Tuesday, December 13, 2022

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