Tuesday, February 28, 2023

February Snippets

 Glimpses of the "little things" which gave the month meaning and fun.  Look at this sweet valentine!

Noah at about a month 📸by Larissa

Sisters! Bella and Trudy (about 3 months)

📸by BreAnne

We call this vibe night - a time when sisters (and Mom if I'm not too tired) relax together...this night was face masks and soaking - while Michael and I were in Hawaii. 

📷by Allie

Shaved Ice in honor of Hawaii - we have lots of snow. 
📷by Stacia

The one on the right is 2 oz - a LARGE egg - which makes most our eggs jumbo.

Stacia made these wonderful pillows of sweetness...


Bella with her flowery hair clip from Hawaii
📷by Bre

A boy with his box of treasures

Tuesday morning work out with the boys! 


Josiah helped Jared get the snow off their roof. 
Jared 📸by Larissa

Josiah 📸by Larissa

Hello! Sweet Noah! 
📸by Larissa

It's hard to believe February is already ending....on with March! 

Bit of An Odd Week

 It was a bit of an odd day. I won't be spending Tuesday morning with the boys....there is a bit more margin in my schedule this week. I had a pedicure. I went to a shop with one tech...and so it was quiet, just she and I...and while it's not a spa experience exactly - it is the closest to the pedicures I got in Korea and the Philippines. LOL  I sat by the window, watched the snow, read a book while my feet soaked....and Oy is good - a bit painful at times - but overall my feet are doing much better since I found her. Y'all she takes a cheese grater to my heels...she hasn't pulled out the razor as they did in Korea. 

There was far too much craziness at CoRielle's for them to work on Tuesday. I called to see if I could help in any way even though they didn't need me to babysit. Arielle asked me to take Little Buddy to therapy. I was happy for an outing with him. Such hugs and cuddles....and it was fun to see his love of Lane!!!! his therapist. Benny and Danny were a little sad they couldn't come to us. We stopped by my favorite coffee shack on the way home and bought drinks, got a free cookie and got some mini-doughnuts. They were satisfied with the treat...and got so much done while Little Buddy and I took care of business. 

Benny, what manner of craziness is THIS? Could it be a case of cabin fever? 
Dressed for the snowstorm?
No. 

Finally. 

After all the planning and saving...they were finally ready to launch Tuesday afternoon. 

Danny

Little Buddy and Cory 

Yes, see the gal peaking from the row behind? Stacia is with them. She is getting to enjoy an Auntie/Nanny gig. 
Danny, Arielle and Benny in row 1 


And late Tuesday night pieces of our heart landed in HAWAII! The two year olds are enjoying  the novelty of being up late at night. 


No March 1st snowstorm where they are! LOL 


Seesters (and toddlers) in Hawaii! 

Arielle, Danny, Stacia, Little Buddy 

Benny


Ending the day with some reading from Pickle Fairies - written for the kids by Stacia. 

It hasn't escaped my notice I am blogging THEIR Hawaiin vacation before ours! I must fix that. LOL 

*All photos from Hawaii were sent by either Arielle or Stacia. Mostly Arielle. 

Monday, February 27, 2023

Alaska Showed Off

 A big contingent of our family has been traveling to and from Hawaii since January. Tomorrow, six more make the jaunt across the pacific.  I think Alaska decided to show off and show us just what makes HER so special. 

Alaska may not have palm trees and beaches, but we had a light show like none I've seen before. It STARTED early in the night -  around 8:30 p.m. We stayed up and watched. The girls headed to bed about 10:30.  I headed to bed at 11:30 and Michael stayed up until 4:30. I got UP at 4:30 and they were still dancing across the sky. Whites and greens are the norm. We had pinks and even some reds last night! 

Photos are hard to catch.  One thing that irritates me about northern light photos is how many of them are edited to the point they look nothing like what you SEE when you look outside. Often, one sees wispy and white cloud-like pillars which show up green on the camera...but last night and this morning they were green, pink and red without the aid of a camera, filter, or editing program. I could enhance these photos Michael took and make them even more spectacular - but I'm not going to. Here they are as we saw them - no filters or enhancements. I did note lightening the color makes the pinks show up more....so I lightened the VERY last one so the pinks show...but we saw pinks on black next to green...and zillions of stars as we stood outside in our yard. 

It began with bright bands of green popping out the window. 


Then, the lights began dancing and changing colors. They danced across the sky, along mountain ridges...it was amazing. 















This is the same tree seen in a few prior shots. Taken at the same time. I simply clicked the little wand on Adobe photo editor. 

And so this morning...Michael is sleeping in after staying up all night taking photos. GG didn't get the memo and walk up with a bang at 6:30 a.m. The girls are up at 7 a.m. It's -6 at 8 a.m. and I'm putting off going outside to feed animals. BUT last night     ALASKA SHOWED OFF. 

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Stacia's Big Win

Stacia submitted her first completed college writing assignment this week. The topic was the "Infallibility and Authority of the Word."  The prof was QUICK and before she knew it, she had a grade back on the paper. 


She made a 22.5 out of 24 points or a 96%! Woot! Woot!! I've noted both Allie and Stacia (and Michael) take it as a near personal affront when points are taking off due to grammatical errors. I understand. They endure Michael's ruthless editing and it's always a surprise when something has been missed. LOL  Both girls are also happy with their grades but want to know how to improve. Stacia wrote back and asked if the prof could share what she had done wrong. I love this Prof. He's so honest. 

He admits what we have been telling the girls, "We're trying to give you something to aspire to..." In other words, in your freshman year, they want you to see room for improvement. But check out his final comment!!! Not bad for a high school senior! 

With the paper turned in she has two requirements left to complete her first college class. She needs to fulfill a service-learning requirement (SLR) and take the final test. 

Stacia has been sweating the SLR. Her anxiety of being in front of crowds is one issue we've discussed with her call to missions. Tonight, she presented a talk to the youth group on her topic.

She used the white board to give her hands something to do....and from the feedback we are hearing it went well. It's been recorded and will be sent to the Professor.  My organizational sensibilities are offended by the lack of order on the whiteboard....but all the main points are on there and I hear the kids were great about engaging in the discussion time.  As one of her siblings noted, "You've overcome a huge personal fear and now the world is at your feet!" ....and she did it in front of her peers, which is hard! 

She will take the final exam on Friday and be done with her first college course. 

She's starting to complete high school courses. She won't have it all done before her trip to Hawaii, but it will all be done by mid-March. She'll spend the remaining months of her senior year on college courses. 

Go, Stacia! 

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Greenhouse Adventure

I ran out of the house this morning without my phone!  Arielle said, "That's right, we don't have a land line," when I asked her to text Stacia and let her know I didn't have my phone. If they needed to reach me they would have had to call Bre next door. 

This led to a fun conversation with Benny about what a land line was and what it was like in the "old days" before we all had cell phones in our pockets instead of on our walls. LOL  

I was enjoying NOT having the distraction of texts etc...until I realized there would be NO PICTURES of the boys today. ::snort:: SO... imagine two darling two-year-olds in their "Hang Loose" Hawaii shirts from Papa and Bachan's trip...along with new water shoes. Imagine the two years olds and Benny and Bachan all doing a workout with YouTube kids...and playing hide and seek and hot lava. 

I don't know that I've mentioned on the blog part of the roof of our library collapsed last Wednesday. No one was hurt. The roof landed on the top of bookshelves - which kept everyone safe.  We spent a bit of time talking about how the boys couldn't go to story hour today and I couldn't go get new books - which is our Tuesday thing. We're all looking for ways to help with a community effort to get our library back!!!

I came home and looked for a new adventure. I decided it was time to check out the greenhouse.


This sounds simple. However....the snow has fallen off the back of the house...look how high it is...I think the chickens could walk out of the chicken yard. 

Michael had shoveled a path to the greenhouse on New Years Eve. I hadn't realized how much new school we've had since then. LOL 


I made it out to the greenhouse, cleared the door and entered my happy place. I quickly decided I needed to get my chair back inside the greenhouse. 

Y'all it was 40 DEGREES inside. Still far too cold to start seeds but a full 20 degrees warmer than it is outside. 

It will be a solid month or two before I can have plants in the greenhouse, WHY was I desperate to get out to the greenhouse now? 

Because I'd left my garden notebook in the greenhouse at the end of the planting season...and I NEED to know WHEN to begin planting seeds. They'll begin inside. My seed planting guide is in the notebook. We're getting "close."  It's obvious trying to grow things in here in the winter didn't pan out well. 
Dead Lettuce

I decided to go ahead and shovel a nice path to the greenhouse as I'm quite sure I'll come out and just enjoy the warmer weather now that I know I can.  Alas, the door would not budge!  I tried everything. It was no use. I was locked in the greenhouse. I was glad I had my phone! ::snort:: 

I called Michael and he came to my rescue. He's such a champ. He wasn't upset when I he got the call and was pulled away from his project. "I'm used to life with you," he said with a chuckle. 

The latch is broken and will need to be replaced. He told me not to shovel a path. He'll get it with the snowblower.  Yay! 
Look how deep my footprints are

I had extra eggs this week. I thought about taking them to the local market. I may still do that tomorrow.  It's been a bit of time since we had enough eggs to make a TON of snacky eggs...I boiled 2 dozen (the 18 I boiled yesterday are already gone LOL), made 2 dozen deviled eggs, and used another dozen to make two quiches for dinner. LOL