There is now an onion

next to my pillow. Maybe not quite that close! Could you sometimes just give yourself a little whack? Why on earth do my brain cells not function like they use to? I have oodles of vitamin C on the kitchen counter. Echinacea sits right next to it. Garlic is up in the cupboard. Do you think that in any of the last 3 days that I've been feeling punky that I've taken any? Not until last night. And .... I put the onion next to my bed. Next I'm going to try something else. I started coughing yesterday. Let's hope it was a fluke. When you have a cold, or child with a cold/cough, try putting Vicks on your feet ... not on your chest. Give it a try and let me know how it works. Apparently, it works very well.




In other news ... it has been cloudy and raining for several days. Yesterday the clouds lifted and the sun poked out a bit. Oh. My. Goodness. The view. I itched to run home and get a camera. So I did. I just stopped a little longer while I got dinner into the oven first. Jumped in the car and headed back toward work where clouds had been hovering in front of snow capped moutains again. (They've been bare for a while now.) There is another view that I want to capture for you as well and need to get it before it is covered with snow. Not yesterday. The clouds rolled in thicker than soup. So much for that idea. Once in a while there is a moment where you see something and kow you should stop the car ... smack dab in the middle of the street ... and grab the image because you're watching it disappear before your eyes. The sun and clouds yesterday were stunning. The traffic was a wee bit busy on Palmer Wasilla Highway and I really didn't feel like getting into a collision ... so I kept on driving. I'm learning tho'! Sieze the moment is my motto. Should have taken a driver with me. Maybe that is the ticket. Enjoy your wonderful Thursday!

Uh. Oh.

Tia just woke up. "My throat is swollen shut." Samuli is staying home today. He has been having throat problems as well. No fevers running around here, just voice and throat issues.

Sunday was a relatively quiet day. Jari & I went to breakfast with Ross & Denise. We seem to have issues finding time to get together with them. This life sort of gets a bit busy sometimes. Home to do a Sunday School lesson, take a nap and head to church.

On our way home from breakfast yesterday I started thinking about time. I started with thinking 6 years from now ... then changed it to 5 years instead. 5 years kept me on this side of 50. (In case you're wondering .. that would be the lower side of 50.) We all know how fast time marches on. It will soon be 2 years that we have been here. Another 5 years will fly on by ... and I'm not sure I'm ready for that! 5 years from now ....

• my oldest kiddo will be 27 years old ... at least he won't be 30!
• all of our children (who are high school studentes today) will have graduated
• the last of my kids will have been confirmed
• my baby will be counting down days until her 18th birthday ... also happens to be her Golden Birthday
• I could have 4 children married
• I could be a grandmother
• all of my kids could still be living at home
• my dear hubby will be a decade older than I
• going according to the current weight gain schedule I have going on here, I could weigh another 50 pounds more than I do today

I think this calls for a plan. We'll start with taking lots of photos. Then we'll play MANY games of Settlers or whatever else it is that the kids enjoy playing. We'll spend many hours visiting about the important things in our lives. I'll try not to get frantic that I haven't taught them everything that I'm suppose to before they leave home. And the weight gain? I keep thinking I ought to do something about that as well.

Saturday progress ...

A busy weekend at the homestead here. We had problems last winter with water lines freezing out to the cabin. Jari came up with a most ingenious way of thawing the water lines last winter, but it was very time consuming. Being as we have folks actually LIVING out there full time this year ... might be handy to have a water source. At least we thought so!

Jari checked on renting an excavator on Saturday. Everything is rented out until "freeze up". (Life up here in the digging zone!) He found this rig available in Palmer and drove it home. He and Fred started playing ....

at least that's what I called it! Water line is now deep in the ground ... tucked in with plenty of insulation. Let's hope and pray that it does the trick. Still have to put some more insulation around the base of the cabin, but don't need a rented machine to get that piece done. Whew! One more thing off the list!

While they were playing ... so was I. Countdown is on to the Craft Sale ... countdown to getting projects completed. A quickie trip to Jo-Ann's, a quickie house clean and then down to sewing Christmas stockings. Would have liked to get another two done but they'll have to wait until some other year.

This one still needs a bit of finishing stitching, but won't take long.

I think this one is my favorite.

Not at all what one would expect on a Christmas stocking ...

but a mix of a bit of primitive and just plain fun.

Another a bit on the vintage side ... and I'm a great fan of the vintage stuff.

... and just plain fun. I think I need to add some bling to the green dots. Probably some silver ribbon going on there. Just kind of goofy, but thanks to Crate & Barrel for the idea.

I sewed 'til midnight last night and realized that I need a separate sewing space. Well ... I don't NEED one, but would LIKE one. I do enjoy being in the middle of the hubub instead of hiding away somewhere. As much as I'd really enjoy the quiet of a good audio book and my own space, I do like being accessible to the kiddos and hubby. The days of audio books will be here all too quickly as I realized today. More on that later!

Friday morning and off to work I go

Good way to end the week. :)

Brock got my plank of wood done for the bathroom. I painted it (don't like the paint job tho') and he hung it up for me. Forgot the hooks when I ran to the "hardware" store. He also finished sanding the table! Now where do I want to put it? Color depends on placement. Will figure it out and give Brock more projects to do. Next I'm going to have him work on benches for the mud room. I need to be able to use that room as it was intended. Cold weather entry where you leave your boots ... and quit using the front door for regular in and out business.

I love hands free cell phone usage. Jari went to prepare a Bible Class lesson last evening and I stayed home. Alyx was at work. Anna & Tia were off galavanting ... I really wanted to get at least one more thing done around here. Besides the fact that my head was just lifting off the napping pillow when he left. I think I finished the girls' walls last night. Will have to see what they look like in daylight. Now to hang things and make it fun.

Tonight a baby shower for Renae. Tomorrow evening a shindig for work. Tomorrow later evening maybe a cup of coffee out with friends. As much sewing and crafting as I can handle in the middle of it all!

You all have a great weekend!

3:29 pm

1. One last pan of pulla still to go into the oven and I've gone through 28 cups of flour!
2. Samuli is in the kitchen .. his turn now! Looking forward to what comes out of the oven this time around.
3. Anna missed the permit by one question. Bummer!! Will have to try again sometime soon.
4. Note to self: find Anna's social security card. Can't get the permit without the actual card. I know it is someplace safe. (Scarey!)
5. Laundry pile hasn't moved much of anywhere today. Really need to get down to that corner of the house.
6. One paper pile is filed.
7. The bill basket (in reality it holds nearly everything that needs my attention) is cleaned.
8. The bill basket ... am thinking it should hold yarn instead. My attention might be much less distracted if it held yarn.
9. Brock sanded a little table I picked up off Craig's List the other week.
10. Next on his list ... he cut and sanded a plank of wood to hang hooks on for my bathroom.
11. Still need to get some find sandpaper. Add to list.
12. Have digested a few tracks of a book while sorting paper. These books are seriously overdue. Skip the latte ... pay library fines.
13. 20 minutes of oven baking time and I can leave here and run some errands.
14. Dinner? Oven is rather busy ... what to do about the eating situation here? Salmon chowder? We had salmon last night and have some left over.

Still to do:

1. More laundry.
2. Get sandpaper.
3. Visit the AK Troopers and get the report on Alyx's accident. Insurance companies need to start doing their thing.
4. Pay a few bills.
5. Pick up a few hooks for my bathroom.
6. Stop at Jo-Anns. Craft sale is in a week and I'm getting frantic.
7. Finish Christmas stockings.
8. Finish 6 Christmas cards.

All this TO DO stuff makes me want to take a nap!!

Free Day!

I took the day off work today. I had great intentions of spending it by myself. Cleaning out paper, listening to an audio book and just puttering around here catching up on things. I was a bit dippy tho'. My goal was to get Anna to DMV today for a permit test and just get caught up on the things that are driving me crazy. It has been totally enjoyable to spend oodles of weekend hours crafting for the sale, but something always pays the price. You should see my paper pile.

Anyway ... I didn't check the kids' school calendar before I requested my day off. Guess who else is off today? Everyone!! They're off tomorrow as well ... I'm not. I won't be able to stay in my jammies all day, but that's okay. Need to go wake up Anna in a few minutes here and get her ready to make those brain waves shake a bit.

In the meantime, among other appointments like the chiropractor and my Tahoe into the shop, my goal is to put 30 cups of flour through my kitchen. That means 30 cups of flour from the flour containers into edible delicacies by the end of the day. I may have to revamp the goal. Brock tried using this grinder for me today to take care of the cardemom. Hmmm. Needs a bit more work than we thought! Had an idea to wash out the coffee grinder and just put the cardamom in there. Would be mighty fast. Do you think my pulla would taste like coffee or my coffee taste like pulla? Either way, it doesn't sound like the end of the world. Pulla dough is rising, bread machine is making another batch of bread dough ... we're on a roll. 22 cups of flour through my hands so far and it isn't 9a.m. yet.

Guess I'll just put my cherubs to work today instead of lounging around. If I can remember (seems to be a big problem lately for me) I'll pick up some silver polish and have Tia start polishing these treasures. They are a few of my prized possessions from Martta's treasures.

According to folks who pay attention to these kinds of details, the forecast has been calling for snow. Hmmm. The wind has been blowing nonstop. My porch is dusted with silt. Joy! The sky is cloudy, the temp in the greenhouse (which is pretty realistic ... need to move that today as well) says 40degrees out there today.

Going to be a great one! I'll let you know what we get done today. Anything that gets left behind can certainly wait for Saturday. Not like it's going anywhere anyway!

Levitation going on in Palmer

Dictionary[dot]com defines the word lev i tate as following:


–verb (used without object)
1.
to rise or float in the air, esp. as a result of a supernatural power that overcomes gravity.
–verb (used with object)




2.
to cause to rise or float in the air.

Being as dictionary[dot]com doesn't give photographic definitions ... I thought I'd help you out a bit here. It helps me to add pictures to definitions. :)


On Sunday a sweet neighbor man delivered us a trampoline. Apparently, his daughter got plenty of use out of this but now uses it only to suntan. To be perfectly honest, I can't quite imagine that phenomenon going on here in Palmer ... especially when one of mine is dressed in a sweatshirt ALL summer long..



We will get plenty of use out of this one! I might even try. S'pose I should make a Depends run first?

Another busy weekend

and needing Monday to recuperate!

Friday evening Jari and I went to a Songleaders/Organists meeting at Richard & Carols ... along with sauna. Was fun to get together and work on songs. Carol invited spouses along and the sauna was hot. Their sauna is so much fun. It has personality and is so inviting. I'm still not a big fan of sauna. Maybe I spent too much time in the hot stuff day after day after day. Either that or I just need one of my own where I can start taking one every day of the week .. and make it a part of my life! Kids all went to hockey while we did our thing!

Saturday, Alyx and I headed over to Ambers for another afternoon of card making. We are done. What is done is done and we're not doing any more. At least not for the craft sale. We want to take a weekend jaunt to a local cabin and just make cards all weekend long. Not yet, but hopefully sometime this winter. Fill our stashes of cards. Doesn't that sound like fun?! As much fun as it is to craft ourselves into oblivion, it sort of eats up my Saturday house cleaning and baking. Hoping to get back to a bit of that now that the cards are done. The evening saw some company over here ... and the kids went to HAPs. While I was out playing in the afternoon the guys were busy working around here. The cabin came into some semblance of order that now holds 2 people's things. Brock is still sort of displaced. Have to come up with a plan for him. The Leaning Tree of Marjanen Drive came down too! Now I don't have to worry that the whipping winds of winter will plow the thing down across my path and keep me from going to work in the morning! They were busy boys!

Sunday morning I just had to head out for a few minutes with the camera. We needed a quickie trip to Walmart for a calculator. That's all we needed. We just needed 7 of us to go get one Don't ou love it?! It was a fun little jaunt. :) We've been a bit frosty in the morning for the past week. The sun was giving out shining crystals everywhere I looked. Vehicles now covered with cold stuff in the mornings ....

and needing to run a bit before they leave the yard.

The green has changed to trees waiting to be blanketed in white.

Even the most mundane was sparking for me. I s'pose I could have sat out there for an hour just trying to get pictures of frost ... but it was a bit chilly on the fingers.

This weed has seen the end of it's summer life ... I'm sure it will spring back next year and look beautiful in green. Yesterday it looked rich in ice.

Even the hand rails on the stairs were waiting to be captured.

I finally did give up and put the camera back in the house. Off to Walmart we went. They place clearance items in the front of the store behind the checkout lines. I found a patio heater that we've been eyeing forever ... and didn't want to spend the asking price on. I was willing to pay what they wanted this time! We think that Benny had lowered his a bit to keep the heat closer to the noggin ... will have to play with that. It will be a bit of a warming addition to the porch ... maybe buy us another month or two of comfort out there.

We came home to put up the heater and found that the porch was wet. Looked like someone had thrown water out there. Hmmm. Fred said it looked like that yesterday as well. The frost melts on the roof sheeting and drips all over the place. Yikes! All of our Prescott boxes were out there and needed to be moved in to protect the things. So we sorted through the things. Moved some into the pantry, others to the tops of cupboards, others to different boxes and reorganized things. I'll share pictures of my favorites ... later during the week.

Had a houseful of company for the afternoon ... good visiting!

Monday morning again and off to work to start the week! Have a good one!

TGIF

I don't known when I've been so thankful for a day called Friday. It has been a week from someplace I'm really not interested in being again for a while.

Kids home sick from school every other day. A call from school saying a kiddo is sick and needs to be picked up on the one day she did go to school. (At least I had a car that day and was able to pick her up!) Everytime someone is late for school or misses a class I get a call at home on the answering machine. Do you have any idea how many calls I got this week?! I am sick and tired of seeing Colony Middle/High School on my caller id. Enough is enough!

And the calls at work. From the kids. From the school. Why does anyone have my number??!!!! Just kidding. They need to call when they need to call. Yesterday it was a call from Brock. Alyx was driving and they got rear ended on the way to her work. The back bumper looks a bit off on the Tahoe ... will have that looked at. The car that hit her was a bit more munched. Anyway. I'm at work with no wheels. They have MY car. Alyx was having dizziness when she turned her head so was being brought to the ER by ambulance to have her c-spine checked. They were going to haul Brock in by ambulance as well because he was under age. WHAT?!? He didn't need any treatment so I verbally released him to drive my car to the hospital. Jari showed up at the time the ambulance was leaving. She is fine. They did x-rays ... the radiologist will read them today to double check them. She will be one sore girl for the next few days. Fred gave her a long neck and shoulder massage last night to loosen her up. It helped immensely!

She wanted to go to work so I dropped her off ... and she came home several hours later. I came home to go through box, with Jari, that arrived from Prescott. It felt like Christmas from Martta. This weekend I'll go through them more thoroughly and share some pictures. Made me chuckle many times. Thought of a presentation at Mother's Camp several years ago and our discussions afterward ... especially with Jeanette who is a dinnerware collector of sorts. How many dishes do I need? Apparently a lot of them. Time to start inviting folks over for coffee. Hauling out the linen napkins again ... and serving in coffee CUPS instead of MUGS.

Time for dinner cooking was running a bit late ... so the girls took a 4-wheeler ride to 3 Bears with Fred for some whipping cream. Whipping cream for dinner? Yes! On top of some Finnish pancakes and berries. Check out the rosey cheeks and noses. Aren't they just a sign of cold weather? And the smiles. Just have to love it ... they certainly do!

This morning I looked at the camera to download pictures. Hmmm. This wasn't on there when I went to bed last night. My Anna Banana must have been doing some math work after I went to bed!

I'll enjoy your Friday for you as well today! I aim to enjoy this weekend and thoroughly appreciate it ... every minute I play with cards ... every minute I play with wood ... every minute I scrub spots on the carpet ... every load of laundry I do ... every page of the book I'm currently reading. With every picture I share with you!

... and the household grew ...

We could really make this quit a story, couldn't we?

Fred arrived, safe and sound, at about 11:00 last night after a LOOONG drive through Canada, many books on cd, and miles of road underneath his tires. We're thrilled to have him here!

Looks like I may have all the kids going to school today. Will see what transpires here ... still have 45 minutes for things to change!

Anna

Today, while the lasagne was baking, we took the camera outside. A chance to get some fun pictures before the weather cools too much and the snow flies. This is the young lady who is so often behind the camera lens ... filling the camera with unblievable photos.

This is her first year in High School.

She loves Amber's sewing machine ... isn't so thrilled with mine.

She loves little people and would really appreciate more opportunites to do some babysitting. (Jenny ... hustle up that move!)

She's a gentle soul who dreams of going to Finland to opisto. Aims for a career in healthcare later in life with flight nurse being somewhere in her life's plan.

Isn't she just beautiful? (No prejudice here. Nope. None. At. All.)

Still juggling

We're still doing the car juggle thing over here. Alyx spent the day in Anchorage at a College Fair yesterday and then got a ride to work. I really didn't feel like picking her up at 11:15 pm ... and she needed poster board, so Jari and I ran to get the poser board last night from Fred Meyer. Snow shoes?! Yup. The winter aisle is here. Someday I'd really like a pair of those things!

I forgot to add this one the other day when I added hockey pictures. This is Molly. She is a petite, cute as ever, little munchkin. She's the one who called me "Grandma" for the first time too. Her mom asked me if I minded. Heavens, no. Call me anything. I'm stacking up lines, wrinkles and inner tubes around my middle. Grandma works. Amber & Nolan came by the hospital yesterday to have lunch and I got sort of the same question. "Is this your grandbaby?"
It'll be a while!

Brock was home from school yesterday ... not feeling well. Last night I was laying my head on the pillow and bolted up after hearing that horrendous sound no one likes when flu season is around. I think Tia finally fell asleep. It was an "ah ha!" moment. So maybe she wasn't just plumb tired out from the weekend. She slept nonstop after school yesterday. I though it was a case of Marjanen Bears "Too Much Weekend". Maybe not.

I have kids to shag out of bed. They should certainly be able to wake up by themselves. They don't. 17 years down ... 6 more to go. I see the end of school mornings in site .. relatively speaking.

An October weekend

We started Friday 5pm ish with a meeting from the YFU representative. Had to make sure we were people with whom they would want to place a student. When that piece was done ... we moved on to celebrating Alyx's 18th Birthday! Wow!! Can't hardly believe it. Liz & Leroy, Amber & Ryan and Wally came over to join us. Fun stuff.

After our visit with YFU on Friday, we found out that we could pick up Samuli on Saturday. Jari headed down to meet him in Girdwood and bring him "home". Luggage got tucked into the house and we headed for Play It Again Sports. Hockey season was starting on Saturday nite ... timing was perfect. We found him the things he needed to start playing the American kind of hockey. These skates here are for Anna. When we moved up here, us girls (note that I DID include myself in that!) all got figure skates. Anna doesn't like them at all. She's been wanting hockey skates ... so we did the trade thing. No free skate before hockey yet, but we'll see plenty of ice this winter.

Home for some piano, violin and flute time. Samuli has incredible talent. It will be fun to listen to throughout the winter.

While they played ... I kept snitching out of this bag. Haven't had these in a very long time!

I won't make it to too many of the hockey games this year. This may have been the only one I go to ... always fun to watch a few here and there. Brock has been very anxious for it to start ...

Blayde ... I can always find him out there on the ice ... breezer strap is swinging in the breeze!

Today I took the camera outside for a bit. This is about what it looks like around here. A few leaves here and there. These berries just seem to hang around until they freeze and fall. They're really tiny ... and haven't figured out if we can do anything with them or not.

The sun peeked out ... should have gone and shot some mountain/cloud pictures, but this is as good as it gets!

Is this ingenious or what? (Jenny, I know you're sitting there chuckling at my pictures!) We did the massive tree trimming and I think I like this unintentional cord hanger. I'll certainly be able to find them! They won't be buried under the snow someplace.

When the green goes, the neighbors become visible. This is the one we can see the most. Still a whole lot further away than it was in the land of "city living". (In case you're wondering ... the neighbor would be the one up on the hill behind the trees. They have the view. We don't. We have the cabin tho'. )

This would be the goofy lilac. It is seriously deranged. It doesn't bloom until late in the season and will still have green leaves on it once the snow flies. Maybe it's meant to be that way. I'm thinking it is just a bit of a crazy tree.

And my last picture for the day. Last winter I didn't get the hose off the spigot before it was frozen solid. This year. It. Is. Off. These cold weather living things a person gets to learn. I'm learning tho'. Problem is that I keep forgetting!

If you made it this far, you've suffered through salmiakki, power cords and water spigots. You are persistent! I think you deserve a prize. Let me know you dropped by and I'll see what I come up with!

Just cleaning out the computer

this morning and wondering how on earth this works! These pictures are from last May. How can there be so much snow on the mountains ...

yet so many mosquitos around a bonfire that you need mosquito netting??

It's only a few short months away. At least in the big scheme of things!

Back later to update on our weekend!

There is nothing quite like

sitting out on the porch late in the evening. Maybe 1030ish at night and all is quiet. The world is incredibly dark at that time of night. Can't see anything no matter how hard you try ... and you listening to the crackling of branches. I know what is making the noise but am unable to see them. The other evening they were rather noisy. Blayde got in from school and I had him come outside and just listen quietly. The outside cabin light was off ... and there is nothing to tell you what is between the house and the cabin. He wasn't too anxious to head out there. The moose have been bedding down behind the cabin for a while now. And they've been hiding.

Last summer we had fun watching them grow as they came back on a regular basis. These are the little critters that visited in June.

Yesterday they were back again while I was at work. Oh my, they have grown.

If they had come back when we first trimmed the trees and added them to the pile ... the feasting would have been much easier!

Sorry, guys, the broccoli is history.

You'll just have to find something else to nibble on instead.

Aren't they just something else?!

In other great news. Hubby is home again after his visit to Arizona. The boys picked him up from the airport late last night. Great to have him home again. I'll have to share some pictures of the treasures he brought home with him. Need to haul out the camera and forage through things ... at the same time.

The trees are nearly naked today. The wind is blowing and only a few of the most stubborn leaves are left on the trees. I'll share those later this week as well.