An Unexpected Visit

We did NOT get another 2 feet of snow overnight. We DID get at least another foot of snow. That makes at least 4 feet of snow (I think more like 4 1/2) in the last 10 days. That's a whole lotta pretty.  I looked out the window and thought, "Oh, we didn't get new snow." I opened the door and realized we did. The wind has also been blowing it around. These photos were taken about 8:45 a.m. 

Do I really need out? 

Our weather station on the back deck

We knew the deck had to be a priority today. We've been trying to keep the driveway and walkways clear...but the deck is getting heavy enough we need to deal with it.

I had just gotten Dad settled with his breakfast and was in the process of frying my eggs when the doorbell rang. I thought it was UPS and they'd be gone when I got to the door, so I didn't rush. THERE WERE PEOPLE at the door! Angels come to help dig us out! Michael and Alex spent 3 hours shoveling down to the foundation in the driveway last night....  Michael's back does not like the shoveling. I nearly cried when I saw these angels. Arielle brought the boys in to get their snow gear on, Cory started shoveling. 

Danny, Arielle, Little Buddy, Benny in the background

I scarfed down my eggs and joined them. Our first endeavor was to find GG's newspaper. Benny and I set out...it wasn't delivered today...but we knew we'd better check. 

Benny searches for GG's paper

 Our next stop was the compost heap and then on to water and feed the Rabbit and the Chickens. The compost bin is now FULL of snow. I think I'll need to stop composting until we get some of the snow removed. 

Everyone helped! Cory dug out the garbage can so I could put a bag in. Who are we kidding? He did the bulk of our driveway, around cars...he's a champ. 

Arielle shoveled off GG's ramp so we can get him out and then she helped with the driveway. 

Benny told me he was going to shovel out Stacia's car "So she can go places."

He was satisfied when he could see the "Vibe."  LOL 

Danny and Little Buddy pretty much wandered around and messed with snow. 

Stacia and Benny tackled the back deck. 

Danny remembers the best part of shoveling snow....

My plans changed from helping to shovel, to entertaining the two year olds. I love this job. It worked well. 

Bachan, Danny & Little Buddy 📷by Arielle 

"Bachan! I'm slipping."

As we closed in on the 2nd hour of outside work, the boys wanted a break. We came inside to have hot chocolate and snacks. Benny left the deck to join us when he saw what was shaping up. He wanted a real teacup. And the 2 year olds were NOT about to have a SIPPY cup when Benny had a real teacup.  I was glad I had the melamine teacups to give each boy their own REAL teacup.  I originally bought these to give away to granddaughters at our Christmas Adam tea parties... They were hard to find so I bought extra when I ordered Annie's to have for future granddaughters.  I'm thinking I need to keep some HERE for tea parties. I'll have to try to find them again. 

Hot Chocolate Party 

Stacia had some frozen cookie dough in the freezer which I pulled out to bake a dozen quick cookies. It was great fun. Danny was happy to share with Cory when he came inside. 

It was a blessing to Michael to be able to ice his back and not worry about the snowfall from last night. The forecast shows a break from snow for a week and a return to COLD temps. We have had over 4 feet of snow fall in the last 10 days. 

We clear this after each big storm and couldn't imagine needing more than 15 inches. Michael says he's going to remark it. LOL The black mark you see about a 1/3 of the way up is the 15-inch mark. 

I was asked if I could meet at 3 Bears with a couple more dozen eggs. Stacia and I were happy for the outing. I was happy Cory had dug out the van this a.m.  Look at the snow drifts at the side of the car - it was cleared on Tuesday. LOL 

I drove these winter roads like a BOSS! I'm not in the Philippines now! LOL 

I like to get photos of this truck in a field near us. One can barely make out the truck for all the snow today. LOL 

We had a good laugh at Alex's truck...it almost looks like a truck of snow on top of his truck. LOL 

It's been a lot of mess, and I know kids need to get back to school, but it's been kind of fun too...record breaking snow. I'm glad we are here. 

The Season of Lights

The girls both celebrate significant milestones today. Allie has submitted her last assignment for her first semester in college! As important as showing herself she can manage the class load, she's also learned to balance work, serving at church and personal down time. Great job. 

Stacia took her final test in the last Genki Book (Japanese language series) and she scored 100%! She'll begin a new curriculum in January. Her classes in Japanese language, culture, comparative religions take on new significance as she does the next thing on her journey to being a career missionary in Japan. Take the next small step...a life lesson we all do well to remember. Way to go, Stacia! 

And I have no picture to commemorate the day - should have saved one from yesterday. LOL They spent the afternoon watching Sherlock Holmes. 

We've had a steady, gentle, beautiful snow fall all day. Michael and Alex spent another 3 hours shoveling off the snow which accumulated in the past 24 hours. 

The dark, winter days are upon us...but seriously, check out all the white!!! When the storms pass, we'll have stars, moon and northern lights reflecting on all the snow... We were losing 5 min of sunlight a day. Suddenly, I realized this week that the sun was NOT rising at 8:30 a.m.  I was finding it HARD to get up at 0500 and slept in until 7 on several mornings. I checked. Today, the sun will come up at 10:41 a.m. and go down at 2:33 p.m. We are marching towards the darkest day of the year - December 21st and then it will slowly begin adding light each day. I love the seasons....

Rather than think of this as the "dark season," I choose to make it the season of LIGHTS in our home. These lights will stay up until spring, and sufficient sunshine arrives. 

Entry - with the tree around he corner

Lights on our house (inside and outside) will shine until spring and candles can now glow nicely in the windows. I miss the candles in the summer. They shine much brighter now.  I'll need to get a better photo of the house lit up. 

Mom Mary's canning jars on my kitchen window ledge are filled with lights and shine so nicely on these mornings. 

We're learning to embrace each season for what it is...the joys and the challenges. We do have family members who LIKE the winters up here much more than the summers! 

And, I do take copious amounts of Vitamin D during the winter....

All these photos were taken between 8:30 - 8:40 a.m. 

Papa is a GREAT Distraction

Into each young family's life come days when a bit of distraction is welcomed. I suggested to Michael this may be a day when Arielle would welcome a bit of Bachan AND PAPA distraction. We checked with Arielle, and she agreed she would love us to drop by.  Just as they were having an after-nap snack, we popped into the arctic entry. I brought Bachan's Basket (Zbars, Larabars, fruit snacks, a stuffed potato to play hot potato) and the boys were happy to see me. The REAL excitement, however, began when they realized I also brought PAPA.  Benny got so excited he ran and put on his Christmas suit! 

See the "potato" flying back and forth 

Little Buddy was happy to snuggle with Michael 

We weren't sure having us drop in visit would be helpful, but if nothing else we let Arielle know, "We see you. You've got this. We believe you rock motherhood." 

I do love my van. It does a GREAT job on the snow and ice. 

Yeah - snow. O.K. I get it. We live in Alaska. Snow is not a surprise. BUT, y'all it dumped two feet in a 24-hour storm, and then a day later 12 inches in 12 hours and it continued to snow all Monday. It was nice not to have new snow today. Poor Michael's back is complaining MIGHTILY about all the shoveling and plowing. I appreciate him running to play with grands when his back was sore. 

The rest of day was simply a lazy winter day. The girls worked on school interspersed with hot chocolate breaks. Stacia IS doing school, Allie does school at the table, so I snap her in the act more often. 

Allie & Stacia

Looking at this picture of Stacia reminds me of the elderly gentleman at the mall in Anchorage who was SURE she was Irish, "With your orange hair and green eyes!" We thought it hilarious. Bre reminded me my grandfather WAS Irish - she remembers the stories of him dancing jigs etc. There I sat and insisted to the gentleman Stacia was not Irish. Bre said she thought it would let the misconception ride as we were rather entangled with the gentleman and ready for him to move on. 

Chipping away at her first semester of college

The girls are still hacking and sniffling. They are happy for the slower pace our planned cancelled trip and the snowstorms have created in their schedules.  They were gracious to stay upstairs and engage with GG so Michael and I could slide across to the boys and Arielle.  BTW I am also thankful for this slow week created by the storm and all the things we rearranged for the trip we did not take. God knew just what we needed this week. 

While we were at CoRielle's I got a message from a gal who wanted to buy 4 dozen eggs. She asked if I could meet her at 3 Bears to do a trade - paypal for eggs. We had just enough time to drive home. Michael put the animals to bed. I started working on salmon chowder. The girls jumped up and helped me chop and dice veggies, it was all simmering when Michael and I left to run eggs. We ended up going inside for a few things we like to buy at this store (Costco knock off). The girls finished off the chowder prep, toasted garlic bread and served dinner.  We love having young adults in our home.  Michael does not usually drive me in the winter any longer. This is our 6th winter up here. We both felt better with him driving as we hadn't been out since the big dumping....we saw a couple of accidents and just keep wondering, "WHY?" The roads didn't look bad, but folks were sliding into each other nonetheless. Maybe the woman going 25 mph in front of you is a blessing in disguise - that's what I thought when Alex reported being behind a driver all the way home. 

I started some cinnamon rolls rising early in the day. They did NOT rise as I expected, but everyone was happy to have a quick snack and laze around the living room together for a bit of time anyway this evening. 

Millie likes lazy night in the living room too

Michael and I loved having the time ALONE in the car today. We realized we've not had any time out together (as in a DATE) since Little Buddy moved in with CoRielle. Arielle and the boys were our respite care. GG misses his time with the boys. We just realized we miss our time too. We'll have to work on a solution. 

Loving the wood heat 

Digging Out

 How much snow did we get? The weather service insists it was 12 - 15 inches in our area.  THIS was AFTER the 2 feet of snow that was dumped on Tues/Wed which we had just dug out of...two more storms are forecasted for later this week...one is expected to drop 2 - 5 inches and the other "may be another large storm."  They say it's a "rare occurrence" due to an "atmospheric river" 500 miles wide and 2000 miles long which came over from Hawaii and merged with the storm front...lots of moisture. 

It is enough snow the schools were closed down for the 4th day in a row (this doesn't happen up here), Alaska Waste didn't pick up, Alaska Daily News didn't deliver, McDonald's stayed closed (because many couldn't leave their driveways) and we have no idea if the mail was delivered because our mailbox is 1/2 a mile away and we didn't care to drive or walk today. LOL 

I KNOW Michael was SO relieved to have both boys home today to help with the snow. We have snow shovels and a little plow on our riding lawn mower. It took them 4 hours to clear the driveway and a few walks. 

Our Snow Removal Team 

I think if we are going to continue to live out here, we need to consider finding a used 4 x 4 and attach a plow.   Michael pointed out the areas where he is dumping snow this year and they got to work. 

First, Michael had to retrieve his shovels...and we are properly chastised...though it was funny to watch Michael sink in the snow for once. In family lore, *I* am the one that always sinks to my waist in snow.  It turns out I left a shovel on the deck for easy shoveling (at least for me) and Stacia left one out by the sledding hill she was trying to build before the plague hit her. Unfortunately, it is across the yard....

Hill directly above Mike, handle of shovel to the left right at the 
tree line

Millie was EXCITED to have someone outside to play with. Watching her run in the snow is Hilarious!

She caught up with Michael and tried to break trail. She quickly realized it was better to let Michael break the trail. 

At this point of the day, we could tell we had at least 12 inches of new snow. There is just over 25 inches of snow on our deck railing. 

Allie and Stacia worked on school today. They sound like they have really bad colds and are tired, but they are improving. 

It was the BEST call not to travel today. In fact, many flights are delayed or canceled out of Anchorage today. We may not have even been able to make it. 

Stacia also made cookies so there would be yummies when the guys came in. A new batch of kombucha was ready...this one is pomegranate/apple. I like this much better, but it seems others like more flavor. 

It was the perfect night to make a couple of quiches for dinner. Ye old ham and cheddar and one with asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, ham and mozzarella. Both were good. 

*Note all three plates pictured here are from Japan. I just began using them. I told Stacia this is proof I believe she is actually going to move to Japan. I've begun using the plates because I know I can replace them if need be. LOL 

The girls built a fire and kept it going so the house was toasty. After dinner we all gathered in the living room and watched Encanto.  The boys are sure they'll be at work tomorrow and headed off to bed. The girls watched the snow for a bit and did the same thing. 

Girls' Cars

We have been reticent to post photos of the girls' cars. An online safety thing.... The girls are proud of their new cars, and they are adults or nearly adult in Stacia's case....

We've decided to take the plunge and post photos of their cars. 

Can you make them out? This is Allie's new car. 

This is Stacia's new car.