Snowy Day with the Boys (Yes, it's April 5th)

Remember how I shared about shoveling around the play structure YESTERDAY! Can you believe this? It snowed all day. It was beautiful. It was hilarious. Three and a half inches on our deck tonight...but it won't stay long.  

I arrived at CoRielle's to find the boys looking out the front window. Benny was excited, Danny was blowing raspberries. LOL While Arielle worked; we played.  This is the best fishing game I've seen. The line can be reeled in and one "catches" little wooden magnetized fish. It was a lot of fun. 

Danny thought his style was just as good as ours. 

Check out their expressions! What isn't there to love about a hammer and "ice"? 

TWISTER!!!!

I didn't take photos but we also played Candy Land. Benny was suitably impressed when I told him the game was around when *I* was a little kid. I insisted we play by the rules, often we're a bit creative. Benny won. 

The fire ring and garden beds are buried again. 

Easter is coming...

A Great Spring Day

Michael and I went out for lunch and to run a few errands this morning. We needed some quiet time to be sure we are on the same page in a few areas - and we are. Arielle and the boys were coming over for our 3 hours of respite care. We left them eagerly playing games and came home to this. 

GG and Danny were both sound asleep. Benny was watching a movie and Arielle was studying Japanese. Soon Cory joined the rest of the family. Cory understands tree pruning. He came over to prune the trees in our little orchard. 

While they worked - I WORKED too. Benny told me he, "Really, really wanted to slide and swing." In a display of true Baachan love - I shoveled a walk from the deck to the play structure, and then shoveled around the play structure, and out to the hammocks. 

It was so worth it! 

Danny was not having it. This winter born Alaskan does NOT like the sun or the snow! Here he blows raspberries at the snow. 

Ah - spring! 

The Girls Redecorate

I believe the girls began discussing redecorating their room before Krista moved out a year ago. The original plan called for a Van Gough wall mural and many Dixit pictures.  I was game but they seemed to go back and forth on the mural, and I didn't want to put that much money into something they may not really like. 

Around Christmas we found the bedding sets....and then they chose an accent color from the comforter to put on their accent wall instead of the Van Gough. I was a bit mixed up and thought they were painting the whole wall, so we have a LOT of extra paint. LOL 

We got home Sunday evening and the girls were excited to start. They planned to do it all, but Michael is a bit particular about taping.... they agreed it would be good for him to tape the walls. 

It was an unexpected Sunday evening project, but it was great! The girls pulled out nails left behind by CoRielle and then Krista.... Michael finished taping and they began painting. 
 

Allie cut it in, and Stacia did the rolling - this system was well thought-out and worked well. 

Allie really gets into her work. 

Stacia is amazed at the results. 

The color is striking. It's warm and pretty and matches the comforters perfectly. They plan to buy a bit more artwork, some curtains and hang a few more things. It's coming together nicely. 

Together At Last

We were all excited for CyRi to visit today. We've not seen them in about a month. We've been busy being sick and recovering.  While Michael and Josiah burned a big pile of dead branches and such, Stacia and Livie made cake doughnuts! 

Livie, Stacia

They finished before the guys finished their job. Carrie suggested we check out the vendor sale in town.  The five of us gals set out to find a bit of fun. I found a birthday gift for Allie...and a garden pretty! I also decided I really need to begin saving for a Cricut. There are so MANY various machines that I'm stymied before I begin. 

Livie, bless her soul, told Papa she'd really like a fire in the fire ring! That's my girl! It was fun to connect around the fire ring. One thing we discussed is the possibility of meat chickens...not sure any of us want to handle the processing.  We did decide to order another couple dozen hens. 

Livie, Cy, Carrie, Michael 

Nolan has been sticking to his guns about his work schedule. He comes home no more than an hour after he is scheduled to be off and is getting caught up on college...AND he has just a bit of time to join us around the table for games or around the fire ring for discussion. Cy mentioned it had been months since he had seen Nolan. We all applaud Nolan's new boundaries. 

Allie, Nolan 

We have absolutely LOVED watching Carrie, Livie and Cy become a family. The lessons have been many, I'm sure, but they're all traveling the path with grace and love. Today, Livie learned, throwing snow on Dad's bald head may not be the best choice to make. 

Livie and Cy 📷by Carrie

Livie, Stacia, Allie 📷by Carrie

I bought this little flower for the garden - but it simply looks sad out there now! The ground it too frozen to drive a stake....

It was a wonderful day.  

Since I'm back posting.....I will go ahead and mention the day simply wasn't long enough for us. We suggested we all meet in Eagle River for lunch. Jamin and CyRi met us at our new favorite Asian spot and we continued the fun. We went over and toured Cy and Carrie's new house AND bought some supplies for a new home project at the ER Walmart. Great fun! 

Pure Spring Randomness

 My oven gave out in October. A new one has been ordered. My base fridge went out. Say hello to my Alaskan outdoor fridge. It's out the back door. It WAS buried in a snowbank....as the weather warms, I'm sensing more urgency to fix the fridge. 

Spring flowers LOL 

The chickens are everywhere...

Pietro looks in the boys' window. 

After a TWO-YEAR BREAK Life Group began again...it was so nice to meet with old and new "lifers."  A fun twist to the group are the young adults (youth) who join us. There is something good about mixing ages to share how to live this faith life. We've added dinner to the mix - which I loved. 

Our sweet bunny! Yes, I DO grab a few organic carrots for him - after all he gives us magic pellets for our garden. 

I gave the girls a treat too. I cored the apples. 

Before our most recent snow I had two garden beds peeking through their snow blanket.

Toilet Paper madness continues.

That's all folks...just a bit of randomness. 

An Afternoon Spent OUTSIDE!

 When I got home from my morning adventures Michael was outside. He had started a fire and was out in the woods. It looked like he was trying to move a giant pile of snow.  It turns out he was uncovering the brush pile from last year. THIS is the perfect time to burn it and all the downed branches we found in the yard. 

I was up by the fire yelling to him in the woods and he said, "Come on out, the only thing between us is snow."  

I KNOW how this works. For 38 years I've been ,"Following his footprints in the snow," and sinking to my waist. I couldn't resist getting OUTSIDE and seeing what work we have to do. 

Yes, I sunk deeper than Michael.  This is not the deepest part of the yard. I DID make it out to him and the pile - thus the photo of him.  I have been thinking how nice it would be to sit in the hammock...and GG was sleeping inside. The girls were listening and promised to get me if he woke up.  I followed the moose tracks and headed for the birch stand.  

Yes, I know it's early for hammocks, but I simply couldn't resist. This says spring. This says the outside season is beginning. We spend as MUCH time as possible outside in the spring, summer and fall. 

I got a wee bit wet in the process, but it was well worth the trouble. 

It is PEACEFUL and HOPE-FILLED to stare at Birch branches and chickadees. There will soon be more life to observe in the branches. 

I noticed Michael was done shoveling and met him over at the garden plot to survey the damage from our big January storm. This "greenhouse" was built over two beds and it was sturdy. It made it through the first winter with no damage at all. It seemed to be flying through this winter until the storm. The poles are all snapped at the fittings.  I suggested a quick fix for this one - rebar, pvc and plastic. I think we are going to need to build a green house with a foundation, framed sides and glass...because the kits and such are just not working - but the chicken coop hasn't blown away. 

This is SAD. THIS is supposed to be where my seedlings grow.  It's going to take more to fix - but I think it is where we'll focus most our energy after the aforementioned quick fix for a few of the other beds. 

We'll find all the plastic...since we were out here we moved a couple of chairs to the deck and several more to the fire ring.  I shoveled a quick walk from the ring to the back door of the house. I ran in and grabbed a mug of tea. 

Michael and I spent 30 - 40 minutes warming by the fire, discussing things we've been reading and pondering, plans for life group, the yard, and summer/fall entertaining. 

It's greatly encouraging to have a fire and the chairs about...a spot of color in the white.  Yes, it's spring...and soon we'll have muddy grass instead of snow...we'll endure that phase and then it will gloriously green up....and we'll have sun....we're up to 13 hours of sun now. 

We were very tempted to grab the 'smore kit, but it didn't seem right without some kids around.