What our Kids do for Fun on Smoky Days

Dress up and go into a ship, cave or a giant's mouth...

A fan generated wind tunnel...

Watch out for the lion!

 My oldest daughter remembered when they were small they enjoyed building a wind tunnel out of a queen sized bed sheet and a fan.  Yes, that's it.  So simple and so much fun.  She weighted down the edges of the sheet with a few folded heavy blankets. 

The younger ones played a long time inventing different scenarios in which they might find themselves enclosed inside something.  I've read somewhere along the way that children are learning to creatively solve problems when they are imagining themselves in different situations.  So nice to know that our lions, tigers, orphan babies, or tea party goers are engaged in active play and learning at the same time.

Can't you just imagine yourself in a flower garden?  Oh the smell...

 A great way to preserve your child's art is to take pictures.  Another friend gave me this tip for not feeling guilty about throwing it away.  You can keep a copy forever this way!  Although I will always keep the original for these pictures, they are just too good and too cute to throw away. 

Fireball's impression of his new baby brother....

I love it!  What our children can interpret through art is priceless!  When was the last time you sat and drew anything as an adult?  Why do we stop communicating through simple art?  Sending cards just isn't the same thing is it?  Time to sit down and draw with your kids, even if you can only manage a stick figure, they'll think it's fun and cherish the time you've spent with them, at the table, talking, laughing and simply drawing. 

Another fun thing we've started somewhere along the way is purchasing cards from our kids.  They fold a paper and draw on the front and there's a great card to send for a thank-you or a birthday.  Who doesn't appreciate a child's drawing?  I'd rather add some change to my child's piggy bank, then line the pocket of a mass producing card manufacturer.  Not that I don't enjoy a store bought card, either, but you'll have to admit they are ridiculously expensive for what you're going to get out of it.

Well, that's all our latest and greatest idea's for now.....

Making Mozzerella Cheese, Moving a Piano, and Smoky Skies

Heating the milk...

 Our Pastor and his family came over for dinner last week and this is his wife showing me how to make cheese from her goats milk.  I've always wanted to learn and it seemed quite easy; just needing a bit of time to heat the milk, but 30 minutes isn't bad!  What I really appreciate and enjoy about our Pastor and Family is that they are real.  They built their log cabin, work their land, raise animals, run a logging business and still have time to minister and encourage the body of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps they know how best to encourage because they live like the rest of us, not above, just walking beside.

Stirring the milk...

 Here the milk is getting stirred with an up and down motion, which is important for making it as well as the rennet has been put in.  It began to clot a bit and then it didn't take long for it to become a wet sticky mass of cheese at the bottom of the milk pot.  She scooped it out into a bowl and began to squeeze it dry.  You can salt it if you want and I think it tastes much better salted.  That's it!  It does take a lot of milk to get a little cheese.  Now I know why cheese is so expensive!

A piano arrives in time for my 40th birthday!

 It just so happened that our Pastor, in the suspenders, was available to help move the piano along with two more Dads and our two guys.  They pushed it up the steps on this make shift ramp.  Not to much heavy lifting and lots of help, now that's the way to move a piano!  What fun we've had playing on it all week.  I hope to continue giving lessons to the kids and add a new dimension to our family worship time and someday to share at church.

The sun barely visible due to smoke from all the fires...

One of the kids snapped this photo last week when Fairbanks was under a heavy layer of smoke.  It is so unnerving to breathe and smell smoke for days on end.  We were so glad when it cleared enough to see sunlight again.  It was so bad it made our throats sore and eyes water.  A ridiculous amount of acres have burned in Alaska this summer already.

Have a wonderful week everybody and thank God for smoke free skies!  As we approach the 4th of July, we have a statewide ban of any backyard fire pit fires, including charcoal fired B-ques.  Gas are O.K. and no fireworks this year.  Which, we don't normally do anyway because it's broad daylight out all night long!  We do fireworks on the 1st of January as it is dark enough to see them.

Underground Cave

Is this a tomb or a cave?

My oldest son has hand dug what started to be a hole in the ground.... it turned into a pit and is now an underground fort!  The only wild animals that have fallen into it have been a handful of shrews.  It has been an enjoyable project for our teenagers and the little ones love to play cars in the sandy talc like dirt.  It is so powder like when dry.  We think it is river silt from a long time ago.  The whole Tanana Valley used to be under water. 

Currently, our valley is covered with smoke from numerous fires.  Many villages and homes have been evacuated and the air quality is so bad here in Fairbanks it looks like fog but it's smoke and the back of our throats are raw.  It's like being around a constant campfire.  It is rather unnerving to be here right now. 

Wood bracing at the entrance

Big brother's little helper

Sleeping beauties

What would a good blog post be without another shot of our newest addition?  What fun and how the time passes....

Wild Horses, Giant Rhubarb, and Homemade Yogurt

We're free!

Running down the side of our house...

Stopping for a quick munch...

These horses were not really wild, as in living in the wild, but they were foot loose and fancy free.  They must belong to someone living near by.  It was quite the excitement when they came trotting through our property yesterday. The kids were sure they could saddle them up and take them for a ride, except we don't have any saddles and they would've had to catch them first!

Our first rhubarb harvest...

 My eldest son chopped it all up and we boiled it until soft with white grape juice and 2/3 cup of sugar.  Then we poured it over our sourdough waffles for breakfast.  It was delicious.  We got the idea to use fruit juice instead of sugar here at this post on making rhubarb juice without sugar GraceGardenandHomestead  If we ever get enough at once we're going to try their recipe too! 

Planting more potatoes

Our first batch of homemade yogurt

 Finally!  We found a yogurt recipe that works and you can make it in your giant crockpot.  We made 8 cups worth but you could make 12 at once.  Here's the link to the wonderful recipe at this most practical and fun blog..GraceGardenandHomestead

Look who's the last man standing...or awake!

Welcoming New Baby

We get to see the new baby...finally... what a long wait!

Still on the operating table but awake enough to snuggle!

First night spent in NICU...

Released to the nursery...

And into our loving Daddy's arms...

And into our proud Biggest Brother's arms...

And into our Big Sister's happy arms...

And into Fireball's excited arms....

And into new Big Sister's hopeful arms...

And in the surgeon's arms for the second time...

First hand squeeze from Daddy while a few minutes old...

Onto Mama's lap for some fresh air and sunshine at home...

We are so glad to be home and healthy and recovering from C-section and baby from a spontaneous pneumothorax.  He had an x-ray that revealed a small pocket of air in his chest cavity.  He spent the first night under a hood of oxygen with lots of other monitoring wires and an I.V. in his arm.  I couldn't hold him or feed him for the next 12 hours.  At least for the first day we got to spend time with him in our room, but we all soon realized he really did have a breathing problem and wasn't to interested in eating.  It was the longest night ever and Daddy spent most of it down at the NICU with his hand on our new Baby's chest.  He'd come back every so often with red rimmed eyes and blowing his nose and when I saw our little one the next morning completely hooked up to everything I cried as well.  Even though we knew at the time he would most likely be OK and not have to have a needle puncturing his side to drain the excess air, it was still difficult to be separated from him in this way. 

Finally sometime in the morning they let us hold him and eventually begin to nurse him.  He had to remain in NICU until Sunday, but they were so good about allowing us to come down and nurse him even with all the wires.  Then, they released him into our room Sunday at noon and he had a nurse check on him every hour until Monday.  His second x-ray showed almost no air left, treatment had worked, praise God for his mercies!

We were so grateful for all the hospital staff that helped to care for him and me during the entire stay.  It was the best C-section I've ever experienced and the quickest recovery ever!  Thank-you to all who were praying, it can only be explained as the grace of God.  The staff couldn't believe I didn't have to take narcotics for pain killers, I could hardly believe it myself.  This time they used super glue to seal the outside incision instead of staples or sutures.  Not even stereo strips!  The pain was and continues to be so much less day to day.  It's just amazing to see the grace of God in healing and recovery this time around.

We're all enjoying our new little baby boy, weighing in at 7lbs. 10 oz but lost almost a pound by the time we left the hospital.  It is within normal limits but always a concern for us until he shows steady weight gaining. 

Do you know what I like about bringing home a new baby?  All of life just stands still for awhile.  Nothing else seems important but eating, snuggling and sleeping.  Life gets wonderfully simple and outside pressures and stresses cease to exist.  Only if we could capture this peace every day!  Perhaps this is so much of the joy we experience with bringing home each of these precious little lives that God gifts to us?  Yes, there are late nights and household mess but somehow it just doesn't seem that important to have everything in it's place when a new one enters your household.  It's time for joy and wonder at the miracle of birth once again!