Back to School

It was recently time to go back to school.  And for our younger son, it was the first time.  He has been through two years of dropping his brother off at preschool and picking him up from preschool, twice a week, so I think that, along with everyone asking him all of the time if he's excited for preschool, helped to prepare him.

The night before the first day of preschool, our older son removed all of his little brother's clothes on hangers and laid them out for him and announced, "Here are your school clothes.  Pick what you are going to wear tomorrow."  I was impressed!  Instead of picking the usual clothes he begs for when dirty, like his button up red airplane shirt or his superhero tights, undies, and shirts, he happily picked a nice sweater and new-to-him jeans.  He, without any input from anyone else, chose a wool jacket, like his dad wears to work, and brown leather shoes.  I knew at this point that emotionally these boys have everything under control and that this was going to go alright.  He had some trouble going to sleep, which is not unusual for him, but when I awakened him in the morning, talk of what I was going to put on his oatmeal (whole milk, blueberries, and maple syrup--the usual) got him in the mood to wake up and let me dress him.  Yes, I dressed a preschooler that morning.  He is still my baby, always will be, and quite frankly I'd like someone to dress me each morning.  He announced that he was going to pour the milk and add the syrup.  His older brother cried while he did this out of jealousy, but preschoolers get to do new and challenging things, and he knew this!

We all ate breakfast at the table together.  I took a photo of him and drove him to school.  He entered the school with confidence, put his coat and backpack in his cubby, attached his name-tag to it, and sat down in a circle with the other kids in his class.  It was a full class of 9 children, mostly boys.  I took another photo and left, fighting my instinct to go back in and peek at him.  When I arrived to pick him up, he gave me the look that he always gives me when I pick him up at his babysitter or his grandparent's house:  a squinty-eyed shrug of the shoulders.  He didn't quite want it to end and he was still a little unsure of how to proceed at this point, but once we went inside to say goodbye to all of the animals (turtle, fish, anole, etc), he was confident again.  The teacher said he didn't want to say his name during introductions, but later told her that he wanted to be called by his middle name, which is his grandfather's first name.  He also talked to her about his favorite part of the day, which was snack time:  goldfish and cheese sticks.  The teacher by chance is one of the best friends of one of my close friends.  The preschool director is the teacher that our older son had last year.  And the nephew of our next door neighbor is also going to the school.  I know he appreciates those familiarities as much as I do.  And I hope that he makes new friends at school.  He already told me there aren't any bad kids in his class.  Whew!  By the third day, he was talking to his teacher more openly, although still quietly.  By the second or third week, he had become quiet comfortable speaking his mind and playing with the other children.

For our older son, Kindergarten is definitely welcomed change.  I'd like to keep him home, but he is more than ready to tackle something new.  We have been biking to this Elementary School to play on the playground since he was two.  It's where my husband went to school.  In fact, there are large photos of him and his classmates, the first years the school opened, all over the walls of the school.  We had been to Kindergarten Round-up, Meet the Bus day, and finally when we went to Meet the Teacher / Ice Cream Social day, he marched up to the school, found his name on the Kindergarten list (4 classes), went straight to his teacher's classroom through hoards of people, waited in line to meet her and said, with his hands in his pockets and his hood up, "So, it looks like I'm in the morning class."  She replied, "Well, it looks like you're all grown up."  His grandmother, who had gone with us nodded.  He has a thing with teachers.  She asked questions about him and our family and in two minutes, before I had completely the paperwork, he was bored with the classroom and wanted to meet the Librarian and Principal.  He was happy to do the assessment because he had all of the teacher's attention, and when school started and he was able to bring his backpack with his snack, lunch, and finally meet the other kids, he was ecstatic.  The teacher says he will not be bored, so all I can do is hope she is right ... and volunteer my help once a week during the reading, writing, and math curriculum.  Elementary School has been going on for several weeks now and I have been volunteering for four.  The personality types of the students are very interesting and the way my son portrayed the other students is very much like it is.  He has a great class of ten students.

While our older son is off in the world having new experiences with his new classmates, his little brother is the big brother of the house.  I can already see the bond between he and his little sister growing.  The play very well together as the boys always have.  But, now that there is school for both of the boys their time together is less frequent and I can tell more precious to them.

Blurbs on the Kids

This summer has come and gone, probably the fastest one in my life yet.  I attribute this to having three kids and a busy husband.  But, time flies for everyone, it seems, unless they are in pain, and then too I'm sure it passes by two quickly in its own way.  I lost an uncle to lung cancer today.  It's been a year since his wife died of emphysema and three years since another aunt died of heart attack, an uncle of complications of pneumonia, and a cousin of a stroke.  Fall is no doubt the time of year for change, whether it be sickness or death or just a change in attitude, daily habits, or academics.

The baby is almost walking.  She can walk but lacks the confidence to do so on her own.  She turns one in a few days.  She likes to hold small things in her hands as she crawls around emptying toy containers and finding small pieces of things on the floor to put into her mouth.  Whenever she hears a phone ring, she says, "Hello."  It doesn't sound like "Hello," more like "Oh" but she has the tone correct and because she puts her hand up to her face, you cannot mistake what she is doing.  If you feed her something she likes, she will say, "Num, num, num, num ..."  And she'll shovel tiny chunks of zucchini cake into her mouth so quickly you'd think she's competing with a herd of chickens.  She always eats her meat first, and if something ends up on the floor it is usually a vegetable.  She loves to play on the bed, belly flopping.  You know it's time to put her to bed when she forgets to put her arms out before she launches herself.  She thinks she is supposed to say, "Uh oh" when she throws something onto the floor.  And her voice is so cute.  Whenever I pick her up and put her on my left hip, she pats the back of my shoulder with the palm of her hand.  If she's hungry, she'll suck on my shoulder.  She bit it once, but I yelled "NO!" so loudly in pain that she's never tried it again.  She loves her brothers and her brothers love her.  They'll say, "Look at her, she is SOooo Sweeeet."  They rarely forget to greet her in the morning or after school.  And she'll smile, pat them on the head, grab their hair, slap their belly, do anything to make them laugh, and they know how to make her laugh hysterically also; they'll toss blocks into the air, snort like pigs, etc.  She sleeps with us most of the time, and we don't even mind it for the most part  The first year goes by so quickly and every year thereafter even faster, it seems.

Our three year old is starting to branch out of being a super hero or king every day to wearing jeans and shirts other than his red, button-up airplane shirt and pants other than his white and blue striped train pants.  It wasn't just this way on the first day of school; it stuck.  This is great since he has a closet full of clothes to wear!  He has an obsession with removing all of the cushions and pillows off of the couches and stacking them into a pile.  Inside the pile, he pretends to be in a helicopter, a chimney, army hospital, police station, you name it.  He is his own man and is content playing by himself quietly, for hours.  Give him a sand box or a pile of dirt, especially if there is water to add or it is raining, and he will be content for hours.  After everyone else is asleep, he will stay up for hours looking at pictures in books, sometimes even on days that he has not had a nap.  He does not like to be told what to do.  For example, some mornings, he'll ask me to pick out his clothes for him, but he will always in the end choose something different.  He does not like assistance with taking off his coat, buckling his 5 point harness, or turning off a light.  He does not like change and he does not like to be rushed.  And he says he does not like school, but we know he does and is just asserting the opposite.  He is a character, a goof, and his smiling eyes and wide grin are contagious to say the least.  He has changed so much in personality over the last two years that it will be really interesting to see the type of person he becomes in the next short two years, before he starts Kindergarten.  

Our five year old likes to have structured activities to do all of the time.  Often times, he'll ask us to make him a list of things to do for the day, which includes everything from brushing teeth, eating, and pooping to practicing violin and writing letters to people.  I can't always keep him busy with kid projects because he refuses to do things he has done before in which case he will always ask to watch television, but when I refuse in return he will help me out with entertaining the baby, folding laundry, or cutting vegetables for meals, and he does a great job.  We have some good talks, too, while we work together.  He thrives off of social interactions.  On the first day of school, he had already made two friends and invited them over to a Halloween Party he is dreaming up/planning.  He likes to dress "handsome," as he calls it, and this requires my mom and I to shop second hand for button down shirts with collars so that he is well-supplied.  He reads very well.  I'm not sure what his reading level would be but he can read almost any children's book though he is intimidated if a whole page is covered in words and if he doesn't know a word he will usually guess instead of take the time to sound it out.  His Kindergarten teacher said he was the only kid she has seen read the number "202."  He is starting to spell also and wrote his first letter yesterday without assistance.  Between violin lessons and school, this fall, I think he will continue to be challenged and will progress rapidly.

School started last week and we've already had a stomach bug, a cold, and a cold/fever, one for each kid, so their immune systems are being properly exercised.  The potatoes have been dug.  The last of the second crop of lettuce has been spun.  And we've had our first frost.  The septic has been pumped.  And my husband is hacking up the last load of wood so that it will be seasoned for the following winter.  Woodstove fires have already become part of the normal daily routine.  I have been baking a lot of pizzas, pies, cakes, and vegetables, just because we finally can use the oven and still feel comfortable inside.  Moose season began yesterday and now we're just hoping a bull moose walks right into our yard, preferably 35 yards from my husband's bow and arrow.  I used up the last of the moose steak and moose pepperoni and lunch meat last week.  The leaves will now turn yellow and in a couple short weeks, by fall equinox probably, they will all be on the ground.  No matter how quickly life passes, change is good.

Summer Camping Trips

We wanted to have more free weekends to go camping this summer.  But, life is full.  In addition to our three winter camping trips, we were able to do three summer camping trips, four if you count my husband's salmon fishing expedition, five if you count his moose hunting efforts.  Three family camping trips is better than none though, and I think the impressions the trips left on the kids were profound.  Although camping is an incredible amount of work for the adults, it is nice for us to go away from home for a while, too.  We kicked off the summer by camping one night at the Granite Tors Campground, headed to Denali National Park for three nights after solstice, and finally camped at Nome Creek campground two nights in early August. 

Camping teaches or requires valuable life skills.  It teaches one how to poop in outhouses or in the woods, how to sleep in a new place, how to build a fire, cook without a kitchen, and challenges one to entertain without electronics.  It gives one time to think.  It forces everyone to sit together in harmony for long periods of time.

One of the things I like most about camping now that we have a large family is that the food is almost already prepared, due to extra work the week before, and only requires reheating.  One of the things my husband likes is that he does not have to wake up early and go to work.  We both like to hear the questions that camping causes our children to ask us about the world around us and to see the smiles of excitement on their faces as they discover new things.

Just like travel of any kind, camping inspires change and growth.  For example, camping between 9 and 11 months, our daughter learned to sign "more" for more blueberries without our prompting.  She learned how to kill mosquitos. Our older son learned how to cast a fishing pole and that rocks and trees are made of minerals and cells.  He learned how to become a steward to the environment through the Junior Ranger process.  And our younger son learned how to hike a long distance to keep camp in a way that animals will not be attracted.  It may not seem like much, but it is a lot for them and it's just the beginning.  Here's to many more years of camping, growing, and making fond memories.

The Eczema Puzzle

Or maybe it's atopic dermatitis or contact dermatitis or maybe it's an allergy of some type.  Whatever it is, it is what I have been obsessing about for the past two months straight.  Our eight month old daughter has extremely sensitive skin.

A couple of months ago, when I first showed it to the pediatrician, it was a few light orange dry patches on her cheeks and arm.  She said not to worry about it because it's not all over her body.  Well, now, two months later, it is.  It is inflamed, red, itchy bumps that cover most of her body and that require medication when they get close to or past the point of oozing.  It's heartbreaking to me to have to put antibiotics and steroid cream on her, knowing the risks, but even with half a dozen applications of shea butter per day and meticulous care for her that she doesn't touch and aggravate, it continues to worsen.  The natural approaches, such as calendula cream, tea tree oil in coconut oil or shea butter and humidity, do not seem to do the trick by themselves.  Now, strangers look at her and feel sorry for her, despite her good nature.

I continue to search for the source of the problem.  We have ruled out all of the common IgE food allergies, after skin prick testing at a pediatric allergist/immunologist.  The fact that it is not an IgE reaction indicates that this is probably not the type of eczema that will lead to asthma.  The day she did not react to the skin pricks was a good day. We are awaiting the results of both her and my IgG blood tests to see if one or some of 96 common foods are causing inflammation in my or her body and therefore causing excess burden on her immune system.  She has an appointment with the dermatologist and with our other pediatrician next month; in the meantime, we will continue to see a naturopath.

If I was not an obsessive cleaner before (I was!), I am now.  The Dyson is working harder than ever and the floors are scrubbed.  Is it people's dogs?  Is it that we don't have a dog anymore?  Dust?  Pollen?  Those type of environmental allergies are extremely rare in babies, but who knows.  We don't have carpet but could it be the aluminum oxide coating on the cork and bamboo floor?  Maybe it's all of the pesticides in her cotton clothes?  Or maybe our gentle homemade laundry detergent was not gentle enough?  I hate to say it but I have changed from cold washes to hot washes in Seventh Generation Free and Clear or Soap Nuts and from line drying to hot dryer drying and more frequent washing in general.  Thank goodness I had already used cotton cloth diapers and wipes with water only because switching to those at this point in time would have been overwhelming in itself.  And as far as personal care products and cleaners ... we ditched those long ago so that's one other thing off the list.  And I only bathed her rarely, with no soap, so surely she didn't react to anything there ... or maybe she is allergic to some component in the plastic baby bath--who knows!  Food dyes and other processed food ingredients ... we have not eaten those things since before her time.  Goodness, maybe it was the one vaccine she received?  I thought for a moment it could be latex, but after ditching the pacifier, I knew it couldn't be the cause.  I have changed her baby food from a variety of the most nutritious foods for baby to squash and more squash, probiotic and more probiotics, just to simplify things.  Because proteins from common allergens can get through breastmilk (one of the reason babies who are breastfed have fewer allergies), they can aggrevate skin in babies who are very sensitive to these.  I eliminated dairy, soy, corn, gluten, oats, citrus, eggs, beef, fish, fish oil, and nuts for three weeks really to no avail.  I continue to avoid them, just in case.  I now know what it is like to shop and eat like a person with full blown allergies.

There are natural options that seem to work for some ... GAPS diets for babies to strengthen their gut lining / immune system, chiropractic and acupuncture to alleviate pressure from organs that may not be functioning to their fullest potential, and muscle testing for food and environmental sensitivities which can sometimes reveal results that lab tests cannot.  And then there are more mainstream options to cope such as stronger medicated creams and internal medicines, frequent visits to the pool or bleach baths to combat resistant staph and yeast.  As her skin continues to worsen, I continue to rack my brain for a cause and cure.

On a positive note, she is still our happiest baby, and all of our babies have been happy.  I find myself thankful that it is not worse than it is and thankful that after having three children this has been our largest and actually our only problem.  No one has had to go to the doctor for an illness.  No one has had to go to the emergency room for an injury.  Our baby girl seems to have a healthy immune system, like her brothers.  She has had only two colds and has gotten over both of them.  She poops.  She pees.  She says mamma, dadda, and babba, crawls, interacts, and pulls to stand.  She is doing the things she is supposed to do.  And in terms of her eczema, I am very thankful for the internet and all of the parents who have been through this before I.  Many parents who have had young children with eczema have conquered it completely, and I remain hopeful that we will find the root of the problem and do the same.

Tolavana Hot Springs

Our trip to Tolavana Hot Springs did not start out as fantastic as it ended.  We were packed and ready to go, and our oldest son started vomiting--five times--for several hours.  My husband's homework was not complete.  It had been a long and stressful week.  I had slept in and had also forgotten my warm mitten at a friend's house the day before.  But, we could not stay home.  This was our trip of the year, the trip we had booked long ago, and something I had wanted to do for a very long time.  And coincidently, it was also Easter weekend.  Just as we pulled out of the garage, our son mentioned that he had puked into a bowl in the back of the car.  I took a breath, went into the house to wash it, and then came back outside.  We continued on, an hour and a half behind schedule.

We made it to the Tolavana Trail parking lot and everyone took off on the 11.2 mile trail to the cabin, except me and the baby.  Not knowing the trail, we decided to wait until the others had experienced it first.  Imagine baby and me, 100 miles in the middle of nowhere looking at sunny snow-covered hillsides.  It was quiet, calm, and beautiful.  Now, imagine the rest of the gang:  a boy who only had four saltines and a bit of water all day, weak from the flu holding up a heavy helmet and riding in front of his grandpa, a tiny three year old boy at nap time, prone to falling asleep on the trail riding in front of his dad, and grandma, the most nervous of all, on her new snow-machine that she is afraid to drive because it reacts more quickly than she likes.  At this point, as I waited in the van for two and a half hours, I watched the crew who had rented the cabin the night before return to the parking lot.  I was very anxious to know how things were going.  Even though I realized I had forgotten my snowpants, it was warm.  I thought back about how I had told them to take their time, and I was optimistic.

Before I knew it, my husband had returned, a changed man.  Grandpa had lost his trailer, grandma had crashed into him, two separate events, and the trail was sketchy in places, but the cabin was nice and everyone had arrived safely.  My husband brought the baby and me to join the others on a somewhat thrilling trail ride.  From this point forward, the trip continued to surpass our expectations.

Part of me fantasizes about raising our family in a small cabin.  There is only one or two rooms to sweep.  That same small footprint forces us to play games together and forces us to seek freedom outdoors.  At home, there is television, video games, and way too many toys.  There are also several rooms in which to seek solitude.  Often, the kids do not stay outside as long as I would like because there are too many things to draw them inside.  I guess I am not the only one who feels this way because there is a book a friend gave me for my birthday called "Last Child in the Woods:  Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder."  The book describes that in our kids' generation, versus ours or our parents', the conveniences and comforts of technology have pulled the children away from the natural world that nourishes their souls.

I am often frustrated with other adults, often who have or have had small children of their own.  No matter where we go, people are offering our children food (which usually doesn't resemble real food), candy, and toys.  They do not seem to realize that a well nourished, properly developed child is completely happy just being.  Why can't a child, for example, sit and listen to church service, eat dinner, or ride on an airplane without being offered things?  Children do not need to feed their bodies with garbage between meals, and they do not need to play toys when there is snow or mud and sticks, for example.  How can a child use their imagination, reflect, and learn about the world if they are constantly engaged in distractions from it and from themselves and their own thought?  My friend recently explained to me that we (as in our generation and our parents' generation) want our kids to have all of the things that we could not have when we were kids.  Whatever the reason, it is a bit over the top.  Children are simple.  And my observation as a mom is that they are happier when they have less.

I will never forget how happy the boys were to be in the hotsprings, to be snow machining in the mountains, or to just walk in and out of the cabin as they like to help their dad bring in the wood, the spring water, or to explore.  If you ask me, serenity in nature surpasses all other feelings except for love.  Now, the snow is thawing and it will be messy for a while.  We are fully back into our our reality at home for a while.  I hope that our summer is filled with outdoor camping and cabin adventures as revitalizing as this one.

The Salcha River Cabin and the Arctic Oven

The weekend following our first outing with our Arctic Oven tent, my husband and his dad took our boys to the Salcha River Cabin.  My daughter and I stayed home and prepared her first series of baby foods after her usual soft boiled egg yolk:  chicken foot stock, chicken foot stock plus carrots, chicken foot stock plus carrots plus lactoferment whey, chicken foot stock plus carrots plus whey plus moose meat.  You can tell which way the baby books are going nowadays.  To think, the boys had to start off with rice cereal and canned vegetables, because no one told me why that may not be a good idea.  Thankfully, they turned out fine ... a little noisy, but fine :)

Anyway, back to the cabin, the cabin is about a seven mile jaunt by snow machine from the road, partially on state winter trial and partially on the Salcha River.  The boys learned that you need to keep you coat on in the cabin until you can't see your breath anymore.  My husband was able to snowshoe a pad for our tent so that it would provide a solid base for our camping trip the following weekend.  The little boys came back rejuvenated.  I guess they both fell asleep on the snow machine ride back to the truck and they stopped for pizza on the way home.

So, when we arrived to stay for the night, the tent went up easily, and the boys were already acquainted with the cabin.  It is really fun to watch the kids enjoy a new habitat.  They loved that they could touch the ceiling, see the steam coming from their food, and take a ladder to their bed.  There are too many photos to post, but even though it was a big cold, they did some sledding down onto the river.  Next time, if the load is not already too full, I would like to bring my skis.  Again, the stars were amazing.  It would have been nice to stay for two nights, instead of one, but alas Monday came.

The Tanana River Trip with the Arctic Oven

Winter in Fairbanks is confining.  It's not like other wintery places, where you can spend significant time outside in the snow.  It is just too cold or too dark, even with the best snow gear.  I encouraged our oldest son to play violin after he showed interest, for this reason.  Music is one way that people of any age can socialize, express themselves, and challenge themselves no matter the temperature or the quantity of light.  A few other activities, such as swimming, reading, and many other arts come to mind.  But, surely, you can't ski or bike (two of my favorite things to do) very easily the entire year around.  And you sure can't camp very easily all year around unless you own or rent a cabin.  And cabins ... they don't move, so you are stuck staying at the same location over and over again.  Me, I like to try new places.  I never like to bike the same route or camp in the same spot.  You probably won't see me buying plane tickets to the same place unless there is family there that we need to visit.  There are too many new things to see and far too little time.

I tried winter camping once.  I went with the Outdoor Adventures group at the local University to hike in the mountains with snowshoes on my feet and our gear on my back.  I was in my early twenties, around eight years ago, and it was still very tough.  I was cold.  I was in pain.  I decided that it is for the more hardy than I.  I do not like to snowshoe, and I do not like camping with only a candle to warm my tent.  

In fact, there are many things that I do not like about camping.  On top of the fact that I do not like to be cold or in pain, I do not like to sleep on a hard ground or battle mosquitos.  So, when my husband said that he was seriously considering buying an Arctic Oven, I thought about it for quite a while and then finally said to go for it.  It is one toasty way in which to incorporate the outdoors and take a break from the norm.  It's too heavy and large to pack on your back so you have to take either a car or snow machine, and in winter the floor is too cold to sleep on without mats or cots so it is sure to be comfortable.  And, best of all, it can go anywhere any type of vehicle can take it.  This seemed to be our ticket to the outdoors in the winter.  And in the summer ... until the boys are old enough to go backpacking.

Our first trip was about eight miles down the Tanana River from our local boat landing.  We were close to being within cell-phone range.  I strapped my daughter onto my chest with a stretchy Boba Wrap and covered her with her great-grandfather's Carhart and hopped on the machine behind my husband.  She fell asleep right away on the snow machine rides, and she loved to look around inside of the tent and play with the zippers on the sleeping bags.  She loved getting all of the attention from mom and dad, while her brothers where staying at grandma and grandpa's house.  As the temperature fell from about 15 degrees to about -20 degrees and my husband learned to regulate the woodstove and the vents in the tent, we went from being in our underwear to being a comfortable temperature.  They don't call them ovens for nothing.

It was stressful at times for my husband.  Because I have a baby to hold, there is really not anything that I can do to help set up and take down the tent.  Putting up this tent in four feet of snow is a lot of physical work.  And on top of it, this was our first haul with this snow machine.  Would the eighteen year old machine make it with our heavy load?  Could we find a spot above the river to create a pad for the tent without getting the snow machine stuck in the deep snow?  Could he get the tent up before we got cold?  Would the tent catch on fire?  Would we have enough wood to last us the entire night?  Would we be warm enough when the temps drop in the night?  Would we get back safely?  Yes, of course, everything turned out very well.  It was wonderful.  It is these variables that make life interesting.  Part of the excitement of camping is not knowing where you will end up or what the weather will bring.  I finally got to spend some time on the Tanana River, and we finally got to spend significant time outside enjoying the blue and starry skies of interior Alaska.  We couldn't wait to go again.

Our Oldest is Five!

When our son was born, five years ago today, I was truly amazed that he had all of his finger and all of his toes.  I expected there to be a major obstacle but he has impressed, surprised us, made us laugh through the years.  Today, with his music, his reading, his imagination and ideas, he continues to amaze.  We are blessed.

Minnesota Trip Number . . . 13

We are in Alaska, now.  My daughter is sitting next to me on the recliner, in the dark, in front of the woodstove.  She is so content to just sit with me, lie down with me, hang with me.  I wonder how long these days will last.  During the last month she has become so much more aware and strong; within the next month, she will have her first food and she will be sitting and soon after that crawling.  Although she still likes to cuddle now, soon she might not like to sit tight, and I will miss that.  It is 7:30 in the morning and it is just getting light outside.  We are taking advantage of the fact that it's our third day back home and first morning where the boys haven't been up at 5:00 in the morning (8:00 Central Standard Time).  I guess I jinxed myself, because right as I was typing that last sentence they awakened; the lights are on, and their chatter has already made it very noisy in the house.  Our just-turned-three-year-old asked me to put on his belt; he is pretending to be the dad.  Our almost-five year old is pretending to be the grandpa, wearing a batman costume, both shooting pretend birds with plastic pistols.  Their imaginations are still outstanding.

A sleigh ride

I think it's safe to say that we felt completely at home at our home-away-from-home in Minnesota.  I did not miss late January or February in central Alaska, at all.  The weather was nice while we were gone but not as nice as it was in MN and of course the sunshine was not as strong.  There was one day in Minnesota when the boys and grandpa were grooming ski trails with the snow machine that I just sat on the south porch, opened my coat, took off my hat and sat in the warm sunshine.  I am pretty sure that was the warmest the sun has made me since July.  The first few times I skied the trails, I became incredibly hot.  The day that we had our son's third birthday party, which included sledding, it was 30 degrees, which was 80 degrees warmer than it was at home in Alaska.  People who say it's cold and dark in Minnesota just don't know what they're talking about, especially now that snow is more rare and the summer climate is warmer too.  I think it's something Alaskan say to justify their choice to live here.

Our four year old son goofing off for 30 minutes in front of
100 people at one of grandpa's retirement parties

Things are a little different each time we visit Minnesota, but basically the same.  As the kids grow (and as we have more kids), the spare bedrooms are rearranged to accommodate them.  My parents have things figured out and therefore had the details taken care of before we arrived.  Mom had prepared a respite for the boys in the basement, complete with happy hour peanut crushing area, craft area, and free play area.  We all split the kitchen duties.  I missed my dishwasher, but having four cooks in the house vs the one and a half I have at home, and having mom there to make our beds and do our laundry more than made up that inconvenience.  And now that my dad is retired, we are able to spend even more time with him so that is the icing on the cake.

Almost three and first walk down the diving board

Like at home, life in Minnesota was pretty laid back.  I am dreading next year, when I may (or may not) have to drive our son to school each day and pick him up.  Getting three children ready to go early in the morning, is not my style, at least not yet, and I'm starting to think Kindergarten is overrated.  The day we were in Minnesota that I started this blog post (and obviously didn't get very far), we made sourdough muffins for breakfast and then headed to the nearest post office, about 7 miles away, to mail Valentine bracelets the boys had made for their friends home in Alaska.  We tried to visit the thrift shop, but it was closed.  My husband finished his homework, while one boy napped and while the other hung up a bird house, plowed snow, and fed the chickens and horses with grandpa.  Yes, we have now been to MN 13 times and my parents have been up here 13 times (in about 8 years) ... and the visits do not get any less excellent as time passes.

Our well-behaved crew and our stuff;  my first time flying with three children

Well, you can tell it's difficult to blog with three children.  My thoughts are pretty scattered.  But, I wanted to get something down before the warm feelings of Minnesota are gone and I am completely back into reality.  I spent yesterday going through mail and this morning on the telephone dealing with paperwork.  I have been doing laundry and makign bone broth and am about to start a batch of nut granola and I hope start on the fun stuff ... the braided rug, the quilt, and a purse.  I am not sure how much time I will have.  I have to do some extra research on vaccines and camera lenses plus I have a few brand new books sitting here that I am itching to read.  Winter is coming to a close.  This next month will be consumed by camping and as soon as summer arrives, I will not want to be inside at all.   

Another New Year: 2013

Christmas Eve, after candlelight church

We are now well into 2013, and I am still in denial that it is here.  It seems like just yesterday we became pregnant with our little girl, but that was over a whole year ago now.  We now have the chubbiest little girl I have ever seen.  How can we be so fortunate to have three healthy, developing children?  It still amazes me, when I look at the family that we have created.

Christmas Morning, after Santa had arrived

I often feel like we are not getting much accomplished (besides cook healthy meal, clean, reheat healthy meal, clean, etc), but then I look back through the photo books we have created and I see a lot.  This past year, I played in a band, learned how to use a scroll saw, and baked a carrot cake from scratch.  I sewed a piece of clothing and learned how to cut squares for a quilt.  Our older son learned how to ski and ice skate, overcame his fear of heights at the playground, sounded out words, and played a song on his violin.  Our younger son learned his colors, to write his first letters, to chew gum, and he was potty trained.  The boys built a tree house with their grandfather and spent over two months with their MN grandparents, who we are so blessed to have a large part of our lives.  We dug our first snow tunnels with the kids, went on boat rides, expanded our gardens, and made sauerkraut.  My husband moved 15 cord of wood to the woodshed, learned how to saw logs, mounted antlers, took on new roles at work, and made some gorgeous cutting boards.

I took the Christmas Tree decorations down just now and found myself reflecting on my childhood and the  few years of our own parenthood.  It goes by too quickly.  As we try to hold onto time, all the kids want to do is grow up so they can do the things that we can do!  Here's to another year of health and learning.

Holiday Mixups

I feel like a failure today.  I realized this morning that three gifts I had chosen online a couple of weeks ago, gift wrapped, with carefully typed notes, and had sent to my parents house were never sent because I selected an old credit card number.  Despite the fact that I was up early, wrapping gifts for my boys, I was already feeling lousy because I am shipping our distant moms' homemade gift today, the last day the USPS says you can ship for it to arrive by Christmas Day; I am obviously not very confident in their guarantee.  And to top it off, that is not even all of the gifts.  Some of the gifts for 4 sets of grandparents will not even be made because they involve photos that I cannot get from the Post Office because the line now involves a two hour wait.  I already waited once last week for 30 minutes and another day for 40 minutes and that was plenty.  I also feel kind of badly because I'm not sure that we will be able to retrieve any of the packages that people have sent to us.  I think next year if we are not all together on Christmas, I will either have to plan much better or use Fed Ex or UPS instead of the USPS.  It is sad to see the postal service cutting more and more employees and hours each year and people walking into the post office and having to walk away because they can't afford to wait in the lines.  Anyway, I have to admit that I have never been very good at gift giving.  My husband, on the other hand, is great so I am trying to learn from him.

It's in the -40s again, but we enjoyed a warm week and a whole bunch of new snow.  In the meantime, I made some new dishes:  mince-meat pie and figgy pudding with rum sauce.  The pie especially involved and one of the times that the power went out due to the heavy snow, I left my sealed canning jars of carefully prepared mincemeat pie filling on the counter overnight.  I fed it to us anyway and it was fine, but the morning I saw that I had left it out, I felt completely defeated because I thought it might have gone bad.  To top it off, this was one of the dishes I was making for a party and leaving it out meant I would have to make it again.  Maybe my dedication to mastering this new dish partially explains my tardiness with the packages.


I did have a couple of successes.  I threw a nice party last evening with some of my best mom friends.  We each made traditional holiday dishes from countries of our choice.  I received a gift that contained items I can use and that I truly love:  a beautiful home-made jean apron, kitchen towels, home-made bottle cap earrings, and a book on how to cook Alaska's fish.  I purchased a shirt in my son's favorite color and tie (which he had been requesting) for his school Christmas program and he stood in the middle of a packed church filled with cameras and video camera's and sang loudly and proudly.  He declared before the program, "I am going to look so nice!"  When I asked him if he was nervous he didn't know what I was talking about.  During our warm stretch, I was finally able to take a photo of my baby girl at low(er) film speed.  The photo above by the tree, inside, when it was -40 was taken at ISO 800, but the second photo of baby in the snow was taken at ISO 200.  And the church was very dark and I had to use ISO 1600 or flash.  The success here is that I have one high clear photo of my baby girl's blue eyes and rosy cheeks.  I did send out 50 Christmas cards this year but even that was not quite enough; local friends will not receive them.  But, it is much better than last year, when I did not send any at all.  I should mention also that I feel like our lives are full of good friends.  We have been able to play, eat, and converse with many close friends this week and that has really brightened the dark days.

It is -45, our coldest temp of the year, and the check engine light is on in my van.  I am thankful that the only things I have to do today is love my kids, make soup, and drive to the post office.

My first pie

Despite that fact that it's been one of the coldest Novembers on record (hmm, I seem to remember last winter had some record breaking months also), I have been having a good time.  The kids seem healthy, except for one brief fever, which gives me time to focus on keeping them healthy, trying new things, and enjoying them.  I am incredibly proud of my husband and all that he achieves as he wears so many hats and I remain thankful for his support and encouragement in our journey through life together.  And I think I am finally getting to the point where I can entertain myself.  What do I mean by that?  Well, I have had a constant push my whole life from either school or work, parents, building the house, you name it:  something big.  I guess you could say now I have a push from my kids, they're big of course, but to me it doesn't (yet) feel the same as having to report to a job or write papers or take exams or play in that concert.  Maybe that's because everything is going smoothly.  Maybe not. When I graduated from college the second time a year and a half ago, I had to read the newspaper every night just to fill the gap.  Well, after about a year it seemed like I was drifting away.  The newspapers were not being read because I had started gradually to fill the gaps by reading books instead.  This was new.  I have never been the book-a-month or book-a-week for pleasure type of person.  I have had periods throughout my life where I would read a bunch of books.  I read 5 books about Egypt before I went there in college.  I also read about 10 books written by Peace Corp volunteers when I was planning to serve in Africa.  When I became pregnant the first time, I read a variety of books on natural childbirth and new baby care.  But, now, I have been reading whatever I please, and it is so much fun.  This month I read Cure Tooth Decay (Nigel), Wheat Belly (Davis), The Devil in the Milk (Woodford), The Vegetarian Myth (Keith), and Last Child in the Woods (Louv).

On another note, my kitchen journey advances.  On my 30th birthday, last year, I cooked pancakes for the first time in my life.  The kids were thrilled.  I haven't made them since.  The truth is, my husband is really the pancake and waffle maker of the clan and me making them on occasion won't change that.  But, at least I can say I tried it.  I also taught myself how to make scrambled eggs.  I have made them a few times since because I do really like scrambled eggs and so do the kids, even though my husband is the breakfast master.  I think that is kind of cool.  My dad was always the one who made us breakfast when I was growing up also.  It is kind of neat to have dad responsible for one major part of the day.  Anyway, I digress.  I am 31 now, so I figured it was about time I step it up and learn how to bake a pie crust.  A friend was going to teach me, but she is traveling the world so it didn't happen.  I had to teach myself.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I did it with a baby strapped onto my chest, after all.  I want to make pasties, and chicken pot pies, and moose mincemeat pies with our moose, and hopefully next year also with our meat chickens and pig share.  You see, I like a meal that fits into one LARGE dish.  Anything that can fit into a large pot, a large casserole, and now a pie pan makes for easier cleanup, easier storage, fewer dishes in general, and you said it MORE LEFTOVERS, which all means less work for me and more time to ... well, tomorrow morning it will be making king shoes, a king crown, and king ring for my boy, probably while my husband cooks us eggs and sausages.  Every day is a new adventure with the kids and in the kitchen and over the last year I have added many new recipes to our table that I will probably continue to make for years.

Well, this is little more than a stream of consciousness at this point.  It's midnight thirty, and the thought of everyone else sleeping soundly has me drifting off also, but I wanted to be sure that I didn't let too much time pass before posting.  My goal at this point, with three kids, is once a month.  This last month, we continued with preschool activities, entered our second month of violin lessons which means A started playing his real violin, and sweet P, who is now chubbier than ever, starting cooing a lot.  N remains the clown of the family, always making us smile and laugh when we least expect it.  We took a vacation to Anchorage and stayed in a house while we visited the water park, zoo, and museum.  We enjoyed perfectly clear skies on the entire drive through the mountains, both ways, and near the Cook Inlet.  We said goodbye for the winter to Great-grandma Carol as she spoiled the boys and the girl with new coats and a toy John Deere riding lawn dump/mower.  The boys built a snow igloo in the front yard with their dad and spent plenty of time playing hard until they were completely exhausted at their grandparents house on the other side of town.  We all, even the baby, attended an opera for kids about aliens.  I tried to knit a hat and it turned out to have a bunch of holes in it so I quit.  I went to the hot springs with some girl friends, and my husband had a night with his guy friends.  My man and I went on three dates and tried out three new restaurants.  I'm sure we did many other things.  We used to say in our house that the days are long but the years are short.  That is no longer the case.  Even the days seem short ... every single one of them.  There is just so much that we want to do.  It is hard to stop looking forward to the next project, the next event, the many goals, and just enjoy the moment.