Gideon's Birthday

📷by Larissa

 If you thought we'd celebrated Gideon's birthday a week ago, you'd be right. LOL However, THAT was the family party at the family monthly gathering, THIS was his birthday party at home. His theme was SPIDERMAN! This was a great cookie. 

The games were fantastic too! Bre had taped a big spider web on the far wall. The kids were masked up with spiderman masks and then had to pin "something" on the web...maybe it was a spider or plastic bugs? 

This is a package wrapped in MANY layers of wrapping paper. The one who is holding the package when the last layer is unwrapped gets the gift. 

Of course, the people were spectacular too! 

Trudy - Look at those eyes! 

Cousins got to hold Noah! 

📷by Larissa

📷by Larissa

 Sweet Cousins📷by Larissa

Bre (6 months) and Trudy (4 months)📷by Larissa

Bachan and Noah 📷by Larissa

Lucy, Jenni's niece, was having much fun blowing the party thingie at Noah. 

📷by Larissa

Alex walked over for a bit. GG was surprised when I told him we were going out. 

📷by Larissa

GG and Noah📷by Larissa

Cousin hugs📷by Larissa

Aunt Arielle and Benny drove over. 

📷by Larissa

Potatoes Planted

Michael brought certified WEED FREE straw! What?  Yes, he did. Last year I just used old straw I had around here. He planted the left side of this potato patch in mounds.  I used the Ruth Stott method and planted the rest of this spot. 

The orange fence is the area we are letting the chickens till for us. We shall see if they can keep it under control.  We have more potatoes to plant so I'll stick them in the other little section Michael tilled. I guess we aren't doing EVERYTHING in beds this year after all. 

Busy Friday

It turned into quite a day at the end of a busy week. LOL  We certainly didn't accomplish everything we had hoped to achieve, but that's O.K. 

My day began with me missing a weekly 0530 zoom meeting. 

My next appoint was with Stacia discussing the last session from Whisper on RightNow media. We made it home in time for her to prep for her Japanese tutoring session and to do a bit of studying for an upcoming college mid-term exam. 

I threw a bunch of vegetables, chicken stock and rice into the instant pot. 

I haven't blogged about Krista's "plight" but I spent some time helping her rearrange her flight to AK from Guam and discussing her current living conditions and activities. She's been busy helping with clean up from the Cat 5 Typhoon she experienced this week.  

Millie had a grooming appointment. She has been "poodleized." LOL She is primping and preening. 

The girls and I had plans to meet up with a gal from church. Allie's work schedule changed between last Sunday and today. Pat was discussing arrangements with Stacia and I at lifegroup Thursday night and Jenni decided to join us. It was a fun outing. 

Jenni and Stacia ran to the recycling center and then home while I helped Pat figure out some internet issues. 

Stacia scored a 94% on her mid-term. She's been discouraged with previous test scores. She knows the material and yet her test grades have been disheartening. She's managed to pull B's and A's in her classes on the merit of her assignments. She changed her note-taking style to index cards from computer notes and asked the lifegroup to pray.  I could tell when she and Jenni came into the room after the test it had gone much better this time. 

We enjoyed visiting with Jenni. At some point we had bowls of soup. Michael ate late with Alex at their lunch study. He went out to watch Benny's t-ball game.  Benny is the one second from the right in the team picture below. 

📷by Arielle

Danny and Little Buddy were happy to have time with Papa on the sidelines. It did my heart well to hear they saw him and began chirping, "Where's Bachan?"  LOL When I meet up with them without Michael I always hear, "Where's Papa?" 

That sweet face! 📷by Arielle

Krista called with an update. Her commander in Alaska let it be known he wanted her back in Alaska. While the airport is closed and she couldn't get flights out until at least June 1st, the military flew a plane of folks who were not stationed in Guam but had been there during the typhoon to Hawaii this evening. She was out of Guam in 4 hours. This made us happy. As a person who was TRAVELING for a week to Guam who got stuck, she did not have the food stores saved up etc. which someone living there would possess. She was not prepared for natural emergencies, as you are at home, (or at least as you are if you are part of a military family who lived through hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves.) We have no idea when she'll be back in Alaska, but it will be a piece of cake to change her tickets from the Guam, Japan, Canada, AK route to the HI to AK route. LOL 

Stacia and I watched a few episodes of the first season of Leverage. I watched 1 1/2 episodes - she watched 3. Allie came home from work. The girls moved off to "vibe night" and I headed for bed. LOL It's been a full week. 

A Library Home

It was February 15, 2023, when the roof of our local library collapsed.  A library is the heart of a small town. It's a meeting place, somewhere to go when you have a few minutes to kill in town or want to meet up with friends....A library was one of the first places we located with every move in our rather transient family history. We even visited the local Misawa, Japan library - though 90% of the books were in Japanese.  Libraries have been essential to our homeschool journey as well as our sense of community and continuity in our nomadic family history.  We have missed our library.  We have been eagerly following news about a re-opening.  We were excited to visit the new location today. 

Yes, we have gone to Wasilla and picked up books...but we are a family who routinely visits the library 3 or 4x a week.  Since February we have gone once every few weeks and picked up huge armloads of books. It just wasn't as satisfying. 

 Librarians have been working for months to open an interim location. They had to salvage, box and move all the books which survived the roof collapse. Most of the library's collection is now at a storage location. They set up space in a vacant building for a store front. There are some shelves, seating, computers, reading nooks and books in this building.  The collection consists of a small selection from most genres, and new books. For the majority of our selections, we will go online and order, librarians will go to the storage unit to collect books which we can pick up the next day. 

I had an unfortunate experience with a book on the hood of my van in April. Books simply don't ride well on hoods of vans. I've retraced the drive many times and can't find the book. I have waited to see if someone would turn it in - they haven't. I've ordered the book, but it's STILL not shipped to me.  It was nice to talk to librarians I KNOW who KNOW I am not an irresponsible sort and can be trusted with books. We worked it out. The girls had gone off to explore. 

I found them in their happy place. LOL 

The computers now have their own room. The natural light is great. 

This will be a great place to study with the Alaska collection. 

We really like the new library home. The town is in the process of raising money and submitting grants for a new library - but this is a huge step forward.  We are so thankful to all the librarians who have worked so hard to get us to this spot.  This library felt like a house...a home...If only there were a big, old Victorian home in town to turn into a library. LOL 

It has been an overcast day. It seemed right to stop and grab drinks on the way home. Our own celebration. 

One on One Time with Annie

 BreAnne had well-child checkups for Bella, Gideon and Trudy. Jojo didn't feel 100% well and ended up napping. This gave me the opportunity to connect with Annie one on one. We chatted while she finished lunch. We moved on to putting together this big, wonderful puzzle. She was shocked I didn't know what an Octanaut was - so we watched an episode. 

I ducked out to the restroom for a moment and when I came back, she had ALL her clothes in a big pile on the floor. I was ready to get them picked up - but Annie was content to "organize." She wanted each item folded a certain way and then put in a specific spot in her drawer. She chattered away during the entire time it took to get everything picked up. It seems she, "organizes just like my mom." 

It's always fun to catch up with Annie and enjoy time exploring her reasoning.  All 3 kids checked out fine and were sporting new Band-Aids from their round of shots. 

Grands, Gardening, Projects and Co-op

I showed up to watch the boys and the house was strangely quiet. I saw a little face peering out the window on their door. Little Buddy said, "Bachan! Bachan is OUTSIDE!" 

He ran and got Danny. They couldn't quite figure out what to do about Bachan on the porch. I finally rang the doorbell and got Benny. Arielle was sick and wasn't going to work today. I stayed and read Little Buddy's favorite book...it's all about all the different emotions a heart can feel. It is amazing to me how much more vocal the boys are than they were just 9 months ago. 

Precious 2 yo hands

I offered to stay and play with the boys so Arielle could rest, but Benny opted for a movie. ::snort:: Movies are a rarer occurrence than playing with Bachan. 

5 yo Benny

On the way home I stopped to take this picture which illustrates our winds so well.  I'm glad I did as the trampolines were gone when I went back this evening. Can you read the sign? "Free Trampolines." 

With an unexpected two hours in my day, I headed home to work on a project or two. I cleaned out one of the garden beds and planted strawberries. It will have asparagus on the one end. If it doesn't work out, I can always transplant the berries. No, it's not June. I'm living dangerously! 

I hung up two of my favorite pieces of garden art. Benny gave me this a couple of years ago. He told me it's so if I feel sad, I can put my finger in the hole and I'll feel happy. ::snort:: 

I found these chimes at a thrift store. They make me smile when I'm working in the garden. I make it a practice to hit the chimes when I enter and leave the garden.  I thought they may help deter moose; I suspect they actually attract moose. 

I had a bit of time left and headed for the greenhouse....the weeds love the hot and humid weather inside. 

I got 1/2 of it weeded. I do not plan to try melons again this year. I think I'll put tomatoes and peppers in here...or maybe beans.

I found a spinach plant that inadvertently "wintered" over when I didn't pick it before the first snow.  I may plant some late in the year next year. Nothing else came back. I'd also like to plant garlic this fall.

The little cherry pit is growing well too....maybe we'll plant it in the yard this year. Several of our fruit trees need replaced. 

The cherry "tree" is in the bucket in the chair.

I had about 45 minutes left when Michael told me to sit down and rest. He knew I'd be running the rest of the day. I sat down with heat for my back and took a power rest.  I had just enough time to make it over to the food co-op by 11:45. We won't have co-op for 3 weeks - and I'm looking forward to that extra week now that the days are getting busier. We are well stocked with lots of organic fruit and vegetables. A friend from co-op gave me a box of potato starts. I came home and discovered Michael had mounded much of the ground he tilled yesterday.  I will go ahead and put these in the ground tomorrow, I think. The farmer down the road planted his potatoes already. Last year we used the Ruth Stout no-till method. Michael wants to grow some both ways and compare this year. I was impressed with the ease and harvest last year....we just finished the last of the potatoes we harvested last fall. I had sorted them by size and saved the big ones for last.  I think maybe I should do that the other way around this year and save the small ones for seed potatoes.

We had Encore Presentation (left overs) for dinner AGAIN tonight. We may never eat all the pizza (Friday), steaks and dogs (Saturday)...we are making quite a dent on the beans and potato salad. 

Stacia and Allie put a coat of primer on the boys' old room today. Michael wanted to run to Lowes and get more primer. Dad didn't want to go (are you seeing a trend). 😁 I stayed home tonight with him, and Stacia and Michael ran to Lowes. Allie attended a friend's graduation this evening. 

The SD card in my phone has malfunctioned. I'm working diligently to get all the photos off of it....and off my phone....

Lovely Spring Day

Stacia and I ended the day at the T-ball field. We dropped by to watch Benny plan and to visit with Arielle. This time we came armed with hand warmers, hats, and 20 oz of HOT DRINKS...EACH. We even brought a drink for Arielle. 

We had planned for Mike, Dad, Stacia and I to meet the family at the ballpark. Dad didn't want to go. It WAS windy tonight, so Michael said he'd stay home with GG so we could keep to the plan. 

These kids are so cute to watch! Benny's a joy to observe. He's got a good swing and throw...and I don't think he stops talking the whole time he's out there. LOL  He seems much less nervous this week...

The day was full. I began by upsetting a broody hen. She was not going to give me her eggs - but I prevailed. We have 12 new chicks in our brooder. When it warms up a bit, we'll probably hatch some of our green and olive eggs...but we want to time it better so they can make it to joining the others before it snows...and to give them enough time for the current chicks to move out the brooder.

I got Grandpa up and his morning routine completed. The girls agreed to stay present so I could run out and meet with a friend.  I've wanted to check in with her as she's had lots of changes in the recent past and upcoming future. Church just isn't enough time to REALLY catch up. LOL 

When I got home, I found Allie catching some sun - while avoiding the chilly wind. Allie isn't taking summer courses, but she's doubled her local workload. She's enjoying more time to read FUN things - rather than textbooks. 

Stacia finished her high school work in January and jumped right into college classes. We've advised her to finish her current class and then take a break until the fall semester. She enjoyed studying outside today and has decided to finish this class and break until August. 

This time of year, it's hard to know which chores take priority. Michael decided to try out the new rear-tine rototiller. We have decided NOT to plant all the in-ground garden space this year. We'll try to get the beds planted. We don't plant outside until June, so we are on schedule.  We just don't have the hours to maintain all of the garden spaces this year. We are hoping this will allow us to make progress on things like, unloading a trailer, setting up a guest room and the study, staining the house, replacing a retaining wall...

The chickens are living their best lives. They are classified as free-range but they do not have free range of our property. Why? Because they make a giant mess I don't want to deal with, we have predators, and we have grands who are nervous around them. We've created a generous chicken yard for them to run around in. We hope to reseed this year so they have fresh grass to destroy.  They crowd this gate looking for food every time someone walks past. 

Not only do they get to be OUT for hours and hours this time of year, but they also get to eat the freezer burned salmon. These eggs are rich. 

I spent a couple of hours uploading photos from my phone to google photos, then downloading to the laptop and deleting from my phone. My phone was squawking about no storage space...and not is is yelling that something is wrong with the SD card. I don't know....I just know I freed up over 1.5 gb of space and went from 98% full to 95% full. It was liberating to delete all the inspirational and sarcastic memes I'd saved as well as about 500 photos. 

I love the fact that winter is over. Arielle tried to convince me tonight, as we sat in the chilly wind, that this is still "winter with green." I refuse to accept her assessment. LOL 

Krista called from Guam where they are hunkering down for a typhoon. I am thankful to be in Alaska - the sunlight is glorious and the sun was OUT today - the wind is just a bit chilly...but our winds are far below typhoon speed winds.