Semester countdown

Almost done!!

This week will consist of:

1) Nutrition in the Health Sciences final

2) Organic and Biochemistry final and lab practicum

3) Speech group project preparation (we're either debating the issue of spanking children or of living together before marriage; either way, should be fun!)

4) A LOT of Microbiology work left to accomplish, and still no supplies to redo my cultures. Opting not to stress. They're probably sitting in my mailbox as we speak but...it's snowing out. Enough said.

The King succeeds

A book came into my home many years ago called The Queen Cleans Everything.

At first glance, it looks like the cleaning book you wish you'd always had. (Except I had never really wished for that before when it was given to me by my mother-in-law. Cleaning was not a book-worthy subject in my mind at the time!) I put it on the shelf for when I would run into some crazy mess that nothing would clean and it comes out every now and then.

Twice now, this book has failed me. It has succeeded on different occasions, don't get me wrong, but tonight I experienced the second failure of one of the Queen's pieces of imperial knowledge. The Queen Does Not, In Fact, Clean Everything. My pot with the black burned cranberry residue is still black and burned. Don't bother boiling baking soda for as long as it takes.

This brings me to my point, which actually pertains to the walk with Christ. My friend Erika lent me a book by one of my favorite Christian writers, Henri J. M. Nouwen, called The Way of the Heart. A quote really resonated with me:

What needs to be guarded is the life of the Spirit within us. Especially we who want to witness to the presence of God's Spirit in the world need to tend the fire within with utmost care... Sometimes it seems that our many words are more an expression of our doubt than of our faith. It is as if we are not sure that God's Spirit can touch the hearts of people: we have to help him out and, with many words, convince others of his power. But it is precisely this wordy unbelief that quenches the fire. (p. 54)

I would never have imagined the great love God has for us. While He does not need us, He deeply loves us. Pursues us. Tends to us. Cares about each and every one. The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus is the "author and perfector of our faith." He has an ongoing role in the story and carefully touches His pen to it.

It wasn't until after I got baptized and shared the news with others that I learned how many people had been praying for me. Thank you to everyone who did. It humbled me to realize that it was not my own feat that accomplished my salvation~~it wasn't my wisdom that brought me to my knees. It is by His grace alone that this was done, and I did nothing to deserve it and everything to sabotage the likelihood, if I'm being honest. I can't express my gratitude adequately. I had no idea what I was missing.

Sometimes I wish I could come up with just the right words to talk everyone I know into following Jesus. But that's not for real. This process is not The Queen Cleans Everything, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Thankfully, it does not rely on my inadequate communication skills in this arena. God's Spirit does the job, and what I have learned from walking with Jesus is that it is not a sometimes thing. It is not "sometimes going to work" and "sometimes not going to work," the way He involves Himself with us. He is always there and always working on my behalf to invite me to greater freedom and joy than I have ever known and I can completely trust in that. How likely would we be to keep saying "yes" if He sort of kind of showed up every now and then and sometimes nailed the cleaning task but just as often failed? He is a faithful companion, shepherd, and savior. It's up to each person to say "yes."

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." (John 10:2-3)

Painting by Nathan Greene

Wow. That worked out.

Yesterday was such a gift. I feel seriously hugged. It means so much to know that living in Alaska does not mean we will never again have a great Thanksgiving meal!

All went smoothly yesterday. I finally got to bed at 6 a.m. Thursday morning, sure that I would be up within an hour or two to get those pies done in the morning. Somehow, I didn't have to wake up until 10 or so (not sure how that happened but the family was very obliging) and, of course, the pies still beckoned.

Pumpkin pie is easy enough to throw together but the blueberry took more preparation and was our first time working with a double crust that you roll out and cut slits in, etc. (Zoya was my helper.) I had lofty visions of curly, gorgeous edges to this pie, but after about 15 minutes in the oven, a chunk of the crust fell off and allowed blueberry goop to spill out onto the oven floor. It did not seriously hamper the taste. :)

In went the turkey, which has left me convinced that all meat should come with a little built-in timer that pops out when it's cooked just perfectly. (I'll save a bad joke about the perfect goal of genetic engineering.)

Beyond that, there wasn't much to do while the turkey cooked because everything was made already. The stuffing cooked in the slow cooker and the cranberries and sweet potato casserole went in when the turkey was finished. Alex took the kids on a long 2 hour walk in the snow.

A cranberry crisis ensued when Noah called to wish a happy Thanksgiving, which caused me to forget about everything on the stove. Once I hung up, Alex peered into the smoking pot..."What's in here?" "AUUUUGHHH!!" Turned out to be exactly what the cranberries needed in order to gelatanize just right. Sadly, the pot looks doomed, so if anyone has a suggestion for how to get the burnt blackness off the bottom, please let me know! The marshmallows had to temporarily come off the sweet potatoes in order that they finish heating up. In the final moments, we realized that mashed potatoes and gravy hadn't made the list so we whipped that up and put it all out and, good Lord, it all tasted great.

So in the wake of our Thanksgiving engorgement, I'd like to share a list of what I'm grateful for. This is certainly not complete but it's a start.

• It is not lost on me that my children are blessed with abundant food. This places them in the minority in this world, for which I am humbly thankful.
• My husband who is also my best friend and the love of my life.
• All my kids!
• My husband's job; the fact that he supports me staying home with the children
• If I can't have Noah here, I have the next best thing: knowing Noah has a great dad who takes care of him and all of my family who loves and looks out for him.
• My friends new and old; our family down in CA.
  
• Indoor plumbing, heating, and all the comforts of home
• Our church and church family, and the many people who take the time to enrich our children's experience there.
  
• Living in a free land where I can choose who, how, and where to worship.
• Being able to read and write.
• Being able to go to school and get health care.
  
• Being free to dream a dream and knowing it just might come true.
• Having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ the mighty Savior.
• All the ways God grows and stretches us.
  

These are all the "big rocks," so to speak. Here's the more "kick back" list. :)

• 4-Wheel Drive
  
• Coffee
  
• Alaska
  
• Eagles, moose, and the rare bear sighting
• The internet
• Klove radio & talk radio
• High quality distance education options
  
• DVR cable and the ability to skip commercials
• Our down comforter and crocheted orangey blanket
• Snow, seasons, and the weather
• Blogging, both my own and all the wonderful ones I get to read
• Grey's Anatomy. Yep, I admit it. It makes the list.
  
• Wool socks. I am all about the wool socks.
• Costco and their reasonably priced produce

I pray that you find many things to be thankful for in this season of your life.


This photo has persuaded me that I may have a future in food journalism. I love food. I love writing about it. I love taking pictures of it. I love eating it. :)

Bethany kept Wolfgang's spoon while he was feeding her some of his mashed potatoes.

Me and the cute, potato-covered baby

The popping of cranberries

Wednesday, 2:00 a.m.

Can life get any sweeter? Cranberries are popping on the stove so they can spend the rest of the night swimming in sugar; sweet potatoes are boiling and I'm about to open this season's first carton of eggnog.

This has already been a blessed Thanksgiving celebration. Tonight we attended a glorious service at our church. The worship room was packed, voices sang loudly and joyfully in praise of the Holy Father. Children were invited to come up and share what they are grateful for, and Psalm and Wolfgang chose to go up front. Psalm said he was grateful for Bethany, and Wolfgang for his mommy and daddy. Three members of our congregation had been asked in advance to share what they are grateful for and my husband was one of them. The way God has moved in his life is truly worthy of praise. I feel his testimony touched everyone.

We took communion and sang some more, then ate lots of pie! Bethany got her first taste of pumpkin and she did not appreciate the limits I imposed one bit.

I was joyfully surprised by how many children spoke of being thankful for their freedom to worship freely in our country.

~~

Thursday, 5:35 a.m.

I really should be getting to bed but I am only now getting to that eggnog. Tonight has been very productive. Thus far, we have the following on the menu for tomorrow and all of it is sitting in the refrigerator ready to be heated up:

Turkey, prepared with an olive oil and herb rub, stuffed with vegetables, and sitting in a bed of vegetables and white wine

Homemade stuffing in the crock pot

Cranberries

Maple-glazed sweet potatoes topped with pecans

Stuffed manicotti (I opted to purchase this pre-made instead of making it fresh)

Pumpkin pie

Blueberry pie

I am thankful that God has equipped me to cook for my family. Truly, He has brought me a long way. Alex did most of the cooking in our home for the first several years of our marriage and I was rather scared in the kitchen. Tonight has gone without a hitch.

At church, I began to process something that has been forming in my heart for a couple of weeks. We love it here in Alaska, although it is painfully far from the rest of our family. Especially now with Alex's sister back in southern CA, we are acknowledging how it is on us now and our own joyful task to establish rich traditions in our family for the children.

This is my first year cooking a Thanksgiving meal for my husband and little ones and it is a uniquely precious experience. The process itself brings back so many memories. As much as I miss my family, I feel very connected to them through the images these dishes evoke.

My mother will be surprised to learn that I have opted out of canned cranberries in favor of fresh. She would always make a delicious, fresh cranberry sauce but humor my crass tastes with the canned variety. I see my stepfather Papa Bob in my mind wielding the electric knife before a huge turkey. I see Grandma Jane too. She was the master pie chef of the family and always went all out at every holiday. It was very touching to see my stepmother Debbie take over that tradition after Grandma Jane lost her life so unexpectedly two years ago. When Debbie came up to see us last year with my dad, Debbie made pies with the kids. So many blessings. So much to be thankful for.

White flag of surrender

My participation in NaBloWriMo~~blogging every day for 30 days~~has been a failed strategy. When Bethany lures me into our big comfy brown chair in the later hours, I just can't say no.

I guess it would be more accurate to say "Bethany in all her infinite cuteness is a very successful strategy. :) Sleep is the inevitable result of her wily ways and tonight is no exception. I have just woken up bleary-eyed and slow-handed after rocking her to sleep and am raising the white flag.

No more self-inflicted NaBloWriMo pressure. I'll blog when I darn well can. Happy Thanksgiving! More soon, I hope. Must get to work in the kitchen.

My dear ears

I went to an ENT recently to inquire about what seems to be hearing loss I've been experiencing over the last 18 months or so. I was hoping for a clear cut answer, such as "You have a big slimy blob of wax that's blocking your eardrum and here's a fresh set for you." Unfortunately, there was no obvious issue so he sent me to an audiologist.

The audiologist and I spent an hour together today with me hooked up to all sorts of weird ear devices. The good news and bad news is, I'M NOT CRAZY!!! My left ear apparently does have some hearing loss. It is functioning at the bottom of the healthy range, with parts of it falling below the healthy range. My ear drum is a little over-excited, which means the tiny bones behind it may not be articulating as well as they should. Also, the cochlear cells were not sufficiently responsive to stimuli.

Apparently, my dad has a big hearing loss in one ear as well. I asked him today about it and he said the cause was never determined. He was given a CT scan or something similar and sure enough, that's what the next step may be for me, according to the audiologist. Looking online is not helping to reassure me, but I feel comforted knowing I don't have any balance issues or something more...neurologically worrisome.

Please pray for my ears!

The line leader has a new job

Writing about our line leader system yesterday caused an expansion in job description.

Those of you who have been in our home know that our kitchen is very little. I am not complaining, because I get very excited that we have such blessings as running water, a ready heat source, etc. A vast portion of the world does not own these things! But teaching our children how to be proficient cooks, keepers of the home, etc. does not work so well when all our children our gathered in the kitchen at once. There is barely room to breathe when that happens.

So the line leader now has the job of kitchen assistant as well. They are SO EXCITED!! Wolf went straight to the calendar to see when his first day would be. The kitchen assistant will be the child who~~you guessed it :) ~~helps in the kitchen that day: helps prepare the food, sets the table, does the final kitchen-clearing after all the dishes are gone, helps load dishes into the dishwasher, etc.

While I'm on the subject, I thought I'd share the title of a book that is blessing and encouraging me. It's called Managers of Their Homes by Steven and Teri Maxwell. The subtitle is "A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families." As you can probably guess at this point, I have read many books on the subject of home management (while certainly not claiming to have perfected the practice but God certainly is faithful to meet us where we're at!) and this one is helping me to bring many different facets into a running whole. I recommend it. Useful tidbits I'm loving:

~ The importance of putting Jesus at the center of the day. What I appreciate about their approach, however, is that, unlike many other Christian books on the subject, they do not insist on waking up and doing this. The expectation is that the reader will ultimately find that early morning time frame to be the most girding, so to speak, but the emphasis is on the doing, not so much on when that happens. This reflects their overall approach, which is to encourage the reader to:

~ Just do something. Don't feel like you have to make all these changes all at once. Start small and let the results speak for themselves.

~ Scheduling your children and home will bless you. Oh, how I can attest to this! When a written schedule is in place, the day more often than not flows so much better. Everyone knows what to expect, mother and father included. So often, we wait until there is chaos brimming up before changing activities or even planning for the next part of the day. A schedule frees up the day in order that the home be the place of love and encouragement that God meant for it to be. In fact, the author states outright that as many decisions as possible should be made before the day ever happens. God intends for us to delight in our children but when children and their drama are in control of the home, the end product is certainly not delight!

~ Changing activities more frequently helps to prevent the aforementioned chaos from brimming up in the first place. This particular point right here SO COMPLETELY ROCKS. (I'm laughing at how certain friends of mine are probably going, "Dang, this blog has lost me. How can "changing activities more frequently" and "SO COMPLETELY ROCKS" go in the same bullet point?)

~ A half hour of attention paid to something every day will result in progress. The Maxwells emphasize that "plowing through an activity until it's done" often turns into a source of chaos and frustration. Steady progress for a half hour every day ensures that very thing: steady progress. I love this point.

~ A certain piece of Scripture I had not seen in relation to this subject of homemaking has been mentioned several times: "Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule, a little here, a little there." Isaiah 28:12

~ The authors write a section on baby scheduling but for those of us who don't schedule our baby's feeding times, etc., the authors are extremely respectful and include testimonies from parents who do it both ways. This quality is rather unique, as the issue of baby-scheduling can be a rift between those of different parenting philosophies.

~ Practically all the parents in this book have way more kids than me. 8+ children. Very helpful and reflective of the concepts such as those in Michael Gerber's E-Myth books (I think I'm thinking of the right author) which discuss how important it is to plan your business as it will look when it is the ultimate size you plan for it to be, not the size you currently have. Systems don't matter as much when there is 1 child in a family, but as more children are added, this becomes more useful and even vital.

~ Finally, at the end of it all, the authors include forms and samples of all of the systems written about in the book. I haven't gotten to that part yet.

This book is divided up usefully into sections pertaining to teaching chores, scheduling priorities, unexpected challenges that pop up in life, etc. If you are not a Christian or a homeschooler, this book may overwhelm you with its Biblical emphasis and even seem strange and foreign. If you are a Christian but not a homeschooler, the section pertaining to homeschooling is just that~~a section. It is not foundational to the information inside. I'm excited this book came into my life.

Preschool wisdom

I wanted to share something that has worked for us. The kids really get excited about certain things. Who gets to get the mail? Who gets to sit next to Bethany? Who gets to take the last bath? It seemed we were always having to hash this out and try to make it fair while trying not to make it the end-all-be-all big deal that all the kids were making it into. In a moment of lucidity, I wrote down their names, one after the other, on every calendar day. For instance, November 1, Zoya. November 2, Wolfgang. November 3, Psalm. Then over and over in order until every day had a name. That child became the "line leader." Thank you, Mrs. Chris.

Our line leader is the child each day who gets to do all the fun stuff. If he or she wants to allocate the job to another child, that is his or her choice. If any decision comes up pertaining to the order of children, the line leader gets the job and/or chooses the order. It has eliminated a huge amount of bickering. Probably 70%. Being the line leader also comes with certain jobs, such as making sure the baby has toys when necessary and helping to feed her. This has been a great system for us and I wanted to pass it along.

Meal planning and shopping

One of the first steps to taking advantage of bulk food purchases and saving money is to plan your meals. Simply showing up at a supermarket or warehouse store without a plan leads to lots of money spent but not necessarily the equivalent in planned meals for the family. This leads to overspending, not only due to buying food which does not result in actual meals but because extra supermarket trips become necessary in order to make up for missing ingredients.

Heading to the store with a list in hand, however, and the knowledge that you will come out of that trip with a certain number of meals can be efficient and gratifying. Here are some ideas.

Step 1: Take inventory of your current supply. What do you have already? Write it all down on one sheet of paper.

Step 2: On a second sheet of paper, write down all of the meals you could make with the food that you have. Don't settle for things you could partially make if only you had such and such ingredients. Get creative and make a plan to utilize what you already have so that you can use your food effectively. Think of different ways you can use everyday foods. Rolled oats can be turned into muffins or bread for a bag lunch; eggs can be turned into quiche with whatever leftover veggies are in the house. If you have a random ingredient that you suspect can be a base for a main dish, do an internet search for recipes involving that ingredient and see if you can find something simple or adaptable based on what you already have.

Step 3: Take a blank calendar sheet and begin writing those meals down in the squares. Or, you can simply keep a list on your refrigerator of the meals available in your home and cross them off as you make them. In a future blog, I will write more about bulk and freezer cooking so you can spend less time preparing food each day.

Step 4: Make a plan for new meals and plan purchases around them. If you are able to come up with 20 meals from what you already have in the house, you have at least 10 days (and probably more) of lunches and dinners planned out. That leaves 20 days for the remainder of the month to plan for if you want a full month's worth of meals, but naturally, you can pick whatever length of time you wish. The point is to plan. Make a list of ingredients you still need to buy in order to make those meals. Also, try to think of meals that can utilize some of the same ingredients in different ways. That way, you can take advantage of larger sizes and the associated lower prices.

Step 5: Go shopping with your list. Also, get a shopping plan in place if you need one. If there are certain ingredients you need to buy fresh, either plan to have those meals sooner rather than later or make a note on the meal list of what you need to purchase at the time when you get ready to prepare that meal. One way to overspend on food is to visit the supermarket repeatedly while trying to brush up on just those few extra ingredients that you need for something. If you follow these methods, you will be doing more shopping up front but far less during the course of the month. Be willing to visit multiple stores in your initial shopping excursion to take advantage of lower prices.

Enjoy the results. I think you'll appreciate them.

Meh. Grumbles.

I spent at least an hour on the phone this morning with the nursing school at UAA. A few things came to light:

1) I can apply!

2) Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the information was lost on me that I needed yet one more class to complete my general ed requirements. I'm pretty sure I am not the one who overlooked this. Turns out, I can't use the same class for both the general ed requirement and the nursing school requirement, so I have enrolled in a fourth class for next semester, Intro to Political Science. I have more humanities courses under my belt than I know what to do with, and here I am, taking yet another course that has absolutely nothing to do with nursing. I love learning for the sake of learning but enough is enough already.

3) Consequently, I dropped the Biostatistics course. UAA couldn't guarantee that they would accept that one for credit and would not evaluate it until after completing the class, which is just not going to work. I'll take stats "in person" at some point via UAA. In the meantime, I'll finish up my U of I Bachelors by taking an essay course. It will be fun to get a few pieces of writing going.

Words cannot express how thankful I am that I can apply and do not have to push that back a semester. The rest will get done in due time.

Look what Bethany can do now.

We looked over to find her standing! Then she reached in to get her own legos~~which of course requires major supervision, but it was rather adorable to watch her "be one of the kids."

I still have fingers, right?

Yesterday (Monday) was an ugly day. Rare to say about this beautiful place, but it really was. Hazy, ugly, dank. It must have snowed last night, however, because this morning, the sky dazzled me with its bright beauty, so blue behind the vivid white of fresh snow on the trees. Also, it's very cold! Living in Alaska has shown me how adaptable we humans can be. Now 40 degrees feels downright warm, somewhere around 20 degrees is perfect winter weather, but 10 and under like today is enough to get me noticing.

By the time Wolf got home from school, it was almost dusk and we bundled up to do some sledding. I absolutely love winter! I love the quiet, the cold, the beauty. I love sledding and (though I haven't done it in years and years) skiing. I love the way that life has to revolve around the season. I love watching the snow fall. Last year I was pregnant with Bethany and I couldn't do any sledding so tonight was a great opportunity to get back out there and be crazy with my kids. I didn't last too long. I had to admit that my dinky gloves were sorely lacking in functionality. Wolfgang had a snowboarding lesson tonight with Dad and it went very well! I can't wait to head to a "real" sledding hill and get some distance and speed going.

Auntie Jen, you'll be interested to know that the orange sled has met its match in the kids, as a piece is starting to come off the front. Recently, Zoya and Wolf headed down the hill in our front yard and went right over the wall onto the snowy pavement (much softer than the black kind, by the way). Zoya came in the house and announced how great it was and that "it could have killed me, Mom!" They told me the next jump caused pieces to fly off, although it's still usable. We also had a rather spectacular shattering of a snow disk tonight, at which point Alex was left to slide down the hill on his rear holding only a plastic handle.

Here is some footage. I'm sure I'm overestimating the entertainment value of these films but it's a blessing to be able to catch these moments on camera. One moment I didn't get on camera involved Psalm. Those of you who know Psalm can vouch that he is the loviest boy in the world. He is a cuddler to the nth degree, and has the sweetest heart. He absolutely loves to hug and smooch on his baby sister and tells her frequently that she is the most adorable baby in the world.

However, that also puts Bethany at risk of being overwhelmed by Psalm's love which often brimmeth over. At one point tonight, he gave her such a big hug that her whole stroller tipped over. GASP! A big part of parenting is reaction-control. I felt thankful that my first response was NOT to flip out on Psalm. He really is like an overexcited puppy dog, the big variety who doesn't know his own weight...and of course he's a little human, which puts his precious little heart at risk of being hurt. Alex started walking her for about 20 feet in the stroller and then called out to me that she was happy and smiling again. Phew.

It says "30 posts." Not "30 meaningful pieces of writing."

Alex pointed out how my blogs, while plentiful of late, have not involved much writing. I have several in progress but time to blog has been scant. Here's a school update.

1) 3 classes!! That's it!! Today I registered for my final three classes of my Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Studies through the University of Iowa. Starting in January, I will be taking Pathophysiology, Biostatistics, and U.S. Involvement in Foreign Affairs After 1900. Also, those first two classes will fulfill requirements toward my nursing degree, so I'm very thankful for that.

2) This semester is rapidly coming to a close. This week, I'll be working on the following:

Organic and Biochemistry: My last lab is tomorrow! And then a final in two weeks. That's all. I also have one more unit to complete on metabolism for my lecture class, and I'm hoping to get that done possibly tonight. I have asked the instructor to let me take the final early so I can get it out of the way.

Speech: My delivery of a speech on book banning yesterday went okay. I didn't practice as much as I should have due to a scratchy throat these last several days. All in all, I was so impressed with the class! Clearly the students all spent a lot of time preparing. The best part definitely came after class when several students and I began a great conversation about tolerance in the Christian church. The next project for that class will be a group effort focusing on persuasion. The speech we just did yesterday was the biggest project of the semester, so I am glad to have it behind us.

Nutrition: This is the class I tend to put off due to other more pressing concerns and more challenging subjects. However, a final will be coming in a few weeks and I need to get focused on that. I also have a dietary analysis to write by this Sunday involving my own 3-day intake.

Microbiology: As I wrote before, my last lab was a total loss with nary a bacteria to show for it all. My instructor confirmed that I destroyed the media with heat and gave me some pointers to keep that from happening again (like, if the plates start turning black, chances are it's too hot. A thermometer is also helpful! :). The school is sending new supplies. This puts the rest of my labs on hold until I can successfully grow my biota in a culture plate. Grow, babies! Grow! We just started the third unit in that class which revolves around diseases, pathogens, and very scary disorders that make you thank God that you still have your skin. Literally.

So that's what's happening. I also need to write an essay for my nursing school application. All of my prerequisites and paperwork should be completed shortly. I just can't believe it.

POSTSCRIPT: Now that I have looked at the chapter on metabolism, I thought I'd share that an average human adult processes about 6 tons of food and 10,000 gallons of water in a 40 year period. Quite remarkable!

Watching the snow

Misbehaving microbes

Apparently, my body is a sterile field, free of microbial life. I have cultured myself and come up empty.

Not only that, but I have a condensation problem.

The pretty pictures in my lab book with well-lit, glowing circles of bacteria on a dry plate form a stark contrast to my drippy, singed specimens.

Yes, singed. I'm pretty sure I burned one of them. Note to inner lab genius: do not incubate culture plates inside of Tupperware. Rather like a hot car in the Texas sun, this method will lead to a petri dish filled with death and not pretty pictures.

As much as the plates in the first picture look teeming with life, that is merely a ghostly silhouette of evaporating media while it struggled in the heat. Must reorder supplies.

What DO I think about this Alaskan thing?

Our recent election has raised questions such as, How can Alaskans vote (45% of us, at least) for a convicted felon? How can Alaskans take back that crazy governor? How can Alaskans kill those poor wolves? I can give you answers to these questions if you're interested, answers which, in my mind, are perfectly reasonable.

But one thing that makes me raise an eyebrow involves our local meat market. I drive past the back door every day, which occasionally makes for an interesting scene when a pickup truck arrives with a moose or caribou for processing. The cleaned parts of the animal usually get placed on racks outside until they are disposed of properly. Kind of weird for a city transplant like me.

This time of year, the butcher will occasionally throw a rack of ribs out on the snow for the birds. What am I to think of this? A part of me thinks this is rather gross and irresponsible. As a microbiology student, I know entirely more than I ever really wanted to about microscopic organisms. I question whether this practice is a health hazard. And of course, if it was summer and the meat was out there rotting and stinking, the answer would be a definite yes. But, since it's winter, the meat~~well, it's not rotting and stinking. It's just out there, looking as rich and rosy as it did three days ago, and I am left to question whether this is simply an Alaskan thing.

I hate to admit it, but while I want to think this is all quite gross, I shrug my shoulders. It's just one of those things that happens here.

E is for eagle

The twins' preschool craft resulted in these two handsome eagles convening in our living room.

Psalm's systematic examination of twinhood

Lately, Psalm has been exploring this concept of being a twin. The other day, he made two astute observations:

"Zoya, you and I can't have an eyeball fight," and

"Zoya, we're twins but we don't have the same dreams."

Semester update

This has been my busiest, least productive semester ever. Busiest, because the work is complicated and challenging and learning it takes me more effort than usual. Least productive, because I am utterly unfocused and finding it next to impossible to stay on task. I'm tired, I'm easily distracted, and my kids are hungry and growing. My blog needs attention, too, as you know.

So this upcoming week, I need to:

• Culture my biota (yes, grow my own personal collection of bacteria straight from my various body parts and, far worse, post pictures of it on a photogallery for all my class to see);

• Write a speech for delivery on Monday (my topic is going to be book-banning, inspired in part by Noah who recently told me he wanted to burn all his books and in part by the curiosity generated by the claim that Sarah Palin tried to do it while mayor);

• Adequately prepare for a Microbiology test on Thursday (involving truly insane amounts of "memorization," written in quotes because I can only claim to be doing some version of that) and

• An organic chemistry test on Friday (not as scary, but not quite fun either).

This morning, I prepared 7 plates for culture using all variety of growth mediums. I will post pictures when they're ready because they're very pretty, especially without my creepy crawlies growing in them yet. I have started to grasp the different phyla of the diverse world of bacteria, and the old cultures are getting some winter treatment outside before I bleach them and kill them. Microbiology class makes me very nervous. Apparently, my body flora need to be maintained in a cold environment. I imagine this is because, if placed near heat, they will flourish and grow until they burst out of their dishes and start to take over my house. Ewww.

On an exciting note, I did not have to sign up for any classes this week for next semester! I am finishing the last of my prerequisites and will now be able to apply for my place in the nursing school rotation.

I will, however, be finishing up my other Bachelors in the spring through University of Iowa. It is a Bachelors in Liberal Studies (ironic, as I am now a hawkish Republican), and I have been 7 classes away for years. Some of my UAA credit can transfer over and I will probably need to take 3-4 classes to finish that up.

Great day to you all. Time to wake up the kids.

No, really!

It wasn't that I forgot to post yesterday! It was Veteran's Day! Really, that's why I didn't!

(ducking behind computer screen)

Hiking at the Eagle River Nature Center

On Sunday, we headed out to the Eagle River Nature Center to hike a two and a half mile trail along the Chugach Mountain Range to the public use cabin.

First, Zoya executed a customary nose-pick.


The view is spectacular any time of year.


One of the trails was closed because of recent bear activity. Apparently, some salmon have been seen there recently in spite of the cold temperatures. We found plenty of bear tracks to prove it.


I love how the water in this picture forms a map of Alaska.


Finally, we made it to the cabin.


We roasted marshmallows over a fire (a first for the kids).


The cabin is quite comfy. Here are the kids on top of the "bunk," a long slab of wood along the wall. This tiny place can sleep 8.


Volunteers stock an ample supply of firewood for the wood-burning stove. I was surprised at how warm and cozy the cabin is and immediately upon entering thought 2 words: Writing retreat.


Me and the kidlet~~what a trooper! Not a peep out of her once, other than to sing occasionally to the wilderness around her.


In retrospect, this hike kicked our cold Alaskan butts, not because it was particularly long but because we're rather out of shape! The twins whined most of the way back. The trail was clearly marked but by 3 in the afternoon the sky already had grown darker and I felt anxious. We were alone at that point. I worried about getting lost, not in the rational way that should have been tempered by the clearly marked trails and signs, but by the irrational mothering self who imagines us huddling together on the cold icy ground for the night due to some flukish wrong turn. (I suppose this possibility would have to coincide with my cell phone happening to die at exactly that moment as well.)

I had to silence my mantra of "Keep walking!" and slow it down. We stopped to listen to the utter silence. We found a place to sit down for a few minutes and rest our legs. Then, we improvised a walking song to get us back to the lodge. I should more often take the advice we give to the kids everyday: "Stop. Breathe. Think."

Muffins and bread

Baking muffins makes for a two-day process this time of year. One thinks of ways to stretch out indoor activities for as long as possible when it's cold and snowy outside. Thus, we don't just whip out some ingredients and bake a batch of muffins. Our time yesterday consisted of:

1) Discussing the possibilities of certain ingredients over others (honey versus sugar, for instance) and nutritional ramifications;

2) Zoya writing out an ingredient list in painstaking detail, complete with me spelling each and every word aloud:

(Click to enlarge. It's quite cute. :)

3) Psalm adding his two cents to the process:


4) And first thing this morning, gathering and mixing of ingredients, twins setting five minute timers to keep track of who gets to stand on the stool when, and at the end of it all, deciding on one-half a batch with peanuts on top, and the other half without. Yum!



Another recent development comes from Jen, my fabulous sis-in-law, who left her bread machine in our safe keeping. It has been living in our closet since she moved back to California, but now that puppy is hanging out with us in the living room and we are embracing the dear thing.

For all you purists out there who are gasping at the idea of bread machine, I totally get it. We have made our own bread in the past and it is quite earthy, exciting, time-consuming, grounding, tasty, and all the other qualities attributed to the process. But this bread machine fits right in for now. Pour ingredients, flip a switch, and three hours later, a delightful loaf of bread. Fresh, warm, tasty. So great. And I kid you not, yesterday I got a minute-by-minute countdown by Psalm who literally bounced up to me and let me know exactly how much time was left at every single moment of the whole three hours. I wish I had his attention span.

Gratuitous NaBloPoMo post because it's almost midnight

Funny quote of the day:

As Zoya read to me, I started to correct her with a "suggested pronunciation." She stopped me and said, "No, Mom. I can sound it out with my brain."

We've had a great weekend so far. Tomorrow, we're taking a hike and ending it with some toasted marshmallows! I can't wait.

Chances are, I will blog a little more later tonight, but first I need to cozy on up with my pet microbes and find out if my experiment with dilutions was successful. Also, the kitchen. Need I say more?

We're all prisoners of her love.

Scribbit's rejection of my friend Costco

A local fellow blogger Michelle Mitchell has recently posted about Costco so I thought I'd post my thoughts on the subject too. Her perpective doesn't bear out for our family. In her most recent post, she writes, "Spending money is kind of a personal thing, everyone has different opinions on the matter." Here are some of mine.

Firstly, the membership fee, she writes, is too steep. $50 a year works out to $4.16 month, which I know we save above and beyond each time we shop there. One way to make it even cheaper is to artificially"extend" your membership; get it for 12 months but renew it at 15 months, stocking up in bulk at the 12 month mark to get you through the next 3 months, or however long you can manage. That works out to just $3.33 a month.

Secondly, she writes about the amount of waste she generates by buying Costco sizes which, she writes, are too big. I disagree again. By purchasing in bulk, you often (not always) cut down substantially on packaging. Buying a ten pound can of refried beans does cut out on waste generated from however many individual cans. Secondly, buying in bulk, especially for a large family like we each have, does not need to equate with wasted food. For instance, with the 10 pound package of refried beans, we usually store half in the refrigerator and store the rest in tupperware in the freezer. It stores well, as do most foods. (For a guide to foods that do not store well, please see a book such as Frozen Assets. I will blog soon about freezer cooking too.) I also cannot complain about the literal hours of entertainment afforded by the boxes they pack our food in to prepare for us to bring it home. The kids love Costco boxes. They turn them into sleds, robot heads, fake TVs, etc. Did you know that, even without snow on the ground, a sheet of cardboard can turn into a grass sled? Very fun.

Thirdly, she writes about money savings. Michelle is right that many items are not cheaper at Costco. Meat almost never is. And certainly Costco is loaded with temptations that may be hard to resist, but that does not mean you cannot save money there. It just means you have to say "no" and run far away. Let the buck stop at the free sample. I have found that many items at Costco are much less than I can find at our local supermarket, but not all. The key is to know what and where. The blog mentions rotisserie chickens as an example...they are typically $1 less at Costco than our local supermarket. While we don't buy them regularly, we used to buy 2-4 a month, which works out to a savings of $24 to $48 a year. That's just one item that can potentially save you money if you buy them regularly. They are not necessarily cheaper than fryer chickens and a lot less work. These types of considerations are important to keep in mind.

I recommend making a price notebook. (This is not my idea, by the way. Almost every idea I have about frugality has already been written by someone else, and this one is from The Tightwad Gazette.) A price notebook is a list of prices on a per-unit basis that shows you what you can get where. It takes some legwork to create, but once you have it, you know where to find the cheapest item that you need and, more importantly, if you see it for less somewhere else, you know that it's a deal and can stockpile it for later.

A price notebook also helps when communicating with spouses. When Alex goes to the market, I can ask him to check the clearance meat section and look for ground beef under $2.00/pound and chicken under $0.99/pound. That is the cheapest we can find around here, cheaper than Costco and, being that it will all get thrown in our freezer anyway, it doesn't matter to me if the expiration is just a couple days out. This does involve "going with the flow." If you stockpile 10 pounds of turkey legs in the freezer, "let them eat turkey." Obviously, you may not wish to shop at multiple locations or take the time involved. That is a personal choice and a point where only you alone can prioritize the time savings v. money savings and so on. (Being a vegetarian will save you a lot more money, especially at Costco, as their dried beans and grains, while rather paltry from the standpoint of variety, are much cheaper than at the supermarket

Finally, she mentions the cost of gas to get to Costco. That is an important consideration, especially in Alaska where there are only a very small handful of Costcos). We live about 13 miles away from one which is a good gallon of gas round trip at $3.30 right now (gulp). This is one factor where you can spend less by going less and buying more while you are there. Position yourself to buy in bulk in a way that works for your family. It's worth it! More blogs later on meal planning, freezer cooking, and other ways to let Costco work for you.

One of my (pet?) peeves

My magazines always get here a week late. I think it's an Alaska thing. Thus, today, I got my Time magazine with Obama and McCain on the cover with the headline, "The Choice." (Which has absolutely nothing to do with the point of this blog, by the way.)

So, leafing through the magazine, I came across this article. It exemplifies one of my major peeves, which is when animals are placed on a higher tier than human beings in the allocation of resources.

Here is a section from the article:

The state government quickly dispatched two dozen wildlife rangers to collect any aggressive crocodiles in the area and search for Booker's remains. Within days, traps anchored to the banks of the river snared three potential man-eaters. But instead of executing and disemboweling the reptiles, the rangers gently loaded them into trailers and transported them to Cairns, 160 miles to the south, where they were X-rayed. Two were also given an endoscopy, with a tiny camera passed into their stomach to probe for Booker's remains...

Once, if a crocodile ate a human, all crocodiles in the area would be shot immediately, he says. "Now they are getting X rays. You've got patients who can't get X rays or endoscopies in Queensland's hospitals, but a crocodile can get one."

Please consider sponsoring a child. And then post about it! Here is a link to some bloggers who are posting about their trip to the Dominican Republic.

I voted.

Today, I cast my vote. I did not have to wait in line at all but that was by virtue of timing, as there was a line when I came out of the booth.

Surprisingly, I had to hold back tears while filing in the ovals on my ballot. I full-blown cried when I made it to the car. I'm honestly not sure why, but it showed me how emotional this long, drawn-out process has been. It's almost done.

The path through my domestic wilderness, Part 2

Naming my blog anything to do with wilderness seems remarkably petty. If this is the thickest my wilderness grows, I am incredibly blessed. Please see the Bible for a more detailed rendition of what true wilderness looks like.

But back to the mess. Three simple steps to climbing out from under it:

1) Do the breast stroke rapidly to the surface of your piles of paperwork and take a deep breath.

Being creative in a messy, packrat kind of way (smile), countertop clutter, usually in the form of paperwork, would take over our kitchen and dining room table. This was a constant source of stress in one of those subliminal kind of ways. It would rear its head, form fodder for complaints and occasionally crash to fluttering piles on the floor.

Clutter is easy to grow and is far less demanding than a pet. After awhile, it becomes an accepted member of the family. Once it's gone, though, one feels so liberated. One realizes how the little beast has been controlling the picture for too long. I finally started a filing system dedicated to the task of eliminating paperwork confusion and countertop clutter. I will definitely need a third and fourth but for now, it's under control. I say "finally started" because I have read for years (in the books about organization which are so much more interesting than actually doing something) that this is the key to more domestic order but had not taken action in a lasting way.


I had an early victory that encouraged me in this process and has kept me at it. Needing to quickly grab all of our important documents like birth certificates, etc. for an appointment, I was able to stick the file under my arm without worrying for one second whether I had everything I needed. This was an encouraging moment because the last time I could remember doing something like this, it took me seeming days to find it all.

The key is to get very specific and deal with the paperwork in front of you. What categories do you require? For us, it involved general categories like "auto" and "current bills" and "action items," as well as more specific files like "Cub Scouts," etc. Another important step is to dedicate an empty filing container to the task above and beyond what you currently need. Have labels ready and waiting to go. That way, you won't start forming extra piles that don't have a place yet while waiting to get more filing materials. Finally, it is vital that you deal with your paperwork daily, not weekly. Not monthly. Otherwise, all bets are off and you will then be stuck with an unused, outdated filing folder system and piles all over your house that are now too big that you don't want to deal with after all.

2) Post and follow a daily routine for each area of your house.

I am only partially done with this step~~at least, to the extent that I want to implement it. Here's what I posted in the kitchen:


It's a list of daily and weekly routines that need to be done in order for order to be maintained. (It is also a utilization of one of the twins' more adorable pieces of preschool artwork. :) I started thinking about what needs to happen on a daily and weekly basis in order for our home to stay clean. (Yes, for some of you, this is very natural. For me, I can think of all sorts of other fun and exciting activities, like writing this very blog, which will perpetually attract me from the task!) Posting it and doing it makes it all about maintainance and less about a prayer such as "Please give me a five hour chunk of time without my children so that I can clean my house!!"

Daily:
Sweep
Do all dishes
Clear counter
Clear and clean table
Clean coffee pot
Pick up under table
Check trash

&

Weekly:
Scrub floor
Shake out rugs
Clean appliances
Clean out fridge
Clean fishbowl
Clean window

So instead of just doing the dishes in the evening, I check in on these other areas as well. I sweep, even if there doesn't seem to be anything to sweep. (Turns out there's always something to sweep.) The trash does not necessarily get taken out at this time because it's usually less than 10 degrees outside. It waits until the next morning when someone actually leaves while fully dressed, etc. This system should be replicated for every area of the house and can be done at any point of the day. There's no need to wait until the very end, just as long as whatever needs to get done daily gets done daily.

The great thing about this is that, once you have a list of the actual steps that need to be taken (for instance, a daily task for the bathroom would be to wipe down the counters, quick and simple) it is easy to have a list of chores compiled that children can help with once they are old enough. If you don't know what needs to be done daily, then your children will not know either.

I am inspired by a mother I know with six children who explained her process to me. Every child has to do as many chores a day as they are years. So the two year old has two chores a day, the ten year old has ten chores. There is no reward system. The clean house is its own reward. I like this concept. Reward systems have not worked for us because then the reward becomes an obsession, at least for our kids. They start making up activities in hopes of "moving up the chart," things that have no real challenge or value attached (except in their reward-driven minds...smile).

This is in process for us. While our kids do chores, I would prefer a more systematized approach that gets the whole job done. As my friend put it, she is then free to deal with the bigger jobs that need done that kids can't, in fact, do. Psalm is our only kid who actually seems to get a big kick out of picking up toys. Once recently, he cleaned up the whole downstairs and then said to Alex, "Dad, you can vacuum now." :)

3) Eliminate problem areas.

We had a set of shelves underneath our countertop which became a veritable greenhouse for all kinds of piles of paperwork. The shelves are now gone. Enough said.

(Sadly, there has grown a small pile of textbooks on the floor in its place like a rugged weed. I think what I need to find is a little wooden cabinet with a door, or something that looks nice but can be closed off to the rest of the world. Must add this to the weekly thrift shop peek-in-the-door after going to the library.)

To be continued...

Once again, I really want to hear from you. What have you done that works?

The path through my domestic wilderness, Part 1

Continuing along with the theme of yesterday's blog~~mom being overwhelmed and her toxic mood at risk of infecting household~~it has become clear to me that a neat, clean home contributes a major factor to our happiness. School~~or maybe it's just life~~puts my home at risk of extreme clutter and me losing focus on assigning chores and keeping the wheels turning, so to speak.

Going into my marriage, I had the reputation of being a slob. It wasn't that I left food dripping from rafters or had gross habits, but I really did not care if my living space exploded with clutter. I was creative. And creative people know what their piles consist of and where they are.

It became clear that my husband and I had slightly different priorities about the state of the home. Alex valued a clutter-free environment (lucky him) but wasn't so picky about how recently the sink was cleaned. I cared a lot more about the deep cleaning but couldn't have cared less about the rest of it. Either way, I had no system in place to deal with all of this while also taking care of the kids and participating in the rest of life.

A few friends and I with mutual struggles formed a devotional group (spiritual study) dedicated to the subject. The group consisted of a few women holding each other accountable to whatever our weekly goals were in the area of cleaning and also looking at our hearts in this area of homemaking, so we looked at online resources and made plans for getting a handle on it all. I implemented a few basics which really worked wonders, so much so that Alex came home every night (almost :) to a nice clean home and I very much appreciated the feeling of peace and purpose that came with it. Waking up in the morning to a fresh environment makes the whole day that much better.

Then came Bethany. Babies, of course, bring such sweetness, sleeplessness at times, and at this age (10 months), a fierce case of separation anxiety making it next to impossible to even run up the stairs for a brief moment without her yelling very loudly at me. A month after her birth, I started school (via home study...let's hear it for timing) and the whole darn system fell apart. 100%. The time I would have spent on my systems now was dedicated solely to school work as soon as all the kids were in bed. I lost the energy to keep the kids on task with their chores because my system in that area was weak and undefined. As you can see, I view the running of a household as a study in and of itself and that it works best with systems and protocols in place. When those systems are not being followed, chaos ensues.

So I have rededicated myself to getting back on track. My next blog will share some of those systems we have reimplemented. Not that I by any means have this perfected. In fact, I should probably be considered a "non-resource" but I can be trained. :) Right now, I feel grateful that what we're doing seems to be getting us back on track. If you have ideas that have worked for you, please share them!

Thank you, Wolf.

Honestly, I've been pretty whiny lately. At least, in my heart. It occasionally erupts on the surface after a morning like this one...waking up at 5 a.m. Realizing it's really 4 a.m. due to Daylight Savings time! Reveling in my opportunity to be productive while simultaneously dreading the idea of doing any school work. Setting up cultures for my microbiology class, pulling out the heat lamp and and pondering questions like "What to do about the ash in my agar slant tube?" Turning on the internet, in hopes of getting an answer to aforementioned question. Finding out that McCain was on SNL. Checking out the Twitter feed to find out what the various Twitter users were thinking about him. Getting diverted by an email from my dad with a link to pictures. Uploading pictures onto Facebook. Opening my chemistry lab book and getting started with my assignment for this Wednesday, just in time for...

"Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Bethany awake, mommy peering at the ceiling, not only because she has perfected the art of eye-rolling (which is a lame skill to have) but because she might fall back asleep. Baby fussing long enough to convince me she's serious, mommy going upstairs, nursing baby in hopes of baby falling back asleep (as it is only 6 a.m.), conveniently ignoring that it feels like 7 due to daylight savings time, which is a perfectly natural time for baby waking up, baby staying awake, mommy groaning inside that she has squandered the wee morning and now has cute happy (happier than mommy) baby on lap.

Exhale. Chemistry still unfinished, Microbiology-test-from-the-pit-of-hell coming up and I have NO excuse (except for SNL and Facebook) to be complaining about a lack of time.

Fast forward past mom's mini-tantrum in semi-private to the point where (moving out of 3rd person) I am hanging out with Alex, trying not to ask him for one of his incredibly effective and famous pep talks that always works, no matter what. I manage to squeak out one small statement about the insane waiting period to finally get to my clinical training, a "What am I going to be doing for the next 2 years ANYWAY?"

And who walks in? Wolfie!! He looks very worried. "MOM! I was eating a cucumber and my tooth started hurting!"

Being that it's post-Halloween week, I feel a quick tinge of guilt because of associated candy ingestion and the possible tooth connection, while simultaneously questioning the likelihood. But he quickly says the next thing, which is that his tooth seems loose now! "Wolfie!!" He has his first loose tooth!!

Oh. THAT'S what we'll be doing for the next couple years! Yes. Hanging out with our precious babes and doing life. He immediately called Noah and Nanny and then, within minutes, each of the twins were claiming that they have loose teeth too.

Talk about grounding. I appreciated this particular event happening at the exact moment it did, because I really needed a reason to get over myself. :)

Yay for Wolf!

It's that time again.

My good friend invited me to participate in our local National Novel Writing Month chapter which kicked off at midnight last night. I have opted not to join the effort this year, although I'm hoping to come do some writing with them and soak up the frenetic energy. The most I am willing to commit to at this point is to participate with my blog. I am committing to 30 days of blogging, each and every day. Yes, a Big Deal. (laughing...like that really compares with writing an actual novel.)

National Novel Writing Month happens every November, for those of you who don't know. It is a commitment to write a 50,000 word novel (anything but nonfiction) in 30 days and happens all over the place. Chris Baty got it going and wrote a companion book called "No Plot? No Problem!" which alone was enough to excite me about participating.

This book metamorphosed my writing process. For all of you writers out there, how many can relate to writing a good 10 to 20 pages of fiction, only to start endlessly editing and never really finishing the darn thing? The NaNoWriMo method is about turning off your editing brain and committing yourself to quantity, not quality. In the process, a huge body of writing will be produced and some of it just might be really great. (And obviously, some of it won't be. :)

I have never actually participated during November. I picked my own month (July, I think) after reading Baty's book, took the 50,000 word count, divided it by 30 days, and got to work. It took about 2 and a half hours of writing a day, greatly aided by frequent visits to Barnes and Noble where I spent lots of money on coffee and cupcakes. Thus, I am not committing today. I do not have an extra 2 and a half hours a day. At least until this semester ends.

Looking back, I found it to be an incredibly productive process. Some of the writing thrilled me, and some of it embarrassed me. I got to work editing it after the fact, and realized this process increased my creativity and productivity. You might want to try it too. I think I will do it again next midyear with poetry, as I apparently have no further poems left in me, but I want to believe that's not true. :)

For the record, this blog strikes me as hypocritical in a "Sure, TALK about writing a novel in 30 days but don't actually participate!" kind of way. To me, NaNoWriMo is about doing whatever the thing is that you say "I don't have time for." Finishing 40 units of prerequisites to nursing school while taking care of my newborn baby and her siblings falls into that category for me...the "are you crazy?! That's impossible!" category. And it turns out it's not! But another 50,000 words will have to wait.

You should totally do it!!