Alex turns 20!

 Ah, the party pig hat! It can only mean one thing. Another birthday! It's hard to believe Alex turned 20 years old today. 

Alex has been busy working at McDonald's and connecting with gamers. He has recently cut back his hours at McDonald's to focus on studying for an employment test and application process for the next job he would like to hold.  I'll share more when the time is right.  This year he's paid cash for a truck, faithfully paid his rent and saved lots of money.  He's got goals and he's steadily working towards them. 

Yes, we sound pathetic when it's just the four of us to sing Happy Birthday....

Happy 20th Alex! We love you. 

Alex asked for Orange Chicken for his birthday dinner. He thought an ice cream bowl sounded great for his birthday dessert. A word about ice cream...this family LOVES their ice cream. In fact, Alaska is the number one state in ice cream consumption. It's like we were supposed to live here. For YEARS we've had ice cream instead of dinner every Sunday night - just once a week.   Our family continued to grow (12 of us) and ice cream cartons continued to shrink.  We hit on the idea of having our ice cream in a mug, most often with splashes of milk - which creates the blizzard/shake effect.  One year we made ice cream cakes for birthday and the rest is history.....

This year we were on schedule to celebrate Nolan's birthday on the 8th when we discovered he would be working. We needed a cake that NIGHT and it takes a day or two in the freezer for the cakes to set. What to do? Arielle was here and suggested "ice cream bowls." What a great idea - like rice bowls but ice cream.....that's thinking outside of the box. And then I realized ice cream bowls are...um...bowls of ice cream and the way the majority of Americans consume their ice cream. ::snort:: BUT our family thinks they're a wonderful new dessert option. 

We rounded Alex' night out by watching Tim Hawkins. We'd not watched any Tim Hawkins in about a year. Alex chose, "That's the Worst." We laughed until we cried. It was fun to discover Grandpa enjoys Tim Hawkins. If only he'd put out more DVD's. 

Nolan is 23

 Nolan has turned 23 years old.  He will be working on Sunday and will miss the bigger birthday celebration, but we couldn't let the occasion pass without a bit of fun! 

Everyone took a break to play some mario kids. 

Alex, Corey, Danny, Arielle, Benny, Nolan, Stacia, Allie

Nolan requested enchiladas for dinner. We were happy to make this happen.  The girls and I pulled together dinner. CoRielle joined us for dinner and dessert as they knew Nolan wouldn't be able to join us on Sunday. 

Nolan opted for ice cream and toppings over any other dessert. Quick, easy and tasty. 

We are proud of Nolan. He has just finished his first year at Western Governor's. He earned 39 credits. WGU recommended he aim for 24 credits, the VA insisted on 36 to be considered full-time and get his full VA college benefit, and he earned 39. We all worried it would be too much, but he's knocking it out of the park. He's been working 40 - 60 hours a week all year, as well. 

I put a bit of ice cream on the top of Danny's sippy cup. He was skeptical. UNTIL, he tasted it and then he pushed his cup back at me as fast as he could. 

Another fun papa game...

📷via Arielle

📷via Arielle - fuzzy - but such great expressions!

Indoor Snowball Fight

We have missed a couple of respite appointments due to winter crud. It was nice to have Arielle and the boys show up today. Danny has perfected walking and running since he was last at the house. A favorite game with all the younger grands is having an indoor snowball fight with my bucket of snowballs. It was pretty funny that Danny headed right for the bucket.  

Of course, Michael is always willing to oblige the boys with a bit of fun. 

Danny is excited to join the fun. 

Michael and I eventually left for lunch. We had been gifted a visit to The Salt Cave. It was incredibly relaxing. We hit a few grocery stores looking for ingredients for Nolan's birthday dinner. We celebrated early as he had to work on his birthday and will also miss the family celebration on Sunday due to work. 

When the Moose Come to Play

 We've noticed there are moose tracks everywhere as we trudge through the snow in the yard. In fact, our property seems to be a moose highway. This is to be expected with the back acre or so being wooded.  They cut diagonally across the property, with a notable detour to the garden where the current compost bed is cooking.  We've known they were visiting, but we've not seen much of them. 

We began spying them again as we flipped the calendar to February.  They usually arrive in ones or twos....so we weren't terribly surprised to see this gal in the brush. 

Wait! There's TWO moose rumps in the brush...

Or...maybe THREE!

Four? YES...four moose rumps in the yard! 

Now, we've had up to five in the yard at one time, but they aren't usually all in one spot. We have a moose convergence...

This little one is very interested in our sledding run....

This one would rather eat branches. 

I thought I saw a bull in the group. 

We still haven't figured out the hunting around here. It seems best to have a cabin, or an ATV. I would love to have a moose in the freezer this year with prices going sky high for meat - when it's even available. 

Marked by Grace

Michael was patient to wait until dinner to open this box. 

 

About a year ago JaRissa gave Michael a unique gift. They signed him up for StoryWorth.  Each week Michael received a prompt and wrote in response to the prompt. Of course, those who love Michael best will not be surprised to note most weeks he "tweaked" the prompt before writing.  He also spent a considerable amount of time crafting the stories and editing them. 

He wrote through the winter and spring. Things slowed a bit in the summer. The paced picked up again in the fall and he wrote through another winter. 

The result? "Marked by Grace - the wit and wisdom of ..." The girls both write copiously. It was fun for all to see the writing in PRINT. The quality of these books is really nice. We're impressed. We ordered 10 copies, one for each of the kids. 

Perhaps you've noted the problem with our plan earlier than we did? Yep, we neglected to order a copy for ourselves or extras to share.  I've been told the book contains stories about childhood, never before revealed confessions from said childhood, wisdom from parenting, military life....

I've not read it yet... as soon as one of the girls are done, I'll grab a copy. 

We are currently attempting to decide if we should self-publish or order more copies from StoryWorth. Michael has asked me to read it and tell him if I think it has wider-than-family-appeal.  Feedback I've heard so far is that it has a Patrick McManus flare in spots....and is a fun read. 

Note: I have wanted to get a tattoo for some time...."grace" on my wrist...marked by grace....I leant my tattoo to Michael for his book title as there has been resistance to the idea of me getting a tattoo. I'm terrified of pain anyway. LOL 

Refreshing Rest & Recuperation

 Shortly after writing the last post more of us came down with the bug. Grandpa was sick for 3 days. Allie got sick. I got sick. Nolan was sick a few days. Alex sounded congested one day and Michael never got sick at all.  None of us were every covid positive. We had a bunch of others at church out sick, things were cancelled, and we were content to take our sambuca, D, C, Zinc and such...and rest. On any given day some were up, and some were down.  It was a lazy week...a week which brought a big measure of healing and refreshing. 

We took the time to enjoy sunrises - which happened at 9:27 a.m. on this day. LOL 

Stacia took advantage of the lazy schedule to finish this painting which she and Allie had begun. We spent each afternoon watching Heartland and reading. It was relaxing to wrap up in blankets in the living room and not have to rush to be anywhere or do anything.  LOL 

The chickens want to be cared for even when one feels like staying in bed. LOL 

One day Allie and Stacia both had a burst of energy at the same time. They dressed, put on make-up and took a selfie. 

Michael, the only one not afflicted, was reduced to leftovers. Check out Millie's nose. The best training goes awry when mama is sick. 

Look at his knee

Stirring peanut butter is a thing around here....

It didn't escape our notice we were all ill on the 2nd of Feb - the day we were scheduled to have flown to Hawaii. I am very thankful I was here to care for Grandpa and that it didn't fall to the kids. It was a good call to push the trip off until next year. 

We're all feeling well this week. We're back to our normal home routines and schedules. Things are still slow at the church but we're up and about. And look....seeds are in the store. 

It's time to start planning a garden. I believe I still have plenty of time before I start seeds, which is a good thing as the seed planting greenhouse got crushed in our big windstorm. Our first year I started seeds in February, way too early.  In previous years I was told our last frost date was May 31st but looking it up online it says May 1st for the nearest town (zone 4b). HOWEVER, we live about 5 miles outside of town and the town on the other side of us is zone 4a with a last frost date of May 21-May 31st.  What's a newbie to do? I was told to wait until the birch leaves were the size of squirrel's ears...maybe I'll go by that. LOL Nah, I think I'll check out when Arctic Organics plant their outside gardens and plant then. 

Routines - Part 2

Fridays mean Bible study with Stacia. We discussed Mark 9 - 14 today. We'll have one more week in Mark and then we are also going to work through The Hard Good by Lisa Whittle.  We debated what to do this morning. It's still DARK outside these mornings so climbing to the top of a mountain for a study isn't as appealing as it is in June. In the end we went to our favorite spot.  The plan was for me to go inside and order, bring the food out to the car and we'd study in the car....

The ladies at Sophia's are so nice. Audrey actually insisted on bringing our food and drinks out to the car. 

Car selfies are challenging

We had a window we needed to hit today. We came home, helped with Grandpa's morning routine, let the chickens out, picked up Allie and were at the hair salon when they opened. 

We left the salon and dropped Allie off for lunch with her uncle. I raced Stacia home for Japanese tutoring. Stacia is now going to meet with her Japanese sensei twice a week. Today was the first Friday.  I ran back to town and had time to pick up meds for Dad and read a chapter in the parking lot before Allie walked outside. 

We had planned to go out with Arielle, but the timing was simply too tight. Michael and Alex went out for their study. They talked about the Ark of the Covenant. We spent the afternoon schooling. This is what couch school looked like today. The girls are writing, I was on the other couch finishing this week's reading from Wuthering Heights. 

Millie's hair is starting to grow out...she was happy to laze around with us this afternoon. 

We begin every week thinking we will have people over Friday night. Lately, we are dragging by Friday morning and are happy we can crash in the afternoon.  We enjoyed our Pizza and watched Godzilla vs. Kong. 

Grandpa is still not feeling well. He doesn't have a fever or covid. He didn't throw up today, but is WEAK, sleeping all day and nauseated. We're pushing fluids, the BRAT diet, and lots of sleep. Nolan has cold symptoms. Stacia is still battling her cough.