Link regarding abusive personalities

http://www.hiddenhurt.co.uk/Abuser/signs.htm

Statistics vary in regards to just how many teens are abused in relationships. One thing is clear, however--it happens, and disturbingly frequently. This article addresses the issue. If you or someone you know is experiencing this type of treatment, please seek help from someone you trust. This site has many local resources (in Alaska) and links to national resources.

Compartmentalizing

My friend Carrie recently published a blog about a verse from Philemon, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." (verse 6)

I have been thinking lately about starting a separate blog pertaining to matters of spirituality. I have been coming up with names and possible topics and so on, encouraged by different friends I have who write of such things. Blogging is one of my favorite things to do and it comes quite naturally to want to share with you what is going on not only in our exterior lives but in our hearts.

One reason I want it to be separate is simply because I like that kind of order. It is often missing in my thought process, so if I can pretend to have it by having blogs of different topics, I'm that much closer! Plus, in the event that I become one of those "famous bloggers"with hundreds of loyal followers who get recommended by people like Dustin, I will prefer the blog be a little distanced from all my family stuff. (Yes, that was rather tongue-in-cheek. Please laugh. :)

But other reasons creep in as well. I think it's because I'm a fairly newish (as of May 2006) Christian...I have many friends and family members who probably don't "get" what it is we're about up here, other than spending a lot of time at church now. :) I think there's an expectation that we have joined a church in order to fit into a community, have lots of built-in friends, and have a place to go with the kids. Also, I have several very good friends who are atheists, whom I fear will think I'm trying to change them, along with the mutual understanding that I will hope they convert anyway (yeah, you know it's true), and how that's kind of paradoxical. Plus, there's the embarrassment factor...like, if you really knew just how much I view my life as the consequence of God's active hand in it, you will find me foolish.

I don't want to feel that way. The Lord does not call us to live this way, as mentioned above in Philemon 6. So I hereby decompartmentalize the future of my blogs, and will tag each post accordingly, and you can read them or skip them. :)

The frugal gourmands

Borne of necessity, my thrills usually come in the form of finding a great deal on something. Last week, I found 12 pieces of practically brand new clothing for $42. I also pawed through (yes, pawed, like a bear) the clearance meat rack at Fred Meyer and took home a four pack of succulent turkey legs for 99 cents a pound.

What to do with such legs? I have never hosted a holiday dinner in my home and didn't even own a roasting pan until just last month. I called my sis-in-law (again) for advice and this is what happened at the end of it all, served with some super yummy mashed potatoes:




It might not be that obvious in this picture, but have you ever seen the size of a turkey? These things were huge. They fed me and all four kids, and then I stuck the bones in a pot and made broth, which will be turned into turkey soup tomorrow with all the leftover meat. We were stuffed! Stuffing us for under $5 for what will turn out to be at least 3 different meals makes me happy.

This led me to do some calculations on another recent yummy meal which was a frugal luxury. I post it in response to Dustin P's enthusiasm for the recent traveling hot-dog-mobile which now sets up shop at the airport where he and my husband work. (Yes, snobby of me, I know. Sorry. You MUST come over and eat these with us, Dustin. :) Bring your stomach!!)

At Costco, we bought an 18-pack of high-quality sandwich rolls for $3.59 and a 16-pack of Aidell's organic gourmet chicken and apple sausages free of all nitrites, nitrates, trans fats, and so on for $10.69. We cut the rolls down (they are longer than the sausages) which results in extra pieces for future homemade garlic bread. I estimate we use about $1 worth of condiments in the form of ketchup, mustard, and an onion. This results in 2 meals of 8 dogs, as well as 3 family-sized portions of garlic bread, all for $15. Even if we excluded the fluff factor of the garlic bread and just thought of this as $15 for 16 delicious, healthy, gourmet dogs, it is a fine price at less than $1 each.

Here is a picture of Alex making garlic bread this evening to go with our pasta. Each piece has butter, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, and oregano amply sprinkled and spread. It's seriously outrageously good.




Yay for food. :)

Seattle in Alaska

It's raining and will continue to rain on and off indefinitely, it turns out. In a way, that is reassuring. We have settled in for more house time instead of me feeling all monotonous and gloomy (with a cheery front) as my former blog revealed.

I turn my creativity off a bit when the weather is nice. We go outside and stick with the straightforward yet always delightful "picnic at the park (or lake)" when it's warm and sunny out. Then, the rain comes and I'm totally clueless about what to do with the kids.

For the record, I discovered today that I can make a paper airplane with ONE HAND! I am also the only parent to do such airplane-making right now, as Alex's work schedule is relentless and will not involve any days off for another week at least. Him working so much makes me appreciate just how much he plays with the kids and helps in the house when he isn't working. I miss him! He is such a tremendous husband and also my best friend.

Today, the children and I headed to church for a little air hockey and ping pong. I kind of wimped out and didn't set up the ping pong table---wasn't sure I could break it down again. Instead, we rallied without a table, which turned into a whole-room kind of game. Having a little rally back and forth with paddle and ball is quite satisfying. Noah and I felt rather smug, I tell ya. :)

Then, back to the house we went for a day at home. The kids played outside for at least four hours off and on. Then, two of our neighborhood friends came over (boys, ages 6 and 8) and played here for several hours. In the meantime, Zoya and I baked.

CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME BAKING DISH!



Alex's mom gave it to us! So every piece is like a corner piece with yummy edges. This was our first time using it. While pondering on the phone with my sis-in-law Jen the fat-free brownie mix seen in that photo, we thought that a little wiggle room permitted some marshmallows baked on top. Next time, I may also include chocolate chips and graham crackers. Here is the end product. Weird looking, as the box only made about half a pan. And the marshmallows got awfully distorted and brown. But yummy!

(Notice the marshmallow-less Daddy-area on the right. :) Turns out, he wanted the marshmallows but Wolfgang didn't.)

Alaskan Blues

Often, the urge has come over me to blog...but due to five children who are staying up until 11 pm every day (thank you, Alaska's unending daylight!), massive quantities of homework necessitating a bedtime on my part of around 3 a.m. every day, and the blessed unendingness of meals, cleaning, and general family upkeep, I have not had a chance to actually do so. I fear that whatever I write here will be rather rushed and pointless, too. But here goes.

We had VBS (Vacation Bible School) last week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. I blew at least 10,000 bubbles for various infants and young toddlers while hanging out with Bethany in the nursery. The kids got to do fun stuff like reenact the applying of mud on eyes (Jesus did that once). It involved lots of singing and music and Zoya has been playing air guitar and singing Matt Redmund's "You Never Let Go" over and over ever since.

Having Noah here has been such a thrill. I am terribly sad that he will have to leave in September. He is relaxed and adjusted and eats ever so much. We almost have the same sized feet! In fact, all the kids are eating mountains of food, at least 3 dinners, and drinking lots of water. All that playing is wearing them out.

The weather has been crappy as can be. When snow is on the ground for 8 months, ya darn well hope that the rest of the days are sunny and warm. I think we've had as much sun as I can count on one hand since summer started. It has been raining off and on...we've still been getting out to play a lot but it gets depressing after awhile. Today, we saw a brilliant rainbow! There's nothing better than that bizarre rain that happens even while the sun is blazing and the sky is almost entirely blue. It felt like Hawaii for just a moment. :)

Okay. Well. There you have it. Nothing else to say...I'm sure it's there somewhere but I'm completely zapped. Now on to school. Yes, this is my "pity me" post. While all of this is of my own choosing, I will still assert that I am a victim of the weather. So there. hehe

The Kicking and Clapping Duo

Here is yet more video attesting to the seamless repertoire of skills Bethany has added to her baby portfolio.

Really, I'm sorry for the tongue. It is very unlike Zoya to be so uncouth. But hey. She didn't know I would not only film it but would also post it to our blog.

Another disclaimer: I just might nauseate you with my high and squeaky voice and utter enthusiasm for all things Bethany-related. I can't help it. We're simply crazy about her! :)

Where oh where oh where is our mortgage?

As much as I joke that I might not have a mortgage anymore--although I did just attempt to log in to "My Mortgage" at Indymac's website and it is gone, gone, gone--at the most we will probably have some discomfort if and when the company is successfully purchased within the next 90 days, although the prospects of that happening may be slim. Best case scenario, we just scored ourselves a "free" house. (insert emoticon of unfounded hope) Most probable scenario, I will notice the absence of such website and feel incredibly uncomfortable about "just sending in my payment as usual" per the FDIC's direction.

All of this pales next to the plight of those who have lost substantial amounts of their savings in this collapse. It gravely concerns me that I turned on every news network on TV last night after I heard about Indymac's collapse and did not find one person talking about what this means, the ramifications of our growing economic crisis in this country. Alex reassured me that it was all over the airport this morning when he got off work.

I am by no means an economist...I just know that, when my government sends me a stimulus check and wants me to spend it on fun stuff like big screen TVs, there is a problem! Even worse is the fact that, if I could afford to "blow it" on stuff, I totally would! But we paid off some bigger bills and are pretty much in the same place we were beforehand, checking the calendar and getting excited about October coming with our permanent fund dividend checks.

I anticipate, in my utterly "lay-economist" way, that this situation will result in yet more opportunities for people who have the money to buy the many foreclosed houses that will result from the FDIC clearing out the products of Indymac's loan portfolio. There will be many ripples as people withdraw their money at the slightest hint of a problem from their trusted institutions. And one must wonder just where our big government is going to get the money to bail out these banks, and whether they even should.

We were those very people who should never have gotten a home loan--at least on paper. We tried renting at the time but, due to challenging income documentation and a small ding on our credit report, all the landlords turned us down in favor of a more "sure thing." Indymac said "No problem!" What trust! I'm very pensive about what has been and will be a very painful process for so many people to the point way out there where our economy stabilizes. In the meantime, we will think frugal thoughts and batten down the hatches.

Optimistic blogs I've been reading lately:

The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter

The Automatic Earth (thanks to Stewart King for this Dante reenactment)

And here's something funny, in that bittersweet kind of way: the most recent Indymac corporate blogs.

So this casserole...

...involved a conglomeration of ingredients found amongst the various sundry goods given to us by my good friend Lynne, who recently moved to Florida (or is trying to, rather, as they are currently stuck in Canada) and my sister-in-law Jen who is moving back to California. Frankly, it is always a thrill to receive food. Thank you, Lynne and Jen! We maintain a pretty tight food budget and having 5+ boxes of new foods, ingredients, condiments, and cookware is such a treat.

That being said, Lynne gave us this gyro meat. Hmm. What to do with such a thing? There was a huge amount of it, and gyros themselves required the purchase of pita bread which wasn't going to happen in the short time I had to create a meal.

I tend to cook sporadically. Meal preparation doesn't necessarily happen right before the meal itself. In this particular case, I had a spare half hour and a whole bunch of random ingredients to throw together for the next day's lunch or dinner.

I greased my glass baking pan (which made no difference, by the way, as my soaking pan will attest--globs of tortilla currently struggle to get off) and used scissors to slice up a bunch of whole wheat flour tortillas into small strips, lining the bottom of the dish. I then found a random can of white kidney beans and poured them on top, spreading them out.

Out came the gyro strips, which I arranged in a lovely multi-layer crisscross pattern, sort of like a quilt made of lamb and beef (sorry...couldn't resist the bizarre visual there). Out came the three bags of frozen veggies, all scanty in and of themselves but together a nice combination of onions, corn, and an assorted blend.

Then delved into the mashed potato box. I have never made mashed potatoes from a box. However, the sad and pathetic end that befell my electric mixer (another story for another time) has made mashed potatoes a rarity in our home, as I have not replaced the poor thing. So I whipped up a batch, peppered it to the extreme, and glopped it on top of the other ingredients. Upon serving, I topped the plates with feta cheese. (gyro meat, feta...ya know)

YUMMY!!!

It's so strange to write a blog without having fun little happy faces and emoticons to insert here and there. If I could right now, I'd add a happy face with a big tongue hanging out while jumping up and down! It was so good!

Speaking of which, since I'm on the subject of intense kitchen drama (I know you're feeling it), we almost had a tragedy befall our fish, who managed to survive a collision with the glass baking dish used for this very meal. The dish took out a whole chunk of glass from their bowl, pouring icky nasty fish water onto my lovely orange countertop.

Humorously, my own pet fishies when I was a child all met their doom when my stepfather grabbed a pot and filled it with water, getting the fish into it after their tank shattered and drained from a similar collision. Unfortunately, the water he tried to save them in was inadvertently scalding hot and killed them instantly.

As for our fish, they are still kicking, now hanging out in a rather stylin' kombucha tea jar (which looks much prettier with fish in it, rather than kombucha tea).

Also, I just had a bit of inspiration hit about the future of our floor here in our longsuffering townhouse. Must price some fancy schmancy linoleum which our future tenant will eye suspiciously.

Freedom to eat among bears

First, a belated Happy Independence Day! July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. It is easy to focus on all the ways our country gets it wrong. There are plenty of facets that are unappealing and, depending on your political and personal bent, your list, while probably different from mine, is a long list just the same.

But this post from another blogger reminded me of how lucky we are. What gets my goat is this idea that, if we just stop invading other countries and being the Big Mean Superpower that we are, democracy will finally flourish, at last able to break free from the oppression of the USA. Maybe "lucky" isn't the right word. I am thankful for all who have battled intently for our freedom, be it through their words, actions, vocation, and--especially--their lives.

Democracy is not natural. Freedom is not "how the world goes." We spent our July 4th like we have since we moved here, picnicking with our church family and celebrating our freedom to be baptized and worship and follow God freely. We are blessed that the most persecution any of us face on a daily basis is maybe a weird look from a friend or family member who doesn't relate--just as they are free to also. Here are some pictures.

Alex wore the kidlet in the baby backpack. The day was rather hot by AK standards. Sadly, those days have been rather rare this summer!


The kids played among the rocks (we've had a pirate-pretending adventure going on for days now)...


...while Pastors Mark, Neil, Tyler, Keith and Jeff dunked people in Eklutna Lake.


I am ever in awe of how many plant species are packed into one square foot of land around here.



Here are Noah and Wolfgang taking in the view...



...as a bear scavenged through our camp!



This particular bear is eating the kettle corn of my friend Autumn! S/he came around multiple times once we all returned. Even after being sprayed with bear spray at one point, the young bear returned at least 3 times at 3 different locations to try to get to the barbecue. As quiet and idyllic as the lake scene with Noah and Wolfgang is in the picture, we were actually hearing the commotion of yells, clapping, and banging as people repeatedly tried to talk this bear into finding a new lunch spot. Later, Alex and I sat nearby as all the kids played volleyball, my eyes continuously checking the edges of our circle for black ears. There's Noah in an orange shirt.

It's official.

Laughing as I reread last blog..."a simple and inexpensive public health intervention." Wow. I am such a nursing student, it's not even funny.

:)

Mirror Lake. Here, fishee fishee fishee.

Finally the sun is blazing! In the direct sunlight, our neighbor's thermometer outside hit 90 today. We had a lovely time yesterday and today at Mirror Lake, just north of Peter's Creek. It is one of my favorite places. The way the mountain face climbs up the sky at the very edge of the lake leaves me awestruck every time. The bugs aren't very bothersome (I enjoy watching the dragonflies zoom around, and today there were many brightly colored butterflies) and my children tell me this is a better swimming site than other lakes we frequent. It's also a fun place to fish, although we are thus far fish-less.

Here is the aforementioned mountain that I look at dreamily.



THIS was cool. A bald eagle showed up...


...and promptly got chased away by a seagull!



The state of AK provides life jackets, a simple and inexpensive public health intervention.



Here's Bethany stylin' in her stroller.



Finally, I have video footage of Noah casting his rod. Since this time, he has actually developed a new cast, very unique, kind of an underhand one that really gets the line out there. I tell ya, that boy is a mover and a shaker. He really is.

As for the cuteness factor, no one quite compares with Zoya. :)

Alright, gotta go. Every kid in the neighborhood just showed up to soak each other.

Arctic Thunder 2008

We spent the weekend enjoying the air show at Elmendorf Air Force Base. I love air shows. My father took me to many as a child, as well as countless trips to Torrance airport to look at planes, peek inside hangers when possible, and occasionally feed the foxes with bags of raw chicken.

The line getting into Elmendorf was surreal. I didn't know that many cars existed in Alaska. There were easily three prongs, a mile long, of cars converging at the base entrance off Boniface. I felt a combination of blessed and elicit (as well as a total Air Force wannabe) for heading to the Mountain View entrance of the base with my 30 day pass and driving on in under five minutes. I sincerely don't think we could have made it through that line. Bethany was already protesting her time in her car seat. She doesn't do lines one bit.

The kids had fun playing at a particularly exciting tree and covering their ears while the jets roared overhead. I held the baby close to me, blocking one ear with my chest and the other with a blanket. Note to anyone pondering such things: those little florescent orange ear plugs, of which I brought many, don't fit into four- or six-year-old ears, and certainly not the six-month version either.

Here is some goofy film footage of my children (WARNING: You may, after reading this blog for awhile, realize that this is very much a child-centered blog and you are under no obligation to endure film footage if you find it utterly boring).

And here's some YouTube footage that has a few minutes too:

More later with some unabashed patriotism on my part. Get ready! (You may want to cover your eyes later.)