Monday Projects

Monday was a sad day for our family - I'll write about it later, everyone is fine!  Enough said for now.

As we often do, we process by doing....the boys spent the afternoon finishing the Birch tree from yesterday....It was so pretty at the bottom.....

Alex is becoming quit the pro. 

 And very dead at the top. 

Nolan manned the fire today. 

Stacia and I stayed busy inside. We did a bit more baking. I prepared for the start of Bible study tomorrow. Then we worked on a joint project. We took everything out of the pantry and ORGANIZED IT AGAIN! This time we labeled the shelves. Anyone who can read should be able to assist in keeping it organized.

A place of beauty. 

 I cleared one shelf to be able to bring some of the canning up from the basement. 

Some Work and Some Welax!

The week began with a bang....church, lunch out with BreZaak, us all, and Josiah, and then an afternoon at home with Josiah, Arielle and Benny.  I believe Cory was working.

Alex and Michael have been busy felling trees all week. Most have been due to the spruce beetle but today they took down a Birch which was hollow at the top....Birch burns well....and this tree will do better keeping us warm than swaying in the wind. We hate cutting down trees. We are planting evergreens, fruit trees and hope to plant some Birch and Aspen to replace these that are sad and dying. 

Alex's chainsaw gave up - its been a busy week. 

As the men wrestled with the birch, Arielle suggested we go walk along the river. This plan was met with great approval by the gals and Benny. Who knows how much longer we'll have the fall colors to enjoy?  I love the fall colors against the backdrop of the snowy mountains. 

Auntie CoCo is very cool. 

Coco and Benny take advantage of their cool boots

 Love the colors...we live in the foothills below the thumb - the arrow points the way. LOL 

So beautiful - Pioneer Peak

 Goofy Sisters! 

Stacia, Arielle and Krista across the front

 I tried - I never got all 3 together. 

Glacial silt - it's clay like and VERY sticky. 

Benny enjoyed everything about this afternoon. 

River Ballet? 

No, throwing rocks in the water.

We left the river in time for Arielle and Benny to go babysit the D kids.  We stopped by CoRielle's new house so I could see the work they've been doing.

Benny demonstrates how to sweep up construction mess

 Benny was excited to welcome Bachan (grandma, aka me) to the shed. LOL 

Krista, Stacia and I came home and found GG enjoying the afternoon beside the fire. 

The guys were burning little branches and such. Dad and Krista hauled branches to the fire ring and Krista took over feeding the fire and hosing down the yard. I've been assured this was quite safe. 

I grabbed a few photos of fall colors at home. 

The 4 trees we planted are doing well. 

Stacia and I spent some time loving on Yuuki. The 3 of us went for a wonderful walk. 

Stacia and Yuuki

We ended this portion of the day with s'mores around the fire. Didn't see that coming, did you? 

Preserving the Bounty

It was a spectacular day of ordinary things!

One of the benefits of living in a multi-generational nest is the pop up chances to connect. I PLANNED to spend the day preserving garden bounty and harvesting more. I took the past two days off to enjoy conference and have stuff that needs to be dealt with.....BUT I'm also fully aware this is a unique and changing season in our lives....so when Arielle came upstairs early and suggested I accompany her and Benny to the library.....I reasoned the day would be long enough to play AND work....I hopped into the shower. 

When I got out the party had grown. Stacia and Krista joined us. We were at the library when it opened, followed by a trip to Bishop's Attic, and Fred Meyers. Nothing exciting bought - but fun had by all. 

Me, Arielle, Stacia, Benny, Krista

 We jumped right to our list of tasks when we got home. Stacia made Root beer Float cookies for Josiah. Um - well - enough for all of us to have one on Sunday and Josiah to take home a dozen or so.  Krista began quartering apples.

I cut up and blanched more squash than I ever want to see again. I got it in the freezer and then discovered this box in the garage. Ugh.

Somewhere between the squash and the applesauce we got the last batch of pickles processed for the year.

We ended up trying two methods for making apple sauce. On the left is the batch that will go into a strainer. On the right is the batch that will be mashed and canned. I really am not sure which is quicker.....even after doing this side by side trial.

One of Krista's fellow employees sent home his strainer for us to use. It IS slick. 

In the end we had this much applesauce. 

Photo via Krista

 We ended up with oodles of squash, 7 more quarts of Kosher pickles, 20 quarts of applesauce AND 2 dozen big, root beer float cookies.  It was a great day.

Women's Conference 2019

I was blessed to spend time with ten lovely women at the Alaska Ministry Network Women's conference Thursday night and Friday.  Everything about the conference was top-rate. The speaker, Crystal Martin, was engaging - and real.

Our ladies, minus Nora, on Friday morning. 

Nani, Bonnie, Yasinta, Me, Siakayle, Jacque, Lindsey, Stacia, Rose

 Stacia decided to come at the last minute. I'm very glad she did. I told her to come to conference and on Friday we'd make it to Kohl's. She had a gift card to spend.

After Friday morning's sessions we had 5 hours of free time. We enjoyed lunch as a group at Fire Tap....then 3 went to Aladdin and the rest of us went shopping.  After the mall, we all decided we were thrifters and went to Value Village and the Dollar Zone. LOL

We all met up again at Krispy Kreme for a bit of a snack, in place of dinner, before we headed back to conference.

Bonnie won one of the baskets being raffled for missions. She won an Instant Pot, cookbooks and a host of accessories. 

Nora arrived back for the last session - and we HAD to have a photo with her! 

Nani, Rose, Yasinta, Stacia
Me and Nora (front) 

 Fun ladies. 

Fun Fall Day

One of the highlights of my week is the time Stacia and I break way to connect. We went to our favorite cafe today for hot chocolate and sugar free chai....what a perfect way to share with each other what God is speaking to us in this season. 

We stopped at the bridge on our way home. It was a great opportunity to grab a few fall photos - and um - Stacia may have been a bit car sick. 

Benny has  a new toy compliments of Arielle's boss.  It's always wise to start a child on Nerf products early...it's a rocket. He had a blast "shooting" us with it...

Termination Dust - Winter Soul-Care

Driving home tonight from a Women's Ministry team meeting I noticed something new! The top of one of the tallest mountains in "our range" has TERMINATION DUST  on it.  September 18, 2019.

We live at the bottom of the "thumb" in this photo

Looking up the road....fall colors and termination dust. 

To the miners termination dust signified the end of a summer and set of a flurry of activity as they prepared for winter. For us, much the same. I have to admit summer is over. Fall is short-lived and the arrival of termination dust is a vivid reminder we will most likely have snow by the end of October. It's coming......ACK.

Fall has always been my favorite season of the year.  However, we've chosen to live forever in a location with a seriously cold winter.  I have spent two winters now speaking the positive, taking Northern Light photos and telling myself it was worth the price of winter to see such beauty, thinking of others and not myself, and "keeping busy." You've not heard me speak ill of winter - because I have determined not to be "that sort."

As we drove back to Alaska, and I fell in love with the spectacular display of colors on the Alcan, I realized I felt not only excitement this year - but quite a fair bit of dread.   I've never feared a season. I did mind winter. Ignoring the dread and fear I feel as winter approaches isn't going to help a bit. I've done that for a couple of years.  It IS cold. It IS dark. It does effect moods.

I've been philosophical. "The trees are about to show us how beautiful it can be to let things die." I've searched my heart. God, what do I need to let die in this season. What should lie dormant over the winter and bear fruit in the spring?

I remember Benny last March when we had another snow storm....he sat at the back door, put his head down and just said, "no, no, no" over and over. ::snort::

I will confess, this quote in a National Review article resonates with me... and has made me laugh out loud every time I've thought of it since. It seems to express my "state of mind" better than the beauty of dying trees this year.

If you live somewhere with cold winters, however, please understand that it is objectively stupid of you to be excited about fall. Let me be clear: For us, celebrating the start of fall is like celebrating that end stage of a terminal illness where you won’t be functional long before it kills you. It means that winter is coming soon. Cold, soul-crushing winter. Months (which can easily feel more like eons than months) of nothing but wind, snow, rain, and rapidly spreading influenza. And you’re excited because you can drink a coffee that tastes like a gourd? Grow up.

And so...I've known termination dust was coming. I've been spending time thinking about HOW I am going to work soul-care, maybe even a bit of self-care, into the winter.  Here is the start of my list...and now that termination dust is here - I'm going to seriously give this some consideration.

1. Remain consistent in carving out a time for solitude and silence with Jesus. 
2. Order SAD light bulbs and install at least one in each room of the house. 
3. I've freed up my schedule so that I have more time to refresh - keeping busy is not the best answer for me - it leads to exhaustion which makes it even harder to get out of bed. 
4. Start a winter Netflix list and indulge in a series or two over the winter. 
5. Start a winter reading list. 
6. Get the work-out room set up downstairs and OUT of the cold garage. 
7. Go out for tea at least once a week.  Invest in relationships. 
8. Intentionally mentor Stacia.
9. Maintain healthy eating for the FAMILY to strengthen our immune systems and help us fight the "winter blues." 
10. How would keeping an emergency stash of peanut MnM's play into this? 
11. AVOID carb comforting - it's a thing. It must be a thing. 
12. Take a winter sport suited to Klutzy, middle aged women. 
13. 30 min a day in a hot tub would be sure to help...that's a future idea. 

I'd love to hear your ideas if you've lived in a "seriously cold" location.  I'll even paste new ideas into this list.