wasn't frigid this morning and the sunshine felt good on my face. I am still tired and heading off now for a little nap. We are going to go up to help our friends who just moved into their new house. I am going to do a lot of watching and talking but my husband can help move and unload things. Plus, we are taking pizza up for dinner as well.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Checking in

I have done so well lately of at least keeping up with posting, so I will do so again tonight. I have had one of the wierdest days of my life. I have been sleepy all day. I hope to feel rested tomorrow when I wake up. If not,  will I have to make myself go stand outside in the cold until I wake up? I may just have to do that tomorrow. We did accomplish schooling which is a miracle within itself. I am now at 34 weeks, only 6 weeks until baby comes, that is so difficult to believe. Well, it is off to bed and more sleep for me.....


May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Academics update

This is week 11 here at our little home school.


In science, we have been studying birds. I stumbled across a great resource for our narrations in the form of mini-books for this lesson we are currently in. We are all enjoying them. At one point in time I attempted lapbooks but I found them rather bulky storage wise. I have since settled on 3 ring binder notebooks using many of the wonderful free notebook pages and lap books that I find online. I do admit to being quite frugal so I first look at what I can glean from the generosity and creativity of others, using my favorite homeschool resource, the internet.


History:  We continue through Ancient History using Mystery of History. Our Winter Promise study this week is Roman persecution of Christians and the ruin of Jerusalem. The study we are going through is an overview of History from the beginning until now so we are moving through quite quickly.


We continue on with the three R's for each blessing, moving at their pace through the whole process.


I finally took the time to sit down with the typing program I purchased a month ago and got that going for the blessings. It is nice to have something that blessing #3 can come do since she finishes her school work first being as she has the least amount of work to accomplish each day. Oh, the joys of first grade!!! I love preschool and miss those "fun" preschool days, good thing I will have another blessing to go through preschool. Yahoo!!!


I need to get the camera out and place it next to my school chair, but honestly there isn't a whole lot going on right now to record through pictures.


I am continuing to take care of little neglected areas in our home. Tonight's chore was the oven. I think it will have to sit overnight but I will go check it as soon as I finish here. Some day we will have an oven that cleans itself....but I am thankful that this one keeps holding on to life for us. And, my husband is clearing out the garage tonight so the van can park inside!!! I love having a garage and with -18 degrees this morning, it is time to get into the garage. He had to wait until after his return from hunting so he could prepare and then put away all of his hunting gear.


Prayer request:  A man we know was mauled by three bears while out hunting on Kodiak Island (far from here), he is in the hospital and it looks as though he will recover just fine but they are concerned over infection as he was out for two days after the attack before getting to the hospital.


 


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Moving right along

Since I am not a morning person, it doesn't surprise me a bit that I do not get a lot accomplished in the mornings. I really want to be a morning person, but I just cannot seem to get there from here. I woke up early this morning and tried to stay awake but I was back down in no time.


We are accomplishing much with our schooling but I am not finding time to do most household chores until evenings after dinner.  (Tonight I cleared, cleaned and organized the pantry, this was a very over due project. Now I can see most everything and there were way too many empty boxes in there, you can tell the blessings have a little more "freedom" in this area than normal. )This is very much not like me as I generally do my work in the afternoons but now our afternoons a filled with school. Oh, this is just an unusual time for our family. Thankfully, the blessings are doing well with the new norm and I must just go with the flow as it will all change again in a few short weeks!! Oh well, this is truly life. When we first found out we were to be blessed with another baby, I moaned about a December due date, now I welcome it as we can have the time off from schooling for Christmas and get adjusted to the new one all at the same time, all with just one lapse in schooling time.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Our Weekend

I am so thankful that baby is holding on and keeping to full term. Have I had problems? No. Have I had problems with past babies coming early? No. It just seems that so many women do have so many pre term problems and end up delivering early. So, I am just thankful for every week that we stay put and hold out for the true end of this pregnancy.


Our weekend was full here at home. My husband arrived home from a week long deer hunt with a very injured back, injured for the whole trip. I didn't find out until Thursday evening and not from him....that's another story. The injured back means he spent most of the week on the boat with minimal hunting time, that said, he still got the biggest deer (which by moose standards is tiny). I am thankful that deer are tiny, especially when it came time to process the thing on Saturday afternoon. It didn't take long but between his back and my pregnancy, we neither one were very energetic when all was said and done. I didn't even take any pictures of the deer's antlers. The back was feeling better yesterday but not so great this morning.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Posting without pictures

I really prefer to have pictures with my posts but it just isn't going to happen right now. So, here I sit posting without any pictures. Maybe there just isn't enough going on lately... who knows...or, do I have some one take pictures of me taking my daily nap? By the time we school and have lunch, it is my nap time, then it is time to make dinner. I have even been folding laundry and doing my daily home cleaning in the evenings instead of the normal afternoon time frame of times past. Flexibility people, we must be flexible and prioritize, naps take precedence right now.  Tomorrow I am off to my check up, then I get to skip one whole week and then the weekly visits begin. Time is ticking away.....


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Title goes here

We are keeping on keeping on. Tomorrow we will complete 10 weeks of school and I am very pleased with that. I normally do not "count the weeks" but for some reason I needed that week count for my own reassurance. By the time the baby comes we should have a good 15-17 weeks under our belts. We will get a good break in December and get back into the swing of things after Christmas. I am definitely beginning the "nesting" phase of this pregnancy. On Saturday a friend came over and helped me clear out, and reorganize the girl's bedroom and closet. The boy room will not take a whole day and should be able to make it to my list this weekend depending upon my husband's schedule. He shot a black tail buck yesterday!! I don't know how to handle such a small animal!!! I have learned that I cannot tackle these bigger projects during the school week and this Friday is a DR check up and I will have the daughters of some friends of ours, so that day will be a little bit too hectic to tackle a closet.


It has snowed here all day along with blowing winds. We took the careful route and stayed home from church tonight. It feels so wierd to have been home all evening, plus I had a couple of stops I could have made but nothing major that cannot wait until Friday. Hopefully my sweetheart will be available to drive me around.


Yesterday evening we attended a workshop on attracting birds to your bird feeders in interior Alaska. I did learn a couple of things and it spiked a little interest in the kiddos. We need to get the right bird feed into our feeder and put up a second feeder. Plus, we need to go visit the Alaska Bird Observatory to check out what they have there. We are studying birds this year.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Homespun Holiday

 


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May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Monday

Why do I still not enjoy cooking? Oh, I tried making homemade carmel apples today (which  didn't turn out as the recipe said, the carmel was too brittle, teeth breaking brittle, and I followed the recipe exactly) but to actually make a meal just does not happen with ease. Food only appeals to me when my blood sugar has dropped to an unhealthy level and I need to eat NOW! I am making homemade mac and cheese  tonight, but I never just make mac and cheese. I will make sure they eat some fruit or something with it and I will as well, but this just isn't like me.  I look forward to the cooking me that should return in only 7 weeks or so. We were blessed with a wonderful loaf of bread made with freshly ground wheat berries last night, we have enjoyed that today!


 


May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

This week's activity

Wow, 32 weeks, the weeks are really passing quickly at this point. It is difficult to believe that in 55 days or less we will have a little one here with us.


So, what is the activity keeping everyone busy in the afternoons this week? I haven't taken any pictures but, blessing #3 (my "must always have something to do") child, pulled out the potholder loom yesterday. This activity spread through the house like wildfire. To the point that I had to order a third loom and extra loops this morning. So, if you get one of these for Christmas, act surprised please!!!


Pot Holder Loom


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, October 13, 2008

This week

I had a request for pictures to be emailed to Kayla since she has not seen me pregnant and was having a difficult time remembering my pregnancy since she hadn't seen me. She also seemed a little concerned about my surgery so I also had O take a picture of my neck since. So, here I am at almost 32 weeks and me sticking my neck out!!! The scar doesn't look that bad.


October2008023.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


October2008018.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Oh, yeah, we also do more school than just building things around here. We are studying Zoology I, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day using Apologia Elementary Science. We have been studying feathers, which is great timing as I was able to pluck quite a few off of a couple of ducks that my husband and son and my husband's friend brought home a few weeks ago.  Last week, we looked at how feathers on some birds, waterfowl, are "waterproofed". Our duck feathers were definitely freshly oiled before they met their demise and were later eaten by our friends. Okay, don't be all yuck and all that, it is a fact of life, plus, it would be worse if they hunted the ducks and the ducks were not eaten.


Getting water to test the feathers.


October2008012.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Dipping and looking at the feathers


October2008013.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Looking at the feathers


October2008016.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Today was Columbus Day and Dad was home so there wasn't formal school today, tomorrow we will get back to our regularly scheduled day. The blessings did get to spend all day with their Dad and I was able to get some much neglected house cleaning accomplished. I even sewed some game bags for my husband's upcoming hunting trip. Now, I am going to go sit on the couch and knit a little (I am making my first knitted clothing item, a cardigan for the baby!!!) to get to the point of needing help again, Wednesday evening I will get further instructions when I get to my "sticky" stopping point. Some day I will be able to knit socks!! It will take a while but I will get there. Goals, we must have goals.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Bear

Where? On my plate. Yes, I said on my plate. Yesterday evening we went to dinner at the home of some dear friends and we had black bear roast for dinner, it was delicious. My husband had had a bad bear experience years before we married so we have never done much with bear meat except maybe a little sausage, plus there haven't been that many bears brought home over the years, I think only a total of two. But I know that bear will be coming, it is kind of a "coming of age" first hunt for many a young fellow and I would think that within the next two years my oldest blessing will join the ranks as he has sat out at the bear stand for the past two years as a spectator and he always helps get the stand ready in the spring.


On a more everyday note, I had my OB check up today. Baby is measuring about 32 so a little larger than my 31 weeks. I personally do not think this a big deal since the baby could be all stretched out plus I was seen by the PA in the office today and not my OB Doctor, things are always a little different when a different person takes a look at ya. On a good note, I have not gained any weight in the past month. That always makes me happy, my weight gain is right where it should be. I am not nauseted any more but I can still take or leave food. I mainly eat for necessity sake. No gourmet dinners coming from my kitchen any time soon!!  I also received my pre-registration packet for the hospital, this is really happening. This whole pregnancy has seemed un real to me for some reason. I mean I am pregnant and not in denial of that fact, the baby is constantly moving but it just doesn't seem real that we will be adding a new family member in just a matter of 8-9 weeks. We'd better get things ready. The to-do list is long but I tried shopping at Wal-Mart today and there just isn't much gender neutral items out there. So, I have two sleep gowns with the elastic at the botttom (I love those for those first few weeks especially for thos middle of the night diaper changes when you are barely awake.), and a couple of packages of white onesies. I will begin picking up diapers next grocery trip. Oh, we must get a wipey warmer for those middle of the night changes as well. Daddy can't stand to change a baby with cold wipes. He is a good daddy that way.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

My Kayla meets my Governor

Pa-Pa's daughter was able to attend a rally and see Sarah Palin and she was able to get her Bible signed by Palin. Pa-Pa has pictures posted at her blog if you are interested in seeing them.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Gladiators and Caesars in Rome Week 6 Plus a little family life thrown in for the fun of it

It seems as though I am the weekly blogger at this point in my life. I know it will get better especially when we have little precious baby pictures to post. Only 9 more weeks left!!!


I think I mentioned last week that we have friends that just moved back to Alaska from the lower 48, we have had their two dogs a Chessie and a Lab since their arrival last Monday. Thankfully, their dogs are garage and outside dogs so I do not have three dogs in my house. I couldn't get a picture of the Chessie but here are the labs checking each other out. The three dogs look so cute together as they are a yellow lab, chocolate lab (ours) and the Chessie which is a mocha brown.


 


October2008002.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Last week we did not do a build  with our Winter Promise plus the week was all wonky due to sickness and busyness with the arrival of our friends.


Back to our regularly scheduled Hideaways in History. Rome.....


Our build for this week was to build the Colosseum. I have decided that Dad is a much better builder so he gets the priviledge of building as much as possible.


Taping the boxes together.


October2008004.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


A little help from big sister, yes my girls wear hats almost all of the time. Don't ask me why.


October2008007.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


October2008009.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Trying out the Colosseum.


October2008010.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


This online book about gladiators was a fun read for us yesterday. It reinforced what we learned and was a good visual reinforcement.


 


May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Where does the time go?

We are all still around here, we are getting into the daily schedule and routine of life for this season of life.We are progressing in our schooling and have finished the first 6 weeks of school. The 7th week has held many interruptions, some welcome, some not... I will get to that later. I will first, catch up from last week. Our Winter Promise Hideaways in History readings were about Greeks and Romans. We were supposed to build a trojan horse but we will do that tomorrow, remember I said interruptions. We did attempt to see what clothing would be like with wearing chiltons.


September2008079.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


September2008080.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


We are planning on building that trojan horse tomorrow.


The weekend brought a birthday celebration for blessing #3. I cannot believe she is a year older.


She wanted to decorate her own cake and with everything else going on what a blessing that my girls are old enough to do these types of things with minimal assistance.  This isn't the best picture but she enjoyed putting her cake together. She chose to make a cake with a log cabin and a tree... go figure, but it is what we had.



One of our birthday "traditions" is to let the birthday person choose colors, themes, etc. for their birthday table. Then, I and others help get it all decorated after the birthday person goes to bed. Then, they get a "surprise" in the morning when they wake up.  Here is what she chose.


September2008083.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


On the celebratory day, Dad made breakfast  and presents were opened.


 


September2008097.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


 


She asked for a gun for her birthday, so Dad was more than happy to get that for her. She also recieved a gift from brother and sister that they picked out and purchased, and she also asked for some new scrapbook supplies (we are very balanced women in our home, we can shoot a gun, but we enjoy our cooking and crafting) After breakfast we bake the cake and then the birthday girl wanted to do a little shopping with some birthday money that was burning a hole in her wallet. When we came home, we made frosting and got to work on the cake decorating.


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Then, Dad and children went to try out the new gun and I was able to take a nap!!!


Then, dinner and cake and ice cream.


The proud cake maker.


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Now onto this week.....


This week of school has been hit and miss with birthday day off for the birthday girl, battling colds (most of us) I have not come down with a full blown cold but wake up every morning with a sore throat and I really don't want to do anything. But, we trudge on.


Monday evening our friends arrived back in Alaska and their first stop was here to drop off their trailer, two blessings and two dogs. It was so good to see them and visit for a while. There was no school on Tuesday due to the extra kiddos and a lot of catch up playing. The afternoon held dentist appointments and grocery shopping for us. That's when I knew that blessing #1 was really not doing well. He has a barky, dry cough and just plain looked worn out. He spent today on the couch or my bed and didn't complain a bit about not being up and about (he has said many times he doesn't know how those kids sit at school all day, he enjoys moving) So, I took today as a catch up day and got the kitchen and dining rooms cleaned, made a crock pot of vegetable moose soup and did school work with the girls, read aloud a little with all and here I am finally getting caught up with a post at almost 11:00pm. Oh, yeah, I took a nap this afternoon as well. That rarely happens but seems to be becoming a needed event in my day every couple of days or so. (In this post alone, I have mentioned two naps)


Oh, yes, can you see my pregnancy ticker at the top of the page? I am 30 weeks, only 10 more weeks to go until we meet blessing #4. Now, if coming up with a real name were that easy.......


May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Not much

I haven't posted much around the old blog lately. We have been, well, living life. Not much has gone on outside of the daily activities and we didn't build any projects last week with Winter Promise and the camera, well, let's say it sat on the shelf.


It is getting colder each day. This morning I think is the coldest yet at 22 degrees. It will warm up when the sun makes its appearance but I have a washer full of winter coats, hats, mittens and the like getting all washed up in preparation. The laundry pile was huge yesterday morning with all those extra things added to the weekend laundry pilings. The pile was reduced greatly yesterday and by the time we go to bed tonight we should be caught up to normal laundry amounts. (Laundry is never finished) I may even go build a nice cozy fire in the wood stove this morning.....


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Weekend update

It seems as though the weather in the lower 48 was quite active this weekend in some areas. Our weather was fine and we had a rather uneventful weekend. The menfolk went duck hunting on Saturday morning and blessing #1 shot a duck and Emmy (our lab) retrieved it for him. She is a good hunting dog other than that she leaves dog hair around for me to vacuum or swiffer. 
I am officially in that place where I get exhausted quite easily. Energy does not aboud but I am getting things done and thankfully I can sit on the couch for school work and that helps tremendously. My three hour glucose tolerance test revealed that I am tolerant of glucose and by the end of the three hours I had very low blood sugar levels to the opposite extreme that they were looking for. I could have told them that!!  I have always been that way, even when not pregnant. If I go too long without eating I can tell. I am thankful that I do not have gestational diabetes. 


Our weather is still holding out pretty good and the leaves have stayed on the trees but one good rain or wind and they will be off. The blessings have been outside quite a bit and enjoying the sunshine and playing as much as possible.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Finished

The moose meat is all packaged and snug in the freezer. While visions of dinners dance in my head...


Okay, that is enough corny. But, the moose is tucked away for the winter and my husband can now do what he loves best, waterfowl hunting. Moose in necessity, duck is his first love. He is getting the decoys and boat ready as dinner is finishing on the stove. What are we having? Moose fajitas of course. Tomorrow, I will opt for some seafood for a little change of menu, but then if my mighty hunter hunts all day, the blessings and I may just have a snacky dinner tomorrow, who knows, it will be Saturday and we usually play that day by ear.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Also

Our school week was interrupted due to a Monday DR appointment and today was a family work day, so.... there is no Winter Promise project this week. That is okay, we had two good days of school this week and we had two days together as a family working together as well.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Moose Season

My husband and a moose came home on Tuesday evening. Therefore, yesterday and today have occupied my husband with a moose to cut up and package for the freezer. The blessings and I help with packaging but my husband does all the butchering himself at this point. I was dreading this necessary task but it hasn't been too difficult so far. I have actually cleaned and organized about 6 of the kitchen cabinets this morning. I pop outside every so often and package what is waiting for me. Back to the cabinets, I threw away quite a few lids without bowls or old sour cream containers,etc. I streamlined some of the dishes and put less frequently used ones up high and out of the way. I moved some of the everyday dishes down low since blessings empty the dishwasher. I still have a few more cabinets to go but that will be for another day. Some time in the next hour or so the grinding of burger meat will begin and I will be needed for that whole process.


Tomorrow brings a three hour glucose test. I have never had to take this one before but my test results were high from the one hour test. I just think about wasting three hours sitting at the lab waiting for the time to tick away. You can only sit so much when you are 27 weeks pregnant. I wish I had already started to knit the cardigan for the baby. I guess I can read and knit some dish clothes while I wait. From the lab I will head over to my first oncology appointment. This is just the monitoring process that I will have to go through and not any bad news. I am thankful that my husband came home before all this so that he and the blessings can spend the morning together.


 May the Lord find us faithful.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

• Sep. 10, 2008 - Back to the Nature Journals

It is about time we got back to our Nature Journals. Our leaves do not last long here in Alaska so we have a short window of fall leaves to do whatever we need to do to our leaves.

We gathered leaves of all types and brought them in for crayon rubbings. Here are some blessings peeling crayons.

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Rubbings, blessing #1 really enjoyed this and said he could spend a lot of time doing so, he did!

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Blessing #2 wanted a little closer look at her leaves.

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Finally, they cut out their leaves and glued them into their nature journals. I read about leaves and trees from the Handbook of Nature Study.

Then, we cleaned up all that mess from cutting and pasting and crayon paper, etc.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Great Outdoors

 We went for a leaf collecting walk that ended up taking us to the mailbox as while we were outside we saw the mail lady heading toward our mailbox. Oh, yeah, football is involved in almost everything we do at this time of year.


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Almost to the mailbox, these two never hold hands, I thought that was precious.


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After the walk, I sat down on the swing to rest and sort through the mail, the blessings were not as worn out as Mom so they continued on with physical education and played monkey in the middle on the trampoline. Note the football, again.


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We then went inside to make crayon rubbings of our leaves and do a little leaf studying inside, but you will have to pop over to Alaska Nature to read more about that.


May the Lord find us faithful.

• Sep. 9, 2008 - Vitamins C and fungus

Rose Hips (I may be out picking rose hips to dry soon) My children were at a friend's home today and they helped pick some of the last raspberries and strawberries of the season. We have a few in the fridge. Yumm-O tomorrow!!

August2008125.jpg picture by kaysmarmey



Here are some mushrooms, I did not take time to look up this specific kind tonight. We had a good mushroom showing this year due to all the July rain that poured and poured down upon us.

August2008126.jpg picture by kaysmarmey

Sunday, September 7, 2008

94 days to go

94 days isn't much time left. It is also nice to see the baby is closer to home than to zero! There is much to do but it is so nice to know that baby's birth is getting closer every day. I go to the DR tomorrow for my monthly check in and it is the glucose test day as well. While I am talking pregnancy talk, sleep was painful last night. Both hips hurt so no matter which side I tried to sleep on it was no use. I had a friend inform me this morning that there is a name for that and that it doesn't go away until the baby comes. Goody, something to look forward to!! I actually hope that is was just the effects of a lot of house cleaning yesterday which meant being on my feet most of the day. I would love to sleep good tonight. I must go read up on how we are going to build the igloo this week......


May the Lord find us faithful.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

This week

This weeks Hideaways in History building project was the Great Wall of China. (You will notice a little better quality workmanship this week due to  Dad being the project builder.)


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This week's build was a little bigger than previous weeks.


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We had some sunny days so the wall was moved outside to be painted. I normally do not spend this much of my time painting a project but part of this will be taken down and folded flat to be used again when we build a castle later on, so it received a little extra mom attention.


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The finished product.


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Notice the yellow leaves, fall is upon here in Alaska!!


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We are all enjoying our preview journey through history. We are reviewing things that blessing #1 has studied last year and that has helped. We all enjoy Story of the World, which I did not think I would like at all. I was wrong.


 


 May the Lord find us faithful.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Labor Day, Girl's Day

Labor Day weekend is not a family weekend for us as it is for many families. The beginning of September brings moose hunting season and waterfowl hunting season. This year with Labor Day being on the first made it a very special day for the men in our family as it was "opening" day. The men spent the morning waterfowl hunting and the afternoon and evening getting ready for moose hunting. The girls spent the day at home so we made desserts.


Blessing #2 received this cookbook as a present from a dear friend and we finally made something from the book. She decided on a teddy graham cake. She gathered the ingredients and we went to work.


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She was happy to put her first item ever into the oven.


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The finished product


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Blessing #3 made a cookie pizza , look at that hair flying.


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Her finished product:


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May the Lord find us faithful.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Catching up

I am still trying to tweak our schedule and get all the school work accomplished daily. Some things, like laundry are going well, and some things...well, let's just say, we are working on those things slowly. I do have a  few pictures to share today.


First, here is blessing #3 sitting outside of her cave "preserving" some of the "catch". She is writing either halibut, silver salmon or jumbo prawns on the package. We made the cave for week one of Winter Promise Hideaways in History. She and her sister added some pictures (aka cave drawings) to the cave of things from their daily life.


 August2008128.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


Next is a picture of how and where we do school work. We use the family room because we enjoy the comfy couch and chairs for reading and we really enjoy the warmth of the wood stove in the colder months, also there is a lot of sunshine through those windows in the winter when our sunlight hours are at a minimum. I call this our tv tray homeschool!! I sit in the chair with the red throw and the large water sitting on the table.


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Week two of Hideaways in History found us in Ancient Egypt and building a pyramid. (Which I think weird since they buried their dead Pharoah's in those things but we built one anyway, minus the dead Pharoah.) Big Brother helped with this one and he is showing blessing #3 how to use his flashlight so she could have some light in her pyramid.


August2008151.jpg picture by kaysmarmey


These are all the pictures I have uploaded at this time. So that is all for now. Hope you have a good weekend.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday, September 1, 2008

• Sep. 1, 2008 - Nagoonberries and a flower

August2008121.jpg picture by kaysmarmey

Here we have a nagoon berry, looks just like a raspberry but grows low to the ground.

Information on the Nagoon Berry (common name)

Latin Name: Rubus stellatus

Family: Rosaceae

Grows best in peaty soil or tundra

And is a perennial plant

These plants grow all around our yard and the blessings enjoy picking them and popping them right in their mouths. They grow so low to the ground that it wouldn't be a lot of fun to pick them in any large quantity, but we enjoy munching on them during the summer.

August2008118.jpg picture by kaysmarmey

Clover

Saturday, August 30, 2008

It's all coming back to me

I still am not "there" when it comes to keeping home but things are getting better around here. Slowly, it is all coming back to me and the daily necessities are being taken care of. Laundry is back where it should be, in fact, my morning load today was pretty small due to the laundry being up to date. Keeping up with the daily "stuff" helps when one is home. I had to stay home due to a sick child. Blessing #2 began with stomach complaints on Tuesday afternoon and spent that day and the next two on the couch. Friday morning I took her to the doctor, she has a urinary tract infection. We began anitbiotics yesterday and I can already tell a difference. She isn't back to normal yet but she is doing better than yesterday. I think this is only the second time in her life she has required an anitbiotic ( I am very thankful for that fact as I dislike giving antibiotics to my blessings).


I haven't been around the blog this past week as we had some computer problems which are now fixed and I should be back in business. I know there are pictures to be downloaded from the camera....but a little girl is requesting my presence for a movie. I must go.


May the Lord find us faithful.

My Governor?

Who would have thought that when the blessings and I went to see Sarah Palin's Inaugruation that yesterday morning I would wake up to find out that our Governor is John McCain's VP running mate. We had heard rumors and that her name was mentioned as a running mate but I never thought she would be the chosen one. I am not a "news" or "political" person at all, but I will be watching closely this election season. (I actually turned on Fox News yesterday!) We really like our governor as she is not bowing to corporate oil and big business.


May the Lord find us faithful.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Let's go fly a kite...

Remember this song from Mary Poppins?


Written by Robert B. Sherman

With tuppence for paper and strings,
you can have your own set of wings.
With your feet on the ground,
you're a bird in flight!
With your fist holding tight,
to the string of your kite!

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!

When you send it flying up there,
all at once your lighter than air!
You can dance on the breeze,
over 'ouses and trees!
With your fist 'olding tight,
to the string your kite!

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!


I just could not help but hum this song as I was uploading these pictures....


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May the Lord find us faithful.

First Day of the 2008-2009 School Year

 


Class picture


August2008108.jpg image by kaysmarmey


I almost included myself in this picture but I was having a "bad hair" day. ThanksJenn for the first day of school picture idea.


The day went okay, it never seems to be a good day when the teacher oversleeps.


Here is the beginnings of the cave for blessing #3's Winter Promise Hideaways in History Curriculum.


August2008102.jpg image by kaysmarmey


August2008101.jpg image by kaysmarmey


Yes, I can see that you can't see much in these pictures, I will take better ones tomorrow. At least this is a "do a little every day" type of project. Tomorrow she will draw some cave drawings in her cave and I can't remember right now what else she will do.


I do know that I will begin my day a little differently tomorrow, there are always things to work out in these first few weeks of school.


May the Lord find us faithful.