Saturday, March 25, 2023

A Saturday

I met with my table group today - a group of 6 ladies which meet once a month around various tables with the goal of cutting through small talk and developing authentic relationships. This is our 4th month and it's GOOD...just good! It's good to validate the value of relationships. 

I came home to find Michael, Stacia and Allie in our room. It seems Allie needs to know how to tie a tie. Fun memories were made. 



Allie went to get dressed for work after this tie-tying lesson.  She discovered her uniform tie is a velcro neck sash thingy rather than the standard tie. 

Stacia spent 20 minutes driving her stick shift up and down our driveway, starting on hills etc....then Michael and she went out driving. Soon, she will have mastered the stick and will have her own car to drive around. 


GG went to be rather early and Michael and I had a quiet night at home. 

Friday, March 24, 2023

A Day of Visits

Today was a day of visits. The girls came home for tea! I decided it would be fun to pull out the "good China." LOL  We have missed them, and it was fun to have them home today. 


They ran out with Nolan and Alex as the boys are shopping for things to outfit their new place. They have signed a lease and will be moving into a home in June.  The four of them went thrifting and then on to Freddies. The guys found dishes, a welcome mat, some end tables, towels and a cool lamp.  Michael and I need to start seriously discussing how we are going to best use the space when they move out. We haven't been able to completely unpack the study. We will move the study into their room. We then have to decide how to utilize the space the study is currently in...food storage/seedling grow room, guest room, exercise room...

While the four were out shopping, Michael and I had Shannon and Lindsey, our pastor and his wife, over. It's always a good day when we can catch up. 

Nolan brought pizza home for dinner. I had planned leftovers as I've been cooking way too much with all the young adults out of the house for various reasons. BUT, pizza is our Friday night tradition. LOL He and the girls stayed and watched Mr. Magoo with us. It was a nice way to end a week that has felt,at times, as if it were out of control. 

It snowed yesterday and most of the day today. 

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Signs of Spring?

 It felt good to be out in the snow chipping away at the frozen snow on the deck.  It took three days, but by Wednesday I had finally cleared the 3-5 inches of ice packed snow off the deck, while Michael worked over the driveway with a pickax. Millie approves of the clear deck.  Spring/Break Up here is the ugliest time of year up here, but it's a season filled with hope. NOW, it felt like spring! 


Note the trees are all bare...this is looking into the snow-covered garden. It will be months before we can really work in the garden. 

BUT WAIT....today it began snowing again. It is still coming down...big, fat flakes. Michael just got home and says we have more snow here than anywhere he's been - in town and Wasilla. 

... and so, Millie and I went outside again to shovel the deck. It's still coming down, but I reasoned it will be easier to get this off the deck before it piles up again...and freezes... I was so happy to have all the ice off the steps yesterday...

It IS prettier with a coat of white. 

THIS is a sure sign of spring - spring snow storms....

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

First Spring Tea Party

Benny asked so nicely. 

"Bachan, after science and naps, can we have a tea party at your house?"

Who could resist?  I always love having drop in tea parties with friends and family. . . And if they were coming over for a tea party it needed to be a bit nicer than our spur of the moment parties. While they napped and such I ran home and baked some cookies and set a table that would be a bit special and still kid friendly. Two kinds of cookies, banana bread, almonds, toffee, mnms scattered here and there, a plate of fruit and hot drinks. Benny requested his favorite, "China tea." China tea is also known as sugar free chai tea. LOL  Just look at these excited little faces!

Who says boy moms don't get to enjoy tea parties? 

 Little Buddy was so cute when they ran in..."Found it! Found it." I used the good kid China. These cups are melamine, and the kids love them. 

It wasn't long before GG and papa joined us. The boys thought that was pretty special. I did too. 
Little Buddy, Arielle, Danny, Papa, GG and Benny
 
Papa took care of cleaning up the two-year-olds, while Arielle and I cleaned up the food and such. Benny brought a couple of games upstairs. 



Hungry, Hungry Dinos

Danny moved on to this banana game. I love his expressions in these photos...and the laugh when the monkey flew out of the banana tree was priceless. 
Anticipation...



Papa introduced Little Buddy to his favorite game...airplane. 

Benny managed to pick pocket Michael's flashlight. Michael has a thing about flashlights, and it's been he and Benny's thing for years. Benny let Michael know Little Buddy didn't know about flashlights or have one...which led to Michael finding three little ones and giving each of the boys a new flashlight...


It was a fun spring afternoon! Our first Spring Tea Party!!!!

Monday, March 20, 2023

Sensational Sisters

 Both girls hit milestone goals today.....

Oh my word! Even Rocky Trevor Fisher Price, the garage rooster, came out to celebrate McDonald's newest manager on her way to work! Way to go, Allie!

And CHECK THIS OUT! 

Stacia's work samples for her 3rd and 4th quarter of her senior year. I'll get grades together and submit it all and she'll be done with high school. She began brainstorming what she wants her "graduation" to look like. It sounds like it will be a bit more than DQ, but certainly not the whole "walk the platform" thing. I'm curious to see what it turns out to be too. 

It's a big day for both the girls - they make us proud. 

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Spring Celebration

This month our family celebration centered around GG turning 82 and Cory turning 30! It was a rousing good time. We missed JaRissa (and Noah), and Luke...but loved having both Nolan and Allie at home.  KRISTA IS IN TOWN and it's always a treat to see her as well. There were 23 of us. 


As earlier noted, the girls and I had a morning event.  We arrived home with 2 hours to get salmon skinned, prepped and the house set. We knew Michael was busy with sermon prep and wouldn't be able to help. 

What an AMAZING SURPRISE to walk in and remember Nolan had taken the day off. He was HOME...and he had brought up the two extra tables and set them up, unloaded the dishwasher, cleared the island of clutter and cleaned it...the house was shining as the girls had done floors and dusted before we left. 

We had an unexpected situation requiring both Michael and I, and CyRi arrived shortly after. They jumped right in and helped the girls keep the upstairs momentum moving. It was great fun and a huge relief. Josiah skinned all the salmon. I threw the recipe for the sauce to Carrie, and she went to town on it.  Everyone jumped in though I don't remember what every person contributed...when it was time to put the salmon in the oven...everything was ready. The house was clean, the table set, the sides done...teamwork at it's best. 

I had a wild idea I wanted to try. My idea was met with a bit of skepticism from Michael, but I was sure if he saw what I was after, he would tweak the idea and it would be magnificent. I wanted a board with holes in it....birthday candles could be fitted into the holes as needed. Each celebrant would have their own with the right number of candles and the candles would not be ON OUR CAKE. In other words, the fun of candles but no spit on said cake.  Michael was sure it was a good idea but that it would cause a fire.  I planned to use paper plates but then saw the cake boards in the pantry. Perfect.  Krista and Carrie took over. Krista melted wax and stuck GG's candles on, Carrie used a hot glue gun.  As you can see in the above photo, it worked! Thanks, girls! Love Danny's expression - he isn't quite sure what they are doing, but it looked inviting! 

Bringing the idea to life

Here are more photos of the day in no particular order. Oh, and as the fish are multiplying, we had cheesy salmon. Several were skeptical and chicken alfredo magically appeared. I had planned to make mac and cheese for the kids who don't like salmon so this worked well...but in the end most the skeptics came around and the recipe was shared with several...with the notes that I add much more garlic and lemon to the recipe. We barely made a dent in the newly discovered freezer of salmon. 

I believe they are playing, "Cover Your Assets" - or maybe I made up that name. LOL 

Stacia, Arielle, Cory, Jamin, Nolan 

Some more of the tribe

Cory's candles

Trudy (4 months) and Allie 

Some of the crew

Nolan, Cy and GG

Annie reminds me much of her Aunt at this age

GG's candles

Can't decide which I like better - I'LL use both 
📷by Carrie 

Michael and I had a race to see who could light all their candles first. He used the flame thrower, but he had over twice the candles. I'm not sure who finished first...it was getting hot. We'll need volunteers to light candle boards if we keep doing this or the first ones will melt before we are done. LOL 
📷by Carrie

Izaak doesn't get to join many of our celebrations. He has been out of town a lot this year and when he is home he's been working HARD to complete a Master's degree. He is nearly done with it and plans to move on to his Doctorate. THIS month he was home and on school break! We loved having him join us. 
Cy and Izaak 📷by Carrie 

We had a great time. It is our hope this provides a monthly time for all the adult children to gather...for them to connect with those they don't see in their daily life, for us to connect with them. It's a great catch-up time...but recently, we've noted a new element.  Really, not a problem...a reality. In the winter it is hard to have this many of us in one spot. We don't have a huge living room or family room. We have an open concept. When we all are here there are 9 children 6 and under, and 1 - 3 over that age. There is a basement, but it's not child friendly and would require adults to go watch kids.  With little space the racetrack through the living room, into the dining/kitchen area comes into play. That isn't bad when there are 2 or 3 toddlers...but it is loud at this point.  I bring games up for the kids to play but that seems to add to the chaos. This is not a problem when we can run OUTSIDE...we have lots of room and outside play structures/games. It's gotten so chaotic that quite honestly, it's hard to talk....so brainstorming has begun as we have one, maybe two more months before we can avail ourselves of the outside space and winter will come again. LOL  Josiah sent a link to a bouncy house that may work in the basement with parents taking turns watching kids...Michael and I talked of clearing out the area so it's available for kids to play but this is where I need to start seeds...so that has some challenges. We're brainstorming...how to insure adults can connect and children have a great, rousing time when we are forced to be inside. 

Spring Crafts

Stacia invited several friends (all the girls) from youth group to meet at the Art Cafe. They have been texting about it for a month or so, and it all came together today! 

Allie, Jenni, Noelani, Lorelei, Jess and Stacia 

It took about 20 seconds for me to realize some of my favorite people have youth daughters! I sent out a text and asked if they'd like to grab coffee or a table and do our own crafts. That is just what we did....and while this photo caught me mid-speaking - it's the only one with Nora in it and so I'll suck it up and post it. ::snort::

Me, Krista, Nora and Melany

Krista worked on a guitar that turned out really cool! 



Melany painted a pretty mug with wildflowers on the sides...

I painted a mug and figured if it doesn't turn out others will assume one of the kids or grands made it for me and they'll tell me its pretty and precious anyways! LOL 

This was a relaxing breather in the midst of a busy day. It was on to salmon and family.  This was doable because the girls jumped in and helped a LOT on Friday and Saturday morning. 

Do you know the story in the Bible about the fish and loaves and how the fish kept multiplying? I thought we were nearly done with salmon for the year. When I inventoried, I discovered TWO FREEZERS full of salmon....

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Spring Study and More

The girls went into Anchorage today to spend the day and evening with Krista. As Stacia won't be available Friday morning, she joined Allie and I this morning for Breakfast Study. All three of us had a few "lightbulb" moments this week. We are currently working through, "Lord, Is It Warfare? Teach Me To Stand," by Kay Arthur. This week led to new and deeper understandings of Jesus as our redeemer. Good stuff. 

Michael and the girls left for their various appointments and errands when we got home. Dad seems to be fighting a bug on top of shingles - but it's pretty hard to pin down. He talked with a lot of his friends on the phone and that always makes him happy. By evening he was insisting he feels fine. 

I lit a candle, pulled out my lists and ingredients and spent the afternoon in my happy place. I made deviled eggs and an ice cream cake for Saturday's celebration.  Then I made brownies and muffins for a friend who just had a baby. Next up was Chicken Pot Pie - one for friend's dinner and one for Michael, Dad and Me. 

All in all it was quietly productive afternoon and I feel much more prepared for the upcoming couple of days...which will include friends, outings and a family celebration. 


Larissa sent some Noah shots...and you know...since I haven't shared any photos in the last day or two of sweet Noah...HERE YOU GO!   He will be 8 weeks old this Saturday. 
Hello, sweetie! 


Look at those eyelashes!