At Home…in Alaska

Archive for February, 2006

Another fast month! Doesn’t help that it was a couple of days shorter.

Snow Report/Weather
More snow than we’ve had the previous few months…but some warm weather to melt it right away too!

2/01 8″ approx.

2/05 A Chinook blows in over night - quite literally. Temp is 32 ° F @ 8am when I check! It warmed up a bit more and started raining around 1pm!

2/06 More rain again this morning!

2/07 Snow today - ½ “.

2/10 1 ” of snow in morning. Temp 46 ° F in the late afternoon!

2/12 3 ” of snow.

2/14 High of 50 ° F today! Sat on deck a while - kids playing in shirtsleeves!

2/15 High of 54 ° F!

The weather turned colder again the last week and a half of the month.

Egg Report/Chickens
2/16 1 - L. (very small)

2/17 1 - L. (small)

2/20 Chickens got to play outside today! I would have let them out last week if I had been thinking of it. Guess the nice weather had me in too much shock to think clearly! LOL The temp was still in the mid - hi 40’s so they really enjoyed themselves.

Children
2/05 Another potty training victory!! I thought our second son would be the first boy ever to still be wearing diapers when he was 20! We’ve actually had him in training pants for quite a while and it was a toss up every day whether he’d stay dry and/or non-poopy all day. 95% of the time he stayed dry but invariably he would do the typical “find-a-spot-alone-and-do-the-deed.” I don’t “do” wipes, etc. diaper changes once a child is past a certain age - I hose them off with the hand held shower head. When dh takes a turn, he just puts him in a regular shower. I guess it was warm, cozy and a lot of fun - something to look forward too. Finally, I had it and said we had to do something different because this was getting ridiculous! We both knew what the other was thinking and after two or three “cool” showers our ds has not had a poopy “accident” in a week!!

End of month update - Q. is officially potty trained!! The whole rest of the month he continually used the toilet whenever the urge struck - for for #1 and #2! Yay! That one last pull-up left in the bathroom drawer makes me a little sad and nostalgic…just a little. I miss his babyness and his toddlerness is fading fast…but since I can’t change that, changing those “older toddler” diapers can go by just as fast as far as I’m concerned!

2/28 To end the month on another positive and wonderful note, P. slept through the night again (last night) finally!! This second tooth has really been a doozy…it’s still not in yet…but hasn’t been causing her any pain lately. She got a nice full belly at dinner and I took extra time to nursed her a long while at bedtime and she slept from Midnight to 8am!! I was able to get up at 7am and have a nice little Quiet Time before she awoke and the other children started stirring. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself after 7 hours of sleep. Also, she’s just a very light sleeper and it seems the slightest sounds wake her. If dh comes to bed later than we do, the creaks of the floor wake her. If dh coughs in his sleep, it wakes her. *sigh* The blankets were in a jumble one night so I sat up to straighten them…and it woke her…too much rustling of blankets?! *sigh again* Anyway, our third daughter was like this and eventually grew out of it. In fact, many times when we wake her to use the bathroom in the night she is quite literally sleep-walking! So, there’s hope… I’m still enjoying her babyness sooo much though that most of the time it truly doesn’t bother me. The times of having babies in our house will pass just as fast or faster than this past month (and nearly a year!) have and I won’t wish them away for anything - not even a full nights sleep!!

All in all, February went by too fast as the months usually do these days. But, it was a good month. Things are still tough, still working on some heavy decisions, still feeling an incredible amount of stress…but when I count my blessings I can’t help but fall on my knees in deep gratitude and prayers of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father who does all things well…and in His own time.

These featured homeschool products in our store might be useful for someone reading here. We even have a special sale going on until the end of the month!

Yes! I’m scaling that peak again…and couldn’t be happier to be doing so!

We went 11 days without doing laundry. I finally washed four loads and hung one out on our large deck railing. I called dh and suggested maybe getting one of those “accordian type” drying racks because it’s been really nice out and I like hanging laundry outside anyway. (I couldn’t find the rope we used last year - think dh used it for something - or I would have rigged up something myself.) Anyway, when he came home, he made the time to finally look at those dryers. Things were getting desperate around here I tell ya. He got one going and, so far, we have dry laundry coming out of it!

I’m going to finish drying those loads I have done and get back on track with laundry tomorrow all the while praising God for His help in reviving an old servant!

2-3 cups kefir
1 banana
½ cup homecanned cranberry sauce (cranberry picking is a favorite fall activity )
¼ - ½ cup maple syrup (depending on the tartness of your kefir/cranberries or sweetness preference)

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Adjust ingredients to taste. Enjoy!

While Spring is still a couple of months away for us here in Alaska, we’ve had some beautiful sunny days to inspire us!

We know many of you in the Lower 49 will be experiencing Spring soon though.

So, in the spirit of things, we want to clear out some products and make room for fresh ones!

Nearly everything has been reduced - most products are now $1.00 or less!

If you’ve been putting off ordering for some reason, now’s the perfect opportunity. Don’t wait - the sale only runs through the end of February!

Happy Pre-Spring!
~Warmly, T. Hunt

ps - If you are on a message board or email list with me, email for more special savings!

The temp reached 50 ° F today! Know what that means don’t you? Shirt sleeves! Woohoo!

I sat out on the deck (in the foot and a half strip under the eaves that’s not covered with snow) and enjoyed a cup of tea and a homeschool catalog. The children played…in the snow…in shirt sleeves. Granted, they still had their snowboots and mittens on. I even attempted some gardening…for about 30 secs! *ha* But, as I was contemplating emptying the 3 left over pots on the deck - 1 tomato and 2 flower - I noticed that the Dianthus that was in one had new fresh green (what a wonderful color!) leaves!! No kidding. It’s not even the end of February yet!

The mountains have the least amount of snow on them I’ve ever seen at this time of year. And, we drove out to our friends’ house (where we had Thanksgiving dinner) on Sunday and I couldn’t believe how little snow was on the ground from here to there. Amazing. We did hit some snow on the way home but all in all it didn’t add much to the total year accumulation.

After living here all my life, I of course know better than to have such wishful thoughts…buuuuut, wouldn’t it be great if it didn’t snow another flake and we really truly had an early spring?!?!

Ok, pull me back out of the clouds. There is bound to be a good dumping or two left before this winter’s over. *sigh* I need to go oogle that Dianthus some more.

I recently read The Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook by Gerald Lestz. (OOP - I asked Jeeves and came up with a few resellers links though.)

Yes, I know it wasn’t listed in the sidebar. I’ve actually read quite a few books this past year that I haven’t listed there just because they looked good, got them from the library, cruised through them and didn’t have the time to list them. Maybe that’s why I haven’t gotten through the books I do have listed very fast?! LOL I’d say so! *nodding head*

Pardon that aside… Anyway, it’s a small book and thus a quick read. It gives a brief history of the Amish (as well as mentioning Lutheran and Reformed) at the beginning and then has many old Amish recipes. The author states,

Many of the recipes in this book date back to the open hearth when the fireplace was not only the source of heat and light but the oven, as well. Some are more recent and others have never been published or listed anywhere.

There are also many interesting anecdotal quips relating to various recipes such as how the recipe came about or how long it’s been in a particular family, or little tips that make a recipe better, etc.

My oldest daughter read through it too and found many recipes she wants us to try. We’ll share them here if we do.

It’s amazing what a bit of sunshine can do to a person!

The temp reached 46 ° F this afternoon! The inch of snow that fell this morning is gone and then some! The sun streaming in the windows lifted everyone’s spirits and chores were tackled with vigor and smiles! Motivation is still high and I’m tackling a couple of “those boxes” while washing dishes and cleaning of the counter (for the millionth time…or was it billionth? ) while the children are outside playing for the first time in ages! I think I can count on one hand the number of times they’ve played outside this winter due to the cold temps. Nothing out of the ordinary really…but this year there just wasn’t the heart in any of us to “get out there anyway.” It’s nice to see them wearing off some “cabin fever!” Even the 2yo (nearly 3) is out there having a grand time! Last year, you could barely get him out the door…and if you did, he’d stand on the front porch for 10 min. until he was cold and then would be crying to come in. Can’t blame him considering his age of course…but then he was the first of ours to do that. All the others tentatively and then enthusiastically took to playing in the snow. Right now…that same boy is wallowing in it! (I just got pics to prove it too!)

Going to cut this short - must keep this motivated feeling and really impress my dh when he gets home!

it pours. And, I’m not talking about our recent weather.

I’ve written a post previously with this title. This time it’s the dryer and grain mill.

Our main dryer was an older one. We have a “spare” dryer that we had hooked up in the garage for a while to speed up the laundry. It is older too. It hasn’t been hooked up for a while because dh was “reconfiguring” our laundry area. Anyhow, it’s the main dryer that broke so the plan is to try to use the parts from the second dryer to fix the first. I was informed that the second one was broken also though…only after the first broke…which was part of the reason it wasn’t hooked up yet. Anyway, not sure if it’s going to work…but if it will dh’s the guy who can figure it out. It broke this past Friday…talk about laundry piling up! I couldn’t stand it any more and washed three loads. My aunt lives just down the road…I’m hoping she’ll be home this evening and I can borrow her dryer for a while. If dh doesn’t get to it soon, I think we’ll have to string clothesline in the basement. So much for speeding up the laundry… *sigh*

Then, the “new” grain mill quit today. I think I mentioned that a friend had been letting me use an extra one she had… Well, she said she gave it to me but now it’s having the same problem she originally got it fixed for and got a second one sent to her to boot! (That’s why this one was “extra.” ) Again, not sure how it’s going to turn out but I sure was getting used to having it around. *sigh again*

On a brighter note, it isn’t raining any more. At least, not up here on “Hillside.” We had quite a blizzard…for a while…all of 15 minutes maybe…more than once…but a few dustings of snow have been left. That, and the fact the sand trucks have probably had time to get all around town now, helps the roads quite a bit. Dh is doing some work away from home today so I’m glad for that. The sun has also peeked out from behind the clouds off and on. That brightens me up too.

Hardly.

But, it has been raining enough that all schools are closed (not our homeschool - lucky us. ) including both universities as well as Elmendorf (local Air Force base) and Fort Rich (local military base).

Wow. That doesn’t happen very often. Must be really nasty out there. Glad me and the kiddos don’t have to go any where. Not sure about dh just yet…