Wow! How things have changed!!!

We have had a crazy year....bad internet access made blogging from Alaska difficult! We have better internet now...I'll post a good update this weekend and a year long recap!!!!

Bad, Bad Blogger!

Okay, I can't believe it's been so long! The internet where we are has been very unreliable. I have spent a lot of time uplaoding pictures and then lost the connection.

We are "moving" between now and next Wednesday, expect lots of updates and catch up postes after that!

Mother's day approaching....

I have some other things to catch up on, like feeding a newborn Llama with a bottle...but a friend that we met on the road last year sent this to me and I really enjoyed it. I wanted to put it on here as Mother's day approaches.

"If You Give a Mom A Muffin" By Kathy Fictorie (based on books by Laura Numeroff )

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. The coffee will get spilled by her three year old. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do some laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things to Make with a Pound of Hamburger). The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two year old. While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring (Of course!) Her five year old will answer it and hang up. She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee on Friday. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, If she has a cup of coffee, Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it!

I was searching the internet for more Mother's Day things and found this on Mothersdayworld.com .. It's so funny, how we are always so hard on ourselves. We all work so hard and give and give and give, but don't really think we deserve credit! Most of us fee so inadequate and like such failures. Weather we work in the home or outside...send them to to school or homeschool them, we work so hard, day and night. This covers almost all of our situations.

MOTHER AND MOTHERHOOD

On the auspicious occasion of Mother's Day all the celebrations are devoted to the honorable mothers who are the experts of one of the most difficult tasks on the earth that is raising children. It is the time to love, kiss and hug the most precious creation of God "The Mom".

We Salute The Mothers…

Who sit up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf and repeatedly saying, "It's OK honey, Mommy's here".

Who walk around the house all night with their babies when they keep crying and do not stop.

Who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

Who make dozens of cookies for school teas.

Who sew various designer Halloween costumes.

Who gave birth to babies they will never see.

Who adopted the orphan babies and gave them place not only in their homes but also in their heart and lives.

Who have frozen their buns off on metal bleachers at hockey, baseball or soccer games any night of the week instead of watching from their cars.

Who have yelled at their kids in the grocery store and swatted them in despair when they stomped their feet and then hated themselves for "losing" it.

Who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies.

Who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school.

Who taught their sons to cook and sew and their daughters to be brave and strong.

Whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls "Mom!" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring is at home.

Who sent their kids to school with stomach aches, assuring them that they would be just fine once they got there but soon got calls from the school nurse asking them to pick them up right away. And they do.

Whose children have gone astray, and who cannot find the words to reach them.

Who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed when their 14-year-olds dye their hair green, red or blue.

Who have the ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time.

Who feels unique ache when they watch their son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time.

Who has the terror in her heart at 1 AM when her teenager with the new driver's license is an hour late getting home.

Who feels the dull ache as they look in on their sleeping daughter or son the night before they leave for a college in another city.

Who flee from wherever they are to hug their child when they hear news of a fire, a car accident or a child dying.

Whose children have died from illness, accidents and the worst of all and hardest to comprehend, suicides.

Who have tearfully placed flowers and teddy bears on their children's graves.

_____________________________________________________

It's funny, how many of these apply. Right now I am comforting Molly who was up all night vomiting, cleaning up milk and pee pee from the floor (breakfast and potty training), drinking my coffee and hoping that that gurgle in my stomach doesn't mean that my coffee is going to come back up and posting the blog. I believe that multitasking is one of God's gifts to us Moms.

The campground where are staying is owned by a family that lost their nine year old son last year. They are still in so much pain, grieving in their own ways. They talk about him all the time, there are so many constant reminders for them and of course, I am sure, they want those reminders. Now that we have been here for a while, I am trying to really learn from their grace. They are such an awesome family and the mom...wow!

I am so lucky to have had great moms in my life. I have learned so much from the moms that I know from homeschool groups, moms I have met while traveling, great friends back home (the best, really)...every mom I know has taught me something.

I am blessed by my family and I have been blessed with a family, I thank God for my husband and children. It's hard work, but i wouldn't change a thing!

The true meaning of love...

Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous; is not proud; is not conceited; does not act foolishly; is not selfish; is not easily provoked to anger; keeps no record of wrongs; takes no pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. ~I Corinthians 13:4-7

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Who can find a virtuous woman? She is far more precious than jewels...

Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle.

Her sons rise up and call her blessed.

He husband also praises her:

Many women are capable, but you surpass them all!

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.

~Proverbs 31:10, 25-30

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I plan on celebrating my children on Sunday.

As I searched for pictures for this post, I got very side tracked and cried for quite some time. They grow up so fast!

Molly, my first little girl, then and now....

Little Zack isn't so little anymore!

See, one sock again...

Danica, my sweetheart.

And Lilah...so sweet.

Our family has grown.

And grown.

And grown over the years.

Molly and Zack love to go flying with their dad....

Molly and her best friend Maitlyn have grown together...

It's funny, I see it more when I see Maitlyn, how big they are.

Weather it's building a snowman and living in a house with our two kids....

or traveling the country and living in an RV with our four kids.

I am so grateful for my babies...

and for my family...

even if they aren't really babies anymore! I plan to stop and smell the roses more and kiss them more, before they don't want my kisses so much anymore.

I think I have babbled enough. This post turned out much differently than I expected.....

Now, let's enjoy our day!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !!

Homemade granola recipe and spending time outside

We have been having a great time in Kenai.

I am trying to increase trafic to my blog, so if you find our stuff interesting, please send a link to your friends. We are planning to put more healthy recipies on here and also some  exciting clamming excursions and lots of salmon fishing information. We are learning a lot here and plan on sharing with everyone who reads this. We will be learning how to dig up clams and do all sorts of neat things with salmon, even canning. I'll keep you posted!

Okay, last week Danica and Lilah were watching Dragon Tales in our room and they wanted a snack. Lilah can't be on our bed yet w/o someone older with her (Danica doesn't really count), so I put her in her booster seat and then Danica wanted something to sit in too....the laundry basket did the trick for her. And Lilah was wearing Danica's vest over her jammies, they are so funny!

Zack and Derius (the little boy who's family owns the campground) love to go exploring the farm. Here they are in the field....being boys!

And here is the shed that Zack got stuck on the roof of...of course by the time I got there to help, he was already down. This is where the chickens hatch their eggs and also where the cow milking happens.

It's hard to see, but there are two eagles, just to the left of center, above the whitest cloud. They are directly above the fourth tree top from the left. There is an eagle's nest near here and they are always flying above the campground.

Lilah and Danice just love our homemade granola. I have had a recipe for a long, long time. I was finally inspired by my new friend Ronna to get cooking. I'll post  the recipe at the bottom of this post.

We finally bought a grill (we have one all the way in Virginia...in storage). We have loved grilling out, it's so peaceful here. Here are some pictures from our first cookout. It wasn't as cold as the kids as the kids acted like it was with their attire. They had fun on the snow pile though.

This pile is completely gone now and it's only been a week.

Dan was making Lilah's tricycle fly..."weeeee", she said.

Danica took one last attempt to sled...not quite enogh snow. So we shoveled snow from another pile and made this one better for sleding, otherwise they kept sleding into the dirt and getting dirty. Danica and Zack were already in their jammies.

Why were they in their jammies when it was only 5PM....

It wasn't 5PM, it was about 8 O'clock! The moon is in this picture, between two of the tallest trees.

Can you believe it was 8 O'clock?

We gain about 5 1/2 minutes of dailight everyday. We've gained 2 1/2 hours of daylight since we got here at the beginning of April. We can eat late and still cookout in the daylight.

It's easy to forget what time it is and be wide awake at night....these two are supposed to be in bed.

This Molly and Sonora.

We made some yummy and fairly healthy marshmallow treats the next day.

We put fiber one, Mom's best (pretty healthy) marshemallow cereal, corn flakes, marshmalloows and we topped it with homemade granola. And that was yummy.

This next picture is the granola.

It was really good, even just to eat plain. Here's the recipe:

Makes 10 to 12 cups

4 cups rolled oats

3 cups unsweetened, natural coconut

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup agave nectar (or honey, but agave is better)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins

Whatever additions you like..nuts or dried fruit.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray pan with nonstick spray.

In your largest bowl, stir together the oats and coconut.

In a medium bowl (or 4-cup glass measure), whisk together the butter, agave nectar, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until everything is evenly moistened.

Divide granola between the two prepared baking sheets, spreading in an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes. Stir and bake for 20 minutes longer, stirring once more and reversing the order of the baking pans halfway through. (This means you'll stir twice in a 30 minute period.)

Remove granola from the oven and stir in the dried fruit and or nuts. Once fully cooled, store in a ziploc bag or air tight container.

ENJOY!!!!

Our kids like it plain, with milk or with yogurt.

The Conga, Wildlife Refuge and Skiing!

We are just loving being in Alaska and the campground is such a nice place to be. Now that Dan is working we are spending a lot of time with school and there are days that we don't even leave the camper. We have made friends with Emily and Jasmine, who just moved here from California and they are staying in an apartment here at the campground. Jasmine is almost 3 and she loves to play with Danica.

Danica and Lilah take showers together and look so cute after...in matching jammies.

Thursday morning while we were getting ready for our field trip the kids decided to do the conga...

This went on for  about 20 minutes. Even Lilah was saying conga, conga, connngggaaaa!

We went to the Kenai Wildlife Refuge and learned about trees and about birch tree sap.

Danica even got in on the action using the magnifying glass to look at the knot on the cabin post.

Did you know that it takes almost twice as much birch sap to make syrup as it does maple? It takes about one hundred gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup (40 to 50 gallons for maple)! No wonder it's so expensive to buy pure maple or birch syrup.

We went outside to taste the sap out of the birch tree. It really just tasted like water.

Then we went back in to dip some pretzels into birch syrup....yummy!

Danica and Lilah got bored and played "ring around the stroller"?

Then they sat on the floor to color.

I think Lilah gave up on depending on me for a nap and almost took one on the floor.

When we got home, Rona (that owns the campground) took us cross country skiing. She even had boots, skis and poles for Molly, Zack and I. She also had a Poke to pull Danica and Lilah with. We had such a great time. That is something I could really get in to in the winter....I'd like to have skis and a poke by November!

This was the last ski of the season, so there was lots of water and some spots where all of the snow had melted and just dirt was left.

Molly was thinking that the puddle did not look like fun!

The boys didn't mind...they loved it.

Rona took a picture of Zack and me, right before I fell (the first out of 3 times).

I knew I would get wet on this one! The water was about a foot deep!!!!

There are lots of outdoor things to do here and for people who have lived here for a while, it's springtime. It's still a little bit chilly for me. Sonora (the little girl that live on the farm here) is wearing a tank top today...We are still bundled up quite a bit. It's about 45 and very windy, I think I'll keep my jacket on!

Yesterday, we had Homeschool Gym at the rec center. We decided we would ride our bikes there...well, Molly and Zack did. I ran and pushed Danica and Lilah in the double jogger. The road that we had to ride on the shoulder of is quite busy, but they did GREAT! Molly really wanted to do this...not sure she's glad today though. She said her legs are sore. It was a little further than we thought, it ended up being about 8.25 miles! The run felt great to me, I haven't had a long one in a while. Even though we took a break in the middle at gym time, I'm counting it as my long one! Last night we had dinner with Rona and Blair (her husband) and the rest of the family at their house. They sure are good cooks!

Today we have just been relaxing (Dan went to work for a while). Molly and Zack have been outside playing for about four hours now. I have cleaned and updated the blog. The only thing left is to run today and go grill shopping. I am pretty tired from yesterday, but four miles would probably make me feel better!