At Home…in Alaska

Archive for September, 2005

9/18/05 2 (M & L)

9/19/05 2 (F & L)

9/20/05 1 (M)

9/21/05 2 (M & L)

9/22/05 2 (F & L)

9/23/05 1 (L)

9/24/05 1 (F)

9/25/05 2 (F & L)

9/26/05 0

9/27/05 2 (M & L)

9/28/05 1 (M)

9/29/05 1 (L)

9/30/05 0

Our new neighbors began moving in Monday.

Our old neighbors (the second we’ve had in the house “down” from us) lived there for 4 1/2 years. (Half the time we’ve been here.) We’ll miss them. Not that we were terribly close but I’ll get more into why in a minute. Their last day was the 22nd. My parents were here and my mother and I were headed out to do errands but before we left I said goodbye and helped carry over an end table they gave us. They actually gave us quite a bit of stuff over the last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, we inherited most of their houseplants and about a half dozen boxes with glasswear, some dishes, mugs and a few other things. Last weekend, they cleaned out their cupboards and pantry - what a blessing that was with all the “hollow legs” we have around here. This past Tuesday they cleaned out their fridge and freezer! What timing God has huh?! I had to put over-flow that wouldn’t fit into our small fridge freezer into a large cooler. That same day my parents call and say they are coming up the next day to get our freezer for us! I put the cooler on the deck in the cool night air and everything was still nicely frozen Wednesday before they arrived. (Actually, one or two packages on top were just starting to get soft but not enough that refreezing was going to spoil anything.)

The ironic thing is is that I had totally torn apart the pantry a few weeks before and had taken a couple of weeks to put it back together. Then, when I had it back together, I totally cleared out all my cabinets to wash and reorganize them. So, the pantry had plenty of space and now the cabinets were (almost) ready for receiving “new” items! I had just finished cleaning out the dining area too which was a blessing in disguise because now there was room for the freezer and for me to “process” all this “new” food stuff! Wow. How God works…

I still don’t have my kitchen totally put back together. I hope to have it totally completed by the end of this weekend. It always amazes me how fast you can tear something apart and how looong the putting back together seems to take. *ugh*

Anyway, so we inherited a tv stand and a couple of endtables too. My living room is more and more like a warehouse every day! LOL I realize we could have said no but how rude that would have been. Plus, we have no quams about burning old furniture we don’t want…no kidding! Actually, since we are in the midst of this remodeling still, we don’t mind having second hand stuff as it tends to get a little beaten up in a short time.

I’m beginning to ramble a bit here so on to our new neighbors again. We (meaning mostly me but my dh too) aren’t sure we are happy about having these new neighbors. When we moved in 8 (nearly 9) years ago, the original owner of that house still lived there. I’m not sure how many children she may have had but she was divorced and had a late teenage then early adult son still living with her by the time she sold to our most recent old neighbors. The neighbors that just moved also had “grown and gone” children…except an early adult son that still lived with them while attending the local university. We’ve never lived near people who had young children…even when we lived in the condos. There was one little boy who was about 2-4yrs when our oldest was newborn to 2yrs. Because of the age and gender differences, they didn’t play together.

My point, we’ve never had to “worry” about the “can we go play/can they come play” thing. No passing of bad ideas/attitudes/etc. from neighbor children whose parents don’t hold to the same values we do.

These new neighbors have two little boys (so I’m told) about 4 and 6 yrs (approx.). I know it’s too soon to judge - they’ve only just moved in for heaven’s sake! But, my pristine little world has been invaded is my initial reaction. A close homeschool friend told me not to worry, they’ll probably be in daycare or public school all day. Wow, the guilt in thinking I might like it if they were! I mean, I don’t want to subject my own children to that so I shouldn’t I wish it on anyone else… Then, I thought it might be cool if they homeschooled. Not that they’d have to be as serious about school hours as we do because of the ages and number of their children…but they could understand more than not what we had going on. Even if they were in public school though (or homeschooled), there’s the weekends. I’m not an isolationist…but, man, we had it so easy for so long!! LOL

I’m sure it will all be fine. Their moving van was there Mon. from 4pm to about 11pm. There was a smaller truck there yesterday for a brief time. We have yet to meet them (actually, dh briefly introduced himself when he saw the old neighbor and the new neighbor together on the 23rd - handing over the key after cleaning I think) but I’m sure before the week is out we will. Give them some time to settle in and enjoy the excitement of a new home. One with lots of space inside and out (they have two lots) and a good view (they are at the brow of the hill with the Inlet spread out in front). (Yes, we wished we could have bought it. $392K was a little steep though!) I suppose it would be neighborly for me to bring over cookies or something. Get off on a good footing…

Well, I have children to feed and a kitchen to put back together amongst other things. Must away!

A blessed day to all!

To our sweet B.!

As she keeps reminding us, this is her last year of “little ages”… *sigh* How well we know that! She’s the one more like her mother in looks (and some actions) and even talks about not wanting to grow up and move away just as I did. Bless your heart dear B.! We love you so much!

Just 4 days shy of her 5th month bday, P. officially pushed herself up on her hands and knees for the first time!! I witnessed her achieve this new milestone just as I was about to get out of bed this morning. She was close yesterday and I helped her a little by supporting her tummy with my hand. She’s a quick study I tell you! Show her one time and she’s got it! LOL

She’s been drawing her knees up and pushing herself forward for two months now. Been turning herself in one direction or the other for about a month. (Began rolling over when she was a couple of months old also.)

I do believe this is the earliest we’ve had a baby do these things…although Q. was pretty anxious to get up and get moving too…I’ll have to go back into the “archives” and verify…

A bittersweet moment to say the least!

Before

Ignore our chipping painted floor. Part of the on going remodeling work…

After

A different perspective.

The new “sideboard.”

For Maisy - Our new family member in all her glory!
(A Frigidaire btw.)

We were supposed to go to my parents place this week, again, but it was postponed, again. My dad has training for a new job and was busy most of the week except Wed. and yesterday and will be through the weekend. He has some work for my dh to do but wasn’t going to be available to help with it himself so they decided to wait on it. My mother had taken this week off and we were hoping to spend some time picking cranberries, etc. Oh well.

They decided to come up Wednesday though and that was a good thing because we finally got our freezer! I’m thrilled beyond words! (Almost. ) ( Here is where I talked about how it was coming about after so many years on my “wishlist.” ) They arrived Wednesday night (8pm) and, after settling the children in with my father, my mother and I headed to Lowes (9pm) before they closed (10pm). Dh wasn’t available as he was at the Men’s meeting for our church. No problem as the guys at Lowes could load it for us.

There’s actually a new twist that I don’t seemed to have mentioned though… One of my parents other yearly clients decided that he wanted a freezer to keep there himself and told them not to bother moving it that he would send a check to cover the cost of a new compriable one!! Get this - since this freezer was purchased about 5 years ago prices have gone down a bit and we were able to get a larger nicer one for the same price!! (I am just in awe how God worked this out for us! It was definitely not in our “budget” and yet I have a brand new nice freezer sitting behind me humming away in the dining room! )

So, there we are with a freezer now slightly too big to fit into the back of my parents van. Again, not a problem for us women. Buy some rope and tie the back door down. It only stuck out a little over a foot so it wasn’t too much of a big deal… Just drove home a bit slower and all was well.

Once home, my dad was there to help unload which I do think would have a little much for just my mother and myself. That thing is heavy. So, between the three of us, we got it to the middle of the garage. It was around 11pm or a little after and I was beat as I have been getting up earlier and not sleeping too well/soundly. So, we unpacked it right there as we had stuff that needed to go into it asap (which is another story I’ll tell in another post… ) and let dh figure it out when he got home.

Again, I’m so very thrilled with our new freezer and all the praise goes to our Lord!! It was all His kind and merciful doing. Thank you Father!!

9/13/05 1 (Miriam)

9/14/05 2 (Miriam and Fluff-?)

9/15/05 2 (Miriam and Fluff-forsure)

9/16/05 1 (Miriam)

9/17/05 2 (Fluff and Lacey)

Good ole reliable Miriam! She deserves a day off I guess.

Activity in the schoolroom today!

There are even MORE new products in our store!! Check ‘em out when you get a chance.

We are listing items at Ebay pretty regularly too.

Busy times here for this sah-home educating - wahmama!