Blessing of a Knee Injury

 LOOK who came to visit after swim lessons! Bre and the kids dropped by with chai tea for me and hot chocolate for Michael. It was a great visit. The kids were excited to share recent updates with me. Bre and I even managed a chat. They took a couple of library books to the library for me. 

As for this knee thing, the swelling is down, it still twinges if I am getting up or down...and so I spend as much time as possible with it elevated. The ice feels good, though I know it's hardly useful any longer. I am off the Ibuprofen. I can walk around fairly well - just a small limp - going up and down stairs is NOT good at all. We're using this as a trial run to see what we may need to fix or change as we age in place. ::snort:: We HAVE discovered there is not one chair in the living room that is high enough for ease of use if one is suffering knee pain. Mom had adjusted her recliner to sit on a wooden box. I've thought it funny to have it so high, but it's been fantastic this week. 

My knee injury has been a blessing! It's impossible to keep moving and rest and elevate a knee. I think I may have finally crafted a life which doesn't require escapism for self-care. ::snort:: I was able to easily cancel a few appointments and clear a week. I have nothing outside of the house (driving would still hurt with the up and down motion of braking, I think) until Friday's counseling appointment. I have enjoyed visits from those who have stopped by.  I LOVED having the house all to myself on Sunday. I've taken naps. I've finished several books I'd started:

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
• A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser
• Experiencing Grief by H. Normal Wright
• Did I Say the Right Thing by Mitch Schultz
• Reread Several Terri Blackstock and a Vera Stanhope book
• and started Unoffendable by Brant Hansen

I've gotten almost all my Christmas shopping done - and we don't do our immediate family gift exchange until Jan 6th - epiphany. I'm also ready for the extended family gift exchange. It's been a blessing.

Stacia had her second final today. She is getting A's in every final and paper at this point. She's most worried about the one coming tomorrow...Alaska History. Names and dates are a challenge and history is NAMES and DATES. LOL 

Nolan came over tonight. We enjoyed Rice Bowls and watched The Grinch...we discovered the word "automatic" on dishwashing gel is an important one indeed. 

I do need to force myself to pay bills rather than luxuriate in my reclining. ::snort:: Find a few moments to REST in the midst of this busy season - it's great for the soul! 

GRACE NOTES

The whole post. 

GREEN December?

 Ah man - it's WARM up here. It's been in the mid 40's. I've not seen this before up here in DECEMBER, but I'm sure old-timers have! LOL  Last year we had 3 or 4 feet of snow on the ground by this time. This year? We had a respectable amount of snow but we've had over a week of temps in the high 30's and 40's....

We need a bit more snow in November to make the sledding run...and I'm glad we didn't because it would be melted by now anyway. Look at this. 

The chickens are enjoying the warmer weather. Several of them started molting late and the warm weather is nicer. No frostbite in sight. 

Michael has been able to finish the bottom steps on the new deck with the warm weather. I think he may put up a temp fence for Millie. The quick electric fence I envisioned morphed into a huge fence around the property and several extensions so that will happen in spring. LOL 

I am starting to fear we will have a muddy Christmas rather than a white one....c'mon snow. 

Icy Days

Thursday morning, we woke to warmer temps and ICE! Of course, this happens every time temps warm enough to melt snow and then FREEZE again. Allie tried numerous times to get out of the driveway. It simply wasn't happening. Note the nose of her car is pointed to the ditch and not the top of the driveway! I began to fear she would take out the fence. She spent the unexpected day at home working on her online courses. 

Michael graveled and sanded our driveway better than the city does the roads. We are all very grateful. We can get out of the driveway with ease...and walk to the cars without sliding. 

And, finally, Allie made it out of the driveway. 

Stacia's Team Won! and more...

 Stacia and Makenani, her friend and fellow classmate, have been preparing for a debate in one of their classes.  You can imagine the angst when they were required to debate "Alaska should NOT have a comprehensive financial plan."  This was not an easy topic to research and Stacia wanted the other side of the debate. 

They won the debate! Yay! Makenani came by for celebratory ice cream and be introduced to the Emperor's New Groove.  Do we know how to celebrate or WHAT? LOL 

Millie, Makenani, Allie and Stacia 

Stacia has a couple of papers to turn in which are in the editing phase and the upcoming week is FINALS WEEK.  We're looking forward to having her around home a bit more for the next few weeks. 

I spent the day putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations. This involved lugging boxes up and down the stairs as I determined to decorate the basement too. I did keep the decor to a minimum this year. 

I did get the tree UP - sorta - but need to trim it. This is my final bit of decoration. I will spare you all the other photos. 

Sunday night edit - Friday, Stacia was home, and I was able to get out of the house and run errands.  I came home and baked sugar cookies and made some truffles...which I planned to take to BreZaak's and decorate and dip and have a tea party with them while Bre went to a tea party. Unfortunately, all the up and down seems to have tweaked my knee. The top of my kneecap is swollen. I woke up in horrible pain Friday night and knew it wasn't going to work to watch 5 kids.  I've spent Saturday and Sunday simply resting, elevating, icing and taking Ibuprofen around the clock. The swelling is going down, I can walk with twinges instead of tear inducing pain.  Ironically, I was able to finish reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer - recommended - as I laid around. I hope to be up a bit more on Monday.  Everyone else went to church today. The girls went on to Anchorage to a Japanese Rice Pounding Festival and Michael and GG went to Carrie's to do some maintenance jobs for her. 

Allie's Next Steps

We've kept Allie's college plans fairly quiet.  This allowed time for her to sit with the plan and be comfortable with it before it was voiced far and wide. Some are sure to have picked up on the fact she is no longer at the local Bible College and is taking online courses.  This allows her to work full-time and save up for the next stage of her college career. (Our commitment to Allie's future remains the same but this program has outstripped our fixed income!) LOL She is also taking every online course she can for her prerequisites to burst through the continuance gate and be able to apply to a specific cohort. This, and living at home, is keeping the cost of her degree down.

Over the course of this semester, it has become apparent she will need 3 cinematic courses she cannot take online. We thought about her taking a semester at UAF...in the end Allie was worried her credits wouldn't be accepted (they DID make her retake a Bible survey class as it wasn't THEIR Bible survey class so there is merit to this concern). 

And so, Allie applied to be a residential student at Liberty University. The goal is for her to take a semester in Virginia, get those pesky cinematic courses completed and be onsite to burst through the continuance gate and apply to the cohort of her dreams. She will then come home for the spring and summer and return after being accepted to start the 2-year cohort - the plan is the fall of 26. 

We were thrilled when this announcement came today.  Allie has prayed and researched various programs. Liberty has an excellent program and once accepted into the cohort she will be working on real-life projects and networking within the industry...as she pursues a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production & Creative Development Storytelling (with an emphasis on screenwriting and directing). 

Anyone who knows Allie will see how this integrates her passions for writing and film and simply FITS with her creative personality and her desire to be a voice to her generation. We are proud of her! We do not feel any of her college steps have been wasted or "mis-stepped." Her first year of online transfers completely. Her second year at Alaska Bible College gave her the confidence she can handle residential college work, allowed her to make some dear friends, earned some transferrable credits, did some hard work in therapy, and she was here when the unthinkable occurred last October. This year is full. Next year will be light and then she'll be fully ready to chase her dream! 

Alter Egos

 We ordered a couple of costumes from Danny and Benny's birthdays. They didn't arrive in November. I really prefer shopping local and cutting down the long waits at the post office in November and December...but alas, somethings are not available locally.  They didn't arrive together; the magician's costume finally arrived today! 

Danny has long been MARIO - with a costume he will soon outgrow. Danny has begun saying he is Luigi...and he makes a darling Luigi. Did you catch the red mustache in the above photo. My heart! He wasn't 100% sure what he thinks of the stuffed belly. 

CoRielle got a set of magician's tricks for Benny's birthday. He has taken great joy in tricking me, displaying his sleight of hand...I decided he needed a magician's costume. He rocks this one and it makesthe tricks just that much better. 

I believe Ellie Rae is getting her first tooth just as Benny lost his first! 

Charles was at therapy, so I didn't get to visit with him. It was great fun to drop in on Arielle and these three. I miss the built-in weekly time I had to connect with the boys and Arielle when I watched them during her staff meetings. 

Another highlight of today was connecting with Brenda at her home for tea and conversation. I love coffee shops, but meeting at a friend's home does lend itself for deeper conversations.  It was a blessing to be able to connect in the midst of this busy season.  There are very few whom you can text in the morning and say, "I'm running errands today may I stop by for tea?" and they say, "YES! Come." 

GRACE NOTE: 
1. Tea and conversation at a dear friend's home. 

2. A moment of connection at  CoRielle's. 

Fun Day with Josi

Livie went sledding with Uncle Jared and Uncle Jamin yesterday afternoon/evening. 

It was a blessing to sit and process this season of seconds, Sunday's sermon and life with Carrie. 

And today.... a full day with Josi girl! Livie had school and Carrie had work. Josi is nearly 10 months old. 

She's learned so many new tricks. She's a busy little girl these days. She crawls, loves her toys, feeds herself AND she goes down for naps like a dream. LOL  

Livie came home briefly but left for a game night at their life group. It was a great mini-vacay with the girls. 

GRACE NOTES: 

1. Time with the family.