To everything a season.

To be a mom is to somedays feel like this dandelion.

When the formative years of life have long since passed by,

the season of having a child within your reach nearly everyday is gone.

To look upon their face,

to hold them close in your arms.

To see their fears and struggles in their face,

and ache with the knowledge that you cannot fix those things this time.

To look upon them and marvel at the life you long ago created.

To know that as you send them off to the next stage of life,

they may never return to you.

It is now their season.

You wonder if you did anything right.

Did you teach them all they needed to know?

Did you teach them to be the kind of human being

who will be respected and honored?

Did you teach them how to love and be loved?

You know that God heard and felt every tear drop that you shed on their behalf.

Once again it is a season to mourn.

Now you mourn their leaving.



The eagle builds her nest with down covered thorns

to encourage her eaglets to leave when the time is ready.

A mother's duty is to raise her young so they can leave.

Will mine leave with the gentleness of the rose

and still have the thorns that they need to survive in our world today?



As they wend their way through rose gardens and weed patches,

may life treat them kindly.

May they have trials so they appreciate the blessings.

May things not come easily to them,

rather let it come to them with honest work so that they learn to appreciate.

May the rose patches always have a weed or two in them,

lest they forget humility.



As a mother watches her young one begin their path,

knowing it is now their season,

she prays.

She prays that God will be their guide and their fortress.

She feels the bittersweet that her own mother must have felt.

She knows that she will shed more than a few tears

at this leaving.

Yet she will smile.

For she knows that her child will find their way,

just as she has.
Her child has courage and strength,
along with a strong will.



God speed to you my child.

May He hold you in the palm of His almighty hand,

and may you always remember that it is He who directs your path.

Bonfires and chickens

We had Haps and others over for a bonfire Sunday evening.

I even attempted some patriotic desserts that were courtesy of Taste of Home.

Yummy ... you'll have to trust me. 

Welcoming home Kirsten from her training in Texas,

while sending Anna off to Minnesota for a month.

Watching little pink princesses running after the bigger kids ...

who were after the chickens.

It took some convincing ....

but it didn't take her long to grab a handful of feathers and give it a pull.

I think she's a farmer girl at heart.

The girls had a sleepless night while Anna finished packing.

I got a 3 hour nap in and then we headed to the airport.

She is safely in Minnesota!

Today:

     I got a good nap in  

     Did some weeding outside

     Played in the greenhouse

     Mucked out the raspberry plants

     Covered some vegies with screen to keep the chickens locked out

     Created another little goodie to share with you

Time to get a move on and make a bit of dinner.

I hope your Fourth of July was fantastic.

Special thanks to all our service men and women!

What do I do on my days off?

Let me tell you.

I stay home.

Just kidding. That is my goal.

Sometimes it happens, usually it doesn't.

Saturday I was on a mission to score a few deals at Fred Meyer.

I almost forgot that I was after shoes until I walked by the shoe department where I managed to find a 50% of clearance prices sale. Ching!

I haven't purchased a pair of sneakers in over 7 years.

I really don't like lacing shoes.

That is what it all comes down to.

However, I figured it was about time to give it a whirl and see if my back likes these a little better than the Danskos.

So far so good.

Saturday I also managed to get some envelopes and cards out in the mail.

I have plenty of handmade cards hanging around.

I just have this problem with getting things in the mail.

It is a serious problem.

My intentions are good. That's about all I can say for myself.

Forgot to pick up one more plant hanger from Lowe's, but I did find smoke alarms.

Good gravy! Between smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors I could have had a fine meal somewhere! New alarms are installed and the family is safe.

 I have been willing the lilacs to bloom already.

It's nearly July and they still aren't all the way open!

Cukes are blooming. New peas are growing on the dining room table. Zucchini would really like some more sunshine outside. Rhubarb is getting made into punch and frozen. The carrots ... I'll be buying them. I see a teeny tiny tomato on one of my plants!

Then there are the peaches. They looked good in the store. I could smell them as I walked by ... and I detoured. I was imagining the Grilled Peaches with Ice Cream ... and starting to salivate. In reality, they were tart enough to make my mouth pucker. I don't eat anything tart. I lace it with sugar. Lots of it. It didn't help. I'm wondering if there is someway to test a peach before buying a bagful of them.

Grilled peaches = summertime delish treats.

Today I was off work again. I love these 4 day weeks.

Time to get a visit in to the physical therapy wonder.

Then a visit from the Home Inspector.

I had no clue he was bringing the buyer and the buyer's agent with him!

I might have spent last evening doing something like washing windows instead

of getting royally trounced in a family game.

I probably have no reason to be mortified, but I was anyway.

On principle.

To get past the mortification, I actually cooked dinner this evening

in between hours of sewing today.

I sewed for hours on Saturday as well.

Nothing is completed yet but it's getting close ...

and I'm really liking it!

The beginning of the last chapter.

With the posting of the "Too Late" sign, we begin the end of the last chapter of our Alaska Experience.

This week I told someone that I feel as if I've been on a Long Explore ...

and now I'm ready to go back home.

There will be plenty of time between now and the end of the chapter to share with you the people and the places we will miss.

There will be many of them.

In the meantime, tho', we had an offer on our house the beginning of the week.

We counter offered and they accepted.

They have until Monday to finalize a few things and, we're hopeful, that by Monday evening we will be moving forward.

In a way we already are as inspection is scheduled for Tuesday.

Our closing is scheduled for August 2nd, after which we'll rent the house back for the remainder of August. We'll catch the Silver Salmon and fishing at Jim's Creek. We'll taste yummy treats at the wonderful Alaska State Fair. We'll pack. We'll plan. We'll play as much as we can.

The playing is going on this weekend in a few different spots.

I am playing at home by myself.

This is what I consider a small slice of heaven.

The sun was shining brilliantly when I came home yesterday from work, so I headed out with the lawn mower. I must say that I even had the opportunity to sweat a little! I heard the forecast was for rain starting today. Thank goodness I mowed what I did! Duke doesn't even want to go this morning to use nature's facilities! He takes a look out the door and turns around to come back in.

I'm laundering, fridge cleaning, shopping for smoke detectors at Lowe's.

That sort of thing.

In the middle of it, I'm paying bills and dusting.

Jari is out fishing. Out on the Russian or the Kenai or something down south.

They were at Bing's Landing last night and are hitting a halibut charter out of Ninilchik today. Fish on!!

The kids are all at Youth Camp.

I ran there last night to drop off forgotten things.

The place is absolutely beautiful and close by.

The sun was brilliantly shining, volleyball being thumped back and forth, bonfire cooking when I stopped by.

"Always watch where you are going.

Otherwise, you may step on a piece

of the Forest that was left out by mistake."

-Winnie the Pooh Quotes

Summer

I came home from work yesterday to find that Tia was the new owner of what I could call a bunny with a Traumatic Brain Injury. She didn't survive. The Bunny didn't. I was a bit taken back by adding another pet to the family at this point in time, but they had a plan. I'll probably be wimp out and be bunny shopping in the next week. Yesterday there was a short burial and the grave is marked with a fence. I can't quite wrap myself around that one.

On the To Do List for the weekend is replacing light bulbs. I have to say that I don't think I have replaced any of the Long Lasting Energy Reducing Variety Light Bulbs that we put in last October. I'll certainly do that one again should I need to. The other ones are a problem. Thank goodness we only have umpteen hours of daylight right now! I know you don't really care about that.

My carrots still aren't growing. The green beans outside look like they can't find sun to aim for. I'm imagining that at some point they'll figure it out. Can carrot seeds receive subliminal messages? I really was thinking about moving some strawberry plants over to that box. Maybe the carrots heard me. 

Youth Camp is this weekend and I have kids very much looking forward to going. Halibut charter for several other people in the house. My main goal this coming weekend, other than smoke detectors and light bulbs, is to find new shoes. I'm biting the bullet. Two days of work in a row is presenting challenges. I'm also on a mission to find a easy yoga workout dvd. Let's change that easy to something like light. If you have any suggestions please share them. A lovely older gentleman shared that one with me one day. He says it works wonders for his back problem.

In the meantime. The temperature on my most favorite porch in the whole wide world is 53F this fine morning. The cloudy skies are keeping the sun in hiding. I hear a snore coming from somewhere ... might be the dog.

Have a great Thursday!

Sunday

We welcomed a cruise traveling group of warm and familiar faces to our midst on Sunday afternoon. Goodness. I felt like I was at Seniors' Camp in Phoenix or something. It was wonderful!

 After services, we had a group over for coffee and visiting.

Fun to hear the stories of their travels and get to visit with folks' I rarely get to see.

 Lavona and Geri caught in some story or another.

Jari did a lot of skiing with Lavona before he and I met and married.

 Guys sharing stories in the living room.

 I'm not sure that Jerry was able to sell the Bear Gun idea to his bride.

 Afterwards, we brought them all to their hotel. From there they left this morning for lunch in Talkeetna and then off to Denali. They have several days of touring left and then most of them leave Anchorage on Thursday morning to wherever they're headed next. They're quite the jet setting group .... one never knows!

As for me?

I'm hoping to see all of them again in February.

Maybe I'll have to schedule a coffee date at my house with the bunch and hear the rest of their tales.

Off to clean the kitchen.

We have a coffee date with our realtor in about an hour.

This weekend will have to be ...

recorded in spurts.

It feels like it has been several weekends all rolled up into one.

Seriously good stuff.

Thursday I worked and was on call until 11pm. We left after that. I must have slept most of the way down to the Klutina. To be perfectly honest, I really don't remember. I think I declined going into the store in Glenallen. For sure, I declined going fishing when we got to our destination at about 2 a.m. The others went. They're seriously hard core. I took a nap.

Friday started out cloudy and then the rest of the time down there was filled with sunshine with the thermometer hovering around 70ish. Pure delish! For this sun deprived person, it was blissful. Make that a capital B on the blissful. The fishing was good. The relaxing wonderful. We walked miles and spent a short time visiting the loads of other friends camping at a nearby campground. The rest of the time ... we fished.

Oh, yeah. We slept in a tent. Jari and I slept in a tent. I figured out that the last time we slept in a tent must have been about 6 or 7 years ago. I remember the tent. I remember the beach. I remember the sweat from the heat of summer at Lake Powell. This time, I brought 2 air mattresses along. Just in case. You never know. I was not going to sleep on rocks. Jari tested the first one for the afternoon nap. It failed. Miserably. I tagged it for the dumpster and moved on to the next one. It worked. Gotta love it when a plan works out!

... and we fished some more ... and soaked up some more sun.

Jari did line tying duty. He was so good about it. Tia and I got really good at getting our lines loose from the rocks that kept grabbing our weights and hooks. Putting new line on and taking care of fish is something we still prefer to leave to the Dad/Hubby department.

The happy Fishing Couple.

Seriously sun kissed. Tia and I could both be new advertisements for Coppertone. We were so busy putting on mosquito repellant (Lemongrass) that we don't spend anytime in the sunscreen department. To be honest, I don't even own any. Aren't those freckles just to die for? I love freckled faces and sun bleached hair.

River banks of people. Nothing like fishing the Russian River. I hooked my own head several times. I dare not fish anywhere remotely close to another fisher person.

Greg Rousu is up here vacationing and fishing, fishing, fishing. He caught a ride down and back with us and shared our camping spot. He is going to have one lucky mom by the time his fish is processed.

Fred working those delicious Red Salmon out of the river waters.

Not only does he puts lines on our rods, he does a screamin' job of filleting those buggers as well. We came home Saturday and got everything into the freezer. Freezer is starting to look pretty good! Wish I could say I had something to do with it!

Today is Father's Day.

I've been very negligent.

I was going to call my Dad and wish him a Happy Fathers Day.

I didn't.

I knew he was at an engagement party (celebrating Denise and Andy's engagement!) when I could have called and then it was too late in the night

to call him by the time my house emptied.

I'll call him first thing in the morning.

Today ... I am so thankful to be able to call him Dad.

I'm a lucky girl.