Rainy Summer Days

 We've had a couple of rainy summer days. In keeping with my commitment to live fully present I am EMBRACING this rather odd summer. The past few days have been filled with candles, twinkle lights, baking, reading, hosting visitors...not what we had planned for the summer...but its restful, it's good. 

I was down to one lonely blueberry scone and a few chocolate chip scones. I made 20 apple cinnamon scones and 20 more blueberry scones. They are wrapped, in the freezer and will keep us well in the next week or two. 

Rainy days scream for baking

Yes, baking by candlelight. A gray day screams for winter lighting tricks! THIS is why one doesn't bother taking "Christmas" lights down in Alaska. 

Thursday, I took the girls to brunch - together. We are currently not working on a study locally or with Bible Babes. The girls and I are enjoying doing our OWN reading and SOAKing.  We decided to meet together and share with each other what we are meditating on. This week it was Psalms and 1 John...

Thursday evening, we hosted a young couple Allie met at work. They have big changes looming in their near future. We can't fix everything, but we can help with a dinner, and one small aspect of making life easier for them.  Which we did. Stacia visited and then jumped out for Japanese conversations with Sensei Kim and a Japanese friend. 

Rainy days pair well with cozy mysteries and fuzzy blankets!  I finished these two Friday morning and the library won't be open until Monday. I do my best to avoid such emergencies.  I started a non-fiction on boundaries which has been sitting at the ready for a few months. LOL 

This teeny egg is from one of our older girls. The younger ones haven't begun to lay and won't for another 4 - 6 weeks. I googled and discovered a mature hen can lay a small egg due to "reproductive upset. " They mentioned a change in light...it seems to me this rainy week has upset one of our girls reproductive system. 

Friday night Stacia enjoyed a movie party at a friend from youth group. Allie worked. Us older three ate a rather quiet dinner and sat around and read. LOL 

We made plans to go to the movies Sunday afternoon. We even bought tickets - that's commitment. We'll go with a friends from church.  See? Something bright to look forward to during a rainy week. Has anyone else seen Sound of Freedom yet? I'm assuming the topic is too mature for our friends with younger kids....but we are all youth or adults so should be o.k. 

And now I think a sone and a cuppa tea is  just the ticket. 

Josiah and Carrie's Gender Reveal

 Keeping this secret has been so hard! CyRi will do a big reveal while were dip netting in a couple of weeks...but I can now share we got together earlier this week for a gender reveal! Blue or Pink - which will it be? 

Several showed up to represent either team blue or pink. Carrie, wisely dressed in both colors! LOL  We DO have a lot of little boy gherkins running around...pink would be so sweet....but we're thrilled with either. 

Danny and Charles are solidly team blue! 

The moment of truth!

Liv, Carrie, Josiah

Yes! Look at all the pink! Liv couldn't be happier to be a big Sister, and Josiah and Carrie are an awesome girl mom and dad. 

Jamin brought a new yard Jenga set. 

Livie...big sister in waiting

Growing a Girl Tribe

I puttered around all day...I have a baby tomato out in the greenhouse, the young chicks keep going in with the big girls - and it's not a happy place. This means I run outside at random times throughout the day to rescue hens which don't realize they need rescuing. That'll preach.  I simmered chicken broth (and faked out all in the family who thought I was cooking something wonderful), I cleaned...just putzed around. 

Stacia ran up to the Butte with Jenni and Millie. Millie enjoyed getting out. 

Women's Bible study, Life Group and Men's Ministry are taking the month of July off (maybe into mid- August). HOWEVER, youth group is still meeting. Several of our youth moms drive quite a distance (which is why we moved Ladies study to Wed nights) and we decided we wanted to hang out anyway. I don't have one photo! I don't know how those famous you tube channel creators run around with a huge video camera and mic on their shoulder out in public. LOL  

Imagine a corner booth in a 24-hour local diner (the only one in our town) four of us laughing and connecting. Two mid 30-year-olds (Melany and Krista), a late 50-year-old (me, I can say that for another year) and Joann - well I wouldn't hazard a guess but she's the wisdom in our midst. It was a sweet time. The highlight of my day. I've been praying for "all the ages." Friends a bit older than me and friends younger than me....and it's happening! Michael (and I) always says everyone needs a Paul to be investing in them and a Timothy to invest in....and it's a happy place to see this type of community growing here...it just took longer in civilian soil than it does in missionary or military soil. LOL 

My "love tank is full" as Twyla, a friend from our time in Japan, used to say. I spent hours with Jenni on Monday, family on Tuesday and these gals on Wednesday...Lindsey mentioned the girl tribe before she moved. I've been thinking about the phrase. I love the #girltribe God is building as we linger in Alaska. No, I have not felt the urge to move yet. ::snort::

Bre sent these photos of milestones in their home! Today's photos happen to be all girls - in keeping with the #girltribe theme.  Bella has been sending us updates on this tooth for some time now. It's out! Isn't this a sweet 7-year-old smile? 

 

Trudy, 7 1/2 months old, started eating "solids" today. Lady thinks maybe she'd like to share. LOL 

And Annie, this girl not only beats Grandma at Memory but today she beat MAMA!!!! She's got quite a memory. Her 4-year-old sparkle brightens up even an Alaskan rainy summer day! LOL 

Yes, it is a rainy day. I'm learning to embrace this year's odd rhythm. A sunny day to RUN, WORK, PLAY in and then a few rainy days to putz around in and sip and read...it's good. Allie says these are "gorgeous perfect days." I'm not THERE yet. I think 80 degrees is more in the gorgeous, perfect range...but 70's are delightful and the rhythm is fun. LOL 

4th of July 2023

 Our monthly family celebration occurs at dip netting in July...but everyone has had such lovely long weekend... many ended up congregating out here on the 4th! We are always happy to have Gherkins come home.  Bre and Larissa have been under the weather, so their families didn't make it.  We gave Krista and Luke a pass - with all the traveling she's been doing they simply need to relax - together. LOL 

The rest of us had the traditional 4th of July pizza...and I forgot to pull out the watermelon and deviled eggs. Ah well.... we were together. We played, we visited, we laughed and maybe there were a few tears. 

LOVE this photo of Danny (2) and Cory 

Watch out for brothers in a car! 

Krista felt Allie needed a Japanese doll (the other girls all have one) and so she brought one back for her from Tokyo. 

Jamin brought yard Jenga. It was GREAT fun and will be added to our yard collection - probably before dip netting. We think we'll simply have Michael cut them out and we'll skip the colors as they are already chipping. 

Cory

Go Livie! 

Liv and Nolan 

Which next?

Not sure who toppled them -  I took the photo so it wasn't me. LOL 

Stacia

Check out Arielle watching from the trampoline. I think she was more nervous than Benny. 

This may have been about the time I got bonked in the head by a tower of Jenga blocks. BUT I got the photo! 

Stacia and Livie went for a walk and found wildflowers for our table. They fit well with the red, white and blue theme of July 4th. 

Uncle Cy stays close while Little Buddy drives. We can all understand Danny and Little Buddy's hilarious interactions now that they are using English words.  Little Buddy isn't always able to get the car to turn 100% of the time...so he'll use voice commands....which Danny is pretty sure isn't the way things are done.

Danny, riding in the bike trailer earlier in the day exhibited his knowledge of prayer. Eyes closed, hands clasped, "No die. Please, no die."  I absolutely LOVE the 2 and 3 yo stage! And 4...

It was a fun afternoon. We spent some time figuring out Dip netting...who is going, who will cook a meal, how many vehicles we'll need and such.  This year we'll have a parking permit and won't have to deal with the city craziness.....we hope. We don't want our limits this year...but everyone wants some...and more than anything we enjoy being together. 

Tea and Shed Raising

I got Dad up and through his morning routine. I left him with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. The rest of the house wasn't stirring when I left for tea with Jenni. There are times when you invite someone to tea and wonder, "Will we find anything to talk about?" That was not a problem today. I had never been inside Jenni's home, so we opted to meet there. Her home is peaceful and darling. We talked...and when it seemed the visit was winding down, we got into deeper topics of being an MK, a TCK, and searching for community. We had no problem filling an hour and, in fact, it was 2 p.m. when I realized I had better head home and make sure everyone else eventually got up. LOL The picture below is not taken while sipping tea at Jenni's. Keep reading. 

Two generations of MK's (Missionary Kids)

I arrived home to find Allie and Stacia had received an invite to visit a friend near Houston and were out. Michael wasn't feeling great. After checking out the new paper, Dad opted for a nap. Dad's papers are mailed and are always a day behind with two on Mondays.

I was lazing around reading a book when the girls got home. Allie headed to work. Stacia and Jenni (see above photo) made plans to go to the church and work on Children's things. Stacia is serving a sort of internship with Jenni, our children's ministry team lead. 

KrUke showed up. I hadn't put two and two together....while she was in Guam the base changed some policies which left them trying to find a place for their storage shed. We agreed they could place it out here...and they had to get that moved today. But FIRST....on their recent trip to San Diego, while visiting gas stations to find cacahuate (peanuts) for me she was given the FIRST 2023 PENNY. She seems to win each year - the others are sure it's because she travels more. Michael exchanges the first penny for 5 silver dollars. From here on out each person who finds a 2023 penny CAN exchange it for a silver dollar from Michael. He's done this for years with the kids...and loves that they still find them...looking forward to grandkids finding pennies...and BTW he jingles when he walks because he carries silver dollars around in case someone finds a penny. LOL  

Cacahuates are a treat she first found in Mexico, and I love them. I can NEVER find them in our Walmarts or gas stations. They are peanuts with a crunchy shell. ANYWAY - she was looking in San Diego (thanks Luke and Kaelyn) and while on the search found the penny too. 

Krista has been flying through Tokyo on her trips to Guam. She came home this time with a variety of Japanese treats from Narita airport. They wrap everything so elegantly for gift-giving in Japan. It was fun to enjoy some old flavors...and for Stacia to try out her kanji reading. 

Krista and Luke dismantled their shed, rented a U-Haul truck and brought the shed and its contents to our home where we set about reconstructing it. Stacia and Jenni showed up and joined in - providing a chance for me to rectify the oversight of not grabbing a photo during tea and proving once again one can never be sure what project they will get involved in when they stop by our house. 

Their stuff doesn't fill up the shed and they've said we can move things into it as well. We are not sure how it will handle winter winds...but we shall see. It appears secure.  

I went in to check on GG and discovered it was 8:40 p.m.  YIKES. I made him a quick dinner of scrambled eggs and toast so he could get to bed. His bedtime is ROUTINELY at 8:30 p.m. Jenni headed home. Krista and Luke headed into town to return the truck and pick up some dinner.  Which is how we found ourselves around the table with KrUke at 10 p.m. LOL 

It was a fun day! 

Sunday Randomness

 Just a bit of Sunday randomness. 

I needed to deliver eggs to two friends/customers. The girls suggested make it a girl date. Yay! I'm always game. Picked up a few things at 3 Bears, delivered eggs, realized all our favorite (and not so favorite) coffee huts were closed.  We visited a place I've heard about Little Millers. LOL 

"Relaxing" with Millie in the hammock....

Michael preached this a.m. from John 8. Now THERE is a story of true freedom and redemption. 

GRAND Photo Dump

Here it is: a GRAND photo dump!  Here are photos to darling to lose...which I have not blogged.  All photos are from adult Gherkins...Larissa, Bre, Josiah and Arielle. Thanks, for supporting my habit, guys! 

Mr. Noah has sprouted his first two teeth! Way to go buddy! 

And with the new teeth came his first solid food eating experience. He seems fairly happy with the experience.  

Jared, Noah (5 months), Larissa 

I sense something good is about to happen! 

Game changer! 

Arielle and Stacia treated themselves to a pedicure! Allie had to work. Getting multiple chairs at this place is tough to do. 

Last weekend Josiah and Jamin came over and gave Michael a hand cutting up a big cottonwood that had fallen during a winter storm. 

Annie is 4 - check out her footware - it's genetic

Uncle Nolan went to the park with Bre and kids. They are now neighbors. 

Jojo is always game for adventure. 

2 years old

Bachan is happy to see he still has curls after his haircut! 

Izaak took advantage of the nice weather to prefect Bella and Gideon's biking skills. They were excited to report they can ride without training wheels. This is a milestone worth documenting for sure. 

Izaak & Bella (7 - really?)

Gideon (6)

Yes, we are enjoying Alaska in the summer - even if we have to dodge more rain than typical this summer.